Breakfast was a little easier for everypony in the house. Night Light and Twilight Velvet sat next to each other without discomfort. And their parents had no shortage of questions for Night Light. They were eager to get caught up on the parts of his life story that they had missed. Which was nearly all of it.

But for Night and Velvet, there was still something there, wedged between them. Something that was easier to ignore in the dark bedroom the previous night. In the harsh daylight, it was difficult for Velvet to not think that he was still her brother. It wasn't on Night Light's mind as often. But it was enough.

In the coming days, neither of them were sad for it. But it was something that kept them just south of happy. For what they had gained came at a cost of losing something else. Even as they saw each other, they missed each other. Velvet missed her husband. Night Light missed his wife. This new pony that they saw was like a stranger that they had just met. And they were dating all over again.

It didn't help that they didn't have Cadance either.

"Scroll for Twilight," her father said as he walked in from getting the mail. He gave her the scroll and she opened it.

"They've finished the renovations to my suite at the castle," Velvet read aloud.

"So does that mean that you'll be heading back?" her mother asked. Velvet nodded.

"I need to talk to the Princess and to finish my final semester at magic school," Velvet said.

"Celestia will make sure that you're taken care of," her father said. "She's looked after our family for centuries. You don't need to finish school right away for job security."

"I'm doing it for me," Velvet said.

"You know, you can always make up the courses later," her mother said. "The Princess would understand. Everypony would understand in the wake of... your loss. Besides, you should be focusing on more important things right now."

"More important than my education?" Velvet scoffed. "Like what?"

"Like your family," her mother said.

"You guys are fine. Night is fine. I'm fine," Velvet said.

"We mean, the future of your family," her mother said, looking back and forth between them.

"Mom, I-" Velvet looked at Night Light and he looked away. "We're not..." she sighed. "We're not quite there yet," she said, trying to be diplomatic. In truth, though, she was unsure if she would ever be ready for that again.

"We understand dear, these things take time," he father said. Her mother hugged her and whispered into her ear.

"But don't wait too long."

Her father extended his hoof and shook Night's.

"Carry on, Son. And do keep an eye on her for us," he said.

"Yes sir," Night answered, feeling a crumpled note being put into his hoof.

"Grab my bag?" Velvet asked, as she headed out the door. Night nodded and picked up her bag with his free hoof and slung it over his back as he followed after her. In his other hoof, he opened the note that had been given to him. As he read it, he set his jaw.

Standing orders:
1. Never let her go to bed angry.
2. Never let her go to bed alone.

Back inside the castle Velvet stood outside the door to her suite. She just stared at the door knob for a minute and then looked to Night Light as she moved aside.

"Check it," she said, as she walked a bit down the hallway. Night nodded and opened the door. He stepped into the room and looked around. He had given very specific instructions to maintenance. All indications of the foal were to be erased. He set her bag on her bed and checked the nursery. It had been turned back into her study. He checked every part of every room. Every shed of evidence of her pregnancy was gone, save for a few maternity shirts in her dresser drawer. It would still be some time before she would be rid of her baby weight. He walked back out into the hallway.

"All clear," he reported. Velvet walked past him and looked around inside herself. She nodded in satisfaction. In her heart, she knew she would never be able to truly forget about it. But at least she didn't have to look at constant reminders.

"Good enough, I suppose," she said. She walked into her study and sat at her desk. She opened her drawer and took out her books, papers and quills.

"Vel," he said, waiting for her to talk to him.

"That'll be all," she dismissed him without looking up.

"Velvet, is it really so hard to look at me?" he asked. She set her quill down and sighed. She turned in her chair to face him.

"Yeah. Right now, yeah. I'd rather not be reminded of everything that's happened. I'd rather focus on my work and not think about that stuff. Which is why I wanted to not see any other reminders. And unfortunately, you're one of them," she said. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came. He closed it and did an about-face, walked out of the suite. He was accepting his old role once again, it seemed.

He closed the door and stood beside it at his post, unsure of what else to do. He looked down at his boots. They were dull and scuffed. He took off his helmet and inspected it. It looked just as bad. He could only assume the rest of his uniform was likewise unpresentable. It looked like how he felt.

