"It's settled, then," said Shining Armor. The unicorn levitated two trays over, one with two glasses and a bottle of wine, the other filled with assorted cheese and crackers. "We'll have Big Mac over tomorrow night." A fire burned low in the hearth this evening, offering ample warmth to fight back the cold summer night, and keep the ponies who lounged on the couch before it comfortable.

Twilight's stomach lurched at the idea even though it had been hers. Big Mac was the stallion she felt most comfortable with besides her brother, so it was best to start with him. They'd do nothing but spend the evening in the garden with Shining Armor close by, but Twilight couldn't help but feel uneasy. Twilight could only nod.

"Are you sure you're comfortable with it?" asked Shining Armor. "I won't push it if you don't want to." Twilight gave him a level look. She had just told him to dote less and there he was, doting. He had to get his head around the idea that Twilight was ready to face her problems, not run away.

"In a way I'm not supposed to be comfortable with it," said Twilight. "That's the point, but I appreciate your concern." So long as he didn't push too much. Now that she was in control of her recovery, Shining Armor didn't seem too overbearing with his desire to help her out. At least not when he'd actually listen to her when she said no. After their nap they had talked throughout the afternoon and evening about what Twilight wanted to do in order to ease herself around stallions. Shining Armor's method of bringing over another stallion was unfortunately the best option. Nothing else would really have any affect, and really, Twilight was worried Big Mac wouldn't have any anyway. Applejack's brother was so unlike other males that Twilight wasn't sure he could help her feel comfortable around other ones. He was just so quiet, so out of the way that she sometimes forgot he was there at the picnic the day before.

Twilight levitated a butter cracker with cheese on top as Shining Armor set the trays down and poured them each a glass of wine. He climbed on to the couch and snuggled up against his sister and took a sip of the vintage. A young pinot noir, it was good, and went well with the firm cheese and flavored crackers.

The two siblings sat together, sharing their warmth and snack in silence. The day had been mentally exhausting and despite the nap from earlier they could both fall asleep at any moment. They finished the tray of cheeses and crackers with ease, both a little hungry for more, but let the wine fill the gap.

"Twilley... about what I said earlier."

Twilight reached a hoof up to stop her brother. "You don't have to apologize again."

Shining Armor pushed her hoof away. "No, I do. When I said I came here more to help you than to spend time with you I hurt you. I just wanted to say that the time we've spent together has been incredible, and I'm glad that we're together. I love you." He reached forward and nuzzled Twilight's nose as she giggled.

"I love you, as well, BBBFF." Twilight returned the nuzzle and laid her head against her brother's while she watched the hearth flames flicker. Twilight let herself get lost in thought while she watched them dance, as ponies are wont to do. Today was the most important step in her recovery, the day she decided on a serious course that would help her day by day with no room to step aside. She was in charge now, leading her own recovery and it made her feel empowered, confident that she could succeed. Shining Armor would be there to make sure she went through with it, both by his closeness and distance. She had come to understand him a little more, about how he loved her two different ways.

Unbeknownst to Twilight, Shining Armor had also gotten lost in thought while he watched the moon reflecting over the lake outside. It was a clear, quiet night and the moon shone beautifully on the water's surface. Something about his thoughts irked him as he listened to the crack and pop of the fire. Confused by his conflicting emotions he felt he was missing something obvious. Something that he had forgotten.

When the two ponies' eyes started to droop, they cleaned up dinner and prepared for bed, but Twilight spied the tomes sitting beside the couch and her eyes no longer felt so heavy. "Actually," she said. "I think I might stay up and read for a bit. There was an interesting spell about growing plants that I wanted to read."

"That's fine," said Shining Armor. "I was going to call Cadance about our little development in the morning but I’ll do it now instead." Knowing that Twilight might read until morning the siblings shared their good night kiss and went their ways.

Shining Armor entered the bedroom and closed the doors with his telekinetic magic. He left the candles unlit to get himself used the dark in preparation for bed then made his way to the hutch by the light of the moon. His horn lit up with the glow of magic and an oval of blue light appeared in the mirror before him. In a moment it rippled before focusing into an image of Cadance sitting before her own hutch. She was fixing her luscious, tri-colored mane before bed.

"Hey hun," she said, leaning into to rub noses with Shining Armor. "I didn't expect you to call until tomorrow. Did something happen?"

