It's Going to Take Some Work
The next day I headed to Sparkle Manor with Sparkler. I’d left Dinky with Cadey and Twilight for the morning, and they were planning on doing some shopping without us. Part of me felt guilty over that. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter while she was actually in town, not just dump her on my wife and sister. But Sparkler needed to talk with Mom, and she’d asked me to help her. I wasn’t about to tell her no—not when this was such a big deal for her.
Twilight had offered to go in my place, but in the end I’d shot that idea down. If Sparkler’s talk with Mom went south and I got dragged into it, we’d need somepony to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Sure, Twilight could do that at the end of the day, but so could I, and since Sparkler had asked me specifically, I wasn’t about to turn her down.
It wasn’t long before the two of us had arrived at the manor in all its tower-y glory. “So, you good to do this?” I asked as we approached the door.
Sparkler exhaled and shook her head. “No, but if I put it off I'm just gonna keep putting it off.”
“I know that feeling,” I said. “Best to just take care of it now. At least then you won’t have to worry about what might happen next.”
“Exactly.” Sparkler took a deep breath. “Like setting a bone or ripping off a bandage, right?”
“That's probably the best way to put it,” I agreed and opened the door for her.
Sparkler stepped inside and her gaze swept over the foyer, with its dark wood, ornamental Sparkle family crests, old suits of armor, and other ornamentations. “So, um ... wow. This is nice.”
I smiled, though my heart wasn’t really in the gesture. “Yeah, it is. Even if it drives Twily up the walls sometimes with how disorderly the place looks.”
Sparkler studied the orderly decor and craned her neck to look into the library. “What, does Mom organize the bookshelf alphabetically instead of by the Dewey system?”
I chuckled. “I think Twily reorganized it by the Royal Canterlot Library system a long time ago. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise—the sounds of the books calling out her to be properly organized would have kept her up at night.”
Sparkler snerked. “Sounds like her. So, where to?”
I cast a tracking spell and pinged Mom below us. “Downstairs in the basement. Come on.”
We headed down the stairs and soon found ourselves before the old family vault. Within the open door were the collected treasures of my house, all neatly organized on row after row of shelves. It was almost like stepping into a museum; old tomes, an ancient scrimshawed skull, magical weapons of a variety of types, jewelry both mundane and magical, paintings, and several other artifacts flanked us.
I looked around, some of this stuff sparking forgotten old memories. “Been a while since I've been down here.”
“Yeah? Sounds like you've been busy.” A moment passed before she added, “With work. Lots of work.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What else would I be busy with?”
Sparkler waggled her eyebrows. “Husbandry?”
I blinked and felt my cheeks burn. “Oh! Right, um, that!”
Before I could dig myself any deeper into that hole, I heard Mom call from behind one of the shelves. “Shining? Is that you?”
Sparkler’s smirk vanished and she stepped closer to me.
“Um, yeah, it's me, Mom.” I took a deep breath. “And I have a guest.”
“Oh? Who is—” Mom stepped out from behind the shelf and froze when she saw Sparkler. “Am—Sparkler. It's good to see you.”
Sparkler struggled for a moment before replying. “...hey.”
I spoke up to make sure a horrible silence didn’t stagnate the conversation before it had even gotten started. “Sparkler wanted to talk to you. About stuff. Obviously.”
Sparkler all but hid behind me as she addressed Mom. “Um, so ... hi. Finally.”
Mom’s ears wilted and her eyes fell to the floor. “I suppose it's not a surprise you wanted to meet ... again, that is.” She lifted her head. “Sorry, I wanted to see you. Really.”
I wrapped a leg around Sparkler’s shoulder to try and give her some kind of support. “For what it’s worth, I want to see you two talk.” Even if this was probably going to end up being one of the most awkward talks of my life. Which was saying something when I wasn’t even the focus of the discussion.
Sparkler leaned against me for a while before she brought herself to speak. “Why?”
“Why ... did we let you go?” Mom grimaced.
Sparkler nodded. “Yeah. That. Let's start with that.” Her features hardened and she bared her teeth. “Like, pardon my language, but what the actual feather was with that?”
Mom hunched her shoulders, making her look very different from the confident mare I was accustomed to seeing. “A terrible mistake. I knew that afterwards. If I could take it all back...”
“Yeah, well, you can't,” Sparkler shot back. “And that still doesn't answer my question.”
Mom sighed and rubbed her face. “For stupid reasons. Because we wanted to avoid a scandal when Night was trying to become Grand Vizier. Finding out I had a child by another pony would have caused a big controversy at the worst moment.”
Sparkler blinked, and if it wasn’t for my hold on her she would have stepped back. “Ahn—hed—huh?”
“It was a panicked decision,” Mom tried to explain. “Made at the spur of the moment. We should never have done that. Not in a million years.” She winced as though stabbed. “It was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Can't say I disagree with that last part,” I found my mouth saying, instantly regretting it as Mom’s face contorted with pain.
“No feathering shit.” Sparkler added a second later, “Sorry.” She shook her head hard as though trying to clear it. “No, actually, I'm not sorry. What the hay, like—you couldn't have lied? Or ... something?! Literally anything else?!”
Mom slumped against a bookshelf. “It's what we should have done, yes. We planned...” She shook her head. “It doesn't matter. What we did was wrong, and there's no excuse for it. All I can say is that I'm sorry. It’s not nearly enough to make up for the pain we’ve caused you, but there’s only so much I can do to make up for everything.”
“It matters.” Sparkler’s eyes narrowed. “Who's 'we', and what did 'we' plan?”
Mom bit her lip. “We hoped that you would be adopted by a nice family. It was a naïve plan, and didn't work out the way we wanted.”
“Obviously.” Sparkler glared. “S'just your young kids have to deal with a dead baby, but anyone can just ‘get over’ that, right?”
I grimaced as she reopened that old wound. “Sparkler...”
She looked up to me. “It’s true, isn’t it? That’s a pretty bucked up thing to do, don’t ya think?”
I didn’t have a good answer for that. Celestia, this was so screwed up I barely even knew where to start. In a way, finding out about Dinky had been a blessing, because at least with her I had a pretty good idea what I was doing. It wasn’t going to be easy to make everything right with Ditzy and Dinky, but I was working at it. Everything with Sparkler was something else entirely. I wanted to make everything better, but I only had the foggiest idea how to do that. This situation wasn’t something where apologizing and making up was going to fix everything.
Mom’s head wilted. “I wouldn't blame you for hating me.”
