Luna had told them her tale, answering every question Twilight had (and stars, were there a LOT of them). It had been… hard to accept, for some reason. She’d had a father, and he was gone. He’d been dead for over a thousand years, and that made sense. That eternally logical part of her had made it clear that old age or cancer or plague would do away with any pony that wasn’t an alicorn, no matter how gifted or magical they were.

It still hurt.

But she felt… stable. A little bit more stable? Like she could better map out her future now that her past was clear. Just one step at a time. One step at a time, and she could stay on top of everything.

So here she was, striding down another hall in the castle after making excuses towards all the rest of her friends about dealing with something private and princessy. It was technically the truth, no matter how much Applejack glared at her like she wasn’t telling it. Her mo— Luna had proposed something simple to ease her into her new life as a princess: Dinner with Celestia. Twilight could do that. She could absolutely do that. Right? She looked over at Pinkie Pie. She hadn’t left Twilight’s side the entire time. Pinkie looked over, and gave her a wave.

She could do this. She could… talk to Celestia. Try and make sense of where her future was going, and what her past really was.

Opening the doors to the dining room, Twilight stepped through, and paused. Sure enough, Celestia sat at the table, giving her student (and niece, can’t forget that part now, can you, Twilight?) an awkward smile. On the side next to her sat two more ponies, a unicorn mare and stallion.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Her… parents.

She couldn’t do this. Sweet Cel— Sweet Lun— Shit, she couldn't do this. This was not one step at a time, this was a whole running leap off into the deep end and—

She felt a warm hoof on her shoulder, looking over to see Pinkie Pie giving her a concerned look.

“It’s gonna be a nice dinner, Twily,” Pinkie reassured her.

She could give it a shot, at least.

“Good soup,” Night Light said quietly. “Not sure we’ve ever had soup this good, have we, honey?”

“It’s a tomato bisque, Warm Milk’s speciality for ‘family occasions’ as one might call this,” smiled Celestia.

“He’s got that right at least,” laughed the stallion. “Grilled cheese and tomato soup night used to be Twilight's favorite thing when she was a filly. She’d get grumpy because she couldn’t eat and read at the same time, not without risking getting the pages of the book greasy.”

“A grilled cheese…” Luna gave them a confused look. “Surely it would simply melt through the metal grill if one were to attempt something like this?”

“It’s a sandwich, princess,” Velvet clarified. “You put it between two buttered slices of bread. Trust me, it’s a real go-getter with kids.”

“I see,” Luna sat back in quiet contemplation.

Celestia chuckled. “We didn’t have sliced bread when Twilight was a newborn, or even normal baby food. Luna used to use this spell she had developed to atomize Timberwolves on a plate of fresh carrots. It was more or less the same.”

“Thank the stars for the invention of canning then, eh?” Velvet raised a glass.

“We’re just as lucky she woke up in this era,” Celestia took her own glass in her magic, clinking it against Velvet’s before both downed the liquid inside it. “I’m going to guess baby formula was a lifesaver?”

“You don’t know the half of it, Your Highness.”

And so it went, two groups of older ponies swapping embarrassing moments from Twilight’s life like they were veterans trading war stories. Twilight tried to keep herself calm. It was going okay, wasn’t it? This is what family did.

But something nagged at the back of Twilight’s mind. Celestia and her parents smiling at her, talking casually among themselves like old friends, while Luna seemed to sit apart from the conversation, looking as awkward as Twilight did right now.

That was it. That was it right there. Luna had come clean, Luna had a reason why she wasn’t around for Twilight’s entire life. Hard to be a mother when you’re trapped on the moon after all. Probably not a good place to raise kids. Not a lot of good schools.

So… where was Celestia’s excuse?

What was her parent’s excuse? Maybe this should have been something to bring up to her when she had first left Canterlot. Or when she first entered Celestia’s school.

Celestia’s school. Internally, Twilight groaned again. The school her aunt had run. The school where they told her she was one of the youngest applicants to ever be accepted. The school where Celestia had made her, without hesitation, her personal student.

How much of her life wasn’t a coincidence?

How much of her life wasn’t earned?

How much of her life was set up?

“How many ponies knew?” Twilight said quietly, interrupting the conversation between Velvet and Celestia. Both paused to look at her.

“What was that, Twilight?”

“How many ponies knew that you gave me up? That I was your niece all along?”

Celestia’s face went white— Er, whiter. Velvet reached out for Twilight.

“Sweetheart, it wasn’t like that—”

Twilight pushed her hoof away. Velvet recoiled back the slap, eyes suddenly wet.

“Did Shining Armor know?” Twilight snorted. “Of course he had to, he was ten years old. Did Cadance know? Who else knew?”

“Honey, we didn’t mean anything like that. We didn’t want you to think that… You were wanted, Twilight. We wanted you.”

“Except I’m not wanted enough for anypony to tell the truth though, right? I bet you’re all just freaking out, aren’t you? If things had gone well you’d just have stayed quiet about this forever. ‘Don’t let Twilight know she’s adopted, she can’t handle that.’ What were you even afraid of? Huh? Thought it’d just be easier for yourselves overall?”

