> A Matter of Family
>  by The Chip
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A Matter of Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean Cadence was driving Twilight with Spike in her bag home in her car.

"Thanks for the ride, Dean Cadence," Twilight said.

"It's my pleasure, Twilight," Cadence said. "Though, you can drop the whole Dean thing now. You don't go to Crystal Prep anymore."

"Just trying to be polite. I'm just glad I'll have friends for once now that I'm attending Canterlot High. Though, I wonder what Shining's gonna think once I tell him."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing he's in for a big surprise. He's always had such pride in Crystal Prep."

"Wonder if he'll still have it once he's learned what Cinch had done," Spike finally said.

"Spike, I'm not sure if I should tell him or my parents. I turned into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to destroy this world just to understand magic. I'm afraid of what they might think of me." She found herself sobbing in her hands, terrified at the thought.

"That wasn't your fault," Cadence assured her, putting one hand on her shoulder. "Cinch manipulated you because she didn't wanna lose the Games thus ruining her reputation."

"Well, she ruined her own reputation on the very path she took to keep it going. Now if she ever tries to talk, she'll have nothing!"

"Spike!"

"Besides," Cadence continued, "If you tell them the truth, I'm sure they'll understand."

With these words, Twilight from a deep breath and nodded her head.



They finally made it to Twilight's house. It was a decent house for one on the outskirts of the city, which was the perfect locale as Twilight could be in reach of the suburbs and thus Canterlot High. The windows were pitch black implying nobody was home. They exited the car and walked up to the front door. With a key she kept around, Twilight unlocked the door. She and Cadence walked inside and Cadence shut the door behind them. Just the lights turned on.

"SURPRISE!"

Twilight was indeed quite surprised as her father Night Light, mother Twilight Velvet, and brother Shining Armor were there to give her such a welcome home. It turns out with most of the school away at Canterlot High for the Friendship Games, Shining had time to plan and set up a "Congratulations" party to celebrate Twilight winning the Friendship Games. He knew the school wouldn't have been excited about the victory so he decided to make her feel good with a party in honor of it.

"Congratulations in the Friendship Games, Twiley! I set this party up just for you!"

"I've made your favorite meal for dinner!" Velvet said. Then, in a more singy-songy voice than before, "And for dessert, vanilla ice cream!"

"And I got you that new book about the guy with the beard," Night Light said, handing her the book. It has a cover with many stars and bells and in the center, a bearded wizard. "Sea Swill, no, Swirling Stars, no, um-"

"Star Swirl the Bearded!" she said, taking the book.

"Yeah, that's it."

"How was it?" he asked bending on his knees. "Didja have fun? Did you win? What am I saying? Of course you did! We always win!"

Cadence giggled a bit. She had forgotten to call Shiny to tell him that the Games ended in a tie.

"One question at a time, Shining Armor," she said, going up to him and kissing him. "It's been a long day for her."

"We just wanna know how she did, not that I needed to ask."

"Well, actually BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever), we didn't win the Games, per say."

This only made him chuckle heartily. Their parents giggled to each other. "Now don't try to kid me, Twiley. Of course you won. We, the Shadowbolts of Crystal Prep, always win."

"No, Shiny, she's right. The Games ended in a tie."

Shiny then laughed even harder. "Okay, stop joking, girls. You're gonna make me lose it..." He took a good look at both of them and realized that they were not joking. "Oh, come on, girls. I know Twiley's not the most athletic person but it's a three event tournament. How could it have possibly ended in a tie?"

"That's actually what we need to talk about, with all of you." Night Light and Velvet looked at each other with great concern.

"Okay, but let's talk after dinner. We don't want it to get cold," Velvet said. They all agreed to it and, after Twilight put her bag down and let Spike out, went into the dining room and had dinner. The entire time everyone was quiet and just stared at each other, hoping someone would say something to break the ice. In particular, they stared at Twilight, hoping she would give them the slightest bit of information. Even Spike looked up at her, hoping she would say something. Twilight was hoping they would forget about it and she could head off to bed. But she knew this would not be so.



After dinner and putting all the dishes in the sink, they went into the living room and all took a seat. Twilight took a deep breath, as she was preparing to tell them.

