What Else Could Go Wrong?

Chapters

When It Rains, It Pours
Self-Inflicted Wounds
Awkward Introductions
Parenting is Hard
It's Going to Take Some Work

When It Rains, It Pours

This was one of the worst days of my life.

Yeah, I know how it can be easy to say that, but it was true. It was my last day of my dream job, and now all I had left to do was clear out my office—that of the Captain of the Royal Guard. Nothing quite rams home that you’ve lost your job like physically moving out of it. At least I hadn’t been canned from the Guard, since I didn’t know what I would do with myself if that was the case. Do ... prince-consort stuff? I’d wanted to be in the Guard since I was a colt, and on top of that I really wanted serve as Captain of the Royal Guard. That had been my real dream job, and now I’d lost it.

It wasn’t like it was my fault when Queen Chrysalis had replaced Cadey and sunk her fangs into me. But that was the problem: ponies didn’t want a captain of the Royal Guard who had been the personal plaything of the changeling queen and had ‘allowed’ the changelings to nearly conquer Canterlot. Never mind that Cadey and I had been the ones to kick the changelings right back out of Canterlot once we’d gotten the bug queen out of my head. No, that didn’t seem to matter, since I had been asked to retire from my position afterwards. Not that resisting would have done me much good. I served at Their Highnesses’ goodwill, if they didn’t want me for the job or enough ponies demanded I get the boot...

A ‘lateral promotion’, they called it. More like being shifted out of sight and out of mind. The silver lining was that I at least wouldn’t take a pay cut this way, but it still wasn’t the happiest thing to come back to after my honeymoon.

Still, that left me with the practical problem of what to do with my stuff from the office. My sudden fall from grace hadn’t allowed me to make new arrangements just yet, and I’d be surprised if that was corrected anytime soon. Out-of-sight ceremonial positions took time to make, and the new Captain of the Royal Guard, Tornado Kicker, wasn’t my biggest fan. I’d beaten him for the spot the last time it had become vacant, and while we weren’t bitter rivals or anything, we weren’t exactly friends either.

Now I was the pony out in the cold politically, and Kickers were the ones in power. I’d be surprised if they would be in any kind of hurry to get me a new job since I was part of the whole changeling debacle. It didn't help matters that there were a bunch of shakeups in the Guard after the changeling invasion, which gave Tornado the excuses he’d need to not work on placing me somewhere for a good long while—nevermind he probably had a thousand and one things to do right about now, like moving into my office, taking over my staff, doing the job I loved...

Best case scenario, they would have to give me something before too long to keep the princesses happy. I was the nephew-in-law to two of them and married to the third, and they had said that I would be given some kind of post in due course. There was only so long Tornado Kicker and his clique could keep me on the sidelines before passive-aggression started looking like active spite.

Yay for office politics.

But, one step at a time. I decided that Sparkle Manor was the best place to park my stuff since despite living in the palace, Cadance didn't have that much room, relatively speaking. Her place was still way bigger than what the average pony in Canterlot had, but it was already filled up with her stuff. We were planning on moving into a section of the palace better suited for a couple as soon as it could be arranged, but until the aftermath of the attack could be cleaned up we were in limbo.

Just like the rest of my life at the moment.

I arrived at Sparkle Manor by evening with my stuff in a trio of boxes levitating alongside me. I stepped up to the front door, took a deep breath, then opened it. I didn't really want to talk with anypony right at that moment, but my plans to sulk in my old room were dashed when I met Dad walking the other way down the hallway on the way to the stairs.

Dad smiled at the sight of me. “Welcome back. I didn't hear you come in.”

“Guess I didn't yell loud enough.” That technically wasn't a lie. It wasn’t that I didn't want to see my parents, but this wasn't the day for it.

Dad looked at the boxes I was carrying. “Back from the Royal Barracks, I take it?”

“Yup.” I couldn't help but grimace. Losing my job was going to bother me for a long time, I could already tell. “You mind if I leave some stuff here while my new office gets sorted out?”

“Of course not, you know you're always welcome here.” He took one of the boxes from me. “We can put it in your old room easily enough.”

“Thanks.” We headed to my room and placed the boxes in one of its corners. It felt kinda weird returning to the room I’d grown up in. It had hardly changed since I moved out—there was even an old Monsters & Mazes poster from one of my gaming books hanging on the wall.

I lost track of how long I had been staring when Dad placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Are you hungry? Your mom’s here too, and we could get something if you would like, or we could go out.”

My ears wilted. “I'm not really in the mood for going out right now. Or even eating, really.”

Dad gave me a concerned frown. “If you say so. How about you head down to the living room and I'll get your mother? We can just relax for a bit if you don't have to be anywhere.”

I shrugged. “I guess that'd be alright.” My choices were either to sulk here at the manor or sulk at Cadey’s, and I didn't feel like turning down Dad’s offer or dealing with the drama that'd probably cause. It wasn’t like I could fool Dad into thinking everything was really alright.

“Alright, see you in a few.” Dad patted me on the shoulder and then went off to find Mom.

Not knowing what else to do, I headed down to the living room and lay down back-first onto the couch. It felt kinda strange since it wasn't the couch I grew up with in the living room. There were half a dozen other small differences to the room as things either wore down or broke, or Mom decided to change how the room looked. Intellectually I knew that was normal, but it still felt odd. Still, I closed my eyes and tried not to think too hard about everything that had happened.

I was awoken when I heard Mom’s voice. “Hey, Shiny. It’s nice to see you.”

“Bwa-wha?!” I jerked up, blinking the sleep from my eyes. I must have nodded off for a second. Like any good guardpony, I had learned to sleep when and where I could, and those instincts must have just kicked in when I laid down.

Mom frowned down at me. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

Dad stepped up from behind her. “If you want to sleep we can leave you alone for a bit.”

I shook my head and sat up. “No, it’s fine. Just closing my eyes for a couple minutes.”

“If you’re sure.” Mom didn’t sound convinced, but that didn’t stop her from giving me a hug. “It’s good to see you again. You don’t come by often enough, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” I hugged her back. “Sorry, just been busy with stuff.”

Mom broke the hug and looked me over closely. “Is something the matter?”

I groaned and flopped back down to the couch. There was no sense lying—she’d know if I lied and then she’d be all the more insistent that I tell her what was wrong. Worse yet, she might start guilting me. “Yeah, something’s the matter. My then-fiancé got replaced by the changeling queen and spent weeks playing with my head so that she could undermine Equestria’s defenses. And because I got played with I'm getting a lateral reassignment from my dream job, and now I get to spend who knows how long on the sidelines doing nothing and just being happy I didn’t get kicked out of the Guard entirely for something I had hardly any control over!”

Dad winced and sat on a cushion next to the couch. “I am so sorry I didn't see it, Shining. I really should have—I'm sorry.” His ears flattened to his head and he looked away from me.

I shook my head. “It's... Chrysalis is very good at what she does. It’s not your fault.” After all, that oversized bug managed to replace my wife without me ever suspecting it. If I could sit across the table from her and think she was the mare I loved more than anything else in the world...

Dad grunted in disapproval, but didn’t say anything else.

Mom placed her hoof on my shoulder as she sat next to me. “It'll be alright,” she assured me. “I know it's hard right now, but you'll bounce back. Just give it time and you’ll be given a new position, which I’m sure you’ll do great at. Next thing you know you’ll be moving up the ladder again. You’re still young enough that you can become Captain of the Guard again someday, and in the meantime there’s a lot of good you can do.”

Dad nodded. “What happened isn’t your fault. Ponies will see that in time.”

I grunted, bitterness welling up in my throat. “It’s still my problem, though.” I saw the hurt and worried looks on my parents faces, and softened my tone a bit. It wasn’t like I was a sulking teenager anymore. “Well, maybe Cadance will start getting her own royal guard or something. There was some talk about finally doing that before the wedding, and after the invasion there’s supposed to be some restructuring that’s going to happen. The Guard might even get expanded, which might create some positions for me.”

That bout of optimism brought a smile to Mom’s face. “See, that would be something for you to do. I’m sure Cadance would appreciate having you around as her guardian.”

Dad nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Really, it's only logical that you could become the captain of her guard. Being captain of any of the escort guards is a pretty prestigious position and places you near the center of where the decisions are happening, so it’s a good place to build up your influence to make another bid for Captain of the Royal Guard someday if you wanted. And if not, you’ll still get to have a job guarding Cadance, which has its own upsides.”

I thought the idea over, but felt some of my pessimism return. “If that happens.” I snorted. Captain of Cadey’s guard would be a really nice position, which was probably why I’d never get it. That’s the type of prestigious position you gave to an ally, not a rival.

Mom closed her eyes and sighed. “I'm sorry this all happened to you. It isn't fair, but we're just going to have to make the best of it we can.”

“I guess, yeah,” I grumbled.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Mom asked.

I shrugged. “Not really, I need time, I guess.” That’s what everypony kept telling me. Lots of time, positive thinking, and not dwelling on all the reasons for why my life sucked now.

“That’s fine, then.” Dad patted my knee. “We were kind of wanting to talk to you about something, but that can all wait until you’re feeling better.”

I raised an eyebrow. “No, it’s fine—what did you want to talk about?”

Dad shook his head. “It can wait, really. This has been a bad day for you and we don’t want to pile anything else onto you.”

Mom frowned in Dad’s direction. “He’s going to need to be told sooner or later. Sometimes you just need to rip off the bandage. This isn’t going to get easier with time.”

“Yeah, but is now really the time?” Dad pressed his lips together. “It can wait a day, at least.”

Uh-oh. If it was the type of bad news you didn’t want to combine with other bad news, it could not be good. But now I was curious about what they were talking about. “Best if you tell me now. I’m just going to worry about what you want to tell me until you actually tell me.” Because what I really needed right now was something else to worry about.

Mom and Dad exchanged a meaningful look between one another. Eventually Mom looked down as me as she bit her lip. “Only if you’re sure you’re up for it. This ... isn’t going to be easy.”

“Please don't tell me something bad happened. I've had just about all the bad news I can take for a while.” I groaned and ran my hoof down my face. “But you better tell me anyways. Let’s just get it over with.”

Mom exchanged another worried frown with Dad. “Only if you're sure.”

I rolled my eyes as I got tired of my parents dancing around whatever it was they wanted to talk about. “How much worse could it be?”

Dad took a deep breath and rolled his head before he gave me his full attention. “Well, I don’t know how else to say it without just going ahead and saying it. Shining ... you have a daughter.”

And then the whole world stopped making any sense.

“I have a—I'm sorry, I must've misheard you. I thought you said I had a daughter!” How could I have a daughter? I hadn’t been sleeping around with anypony. Hay, I was luckier than words could express to have Cadey. Yeah, I’d done great with her, but I didn’t exactly have the greatest luck with mares in general—not that I’d tried hard, really. Cadey was the only mare I’d ever really been interested in, which only made all of this make less sense!

Dad rubbed his brow. “That’s because I did say you have a daughter. We only found out about her a little bit after your wedding.”

Mom let out a long breath. “Bear with us, this is going to take some explaining. But your dad is right about her, Shining. We've confirmed it with a lineage spell.”

My mind whirled as it tried and failed to absorb this. What were my parents doing casting lineage spells? Where had they found this—pony?! I had so many questions and no answers right now. “Wha... Bu ... how?!”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time.” Mom’s horn glowed, summoning a photograph over to us. “Do you remember, um—having relations with this mare in graduate school seven years ago? Her name is Ditzy Doo, and she said that she met you at a party.”

“Um ... not really?” I scratched my head as I looked at the photo. It showed a smiling grey mare with a blond mane and a pair of eyes that didn’t quite seem to be looking in the same direction. She might have been somepony I had met before, but I’d met a lot of ponies in school and the Guard. I was pretty good at remembering faces, but there were limits when we were talking about some mare I met at some party almost a decade ago. “I mean, maybe a little I … think? I mean, she looks kinda familiar.”

I wondered if I was going to be sick. This felt like a sick joke. Were we really having this conversation? Me? A daughter? That didn’t make sense. How could I have a daughter?

Dad steepled his hooves under his chin as he watched me. “According to her, you met at a party where you were both drinking before ... things happened.” Dad hit me with one of those I'm-not-mad-I'm-just-disappointed-looks that every parent seemed to automatically get in their arsenal. It hurt, a lot. “Did you ever attend any parties?”

“Well yeah, I was almost done with school.” That sparked some fuzzy memories. I had been working on my graduate degree in advanced magical spellcraft. It had been a really stressful semester, and I’d been pretty eager to blow off some steam with some friends once all my papers had been turned in. Having to crunch in a couple dozen books, three fifteen-page papers, a fifty-page independent study essay, on top of a few practical examinations hadn’t exactly been fun. Twilight probably would have had the time of her life, but it had been a trudging grind that I had no desire to go through again if I could help it. Anything that made the words stop was a welcome relief at the time.

One of my buddies had even managed to get a hold of some magic suppression rings so we wouldn’t have to worry if we drank a bit too much as high-power unicorns. Though given the topic of this conversation, the fact that it was quickly plummeting into the ground for me said I had probably made some terrible, terrible mistakes at that party. I had thought so when I woke up in a bush the following morning with a nasty hangover.

Dad grunted. “From what she said, that's where it happened.”

I needed to hear it again, I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So, wait, are you saying I…?”

Mom pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes. You're a father, and you have been for six years. Ditzy conceived after your … encounter, carried your daughter and raised her after she gave birth. She didn't remember your name, or barely any details about you, but her child is definitely yours.”

I ran my hooves through my mane as I tried to make sense of all of this. I could vaguely remember the mare in the picture, but everything had happened so far into the past it felt like a lifetime ago. “I thought I left my dorm address with her or something.”

“Apparently not.” I could tell Dad tried to not sound accusatory, but yeah, he did. And if they were right about me being a dad, then he had a good reason to be.

I groaned and buried my face in my hooves. “I didn't. If I'd known she was...”

Dad nodded and rubbed my back. “You would have done the right thing if you'd known. I know you would have. That's the stallion we raised.”

“We're just going to have to deal with it as best we can.” Mom shrugged and her ears flattened. “It’s all we can do, given the circumstances.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. Okay, so I was a dad now. That in and of itself was an extremely scary thing to think about, much less the fact that I hadn't known about my ... daughter for all this time. They had said she was six. I’d missed six years of my daughter’s life. I had been an absentee father for all this time and hadn't known it. That was something I had to fix. I wasn't sure how or even if I could make up for all of this, but I had to try. Right?

Now that I had my head mostly straightened out, I turned my thoughts to practical matters. It was just like dealing with a crisis in the Guard: first quantify the problem before you, then figure out how to deal with it. “So how do I make it right?”

“I figure meeting with this mare would be a good start,” Dad said. “As well as your daughter, when you're ready.”

“Sounds good.” Not like I was going to avoid the mare who had my kid, much less my daughter. Sun and stars, this was going to be awkward. I didn't even know this mare and I had knocked her up and she'd been raising our kid all this time by herself. I could only hope and pray that she didn't hate me for all of that. Not that she wouldn't have very good reasons to. Saying ‘I'm sorry, I didn't know our one night stand got you pregnant and you've been dealing with all the problems with raising a kid all by yourself for all these years’ didn't quite make up for that.

Mom rubbed my back. “Whatever happens, I'm sure we can give Ditzy the money she needs to help raise the filly. Hopefully you'll get to spend time with your daughter, but it might take some time to sort all of that out. It depends on how things work out between you two.”

“Yeah! I would've if I'd known.” I groaned and rubbed my face. Geeze, I was already having to worry about child care payments. Hay, I would be lucky if she didn't sue me. The only thing that would save me would be the fact that I'd do a whole hay of a lot for my kid. Even if the idea of me having a kid was still felt unreal. “I'll do what I can.”

“We have the information you need to meet her.” Mom hoofed over a yellow envelope. “They live in Ponyville, and they do want to meet you. Your sister was the one that found out about all of this first, just so you know.” Her ears wilted and her gaze fell to the floor. “It would probably best if you ask her about how she found out about all of this.”

“Twily?” That must have been a story. I wondered how in the world she had found out I was a dad, or what she had been doing to find the truth to start with. She managed to find herself in a lot more trouble than I ever liked to hear about. “I suppose I better tell her I'm coming to town before I show up. From the sounds of it, she’s going to handle the introductions.”

“That's right.” Mom shook her head. “And don't worry, we’ll support you through this. It’s not like your dad and I haven't made our own mistakes over the years. We understand these things happen sometimes—what matters is how we deal with them.”

Dad cleared his throat and gave Mom a meaningful look. “Speaking of, there's something else we need to tell you.”

That didn’t sound good, though maybe I was just reading everything wrong. “This is like one of those bad news/good news things, right? And now that you've given me the bad news...” I could always hope that it wasn’t going to get worse before it got better. I mean, how much worse could this conversation go?

“Something like that.” Mom grasped Dad’s hoof and squeezed it, her voice tightening as she spoke. “The good news... The good news is that your sister's alive.”

“Well yeah, I saw Twilight on the way back to Canterlot.”

“No.” Dad groaned and pressed his hoof to his face. “Your other sister.”

I sat up in alarm. “Vinyl? Did something happen to her when I was away?!” Admittedly, I didn’t always keep up with what my half-sister was up to. We had never been super close, even though we got along just fine when we met now and again when our schedules allowed. But I would like to think I would be one of the first ponies to find out if she got hurt or something.

Mom shook her head vigorously. “No, he means ... Amethyst.”

“...what?” That was—huh?

Amethyst was dead—hay, she’d been born dead. You don’t just get better from being dead. What the hay were they going on about?

“Your younger sister is alive.” Dad rubbed the back of his neck as he neglected to meet my gaze. “We lied to you. We gave her up for adoption and then lost track of her until shortly after we found your daughter.”

“Lost tra—we had a funeral!” I stood up from the couch and glared down at my parents. “You don't just lose track of a kid! This is my sister we’re talking about! Your daughter!”

Mom grimaced and hunched her shoulders. “We lied about the miscarriage. She was born just fine.” Mom wrapped her forelegs around herself as Dad wrapped a leg around her for comfort. “Magetrix is Amethyst's sire. We made a mistake in giving her up. Your dad was trying to become Grand Vizier at the time, and it would have been a scandal that would have hurt him at the time, and...”

“I should have just claimed her as my own,” Dad said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Or—hay with it, anything other than what we did. Giving Amethyst up for adoption was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and it was the wrong one. We thought it be easier on you and Twilight if we lied about what happened to her.”

My breath came in long, ragged breaths. “That's .. that’s it? That’s why you lied to me?! Lied to Twilight?! All for—for politics?!”

Mom sniffed as she continued to hold herself. “I don't blame you for being angry with me. There isn't any excuse I can give for what we did. Not for this.”

“Well you're right about that!” I snapped, my body trembling. “I can’t believe you would do something like this!” Were these the parents that had raised me? Did I really know them if they could just give away my sister and lie about it? I didn’t care that Magetrix was the sire, this was my sister we were talking about!

“We only wanted what was best.” Dad sighed and rubbed his brow. “Celestia, that sounds like a load of horseapples, but it's the truth.”

“It was a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Mom repeated, sounding like she was half saying it to herself. “We made it in a panic and it was the wrong call, and it's a decision I've regretted ever since.”

“For good reason.” I paced about the living room at a loss. I wanted to do something. Anything. Something that would let me act instead of having to listen to this-this ... insanity. I had a daughter. Amethyst was alive. I’d lost my job after being used by Queen Chrysalis. What else was life going to throw at me at this point?

It was too much. Any one of these things would have been more than bad enough to deal with. But all together?

I tried to push all of that to the side to ask the first question that came to mind. “Where is she?”

Mom’s back quivered as she started breaking down, leaving Dad to answer as he rubbed her back. “By some twist of fate, the mother of your daughter adopted her.”

That made me stop my pacing, and I shook my head as the whole world seemed to be spinning out of control. “The Princess did say fate has a sense of humor.” At this point I couldn’t even say I was all that surprised. Why wouldn’t have the mare I met once and knocked up by accident end up adopting my long-lost sister? Something out there was playing with my life, that had to be it.

“So that's the truth of it,” Dad said. “Everything you need to know is in that envelope.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay.” At least that sounded like the end of it—for now, anyways. Now I could absorb all of this.

“I’m sorry, Shining,” Mom managed to choke out.

Dad shrugged helplessly. “Don't know what else to say.”

“I think you’ve said plenty.” Both my parents flinched, and maybe that had come out nastier than I’d intended, but ... well, I was mad, and even had very good reasons to be. I didn’t even know how to classify all of this. “I’m gonna go.” I moved towards the doorway.

Dad reached out a hoof to try and stop me. “Shining, it might be best if you have us there to explain all of this to Cadance. This is—”

“I can handle it!” I snapped, not wanting to talk to them any longer. “I can tell Cadey.”

It wasn’t until I was out of the manor when I realized I had a major problem on my hooves.

Cadey was gonna kill me.

The trip back to Cadey’s quarters in the palace filled me with trepidation, but the long walk to the palace wasn’t the worst part. No, not by a long shot; what was far worse was when I got to Cadance’s quarters and nopony was there. That’s when the worst part started: the waiting. As long as I was doing something I had at least a little bit of control of the situation. But waiting? That’s where you gave up control. When you were waiting you could only—well, wait for other ponies to act. It reminded me of the anticipation before a battle; the stress would just build and build, the tension getting to a point where it was almost a relief when something actually happened, even if we all knew that something was likely to be really bad.

And this was going to be pretty bucking bad.

Explaining to Cadey I was a dad by some other mare was going to be rough, and telling her Amethyst—Sparkler, as she was called now—was alive wasn’t going to help things. The former was going to upset her, and the latter was going to make it sound like I was trying to get her pity. I kept running through the conversation with Cadey over and over in my head as I waited on her living room couch, and no realistic scenario turned out well. Maybe I should have gotten my parents’ help to explain all of this? But the thought of asking them for help just made me mad as all Tartarus. All these years they lied to me and my sister, and for what? So Dad could become Grand Vizier. As if that mattered, in comparison. No, I didn’t want to talk to them. Not for a long time, and certainly not right now.

I had to take several long breaths and count back from a hundred to calm back down. The last thing I needed to do was be at the point of wanting to scream when I talked with Cadey. First I would start yelling, and then she would start yelling, and then... Nothing good, probably. Endless night, we were going to need a relationship counselor at this rate, and we’d just gotten married! Where had everything gone so wrong?

The door to Cadey’s quarters opened and I instinctively tensed. Here we go, once more into the breach.

“Hey Shining, is that you?” Cadey asked as she closed the door behind her.

I swallowed, my throat suddenly feeling very dry. “Yeah. I mean, who else would be in our quarters?”

“One of the servants, possibly.” She smiled when she came in sight of me and gave me a peck on the cheek.

I gave the best smile I could under the circumstance, and I hoped it actually looked like a smile instead of some sort of grimace. “Oh, right. We have those now.”

“I'm sure you'll grow used to it.” Cadey headed to the bedroom and went about removing her royal regalia.

“You seem to have managed.” So, first thing’s first before I lept into that abyss of a terrible, horrible, awkward conversation that I never wanted to have with my wife. “I love you so much.” There, that was something safe to start with, and very, very true.

“I love you too!” Cadance called from the bedroom. A couple seconds later she was back in the living room, still smiling that wonderful smile of hers. “So how was your day?”