"Dear Princess Cadance," said Shining Armor, smiling. He started with a slightly facetious tone, but turned more serious as he went on. "Today I learned the importance of being honest and putting my thoughts out in the open. I can't help Twilight recover without her help, and she's responding better than ever. I was foolish to think she'd be scared away, she's brave, and nopony wants her to recover more than she does."

Cadance giggled. "I think you've been hanging around Twilight too much, dear. However, I'm glad to hear you learned something so important. What does Twilight think you should do next?

"We're inviting Big Mac over tomorrow evening to help work the garden. I'm going to stay by in case she needs me, but otherwise she's just doing to try and settle her stomach around another stallion."

"That sounds nice," said Cadance. She started working her hair again, rolling her mane. She looked almost like she did on their wedding day. Her neck was long and slender, and best appreciated when her hair was out of the way. "I'll be there around lunch."

"Sounds goo- Wait what?"

"I said I'll be there around lunch."

"I know what you said!"

"Then why did you ask?"

"You know what I meant!"

"I want to help Twilight too, you know. In fact all of her friends would, but we'll get to that some other time. I'm going to be there around lunch."

"How? You're too far away to make it here that quick."

"Not if I leave now and sleep on the way."

"Who's going to take care of affairs there?"

"The council will do just fine. We'll only be gone for a few days. See you tomorrow." Cadance blew him a kiss before ending the connection and leaving her husband to stare wide-mouthed at himself in the moonlit mirror. Cadance was taking too big a risk as far as he was concerned to leave the Empire unattended and come to the cottage. Not that she listened to him when it came to matters of love. With a sigh he trudged over to the window and took one last look at the moon-painted lake. A small wind whistled through the trees and rippled across the waters. Shining Armor crept over to the bed and climbed under the covers, wondering how Twilight would respond to the news about Cadance's surprise visit.

Twilight lay on the couch, her tome propped up on one of the arm rests. She wondered, not for the first time, what it was that had sparked such a spike in the development of new "adult" spells this past year. Usually, only a handful were developed in a year, but the tome before her comprising the year’s newest spells to date had twenty and the year was only a little more than half over. Twilight turned the page, the plant spell she had at first been interested in too similar to the magical tendrils she had learned yesterday.

The next spell was also similar unfortunately, and actually by the same unicorn. Reading further, it turned out to be an improvement on the spell. The creator had devised three other tendrils to change things up. It would certainly be worth learning, but she wanted something new.

None of the other spells appealed to her, however, as they were designed for use on mares. Shining Armor wanted nothing to do with such things, Cadance had told her once, rather awkwardly, back when Twilight and Shining Armor first became intimate, and so Twilight closed the tome with the intention of going to bed when another tome caught her eye.

It was one of the tomes she had been checking out when she met her assailant. It was a rather well renowned biography on Ethereal Dreamer. One of the only ponies to ever try and study dream magic, largely considered Luna's domain and off limits to other ponies, Ethereal Dreamer had found a way to induce sleep with magic that led to clairvoyant dreams with a reasonably high accuracy of ten percent, quite a lot for a lifetime cut short by a dream the poor unicorn never woke from. Celestia had placed a ban on the sleep spells after that, and Luna herself had yet to give any kind of word on the magic, except that she was fine with some pony exploring the area while she had been absent.

Twilight wasn't too interested in the magic, especially since it was forbidden, but the concept would be fun to study, the pegasus had promised her. Twilight's telekinetic grip grabbed the tome and levitated it from the stack, opening to a random page. A folded sheet of white paper fell out, landing on the couch. Twilight set the tome down and picked up the piece of paper, unfolding it in the air to give it a quick run over.

Twilight gasped and released her grip, letting the paper fall lightly to the couch. She swallowed and placed a hoof on the corner of the sheet, turning it so she could read despite her mind screaming at her not to.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

How do I say this? Well, I know the answer to that. It's actually very simple.

I love you.

There. That's it. I said it. Phew! It feels good to get that off of my chest. I really wish I had the courage to tell you in person,

but I hope this note will do just fine.

I look forward to talking to you tomorrow when you show me your collection,

Brilliant Feather

Twilight swallowed again and reread the note. She reread it several dozen times over the next few minutes, perhaps a hundred, or even a thousand times. Unable to stop, unable to move, there it was, a love confession by the stallion who had ruined her life, and it was so... normal.

