Star Overhead

by KorenCZ11

Thank you, My Twilight (Part 1)

Author's Note:

Thank you My Twilight

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Twilight

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“Goddess. Look what you did to me,” I complained. Pinkie rolled her eyes and helped me up on her back.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a bad pony. What’s the plan here?” I made a mouth noise.

“Pfft, what’s the plan, she says. The plan is to go yell at Celestia and make her tell me what the fuck is going on! It’s about time she fucking owned up to this. And… paid child support or something. I don’t know.” Pinkie started toward home and shrugged.

“I mean. If that’s how you wanna put it, I guess. Think anypony is gonna ask why the bridge is all burnt up?” I shrugged, but the wrong shoulders moved.

Goddess damn it.

“Maybe? Probably. We could lie and say that you set something on fire, or we could tell the truth and say that a dragon did it. I’m not sure anypony would be happy with either, so…”

“We ignore the problem and hope we aren’t around if anypony asks.”

“Right.”

Pinkie nodded and we trudged on in silence. My house wasn’t far from the bridge, maybe a few minutes if you ran, but with me on her back it took a while.

“Question; why am I carrying you instead of him?” Pinkie asked. I examined the white pony with the guitars and thought on that. It’s true, the guitars were significantly lighter than I was, and Bramos was much stronger than Pinkie, but I figured she owed me this.

“It’s just part of the punishment. I know you heard everything I said, but I didn’t get to really hit you in the face with the guitar, I’d pulled you out of the shadow by then.” She turned her head and raised an eyebrow at me.

“I see. Does the punishment end at some point, or are you just going to make me do you favors forever?” I tilted my head in agreement.

“Yeah, definitely that one. Onward, slave.”

She rolled her eyes and we continued down the road. The house was in view through the fog finally, and I was beginning to get feeling back in my legs. I slid myself off Pinkie and when my legs failed to stand up immediately, my wings reacted and helped me stand from midair.

“Goddess, that’s going to take some time to get used to.” Pinkie brought her mouth to one side.

“Yeah. I’m not even sure that I’ve processed this yet. Like, they’re clearly attached to your back and all, but… I don’t know man. This is weird.” I shivered.

“What if they make me do a flight test in school? In theory, I’m like, a thirteen-year-old pegasus now. Ponies my age can do the kind of crap that Rainbow does. I mean, have you seen some of the guys at the boy’s school? They’ve got at least a few that compete on a national level!” Pinkie tilted her head.

“Ya know, somehow, I don’t think that the mediocre unicorn at the top of the class in G7A is gonna be their next superstar acrobat. New wings or otherwise. Also, I don’t know if you know this, but Rainbow kinda blows everypony out of the water in that aspect. Rainbow can do the kinda crap she does, not just any pegasus.” I frowned.

“Mediocre?” she nodded.

“Mediocre. Trixie can fire light beams. Shining could do way more at the same age, but that may just be because the boys usually end up stronger. You might be something special now, but you were pretty middle of the road as far as magic goes in our grade.”

Well, that was blunt.

“Uh… okay then. Boost my confidence, why don’t you.” She rolled her eyes.

“I was just being honest. I… haven’t been doing that for almost a year now. I’ve kinda got a lot to sort out when I get home. And… whatever this relationship is, is… definitely one of them.”

We both looked away from each other and I scratched at the back of my head. The three of us had made it home now, so it was time to confront Celestia.

“Right… let’s um… go inside.”

I took a deep breath and then twisted the doorknob. I pulled it open and took a heavy step on the hardwood.

“Where are you!?” I called out. I stomped my way inside, but there was nopony by the TV, and the Harley wasn’t in the dining room like it usually is when she’s here.

“She’s gone, Twilight,” came from the stairs. Dad stepped down and then made his way to the kitchen table.

“Gone? What do you mean she’s gone? Where did she go? I need her! We have to talk, I-” I gestured at and with my new wings, unbidden of course. I still wasn’t sure how to move them independently yet.

“There have been some unexpected developments, and I’m 100% sure she’s the cause of them.”

Dad didn’t look surprised. As a matter of fact, he almost looked… disappointed.

“Have a seat, both of you.” He was calm. His voice was almost like still water. Stagnant and motionless. Like he’d just lost somepony and he was staring at a grave. We took our seats and suddenly, I was very concerned.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” he shook his head.

“Nothing… more than usual, I believe. I’m thirty-eight, single, divorced, my only son is on track to join the military as a low ranking officer, and my career as a writer is slowly but surely picking up again.” He scratched at the thin beard on his face.

“So… You know that… we aren’t…” I nodded and looked away.

“I do.” That one hurt. That one really hurt, much, much more than I thought it would. Reality is often disappointing.

“Right. I uh…I always knew this would happen one day. It doesn’t take a genius to tell that we don’t exactly look like each other, especially with as old as you are now. Let me… tell you a story.”

---

“This all began fifteen years ago when I was on my way home from work. I worked at a publishing agency in Canterlot back then, and we lived in a house not too far away. On a seemingly normal day, with average temperature, middling wind, just... a day one would easily forget, I noticed something strange in the sky.

Like an ever-brightening star overhead, it came down faster than I could imagine and shook the world. Natural curiosity led me to check out the nearby park where it landed, and that’s when I saw her.

Her coat was… something like iridescent. Shiny to the point of almost looking oiled, colors flickering from white to pale pink and orange. Her mane was almost like fire, it shimmered in the bright tones of flame in sunlight.

I was… starstruck. Her very image was alluring, just looking at her was… captivating. When she started moving, the hold she had on me broke and I noticed the blood. Somepony was bleeding, somepony was burned, and the stench of seared hair was seeping into the air.

I rushed to help out, and that was when I first saw your father. A unicorn stallion, dark gray coat, a mane as black as night with streaks of navy blue, and of all things, wearing ancient guard armor. It was in near perfect condition, yet had battle scars and signs of wear and use, but it looked like a replica made yesterday.

She asked me to help tend to his wounds using something like Middle Equestrian, so I only understood half the things she said. When she stood and I finally realized she had wings, then I started to make connections.

Is this the Sun Queen? Who else could it be? Everything about her pointed to that, but if that was the case, who is this stallion she’s with? In the back of my mind was also the question; and how do I get rid of him? At the time, I’m not even sure I realized the thought crossed my mind, but it did, and it would come back to haunt me.

I brought them home, and over the next week, Velvet and I would tend to them. The pair were… really amazing. She picked up our way of speaking in a single day, and he’d gotten it after two. The ‘moving picture box’ was her favorite thing in our house. ‘This could’ve revolutionized war. The ability to send images from one place to another in an instant without a capable unicorn behind it is astonishing. With this kind of power in everypony’s hooves, information could flow freely without hindrance,’ I remember her saying.

In that one week, Shining thought the world of them both, aspiring right then and there to join the Sun Queen’s guard, one day, and she and Velvet hit it off… somehow. That mare hates mares more than any mare has any right to, but this one was different. But then again, she was… intoxicating to be around. Radiant, is the best word. Like the warmth of the sun. I wanted her more with every passing second.

You’ve never seen her, what she really looks like. The form she used while she was here is ‘something of a disguise made of the truth’ as she put it. She’s practically irresistible to be around, her presence alone just inspires desire, gender be damned. I was so consumed by that burning passion that in that entire week, I think I acted like the best stallion I could’ve possibly been. Anything to make her look my way, anything to make her look at me like she did at him. In the end, she never would.

After she left, Velvet confronted me about it. I never did anything, but I would have, given the chance. I tried my hardest to deny the facts and I lied to Velvet about it with every breath.

We would fight about her for almost an entire year before things started to settle again. I thought I loved Velvet. I really believed that the mare I married was going to be the one I spent my life with before Celestia arrived, but as the saying goes, the goddess spits on the plans of ponies.

Shining… was a victim. A casualty of our fights. My son… is a piece of me. The ways he abused you, I knew all too well because… how could he have learned them, if not from somepony close? I took out my frustrations on her, she did the same to me, and we had this… hateful relationship that only sex could satisfy, and it eventually came to a point where even that wouldn’t fix anything.

Toward the end, there was a decision made. Shining was going to have a younger sister. For the first time since Celestia had entered my life, I’d finally found myself loving my wife again, and the wounds she opened had started to heal. But… there was an issue.

