When Cadence pulled into the driveway of his parents house, Shining was only marginally surprised to see his father kneeling at the very top end of the driveway next to the side door that went into the laundry room. He shared a glance with his fiancée, and got out of the car quickly. “Dad?” he called. “What are you doing?”

Night turned towards him, a rag in one hand. “Your mother is…I suspect she is going to be stress cooking this week, and since I am not certain of the size of Sunset’s freezer, I thought I’d clean up the one we got you for college and offer it to her.” He patted the minifridge sized chest freezer, before pushing himself to his feet with a groan. “…oof…I think I’m getting a little too old to be kneeling on gravel.”

“You're not that old, Dad,” Shining countered. “It's just been a very stressful and trying day. I’ll put this in my trunk—we’ll drop it and food over at Sunset’s place once Mom gets through with meal prepping for a small army.”

Cady, who had been pensive the entire drive back, gave a small smile and looped her arm through his father’s. “C'mon, Dad. Let's go see if we can pull Mom away from baking for a family meeting while Twilight is still holed up in her room, acting like a hormonal fifteen year old.” Her glance back at Shining told him she was just as concerned about his parents as he was—they were extremely upset by the current situation, and neither one needed the added stress on top of what they already had because of what had been going on with Twilight and Crystal Prep.

He could hear her talking quietly with his dad as she led him back into the house, and he squatted down to deal with the freezer. It wasn't overly heavy, especially empty, but his father could have waited to get his help with it. Huffing and puffing a bit while balancing it against his torso, Shining Armor hefted it over to his car and popped the trunk. The freezer fit—if barely—and he wedged it to one side before shutting the trunk and taking a minute to lean against the car and think. His eyes traveled up to his sister’s bedroom window, and he frowned as he realized it was already dark. It was barely eight…but she had looked…rather frazzled, when they’d showed up at the school. Had she been losing sleep? Or was the emotional weight of everything just more than she could handle, and sleep was a way to reset herself so she could deal with the rest? Could she just be hiding in the dark, thinking herself into circles?

There was no way to know for certain what the answer was, but it bothered Shining. Her whole attitude that evening had been wrong…it hadn't felt like anger. Shining had seen his sister overwhelmed and angry before…but he’d also seen her in a dozen other different types of meltdowns, each caused by a different prevailing set of emotions. Something niggled at him, a subconscious awareness from being an older brother for so long, that told him there was more here than they had assumed…especially with how secretive and paranoid she’d been acting at the school.

“What is going on with you, Twily?” the detective asked the air. “What did you learn about Sunset that freaked you out so badly?”

Unfortunately, the darkened window was as silent as the stars above that his sister loved so much.

Sighing, he rubbed his neck, taking a minute longer to just stare up at the heavens, before heading for the house. Family meetings could last a while, and he had plans to meet up with Dev in the morning to go over one of their recent cases. Better to go get this started so he could hopefully get some sleep tonight.

He entered the house to find the rest of the family—minus their two teen members—in the living room. His mother passed him a plate of the meal that she had cooked, and he took it with thanks, noting to himself that she was even more agitated as his father was…which made sense. She had pretty much adopted Sunset into her heart completely, the girl’s romantic status with his little sister irrelevant to the quarter ton of mama grizzly packed into Twilight Velvet’s five foot two frame.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Took me a minute to get the mini freezer to settle right into the trunk. It's heavier than I remember.”

His father waved him to a seat on the couch next to Cady, and he sank into it, balancing his plate. “We just sat down ourselves, son.”

For a few minutes, nothing was said as they ate—though from what Shining could tell, none of them had much appetite and were mostly stalling for time and going through the motions. Giving up after fifteen minutes, he set his plate on the coffee table. It was a testament to the atmosphere that Spike barely glanced at the human food tantalizingly within reach of him, before letting out a doggy sigh and staring at the door and the stairs intently. “…Twily’s light is out. Usually means she’s gone to bed…so we can get this meeting started any time.” Silence. “Fine. I’ll go first. Tonight was a disaster, and I think it was on more than Twilight. Dad and I royally fucked up too.”

Cady tucked her hand into his, leaning against him. “Why do you say that, Shining? What did you do?”

“I didn't pay enough attention at the school, and looking back, I think we misread something. Dad…how would you describe the way Twily was acting at the school?”

Night furrowed his brows and thought the question through for a minute. “At the time, it felt to me like she was fixated. Engrossed so utterly into her work that she was shutting out both the world and good sense. She didn't want to stop what she was doing, and got aggressive when we tried to intervene. She almost took your head off for reaching for her laptop, son.”

