//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Love Is Never a Mistake // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Princess Celestia took one look at her former student as she sat down at the breakfast table and cringled. Breakfast was over, more or less, but Twilight was only now getting out of bed and sitting down to eat. There were bags under Twilight’s eyes, they were bloodshot, and Twilight looked rather haunted. “Twilight, are you okay?” Celestia blinked as she waited for an answer. “No… no I’m not… I had a terrible dream. I had… I had the worst… I can’t even talk about it… so bad… so horrible… it was… like… some glimpse or something… into some horrible future,” Twilight replied, blurting out her words and stammering. Turning her head, Celestia looked at her sister, Luna. “Did you do this?” “No!” Luna shook her head, confident in her honesty. She hadn’t done this, Twilight Sparkle had done this to herself. Future Twilight had crafted the nightmare of all nightmares while Luna only observed and offered a few minor suggestions. So Luna was innocent of this. Luna gave Celestia a sleepy smile. “Sometimes, a guilty mind makes its own nightmares.” “What do I have to be guilty about?” Twilight said, her voice weary and her expression dull and vacant. “Oh, I was speaking in a general sense. I never said you are guilty of anything.” Luna paused and then stared at Twilight, looking her in the eye. “But if you were guilty of something, I bet you are feeling pretty bad about it right now.” “I am,” Twilight muttered. Celestia’s eyebrow lifted and she looked at her former student. “What was that?” “Nothing,” Twilight replied and shook her head as she began to try and butter cold toast. She noticed both Celestia and Luna looking at her and Twilight ducked her head down, wishing that she was alone. “I just want to be left alone so I can eat my breakfast.” How could I have been so stupid? Shining Armor looked down at the pink creature he was cuddling. How could I have been so cruel? He gave Adora an affectionate squeeze. How could I hate anything that came from Cadance? He glanced at his wife, feeling a little out of sorts, and still uncertain if he could or should look her in the eye. Adora is so much like Cadance… how could I have hurt her? Shining Armor closed his eyes for a moment and summoned his courage. Opening his eyes, he asked, “Can you forgive me?” “Mmm… I dunno,” Adora replied. “You don’t know?” This was not the answer Shining Armor expected. He looked at Cadance, hoping for some kind of guidance, but Cadance was of no help at all. She was smirking and seemed to be enjoying this. Lowering his head, he nuzzled Adora’s ears. “Please forgive me?” “Hmm, I’ll have to think about it.” Adora’s long tail whipped about and then brushed up against Shining Armor and gave him a tickle. “You were a bad pony.” “Yes, yes I was.” Shining Armor had in fact, been a bad pony. Reaching down with his hoof, he placed it on the side of Adora’s neck and gave her a tickle back. He heard a soft giggle. “Look, I have ways of making you forgive me,” he said and then gave her another tickle. Hooting, Adora shot free of Shining Armor’s embrace, whompled off a short distance, and then paused, staring wide eyed at Shining Armor, who sat there looking rather confused. Adora’s tail slashed through the air, her mismatched wings flapped, and her one long rabbit ear stood straight up. “You’re supposed to chase her,” Cadance said in a soft whisper. “Oh…” Shining Armor nodded and then got to his hooves. As he did so, he watched as Adora went streaking off down the hallway. Just as he was about to begin his pursuit, he was shoved over by Cadance, and then he watched as the pink alicorn bolted, leaving him all alone. “Catch us if you can!” Cadance shouted as she ran away laughing. Princess Celestia looked down at the white pegasus who stood upon the steps of Twilight’s castle, taking note of his golden, gleaming armor that was polished to perfection. She returned his salute and waited for him to deliver his message. “Discord has been found, Majesty. He has said that he shall be here tomorrow, but there is no way of knowing if he will keep his word. He said that he was scheduled for tea with somepony named Fluttershy,” the guard said. “Hmm.” Celestia nodded. “He will be here.” She gave the guard a smile. “Thank you for your efforts. You are free to go.” “Thank you, Majesty,” the guard replied. He bowed his head, saluted once more, then he spread his wings, kicked off from the ground, and flew away. Celestia watched as the white pegasus flew away, her mind thinking about Discord, Adora, and wondering how the situation would turn out. Discord was chaotic enough, but there was no way of telling how this might end. Thinking of the night before, Celestia felt bad for her part in how everything had spiraled out of control. She loved Adora, even though she couldn’t say why. After much thought, she no longer believed Adora to be dangerous, not if one understood her effect upon the creatures around her. Adora’s subtle aura of impetuous love could be resisted, as evidenced by Luna. Now that Celestia was aware of the problem, it was easy to hold back her strong, protective instincts. It was easy to see everything as it was. Adora was a force of nature that inspired love in others. Celestia wasn’t certain if Adora was a spirit of disharmony like her father. The large white alicorn sighed, waved at a few ponies that were staring at her, and then turned around to go back inside of Twilight Sparkle’s crystal castle. “How does this happen?” Shining Armor looked down at the sleeping form of Adora sprawled over the floor. The middle of her long, noodly body rose and fell with each breath and she snuggled with her own tail, clutching it in her forelegs. Cadance shrugged. “She’s still a foal… I think.” “Cadance, you’re the foal sitter… and her mother I guess… you’re supposed to know.” Shining Armor looked at his wife. “I mean, she just stopped right in the middle of running, said the words ‘nap time’ and then flopped