We… had differing views. I believed in some things, and Velvet did not. We never aired them out, we only fought and fucked away everything because that was easier than taking on the emotional stress of actually sitting down and looking at the pony in front of us. We were falling apart and too afraid to talk about it.

When Celestia showed up again, it was like she had me in a vice. I couldn’t ignore her. I am a weak stallion, a dirty colt with a taste for mares and I wanted her with every fiber of my being. Velvet knew it. I knew it. Even the four-year-old knew it. He asked me one day If I really loved his mother, and I hesitated.

It was like being doused in a bucket of ice water, the cold reality hit me so hard that I couldn’t understand why I’d let this get so far out of hoof. But then… I did something. I was…”

He shook his head. “You know, you only learn things, how to manipulate ponies like that from the best, and she… is most definitely the best. She used me. Between her and the stallion she loved, I was… enraptured in their game and turned into a note for her. She took a piece of the chord from my heart and left my family in ruins. I got what I wanted, but… at what cost?

Velvet killed my daughter. It was… retaliation. She knew what I’d done, she knew I would’ve never passed up the opportunity, she knew… I didn’t have eyes for her anymore. That child was one made from hate, and violence, and desire. Baseless passion in the heat of the moment. But what right did she have to do that? To take that little filly’s life away? Where was her choice? Where was mine? It was my fault. Her blood was on my hooves.

I foolishly believed that I could turn to Celestia, but she… never had eyes for me either. She loved that stallion. She loved him so much that she was willing to sacrifice everything and more to keep him whole. She gave up her body, her morals, her power, her responsibility, her life. But in the end, she never could accomplish what she set out to do.”

He furrowed his brow, then clapped and pointed at me.

“Oh, did I ever tell you that you were supposed to be born later than you were? January 1^st, the year of our lady two thousand. You were due in late February, early March. I remember her talking about how she hoped you weren’t born on the 29^th so that you only had a ‘birthday’ every four years, provided you didn’t turn out like her.

All her careful planning, all her scheming, was ruined by the one thing she wanted more than anything else. Your father, your real father, he was lost that very day. He named you, that was the last thing he did on this earth.

With her powers weak, her love lost, and something new in her hooves, she had a decision to make. After her thousand years in the sea of stars, she knew how to fix her love, but she needed time, power, and sound.

Almost a week had passed when she finally came to a decision. You would become very powerful one day. You have your father’s blood, and through you, she could get him back. But you just weren’t developed enough. She wouldn’t be able to use you until you’d come of age, and she still had to track your father down again to make sure he was within reach when the time was right.

So, she turned to me. I’d lost everything. Velvet left me, she took Shining, it was out that I cheated on my wife, I ended up losing my job, and I lost the house in the settlement. With nowhere else to go, I settled on a place far away from that city that had something I could do and a place I could survive with a little, so I planned to move here.

She said, ‘You’re one of the most loyal ponies I’ve ever met. Will you take care of her until I return?’ Can you believe that? Even after everything I’d done, to Velvet, to Shining, to her, she called me loyal. She said that was my note, what that green bass she pulled out of my head meant. I still don’t know if she was right, but I felt I owed it to you.

I was supposed to have one, just like you. One of my own making, a little filly I could hold that would call me daddy with a big smile on her face. If the goddess plays games with the hearts of ponies, then this was my chance to make up for it. A reroll. If you turned out alright, then maybe… I wasn’t the bad pony I thought I was.

Of course, my plans had a wrench thrown in them when I found out Velvet was beating Shining. She put the poor boy in the hospital for misbehaving and that… was too far. I managed to rip him out of her hooves when he was eight, and from then on… I think Shining hated me. Hated her. Hated us. We failed that colt, and it started with me.

Another chance at redemption, I would raise him opposite to Velvet. Where she was strict, I was lax. Do what you want, have fun, and I will never hurt you like she did. It was… probably a good thing, in the beginning, but… he was… a twisted child.

He likely caught us during one of our angry affairs, and he was never shown what real love looks like. Using ponies to make himself feel better… that was what his parents did, so this is how it has to be, right?” Dad looked at Pinkie and shook his head.

“You were just another victim of our mistakes. My mistakes. When your parents came to me about what happened, I nearly killed him myself. Twilight, do you remember the day Velvet came to get Shining?”

I bit into my lip. That memory from earlier played in my head again and I nodded slowly.

“Yes sir.” He sighed and nodded.

“Of course. Now that we know for sure you’re one of them, there’s a good chance any spell I put on you has been broken. Alicorns tend to shrug off magic. Well, at least for you since he hurt you the most, the truth is, he was never accepted into Canterlot University. In order to avoid capital punishment for statutory rape, and a number of other charges, he was put into an early ROTC program and set to serve his time serving the country. At the very least, somepony would fix our mistakes and make him into a pony worth looking at. Velvet found out, and now… we are legally not allowed to be within two hundred meters of each other.

I… am sorry. To both of you. To you Pinkie, for my son, and to you… for everything. Nopony should have had to live your life. It’s not fair or just or anything virtuous. But, it’s also not over, and it may very well never end. You’re an alicorn, and ponies like you… time won’t take.”

“Dad…” He shook his head.

“I… don’t mind if you keep calling me that, but… I’m not your father. He… was a better stallion than I am.” He paused, then held up his hoof in front of his face.

“There is still hope, however. Your mother will come back. To make one final stand, to try and put your father back together, and she’s going to sacrifice the world to do it. Supposedly, you can stop it. Stop her. But… well, you know how she is. Easier said than done, right?

The comet arrives on the 7^th. Celestia will be back and ready to put her plan into motion before then. I don’t know what she’ll do, but I am certain she’ll use everything at her disposal to accomplish her goal, and your friends… well, they’re disposable to her.”

Finally, Pinkie spoke up for the first time through the whole story.

“Ya know… Somehow, I just don’t believe that. I uh… well, this is just weird to talk about now that we know she’s like Twilight’s mom, but uh… We… well, she, really, did a thing for me, probably not too far off what she did to you to get your element the other day, and she told me some stuff.

She knew about everything. How I felt about my family, why I was the way I was, all the… all the things I was doing to my only friend. If she really didn’t care, I don’t think she would’ve put it the way she did. If she didn’t care, she would’ve just talked down to me. How stupid I was being, how selfish I was. Kinda like you did earlier.”

I glared at Pinkie, but she just smiled.

“Children are stupid right? Anyways, she… made me realize all of that on my own. She never said anything outright, but she put the idea in my head and let me find it there. I was doing all of these things because something was wrong with me. It wasn’t the world’s fault, it wasn’t my family’s fault, it was my fault.

Even if… if he was really to blame for everything, that just can’t be true because… I have my own free will. I make my own decisions. I knew better, even then. Nopony forced me to do anything.

If she had just told me all of that, I don’t think I would’ve changed much. I would’ve kept on like the world was against me and I was the victim all the time. But because I came to those conclusions, now I really know something. If she were just using us to use us, she wouldn’t make such an effort to make us better ponies in the process. We can’t learn anything if we think we know everything, so I’ll wait until I’m shown something before I say I know something.

Thinking back, I think she got so mad at me in the first place… because she was seeing something she knew, something she’d done before, in me.”

---

The next day, Pinkie wanted to get the girls together to talk, so we all planned to gather at the girl’s school roof with the Gardening club to give her a platform.

Apparently, she apologized to her family after she got home yesterday and finally managed to break the stagnant air in that house. Everypony was almost afraid to talk to her for a whole year because she’d taken such a drastic turn for the worse after Shining left.

They were afraid something might set her off and she would try to kill herself. Valid concerns, to be sure. Her mom thought something was going to change soon after she asked about her family history, so I guess… that’s another point in Celestia’s favor.

It’s funny, every time she gets involved, it seemed like she fixes families. That’s the source of her desperation after all, so maybe this is just an unintended side effect with positive results.

Of course, that’s also part of what has me worried. She’s not cold. If she was at one point, then she isn’t anymore. I just can’t see it. If anypony knows her now, it would have to be me, wouldn’t it? She’s not all there in the head, but she still has emotions. A heart. There’s a piece to the puzzle still missing and she’s the only one who has it.

If Luna is telling the truth, and the world is doomed if she does revive my father, then… how do we become a family again, if it’s game over at that point? It just doesn’t add up. I want to get to the bottom of this, but I can’t make a move until she comes back.