“Yeah, and I kind of thought the same thing when we were there…but looking back…there’s some things that don't add up.” Shining rubbed his neck. “She had the door locked and blocked—she shoved those cheap door stops into the backside of the door, and she didn't verbalize an answer when we knocked. I had to resort to message code from when she was on that cipher kick in third grade...and she demanded a secret passcode verification. I thought maybe Cinch or other students had been barging in on her, but…now I’m not sure. Plus…I think she brought everything home—that plastic container she refused to relinquish? That's her sample transport for things like vials of liquids or other breakables…and I looked at some of that stack of papers. Those looked like project notes.”

“You…think she was emptying the lab of evidence.”

He nodded. “I also can't prove it, but…I got a bit of a look at the screen for a few seconds. She had a camera feed of the lab up. I thought it was for observing her work…but…what if it wasn't? What if she was up to something else?” Shining tapped his fingers on the back of Cady’s hand in a bit of an absentminded habit. “I don't think she was angry…or at least, I’m thinking that her being angry was a side effect of being freaked out about whatever she learned this week about either her project or the principal. Maybe both.”

They all considered that, but his mother raised a point. “That doesn't explain the things she was saying to Sunset. How is Sunset involved in her project?” She glanced at Night. “I thought you said her ‘anomaly’ was likely distorted space weather affecting her instruments oddly. Something about ‘solar max?’”

“I was under that impression from the way she described it and checking in with White at the observatory's team. There were several CMEs over the the last nine months that did muck with their instruments and trigger extended auroras over lower latitudes.” He frowned. “I didn't see a reason to be concerned at the time.

Cady looked between them, then spoke up. “I talked to Sunset in the car,” she said. “…and…I think somehow…this energy Ladybug is tracking is related to what Sunset wanted to tell us about her past.” She waved a hand in a loose gesture. “She let some things slip in the car—her guardian was royalty…and whatever she wants to tell us…it's some kind of state secret that she has to explain…that a princess from that country cleared her entire weekend schedule to help with. …I know royals are on this whole other level than normal people, but…her whole weekend? It can't just be for Sunset saying ‘I was raised by Queen So-and-So,’ in ‘Insert Obscure European Principality Here.’ That's not ‘state-secret’ level news.”

His eyebrows climbed upwards. “…not normally, as far as I know. A princess?”

“Sunset was pretty consistent with that bit—she mentioned the same princess before you went to get Twilight,” Cadence reminded him.

The gears were turning in Shining’s head now. “So we have Sunset whose past involves some high level diplomatic clearances, and Twily who was freaked out by something she learned that seems to connect Sunset’s history to this energy anomaly that she's been studying. Any ideas what it could be, Dad? That kind of thing is your field. Sort of.”

Taking off his glasses to clean them, Night sighed. “Not off the top of my head—I deal mostly with stars and various subatomic particles and emissions coming from deep space. The only thing I can think of is that it's either a fairly isolated discovery that is relatively unknown…or it is known but it's highly classified. Like the Manhattan Project during World War II levels of classified. Area 51 in Independence Day classified. I’m a little hesitant to put out feelers to find out if it is that, because I’d rather not have men in black suits and mirror shades come knocking.”

Velvet looked perturbed. “But what would any of that have to do with Sunset? She’s a teenager, and she's been here a number of years, so she would have been a child. What would a child have in common with some kind of top secret research or energy anomaly?”

No one had an answer for that for several minutes. Then Cadence leaned forward. “Okay…this is just…rampant speculation based on what we already know on Sunset…but…” She toyed with her ponytail. “She's pretty smart, and incredible at math and engineering…and we know she was orphaned by an accident, and somehow a royal from this country ended up taking guardianship of her, right? Well…maybe this is a little too spy thriller…but what of they were part of some kind of government sanctioned research? And…the accident…was some kind of lab accident? Or somehow related to their work? And taking her in was a way to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't blab?”

“Except she ran away from an environment that lacked love and understanding,” his mother remarked.

Shining considered what Cady suggested. “It would explain the level of redacted information in her files. She runs away, from people who only took her in for ulterior reasons, and ends up on the other end of some serious red tape. Maybe hush money now that she’s old enough to understand the concept of a bribe or settlement? That's how she affords rent without a job, and ended up emancipated—international lines, diplomatic negotiations, and who knows…maybe our government is involved too?”

