The next day I headed to Sparkle Manor with Sparkler. I’d left Dinky with Cadey and Twilight for the morning, and they were planning on doing some shopping without us. Part of me felt guilty over that. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter while she was actually in town, not just dump her on my wife and sister. But Sparkler needed to talk with Mom, and she’d asked me to help her. I wasn’t about to tell her no—not when this was such a big deal for her.

Twilight had offered to go in my place, but in the end I’d shot that idea down. If Sparkler’s talk with Mom went south and I got dragged into it, we’d need somepony to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Sure, Twilight could do that at the end of the day, but so could I, and since Sparkler had asked me specifically, I wasn’t about to turn her down.

It wasn’t long before the two of us had arrived at the manor in all its tower-y glory. “So, you good to do this?” I asked as we approached the door.

Sparkler exhaled and shook her head. “No, but if I put it off I'm just gonna keep putting it off.”

“I know that feeling,” I said. “Best to just take care of it now. At least then you won’t have to worry about what might happen next.”

“Exactly.” Sparkler took a deep breath. “Like setting a bone or ripping off a bandage, right?”

“That's probably the best way to put it,” I agreed and opened the door for her.

Sparkler stepped inside and her gaze swept over the foyer, with its dark wood, ornamental Sparkle family crests, old suits of armor, and other ornamentations. “So, um ... wow. This is nice.”

I smiled, though my heart wasn’t really in the gesture. “Yeah, it is. Even if it drives Twily up the walls sometimes with how disorderly the place looks.”

Sparkler studied the orderly decor and craned her neck to look into the library. “What, does Mom organize the bookshelf alphabetically instead of by the Dewey system?”

I chuckled. “I think Twily reorganized it by the Royal Canterlot Library system a long time ago. She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise—the sounds of the books calling out her to be properly organized would have kept her up at night.”

Sparkler snerked. “Sounds like her. So, where to?”

I cast a tracking spell and pinged Mom below us. “Downstairs in the basement. Come on.”

We headed down the stairs and soon found ourselves before the old family vault. Within the open door were the collected treasures of my house, all neatly organized on row after row of shelves. It was almost like stepping into a museum; old tomes, an ancient scrimshawed skull, magical weapons of a variety of types, jewelry both mundane and magical, paintings, and several other artifacts flanked us.

I looked around, some of this stuff sparking forgotten old memories. “Been a while since I've been down here.”

“Yeah? Sounds like you've been busy.” A moment passed before she added, “With work. Lots of work.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What else would I be busy with?”

Sparkler waggled her eyebrows. “Husbandry?”

I blinked and felt my cheeks burn. “Oh! Right, um, that!”

Before I could dig myself any deeper into that hole, I heard Mom call from behind one of the shelves. “Shining? Is that you?”

Sparkler’s smirk vanished and she stepped closer to me.

“Um, yeah, it's me, Mom.” I took a deep breath. “And I have a guest.”

“Oh? Who is—” Mom stepped out from behind the shelf and froze when she saw Sparkler. “Am—Sparkler. It's good to see you.”

Sparkler struggled for a moment before replying. “...hey.”

I spoke up to make sure a horrible silence didn’t stagnate the conversation before it had even gotten started. “Sparkler wanted to talk to you. About stuff. Obviously.”

Sparkler all but hid behind me as she addressed Mom. “Um, so ... hi. Finally.”

Mom’s ears wilted and her eyes fell to the floor. “I suppose it's not a surprise you wanted to meet ... again, that is.” She lifted her head. “Sorry, I wanted to see you. Really.”

I wrapped a leg around Sparkler’s shoulder to try and give her some kind of support. “For what it’s worth, I want to see you two talk.” Even if this was probably going to end up being one of the most awkward talks of my life. Which was saying something when I wasn’t even the focus of the discussion.

Sparkler leaned against me for a while before she brought herself to speak. “Why?”

“Why ... did we let you go?” Mom grimaced.

Sparkler nodded. “Yeah. That. Let's start with that.” Her features hardened and she bared her teeth. “Like, pardon my language, but what the actual feather was with that?”

Mom hunched her shoulders, making her look very different from the confident mare I was accustomed to seeing. “A terrible mistake. I knew that afterwards. If I could take it all back...”

