Bonds and Boundaries

“Hi, Shiny!”

“Hey, Twily.”

As usual, Twilight’s energetic greeting was met with Shining’s more measured, but still cheerful reply. It was something of a ritual for them, whenever the two met after returning home - Twilight from his her classes, and Shining from his Royal Guard training. While they exchanged greetings, Twilight trotted up to her brother and nuzzled his neck and chest – those being the only parts of him she could really reach. Meanwhile, Shining wrapped a forehoof around her, pulling her close and tucking her head under his, careful not to poke himself on her horn. This too, was part of their reunion ritual – though they held the embrace for longer than one would expect of two siblings.

But then again, it was beyond most ponies’ expectations for a physically-powerful young stallion in training to be a Royal Guard to be so close to an intellectually and magically brilliant young mare – even if they were brother and sister.

“You’re home early,” Twilight said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah, today was kind of a short day for training, and a lot of it was just going over protocol and etiquette. So… I’m home early.” He smiled. “Good thing too, because mom and dad are going to be out until later tonight.”

“I see. Where’s Spike?” She looked around, as if expecting him to appear from behind a lamppost or something.

“He’s taking a nap right now. I played some games with him when I got home, and that probably tired him out.” Finally, Shining Armor broke the hug, removing his hoof from her and taking a single hoofstep back.

Twilight giggled. “Either that or he just wanted to get some sleep in before I got home. So, just the two of us, then?” Twilight looked up at him as she smiled.

Shining grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I can handle you by myself.”

“Hey, I’m not a filly anymore, I don’t need a foal-sitter.” She grinned. “Although I wouldn’t mind if you invited Cadance over.”

Shining shook his head.“ Not on such short notice, I’m afraid. She’s been pretty busy lately… speaking of which, how was your day?”

“Yep!” Twilight beamed. “Today we went over new alchemical techniques, studied some primary sources from the time of the Battle of Hollow Shades, and had a test on the proper balancing of magical formulae in spells! Specifically, those dealing with the Inari, Exort, and Wex energies!”

Shining Armor chuckled. “Do I even need to ask how you did?”

Twilight giggled. “Am I that predictable?”

Shining chuckled. “At acing tests, yes.”

“Well, I dunno about that...” She frowned slightly. “Some of the formulae were tricky. Exort’s effects increase exponentially rather than linearly, and Wex tends to react weirdly with certain magical matrices. I hope I passed...”

“I’m sure you did!” Shining Armor shook his head, smiling. Twilight seemed to worry too much about passing tests to the point that she didn’t realize she generally aced them… unless, of course, acing and passing were the same thing to her. Either way, she had a huge fear of failure… so it was up to Shining to make sure she didn’t obsess over it. “Well, it’s a good thing it’s challenging, right? Makes you really use that brain of yours.” He reached out with a hoof and patted her head. “Otherwise, you’d probably fall asleep during the test.”

Twilight let out a mock gasp. “Fall asleep? In class?! Never!” She giggled again. “But you’re probably right. The harder stuff makes me feel like I’m learning more.”

Shining nodded. “Winning’s always more satisfying when you really have to work for it. You also can’t improve unless you’re being challenged.”

Twilight nodded. “Sounds reasonable to me!” She grinned. “Hey, do you want to help me study?”

“Sure!” Shining said. “Do you want Spike to help, too?”

Twilight shook her head. “Nah, let him have his rest. I’ll do just fine with you.” She smiled before trotting off to the house’s study.

Truth be told, most of Twilight’s study material went over Shining’s head. Despite his looks and life goals, he wasn’t a stranger to intellectual matters – his fellow Ogres and Oubliettes players from back in high school could attest to that – but Twilight was a genius, and anything that could challenge her was several levels higher than anything he was ever taught, even in college. And she was still young enough to be going to high-school!

But oddly, Shining didn’t feel too bad about that – he actually liked helping her study. Sometimes he could help in unexpected ways – Twilight was still rather linear in her thought process, and sometimes he could spot simple solutions or approaches that were staring at her in the face, while she was too fixated on something else to notice. The rest of the time, of course, it was a pleasure to watch her work, to listen to her solve problems out loud, to study subjects that would baffle ponies much older than her. Rather than feeling outclassed, he felt proud of her.

But more than all that, he just liked being with her.

