What's In A Name?
With but a hoofful of exceptions, the School of Friendship was empty. Classes had ended some time ago, and all of the students had returned to either their homes in Ponyville or their quarters on-campus. The halls in front of Headmare Twilight Sparkle's office were empty, and, apart from the faraway sound of a custodian mopping a soda stain in front of Locker #501, they were silent, too.
But if one were to stand right by the door into that office right now, they would be able to hear both a set of hoofsteps and a set of footsteps walking somewhere off in the distance. Those noises would get louder and louder as their creators moved closer and closer. And soon enough, the two creatures responsible for them would come into view.
These noises were coming from none other than Headmare Twilight herself, as well her faithful dragon companion Spike. The two had just returned from Canterlot after being involved in an event that could be best described as one-half military exercise, and one-half sibling rivalry.
Electing to beat Twilight to the punch, Spike leapt up to the doorknob, keeping himself aloft with the help of his wings. He turned the knob and pushed the door into her office open.
"Hey, Starlight! We're back!" Twilight greeted as the door opened.
The pale-ish pink unicorn in question looked up from the mountain of paperwork on the desk in front of her. "Oh, thank Celestia you're here- I mean, welcome back, Twilight! It's great to see you again!"
She hopped out of the chair and walked around to the front of the desk, hoping her slip of the tongue hadn't been noticed.
It had.
"Um, you okay, Starlight?" Spike asked, lowering himself back onto the floor as he spoke.
"Pfft, yeah, I'm fine." Starlight tried to dismissively wave a hoof, but the sarcastic undertones beneath the gesture remained rather obvious.
Having guessed as to what was frustrating her friend, Twilight's facial features took on a sympathetic appearance. "I'm sorry about running off on you, Starlight, if that's what this is about. As much as I love my brother, he kinda forgets to tell me things until the last minute. A lot."
"You're telling me," Spike groaned under his breath.
Ignoring the small purple dragon's remark, Starlight gave Twilight a far more legitimate smile. "Eh, it'll be fine. At the very least, you waited until the day was almost over to bolt on me." She coughed into her hoof. "We're still a bit behind schedule on some of the lessons, though."
"Oh?" Worry continued to permeate through Twilight's voice.
With that, Starlight's smile faded away. "Yeah, we are. It's kinda hard to teach when all six of the main teachers leave the building." she quipped, trying her hardest not to speak the latter half of the sentence through grit teeth.
The lavender alicorn's hoof guiltily pawed at the similarly-colored rug in front of her. "Sorry about that, Starlight."
"Thank you. I forgive you." Starlight stopped grimacing, her face once again returning to a more amicable expression. "In the end, I just played the first two hours or so of that new Power Ponies movie and horseshoe-horned some stuff about teamwork into it. The students liked it, so at least something good came out of that."
Spike raised his index claw in confusion. "Wait, how did you get that movie? It hasn't even come out in theaters-"
"And before you ask," Starlight interrupted, "yes, Twilight, I did put the film reel back inside the Royal Canterlot Theatre. Nopony even noticed it was gone."
Twilight blinked. Then, preparing to go into "stern lecture mode", she raised her hoof and opened her mouth. And yet, no words came out. She simply couldn't think of any proper response to what Starlight's statement had implied.
"Okaaaay then," Twilight eventually murmured, lowering her hoof and making a mental note to talk to her pupil later.
Starlight took the opportunity to redirect the conversation. "So, anyway, how'd the whole 'Sibling Supreme' thing go?"
"It went great!" Spike and Twilight simultaneously cheered.
"Really? That's... well, 'great'!" Starlight awkwardly chuckled at her little half-pun. "I'm assuming you won then. Right, Twilight?"
"Nope!" Twilight answered, still maintaining her cheeriness.
Starlight's head tilted slightly in confusion. "Huh? But... then why are you so happy? I thought beating Shining Armor was a big deal for you."
"Oh, he didn't win either," Spike added.
Starlight's eyebrow somehow managed to rise even higher than it'd been before. "Okay, I'm even more confused now."
Wordlessly, Spike took a few steps forward. Twilight looked down at her Number One Assistant and activated her magic, her horn becoming surrounded by a glowing aura. The toy crown Starlight recognized from the photograph in Shining Armor's letter poofed into thin air...
...and fell onto Spike's head.
"Ta-da!" Spike singsonged, closing his eyes and outstretching his arms for dramatic effect.
Starlight gasped. "Spike won?"
Spike opened his eyes and lowered his arms back down to his sides. "Yup. Pretty cool, huh?"
"I mean, yeah. Congratulations! I guess. I just... I was not expecting that. At all."
