Family In My Heart
The Study of a Winning Pony
Chapter 33: Family In My Heart
All in all, my brother’s wedding could have gone a lot worse. His real wedding, that is. It’s a little hard to salvage a wedding involving a shapeshifter pretending to be your big brother’s fiancée with the intention of using the wedding to invade Equestria. I hadn't checked, but I was pretty sure there weren't any books that specifically detailed how to fix a disaster that big.
It had certainly helped to have a bride who was willing to work with me and give some her input on what she wanted. The real Cadance had been the mare I had remembered from my childhood. While I still would have preferred more warning about the upcoming wedding, at least I could get along perfectly well with Cadance. Now the married couple was well on their way to their honeymoon and marital bliss, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I didn't wake up needing to scramble to get a bunch of stuff done for a wedding.
I yawned as I descended the stairs to head to the kitchen. I was still pretty pooped from the reception, but it was a good kind of fatigue. Nothing like a wedding to put a pony in a good mood. When I got to the kitchen, I saw Mom and Dad already working on breakfast, and I was met with the sweet aroma of coffee. “Morning, Mom and Dad.”
Dad took a quick sip from his mug. “Good morning, Twilight.”
Mom put down the piece of fruit she was about to eat. “Hi, Twilight. Sleep alright?”
“Great.” I stretched some of my muscles from my long sleep. “The wedding's finally over and I don't have to plan it anymore. Now I can just relax.” My friends should still be in town, though I wasn’t in a race to see them quite yet.
Dad poured a fresh mug of coffee and levitated it to me. “That's got to be a good feeling.”
I immediately took the offered mug, drinking down that fantastic nectar of life and wakefulness. My mornings just hadn't gotten started until I’d had a cup of three of the precious substance.
“How about you sit down and get yourself something to eat?” Mom asked.
“I can get it for you, if you'd like.” Dad pointed to the waffle iron he was using. “I'm making waffles, and your mom cut up some fruit.”
“That sounds great, thanks.” I sat down next to Mom at the kitchen counter.
Mom smiled at me. “We figured you would like something special after the long day yesterday.”
“I'll get right on it.” Dad poured some batter into the waffle iron. “So ... we've got a little bit while that's cooking.”
“Uh-huh.” Still feeling fuzzy even after a long night’s sleep, I took a deep draft of my wonderful coffee. My stomach growled at the inviting smells of breakfast.
There was a period of silence before Mom finally broke it. “So, it's been a bit crazy for a while, hasn't it?”
“Well yeah,” I said. “Not every day my brother's wedding is interrupted by an invading army of love-consuming shapeshifters.”
“Thank Celestia,” Dad said with enough conviction for everypony in the room. He knocked back the rest of his coffee and refilled it. “Once is too much already. I’m not a young stallion anymore. This type of excitement isn’t good for me.”
Mom grunted in agreement. “Hopefully we won't see anything like that happen again for a long, long time. But at least it's sorted out now.”
“That's the main thing,” I said. “Plus Shining and Cadance seem real happy together, and we did manage to give them a really nice wedding.”
Mom smiled and gave me a nuzzle. “So we did. No small thanks to you.”
“And you did a great job with it.” Dad patted me on the back. “That's a big, complicated mess sorted.” He checked on the status of the waffle iron, and seeming content with its state, flipped it onto a plate and placed it in front of me. “One of them, anyway.”
I began the process of pouring some syrup onto my waffle. “Thanks. So what else is there?”
A slight frown worked its way on my mom’s features and she spoke with a hint of reluctance in her voice. “There was something we wanted to talk to you about, Twilight.”
“Go ahead.” I took a bite out of my waffle, wondering what this could be about.
Mom put down her mug and gave me a serious look. “It's about some of the things we talked about last time you were in Canterlot.”
“Which ones?” I asked, my mind still feeling fuzzy as I took another bite.
“Let's start with the part where Shining allegedly has a child,” Dad stated gravely.
I nearly choked on the waffle I was chewing on. They were bringing that up now?!
“It's about time we talk about that,” Mom said.
Dad passed me a glass of milk as I coughed. “Past time, really.”
Once the worst of the coughing subsided, I quickly drank a couple mouthfuls of the milk to clear my throat. “Er ... yes. That.” I had feared this conversation was coming. That wasn’t surprising when I’d screamed at them for being such great examples to Shiny that he had his own bastard child, just like them. My parents hadn’t said a word about the topic when I had returned to Canterlot, probably because they didn’t want to create a scene when we were all busy planning for the wedding. Priorities and all that. Shame that now the wedding was over, the excuses for not having this talk were over as well.
“We've given you space to collect yourself and think over everything we talked about last time.” Mom let out a sad sigh and looked down into her mug. “You certainly earned it, but the note you left us on has ... well, left us very concerned. Especially in light of recent events.”
Dad nodded in agreement. “Let's start at the beginning. How…?” A pondering expression ran across his face. Whatever it was he was thinking about, it resolved with a shake of his head and a sigh. “How'd you even get that idea?”
I took a deep breath as I carefully considered my words. There was no getting out of this, so I might as well dive right in. “Um ... Well it's kind of a long story. You see, there's this mare in Ponyville who has a daughter. And ... well, she didn't know for sure who the father was because it was a one-night-stand and they were both a bit drunk, but from her description it sounded a lot like Shiny, and the timelines match up...”
Mom rubbed her face, her weariness clear. “Please tell me this is just a case where you were angry and just wanted to throw something in our faces during a bad moment.”
My ears wilted as I buckled down to tell the truth. “Er ... well I tried a lineage spell, and everything matched.”
Dad was the next one to rub his face. “Of course you did.”
Mom let out a breath. “So you're telling me that…?”
I put on what had to be the most strained smile I had ever worn. “Congratulations, you're grandparents.”
“We have a grandchild. Celestia...” Dad looked to Mom and their eyes met. “Shining has a daughter.”
“That's ... going to take a moment to sink in...” Mom ate some fruit while she digested that. “Normally you get the better part of a year to get ready for something like that. Not just have it dumped on you out of nowhere like this.”
“It was a pretty big surprise for me too,” I said.
“How ... how old is she?” Dad asked.
“Six years old.” I smiled, trying to give them some assurance that everything was going to be alright. Even if I had no idea how this was going to turn out in the end. “You’ve … um … you’ve actually met her already, Mom.”
Mom reeled in surprise. “I have?”
I nodded. “Yes, both of you did actually. Do you remember the two girls that were with me the last time I was in Canterlot? We had dinner.”
A small smile lifted on her face. “Yes, of course. I remember she was a sweet little … filly.” Her eyes widened as my meaning fell into place.
“That … was our granddaughter.” Dad let out a long breath. “This is ... something alright. Wow.”
“This ... was not how I expected to be told I'm a grandmother.” Mom leaned back and frowned contemplatively.
“I wasn't expecting to find out I'm an aunt either.” I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat. “I ... I've told Ditzy, but Dinky doesn't know yet.” Oh goodness, and here I had promised Ditzy that I was going to wait until we could talk to my parents together about this. Hopefully she would forgive me for blathering to them. What was I supposed to do, tell them no when they confronted me? I knew that wasn’t going to fly very well.