“Oh, feathering spare me.” Sparkler stomped a hoof. “You gotta talk to my brother n'sister about that, I literally don't even know you.” She wiped her eyes. “No, you told 'em their little sister was dead—and now I'm not. And all for your damn politics!”
I could tell Sparkler wanted to go on a rant, but Mom wasn’t giving her much fuel to run on as couldn’t bring herself to look at the daughter she’d abandoned. Sparkler’s glare slowly melted away and she started quivering. She sniffed and her shoulders shook. Then the tears started and she pressed her face into my chest as she sobbed. I did the only thing I could do, and held Sparkler close, stroking her mane and rubbing her back as I tried to be there for her.
It got really quiet after that. No one was in a rush to speak. But what could you say in a situation like that? I didn’t know. I just held onto the sister lost to me for all those years. It wasn’t until I noticed that Mom was holding up some tissues for us that I was pulled out of the moment. She wasn’t looking at either of us, and her own eyes were red and swollen, but I still took the offered tissues. I gave one of them to Sparkler, and she used it to blow her nose.
“Thanks, bro. R-really, I n—” Sparkler took a deep breath. “M'okay, m'okay.”
I gave her a supportive squeeze. “Hey, I'm here for you.”
Sparkler took her time before she was ready to speak again. “Okay, so one more question. My ... sire, I guess. Did they know?”
Mom’s throat was tight when she answered. “She did, yes.”
Sparkler sniffed and glared at Mom. “So what now?”
Mom wrung her hooves. “That depends on what you want. I would like to do what I can to make things right. Even if nothing ever can.”
Sparkler sighed and leaned against me, feeling like a deflating balloon as she did so. “I wanna believe that, n'I don't even know how that'd happen. You know, when I first heard about all of this, I wanted to think that some nurse had switched the bassinet—that my parents really wanted me all along, n'that I'd go home with 'em. Hay, I wanted to believe that my sire didn't know about any of this.”
“I did want you back.” Mom held herself as she continued. “I really did. But everything went wrong. Then we lost track of you, and...” Her shoulders shook as she trailed off.
“I dunno what to do now,” Sparkler murmured.
“Maybe ... you need some time to absorb all of this,” Mom suggested. “I'd like to get to know you. But I can understand if you don’t want anything to do with me either.”
“Maybe.” Sparkler blew her nose again. “I needed to know, and I knew I didn't wanna know.” She took a deep breath. “But okay, fine. Let's ... let's get to know each other. Who we are now, instead of who we—instead of who you were. But maybe not right now.”
Mom nodded slowly. “I can understand that.”
“We can talk m-more, later, I guess. But ... you're...” Sparkler grimaced. “I needed to hear it from you. You're sorry.”
“I’m so sorry, Sparkler,” Mom said. “More than anything else I've done.”
“It's something at least,” I said. I believed her when she said that. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about her feeling sorry about it. Justified maybe? It didn’t exactly make me feel good to hear it either. Just ... something. Emotions are hard.
Mom dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “And if you want to meet your sire...”
Sparkler frowned but nodded. “I do, yeah. Now that I know, I might as well. Not putting everything off has been ... good, I guess. Best just to get it all out of the way now.”
“If you’re sure.” Mom looked between us. “Would you like me to introduce you, or would you prefer to meet her by yourself?”
Sparkler looked to me, and I nodded. “It might be best to let her introduce you, at least. I'll still be here for you.”
“Okay, sure.” Sparkler nuzzled me. “S'long as you're there.”
Despite it all, I smiled. “Trust me, I'm not going anywhere.”
As a group we headed to Magetrix’s lab at the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It had been a while since I had been here. Usually I only came to see Magetrix because I was with Mom, or Mom had something she wanted me to pass along to her. For a long time I hadn’t known that Magetrix and Mom were a thing, and had been since before Mom and Dad had even married, but by the time I was getting ready to head to West Hoof I’d managed to put two and two together. That had been quite the adjustment for me to get my head around, and my parents had to sit me down and explain the facts to me. In the end I’d been okay with it—no harm no foul, right? Sure, learning Dad had a kid from his affair with his secretary had thrown me from a loop, but I gotten along with Vinyl once I got to know her. So it was kinda alright.
Though all that had been before I’d found out about Sparkler. That ... changed things, and now I was trying to put everything back together as best I could. Sure, I’d screwed up with Ditzy, but at least I had the excuse of not knowing Dinky had been born at the time, and now I was taking steps to fix things. What Mom and Dad had lied about was ... yeah.
I felt Sparkler tense up as the three of us made our way to the school. She swallowed and worked out a barely audible, “Hey.”
Mom stopped and cranked her neck to look back at us. “Yes?”
“M—Du—“ Her teeth clenched together as she searched for the right thing to call Mom. “I've been thinking a bit. Sounds like you've been kicking yourself for years, huh? With what happened at the hospital?”
Mom’s gaze fell to the floor. “That's right.”
Sparkler grunted and leaned against me. She inhaled and took a moment before continuing. “Everything came out at once, earlier. I didn't think about how long you'd been been beating yourself up over it. Maybe I should have put this off longer until I was ready. You didn't deserve that. M'sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” Mom shook her head. “You have every reason to be angry with me. You never deserved what happened. If there was one thing I could do again in my life, it would be that.”
“I know. Now, I mean, I know now.” Sparkler tapped the side of her head. “Up here anyways. N'you at least tried to make it right, even when it went wrong. It doesn't make everything okay, I can't really say that yet. But it makes it better.”
Mom sighed and nodded. “I realize that nothing can really make it right. I just want to do what I can.”
“Maybe we can try and get along?” Sparkler asked with a brittle smile.
Mom smiled, her face relaxing a little for the first time that day. “I would like that.”
“Okay.” Sparkler’s shoulders tensed again. “So, um, can we see M—her?”
“Of course, right this way.” Mom continued down a hallway that I recognized.
Thinking about all the previous times I had met Magetrix, I turned to Sparkler. “Just to warn you, Magetrix is kinda ... different.”
Sparkler’s brow furrowed. “Different how?”
Seeing we didn’t have much time before we got to the door to Magetrix’s lab, I went with the short and concise answer. “She’s a bit like Twilight when she’s doing her science. Only kinda moreso in some ways.”
Sparkler’s frown furrowed as she thought that one over. “Ah.”
We entered the lab’s office, and Mom called out. “Maggie? Are you in here?”
As if in reply, an inequine roar reverberated from within the lab. That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear, and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Being an officer of the Guard, it sounded like the type of sound that usually announced a fight.