He walked across the courtyard to the barracks. He nodded to the ponies standing post at the barracks and walked inside. He walked down the long row of racks, the cots for the on-duty guards. At the end of each bed was a trunk with their standard issue gear. He arrived at his old bed, only to find that the placard on it had a different name on it now. One of the perks of getting married was that it meant that you didn't have to stay in the barracks anymore. He kept on walking to the office at the far end of the room. The supply depot. He pushed open the door and walked to the counter. The pony behind the desk stood up for the approaching officer.

"As you were," Night Light said. "I need a polishing kit," he said as he pushed a few bits across the counter. The pony turned around and grabbed the small kit from the supply shelf behind him and placed it on the counter.

"Sign here, sir," he said. Night Light signed the requisition form and took the kit. He walked back out through the barracks, stopping for a moment to wonder where exactly he was going to do his work.

He walked to his old bed and sat on the trunk as he took off his armor. He opened his kit and began to polish his brass armor to a mirror shine, starting with his helmet. He always enjoyed maintaining his equipment. It was simple, mindless work with a discreet indication of progress, and a tangible result that was proportionate to his effort. It gave him time to think, which was good because he had a lot to think about.

"Hey, Dumbass! That's my spot!" a nearby pony barked. Night Light glanced at him, set down his helmet and picked up his chest plate, brandishing his officer bars insignia.

"That's Lieutenant Dumbass to you, Private," Night said flatly. The other pony reflexively went to attention.

"Sorry sir! I didn't realize," he apologized. "But that is my spot." Night Light looked up at him again briefly before he went back to focusing on his work.

"Not right now, it isn't. I'm commandeering this... 'spot'," he said. "Just use your bed."

"But my bed will get messed up," he said. Night Light gave him an irritated glare.

"Then make it again after you're done," he said. He stood up and let the private get into his trunk for his own polish kit. The private didn't argue further with the officer and sat on his bed. He felt pained as he rumpled the perfectly flat blanket. He took off his own armor and began to likewise polish it. Night Light glanced over at the other pony's technique. The surface under his hoof cloth alternated between streaked and smudged, with what looked to be a long road to even being remotely acceptable.

"No, look, make little circles like this when you apply it," Night said, showing him how it's done. "And then use the other cloth in the opposite direction to clean it." The private did as he was told with much better results.

"Thank you, sir." Night Light nodded and quietly returned to his own work. The private was clearly unnerved by his presence.

"So... how are you liking the Guard so far?" Night asked, trying to break the silent tension.

"It's great!" he said. Night smirked.

"It's okay. You don't have to lie. I won't tell your C.O." Night said.

"Well, okay, yeah, there are some parts about it that are rough. But overall, I really like it. I don't mind the challenging work. It really suits me."

"Yeah, me too," Night said. "Are you just doing one term?" he asked.

"I was thinking about going career," he said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Any advice?" he asked. Night snorted. He could give a book of advice. But three important ones immediately came to mind.

"Three things. One, don't get married."

"Really!?"

"Yeah. Mares are alright once in a while. But they're a distraction if you let them tie you down," Night said. "Secondly, don't have foals. Same thing. They tie you down. They force you to change your priorities. And your priority should be the Guard. At least until you're ready for this part of your life to be over. Because once you say 'I do', and have little ones, everything changes," Night said, polishing his armor a bit harder than explicitly necessary. "Everything."

"And the third thing?" he asked.

"Well, lastly, and most importantly, you can avoid the first two by never letting your dick do your thinking for you!" Night said as he finished working. He stood up and began to dress himself. He walked toward the exit. "You can have your spot back now."

"Thank you, sir."

Back outside, Night Light stopped to think for a moment. Back across the courtyard was the entrance to the castle's living quarters. Off to his left was the walkway that led out to the main entrance, into the city. Without a bunk, he was unsure of where he would be sleeping that night. He couldn't go back to their parents' place. He checked his pocket for bits for a hotel for the night. He felt a slip of paper. It was the standing orders that their father had given him. Don't let her go to bed alone.

He stuffed the paper back into his pocket, rubbed the bridge of his nose with his hoof and groaned.

"Velvet?" Night Light asked as he knocked on her door. She didn't respond. He opened the door to her suite. Technically, their suite. "Velvet, I brought you some dinner," he said, heading toward her study. "I know how you forget to eat sometimes when you're working." He looked into her study. She was busy reading and writing by the candle light. She didn't even look up at him.

"Just leave it on my table," she said, waving him away with her hoof. "I'm not hungry right now."

"Come on, you need to eat," he said.

"No I don't. I'm fat," she said.

"No you're not," he said.

"Lying doesn't suit you. And it's disrespectful to me," she said.