I sighed. “And Shiny doesn’t know either. I was going to tell him, and I even wrote him some letters telling him that I needed to talk to him about something serious. But ... the wedding...” My ears fell flat.
“Or Cadance.” Dad shook his head. “Celestia's teats...”
“Er ... yeah, she wouldn't know either.” This was a fine mess we were in. And here I thought some of the friendship problems I had dealt with were tricky.
“Oooh dear.” Mom took another long sip of her coffee. “This is going to be a big mess to clean up. Needless to say, this isn’t how you want your marriage to get started.”
Dad made his way to the cabinet and filled his mug with some orange-smelling liquor. “Where do we even start with that?”
“Um...” I tapped my hooves together nervously. “Well I suppose we should probably tell Shiny at some point.”
“Later,” Dad said firmly. “Let's at least let him finish his honeymoon ... and some time after that. The two of them need a bit of time to get settled.”
“Well, obviously, but he still needs to know eventually,” I pointed out.
“Yes, he does,” Mom said, her tone firm. “Ugh, the timing is awful for this. But there isn’t anything to be done about it.”
“Tell me about it,” Dad said. “This is better than the bug-bitch, but only barely.”
“Still, Shining will be told when the timing is right.” Mom shook her head. “And no, we're not going to put it off forever. Just... when it's appropriate. He doesn't deserve to have his marriage wrecked right out of the gate. And there are things we can do until then.”
“Gee, I'm sorry Shining having an illegitimate child is inconvenient for you.” The words flowing out of my mouth before I could stop them. I instantly regretted saying them, even as the hot pain of the lies they had told me burned.
My parents winced. Mom hunched her shoulders and she looked down at the counter surface. Dad put a hoof on Mom’s shoulder. “We didn't mean it like that, Twilight.”
I sighed and rubbed my face. The situation was bad enough without snapping at my parents. However much they might deserve it for the lies about my own sister. “I know, I know. It’s just ... still sore.”
“I made a terrible mistake,” Mom said quietly. “I've known that for a long time. If it was something I could fix...” She shook her head again. “Anyways, I'm not going to make a similar mistake. Not with my granddaughter.”
Dad leaned over and squeezed Mom’s hoof. “One thing at a time, love.”
“Um ... right.” I shuffled nervously as I remembered the letter Princess Celestia had given me—the one with Amethyst’s address. I hadn’t opened it yet. With everything else that had occupied me, it had never seemed like the right time to open it. The Princess had said to wait until I was ready for it.
Something about Mom’s demeanor changed as she looked at me and her eyes narrowed. “Twilight, is there something else you want to tell us?”
“We might as well get it all on the table,” Dad said. “No sense holding anything back now.”
My shoulders hunched. Mom must have picked up that something was bothering me. She had always been good at detecting when something was on my mind. “Um ... well ... I kind of ... maybeknowhereAmethystis.”
Mom blinked. “Excuse me?”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly feeling very dry. “Um, well when I mentioned the situation to Princess Celestia, she said that she knew where Amethyst was.”
“She did?!” Mom bolted onto her hooves. “I need to speak with her right now.”
“She gave me a letter with all the information,” I quickly amended. If I hadn’t, she might very well have ran to the palace right then and there.
“Please tell me you have it with you,” Dad said, his statement halfway between a question and a demand.
“Of course.” I stood, knowing there wasn’t any way I was going to get away not having the letter opened here and now. Part of me had considered the possibility something like this might happen, so I had packed it during the panic of trying to get to Canterlot for Shiny’s wedding. “I ... well, she said I shouldn't open it until I was ready.”
“Well I'm ready.” Mom didn’t sound like she was in the mood to argue. She stared at me with a look of pure iron determination. “So please give it to me. Twilight, I made the biggest mistake of my life when I gave up Amethyst. If there is anything I could do set everything right, when I'm this close to knowing where she is...”
Dad placed a hoof on Mom’s shoulder to steady her. “Please?”
My ears wilted under the looks they gave me—Mom’s one of desperate need, and Dad’s that of a pleading stallion. “Okay. Just a second...”
I went and retrieved the letter from my luggage and returned to the kitchen. Mom was pacing around the dining room while Dad sat patiently, drinking from his mug. Mom stopped her pacing when she saw me return. “So, do you want to open it, or shall I?”
Thinking the question over, I said, “Celestia did give the letter to me, so...” The letter almost shaking in my magic, I carefully opened it and started reading. There wasn’t much on the piece of paper, just a name and an address.
“It ... it can't be...” I heard somepony say with my voice and the letter fell from my grip.
“What? What is it?” Dad pleaded.
Mom stepped up next to me, keeping me from falling over. “Twilight, what is it?”
“It's ... it's...”
Sparkler opened the door to the Doo Manor in Canterlot.
“Am—Sparkler?” Mom asked, the words a bit breathless. That wasn't exactly a surprise after the quick pace we had taken to get here. We hadn't run the entire way here, but we had moved at a quick trot. After I had told her what Celestia had said and after Mom had read the letter for herself, we had come straight to the Doo Manor.
“That would be me, a Sparkler.” Sparkler glanced around to see Dad and me with Mom. She blinked in surprise when her eyes fell on me. “Hey, Twilight. I wasn't exwhaULG!” Whatever she was trying to say was cut off when Mom wrapped her up in a crushing hug. I was briefly worried I was going to have to pry them apart unless I wanted to risk the family reunion resulting in Sparkler’s accidental death.
Thankfully Dad put a restraining hoof on Mom’s shoulder. “Velvet, honey? Maybe let her breathe?”
“And maybe let us explain things?” I added.
Mom momentarily froze as she realized what she was doing and let Sparkler go. “Oh ... sorry.” Mom smiled apologetically and took a step back.
Sparkler gasped for breath once she was released from the accidental death grip, coughing a couple of times before she could speak. “Holy hay... I thought Dinks was bad.” She slowly regained her composure as she gave all of us a questioning look. Big surprise, she was a bit confused why my mom had suddenly decided to test if she was real with the most enthusiastic hug ever. “Uh ... hi?”
“Sweetie?” I heard Ditzy call from further inside the manor. “Who's at the door?”
“It's me and my parents, Ditzy,” I called back. “We ... have some news we need to discuss.” And now the really awkward part could get started.
Mom cleared her throat. “Yes, sorry, may we come in?”
“Um, sure.” Sparkler opened the door wider to allow us inside.
It was as Sparkler closed the door behind us that I heard the thumping of small hooves making their way down the nearby stairs. A small, gray blur sped towards us and then attached itself to Mom’s leg. “Miss Twiliiight!” Dinky cheered, nuzzling Mom’s leg with her typical enthusiasm.
Mom instinctively drew her granddaughter into a hug. “Hello there, Dinky.”
Dinky gasped, realization dawning in her eyes when she saw that she was hugging the wrong Twilight. As with everything involving her, it was adorable. “Whoooa, that’s right! You’re Twilight’s mommy, Mrs. Twilight!”
Mom smiled down at her. “That’s right.”
“Nice to see you again!” Dinky squeezed Mom’s leg, probably momentarily cutting off the circulation before letting her go and hugging her originally intended target. “Hi, Miss Twilight! Nice to see you too!”