Mom sighed and rubbed the side of her temple. “That would be a yes.”
“Hagabab?!” Sparkler leapt behind me. “What the hay was that?!”
“That's what I'm wondering!” I exclaimed, and moved to the door that led further into the lab.
“Maggie's probably done an experiment that's let something crawl in through the cracks in reality again,” Mom grumbled as she trotted into the lab. “Try and be careful while I sort this out.”
“What? Wait, what?!” Sparkler looked between me and Mom as we followed her, and after a moment’s hesitation, decided to stick close to me.
“I think we’re about to find out,” I told her. “Try and stay behind me.”
A dozen green portals floated about the lab, and more worrying, things were trying to come through them. I couldn't see exactly what they were, mainly because it stung my eyes to look at them directly. All I could say for certain is that they had plenty of mouths, eyes, and tentacles, none of which were arranged with any kind of sane geometry. It reminded me why Mom had told me never to go into Magetrix’s lab alone when I was a colt.
As for Magetrix herself, she was busy running about the lab, brandishing a rune-covered staff that glowed with arcane fire. A humming eldritch wind buffeted her wild, uncombed light purple mane and tail about, and her stained and slightly singed lab coat covered her pink coat. “Back! Back! Not desired result of experiment!” She fired a beam of magical energy from the staff into one of the portals. There was a sizzle of burnt flesh that smelled vaguely like burnt pineapple, and the resulting cry of pain made me flatten my ears to my head. “Asymmetry not desired in this place—anomaly to good science!”
Mom sighed and cast a spell to slowly close the portal that had been cleared of whatever was trying to claw its way into our dimension. “Maggie, what did you do this time?”
“Rammed particles together at extreme velocity,” Magetrix said in her usual clipped manner of speaking. She charged her staff as she carried a near-manic smile on her lips. “Fascinating results. Did not expect interdimensional horror, though. Will have to determine if consistent result of experiment.”
Mom finished closing the portal and then shook her head. “You know you aren't supposed to attract things from forbidden dimensions. Remember the talk we had about that?”
Magetrix shrugged. “Science means poking universe. Sometimes universe pokes back.” She frowned in contemplation. “Or things outside of universe, in this case. Always the thing, always more to learn. Sometimes results unpredictable.”
Mom let out another exasperated sigh. “Shining, be a dear and bubble those portals to keep those things from breaching through? I'll seal them up one at a time with Maggie if you can buy me the time.”
“Got it!” Not seeing a good reason to argue about preventing interdimensional horrors from coming into our reality, I concentrated and created a series of bubble shields around each portal. The things inside clawed at my shields, but they held for the moment. At least these could actually be affected by magic—that wasn’t always the case. I had found that out the hard way during that incident with the Mad Cult of Mootana.
Sparkler stared at all of this slack-jawed. “How—particle—staff?! Again?! How can there be an 'again' when you're talking about reality and cracks in it?!”
“Lets just say that Maggie keeps things interesting,” Mom explained as she worked with her lover to close another portal. “It’s both something I find attractive in her and endlessly exasperating.”
“Welcome to the family,” I told Sparkler as I reinforced my shield spells. “Things can get a bit hectic at times.”
“You can't tell me this is normal! A kitchen fire's normal!” Sparkler blinked and her eyes widened. “Oh Luna, no. What is it about my mothers that makes disaster mundane?”
Another of those things crashed into one of my shields and spider web cracks formed in it, forcing me to pour more magic into it to shore it up. Being barely able to look at my work didn’t make the casting any easier. “I'm going to tell you something right now, Sparkler: normalcy and my family aren’t on a speaking basis anymore.”
“It seems to be genetic.” Sparkler cast a spell that played with the ambient light, and made the air between me and the portal blurry enough to give my sanity a slight break. “Anything I can do?”
“Keep anything from snatching Shining,” Mom instructed her as she worked over the next portal. “Give me a few uninterrupted minutes and I'll have this cleaned up.”
“Right, got it.” Sparkler stayed near me, her horn glowing as she prepared to cast a spell at a moment’s notice.
“Much thanks,” Magetrix said. “Getting hairy in here. Crazy day at work.”
Mom gave her a wry smile. ”You don't say?”
Things got pretty frantic, but we managed to close all the portals after half an hour without anything big and sanity-breaking coming through and causing mayhem. I was breathing fairly heavily by the end and my horn ached. It’d been a while since I’d had to exert myself that much.
For her part, Mom wiped sweat from her brow. “Well, that was bracing.”
“Not what I was expecting today.” I frowned as I thought just what I’d been through. “As I realize this is my life. You’d think by now I’d be more surprised if normal things happened instead.”
Sparkler sat to take a load off. “What the hay did I get myself into?”
“A normal Sparkle family outing,” I answered. “It’s almost always interesting times around here.” It felt that way, anyways. Professor Magetrix definitely had a way to keep science from becoming boring. Even if that did involve preventing stuff like reality breaking from happening sometimes.
“Living with Mom is good experience for getting used to this, at least” Sparkler said.
Magetrix gave Sparkler a once-over. “And who’s this?”
Mom took a deep breath and stepped next to Sparkler. “Okay, this wasn't the introduction I wanted to do, but here we are. Maggie, come over here. We have something important to talk about.”
Magetrix placed her staff to the side and tilted her head. “What is it, Velvie?”
“I don't know a good way to put this, so I'm just going to come out and say it.” Mom visibly struggled to say anything as her face contorted into a grimace. “Maggie, this is Sparkler. My—our daughter.”
For the first time I could remember, the near-manic Magetrix froze. The seconds passed by, and eventually Sparkler awkwardly waved her hoof. “Um, hi.” Her eyes darted to the door for a moment, and she scooted closer to me. For my part, I wrapped a leg around hers to give her some support for what was going to be another one of the most awkward conversations of my life.
“Ah, um...” Magetrix’s ears flattened to her head. “Hello, Sparkler. Um, good to see you. Velvie said you might want to visit. Wasn’t sure. Wanted to give space, because...” She winced and her head drooped.
Mom took another deep breath. “Sparkler, this is Magetrix, your sire. We’ve known each other for a long time.”
Magetrix nodded. “Of course, of course. And wanted to see you. Always did. Just... I failed. Tried to adopt you. But failed.”
Mom raised a hoof to try and stop Magetrix. “Maggie, don't. You don’t need to—“
“She deserves to know!” Magetrix snapped.
Sparkler looked between them. “Wait, what’s this about?”