"Okay, fine! But it isn't your fault," he said.

"You know what? You're right! It's yours!" she said, glaring at him.

"Okay," Night sighed, "I guess I did set myself up for that. But come on, I brought you food. It's your favorite!" He brought the bag to her. She opened it and looked inside. Her stomach growled. "Ah ha! I knew it."

"Okay, fine! I am hungry!" Velvet took out her container and began to eat. Night Light sat near her with his own food. "What's this?" she asked, looking in the bottom of the bag.

"Leftover Hearts and Hooves Day chocolate was on clearance at the store. I figured you might want some."

"I'm not pregnant anymore."

"But you still love chocolate," he said. Velvet gave him a look but still quickly grabbed the box of chocolates and stuffed them into her desk. "And I hear-tell that they're an aphrodisiac," he said, half-joking. She gave him a more stern glare.

"Night, you being my brother aside, I just had a foal. If you think I would even remotely be in the mood for that, at all, then you have a gross misunderstanding of female anatomy."

"Sorry." He and Velvet ate their dinner quietly. He cleaned up once they were done eating and let her get back to work. He sat out of sight in the other room while she finished working and he resumed reading a book that he'd left in the night stand.

Some time later, Velvet's desk candle burned out, ending her evening's work. Night put his bookmark in the page he finished and set the book back down. Velvet put her things away into her desk and walked into the bedroom. He stood up from his chair as she climbed into bed.

"I can leave, if you want," he said.

"You don't have to."

"I mean, if it's- You said that it was hard for you to look at me," he said. Velvet looked at the space beside her in the bed. It was a big bed. A gift from the princess for her wedding. It was too large for just one pony. She hadn't minced words when she'd said that seeing him was a reminder of things that she would rather forget about. But feeling him in bed beside her reminded her of the good things as well.

"Well then just blow out the candle," she said as she opened his side of the bed to him. He did as he was told and climbed into bed beside her. He laid there for what felt like a long while. Seconds, minutes, hours? In the dark with no clock, it was difficult to tell. For all the times that they'd had sex in the past, his mind lingered on dinner that first evening at her parents' house. Feeling her leg against his. The simple intimacy of that contact with her was what he missed the most. It was what he craved. What he needed. His trembling hoof reached out into the dark, across the bed. He nervously placed it on her shoulder. He felt her flinch at his touch, but she didn't pull away.

"Is... is t-this... okay?" he asked.

"No," she said. Her other hoof reach up and grabbed his, pulling it across her barrel, and wrapping it around her. She pulled him to her as she moved back against him, with his hoof around her body. "This is better." Night Light was nearly in tears as he felt his body against hers. He pressed his face into her soft mane, relishing her scent as he felt sleep tugging at his eyelids.

He was happy to wrap his hoof around her.

She was happy to let him.

Princess Celestia finished raising the morning sun and walked back inside her quarters to bid good morning to her adopted niece. Afterwards, she trotted happily to her school.

Tiny Princess Cadance was left in the capable hooves of her highly trained nannies, a team of skilled mares that rivaled Equestrian Special Forces. Two of them were active wet nurses. They were all experienced foal caretakers and body guards, certified emergency responders trained in first aid, as well as mortal combat. They could kill you with one hoof, and feed the pink pegasus foal mashed peas with the other.

Celestia walked into her school and went to her classroom. Velvet was already at her desk.

"Good Morning, Twilight," Celestia greeted, glancing at her clock. "You're... earlier than usual."

"Couldn't sleep," she said. It wasn't completely true. But neither was it a lie. When she had awoken that morning, it was still dark. Night Light was beside her. But she hadn't the strength to face him again. Not yet, anyway. She readied herself quietly. But his training had made him a light sleeper. He didn't object to the time she was getting up, but he insisted on still accompanying her. Especially if it was to be in the dark of the morning.

"Are you okay?" Celestia asked.

"No," Velvet said, honestly. "I'm not okay. I'm pretty far from okay." Celestia didn't respond. She'd been here, in this exact moment with her proteges so many times before. She knew how she felt. She knew that there was really nothing that she could say that would help her feel better. Only time could do that. "I want to see her," Velvet said. "I want to see my daughter."

"I know you do. You are entitled to see her, of course..." Celestia said, leaving her statement open-ended.

"But?"