“Yeah, well, you can't,” Sparkler shot back. “And that still doesn't answer my question.”

Mom sighed and rubbed her face. “For stupid reasons. Because we wanted to avoid a scandal when Night was trying to become Grand Vizier. Finding out I had a child by another pony would have caused a big controversy at the worst moment.”

Sparkler blinked, and if it wasn’t for my hold on her she would have stepped back. “Ahn—hed—huh?”

“It was a panicked decision,” Mom tried to explain. “Made at the spur of the moment. We should never have done that. Not in a million years.” She winced as though stabbed. “It was the biggest mistake of my life.”

“Can't say I disagree with that last part,” I found my mouth saying, instantly regretting it as Mom’s face contorted with pain.

“No feathering shit.” Sparkler added a second later, “Sorry.” She shook her head hard as though trying to clear it. “No, actually, I'm not sorry. What the hay, like—you couldn't have lied? Or ... something?! Literally anything else?!”

Mom slumped against a bookshelf. “It's what we should have done, yes. We planned...” She shook her head. “It doesn't matter. What we did was wrong, and there's no excuse for it. All I can say is that I'm sorry. It’s not nearly enough to make up for the pain we’ve caused you, but there’s only so much I can do to make up for everything.”

“It matters.” Sparkler’s eyes narrowed. “Who's 'we', and what did 'we' plan?”

Mom bit her lip. “We hoped that you would be adopted by a nice family. It was a naïve plan, and didn't work out the way we wanted.”

“Obviously.” Sparkler glared. “S'just your young kids have to deal with a dead baby, but anyone can just ‘get over’ that, right?”

I grimaced as she reopened that old wound. “Sparkler...”

She looked up to me. “It’s true, isn’t it? That’s a pretty bucked up thing to do, don’t ya think?”

I didn’t have a good answer for that. Celestia, this was so screwed up I barely even knew where to start. In a way, finding out about Dinky had been a blessing, because at least with her I had a pretty good idea what I was doing. It wasn’t going to be easy to make everything right with Ditzy and Dinky, but I was working at it. Everything with Sparkler was something else entirely. I wanted to make everything better, but I only had the foggiest idea how to do that. This situation wasn’t something where apologizing and making up was going to fix everything.

Mom’s head wilted. “I wouldn't blame you for hating me.”

“Oh, feathering spare me.” Sparkler stomped a hoof. “You gotta talk to my brother n'sister about that, I literally don't even know you.” She wiped her eyes. “No, you told 'em their little sister was dead—and now I'm not. And all for your damn politics!”

I could tell Sparkler wanted to go on a rant, but Mom wasn’t giving her much fuel to run on as couldn’t bring herself to look at the daughter she’d abandoned. Sparkler’s glare slowly melted away and she started quivering. She sniffed and her shoulders shook. Then the tears started and she pressed her face into my chest as she sobbed. I did the only thing I could do, and held Sparkler close, stroking her mane and rubbing her back as I tried to be there for her.

It got really quiet after that. No one was in a rush to speak. But what could you say in a situation like that? I didn’t know. I just held onto the sister lost to me for all those years. It wasn’t until I noticed that Mom was holding up some tissues for us that I was pulled out of the moment. She wasn’t looking at either of us, and her own eyes were red and swollen, but I still took the offered tissues. I gave one of them to Sparkler, and she used it to blow her nose.

“Thanks, bro. R-really, I n—” Sparkler took a deep breath. “M'okay, m'okay.”

I gave her a supportive squeeze. “Hey, I'm here for you.”

Sparkler took her time before she was ready to speak again. “Okay, so one more question. My ... sire, I guess. Did they know?”

Mom’s throat was tight when she answered. “She did, yes.”

Sparkler sniffed and glared at Mom. “So what now?”

Mom wrung her hooves. “That depends on what you want. I would like to do what I can to make things right. Even if nothing ever can.”

Sparkler sighed and leaned against me, feeling like a deflating balloon as she did so. “I wanna believe that, n'I don't even know how that'd happen. You know, when I first heard about all of this, I wanted to think that some nurse had switched the bassinet—that my parents really wanted me all along, n'that I'd go home with 'em. Hay, I wanted to believe that my sire didn't know about any of this.”