“It’s nice to see you too, Dinky” Before the cute moment could settle in too much, the reasons for why we had come her to start with pressed down on me. “We ... um ... have a lot to discuss. Mind if we sit down to talk?”
“Sure,” Sparkler said warily. She led us to the living room. I couldn't help but look at Sparkler like it was the first time—as though I didn't really know her. Could this really be my long-lost sister? Princess Celestia’s letter had said she was, and she would never lie to me. Still, the whole situation was so surreal. I would have preferred to have taken more time to think it all over, but when Mom heard the news she wouldn't hear anything about waiting—she wanted to see Amethyst, and that was the end of the conversation as far as she was concerned.
Before we could get settled, Ditzy trotted in. She blinked when she saw us and halted in place. “Twilight?” Her eyes darted to my parents. “Is everything okay?”
“Um, hello, Ditzy,” Dad said. “Could we all sit down?”
Something dawned on Ditzy’s expression, likely she guessed what this would be about. “Yes, yes! Sitting! Is good.” She waved us to the couch and cushions in the living rooms. “What's going on?”
Mom sat Dinky down on her lap as she sat down on the couch. “We need to talk about a few things.”
“Like ... what, exactly?” Sparkler asked as she sat down on the opposite couch with me.
“Um ... family things. About family, and togetherness...” I said, feeling more awkward with every passing word. I really wish I had some notecards to help guide me through this conversation.
Mom gave Ditzy a serious look. “It's about some serious issues, so I hope you’ll let us get through this.”
Ditzy nodded slowly and spoke with a cautious edge. “Okay...”
Dinky gave Mom one of her loving hugs. “Okay! Let's all take turns. You go first, 'kay Missus Twilight?”
Mom cleared her throat. “Well, now that I'm here, it feels like I've lost a bit of steam.” Mom drew herself up. “We have quite a bit of ground to cover with each other.”
“And that means?” Sparkler asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice. Little surprise she was growing impatient after the way Mom had hugged her.
“Sparkler, be nice,” Ditzy said with maternal warning for her teenage daughter.
“Sorry, Mom,” Sparkler crossed her forelegs over her chest, not looking particularly apologetic. “Just kinda want to know what’s going on.”
At this point, I just wanted it to get out. The pressure had just been building and building within me since we had arrived. We were all just staring at one another, waiting for somepony, anypony to make the first move. “You're my sister and Dinky's my niece!” I blurted out. I covered my mouth as I realized what I had just said.
Everypony stared at me with varying levels of surprise, shock, and disbelief. Sparkler was the first one to recover. “Sorry, what?”
Mom moved in to save me from my own outburst. “With all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, what my daughter said is correct.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “Sparkler is my daughter and Dinky is our grandchild. I gave her up when I shouldn't have. Dinky ... well, I think you know that story better than I do, Ditzy.”
“Huh?” Sparkler looked to each of the ponies in the room as though she were expecting, no, hoping that this was some sort of cruel joke. Seeking guidance from her mom, Derpy’s only reply was to hold a pillow tight to her chest and make some kind of unintelligible noise.
Dinky let out a surprised gasp and turned her attention to me. “You're my auntie? An' Sparky's your sister?! But if she's My sister, an' if she's your sister, she's my auntie—but you're my auntie.” Dinky rubbed her head. Trying to untangle the different branches of the family tree would have taken an adult a while to do, much less a child like Dinky who didn't even have all the facts yet. “I'm sooo confuuused!”
“I—” Sparkler blinked and then looked at me, examining my features and then that of my—our mom. Something flashed behind her eyes. Recognition perhaps?
“Um ... hi?” I asked, at a loss about what to say now that we were at this juncture.
Sparkler let out a squeak and looked to Ditzy, desperation in her eyes. “Mom? What's going on?”
“I—I don't know.” Ditzy turned her gaze to Mom. “How?”
Mom took another deep breath. “I ... I gave up Sparkler after she was born. That was a mistake on my part, something I'm trying very, very hard to fix now. I want to make everything right again. I realize it isn't going to be easy. But I need to...” Mom wiped at one of her eyes and her voice became more strained and tight as she continued. “I didn't know where you went, and I just found out ... here you are, after all these years. I needed to see you, had to see you.”
Dad wrapped a leg around Mom’s shoulders in a supportive hug. Dinky glanced about, looking confused by what she was seeing and hearing. Eventually she settled on giving Mom one of her get-better hugs, which Mom returned.
Sparkler turned to me, and she spoke softly, as though exploring new ground. “Um ... hey, I guess.” She drew me into a hug that I returned.
“Hey, Amethyst. I missed you,” I said. I blinked as my eyes started to sting. I was hugging her, my long lost sister. It almost didn't seem real, but here we were.
“You did?” Sparkler asked.
I sniffed and nodded. “For a very long time. I thought ... you were dead for a long time.”
“Oh.” Sparkler hugged me tighter.
Seemingly satisfied that Mom had been bugged out of her sadness, Dinky gave her next hug to Dad. “Hi Mister Twilight's dad!”
Dad hugged and nuzzled her back. “'Grandpa' works just fine.”
“I ... I have a sister...” Technically two sisters. No, wait—three now. Life had been getting complicated lately.
“Yeah.” Sparkler blinked again. “Holy hay, I've got a sister. Another one—n'a brother too, jeez.”
I nodded. “So you do.” Yeah, this family had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
“Um ... yes. And a niece.” I frowned as I contemplated some of the more practical parts of the issue. “Oh ... oh this is going to complicate the family tree.”
“That's putting it mildly,” Ditzy said.
My thoughts were interrupted when Sparkler started crying. She reapplied her hug and cried into my shoulder.
Ditzy shuffled over to Sparkler and rubbed her back. “It's okay, sweetie, it's okay. I'm here for you.”
“M'okay, m'okay.” Sparkler nuzzled me as she cried herself out.
I stroked her mane, trying to keep a hold of myself as I hugged my sister. “It's ... fine. Everything's fine. Nothing's wrong at all with the fact that I have a new sister and niece. Totally and completely fine.” My ear twitched and I smiled as best I could under the circumstances.
Sparkler sniffed and rubbed at her nose before she turned her gaze to Mom. “Hi, um ... M—” She glanced Ditzy’s way before bringing herself to continue. “Hi, Mom.”
Mom returned with a hopeful smile. “Hi, Am—Sparkler. It's good to see you.”
She sniffed and nodded. “Yeah, you too.”
Mom shifted in her seat and wrung her hooves. “I know I can't demand of it from you, but I hope I can, someday, set things right with you. I want to be a part of your life. A good part of it.” She gazed down at Dinky with a warm smile and nuzzled her. “Both of your lives.”
Sparkler bit her lip. I could only imagine the emotions that must have been going through her. It couldn't have been easy growing up as an orphan. “I'll—I—that's—Ishouldgo!” She jumped off the couch. Without giving us an opportunity to stop her, she quickly trotted towards the exit of the room.
“Sparkyyy!” Dinky was the first in motion as she leapt from Mom’s lap to take off after her sister. “Ya gotta come back!”