"But... I would advise against it," Celestia said. "I realize that you've been through a lot. Physically and emotionally. And right now you're fixating on the idea of your daughter. But you don't have that attachment. Not yet. And the more you see her, the more difficult it's going to be to compartmentalize those feelings. But there's also the matter of you, this strange pony, coming to visit... what everypony thinks is my foal. And in the coming years... it will be confusing for her. Especially when the time comes for her to be... properly re-introduced to you."

"When she marries her brother? My son?" Velvet asked curtly. "Whom I'm supposed to conceive with my own brother?" Celestia frowned.

"You mustn't keep thinking of it that way," Celestia said. "We are on the verge of greatness! Your foals could be the the rebirth of the Alicorn race!" She could see that Velvet was still unconvinced. "Come with me, I want to show you something." Celestia said. She retrieved from her desk her rarely-seen 'cancelled class' sign and hung it on the door on the way out.

"You're cancelling class?" Velvet asked.

"Yes." Celestia said. Velvet looked at her with wide eyes. "It's that important."

They walked together up to Princess Celestia's royal chambers. It wasn't the first time that Velvet had been there. The guards posted at her door recognized her. Celestia opened the door and her horn glowed as they walked in past her guards. Velvet felt her fur tingle as she walked in through the invisible ward on the doorway's threshold. Celestia's magic let them pass without being violently repelled.

Celestia closed and locked the door behind her. Velvet felt a static charge shock her as the ward snapped shut around them, also serving to soundproof the room. Celestia unlocked and opened the door to her closet. It was less a closet, and more a walk-in mini museum of all manner of magical artifacts and trinkets. In the back of the locked room was a locked trunk. Inside the locked trunk was a locked box. And inside the locked box...

Celestia placed the box on the desk in her study and opened it. Inside were two ancient books and a scroll as thick as Celestia's massive bed posts. She carefully removed the binding strap from the scroll and began to unroll it. It was a map of ponies' names. She didn't recognize any of them until they got to the end of the map. Velvet recognized the last names at the bottom. It was Night Light, and Twilight Velvet.

Above their names was their parents'. Above them were her grandparents', great-grandparent's and so on. It was her family tree. In each generation it split and came back on itself. Some had branches that diverged with other ponies' names. But the main trunk of brothers and sisters went all the way down. Secretly separated at birth just to be rejoined in marriage. Velvet felt her chest get tight with disgust as she looked at the visible web of lies, a tangled road map of incest.

"But... all this inbreeding!?" Velvet cringed. "Isn't there the risk of birth defects and congenital disorders?"

"Oh yes," Celestia breathed solemnly as she went back toward the very top of the scroll. "I'm afraid I was not completely forthcoming about this project when I first told you about it. When I said it was brother and sister and then brother and sister, and so on... that part is true. But the first four generations were plagued with... undesirable outcomes." She reached the top section. It was littered with branches that had dead ends. Names that were lined out.

"Your ancestors were tried of their patience more than you can possibly imagine. It was so long ago, but I remember each of them. I held their hooves for each miscarriage. Each stillborn. And worse," Celestia said, wiping a tear from her cheek. "It was hardest for all of us then, when the tunnel was darkest and the light was so far off. And they knew that they would never live to see it. After four generations, it was so bad that I was ready to give up and end it. It wasn't worth so much suffering of the ponies that I loved. Not even for an Alicorn."

"But it was your..." Celestia did a quick count in her head, "Thirty-seven-greats grandmother that convinced me to continue. She had seen the rest of her siblings die. Only she and her brother remained. I can still hear her voice when she told me, 'Let's just try one more time'. And in the next few years, they'd had two beautiful foals. Their pegasus colt became a champion aerobatic. And her daughter was one of the most talented mages of her time!" Celestia moved her hoof down the scroll. There were fewer and fewer dead ends and lined names until there were none.

"It had been a rough road," Celestia said. "But they had beaten some very long odds. They had each avoided getting any of their parents' genetic diseases and they had perfectly healthy foals. And from then on, it hasn't been an issue." Celestia took the first of the two old tomes from the box. Despite her great care, its cover was worn blank with the passage of time. The first page inside revealed its contents. It was the first edition of what had later become two books in her classroom. Velvet recognized each of them.

Experiments on Plant Hybridization & The Origin of Ponies

"I know these books," Velvet said. Celestia nodded.