The pair were soon in their house’s study room, where a sizable desk served as Twilight’s work area. Behind it on the wall was a corkboard, still holding notes from Twilight’s previous study session. Around it were shelves of reference books and whatever textbooks Twilight hadn’t placed in her backpack for the day. Spare writing materials were never out of sight at the edges of the desk. And, of course, to the side was a large comfy chair for Shining to sit in while his sister worked. It was important to settle in and get comfortable, because Twilight could spend a long time studying.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for Shining to help with. Most of what Twilight was studying involved magical formulae – reviewing the material that had challenged her on the test. While Shining had new something of certain spell matrices and the energies that powered them, the fact was that most unicorns used magic out of instinct, generally relating to their cutie marks, and likely had no idea how their spells really worked – at least, not to the technical detail that Twilight did. Shining Armor’s knowledge was limited to how to modulate barrier spells, to alter their shape, size, or add special features like what Twilight called selective tangibility – a fancy way of saying that a shield could be solid to some objects but as far as others were concerned, not even there.

He’d discussed all that with Twilight long ago… so, naturally, she had shield spells down pat, and everything she needed help with involved things Shining didn’t have a Cutie Mark in.

Normally, at this point in the day he’d be worn out from training and content to sit and watch Twilight work. But today had been an easy day, and he had a lot of energy just waiting to be used. He was also getting bored – a dangerous combination.

“All right, that should do it,” Twilight said proudly, setting her quill aside and levitating up the paper on which she had designed – and solved – a particularly challenging formula. “That sure was a tough one, but after taking that on, I think I…” Her voice trailed off as she spun her chair to face Shining, only to find that his chair was vacant. Her first thought, of course, was that he’d left to use the bathroom or get a snack without telling her, and that he’d be back. But, she really wanted a certain somepony to appreciate the work she’d done, so she quickly trotted out of the study in search of him, paper levitating behind.

Sometimes, Shining surprised her by coming up with ideas she hadn’t thought of. This time, he surprised her by leaping up from behind the couch and pouncing on her as she passed by. She was completely bowled over, landing on her side on the soft carpet. As she squealed in surprise, Shining placed a hoof on her, gently holding her down. “Gotcha.”

“What in the world was that for?” Twilight scowled, though her tone was playful, and she struggled against the hoof holding her down. Both of them were well aware that she could easily fling him off her with her magic - but where was the fun in that?

“You need to be more vigilant, Twiley.” Shining tsked at her. “You never know when you might be ambushed! Now, what would you do if somepony pinned you down like this?”

“Maybe something like… this!” She suddenly grew still. The next moment, Shining’s hoof was enveloped in her magic and shifted aside, and then Twilight rolled away. As Shining prepared to pounce on her again, legs tensing up, Twilight spun so her rear hooves were up against the wall, then launched herself at him, colliding into him and making him collapse on top of her.

“Nice one, Twiley,” Shining said, grinning. “But now you’re in trouble!” Already on top of her, he simply gripped her with his legs, pinning her once more.

“Nuh-uh~” she said in a singsong tone, before teleporting right out from under him. Most other unicorns would have found it difficult to pull off such a feat - teleporting while in direct contact with another living being was always tricky. But Twilight could not only do so with ease, but also have it so that when she reappeared, she was on her hooves again, facing him and ready to pounce. But, as she leapt, Shining Armor was ready, forming a shield between the two. Thankfully for Twilight, the shield was elastic, cushioning the impact as she pressed into it… before the shield sprang back in the opposite direction, flinging her away as though she’d ran headlong into a spring.

Laughing at the sight, Shining spun to face her, ready to charge - only for Twilight to conjure a wooden chest around him, sealing him in. “Hey!” Shining pounded on the chest’s lid, but it didn’t budge. “Now that’s just playing dirty!”

Outside, Twilight giggles. “Hey, didn’t you say once that you had to do whatever it takes to win a fight?”

“Were we fighting?” Shining chuckled. “I thought it was just a friendly sparring match between sessions. He grinned, before trying his own hoof at teleporting. But when he re-appeared, he was still in the chest. “Huh,” he said, impressed. “I see you’ve already mastered teleportation wards!”

“Well, I do have the best teacher in Equestria for protection spells!” Twilight beamed, even though Shining couldn’t see her.

“Well, thanks. But, do you remember what I said about what happens when two identical shields overlap?”

