Shining Armor trotted to Princess Celestia's study with all due haste. His presence had been requested at an inconvenient time, so he had been dashing around all morning. It was now mid afternoon and he was hurrying, hoping that he'd make it on time. Rounding the final corner, he came to an abrupt stop, head sagging and breathing heavily. He nodded mutely, still breathing heavily, to the guards a moment later. They opened the door for him and motioned him. "The Princess is ready to see you, Captain." Shining walked obediently into the study, as the doors shut behind him.
"Ah, finally, so good to see you Captain!" The Princess seemed awfully tense behind her usual mask of patient benevolence. She motioned to him. "Do take a seat." Relaxing, Shining Armor sat, heavily, on the indicated cushion. I hear you caused your sister significant distress, Captain, you should be more careful." Shining shrank a little. Great, he should have known this would come back to bite him. Work and personal life were never truly separate when you were married to one Princess and brother to another Princess' personal student...
"I'm sure Cadence had a chat with you, Shining, but since I had to deal with a very distraught unicorn I thought we might talk." Shining Armor nodded hesitantly. "Between the two of us, Shining, your sister can get a little emotionally worked up, and finding out that you're adopted is very hard on a pony in our society, especially Canterlot." She looked at him rather pointedly.
"I know, Princess, and I ought to apologize, but I didn't want to bring it up again..."
Celestia seemed to think about this for a moment. "Sooner might be better than later,
it's not good to let this kind of thing go. Cadence will probably bug you until you deal with it anyway."
"Heh, yeah, probably.", Shining said, glancing around to see whether his wife might have somehow entered unheard. Comforted, strangely, by the absence of a certain pink Alicorn, he relaxed in his seat. Noticing how tense Celestia seemed, it only seemed fit to inquire. "Are you okay, Princess? You seem a little tense." Celestia jerked, startled out of her thoughts.
"I'm fine, just a little tired. Everypony seems to forget that alicorns aren't utterly perfect in every way." She shouldn't lie, she thought, but then that was only a half-truth. She was a bit tired, but it didn't have much to do with sleeping – unless, of course, you counted not sleeping very well these past several days.
As it was, her mind seemed determined to play out all possible scenarios where Twilight never found out who her real mother was. It shouldn't bother her so much, she tried to convince herself, but then how many of her children had been part of her regular life, much less been her personal student and that was long ago.
Sweeping away the thoughts, she returned her focus to the present. "Captain, you are dismissed. That is, unless you need something?" Celestia tried to give the vague impression that if he wanted to avoid Cadence, who often stopped in to see Celestia, when he didn't have anywhere else to be, that he might want to get going. It was disingenuous of her, but it served her purposes.
"Yes, your majesty. Or rather, no, nothing else I need." Shining Armor snapped a salute and with the gesture returned left in a dignified haste.
Earlier that day
Twilight eyed her room critically. What a mess. She really should clean up, she missed having Spike around to keep things tidy. I ought to put that on that on the checklist, she thought, grabbing a sheet and a quill from desk with a quick telekinesis spell. She jotted the thought down and then folded the sheet and tucked it into her packed bags, then settled them on her flank. Whistling softly, she climbed down the stairs. Another day of research, what fun! If only it were a less depressing and disheartening topic she thought to herself.
"See you later, Twilight" Night Lighted called from the kitchen. "Yep. See you later too,.. Dad." Still not over that, she thought sadly, detecting the slight drag in calling him Dad. It still didn't feel quite right, maybe okay, but not right.
A long walk later, Twilight arrived at the archives. This time, her destination certain, she didn't stop to talk to the receptionist, but headed straight to the third floor.
In the absence of a better place to start, she had decided to work on a bit of a family tree. She'd have to work on this blind, because she assumed her parents might not be forthcoming. Setting her saddlebags on the table, she walked over to the shelves.
Scanning the shelves, she selected six separate books based on what she could remember of her "parents" and "grandparents" birthdays.