“I did want you back.” Mom held herself as she continued. “I really did. But everything went wrong. Then we lost track of you, and...” Her shoulders shook as she trailed off.

“I dunno what to do now,” Sparkler murmured.

“Maybe ... you need some time to absorb all of this,” Mom suggested. “I'd like to get to know you. But I can understand if you don’t want anything to do with me either.”

“Maybe.” Sparkler blew her nose again. “I needed to know, and I knew I didn't wanna know.” She took a deep breath. “But okay, fine. Let's ... let's get to know each other. Who we are now, instead of who we—instead of who you were. But maybe not right now.”

Mom nodded slowly. “I can understand that.”

“We can talk m-more, later, I guess. But ... you're...” Sparkler grimaced. “I needed to hear it from you. You're sorry.”

“I’m so sorry, Sparkler,” Mom said. “More than anything else I've done.”

“It's something at least,” I said. I believed her when she said that. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about her feeling sorry about it. Justified maybe? It didn’t exactly make me feel good to hear it either. Just ... something. Emotions are hard.

Mom dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “And if you want to meet your sire...”

Sparkler frowned but nodded. “I do, yeah. Now that I know, I might as well. Not putting everything off has been ... good, I guess. Best just to get it all out of the way now.”

“If you’re sure.” Mom looked between us. “Would you like me to introduce you, or would you prefer to meet her by yourself?”

Sparkler looked to me, and I nodded. “It might be best to let her introduce you, at least. I'll still be here for you.”

“Okay, sure.” Sparkler nuzzled me. “S'long as you're there.”

Despite it all, I smiled. “Trust me, I'm not going anywhere.”

As a group we headed to Magetrix’s lab at the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. It had been a while since I had been here. Usually I only came to see Magetrix because I was with Mom, or Mom had something she wanted me to pass along to her. For a long time I hadn’t known that Magetrix and Mom were a thing, and had been since before Mom and Dad had even married, but by the time I was getting ready to head to West Hoof I’d managed to put two and two together. That had been quite the adjustment for me to get my head around, and my parents had to sit me down and explain the facts to me. In the end I’d been okay with it—no harm no foul, right? Sure, learning Dad had a kid from his affair with his secretary had thrown me from a loop, but I gotten along with Vinyl once I got to know her. So it was kinda alright.

Though all that had been before I’d found out about Sparkler. That ... changed things, and now I was trying to put everything back together as best I could. Sure, I’d screwed up with Ditzy, but at least I had the excuse of not knowing Dinky had been born at the time, and now I was taking steps to fix things. What Mom and Dad had lied about was ... yeah.

I felt Sparkler tense up as the three of us made our way to the school. She swallowed and worked out a barely audible, “Hey.”

Mom stopped and cranked her neck to look back at us. “Yes?”

“M—Du—“ Her teeth clenched together as she searched for the right thing to call Mom. “I've been thinking a bit. Sounds like you've been kicking yourself for years, huh? With what happened at the hospital?”

Mom’s gaze fell to the floor. “That's right.”

Sparkler grunted and leaned against me. She inhaled and took a moment before continuing. “Everything came out at once, earlier. I didn't think about how long you'd been been beating yourself up over it. Maybe I should have put this off longer until I was ready. You didn't deserve that. M'sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Mom shook her head. “You have every reason to be angry with me. You never deserved what happened. If there was one thing I could do again in my life, it would be that.”

“I know. Now, I mean, I know now.” Sparkler tapped the side of her head. “Up here anyways. N'you at least tried to make it right, even when it went wrong. It doesn't make everything okay, I can't really say that yet. But it makes it better.”

Mom sighed and nodded. “I realize that nothing can really make it right. I just want to do what I can.”

“Maybe we can try and get along?” Sparkler asked with a brittle smile.

Mom smiled, her face relaxing a little for the first time that day. “I would like that.”

“Okay.” Sparkler’s shoulders tensed again. “So, um, can we see M—her?”

“Of course, right this way.” Mom continued down a hallway that I recognized.