Magetrix ran a hoof down her face. “Tried to adopt you. My plan. After you were born, and found out... Plan was to have Velvie give you up, and then I'd adopt you. No pain, explain everything when you were old enough.” She scowled and I could almost hear her teeth grind together. “Adoption Services wouldn't let me.”
Sparkler blinked at that. “They—what?”
“Wait, this is the first time I’ve heard of this.” I looked to Mom. “You didn’t mention any plan like this.” Something I wasn’t happy about when this added more context to everything.
Mom ran a hoof through her mane. “After we found out who Sparkler’s sire was, we came up with a plan that might have prevented a scandal. We’d let Magetrix adopt Sparkler, and that would effectively let Sparkler stay in the family. Magetrix was living in the manor at the time, so nothing would have been strange about her bringing her adopted daughter into our home. Then we would explain everything to Sparkler when she was old enough to understand.” She looked to me, her face strained. “And to all of you, as well.”
My chest felt tight as I thought through this. I did my best not to lose my cool; Sparkler needed me, and I wasn’t going to help her by flipping out and storming out of there like I had when Mom and Dad first tried to explain everything. “So what went wrong?”
Mom’s shoulders sagged. “They didn't let Maggie adopt Sparkler. For ... reasons.”
Magetrix snorted. “Adoption Services said I wasn’t suited to be a mother. Idiotic—I’m in top one percent for intelligence, have high paying job, stable home. All factors suggest good home for new foal.”
I could guess why Adoption Services might not want to give Magetrix a newborn foal, considering I just helped stop an interdimensional invasion of her lab by beings that hurt my head to think about. That type of thing didn’t get you glowing reviews from most ponies, and Magetrix had always been an odd pony.
Mom sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “Still doesn't excuse that I let you go to start with. If I hadn’t none of this would have happened.”
Sparkled looked between the two of them. “I don't know what to say.” Her mouth opened to speak but then closed again. She shuddered and wiped at her eyes, gradually bringing herself to look up at Magetrix. “You wanted me?”
“Always.” Magetrix nodded. “We both did. It’s just ... plan flawed. Erred.”
Sparkler stepped forward, her steps uncertain. She tentatively offered a hug to her sire. Magetrix stood staring for a moment that seemed to drag on. Then she embraced her long-lost daughter. It was an awkward, unsure hug, and soon both daughter and sire were crying as they held one another.
It was evening by the time Sparkler and I left the lab. Mom had decided to stay with Magetrix, probably to talk about some things, and to give Sparkler some much needed room. I felt psychologically exhausted after the long day, and I could only imagine how Sparkler was feeling by this point. We walked in silence down Canterlot’s streets; Sparkler looked like she was pretty deep in her own thoughts, while I struggled to find something to say. Since I didn’t know what the right thing to say was, I decided it might be best for me to just be here for her. That was nice and safe, and didn’t risk me saying something that would make a mess of things.
Sparkler’s head was hanging low as she leaned against me. Then she suddenly let out a long groan. “I was not ready for that.”
“Me either,” I agreed. “That was a lot to take in.” It was going to take me a while before I could digest everything I had head from Mom and Magetrix. Some part of me felt good that they had tried to keep Sparkler, even if their plan had major issues. Like the part where it failed and deprived me of my baby sister. That last fact still burned in my chest. I felt an urge to go back and tear into them for what they had done, and I might have if not for Sparkler. Arguing with Mom probably wouldn’t help anything, but I knew being here for Sparkler was a big deal to her. Priorities, priorities.
I’d probably talk it over with Cadey. She was probably the best sounding board I had for this type of thing. That was one of the really nice things about being married: you always had somepony you could rely on to talk about your problems with. And oh boy did I have some problems to talk about.
“That’s putting it lightly.” She shook her head. “Well, the tentacled horror was ... new, but I meant today. Talking to my moms, you know?”
“I think I get it.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Especially finding out everything for why they did it—you know, everything.”
“That all really could've gone a lot better.” Sparkler sighed. “In hindsight, I probably should've waited until I had had a chance to talk to somepony about it. Like a psychologist. I mean, awkward as it would've been to go to my marefriend's mom for advice, a shrink's input would've gone a long way.”
“Maybe.” I remembered having to see a psychologist after Chrysalis had played my head like a piano, and it had helped well enough. “We could always get you some help if you want it. It'd probably be a good idea, really.” I’d pay the bill myself if it would help her. Sun and stars knew Sparkler had been through enough to justify it.
“I know a pony, but thanks.” Sparkler slowed to a stop and hugged me. “And … thanks, bro. I could not have gotten through that without you.”
I smiled and hugged her back. It felt good to be the big, protective brother when it actually worked out. “Happy to help. I wanted to be here for you.”
Sparkler squeezed me like I was a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. “I got another reason to look forward to summer vacations now, 'cause I really...” She trailed off, letting her hug express her feelings.
I held her close, not ever wanting to let her go. “I'd love for you to get to visit.”
“I was thinking of keeping in touch with my moms through mail until m'ready to talk again,” Sparkler said as she looked up at me with a smile. “I figure I can add one more pony to the mailing list.”
I smiled back at her. “I don't see why not.”
Thankfully the rest of the week went much smoother. Sparkler was a bit withdrawn during that time, but I couldn’t blame her when she had a lot to think about. Still, we got to have fun and spend time together in Canterlot. I think that helped a lot. It felt great to get to spend time with her and Dinky, even if Dinky was such a little ball of energy she was starting to run me, Cadey, and Twily all into the ground by the end of the week. The bright side was that Dinky did a good job of exhausting herself as well.
Thus, by the end of the week I was in Cadey’s living room with Dinky asleep beside me. We were both reclined on the couch, with Dinky’s head lying on my side. She was adorable when she slept. My little sweetheart peaceably resting after a long week out on the town. It made me look forward to when I’d get to see her again—and shot a pang of pain through my heart when I thought about how she would be going back to her mom before too long.
Cadey quietly walked into the living room and she looked down at us with a soft smile. “Aww, look at you.” She ran a hoof through Dinky’s mane to fix it a bit. “Is she all tuckered out?”
I smiled as I watched my sleeping daughter. “Yeah, she fell asleep while I was reading her a story.”
Ditzy came in behind Cadey and beamed at the sight of us. “Oh, Muffin...” She gave me a grin. “You're a natural.”
I chuckled and rubbed the back of my mane. “I think I’m getting the hang of it. Shame Dinky didn't have the energy to stay up for the entire story and get to see you.”