"Now, Twilight," Night Light said, "what happened?"

Twilight hesitated far the moment, not wanting to tell them. Spike whispered to her, "What are you waiting for? Just calmly explain to them what happened."

"I can't do it, Spike," Twilight whispered to him. "I saw the look in your eyes when I was that thing. You were afraid of me."

"I was afraid I was gonna lose you to that thing. Just go on and tell them. I'm sure they'll understand."

"Twilight," Night Light said, getting impatient, "answer me, young lady."

Twilight finally replied, "Remember those strange anomolies a few months back?"

Velvet asked, "The one with energy beams blasting into the sky or the one with the flying sea monsters and giant horse thing? The news said those were just light shows going over at Canterlot High."

"Those weren't light shows. They were putting out EMP frequencies. I went over two days before the Friendship Games for a field test and when I found a transparent wall on the statue and EMP readings on a single girl, I knew I was right.

With those readings, I created a spectrometer to detect and contain anomolies in order to find out the origin of those energies, which was gonna practically guarantee my entry into the Everton independent study program."

"I have asked if she'd reconsider it as she would be all alone the entire time," Cadence said. "But she seemed pretty insistent about it."

"And, well, as you know, Shining Armor, Principal Cinch wanted me to participate in the Games like you have before me."

"And I'm glad you agreed to," he said. "I figured it would be a great way for you to end you time at Crystal Prep."

"Actually, the only reason I agreed to participate was, well..."

Night Light looked concern when she was hesitating again. "Was what? Tell us!"

"...because Cinch said she'd revoke my entry if I didn't!"

They all let out a huge gasp of shock and disbelief.

"She blackmailed you into the Games?" Night Light said. "That woman has no right! Shining Armor, how could you let her do that?"

"I didn't know she was blackmailing her! I though she was gonna fast track the application!"

"Is that all?" Velvet asked with much concern.

"Afraid not. When I got Canterlot High with the other competitors, I began searching for the energies. While passing by the students there, for some reason, everyone seemed to know who I am. That all kept saying 'Hey, Twilight', 'Hi, Twilight', 'Twilight, yo' and so on. One nice guitar player I bumped into said he almost didn't recognize me as if to say we met before even though I know we haven't. I think he was flirting with me."

"Now is not the time for jokes, Twilight," Night Light said, slightly annoyed.

"Actually, Aunt Tia and Luna said they were surprised Twilight goes to Crystal Prep. Almost like they knew her somehow. I never even told them about her, even when I babysat her as a teenager."

"Care to explain how that happened?" Shining asked.

"One student named Pinkie Pie said that I looked just like her friend whose name was Twilight too. Especially after she shook my hand violently causing my hair and glasses to fall."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Velvet said. "Twilight is a rather common name."

"You would know, Twilight Velvet, honey. You would know."

"Nah, I think there was more to than that," Twilight said.



"Anyway, I was collecting the energies all around the school for my research whenever I wasn't doing an activity in the Games. But the more energy I collected, the more I came to realize the spectrometer acted on its own and created wormholes while it was open. As it turned out, the energies came from some of the competitors on the other team. One in particular was very kind to me when noone at my school was excited for my victory in the first round. When she displayed her kindness to me, she transformed gaining pony tails, ears and wings." This gave Shining and their parents a confused look. "But when the spectrometer collected the energy from her, she looked as if she was completely drained of energy. And wormholes started to appear again and Spike chased after some jackalope through them and got hit by the energy. When he did, well..."

She grabbed Spike and said, "Tell them something, Spike."

Shining said, "That's cute Twiley but um, dogs can't talk."

"I can," Spike said. This completely shocked him and their parents.

"H-how is that even possible?" Night Light said.

"Turns out the strange energy was magic."

"Uh-huh. The talking dog said it was magic so it was magic."

"Anyway, in the second round, I was assigned to archery, which I have no idea how to do," she said. Then, in a voice breaking with sorrow, "I kept missing the target, my teammates ridiculed me for it and if we couldn't compete, Principal Cinch was gonna..."

"If she had, I would had a talk with her and some others about that," Night Light said, growling in his voice. He looked at Shining again.

"Again, I didn't know she was threatening Twiley like that!" Shining said defensively.