“Oh dear...” I didn't want her leaving, not now. Not after I had just found out who she was. I teleported in front of her. “Sparkler, wait!”
“Augh!” She staggered to a halt. Dinky took the opportunity to grab her hindleg.
Mom was the next to join the ponies surrounding Sparkler. Though she kept a respectful distance from her rediscovered daughter. “Please, we want to talk.”
Sparkler jerked her head back and forth, her eyes growing wide as she looked for an escape. She backed away from us until she hit the wall. Sobs started wracking her side and she slid down to the floor. Wrapping her forelegs around Dinky, tears fell down her cheeks as she began hyperventilating.
Great, just great, we had confronted her with the truth and now she was falling apart on us. Had it been a big mistake on my part to even open Celestia’s letter? Maybe this had all been some secret test on her part? One where I wasn't even supposed to open the letter and leave well enough alone. But now that I had come this far, what was I supposed to do? I was tearing Sparkler’s world down around her, I had to fix this.
“I know how to fix this problem!” I declared. “This is something I can make better!” I conjured forth a brown paper bag. “Here you go!” I gave Sparkler the bag and she immediately started using it to breathe in. Perfect, exactly as planned.
Mom sighed as she watched Sparkler breathed into the bag. “Ditzy, could we get her to the couch to lie down for a bit? I'm afraid we’ve overwhelmed her.”
Sparkler’s tears kept coming as the bag repeatedly expanded and then compressed again. “M'okay, m'okay, m'okay...”
I helped Sparkler to shaky hooves. “Alright, here we go...” We guided her to the couch, where she lay down and started quivering. Seeing her daughter's discomfort, Ditzy sat next to her and gently ran her hoof through her mane.
“Give her a minute,” Ditzy said. “She'll come out of it before long.” She tried to sound confident when she said that, but there was a trace of worry in her voice.
Mom rubbed at her face and shook her head. “I'm so sorry for dumping all of this on you. I just... I had to see her when I found out. After so many years, I promised myself if I ever had the opportunity to find her again...” Her shoulders slumped as she trailed off. It was an off-putting sight to me. Mom had always been such a source of strength in my life and now ... now she just looked tired, haggard—old, even.
I had concentrated for so long on how much her lies had hurt me that I hadn't really considered how it might affect her. Her pain didn't erase what she did but ... maybe I could forgive her, with time.
Sparkler mumbled something unintelligible and Ditzy nuzzled her. Ditzy motioned to the other side of the couch for Mom to sit, and she joined them. I could only imagine what was going through Ditzy’s head right then, but it seemed for now she was at least going to give Mom a chance.
Slowly, Sparkler’s breathing started to calm as she became more aware of her surroundings. She took a long breath and looked back and forth between her moms. “Sorry, m'okay now.” The three of them exchanged hugs and nuzzles, something Sparkler seemed to drink in during such a hard time for her.
Dinky reached her limit for how long she could stand to the side, and she hopped onto the couch to hug her sister. “Hey, Sparky? I know Miss Twilight's your sister an' all, but ... can I still be your sister too?”
“Hey, c'mere.” Sparkler pulled her into a close hug. “No matter what else, you'll always be my little sister. S'like when I came home—I just got more family, now.”
“We can work out the details in time,” Mom assured her.
Sparkler nodded. “S'the same with Mom. I'll always be her daughter. Even if I'm somepony else's, too.”
Mom smiled at Ditzy. “Yes, thank you for taking care of her, Ditzy. I ... well, there is no way I'll ever be able to properly thank you.”
“It's been my pleasure. Really.” Ditzy smiled back. “I couldn't love her any more if I'd given birth instead.”
Ditzy was being a saint in all of this. If she had yelled at us after telling her the truth and threw us out on our rears, I'm not sure I would have been able to blame her.
“I hope you'll work with us to, well, figure everything out,” Mom said. “I'm not going to begin to pretend this is going to be easy.”
“But it is doable,” I finished for her. “We're going to make it work.”
Ditzy nodded. “Family isn't always easy. But it's definitely worth it.” She didn't get any arguments from us as she kissed Sparkler’s forehead. “So, if she's Sparkler's niece, then...”
Dinky’s eyes widened further and further until they we're the size of dishes. “Oh my gosh!” A big smile worked its way onto her face. “I've got a daddy!” She ran over to Mom and all but collided into her with a hug. “Who is he?! When do I get to see him?”
Mom couldn't keep her smile from being terribly strained. The really awkward questions were now coming up, and there wasn't any avoiding them now. “You do have a father, Dinky. It's ... just going to be a bit before you can see him. He's really busy at the moment.”
“Er ... yeah. Busy,” I said, feeling terrible as I aided in the half-truth. Why did all of this have to happen at such an inconvenient moment?
Dinky’s ears wilted. “Aww....” The idea she was going to have to wait to meet her dad had to be crushing for the little filly. How many times must she have wondered about her sire? The fact Ditzy didn't have the answers Dinky wanted couldn't have been easy on either of them.
“All in good time.” Mom gave her a hug to try and make her feel better. “I promise, you'll get to see him as soon as we can arrange it.”
“'Kay,” Dinky said with a very uncharacteristic lack of energy.
“I bet he'll be really happy to meet you,” I tried to reassure her. True, he was probably going to freak when he first found out, but I could see him coming around to the idea of being a dad once he got his mental balance back. We were definitely going to tell him before he met Dinky.
Mom nodded. “Oh yes, you'll find out he's a great stallion.”
“He just needs some time, Muffin,” Ditzy said.
“Yeah.” Sparkler let out a short bark of a laugh. “Don't need him getting all panicky like me, right?”
Dinky’s ears perked back up a little bit. “Oooh, that'd be bad!”
“Exactly.” Mom started stroking Dinky’s mane. “And in the meantime, you still have the rest of us.”
That caused Dinky’s ears to perk up all the way. “Oh yeah, that's right!”
“And we'd all really like to get to know you better.” I looked up at Sparkler. “Both of you.”
“Yes, we would love to do that,” Mom said. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Dinky nodded enthusiastically. “We've got so much stuff to do! You gotta meet my godmom, Rainbow Dash—she's Mommy's best friend an' the coolest godmom ever! Oh, an' ya gotta meet Miss Star too—she's Sparky's special somepony, an' she's pretty cool too, even if she's just as big a brat as Sparky.”
Mom made the barest of flinches when Dinky mentioned Star. “A special somepony?”
Sparkler smiled sheepishly. “Yeah ... her name's Star Kicker. She's really cool, we’ve been going out for a few weeks now.”
“Then I look forward to getting to know her later,” Mom said through teeth that were only slightly clenched. It seemed that while Mom was happy to have her missing daughter back, the idea that her teenage daughter was dating didn’t sit nearly so well, at least for the moment.
Seeing the tension in the room, Ditzy said, “For what it's worth, she's already run the gauntlet with me.”
Mom smiled wolfishly. “No sense not running her through the gauntlet again, right?”
As I thought over the fact that Sparkler was dating Star Kicker, a realization struck me. “Oh sweet Celestia, my sister is dating Cloud's cousin!”
Sparkler snickered and patted my back. “At this point, is that really the worst revelation we could have?”
Ditzy shook her head. “No, probably not.”
