"I did not!" Twilight set down her cup of hot tea to glare into her old foal sitter's eyes, then turned to her smirking elder brother. "I never did that."
"Come on Twily," Shining chuckled, "You did, and it was cute."
"I never had a magic battle with my blankets!" Twilight protested.
Cadance smiled, shaking her head, "Yes Twilight, I was there. You got scared by your blankets and—"
"Why would I be afraid of a blanket?" Twilight glared between them, her bottom lip slightly poking out in a pouty face.
"Because—That is, if I can say so?" Spike tried to cut in, "Because it... attacked you?"
"Blankets don't just attack!" Twilight insisted. "I never did it! I never did it, I tell you!"
"Deny it all you want, we have pictures." Shining Armor smirked. Standing, he crossed the royal banquet hall to the fine crystal cupboard. Inside, he pulled out an old faded picture album. He quickly thumbed through them, finally landing on the desired picture. The young Twilight stood, her Cutie Mark still new, on her bed in her royal quarters, squaring off against nothing more than her big blue comforter.
Twilight glared. "Never. Happened."
It had been many years ago while Twilight was still new to the castle life. She was still learning the vastness of her magic when her brother had come over from the barracks to work with his younger sister on basic self defence spells. For nearly the whole morning the two had been practicing the different ones, from the simplest of basic short term shield spells to shooting the flying disk spells. The spells weren't meant to test how much power the young filly had had, but rather to help develop her skills in controlling the said magic.
Twilight had actually made progress, and Shining Armor was beyond proud of his little sister. But as it is with all good things, this too had to come to an end.
Fizz, Pop!
Instead of a nice steady beam, a little flicker went off at the end of Twilight's horn. The young filly collapsed to the ground. "Did I get it?" she asked her brother.
"Nope, now it's time to stop," he ordered her.
"One. More. Try!" Twilight protested.
The young private shook his head. "Not, now. You have been going at this for hours, Twily. It's time to give it a rest."
"Not till it's PERFECT!" Twilight insited. "What if I need to protect the princess and I can't hit a target? What if I—"
Shining Armor almost facehoofed as he lifted his sister up in his magic and set her down on his back. "No Twily, now. If you get into one of those situations..." he trailed off smiling.
"What? Then what? I'll die!" Twilight was almost in her panic mode. "If I don't get it right, then I'll fail! Then maybe Princess Celestia won't let me be her student anymore, and if I'm not her student and I lose control, then she won't save me, then I might—" The last bit was muffled by her brother's hoof.
"Twilight." He frowned, letting his disappointment show in his face. "You did fine. It's only your first time. Yes, you've got the magic, but you've got a long ways to go before you have full control."
"But—"
"No buts, Twily. Listen. I didn't get it the first time either."
"You didn't?" Twilight asked.
Shining Armor shook his head. "Nope, sure didn't. That didn't mean I gave up—"
"Then we'll keep practicing. Throw another disk."
"TWILIGHT!" Shining Armor said a bit louder than he intended to. "Sorry, Twily. I also knew when to give it a rest and recover. That way when I came back to the spell, I wouldn’t be so tired that I’d end up making a critical mistake. There’s a chance you can ingrain that error into your casting, which will severely hinder your progress. It'll take twice as long if you have to unteach yourself a mistake."
Twilight frowned. "But I want to try again."
"And I think you need to rest before you can teach yourself how to do it right every time," Shiny said. "Besides, it's your BBBFF teaching you, not Princess Celestia. I don't expect perfection every time."
"I do!" Twilight said. "And the princess does, and if I'm not perfect, then I'm not worthy to be her student. I want to learn!"
Shining felt like was going in circles. Being the older sibling and having the care of her, he decided to go with the best course of action: Bribery. "Look Twily, if you take some time off, then we'll play... fort book later. With Cadance."
Twilight sighed. "Alright Shiny," she said, climbing onto his back and snuggling in. "Oh! I forgot my book!"
Shining Armor picked up the book with a levitation spell and placed it in her waiting hooves. She smiled wide. "I love you BBBFF!"
"I love you too LSBFF."
Twilight giggled, clutching the book to her chest. By the time they got back to her room, Twilight had, as Shiny had predicted, fallen fast asleep. Cautiously, he laid her down and tucked her in, remembering to draw the curtains closed, before exiting the room and running right into Cadance.
"Princess!" Shining Armor yelped in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, his face turning as red as the setting sun.
Cadance smiled, somewhat amused by her stallion's response to her sudden appearance. "She wore herself out, huh?"
For a second, Shining Armor was caught off-guard. "She? OH!"
Cadance had to fight to hold in a giggle. This was just too cute.
"Yes, we were out practicing some of the basic shield spells. Celestia asked if I could..." He trailed off, struggling to retain eye contact.
Cadance nodded. "Yes, Aunt Tia told me. I didn't expect her to get that tired."
Shining Armor shook his head, still struggling to reign back in his rushing hormones. "She kinda... wouldn't quit."
"Wouldn't quit? Or you couldn't tell her no?"
Shining Armor's eyes locked onto hers. Cadance didn't evey try to hold back the laugh. "Shiny, I love you."
Shining's face turned bright pink once more. "Uh, y-y-yeah. M-m-me-e-e t-too!" he stammered. "I mean, I love you, not that I loved me, because then I'd be no better than your cousin Blueblood—I mean—and that's just—silly."
Cadance bit her lip, laughing out loud. "Yes Shiny, that would be silly. So, how did she do?"
"How did—? Oh. Yeah, Twilight." He scratched the back of his head with a hoof. "She didn't master it, but she did way better than I did."