For now, I guess I just have to play the waiting game. And it’s just fucking awful, because I am not a very patient pony. We finally entered the green house together, and everypony else was waiting.

All the notes are on the staff.

“So, uh… those new?” Applejack asked the moment we walked in.

I shrugged. And so did my wings.

“Yes, yes they are.” Rainbow looked up from her game and just about tilted her head sideways.

“That’s… weird. When did that happen? Can you use them?”

I thought very hard on it, and eventually, the left one stretched in and out. They were giving me trouble all night while I was trying to sleep, but there were other reasons I couldn’t sleep well. Probably, mostly, definitely… because of my missing pillow.

“Not on purpose. I haven’t successfully tripped since I got them, so I guess that’s a plus.”

Rarity circled me until eventually she found the crude cuts we made in my shirt this morning.

“You know, I could make better adjustments to your attire than… this.”

It must’ve caught her eye, because as soon as she looked at the tips of my wing, she noticed the cutiemark half hidden by my skirt.

“Oh, look at that. Congratulations. Did these happen at the same time?”

The others got up and circled around to look at the new mark on my flanks. For whatever reason, several ponies looking up my skirt made me uncomfortable.

“I mean, I guess. Do you all have to do this at the same time?”

“Are those Hello Neko brand?” Fluttershy asked. I pressed my skirt against my flanks and sat down, probably with too much force.

“Oh-kay, that’s enough of that.”

“To be entirely fair, you were the one who decided to wear the skirt.” Pinkie said. I glared at her.

“Nopony asked for your opinion. Are we not here for you? Why is everypony looking at my panties?” The others shrugged and I sighed.

Applejack got up next to the sidewall of the plant counter and sat on it.

“Ah was just lookin’ at the mark, really. Do ya know what it means? Ah’ve got apples on my ass, so that’s probably some indication of bein’ an apple farmer or somethin’. Ah’m not too sure about it though, Ah’ve been… feelin’ kinda weird since Ah got it.”

Everypony else started to take seats and I found myself sitting next to her and Pinkie on the counter.

“What do you mean?” She scratched at her cheek.

“Ah’m… still not really sure. It feels like Ah’ve been more concerned about the ponies around me, but Ah still don’t know if that’s right. Like, Ah first noticed it the other day when we were discussin’ Celestia. Ah was… worried about Pinkie. Ah don’t even know ya. Said maybe a couple words ta ya in the last year and Ah even went so far as ta try and call ya yesterday.”

“Oh, so that’s your number. I’ll go ahead and save that…” She pulled out her phone and then typed something in.

“Yeah, wouldn’t have been able to answer right then, I was kinda trying to kill myself and then turned into a dragon or whatever.” Applejack frowned.

“Uh, okay.” Rarity narrowed her eyes at Pinkie.

“You look different too. You’re more… pink. Brighter, that’s the word. Care to explain?”

“Yeah, I would definitely like to know what’s up. When did this happen? Dad and I were going to the gym this morning and saw that the bridge was all burned up. Did you do that? Wait, did you really try to set yourself on fire!?” Dash exclaimed.

“Well-” I started, but then Pinkie put a hoof on my lap.

“I got this.” She took a deep breath, and then told everypony the whole story. Starting all the way back when we were kids and she set fire to the elementary school on accident and first met Shining. When she finished, it was like looking at a reaction image. I almost wish I had my camera out to get a picture of their faces.

Fluttershy looked… mildly invested in the story. I’ve shown her pictures of Shining before, and Pinkie’s graphic descriptions of what she did with my brother may have just drawn a future comic. Rarity was appalled. Truly disgusted, but after what she just went through with her parents, that’s a fair reaction. Dash looked uncomfortable more than anything, like she wanted to do anything but hear about Pinkie screwing around with my brother and I. Finally, Applejack went from concerned to very concerned.

“So… ya idolized the guy, ya fucked him, and then got depressed because he left, and then turned the same tricks on Twi because ya knew she would do whatever ta keep ya from settin’ yerself on fire. Is that right?”

Pinkie curled her hoof and jauntily brought it across her chest.

“And I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids. Blatant disregard for copyright aside, yeah, that’s what happened. I know I may have seemed like a huge bitch to you guys before, but I think I’m finally over it all. Well, maybe not completely, but I’m at least over Shining now. I uh… Twilight is really my only friend right now, so if you’ll have me, we should… do that, I guess.”

Dash reared back, now appalled herself.

“What am I, a limp noodle? Was I not your friend before? I played games with you, I brought you into my house, I fed you, I taught you Iron Hoof, what the hell Pinkie!?”

Pinkie threw her hooves up in defeat.

“Okay, geez. Twilight and Rainbow. Is that better?” She smiled, but then raised her head and glared at me.

“Okay, wait. This just clicked for me, but now I’m pissed off at you.” I reared my head back and frowned.

“What? Why?” She crossed her hooves.

“You were all up in my case when we first met. Gay joke here, pride joke there, and the whole time, You were digging around in Pinkie Pie’s pinkie pie!? That’s fucked up man.”

I think I felt a groan shiver out of my whole body.

Oh goddess, she really just said that, didn’t she?

The entire room let out a sound of some form of disgust, but Dash looked rather pleased with herself. Pinkie glared at her.

“Oh, fuck you. Here I am, spilling out my darkest secrets and you make jokes about it. Bitch.”

Dash busted out laughing and Applejack reached over and put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, that’s just Dash generally.”

“Hey!”

“Ah’d be happy ta be yer friend, Pinkie. Speakin’ of, lookie what Ah got~” I’d been wondering why Applejack had her backpack with her, but figured it out after I saw the new Click in her hooves.

“Ah’ve been savin’ up fer a while, and since Ah got the bike, Ah finally had the time ta go inta the bigger city up north and grab one of these myself. We never really had the time or the money fer video games back on the orchard with Pa, so Ah thought it’d be nice if Ah could play with y’all.”

Rarity took one out of her own bag, but she’d taken all the plastic off and repainted the shell to match her aesthetics.

“I too acquired one of these… things. I’ve never been big into video games, but apparently the cosplay market is hot right now, so if I play the games and can recreate the outfits, ponies will pay through the snout for them. And also my little sister is addicted, but that doesn’t matter, we can all play together… as soon as I figure out how this thing works.”

Dash rubbed her hooves together.

“Ooh boy, fresh meat.”

Rarity moved closer to Applejack and away from Dash.

“Ha ha. Don’t make me regret this,” she said through clenched teeth.

“So uh, what did you talk about the other day?” Pinkie asked. “I was… in a worse place then to be sure, but now that I’m here, it would be nice to know. I remember hearing things about killing a planet?” Fluttershy opted to answer this one.

“Oh, just how Celestia is going to use the Elements of Harmony to… do something and destroy the planet in her wake. In a basic sense, those guitars are magical artifacts that can generate and focus magic into a pony’s will, effectively raising them to something like a demi-god.

The price seems to be the magic that flows through the planet though, and because her objective is to also take the magic out of a comet that normally moves out of the way on its own for… some reason, it’s gonna slam right into us instead and wipe out life on earth. Or so we think.”

“Or so we think? Are you serious? Where did you hear that?” I asked. Something about that rang true in my head, and that made me nervous.

That sounds right. Why does that sound right?

“O-oh, well… I read about it online. After Applejack mentioned it the other day, I went looking and asked a few of the ponies I know on the conspiracy board to see if they had any information on the elements and the comet. Somepony gave me all this information about it, even the creature it was named after. I mean, take it with a grain of salt, this came from X-chan after all, but most of it lines up with what we know.

Discord was/is a being of chaos with all this magic in his arsenal. Apparently, he and the Sun Queen hooked up once in Equestria’s early history, but they had a falling out of sorts when he could never ‘do what she wanted’ as the anon put it. He took a chunk out of the moon and turned it into a comet, filling it with his chaotic magic and calling it a curse on the planet for the way he was treated.

Every seven years, or not, the comet will return from orbit and head straight here. The closer it gets, the more of Discord’s magic will permeate the planet and cause weird to happen. The shadows are creatures of Discord and can only be defeated by harmony. Magic as we know it is a form of order that seems to work on them, but sound deals with them the best, and everypony can make sound.”