“At least we know you'll adjust just fine to our flavor of crazy,” Dad said.
Mom poked Dad’s chest. “Why honey, are you suggesting something might be odd about our family?”
Dad chuckled. “I like to think of it as lovably eccentric.”
Sparkler chuckled with Dad. “He’s got a point, I guess.”
I frowned, still not liking the idea of my sister dating family of a mare I was semi-dating. “Still...”
“Worried about the two of you dating in the same family, Twilight?” Mom asked.
Dinky’s face scrunched up in thought. “I don't think genie-ologies are supposedta do that.”
“It's just ... odd,” I finally settled with. “I never even realized that ... it was ... oh dear.”
“Having trouble processing that?” Mom asked.
“I think it's maybe a delayed reaction to all the ... everything.” Everything was rushing at me in a torrent. It had all happened so quickly. Finding out about Sparkler, coming to the Doo Manor to talk with everypony over what we had found out, revealing the truth, the fact Sparkler was dating—I wasn’t prepared for all of it.
Sparkler held back a snicker. Mostly. “Star's gonna laugh herself sick once she gets wind of this.”
Ditzy chuckled at the odd situation. “I know what you mean.”
Mom rubbed one of my shoulders. “Trust me, if you need to lie down for a bit, nopony would blame you.”
I took a long breath to calm myself. “I think I'll be okay.”
“If you gotta go lie down, can I come with you?” Dinky hugged me. “We can snuggle!”
“Sure thing, Dinky,” I said, trying to sound confident.
“I'm sure your niece is going to want to spend plenty of time with you,” Mom said.
“Yeah!” Dinky nodded vigorously. “But don't worry—I'll come back an' snuggle you too, 'kay?”
“Yeah, careful—Dinky's a snuggler,” Sparkler said.
“It is sweet of her.” I hugged Dinky back, feeling better as I did so. It was odd, hugging the niece I hadn’t even known about not too long ago.
Mom patted Dinky’s back. “Twilight was right about how adorable you are.”
Ditzy beamed at the praise of her daughter. “She's the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Mom smiled fondly at me. “I know that's true of my children.”
Sparkler nuzzled me. “I can believe it. Twi's been awesome so far.”
I felt my cheeks flush. “Aww, thanks. But I didn't do anything that special...”
“Says my little filly who’s saved Equestria,” Mom said.
Sparkler nodded in agreement. “While sparing time to teach magic to a stranger's kids.”
“Whoooa!” Dinky’s eyes widened. “You're almost as cool as Rainbow Dash!”
Dad let out a short chuckle. “That sounds like high praise.”
“Well, Rainbow and I did work together to save Equestria,” I said with a modicum of sarcasm. Of course, I didn’t know what exact version of the story Rainbow had told Dinky. For all I knew, she might have .... highlighted her parts in that story.
“Maybe we could get caught up over dinner?” Mom asked. “It seems like we have a lot to get caught up over.”
“And lunch,” Ditzy agreed. “And I think there's still some coffee going, if you wanted to get started.”
“Might as well,” Mom said. “I have a feeling we’re going to be having a long talk.”
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I have to agree with Twilight, Derpy is a real saint here. (Mind you, of course, she had SOME warning.)
I... am really kind of impressed with Sparkler as well. She didn't do the whole getting-angry-for-being-given-up thing you so often see in these sorts of events. I mean, it's not unrealistic or anything for that, but... Its just nice to see someone reacting other than that way.
REALLY want to see Shiny and Caddy gettin' in on this chaos, too, though.
Oh, and thanks for not dragging this plot point out too long. Nevermind Twilight, it was bugging me too...!
Nice! Sparkler took it too easy........or is she bottling it up?
also, i can't remember the fic, but wasn't Dinky Fancy Pants' daughter?
Hm, didn't Sparkler go crazy over Vinyl earlier in this story, or was it the other one? Wonder how she'll react to THAT reveal.
That was quite the time skip to after the wedding.
Then again, we already saw that part from Twi's point of view in the actual episode so it'd be quite redundant by now
So things are, at least partly, starting to become kinda-sorta sorted out.
Good save with Dinky though, that would have gotten so awkward so fast...
Better drop some sleeping medicine into her food, cast a soundproofing spell on her room when she's asleep, and then get into the heavy stuff about her parentage.
Finally, a chapter that ends on a happy note, it feels like life has been running Twilight over with an eighteen wheeler truck lately.
Keep breaking Twilight like that, and she's going to get stuck you know.
Yay, another loose end tied happily.
reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/awwwww.gif
That went better than I expected. I'm a bit surprised that nobody so much as raised an eyebrow over the revelation that Twilight was dating Cloud considering the whole relationship drama that had just culminated at this time period in the original "Winning Pony"... I didn't think that anyone in Ditzy's family had been aware of that, or Twilight aware of Ditsy's own feelings for the other mare.
I'm a bit sad that we skipped the reception, as it was the one time in continuity where we knew that Twilight, Shining and Vinyl were all together, at least... The two half-sisters DJed and sang while their brother and new sister-in-law had their first dance. If Ditsy, sparkler and Dinky attended, then it was likely the first time the entire family had ever been gathered in the same place (even if they didn't know it.)
So Ditzy's really living up to her doormat image. Here's how I saw this playing out in my mind:
Twilight Velvet: "Hi, we're Sparkler's real parents. Thanks for raising her for us. We're here to be a part of her life now."
Ditzy: "Oh, it's so great to meet you! When I woke up today, I was hoping my daughter's biological parents would sudden—"
Twilight Velvet: "Why are you still here?"
So how's it feel to be the sole driver (I think) of this chunk of Winningverse canon right now?
7136675 With this revelation (to herself, mind you), I think that Sparkler has become one of the most interesting characters in the Winningverse continuity. i mean... Look at how unbelievably successful her siblings all are. The only one that *isn't* recognized as royalty and a savior of the nation is Vinyl Scratch, who apparently is at the top of her profession and the one Sparkler swoons over the most. How do you deal with suddenly feeling like you need to compete with that, and if you can't, does that feed into any insecurities about why you were the one given up for adoption? No wonder she was so frustrated at having to stay in the bunker and do nothing in the New Life and Times story. Hopefully that's something that will be explored more in one of these tales.
Also, I kind of hope we get a more detailed explanation of why she was given up for adoption in the first place. Was it her or Vinyl that they worried would be recognizable as someone other than Night Light's child? It feels like there's a missing puzzle piece still... Giving up the youngest child is a very unusual course of action.
*edit*: Okay, so looking it up in previous chapters, Vinyl was Night Light's daughter by his secretary, and Amethyst was Velvet's daughter by an unidentified party. So Sparkler isn't actually related to Vinyl, technically... They both just share the same half-sister and half-brother.
7136869 I have been led to believe (although I stress I have zero firsthand knowledge) that parents who adopt teenagers are more easily able to separate their ego from their love for the child, as they know that they are not solely responsible for what the child is today and also that the child likely has relationships that predate their own. I can see how that would make a scene such as this easier, where Ditsy's desire for what's best for Sparkler would be less clouded with any fragile ego issues as her real mother suddenly confronted by the birth mother. She was very accommodating though, certainly.