Not wanting to actually talk about how my terrible day had gone from start to finish, I pulled up a bouquet of flowers and handed them to my wife. Flowers should make things better, right? That had been my desperate hope when I had bought them on the way to the palace. Fillies always liked flowers. “I got these for you, because I love you so much.”

Cadey beamed as she took the bouquet from me. “Awww, you're so sweet.” She kissed me and I returned the gesture, feeling better from the love of my wife... And then guilty about what I was going to have to tell her.

Seemingly oblivious to my discomfort, Cadance stepped to the little kitchen area we had. It didn’t see a lot of use, but it was there if we wanted it. “Let me put these into a vase of water so that they’ll keep for a while.”

“Sounds good.” I knew I should get started on explaining everything, but ... I didn’t want to. I really didn’t want to. So I went with something safer in the hopes it would help me get to what I needed to talk about. “Did I mention that I'm the luckiest guy in the world, because I'm married to the most beautiful pony in Equestria?”

Cadey put the vase down on the counter, then sauntered over to the couch and continued to smile at me. “Okay, what are you up to?”

“Nothing.” I found myself wringing my hooves together and forced myself to stop. “I just wanted you to know that I really, really, really love you.”

Cadey’s smile vanished. “Shining, what's wrong?”

“Nothing's wrong!” I said, the words coming out of my mouth on their own accord. “Why does something have to be wrong?”

Cadey shifted over and placed her hoof on mine. “You seem stressed.”

“Stressed? Why would I be stressed?” Maybe if I insisted everything was alright hard enough it would actually be so. “I'm married to the most beautiful mare in the world. What do I have to be stressed about?”

“There's the fact today was your last day as captain of the Royal Guard.” Cadey wrapped a wing around me and gave me a supportive nuzzle. “Look, I know this has been hard on you, but we’ll be fine. Don't worry, I don't think any less of you because you aren't the Captain anymore. You only lost your position because of bad luck and politics.”

“I know, but that's not...” I grimaced as I trailed off. Cadey was being so loving and supportive, and here I was about to ruin everything because of something dumb I did years ago. Life wasn't fair. “Look, I want you to know that I love you more than anything in the whole wide world.”

“I understand that.” Cadey pecked me on the cheek. “I can feel how much you love me, and I love you right back. So stop worrying about it. As for your job...” She rubbed her chin as she thought. “How about this? Next chance I get I’ll talk with Aunt Tia and Aunt Luna about getting you transferred to a new post. I'm sure there’s something out there you can do, and anypony with half a brain can see how good you are at your job.”

The guilt was getting to the point of threatening to kill me. I needed to tell her the truth. She deserved that much, however much it hurt. “That’s not the problem. Not really. It’s ... I really love you, Cadey,” I said, chickening out again.

“I know you do.” Cadey frowned as she stared at me. “And as much as I like to hear it, you don't need to reassure me all the time. Shining, what’s the matter?”

Maybe there was a way to break the news to her gently? “I just really want you to know that I love you. So, so much. More than anything.”

Cadey’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Shining, what did you do?”

“Why does telling you l love you mean I did something?” That sounded more defensive than I’d intended.

“Because whenever a stallion says they love their wife so vehemently this many times, it usually means they did something,” She withdrew her supportive wing. “And so they try to cushion the blow of what they did by telling their partners how much they love her.”

My ears flattened to my head. She had me dead pegged. Go figure, the Alicorn of Love would know all about this type of thing. “Not necessarily,” I said, knowing how stupid that sounded as the words left my mouth.

Cadey raised one of her eyebrows. “And this time?”

I licked my suddenly very dry lips, and my eyes darted around to find some kind of inspiration to save myself, and they landed on our wedding photo. “You know how during the wedding, Celestia said that true love is unconditional?”

“Yeees, it was our wedding.” Cadance crossed her legs over her chest. “And you’re avoiding the question. What did you do?”

I could feel myself digging a deeper and deeper hole for myself as my mouth kept talking despite how much a desperate and terrified corner of my mind screamed for me to stop. “I'm just saying, it was a beautiful speech. Just like you're beautiful.”

Cadey’s eyes narrowed yet further into an increasingly suspicious glare. “What. Did. You. Do?”

I gulped as my knees shook and it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. “Um ... IhaveanillegitimatedaughterIjustfoundoutabout!” There, I said it!

Uh-oh, I just said it.

Cadey blinked and jerked back from me. “Excuse me? Did ... did you say you have a daughter?”

I hunched my shoulders, unable to look at her. “Yes, and I really love you.”

Cadey’s look of confusion was replaced by a much uglier glare. “You have a daughter?!” she screamed.

If I could have disappeared into the couch, I would have. “Yes...”

Cadey’s wings snapped out as she bolted to her hooves. “How?! Why?! When?! What have you been doing?!”

I instinctively flinched down. A stupidly pointless thing to do. It wasn't like a stallion my size could make himself unnoticeable. “It was before we even ... I was at a party and ... um ... drinking ... alcohol ... didn't know...”

“Are you telling me you knocked up some mare while drunk?”

I looked away in shame. “A little bit.”

“How do you knock up somepony a little bit?!” Cadey jabbed her hoof into my chest, her face red. “What were you thinking?! You shouldn't be getting drunk to start with, and now you’re sleeping around on me?!”

“No, I—” I groaned and hurried my head in my hooves. “It was before we hooked up. Years ago, at my West Hoof Graduation party, I think. I was young and did something stupid.” That sounded lame even to my ears, true or not.

Cadey’s nostrils flared. “And that's supposed to make me feel better?”

I hung my head. “No, but I swear, I didn't even know I was a dad until earlier today when my parents told me. They—well Twily, found out somehow. I don't have all the details yet about that.”

Cadey shook her head in frustration and paced around the room. “What am I to say about this? You have a daughter by another mare!”

Not knowing what else to say, I went with, “I love you so much.”

“Shining.” The single word mixed disappointment and ... pity, maybe. Probably anger too, she had pretty good reasons to be mad right now. “This isn't the type of thing to go away just because you say you love me. This is bigger than some words. You have a kid and it isn't mine.”

I flinched and kept up my hopeless effort to disappear into the couch. “I'm sorry. I wish there was a way to make this right. I really love you, more than anything.”

Cadey sat on a cushion opposite of me and glowered. “And who is this mare?”

“Ditzy Doo,” I said. “I only met her once, during the party.”

I swear I could hear Cadey’s teeth grinding from the other side of the room. “Apparently you hit it off if you slept with her.”

I grimaced. “It was before we started dating.” Yeah, I'd had a longtime crush on Cadey before that, but it never worked out when I tried to ask her out. In fact, the one time I tried to ask her out on Hearts and Hooves Day ended with her coming to the conclusion that I was gay, thus giving the guys years’ worth of teasing material.

Cadey’s ear flicked for a few seconds. “And where’s your daughter? What's her name?”

“Her name is Dinky Doo.” The envelope my parents had given to me sat on the coffee table between us, and I pushed it towards her. “She’s, um, in Ponyville. She's staying with my sister.”

Cadey cocked an eyebrow as she took the envelope. “You daughter’s with Twilight? Did something happen to her mom?”

“Nono, she's still with her mom.” I hadn't meant to jump right into talking about Amethyst so quickly, but everything was so far off the rails by this point that I didn't know where I was going. “It's my other sister.”

“Vinyl? When did she move out to Ponyville?”

“No!” I groaned and slapped my face with a hoof. “Amethyst Star.” I took a deep breath, trying to not screw up some part of this conversation. “The one I thought was dead until about five minutes after I found out I had a kid.”

Cadey’s jaw dropped, and it took a couple of attempts for her to form a coherent sentence. “Amethyst ... but I thought she was stillborn. There was a funeral, right?”

I felt some of the anger from earlier in the day return. “So did I. Apparently my parents lied. Said they were trying to avoid a political scandal when they found out Magetrix was the sire. Twily discovered that Amethyst was alive, somehow.”

“I can't believe this.” Cadey shook her head. “This isn't making any sense.”

“Tell me about it.”

“But why? Why would they do something like that?” Her eyes narrowed again. “This better not be some attempt to shift the topic away from what you did. I will confirm all of this with your parents later.”

I threw up my hooves in surrender. “Cadey, trust me, I don't have a plan. Everything's hitting me so hard and fast right now I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I...” I suddenly felt exhausted. Like I'd just done an all day and night march through a swamp, and all I wanted to do was collapse on the first patch of dry land I could find. I slunk down to lie down on the couch, feeling helpless. “I just want it to stop. I want to go back to being Captain, where I didn't have an illegitimate daughter I didn't know about and the world made some bucking sense.”

Cadey started to rise from her cushion but then stopped herself. She lowered herself back down and took a long breath. “That's—well, I don't like saying it, but I'm pretty disappointed in your parents. I never would have imagined they could have done something like this.” She shot me another glower. “I'm not saying I'm thrilled about you having a daughter with another mare. It might have been unintentional, but you still acted incredibly irresponsibly. You should have known better.”

I buried my face in the couch and groaned. “Sorry.”

Cadey let out a long breath. “Anything else I should know about?”

I shook my head. “Not that I know of.” If that wasn’t the end of it I didn’t know what I was going to do. “So ... we good?”

“This is a lot to absorb.” Cadey rubbed her eyes as she thought. “I’m going to need some time to wrap my head around all of this.”

“You and me both.” I closed my eyes as I tried to figure out how to move forward.

Cadey slumped in her chair, looking almost as weary as I felt. “So, what are you planning on doing?”

“I need to see them,” I said. “Ditzy, Amethyst, my daughter.”

Cadey nodded slightly. “You do need to see them, and ... I’d better go with you.”

I smiled a little bit, because I needed any support I could get from my wife. “I’d really appreciate it. We can send a message to Twilight asking if we can come over so that we can sort all of this out. She knows everything, and I’m sure she’d be willing to help.”

“That plan sounds as good as any.” Cadey shook her head. “This is going to really complicate the family tree.”

“Sorry.” I grimaced. “I love you.”

“Yes, I know.” Cadey blew a lock of her mane out of her face. “And I love you too. Even if it makes life very ... interesting, sometimes.”

“Good interesting?”

The shadow of a grin showed on Cadey’s lips. “Most of the time.”

“So...” I rubbed my upper leg. This wasn’t a question I’d looked forward to asking. “How long am I on the couch?”

Cadey’s ears wilted. “I think I need a bit of space to figure everything out. Do you have someplace you can go for a couple of days?”

Ouch, even worse than couch time. Not that I could blame Cadey, I’d just hit her hard with everything, and we hadn’t even been married that long. “Yeah, probably.” I wasn’t so sure about crashing at Sparkle Manor, not when I was still mad at my parents, but there should be a barrack or friend’s house I should be able to sleep at for a couple of days. Maybe waiting a few days to hear back from Twily would help me get my head on straight, anyways.

Cadey shuffled on her cushion and then scooted over next to me. She placed a hoof on mine and smiled. “It’ll be okay, alright? It’s going to be rough for a while, but we’ll make it through this.”

“Thanks.” I grasped her hoof and smiled. As long as I had Cadey I was pretty sure I’d be okay in the end, however crazy life got. “Did I mention I love you?”

Author's Note

I'd like to thank my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie, and my prereaders Trinary, Rodinga, Swiftest, Bronywriter, wolfstorm56, Stupidhand14, Alicorn Priest, and Poison Claw for all their help with putting this story together.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

Thankfully, a Guard friend of mine was able to let me sleep in his guest room for a couple of days while everything was sorted out. It was small comfort to being exiled from Cadey’s presence, but it was marginally better than finding myself on the street.

After some messages back and forth, Twily had invited Cadey and me over so that we could meet everypony in Ponyville. A few days had only barely cushioned the truth that I was a dad now. On one hoof it still didn't feel real, and on the other it felt like the whole world was coming down on my head. The stuff with Amethyst only made it all the worse—my second little sister was still alive, I had a daughter, and both of them were living under the same roof. It was all surreal.

The only thing I could think to do was try and meet with long-distant family and hope it would turn out okay. What else could I do? Avoiding the problem or ignoring it wasn’t going to make it better, not by a long shot.

That was why I was waiting in the Canterlot Train Station for the train to Ponyville as my brain ran through a hundred pretty awful scenarios. What if Ditzy hated me for knocking her up and leaving her leaving her alone all this time? What if Dinky, the daughter I hadn't known existed, hated me for not being there for her? Who even knew what Amethyst would think of me when our parents had abandoned her for adoption?

I had been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice somepony sit next to me on the station bench. “Shining?”

I blinked as Cadey pulled me out of my ruminations. She’d said she was coming with me after I sent her a message telling her when I was planning on going to Ponyville. She frowned at me in concern, and her guards were taking positions around us, both to give us privacy and keep some stranger from getting too close to Cadey. Pretty soon I'd be getting my own guards due to being the prince-consort. At least as soon as all the arrangements could be made by the Guard.

I cleared my throat and made myself say something before things got awkward—more awkward. “Hi Cadey. How are you doing?”

“Alright, I suppose.” Her eyes flicked back and forth between me and nothing in particular. “You?”

“I'm getting along, I guess.” I shrugged. “Just thinking. About stuff.”

“There is a lot of things to think about.” Cadey stared at the tracks through the window. “How you feeling?”

“Honestly, kinda nervous.” That probably understated it by a mile. Part of me was tempted to say the hay with the train and just start running to Ponyville. Waiting … waiting was always the worst. “Are we, um, okay?” I tried to smile for her, but it felt more like a grimace.

Cadey huffed, but nodded. “I can't say I'm thrilled by any of this, but ... I can understand. At least where your daughter is concerned. The things with Amethyst is something else entirely, but you didn't have a say in any of that.” She let out an even angrier huff. “I had a word or two with your parents about that.”

I hunched my shoulders at the image of Cadey cutting loose at my parents. They had done something pretty horrible, but I still didn't like the idea of anypony chewing them out. Especially Cadey, when that was going to make it really hard to pull the family back together again. Assuming that could be done—there were so many ifs and buts that I could only guess how it was all going to turn out.

“Nothing too bad, I hope?” I asked, then quickly added, “Not that we don't have every reason to be mad at them, but...”

“They're still your parents?” Cadey finished for me.

“Pretty much.” I ran a hoof through my mane. “I don't know. It’s hard imagining them doing something that bucked up. They’re good ponies—or at least, I thought they were.”

“Everypony makes mistakes.” She shot me a flat glower. “Like this whole situation you've gotten yourself into.”

I threw my hooves up in surrender. “Yeah, I screwed up, and I'll admit that up front. I'm sorry for hurting you. Causing you pain was the last thing I ever wanted to do.” I squirmed on the bench. “I know I keep saying I love you, but that’s because it’s true. I love you to bits, and I couldn’t imagine my life without you. It scares me to death how all of this might ruin everything for us.”

Cadey huffed again, and then nodded. “I know that, really, I do.” She scooted closer and wrapped a wing around me, smiling as she did so. “It’s going to be a long time before I get over this, but after thinking it over I think I can learn to be okay with it. I can help you deal with the consequences of this, at least.”

A ghost of a smile formed on my lips. “Thanks, Cadey. It means a lot that you’re here for me. I’ll do anything to make up for this.”

Cadey’s smile took on an impish air. “I’ll make sure to hold you to that later.” She dropped the smile for a more serious frown. “Though first we need to make sure that Twilight’s alright. Did she say how she was doing in her letter?”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t really tell in her message to me. It was pretty straightforward. All it went over was that she would like for us to come to Ponyville and she’d be willing to help us meet everypony there.” I shrugged helplessly. “Whether she’s handling it fine on her own or really wants our support, I can only guess.”

“We’ll find out when we get there then.” A whistle blew and Cadey’s head turned to see the train coming into the station. “Let’s make sure your sister’s okay, and then we’ll go from there.”

I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

I could only hope that nothing else could go wrong.

The train ride to Ponyville felt like it took forever and yet no time at all. Cadey and I chit-chatted a little bit along the way, but I could tell that neither of our hearts were in it. Sure, we were back in a good place again, but we were a far ways away from making everything right again. That wasn’t going to happen until we dealt with all the problems we had ahead of us in Ponyville.

I hadn’t really had much time to visit my sister. My time as Captain of the Royal Guard kept me extremely busy, and I felt no small twinge of guilt over being unable to see her. The guilt wasn’t helped when I couldn’t decide whether I simply couldn’t pull myself away from Guard work to see her, or just hadn’t made the effort. I resolved to to do better in the future. One benefit over having lost my job was that I was going to have some spare time for a while. Maybe once everything settled down I could spend some time with family ... which was suddenly a much more precarious idea than it had been a couple of weeks ago.

“It’ll be nice to see Twily again,” I remarked as we walked down Ponyville’s streets. “I haven't gotten much time with her since she moved, and we didn't really get much quality time during the wedding.” At least the town she lived in seemed nice. It made me more than a bit anxious when she had decided to move out here, especially for her stated reasons. ‘I want to be with my friends’ normally isn’t the best reason to move to someplace, but Princess Celestia—Aunt Tia, now, I reminded myself—insisted it was for the best. Twily did seem a lot happier now, and it was good to hear about her going out and doing more than locking herself up in a tower with her books all day every day. So it was probably for the best.

Even if I was a bit worried about what she was doing with her life. Managing some small-town library seemed beneath her talents. Not to mention her being so close to the Everfree Forest with its collection of monsters wasn’t something a protective big brother like me liked, but that was something we could talk about later.

Cadey nodded. “I agree. We missed a lot of time with her since...” She trailed off, but I could tell what gave her pause. She knew I didn’t like hearing about Queen Chrysalis, and she had every bit as much reason to hate her as I did. “At least we've got time now.”

“Can’t argue with that.” We reached the library, or the big tree that served as the town library. I had to wonder what the story for this place was. Carving out a tree to make a home and library had probably been a lot of work, and in the middle of town, nonetheless. Oh well, maybe I could ask Twily about it later.

Seeing no reason to delay, I knocked on the door and waited. It wasn’t long before Spike opened the door, “Shining, Cadance?” He smiled up at us. “It’s great to see you!”

“Hello again, Spike.” Cadey smiled and nuzzled him. “I've missed you.”

“Hey Spike! Got something for you.” I pulled out the newest issue of Power Ponies and passed it to him.

He took the comic and beamed. “Oh, that is awesome! Have I mentioned you're my favorite big brother Twilight has?”

I chuckled. “Pretty sure I'm Twily's only big brother. Anyway, where is she?”

“She's down in the basement with some project.” Spike opened the door wider to let us in. Big surprise, the interior of the library was a big open space with lots of books inside. I really shouldn’t have been surprised that Twily had come to live in an actual library, she almost lived in the libraries in Canterlot anyways. “Weird thing is, she hasn't called for me yet.” He shrugged.

“Weird how?” Cadey asked.

Spike led us down the stairs down to the basement. “Usually she wants me there to take notes or hand her stuff for whatever experiment she's got going.”

“Maybe it’s some project she wanted to do alone?” I suggested. If it was something a little bit dangerous she might have decided to not have Spike around.

“Maybe.” Spike shrugged again and opened the door to the basement. “Hey Twilight! Shining Armor and Caaaayyyyuuuuuhhhhh...”

I saw what had grabbed his attention a second later. My sister was kissing somepony. She was kissing another mare. My baby sister. Kissing. Deeply.

My little Twily. With another pony.

Kissing.

Cadey looked into the library basement lab and blinked at the sight. “Oh my,” she whispered so quietly I only barely made out the words, and she covered a smile with a hoof.

Twily and this other mare with a lavender coat and a long, dual-blond mane continued kissing for a second longer before one of Twily’s eyes half-opened, and then snapped wide, freezing in place.

I glared daggers at this mare who was carousing with my sister and loudly cleared my throat in the way I usually reserved for fresh privates who were in the process of doing something very dumb. Something about this other mare pinged a memory of mine, but I was having trouble remembering where I had seen her before.

Twily broke the kiss and flashed us an extremely brittle smile. “Shining! Cadance! Y-you're here already! I didn't expect you to get here so soon!” She laughed nervously as she broke contact with the other mare, looking at a nearby clock resting on the wall. “Wow, time really flies when you’re, um, busy, with studying and projects, and spending time with ponies.” She laughed nervously again.

Spike slowly slipped past me and Cadey. “I'm—I—they're here! Igottagobye!” He clutched at his new comic and fled like he’d stolen it, and I wasn’t about to stop him. Not when I had more pressing business to deal with. Like some mare taking advantage of my little sister.

Twily kept up that brittle smile as she motioned towards the strange mare who had been kissing her. “So, um, this is Cloud Kicker. Cloud, this is my brother and sister-in-law, Shining Armor and Cadance.”

“Um ... hey.” Cloud waved without much enthusiasm behind the gesture, probably because she knew she was in trouble. “Nice to meet you.”

Cadey offered a hoofshake to Cloud. “It's nice to meet you.”

Cloud took Cadey’s hoof and shook it. “Yeah, nice to meet you too.”

The fire in my chest burned hotter still. I had heard of Cloud Kicker, and nothing I knew about her made me want her to be anywhere near my wife or little sister. Rumors got around when you were the most promiscuous mare in West Hoof, especially when you were the heir apparent to the Kicker Clan. I had heard of an incident where she had been caught having sex at the center of campus, and that was only one of the stories I had heard.

And that didn’t even start to cover the grumblings I’d heard among the Kickers that she was no longer her dad’s heir after she’d run out on the Guard and abandoned her oath to Equestria. Yet another reason to not want her near Twily. My little sister did not need somepony taking advantage of her.

A growl grew in my throat as I glared at Cloud. “So, what exactly did you think you were doing with my sister?!”

Twily winced and stepped closer to me. “Shining, there's no need to raise your voice...”

Cloud’s eyes flicked between me and my sister. “I should go.”

“Yeah, you’d better,” I told her. “Now get out and stay away from my sister.”

Twily blinked and took a step back from me. “Shiny!”

I felt Cadey place a hoof on my shoulder and give it a hard squeeze. “Shining.” The word was a warning for me to stop, but she didn't understand who this Cloud Kicker was or what I was protecting my little sister from.

Cadey turned her attention to Cloud as she kept her hoof on my shoulder. “Perhaps you could come by later? I'd love to talk, but some private things have come up we need to talk about first.” Her eyes flicked my way. “Family things.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Cloud paused for a moment before giving Twily a quick peck on the cheek and a couple whispered words, and Twily whispered something back. Cloud then made her way towards the door, but I wasn't going to leave it at that after that going-away peck. She was going to come back, and I needed to make sure she didn't.

As she was about to pass me, I pressed me hoof against her chest and met her eyes with mine as I glared at her. “If you hurt my sister, I will end you.”

Cloud looked down at my hoof and then back up at my face, her face perfectly neutral. “Right.” She stepped well around me and exited the basement. If she knew what was good for her she wouldn't be coming back.

It was as I watched Cloud leave that I heard Twilight speak up. “Shining, what do you think you're doing?!” The question was more of a statement than a question. “That was incredibly rude!”

I turned around to face my glowering sister. “I'm just looking out for you, Twily.”

Cadey placed a gentle hoof on my chest. “I'm sure the thought's appreciated, but she's a grown mare.”

Twily’s eye twitched. “Yes, because I can't look out for myself. Thank you.”