Much later that afternoon, Twilight Sparkle sat in front of a drawn out tree connecting her known "family". The days effort only left her with her parents and their parents birthdays and relations. and her brother. On the left side a name was written, "Dusk Flame Sparkle", circled in red with a question mark beside it. The most interesting information she'd gained was that her mother might have had a sibling, or maybe the mark out was a spelling mistake. It wasn't really possible to tell and her mother likely wouldn't confirm or deny anything. Twilight and her mother could be notoriously stubborn at times.
She sighed. The day hadn't been entirely worthless, she had consulted the adoption records, in between fruitless work, and found that fifteen percent or more of foals in Canterlot were adopted, mostly from within the city proper though and only rarely by those of noble birth. She hadn't found any proof of her being adopted though, merely a statement of a transfer of legal guardianship. It wasn't particularly clear *from* whom said guardianship might have been transferred. It couldn't have been her father, since he had died before she was born. It could have been her mother, but if so, why didn't the records indicate who she was? The seal of the crown was irrelevant and useless, since the monarchy effectively confirmed all legal matters indirectly.
Dissatisfied with her results, and resolving to dig deeper, Twilight tidied up her paper and quills, placing them in her saddlebags. Satisfied that everything was in order, she lifted her saddlebags onto her flanks magically, securing them in the process. With some effort, she collected all the books from the table and systematically shelved them, before heading down the stairs.
She slipped out the front doors of the archives, into the rain. "Ugh.", she muttered to herself, magicking her saddlebags so they would stay dry. Then she hurried home through the rain.
She arrived at home, tired and wet. Twilight pushed open the door, waved hello to her parents and went upstairs, dripping water droplets all the way.
"Twilight! Could you please not drip all over the house?", said Twilight Velvet from the kitchen.
Twilight sighed. "Yes, -mom-". In her frustration, she put extra emphasis on the mom. There was silence from the kitchen. She sighed, then quietly headed upstairs to the bathroom after using her magic to dry up the wet spots.
Early Evening
*knock, knock*
Yes...?
Twilight walked over to the door, opening it halfway. When she saw who it was, her pupils shrank in size.
"What do you want now? Any new stunning revelations?"
She put her hoof up to her mouth with a slightly shocked look. Yeah, she was mad, but clearly she wasn't as over that as she thought. Twilight stood there half-way between apologizing for her words and just shutting the door and crying.
Shining Armor cringed at her words, and the tone of voice. He'd been afraid this might happen, it was why he'd been so reluctant to even go see her. If it hadn't been for Cadence, his discomfort might have gotten the better of him.
"I just wanted to say that I’m sorry, Twilight...", he said, stopping when he saw that she was a bit out of it. So he waited for her to recover.
"Where were we?", Twilight muttered, still looking very strained.
"I was saying that I was sorry for my words the other day."
"I see. Well it'd be really great if you could NEVER do that again! You have no idea what it's like to find out that your parents aren't your parents and you were told this, not politely, but by your drunken brother!"
"I'm really sorry, Twiley... I just don't want it to be like this between us forever."
Twilight sighed. " Fine. I forgive you. Is there anything else you'd like to share?"
Shining Armor relaxed a bit, and sat down in the doorway. "No, not really. Although while we're talking about family, did mom and dad ever tell you about my uncle?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Nope, never heard of him."
"Well, he was a unicorn too, duh right? He was in the royal guard and I really found him inspiring and that's the other reason I wanted to be in the guard. He died when I was five years old. Mom and Dad adopted you right around then, and well I was really happy to have a little sister."
You might want to remove that editor text about adding a chart there in the middle of your story.
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Yeah, thanks. It was an idle thought anyway.