I adore all the stories in the winning-verse, I only wish this story flowed better with Life and Times/New life and times, still super fun read.
7137002 I think it was stated that she looked similar enough to Magetrix that her parentage would be obvious to anyone familiar with the family.
edit: Looked back and didn't actually see anything directly stating that, just that it was immediately obvious that Magetrix was the parent, whether through appearance or through a relationship spell becoming possible to use.
"Or" is probably what you want there.
That's a lot of coffee.
Oh dear.
Yep.
Oh boy.
Aye.
Harsh.
Took the words right outta my mouth.
You are a saint.
SHOTS FIRED!
Yep.
Yep.
i had a feeling that waaaaay back whe twi first found out that her dead sister wasent actualy dead that said sister was sparkler
i guess im just realy friggin good at reading forshadowing and plot curves and whatnot
i mean it just made sence to me
anyone else get that feeling as well?
This is like watching a nuclear bomb detonate into a shower of flowers and fuzzy kitten purrs.
Spectacular yet adorable.
Commence read.
Hm, wonder when the name change happened? Or was it really early in Sparkler's life and she didn't know? Twilight seemed happy to use it, though her mother, not so much.
Glad to see some happy and funny moments in the mix of family tree debacle.
Now for Twilight to try and do a full scale genealogy report.
7137384 They're two names for the same background character. Her not being Twilight's sister would have been a subversion.
Great chapter, one quirk I do want to point out. Derpy could have used one or two more lines during the whole back an do forth. Both verbally and narratively. Beyond that the chapter flows well and another great read.
I'm super disappointed in this. I feel like none of the (Doo) characters really reacted as they should have. Obviously Dinky's reaction is perhaps most reasonable, but she's something of a clueless child so...
Sparkler freaking out makes sense, to be sure, but I'm shocked that she isn't apparently angry or resentful towards parents who literally abandoned her. In the original story, Sparkler is not in a good way after she saw Derpy hit Cloudkicker, largely because of her upbringing, and I can't help but feel like her reaction is off here. It reads sort of like a 'fix fic' fanfiction of your original story, rather than something that you would actually write if you were writing her getting the news. Why isn't she angry? Why isn't she deeply upset by the fact that these ponies had her, and then abandon her?
The similar seems true of Derpy in this chapter: How would you feel if you were a single mother, someone who struggled and worked hard to provide for her children, one of whom she adopted, one of whom was an accident. You have relationship problems, you don't think your marefriend who, in many regards, is one of your better friends and doesn't seem to be as in love with you as you might be with her. You get told by an acquaintance of yours, whom you like but don't know super well that she's found your baby daddy--except, opps, he's getting married so even if he does get informed, Dinky still isn't going to have a father. Which might be even worse.
And then, out of the blue, the parents of that acquaintance rush over, and declare themselves the true parents of one of your daughters, and true grandparents of the other! Rational or not, one would imagine that would be very frightening, for her, especially since they are so much more rich, and presumably, powerfuller than her own family and certainly herself. Not to mention that if Sparkler opened up to Cloudkicker, I'm sure she's opened up to Derpy too, so she has some idea of whatever personal scars might have developed in her daughter due to her lot in life before coming to Derpy.
Oh, and thanks for blurting it out to both of her children so she doesn't even get a chance to break it gently to them, as a mother.
~~
I really enjoyed the earlier chapters, but I feel like, ever since the revelation with Twilight's parents, the story has felt sort of at a loss as to how to handle it. These past few chapters in particular feel rushed and muddled in some regards, which is disappointing.
Sparkler being Twi's sister? CALLED IT!
Yeah, that is a fun family tree!
But wait! Who's gonna tell V?
Well, it finally happened. A bit sooner than I thought it would, too.
...Well, quite frankly, I kind of didn't expect Twilight to look at the letter at all this story.
I'm kind of disappointed with how this played out, though. Pretty much following along with the points 7138193 laid out. The news went far too smoothly over for Sparkler and Ditzy, and especially for how it was delivered.
"a cup of three of"
"or three"?
"way on my mom’s features and she"
"way onto my mom’s features, and she"?
"well have ran to the palace"
"run"?
Yeeeeep. There it is. :)
"So, Sparkler, it turns out that your sister by adoption is also your niece by blood. Ah, surprise? Oh, and yes, that does mean that everything you went through as an orphan was because what is now possibly the single most powerful family in Canterlot (and still on the rise) gave you up."
This ought to go well...
"had come her to start"
"here"?
"dawned on Ditzy’s expression, likely she"
"dawned in Ditzy’s expression; likely she"?
This... actually is going surprisingly well!
"For a very long time. I thought ... you were dead for a long time."
I think it works here, but just in case, were both of those "long time"s meant to be there?
"I can't demand of it from you"
Is that "of" meant to be there?
Ain't no way I'd be able to pull off what Ditzy did. I'm not that kind.
7138193
Also all of the craziness all have to be Sparkle family members? What are the odds?
7138193
This mirrors my feelings to a T. Where is the shock and outrage? Where is the anger? Where is the resentment? This feels unrealistic. This story had a huge arching plot line building up to this crescendo of a chapter and it feels flat to me.
7138449 My money's on no one telling her and she won't be mentioned again in this story.
7139126 7138193
Not everyone has to handle things with shock and outrage. People who manage that level of calm and collected DO exist.
I'm not trying to belittle your concerns, but I do feel it's a bit unfair to call it unrealistic.
This sort of thing doesn't happen to people all the time. While shock and outrage and anger and all the rest are one kind of reaction, another is acceptance, love and support.
Without having ever been in such a situation we can only imagine how we would handle it ourselves, and it's perfectly fine for the reactions of another to not mirror our own.
So, to present my own opinion as a balance point to your own, I felt that this was completely in character for Ditzy. She's been shown time and again to be a loving, caring and above all accepting mare with a big heart. She's had some time of her own to come to terms with Dinky and her situation so it wouldn't be a massive leap to simply apply the same feelings of 'she'll always be my daughter, just with a bigger family' to Sparkler.
In fact, it may be easier with Sparkler, as an adopted child it's always been a possibility that her parents may come looking for her.
Sparkler, well, she's a teenager, she doesn't know how to handle it. It helps that these are people she knows and likes, but she's still processing things. She'll decide properly what her feelings are in time, and I bet there will be some degree of anger and resentment there, but probably not enough to cloud the overall happy feels.
So yea, while Twilight as always has to make things awkward, I felt that while this may have felt like it was leading to an explosion, I for one am glad it didn't go off with a bang. Overwrought may be easier to write, and possibly easier for the reader to digest, I prefer seeing the arguably much harder road of having open hearts and minds, battling the desire to rage and kick and make things difficult.
Just offering a different opinion all round.
