"How much longer, Twilight?" Spike asked, gazing through the passenger car window at the faraway Canterlot skyline.
"About twenty minutes, I think," the alicorn in question answered. Sensing the young dragon's distress, she placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Spike, we'll be at the station before you know it."
Spike gave Twilight a blank look. "I know that's just an expression," he deadpanned, "but I think I'd prefer to have a heads-up."
Twilight giggled. "Spike, take it from me of all ponies; there's no need to worry. Mom and Dad are going to love our gifts."
"I-I know, but... still." He wringed his clawed hands together.
It'd been a few weeks since the final round of the Sibling Supreme Competition that had raged between Twilight and her brother Shining Armor throughout a good chunk of their foalhoods. Ironically, when the dust settled, Spike emerged as the surprise victor, and in doing so finally cemented his place as Twilight and Shining's little brother.
However, though they may have not given it the attention it deserved at the time, there was another facet to this particular development. If Shining and Twilight were Spike’s siblings, that would also make Twilight Velvet and Night Light the young dragon’s parents.
And thus, there Twilight and Spike were, sitting in one of the passenger cars of a train en route to the mountainside city at the heart of Equestria. Velvet and Night Light had agreed to meet them at the train station once they arrived; now, it was simply a matter of waiting.
The two siblings continued to gaze out the window, idly watching as the train made its way over bridges, into tunnels, and out of tunnels, all the while climbing higher and higher up the mountain. Within the next few minutes, true to Twilight's words, the train entered the outskirts of the city, gigantic marble towers flying in and out of the view offered by the window. A few more minutes later, the train made its way into the Canterlot railway station and, amidst a cloud of steam and the sound of screeching brakes, slowed to a stop.
A member of the train crew entered the passenger car and make his way down the aisle.
"Attention all passengers," he said as he walked, "we have arrived at our destination. Please mind the gap as you step out of the train, and make sure you have all your personal belongings with you. We thank you for traveling with us, and we hope you have a fantastic day in Canterlot!"
On that cue, Twilight levitated her saddlebags out from underneath her seat and placed them on her back, making sure they didn't cover the spot where her wings met her body. Meanwhile, Spike reached under the seat and pulled out a small blue backpack. He slid the straps over his shoulders, then made some small adjustments as to ensure his own wings also remained unobstructed. With their belongings secured, the two siblings stood up and walked out of the passenger car.
And, of course, they made sure to "mind the gap."
"Mom and Dad should be inside the station." Twilight said.
She turned to face her little brother. While the terms had yet to enter frequent use, from time to time Twilight and Spike did in fact use the affectionate nicknames they'd given each other. Now, Twilight thought to herself, seemed like a good time to use one.
"Ready to meet our parents, LBBFF?" she asked.
The familiar acronym calming his nerves, Spike nodded. "Let's do this thing!"
"Oh!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed. "Spike, make sure you have that card at the ready!"
"R-Right! Good thinking, Twi!" Spike took his backpack off again, unzipped it, and pulled out a plain white card. Twilight made sure to zip the backpack shut again with her unicorn magic as Spike put it back on.
"Okay, now let's do this thing!" Spike said, smiling up at Twilight. The alicorn gave him a grin of her own in response.
A few more steps forward brought them to one of the many doors into the station building. A grey-coated earth pony stallion, whom Twilight and Spike recognized as having been in the same passenger car as them, held the door open for the two. Twilight gave him a nod of appreciation as she walked through the doorway, and Spike did the same as he followed behind her.
Inside the station building, it was business as usual. Rays of sunshine shone through the large glass windows, squares and semicircles of the floor appearing far brighter than the areas surrounding them. Many ponies could be seen sitting in the rows of seats lining the gray walls of the station, waiting for their train to arrive at the platform. Others sat at the various cafes and restaurants scattered around the building, enjoying late breakfasts, early lunches, and even on-time brunches.
Some of the ponies in the terminal gave looks of shock and/or recognition to the alicorn and dragon walking by, but for the most part they were willing to let the duo be; after all, the Princess of Friendship's public shyness was well-known, and they all had more important things to do, more important places to go, than to crowd around two otherwise random creatures who were just trying to go about whatever it was they were trying to go about.
Twilight and Spike looked around, scanning their fields of vision in search of their parents. When one is very close with somepony else, it becomes notably easier to spot their face in a crowd. Something in your brain will just "gravitate" you towards their face, almost like a magnet. With this in mind, it wasn't too surprising that Twilight and Spike were able to quickly locate the ponies they were looking for. There, sitting on a bench on the right side of the two's fields of vision, sat a blue-coated unicorn stallion with a darker-blue mane and a crescent moon for a cutie mark, as well as a light gray unicorn mare with a purple-and-white mane and three purple stars for her cutie mark. A closer look reaffirmed that two ponies were in fact Twilight's parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet.
They're my parents too, now, Spike re-reminded himself. Even after he'd come to realize that, calling them his parents still a little strange. Surreal, even. As much as he'd wished to have a specific role in Twilight's family, for the longest time he'd came to terms with the fact he wasn't going to have parents, or siblings, or anything of that sort. He was just, well, Spike—a member of the Light family, but one with an ambiguous role within it.
That, Spike supposed, was one of the most important things about this trip. With this, the final wall would be toppled. With this, he would finally know beyond even the faintest shadow of a doubt where exactly he belonged.
"Mom! Dad!" Twilight greeted, waving hello as she spoke.
Velvet and Night Light looked in the direction the familiar voice had come from. Reaffirming that it did in fact belong to their daughter, they gave her an affectionate smile. In turn recognizing that she'd gained her parents’ attention, Twilight walked the rest of the way up to them, Spike following suit.
Twilight proceeded to wrap both of her parents in a warm embrace. "It's so good to see you both again!"