As someone who has also read Just Words and found the lack of resolution supremely unsatisfying, I thank you for taking the time and effort to deliver this little quasi-sequel. I hope the project is still ongoing and hasn't died down completely *pokes with stick to see if it's moving*
As for the story itself ... ouch, I'm feeling more and more sorry for Twilight and losing respect for everyone else (except Luna). Now that Twilight actually knows she is adopted, and also realizes that her 'family' knows about her actual parents, it's about time they manned up and told her the truth. The cat is effectively out of the bag, and them refusing her information at this point simply shows lack of respect for Twi and her feelings on the subject. She is the most affected party, and whether she wants to know or not - that's her bloody choice to make. To deliberately withhold the information at this point is simply low on Velvet's part who should just choke on her stubborn pride, and her 'father' is apparently a spineless wimp. No respect for either of her "parents" and dropping steadily.
As for Celestia herself ... whoo boy. Let's just say it's about time she stopped thinking of her political convenience and actually started thinking like a mother, if she actually wants to convenience me that she respects and cares for Twilight's opinions on the matter above her own feelings of guilt and the feeble political excuses she hides behind to postpone the confrontation.
Fact of the matter is, Twilight is already the one and only student of Princess Celestia, the Element of Magic (a rather unique and arguably irreplaceable position that has been vital to Equestria's survival) and savior of the realm several times over, is the sister of a Prince (and thus effectively part of the royal family) and on friendly and close terms with Princess Cadence. And by "friendly and close" I mean "devolving in to giggling schoolfillies and engaging in silly dances" friendly.
In other words, she is already a priority one target for anyone who would want to strike out against Equestria OR the royal family. Amusingly enough, her being revealed to be Celestia's daughter doesn't change a whole lot about her desirability as a target for assassinations or similar radical actions - she is already at the very top of the list for a number of reasons, a cherry on top at this point changes little. For the same reasons, she is likely long since used to politicians seeking to exploit her importance in Equestria's hierarchy and the games they play. While I imagine this would lengthen the line of noble suitors seeking to get under her tail (ones that Shining has probably been chasing off, seeing we haven't seen any - ever) as this would only add to her already supreme eligibility as a mare to wed for anyone seeking to exploit her closeness to the crowns, overall on this front it also adds little in terms of what already wasn't there.
What ticked me off even more was Celestia pondering whether she should go public with this or not in the first place - sorry, but I don't feel that's your decision to make at this point, Princess, but Twilight's. You tossed that connection to the winds when you left Twilight with foster parents for your perceived convenience when you couldn't pony up and raise and look after your own daughter, so you better stop thinking about yourself and actually ask Twilight whether she wants this to be public knowledge ... whether Twi actually wants to be associated with Celestia in this manner after the reveal in the first place.
Most of all though, she (or someone) should just man up and tell Twilight about it before she finds out on her own - because that would be by far the worst way for her to come to the knowledge. As it is, those closest to her are already effectively lying through omission and purposefully keeping her in the dark. If Celestia comes clean on her own, it at least shows she respects Twilight's right to know and is actually willing to at least try and atone for her past actions, by throwing herself at Twilight's mercy. That gesture alone as a starting point could go a long way towards fixing things between them.
If Twilight finds out on her own though ... well then, that sends a completely opposite message - that her family (adopted or otherwise) didn't respect her right to know, were conspiring to keep the truth from her for their own benefit and had no intention of telling her. And attempted to placate her at that point by "we would have told you eventually" would be exactly that - empty platitudes that can't be trusted, nay, that she would be smart not to trust, given the past clearly shows Celestia The Politician willing to manipulate the truth concerning the matter.
And at that point it would be much harder for Twi to forgive and to ever trust those involved, and one can't say if the bond could ever be truly repaired. Now that she knows as much as she does ... it's about time she were let in on the rest, lest she stumble on it on her own and draws her own bitter conclusions from it. Which way it will go ... well, I hope this story is still alive so we can find out.
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Wow, what a long comment. Just want to say I appreciate the thought you put into that. To answer some of your questions, I hope, it's not dead. The writing just got delayed a lot. Might be spoilers, but in my mind, only Twilight's mother and father and maybe one or two other unknown ponies know the whole truth of the matter. That's if we exclude Celestia and Luna.