“Oof, it sounds like she had a good day out then.” Ditzy sat down on the other side of Dinky. “She usually has enough energy to ask for another one. Sometimes a third if it’s Rainbow foalsitting her.”
“We have kept her pretty busy.” I let out a breath, as all the events of the last week flooded over me. “To be honest, I'm pretty beat trying to keep up with her. I'm not sure how you've managed this all by yourself.” Thankfully Dinky had bounced back quickly from the ice cream incident. Her being down and out from a stomach ache had been awful, but it had only been a small hiccup on what had otherwise been a pretty great week.
Ditzy let out a breath that was half-chuckle and half-sigh. “It was an adjustment, to put it mildly. But I had a lot of help from friends and family.”
“That definitely helps,” I agreed. “Twilight and Sparkler were worth their weight in gold.” I gave Cadey a sheepish grin. “Cadey too, of course.”
Ditzy chuckled and smiled at Cadey. “I bet. Sparkler's been such a good sister for her, and I really can't thank Twilight enough for everything she's done for us.”
“Right.” I ran a hoof through my mane as I remembered something I wanted to tell her. “Um, just a heads up, but Sparkler and I did go see her ... other moms earlier in the week.”
Ditzy stiffened at the mention of Sparkler’s biological parents. “Oh.” She looked at the still peacefully sleeping Dinky.
Cadey’s horn briefly glowed as she cast a spell over Dinky. “Don't worry, we won't wake her up—just remind me to dispel that silence spell when we're done.”
Dityz’s head nodded in thanks. “So ... how did things go with Sparkler?”
“They ... went.” I huffed as I shook my head, realizing I was being painfully unspecific about something Ditzy needed to hear about. “It went about as well as it could have. I think Sparkler's just going to need a bit of time and distance to pull it all together. But she does want to write them letters, so I think it's moving in a positive direction.”
Ditzy let out a small sigh of relief. “That's good. If I'm completely honest, I'm not sure what I expected, or even wanted to hear. I'm glad, though, I really am. I couldn't imagine what your poor mother went through all of these years, or her...” She hesitated as she sought the right word. “Her partner, I guess.”
“It sounds like they have some issues to work through.” At least based on how Mom had said she was staying behind in the lab with Magetrix, it sounded like they were going to talk after we left. Now there was a discussion I didn’t want to be around for. “Turns out their plan was for Magetrix to adopt Sparkler, but then the whole thing got derailed. Adoption Services wouldn’t let Magetrix have Sparkler for whatever reason.” I grimaced. “Still not sure how I feel about that.”
Cadey’s face contorted into a grimace. “That's horrible. Not that it excuses what happened, but that does explain their actions a little bit.”
“I guess.” I sighed. “I think Mom didn’t tell me about that at first because she wanted to protect how Magetrix would look in Sparkler’s eyes. If it looked like Magetrix had nothing to do with any of it...” I shrugged, feeling even more exhausted just by thinking about the whole situation.
“Oh my goodness...” Ditzy sat in silence for a minute as she absorbed what I told her. “I couldn't begin to imagine how that would have hurt her.” She gently rubbed Dinky’s back as she stared at her daughter. “I feel like I should reach out to her too, but wouldn't know where to begin.”
“Maybe write a letter?” I suggested. “That might be a start. Less of a chance you’ll say something you don’t mean to, also.” I knew way too well how you could botch a conversation at the worst possible time.
Ditzy nodded. “Maybe, yeah.” She sighed and slumped on the couch. “I'll deal with that tomorrow. At least we're moving forward. What do you two have planned?”
“We were hoping to get to spend a bit more time with Dinky and Sparkler before you had to take the train back to Ponyville.” A grin spread across my face as I watched Dinky sleep. “It was really great to get to spend time with them.”
Ditzy gave me that bubbly smile of hers. “I can tell Dinky loved it, and Sparkler really wanted time with you. Maybe we can work something out where we can do this more often?”
A flutter of warmth ran through me. “I'd love that. Really.”
Cadey smiles and nodded. “They're both great to have around.”
“And I'd like to visit too,” Ditzy said, looking between us. “If it’s not too much to ask, that is.”
“I don't see why not.” I looked Cadey’s way to make sure I hadn’t overstepped.
Cadey shook her head. “It's fine. Really. It's nice when Ditzy can get to visit with her girls.”
“Thank you.” Ditzy offered a hoof to Cadey. “You're a wonderful pony, and I'd like to catch up with you both more.”
Cadey took her hoof and squeezed it. “That sounds good to me.”
Ditzy squeezed back. “Me too.”
Dinky yawned and snuggled up against me, smiling in her sleep.
I gently wrapped a leg around her to help keep her warm and comfortable. “I think everything's going to turn out alright.”
It was a couple of days after the Doo family left Canterlot that Princess—Aunt Celestia (that was going to take me forever to get that down) summoned me to her private throne room. I had been little worried about why she wanted to see me; being called on by royalty, even when I was technically royalty myself, always made me a bit nervous. It meant they wanted something, and that something wasn’t always good. But I put on my uniform and answered the call all the same. There wasn’t anything else I could do. Not like I could avoid my own aunt-in-law and princess even if I wanted to.
I found Celestia sitting on her throne and Cadance sitting by her side. Both of them smiled as I entered, so that was probably a good sign, probably. I bowed before the throne, eliciting a chuckle from Celestia.
“I think we can dispense with you having to always bow to me, Shining Armor,” Celestia said with a wry grin. “You are my nephew, after all.”
“Um, right.” I stood, feeling a bit embarrassed. “So what did you want me for?”
“Oh, just a minor matter,” Celestia said with a teasing tone. “Just your new assignment.”
My ears perked. That was very much something I wanted to know, and my heartbeat picked up in response. “What’s that going to be?”
Celestia smiled at Cadance. “In light of recent events, we’ve been transferring personnel around, among them the captain of Cadance’s guard. There is now an open position that needs to be filled by a sufficiently senior officer.” Her smile took on an impish air. “Do you think you might know of such a pony?”
I looked between them, fearing that this was too good to be true. “I-I’d love to be the captain of Cadey’s guard!” Sure, it wasn’t captain of the entire Royal Guard, but it was something. A pony could do a lot worse than heading one of the princesses’ personal bodyguards.
Celestia turned to Cadey. “There you go. It might be a bit awkward to have your husband be in charge of your guard, but somehow I think you’ll manage.”
