I did it, I had magic. I had magic and a lovely family. Twinkle seemed to adore hanging on my head, and I... didn't mind that at all. A warm, caring, weight was the good kind of weight. She even hung around when I did my typing.

It was a curious thing, since I could feel her sitting there patiently even as I worked out the words I owed. I supposed being a doll had given her plenty of patience, as she waited for me to be done.

I blinked my eyes open and she reacted instantly, nuzzling at my face. I laughed and nosed her back. I couldn't even fight that smile. "You like me?"

The question seemed to baffle Twinkle. "Yes. Of course."

"Why of course?" I reached up a hoof, rubbing her smaller snout. "You owe me nothing."

"I owe you everything," she countered with a roll of her eyes. "If you hadn't picked me, and took care of me, and picked me when Twilight was there, I wouldn't be having this life I'm having, and I like this life." She kissed me on the forehead. "So I do owe you."

I flushed, surprised at the intensity of devotion in one I still thought of as a novelty toy brought somehow to impossible life. But she felt so serious. How did one turn that down?

"I just did what felt right in the moment," I demurred. "Nothing so special in that."

She simply leaned firmer into me. "Kindness is plenty special, you goof." Her tone allowed no argument. "Let me care without all the self-doubts, okay?"

I shifted, emotions churning at such open display. I scarcely understood my own role in her awareness. But questions could wait with acceptance so unabashedly offered. I drew her slight form closer, silent thanks exchanged without need for clumsy words.

She asked nothing but my own happiness, caring incarnate cradling impossibly rekindled hopes close. I smiled finally through lingering hints of tears. However she came to be, her guiding innocence lit the way where sight alone failed to see frail new chances worth nurturing still.

"Stay," I whispered simply. And with laughter in her eyes, she did.

I put the keyboard down and slid it with a push of a hind hoof. "I have questions."

"I have answers." She giggled at that. "I heard you say that, before I moved. The beforetimes are fuzzy... but a part of me."

"I do like saying that." I touched noses with her. "So, how much of me do you know? Everything?"

"Not everything." She rolled her eyes. "Where you put me, I couldn't see what you saw. I couldn't see what you were reading, or typing... But you talk to yourself. You still do that." She rolled onto her back on my bed. "It's cute."

Cute wasn't the word I would have picked. But being mad at her felt hard. "Twinkle, I'm not entirely innocent."

Twinkle raised a brow. "I've heard you talking about that. You made games, naughty games. I never saw the game, but the way you talked about them, they were very very naughty." She waved a hoof up at me as if chastising. "Is that what you're working on?"

"No." I rubbed behind my head. "But I wanted to know if that bothered you, that side of things. As a doll, you didn't care."

"Still don't," she sang out, rolling upright. "I don't understand most of that, still getting used to being alive." She inclined her head. "I'd be willing to try it with you. I trust you."

Oh. Oh... I was just given permission to... She was too small. She wasn't built like a filly. She was built like a very small mare. But she talked like someone new to the world, and she was. She was new at life, and she just invited. No... No... I couldn't.

I could not. Some parts of me thought that hesitation was dumb... But no... "Thank you for trusting me."

Seeing her about to protest, I raised a forestalling hoof. "The care you give is a gift - one I'll treasure through all troubles. But real friendship brings insight as much as joy." I booped her nose playfully. "Let's focus discovery elsewhere, hm?"

She wrinkled her snout cutely from the boop but sighed understandingly. "Fiiine, no funny business for now. But you owe me cuddles later!" Suddenly she grinned impishly. "And I can still pick your brain on past naughty game design whenever. For academic curiosity!"

I flushed, largely internally, at the threat, spurring her laughter anew. Still, residual tension eased as we settled back into our casual banter. However tempting, I wouldn't trade that easy rapport we'd found by overcomplicating her proffered affection. She extended unconditional trust; the least I could do was honor that grace by meeting it with protective compassion. However playfully she now teased my lingering awkwardness, patience and harmony held sway. Our connection ran truer than any fleeting impulse ever could.

"You scamp will be the death of me, you know that?" I mock-grumbled, tousling her mane. But inside warmth bloomed realizing I could enjoy sincerely nurturing something innocent again without reservations. That rediscovered paternal contentment meant more than any lingering what-ifs.

"You know, I had a niece."

She perked. "Ja... Jas, Jazmine! I remember her." She rubbed at her head, teasing out the information from the depths of the before times. "She was pretty, and small, like me. Where did she go? She's been gone a long time, before we came here."

"She grew up." I gently pet along Twinkle's side. "She went to college, more school. When we left, she was just finishing that. She's... I raised a great person right there. I have all the hope in the world for how she's going to do."

"Aw!" Twinkle suddenly jumped at me, hugging around my neck. "I knew I picked the right pony. You'll take care of me."

"I do call myself a trained uncle..."

"Uncle it is." She slid down onto the bed. "Uncle David, I like the sound of that."