I don't really see it as pride, but Twilight Velvet (I think what's I settled on for a name...) is certainly supremely stubborn and I suppose there is a sense of pride there. I wasn't trying to make her father seem overly spineless, simply to convey the sense that he doesn't want to be at odds with his wife. He'd probably get a real chewing out from her if he let on. I'm probably not good at this, but things would get pretty torn up at home if I was bolder or better writer. A shouting match would be interesting, but i'd probably run out of stuff for them to say.
I see Celestia as, theoretically at least, being worried about the political fallout on Twilight's behalf. The political convenience for her is more of a hidden motive, one that she may pretend to herself doesn't exist. Nevertheless, it does play a big role, I think.. Technically, if she never confirmed it, then there might be no way to prove it in this case. I'm assuming ponies don't have DNA testing tech, the best case would be that Twilight is awfully powerful for a unicorn and that's flimsy proof at best.
In my mind, Twilight's pretty sheltered in Ponyville, and she's too common/low in the nobility in this era to be considered by most suitors. To be legitimized as the daughter of Celestia would bring a lot more external attention to bear. Blueblood is only her nephew, being her son-in-law would be a lot closer. Not sure if I'm prepared to explore that rabbit-hole, with suitors and whatnot.
I agree, it would be best if Celestia would tell her, the sooner the better. The longer Celestia waits, the worse it reflects on her and the more Twilight learns on her own becomes frustrated/angry. In my planning, the reason for her parents not telling her isn't about her right to know, it's more about Twilight's mother's relationship/feelings with/about Celestia...
I'm sorry for taking a long time. I've hit a snag in the story on naming her grandparents, among other things, maybe I'll go borrow some from Pen Stroke... he seems to have handled that well. I'm still working out how this all pans out. Part of it is that the first chapter occurs after the present story. So, in theory, Celestia's been twiddling her hooves all this time while Twilight is out having a go at figuring it out herself. Especially since she wants to know, and Celestia doesn't seem to think it's important... We know how our dear Princess' estimation errs strongly at times... Nightmare Moon, anyone?
3038139
Hey, I generally figure that if people take the time and effort to write all the interesting fictions around this site, the least I can do is leave behind a decent comment on the ones I read :P
And aye, I realize that Night Light would probably get in a shouting match with Velvet if he told Twilight the truth (assuming Twi didn't shout her down in to the ground first, heh), and he is trying to avoid that, but this is actually why I hold both of them in so low a regard - Twilight just got her life upended on her and is scrambling in the dark now (growing ever more desperate and hurt over it, as you said), but he cares more about avoiding a heated discussion with Velvet than about Twilight's emotional well-being and her right to know! From there, it's easy to ask the question of how much he cares about Twilight at all (and I'm sure she is asking), if he'd rather shrug at the ordeal instead of braving his wife.
Same for Velvet - if her pride and stubbornness takes precedence over Twilight in this situation ... well then, there are few kind things I have to say about her. Priorities, people!
Regarding Celestia supposedly sheltering Twi from political fallout, like I said - it might not seem like it at first glance (and Twi herself would never make a big deal out of it), but Twilight is actually pretty close to the top of Equestria's ruling hierarchy - nod directly involved of course, but Princess Cadence (Crystal Empress?) is her sister-in-law and childhood foalsitter. Prince Shining Armor is her brother. She is Celestia's student, meaning she is closer to the sun princess than just about anyone else save Luna and perhaps Cadence/Shining.
Twilight, effectively, has the ear of Equestria's ruling monarchy 24/7, should she wish for it. Parts of said monarchy are her direct family. Even if she herself doesn't have any direct role in Equestria's government, she has such close and personal ties to the upper echelons that nobles would normally be drooling at the prospect of getting her favor and using her for their own ends - because having the ear and attention of Twilight essentially means you have the ear of the rulers of the kingdom.