I brought a hoof to my chin.

“That… sounds really plausible. Wouldn’t it be funny if Luna browses your site just to spread stuff like that so ponies don’t believe it?” Fluttershy frowned.

“The Queen?” I nodded.

“Oh, didn’t you see her? She picked me up from school a few times two weeks ago. The big blue unicorn. She’s my aunt.”

Did that just come out of my mouth? It did, didn’t it? Huh.

Fluttershy blinked.

“M-maybe I missed a beat here, but what are you talking about?” Applejack frowned.

“Were ya payin’ attention the other day? We talked about this. The feather. Ah still…”

Applejack reached in her backpack to retrieve the feather she found again, but what she pulled out this time was… not what we saw before. The feather wasn’t blue in any way, no, this one was black as night. Any light that reflected off the shiny fibers came back up as some sort of green-blue or violet. The silver flecks were still there, but everything about it seemed… dry, in a way. Fluttershy clapped her hooves.

“Oh, that mare. I was surprised nopony else mentioned it earlier. What made you think she was blue? I’ve never seen a pony with such a dark coat. At least in person anyways. She’s always got a weird… purpley kind of color to her on TV.” Most of us blinked.

“Uh… I’m like, a thousand percent sure she was like, navy blue. Even her horn was that color,” I said. Fluttershy frowned.

“That’s… not what I saw. Oh, I know! What did you all think Celestia looked like?” I reared my head back.

What do we think Celestia looked like?

“She’s a kind of pink white unicorn with a mane that’s green, blue, purple, and pink. What do you think she looked like?” I asked.

Fluttershy nodded and crossed her hind legs.

“See, that’s what I thought in the beginning too. But after a while, I started noticing something weird about her mane. I was so, um… invested in her body that I would see little oddities about her every now and again. Her mane would flicker sometimes, her tail would do the same, and her coat would have these random moments where it would almost look like oily metal with an orange-pink tint to it. By the time I really got a good look at her a few days before I had my… episode, the old look disappeared completely. Ooh, I have a drawing of it.”

Shy found her backpack and then fished out her sketchbook. She flipped through page after page, most of which with some intense and graphic scenery, ear marked a few for whatever she was doing later, and finally settled on a set of pages. On one side was Celestia as I knew her. White-pink coat, red jacket, big yellow scarf, goggles, bike helmet, black pants, yellow shirt, four colored mane and tail of green, teal, lavender, and pink.

On the other side was a mirror of that, but different. Her mane was almost like fire, from crimson to orange to yellow with hints of pink and flames that burned low and rose off in little embers. She had these massive white wings with a sort of bright ‘orangey’ color to them with a weird effect on her coat that made it look like it was three distinct colors all at once. Her pants came up to a lower point and her shirt was cut off a bit to reveal some giant orange mark that started at the top of her hips and moved down underneath. It looked like the ends of a flame.

“On the left is what she normally looks like to you guys, but the right is what she really looks like. I don’t know why I could see through whatever magic she was using, but it was the same way with the Queen.” Again, I was struck.

This looks right. This looks almost exactly like what Dad described yesterday. ‘A disguise made of the truth.’ She would say something like that, but what does it mean? More questions, and nopony to answer them.

“Well, I’m impressed. I thought you just did anime, I didn’t know you could do photorealistic stuff too,” Rainbow said.

Shy blushed and waved Rainbow away.

“Oh, stop it, it’s not that good♥ I just… practice a lot.” Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“Humble too, ain’cha? Well, what else?” Shy tilted her head.

“Umm… what do you mean?” Applejack shrugged and leaned back.

“Anythin’ else anypony would like ta share with the class? I’m kinda on a time limit here, so we need ta get done soon if we wanna play. Well, with me in the group anyways.” Fluttershy shrugged.

“That’s about all I know.” Rarity followed.

“Same here.”

Rainbow picked her head up from her Click for a minute.

“Oh, are we not done already?” Pinkie raised a hoof, but didn’t look away from her game.

“I second that.” Applejack held her hooves up.

“Ah guess we are. Now, how do Ah start this thin’?”

I guess I don’t get a vote. Oh well. It’s not like talking about it more is going to do any good. We only know what we know, right? Might as well play the game and wait it out. When she gets back… then I’ll get my answers.

---

“You want to do what?”

It was sometime early in the morning on Sunday, the 3rd, and Pinkie woke me up.

“Go to church.” I pulled the phone off my face and scowled at the screen. 7:01.

Why in the hell did I answer this?

“That’s great Pinkie, good for you.” A groan from the other side of the line.

“You come too!” A groan from my side of the line.

“Ugh, why?” I couldn’t see her, but I knew she was rolling her eyes.

“It’ll be fun! Everypony else goes, except for Rarity I guess, but Applejack said she got her to come with the rest of her family today. Come on.”

I rolled to the other side of my bed. A pang of sadness hit me when my pillow still wasn’t there, and I sighed.

“Just because everypony is doing it…”

“Just get up already. Look, this… this is something I need to do. It means a lot to them. If I go, they’ll really believe I’m trying to fix things. I am trying to fix things, so… I just need to. B-but I… I’m still scared, okay? … I need you. Please?” I took a deep breath and massaged my forehead.

Goddess damn it.

“Fine. When does it meet? I’ve never been, so…”

“Oh. Eight. That’s why I called you so early. So, you had time to get up and do whatever. They have coffee and doughnuts out by the front before and after the service, so you can just get dressed and come. I know it’s been a while since I was in your room, but try to wear something nice, okay? None of your brother’s clothes. A dress, preferably.”

I puffed air out my nostrils.

“Pinkie, did you forget that none of my clothes fit anymore?” Silence over the line.

“Let me make a call.”

---

“Ha! You’re such a stereotype. Come on Applejack, plaid? Really? You look ridiculous!” Rainbow laughed.

“And you can just go impale yerself. It’s the best Ah got, alright? This is what you’re supposed ta wear. Sunday best and all. Ya ain’t much better in… Rarity, what the hell is that thin’ called?”

“A frock, darling. Though, I must say, I am surprised at how good this looks on you. You didn’t pick this out yourself, did you?”

Dash raised her chin and bumped her chest with her hoof. The outfit and the action were like polar opposites of each other.

“Rainbow Dash always dresses in style. Mom was kinda girly when she wanted to be, so she put me in everything she could get her hooves on. I just kinda picked up her fashion sense. Course, I usually don’t like wearing anything unless it makes me faster.

Compression shorts and polyester shirts are the best. Smooths down the fur for less drag in the air, but not illegal in junior competitions like full suits are. Geez, it’s been a while since I’ve done that. Also recently learned that I love boxing shorts too.”

From my place by the wall, I studied the three of them. Dash was in this little magenta ‘frock’ as Rarity put it, that had a rainbow colored tie around her waist, an open back for her wings, and a little yoke that fell over her shoulders. It all had rainbow colored trails that ran along the edges of the cloth in a sort of checkerboard pattern, where all the would-be black spaces were colors that matched her mane. Now that I look, the dress itself matched her eyes. She’d even combed her mane for once in her life too. Almost looked like a different pony. Almost.

Rarity was in some elaborate dress that hugged her body up until the waist and fanned out with this tiered skirt that was shaped not unlike rose petals. It was a deep red velvet kind of fabric with purple ribbons here and there. I was almost sure it was too ‘adult’ for this place.

Most ponies were either in bright colors or muted pastels, and nothing that really ‘attracted’ the eye like she and her mother did. Her mother was in something I swear you might find in a back alley red light district in a comic book. Deep blood red little dress that hugged her so tight that she might as well have been naked.

I saw Rarity’s dad and little sister for the first time too. He was a pretty big guy, much bigger than Dad, but I’ll be honest, Dad is kinda small for an adult stallion.

This guy wasn’t bigger than Mac, but he had a really thick brown mustache that made me think he was in his 40’s or something. Collared teal pastel shirt and beige slacks. He looks like a teacher. Her little sister was in this enormous, shiny, frilly, pink thing that made Rainbow Dash look ‘muted’ by comparison. Like a little princess, for sure. Clearly, they haven’t been clothes shopping together yet.

Applejack herself was in a simple, plaid dress that was a pastel yellow with pink stripes going one way and blue ones going the other. It matched her mane and really brought attention to her eyes. She had it down instead of in pigtails for once, and it made her look older than she usually does.