"Me neither," said Twilight, "But it turned out there was a third competitor right under me and Shiny's muzzles." She gave Spike a quick pat on his shoulder.
Spike chuckled. "What can I say? It helps to get an inside pony to help you out."
"While I can't really condone that type of friendship, I think I can make this one exception for you."
"Well, thank you very much, Miss 'Princess of Friendship'."
Twilight giggled. Starlight used the pause to reenter the conversation.
"...So I guess this makes him your brother?" she asked.
"I suppose it does!" Twilight agreed.
"...Huh. That's... neat."
The awkward emphasis she'd placed on the last syllable, for better or worse, attracted Twilight's attention.
Now, Twilight knew her pupil well; she wouldn't be a good teacher if she couldn't, would she? And although Starlight had made a lot of progress saying what was on her mind (without being rude, of course), there were some times where she tried to metaphorically bottle up her feelings.
And one time, literally.
Twilight could tell this was one of those metaphorical instances. And both of them knew it was probably for the best if she let it out.
"Starlight, is something bothering you?" she asked.
The unicorn in question mentally stumbled for a few moments.
"Well, there's a little something," she finally said, "but I don't think it's a big deal."
"No offense, but I think your definition of a 'little thing' and mine are a bit incompatible."
"You know I could just teleport out of this room, right?
"You know I'd just teleport after you, right?
"...I'm not going to win this argument no matter what I do, am I?"
"I don't think so."
A discontent snort escaped Starlight's muzzle. "Okay, fine."
"I'm all ears." The noise receptors in question pivoted in the direction of Starlight's voice.
With that, Starlight began to speak.
Or at least, tried to.
"It's just... well... for some reason I thought that you and Spike were... you were..."
She continued to bumble her way through the jumbled and incoherent sentence for some time. Twilight, annoyed as she was, allowed it to play out. It was all part of the process, after all.
Finally, Starlight found a way through her cluttered thoughts and came out with a coherent thought.
"...I kinda thought you were Spike's mom."
Twilight's eyes widened in surprised; so did Spike's. Their pupils darted back and forward between each other and Starlight.
"You thought I was his mom?"
"You thought I was her son?"
Starlight bit her lip. "You said you hatched him, Twilight. I just thought..."
"I wasn't the only one who raised him, though!"
"I've never called her 'Mom'!"
"It felt like it made the most sense..." Starlight whimpered.
"Do I look like I'm anywhere near good enough to be his mother?"
"Maybe it did to me, too! Maybe it still-"
Twilight and Spike stopped talking, realizing what they'd said and what their fellow sibling had.
They turned to look at each other. It felt... strange. Like they were seeing a side of each other they never had before. Probably because that was entirely the case.
"S-Spike, I-"
"Twilight, it's not-"
"Okay, if this is going to turn into a big family moment, can I just let myself out?" Starlight jutted in, pointing at the door.
"G-Go ahead," Twilight murmured.
Spike took the crown off his head and held it out to Starlight. "C-Could you put this in my room?"
"Sure thing, Spike," she answered.
With that, Starlight took a few steps forward. Making sure the crown was secured in her magic, she cast a teleportation spell and was gone.
Twilight looked down at her oldest friend- no, her little brother.
"Do you want to talk about today a bit more?" she asked.
There was a long silence.
"...I mean, we probably should," Spike eventually answered, "If how we reacted to Starlight was anything to go by."
Lifting himself off the ground with two quick flaps of his wings, Spike got onto Twilight's desk. He sat down on top of it, allowing his legs to dangle over the side. Twilight walked onto the lavender rug in front of the desk. From there, she lowered herself onto her haunches.
"So... where do you want to start?" Spike began, looking Twilight in the eye.
"Well, Fluttershy told me what you said to her in the pit," Twilight said, "About you wanting to be my little brother since we were little. Can we start there?"
"Yeah, that. Look, maybe it wasn't as big of a deal as I might've made it. The feeling just sorta came and went a couple times when we were growing up. I guess the whole Sibling Supreme thing just dug it back out."
"That's what I was kinda guessing. But.." Twilight sighed. "How could I miss something like that for all these years? And what does that say about me? What does it say about me taking care of you?"
"Twilight, please don't blame yourself for it," Spike groaned, "I hate it when you do that."
"But-"
"Stop saying that word. Look, at the end of the day, it's my fault more than anypony else's. I should've just told you how I felt instead of playing mind games for a decade."
"So then why didn't you?"
Spike's tail flicked from one side of his body to the other, and he wrung his clawed fingers together.
"No matter what," he continued, "at the end of the day I always knew I was part of your- our family. But... it always felt like l didn't... I didn't 'fit in' like the rest of you. Y'know?"
Twilight supportively nodded her head. "I think I get what you're trying to say."