"We could say the same about you two," Night Light said, stroking the back of his daughter's mane.
Velvet spoke next. "And speaking of which..." She turned to look at Spike.
Spike wilted. "...Hi there, Mr. and Mrs. Ve—I mean, um..."
He looked up at Velvet and Night Light, noticing their smiling faces. Did they almost seem... hopeful?
His confidence boosted by this small observation, Spike spoke once more.
"It’s nice to see you again, Mom and Dad."
Now, Velvet and Night Light had already been made aware of the change in Twilight and Spike's relationship by way of a dragonfire-sent letter. It didn't take being an expert in ancestry for them to figure out that this also meant that the young dragon was technically their son. This particular moment, right there and then inside of the train station, just so happened to be the first time they'd seen the dragon since he'd come to that realization.
Night Light broke the silence. ""H-Hey there, Spi-"
"Spike!" Velvet cried out, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh..."
As Velvet continued to repeat this three-words-long phrase, she enveloped the young dragon—her son—in the tightest, warmest embrace she could manage. She closed her eyes, taking in every other sensation she could get from the hug: the strangely comforting feel of his rough scales, the warmth exuding from the tiny fire flickering inside of him, the faint scent, almost like that of burning firewood, that came and went with the little boy's breaths. They were all things that she had felt before time and time again, but now she had a new perspective on them. She knew without a doubt that they belonged to her little dragon, her sweet baby boy, the precious child that had entered her and Night Light and Twilight and Shining's lives oh-so-many years ago—
"Mom, ponies are staring!" Twilight interrupted. "...For more reasons than the big one!" She unfurled one of her wings and pointed at it to demonstrate what "the big one" was.
Sheepishly smiling, Velvet ended the hug. "I'm so sorry, Spike, it's just..." She rubbed a happy tear out of her eye. "Oh, you two have no idea how long I've wanted to hear him call me that!"
Twilight tilted her head. "So then why didn't you just ask him to?"
"Me and your father felt we needed to leave that whole decision to this little guy and the wonderful young mare that hatched him. For all I knew, it'd turn out I was this little guy's grandma! Which, by the way, would've made me just as happy."
"To be fair, our voices are getting a bit grandparent-ey." Night Light remarked.
"Why, Nighty, are you calling me old?" Velvet asked, feigning offense.
"Honey, I'm calling both of us old."
Velvet responded by giving her husband a soft punch to his left shoulder.
Twilight rolled her eyes, though a smile remained on her face. "Yeah, it turns out Spike preferred Option B."
Velvet nodded. "Well, I'm perfectly happy either way. No reason to mope over the road not taken, is there?"
"Oh, I see you've been reading up on your Winter Frost," Twilight said, catching the sly reference to one of the writer's most famous poems.
"That I have!" Velvet enthusiastically replied.
"Um, excuse me?" Spike cut in.
Everypony else's eyes immediately turned back towards the little dragon.
"I-I got you guys a card," he continued. "For Mother's Day and Father's Day, I mean. I know they were a few months ago, but... I figured I might as well, y’know?"
He handed the white-colored card to Velvet, who promptly opened it up. Night Light walked to his wife's side and looked down at the card. Inside was a crude but heartfelt illustration of them, Twilight, Shining, and Spike all standing next to each other, with "I love you, Mom and Dad!" written in faux cursive at the top.
"Oh, I love it, Spike," Velvet said, holding a hoof over her heart.
"Same here," Night Light said, reaching over and affectionately rubbing the green scales atop Spike's head. Despite his best efforts, Spike couldn't help but giggle at the gesture.
"You might want to hold on to it for a bit longer, though," Velvet sighed. "Silly old me was so excited to see you two that I left my purse at home by mistake." She handed the card to Twilight, who promptly tucked it away in her bag for safekeeping.
"So, I imagine you’ve prepared something special for today, Twilight?" Night Light asked.
"Right you are, Dad!" Twilight chirped. "You know me so well."
"Wouldn’t be a good dad if I didn’t, now would I?"
"Fair enough. Anyway, as you may or may not have guessed, I have a whole scheduled prepared for how we're going to spend the rest of our day out!" Twilight exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear.
She levitated a rolled-up sheet of paper out of her left saddlebag and unrolled it. "First things first, seeing as breakfast—and arguably brunch—are just about over, I figured we should go get some lunch! There's this one place that Rarity and Pinkie recommended to me a while back. It’s called the..."
As Twilight continued to cover the day’s itinerary, Night Light walked over to Spike.
"I might not be as 'physical' about it as your mother," Night Light said to him, "but it's nice to see you, son."
Spike grinned up at him. "Same to you, Dad."
The two stood in place and continued listening to Twilight. As the young alicorn continued to list the things she’d planned for the day, Night Light instinctively wrapped a forehoof around his adoptive son. Spike looked up and, in turn, wrapped his own arm around his father's. While it wasn't as in-your-face of a gesture as Velvet's, it was just as meaningful.
"...and then I think we'll be pretty much done!" Twilight concluded, levitating the sheet of paper back into her bag. "What do you say we get going?"
Velvet, Night Light, and Spike all nodded.
"In that case," Twilight said, "I'll lead the way!"
And so, the three ponies and the dragon left to enjoy what would hopefully be the first of many days together as a family.
END.
Author's Note
This fic was originally envisioned as a 1K-words-long "Bonus Chapter" for Familial Words, partially as an apology for Gallus's delayed updates. However, it quickly grew far, far longer than I expected, to the point that I felt it deserved to be its own standalone story.
Again, special thanks to OmniFox for living up to his bio and giving me the basic idea for this story. And as for the rest of you, thanks for taking the time to read it!
Hoping you’ll come 'round my way again sometime soon,
-AP
