The Worth of Words

by StormyVenture

Chapter 6 - Useful Information

"Shining?"

"Yes, Twilight?"

"Do you remember anything from when I was adopted?"

Shining scratched his chin with his hoof, staring out into empty space. Several minutes later he put his hoof back on the floor.

"Yeah, I do, actually. Mom and Princess Celestia used to be pretty good friends, until they were having a conversation one day. They seemed to be arguing about something and Mom sent me to my room."

He paused for a moment.

"She stopped visiting after that, the Princess that is. I asked Mom what happened to Auntie 'lestia. Mom told me to never mention that name again. I guess she was pretty angry. I never could figure that out. From that day on we never stuck around if Celestia showed up where we were. Dad and I were always frustrated about it and we missed some fun stuff because of it."

Shining frowned. Twilight sat thoughtfully and attentively.

"Mom almost never came to visit me when I was at the royal guard academy either, except to take me home and drop me off again. Sometimes we had to leave in a hurry, because the Princess was there. She came to graduation, but she seemed awful tense and she and dad left as soon as they could."

"I wonder why that was, she didn't seem to be acting strangely when Celestia announced the ponies accepted into her school, me included.", said Twilight

Shining raised an eyebrow, then thought about that for a second. "No, she didn't, did she. That does seem odd."

"When did your uncle die?", asked Twilight.

"I'm not really sure exactly. Mom told me that he had died one day when I asked when he was coming to visit again." Shining wiped a glistening tear from his eye. "I think maybe it was around the time of the Princess' last visit. I think maybe she came to talk to Mom about it."

"Do you know what his name was?" Twilight asked.

"Well, duh." said Shining belligerently. "Well, at least Mom called him Dusk. I seem to recall calling him uncle D."

Shining shuddered.

"I'm sure I was a cute colt, but ugh. You'd think I could have managed to say his name."

Twilight considered this detail. What were the odds. The pieces seemed to point to the possibility that her father and Shining's uncle may have been the same pony. He had the same name as Shining's uncle and the death of Shining's uncle coincided with his death, both prior to her adoption. Perhaps the obscured information in the record wasn't an accident, but why would anyone do that? She didn't want to bring it up with her mother. It would likely pain her, and there was no knowing how she'd react if Twilight pressed this issue. Her dad had been pretty clear that it was a sensitive issue. Maybe she could visit her grandmother and find out more about her mother and shining's uncle?

"Hmm.. Well, don't let me keep you, Shining, I'm sure you have other things to do.

Shining sighed and said good-bye. He hoped Cadence wasn't right outside.

Twilight thought about when was the best time to visit. It was already late in the evening, so today was probably out. Maybe tomorrow? No, she was doing stuff with family tomorrow. The day after next then. Grabbing a quill in her magic she dipped it in a inkwell, then grabbed a sheet of paper. Time to make a checklist.

* spend tomorrow with family
* go see grandmother day after tomorrow
* ask about Shining's uncle

She sighed, hopefully she'd get some answers soon. She still didn't have a clue who her mother was. With luck, perhaps she could perhaps figure out what happened to Shining's uncle from her "grandparents". The thought stung a little. They'd always treated her well, but it hurt to think that she probably wasn't related in the way she'd used to think. Maybe she'd go to the castle later and see whether anyone there knew anything. Surely, if he'd had a special somepony, someone would remember seeing them together? If nothing else, perhaps she could disprove her theory. It would probably hurt, but she'd need to make some progress if she wanted to get closer to the answers.

Twilight frowned, sinking a bit further into her cushion. If only someone could just tell her. It wasn't like it could hurt much more at this point, right? And what exactly was going on with her mother? Sure, according to Shining, she'd been this way for a long time, but how could she not have noticed? There had to be a reason. Setting aside that thought, Twilight pulled another sheet of paper to her, then dipped her quill in the ink again.

She began writing a letter to Spike.

Dear Spike,

I probably won't be back for a few more days. I've recently learned some distressing things. Please don't read this aloud and don't tell anyone! Turns out I was adopted, my stupid brother just had to tell me while he was drunk... Still wondering why Mom and Dad never told me. Anyway, sorry you're stuck there. Well, less sorry than I should be. Anyway, hope you're okay. Don't forget to keep the books shelved.

P.S.

I miss you.

Twilight

After signing her name, she folded the sheet and then held a candle over the paper until a puddle of wax formed. Levitating a stamp, she stamped the wax. The stamp was of a stylized T, it had been a birthday present from Spike last year.

Twilight lifted the folded letter, then floated it onto a flat crystal. It had been a present from Princess Celestia a couple years ago. The crystal sat in a wooden holder and had a teleportation matrix carved into it and inlaid with gold. Twilight didn't want to think about what it had probably cost. It was a very nice gift. With it and it's counterpart, it had been a two piece set, she was able to teleport letters and small stuff back and forth from her home in Ponyville. The arcane device was quite useful for sending letters, considering how rarely Twilight left home and that she mostly sent letters to the princess, and then by dragonflame courtesy of Spike.