Thinking about all the previous times I had met Magetrix, I turned to Sparkler. “Just to warn you, Magetrix is kinda ... different.”

Sparkler’s brow furrowed. “Different how?”

Seeing we didn’t have much time before we got to the door to Magetrix’s lab, I went with the short and concise answer. “She’s a bit like Twilight when she’s doing her science. Only kinda moreso in some ways.”

Sparkler’s frown furrowed as she thought that one over. “Ah.”

We entered the lab’s office, and Mom called out. “Maggie? Are you in here?”

As if in reply, an inequine roar reverberated from within the lab. That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear, and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Being an officer of the Guard, it sounded like the type of sound that usually announced a fight.

Mom sighed and rubbed the side of her temple. “That would be a yes.”

“Hagabab?!” Sparkler leapt behind me. “What the hay was that?!”

“That's what I'm wondering!” I exclaimed, and moved to the door that led further into the lab.

“Maggie's probably done an experiment that's let something crawl in through the cracks in reality again,” Mom grumbled as she trotted into the lab. “Try and be careful while I sort this out.”

“What? Wait, what?!” Sparkler looked between me and Mom as we followed her, and after a moment’s hesitation, decided to stick close to me.

“I think we’re about to find out,” I told her. “Try and stay behind me.”

A dozen green portals floated about the lab, and more worrying, things were trying to come through them. I couldn't see exactly what they were, mainly because it stung my eyes to look at them directly. All I could say for certain is that they had plenty of mouths, eyes, and tentacles, none of which were arranged with any kind of sane geometry. It reminded me why Mom had told me never to go into Magetrix’s lab alone when I was a colt.

As for Magetrix herself, she was busy running about the lab, brandishing a rune-covered staff that glowed with arcane fire. A humming eldritch wind buffeted her wild, uncombed light purple mane and tail about, and her stained and slightly singed lab coat covered her pink coat. “Back! Back! Not desired result of experiment!” She fired a beam of magical energy from the staff into one of the portals. There was a sizzle of burnt flesh that smelled vaguely like burnt pineapple, and the resulting cry of pain made me flatten my ears to my head. “Asymmetry not desired in this place—anomaly to good science!”

Mom sighed and cast a spell to slowly close the portal that had been cleared of whatever was trying to claw its way into our dimension. “Maggie, what did you do this time?”

“Rammed particles together at extreme velocity,” Magetrix said in her usual clipped manner of speaking. She charged her staff as she carried a near-manic smile on her lips. “Fascinating results. Did not expect interdimensional horror, though. Will have to determine if consistent result of experiment.”

Mom finished closing the portal and then shook her head. “You know you aren't supposed to attract things from forbidden dimensions. Remember the talk we had about that?”

Magetrix shrugged. “Science means poking universe. Sometimes universe pokes back.” She frowned in contemplation. “Or things outside of universe, in this case. Always the thing, always more to learn. Sometimes results unpredictable.”

Mom let out another exasperated sigh. “Shining, be a dear and bubble those portals to keep those things from breaching through? I'll seal them up one at a time with Maggie if you can buy me the time.”

“Got it!” Not seeing a good reason to argue about preventing interdimensional horrors from coming into our reality, I concentrated and created a series of bubble shields around each portal. The things inside clawed at my shields, but they held for the moment. At least these could actually be affected by magic—that wasn’t always the case. I had found that out the hard way during that incident with the Mad Cult of Mootana.

Sparkler stared at all of this slack-jawed. “How—particle—staff?! Again?! How can there be an 'again' when you're talking about reality and cracks in it?!”

“Lets just say that Maggie keeps things interesting,” Mom explained as she worked with her lover to close another portal. “It’s both something I find attractive in her and endlessly exasperating.”

“Welcome to the family,” I told Sparkler as I reinforced my shield spells. “Things can get a bit hectic at times.”

“You can't tell me this is normal! A kitchen fire's normal!” Sparkler blinked and her eyes widened. “Oh Luna, no. What is it about my mothers that makes disaster mundane?”

Another of those things crashed into one of my shields and spider web cracks formed in it, forcing me to pour more magic into it to shore it up. Being barely able to look at my work didn’t make the casting any easier. “I'm going to tell you something right now, Sparkler: normalcy and my family aren’t on a speaking basis anymore.”