With Cloud out of the house I felt the steam start to drain out of me, leaving me to realize that I was looking at a glaring little sister and a wife who was giving me her ‘I am not pleased with what you just did’ frown. “I was just trying to...”

Oh, no. I might just have bucked up.

Cadey stepped to Twily’s side and nuzzled her. “I am so sorry about that, Twilight.”

I shuffled awkwardly in place. On second thought, scaring off Cloud might not have been the best way to handle the situation. Yeah, she was bad for my sister, but threatening her right away was escalating things way too fast. I should have asked to speak with Twilight alone and tell her exactly who she was kissing. That probably would have worked out better, but now...

“I was just trying to protect you,” my mouth said on its own accord.

“Why thank you,” Twilight said, her words dripping sarcasm. “You saved me from the terrible fate of kissing another pony. Thanks for protecting me, big brother. Now I won't have to worry about being kissed, or having to hold hooves, or nuzzling, or any other kind of intimate contact. That's a load off my mind. I definitely won't have to worry about having to go out on a date because of your stalwart protection of my virtue. Thanks to you, I won't have to worry about silly things like what to wear, how to do my mane, if I need to get a gift or where I might like to go with a special somepony. All potential suitors will be scared off by my protective big brother. Thank you. Have I thanked you enough yet for driving Cloud off?”

I winced. Yeah, Twilight was pretty mad. The guilt she was making me feel made me want to sink into the floor. All I wanted to do was protect her from a pony who was taking advantage of her. Couldn’t she see that?

Cadence wrapped a wing around Twilight’s back and nuzzled her again. “Maybe you should wait upstairs for a bit, Shining?”

I knew better to argue and dig myself an even bigger hole than I was already in. “Yeah, okay.” I trudged off back to the stairs, done screwing up everything I touched for now.

Way to go, me. Way to go.

I was having absolutely terrible luck with the mares in my life. My princesses and aunts-in-law had asked me to quit my job to avoid an embarrassing incident. Cadey was mad at me for having a kid with another mare and both her and Twilight were mad over how I ran off Cloud Kicker. Things with Mom were on the rocks because of the mess with Amethyst Star. Ditzy Doo was probably all kinds of unhappy with me after I knocked her up and left her to raise a kid alone. My daughter probably wondered why I hadn’t been there for her and given her the love she deserved. Hay, Amethyst probably didn’t like me for not being a big brother to her for all these years.

That didn’t leave many mares I knew who weren’t unhappy with me on some level. There was Vinyl, and while we weren’t that close, we did get along pretty well when we got the time between our busy schedules to actually see each other. I also got along with the fey who attended my regular game night. At least when she wasn’t getting into trouble due to her fey-ness. Which was periodic.

Yeah, I definitely didn’t have much luck with mares.

Thus, I was getting to some very good sulking upstairs with Spike. Pulling out some of his comics to read at least distracted me from how I had bucked up. Just thinking about that pony being anywhere around my sister caused me to start seeing red. I wasn’t sorry she was gone, just how I had gotten her out the door.

Spike at least was cool. He was like the little brother I never had. It was always nice when we got to hang out. I could still remember when I introduced him to roleplaying games, and teaching him all about rolling dice and slaying monsters with the guys. I always seemed to have an easier time with guys. Guys were simple and easy to understand. Mares were hard. Even after all these years I still didn’t have a clue about what I was doing with mares.

Eventually the moment I dreaded came, and Twily and Cadey emerged from the basement. Knowing it was time to face the music, I closed the comic I’d been reading, carefully put it back in its sleeve, and then stood up to face my wife and sister.

Spike, probably sensing that trouble had arrived, quickly put his own comic away and carefully slid it in the box where he kept his comics. “Um, Twilight, should I ... give you guys the library for a bit?”

“That might be for the best.” Twily gave Spike a quick nuzzle before pulling out her bit purse and levitating a few bits to him.

Spike’s eyes glittered and he took the offered coins. “I’ll be back later! Bye everyone!” Spike fled from the library, making him much, much smarter than I felt at that moment. Dad had always warned me never to get between two angry mares, and here I was in the crossfire between my wife and little sister because of my own mistakes. I was not a clever pony, not by half.

Twilight was still frowning pretty heavily, but she didn’t look like she was fuming like she had been earlier. That was probably a good sign. Cadey gave Twily a squeeze and nodded to her. Twily took a deep breath and then spoke with deliberate and even paced words. “So, I guess we have some things to talk about now that you're here.”

“Yeah we do.” I rubbed my leg, drawing on what I had decided to say to her once I had some time to think about what I had done. “Sorry about getting all ... big brother on you. I just wanted to protect you and did it the wrong way.”

Twily pressed her lips together for a long moment and looked to Cadey. Cadey nodded and motioned to me with her head. Twily let out a sigh and nodded. “Okay, apology accepted.” There was a pregnant pause before she added, “And I'd like for you to apologize to Cloud too before you leave for Canterlot. You were really mean to her.”

I groaned and rubbed my face. Apologizing to Twily was one thing, but doing the same for Cloud was something else entirely. “Twily, I'm not sure how well you know Cloud Kicker, but from what I've heard she has a ... reputation.”

Twily shuffled in place. “Yes, I'm aware.”

“I just want to make sure nopony's taking advantage of you.” A pony like Cloud especially. “Unless she’s changed how she was back in West Hoof...”

“I know, I know.” Twily groaned and shook her head. “And she's not, trust me. Cloud's really nice.”

Cadey’s ears perked. “How do you mean?”

“Well, we've been going on a few dates.” Twily’s cheeks flushed. “Seeing how things are working out, and thus far it hasn’t been bad.”

“Looks like they went just fine,” I grumbled. That burning in my chest came back with a vengeance, but I suppressed it, hard. Blowing up again was the exact opposite thing I needed to do right at that moment. Call it a guess, but I had a feeling Twily wouldn’t appreciate me going after Cloud and telling her again in very firm terms not to be around my sister. Again. The fact that Twily seemed to be okay with seeing Cloud didn’t inspire me with confidence. Near as I knew Twily hadn’t dated anypony else before. If somepony like Cloud wanted to take advantage of her she would have the experience to know how to do it.

I should probably stop thinking of ways to quietly dispose of Cloud. I wasn’t going to get out of the hole I was in by digging literal holes.

Cadey placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Perhaps we should trust Twilight to determine that? It’s her life, and she should get the opportunity to live it.”

“I know, but...” I didn’t have anything to follow up with that I hadn’t already said. My dislike of Cloud was already pretty clear, and it didn’t seem to be dissuading Twily from seeing her. Ugh, I was trapped.

Twilight huffed and turned her head away from me. “Well maybe it's nice to finally have somepony romantically interested in me for once.”

“But you're—”

“What?” Twily snapped, interrupting me. Her nostrils flared. “You got a special somepony, why can't I?”

I shuffled in place. “It’s just ... you're just my little baby sister.”

Something passed over Twily’s face and her head drooped. “Right.”

Cadey cleared her throat and squeezed my shoulder. “The fact that you want to look out for her is at least a kind thought, and while it’s hard to do, you need to let her make her own choices.”

“I know, but...” Ugh, why were words so hard right now? I wanted to make Twily understand Cloud was bad for her, but I couldn’t seem to explain it right for her. “I want you to be happy, Twily, more than just about anything. You deserve somepony that’s good for you. Not...”

Twily nodded slowly. “I appreciate that you want to protect me, but there are more efficient ways to go about it.”

I raised an eyebrow. “More efficient ways?”

“Maybe you can concentrate on any monsters attacking me instead of ponies that want to kiss me?” Twily suggested. “Consolidation of resources, you could say.”

“Uh, right.” I shuffled again, feeling a familiar discomfort falling over me again. “But you're really good at blasting monsters already.” Probably way better than me, even. I would have been trounced by Nightmare Moon if it came to a straight up fight between us, and Discord could make even the princesses look like a joke. But Twily had beaten both of them with her friends. Considering part of the reason I had joined the Guard was to protect Twily, that stung. All the really big incidents where she had been in danger and I hadn’t been there for her. Then if not for Cadey I would have stood around like a zombie as Chrysalis took over Equestria and did who knew what to my poor little sister. Even my request to send a Guard detachment to Ponyville to help keep Twily safe had been rejected by Princess Celestia for some mysterious reason she couldn’t tell me. I was starting to wonder if I even had a purpose anymore.

Twily sighed. “That's somewhat true, yes. Not that I particularly like running around blasting monsters, and that only worked against Nightmare Moon and Discord because me and my friends were using the Elements of Harmony.”

“But you’ve proven you can take care of yourself.” Cadey smirked. “And if you can blast monsters, you can blast unwanted suitors. Not to mention that you have a direct line to Princess Celestia.”

Twily’s eyes widened. “I-I don't want to have to write her because I'm having dating problems! That’s a gross misuse of my relationship with her!”

It was hard to suppress a laugh at the idea of Twily sending a letter to Her Highness over dating trouble, but I managed. Barely. It helped that I had some serious stuff to talk about. “Yeah, but ... well, somepony taking advantage of her is different, is all. I just wanna be a good big brother, and for my little sis to meet the right pony. That’s all I want.” If there was anypony good enough for my sister, which was a big if considering how amazing she was.

Twily groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “Okay, if somepony is causing trouble I'll make sure to talk with you, and if need be, you can go all big brother on them with my blessing.”

“But what if you don't know they're doing it?” Like Cloud.

Twily let out a frustrated sigh. “And what does somepony taking advantage of me look like?”

“...I know it when I see it.”

Twily shot me a skeptical frown. “And you can tell that with Cloud based on one kiss with me?”

Cadey interjected herself into the conversation again. “Let's leave aside the whom for a moment.” She looked to me. “Would you have reacted any differently if it were somepony else?”

“Um...” I couldn’t quite bring myself to meet either of their gazes. If I was being honest with myself, I had trouble imagining anypony being good enough for Twily. Cloud was especially bad, but then who would be right for Twily? I tried to think of any of my friends dating Twily and ... no, no, and no. Definitely no. Not happening. Half if not all of the nobility would only be interestested in Twily because of who she was and her connection to Princess—Aunt Celestia. The same for a bunch of the rest of the population of Equestria. Right, so I was automatically disqualifying at least 99.99% of Equestria’s entire population out of hoof for dating my little sis, and I’m sure the remainder could quickly be turned down due to one problem or another, but that was only rational.

Twily frowned and looked to Cadey and I could feel an unspoken communication between them. After that silent talk between them it was Cadey who spoke up next. “Then it seems to me that you would think anypony who's involved with Twilight would be taking advantage of her.”

“Um.” Sometimes I wondered if Cadey was really a mind reader, but just because I couldn't think of anypony being good enough for Twily didn't mean there wasn't theoretically somepony right for her. It was possible, anyways. “That's not necessarily true.”

Cadey shook her head before nuzzling me. “I know you want to look out for her, and that's endearing, really, but perhaps you should take a step back. It's hard because you love her, but it's precisely because you love her that you need to do so.”

My ears wilted as the guilt hit me twofold. How could it hurt so much to just want to do the right thing? “But ... I just wanted to...” I trailed off when Cadey gave me a look warning me to drop it. I sighed and bowed my head. “Okay, okay. Sorry, Twily. I’ll leave you alone now.” I trudged towards the door, feeling like a wreck.

So I had a kid outside of my marriage, hurt Cadey because of it, and now I'd made Twily mad at me when all I wanted to do was protect her. At this point I wanted to crawl into a hole and pull a rock over me, but knowing me right then I'd somehow manage to screw that even up.

“Shining, wait.” Twily grabbed my shoulder. “I know you're trying to do the right thing, and I appreciate that. I really do.”

Cadey stepped to the other side of me, and wrapped a wing around my back. “I do too. You don't always make the right call, but I know you mean well.”

I dropped my head almost all the way to the floor. “Yeah, but apparently I still messed it up, and now you're both mad at me.”

“I might be a little mad at you, but I still love you.” Twily gave me a nuzzle. “You're my big brother. Even if you can be a big doofus sometimes.”

I nuzzled her back, feeling a little better. “And you'll always be my little sister.”

“So how about we let bygones be bygones, and forgive and forget?” Twily asked.

Cadey nodded. “With some apologies, in due time.”

“Works for me.” I hugged the both of them. The last thing I wanted to do was fight with either of them. All I wanted to do was protect those I loved, not bring them pain. “I love you both.”

Twily squeezed me in turn. “Right back at you.” She slowly broke the hug and gave me a smile. “So, do we have that little bit of drama out of the way now?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I'd like that.” Even if I was hoping to be able to avoid apologizing to Cloud. My reaction to seeing her kiss Twily had been wrong, but I still didn't want her near my sister. One step at a time, though. There was still a whole bunch of other stuff to deal with. “So ... now the other big thing of drama.” I grimaced at what was not going to be one of the most pleasant discussions I was ever going to have.

Twily grimaced in return. “Right, that.”

I took a deep breath and plowed on ahead. “So what can you tell me?”

“A lot.” Twily ran a hoof through her mane and let out a huff. “What do you want to know?”

I thought about that for a moment. “Everything?”

“That's going to take a while,” Twily said. “Want me to make some tea? This isn't going to be a short conversation.”

Cadey nodded. “That sounds lovely, thank you.”

“If you don't mind...”

We headed downstairs for some tea and one of the longest conversations of my life.

“...and I think that’s everything,” Twily finished. She let out a long breath of relief as she poured herself another cup of tea. Not that I blamed her for being a bit tired after bringing us up to speed.

“That is definitely a lot to take in.” Cadey shook her head and then sipped her tea. “It sounds like you've been through a lot.”

“You could say that, yeah.” Twilight rubbed her upper leg as she grimaced.

I scooted closer to Twily to wrap a leg around her shoulders. “I wish you'd come to me sooner when you were going through all of this. I could have helped you.” Even based on what Twily was willing to admit about Cloud, things had been pretty rough between them, and that had been the easy stuff for her to deal with. All the drama she had gone through with Mom and Dad, learning about Vinyl, Dinky, and Amethyst, and a half dozen other things past that must have taken their toll on her. The fact she had gone through all of that alone hurt me. That was a lot for any one pony to bear in a short period of time. I should know, a lot of what she had learned had thrown my entire life into chaos.

Twily shook her head. “You were busy with being captain of the Royal Guard. I didn't want to bother you with this stuff.”

Part of me wanted to argue the point with her, but what was done was done, and I didn't want to get into another preventable argument with her. The good news was that I'd gotten to hear about Dinky and Amethyst—Sparkler, I reminded myself. Ditzy sounded like a pretty good pony as well. That was something of a relief, at least. Even if Dinky and Sparkler coming to live under the same roof seemed like some sort of weird joke on the part of fate, it was good to hear they were in a loving home. Twilight seemed pretty positive about everything, so that was a good sign. Or at least a start, anyways.

I moved onto the next practical point before I fell too deep into thought. “Think you could arrange a meeting between me and Ditzy?”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Cadey agreed. “It’ll be a lot less complicated to talk about everything without the kids running around.” She fidgeted almost imperceptibly. “Not to mention there’s probably going to be a few things we’re going to want to talk about that we’re not going to want the kids around for.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Can’t argue with that. Even if Ditzy—Derpy is as nice as you say, Twily, this isn’t going to be the most comfortable talk ever. Best we talk about everything in private before we see Dinky and Sparkler.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem to arrange a meeting.” Twilight refilled our cups from a pot of tea. “She’s been wanting to talk with you too since I told her the truth. Though, um...” A pensive frown found its way to Twilight’s face as she looked Cadey’s way. “Did you want to be here too?”

Cadey placed a hoof on my leg and nodded. “I think that would be best. Best we clear the air between us. I don't see any good coming from us trying to tiptoe around one another.”

The thought that Cadey might not entirely trust me around Derpy caused a jab of pain to run through my heart. Not that I could entirely blame her for that. If I learned that Cadey had a kid with another pony from before we hooked up, I... Well, I don't know what I would do. I would like to think I would act cool and collected, but I just didn't know for certain, because the idea was just too out there for me to even believe it could happen. But then, I never would have imagined myself in this situation either.

Whatever the case, I knew better than to argue with Cadey. Trying to convince her not to be there when I met Derpy would probably only make things worse between us. No, better I agree and try and win back a few points with my wife.

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” I said. “When do you think you can arrange a meeting, Twily?”

“Possibly today.” Twily stood up and stretched. “It might take a few hours. I need to find Derpy and explain that you’re here, but with any luck she should be able to drop whatever she’s doing to come right here. Want me to go ahead and find her to try and set everything up?”

“If you don't mind,” I said. “The sooner we can take care of this the better. The stress is killing me here.”

“I think that's a good idea.” Cadey patted my leg. It did feel good to have her here, even if the circumstances were awful.

“Then I'll get right on that.” Twily headed to the door. “I'll be right back as soon as I have word of what's going to happen.”

I smiled in thanks. “Thanks, Twily. You’re the best.”

Now all I could do was wait. Again.

Have I mentioned how much I hate waiting?

Waiting only made me even more anxious about meeting Derpy, and gave me time to think about everything that could go wrong. What if I said something offensive? What if she hated me? What if I made a bad impression? What if she wanted to sue me for child support? What if she didn't want me to see my daughter or baby sister? Even if the rational part of my brain said I was being silly, they still nagged at me.

But what else could I do? This wasn’t exactly the type of situation where I could leap into action without making things even worse, and I’d been making things bad enough enough as of late. So I stood looking out the window of the second story window of the library as I waited for Twily to return.

It was as I waited by the window that Cadey came to step by my side. “Are you doing okay?”

I shrugged. “Just nervous, I guess.”

“I don’t blame you.” She pressed her body against mine as we looked out the window. “I’m pretty nervous too, after all.”

My ears wilted. “I’m sorry.”

Cadey closed her eyes and sighed. “I think we’ve already gone over all of this before, dear.”

I grimaced. “Sorry.”

“How about we talk about something else to take our minds off meeting Derpy?” Cadey suggested. “Fretting about that isn’t going to make it happen anytime sooner.”

“Probably. So, um...” I asked the first thing that came to mind before more awkward silence started. “What did you and Twily talk about?” I felt Cadey stiffen, and I wondered if I had started with a bad question. But I had been a little curious about what they all talked about. It made me a bit paranoid when ponies talked behind my back.

After a moment’s hesitation, Cadey answered slowly and deliberately. “We talked about a few different things. Like where things are going with her and Cloud Kicker.”

My teeth ground together just at Cloud’s name. “Yeah? And?”

A few more seconds of silence passed. “It’s ... Twilight doesn’t have a lot of experience at romantic relationships, so she’s learning a lot as she goes. What she has with Cloud isn’t particularly deep yet, but it might go that way.”

I tilted my head Cadey’s way, not quite getting what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

Cadey looked to me with a wry smile. “You promise not to go big brother on Cloud again?”

I groaned, but nodded. I’d already apologized for what I did, and didn’t particularly want to revisit all that drama. I had more than enough drama in my life as it was. “Yes. Not unless Cloud deserves it.”

“Right now what they have is ... casual,I suppose it the word for it,” Cadey said. “It’s not really love love, at least not at this point. And there’s the fact that Cloud’s already already involved with a couple of other mares pretty intimately.”

“What?!” This Cloud was sleeping around on my sister?! Why I was going to—

Cadey grasped me around the leg, her grip surprisingly strong for how delicate she looked. Alicorns were stronger than they looked. “Shining.” The single word was both a reminder and a warning. “Remember what we just talked about? Take a moment to breathe.”

I took her advice, as hard as it was. A couple minutes later I had myself back under control. Even if I still wanted to have a few strong words with Cloud. “But you said that Cloud is involved with other ponies.”

“It’s ... complicated.” She shook her head. “It’s one of the reasons why we spent an hour talking in the basement. As I told Twilight, she should seek a relationship that’s healthy for her. Whether that’s with Cloud or somepony else, I can’t say, but she definitely needs a deeper relationship. A friends-with-benefits type of relationship isn’t going to be fulfilling for a pony like Twilight.”

I groaned. It had been a huge mistake to ask about this. Me and my stupid curiosity. “Please don’t talk about my sister and friends with benefits. Especially when it involves Cloud.”

Cadey rolled her eyes. “You asked about what we were talking about, you big goof.”

“And regretting it,” I grumbled. “I still don't think Cloud is good for her.”

“I'm sure Twilight will be fine in the end.” She squeezed my leg. “And it will help her if she feels like she can approach us with any questions she might have.”

I ran my hoof down my face as I thought about the idea of Twily asking me for ... relationship advice. “There are plenty of questions I can think of I don't want to hear or answer.”

Cadey huffed in annoyance. “Then I'll handle any questions she might have. Like you, I want her to find the right pony to fall in love with some day.” She grinned and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “You know, we could always try and find the right pony for her.”

I blinked and staggered back from her. “No! No, no, definitely no, absolutely no, a thousand times no, over and over again. I can't no this enough!”

Cadey shot me a flat glower. “Shining, you have two choices: let Twilight go her own way and let things turn out however they will, or we help her along in whatever way we can.”

I grunted neutrally. She might have a point, but ... this was my little sister we were talking about. Though it didn't help that there were other complications on top of everything else. A big one was that there was the succession for House Sparkle to consider. Technically I was supposed to inherit the title of duke someday, but what made it tricky was that I had married into the royal house. So if I became the duke of House Sparkle then the duchy would just become another part of the royal demesne. That was ... I wasn't sure how I felt about that. The idea of House Sparkle going into the dustbin of history along with its centuries of tradition and history didn't make me happy. But we hadn't discussed any of this seriously yet. The wedding had been rushed ahead and serious issues like this one hadn't been dealt with yet.

One option we had to keep House Sparkle from going extinct was for me to decline becoming duke and for Twily to become the next duchess of our noble house. I wasn't sure how I felt about that either. That was me dumping a lot of responsibilities onto Twily. Especially when there were practical considerations to consider, like the fact that Twily would need to ... produce an heir one way or another to keep the house alive. That meant considering options I wasn't wild about. Sure, Twily marrying somepony for political advantage of my house was something I knew could, and probably would, happen, but now that the time to seriously consider all of that had come I was twitchy. Part of me had hoped that Twily being Aunt Celestia’s student would preclude her from some of the usual expectations of a noblemare, and she must have had plans for Twily. Right?

But I didn't know what those plans were, now did I? For all I knew I would hate those plans. I didn't know how Twily felt about the succession and the whole marriage thing. No, I had thought to chase away everypony who even looked at her in the wrong way. But how long could I realistically keep that up? She was her own mare now, and as much as I hated to think about it, there were things she was going to want to do a protective big brother might not be wild about.

Ugh, this was something to talk to Twily about, and soon. At least if I asked her opinion I was less likely to get myself into trouble doing something stupid and make her mad with me again. Great, another fun conversation I was going to need to add to the already full list of conversations I wasn't looking forward to. Things just kept getting better and better.

“Shining?” Cadey rubbed my leg. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head as I pulled myself from my ruminations. “Yeah, just thinking, is all. Part of me hates the idea, but I'm starting to think that we need to sit down and talk with Twily about some of this. There’s the whole succession issue for my house to deal with.”

“Oof.” Cadey grimaced. “I nearly forgot all about the fact you were to become duke someday. That got pushed to the side with everything else keeping us busy.”

