Prisoner of Butterfly Island

by Magic Step

Brotherly Trust

It was night when Twilight returned to her home. It was hard to believe how much had happened in a single day.

Twilight’s home was the tree castle playset, with a pulley-operated elevator and stairs that turned into a slide with the click of a lever and enough bunk beds that folded out of the wall for her friends to have sleepovers. The tree was a magical tree with a silvery trunk blue crystal leaves that complemented the pink walls and purple roof of her house. Twilight had always known she’d had the best house on the island. She’d been told she was given the magic tree to make up for the fact that she wasn’t allowed to leave, so the least anypony could do was make her home awesome.

Inside, the walls were lined with bookshelves. Twilight had always loved reading, but her friends rarely left her alone long enough to really get into it. It was like they thought that because the action wasn’t visually interesting, that must mean that Twilight was bored. So Twilight had invented a super coffee that would let her function on only half normal sleep time, so that she could get lots of reading done at night.

Twilight ran her hoof along the thick volumes as she passed. By the stairs to her room, there was a small table with a vase of flowers and a picture of her and her friends. They’d taken it on the day when they got their magical jewelry. They were on the steps of Twilight’s castle; they’d tried to do a pyramid pose and had all fallen into a pile, and were laughing. Applejack- still the real Applejack- had a hoof around Twilight’s neck.
The walls of the palace were spattered in green blood. There’d been a glitch with their necklaces and Twilight had had to resort to smacking the bug beast to death with her magical necklace manual. It had been her first real kill- before they’d just had to shoo changelings away.

It had been so long since Twilight had accepted that changelings were evil and deserved to die. She no longer remembered if she’d felt anything when she’d killed the changeling. Any remorse? She only recalled finding all the goopy blood disgusting, on purely sanitary grounds.

Twilight climbed the stairs to her bedroom, with bookshelves filled with more books, and a desk where she’d written letters to her many friends that had returned to the mainland. A small bed on the floor had been empty for years, ever since Spike’s sudden growth spurt. He’d been such a sweet little thing who’d always wanted to hear bedtime stories… Twilight felt teary thinking about it. She knew it wasn’t fair of her to feel bitter about Spike growing up, but why had it happened overnight? And why did he have to be so thoroughly…

Nasty. She’d admit it to herself. Grown-up Spike was nasty and cruel and a jerk. She didn’t like to call him that, since he’d been such an adorable obliging child, and she’d loved him so much. But it was almost like he was a different dragon…

Twilight’s bed felt so deliciously soft after what a long day it had been. Lavender canopy curtains gently closed around her.

Probably less than twenty-four hours from now, everything would have changed. She’d never come to this house again; she’d have lost all her friends, and she’d be fighting for her life against a monstrous queen that destroyed her own people. Even her body wouldn’t be the same.

But could you lose something you’d never really had in the first place?

Yes. Of course you could. She was losing everything.

Twilight cried herself to sleep.

***
Twilight knew she didn’t need an excuse to visit Pinkie Pie’s house without being suspicious. Pinkie Pie was just all around sweet and loving, and most of all, loved spontaneity. She was just a bundle of upbeat positivity and always a joy to be around.

She was also a huge packrat. Her house was filled and decorated with all kinds of whimsical, colorful, random stuff. Broken balloons became wall art; confetti in bags became bean bags. Broken tricycles and mixers and failed experiments in aeronautics were pressed into service for wacky cake-making or streamer-throwing machines. Everything was organized according to Pinkie’s own mad filing system. Pinkie Pie also loved secrets and hidden compartments, many of which seemed to defy spatial laws.

So Twilight would have virtually no chance of finding Pinkie’s rubber chicken by herself.

Getting Pinkie to bring it out wouldn’t be hard at all. She used it as a visual aid whenever anypony asked her about Cheese Sandwich.

All Twilight had to do was get Pinkie Pie to talk about a dear friend that they both missed very much, and that neither of them would probably ever see again.

And then steal the only memento Pinkie Pie had left from him.

Twilight hesitated a few yards from Pinkie Pie’s house. She pretended she was watching a butterfly, but her eyes were focussed on nothing.

What was she even doing?

No. It was much too late to question herself like this. Why would Starlight be lying to her anyway? Except for being a changeling minion of course…

Starlight had to be right. And then… and then when Twilight left, she could make it up to Pinkie Pie by finding the real Cheese Sandwich and reuniting them! Everything would be perfect. She had nothing to lose.

Unless of course Cheese Sandwich was already dead. Twilight swallowed and forced herself to forget that possibility.

Twilight trotted up to Pinkie’s door, heart in her mouth, and knocked once. Before she could knock the second time, the door swung open.
“Twilie!” Shining Armor said. “It’s so great to see you!”

Twilight stiffened up as her big brother threw his forelegs around her. “BBBFF? What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the lighthouse?”

Shining Armor released Twilight and beckoned for her to come inside. “I wanted to know how Pinkie Pie was doing, but she seems to be out, so I was just waiting for her. Now we can wait together and talk about some things.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Twilight asked, following her brother inside.

Shining Armor sat down on Pinkie’s candy-patterned couch and shrugged. “I don’t know. What would you like to tell me?”

