Morbid Curiosity

The train let off its steam, the last few arrivals getting on and taking their places. Among the small crowd of ponies moving about was Twilight, saddlebags packed for a day or two's trip to Canterlot. To her left, Pinkie Pie was happily bouncing along with Rainbow Dash hovering to her right, more comfortable in the air than on the ground..
"So you get to go to some dinner party with the Princess by just turning up?" Dash asked, skepticism dripping from her voice.
"Most ponies don't. I need to see the princess about something though, and I'm sure she'll make the time for me." Twilight explained, keeping a cheery disposition around the ponies she called her friends.
"Well I think any party is a great party! There should be more open parties, it means more guests, and that means more fun!" Pinkie exclaimed, the spring in her step causing her to jump a little higher each time she left the floor.
The group approached the entrance to the train, and Twilight turned from having a hoof on it to bid the two goodbye. "I'll be back in a day, two days tops." She assured them. In response to this, Pinkie promptly enveloped Twilight in a strong hug, her front hooves wrapped around Twilight's neck.

Twilight chuckled, and put one of her hooves on Pinkie's own. "I'll miss you too, Pinkie." she told her, smiling. By now Twilight had grown accustomed to her friend's quirks, and knew that such an invasion of personal space had the best of intentions behind it.
"Well, we'll see you then Twi. C'mon Pinkie, give the mare her space." Dash asked, folding her forehooves as she glided to hover above the two.
"And you promise you'll come back soon?" Pinkie asked, not letting go of the unicorn.
"Yes, Pinkie, I'll be back." Twilight assured her. Pinkie still did not release her friend; Twilight reminded herself that this was not an uncommon occurrence when one brought Pinkie along to a departure.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and gripped Pinkie's tail with her teeth, turning to try and physically pull the pink pony off Twilight. Pinkie's body was carried up a little by the motion, but she simply smiled contently at being attached to Twilight.
"C'mon Pinkie" Dash called out through clenched teeth, her wings flapping faster to add more speed and power to her pulling.

Twilight sighed with humor at the situation. Pinkie was more likely to be stretched like toffee than to release somepony from the vice-like grip of her hug when she wouldn't be seeing them for more than a night. And with Pinkie, being stretched like taffy was a very real possibility.
"Pinkie, you can let go now." Twilight whispered, not wanting Dash to hear.
"Okay!" was Pinkie's upbeat response, followed by the prompt release of Twilight. Pinkie seemed to hover in the air for a moment before Dash's pulling of her seemed to catch up to them both all at once, and the two shot off into the sky, a trail of rainbow being left behind them.
"BYEEE TWILIIIIIGHT!!" Pinkie yelled as the two mares disappeared off beyond the clouds, waving enthusiastically the whole time.

Twilight couldn't help but laugh as she stepped onto the train properly, it already pulling out from the station. She had grown accustomed to having her friends around, and enjoyed their company, finding Pinkie's seemingly physics defying moments largely humorous. She shook her head fondly at the ridiculousness of that pony.

The train wasn't packed, though most of the seats were taken. Twilight walked slowly down the carriage, looking for an empty spot to take a seat. There wasn't an empty row, but a small cubicle of four seats with a table in the centre had only a single older pony in it, reading a newspaper quietly. Twilight sat opposite her, resting her head on the head rest with a small sigh. She didn't know why, but after the incident with Forensics her head had been feeling rather heavy. The weight of her skull and its contents seemed to push down on her neck when she was on her own strength, so it felt good to have the relief from supporting it.
"Long week?" the elderly mare asked, her voice a little raspy yet carrying a tone of softness in it that one would find in a grandparent; it reminded Twilight a little of Granny Smith.
"No, just a few stressful nights." Twilight responded, her mind registering that response to conversation was considered a polite thing to do.
"Well, sometimes a good train ride can be relaxing. My daughter used to ride the train back when she was young." the mare responded, smiling a little at the memory.