Cadey grinned back at her aunt. “I’m sure we’ll find a way.” She smiled in my direction. “We’ve gotten through everything else thus far, even if it’s been rough sometimes.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “What you said.” I puffed out my chest as I addressed the both of them. “But yeah, I’ll do my best to run Cadey’s guard. You have my oath on that.”
“I have no doubts you’ll do exactly that,” Celestia said. “We’ll have an official ceremony for you taking the position later, but right now I’d like to talk some specifics about your new post.”
I stepped closer to them. “Of course, what was on your mind?”
The corner of Celestia’s mouth quirked in that way whenever I got the sense she knew more than she was letting on. “How do you two feel about taking a trip up north to see to a few things? I’ve been getting rumors about some troubles from that part of Equestria that could use some royal attention...”
It felt good as we started getting to business. I was back into my comfort zone of reports, positions of troops, of developing problems that needed to be dealt with. My life had been pretty badly upturned in recent months, no way around that. But now I thought I had a grasp on everything. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I was pretty sure I could manage it. Nopony who knew what they were talking about ever said life was going to be easy—what mattered was how you dealt with it.
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This was fun. And what a delicious, slightly evil moment to end on :).
Aw. The end? But the upcoming upset would fit so well with the story's title. How will Dinky, Sparkler and Ditzy react to Shining and Cadence suddenly moving to another country? How will they arrange visits?
Is it bad that when I read Magetrix's speech pattern, I was hearing it in my mind as something similar to a certain Scientist Salarian?
8823138
For those who don't know.
I wonder if Magetrix isn't Twilight's sire too. They both share a...vibe.
Nicely done, and thanks for revisiting this particualr plot thread - it was enjoyable to see how it all played out.
Wow, the extended Sparkle family is a bit of a complex mess ain't it?
Flurry being the Avatar of Destruction seems compartively normal, suddenly...
I loved this story. My only regret was that Sparkler did not join Shining on a visit to Vinyl, since both Sparkler and Vinyl share the same half brother. I would have loved to see that play out.
No way! I want more horse words!
I love the Sparkle's family more than Kicker's, they have so messy backstory and family reletionship, and it so fun to read about how they trying to figure that out.
OHO! Things are certainly heating up quite nicely! <3
It was definitely a rocky few weeks, but Shining's back on his hooves. Though I can't help but think that mentioning the original plan with Sparkler would've been a good idea. "We wanted to keep her but couldn't because of bureaucracy" is a much more sympathetic narrative than just "We dumped her in an orphanage because politics."
Still, all's well that ends well. Heck, in a few years, Dinky will have a baby half-sister to play with! I just hope the Crystal Empire will survive the two of them...
8823138
You're not the only one.
Not gonna lie, Shining and Cadance being sent off to the Crystal Empire actually made me really sad. Because now I have to think about how insanely hard it's going to be for him to keep in touch with Sparkler and Dinky, which seemed to already be a logistical issue.
The cutepocalypse is coming....
This could have been longer. And surprise that Velet didn't try to get Celestia's help. She may not approve of Velvet hidding Sparkler but i think she be okay with Velvet's partner having her.
But this story overall made me dispise this Celestia even more
Echoing that I wish this was longer. Would have enjoyed seeing Shining meeting Star, Sparkler meeting/finding out that she has a periphery relation to Vinyl, Dinky meeting the Princesses. So many more opportunities!
If there's one complaint I have with your contributions to the modern Kicker-verse is that they are too short and leave me wondering why they end where they did. Although, I guess leaving us wanting more isn't really a bad thing.
But please please please don't stop writing anytime soon. 
We would lose so many tales to the realm of the untold.
A nice look into the Sparkle clusterfuck that was actually pretty sweet and emotional.
It is good to finally see how this clusterf**k finally turned out, and that it turned out well enough. The questions that we've always had are now answered. It was wonderful to see.
8823632
Don't forget that Celestia is a ruler of a nation. Rulers should not show such favoritism. Also, Celestia of the Winningverse seems to try and stay out of everyone's personal business as much as she can and let them handle their own problems. She can't solve everyone's problems, nor should she. She also shouldn't interfere with her own bureaucracy (the adoption), again, as it would be seen as favoritism. She set up those agencies, and unless there were accusations of corruption, she needs to trust their judgement. She may be Princess, but we've seen what happens when she is accused of favoritism (see The Lunar Rebellion).
8824659
But, Equestria is a matriarchy, and the power lies with the females; so maybe this viewpoint should also be reversed?
From further reading, it seems she was also to drunk to remember, so in fairness they would be equally at fault. Not sure if that counts as a defence in this world though; so would they both be guilty?
8824835
yet she already does favortism. Like Unicornia, the Kicker Clan, Sunbeam, need I go on. And again it's for the sake of a child. While Sparkler is in a good home now they could have easily not been the case.
8824886
Actually for a while, that wasn't the case. Sparkler was in a bad home before being adopted by Ditzy. And for the sake of a child? That would then mean Celestia would have to get involved for every single child personally. That just isn't feasible, realistic, or fair, especially since Velvet is a Duchess and Night Light was on his way to becoming Vizier. Asking for that kind of help would have been worse than the scandal of a child out of wedlock. And in this case, the adoption people had a point: Magetrix was/is NOT mother material.
And my point with the favoritism, with the examples you've listed, are examples of why Celestia doesn't try to show so much favoritism anymore. It was that favoritism that was a catalyst for the rebellion, a lesson hard learned.
8824922
So she rather allow a child to suffer then show a tad bit a favoritism. That just puts her in an ever worse light. Magetrix may not be tbe ideal mom but likely better then the first home Sparkler ended up in. Hell Sunbeam isn't an ideal mom but she worked. I think Magetrix can eork for she loves her daughter.
It’s nit often that I finish a story and I’m glad that it’s over. It was a good story, and I would even recommend it. No, I’m glad it’s over because of Magetrix and Velvet.
Because of that fucking plan, and how anyone could be so idiotically irresponsible and goddam full of themselves that they didn’t ever ask, “What if they deny the application?” It’s the first branch in the decision tree, and given what Magetrix apparently gets up to, was undeniably the 99% likely result to anyone with even a bit of sense. Only fitting, I suppose, that the full proof plan was not fool proof. If Sparkler had wanted nothing to do with them after this, I wouldn’t have felt bad: It would’ve been exactly what they deserved.
I’m sorry. I’m angry, and I don’t know when I’ll stop.
8824948
Best way to look at this? Take out the name "Celestia" and put the name of any other world leader. Then consider how you look at Celestia.