“It seems to be genetic.” Sparkler cast a spell that played with the ambient light, and made the air between me and the portal blurry enough to give my sanity a slight break. “Anything I can do?”

“Keep anything from snatching Shining,” Mom instructed her as she worked over the next portal. “Give me a few uninterrupted minutes and I'll have this cleaned up.”

“Right, got it.” Sparkler stayed near me, her horn glowing as she prepared to cast a spell at a moment’s notice.

“Much thanks,” Magetrix said. “Getting hairy in here. Crazy day at work.”

Mom gave her a wry smile. ”You don't say?”

Things got pretty frantic, but we managed to close all the portals after half an hour without anything big and sanity-breaking coming through and causing mayhem. I was breathing fairly heavily by the end and my horn ached. It’d been a while since I’d had to exert myself that much.

For her part, Mom wiped sweat from her brow. “Well, that was bracing.”

“Not what I was expecting today.” I frowned as I thought just what I’d been through. “As I realize this is my life. You’d think by now I’d be more surprised if normal things happened instead.”

Sparkler sat to take a load off. “What the hay did I get myself into?”

“A normal Sparkle family outing,” I answered. “It’s almost always interesting times around here.” It felt that way, anyways. Professor Magetrix definitely had a way to keep science from becoming boring. Even if that did involve preventing stuff like reality breaking from happening sometimes.

“Living with Mom is good experience for getting used to this, at least” Sparkler said.

Magetrix gave Sparkler a once-over. “And who’s this?”

Mom took a deep breath and stepped next to Sparkler. “Okay, this wasn't the introduction I wanted to do, but here we are. Maggie, come over here. We have something important to talk about.”

Magetrix placed her staff to the side and tilted her head. “What is it, Velvie?”

“I don't know a good way to put this, so I'm just going to come out and say it.” Mom visibly struggled to say anything as her face contorted into a grimace. “Maggie, this is Sparkler. My—our daughter.”

For the first time I could remember, the near-manic Magetrix froze. The seconds passed by, and eventually Sparkler awkwardly waved her hoof. “Um, hi.” Her eyes darted to the door for a moment, and she scooted closer to me. For my part, I wrapped a leg around hers to give her some support for what was going to be another one of the most awkward conversations of my life.

“Ah, um...” Magetrix’s ears flattened to her head. “Hello, Sparkler. Um, good to see you. Velvie said you might want to visit. Wasn’t sure. Wanted to give space, because...” She winced and her head drooped.

Mom took another deep breath. “Sparkler, this is Magetrix, your sire. We’ve known each other for a long time.”

Magetrix nodded. “Of course, of course. And wanted to see you. Always did. Just... I failed. Tried to adopt you. But failed.”

Mom raised a hoof to try and stop Magetrix. “Maggie, don't. You don’t need to—“

“She deserves to know!” Magetrix snapped.

Sparkler looked between them. “Wait, what’s this about?”

Magetrix ran a hoof down her face. “Tried to adopt you. My plan. After you were born, and found out... Plan was to have Velvie give you up, and then I'd adopt you. No pain, explain everything when you were old enough.” She scowled and I could almost hear her teeth grind together. “Adoption Services wouldn't let me.”

Sparkler blinked at that. “They—what?”

“Wait, this is the first time I’ve heard of this.” I looked to Mom. “You didn’t mention any plan like this.” Something I wasn’t happy about when this added more context to everything.

Mom ran a hoof through her mane. “After we found out who Sparkler’s sire was, we came up with a plan that might have prevented a scandal. We’d let Magetrix adopt Sparkler, and that would effectively let Sparkler stay in the family. Magetrix was living in the manor at the time, so nothing would have been strange about her bringing her adopted daughter into our home. Then we would explain everything to Sparkler when she was old enough to understand.” She looked to me, her face strained. “And to all of you, as well.”

My chest felt tight as I thought through this. I did my best not to lose my cool; Sparkler needed me, and I wasn’t going to help her by flipping out and storming out of there like I had when Mom and Dad first tried to explain everything. “So what went wrong?”