Twilight looked out the window at the passing countryside; whilst not calming, the relative silence of the train and the view of the rural land did have a serene quality to it.
"Where are you going, dearie? You going to see your own parents?" the old pegasus asked. Twilight didn't look to the owner of the raspy voice, her eyes glazing absent-mindedly at the passing trees and fields.
"I never really knew my parents. I went to a boarding school from a young age, so I rarely saw them. We became ... estranged." Twilight admitted, the process of talking to a stranger combined with the tranquil situation making her oddly pensive.
"Did you not see them at the weekends?" the mare asked, a little surprise colouring her voice.
"I could have. I chose to stay at school with my mentor for the most part. I saw them on special occasions like Hearth's Warming, but other than that..." Twilight trailed off, trying to remember a time she'd gone to see her parents instead of spending time studying or with Celestia. "I guess I was so wrapped up in what I was doing, I just never thought about them much." she continued, her mind wandering to her big brother. She hadn't seen him in a long time either; now he was too busy being captain of the royal guard. Of course, even when he had a lot more free time she never saw him much.
"Did you write them letters then?" The mare asked, the surprise subsiding. "My niece was in service of Princess and country some years ago. She wrote to her family when she couldn't see them."

Twilight had stopped blinking even, lost in her thoughts and the scenery being a simple tapestry to paint them upon. "No ... in all that time, I never wrote to them. I'd go on trips and write to my mentor, I still do every week. Yet my parents ... my entire family ... I never wrote to them." Twilight said aloud, feeling a strange sense of emptiness at the thought. "I'm not even sure they know I've moved down here. If they have sent me anything, it's to the wrong address." Twilight thought. "By Celestia, they could have died and I wouldn't even know." she realised, now staring blankly out the window, focusing more and more on her own reflection in the glass.
"I'm sure your parents are fine, dear. Send them a letter tonight, if you can." the elderly mare advised, the ruffling sound of a newspaper being put down accompanying her.

Twilight made a mental note to send a letter to Shining Armour informing him of the change of address. She knew where he was stationed in Canterlot, and he could pass on that information to her parents. "I guess my parents were more like names to me. Just two ponies I shared my genetics with, nothing more." The unicorn pondered, now lost in thought and barely registering she was talking to anyone other than herself. "I guess I should have gotten to know them better. I don't even know what my father does for a living." she continued, the previous monotony with which she expressed herself now tinged with sadness, her throat feeling a little dryer.
"It's never too late to make amends for that..." The older pony noted.
Twilight could feel her voice getting a little choked. Was this ... regret? Twilight stared out of that window for a few minutes, her mind running through what she knew a relationship with one's parents were supposed to be like and contrasting it with her own. "They felt more like an extended family than my immediate," she continued, her voice growing quieter the more she thought about it all.

Whatever the sensation was building in her throat that made it harder to talk, Twilight didn't like it. "They were just that. Names and people I shared my genetics with. Nothing more." Twilight assured herself, her voice growing a little louder to mask, even to herself, the shaking in it. "I didn't know them - so what? I had somepony to care for me, somepony who was basically a parent to me."
"But they can never replace your parents." the old mare said quietly, attempting to comfort Twilight.

Twilight debated that internally. Celestia had always been there for her, been a role-model and a guide just as a mother would. Scolded her when she did wrong, praised her when things went correctly. But she didn't have that bond she knew a mother and daughter were supposed to have; she didn't feel that inseparable connection like those she'd read about in her storybooks, or the genuine smile that appeared whenever Applejack talked of her own parents and the few memories she had of them.

All this made Twilight feel even worse. She didn't like feeling like this, not at all. The knotting sensation in her throat, the odd coldness she felt that made her hairs stand on end. "Why do I care about my parents? I didn't know them. Why does sharing my DNA with them make them any different to anypony else?" Twilight asked firmly, the question rhetorical and aimed more at herself. She didn't want an answer, she wanted to remember why she'd never felt like this before.

She could feel her body shaking as he tried to steel herself against what her emotions were telling her body to do. Twilight went over that same argument against her parents in her head over and over again: They aren't special, just two halves of my chromosomes. There isn't anything special about them. I have friends that I feel more for, I don't need to care about my parents.

Even applying this logic to the situation, Twilight never felt that knot in her throat go away for that train ride. Or the pulsing she felt on the sides of her head. Or the spurratic breathing she had. And, even though she would never admit it to herself, she never felt the tears silently rolling down her cheeks stop either.