For the first time in months since he attacked her, Twilight thought of Brilliant Feather as he had been before, a shy, compassionate, and well-read pegasus. Nothing about him could ever have tipped her off that he would do what he tried to do, and nothing in this note did either. When he had attacked her he had been muttering under his breath as if insane, as if he was obsessed with her. The words that streamed out his mouth then hadn't registered with her until later when she could actually think about them instead of trying to fight off the stallion's gropes and forceful kisses. They had been as unsettling, some more so, than his physical assault.

Twilight shuddered, she wanted to curl up and cry. It reopened the wound he had cut into her heart. Tears rimmed her eyes, heavy and begging to fall. It all reminded her of why his betrayal hurt so much. Twilight sighed and straightened herself. She had spent the afternoon talking with her brother about ways to deal with just this sort of feeling. As impossible as it seemed she needed to stamp it down. Squash the pain and fear into nothing. It was in the past, he couldn't hurt her again, and with her brother's help, she'd learn that others wouldn't hurt her either. He had been an outlier, a statistical oddity. What Brilliant Feather did wasn't normal pony behavior.

She smiled. It was all very obvious, but that mattered little in the face of powerful emotions. Still, she had managed to push them down and take rein, even if her hold was a little bit shaky. Squashing the pain down to nothing on her first real try was impossible, and she doubted she could ever really squash all of it. Some wounds just healed too slowly, and left scars in their wake.

Twilight closed the book and levitated it over to sit with the others, and she moved the note with it, leaving it folded on top of the stack. With her mind set, she set off to bed, ignoring the thoughts that floated on the edge of her mind. Doubt and fear would ruin the hold she had over herself. She slid into bed next to her brother, taking comfort in his snores. Everything could be worked out in full when she woke, he'd help her with anything.

Morning brought the light of the sun and the sweet scent of oranges to Twilight's nose. She could never get tired of waking up to that. It was leagues better than the smell of Canterlot's bustle and the sweetness beat out Ponyville's country freshness. She rolled over and stretched in the bed, wincing against the spear of sunlight that lay across the pillows. Surprised to sleep in somewhat late, Twilight swung out of bed and over to the window to see if she could spot Shining Armor. A strong, warm breeze swept across her as she stood looking out. The garden was clear, however, and the lake empty except for fish splashing up and out of the sheen.

She turned then for the door, the wooden floor squeaking beneath her hooves. Maybe he had seen the note and would talk to her about it. Opening the door and stepping into the hallway brought the frantic sounds of somepony busying themselves in the kitchen. Twilight’s stomach rumbled. Smiling to herself, she walked down the stairs and crossed the living room to reach the kitchen where sure enough, Shining Armor stood before the stove, several items encased in his sparkling field of magic.

"Good morning, BBBFF," she said, walking over to him.

He turned, surprised to see her. Had she actually managed to sneak up on him? "Good morning," he replied, giving her a small peck on the cheek. "Help me with the eggs, would you?" He held out a frying pan and half a dozen eggs before Twilight, expecting her to take them in her magical grip. She did, but not before Shining Armor had released them and they almost cracked open on the floor. Her brother scooted over to make room for her to stand next to him and use the only free burner. "Cadance is coming over around lunch time and I wanted to have something ready for her. It's a long journey and I'm sure she'll be hungry, as will her guards."

Twilight fumbled at the mention of their unexpected visitor and missed with an egg, cracking it over the stove and not her pan. "Cadance is coming? I had no idea." She levitated a towel over to wipe up the mess then tossed it in the trash.

"Neither did I, she chose to surprise me with it last night and I decided to surprise you with it as well."

Cadance coming to help didn't really surprise Twilight in and of itself, only the suddenness of it. In the beginning she had rushed pretty hard to get her to open up, but it had only made her close tighter. Now, with help from her brother and the reins in her hooves, she thought the mare's assistance would be quite welcome.

"That's nice," said Twilight, a big smile splitting her face. "What are we making for lunch?" Her stomach rumbled rather loudly.

"More importantly, what about breakfast?"

Shining Armor grinned. "The eggs are our breakfast, along with the bread I toasted just before you woke. Speaking of which, how did you sleep?"

"I slept alright," said Twilight. "Better than I expected to." So true it almost hurt. Sleep had seemed impossible with the way that note had hit her, at least until she climbed in next to Shining Armor.

"What do you mean?" asked Shining Armor. "Find an even kinkier spell that you were too excited to try out?" Shining Armor's cheeks reddened to match the coals in the stove.

"No," said Twilight, her cheeks nearly matching her brother's. "Something a little more serious than that." She leaned against her brother for a hint of support. "I found a note for me left in a book by Brilliant Feather."