"We were ahead of our time when we had first happened upon the theory of genes." She opened the book to the accounts of early studies. "We studied the family trees of interracial couples. Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn. And based on enough information, we were able to predict with great accuracy the probability of a foal's traits. Wings, horn, or neither. But never both for some reason." Celestia flipped ahead into the body of the book.

"We were able to save marriages," she went on, reading the account. "Two earth ponies had a unicorn foal. The husband accused his wife of infidelity. But when we examined her family tree, we found that it was a legitimate foal. They both had unicorns as maternal grandparents. The trait skipped two generations. Only to finally match up with their foal. It was a rare event. A one in sixteen chance. They had five other foals together. The rest were all earth ponies."

"I understand how genetics work," Velvet said. Celestia nodded.

"Yes. Ponies do, now. It's part of standard curriculum. But this was a revolutionary discovery for the time! It explained why there were so many more earth ponies than unicorns or pegasi. Because-"

"Because the absence of the trait is dominant to its presentation," she said.

"And that was when we realized that if we could control the breeding of a certain set of ponies, we could control the presence of the traits that were passed down. We could ensure that a foal had wings, or a horn..." Celestia flipped to the back of the book.

On the Resurrection of the Winged Unicorn

"Or both," Celestia finished. Velvet looked at the title and flipped through the pages.

"I've never heard of this book," Velvet said.

"You wouldn't have. It was never put to print. This is the only copy," Celestia explained. Velvet looked through the text and the graphs and tables of data. She reached the last few pages.

"It's unfinished," Velvet said.

"That is correct," Celestia confirmed. She reached into the box and pulled out the other large book. "But not discontinued."

Velvet opened the book and pored over the pages of data. Each table had a pair of names and a set of traits. They were probability sets for breeding results. The names corresponded with the ones on her family tree. The last quarter of the book's pages were blank. The last page that had been filled out had Velvet's name and Night Light's. They were arranged on either side of the table with their corresponding traits.

"I didn't realize I was nearly half pegasus," Velvet said as she looked at her own traits.

"It's more significant than that," Celestia said. She pointed at the graph on the opposite page, bringing her hoof along the two axis to a point in the top right corner with her name. "Velvet, you are 98% Alicorn!" she said. Velvet just looked at her in puzzlement. She heard the words, but they didn't register right away.

"Oh," Velvet breathed.

"Genetics is a game of averages. If you had mated with an average earth pony, the foal would be about 50% Alicorn. Most ponies are somewhere between 25% and 50%, depending on their family history. It's a lot easier to go down than up. In fact, it's exponentially more difficult to go up the closer you get to the top," she explained.

"Night Light is 96% Alicorn," Celestia continued, waving her hoof in a so-so motion. "With a 1% margin of error. But that means that with your combination, there is a one in four chance that Cadance is 99% Alicorn. And the fact that she was born with wings instead of a horn from you two is a strong indication of that! That puts her within range of magical ascension! But we won't find out until she's older. But if she can...!" Celestia was practically giddy. "Your grandfoals should have a 100% probability of being pure-born Alicorns!"

Velvet could not deny her own excitement at the prospect. Her heart raced as she looked over the data. In light of her modern understanding of genetics, everything looked correct. Based on these pairings, her grandfoals would have equal parts of recessive traits, allowing them to equally be visibly present. A horn, wings, an earth pony's magical connection to the land, and-

"What is this trait symbol?" Velvet asked. Celestia smiled.

"That... is the Alicorn trait for body cell degradation. Or rather, lack-there-of." Velvet raised her eyebrow. "Immortality, Twilight."

Celestia moved the book aside. She rolled the scroll back up as she went back to the very bottom of the family tree. She retrieved her quill and drew a line connecting Velvet and Night Light, with a line going under them to-

"Mi Amore Cadenza," Celesta said as she wrote the name. And then she drew a line to a space beside it. She left the space blank and let the ink dry. She looked at Velvet, making it clear to her student of her intent.

"Your parents understood the gravity of what is at stake. As did their parents. And theirs, and so on. This is your destiny, Twilight! We are but a step away from our goal." Velvet looked over the names of her ancestors in the long tree. "If not for me, for your family. Don't make their sacrifices be in vain."

"And you're certain that there's no risk of..." Velvet trailed off. Celestia nodded. "Alright," she said, "What do we do next?"

"I'll keep on raising the Sun," Celestia said with a smile. "And you need to get to work on raising a son of your own." Velvet nodded in acceptance and looked at the space at the bottom of her family tree. She sighed.

"Oh, what tangled webs we weave..."