Whatever anyone thinks, Celestia is NOT all powerful within her nation. Or all knowing. She would have undermined her own power within the government, especially given who would ask and the timing of such a request. As cruel as it might sound, the fate of one child is not as important as the fate of a nation. Would the POTUS rescue one child and say 'screw them' to all the others without causing massive outcry? And I doubt Celestia would help them cover up; she'd tell them to own up.
Its tragic what happened to Sparkler, but one thing I've seen about this Celestia is she won't do anything for personal problems unless asked. Even then, she tends to point people in the right direction. The Sparkles didn't, and wouldn't: they were trying to look good in her eyes as well as everyone else's. Its one of the things I like about this story: unlike his parents, once he heard the truth, Shining owned up to his mistake immediately.
As for Sunbeam compared to Magetrix as parents, completely different situations given the time periods. Its one thing to put your kid in danger because of the dangers of the time period compared to putting your kid in danger because of your own curious recklessness.
8825036
Panicked decisions tend to not consider sense. Love is blind: Velvet loves Magetrix, and overlooked the facts in their panic. At least they had a plan, even if it was shit to begin with. It meant they tried, even if they shouldn't have had to. Doesn't make me any less pissed off either.
8825067
Considering what caused the Rebellion and it's afternath in which. Yes she is a absolute monarch so she can easily.
8823549
Oh man, yeah, Dinky plus Flurry Heart ... too ... much ... adorable ...
This is the point when my heart dropped, my anger for their stupidity dropped, and all I could think was "...oh."
Well, at least this part of the story conflict is exactly 0% Shining's fault.
I'm still deeply suspicious about the 'Trix' part of Magetrix.
This Equestria needs a great deal more laboratory oversight.
Huh.
Thanks, bureaucracy. I feel like the mistake in the plan (other than the plan itself) was attempting to go through the normal adoption system.
This mess of a family might not deserve Dinky.
Hey, new assignment and Crystal Empire time.
Wait.... That's it!m it's over!
There's so much more potential & Derpy screen time!
And the story is over. I have to say I quite enjoyed this little story. I know that Ponibius wasn't completely satisfied with how The Study of a Winning Pony came out, so I'm glad that he expanded on the revelations we had there by creating a much shorter and more concise and yet definitely a better story overall. Not that The Study of a Winning Pony was bad, but Ponibius knows about the problems he had with it himself.
Also, you could definitely understand what Shining was going through and I hope some of this is going to be incorporated into future works. Considering the huge time skip between this and The New Life of a Winning Pony and other related stories, I'm sure their relationships have greatly improved. Also, Shining has so far been pretty out of focus in the Winningverse, so it was great to have an entire story from his point of view for once.
So, with Cadence and Shining moving to the Crystal Empire, the situation with the Doo’s has definitely become a lot trickier. I suppose a possible solution would be that, instead of semi-frequent visits throughout the year, they could have one or two really long visits a year. Like, Dinky can spend the summer with her Daddy and Cadence, and the Doo’s could stop by for Hearthswarming? I mean, shine Cadey is the Princess/Empress/Whatever her exact title is of the Crystal Empire, they could probably get tickets for free if she just pays for their travel.
You tell them girl!
This has bugged me since first time I read Study of a Winning Pony. If they panicked and had an abortion, I could understand, but panicking and doing a brash decision they all regret soon afterwards, that doesn't go well together with the fact that they had to wait for months for Velvet to give birth before they could follow trough with the "spur of the moment decision".
Hey, between being Twilight's friend, Derpy's daughter and just generally living in Ponyville, Sparkler really ought to be more used to this sort of situation.
I see where mad scientist Twilight got started.
Finally, some sense!!
Ok, this was heartmelting, finally some happy closure on the Amethyst scandal.
8823720
I'd love to read about that meeting. Only question, will she go with Twilight or Shiny?
Oh I didn't even think about that, Sparkler freaked out when she was allowed to meet Vinyl for a couple of seconds. If she finds out that her siblings are related to the great and awesome Vinyl Scratch, she will go fangirl berserk.
8824842
Not really, at least in the winningverse both sexes are considered equal. Though because ponies (like many animals) have a gender bias there are a lot more females around. Which means that you see much more females in leadership positions. The male leaders, though fewer in numbers seems to be equally respected. Granted the very top is all female, but that's because there are no male alicorns yet. If say, Sunburst ascended, he would be granted a similar position to Twilight and Cadence.
Individual clans are referred to as matriarchies or patriarchies but that seems to simply refer to the gender of the current leader. Clan Doo and clan Kicker have patriarchs, but Tornado Kicker named a female as his successor. House Sparkle, though being referred to as a matriarchy, named Shining Armour as the primary heir before he married into royalty, and the Duke title passed to his younger sibling.
8846277
I believe it was stated that they didn’t know the kid was Magetrix’s until it was born. That doesn’t make it okay, but it does make it more believable that they made a hasty and panicked decision about what to do.
8823099
I might cover this in a future story. Depends on where my muse leads me.
8823297
That is a potential story idea I might do in the future. Just depends on the timing and what I feel like writing, since as of right now my writing is booked.
8823720
The issue with these slice of life fics is that they can potentially go on forever, since there are a dozen issues I could bring up and have addressed. Especially considering the big tangle I've set up with the Sparkle family. I also wasn't sure how people would take this story, so I planned on covering the issues I have, and seeing how people reacted. Thus far it's been pretty positive, so that makes me more inclined to continue following up on some of this stuff.
And don't worry, I don't plan on stopping writing anytime soon. I'm far from done.
8828784
Go figure, after writing about a million words worth of pony I've gotten better at writing overall. The Study of a Winning Pony just suffered from being placed on the sacrificial altar of 'my first story'. Where with this story it better showed how much I've learned over the past few years. Writing is a learning experience, after all.
And I wouldn't count on this being the last Shining fic to show up.
8847314 8847535
Velvet and everyone else only found out after Sparkler was born. Hence their panicked reactions, and the poor plan that went into effect.
8848283
So how did they find out then? I guess they did the same lineage spell that Twilight used to find out who was Dinky's father. Why though? I mean Amethyst not looking much like her parents wouldn't normally be a cause for suspicion.
I guess they thought that it was a bit too much of a coincidence that Magetrix and the baby were the same colour so they decided to do a paternity test, just to make sure. Then they panicked when it really did turn out their suspicions were correct.
Did they do the same check on Twilight Sparkle?
Why panic though? Were they worried that the public was going to demand a paternity test?