“So, where’d you get that? It has wing holes, so it can’t have been yours. Did you run by the store this morning?” Rarity asked. I shook my head.

“Oh, no, this is Fluttershy’s. Or was, I guess. Apparently, she grew out of it a few years ago. They were going to donate a lot of her clothes anyways, so they said I could have them.”

I’d been given a rather breezy white sundress with little pink butterflies embroidered into the skirt that had a pink ribbon that held the waist tight. I hated that it was a little too big. It came all the way to my hooves, and I’ve almost tripped on it twice today.

“I-I think it looks cute. I hope you like all of that. I know I did. I just… grew out of everything really fast. They say I’m supposed to get as tall or taller than my mother though, so I’m... really not excited about that. I have to replace my entire wardrobe every year it feels like, so it’s nice to know somepony is going to get use out of it.”

Speak of the devil. Heh.

She was wearing a white and pink ensemble with red ribbons in her mane and on the dress that I’m almost certain came from a video game. She even had her mane parted in such a way, but I couldn’t think of the title. Something, something, VII…

“Ah, there you are. I couldn’t find you when we walked in,” Rarity said.

“Walked in late. Come on, we had times and everything,” Pinkie said as she entered our little circle.

The service had ended a few minutes ago, and while our parents and… well, guardian in my case, were getting to know each other, we’d gathered again to figure out what to do next. I was anxious.

Every night that passes without my pillow, the more of these… weird, unusual feelings come up. I still don’t quite understand it all, but I hate it. Like a cold burn, I need ice and warmth all at the same time to heal whatever it is that’s eating away at me, but I don’t even understand what my problem is in the first place.

“Well, there were… complications. Did you see Sweetie?”

“Ah’m… pretty sure ain’t nopony didn’t. Like she’s wearin’ a buncha damn mirrors,” Applejack commented.

“Hey! Church!” Pinkie reprimanded. Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get yer panties in a twist, Ah was makin’ a statement.”

But in a twist they were, as that didn’t satisfy the pink filly. She was strangely uptight today and had been all morning. She was even wearing this baby blue dress that was relatively plain in comparison to what she normally likes, and she’d… straightened her mane.

Back before Shining left, she only did that once in a blue moon and it took hours. It was always in knots and seemed to tie itself up to make sure it kept the cotton candy like appearance it normally has, but now it even looked washed and conditioned.

“How long did it take you to straighten that?” She straightened her lips and stared at me blankly.

“A while.” I raised a brow.

“Uh-huh. Well, at least you were up at five this morning just to try and impress your parents. Talk about a turnabout.”

“Five? Really?” Fluttershy asked.

“Really. This is… very important to them. And maybe even to me, I guess, but… well, I don’t know. I want to make sure they know I’m not… where I’ve been. I can’t just say I’ve changed, I have to show it, otherwise, why would they believe it?”

Rainbow trotted over and gave the bigger pony a wing hug.

“Well, they’ll believe it eventually. But that’s if they don’t already. Either way, I think it’s great that you’re trying to do right by your folks. It’s good.”

“Aww, thanks Da-”

“Course, when you’re screaming at the top of your lungs because I spiked your ass again, they probably aren’t that convinced.”

“And she ruined it.” I nodded.

“I do believe that’s a common theme here. Speaking of, what’s the plan?” Applejack frowned.

“Plan? Plan fer what?”

“Well, the break. Everypony is off for the next few days, and we’ve got four before the Comet arrives. Are you guys going anywhere? It’s probably best that we’re here for the big day, so I just wanted to… I guess, figure out where everypony’s going to be.” She nodded.

“Oh, well, it’s Harvest week fer me, so Ah’ll be beatin’ wood fer the foreseeable future.” Pinkie stared at Applejack.

“You could’ve phrased that any other way, ya know.” Applejack gave her a cold stare.

“It’s ponies like y’all that take the fun outta comin’ ta church, ya damn tight wad. Take the stick out!”

“There is no stick! Why can’t we just cut the vulgarity here? That’s all I’m asking!”

“Clean jokes ain’t realistic! Real life ain’t some pretty fantasy where everythin’ is perfect, and nopony is a bad pony! Sex, drugs, violence, it’s all part of life, and it has been fer all of pony history! Live life and remember that even with all the dirt and scars, life is beautiful! That was the sermon! Pay fuckin’ attention!”

In the very next second, Applejack’s Pappy came by and swatted her across the back of the head so hard it made a thunk sound and she nearly bowled over.

“Ow!”

“Glad ta see ya takin’ the lesson ta heart, but fer the love of the goddess, you’re in a church Applejack, show some reverence.” The old yellow stallion shook his head and puffed out his snout.

“Just like yer parents, Ah swear. Say goodbye ta yer friends and come on. Those pears ain’t gonna press themselves.” He waved to us and his whole demeanor changed. From sour old pony to friendly grandpa in an instant.

“It was nice meetin’ y’all. See ya next week.” He turned and then was followed by her brother to go get the smaller Apple filly, who was talking with Rarity’s sister and another filly.

“He seems nice,” Fluttershy said. Applejack scowled at her and rubbed at her new bruise.

“Yeah, when he’s not smackin’ ya in the back of the head.” She sighed. “Ah’m sorry Pinkie. Let me know what y’all are doin’ tomorrow and Ah’ll see if Ah can’t get some time off. Later!” And away she went.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Rarity began, “has anypony asked you about your wings yet? I feel like that would draw some eyes in a church. Considering how the goddess is depicted as an alicorn and all.” I shrugged.

“Not… really? I thought it might be weird too, but apparently, nopony cares. Applejack’s grandpa asked me about them when I got here, but just kinda shrugged and moved on with life.” Rarity put a hoof to her lips.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Huh. I suppose it’s always been pretty laid back here, but you would think-”

“Don’t forget that there was never a big police effort to track down Celestia, and after the first week, ponies effectively forgot that she ever ran over anypony. She worked as a taxi for four weeks. Ponies got on the motorcycle with her.” Rarity frowned.

“And I was one of them. Well, I suppose you have a point. Well, I guess that makes your life easier. My mother and I have gone to hike around Mount Alicorn over the last few years during the break weekend, but I don’t think I have anything going on aside from that.”

“Don’t forget that we have a reading assignment. We’re supposed to have the book finished before class on the 11th,” Fluttershy added.

“Goddess, da-” Pinkie gave Rarity a death stare, and suddenly, she found another word. “D-darling. I totally forgot.” Shy waved that away.

“It’s still early, you’ve got time. It’s not that long anyways. Two hundred or so pages. I read it yesterday.” The four of us stared at her.

“Uh, you read a two hundred page novel in a day?” I asked.

I have a pretty fast reading speed, but even I don’t have the patience to just sit and read all day. Assigned books are usually just the worst too. She scratched at her head and looked away.

“W-well, I um… My reading speed is… a little insane. I can recite the text of 90% of the cards in Duel Monsters, and I have to read a lot of them quickly and upside-down during tournaments if I don’t know the specific wording of their text, so… I just picked it up I suppose. The book isn’t bad though, I think I enjoyed it a lot.”

Rainbow and Pinkie looked at each other and shrugged.

“That must be a ‘you guys’ problem, because we didn’t get any homework,” Rainbow stated. Rarity sighed.

“It must be nice, being able to just do whatever in the regular class. How many of you are there anyways?” Without a second passing, Pinkie answered, in detail.

“There are twenty fillies in G7, and fourteen in G7A. There’s about two hundred fillies and mares in the girl’s school for class and like, thirty or so teachers. There’s more of us than there are boys, so that’s why that school is in the smaller building. I think my last count was somewhere around one hundred fifty with maybe twenty-five teachers? It’s been a while since I’ve been over there.” I blinked and my lips straightened.

“Pinkie, why-”

“Not important. Now you know! Let’s do something else!”

---

“Mother f- Gah! How do you do that!?”

The pony in the trench coat shouted “Dorya!” and then Rainbow went into a combo and Pinkie died.

“All the Mishimas have it, and they all require you to do the input with frame perfection, otherwise the Electric Wind will not come out and you’ll either get the guard breaker, or the weak version. It takes a ton of practice. Even Dad can’t do it 100% of the time, and he’s been playing this game since its first incarnation back in like… the 90’s. Course, you’re playing Noct, so don’t get your hopes up. He’s not bad, but his skill ceiling is way lower than any of the Mishimas.” Pinkie growled.