Mom’s shoulders sagged. “They didn't let Maggie adopt Sparkler. For ... reasons.”

Magetrix snorted. “Adoption Services said I wasn’t suited to be a mother. Idiotic—I’m in top one percent for intelligence, have high paying job, stable home. All factors suggest good home for new foal.”

I could guess why Adoption Services might not want to give Magetrix a newborn foal, considering I just helped stop an interdimensional invasion of her lab by beings that hurt my head to think about. That type of thing didn’t get you glowing reviews from most ponies, and Magetrix had always been an odd pony.

Mom sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “Still doesn't excuse that I let you go to start with. If I hadn’t none of this would have happened.”

Sparkled looked between the two of them. “I don't know what to say.” Her mouth opened to speak but then closed again. She shuddered and wiped at her eyes, gradually bringing herself to look up at Magetrix. “You wanted me?”

“Always.” Magetrix nodded. “We both did. It’s just ... plan flawed. Erred.”

Sparkler stepped forward, her steps uncertain. She tentatively offered a hug to her sire. Magetrix stood staring for a moment that seemed to drag on. Then she embraced her long-lost daughter. It was an awkward, unsure hug, and soon both daughter and sire were crying as they held one another.

It was evening by the time Sparkler and I left the lab. Mom had decided to stay with Magetrix, probably to talk about some things, and to give Sparkler some much needed room. I felt psychologically exhausted after the long day, and I could only imagine how Sparkler was feeling by this point. We walked in silence down Canterlot’s streets; Sparkler looked like she was pretty deep in her own thoughts, while I struggled to find something to say. Since I didn’t know what the right thing to say was, I decided it might be best for me to just be here for her. That was nice and safe, and didn’t risk me saying something that would make a mess of things.

Sparkler’s head was hanging low as she leaned against me. Then she suddenly let out a long groan. “I was not ready for that.”

“Me either,” I agreed. “That was a lot to take in.” It was going to take me a while before I could digest everything I had head from Mom and Magetrix. Some part of me felt good that they had tried to keep Sparkler, even if their plan had major issues. Like the part where it failed and deprived me of my baby sister. That last fact still burned in my chest. I felt an urge to go back and tear into them for what they had done, and I might have if not for Sparkler. Arguing with Mom probably wouldn’t help anything, but I knew being here for Sparkler was a big deal to her. Priorities, priorities.

I’d probably talk it over with Cadey. She was probably the best sounding board I had for this type of thing. That was one of the really nice things about being married: you always had somepony you could rely on to talk about your problems with. And oh boy did I have some problems to talk about.

“That’s putting it lightly.” She shook her head. “Well, the tentacled horror was ... new, but I meant today. Talking to my moms, you know?”

“I think I get it.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Especially finding out everything for why they did it—you know, everything.”
“That all really could've gone a lot better.” Sparkler sighed. “In hindsight, I probably should've waited until I had had a chance to talk to somepony about it. Like a psychologist. I mean, awkward as it would've been to go to my marefriend's mom for advice, a shrink's input would've gone a long way.”

“Maybe.” I remembered having to see a psychologist after Chrysalis had played my head like a piano, and it had helped well enough. “We could always get you some help if you want it. It'd probably be a good idea, really.” I’d pay the bill myself if it would help her. Sun and stars knew Sparkler had been through enough to justify it.

“I know a pony, but thanks.” Sparkler slowed to a stop and hugged me. “And … thanks, bro. I could not have gotten through that without you.”

I smiled and hugged her back. It felt good to be the big, protective brother when it actually worked out. “Happy to help. I wanted to be here for you.”

Sparkler squeezed me like I was a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. “I got another reason to look forward to summer vacations now, 'cause I really...” She trailed off, letting her hug express her feelings.

I held her close, not ever wanting to let her go. “I'd love for you to get to visit.”

“I was thinking of keeping in touch with my moms through mail until m'ready to talk again,” Sparkler said as she looked up at me with a smile. “I figure I can add one more pony to the mailing list.”

I smiled back at her. “I don't see why not.”