“Well, if the second unicorn can-” she began, but even as she spoke several things happened in quick succession. First, Shining Armor produced his own shield, right in the space that Twilight had placed her own barrier. In that instant, the two shields merged, both unicorns channeling power to it. Before Twilight could react to it, Shining used his own power to alter the combined shield, taking away the teleportation ward… and one teleport later, Twilight was once more pinned beneath him, the conjured chest vanishing as Twilight ceased maintaining that spell.

Twilight took a deep breath, winded slightly from the larger stallion landing on top of her. “Okay, you got me there.” She smiled. “I really wasn’t expecting that.”

Shining grinned, taking a little pride in magically besting her for once. “The biggest weakness of barrier spells - other barrier spells. Of course, usually it’s pretty hard to do something like that - the spells need to be very similar for them to actually merge like that. If the barrier is being produced by an artifact or something, and you have time, you can fine-tune your own barrier, but it’s much harder when another unicorn is maintaining it and can fight back.”

“You managed to do that pretty quickly, though,” Twilight’s eyes widened a little. It was a bit unusual for him to play the role of lecturer, but Twilight seemed to be taking it in with her usual fascination for all things magic.

Shining chuckled. “Well, that’s because your barriers are basically copies of mine, so our spells are pretty similar to begin with.

Twilight giggled. “Sorry for plagiarizing your work, Shiny.”

Shining laughed again. “Don’t be, you’re really great at learning spells just by encountering them, it’s actually pretty impressive.”

“Aw, thanks.” She smiled warmly up at him. “I’m really glad you approve, Shiny.”

Shining smiled in return. “I’m just glad you think I’m the best at barrier spells.”

“You are.” She reached up with a hoof and poked his chest. “We’re both gifted at magic, you know. I may be trying to learn every spell in existence, but you’ll always be better at protecting things.”

“Well, I dunno about that… I think you could do anything if you really put your mind to it, Twily.” He smiled a little wistfully, running a hoof through her mane. “But honestly, I’m fine with not being the best, as long as I can protect the ponies I love.”

Twilight smiled in return. “Don’t worry, Shiny. I know you can.”

They both leaned in to nuzzle the other, brushing their cheeks together… and then, by sheer coincidence, they both turned their muzzles to each other at the same time, so that the gentle nuzzling suddenly turned into a deep kiss.

Both of them froze. A bit of inertia, however, meant that their lips were still pressed together. It wasn’t the best kiss ever… but it was definitely a kiss... That they were holding. Each expected the other to suddenly pull back… but neither did.

Shining, finally, was the first to pull back, just slightly - each letting out a breath they’d been holding, the warm air passing over each other’s lips and making the moment even more unexpectedly sensual.

And then the door opened. Shining reacted first, standing up straight as their parents returned home.

“We’re ho-” Night Light began, before noticing that one of his children was already in the room. His view of Twilight was blocked by the couch, for the moment. “Hey, Shining.”

“Hey, dad.” Shining stepped off Twilight, who rolled onto her hooves and stood up. “Welcome home,” she said, a little too breathlessly.

“All you all right?” Twilight Velvet chimed in, close behind her husband.

“Yeah, I, uh…”

Shining Armor put on a bashful smile. “We were, uh, play-fighting before you came in.” He pawed the ground with a hoof. “Little embarrassing to be caught playing like little foals.”

Velvet just laughed. “As long it didn’t turn into a food fight this time, I don’t mind.” She glanced around the living room. “Honestly, I can’t even tell. The house looks pretty clean this time.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Mom, not every sparring match ends with the living room being destroyed.”

Night Light grinned at him. “Might leave the house smelling of garlic, though.”

Twilight blushed. “That was a one-time thing! A Nightmare Night prank that got a little out-of-hoof!”

Her mom scowled at her, though her eyes still held a mischievous smile. “Yes, but it took me days to get the smell out, you know.”

Twilight sighed, smacking her hoof against her face. “I’m going to go back to studying.” She turned around, and started trotting back to the study.

Spike chose this moment to appear from the direction of Twilight’s bedroom. “What’s with all the noise?” he asked groggily - only for Twilight to grab him with her magic and carry him with her as she entered the study, shutting the door behind them.

Night Light chuckled. “Well, I’m glad you two had fun.”

“Yeah…” Shining Armor’s eyes fell on the paper that Twilight had dropped when he pounced on her. Obviously something she wanted to show him, but truthfully, he couldn’t understand much of it… but that didn’t stop him from trying. For her sake.