“We did kinda neglect to talk about it when us getting married seemed so far away,” I said. “I figured we would hammer all of that out during the actual wedding planning.” I definitely never planned for my wedding to get rushed like it had been. Endless night, I hadn't even found a good opportunity to tell Twily I was dating Cadey, much less marrying her.

“We’ll try and talk with Twilight about it while we’re here,” Cadey said. “We don't have to make a decision right now, but it would be good for us to at least think it over so that we can figure out what we want to do.”

“Sounds good.” A movement outside the window caught my eyes. “There's Twily. She's not with anypony, though.” Hopefully that wasn't a bad sign.

“Let’s go downstairs to meet her then.” We headed down to the main library room, and it wasn't long before the door opened.

Twily entered the library and closed the door behind her. She smiled for us, even if it didn't look as natural as her smile normally did. “Hey, good news you two—Derpy should be here before too long. She just needed a bit of time to wrap a couple of things up first, but she shouldn't be that far behind me.”

I took a deep breath to steady myself. The announcement I was about to meet the mother of my daughter made my heart beat all the faster. “Here we go, then.”

Twily placed a hoof on my shoulder. “It'll be okay. You'll see that Derpy is really nice, and to be honest she's as nervous as you two are.”

Cadey wrapped a wing around my back as a strained smile creased her mouth. “I'm sure we'll manage.”

A range of emotions coursed through me as my heart continued thumping away: fear, anxiety, a desire to flee from the library and never return. There was the guilt of putting my wife and sister through all of this, and the fact I hadn't even known that I had a daughter. It all made me feel helpless.

I nearly jumped when there was a knock on the door. Twily took two steps before there was a whining screech as the door slowly fell off its hinges, my sister jumping back before the door could hit her. It hit the floor with a smack, revealing the mare who had given me so much anxiety for the last week.

Ditzy blinked at the broken door, and it took a moment for her to recoup. “I can fix that.”

“It's... okay.” Twily moved to pick up the door with her magic. “I'm sure it looks worse—” The halves of her door broke apart, the top half breaking clean down the middle in her telekinetic grip while the bottom half hit the floor again and broke into more pieces. “—than it is?”

So, things were off to a great start. The good news was that this couldn't be blamed on me for once. That was almost a win where I was concerned with the type of days I'd been having. I wondered if Twily was keeping the library maintained. She wasn't exactly a handymare, and probably didn't have much experience keeping someplace together, so after she had lived in the library for a couple of years it could be a few things were falling apart. I would ask her about that later. In the meantime I wasn't quite sure what to do about all of this. I decided to wait until Twilight made introductions before doing anything. That seemed the best course of action, and had the least risk of doing something that would make me want to put my hoof in my mouth.

“I've at least gotten really good at fixing them.” Ditzy smiled sheepishly. “But to be safe, I'll have Tool Time double check it.”

“We'll just ignore the door for now.” Twily sighed and placed the broken door to the side, leaving the doorway uncovered. “We’ve got more important things to deal with.”

“Okay then.” Ditzy looked over Twily’s shoulder and she gulped. I was doing about the same as my mouth felt dry enough to be classified as a desert.

Thankfully, Twily stepped in before Ditzy and I got into the world's most awkward staring contest. “Shining Armor, Cadance, this is Ditzy Doo. Ditzy, this is my brother and Princess Cadance.”

Cadey gave Ditzy something approximately like a polite smile. “Hello, Ditzy.”

I curved my lips in an attempt to make my own smile. “Hi.”

Ditzy smiled back at us, her lips strained at the edges as she waved halfheartedly. “Hi. I'm, um...” Her eyes flicked between me and Cadey. “I'm Ditzy Doo.”

“Um, hi, again.” My brain was nearly freezing up, and I started saying whatever I could get out of my mouth. “We've, um, met, and this is my wife, Cadance. Who is my wife, who I love very much, because I love her, and she's my lovely wife that I love a lot.”

Twily applied her hoof to her face, and Cadey sighed softly as she gave me a reassuring pat to the back. I couldn’t help but think I was missing something here.

I swallowed, trying to get some moisture back into my mouth as I rubbed the back of my neck. “So, um, I guess I owe you apology, or several. Or a lot. There’s a lot of things to apologize for.” I grimaced as I looked Cadey’s way. She was wearing the princessly mask of a cool and calm exterior. That’s how she usually looked whenever she was trying hard to hide whatever she was feeling. How good or bad that was I wasn’t really sure. “I ... did some things I'm not proud of.”

“You're probably not the only one.” Ditzy laughed, but her nervousness was obvious as her gaze kept momentarily shifting to Cadey. “Definitely, definitely not the only one. That, um...” She laughed nervously again. “That was some strong punch, am I right?”

“That's putting it lightly.” I barely remembered anything from that night. Ugh, you would think I could at least get to remember the night I accidently knocked up some mare. Instead I was working through clouded memories of an incident I had all but forgotten about.

Ditzy sighed and nodded. “I'm sorry.”

“You're sorry?” I bit my lip. “I’m the one that left you with a foal and didn't even know about it.” I groaned and cupped my face in my hooves. “I swear, if I had known—”

“I know.” Ditzy shifted in place and looked at Cadance. “I mean, I wouldn't want to ruin anything you have. I'd never want to do that to anypony.”

Cadey nodded slowly. “But we want to do right by you and your daughter.”

I seized on the idea Cadey offered, that was one thing I definitely knew I wanted to deal with. “Sorry. And yeah, I ... want to do what's right for Dinky. And you.”

Ditzy inhaled a big breath and then let it out. “Thank you. I ... hearing that, I really don't know what else to say, but thank you. I didn't know what I was expecting when I came here. Hay, I kinda circled around a few times to just think about what I might say. It's...” She trailed off and her gaze fell to the floor.

“To be fair,” I said, “I've been spending all this time trying to figure out what I was going to say.”

Ditzy snickered. “Luna, I bet. I don't want to cause a mess, or steal you away from your new wife, or bit-and-copper you like some vindictive nag—er, sorry for the language, Princess.” She rubbed the back of her mane. “I just want what's fair for my daughter. But I don't want to cause problems for you, I really don't.”

Cadey nodded. “Of course. I'm sure we can arrange something for child support. Both Shining and I have agreed that Dinky deserves that much.”

“Right, I want to do that.” I shuffled in place. “And, um—see Dinky, if I can.”

“You'd ... like to see her?” Ditzy repeated slowly. “I thought it'd be more complicated than that.”

“She's my daughter, right?”

Cadey wrapped a leg around mine own. “And I'm sure she's a very lovely young lady, and I would like to meet her too.”

A wide smile spread across Ditzy’s face. “Sure! Sure, definitely! She'd probably ask about you anyway, so that probably makes it easier.”

“Has she… Has she asked about me in the past?” I swallowed, my throat dry again.

She gave me a small, hesitate tnod. “A few times. Especially on Father's Day. I never figured out what to tell her, to be honest.”

I grimaced as I felt a stab in my heart. “Sorry...”

“Hey, that's not your fault,” Ditzy tried to reassure me. Shame it didn’t feel like it wasn’t my fault. How much pain had I caused Dinky because I hadn’t been there for her? I didn’t even want to think about it.

Cadey squeezed my leg. “At least we can answer that question for her now.”

I took a moment to breathe and nodded. “Right, I can fix that now.” I couldn’t change the past, but I could make amends now. “I'd like to get to know her.”

“So would I.” Cadey tensed as she leaned against me. “If ... if that's acceptable.”

Ditzy nodded. “If you're willing to do that, it wouldn't be fair to cut you out.”

Cadey smiled, the relief clear in her face. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, thanks.” I squeezed Cadey’s leg back. “That means a lot to me.”

“Not just to you,” Ditzy said. “I know it'll mean even more to her.”

“She's gone too long without her dad.” As bucked up as this whole situation was, I knew that much, and I planned on fixing it. There were a lot of details to work out, but I’d do what I had to in order to set things right with my daughter, however hard it was.

“When would be a good time to meet her?” Cadey asked.

“And Sparkler, if I can.” Ugh, we hadn’t even gotten into that whole mess with my long-lost sister. As if this wasn’t complicated enough. Still, I had an idea of what I wanted to do with her. “Though it might be best if I met her a different time than Dinky.”

“I think one thing at a time,” Cadey agreed. “We have more than enough to deal with just by meeting one of them.”

Ditzy took a sharp intake of breath. “Yeah, I agree.”

I shuffled. “It’s just that I don't want either of them to feel like I'm neglecting or snubbing them by meeting one before the other.”

Ditzy came closer to sit opposite of me. “I think we’ll be okay. I’ve already talked about all of this with Sparkler, and I think she’ll understand if you want to meet with Dinky first, all things considered. Especially when you want to give her the attention she deserves.” Ditzy smiled. “Besides, Sparkler wanted to spend some time with her fillyfriend, so that'll let you meet Dinky one-on-one. Well, two-on-one, but you get what I mean.”

My nostrils flared. “A fillyfriend?”

Cadey placed a restraining hoof on my shoulder. “Shining...”

Ditzy’s face scrunched up as she frowned. “Star's a really great mare. I think you'd like her too if you gave her a chance. She’s in the Guard, and they seem to really like one another.”

“Right, we'll ... talk about that later.” Pointedly. I may not even have met Sparkler yet, but I still didn’t want just anypony dating her. “Meeting Dinky first works for me. When’s the soonest we can do so?”

“Later today would work if you wanted to meet Dinky,” Ditzy said.

I nodded. “We can do that.”

“I'll see you then.” The smile Ditzy gave us was still nervous, but I could see some legitimate happiness in it. “It was nice to finally meet you both. Thank you.”

Cadey smiled back. “Likewise.”

“Yeah, you too.” Finally, I managed to get through a conversation without some big disaster happening. “It’ll be good to get to meet Dinky.” I extended a hoof to Ditzy.

“I think you’ll love her.” Ditzy stepped forward to shake my hoof but then her hoof caught on one of the seat cushions surrounding the central table. She was sent careening into me, causing me to bump into Cadey in turn. Cadey let out a cry of surprise as she flailed and crashed into Twily.

The world spun as the multi-pony pile-up played out, and I felt my whole body flip along the floor due to the impact. It took a few moments for me to regain my bearings after I stopped moving. Then I noticed somepony was sitting in my lap, her legs wrapped around me. Ditzy’s eyes were twirling in her head. Knowing how terrible this looked, I glanced around to find Cadey and saw her against a nearby bookshelf with Twily. Dozens of books had fallen on them, and Cadey and Twily were—um, awkwardly positioned with one another, causing my cheeks to blush.

Ditzy shook her head and took in the sight around us, blinked, and then looked at how we were touching, closely. She smiled awkwardly and chuckled nervously. “Oops. My bad.”

Author's Note

Awkward Introductions

I was going to meet my daughter.

This was never the way I thought I would meet my first kid. Sure, as a guardpony I had considered the idea that I might not be there for the birth of one of my kids. One of the risks of being in the Royal Guard was that you might go on a long deployment somewhere, either as part of some far-flung commitment, or—stars forbid—as part of a war. The worst wait I was realistically going to have to meet my new foal would be a year. That was still a dreadfully long time, but was one of the risks of the job. Six years without meeting my daughter was something else entirely.

After a journey that seemed to simultaneously take forever and no time at all, Cadey, Twily, and I found ourselves before Ditzy Doo’s house. It was a nice-looking single story home with a fenced-in lawn similar to the rest of the houses in Ponyville. The place seemed well-maintained, even if I could see some of the more recent renovations. I privately wondered if it was a bit small for a mother and two kids. That idea led to some unpleasant thoughts about Ditzy’s financial situation. Twily had said that Ditzy was doing fine, but raising two kids couldn’t be cheap. Especially when Ditzy hadn’t been established when she had Dinky. Becoming a parent was a daunting idea when you had a good job and house; Ditzy hadn’t had either of those things when she’d found out she was carrying Dinky.

Cadey placed a hoof on my shoulder, and I jerked at the sudden touch. I had stopped in front of the house gate without even thinking about it. My wife gave me an encouraging smiled. “Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine.”

Twily nodded. “The meeting with Ditzy went really well. No reason seeing Dinky should go any worse.”

I gulped and nodded. “I'm fine. Just nervous, is all.” It felt like I was going into battle ... or perhaps my execution. I felt silly putting my feelings into those terms, but how was I supposed to feel? I was going to meet the daughter I didn’t know I had for the first time. Nothing in my life had properly prepared me for something like this.

“I'm sure you'll be alright.” Cadey patted me on the shoulder. “And you'll have us there to help you.”

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Right. What's the worst that could happen?”

A sudden, bright light flashed from within Ditzy’s house, followed shortly by smoke pouring out of a few of the windows.

Candace blinked and her wings flared out. “Oh no!”

She ran for the door, and I was right behind her as my Guard instincts kicked in. I reached the door first and reared up to buck the door down, but then nearly lost my balance as I felt a sudden tug on my hind legs. A quick check showed the aura of Twily’s magic around them.

“Whoa!” Twily stepped between me and the door. “Wait a second there before we destroy another door.”

“The house is on fire, Twily!” I said as I vainly tugged at her telekinetic grip. “Seconds kinda matter.”

“If I know the Doos, they probably have it handled.” Twily released me and knocked on the door. I wasn’t quite sure how to take her tranquility in the face of a house fire. She had written that Ponyville could be an odd town, but this seemed a bit much.

A few seconds later the door opened, and I had to look down to see who had opened it. In the doorway was a little filly carrying a fire extinguisher under her leg. I recognized her from a photograph I had been given. It was Dinky, my daughter.

“Hi!” Dinky smiled at us, but then tilted her head at the sight of me. “Wait, you’re not the fireponies.” She beamed when she noticed Twily. “Hi Miss Twilight! Mommy's almost got dinner ready. It’s extra fwooshy today!”

Twily smiled with obvious strain. “Another cooking accident?”

Dinky shook her head. “Nope! Everything's goin' just like it should be.”

I felt a growing sense of dread rise in me. Exactly how common were fires in this house? They made me wonder how safe it was here for my daughter and baby sister. ‘Accident prone’ was a pair of words I was starting to affiliate with Ditzy Doo. Part of me wondered how my hips had survived this mare.

Dinky next turned her wide eyes to Cadey. “Oooooh, and Princess Candy! Miss Twilight’s told me aaall about you!”

Cadey gave Dinky a smile that was tight at the edges. “Nice to meet you, Dinky. Twilight’s told me quite a bit about her student.”

Dinky gasped. “Really?! To a princess?!”

Twily chuckled. “I told her all about how proud I am of you.”

Before I could get my brain into gear, Dinky put the fire extinguisher down and then attached herself to my leg in a hug, beaming up at me with the most adorable smile I'd ever seen. “Hi there! I'm Dinky Doo, an' Miss Twilight's my teacher. I know you already know that, but Mommy says I should always introduce myself to new ponies. Who're you?”

My daughter was hugging my leg. It was actually happening—I was hugging my daughter. Well, she was doing all the hugging, but this was really good! And she was so adorable! I tried to think of how to answer her. “I-I'm, um... Hi?”

I really hate it when my brain can't do words.

Twily smiled and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Dinky, this is my big brother Shining Armor, and he’s really been wanting to see you.”

“Oooh!” Dinky nodded, starting to cut off the circulation to my leg. “Miss Twilight’s told me lots about you! I remember you from Canterlot an' stuff, 'cause I’m pretty sure that was your wedding,” she whispered loudly to me in what I was sure was intended to be in a conspiratorial manner. “It was so, darn, cool!”

“Th-thanks.” I gulped and looked to Cadey. She was smiling down at Dinky, so that was a good sign. Probably. “Y-yes, I'm S-Shining Armor, and I'm, I'm, I'm your, um...” My throat tightened as I balked. Sun and stars, I could bark out orders in the middle of a crisis, but I couldn’t tell my daughter I was her dad?

Twily detected my hesitation and patted Dinky on the back. “Maybe we should head inside? I’m sure we’ll be more comfortable talking there. You know, in private?”Her eyes flicked out to the pony-filled street where we were starting to draw attention.

“Oh, right!” I stepped into Ditzy’s home with Dinky still firmly attached to my leg.

“Come on in!” Ditzy called from the kitchen. “I'll be right there! I’ve nearly got everything handled in here. I just need to check on the casserole first.” The sound of clattering echoed from the kitchen, and there a fresh outpouring of smoke billowed into the room. “Um, no, no, wait, the fire-retardant foam is on fire... Twilight! Would you mind coming in here to give me a hoof?”

Twily gave me an apologetic smile and trotted to the kitchen to deal with the budding crisis.

While we waited on Twily and Ditzy, Cadey addressed Dinky. “So ... tell us about yourself, Dinky.”

“R-right!” I nodded vigorously as I started to regain my bearings. “Tell us all about you.”

“Okay! Um...” Dinky scrunched up her nose in an absolutely adorable manner as she thought. “My name's Dinky Doo, I’m six, I've got a bratty big sister named Sparkler, Mommy's name is Ditzy Doo—ooh, but her friends call her Derpy. So that means she’s got a nickname, like how I call my big sister Sparky.”

“What do you like to do for fun?” Cadey smiled warmly. “What about your friends?”

Dinky rubbed her chin. “Well, I like hangin' out with my friend Alula Kicker when she's around. She's my best friend, but she's not around as much as she used to be, 'cause her mommy died and her daddy's in Canterlot. But we still hang out because she's my best friend and we have a lot of fun. Then there’s Pipsqueak, who we also hang out with because he’s our friend too and we go to school together. Though Alula calls him dummy all the time, but I don’t know why because Pip’s pretty smart. Ooh, and we also have fun with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and they’re always getting into trouble because they’re trying to find their special talents, like that time they tried to be the Cutie Mark Crusader Monster Tamers. Scootaloo said my cutie mark should probably be an explosion, but I dunno why.”

“Sounds like you're really busy,” I said when Dinky took a moment to catch her breath. It was good to hear that Dinky was having a relatively normal childhood, even if I was increasingly worried about how safe things were for her. Though to be fair, things could get pretty crazy in my family too.

Cadey smiled approvingly. “I'm glad you have so many friends.”

“Yep! I have lots of friends.” Dinky finally released my leg from her vice-like hug and turned her adorable embrace on Cadey next. “Hi! Miss Twilight said you were the bestest foalsitter ever, and she taught me the ladybug dance that you taught her. Want me to show you?”

Cadey cleared her throat. “Maybe later. I think your mom is bringing out dinner.”

Ditzy trotted in with Twily, each of them carrying plates covered with a variety of food. They made their way to the dining table and started putting the plates on it. “Come on over! Sit down, hi, um...” She used her wing to blow back some of the smoke drifting from the kitchen. “Thanks for coming. Help yourself—I have crackers, smoked cheeses, smoked salmon, smoked almonds, smokey drinks if you want them, and rice balls ... that are smoked.”

“It sounds like you've thoroughly smoked the meal,” Twily observed with enough tactfulness to be a diplomat to a foreign nation.

Ditzy chuckled as she rubbed the back of her mane. “I decided to play to my strengths. Dinky, let go of the princess. It’s time to eat.”

“‘Kay!” Dinky let Cadey go and ran to her spot at the table.

“Thanks.” Cadey sat down at the table and cast a spell to clear out the smoke. “Your daughter is adorable, by the way.”

Ditzy made a maternal smile as she placed the last plate. “Thank you. She means the world to me.”

“I can see why.” I examined the table and suddenly it looked like a battlefield. I wanted to sit near Dinky, but because I didn’t want to be too close to Ditzy and send the wrong message to Cadey. Thankfully, Twily took one of the seats next to Ditzy while Dinky took the other flank. That let me sit next to Dinky and Cadey, with Cadey taking Twily’s other side. So far so good...

“Thank you for the meal. It looks lovely.” Cadey picked up a blackened rice ball and politely nibbled on it. Her face tightened, but she maintained her smile thanks to her years of practice smiling in any situation.

“Right, you really didn't have to go through all of this for us.” I tested some of the smoked cheese. To be fair, ‘smoked’ was probably the most apt description.

“Not at all!” Ditzy shook her head. “I had to when royalty was visiting! Besides, I needed to do something while I waited for you to show up. So I thought I might as well cook something up.”

Dinky vigorously pointed to a basket of muffins. “You should try her muffins! Especially the banana-nut ones—they're my favorite, but I think you'd like them too!”

Twily nodded emphatically. “I’d highly recommend going with the muffins,” she said with an undertone that said I would really prefer the muffins to the smoked cornucopia in front of us.

“Might as well try one.” Considering the smoke flavored cheese was a bust, I tried one of the muffins. The first bit of the banana-nut muffin confirmed that was the smart decision. “Mmm, this is really good.” It was probably one of the best muffins I’d ever had. If the meal had just been muffins I think I would have been more than happy.

Ditzy laughed as she rubbed the back of her mane. “You’re welcome. And thank you so much for coming today. All of you.”

I put on the best smile I could considering the circumstances. “I'm, um, happy to be here.” I wanted to be here, anyways. I wouldn’t describe what I was feeling as ‘happy’, I was way too nervous for that.

“Me too!” Dinky reattached herself to my leg. Twily hadn’t been kidding about her being a hugger.

Cadey cleared her throat and gave me and Ditzy a meaningful look. “So ... do you want to tell or should we?”

I shakily nodded my head. “R-right.” So here it was. The moment of truth. If I were less of a stallion I would have seriously considered bolting for the exit. Thankfully I hadn’t—I had only checked where all the nearby exits to the home were out of simple habit.

Ditzy bit her lip. “Right. Um.” Her eyes darted around like a caged animal. It wasn’t helped by how her eyes were always looking in different directions.

“Hm?” Dinky looked between the adults in the room. “What’s up?”

“Muffin.” Ditzy shifted so that she could put a supportive hoof on her back. “This stallion ... he's ... Mister Shining Armor's your daddy.”

Dinky’s eyes slowly widened as the the truth sank in, and then she drew in a deep gasp. “Oh. My. Gosh!” She turned a beaming smile at Cadey. “Are you marrying Mommy?!” She ran over to Cadey and grasped onto her leg. “I didn't know you were bicentennial too!”

Cadey blinked and sat there, stunned by Dinky’s conclusion. “I—what?”

My jaw dropped. This was not how I’d expected things to go.

Ditzy’s covered her mouth as she snorted loudly.

“Um, that’s not...” Twily raised a hoof as she prepared to go into a lecture, but then stopped herself. I could see the gears turning in her head as she lowered her hoof, her attempt to explain the truth aborted as she abandoned the rest of us to straighten everything out with Dinky.

Dinky was more than happy to fill the silence. “Well if Mister Shiney's gonna be my daddy then that means he's gonna marry Mommy, but he can't do that 'cause he's married to you, but you're a princess, so if he's gonna be my daddy then that's because he's gonna be my family too, but that can only happen if you marry Mommy, and I remember that ‘cause Sparky's bicentennial 'cause she had a coltfriend before she met her fillyfriend Star. Do I get to be a princess? Oooh, and get a tiara like Diamond Tiara? Tiara’s are pretty and it’d be. So. Cool to wear one.” Not one pause to breathe.

“Um.” I searched for the right words to explain everything to Dinky. I looked to Cadey for help, but she seemed even more shocked than I was, and Ditzy let out a laugh that sounded like a squawk as she tried to stop herself. “Um. That's, um, it's a bit more complicated than that, Dinky.”

Cadey’s wings fluttered as she visibly rallied. “Um ... there won't be any marriages.”