over.” “Don’t you remember how it was when you were young?” Cadance asked in a low voice as she took a step closer to her husband. “When you were young and the world was such a large place… when you were young and it took forever for Hearth’s Warming Eve to come… when you were young and carefree… and there were no pressing concerns or responsibility. You could just lay down and take a nap.” “I remember that sometimes I’d lay down and take a nap and I’d wake up and my mother would be holding me. Or my father. I remember how happy I would be to wake up with them.” Shining Armor paused, his cheeks turning a faint shade of pink. “One of my fondest memories as a foal was waking up because I felt something hit me. I woke up and I was curled up against my mother’s side, and little Twily was just kicking away. I could feel her. Mom laughed and laughed. She thought it was funny that Twily had woken me up from my nap. That was only the beginning of Twilight turning my whole life upside down.” “Ooooh… that’s adorable,” Cadance whispered. “Mom went into labour a little while later. I didn’t know what was going on.” Shining Armor looked down once more at Adora, his eyes narrowing. “So I’m going to be a father.” “Yes, yes you are, Shining Armor,” Cadance replied. She saw Shining Armor glance up at her and she felt her heart fluttering in her barrel like a bird in a cage. Cadance could not help but wonder if Adora was having some effect upon her, because she felt very, very attracted to Shining Armor right about now. “I could be Adora’s father too… I wouldn’t mind.” Shining Armor lifted his head and his ears folded back against his head. “Being a father isn’t so different from being a big brother. I was pretty good at being a big brother. At least, I’d like to think I was.” “Shiny…” Cadance felt her eyes moisten. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes and I’ll be there with you when you work things out with Discord. We need to work out something that is fair for all parties involved. Discord deserves a fair chance to be a father for Adora… if he’s capable. If not… well, I don’t even want to think about that right now. I’d like to believe that there is maybe some good in him and being around Adora will bring that out.” “Shining Armor, I love you so much right now,” Cadance said. “Cadance, I think I’m going to lay down and take a nap… so I’ll be there when she wakes up… so she can be happy.” Shining Armor smiled and looked at the slumbering draconequus on the floor. “I think I’ll get a few cushions and join you,” Cadance said to her husband. It seemed to be naptime. Princess Celestia shut the door of the room that Luna was staying in. Luna was a majestic creature when she was sleeping; mouth open, copious amounts of drool, and she snored like a runaway steam engine. How Spike managed to sleep curled up beside her Celestia had no idea, but Spike also seemed to be a champion snorer. As she made her way down the hallway, Celestia wondered how Twilight got any sleep at all with Spike around. The white alicorn chuckled as she walked, feeling pleased with life in general. Shining Armor, Cadance, and Adora were all snoozing together, it seemed like a good start for the new family. Pushing open the door to the library, Celestia entered. She found Twilight, who looked sleepy but was not napping. Twilight was sitting in a chair, staring at the wall, her chin resting on her hoof and she had her front leg propped up on the arm of the chair. “Is something bothering you, my former student?” Celestia took a seat in a chair and got comfortable. She looked at Twilight and waited for a reply. “I don’t know how to talk about it,” Twilight replied. “Well, to start, you take a deep breath, you open your mouth, and then you just let the words spill out.” Celestia gave Twilight an encouraging smile. “Every time I tried to find answers to some questions I have, something bad happened. I’ve been trying to study Adora… and time travel… I was going to investigate what makes ponies love one another and I was planning on studying the source of all magic—” “Oh dear, that sounds ambitious,” Celestia said, gently butting in. “But… it is like… it is like something doesn’t want me studying Adora… or time travel. I keep having blackouts. I wake up with chunks of time missing. Weird things keep happening and I can’t figure out what is going on.” Twilight shook her head. “It’s like something doesn’t want me studying certain things. Does that sound crazy?” Celestia considered Twilight’s words, thinking about them for quite some time before she replied. “No Twilight. That does not sound crazy. Peculiar, perhaps. Strange maybe. But the world and our universe is a strange place. Maybe not everything is meant to be understood. Perhaps some mysteries should be preserved.” “I came to a conclusion… instead of spending my life trying to understand why ponies love each other… I realised… I could be loving a pony. Like Shining Armor and Cadance love one another. Instead of just reading about it and trying to figure out the hows and whys of it working, I could be experiencing it… it’s like when I tried to study Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense and all it got me was hurt… it is like something didn’t want me understanding that either… almost like the universe was shutting the door on me so I couldn’t peek inside at its mysterious inner workings.” Twilight rubbed her two front hooves together, her face thoughtful. “But when I just accepted it for what it was, I was happier. Having it as a mystery brought me closer to Pinkie Pie. The mystery is what makes Pinkie so special to me, now that I think about it. I think understanding the mystery would spoil our friendship. It is what makes her special.” Looking at her former student, Princess Celestia’s heart filled with pride. “You have become so very wise, Twilight Sparkle.” “There are more important things I could be doing… there is a whole wide world out there beyond these castle walls… I think I’d like to take my friends and go see more of it,” Twilight said.