I've been looking forwards to this revelation. You've done a great job building up to this point. However the final execution was a touch disappointing. I'll break down exactly why I feel that is the case:
- Ditzy took it incredibly well, so much so that she's practically a saint. Considering her past reactions to Cloud, I feel this is out of character for her. There are two reasons she should be majorly upset. Firstly the family who abandoned her daughter showed up abruptly claiming parenthood over a child she painstakingly brought up as a single parent. Secondly her theoretical in-laws show up claiming grandparenthood over a grandchild who ditto she painstakingly brought up AND whose dad just gallevanted off to marry a PRINCESS in the most dramatic royal marriage Equestria has seen to date. That's already a triple insult in one go. AND secondly, the Sparkles decide to disrespect her and her status as legal parent by going ahead and breaking the news directly to her children WITHOUT first consulting with her in private. That's just plain insensitive and tactless. That's a quadruple insult right there. Even the most levelheaded person should go ballistic or at least break down in tears at that. And with Ditzy her pregnancy ruined her life and got her practically disowned by her family and thrown out on the street. The fact that she managed to raise Dinky was a feat of heroics. I think there should be at least an old scar or two opened up even IF the Sparkles had thought to use a little tact. Their mindlessly abrupt approach should have done nothing short of tearing them open.
- Sparkler has been to hell and back as a child because of her abandonment. Even if she was mild tempered and not traumatized by her childhood, she would at the very least show some wariness, maybe even ask why she was abandoned. But she isn't mild tempered, not in the slightest. And her running out on her mom when she struck Cloud shows just how deep her childhood trauma still runs. Meeting the parents who abandoned her must cause her at least an equal amount if not more distress.
In short, I liked the build up to this point, well done with that. But it feels like your climax could have been so much more.
Not going to lie. I expected Sparkler to explode. That's not to say that it won't happen in the near future, as the shock of the whole situation may wear off to reveal the smoldering anger underneath. A few people have mentioned that the big reveal seems to have gone over a bit TOO well, but I'll give it time to see if the other shoe drops.
I love this story, and I'll complain a bit if it stretches my ability to suspend disbelief, but I'm fine with where it's going, even if the road seems unusually smooth.
Wonderful work, as usual. This story always keeps my mind churning out possibilities for me to pick over, and I'm more often than not on the edge of my seat with every new chapter.
7136869
CiG has a bit of a point. I feel like this chapter was rushed. There was a lot of room for realistic and understandable emotional frustration before people came to terms with the situation and accepted it for what it was, even if actually becoming okay with it would take several chapters.
Instead Derpy has, from the main series, believed her daughters are more or less the only thing worth living for, and she runs herself ragged every day to provide for them and love them unconditionally and put up with their issues. That's why Rainbow being their godmom was such a big deal, as well as Cloud being considered part of their family. Now Derpy's just ":D Oh look my entire family actually belongs to Twilight. Twilight is one of those dating Cloud on the side, my littlest daughter has been adopted into Twilight's family because of Shining, and my adopted daughter was their abandoned/'dead' daughter this WHOLE TIME. It's so great that my raison d'etre has been co-opted into Twilight's circle without me."
At this point it feels like the story's diverging enough that it needs to be an AU of Winningverse rather than the premise of "This is another side of the story as it happened in the main series, from Twilight's perspective." These reveals are huge enough that they would have had a lasting impact on the main storyline.
7136675 oh jeez how did I forget that?
7140416
Wow, I never actually thought about what Twilight implying she's dating Cloud would do to Derpy. Even though it's not on the same level, Derpy is still probably very sensitive to hearing anything about Cloud's love life now that she's not a part of it.
7139761
I'm not saying they wouldn't be able to come to terms with it, but no so quickly, and not so easily.
One of the good things Winning Pony did for Derpy, as a character, was that it took a relatively simple, sweet, character, and gave her enough dimensions that you could believe that she was a real person with real wants and desires, hopes and dreams, fears and worries. Here's it's like she's gone back to being one dimensional. Twilight calls her a saint like figure, and I think that sums up the problem: Derpy isn't a a saint, saints aren't really characters, they're more one dimensional, good symbols, rather than actual people. One of the things we learn growing up is that our parents are not saints, not infallible, and Derpy certainly is fallible and capable of being human just like the rest of us.
7136869
It's particularly troubling when you consider that this is basically how Twilight's parents have been acting all along--extremely selfishly. I've always struggled with the idea that these ponies were so torn up by, so regretful, of having to give up their daughter, that a 'day didn't go by that they didn't wish they could undo [her] mistake'. They say this, and yet there's simply no evidence for it. Why didn't they go and look for their missing daughter? Go and leave their jobs and do whatever else they had to do to fix what they had done?
Consider, for contrast, that it took Twilight Sparkle less than 12 hours to locate her missing sister (And basically no effort on her part either!). Near the start of this chapter, we get an exchange where Twilight snarkedly says:
Velvet tries to brush it off as 'they didn't mean it that way' but in truth I feel like this is a rare time when Velvet is being honest with herself and Twilight--Shining's kid is something they see as an inconvenience, just like they saw Sparkler as one. Twilight's parents strike me as politicians, selfish politicians, who are only looking out for themselves.
Twilight's mother muscling in and displacing Derpy is even evident within the text too:
Frankly, it's rather disturbing that this is her reaction to finding out her lost daughter has a special somepony; why the fuck does she think she gets material privileges when she hasn't been the girl's mother her whole life?
Twilight is to conversational ice breakers what 4 kilos of dynamite are to actual sheets of ice.
And great to see the payoff from all this family drama, finally. And it all went better than expected, too. I'm expecting this to last for all of maybe a chapter and a half more before the emotional yelling starts.
7140703
Yeah, that line was particularly egregious to me. It suggests Velvet is well on the way to mentally undoing the whole "giving Amethyst up for adoption" thing, which of course logically leads to "Ditzy isn't Sparkler's real mother, I am."
7140703
The more I think about this, the more baffled I am. This chapter takes several difficult problems and resolves them all in a single, untroubled swoop.
Let's ask a few questions:
How, precisely, do Twilight Velvet and company expect to explain themselves when Sparkler asks for a few specifics?
Sparkler: it must've been hard to give me up for adoption, right? That would be difficult for your friends and family to understand.
Twilight Velvet: You're right, honey. That's why we didn't just give you up for adoption -- we actually faked your death.
Sparkler: Oh, that's, um... Well, that's okay. Fortunately I don't suffer from any rejection issues. Also I'm sure you abandoned that fraud as soon as you began to realize what a mistake it was to give me up.
Twilight Velvet: Yes! Well, technically no. In fact we were still pretending you were dead until just yesterday. If you want, we can go visit your grave in Canterlot!
Sparkler: That... Sounds great.
Twilight Velvet: Now that I think about it, we've actually shown your grave more love than we ever have you. I wonder if that's symbolic of anything.
It doesn't end there! Awkward questions abound.
Ditzy: How exactly did you find us? I thought adoption records were sealed to prevent this exact thing from happening.
Twilight Velvet: Well, it turns out that our other daughter is one of Celestia’s best friends, so she just asked and Celestia gave us your address.
(Alternate version)
Twilight Velvet: It turns out there are no such laws in Equestria!
Sparkler: Then why did you wait almost twenty years, and fake my death the whole time? What changed yesterday?
Twilight Velvet: Well, we've been very busy with the children we kept.
The awkwardness goes both ways.
Twilight Velvet: So, how was life after we abandoned you? It looks like you're pretty happy now.
Sparkler: I spent years drifting through various foster homes, abused and unloved, feeling worthless, until Ditzy adopted me. Now we struggle to get by in a single-parent household on a mailmare's salary.