I grimaced as I moved in to assist Cadey. “Your mom and I aren't ... together like some mommies and daddies are.”

Ditzy sighed and nodded, having recovered from her laughing spell. “They’re correct, Muffin, we're not ... together. Either of us. It wouldn’t make sense for us to get married.”

“...Oh.” Dinky blinked owlishly as she stared up at me. “Why?”

“Your mom and I don't really love each other.” I grimaced as I said the words. It was a harsh thing to say to a kid her age. Cadey then coughed and gave me a pointed nudge, causing me to blink as I tried to figure out what she wanted me to say. “Because I love my wife, Cadance.” I wrapped a leg around her shoulders. “A lot, because we're married and I married her because I love her so very much.” There, that should shore up that front, or at least I hoped so. I barely had a clue what I was doing by this point.

“Oh.” Dinky let me go and her ears flattened to her head. “Did I do somethin' wrong? 'Cause I didn't mean to, I promise!”

“No! You didn’t do anything wrong!” I said as quickly as I could. “You're fine! It's us, Dinky, not you!”

Ditzy scooped her daughter up to hug her. “Muffin, it's nothing like that at all. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?”

“Um...” Dinky frowned as she tried to take all of this in. I didn’t blame her. This was a lot for anyone to absorb.

Cadey sighed softly. “Dinky, your mother and Shining had something very special, and you exist because of that. But ... well, you're the most important thing they had, not each other.”

Ditzy nodded to Cadey. “Exactly. We both love you very much, even if we don’t love each other. You’re the most precious thing in my life alongside your sister, and nothing is going to change that.”

Dinky tilted her head and scrunched up her nuzzle in deep thought.

I threw in my own bits into the conversation. “Like Cadey said, we both care about you, and that's what's important between us. I want to be there for you, where I can be, and I want you to be a part of my life.”

Dinky tilted her head even more and looked to her mom for help. “I'd like that too?”

“That's very generous of you.” Ditzy nodded to her—our daughter. “Don't forget to say thank you, Muffin.”

“Um ... thank you.” Dinky hugged me again, but far less earnestly than she had before. Poor kid, she was probably terribly confused by this point.

Cadey coughed again and nudged me with an elbow. “Shining would've been there for you sooner, but we just found out about you.”

“R-right!” I wrapped my legs around Dinky to pull her into a full hug. Heh, I was actually hugging my daughter for the first time. That was ... good. Yeah, it was good. “I ... I'm here now, and I love you very much.”

Ditzy nodded slowly. “He's telling the truth, Muffin. They both are.”

“I love ya too.” Dinky squirmed in my hug. “But I'm really ... I don't get it.”

I rubbed her back to try and make her more comfortable. “That's okay. It's a lot to take in all at once, so I don’t blame you if you need some time to figure it all out.”

Dinky blinked owlishly as she looked up at me. “But ... are you really my daddy?”

I nodded. “Definitely. From here on out I'm going to be your dad. It's just your mom and I aren't going to be living together. Though we'll work something out so that you can see both of us.”

Dinky’s ears flattened. “Oh.”

I grimaced at the pained expression on her face. “I'm sorry if this isn't the same as you see with a lot of mommies and daddies, but this is just going to be different. But remember we both love you, and we’ll both be there for you. That’s what’s most important.”

“Okay, I think.” Dinky didn’t sound confident about that as she broke her hug with me. She turned to her mom. “Can I go draw some stuff for a bit?”

“Of course, Muffin,” Ditzy said. “Just let me know if you want to leave the house first, okay?”

“Maybe you'd like to show Shining some of your drawings?” Cadey suggested. “I’m sure he would love to see them.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, definitely.” Anything that made Dinky feel better at this point was good by me. I hated hurting her like this. She didn’t deserve it.

“Ooh, yeah!” Dinky’s smile returned. “I can go get 'em for ya!” She gave my leg one final hug before zipping off.

I smiled after Dinky as she ran off, but then my ears wilted once she was gone. “I could have done that better.” Ugh, my brain had all but shut down during that conversation. Cadey had done a better job of guiding me through my talking points than I had.

Ditzy snerked weakly. “Yeah, I could have too. You shouldn't blame yourself—I really didn’t have the first clue what to say either.”

Twily nodded. “I don't think there's any perfect way to talk about this. I should know, I tried to find a book for this type of thing. All you can do is try and be honest with her and work from there.”

“I hope she'll be okay.” I rubbed my leg. “The last thing I want to do is hurt her.”

“I know.” Ditzy nibbled on a piece of her smoked cheese, but then coughed as soon as she tried it. “Sh—” She coughed again to clear her throat. It seemed her food was a bit smokey even for her high tolerance. “I think she knows you don't want that. It's just ... I've never explained the biology of things to her, much less ... you know, things like this.”

“It's a very complicated situation,” Cadey said. “Especially for somepony her age.”

I sighed, resigned to do what I had to. “This is something we're just going to have to plow ahead on. It hasn’t been too horrible at least. There’s a lot less yelling than I had been worried would happen.”

Ditzy chuckled weakly. “It doesn't have to be that bad.”

Before we could continue our adult conversation, Dinky returned. She smiled brightly as she brought some of her drawings, as well as some crayons and new paper. “I'm back!”

Cadey smiled encouragingly. “Which drawing is your favorite?”

Dinky puckered out her lips in deep concentration. “Well the last one was with Miss Cloud Kicker, 'cuz she an' Mommy were really snuggly for a while.” She held up a filly-ish crayon drawing of her family, along with a particular pegasus I had just met here in Ponyville who I wasn’t particularly happy with for kissing my sister. ‘Mommy's Friend Miss Klowd Kiker,’ was brightly colored at the top for all to see, and that raised a great many questions that I didn’t think I was going to like the answers to.

“It's kinda old, but it's about family.” Dinky flashed us a proud smile. “And that's my favorite thing.”

I put on the best smile I could. No sense making Dinky think I didn’t like her art. Especially when it was really precious. Even if I wished it didn’t include a certain pony in it. “That's... really good! Family is really important.”

“Yuh-huh, it’s the most important!” Dinky nodded enthusiastically. “I wanted to bring it out so I could use it to help me draw a new one.” Dinky sat down at the table and stuck out her tongue as she went about drawing on a fresh piece of paper.

The corner of Cadey’s mouth quirked into a grin as she looked at Ditzy. “So ... ‘snuggly’?”

Ditzy blushed and squirmed in her seat. “Cloud and I were a thing, for a little bit. It didn’t work out, but we’re still friends and she's still a really great mom to Sparkler and Dinky.”

My eye twitched. “Is this the same Cloud Kicker that Twily knows?”

Twily gave me a strained smile. “Um, yes.”

I ground my teeth together. “I see.” So Cloud had been dating my sister and the mother of my daughter. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. At least Ditzy and Cloud weren’t seeing one another anymore, even if I was going to be asking some questions about Cloud being around Dinky. Especially considering all the rumors about Cloud. The good news was that Dinky didn’t seem to know what we were talking about, since she was concentrating on her drawing, only stopping to squint at me before returning to her work. “Sounds like you've got quite the social circle here, Twily.”

Twily chuckled as her eyes tried to find something to focus on. “You know small towns, everypony knows everypony.” A second later she added, “Not like that! Or, maybe like that, depending on what you think ‘that’ is. It's kinda like that, in the way it's not like that, if you're getting what I'm saying?”

I had a pretty good idea that I didn’t like what I was hearing. Another talk with Cadey about Twily sounded like a really good idea now.

Cadey raised an eyebrow, a slight grin on her lips. “Clearly. I'm just glad you found somepony to ... know.”

“Thanks Cadey,” Twily said. “It’s nice to try out some new things.”

“I think I'm done!” Dinky beamed at us as she presented her drawing.

“Let me have a look.” Thankful about being given something to think about that wasn’t Cloud Kicker, I took the drawing and looked it over. The fillyish crayon portrait showed me, Cadey, and Twily having a picnic with Dinky. Though while most everypony was smiling, Twily was drawn waving her legs in a panic as she levitated a notepad.

Cadey glanced over my shoulder and grinned. “Very nice, Dinky.”

Twily looked over my other shoulder and frowned. “What? What am I doing there?”

Dinky smiled innocently at her aunt and teacher. “Oh, you're takin' notes like ya always do! Like how to set up a banner for the Princess's visit and how to levitate a feather and why rice shouldn't smoke—you know, the kinda stuff you do already. And you go all ‘My noootes!’” Dinky waved her legs in an impression of Twily, and Ditzy covered her mouth as she chuckled.

Twily gave me and Cadey a strained smile. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at my little sister. “It looks pretty accurate to me.”

Dinky smiled all the wider. “Do you like it?”

I wrapped a leg around my daughter to give her a hug. “It’s perfect, Dinky.”

I returned to the Doo residence the next day. Things had gone pretty well last time, all things considered, and it felt like we were past the hard part. I had come up with plenty of ways it could have gone worse, for certain. But now I had met my daughter and her mom, and we were on the road to making everything right. Not that it was going to be easy. I couldn’t exactly move to Ponyville because of my work in the Guard, or at least once I was given a new post, so that meant there were going to be plenty of train rides in the future for us to see each other. But all things considered, I could work with that. The most important thing was that Dinky was happy and got what she needed. We’d figure out the details like when I would get to see Dinky over time. Ditzy seemed more than happy to work with me and Cadey over that, and Cadey seemed to be getting along with Dinky. Even if I could feel the underlying strain between Cadey and Ditzy now and again, that was nothing time couldn’t take care of. One step at a time.

For instance, I had a big one today. After meeting briefly with Ditzy and Dinky (thankfully without being interrupted by a kitchen fire this time), I was directed to the backyard. Like the house itself, it was rather nice, with a clean white-painted fence, and a garden with ripening fruits and vegetables lined one of the back edges with a swing set and a flower garden across the way from it. But it wasn’t all of that that drew my attention.

My sister was standing over a book that absorbed her attention. Not noticing me, Sparkler levitated a dozen tennis balls and cast a spell over them. She then tossed them as hard as she could and they went soaring through the air. But instead of continuing on their normal trajectory, they suddenly turned and darted for her. Sparkler was ready for them, for as soon as they turned she started firing bursts of light at them. The first bolt hit a ball and it exploded, and it was quickly followed by three more as she hit them. My baby sister missed the next shot, but hit two more. But by then the tennis balls had closed in on her, Sparkler was in the process of firing another bolt of light when a ball struck her in the face. She yelped in pain, and two more balls hit her. She tried to fire another shot, but another ball hit against the side of her head and she lost her concentration on the spell.

I’d seen enough. My big brother instincts kicked in, and I cast a shield dome over Sparkler. The balls collided with the shield, but none of them broke through. Sparkler yelped in surprise at the sudden appearance of my shield, and she flinched back, only for her rear to hit the shield. The magic in the tennis balls then ran out, and they fell harmlessly to the ground.

I grimaced. “Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.” I dropped the shield. Hopefully I hadn’t just stepped in it again. That would just be my luck with how my life’s been for the last few weeks.

“S'okay.” Sparkler brushed herself off, and then tilted her head to one side as she looked me over. “Shining Armor, right?”

I nodded, my heart thumped in my chest as I got to meet her for the first time. “That's right, and you're... Sparkler? Sparkler Doo?”

“That's me, yeah.” She stepped closer to me to get a better look. “But sometimes my sister calls me Brat-Master.”

I chuckled. It wasn’t hard to imagine Dinky saying something like that. “I hope that isn't a bad sign.”

Sparkler grinned. “I like to think of it that I've got a sharp wit.” Her grin fell away as she stepped a bit closer to me, but short of my reach.

“So, um.” I swallowed, my throat suddenly tightening. “It's nice to meet you, finally.”

“Yeah, you too.” Sparkler rubbed her leg. “I've heard a lot about you. Um. Especially recently.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Nothing but good,” Sparkler confirmed. “It sounds like I'm getting a helluva pony in my life.”

I nodded. “Twilight's said good things about you too. It's good to see you, really.” I shuffled in place. “Even if this is pretty awkward.”

“Hey, it could be a lot more awkward.” Sparkler closed the remaining distance between us to give me a hug. “S'just nice to meet you, really.”

I hugged her back. Something I hadn’t thought I would ever get to do after so many years. “So why's my little sister getting pelted by tennis balls?”

She broke the hug and smirked. “Would you believe it's an ancient and obscure ritual passed down in Clan Doo from generation to generation?”

“What's the ritual?” I asked. “Not getting hit by the balls?”

Sparkler’s smirk widened. “Phrasing, bro. Phrasing.”

I blinked. “That wasn’t even close to what I meant!”

Sparkler snerked and covered her mouth. Celestia help me, my little sister had a dirty mind. There might be something to Dinky calling her the Brat-Master. “Star taught me a few tricks about countermagic, and I wanted to practice them in between college application stuff.”

I decided to concentrate on the subject of defensive magic. That was a much safer topic for me, even if this was about Sparkler’s ... fillyfriend. “You might want to rethink how you’re doing things. You’re pretty good with those light bolts, but that’s best for trying to take down a single target. Not several targets moving at you at once—you'll never cast fast enough to stop that many individual targets.”

Sparkler tilted her head. “Huh. That makes sense.” She looked away from me and scraped a hoof along the ground. “You can probably figure out I'm just getting started on all this magic stuff. I got a late start, and Twilight's ... I mean, she's good at what she does, but she can't always be here. Can I bum a lesson or two from you sometime?”

“Sure. Anytime I'm around, or when you visit Canterlot. Heck, how about I give you a lesson right now?” I smiled. “Half of magic is knowing what spells to cast and when. For instance, when dealing with several incoming attacks...” I created another shield dome over the swingset and then threw the remaining tennis balls at it. They bounced off harmlessly. “A shield is often your best basic defense. And on the attack, something like an explosive fireball can hit a lot of enemies at once. Though I'm not casting the fireball here, I think your house sees enough fires as is.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Sparkler grinned. “Mom's house is a disaster shelter in all but name at this point.” That was another confirmation of that fact, since Twily had told me pretty much the same thing when I had expressed my concerns about how accident-prone Ditzy seemed to be. “Though I wouldn't mind a few pointers down the line, if you ... you know, can spare the time.”

I puffed out my chest and smiled. “I’d love to help you. You mentioned you were thinking about going to college? Thinking to go into something involving spellcraft?”

Sparkler nodded. “Yeah, my dream college is currently a toss-up between Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and West Hoof. Assuming I get a 'yes' on either of them, much less both, but ... you know. They're my favorite options.”

“They're both really good schools,” I said. “Naturally I'm a bit biased for West Hoof.”

“Naturally.” My long-lost sister grinned and nudged me. “I'm sure your Sergeant-Instructor would thank you for any sales pitch you could offer. “ She spoke with an exaggeratedly official voice. “Come to West Hoof Academy, where what doesn't kill you prepares you for what does!”

I chuckled. West Hoof hadn’t exactly been a fun time. I had some great memories, but it’s a long way from going to a luxury resort on vacation. “Something like that. Even if I'm a bit worried about my ... baby sister joining the Guard.”

Sparkler grimaced and gave me another hug. “To be honest, I'm really not interested in it. Ninety percent of why I wanna go is Star. I think I like Celestia's School better.”

“There's plenty of good jobs you can get by going to Celestia's School,” I said as I held her. “You can do just about anything going there, where you can only really go into the Guard going to West Hoof. So you better be pretty sure you want to join the Guard if you’re going to do that.” I scowled. “I don't think you should be picking your career just because of who your fillyfriend is.”

Sparkler sighed and nodded. “I love her to bits, but enough to go Guard? I ... I dunno. And you’re not saying anything I haven’t heard from Mom, Grandma, Grampa ... um, a bit of our mom, too.” She squirmed when she mentioned Mom.

I grimaced. “How are you and she doing?” Twily was a bit light on the notes when she talked about all of that family drama, and I didn’t want to press her too hard when she seemed pretty uncomfortable about it. Ugh, I hated how much of this had gotten dumped on her. It really wasn’t fair.

Sparkler took a deep breath. “We're .... talking. It took a bit of doing and a few hugs from Dinky, but ... we're talking.”

“That's good.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I'm still kinda mad at her, honestly.”

Sparkler bit her lip. “I can't really blame you for that. Twilight filled me in and ... damn.”

I groaned and nodded. “I'm so sorry that happened to you. Especially why it happened. If I had known I would have done something.” To think, everything I, Sparkler, and Twily had gone through had all been for a lie. That was ... terrible. I still didn’t know how to contextualize it all. It was all so surreal.

“Hey, hey.” She wrapped a leg around my shoulders and nuzzled me. “I know, all right? I'm not blaming you for any of that, okay? Feathers, you were barely Dinky's age n'you had to deal with family dying.” She shook her head. “I won't say I get it, 'cause I don't, but I'm not blaming you.”

My ears wilted. I still felt guilty for everything, even if I knew none of it was my fault, but I still hated the idea when I couldn’t protect those that I cared about. “I'm here now. That's something, at least. We'll figure this out, one way or another.”

Sparkler leaned against me. “Thanks. Really, thanks. I think I could get used to having a big brother. You're really cool.”

I smiled and nuzzled her. “Good to hear somepony thinks so.”

Sparkler grinned and poked me. “Also, you gotta introduce me to the Missus. If she's gonna be my sister, I wanna meet her properly.”

“Sure! I want you to meet Cadey.” I broke the hug so that I could face her. “I just wanted to get to know you by myself for a little bit.”

She nodded. “I guess I can't blame you for that. Maybe ... I dunno. Maybe I should take a year off to get to know you better?”

I shook my head. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m all for getting in some sibling bonding time, but I don't want to mess up your future. School's still really important during this stage of your life, and that needs to be a high priority for you.”

Sparkler sighed and shrugged. “Okay, point. Maybe summers? I do plan on having a summer break between semesters, and I can't think of a better way to spend them than with my brother.”

I smiled. “That sounds like a great idea to me. I can’t guarantee I won’t be busy with Guard stuff during the summer, but we should at least get to see each other.”

“Mhm.” Sparkler leaned against me again. “Our family is so ... hay, I don't even know.”

“Crazy?”

She nodded. “That's as good a word for it as any.”

I rubbed the side of my temple. “It describes my life perfectly at the moment. After my wedding, finding out about you and Dinky, and that’s just getting to the stuff that stands out right now...”

Sparkler snorted. “If it's any consolation, none of us are any less confused.”

It seemed that being a Sparkle came with a curse to live an interesting life. “So, want to go out and get ice cream with Cadey?” I asked. “If your mom is okay with it, that is. But I know Cadey wanted to get to spend some time with you while we’re in town, and I’d like for you to get to know her.”

“Psh, hay yeah.” Sparkler stretched herself out. “I'd like to meet my sister-in-law and spend an afternoon or four with her and my brother.”

“We do have a lot of catching up to do.” I led the way back to the house so that we could talk with Ditzy about getting some ice cream.

Sparkler followed alongside me. “Yeah, but we've got a lot of time to catch up.”

I smiled, happy to have my baby sister back. “So let's get started.”

Time flew before it was time for us to return to Canterlot. It’s strange how a week can sound like a long time, but then feel like no time at all. I had spent the week getting to know Dinky and Sparkler, as well as visit Twily for the first time in what felt like forever. Between family meals, teaching Dinky and Sparkler some magic, and being shown around town, time had flown by. Now the week was over and Cadey and I were waiting at the train station along with Twily, Dinky, Sparkler, Spike, and Ditzy.

“Do ya have to go?” Dinky begged as she looked up at me with big, sad eyes. Ack, that look made me feel guilty.

“I’m afraid so, Dinky.” I picked her up and gave her a big hug. “I’m sorry, but Cadey and I have a big meeting to go to tomorrow.” With any luck, the meeting with the Royal Sisters should get me back on track to doing something productive in the Guard. Though it made me feel terrible about leaving Dinky. Part of me wanted to just quit the Guard and concentrate on family. Lots of former captains of the Royal Guard had retired after they stepped down as Captain of the Guard, though most of them were old enough to retire anyways, or were at least at the point in their lives where they wanted a change in career. I ... wasn’t at that point in my life. I loved the Guard, and I wanted to protect ponies, especially my family. The situation made me start to empathize with my parents and all the times they had to balance between work and their family. After talking it over with Cadey, she agreed I shouldn’t do anything rash and resign my commission in the Guard—not without being absolutely sure that’s what I wanted to do.

Stupid adult responsibilities.

“Aww!” Dinky’s lip quivered as she redoubled her efforts to look as sad as possible.

Ditzy rubbed our daughter’s back. “Daddy’s a very busy pony, Muffin. He’s working really hard to protect ponies.”

I gave my daughter a nuzzle. “And we’re going to get to see each other next month during the holiday weekend. You’re looking forward to that, right?”

Dinky sighed. “I guess.”

“And your mommy and I are talking about you getting to visit for the summer once you’re out of school,” I said. “You like that idea? You’ll get to see me, Cadey, your grandparents, and we’ll take you all over Canterlot to have fun.”

A smile creeped its way to Dinky’s lips. “Mhm, I’d like that.”

I would have liked nothing better than to take Dinky home with me, but after sitting down and talking everything over with Ditzy we agreed now wasn’t the time for that. We didn’t have a bed or a room for Dinky in Canterlot, for one thing, and we didn’t want to upset everything in Dinky’s life, especially so soon after she’d learned about me and her extended family. Taking her from the town she had known her entire life, where her family, friends, and school were would have been a major disruption. No, we needed time for things to settle back down, let Dinky get used to the idea that her dad was going to be a part of her life now, and work out lots of important details before we could consider having her move in with me and Cadey. Even a situation where Dinky would bounce back between my and Ditzy’s home would take a lot of work to make happen, especially when Dinky and her wellbeing came first.

I kissed Dinky on the cheek. “We’ll make this work. And your Aunt Twilight is working on a communication mirror, so once that’s done we’ll get to talk every day.”

Dinky’s face brightened with a true smile. “Yeah! Then I can tell ya all about how school went.”

“Yep, and in the meantime...” I tickled her belly, and she squealed in laughter. “You promise to write to me every week? Because I’m going to be writing to you every week, and it’ll make me sad if I don’t hear back from you and hear all about how your week went.”

Dinky nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah-huh! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

I chuckled at what I had been told was the Pinkie Promise.

Cadey smiled as she watched us. “That’s good, because I’m going to be reading your letters too, and I don’t want your daddy to be sad either.”

“Okay, Princess Candy, I double Pinkie Promise to write every week!” Dinky’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Can I write you too?! That be so cool!”

“I don’t see why not.” Cadey grinned Twily’s way. “I wouldn’t mind hearing about how your magic lessons with your aunt are going.”

Twily blushed. “She’s a good student, and we’re making a lot of progress.”

“So I’ve seen.” I looked to Sparkler, who had been patiently standing back, and I waved her over. “Come here, I want to give you a hug too before the train arrives.”

Sparkler smiled. “You won’t get an argument from me.” She stepped in and gave me a hug that I returned. “M’gonna miss you.”

“Me too.” I gave her a squeeze. “Make sure to write me too?”

“Gods yes.” She nuzzled me and gave me a wry smile. “I’ll make sure to tell you all about how good my dates with Star are going.”

