Kin
What does it mean to be a brother?
What does it mean to be a sister?
Is it simply protecting them, or is it something more?
Is it a blessing or a curse?
---
Shining Armor strutted into his home happily. Today had been a long, good day full of tests and achievements. Shining smirked, thinking of what was posted on the billboard just outside of his dorm at the castle.
I’ve done it. I’m in the Royal Guard. This is everything I’ve hoped for.
He held his yellow badge up with pride, suddenly realizing that he should probably take it to his room before he loses it. He began to make the trek up the stairs, suddenly realizing that his body could barely hold him anymore. Thinking about it, Shining had been up all day. All the races to check his muscle strength, and the weight lifting to check his stamina had been quite taxing on him. After what seemed like forever, he finally came to his room.
A faint whimpering came from the room next door to Shining’s just as he was about to enter. The white unicorn bursted into the room, sensing something was wrong.
“Twily? Are you okay?” Shining almost yelled at Twilight Sparkle.
“B-big brother? Is that you?” Twilight stared with round eyes at the stallion towering over her.
“Yes, Twilight. It’s me. Are you okay? What happened to you?”
Twilight shifted uncomfortably before whispering, “I don’t want to talk about it…”
“Twily, I’m your big brother. You can tell anything to me,” he said, extending a hoof to help his little sister up. Twilight quickly grasped that hoof before going into a full on hug.
“Some kids…they were laughing at me, big brother!” she said between sniffles and tears streaking down her face, “they said that I tried too hard…and that I didn’t deserve friends- if I h-had any…and they said that I was stupid…” Twilight cried.
“Twily, I’m your friend. You’re the smartest foal I’ve ever met, and I’ve never met a pony who tried as hard and stuck to things as well as you do.”
“You consider me…a friend?” Twilight stammered.
“Yes. In fact, how ‘bout you be my LSBFF?”
Twilight cocked her head and Shining laughed, “Little Sister Best Friend Forever,” he gave her head a little thump, “Duh.”
“Does that mean your my…BBBFF?”
“Yes, Twily.”
“Forever?”
“Yeah. Forever.”
A certain white unicorn stomped his feet.
She ruined it! She ruined it all!
Why did she have to be so-so Twilight? He was this close to a promotion, and she just had to come running in and ruin it all! She just had to choose today to get her stupid cutie mark! He screamed to himself before realizing.
Cutie mark?
Twilight had gotten her cutie mark and he had just yelled at her for it.
This was one of the most important moments in Twilight's life and he had dismissed her.
He tried to recall the events of the previous day. Twilight had finally gotten the letter from that 'Gifted Unicorn' school that the Princess held, and he had congratulated her. The letter had come very late, so the meeting had ended up being the next day, which was today. He had found out yesterday that if he passes a simple test he could get a promotion to Assistant Executive Guard, one step up from where he was now. He had slept peacefully, and woken up the next day. Twilight had left early with their parents to go the school, and he had been preparing to leave to go grab that promotion.
He remembered on his way there that there had been a weird purple blast of light which he quickly dismissed. When he got there, all he had to do was carry a huge weight to the other side of the room. A judge would be watching him to see if he did it well enough to get the promotion. He remembered thinking it would be easy, and very simple. In normal circumstances, it would have. Using his magic, he lifted the weight and began gracefully traversing across the room. He had levitated the weight halfway across the room when the doors burst open and a lavender unicorn came flying into the room, screaming, "Shining, Shining! Guess what guess what guess what! I got my cutie mark! Look! Look!"
This had caused him to lose him concentration, dropping the weight. The judge looked at him with a sad look in her eye and left, just as Twilight Sparkle was running up to him.
"Shining! Shining! See, isn't it pretty? It's for-"
"Twilight! What were you thinking, running in here like that? You just ruined my chances for a promotion!"
"Shining, I was just trying to-"
"Shut up Twilight! This is one to many times you've screwed me up! I'm done with you!"
He had stormed out back to home after that, leaving a very, very confused little filly behind.
Idiot!
He thumped his head against the table. He had to find Twilight, to make things work out. And he had an idea of where she might be.
Shining weaved his way in and out of a crowd. Almost there, Shining. Keep on going. He began to see it in his sights. A small alleyway, obscured from vision unless you were looking for it. Shining smiled. This held their old fort that they had made long ago together. He tore through the alleyway, looking for a glimpse of purple, a wisp of pink.
"Twilight! Twilight, are you there?" he screamed through the fort, which caused more than a few heads to turn towards his way in the crowd, "Twilight, it's me! Shining Armor! Your… BBBFF! I'm sorry! I'm sorry....ok?"
He searched for quite a while longer before finally giving up and laying in the center of the room.
"R-right here...big...bro," a weak voice sounded from under the covers. There Twilight was, under more than a few blankets with a tear stained face.
"I'm sorry, Twilight. I was just so-"
He was interrupted by a lavender filly running up to him and grasping him in a hug.
"It's okay, big brother. I understand. I-I didn't mean to ruin your chances at getting a promotion. I just wanted to show you my cutie mark..."
"Oh, that's right! Let’s see that sucker!" Shining Armor took his sister's light body and lifted it up so that he could see her flanks.
"Twily! That's like mine!" He pointed to the six pointed star that now adorned both or their flanks, "The only difference is that mine has a shield and yours has...well, sparkles! What'd you get it for?"
Twilight giggled as her brother attacked her in a tackling hug.
"I got it for magic during the test!" Twilight managed to squeeze out between fits of giggles.
"Oh, that's amazing! I never would have guessed that your special talent would be magic." Shining winked at her before looking skyward, "Oh, the roof's broken. I should probably fix that."
He pointed to a messy array of broken shambles of wood that all made a huge gaping hole through their roof into the night sky.
"No, don't big brother! It's so pretty outside. Look at all the stars! See, those ones look like a ladle for Mommy's soup!"
"Well that one looks like a pegasus!" the white unicorn returned.
They spent the next few hours just naming stars and enjoying yourself before Shining finally noticed that there was nopony responding to him anymore. Looking down, Twilight had fallen asleep on his hoof.
"I love you, Twilight."
Her round eyes opened slightly, before uttering a few final words, "I love you too, big brother."
What does it mean to be a brother?
What does it mean to be a sister?
Is it simply protecting them, or is it something more?
Is it a blessing or a curse?
A/N/
I wrote this piece almost right after watching the final episodes of Season Two. I loved Shining Armor right away, and wanted to write about his relationship with Twilight, I thought about including the wedding in here, but decided against it. Hope you enjoyed it!