“And everything would have been…quiet for her, until Twily stumbled into the same thing and started researching. Suddenly Sunset is confronted with something that she worked hard to get away from…if it…was involved with her parents’ deaths and fostering by some princess or queen. I…got the sense that this princess is not the royal that raised her—but she mentioned there were four total in this ‘Equestria’ place. She also said they did not start on the best terms but she’s formed a long distance friendship with her.” The pink-skinned woman sat back. “Again, I could be way off, but it's the only idea I could come up with that didn't sound like it was one of Shiny’s comic books.”

Night scratched at his chin. “No, you might be onto something. It would explain why telling us about those missing six or eight years needed someone’s permission…It would even explain Abacus’ reaction—if she has figured out what Twilight has discovered is something unique enough that a government might consider it classified, then…” His expression darkened. “That worries me.”

“If that’s true,” Velvet said, sounding pained, “then…what are the odds Sunset made contact with this princess…entirely for Twilight’s sake? Only to have Twilight throw everything back at her like that…”

Heavy weight settled over the room, and Night sighed. “I know better than to bet against you, evening star,” he said to Velvet. “But…whatever Sunset’s history is or why it is a secret is really secondary to Twilight’s behavior tonight. What she did was not acceptable, and she needs to understand that. Not just assuming Sunset spilled the beans, but the way she went after her tonight, about her secrets.”

“At the same time, are any of us really surprised that Twilight had a meltdown?” Cadence asked with a slight frown. “Let’s be honest—all of us have been expecting it for months now, even before the vandalism. She’s been under a ridiculous amount of pressure from both sides unfairly. Cinch is pressuring her to perform, and we’ve put her in a situation where she can't escape that school until she finishes her project and gets a grade…or she risks having a devastating blow dealt to her GPA.”

Shining grunted. “It's really just surprising it hadn't happened sooner. You've gotta give Twily credit—she’s done really well, given everything.”

His fiancee leaned against him. “Exactly. She’s handling a bad situation admirably, but we can't expect anyone her age to handle it perfectly forever, or be overly surprised when the inevitable happens and she just can't cope anymore.”

Night Light cleared his throat. “That is fair, but I would argue that today was unnecessarily harsh, and aimed squarely at the one person in the family who was least prepared or able to deal with the emotional rollercoaster that is one of Twilight’s aggressive meltdowns.”

“I think that’s what I’m most unhappy about,” Velvet commented tiredly. “She targeted Sunset, and while Sunset has done exceptionally well with her anxiety heavy episodes, her anger and frustration is something Sunset has only been on the fringes of, and from what I’ve witnessed, she does not do well with anger directed at her from someone she has let get close.”

Nodding, Night responded, “And that is something that needs to be addressed, regardless of what motivated her meltdown. It doesn't matter what her own personal difficulties are, it's never an excuse to be deliberately cruel. Twilight knows that, and she ignored that today. I am leaning towards…”

Shining Armor, Detective of the CCPD, leaned back into the couch cushions and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling, listening with half an ear as his parents debated his sister’s punishment and how they planned to address her actions. He knew that was important, that Twily had crossed lines with what she had done, but he couldn't shake the feeling about there being more to the situation than what they had seen and pieced together. It wasn’t something he could logically explain; instead, it came from that same intuitive part of his brain that prodded him in his cases, whenever he looked at evidence and felt like he was missing something important. The same part that prompted him to sometimes ask seemingly out there questions in interviews with witnesses and suspects.

He was missing something big. Something about Sunset, about Twily’s research, about this energy that seemed like the key and the catalyst. Shining decided that it was time to do a little digging—or at least run it all by Devil’s Advocate. She had a sixth sense even more than he did, and she could tell him if he was on the right track.

That same something told him he wasn't, and that he needed to investigate.

So he would.

Author's Note

Hey gang!

Sorry about the delay in posting, but last week was a rough one. We're doing somewhat better now, and glad to be back on track!

In case you missed it, I put up a blog post the other day with some news, and a link or three to some shiny art! I'll summarize the news here, but I recommend going to check out the actual post: Shiny Blog With Art and News!

Long and short, got some art done by the same ladies who did the cover for the story, working on the story more, planning out the stuff that will come once Volume 1 of Rubicon is done, and there's some other shiny things in the works!

Anywho.

Here we have the family meeting a couple of you predicted, and a little look into what the family Detective is thinking. Hmmm...I'm sure that wont come to anything at all....

Lol.

Yes, I know Cadence speculating is off the mark, but she's likely to try and come up with answers, and its human nature to try and solve a puzzle. We like figuring shit out.

Besides, it works to show that the family is paying attention.

*chuckles*

Anyway. I've got about half a dozen things to go work on, including a chapter that kicks off the climax of the arc! See you in the comments, kids!