Author's Note

Please understand that I am new to writing in English since it’s not my native language. I try my best and use a spellchecker, but if there are mistakes, I am very sorry. If you notify me about any spell- or grammar mistakes, I will gladly remove them.

Chapter 1

Shining Armor was waiting in front of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. His sister's class would be over every minute now and he wanted to accompany her on the way back home.

The bell rang and the students streamed out of the building. Shining tried to see his sister's purple coat in the crowd of unicorn fillies but even as they started to leave the schoolyard and almost nopony was left, he couldn't see her.

"She must have stayed longer again..." he thought and decided to head in and catch her in her classroom. Twilight had a way of forgetting the time when asking teachers questions after class or if she wanted to finish her readings.

The school was rather small compared to most, but of course, it also had fewer students, them being only some unicorns that were capable enough for the school's high standards.

Even though Shining personally never was too good in school, he was very proud his sister was so talented, even being the personal student of Princess Celestia herself.

He trotted through the hallways made of white stone, following a blue patterned runner. His sister's classroom was just around the corner, Shining knew and sped up - only to bump into another pony.

The other one yelped, most likely more out of surprise than pain, landed on his flank and dropped a whole bunch of books that looked old and ragged.

Shining, who was bigger than the other stallion, wasn't really affected by the crash.

"Sorry!" he said, picking up the books with his magic and giving them back to the stranger that just got up. He was about Shining's age so most likely one of the older students.

"No, I am sorry...", the other stallion mumbled, taking the books back and picking up his glasses. With a quick spell, he repaired them seemingly effortlessly.

He looked at the floor and seemed to avert eye contact, he seemed nervous and was probably in a hurry.

"Cool spell," Shining noted, pointing at the other unicorns glasses.

"It's pretty basic." the yellow coated stallion replied modestly.

Shining felt a little awkward. Was he that bad at Smalltalk or was this other stallion a maybe little shy?

"So, um, I'm here to pick up my sister so..." the white stallion explained. The other unicorn didn't seem to quite catch up, he looked a little confused. Shining couldn't help but think that he had the same facial expression as his sister when one tried to speak to her while her thoughts were somewhere else, usually in a book.

"I'll go then..." Shining tried to make himself clear without being rude.

"Oh, um, sure." the other stallion quickly answered and made room for Shining to pass, even though the hallway was definitely wide enough for both of them. The stallion seemed incredibly nervous, so Shining smiled at him reassuring, "Have a nice day!"

"You too" the other stallion replied hushed before he trotted in the opposite direction than Shining.

When Shining turned around, a familiar unicorn left the classroom, levitating a book she was obviously reading, she didn't even notice the taller white stallion right in front of her.

"Hey, Twily." Shining welcomed her, she looked up with a slightly confused look on her face, before she realised who was talking. "Shining!" she cheerily greeted her big brother with a hug. "I didn't know you'd pick me up today or I wouldn't have spent so long in the classroom!"

"Yeah, I could leave work earlier today.", he replied, "Let's head home, shall we?"

At home, they both sat on the table their mother already had set up, the smell of fresh carrot casserole filled the air. As usual, Twilight was still reading her book, this one looked ridiculously big, especially considering the size of the filly reading it.

"What big old book did you bring home this time?" their mother asked, honest curiosity in her voice.

Twilight grumbled an incomprehensible answer, obviously still focused on her book, and Twilight Velvet dropped the attempt for a conversation with a smile, knowing her daughter wouldn't stop reading anytime soon.

"Good book, eh?" the white stallion asked, already knowing the answer. Twilight nodded, her eyes still directed to the book in front of her.

Shining checked the book cover and as usual, he had never heard of the book title.

"Earth-Pony Magic in Traditional Agrarian Culture," that wasn't exactly a book Shining would be interested in.

The book cover seemed familiar, though. Wasn't that the same book the stallion he had run over earlier that day has had with him?

He wasn't sure, but also didn't really care.

Later that day, in the night, Shining lay in bed awake. Once again, he threw off the blanket, not being able to find the proper sleeping temperature. With a groan, he stretched his legs in the air, before he got up to get himself a glass of water in the kitchen.

He didn't want to turn on the light because his eyes were used to the darkness and stumbled to the cupboard to find a glass.

As he filled it with water, he heard steps behind him.

"Shining, you're up?" his little sister asked, rubbing her eyes and vainly tried to keep a yawn in.

Shining levitated another glass to himself to fill it for Twilight.

"Yea, kinda hot in my room. Couldn't really fall asleep." he said as he handed Twilight the glass of water, "Did you even sleep yet?"

"Yes," she replied, "but... I woke up and I hadn't finished the book so... You know."

"You read it to end?" Shining knowingly ended her sentence and she nodded.

"Was it good at least? You look really tired." he smiled and the purple unicorn answered, suddenly filled with new energy: "Oh yes!"

She hopped towards him and started babbling: "It's filled with interesting facts about pre-Equestrian agriculture. - Did you know that Earth Pony magic can speed up the growth of an average tree by up to 283%?" her eyes were basically glowing and she probably had a lot of other facts Shining didn't know, but he was tired. "How about you tell more me tomorrow? We both need some sleep."

Twilight was obviously interrupted in thinking about the next fact to tell her brother but then nodded. "Alright, but tomorrow, you're gonna get educated about agriculture!", she said before she hurried to the door,"Oh, and there's a second book to it. Can you come with me to the library tomorrow? The school's library doesn't have it."

"Sure." he just said. He really hoped Twilight wouldn't wake him up before sunrise again.

A loud call woke Shining up the next morning. "Shining!" he heard the voice of his little sister trying to wake him up.

He groaned to let her know he was awake. "What's it?" he mumbled as soon as he was awake enough for that action while turning around in his bed, only to be blinded by the light streaming in through his window. It was definitely too early to be woken up. The sun was rising at this moment and he realised Twilight probably waited for that to wake him up, so he couldn't say she woke him up in the middle of the night again.

"You said you'd go to the library with me." Twilight reminded him

Right.

Now that he was tired, he really wished he would have said no to her. Though he wasn't sure if he could say that to his puppy-eyes sister.

"I'll get up in a moment, just like two minutes," he grumbled, pulling his blanket over his head to shield his eyes from the light that got brighter the higher the sun rose.

Twilight snuffled. "You always say that and then you sleep till afternoon, Shining.", she impeached.

Shining appeared from under his blanket again.

"Don't exaggerate, maybe sometimes...", he weakly defended himself.

"Shining, please?", she said with her best puppy face.

He snorted in amusement. How could he say no to that face?

"Alright. I'll get up. Just let me brush my mane and I'll go with you, alright?", he suggested while getting up.

Twilight beamed. "Alright!" and with that, she wandered off, probably to brush her own messy mane.