It Wasn't His Fault

“It was only for an hour, you silly mare,” Twilight Velvet said to herself. “Everything is perfectly fine.”

From the outside, that seemed to be true. Her home was still standing—with her son still presumably inside after being left home alone for the first time in his life—rather than being reduced to a smoldering husk of its former self. Readjusting her food laden saddlebags, she stepped off the cobblestone street and headed for the side entrance to the kitchen.

She took the absence of screaming and laughing from uninvited guests as a good sign. Steeling her resolve and running through every calming technique she could remember from the flood of “Welcome to Motherhood” books she had read over the years, Velvet silently pushed open the door.

The kitchen’s spotless walls waited for her inside, as did the scent of clean, smoke-free air, and a hint of plaster. No dirty dishes, spills, or stains marred the room, and the only thing out of place was the misaligned lid of the cookie jar on the counter. Setting down her bags with a quick spell and a soft smile, she opened it and counted two cookies missing from its contents.

Only gone for an hour, but I suppose foals will be foals.

She held back her chuckle, keeping her ears perked up to try and pick up some sound from Shining Armor. Up in his room, she figured, reading one of those rulebooks. Or an expansion. Or he had his nose buried in his campaign planner. Or some other lingo she didn’t understand about that dice game he played with his friends.

A groan sounded down the hall.

Velvet frowned and headed that way. She heard somepony moving in the den, but Shining was never there unless he was studying with his friends. “Shining? Was that you I—?”

The sight of her favorite blue chair in the family sitting room stopped her cold.

She opened her mouth to ask aloud how she was able to see into the next room through the wall, and then she noticed the jagged wooden edges jutting into the foreground in front of her chair.

Her inquiry changed in half a heartbeat as she realized she was looking where the wall used to be.

Where a wall still was, but with an enormous hole in it.

An enormous hole with a shocked Shining Armor standing next to it, craning his neck back to stare at her with a slack jaw and hoof frozen in place next to a stack of broken picture frames.

All these things registered in her mind in the span of the same heartbeat, all while her voice pushed out the question, its pitch and timbre shifting under the deluge of new information until the sound became nothing but an undignified screech.

Shining Armor flinched and curled into a ball, lighting his horn and erecting a purple bubble around him.

Blocking her out.

She stormed forward. “Shining Armor, come out of there this instant!”

He looked away, burying his front hooves under his shaggy blue mane.

She stomped a hoof. “Shining Armor, I said come out of there!”

The blue curtain shook side-to-side, and his small voice sobbed out in an unintelligible whimper.

“What?”

The exact same sound.

Forgive me mother, for I want to scream at your grandson. Velvet bapped her head on the force field, eyes and teeth clenched tight. “Shining, I can’t understand you. Just tell me why there’s a hole in the wall.”

Two holes, technically, punching straight through to both rooms. Wood chips and bits of paint littered the floor of the sitting room, while the fallen pictures and a few tipped over knick-knacks on her side had not been spared from the reverberations of whatever blow Shining had delivered.

At the very least, he had saved the photographs, and they were stacked with care on a tabletop above the mess. He’d even already swept the broken glass of their frames into a neat pile, ready for removal. She would have to run a levitation field over the carpet to catch any straggling shards, but it looked like he had done a pretty good job cleaning up after himself.

Cleaning up after himself and then some, she thought, nudging the blanket lying to the side. “Please tell me you weren’t expecting to cover it and hope your father and I wouldn’t notice.”

He groaned again.

She sighed and walked around his field, trying to meet his eyes. “Could you at least dispel this? It’s bad enough I have to talk to you through your bedroom door when—”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

“One thing at a time, Shining Armor. I want you to get rid of this.”

“You’re gonna yell at me!”

“I’m not—!” Velvet bit down. “I’m not yelling, Shining. I just want to talk without a screen between us. Can we do that? Please?”

He curled up into a tighter ball. “It wasn’t my fault!”