My eye twitched. “That’s ... good.” It made me feel a little better that Star Kicker was a guardpony. Even if I worried about how much older she was than Sparkler. And what was it with Kickers and my sisters? That was something I was both dreadfully curious about, and yet was something I didn’t want to know. With all the Kickers involved in my life as of late, it made me wonder if the Kickers really were out to get me. Still, I would feel better when I got to know Star. After I had a private chat with her about what was and wasn’t appropriate to do with my baby sister.

“Be nice, Sparkler,” Ditzy chided.

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”

The train whistle blared as the train to Canterlot slowly rolled into the station. I sighed and squeezed my daughter. Goodbyes to family never got easier, even with practice. “Looks like that’s our train.”

Dinky puckered her lips out in a pout. “I’ll miss you, Daddy.”

“Me too, Dinky.” I gave her one final nuzzle and set her down. “Be good for your mom and Aunt Twily, okay?”

She nodded solemnly. “I will.”

“Hey, what about me?” Sparkler teased. “Aren’t you going to tell her to be good for me too?”

I grinned back at her. “Act like a proper big sister instead of being a big brat and maybe you’ll earn some respect.” It hadn’t taken me long to find out my baby sister had a brat streak a mile wide. Not that I would change a thing about her.
Sparkler made an exaggerated gasp and placed her hooves over her heart. “You wound me. Right to the heart. Aren't I your perfect baby sister?”

“Oh, I think you’re perfect, but I know that I’m biased.” I grinned at Dinky. “But general consensus says you’re a brat. Isn’t that right, Dinky?”

Dinky nodded her head repeatedly. “Yep! I even wrote a song about it! Wanna hear it?”

Sparkler sighed and shook her head. “Not the Brat Song again.”

I checked to see how long it was before we were going to need to board the train. “You know what, sure.”

I laughed as Dinky sang her little song. Things were going to be rough for a while, but it seemed that everything was going to be alright. At least I had my daughter and baby sister. I could work with that.

Author's Note

Parenting is Hard

It was strange returning to the Canterlot palace after visiting Ponyville. I’d lost my job, found out I was a dad, and discovered my long-lost sister, but life kept right on going. Cadey went back to her royal duties as she tried to catch up on everything she had fallen behind on between our honeymoon and the recent drama. That was doubly weird when I wasn’t going into work. After a couple of days, she offered to let me help her with some of her own duties—there were at least a few things I could do as prince-consort to help Cadey out, even if most of it was helping her in court or ceremonial stuff that came up now and again. Even if I didn’t have any real official power, it was something to keep me occupied. I at least had more time to hang out with the guys and have our usual game night, the usual problems with getting everyone together for sessions notwithstanding.

A nice new addition to my life was getting to exchange letters with Dinky and Sparkler. It was still incredibly weird to think of myself as a dad, but I was getting there. I was looking forward to when I’d next get to see them, even if that did come with a few complications.

One of them came up after Cadey and I woke up to join my aunts-in-law for breakfast. It was still really weird to think of the princesses as my aunts; Celestia had been my princess my entire life and then my Commander-in-Chief when I joined the Guard. That put her on a whole different level, one that made it difficult to think of her as family. In some ways it was even weirder with Prince—Aunt Luna. She might as well have been a legend for how well I had known her, and I had been really unsure about her to start with, especially after hearing some of the details of what had happened between Twily and Nightmare Moon. But now she was my aunt, and I was expected to make nice with her.

Life slowly becoming weirder and weirder seemed to be a running theme. I was actually starting to worry what the next big twist would be at this rate.

It was on the way to breakfast when I noticed a pair of servants glancing at me and Cadey and whispering to one another. That wasn’t altogether strange, as servants usually didn’t want to catch the attention of those they worked for. No sense getting yourself into trouble or roped into more work if you could help it, after all. Though there was something different in their looks and whispers. It started setting my senses on edge after happening a few more times on the way to breakfast. Part of me wondered if I was just being paranoid, but there was something about it that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I was pulled from my thoughts when Cadey wrapped a leg around mine and gave me a squeeze. My ears perked as I looked to Cadey. There was something about the way she was holding me that made me worried. “Everything alright?”

Cadey’s ear twitched. “Just some of the gossip I’m hearing.” She squeezed my leg again. “It’s not important.”

“Oh.” I forgot that Cadey’s hearing was well above average as an alicorn, so while I couldn’t pick up on what the servants were saying, she probably could. Though if she said not to worry about it, then I was going to try and put it out of my mind. Not like the daily gossip of the servants was a huge deal, right?

We arrived at the Sisters’ private dining room. Aunt Luna was yawning from a long night, while Aunt Celestia struck me as far too chipper for the early morning as she beamed at us. Aunt Celestia always managed to be energetic in the morning, though whether that was because of a natural disposition or some esoteric connection to the sun, I could only guess. Granted, if I actually asked her, I’d probably only get some cryptic answer that would bother me for the rest of the week.

“Good morning you two,” Aunt Celestia said as she pushed a pair of pancake covered plates to us. The pancakes were topped with smiley faces made of whipped cream and fruit.

Cadey smiled appreciatively. “Thank you. I see you’ve made your smileycakes.”

“It's been a long time since I got to spoil anypony with smileycakes.” Celestia shot her sister a wry grin. “Since somepony usually doesn’t want them.”

Aunt Luna replied with an unconcerned yawn. “You know I do not enjoy pancakes for dinner.” She had a salad and some kind of carrot casserole in front of her, and while it looked quite good, it didn’t exactly scream breakfast. “Now coffee on the other hoof would be accepted quite gladly.”

“Oh very well.” Celestia levitated over a pot of coffee and poured us all a cup.

“Well, I don’t mind having some smileycakes,” Cadey said as she picked up a fork and knife. “I remembered loving these as a filly. This is definitely the way to start the morning.”

Celestia beamed her approval. “My pleasure, really. I hope you two slept well?”

Cadey nodded. “Just fine, thank you.”

“Really well, actually.” I picked up my silverware to start cutting my pancakes. “I really appreciate it, the last few days have had us running around almost nonstop.”

“Yes, I've heard.” Celestia tipped her coffee, then delicately cleared her throat. “I've also heard that it's been smooth sailing so far after your recent troubles?”

“So far, yes.” I squeezed Cadey’s hoof. “Relatively. We've been okay so far.” Naturally we had to explain everything to Cadey’s aunts, even if that hadn’t been the most comfortable of conversations. Celestia was like a second mother to Cadey, and having to explain that I’d had a kid out of wedlock was one of the last things I wanted to do. But I’d been doing a lot of things that were on my ‘Things I never ever want to do’ list, so that had been par the course.

Cadey squeezed my hoof back. “It hasn't been easy, but we've been taking it day by day.”

“I'm glad to hear that, especially today.” Celestia glanced Luna’s way before turning to us again. “You remember how we were planning on releasing a statement explaining this whole situation?”

I groaned and my appetite disappeared. “Right, that was today wasn’t it?” As we had all discussed, it was only a matter of time before the public at large found out about Dinky. My aunts-in-law had advised me to get ahead of the news and release a public statement explaining things. At least then it wouldn’t seem like we were hiding the truth, which would only have pumped more fuel into the inevitable fire. Because I needed to have my reputation run through the mud some more...

Aunt Luna pulled out a newspaper and offered it to me. “It didn't take long for the press to pick up on it.”

I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out as I took the newspaper from her, and it only got worse as I read the front page headline:

“Scandal in the Palace: Prince Shining Armor Fathers Illegitimate Child”

It didn’t get any better as I read through the article. While the newspaper tried to keep a neutral tone in its analysis of our press release, it wasn’t hard to pick up on a disapproving undertone. Even when it conceded that my unnamed daughter had been born before Cadey and I had started dating, it still sounded like it was condemning me. The only good part was that Dinky and Ditzy’s names had been left out of everything. It was easy to enough justify on privacy grounds, considering Dinky was a minor. I’d gladly take the full brunt of everything as long as she didn’t have to see any of this. I could only hope she would remain oblivious of it all.

I groaned as I finished the article.

Cadey grimaced as she leaned in to read over my shoulder. “That bad?”

“I am afraid our ponies are not acting as we would desire to the news,” Aunt Luna said. “It seems the newspapers plan on using this scandal to sell as many prints as they can.”

Against my better judgment, I turned to the opinion columns. Little surprise, all of them were about me. Though where the news article had restrained itself with an air of professional journalism, the opinion columns were absolutely scathing.

“An embarrassment.”

“Should have his crown pulled off his head.”

“A good-for-nothing lout!”

“If I was the Princess, I would have tossed him out on his rear.”

“Disgraceful.”

“If he hadn’t already been fired as Captain of the Royal Guard...”

It was all I could do not to bury my face into the newspaper. “Cadey, I am so, so, so sorry.”

Cadey’s ears wilted and she rubbed my back. “It's okay, Shining. We'll get through this. We knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later.”

“It’s still not fair to you.” I groaned and tossed the newspaper onto the center of the table. “I hurt you, and now I’m even more of a disgrace than I already was.”

“You’ll get through this.” Aunt Celestia placed a hoof on my shoulder. “It’s hard now, but I have every confidence you’ll weather this and come out fine in the end.”

“The worst should pass in time,” Aunt Luna agreed. “If nothing else, something else will catch the papers' attention before long, and withdrawing public spotlight should help the flames subside with time.” She sighed. “I should know, being the center of my own scandals.”

Aunt Celestia nuzzled her sister. “I’ve weathered my fair number of scandals over the centuries, and while it might feel like the whole world is falling down on you right now, you can get through this.”

I sighed. “Yeah, eventually. Still don’t like it, though. Small mercies, I can’t be canned as Captain of the Royal Guard twice.” I winced. “Even if half of the opinion columns said I should be dishonorably discharged.”

Cadey shook her head as she picked up the newspaper to look over herself. “That’s not fair to you. You can’t quit the Guard over this.”

Aunt Luna snorted. “Do not pay those words heed. We have already asked too much of you by asking you to step down as Captain. If you wish to retain your commission, then we will honor that request.”

Aunt Celestia’s ears wilted. “And asking you to step down as Captain of the Guard was more than I wanted to do, especially in light of my own failures. But it was the only move I could think of to both save your career and assure everypony that everything would be okay after the changeling invasion.”

I grunted. For all the good quitting as Captain had done me, I very carefully didn’t say. The bitter part of me couldn’t help but feel that I had been used as nothing more than a scapegoat to minimize the political damage in the aftermath. Throwing me to the wolves to show something was being done had kept public opinion from exploding. Before my dismissal, more than a few ponies had started demanding Cadey step down as head of the EIS, that a whole bunch of officers should be made to step down, an independent review commission made, and more besides. My resignation had cooled tempers long enough for my aunts to do some damage control, though I wondered if I would ever get a new posting now that this scandal was out in the public eye. Tornado could waste a whole lot of time justifying not giving me anything to do on the grounds that now wasn’t the right time, and damnit, he might just be right. Even throwing me a bone could just add fuel to the fire.

Cadey wrapped a wing around me. “You okay?”

“No.” I didn’t even bother with a white lie. What would’ve been the point? If I went with trying to be stoic she would see right through it. This was beyond just having a bad day—my life was falling apart around me. What future could I hope to have? I was a disgraced officer, husband, and father. Professionally or privately, my life was a mess and now everypony knew it.

“We’ll find something for you as soon as things cool down,” Aunt Celestia told me. “That I promise. In the meantime, you can concentrate on some other things that need your attention.” Her lips curled into a grin. “Like a couple of ponies who I believe will be visiting you next weekend.”

My ears perked. “You mean Dinky and Sparkler?”

She nodded. “I would like for you to take care of your family for now. Once there is harmony inside, everything else will follow.”

“I am looking forward to getting to see them again.” A one-week stop at Ponyville hadn’t been nearly enough time. Seeing them for another week while they visited me and Cadey wouldn’t be long enough either, but getting all our schedules to line up was going to be tricky for a while, especially when Dinky and Sparkler were still in school. Me not having to work was going to be to my advantage once I cleared out some of my princely duties.

Cadey smiled and wrapped her leg around mine. “I want to see them again too. Dinky’s as adorable as they get.”

I grinned as I remembered getting to meet her for the first time. “Yeah, she’s a great kid. Ditzy has done a great job with her.” Even if that thought caused another twinge of guilt within me.

Aunt Luna nodded. “And it is good that you are taking responsibility, even if some things might not have gone as we would have wished. That speaks well of you.”

“I’m just trying to do the right thing.” I picked up my fork to start poking at my breakfast. “With both her and Sparkler.”

Aunt Celestia smiled as she cut a slice out of her own pancakes. “Set your house in order, and then we’ll deal with everything else. Things should calm down in a month or so, and we’ll work out a plan for moving forward by then.”

I nodded, then turned my attention back to my ‘smileycakes’. I had seeing Dinky and Sparkler to look forward to, at least. That was enough for now.

Next week found me waiting at the Canterlot train station alongside Cadey. For a day that I had been looking forward to for awhile, it sure was causing me a lot of anxiety. Maybe I was just being a bit impatient, but could I really be blamed for wanting to see my daughter? I wanted to make up for lost time, to be a good dad, and ... do other dad stuff. Then Sparkler would want to spend time with me too. She had said as much in her letters, and I wanted that as well. Things were still pretty awkward, though, the newspapers hadn’t made things easier with their questions about Dinky and Cadey. I’d managed to avoid doing anything that would get me into more trouble, but it hadn’t been easy. There were only so many times a stallion could be asked if he was going to be divorced before it got to him.

Still, today was supposed to be a good day. I did my best to push aside those unpleasant thoughts as the train came into the station. That was made easier when Cadey wrapped a wing around me, and I smiled for her. As long as she stood by me, I could deal with anything.

Soon enough, ponies poured out of the parked train. I craned my neck to try and spot two in particular amongst the crowd. I didn’t have much luck, probably in part due to the fact that all of them were comparably short. Both Twilight and Sparkler took after Mom’s height, and Dinky was—well, dinky.

The first warning I got was when Cadey grinned and nudged me. “They’re here.”

The next thing I knew, something small, blonde, and light lavender had collided with me and latched itself onto my leg. “Hi, Mister Shining!” Dinky chirped as she smiled up at me. “I've missed ya!”

I picked her up and hugged her as best I could while she was still latched onto my leg. “I've missed you too!”

Sparkler and Twily weren’t too far behind Dinky as they weaved their way through the crowd. “Aww, Dinks, don’t go running off like that.” Despite the reprimand, Sparkler didn’t sound all that concerned that Dinky had gotten away from her and Twilight. My littler sister grinned and waved. “Hey, bro. Hey, Princess.”

“Just 'Cadance' is fine, Sparkler.” Cadance smiled and gave her a nuzzle. “You're my sister too now.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Right, we're all family here.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” I squeezed my daughter as I nuzzled her.

“She is?” Dinky’s cheeks puckered out as she thought seriously about this topic. “Oh yeah huh, 'cause she's Sparky's sister-outlaw, an' she's Mister Shiney's sister.” Her eyes crossed like the complicated branches of the family tree. “But I'm her sister too, an' now I'm all confused.”

“Oh boy, she's hamming it up early with a captive audience.” Sparkler snerked as she gave me a wry grin. “Careful, or you'll find yourself wrapped around her hoof.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I said as I pecked Dinky on her brow.

Twily rolled her eyes. “He'll find out. Dinky is insidious in her adorability.”

Sparkler grinned knowingly. “Oooh yeah, he's going to find that out real soon.”

Dinky smirked in her sister’s direction before giving me a nuzzle. “Don't listen to Sparky, she's a brat. And we all know brats can’t be trusted, because they’re brats.”

Sparkler conceded the point with a nod. “Well, she's half-right.”

I chuckled. To state the obvious, she was beyond adorable even when her sisterly rivalry was kicking in. But that was just part of growing up. “Be nice to your sister—my sister?” I frowned as I thought how I should put that. “This is going to be weird.”

“Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for the past couple of months.” Twily looked between us. “So, think you got these two handled? I was thinking of heading off to take care of a couple of things while I was in Canterlot.”

Twily had been a sport helping to bring Dinky and Sparkler to Canterlot. Ditzy probably could have done it, but considering her schedule this weekend it was more convenient for Twily to help. Not to mention it would give Ditzy a bit of a break from the kids; having been a single mother for all this time, I could only imagine how much of a relief a weeklong break must have been.

“I think we're good.” I grinned knowingly at Twily. “Why, looking to head to the library already?”

Twily raised her chin in a haughty expression, though the look was undermined by the ghost of a grin at the edges of her mouth. “I just wanted to give all of you the chance to bond... And you don't know I was going to head to the library. I might want to go to the bookstore instead.”

“Or the book club.” Sparkler nudged Twily in the ribs with an elbow while smirking. “Or form a book club if there isn't one around.”

As beheld her princessly dignity, Cadance hid a snicker behind an upraised hoof.

Twily shot Sparkler a wry grin. “Oh ha ha. Sue me, I like books.”

I snorted. “If liking books was a crime, I would’ve had to drag you away for life in prison by now as a serial offender.”

Dinky went wide-eyed and gasped. “You can't do that! I like books too, like Daring Do an' stuff, an' I like the longer stuff Aun' Twilight has me read even i—“

Sparkler interrupted her by pointedly clearing her throat. “Dinks, remember what we talked about?”

“I said Miss Twilight.” Dinky’s ears flattened to her head. “Sorry.”

I nuzzled Dinky, feeling bad about having to remind her like that. Ponies overhearing that we were family might cause some complications right then. The full truth was going to come out sooner or later, but it would be best if that were properly managed. “It's okay. It’s just—“

There was an audible click, followed by a bright flash that temporarily blinded me. I blinked the spots away in time to see a pegasus with a camera darting away from us. A pair of Cadance’s pegasi guards were hot on his heels as he flew out of the train station. That had to be one of the newspapers’ photographers. Had he been waiting all this time to catch me with Dinky? I was going to be seriously ticked if a photo showed up in the papers. It was one thing for me to suffer because I’d goofed badly once in college; it was something completely different for Dinky to get mobbed by reporters.

My aunts-in-law had promised me that wouldn’t happen. It was easy enough to justify bringing down the hammer on anyone responsible for harassing a minor, especially when they had me as a ready punching bag for the press. Shame that didn’t mean some tabloid paper wouldn’t go ahead and try and print a picture with me and Dinky together. Plenty of ponies would pay to see who the prince-consort’s illegitimate kid was, and a tabloid might think the fine Aunt Celestia would slap down on them would be less than what they would earn from the printing.

That’s why Cadey’s guards had chased after that photographer. If they caught up with him, they could find out who he was and remind him that it might be a very bad idea to harass royalty. I didn’t know how much somepony could be fined for something like this, but hopefully it was enough to scare him off and destroy the photographs. Shame my luck had not been that good as of late.

I grimaced, knowing there wasn’t much I could do at the moment. “Maybe we should head inside somewhere?”

Cadey scowled after the photographer. “I think that would be a good idea.”

Dinky detached herself from my leg and allowed precious blood to flow through it once again, sending pinpricks right up my leg. “What’re we gonna do?”

I lowered her to the ground and smiled, putting the photographer out of my mind. Today was about Dinky and Sparkler, not the mess that had become my life. “That depends. What would you like to do in Canterlot? Got any ideas?”

“Ooh.” Dinky stuck out her tongue to the side of her mouth as she thought hard. “I like going to the Wonderbolts' stadium here, and there's a lotta nice restaurants—ooh, and some of the museums here are really cool! My friend Alula likes the history one on her clan's compound, and Gramma and Grampa like the art museums.”

“That sounds like fun,” Cadey said with a smile. “Which one's your favorite?”

“I like the Wonderbolts' stadium best,” she announced. “The art stuff's kinda boring, though.”

Sparkler sneaked. “To be fair, the last time we went there was some kind of postmodern exhibition going through. Half of the stuff there looked like an easel'd gotten sick, and I think one was just a blank canvas.”

I chuckled, knowing exactly what she was talking about. Being an officer and then married to Cadey meant I had to go to art shows now and again. Plenty of the stuff I’d seen had gone completely over my head, like the table that was just covered by some produce that I’d mistaken for some cheaply done concessions. It wasn’t until Cadey stopped me from biting into an apple I’d taken off the table that I’d found out it was one of the exhibits. “I never really got art like that. A pretty picture of something I can get. A bunch of paint smeared on the canvas at random or some random junk haphazardly thrown together? Not so much.”

Twily smiled a specific type of wide smile I knew all too well. “Actually, if you understand—“

Knowing that a full on lecture from my sister was incoming, I very quickly interrupted her. “How about you save the art history lesson for when we actually get to the museum? It’d probably work a lot better there.”

It could be interesting to hear everything Twily knew about some random topic, but she really was a walking repository of information and was a bit too eager to share sometimes. I’d learned as a colt that I was one innocent statement from being subjected to a multi-hour-long lecture.

Cadey nodded quickly, having been subject to many of Twily’s lectures over the years. “It's better shown as well as told, in my experience. Kind of like Professor Magetrix's experiments.”

Twilight frowned and her ear flicked. She was never particularly happy when losing an opportunity to lecture. “You do have a point...”

Not wanting to give Twilight the chance to start up again or give any other enterprising photographers hanging around a chance to grab more photos, I placed Dinky on my back and motioned for everypony to follow me. “Let's get going then. Sounds like we've got plenty of places to visit today.” I grinned back to Dinky. “And if not today, we have the whole rest of the week while you’re here.”

Dinky smiled and hugged the back of my neck. “That sounds awesome! Oooh, where can we start?”

“How about the Wonderbolt Museum?” I said as I started in that direction. “That should be a good first stop.”

“Okay!” Dinky flopped onto my back and made herself comfortable.

Sparkler snerked and hip-bumped Twilight. “Wrapped around his hoof. He's gonna be worse than Rainbow.”

Twilight snickered in return and nodded. “He'll learn.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about. Everything was going to be great.

“So did you enjoy that, Dinky?” I asked my daughter as we exited the Wonderbolt Museum a couple hours later.

Dinky nodded vigorously. “Yeah, that was really cool! All the different Wonderbolt costumes were so awesome. They’re super different than they used to be, and they changed over time, and there was all the cool and shiny stuff to look at!” She nuzzled my leg before she returned to hopping alongside me. Thankfully she was giving my poor leg a break from continually hugging it. There were times I was worried I was going to need a crowbar to get her off, which would have been a shame because of how cute she was. “Thanks again for takin' us!”

“It was great to be able to show you around,” I told her.

It had been a lot of fun showing Dinky around the museum—even if Twily had taken umbrage with some of the facts presented by the plaques. Something about them not being wholly accurate and disclosing some of the less-than-stellar facts about Wonderbolt history over the centuries. Though admittedly, the Wonderbolts hadn’t always been as well-organized as they were now. What an admiral was doing running an air unit was beyond me, and nearly drove me up the wall to learn about. I could relate to Twily’s sentiments, at least a little.

Still, it had been a fun time, and Dinky had been eager to run around and see everything. The only issue had been that we had to keep tabs on her so that she didn’t get away from us. Losing Dinky in a museum was exactly not the way I wanted things to go for my first outing as a dad. Thankfully, Sparkler was well-behaved, minus the odd snarky remark now and again. But I could live with some snark if it meant getting to spend time with my long-lost sister. Not like I wasn’t used to snark growing up with Twily around.

Cadey smiled down at her. “You're welcome. We're happy to get to show you around.”

