//------------------------------// // Shining Armor 1 // Story: Unwell: Recovery // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// Rainbow followed me silently as we left the café. She seemed lost in thought, but to be fair to her, so was I. Was I really going to tell Rainbow about how much our foalhood had changed after Twilight’s first episode? I had really only told two ponies about it: Cadance and that therapist that I had seen for a couple sessions. And even then, I only had one session with her alone, the rest of the time it had been the family together. And Cadance had been there for most of our foalhood, so that wasn’t too hard. And under ordinary circumstances, I would never tell anypony what I was thinking of telling Rainbow now. But these weren’t ordinary circumstances. Rainbow already knew about Twilight’s illness, and she was a national hero. And from what little digging I could do before I met with her at the doughnut shop said what I had already known: she was a little quick to anger, but she also had a good heart. And she seemed fiercely protective of her friends; her only criminal record had come from when some stallions were harassing her friend, a pegasus named Fluttershy. So while I felt a little uneasy about telling her, I felt that it was the right thing to do. “So… if nopony ever goes to this park, how do you know about it, Shining?” Rainbow asked. “Oh, it used to be more popular. There were some problems with the funding a while back, so it kind of fell into disrepair. Don’t worry, it’s near enough to the guard station that there won’t be any… unsavory types around. In fact, sometime I take a walk there after my shift. It can be very peaceful,” I said. “If you say so,” Rainbow said as we walked into the park. Despite the lack of upkeep, it was still a very pretty place, the trees towered over us, and though a gap in the trunks you could see all the way up the mountain to the castle. Sure, the grass was a little long, there were leaves everywhere, and the benches were losing their varnish, but those things, combined with the lack of ponies around made me feel like I had left the city altogether. “So,” I said, gesturing to one of the less unsteady benches, “let’s sit down. I have a feeling this is going to take a while.” “Sure, but I’m blaming you if I get a splinter,” Rainbow said, giving the bench a disapproving glance. “So,” I asked, as soon as we were both relatively comfortable. “You said you wanted to know what it was like growing up with Twilight?” Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I guess I don’t really need to know, but I am curious.” “That’s fine. It’s only natural to be curious, and it this case I bet it’s not just because she’s your marefriend, right.” “Yes,” Rainbow said bluntly. “Even if we were just friends, I would still be curious. And hopefully, this will help me understand what Twilight is going through right now. But first… are you sure that Twilight would be okay with you telling me what happened?” “Good point,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Tell you what, how about I focus less on Twilight and more on what happened to our family?” “Not my first choice, but okay. I can always ask Twilight about it when she recovers.” “You mean, get her permission,” I corrected. When Rainbow gave me a quizzical look, I continued. “She wouldn’t be able to tell you much about the period right after she got diagnosed. Her first episode was pretty extreme, and she doesn’t really remember much about that time. The one time I asked her, she described it as sort of being in a dream.” Rainbow frowned. “Okay. I’ll try to find a sensitive way to bring that up, even if being sensitive isn’t one of my strong points.” “Right. So—oh! One more thing,” I said, remembering something important. “Don’t tell Twilight about this. She doesn’t need to know how rough things got for the family back then.” I could practically see Rainbow’s distaste at being asked to hide anything from Twilight, but eventually she sighed and nodded. “You’ve got a deal,” she said, nodding. “But when you say rough, what do you mean?” “Well…” I could hear them clearly from my hiding place at the top of the stairs, but considering the volume of the argument, I probably could have heard them in my room just as easily. “I can’t believe you came home drunk again! This is what? The third time this week? Did you even go to work today?” Mom yelled. “What… What does it matter? The whole place is going under. It’s only a matter of time before they let me…let me… fire me,” Dad said, punctuation his statement with a hiccup. “Well, of course they’re going to fire you if you stop showing up or show up drunk! What happened? You used to love