What Twilight Found

Everything was alphabetical, so Twilight reached Fluttershy’s record before Rainbow’s. Using her magic to levitate and open the yellowing scroll, Twilight got distracted by the picture at the top.

“Aw! Spike! Come look at this!” Baby Fluttershy looked at Twilight with big blue eyes, yellow wings sticking out on both sides, and her pink fuzzy mane was standing straight up.

Spike was distracted also, but not by the same thing. “What the hay- TWILIGHT, LOOK! GEM-FLAVORED ICE CREAM! WITH ACTUAL GEMS INSIDE!”

Twilight groaned. ‘Oh, Shining Armor, what did you do?’ she thought to herself. Ignoring the delighted dragon, she turned to Fluttershy’s scroll and began skimming it.

“Born in Cloudsdale…. Lives in Ponyville…. Only foal….” Twilight gasped. Where the pictures of the parents should be, there was a hole in the paper. One made by magic. Leaning closer, she realized that the intended target was to hide the mother and her information. Fluttershy’s father and his information were mostly still intact, having suffered only slight damage.

Twilight knew quite a lot about spells, so she used her magic to help her with this one. She gathered that the spell was done by a unicorn mare, out of fear, but couldn’t seem to find any other information about the spell or the mare that did it.

Twilight read about Fluttershy’s father, Reed Wave. He seemed to be a nice gentlecolt, with Fluttershy’s wavy pink mane and tail, and yellow coat. The pegasus had dark blue eyes, way darker than Fluttershy’s light ones.  It said that he died in a fire. The inscription at the very bottom said ‘see Reed Wave’ for more information.

She touched her horn to the inscription, and another scroll came flying out. Twilight levitated Reed Wave’s scroll in front of her face, looking for any other information see could use. Apparently he had a younger brother- Cloud Melt.

Again, Twilight used her magic to find another scroll- this time it was Cloud Melt’s.

Twilight’s jaw dropped as she read about him.

He had one daughter. Her name was Rainbow Dash.

Twilight grinned. She couldn’t wait to tell her friends! Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash WERE related! They were cousins! She quickly found Rainbow’s scroll, too.

In her excitement, Twilight bumped her friends’ scrolls together. Where they touched, multicolored sparks flew out.

Twilight gasped, backing away. Her vision started to go fuzzy.

Reed Wave stood in the empty house, tears sparkling in his eyes. His mate, the mare he once gave his heart to, had stolen everything. Robbed him, than left, all in the dead of the night.

He heard crying coming from a corner of the room. Stumbling, he headed there. “Fluttershy!” he gasped, looking at his baby daughter. “Thank goodness you’re alright!”

He hugged the young filly close to him. He wanted nothing more than to break down sobbing, but he needed to stay strong. For Fluttershy.

First things first, she needed a bed. She needed food, and water. She needed help.

Resting the filly back in her corner, he flew off into the night, looking for the home of his brother, Cloud Melt, and his mate, Star Speck. When he found the house, he landed and knocked on the door. Cloud Melt opened it, but when he saw his younger brother, he slammed the door.

Reed Wave, knowing his brother, sat down on the stoop and waited. Eventually, Cloud Melt gave in. “What do you want?”

“Help.” Reed Wave explained his situation.

Cloud Melt laughed. “Like I’m really going to help you after what you did to me.”

“Please! That was years ago!”

“I know. But it still hurts to know that my own brother did that to me. There are some things that are never forgiven, and that was one of them. Why should I help you? This is your problem.”

“Do it for Fluttershy. She never did anything wrong. She’s the same age as your daughter now, isn’t she? Little Rainbow Dash?”

As if on cue, Star Speck appeared, holding the rainbow-maned filly close. Apparently she had been listening to the brothers’ conversation. “We should help,” she said, looking at the mate meaningfully. She unclasped a silver necklace from her daughter’s neck and handed it to Reed Wave. “That should be worth something. Take it. Rainbow is too much of a tomboy to wear it, anyway.”

Thanking them, Reed Wave left. When he got home, he put the necklace on his daughter. It shimmered on her chest, and she smiled in her sleep. Reed Wave smiled too, and went for a walk.

Three blocks away from his brother’s house, he smelled the smoke. Reed Wave raced over there, but the house was already in flames. The cloud wasn’t burning, but various wood objects in the house were ablaze.

Leaning out of one of the windows was Cloud Melt. When he saw his brother, Cloud Melt asked him to catch something.

He tossed over a little bundle, than left to go help his mate.

Reed Wave caught it. Looking through the blankets, he realized what he had caught. Rainbow Dash. He set the baby down and flew through the window to help. He crashed into Star Speck, who was crying. Her magenta eyes kept filling

with tears.

“I don’t know where Cloud Melt is! One moment he was there, and then something fell and… and…” Star Speck was scared. Reed Wave wrapped his arms around the gray pegasus, playing with her blue and green braids.

“It’s all right. You and I will leave, now. We can raise Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash together.”

“What?”

“I love you, Star Speck. I always have. Haven’t you ever wondered what came between my brother and me?”

“I… I… never asked. I just… Oh, Cloud Melt! Where are you?” With that, she flew away, looking for Cloud Melt. Reed Wave paused, and then followed her.

That was the last time any of them where seen alive.

Twilight gasped, coming too. All was exactly as she left it. In fact, it was almost as if no time had passed at all.

She lay down, trying to make sense of what she just saw. That explained the necklace, but not the banner. The banner! Twilight tried to remember. Rainbow was wrapped in the banner!

Twilight could see it all. After the fire, when the three adult pegasi were found dead, the authorities probably found Rainbow Dash first, seeing as she was right outside the burning building. Her parents probably had friends who would take her in for a bit. Fluttershy didn’t have anyone, so she went straight to Cloudsdale Flight School. The cousins met later, and they were raised unknowing.

Unknowing.

Twilight glanced back at Fluttershy’s birth record. The hole was still there, as she knew it would be. Should she try to find out who her mother was and who did it?

No.

It was going through personal business. Twilight couldn’t bring herself to do it, especially to her friend Fluttershy.

Then again, all things happen for a reason, right?