Doormat: Honey, you can still call me 'mom' if you--
Twilight Velvet: I'd prefer she just call you 'Ditzy.' I'm her mom now.
Doormat: That seems reasonable.
The degree to which this chapter took a variety of difficult, wrenching issues and resolved them with a blanket "And everyone was just fine!" is shocking to me. I can't comprehend how real people would ever react like these characters.
Unless there is some incredible reckoning for the selfishness, bad-faith, and blatant opportunism being shown by Twilight Velvet and her entire family coming soon, this chapter will have accomplished something rare and sad: turned me off of a story I enjoyed.
7141406
There's so many ways this chapter could have resolved itself.
The problem in someways is that we have Twilight's parents forcing Twilight to open the letter, whether she's actually ready to do so or not. The issue is, and this is brought up in the chapter where Twilight gets the letter from Celestia:
Even if Twilight's ready, her parents certainly aren't and (this is an aside, but why the hell is Night Light there? It isn't his kid. Does anyone even give a damn about Magetrix*?). I've been thinking about how this drama might resolve itself, because I thought it might help me with my own writing, to see another author do so, and as such I can't help but think Twilight should have just burned the letter unopened. I realize that's likely an unpopular action for Twilight to take, but I think it would have at least prevented her parents from barging into Derpy's family and disrupting it wholesale.
This is weird too. Velvet hadn't done anything to earn that in Sparkler's eyes--not like Ditzy or even Cloud Kicker.
*It must be nice, for Sparkler, to be essentially officially acknowledged as part of their family... Unlike Vinyl.
7141406
While reading this chapter, I just knew that people were going to complain about this "family reunion" going way too smoothly and lo and behold, I was right! Who are you to say that real people wouldn't react this way under these circumstances? There's no telling how people might behave after having something so life-changing dumped on them!
Nopony has forgotten what happened. Sparkler didn't forget the abuse and neglect she had suffered. Ditzy didn't forget how she had to raise Dinky all on her own. This entire reunion is a farce. Ditzy and Sparkler know that most of the things the Sparkle family has done to them are unforgivable, but right now they haven't had time to digest all of that yet. They're trying to make it work somehow, just like Twilight Velvet is wishing it could. They all kind of wish they could be a happy, big family, but they know only too well that it's not going to work out that way. Right now, they are all completely overwhelmed with the news. Too overwhelmed to start asking the really important questions. How can you feel anger when the revelation that has been dumped on you makes you emotionally numb? After such a revelation, you don't feel anything for a while. To be fair, it really depends entirely on the individual. Some react with anger, others with emotional numbness, others might even go into a catatonic state. Also, due to Derpy having raised Sparkler with love and care, she didn't let her hatred for her biological parents fester like if Sparkler had still been living in an orphanage or with that pony who abused her.
My point is that the trouble has only just begun. This has only gone so smoothly now due to everypony being completely overwhelmed with the news. Once everypony has had some time to digest this, the really uncomfortable questions will come up. I won't be even surprised if this ends with a permanent rift between the Doos and the Sparkles.
7141949 Yup, pretty much how I feel. There's also the Dinky factor. For one, I don't think anyone wants to make a scene in front of her. Also, she's a very compelling reason for everyone to work their hardest to make things come out well.
That being said, I'm predicting Derpy tears Velvet's head off in the near future, and the Sparkle manor mysteriously burns down while Sparkler's mood visibly perks up. Twilight, meanwhile, is strangely unfazed.
Seriously, this chapter's only making me gleefully rub my hands together in anticipation of the fallout.
Personally, I would imagine that the shock factor is keeping a lot of the underlying problems from boiling over. Right now everyone's still processing all the incoming craziness of these family revelations. All the uglier implications and issues are going to need a bit to shake out.
This chapter is the first step in a LONG process to figure out how the heck to handle the mess.
7142328
Yeah, I agree. I'm sure they're trying to keep the discussion as civil as possible for the sake of Dinky. Derpy also already knew about Dinky, so she had some forewarning.
In any case, I've been looking forward to this for ages and this chapter took me way longer to read than usual because I was so excited throughout it. I'm just wondering whether this is canon with regards to the Winningverse? The New Life of a Winning Pony seems to skirt around most of the things revealed here. Chengar Qordath is one of the prereaders and I'm sure he helped Ponibius with the story to some extent, so I guess it probably is canon.
7143675
Rude, much? I'm not calling for there to be a war between the Sparkles and the Doos. I'm just saying that what Velvet and Night Light did is nigh on unforgivable. Of course, they're trying to make up for their past mistakes now, but the damage has already been done and these scars will never heal. Sparkler was completely abandoned by her own parents to the point that she was declared to be dead, grave and all!
Every single bad memory that Sparkler has about her being raised as an orphan can be blamed on them, for they were the ones who forced her to experience all this! I simply do not see Sparkler ever completely forgiving them for this, it is just not in her character to do so.
The only reason why Sparkler didn't get aggressive with them is that she simply no longer even expected for her to ever find out the identity of her real parents. She is Derpy's daughter now and she has embraced this fully. I wonder if she even wanted to know who her real parents were at this point, but Velvet and Night Light didn't even give her that chance.
In one fell swoop, Sparkler has had her entire world turned upside down. She needs some time to digest this. She doesn't even know what to think of all this at this point. As of now, she is just going through the motions, but the implications of what all of this means haven't fully hit her yet.
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Excuse you, I am a lemur. We are prosimians, not monkeys. Good DAY sir.
7143125
I like how you say "personally", as if you had absolutely no idea what's coming next, Chengar. I'm sure Ponibius is keeping you posted on everything that is going to happen. In any case, the trouble has clearly only just begun. Once the shock factor has worn out, all these issues that have been bothering Sparkler and Derpy for ages will come to the forefront. The shit is about to hit the fan.
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Are you sure? Is there any evidence beyond Twilight's deduction? As far I remember the unique think that confirms it is the hair from a hairbrush in a bathroom that Dinky and Sparkler share.
I can't remember the fic, but it was in the winningverse and Celestia thought it to herself when Twilight was chatting with her about Derpy's daughers... maybe it has been 2 years since the fic has been publish?
7143125
I'll take your word on that, considering you of course know way more than us readers do, though that LONG process you are talking about sounds unlikely, at least within the scope of this story, as it seems obvious this story won't be going for too much longer. If it's going to show up in New Life or other possible stories considered "canon", its absence in the chapters already out feel even stranger, considering Derpy's fears of losing her kids have been discussed but this situation didn't come up at all. ...unless, of course, Derpy doesn't trust Cloud with this information or it was supposed to have been discussed off-screen. *
I hope you guys know where you are going with this or how you are going to handle it, I love the world and characters you've built quite a lot.
* I don't know how spoilers for on-going and relatively recent stories should be handled, so I'll risk being overly cautious here.
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I don't see anyone calling for there to be a war between them here, rather people are expressing frustration at how the characters are behaving in a way that doesn't seem to work with their previous portrayals in their eyes. Expecting Sparkler or Derpy to blow up at this shouldn't be too unreasonable, no?
[citation needed] as you seem to be seeing things that aren't there.