stargazing! And now I bet you’ve barely set hoof in the observatory in the past month. What happened to the stallion that was so excited to get a position at the royal observatory?” “You know—urp—you know exactly what happened. And maybe if I could get some time without you nagging me at home, maybe the bar wouldn’t sound so appa… appeal… friendly.” “Oh, for the love of Celestia, you… ugh. We can’t let this happen, Star. We can’t let her tear us apart like this. We—“ “What do you mean, ‘her’!?” Dad roared, swaying on his feet. “Don’t… don’t tell me you blame Twilight for this?” Mom flinched back. “No, no, of course I don’t. I just…” She trailed off, biting her lip. Dad didn’t wait for her to finish her thought. He turned and staggered his way towards the stairs, and I silently scrambled to get to my room. “That does sound rough,” Rainbow said. She gave me a sidelong look. “Are you, umm, still on speaking terms with your mom? I mean, if she really did blame Twilight for any problems your family was having, well…” “Yeah, I was mad at her for a week after that,” I said. “Only a week?” Rainbow asked. “Well, it probably would have been longer if it hadn’t been for Cadance.” “What’s Cadance? Isn’t that some type of music?” “Not a what, a who. Cadance was our old foalsitter. After Twilight had been diagnosed, Mom and Dad let her go because, well, I was too old to need a foalsitter, and Twilight wasn’t home anymore. She must have been talking to one of them, though, because right when things were getting to the breaking point, she showed up at our house and…” “Twilight Velvet! Star Sparkle! You are going to let me in even if I have to break this door down!” I opened our front door, and Cadance, about to pound on it again, almost lost her balance and stumbled into our house. “Thank you, Shiny. Your mom and dad are home, right?” I nodded. “Yeah. Mom’s in the kitchen, and Dad is upstairs, stargazing, I think.” “Thank you. So, um… how are you holding up?” Cadance asked, looking me up and down. If it had been anypony else asking, I don’t think I would have said anything other than ‘I’m fine,’ but this was Cadance. She could always tell when I was lying. “I’m just glad they’re not fighting anymore.” “They…aren’t?” she asked, voice hopeful. “Well, they mostly ignore each other. We haven’t had any family dinners in a week, but I’m kind of glad for that. They just felt weird without Twilight.” “Of course not,” Cadance said, rubbing her muzzle. “This has to end. Shiny, could you go get your dad, he, your mom and I are going to have a long talk.” I nodded, and turned around, only to almost run into Dad. “Don’t bother, Cadance. It was nice of you to show up, but this isn’t really any of your business,” he said. “Horseapples!” Cadance exclaimed, and I gasped. She had always warned me not to use language like that, and I had never, ever heard her say something like that. “I love Twilight too! I love all of you too much to let this continue.” “I understand that, but—“ Cadance’s eyes narrowed. “Auntie is worried too. She agreed to let me handle it, but she isn’t afraid to step in if she feels her new student isn’t going to be happy at home.” Dad took a step back. “She… she still thinks of Twilight as her student?” Cadance let out a snort. “Of course. What’s going on in no way changes how Auntie views Twilight.” Dad bit his lip. I had seen him do that a few times before, when he was thinking. “Fine. Let’s talk in the family room. Velvet?” “I’m already there,” Mom said from our main room, sounding disgruntled. “Very well,” Cadance said, nodding. “Shiny, could you go up to your room?” she asked, trotting into the room. I started to go upstairs, but halfway to the stairs, I changed my mind. Instead, I turned and followed Cadance into our family room. All three adults in the room looked at me in surprise. “Shiny,” Cadance whispered. “I’m not going anywhere,” I stated. “I’m part of this family too, so I’m just as much invested in this as the three of you.” Mom and Dad turned to look at Cadance, who just nodded. “I’m sorry, Shining Armor. It was unfair of me to try to leave you out. Now then, let’s get down to business…” “That night was kind of painful for us all,” I said, as Rainbow looked at me. “Really?” she asked. “Yeah, it was like cleaning a wound. You have to do it, but it still stings.” “I understand that. So who is this Candace? She sounds amazing. I would be surprised that Twilight didn’t mention her, ever, but after meeting you…” “Yeah, she is amazing. We’re getting married in a few months.” “Hey, congratulations! From what you’ve told me, she sounds like a great…wait,” Rainbow stopped mid thought and gave me a funny look. “But… she was your foalsitter. How old is she? How old are