Velvet raked a hoof across her face, pulling her skin into wrinkles she hoped would not be permanent. “I’m not asking… Fine. It wasn’t your fault.” She schooled her features into an impassive mask and lied down in front of him, forehooves crossed. “Now tell me what happened.”

Shining lay still for a long moment before wiping his nose and peeking up at her.

She waited patiently for him to fill the silence.

“It was Orcs.”

“Orcs.” Velvet turned her gaze back to the hole. “Orcs attacked while I was away.” He can’t mean...

“Zombie Orcs with giant mauls.”

He does. Her hooves gripped each other tighter, trembling with the strain. “I see.”

“They were ninjas, too. The module said they could turn invisible at will. Mutated Zombie Orc Ninjas. They broke in right after you left.”

Forgive me mother, for I want to slap your grandson. “Shining Armor, you cannot expect me to believe there is a gang of fantasy monsters patrolling the streets of Canterlot looking for colts that were left home alone so they could attack and knock down the walls.”

“No, I knocked down the wall.”

“I know you did. Now tell me what really happened!”

“That is what happened! I trapped the monsters in here, and started jumping between the chairs to keep the high ground. I was just shooting at them and-and-and...”

“Ah.” She looked back to the hole. “I had no idea you were strong enough to do something like this.”

He buried his head under his hooves. “I’m... I’m not. S-something happened.”

“No, I’m not even sure how long it would take me to do that. What in the world could have... ah, I see.” Velvet pressed a hoof to the field. “Shining, I understand. I’m not angry at you. Will you please come out?” She felt the force field weaken under her touch, and the light faded. She reached out to her son and wrapped her leg around his shoulder, shifting closer to him.

He tucked his head under her chin. “I’m sorry, Mom! I tried to stop, but I—”

“Shhh. It’s okay, Shining.” Velvet stroked his mane. “It hurt, didn’t it? It felt like your horn was on fire. Like you lost control of everything, like you couldn’t even breathe until it was all over.”

Shining Armor’s head nodded against her chest.

“It was a magic surge, dear. That’s all. You had them all the time as a foal.”

He sniffed and looked at her with puffy eyes. “A what?”

“A magic surge. They happen when a unicorn has more magic inside them than their body can handle.” She flicked her eyes to the hole, and back to his. “Usually, a unicorn grows out of them as their body grows accustomed to the flow of magic, but strenuous effort can sometimes cause...” She stopped at the puzzled look her son gave her and tried to curb her smile. “It seems you still have some growing to do yet before you’ll get a good grip on your strength.”

“So... I’m okay?” He wiped his eyes. “That was... I never knew that was possible. My friends can’t do it. I didn’t know what to... I didn’t know.”

“Yes, you are okay,” she said, trying to keep a laugh out of her voice. “Fighting off imaginary monsters to protect your home? Shining Armor, I would say you are a perfectly ordinary little colt.” After one final stroke of his mane, she stood up. “So let’s put that magic to use, shall we? You put the groceries in the kitchen away, and I’ll clean up in here.”

“That’s all—” He had a sudden coughing fit. “I mean, okay.” He trotted into the kitchen.

Velvet smirked as she watched him leave. Throwing magic bolts in the house? Mister, you better believe that’s not all.

She shook her head and lit her horn, passing a magic field over the carpet in front of the hole and finding few final shards of glass along with what Shining had already collected. Her eyes drifted from the debris scattered on the other side of the wall up to the bookshelves in the sitting room. Night Light was due home in a few hours, and while the stars knew she loved him, that stallion had no skill at repairs. One of those books had to have a spell or two Shining could learn to help his father.

Velvet stepped through the hole with ease. That colt has no idea what he can do. Helping his father patch up the damage he caused would do nicely. A suitable punishment, plus a new focus to channel his strength.

He had power. He might have been scared of it when it was out of control, but he was not going to be afraid to use it. Not on her watch.

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