“Me too!” Dinky hopped over to Cadey to nuzzle her leg. “Especially since I get to hang out with ya more. Sparky and Mommy said you guys are super busy, so it's nice to get to do stuff.”

Sparkler nodded, though she wore the smallest frown. “Yeah, but don't get too used to it, Dinks. S'like Gramma and Grampa, they can't do this all the time.”

“Oh...” Dinky’s ears drooped for a moment, before perking back up again. “So I guess we gotta make sure this is all extra-special, huh?”

Sparkler smiled for her sister. “Exactly.”

It hurt to have to tell Dinky stuff like that. She was just so innocent, and didn’t deserve to have these types of complications in her life. Ugh, I really wished we could come up with a better solution, but everything I could think of would have been a pretty radical shift in Dinky’s life or was just outright unworkable. Me living in Canterlot and the two of them in Ponyville was the biggest issue. Unless someone moved, the distance between us was going to be a major hassle. Maybe time would offer a better solution.

“We'll make what time we can for you.” I tried to reassure her. “And like you said, we'll make what time we do have together as special as we can.”

Dinky nodded. “Okay!”

“Sounds good to me.” Sparkler looked down the streets around us. “What's next on the agenda?”

I looked to Dinky. “What would you like to do next? If you're getting hungry it might be a good idea to get something to eat before we hit someplace else.” Not that I would have minded a few minutes to sit down either. Keeping up with a six-year-old took some energy.

“That is a good idea.” Dinky stuck her tongue out as she pondered. “Oooh! Can we get some ice cream?”

Sparkler grinned as she rolled her eyes. “Oh boy, here we go...” She exchanged a knowing look with Twily.

Dinky hugged my leg and looked up at me with big, hopeful eyes. “Pretty pleeeease?”

My heart melted under that adorable look. “I don't see why not. I know a good place not far from here. Come on.” I turned to lead the way.

“Yay!” Dinky let go of me so that she could hop alongside me.

Sparkler gave me a wry grin. “Bro, I'm just gonna warn you now: she will overdo it if you let her.”

“We’re just getting a little bit of ice cream,” I assured her. “Nothing wrong with that.”

“Exactly!” Dinky was quick to say, and leaned up against me as she smiled brightly. “Besides, I know how to temperament myself.”

“Temper yourself,” Sparkler corrected her.

Dinky nodded. “That too. Daddy’s the best,” she said as she nuzzled my leg.

I couldn’t help but smile at her affection. “See, everything’s great. You can get what you want too, Sparkler. I'll pay.”

“Okay.” For some reason the way Sparkler said that made it sound ominous. Maybe it was due to some Ponyville oddity. One of the places that served ice cream in Ponyville was the Sugarcube Corner, where one of Twily’s stranger friends worked. Yeah, it probably had something to do with that. “And thanks, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” I led the way into an old ice cream parlor that I’d been going to since I was a kid. It was white, clean, and with a sense of history to it, which made sense since it had been a family business for centuries if the small plaque on the door was correct. Jeez, how long had it been since I’d been here last? Sometime during when Cadey and I started dating, if I remembered right. I had plenty of good memories of the place between coming here with family and friends, so it felt really nice to be able to show Sparkler and Dinky.

I headed to the counter and looked over the selection of ice cream available behind the glass. “What would you all like?”

Dinky pressed her face to the glass to better look at the selection. “Ooooooh. I like vanilla, but they've got chocolate too, and mint like Miss Lyra—ooh, and that's got caramel in it too! And I think that's coffee, and strawberry...”

“You want a sundae then?” Cadey suggested. “We could always share one.”

Sparkler spared a glance from the menu board to give Cadey a grin. “You wouldn't get much sundae if you did. Dinks is the Great Devourer of more than just muffins.”

“She is a growing kid like that.” Twilight scanned the selection, and I could see her categorizing and organizing each flavor in her head. “They’ve added some new flavors since the last time we came here.”

“No kidding,” I agreed. “I’m definitely feeling a bit of nostalgia. So Dinky, got any idea what you want?”

“Hm. Hmm...” Dinky struck a pondering pose not unlike the more critically inclined ponies you’d see in an art gallery. “Hmmmmmmmmmm... I dunno, these are all good. Could I get a sample-thingy?”

“We can check.” I turned to the bored-looking teenager that was running the counter. “Hey, do you have any samples we could try out?”

The teenager’s head snapped up from whatever she had been drawing behind the counter, looking like she’d just noticed we were there. “We have our Sundae Special Surprise Sampler Spectacular if you want it. It includes all our flavors, along with all the toppings you want.”

Dinky’s eyes went as wide as she smile. “Ooooh, I'd like that! And some sprinkles, please. Ooh, and gummy bears too. And maybe some chocolate chips? And whipped cream! And it's not ice cream without a cherry on top.”

My daughter’s reaction made up my mind for me. “Sure, we'll get one of those.”

Twilight watched as one scoop of ice cream after another was added to our rather large bowl and she gave it a slightly pensive frown. “That's a lot of ice cream.”

“That'll hurt your figure,” Cadey agreed.

“No it won't!” Dinky said. “I'mma growing filly.”

Sparkler raised an eyebrow as yet more scoops were added to the pile. “You eat like that every day, you'll be growing laterally as much as vertically.”

Dinky ignored her sister, and instead gave me and Cadey a hug. “That is the biggest, best, ice cream ever!”

“Certainly looks like it.” I watched as the server finished putting all the toppings onto the sundae and then pushed it towards us. I picked it up with a grunt of effort. “Come on, lets share.”

“We're going to need to if we want to stand a chance of finishing that,” Twilight said.

Sparkler whistled as I placed it on the table for our booth. “We're probably not going to, just so you know.”

Dinky didn’t waste any time taking a seat, grabbing a spoon, and then scooping one mouthful of ice cream into her mouth after another.

I chuckled as I scooted next to her. You know, this dad thing wasn’t so bad. I thought I was shaping up to be a pretty good father.

I was a terrible father!

Dinky groaned and held her stomach on the palace guest bed. Taking Dinky out for some ice cream had not gone the way I had hoped. Turns out I had let my daughter have a little too much, and she had gotten sick as a result. We didn’t have much other choice than to bring her to the palace and have her looked over by the palace physician. She had assured us that Dinky only had a stomach ache and that she just needed some rest, not that that made me feel a whole lot better as I stood there and watched her suffer, knowing this was my fault.

I tried to think of what to do, and weakly rubbed her shoulder as she groaned again. “It's okay, just lie there and rest.”

Cadey sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “We'll need to make sure not to let her do that again.”

“Yeeeah, you gotta learn when to say no to her,” Sparkler said. “Dinks doesn’t really know how to control herself, and she’ll play you if she can. Rainbow’s had to find that out a few times when Dinky pulled this type of thing on her.”

I rubbed my face, feeling like a heel over everything. “Ditzy's going to be mad with me if she finds out. The first time I take my daughter out, and I let her get sick from eating too much ice cream.”

Sparkler snerked and patted my shoulder. “Shiny, trust me—learning to resist Dinky is an artform. I just have an advantage resisting her because I’m her big sister. Mom's not gonna be thrilled, but she'll understand.”

I groaned. “I sure hope so.” I didn’t want this to be the cause of some big meltdown between us. That was not something I needed right then.

Cadey ran a hoof through Dinky’s mane to fix it up. “Dinky, would you like for us to turn the lights out to let you take a nap?”

Dinky groaned and nodded.

“Okay then.” Cadey pecked her on the top of the head. “Get some sleep. I'm sure you'll feel better later.” She turned off the lights and ushered us out of the bedroom.

We made our way to Cadey’s living room. It was just me, Cadey, and Sparkler now. After getting the royal physician and making sure Dinky would be alright, Twily had gone off to talk with Aunt Celestia. Having absolutely everyone hovering over Dinky while she wasn’t feeling well wasn’t exactly helping her.

Ugh, I just wanted to have a fun day with my family. It had all been going so well, and then this.

Sparkler shot me a steady look. “So I won't say 'I told you so', but I will after a fashion, 'cause ... I did warn you.”

I sighed as I sat down on the couch. “Yeah, you did.” I ran my hooves down my face, feeling almost as terrible as Dinky.

“Hey, relax.” Sparkler sat next to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Dinks just needs some time to digest and sleep it off. Although she does like to snuggle for a bit after she wakes up from a stomach ache. Probably because that's what Rainbow always does, but…”

I nodded. “I can do that much once she's feeling better.” Anything that helped make up for my goof was fine by me.

“We’ll give her whatever she needs,” Cadey said as she sat on the couch opposite of Sparkler.

“I’m sure she’d appreciate that.” Sparkler paused for a moment as she looked between me and Cadey. “So, ... even with this, thanks. This was fun.”

Despite everything, I smiled. “Right, I really liked this. It’s nice to get time to spend with everyone. It's something that should have happened a long time ago, but ... it's good we can do it now.”

Sparkler frowned and grunted. “Wish we could stick around longer.” She wrapped a foreleg around mine and leaned her head against my shoulder. “S'a good start, but when're you gonna be come back to Ponyville next?”

“Hopefully I'll be able to come to Ponyville in a couple of weeks,” I said. “I’m shifting my schedule around to make time for it. I’m not doing a whole lot in the Guard right now, so it shouldn’t be a huge issue until I get reassigned.”

That news made Sparkler smile. “That'd be awesome! Not to steal you away from your new bride or anything, but I'd love to have you around for a bit. You can meet some of my friends, we can catch up, ooh—and I know you're going to love Star. She's seriously one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

My smile became more strained at the edges. “I can't wait to meet her.” I’d barely gotten to know my sister, and already she was dating somepony I didn’t know. That was going to take some time to adjust to.

Cadey’s smile was much more genuine. “I know I'd like to met her too.”

Sparkler’s smile widened. “I know you will! She's really sweet, she's got this special way of keeping tabs.” She worked a hoof into her mane and pulled out a small gemstone that I could tell had been heavily enchanted.

I studied that gem and looked it over. “A tracking gem?” That was ... something. I wasn’t sure how to take my sister’s fillyfriend placing a tracking gem on her. That could be taken a few ways. Something to ask Lieutenant Kicker about later, preferably in private.

“D'aw, she likes keeping track of you,” Cadey gushed.

“It's a quirk of hers, but it's sweet.” Sparkler put the gem back in place. “Honestly, her Cult of Shadow icon's a lot creepier. With its beady little eyes that're always watching me...” She shivered.

“They’re not quite that bad,” I said. Little surprise, the Cult of Shadow had a significant following within the Guard given the number of Kickers in the ranks. Though given how solemn the religion could be, some of their icons could be a bit ... stoic might be the word for it.

Cadey shifted to better face Sparkler. “Now you're going to need to tell us everything about Star. I want to get to know this mare.”

Sparkler’s ears perked and she beamed. “You got it! Star's ... she's perfect. The whole tracking thing might seem a bit off-putting, but she only does that for ponies she cares about, and she made that one out of amethyst, just for me. She's got this beautiful blue mane, a dapple grey coat, and ... yeah.” Her smile became wistful. “Any time she's around, it just makes my day.”

“She sounds nice,” I managed. “I can give her a chance, anyways. As long as you're happy, I can be happy for you.” I could already tell this was going to take some adjusting. I made a mental note to talk to Cadey about it later.

“I'm hearing good things,” Cadey said. “We're really happy for you. When do you think we could meet her?”

Sparkler crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Hm, I planned on spending some time with Star here in a couple of days. I could check with her and see if she’d like to meet you then.”

“That sounds wonderful to me,” Cadey said with a wide grin. “As long as we’re not intruding. I don’t want to butt into your date if it’s going to be a problem. It’s just that I’m really curious to see who my sister-in-law is seeing.”

I suppressed the deep urge to groan. Seeing my sister on a date with somepony was way, way down the list of things I ever wanted to see. “Right, if we’re going to intrude...”

“Nah, s’fine.” Sparkler waved dismissively. “I just want to double-check with Star before I commit, ya know?”

Cadey nodded. “Completely understandable. And if not a couple days from now, we can always meet her later.”

“Sounds good to me.” Sparkler hugged me, and I instinctively hugged her back. “Besides, I want her to get to meet you. Because—well, the obvious, right?”

I sighed and nodded. “Right, I can understand that.” Even if I wasn’t wild about it.

Sparker stared at me for a long moment before licking her lips. “Hey, um ... also. I have a favor to ask.” She gave me a wry grin. “And it's not just ‘Don't kill my marefriend.’”

“Um, I wasn't planning on something like that,” I said quickly. I’d only passively thought of a few ways that I could dispose of a body if I really had to, which was perfectly normal. Who hasn’t ever carefully considered how to commit a murder at least once? “What favor did you want to ask?”

Sparkler’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, first don't kill my marefriend—and second, um.” Her ears wilted and her voice turned serious. “I thought about talking to our mom, and...” She took a big breath and spoke in one big rush. “And I really don't wanna do that alone so can I please have you there with me, please?”

I blinked in surprise. Not that her request had come as that much of a surprise, or at least the fact she wanted to see Mom. I figured that was coming one way or another. Just it was a bit sudden. My hesitation resulted in Sparkler’s ears wilting, her shoulders hunching, and she turned her gaze to the floor. I wrapped my other foreleg around her and drew her into a tighter, more protective hug. “Hey, if you want me to be there, I'll help out. I want to be there for you as your big brother.”

A brittle smile showed on Sparkle’s features. “Thanks. Thanks, and ... thanks.”

I squeezed her shoulder. “When would you like to see her?”

Sparkler took another deep breath. “As soon as possible, I guess? To get it over with.”

Cadey nodded. “I don't see a reason to put it off. It’ll just get harder, and I know Shining will be there for you if you need him.” She smiled at me. “It’s one of his more endearing traits.”

“So I’ve noticed.” Sparkler nuzzles me. “Why I want him there for ... you know.”

I held my little sister close to give her support. “Whatever comes, I’ll be there for you, Sparkler.”

All I had to do was support my long-lost sister when she confronted our mother about abandoning her. No big deal at all.

Author's Note

It's Going to Take Some Work

The next day I headed to Sparkle Manor with Sparkler. I’d left Dinky with Cadey and Twilight for the morning, and they were planning on doing some shopping without us. Part of me felt guilty over that. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter while she was actually in town, not just dump her on my wife and sister. But Sparkler needed to talk with Mom, and she’d asked me to help her. I wasn’t about to tell her no—not when this was such a big deal for her.

Twilight had offered to go in my place, but in the end I’d shot that idea down. If Sparkler’s talk with Mom went south and I got dragged into it, we’d need somepony to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Sure, Twilight could do that at the end of the day, but so could I, and since Sparkler had asked me specifically, I wasn’t about to turn her down.

It wasn’t long before the two of us had arrived at the manor in all its tower-y glory. “So, you good to do this?” I asked as we approached the door.

Sparkler exhaled and shook her head. “No, but if I put it off I'm just gonna keep putting it off.”

“I know that feeling,” I said. “Best to just take care of it now. At least then you won’t have to worry about what might happen next.”

“Exactly.” Sparkler took a deep breath. “Like setting a bone or ripping off a bandage, right?”

“That's probably the best way to put it,” I agreed and opened the door for her.

Sparkler stepped inside and her gaze swept over the foyer, with its dark wood, ornamental Sparkle family crests, old suits of armor, and other ornamentations. “So, um ... wow. This is nice.”

I smiled, though my heart wasn’t really in the gesture. “Yeah, it is. Even if it drives Twily up the walls sometimes with how disorderly the place looks.”

Sparkler studied the orderly decor and craned her neck to look into the library. “What, does Mom organize the bookshelf alphabetically instead of by the Dewey system?”

I chuckled. “I think Twily reorganized it by the Royal Canterlot Library system a long time ago. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise—the sounds of the books calling out her to be properly organized would have kept her up at night.”

Sparkler snerked. “Sounds like her. So, where to?”

I cast a tracking spell and pinged Mom below us. “Downstairs in the basement. Come on.”

We headed down the stairs and soon found ourselves before the old family vault. Within the open door were the collected treasures of my house, all neatly organized on row after row of shelves. It was almost like stepping into a museum; old tomes, an ancient scrimshawed skull, magical weapons of a variety of types, jewelry both mundane and magical, paintings, and several other artifacts flanked us.

I looked around, some of this stuff sparking forgotten old memories. “Been a while since I've been down here.”

“Yeah? Sounds like you've been busy.” A moment passed before she added, “With work. Lots of work.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What else would I be busy with?”

Sparkler waggled her eyebrows. “Husbandry?”

I blinked and felt my cheeks burn. “Oh! Right, um, that!”

Before I could dig myself any deeper into that hole, I heard Mom call from behind one of the shelves. “Shining? Is that you?”

Sparkler’s smirk vanished and she stepped closer to me.

“Um, yeah, it's me, Mom.” I took a deep breath. “And I have a guest.”

“Oh? Who is—” Mom stepped out from behind the shelf and froze when she saw Sparkler. “Am—Sparkler. It's good to see you.”

Sparkler struggled for a moment before replying. “...hey.”

I spoke up to make sure a horrible silence didn’t stagnate the conversation before it had even gotten started. “Sparkler wanted to talk to you. About stuff. Obviously.”

Sparkler all but hid behind me as she addressed Mom. “Um, so ... hi. Finally.”

Mom’s ears wilted and her eyes fell to the floor. “I suppose it's not a surprise you wanted to meet ... again, that is.” She lifted her head. “Sorry, I wanted to see you. Really.”

I wrapped a leg around Sparkler’s shoulder to try and give her some kind of support. “For what it’s worth, I want to see you two talk.” Even if this was probably going to end up being one of the most awkward talks of my life. Which was saying something when I wasn’t even the focus of the discussion.

Sparkler leaned against me for a while before she brought herself to speak. “Why?”

“Why ... did we let you go?” Mom grimaced.

Sparkler nodded. “Yeah. That. Let's start with that.” Her features hardened and she bared her teeth. “Like, pardon my language, but what the actual feather was with that?”

Mom hunched her shoulders, making her look very different from the confident mare I was accustomed to seeing. “A terrible mistake. I knew that afterwards. If I could take it all back...”

“Yeah, well, you can't,” Sparkler shot back. “And that still doesn't answer my question.”

Mom sighed and rubbed her face. “For stupid reasons. Because we wanted to avoid a scandal when Night was trying to become Grand Vizier. Finding out I had a child by another pony would have caused a big controversy at the worst moment.”

Sparkler blinked, and if it wasn’t for my hold on her she would have stepped back. “Ahn—hed—huh?”

“It was a panicked decision,” Mom tried to explain. “Made at the spur of the moment. We should never have done that. Not in a million years.” She winced as though stabbed. “It was the biggest mistake of my life.”

“Can't say I disagree with that last part,” I found my mouth saying, instantly regretting it as Mom’s face contorted with pain.

“No feathering shit.” Sparkler added a second later, “Sorry.” She shook her head hard as though trying to clear it. “No, actually, I'm not sorry. What the hay, like—you couldn't have lied? Or ... something?! Literally anything else?!”

Mom slumped against a bookshelf. “It's what we should have done, yes. We planned...” She shook her head. “It doesn't matter. What we did was wrong, and there's no excuse for it. All I can say is that I'm sorry. It’s not nearly enough to make up for the pain we’ve caused you, but there’s only so much I can do to make up for everything.”

“It matters.” Sparkler’s eyes narrowed. “Who's 'we', and what did 'we' plan?”

Mom bit her lip. “We hoped that you would be adopted by a nice family. It was a naïve plan, and didn't work out the way we wanted.”

“Obviously.” Sparkler glared. “S'just your young kids have to deal with a dead baby, but anyone can just ‘get over’ that, right?”

I grimaced as she reopened that old wound. “Sparkler...”

She looked up to me. “It’s true, isn’t it? That’s a pretty bucked up thing to do, don’t ya think?”

I didn’t have a good answer for that. Celestia, this was so screwed up I barely even knew where to start. In a way, finding out about Dinky had been a blessing, because at least with her I had a pretty good idea what I was doing. It wasn’t going to be easy to make everything right with Ditzy and Dinky, but I was working at it. Everything with Sparkler was something else entirely. I wanted to make everything better, but I only had the foggiest idea how to do that. This situation wasn’t something where apologizing and making up was going to fix everything.

Mom’s head wilted. “I wouldn't blame you for hating me.”

“Oh, feathering spare me.” Sparkler stomped a hoof. “You gotta talk to my brother n'sister about that, I literally don't even know you.” She wiped her eyes. “No, you told 'em their little sister was dead—and now I'm not. And all for your damn politics!”

I could tell Sparkler wanted to go on a rant, but Mom wasn’t giving her much fuel to run on as couldn’t bring herself to look at the daughter she’d abandoned. Sparkler’s glare slowly melted away and she started quivering. She sniffed and her shoulders shook. Then the tears started and she pressed her face into my chest as she sobbed. I did the only thing I could do, and held Sparkler close, stroking her mane and rubbing her back as I tried to be there for her.

It got really quiet after that. No one was in a rush to speak. But what could you say in a situation like that? I didn’t know. I just held onto the sister lost to me for all those years. It wasn’t until I noticed that Mom was holding up some tissues for us that I was pulled out of the moment. She wasn’t looking at either of us, and her own eyes were red and swollen, but I still took the offered tissues. I gave one of them to Sparkler, and she used it to blow her nose.

“Thanks, bro. R-really, I n—” Sparkler took a deep breath. “M'okay, m'okay.”

I gave her a supportive squeeze. “Hey, I'm here for you.”

Sparkler took her time before she was ready to speak again. “Okay, so one more question. My ... sire, I guess. Did they know?”

Mom’s throat was tight when she answered. “She did, yes.”

Sparkler sniffed and glared at Mom. “So what now?”

Mom wrung her hooves. “That depends on what you want. I would like to do what I can to make things right. Even if nothing ever can.”

Sparkler sighed and leaned against me, feeling like a deflating balloon as she did so. “I wanna believe that, n'I don't even know how that'd happen. You know, when I first heard about all of this, I wanted to think that some nurse had switched the bassinet—that my parents really wanted me all along, n'that I'd go home with 'em. Hay, I wanted to believe that my sire didn't know about any of this.”

“I did want you back.” Mom held herself as she continued. “I really did. But everything went wrong. Then we lost track of you, and...” Her shoulders shook as she trailed off.

“I dunno what to do now,” Sparkler murmured.

“Maybe ... you need some time to absorb all of this,” Mom suggested. “I'd like to get to know you. But I can understand if you don’t want anything to do with me either.”

“Maybe.” Sparkler blew her nose again. “I needed to know, and I knew I didn't wanna know.” She took a deep breath. “But okay, fine. Let's ... let's get to know each other. Who we are now, instead of who we—instead of who you were. But maybe not right now.”

Mom nodded slowly. “I can understand that.”

“We can talk m-more, later, I guess. But ... you're...” Sparkler grimaced. “I needed to hear it from you. You're sorry.”

“I’m so sorry, Sparkler,” Mom said. “More than anything else I've done.”

“It's something at least,” I said. I believed her when she said that. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about her feeling sorry about it. Justified maybe? It didn’t exactly make me feel good to hear it either. Just ... something. Emotions are hard.

Mom dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “And if you want to meet your sire...”

Sparkler frowned but nodded. “I do, yeah. Now that I know, I might as well. Not putting everything off has been ... good, I guess. Best just to get it all out of the way now.”