She may not be of noble birth (as far as anyone knows, obviously), but with Shining Armor marrying Cadence, by association Twilight's social standing is above just about anyone save perhaps Blueblood - that would be a huge prize for any noble house to snatch. Obviously Twi is content to live her life in Ponyville and not worry about it, but politically savvy and grabby nobles would very much have her on the radar - as would those looking for a proxy through which they could hurt the thrones. Those are already part of her life, subdued as the factors might appear.
But even then, that's almost besides the point, and Celestia should feel ashamed for not considering this - whatever additional attention being her daughter would place on Twilight should this go public, that should be Twilight's decision to make. Maybe Twi would find the truth the best thing ever and prance down the street while singing about it, rest be damned, happy to stand at her mother's side and proud of the fact.
Maybe she would be disgusted and feel betrayed beyond belief, cutting all her ties with Celestia and pretending the truth never came out, not wanting to be associated with the Princess in any personal capacity and letting Celestia sit on her precious secret. Maybe something in-between. But that should be her decision to make ... and I can't believe Celestia hasn't considered that, which is why I accused her of using this all as one big excuse to postpone the confrontation over her feelings of guilt. She made a poor decision all those years back and doesn't want to man up and simply face the consequences.
And like you said - all this is happening while Twilight is running around and trying to dig out the truth on her own. She is explicitly showing that she wants to know the truth - while everyone involved (be it Celestia or her 'parents') seem more concerned with sitting on their backsides and avoiding to take responsibility, rather than doing what should be done and then letting Twi decide what she wants to do with the information and facing the consequences of their actions (or inactions, as the case might be). It's well past the point where they can pretend nothing is wrong.
Bah, Luna should just throw a wrench in the works and dissolve the situation herself or something :P (Or maybe not, finding out from an uninvolved party would be akin to finding out for herself, aka the Worst Case Scenario. Hmm ... then again, Luna is effectively Twilight's aunt. Not exactly an unconcerned party either, and at least Twi would know that one member of the family cares.)
3038285 Maybe you should be the one writing. :P Why haven't you got anything on here?
As for Luna being Twilight's aunt, she wouldn't be biologically speaking., going by the details of Just Words. Not that I am entirely against deviating from that, but it does give me a framework to work from. I've got Luna sort of pressuring Celestia here, maybe not as much as she could though. In my headcanon, the two sisters are both reasonably experienced in many things (even considering 1000 year gaps), with the possible exceptions of personal, intimate relationships which they would likely avoid for several reasons. Immortality, or really long life for one, but also having to deal with the repercussions of their actions later. Maybe they haven't always, but it's easy to imagine the circumstances of NMM and the last thousand years might have been different than before.
Well Shining Armor just gave Twilight a big clue on where to look for more details about her father. I imagine, given who she is and that she is family, that having his military records pulled wouldn't be too much of an issue. If that will get her any closer to figuring out who her mother is, is another matter. One thing bugs me: a few chapters back, why did Luna imediately assume that Celestia's foal would have been an Alicorn?
I am really looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
3042815
That is a good question. Unfortunately I don't have a good answer. Oversight on my part, I guess.Of course, you assume that all ponies with both wings and a horn are alicorns.
I haven't really decided for myself whether or not there are more alicorns or even if immortality is an alicorn thing. Personally I'm inclined to think, at least perhaps for this story that there could be other alicorns or winged unicorns. Perhaps only Luna and Celestia are immortal and not because they are alicorns, but instead for some other reason. On the other hand, if there were winged ponies with horns that weren't alicorns, an alicorn parent would be an obvious possibility. Especially since if you occasionally get winged unicorns then a parent or ancestor with both wings and a horn would be more likely to have descendants with both.
I guess I just wanted to say that that could be a possibility and would be an obvious first thing to look for. Barring that conclusive proof seems like it would be hard to find.