Shining Armor froze, his eyes glued to Twilight. "Oh, sweet Celestia, Twilight," he said. "How do you feel? What did it say? Where is it? Do you want me to beat him up again?" He leaned against Twilight himself, offering more support and nuzzling the side of her neck.

"It was a confession," said Twilight. "He told me he loved me." She fought back the pain that jabbed at her heart. Some kind of love that had been. "I feel hurt again, just like I did back when it happened. It really brought up that feeling of betrayal that I first felt." Twilight sniffed and leaned against her brother, she wanted to wail, knowing that he would be there to comfort her, but she stood tall and sniffed again. "I did my best to shut it down, to remind myself that it’s in the past and that he can't hurt me anymore."

"Good Twilley," said Shining Armor. "That's great. Don't forget, you can't blame yourself for what happened. You couldn't have known he would do any of that."

"I know," said Twilight. "There was no signs that he had any such intentions." She leaned into Shining Armor with one final push as a silent thanks and stood up, focusing on breakfast.

It turned out Shining Armor was making another tofu meal for lunch, with plans to picnic out on the other side of the lake next to the cave. Today was supposed to one of the warmest days of the week with a constant breeze.

The siblings finished their breakfast quickly, eager to start with the day. Brilliant Father's note was too good of a starting point to pass up, and right after breakfast (they could really clean up later) Twilight and Shining Armor sat together on the couch, in the cross breeze between the windows. Brilliant Feather's note lay between them, flat and open. Shining Armor had read it several times, disgusted with the innocence it tried to portray. Brilliant Feather was nothing but a twisted, manipulative liar who had taken advantage of Twilight and her love for magic and for famous unicorns. He doubted the pegasus had truly had the same interests Twilight did, only feigned them to get close to her. After all, why would a pegasus be so interested in magic? Of course, it brought up the thought that Brilliant Feather had had his eyes on Twilight for some time before finally going after her. Twilight insisted that none of his information could have been ad-libbed or improvised. He knew hard facts and understood magic as well as most unicorns.

Shining Armor supposed the pegasus could have had a legitimate interest in unicorns and magic, as odd as it was. Regardless, the note was sickening. Shining Armor couldn't help but see a darker pegasus behind it. He couldn't begin to imagine what Twilight felt, he had never known Brilliant Feather until after the assault.

"Well, let's start," he said. "I guess I should ask how the note makes you feel."

"I-I don't know where to start," said Twilight. "It reminds me of why I liked him so much. It reminds me of the shy, well-read pegasus that I resonated with. Which in turn reminds me of the pain he caused me. He never seemed capable of what he did; that’s why his betrayal hurts so much.”

Shining Armor nodded. "Okay, and what was the other part. Why else does his betrayal hurt so much?"

"Not only did he break my trust at that time, but it might have been his intention the entire time. I don’t know how I didn’t see it. We got along almost too well, and I fell for it and invited him in, which he only wanted so he could…"

Twilight swallowed. Despite all the time and all the work with her brother she couldn't say it out loud. She couldn't even think it. If she were honest with herself, the physical violation wasn't as bad as the betrayal, the physical pain had gone away a long time ago, yet she still had a harder time talking about it. Maybe it had been worse than she remembered. The mind sometimes repressed events. She took comfort in her brother's hoof on her shoulder and she leaned into his leg.

"You don't have to say it, Twilley," said Shining Armor. "I know it still hurts.”

Twilight nodded. "I can keep going." Twilight straightened her back and cleared her throat. "When Brilliant Feather assaulted me there were two things going through my mind. The first--." Tears rimmed Twilight's eyes as she refused to crumble. Shining Armor shifted his leg so it wrapped around his sister's shoulder and pulled her close.

"Shh," he whispered. "Maybe we should wait until Cadance gets here." Twilight sucked in a breath before breaking down. She was befuddled by her inability to talk about the details still, even with her brother. At this stage she should have better control over her emotions. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Things were supposed to get better from this point on.

Time passed as the siblings lay together, neither one paying any attention to it. All that mattered was the connection between them, one the bookend, the other the book it kept in place. Eventually, the sound of flapping wings followed by hooves on the ground broke the silence.

"Cadance?" asked Twilight.

"She's early," said Shining Armor.

Author's Note

Merry Christmas! Here I am with the next chapter unreasonably late. I've been thinking about my posting schedule and wanted to ask if you all would prefer shorter, yet more frequent updates. Thoughts? Concerns? Lemme know and Merry Christmas again!