you?” I laughed. “You’ll understand when you meet her. But I’m not gonna give anything away. I like the surprise on ponies’ faces when they meet her.” Rainbow continued to give me that look, but eventually she looked away. “So, what did you end up talking about?” “Well, to sum up, for dad…” “I’m sorry, but how can you expect me to focus on work at a time like this?” “Nopony is asking you to head back to work right away, Star. You’ve been such a good worker for the past few years that the head astrologist is willing to overlook what’s been happening. When I talked with him, he pointed out that you have about three weeks of unused vacation time left, so he’s urging you to use them,” Cadance said. Dad looked at her sharply, fire in his eyes. “You went behind my back? You didn’t tell him about—“ “All Midnight Sky knows is that you’re having a rough time right now, and he didn’t need me to tell him that. It was obvious with how your performance had been suffering. Not to mention how you seemed to be… well… drunk, a couple of times,” Cadance said, before dad had a chance to say anything else. “Oh…” “Now, then, do you think you can do that? Take some time away from the office to get a clearer head?” Dad chuckled ruefully. “Not that I have many other options. But yeah. I’ll take some time off to get myself back together.” “But with Mom, it was a little more complicated. She wouldn’t admit that anything was wrong at first, and everything just went around in circles, but eventually I asked her…” “Do you really blame Twilight for this, Mom?” Cadance and Dad both gave me a sharp look. Mom looked as if I had just slapped her. “What… no, I don’t…” she stuttered. “Then why did you almost say that she was tearing the family apart the other day?” I asked, pressing on despite the look Dad was giving me. “I… I didn’t mean it like that…” “Then what did you mean?” I said, trying to keep my voice level. Mom took a deep breath. “It was just a slip of the tongue. I don’t blame Twilight for this… I blame… never mind, it’s not important.” “You blame yourself, don’t you,” Cadance said softly. Once again, Mom looked like she had been slapped. “I know… I know it’s not my fault, but…” she said, eyes watering. “I don’t know what to do. I want to blame somepony… anything… for what happened to my dear Twilight… but there isn’t anypony I can say caused this, except… myself.” Cadance sighed. “It’s not your fault, Velvet. Like you said, it isn’t anypony’s fault.” “I know that, but—“ “No ‘buts,’ Velvet. You can’t shoulder happened when it really isn’t your fault.” “You say that like its easy…” Mom said, her voice cracking. “I know it isn’t, but… urgh.” Cadance sighed. “Tell you what, would any of you be opposed to seeing a professional counselor? I think they would be able to help you more than I would. I know a few who specialize in marriages, and they would be happy to point me in the direction of some colleagues that help families with these sorts of things.” “That… that might be helpful,” Mom said, sniffing. “Good. Now then, are any of you hungry? I could make dinner for all of you, if you’d like?” Cadance asked, smiling. The three of us nodded. “Well, I’m glad everything worked out,” Rainbow said. “Oh, it wasn’t quite worked out right then,” I said, shaking my head. “Cadance had at least gotten Mom and Dad to open up a little, but we still had a lot of work to do. And even then, after they had everything worked out, I was still dealing with some issues of my own…” “Issues? What kind of issues?” “Well…” I said, hesitating. I didn’t really want to talk about it, at least right then. It was much more personal than talking about the whole family. Luckily, the sinking sun gave me a way out. “It’s a long story, and it’s getting late. We’ll talk about it another time. Deal?” Rainbow sighed. “Fine, fine. When’s the next time you’re free?” “I have to coordinate the night patrols for the next week, but I should be available next week. I usually have Mondays off. My other day off varies a little depending on how the week goes, but—“ “Mondays, got it,” Rainbow said impatiently. “I’ll see if I can get Mondays off as well. I don’t know what my schedule will look like at the moment, but... listen, you’re probably going to be visiting Twilight a lot, right?” I just nodded. “Then I’ll see you at the hospital. We can set something up then, okay?” “Sounds good to me.” “All right, then I should get going. I need to be at the hospital bright and early tomorrow, so I’m gonna go hit the hay. See you around.” “See you later, Rainbow. It was good meeting you,” I said, extending a foreleg towards her. “Likewise,” she said, bumping her hoof against mine. Then, quick as a flash, she was gone, leaving me to my thoughts.