If they had simply stayed calm and done nothing, then everything would've most likely turned out fine.
Nightlight would've gotten his dreamjob, since there was no scandal about
him tragically loosing his youngest childhis wife having an affair. Magetrix and Velvet could have kept their child. The older siblings would not have been traumatised about loosing their sister. (I mean seriously, Twilight had nightmares about Amethyst's death well into adulthood!) And lastly Amethyst would have grown up in a nice home with three loving parents.This is why DON'T PANIC! is written in large friendly letters on the cover of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Because panicking is the single stupidest thing you can do in any situation.
8849556
They did a lineage spell. It's traditional to do such things for the nobility to make sure that the kids from marriage alliances are the right kids. Considering there are significant inheritances and agreements to uphold between noble houses. Yes, they did the same check with Shining and Twilight, especially when Velvet and Night Light swing.
Sparkler's actual would have had to go on her medical records, since a doctor wouldn't be allowed to fake that, not to mention the hundred other ways it could get out. Or so they thought at the time. Panicked decisions are rarely good one, and they realized they erred terribly after the fact.
8849789
This information is appreciated.
8851836
Awesome! Hey this technically could mean Dinkys a member of the royal family,
8852141
In a roundabout way, yes. Even if she wouldn't have a crown, at least not without jumping through some hoops.
is there a sequel to this? Also Maggie's speach reminded me of a certain mass effect scientist.
8852212
There isn't one yet, though I'm considering writing on in the future.
And it's not a surprise Magetrix's speech reminds you of a certain Mass Effect salarian, since that's where I got inspiration for it.
8852242
Awesome on both counts!
Sparkler realizing how incredibly warped her sense of normal is was perfect.
I can really appreciate that there was a plan, even if it was horribly flawed.
Another great story. I love this universe and your work on it, and this definitely stands up. The characters are great as always, and the balance between drama and humor is, I think, very well handled. For example, "Maggie's probably done an experiment that's let something crawl in through the cracks in reality again” hit at just the right moment to lighten a pretty heavy scene. And the meeting of Sparkler and Velvet finally scratched an itch I've had since Study. Velvet needed to be dressed down for that whole thing, and I was really surprised Twi didn't do more of it back in the original story. And I think it was handled well here; some may say that Sparkler still forgave too quickly, but I figure pony-land is just kinda a more understanding place than here. Just, overall great work.
That said, there is one issue I have with the end of this story besides the fact that it does, indeed, end (almost all of the winningverse stories seem to end too abruptly to me; not sure if that's just me wanting more or an actual thing) I find it a bit odd that Sparkler wanted Shining to go with her, when I'd think she'd be closer to Twilight by this point. What with them living close together and studying magic and such. She's only met Shiny twice, but Twi has been in her life since before they (knew they) were related. I know it's Shining's story, so she kinda had to pick him from a storytelling perspective, but still.
I also really want to see more of Twi dealing with Sparkler, Dinky, and Derpy in general. That side of the new family needs some love, and I'd adore seeing magic lessons and an epic snark-off at some point down the road.
Long tangent aside, thanks for providing us this tale. Keep up the great work!
8909995
I thought so too the first time I read this, Sparkler knows Twilight a lot better than Shining so she ought to have asked her. Even if I thought it would have been less good with her there instead of him.
Second time I read it though, I think it makes sense that she would ask him over Twilight. She knew Twilight before they learned they were sisters, they had a very different dynamic.
Shining on the other hand, she only met him after they found out, and the first thing he did, before they even said hi to each other, was to protect her. And what little she has seen of him is all very positive. There are no past relationships to make it weird either. He just came into her life, said "I'm your big brother and I will be there for you, unconditionally." For someone who have spent most of her life feeling unsafe and lonely, that must be very comforting to hear.
Course it also helps that she have never seen his bad sides, whereas she's seen Twilight flip out more than once, Shining seems like the safer and calmer option.
Errr... Shining and Dinky have met before... They had a scene together in Study. And yet when they meet in this story, neither of them recognises the other... Bit of a continuity hiccup there... Come to that, Shining and Cloud have met before, too. Twice, in fact.
Bizarre continuity issues aside, this was a much-needed addition after Study. It doesn't resolve everything that story left hanging (not even close, really), but it gives resolution to some of the more important things. I was particularly glad to finally have a scene between Sparkler and Magetrix, something that was notable in its absence in the previous story. The explanation she gave about their original plan was also a welcome saving throw, which retroactively makes Night Light and Velvet slightly less horrible, even if I still find it utterly baffling that they couldn't just keep Amethyst and lie. There is no scenario in which faking a birth certificate is NOT an easier option than faking your newborn daughter's death.
And speaking of things that baffle me, Shining taking the fall for the changeling situation is way unfair. He was one of the primary victims of Chrysalis, and was under mind control from a being more powerful than Celestia, who also caught him off-guard due to being a shape-shifter impersonating his fiancée. Nobody in that position could've prevented what happened, and I genuinely don't understand how anyone could possibly lay that whole mess at his hooves. Not to mention, even despite all the shit that happened to him, Shining (with Cadance) was the one that defeated Chrysalis and stopped the entire invasion single-handedly. Shining literally did nothing wrong, and as much as I will defend most of her other actions, I find it genuinely appalling that Celestia didn't stand by him through all that.
Though, don't take all that as a criticism of this story. It's more a criticism of Winning Pony, really.
9329284
If I could offer a mild defense, Dinky and Shining only met once and briefly, so it’s possible that they could have forgotten. Also, Chrysalis was only more powerful than Celestia because she had enthralled and had been feeding off Shining. Not sure if that makes him getting blamed for the incident better or worse, but if that got out it could make some people feel like he contributed in some way to worsening the situation.
9384657
Fair points, though I doubt Shining and Dinky both coincidentally forgetting each other was the intention, otherwise there probably would've been some line alluding to it somewhere, like Shining's narration saying she looked familiar or something, or another character bringing it up. It's just confusing otherwise.
9384925
Fair enough
9455026
Fair enough, it would have been very difficult, but I think not impossible, for her to find him.
She could have tried harder but it's understandable that she didn't. About the time she found out she had to deal with her parents disowning her and kicking her out, moving to a new town, dropping out of college and struggling to make ends meet, not to mention the pregnancy itself. It's understandable that she didn't go on an exhausting and potentially fruitless hunt for the father when she had so much else to deal with.
Well I must admit I truly enjoyed this story, I hope you make a sequel to it.