"So, what happened?" Velvet asked.

"One of the competitors was kind enough to give me some pointers, telling me to aim where the target was gonna be, not where it was. Sour Sweet said it was a bad idea for me to listen to her but she told me to trust her. And it worked! I hit the target! She was telling me the truth! I hugged her in gratitude for helping. Just then, she started to glow like the girl from before. And again the spectrometer stole the magic from her. I tried to stop it but nothing worked! And then I dropped it and it summoned plant creatures that attacked everyone!"

"Cinch thought it was Aunt Tia's doing and accused her school of cheating," Cadence said.

"I felt really ashamed for causing all that to happen as I didn't know how it worked. Another competitor who also had magic said it was okay but the spectrometer again drained her and I couldn't stop it." At this point, her voice started to quiver again. "One of her friends chewed me out for messing around with it when I didn't understand it which really upset me."

They all noticed Twilight had yet to calm down as if her story was about to get worse. She was hesitant to speak again but Cadence and Spike gave her reassurance. "Later, Principal Cinch wanted me to use the magic from my spectrometer in the last event," she said, her voice getting shakier and more broken with each sentence. "She used peer pressure a-and my curiosity of magic against me. I got m-more and more tempted bu-by my desu-su-sire for knowledge and wh-wh-when I opened it I was engulfed by the magic and I-and I-"

Twilight stopped speaking and started sobbing like crazy. She getting to the worst part of the story, the part she feared so much to tell them because she was afraid of what they may say or do once she did.

"You what Twiley?" Shining asked, terribly concerned.

"What happened?" Velvet asked, sounding so worried.

"Twilight, tell us what happened," Night Light told her, just as worried as his wife and son. "Please."

Twilight knew there was no avoiding it. Expecting the worst to happen, she screamed to the top of her lungs in a sad, fearful and completely broken voice, "I TURNED INTO A HORRIBLE MONSTER THAT TRIED TO DESTROY THIS WORLD JUST TO GO TO ANOTHER WORLD AND UNDERSTAND ITS MAGIC!!!"



Everyone was shocked and appualed by this. Their precious Twilight turned into a monster? Twilight, seeing the horrified looks, then ran up to her room, slammed her door behind her and started sobbing on her bed, thinking her own family hated her now. But they didn't. They all wondered something to themselves. And they all knew what they were thinking.

Night Light was the first to speak. "Did we...go too far?"

Shining Armor was the next to say something. "No, you didn't. I did this. I never should have let this happen. I should have said no. But I was so blinded by pride that I put my school's reputation over my own little sister. I've got to be the worst big brother in the history of bad big brothers. I don't deserve to be her BBBFF."

"There was nothing you could have done," Cadence said, laying her hand on his.

"She's right," Spike said. "There was no way you could have known how bad Cinch was."

"Still, why did I give those numbers to her? I should have kept them myself for Twilight. I was the one who forced her down that path. I turned her into a monster. She deserves better than me, Spike."

Night Light put his hand over his shoulder. "You didn't turn Twilight into anything, son. I was just so upset that Cinch threatened her scholarship, I took it out on you."

Shining smiled at him reassured. Then, they noticed Velvet was gone. 

"Mom?"

"Honey?"

"Velvet?"



Apparently, while they were talking, Velvet went up to Twilight's door. She knocked on the door but there was no answer, only sobbing. She quietly opened the door and saw Twilight forming a stream of tears with her face in a pillow. She sat next to Twilight on the bed.

"Twilight?"

"Please, go away."

"I just wanna talk."

"Why? Why would you ever wanna talk..." She lifted her face to show her eyes completely filled with tears and her lips quivering like crazy. "...to a monster like me?!"

Velvet grabbed her and held her close to her heart. Twilight tried to struggle free but Velvet help her so tight, escape was impossible.

"Shh, shh, shh. You are not a monster. You are my daughter. My brilliant, precious baby girl."

Twilight took a moment to find a hint of deceit in her voice but there was none. Twilight hugged her back ever so tightly, stilling crying but much softer now.

"Hush now, quiet now. It's okay. Mommy's here. Mommy's got you."

The others found them in the room. Twilight, now feeling much more relaxed, saw them and let them in.