"Show me," Cadance said.
"Show?" Shining Armor gulped.
Cadance raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why not?"
"Because she's asleep," Shining Armor said.
"Oh," Cadance deflated. "Yes, that would be mean." She then perked back up, shaking her head chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Shining Armor asked.
"You are," Cadance said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
Poor Shining Armor's coat once more turned bright red. "Me?" he said, his voice once more squeaking.
Cadance nodded.
"Please Cadance, let's take this some place less..." He glanced around, "Public? Not that I mind being with you, but-"
Cadance shook her head, amused. "Fine Shiny. Don't want Aunt Tia to catch me kissing a private. The Princess and the Private. Has a nice ring, does it not?"
"If you say so," Shining Armor whispered.
Twilight was unsure of how long she had slept. The only thing she knew was something had her, and it wasn't her brother.
Twilight screamed, pushing whatever it was off of her. Almost immediately, the shield spell she'd been practicing went up, almost as quickly it came back down again. Twilight panicked as the monster came back down upon her from the air, encasing her in its fluffy grasps.
"NO!" Twilight sobbed, once more firing the shield spell from her horn, forcing the foreign object from her coat. "You can't get me!"
Still too tired to even see clearly, she fired a steady beam of magic straight at the monster, trying to scare it away, dropping her shield in the process. Just as suddenly, the thing descended upon her once more, neither frightened nor harmed.
"HELP!" Twilight yelled. She fired her horn again, this time hitting the thing right smack in the middle of its body. With a mighty poof, the thing went back up and into the air, and once more came straight back down, this time, wedged over her horn where the magic had managed to pierce the object clean through.
She struggled to get free. With no more warning than she had originally, the cliff face started crumbling beneath her. Down, down, down into the chasm below she fell. With fear in her heart, she started casting spells at random, trying anything to save herself from death by a monster or a fall.
Shining Armor's ears perked up. "You hear that?" he asked, looking over at Princess Cadance.
The young ruler, however, was already on her hooves. "Sounds like magic fire from the direction of Twilight's room!"
Shining Armor needed no more encouragement. He thundered from the nearby conference room where the two had been hiding and ran towards his sister's room.
Throwing open the door, he found her wrapped tightly in her bedding and shooting everything in the room. Glass items were shattered, books had holes through them, her desk was cracked in half. In essence, the room had been destroyed. Quickly, he constructed a force field around himself, as another volley of magical discharges were fired in his direction.
As they made contact, they shook him hard, almost destroying the shield entirely. Without any more hesitation, he used whatever magic he had left to lift the impelled bed clothes from her body, leaving only his frightened little sister sitting, eyes clinched shut and firing randomly.
He glanced behind him just long enough to see Cadance dodge one of the blows before rushing to the filly's side. "Twilight! Twilight! It's fine, you’re safe now!"
They both held their breaths, waiting for the next shot. It never came. Twilight opened her eyes. "CADANCE!" she yelled, throwing both forehooves around her foal sitter. "SHINING! I'm not dead!" she cried, pulling them both close.
"No Twily, you’re not dead," he said, trying not to laugh.
"Oh, I thought for sure either the big bad monster would eat me or I'd die when I hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff! I was so scared!" she blubbered.
Cadance shook her head, smiling. "Don't worry, Twilight, you were just dreaming. You are safe now."
"But it felt so real!" Twilight sobbed.
"I’ll bet," Cadance said.
"Yeah, and your punches are—"
Cadance silenced him with a look. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up and something to eat."
"Ice cream?" Twilight asked.
"You want some ice cream?" Shining Armor asked.
Twilight nodded. "Yes—uh, why is my desk broken? Who burned all my books? I don't think that was a dream!"
Shining Armor turned Twilight’s face gently so she looked in his eyes. "Twily, I saved you. We'll get you new books. A new desk. The important thing is that you’re safe."
Twilight nodded. "All safe."
Cadance leaned over and whispered in her ear. "You’d better teach her more control. She packs quite the punch."
Shining Armor nodded as they both left the room.
"That never happened," Twilight said, "I'd remember it!"
"You do remember needing a new desk?" Cadance asked.
Twilight nodded. "Yep, because Spike sneezed, not because my magic—"
"You had a nightmare and attacked your bedroom," Shining Armor said. "I still feel where you hit me."
"I'd never hit you!" Twilight pouted.
"Never?" Shining Armor raised an eyebrow.
"No, never!" Twilight insisted.
"See Twily, I even have a scar where you got me," Shining Armor said, brushing away the fur.
"Scars like that can be faked! How do I know you didn't get it somewhere else. Hum?" Twilight asked.
Cadance shook her head. "Oh well, Shiny. It was worth a shot."
"You made it up," Twilight stated.
Cadence shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not.”
Spike looked up from his bowl of ice cream, “I sure didn’t sneeze.”
Author's Note
Just a little something that came to mind. Another one where I had no idea what would happen till it did. I had this idea, what if Twilight got into a fight with her blankets... and this resulted. I do hope you enjoyed it. Not much here, just some good ol' fun.
Being a big sister, My siblings never stop flooring me with the things they do when they are mostly asleep. For Twilight, this was something I could see.
As far as Shining Armor and Cadence scene goes... If you have ever seen a guy do this, you know exactly why I stuck it in here. For me, it was my honorary big brother. He managed to remove some sweet gum trees I had been unable to remove from my garden. When he was finished, I gave him a big hug as a thank you... He squeaked for the next hour. Mom joked I had broken him.
I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, please check out my other stories.
Till Next time,
Cowgirl Out.