Then there was the Equestrian Postal Service, which wasn't always a hundred percent reliable. Derpy, Ponyville's mailmare, was pretty reliable, but things had to get to Ponyville first. It wasn't really that far away by pegasus or train, but with the exception of major shipments, anything else might wait for a week in Canterlot before getting sent on. Especially considering that letters had to be handled by employees of the EPS, whereas they generally contracted out to third parties to handle deliveries of large packages to the receiving post office. It was a cost cutting measure of sorts which illustrated how well private shipping companies had been doing in recent years.

Twilight pushed the letter onto the crystal, and then, her horn alight, activated it. The letter vanished in a purple star-shaped burst of magic. She sighed. Poor Spike. It wasn't very nice to leave him like this, but then she'd originally been planning on returning home sooner.

Author's Note:

Well, that was shorter than I was going for, as I'm working on the transition to the next bit. My brain keeps wanting me to like end and close days with getting up and going to sleep. Mundane activities are usually unimportant, stupid brain.

Comments

[Anquietas]

Funny thing there Twilight, your relationship with you mom's parents is the same.

3042927 It could be that Celestia and Luna's children are mortal Alicorns with each successive generation being more likely to be only one of the three. In Twilight's case, Celestia could have just done something to conceal or remove Twilight's wings. Or it could be that any of their descendents can be born an Alicorn or one of the three. Really there are endless possible explanations.

[StormyVenture]

3043143
I suppose, I prefer to stick to the canon as much as possible. Personally, I think that most, if not all, of Celestia's children (I have implied some past descendants) were "ordinary" unicorns, pegasi, or earth ponies insofar as they gained nothing exceptionally special. However I would think that they were probably above average in the exercise of the general skills of those races. I.e. better flyers, stronger magic-users, better farmers. I'm in the camp that thinks that two parents of say, exceptional magical ability, are more likely to pass that on to their descendants than one or two rather ordinary magic-users.

I'd also be generally inclined to think that were Alicorns a separate race, they might enjoy a longer span of years, perhaps living for 3-5 centuries or more owing to belonging to all three races in a sense.

[Skydrake]

Useful Information indeed, it looks like Twilight might be on to something big here - her grandparents likely can tell her a good deal about her father (and they might know about his relationship with Celestia - if Velvet knew, surely they did as well), and accessing military records, now that she knows he was a Royal Guard, shouldn't be any issue for her - Shining can give her full access to those, assuming she doesn't have free roam of the palace archives already. Perhaps some of the older military personnel around castle could tell her some things as well, someone old enough who would still remember the stallion.

Regarding Twi being an unicorn instead of an Alicorn ... one can come up with any number of explanations indeed, though for the purposes of this story, I would go with Celestia having done something to conceal Twilight's wings - would certainly fit the story's theme of her trying to hide the fact that Twilight is related to her. And we already know that Luna's/Celestia's descendants can come out as Alicorns (In Just Words, Cadence is mentioned as being Luna's great-great-great-etc granddaughter ... and if Cadence can come out as an Alicorn after a dozen-ish generations, then I would be rather surprised if a direct descendant wasn't one).

Whether that would make them immortal (or at least ageless) like Luna/Celestia appear to be ... that is hard to speculate, as it could go either way according to your wishes (though I imagine a very long life to be likely at the very least). On one hand, Cadence seems to lack the billowy ethereal mane of Celestia/Luna - so one could argue that the Alicorn gene, while present, has been diminished over the generations (Not necessarily applying to potential Alicorn Twi though, seeing she popped out of Celestia herself, heh). On the other hand, Luna didn't have it either after being blasted by the Elements and only gained it after regaining her adult form, so it might well be possible that Cadence has yet to grow in to her full power, being young and all.

So ... yeah, I imagine the question of Twilicorn could go either way, but as far as my personal opinion goes, Celestia having taken some means to conceal Twilight's true nature fits almost too well with the overall theme not to be used. And adds another thing for Twi to feel angry about when the truth finally comes out and that delicious confrontation between mother and daughter finally comes to pass.

[sakuralovelight]

i really enjoy this story hope to read more soon

[sakuralovelight]

i know i commented on this chapter before and i am sorry to bug you i was just wondering if by any chance you know when you might post next chapter i understand that life can get in the way and i don't want to rash you or anything i just asking if you don't know that is okay and take your time on making a grate chapter

[sakuralovelight]

sorry for bugging you again but I was just wondering when you will be updating this story

[sakuralovelight]

sorry for bugging you but I was wondering when you'll be updating this story I really like it and it has been so long since you last updated

[StormyVenture]

6438316
I honestly don't know. I keep thinking I'll do some more and then I don't. Only time will tell, I expect. It comes of going down a road with no particular destination in mind.

[sakuralovelight]

6452300 okay thank you for letting me know

[sakuralovelight]

6452300 hey how have you been

[EverfreePony]

Very interesting story! It is rather simple in terms of language, but it flows very well, it can easily strike a few heartstrings and Twilight’s investigation is really intriguing to watch. I’ll keep hoping there might be a new chapter coming out someday

Two smaller recurring issues I noticed:
First, if something belongs to it, the correct spelling is its. Second problem is direct speech, notably the excess comma between the speech itself and the dialogue tag. For more thorough explanation, I’ll redirect you HERE.

[Shady Mist]

Is this story canceled?