Warmth swelled in my chest as Twinkle happily adopted the familial title, nuzzling in contentedly as my hoof resumed gentle strokes along her back. Somehow this small creature's unabashed delight over something as simple as an affectionate nickname both amazed and filled me with bittersweet echoes of a beloved past role.

"You know, Jazmine called me Uncle David too when she was just a tiny tot like you," I mused softly.

Twinkle glanced up, eyes alight with curiosity. "What was she like back then? Did you teach her lots of stuff and take care of her?" She paused, expression turning solemn. "Do...do you miss them, your human family?"

I stared into the middle distance, immersed in memories as a smile ghosted my muzzle. "Miss them? Every second. But, I got to help raise that extraordinary little girl for years with the help of my mom..." I wiped suddenly misty eyes, voice thickening. "We shared so much joy and laughter together through good times and bad."

Twinkle snuggled closer under my chin as emotions crested. "You'll have that again with her someday, I just know it," she declared fiercely. "And until then, you'll have me to fill some of the smiling and hugging!"

As she squeezed tighter still, I found myself returning the embrace just as firmly, skull pressed to hers overwhelmed with gratitude.

"Thank you, Twinkle..." I whispered finally. And as sleep's first tugs came to claim us there still entwined, I knew more fiery truth lived in one small faithful heart than a hundred hollow platitudes.

Though I doubted I'd see Jazmine again. She was a world away. Such were the flows of life. I surrendered to sleep with a loving creature in my arms, knowing I had slammed shut the door on one option, but opened wide another. A new niece? I... was alright with that.

I woke up the next day. "Do I have class?" I asked myself as I reached for the keyboard and my written schedule. "Let's check."

"Let's check," repeated Twinkle, awake and watching me. "Keeping it on a schedule is a good idea. Something tells me I'd agree with that... I should get a schedule."

I chuckled softly, scrubbing sleep from my eyes as I booted up the keyboard schedule interface. "Well aren't you just little miss maturity this morning?" I teased. "What's next, tax paperwork?"

Twinkle blew a raspberry even as she scampered over to watch me login, hoofs pressing into their spots on the keyboard. "Bleh, boring adult stuff! I just wanna help my favoritest uncle get to magic class on time." She nudged the keyboard eagerly with a hoof. "C'moooon, queue up our epic school adventures for today!"

Her infectious enthusiasm ignited my own growing excitement to see what magical mysteries the day held. "Alright alright, let's take a look here..." I began navigating to my class calendar before pausing. "Actually, do me a favor and go make sure Twilight's up too? Might need her academic expertise navigating campus without getting lost on Day 2."

Twinkle zipped out the door with a brisk salute. "You got it Uncle D! Be back in a jiffy! Maybe even with pancakes if Spike is mixing batter..." Her voice trailed off already distracted by kitchen possibilities. I just chuckled and shook my head continuing mission class confirmation, Twinkle's joie de vivre making for the best sort of bright beginning.

A quick schedule review confirmed Ancient Languages first thing followed by a Magical Creatures Biology lab. My grin widened imagining putting esoteric book learnin' into some hand-on practice at last. That just sounded fun.

Not a bad notion waking up reborn as an equine in a land literally flowing with magic where intrinsic talent suddenly stewed. What would reveal more magic spells in that book? Practice? Probably practice, but just practice?

I snapped the interface off, drawing my hooves free as voices approached down the hall - no sense getting distracted from the here and now when strange roads already beckoned just outside the door!

I grabbed my saddlebag and took a moment to check which books I needed to have in it. "I ruined my back once as a human. I won't as a pony." Books I didn't need, I left behind, leaving me with saddlebags only mildly burdened as I trotted out of my room.

There was Twinkle, chatting animatedly with Spike. Spike seemed to be eating something that glittered. In front of him was a big plate of steaming veggies. I hurried towards the table. "Morning, Spike."

"There he is." Twinkle pointed at me. "I was just telling Spike that I had an uncle now."

Spike inclined his considerable head. "Yeah, Uncle D, is it?" He chuckled at the very idea of it. "Are you my uncle too?"

I served myself some of those veggies with clumsy hooves. "If you want, but I don't think you do. Awkard, maybe, but how old are you? Adult?"

Spike huffed, a little smoke escaping him. "Right, new to this world. You can't tell looking at me." Spike put a hand on his chest. "Twilight summoned me as a familiar years and years ago. I'm as grown as I ever will be, unless she puts more magic into it, which she might. So I'm as adult as I'm going to be."

"Still..." He munched on the glittering stuff, crunching loudly as if it were gravel. "I never had an uncle before... Pity you aren't a dragon."

Even larger, Spike was Spike. He was still exploring himself, even if he was an unaging magical construct. There was a comfort, knowing that. "If you want one, you know where to find one. You deserve one if you want."

"Aw, thanks." But he was looking at Twinkle. "You were right. He really is into that."

"I told you." Twinkle burst into little giggles as she landed beside me and started stealing bits for herself with her magic. "Trained uncle, right here."

Author's Note

Awkward question perhaps, but would you have turned Twinkle down on her proposition?

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