“I will beat you, damn it! Again!” Rainbow laughed and they started another match.

“So much for ‘church,’” I remarked. She leaned her head over the couch to give me a death stare.

“That was Sunday. This is Monday. Besides. Why restrain myself at Dash’s house? Her dad isn’t even here. This is war.” And then back to the game she went.

“You know, you could decorate at least a little.” Rarity started, “It’s so bland in here. Though, I do appreciate the sort of ‘mood lighting’ to go with the whitewashed walls. Didn’t you bring anything from your old home here? It needs… something.”

Rarity and Applejack were playing Bash Bros since they were both completely new to the game, I was playing Duel Monsters with Fluttershy, and Pinkie and Dash were playing Iron Hoof 7.

We gathered at Dash’s house for no specific reason and now we were… kinda here. Dash ended Pinkie with another ‘Dorya’ combo off of a sidestep punish, then set her stick down and shrugged.

“I mean, the point was to get away from Cloudsdale, not bring it with us. There are a few pictures of mom we have in a few rooms, but we sold pretty much everything in the house when we moved. Besides. Dad and I… get kinda violent when we’re having a good time. The walls have already been repaired once since we moved in. Only been here for like a month now. They’re much easier to replace when they’re made of cloud.” She explained. Rarity blinked.

“What? What are you doing that requires wall repair?” Pinkie shook her head.

“Man, you have no idea. I witnessed this once. One minute they were poking at each other and her dad was trying to teach me this game, and the next it turned into this like, posing street brawl. It’s like that one cartoon Fluttershy likes with all the burly stallions and their punch ghosts.” The yellow pegasus finally ended her turn and giggled.

“You know, that’s probably one of the most tame ways to describe Hamon’s Bizarre Adventure. When did you see that? I didn’t think normies were aware it existed.”

“Uh, normies?” Pinkie asked. Shy clammed up.

“Uh… don’t worry about it.” Pinkie gave her a suspicious stare until it looked like Shy couldn’t shrink into herself anymore, then held her hooves up.

“Whatever. I saw that and a few… other things in your sketchbook when you were flipping through it Saturday. I looked it up, I thought it looked cool.” Rainbow crossed her hooves and nodded approvingly.

“Yeah, Dad and I love that show. I was a little sketchy at first because the first part is kinda dated, but I was totally hooked after part two kicked in. I would submit to Dio.”

Shy smiled and clapped her hooves together.

“I would let most of those ponies do awful, awful things to me. Especially Dio. Have you seen part five yet? Are you caught up? I had no idea anypony else even knew about it!” Rainbow shook her head.

“Nah, Dad and I watch the dub together, so we’re kinda waiting on that. I think we’re in the middle of part four right now. Kira has got to be one of my favorite villains.” Shy held out her hoof.

“Well, if you wanted to read the Manga, I have all the way up to a few volumes in part 8. There’s a whole bookshelf in my room dedicated just to HBA. It’s not all in Equestrian though.” I furrowed my brow trying to think back on that.

“Wait, which shelf was that one? There are more books in your room than there are Duel Monsters cards, and that’s saying a lot.”

“It’s the one next to Angel’s bed. By my computer. I use them as references a lot. The outfits tend to be ripped straight from fashion magazines a lot of the time, and the mangaka is amazing at what he does.”

“I see… Speaking of your room-”

“What about it!?” She reared back like I’d caught her doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

“Geez, chill out. I just wanted to know where you got those big pillows. I’ve been… having trouble sleeping lately and thought something like that might help.” Shy let out a breath of relief, and everypony else eyed her.

“Sounds like somepony’s got somethin’ in her room she don’t want anypony else ta see. Ah’m pretty sure most of us have seen the kinda shit ya draw. What else could there be?”

The yellow coated, slowly turning red pegasus shook her head rapidly.

“N-nothing! D-don’t worry about it. Um… I-I bought them online. The da- er… pillowcases, are relatively inexpensive and can also be found online. B-be careful when you search for those, by the way. Uh, there’s a sort of… culture, around that type of thing. J-just be wary.” I frowned, and I think everypony else did too.

“You’re somethin’ else Fluttershy, Ah tell ya what.” Applejack sighed and shook her head, then turned to me. “Missin’ mommy there Twi?”

I reared back in disgust as I felt my face heat up.

“No!” She raised an eyebrow.

“Bullshit.”

“Fine! Maybe!” She nodded.

“It’s alright sugar cube, there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. Ah was just pokin’ at ya is all.” I huffed and shook my head.

“No it isn’t! I knew her for a month! I… I just don’t get it. I feel like… I’ve lost something important, but I… shouldn’t feel like she’s important. I didn’t even suspect anything until Fluttershy’s shadow. I had no idea. And… that’s what she does. She’s a manipulator, she works ponies into doing whatever she wants. I… can’t figure out what about all this was real and what was… just to achieve a goal. Which side was my mother, and which side was the politician?”

Applejack leaned back against the wall and put her Click down.

“Well… both of ‘em.” I had to process that.

“What do you mean, ‘both of them?’” She tilted her head.

“Ah mean, ponies are complicated. Ya think Ah knew all that shit that my Pa did while he was part of the Army? No. So why should Ah think that any part of what he did and who he was wasn’t him? Maybe it was partially an act, but Ah definitely saw a piece of the genuine Celestia first hoof, so Ah know it wasn’t all the same all the time, but… Ponies have multiple parts ta their personalities, right?

Let’s look at y’all fer instance. You’re a nerd on every level. Books, games, internet, though not ta the degree Shy is, academics, all of it.”

“Hey!”

“But you’re also a good friend. Ya have a protective instinct, and you’re willin’ ta do anythin’ ta help somepony close. You’re neurotic, ya obsess over little details, ya tend ta fixate on thin’s. Ya have a knack fer figurin’ out puzzles, ya enjoy learnin’ complicated shit with little use anywhere else.

If Ah don’t know some random shit, Ah can ask ya and probably get a good answer. Ya have a crazy vocabulary and you’re damn smart. All that ain’t just one trait ya can sum up in a single sentence. Give the mare some credit. If ya should’ve learned anythin’ over the past month, she ain’t all what she seems.” I glared at the orange filly.

“You make it really difficult to wallow in my own problems, you know that?” She smiled and knocked on the wood floor.

“Ah try.”

---

“Stupid Applejack and her stupid monologues. How fucking considerate.”

“Dorya!”

“Hey now, you’re starting to sound like me. Also, don’t just throw that out. Bad.”

Pinkie’s sword appeared in blue magic, flew across the screen, and then exploded in my character’s face.

“KO”

“Damn it,” I sighed.

“Oh, come on, you can do electrics and on command no less. You just need to like, be better at the game.”

Monday came and went, and now I was spending time with Pinkie. She’d convinced her parents to get a Ponystation 4, which was relatively easy since they don’t have a blu-ray player, and then bought Iron Hoof 7 with her own money from this week’s check.

As with everything my friends do, it seems as if I’ve been pulled into learning another game to play with one or two of them that we may all end up learning later.

“I know. It’s just frustrating, is all.”

I heard the sound of hoofsteps coming from the hall on the left side of the ‘estate’ as Pinkie calls it, and noticed her mother trot up to us.

“What’s frustrating? Do you girls need anything?” Pinkie shook her head.

“Oh, no mom, thanks.”

“My mother is what’s frustrating! I just don’t get anything. I’m confused and angry and upset and I just don’t know what to do about it.”

I fell back on the surprisingly plush rug in their living room and stared up at the high vaulted ceiling.

Goddess, this house feels expensive. Why have I never been invited over before?

“Your mother? I was unaware that you had one. Though, I suppose everypony has a mother at some point in their lives. She doesn’t happen to be the Motor Mare, does she?” That caught my attention.

“How’d you know?” She took a seat beside her daughter and put a hoof under her chin.

“Oh, I’ve seen her around. You two have very particular eyes. As did that other large mare that was running around, the uh… the blue one.

Now, at first I thought it could’ve been either of them, but your body type leans toward the… ‘well suited for child rearing’ end of the spectrum like the Motor Mare, and not so much the other one. The colors match better too as far as I could tell.”