"And for the longest time, I couldn't tell if I wanted to stay there or get out of that. Did I want to get a place somewhere in our family with a name attached to it, or was I okay staying where I was?
"In the end, I picked the decision that didn't have another one right after it."
"And that other decision would be..?"
Concern showed on his face. "What was I to you? Your friend? Your brother? Or...
"Was I your mom?" Twilight finished for him.
"I thought about it sometimes. Calling you my mom, I mean. I think the closest I came to doing it was right after that whole mess with Sludge." Both of their noses scrunched up at the mere mention of the dragon's name.
"Then what stopped you?" Twilight asked, "Was it something I did?"
"It just... never felt right enough."
Spike took a deep breath to re-stabilize his thoughts. Unnoticed by him, Twilight began to emptily gaze at the floor.
"I mean, you hatched me. I owe my existence to you. That definitely counts for a lot. But calling you 'Mom'... It just never seemed like the best fit to me."
It was then that he finally noticed Twilight's downtrodden expression.
"I mean, don't get the wrong idea!" Spike quickly blurted out, pulling Twilight back into reality, "It's not anything you did wrong! Th-there were just other mares who felt..."
The anxiety left his voice, and the speed at which his words left his mouth slowed down. "...There were always other mares that felt a bit more 'motherly' to me. Celestia, Velvet, heck, even Cadance. You were- And you still are- great, but you never really smothered me the way they all did." A chuckle escaped his mouth.
"Sludge didn't convince me I wanted to be your son," he continued, "but he did convince me that I wanted to be something to you. Something you could attach a name to."
"...And then today happened." Twilight's eyes were on the brink of watering.
"It did, didn't it? And now, there's no big complicated explanation for how I fit in. I just... do. I know where my place in our family is now. I can tell other ponies- tell myself- exactly what I am to you all." Spike rubbed his eyes to halt the tears threatening to slide down the sides of his face, too. "I'm Velvet and Night Light's son. I'm Flurry's uncle, strange as that might sound out loud. A-And..."
He looked back up at Twilight and smiled.
"I'm you and Shining's little brother."
That last sentence was the final little cherry on top of the waterworks sundae Spike had spent the last few hours serving Twilight. Overcome by her emotions, she levitated him into her outstretched forelegs, a small yelp escaping the little dragon's mouth as he was pulled forwards. Twilight enveloped him in a warm embrace, being extra careful to avoid aggravating his wings, and gently nuzzled the side of his head.
Without even the slightest hint of reluctance on his part, Spike returned his older sister's affections, wrapping his arms around her back. Twilight held back the urge to giggle as his claws unintentionally tickled her fur and the skin beneath it.
"I love you... LBBFF," she finally said through her joyful tears, her eyes closed and her ears drooping.
"I love you too, BSBFF," Spike said in turn.
The two siblings remained in each other's embrace for some time, content to enjoy what would almost certainly be the first of many magical moments between brother and sister for as long as they possibly could.
Tragically, the moment was cut short when both of them remembered what the first two initials of "Big Sister Best Friend Forever" could also stand for.
Spike's eyes opened in horror, his reptilian pupils the size of pin tips. At the exact same moment, Twilight's eyes, the alicorn behind them having come to a similar realization, took on a similar appearance. The two slowly turned to look at each other.
"Well, that came out horribly wrong," Spike nervously chuckled. He pulled himself out of Twilight's grasp and landed on the rug.
"Yeaaaaaaaah." Twilight bit her lip. "Maybe you shouldn't use that exact wording."
"Okay then." Spike tapped a claw against the side of his lip. "How about... 'Older Sister Best Friend Forever'?"
Twilight feigned indecision for a few seconds, but ultimately nodded. "I think that'll work."
"In that case, let's try this again, shall we?"
With that declaration, Spike gladly threw himself back into Twilight's forehooves. Just as gladly, she tightened her hold on him.
This time, Spike was the first to speak. "Love you, OSBFF."
"I love you too, LBBFF," Twilight replied.
After a few more moments of just enjoying each other's company, the two separated again. While it hadn't lasted as long as the first hug, it'd been equally heartfelt.
Spike coughed into his elbow, then looked up at his big sister. "Well, now that we've got that little talk out of the way, what do you say we get all this work out of the way too?" With his right thumb, he pointed over his shoulder at the pile of unfinished paperwork still on Twilight's desk.
"Sounds like a good idea," Twilight agreed, sliding into her chair, "Let's get started!"
"Ya got it, 'sis'," Spike said, mimicking a Bronclyn accent and pointing a claw at her.
Twilight couldn't help but giggle at her little brother's goofy behavior. Yup, she thought to herself, that's my Spike.
And with that, the two got to work.
END.