"Twilight," Spike said, being the first to step in. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"I should never have let her force you into the feild," Shining said. "But I'm gonna make it up to you. I'm gonna see to it she pays for her crimes."

Night Light then said, "Spike and Cadence told us how the girl who yelled at you, Sunset Shimmer, attained the magic of friendship to help you, understanding what you were going through. But even when she was powered up, she barely stood a chance."

"Spike was the one who helped me regain my sanity for a moment. Sunset seized this opportunity to make her move. I was waiting for her to finish me off but instead, we were in some white void realm where she asked me to take her hand and let her show me another way, like someone once did for her. I was scared at first but it was then I realized she wanted to help me and all I ever really wanted was a friend. So I accepted her hand in friendship and I felt a warmth inside me I never felt before. I knew right away it was the magic of friendship. And just like that, I was reverted to normal, regretful for what I had done, but she assured me that they would forgive me."



"What happened to Cinch?" Night Light asked.

"Ungrateful that Celestia's students saved the world, she tried to demand Canterlot High to forfeit the Games, threatening to take it up with the school board if they didn't. But since she had no evidence to back up what sounds like the story of a loon and even her Shadowbolts turned against her, she realized she wasn't gonna win this one and walked away. Celestia then declared everyone all winners."

"So, she just walked away, just like that?" Night Light asked. "She did a lot of hurtful things to Canterlot High and to you, Twilight. There's no justice in this. First thing tomorrow, I'm going to march into her office and demand she apologize for what she did."

"No, Pops," Shining said. "It is my responsibility to undo my wrongs. I'll do it. I'll force it out of her if I have to."

"What about your job, Shiny?" Cadence asked. "She might fire you for assaulting her."

"That is the last time I put my job before Twilight. I can always get another."

"That's not necessary, Shining Armor."

"Yes it is. Cinch is the real monster in all this and needs to pay for what she has done. I'm not gonna let her hurt you again!"

"She won't, Shiny," Cadence said. "She's transferring."

"To Everton?"

"Actually, I know a lot of things but friendship isn't really one of them. I'm not gonna learn by being alone all the time. So, I decided to attend Canterlot High to learn from Sunset and her friends."

Shining Armor was shocked by this. Twilight, a Wondercolt? This was unexpected. He wanted to say something as it was against what he believed in but he decided not to. He wasn't gonna make the same mistake of letting his pride come first twice.

"Well, that's, um, great, Twilight," he decided to say. "It won't be the same without you but if that's what you want, who am I to stop you?"

"My daughter, a Wondercolt of Canterlot High," Velvet said with zeal.

Night Light then said, "Well, I'd thought I'd never see the day when you wanted friends."

"Yep. Transfer papers been filled and everything," Cadence said.

"That's great, Cadence," he said hugging her.

Spike then said, "So you're okay with this, Shiny?"

"It's against everything I once believed in, Spike, but no matter what your ideals or that of your loved ones, you must never forget that family always, always comes first.  So, I actually am happy for Twiley. And in spite of the transfer, I'm still gonna see to it Abacus apologizes for what she did, even if it costs me my job."

"Guess I can't stop you anymore you can stop me," Twilight said.

"Well, time for bed," Velvet said. "It is a school night and you got a long day of learning about friendship tomorrow."



Twilight then changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, let down her hair and put her glasses on her side table as she got into bed with Spike jumpingonto a pillow next to her.

"Sleep well, my little Wondercolt," Velvet said tucking her in.

"Dream of happy, magic friends," Night Light said, petting her head.

"Enjoy your new life at Canterlot High," Cadence said, handing her her old Smarty Pants doll.

"Goodnight, Twiley," Shining Armor said, giving her sister one tight hug.

"See you around, BBBFF," Twilight said. And with that they left her room. Velvet and Night Light went to their room and Cadence and Shining Armor started downstairs to head home. Shining Armor was the last to exit the room, shutting the door behind him. And as he did so, he whispered to Twilight as she dozed off to sleep, "Congratulations on your transfer."

The door clicked shut and Twilight was fast asleep. The nightmare she had at Crystal Prep was now over and she began to dream about her new, happy life with her new friends at her new school.

The End.