Night Light slammed the table with hooves. “Twilight, don’t talk to your mother that way—”

“You’re not my parents!”

“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia reared up. “That's quite enough! I understand that this is a difficult adjustment in your life, but that’s no reason to act like this to—”

“And you!” Twilight rounded on Celestia. “I don’t even know what you are in all this mess. Guess the guilt finally caught up with you, huh?”

“You do not take that tone with me. Princess or not,” Celestia returned the smaller alicorn’s glare. “This is not the kind of attitude I expected from you. Why don’t we all just calm down and—”

“Or what? Are you going to punish me? Going to throw me onto the moon for a thousand years, or just give me away again?”

Twilight felt a pang of guilt as Celestia’s mouth opened in shock, her white face going bright red. She quickly beat that pang down with a whole crowbar of justified anger. What did that giant white tart think was going to happen?

Twilight huffed, already too far gone to care. “That’s what I thought. I shouldn’t be surprised you’d say nothing. That’s what you’ve done all along, isn’t it, Princess?”

“Twilight, enough!” shouted Luna.

Twilight turned towards the other alicorn, fire in her eyes. She opened her mouth.

Then stopped. The fire died, and Twilight pushed her chair out. It was a lot easier to do with wings.

“This whole thing was a mistake,” she grumbled, standing up and trotting out the door, hooffalls heavy as she strode out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her, caring little for how many Princess Rules she had just flagrantly violated.

Awkward silence filled the room in Twilight’s absence. Velvet started to sniffle a bit, while Celestia put her head in her hooves. Several moments passed in silence, until Luna herself stood up, wings looking ready to flare.

“Wait.”

The rest of the dinner party turned towards Pinkie, who had been quiet the entire time. Now she had a look of determination on her face as she waved Luna down.

“I’ve got this, Lulu,” she declared.

“Are you—”

Pinkie sprang up from her chair, a gleam in her eyes. “Trust me. The ORSHS is on the case.”

“The what?” Twilight Velvet just looked at her confused as the pink pony galloped out the door after her daughter.

“It’s a long story,” Luna sighed. “I fear recounting the experiences with my own Fool has made Pinkie assume she could take a similar position in Twilight’s life.”

“I’m sorry princess,” Velvet sniffed. “Your… your fool?”

“Twilight’s… Twilight’s father. He was a clown. Professionally.”

“Oh,” Velvet sat, then looked up. “Wait, are Pinkie and Twilight…”

“They are… close.” Luna looked over to Celestia, who returned the stare with a raised eyebrow.

“But… Can she help?” Even Night Light was worried now. “It’s killing me to see Twilight this upset.”

Luna shrugged. “One can only hope that she’s the Fool Twilight needs..”

Twilight’s head was spinning. She can’t believe what she had just done. She had yelled at her pa— At her fam— At Twilight Velvet. At Night Light. At Celestia.

She felt good at first. Now she just felt awful. Sick, like she had felt for the past few days.

“Twily!”

Twilight took a deep breath, looking back as her friend trotted up to her.

“Pinkie, I’m not going back there.”

“But it’s your family, Twilight!”

Twilight huffed, turning back and continuing to walk away. Pinkie chased after her, her previous confident expression now one of worry.

“Twilight, please talk to me. I’m here, you asked me to be here! You can tell me anything, you know that.”

“Do I? Can I? You don’t know what this is like!”

“Yes I do! I’ve lived with the Cakes for years but I still write to my parents and see them all the time! You can have a big family, Twilight, this can all work. You don’t have to choose!”

“That’s not what I’m upset about!”

“Then what? Please Twilight, I don’t… I don’t understand. You’re surrounded by ponies who love you—”

“No, I’m not!”

Pinkie sat there stunned, Twilight just took her silence as permission to continue.

“My entire life is a lie! I didn’t earn my spot as Celestia’s student, I didn’t earn my ascension, and maybe I could live with that, maybe I could stand the fact that I’m Equestria’s biggest victim of nepotism if it didn’t also mean that every pony that claimed to care about me has been lying to my face!”

She fixed Pinkie with a hard stare. “What am I supposed to do when every single relationship I have isn’t real?”

Pinkie just returned the stare, her eyes beginning to well up with tears as Twilight’s words sank in.

“Do… Do you think our friendship is a lie?” she asked quietly. Her hair began to sag. Twilight broke the stare, turning away and saying nothing.

“You don’t mean that,” Pinkie whimpered. “I know you, Twily. I know you’ve got enough love in your heart to love all your family. To… to love…”

Pinkie went in for a hug, but Twilight pushed her away, turning away from the fluffy pink precipice of affection.

“I… don’t think there needs to be an Official Royal Support Hug Specialist right now.”

“Twilight…” Pinkie’s hair lost all of its poof.

“I want to be alone, Pinkie,” she whispered.

And there went all her color.

“I… I understand,” drooping and morose, Pinkie Pie shuffled out. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I didn’t mean to—”

Twilight snorted, turning away from her, trying to fight the tears in her own eyes.

She needed to go find a book.

Author's Note

Thanks to TrolleyTrainer for the proofread.