Twilight sat next to him, facing him. “What do you mean?”

“Twilie.” Shining Armor looked dead serious. “I don’t want to make this harder than it has to be. I’m… a little hurt that you’re acting like this, and I’m trying to understand it.”

“Acting like what?” Twilight asked, probably overdoing her shocked expression. “What do you mean?”

“You can stop saying ‘what do you mean’ over and over; you and I both know what’s wrong,” Shining Armor said. “I need you to be honest with me, because it’s the only way I can help you.”

Twilight swallowed. How much did he know? What would he do if she was honest?

“How did you find out?” she asked, looking deflated.

“I was watching you from the lighthouse when Rainbow Dash’s medal was stolen,” Shining Armor said. “Twilight, why would you do such a thing?”

Twilight let tears overflow from her eyes and sobbed freely, but inwardly her mind was whirling. So he didn’t know about Starlight. There was a chance to salvage this, if she could just come up with some kind of excuse…

“I… I just wanted some more palm leaves… I didn’t know that that was Rainbow’s medal case… I was just so upset I broke it that I just did the first thing that came to mind and feigned innocence… and now Rainbow’s medal is missing and I just have no idea where!” She rested her head on Shining Armor’s shoulder. “How can I tell her? It meant so much to her…”

“Twilight.” Shining Armor pulled her into a hug. It sounded like his voice was cracking. “You know I love you. You know you mean the world to me. Ever since you were little, you were the most precious thing in my life. I would do anything to protect you.” He slowly inhaled, then exhaled. “Please. Stop. Lying.”

Twilight tensed up.

“Why would you deliberately steal Rainbow’s medal?” Shining Armor said. “It has nothing but sentimental value to her. How could you do something so… so cold? It’s not like you, Twilie.”

“I… I’m scared to tell you,” Twilight said.

“Please don’t be. You know I love you. Don’t you?” Shining asked.

“But what if Applejack was right and everything is a lie?” Twilight muttered bitterly.

“Please… please don’t doubt me like that,” Shining Armor said. “I guess I can’t take my love out and show it to you so you can measure it with a ruler. But Twilight, we’ve been together since you were little. Hasn’t… hasn’t everything we’ve been through...” He choked, then sobbed. “I… I only want you to be h-happy…”

His legs were shaking has he held Twilight. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried.

Twilight felt her resolve melting. “Are you okay?”

Shining Armor inhaled shakily. “I’m sorry. I just get scared too sometimes… scared that someday someone will try to take you away from the island. You know how important it is that you stay here; I don’t want you to live with that kind of guilt.”

He also was in on keeping Twilight on the island. His love had been audible, tangible. But he still wouldn’t let her leave.

“What will really happen if I leave?” Twilight asked. “It can’t just be that Butterfly Island will become gray and boring. You sound too serious for that.”

Shining Armor gave Twilight one more tight hug. “If I tell you the truth, will you tell me the truth?”

“Of course,” Twilight said.

Shining Armor released Twilight and let her sit back against the couch, so they could make eye contact during the story. “Butterfly Island is on top of an active volcano. The island is actually pony-made. We wanted a paradise to retreat to, an escape from the grey wasteland. But the spell we used awakened the volcano more than was anticipated. A second spell was cast to keep it under control, but a keystone was needed.” He looked at Twilight with shame in his eyes. “I was desperate to correct my mistake… but… but the keystone needed to be someone young. I didn’t have the willpower to keep them from using you, not after I’d nearly brought about our destruction.”

“Destruction? Huh?” Twilight said. “Wouldn’t you only lose the island? Couldn’t you evacuate everypony?”

“It’s not just the island. If the volcano blew up, ash and smoke would cover the sun for decades. You could imagine how ponykind would suffer from eternal night…” He stared at Twilight thoughtfully. “It… it would take too long to explain. It would be bad… very bad. Like losing all your friends.”

They’d all die, Twilight intuited. He didn’t know she knew about death now.

“There,” Shining Armor said. “Now you can tell me why you stole that medal.”

Twilight stared down at her hooves and sighed. “Applejack.... That time when she went crazy started to get to me, and I started thinking maybe I needed to get off the island and find answers for myself. So I found a ritual in a book that was supposed to give me wings, and I’ve been collecting components for it in a secret underwater cave.”

Shining Armor stared at his forehooves. “And now?”

“Now that I understand… I’m certainly not going to endanger all my friends,” Twilight said. “I’ll go fetch the medal right away. I’m sorry I was so deceptive…”

“Don’t apologize to me; you can apologize to Rainbow later.” Shining Armor reached out and stroked Twilight’s mane. “I’m sorry too. So very sorry.”

Twilight stood up and walked out the door into the sunshine again.

Shining Armor’s story wasn’t internally inconsistent that Twilight could see, but she wasn’t satisfied. That didn’t explain why her friends kept leaving like Starlight had, and it didn’t explain changelings. Most importantly, it didn’t explain why he hadn’t told Twilight this in the first place.

Her brother had lied to her again, under the pretext of telling her the truth.

Was he even her brother at all?

Author's Note:

After going dark for so long I'm back with five new chapters.

Honestly I just want to get this over with; this story hasn't worked from beginning to end and I'm not sure why.