I shrugged.

“Fair. Applejack said the same thing the other day. Speaking of, did you know that she’d already figured it out the day she came over to my house like two weeks ago? What the hell kind of friend doesn’t tell you they know who your mother is!? ‘Ah didn’t have proof,’ she said, ‘It made sense from every angle, but Ah figured it’d be best if ya heard it from her,’ she said. Ugh.” Mrs. Pie nodded.

“Ah, Heir’s granddaughter is a very smart pony, that’s not very surprising. I suppose she thought that it might be better if your mother told you herself because, really, who would you rather hear it from? Your mother finally coming out about who she is to you, or your friend making guesses she doesn’t have the proof for?”

I attempted to fight that. In my head an argument started to form, but it never finished compiling and fell apart.

“Okay, maybe she had a point. It’s still irritating.”

I guess she decided she was going to be around for a while, so Mrs. Pie made herself more comfortable and brought Pinkie close as she stroked her mane.

“What am I, a cat?” she complained. Her mother nodded.

“My little pink cat, to be exact. Well, what’s so frustrating about her? I haven’t seen her do her usual morning drives as of late, has she gone somewhere?” she asked. I sighed.

Well, now you’re caught.

“Yeah… she just… disappeared last Friday without warning. Nopony knows where she is or where she went.”

The cat thing might not have been accurate. Dog is a better word. She’d started scratching behind Pinkie’s ear, and the filly went limp and started kicking one of her hind legs.

“Good to know that tick is still there. You and your father are the only ones that have it.” Then she turned back to me.

“That is quite the quandary, Twilight. Everypony has their reasons for doing things. You don’t happen to know why she left, do you?” Pinkie was just gone now. Completely at the mercy of her mother’s hooves, almost like a puppet.

Well, at least you’re enjoying it. When mine did stuff like that to me, it was like, borderline incest. Or pedophilia. Both? Both.

“Kinda. I don’t know exactly what she’s doing, but I’ve been told it’s dangerous and she’s putting others in harm’s way.”

Draining magic from the planet and launching a comet into the surface for a world destruction level event if that anon on X-chan is to be trusted. Apparently, that thread was deleted, so now there’s not even a record of it. That would be how the government spreads rumors.

“Then, why don’t you turnabout your thinking?” My brows furrowed.

“Huh?” She worked her hooves around Pinkie’s back, and whether or not the filly willed it, she turned over and her mother started massaging her.

“Yes, look at things from a new angle. I met your father during a legal case back in my early years as an attorney.”

Her mother’s hooves paused for a moment, and it was like the trance was broken.

“You were an attorney?” Pinkie asked.

“I still am. What do you think I do all day? Your father runs the business, I just manage the books from time to time. Anyways, due to your grandmother’s special circumstances and the odd way immigration works in this country, it was a question as to whether or not he legally owned the mine. His uncle, your grandfather’s brother, was… well, let’s just call him a bad actor. He was after the mine and had a legal claim on it, provided there was no explicit will or a direct heir.

Thanks to your grandmother’s unpronounceable last name, which she didn’t know how to translate into Equestrian, and the sheer lack of documents on her, it was very difficult to finally get this settled without going through all the processes for citizenship. In the end it was settled with a blood test.

Since her documentation was an absolute mess, we finally had it ordered that your great uncle had to provide a blood sample to get DNA on him, and after a matching test with your grandfather’s remains, we won the case.

I figured that if we couldn’t get written records, then we’d get biological ones. It took me months to finally think of that, but I was a much younger mare then. You can’t always have every answer in front of you because sometimes, things are hidden. However, if you change your perspective on an issue, you may just see something you couldn’t before.”

Hmm… how could I look at this in a different way? Maybe I should see if I can’t get a hold of Luna. I bet if I tell somepony that I’m her niece, questions will be raised and get to her somehow… Yeah…

“Thanks… I think I have an idea of how to at least get some information now.” She smiled and nodded in that way mothers do.

“Of course dear. Anyways, if you need anything, I’ll be in my office.” She started to get up, but Pinkie stopped her.

“So, wait, finish the story! How did you and dad get together?”

The crystal blue eyes of the gray mare shifted up and to the right, then her irises constricted and her cheeks started to redden.

“Oh, goodness, my, I um… Ha! Well, that’s um… No. No, I will not be finishing that story.” With little effort, she shifted Pinkie off and then bolted for the other side of the estate.

“Wha- Why!? Don’t run away! Tell me what happened!” And after her Pinkie ran.

“That was… unexpected?”

---

I woke up this morning and made a call. My body pillow won’t arrive for another day, so once again, a sleepless night. Or at least one full of nightmares. I don’t understand why it’s getting so bad. It was never this bad before Celestia arrived, was it? No… no, that’s not true, is it? Things are… just going back to the way they were.

Why is this happening? I’ll be fourteen in two months, I finally got my cutiemark, but now… I’m even more confused about what I’ll do with my life than I was before.

After three different secretaries, I finally got one who said she was going to transfer my call through. I guess she must have some record of who I am on file in case she ever got this call.

“Ah, it seems as if she’s ready now. Please hold and I’ll put you through,” the secretary said.

And that was the job I wanted. I wanted to be her. I think I might die of boredom if I really did get her job.

The line picked up again.

“Hello? Twilight, are you there?”

“Finally. Are four secretaries really necessary? Can’t I have a direct line or something? I… I’m family, right?” A sigh on the other end.

“Yes, I suppose you are, aren’t you? I’ll have to have that set up. I can’t have just anypony calling my personal phone, let alone from an insecure outside line. I’ll get something sent to you later. However, my attention is being split several ways at the moment and I need you to make this quick. Do you need something?”

Well, here goes nothing. Based on that, I doubt I’m going to get an answer today anyways.

“How did… how did my father die?” I couldn’t even hear her breathing on the other end now. Radio silence. Even quieter than if the connection had been dropped.

“Luna?”

“I’m here, I’m here, I um… I’ll be back in Underhoof later this evening anyways, I… we should… have this conversation in person. That… isn’t a short story, you know.” I nodded like the big blue unicorn was in front of me.

Of course, that’s not what she really looks like, is it?

“I figured. It all happens tomorrow, right?”

“It does. I’m certain she’ll be back sometime soon as well. I cannot stop her, but there is a chance that I can stop the comet. I will do what I can, I’m even working on that as we speak, but in the end, you will be the one that makes the difference.

No matter what she says, you are the most important thing in her life. If nothing else… take solace in the fact that you’re worth more than the world to her. She loves you, Twilight. Never forget that. Anyways, I really do need to focus. I will see you later.”

---

A few hours after that, the doorbell rang.

Weird. Who would just come and ring the doorbell? Maybe somepony is looking for Dad.

We don’t really live ‘on the way’ to anything, so they had to have come here specifically for him.

Well, too bad. They just missed him.

I made my way downstairs and the bell rang again.

“Damn impatient ponies. I’m coming!” I finally made it to the front door and twisted the knob to open it.

“Good goddess, space travel is draining. It’s a wonder that I managed out there for all the centuries I did. Though, time is relative, so maybe I’m not as old as I think. Anything change while I was gone?”

Wha- wha-

“What the fuck!? You! You’re! You’re-”

“Me!” The big white mare enveloped me in giant hooves and picked me up like a plaything. “I missed you so much! Who knew that leaving for a week could do that to a mare? I’ll never take another fourteen year trip again, I don’t think I could stand to be away from my precious little Starlight any longer♥ Nightlight honey, are you home?” she called out in the empty house. I managed to find the ability to breathe again and squirmed out of her grip.

“For the love of the goddess, can you remember my name for five minutes!? Dad went grocery shopping, so he’s about an hour away right now.”

That crazy mare smile of hers flooded her face, and in a whirlwind, I was suddenly between her legs on the Harley.

“Perfect♥ That means I have you all to myself, my darling Twilight♥”

---

We arrived at the bridge after circling town at least twice until she decided that ‘this is the place.’ She stopped at several spots along the way, where she would argue with herself, move her hooves this way and that way, then decide that it ‘wasn’t the place’ and move on.

“Are you done?” I asked. She kicked the stand down and let the bike rest.

“I am. You may now exit the vehicle.”

With that, we moved over to my usual spot on the bridge, and I surveyed the damage. It’d rained at least once since last Friday, but the burn marks were still all around the place.