“If you’re sure.” Mom looked between us. “Would you like me to introduce you, or would you prefer to meet her by yourself?”

Sparkler looked to me, and I nodded. “It might be best to let her introduce you, at least. I'll still be here for you.”

“Okay, sure.” Sparkler nuzzled me. “S'long as you're there.”

Despite it all, I smiled. “Trust me, I'm not going anywhere.”

As a group we headed to Magetrix’s lab at the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It had been a while since I had been here. Usually I only came to see Magetrix because I was with Mom, or Mom had something she wanted me to pass along to her. For a long time I hadn’t known that Magetrix and Mom were a thing, and had been since before Mom and Dad had even married, but by the time I was getting ready to head to West Hoof I’d managed to put two and two together. That had been quite the adjustment for me to get my head around, and my parents had to sit me down and explain the facts to me. In the end I’d been okay with it—no harm no foul, right? Sure, learning Dad had a kid from his affair with his secretary had thrown me from a loop, but I gotten along with Vinyl once I got to know her. So it was kinda alright.

Though all that had been before I’d found out about Sparkler. That ... changed things, and now I was trying to put everything back together as best I could. Sure, I’d screwed up with Ditzy, but at least I had the excuse of not knowing Dinky had been born at the time, and now I was taking steps to fix things. What Mom and Dad had lied about was ... yeah.

I felt Sparkler tense up as the three of us made our way to the school. She swallowed and worked out a barely audible, “Hey.”

Mom stopped and cranked her neck to look back at us. “Yes?”

“M—Du—“ Her teeth clenched together as she searched for the right thing to call Mom. “I've been thinking a bit. Sounds like you've been kicking yourself for years, huh? With what happened at the hospital?”

Mom’s gaze fell to the floor. “That's right.”

Sparkler grunted and leaned against me. She inhaled and took a moment before continuing. “Everything came out at once, earlier. I didn't think about how long you'd been been beating yourself up over it. Maybe I should have put this off longer until I was ready. You didn't deserve that. M'sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Mom shook her head. “You have every reason to be angry with me. You never deserved what happened. If there was one thing I could do again in my life, it would be that.”

“I know. Now, I mean, I know now.” Sparkler tapped the side of her head. “Up here anyways. N'you at least tried to make it right, even when it went wrong. It doesn't make everything okay, I can't really say that yet. But it makes it better.”

Mom sighed and nodded. “I realize that nothing can really make it right. I just want to do what I can.”

“Maybe we can try and get along?” Sparkler asked with a brittle smile.

Mom smiled, her face relaxing a little for the first time that day. “I would like that.”

“Okay.” Sparkler’s shoulders tensed again. “So, um, can we see M—her?”

“Of course, right this way.” Mom continued down a hallway that I recognized.

Thinking about all the previous times I had met Magetrix, I turned to Sparkler. “Just to warn you, Magetrix is kinda ... different.”

Sparkler’s brow furrowed. “Different how?”

Seeing we didn’t have much time before we got to the door to Magetrix’s lab, I went with the short and concise answer. “She’s a bit like Twilight when she’s doing her science. Only kinda moreso in some ways.”

Sparkler’s frown furrowed as she thought that one over. “Ah.”

We entered the lab’s office, and Mom called out. “Maggie? Are you in here?”

As if in reply, an inequine roar reverberated from within the lab. That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear, and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Being an officer of the Guard, it sounded like the type of sound that usually announced a fight.

Mom sighed and rubbed the side of her temple. “That would be a yes.”

“Hagabab?!” Sparkler leapt behind me. “What the hay was that?!”

“That's what I'm wondering!” I exclaimed, and moved to the door that led further into the lab.

“Maggie's probably done an experiment that's let something crawl in through the cracks in reality again,” Mom grumbled as she trotted into the lab. “Try and be careful while I sort this out.”

“What? Wait, what?!” Sparkler looked between me and Mom as we followed her, and after a moment’s hesitation, decided to stick close to me.

“I think we’re about to find out,” I told her. “Try and stay behind me.”

A dozen green portals floated about the lab, and more worrying, things were trying to come through them. I couldn't see exactly what they were, mainly because it stung my eyes to look at them directly. All I could say for certain is that they had plenty of mouths, eyes, and tentacles, none of which were arranged with any kind of sane geometry. It reminded me why Mom had told me never to go into Magetrix’s lab alone when I was a colt.

As for Magetrix herself, she was busy running about the lab, brandishing a rune-covered staff that glowed with arcane fire. A humming eldritch wind buffeted her wild, uncombed light purple mane and tail about, and her stained and slightly singed lab coat covered her pink coat. “Back! Back! Not desired result of experiment!” She fired a beam of magical energy from the staff into one of the portals. There was a sizzle of burnt flesh that smelled vaguely like burnt pineapple, and the resulting cry of pain made me flatten my ears to my head. “Asymmetry not desired in this place—anomaly to good science!”

Mom sighed and cast a spell to slowly close the portal that had been cleared of whatever was trying to claw its way into our dimension. “Maggie, what did you do this time?”

“Rammed particles together at extreme velocity,” Magetrix said in her usual clipped manner of speaking. She charged her staff as she carried a near-manic smile on her lips. “Fascinating results. Did not expect interdimensional horror, though. Will have to determine if consistent result of experiment.”

Mom finished closing the portal and then shook her head. “You know you aren't supposed to attract things from forbidden dimensions. Remember the talk we had about that?”

Magetrix shrugged. “Science means poking universe. Sometimes universe pokes back.” She frowned in contemplation. “Or things outside of universe, in this case. Always the thing, always more to learn. Sometimes results unpredictable.”

Mom let out another exasperated sigh. “Shining, be a dear and bubble those portals to keep those things from breaching through? I'll seal them up one at a time with Maggie if you can buy me the time.”

“Got it!” Not seeing a good reason to argue about preventing interdimensional horrors from coming into our reality, I concentrated and created a series of bubble shields around each portal. The things inside clawed at my shields, but they held for the moment. At least these could actually be affected by magic—that wasn’t always the case. I had found that out the hard way during that incident with the Mad Cult of Mootana.

Sparkler stared at all of this slack-jawed. “How—particle—staff?! Again?! How can there be an 'again' when you're talking about reality and cracks in it?!”

“Lets just say that Maggie keeps things interesting,” Mom explained as she worked with her lover to close another portal. “It’s both something I find attractive in her and endlessly exasperating.”

“Welcome to the family,” I told Sparkler as I reinforced my shield spells. “Things can get a bit hectic at times.”

“You can't tell me this is normal! A kitchen fire's normal!” Sparkler blinked and her eyes widened. “Oh Luna, no. What is it about my mothers that makes disaster mundane?”

Another of those things crashed into one of my shields and spider web cracks formed in it, forcing me to pour more magic into it to shore it up. Being barely able to look at my work didn’t make the casting any easier. “I'm going to tell you something right now, Sparkler: normalcy and my family aren’t on a speaking basis anymore.”

“It seems to be genetic.” Sparkler cast a spell that played with the ambient light, and made the air between me and the portal blurry enough to give my sanity a slight break. “Anything I can do?”

“Keep anything from snatching Shining,” Mom instructed her as she worked over the next portal. “Give me a few uninterrupted minutes and I'll have this cleaned up.”

“Right, got it.” Sparkler stayed near me, her horn glowing as she prepared to cast a spell at a moment’s notice.

“Much thanks,” Magetrix said. “Getting hairy in here. Crazy day at work.”

Mom gave her a wry smile. ”You don't say?”

Things got pretty frantic, but we managed to close all the portals after half an hour without anything big and sanity-breaking coming through and causing mayhem. I was breathing fairly heavily by the end and my horn ached. It’d been a while since I’d had to exert myself that much.

For her part, Mom wiped sweat from her brow. “Well, that was bracing.”

“Not what I was expecting today.” I frowned as I thought just what I’d been through. “As I realize this is my life. You’d think by now I’d be more surprised if normal things happened instead.”

Sparkler sat to take a load off. “What the hay did I get myself into?”

“A normal Sparkle family outing,” I answered. “It’s almost always interesting times around here.” It felt that way, anyways. Professor Magetrix definitely had a way to keep science from becoming boring. Even if that did involve preventing stuff like reality breaking from happening sometimes.

“Living with Mom is good experience for getting used to this, at least” Sparkler said.

Magetrix gave Sparkler a once-over. “And who’s this?”

Mom took a deep breath and stepped next to Sparkler. “Okay, this wasn't the introduction I wanted to do, but here we are. Maggie, come over here. We have something important to talk about.”

Magetrix placed her staff to the side and tilted her head. “What is it, Velvie?”

“I don't know a good way to put this, so I'm just going to come out and say it.” Mom visibly struggled to say anything as her face contorted into a grimace. “Maggie, this is Sparkler. My—our daughter.”

For the first time I could remember, the near-manic Magetrix froze. The seconds passed by, and eventually Sparkler awkwardly waved her hoof. “Um, hi.” Her eyes darted to the door for a moment, and she scooted closer to me. For my part, I wrapped a leg around hers to give her some support for what was going to be another one of the most awkward conversations of my life.

“Ah, um...” Magetrix’s ears flattened to her head. “Hello, Sparkler. Um, good to see you. Velvie said you might want to visit. Wasn’t sure. Wanted to give space, because...” She winced and her head drooped.

Mom took another deep breath. “Sparkler, this is Magetrix, your sire. We’ve known each other for a long time.”

Magetrix nodded. “Of course, of course. And wanted to see you. Always did. Just... I failed. Tried to adopt you. But failed.”

Mom raised a hoof to try and stop Magetrix. “Maggie, don't. You don’t need to—“

“She deserves to know!” Magetrix snapped.

Sparkler looked between them. “Wait, what’s this about?”

Magetrix ran a hoof down her face. “Tried to adopt you. My plan. After you were born, and found out... Plan was to have Velvie give you up, and then I'd adopt you. No pain, explain everything when you were old enough.” She scowled and I could almost hear her teeth grind together. “Adoption Services wouldn't let me.”

Sparkler blinked at that. “They—what?”

“Wait, this is the first time I’ve heard of this.” I looked to Mom. “You didn’t mention any plan like this.” Something I wasn’t happy about when this added more context to everything.

Mom ran a hoof through her mane. “After we found out who Sparkler’s sire was, we came up with a plan that might have prevented a scandal. We’d let Magetrix adopt Sparkler, and that would effectively let Sparkler stay in the family. Magetrix was living in the manor at the time, so nothing would have been strange about her bringing her adopted daughter into our home. Then we would explain everything to Sparkler when she was old enough to understand.” She looked to me, her face strained. “And to all of you, as well.”

My chest felt tight as I thought through this. I did my best not to lose my cool; Sparkler needed me, and I wasn’t going to help her by flipping out and storming out of there like I had when Mom and Dad first tried to explain everything. “So what went wrong?”

Mom’s shoulders sagged. “They didn't let Maggie adopt Sparkler. For ... reasons.”

Magetrix snorted. “Adoption Services said I wasn’t suited to be a mother. Idiotic—I’m in top one percent for intelligence, have high paying job, stable home. All factors suggest good home for new foal.”

I could guess why Adoption Services might not want to give Magetrix a newborn foal, considering I just helped stop an interdimensional invasion of her lab by beings that hurt my head to think about. That type of thing didn’t get you glowing reviews from most ponies, and Magetrix had always been an odd pony.

Mom sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “Still doesn't excuse that I let you go to start with. If I hadn’t none of this would have happened.”

Sparkled looked between the two of them. “I don't know what to say.” Her mouth opened to speak but then closed again. She shuddered and wiped at her eyes, gradually bringing herself to look up at Magetrix. “You wanted me?”

“Always.” Magetrix nodded. “We both did. It’s just ... plan flawed. Erred.”

Sparkler stepped forward, her steps uncertain. She tentatively offered a hug to her sire. Magetrix stood staring for a moment that seemed to drag on. Then she embraced her long-lost daughter. It was an awkward, unsure hug, and soon both daughter and sire were crying as they held one another.

It was evening by the time Sparkler and I left the lab. Mom had decided to stay with Magetrix, probably to talk about some things, and to give Sparkler some much needed room. I felt psychologically exhausted after the long day, and I could only imagine how Sparkler was feeling by this point. We walked in silence down Canterlot’s streets; Sparkler looked like she was pretty deep in her own thoughts, while I struggled to find something to say. Since I didn’t know what the right thing to say was, I decided it might be best for me to just be here for her. That was nice and safe, and didn’t risk me saying something that would make a mess of things.

Sparkler’s head was hanging low as she leaned against me. Then she suddenly let out a long groan. “I was not ready for that.”

“Me either,” I agreed. “That was a lot to take in.” It was going to take me a while before I could digest everything I had head from Mom and Magetrix. Some part of me felt good that they had tried to keep Sparkler, even if their plan had major issues. Like the part where it failed and deprived me of my baby sister. That last fact still burned in my chest. I felt an urge to go back and tear into them for what they had done, and I might have if not for Sparkler. Arguing with Mom probably wouldn’t help anything, but I knew being here for Sparkler was a big deal to her. Priorities, priorities.

I’d probably talk it over with Cadey. She was probably the best sounding board I had for this type of thing. That was one of the really nice things about being married: you always had somepony you could rely on to talk about your problems with. And oh boy did I have some problems to talk about.

“That’s putting it lightly.” She shook her head. “Well, the tentacled horror was ... new, but I meant today. Talking to my moms, you know?”

“I think I get it.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Especially finding out everything for why they did it—you know, everything.”
“That all really could've gone a lot better.” Sparkler sighed. “In hindsight, I probably should've waited until I had had a chance to talk to somepony about it. Like a psychologist. I mean, awkward as it would've been to go to my marefriend's mom for advice, a shrink's input would've gone a long way.”

“Maybe.” I remembered having to see a psychologist after Chrysalis had played my head like a piano, and it had helped well enough. “We could always get you some help if you want it. It'd probably be a good idea, really.” I’d pay the bill myself if it would help her. Sun and stars knew Sparkler had been through enough to justify it.

“I know a pony, but thanks.” Sparkler slowed to a stop and hugged me. “And … thanks, bro. I could not have gotten through that without you.”

I smiled and hugged her back. It felt good to be the big, protective brother when it actually worked out. “Happy to help. I wanted to be here for you.”

Sparkler squeezed me like I was a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. “I got another reason to look forward to summer vacations now, 'cause I really...” She trailed off, letting her hug express her feelings.

I held her close, not ever wanting to let her go. “I'd love for you to get to visit.”

“I was thinking of keeping in touch with my moms through mail until m'ready to talk again,” Sparkler said as she looked up at me with a smile. “I figure I can add one more pony to the mailing list.”

I smiled back at her. “I don't see why not.”

Thankfully the rest of the week went much smoother. Sparkler was a bit withdrawn during that time, but I couldn’t blame her when she had a lot to think about. Still, we got to have fun and spend time together in Canterlot. I think that helped a lot. It felt great to get to spend time with her and Dinky, even if Dinky was such a little ball of energy she was starting to run me, Cadey, and Twily all into the ground by the end of the week. The bright side was that Dinky did a good job of exhausting herself as well.

Thus, by the end of the week I was in Cadey’s living room with Dinky asleep beside me. We were both reclined on the couch, with Dinky’s head lying on my side. She was adorable when she slept. My little sweetheart peaceably resting after a long week out on the town. It made me look forward to when I’d get to see her again—and shot a pang of pain through my heart when I thought about how she would be going back to her mom before too long.

Cadey quietly walked into the living room and she looked down at us with a soft smile. “Aww, look at you.” She ran a hoof through Dinky’s mane to fix it a bit. “Is she all tuckered out?”

I smiled as I watched my sleeping daughter. “Yeah, she fell asleep while I was reading her a story.”

Ditzy came in behind Cadey and beamed at the sight of us. “Oh, Muffin...” She gave me a grin. “You're a natural.”

I chuckled and rubbed the back of my mane. “I think I’m getting the hang of it. Shame Dinky didn't have the energy to stay up for the entire story and get to see you.”

“Oof, it sounds like she had a good day out then.” Ditzy sat down on the other side of Dinky. “She usually has enough energy to ask for another one. Sometimes a third if it’s Rainbow foalsitting her.”

“We havekept her pretty busy.” I let out a breath, as all the events of the last week flooded over me. “To be honest, I'm pretty beat trying to keep up with her. I'm not sure how you've managed this all by yourself.” Thankfully Dinky had bounced back quickly from the ice cream incident. Her being down and out from a stomach ache had been awful, but it had only been a small hiccup on what had otherwise been a pretty great week.

Ditzy let out a breath that was half-chuckle and half-sigh. “It was an adjustment, to put it mildly. But I had a lot of help from friends and family.”

“That definitely helps,” I agreed. “Twilight and Sparkler were worth their weight in gold.” I gave Cadey a sheepish grin. “Cadey too, of course.”

Ditzy chuckled and smiled at Cadey. “I bet. Sparkler's been such a good sister for her, and I really can't thank Twilight enough for everything she's done for us.”

“Right.” I ran a hoof through my mane as I remembered something I wanted to tell her. “Um, just a heads up, but Sparkler and I did go see her ... other moms earlier in the week.”

Ditzy stiffened at the mention of Sparkler’s biological parents. “Oh.” She looked at the still peacefully sleeping Dinky.

Cadey’s horn briefly glowed as she cast a spell over Dinky. “Don't worry, we won't wake her up—just remind me to dispel that silence spell when we're done.”

Dityz’s head nodded in thanks. “So ... how did things go with Sparkler?”

“They ... went.” I huffed as I shook my head, realizing I was being painfully unspecific about something Ditzy needed to hear about. “It went about as well as it could have. I think Sparkler's just going to need a bit of time and distance to pull it all together. But she does want to write them letters, so I think it's moving in a positive direction.”

Ditzy let out a small sigh of relief. “That's good. If I'm completely honest, I'm not sure what I expected, or even wanted to hear. I'm glad, though, I really am. I couldn't imagine what your poor mother went through all of these years, or her...” She hesitated as she sought the right word. “Her partner, I guess.”

“It sounds like they have some issues to work through.” At least based on how Mom had said she was staying behind in the lab with Magetrix, it sounded like they were going to talk after we left. Now there was a discussion I didn’t want to be around for. “Turns out their plan was for Magetrix to adopt Sparkler, but then the whole thing got derailed. Adoption Services wouldn’t let Magetrix have Sparkler for whatever reason.” I grimaced. “Still not sure how I feel about that.”

Cadey’s face contorted into a grimace. “That's horrible. Not that it excuses what happened, but that does explain their actions a little bit.”

“I guess.” I sighed. “I think Mom didn’t tell me about that at first because she wanted to protect how Magetrix would look in Sparkler’s eyes. If it looked like Magetrix had nothing to do with any of it...” I shrugged, feeling even more exhausted just by thinking about the whole situation.

“Oh my goodness...” Ditzy sat in silence for a minute as she absorbed what I told her. “I couldn't begin to imagine how that would have hurt her.” She gently rubbed Dinky’s back as she stared at her daughter. “I feel like I should reach out to her too, but wouldn't know where to begin.”

“Maybe write a letter?” I suggested. “That might be a start. Less of a chance you’ll say something you don’t mean to, also.” I knew way too well how you could botch a conversation at the worst possible time.

Ditzy nodded. “Maybe, yeah.” She sighed and slumped on the couch. “I'll deal with that tomorrow. At least we're moving forward. What do you two have planned?”

“We were hoping to get to spend a bit more time with Dinky and Sparkler before you had to take the train back to Ponyville.” A grin spread across my face as I watched Dinky sleep. “It was really great to get to spend time with them.”

Ditzy gave me that bubbly smile of hers. “I can tell Dinky loved it, and Sparkler really wanted time with you. Maybe we can work something out where we can do this more often?”

A flutter of warmth ran through me. “I'd love that. Really.”

Cadey smiles and nodded. “They're both great to have around.”

“And I'd like to visit too,” Ditzy said, looking between us. “If it’s not too much to ask, that is.”

“I don't see why not.” I looked Cadey’s way to make sure I hadn’t overstepped.

Cadey shook her head. “It's fine. Really. It's nice when Ditzy can get to visit with her girls.”

“Thank you.” Ditzy offered a hoof to Cadey. “You're a wonderful pony, and I'd like to catch up with you both more.”

Cadey took her hoof and squeezed it. “That sounds good to me.”

Ditzy squeezed back. “Me too.”

Dinky yawned and snuggled up against me, smiling in her sleep.

I gently wrapped a leg around her to help keep her warm and comfortable. “I think everything's going to turn out alright.”

It was a couple of days after the Doo family left Canterlot that Princess—Aunt Celestia (that was going to take me forever to get that down) summoned me to her private throne room. I had been little worried about why she wanted to see me; being called on by royalty, even when I was technically royalty myself, always made me a bit nervous. It meant they wanted something, and that something wasn’t always good. But I put on my uniform and answered the call all the same. There wasn’t anything else I could do. Not like I could avoid my own aunt-in-law and princess even if I wanted to.

I found Celestia sitting on her throne and Cadance sitting by her side. Both of them smiled as I entered, so that was probably a good sign, probably. I bowed before the throne, eliciting a chuckle from Celestia.

“I think we can dispense with you having to always bow to me, Shining Armor,” Celestia said with a wry grin. “You are my nephew, after all.”

“Um, right.” I stood, feeling a bit embarrassed. “So what did you want me for?”

“Oh, just a minor matter,” Celestia said with a teasing tone. “Just your new assignment.”

My ears perked. That was very much something I wanted to know, and my heartbeat picked up in response. “What’s that going to be?”

Celestia smiled at Cadance. “In light of recent events, we’ve been transferring personnel around, among them the captain of Cadance’s guard. There is now an open position that needs to be filled by a sufficiently senior officer.” Her smile took on an impish air. “Do you think you might know of such a pony?”

I looked between them, fearing that this was too good to be true. “I-I’d love to be the captain of Cadey’s guard!” Sure, it wasn’t captain of the entire Royal Guard, but it was something. A pony could do a lot worse than heading one of the princesses’ personal bodyguards.

Celestia turned to Cadey. “There you go. It might be a bit awkward to have your husband be in charge of your guard, but somehow I think you’ll manage.”

Cadey grinned back at her aunt. “I’m sure we’ll find a way.” She smiled in my direction. “We’ve gotten through everything else thus far, even if it’s been rough sometimes.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “What you said.” I puffed out my chest as I addressed the both of them. “But yeah, I’ll do my best to run Cadey’s guard. You have my oath on that.”

“I have no doubts you’ll do exactly that,” Celestia said. “We’ll have an official ceremony for you taking the position later, but right now I’d like to talk some specifics about your new post.”

I stepped closer to them. “Of course, what was on your mind?”

The corner of Celestia’s mouth quirked in that way whenever I got the sense she knew more than she was letting on. “How do you two feel about taking a trip up north to see to a few things? I’ve been getting rumors about some troubles from that part of Equestria that could use some royal attention...”

It felt good as we started getting to business. I was back into my comfort zone of reports, positions of troops, of developing problems that needed to be dealt with. My life had been pretty badly upturned in recent months, no way around that. But now I thought I had a grasp on everything. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I was pretty sure I could manage it. Nopony who knew what they were talking about ever said life was going to be easy—what mattered was how you dealt with it.