Nopony asked questions, or nopony has figured out it was us. Either way, this will probably just fade into the backdrop that is Underhoof, where everything is normal, and I am the anomaly. I prepared my statement that I would never admit that I’ve been rehearsing for a few days now, and then turned to face her.

“Alright, I have some questions, and I-”

“It was… thirteen years ago now, wasn’t it? Yes, on that fateful January day. There are not enough pain killers in the world to stop the excruciating torture that is pushing a foal through the cervix. I’ve been stabbed, shot, burned, shocked and everything in between, yet that day was the one I remember as my most painful. You would think that the average foal coming out of somepony my size would be no problem, wouldn’t you? Well, it was.

Most mares carry babies at about ten percent of their own weight, but you weren’t even close to that for me. You were more like… less than five. I won’t give you the satisfaction of knowing how much I weigh, but you were a heavy foal as it is. The chubby cheeks persist, I see♥”

She poked at my face and I tried to fight her off.

“Gah! Stop it!” She leaned in close and met my horn with hers.

“Never.”

And then she stopped. Now she moved on to my wings, which had been fighting along with me. There must be a wire crossed in my brain or something because I’ve found that they’ll react when I try to move my forelegs a lot of the time. She took the right one, stretched it out and pressed in on the muscle.

All of this was so very weird. Nopony had ever really messed with them so now it was like somepony was touching a set of legs on my back that shouldn’t be there. Nothing bothered me more than her expression though. She looked… disappointed.

“Why… are you doing all this?” She moved on to the next wing.

“To make sure there aren’t any deformations. There hasn’t been an alicorn foal in… over two millennia. Luna and I were the last of our kind, and for almost all that time, we believed we were incompatible with regular ponies. To be entirely honest with you, I wasn’t sure you were anything more than a normal unicorn until after I came home.” I sighed.

“That’s not what I meant…” She nodded.

“Nor do I intend to answer what you meant. Flap for me.”

I made an effort to get my wings to move on their own, and after several attempts and nearly tripping over myself, I finally got them to act alone. There was an ambivalence to her. She looked pleased to see that I could do it, yet… there was this… air about her. Like she was happy to know that I’m fine, and sad about it at the same time.

“Ah… good and strong. It’s… too bad, things turned out like this. I’d hoped you would grow as a normal unicorn, unburdened by your heritage, but it seems as if… that was never possible. The moment I saw you run after me all the way back at the beginning of last month, I could already tell. Unicorns aren’t that strong, not at your age, especially not fillies. You might not have realized it, but your muscles can move harder and faster than anypony else’s. Had you a little weight training, I’m certain you might find yourself surprised at what all you can lift.

The real testament to your ability, however, had to be picking up my bass. Its properties change depending on the pony who last had it, but I have to tell it to change if I want to loan it to anypony else. I had it set to something like sixty pounds because I use the thing like a hammer, and you swung it. Your form was bad, and your technique needs serious work, but most ponies in this town couldn’t do that if they tried.”

Celestia leaned up against the guard rail and crossed her forelegs over it.

“Well, it’s not as if either of my real parents were here to show me. Why is that a bad thing?” She chuckled and shook her head.

“I suppose one can look at it as if it isn’t, but speaking from experience, I’m just hoping you aren’t doomed to repeat my life. You seem to take after your father though, so maybe… it won’t be so bad after all.”

“I don’t understand.” I didn’t know what else to say. It’s like she’s remembering things I don’t know about and expecting me to catch on. She sighed and brought me into her lap with her magic.

“Ah, my precious little naïve Twilight. Time… is a cruel thing, ya know? A very rude force, it brings you along for the ride, but forgets to let you off. In ten years, you and all your friends will still be aging together. In twenty, you will have passed the stopping point, but your friends will continue to grow older. In thirty, they will all have foals your age, and you… will have nothing. In forty, their foals might have foals, and you will still be there watching from afar.

In fifty, their bodies will have deteriorated. They will be surrounded by progeny and ponies that love them, and you… will have grown another few inches taller. In sixty, they may very well be dead and the next generation will have begun, and you… will be just like us.

We are outsiders to time. Or better yet, we don’t play by time’s rules. The years will pass, and you will only grow stronger. You will befriend many ponies, and you will watch them all burn their lives out.

One day, you’ll realize that this stallion you watched breathe his first, you now watch as he breathes his last. You’ll blink and another year will be gone. You’ll wake up every day wondering if today is the day you lose another, if you can continue suffering through the heartache. The solitude, the silence.

Time and time again, you’ll hear about funerals and births from your friends, only to realize that these aren’t even the ones you remember. They’re the sons and daughters. The grandsons and granddaughters.

Generation after generation, ponies will come and ponies will go, and you’ll grow detached from them. Standing side by side with them, marching off to war knowing that in the end, you’ll survive and any number of them could be snuffed out like candle flames. In mere minutes, an arrow to the head will heal. In simple hours, your torn limbs will regrow. But what is an hour or a minute to you who stands outside time?

To truly be able to die, you would have to be vaporized completely. But even then, you would have to learn how to turn off your natural defenses. To halt your regeneration, to stop your own instincts, to drain the magic from your being. The only way to do that is to either throw yourself into a star, or have another alicorn do it for you. And when she’s your sister… how could she possibly do that to you?

Ponies can see it, when you lose hope. It’s a very visible thing, you tend to lose color, and the light in one’s eyes dies out. You waste your days repeating the same routines you’ve been doing for centuries, going through the motions without so much as a thought in your head, hoping that one day you simply lose consciousness for good.

You fuck every stallion you come across, hoping that somepony might give you something to fret over, but time after time after time, they all just end up the same. And then they grow old and die. Leaving you behind with nothing.

And then… you find something rare. Something you’ve never seen before, something you’ve never felt before. In the hundreds of years of empty life you’ve lived watching over these creatures whose lives burn so dimly and fade out so quickly, you see one that burns brightly.

‘Why do you look so sad?’

He used different words back then of course, the language has evolved over time, but… nopony had ever asked me that. It’s hard to believe that having everything can’t make a pony happy. They see you in all the luxuries the world has to offer and think that it is simply just the way you are. But this one… he was different.

For the first time in centuries, you decide to let yourself get close to somepony. You find that, something about this one is strange. He doesn’t just want a taste of you like all the others, he wants to know you. He wants to understand you, he wants to love you in a way that you never understood.

In time, everything else is halted and you experience what it is like to live again. But then, the robotic life you used to live comes back to haunt you with a vengeance. Your wants and desires are at odds with the lives you’re tasked over, and you can’t stand it anymore. It finally gets to the point where your sister would accept your request to end you, but now you have something worth living for, someone worth living for.

Alas, the fool can’t stand to see you fight and tries to enter a world he has no right to. He gets too close to the sun… and burns. However, something strange happens. Rather than death, he is separated, mind, body, and soul. His pieces are cast about the universe, but there is a chance now. You can get him back, you know you can, you just have to find him.

You leave your home in search of your love. Each piece off in a distant corner of the galaxy, you search and search and search. You gather two and find that a twisted old lover’s curse has finally come back to haunt you. Your last piece takes your all to recover, but you manage it. You have him, you’re back together, and you take him home.

A miracle happens, and now you fear losing him even more. Signs show up that he’s unstable. That there’s a danger of him separating again, that you might lose him once more. In your desperation, you do everything in your power to gather the one thing that could possibly save him. But you’re too late. Your miracle rears her precious head and stops you in your tracks. Shortly after he names her, his time has come.

You come to a crossroads. You can either chase after him again, this time with a plan in mind and a way to really save him, or, you can stay with your miracle, knowing that she will never know her father. Torn to pieces, you struggle for months while you regain your strength.

Finally, you decide that for her future, she must know her father, even if it’s only for a moment. She deserves a family, her family, and so do you. So, you leave her with a trusted piece and chase after him once more.

During your time recollecting him, you realize something. Your miracle surprises you again when even in the reaches of space, you can still feel her. You realize that you aren’t the only one that can feel her, and even in his ruinous state, he is after her too.

A plan is born. Just like the first time, we can start over. With the notes gathered in one place, the sweet lullaby can soothe the beast. An encore. One more time, one more time.

One last Harmony, and finally, you’ll be whole again…”