Thankfully the rest of the week went much smoother. Sparkler was a bit withdrawn during that time, but I couldn’t blame her when she had a lot to think about. Still, we got to have fun and spend time together in Canterlot. I think that helped a lot. It felt great to get to spend time with her and Dinky, even if Dinky was such a little ball of energy she was starting to run me, Cadey, and Twily all into the ground by the end of the week. The bright side was that Dinky did a good job of exhausting herself as well.

Thus, by the end of the week I was in Cadey’s living room with Dinky asleep beside me. We were both reclined on the couch, with Dinky’s head lying on my side. She was adorable when she slept. My little sweetheart peaceably resting after a long week out on the town. It made me look forward to when I’d get to see her again—and shot a pang of pain through my heart when I thought about how she would be going back to her mom before too long.

Cadey quietly walked into the living room and she looked down at us with a soft smile. “Aww, look at you.” She ran a hoof through Dinky’s mane to fix it a bit. “Is she all tuckered out?”

I smiled as I watched my sleeping daughter. “Yeah, she fell asleep while I was reading her a story.”

Ditzy came in behind Cadey and beamed at the sight of us. “Oh, Muffin...” She gave me a grin. “You're a natural.”

I chuckled and rubbed the back of my mane. “I think I’m getting the hang of it. Shame Dinky didn't have the energy to stay up for the entire story and get to see you.”

“Oof, it sounds like she had a good day out then.” Ditzy sat down on the other side of Dinky. “She usually has enough energy to ask for another one. Sometimes a third if it’s Rainbow foalsitting her.”

“We have kept her pretty busy.” I let out a breath, as all the events of the last week flooded over me. “To be honest, I'm pretty beat trying to keep up with her. I'm not sure how you've managed this all by yourself.” Thankfully Dinky had bounced back quickly from the ice cream incident. Her being down and out from a stomach ache had been awful, but it had only been a small hiccup on what had otherwise been a pretty great week.

Ditzy let out a breath that was half-chuckle and half-sigh. “It was an adjustment, to put it mildly. But I had a lot of help from friends and family.”

“That definitely helps,” I agreed. “Twilight and Sparkler were worth their weight in gold.” I gave Cadey a sheepish grin. “Cadey too, of course.”

Ditzy chuckled and smiled at Cadey. “I bet. Sparkler's been such a good sister for her, and I really can't thank Twilight enough for everything she's done for us.”

“Right.” I ran a hoof through my mane as I remembered something I wanted to tell her. “Um, just a heads up, but Sparkler and I did go see her ... other moms earlier in the week.”

Ditzy stiffened at the mention of Sparkler’s biological parents. “Oh.” She looked at the still peacefully sleeping Dinky.

Cadey’s horn briefly glowed as she cast a spell over Dinky. “Don't worry, we won't wake her up—just remind me to dispel that silence spell when we're done.”

Dityz’s head nodded in thanks. “So ... how did things go with Sparkler?”

“They ... went.” I huffed as I shook my head, realizing I was being painfully unspecific about something Ditzy needed to hear about. “It went about as well as it could have. I think Sparkler's just going to need a bit of time and distance to pull it all together. But she does want to write them letters, so I think it's moving in a positive direction.”

Ditzy let out a small sigh of relief. “That's good. If I'm completely honest, I'm not sure what I expected, or even wanted to hear. I'm glad, though, I really am. I couldn't imagine what your poor mother went through all of these years, or her...” She hesitated as she sought the right word. “Her partner, I guess.”

“It sounds like they have some issues to work through.” At least based on how Mom had said she was staying behind in the lab with Magetrix, it sounded like they were going to talk after we left. Now there was a discussion I didn’t want to be around for. “Turns out their plan was for Magetrix to adopt Sparkler, but then the whole thing got derailed. Adoption Services wouldn’t let Magetrix have Sparkler for whatever reason.” I grimaced. “Still not sure how I feel about that.”

Cadey’s face contorted into a grimace. “That's horrible. Not that it excuses what happened, but that does explain their actions a little bit.”

“I guess.” I sighed. “I think Mom didn’t tell me about that at first because she wanted to protect how Magetrix would look in Sparkler’s eyes. If it looked like Magetrix had nothing to do with any of it...” I shrugged, feeling even more exhausted just by thinking about the whole situation.

“Oh my goodness...” Ditzy sat in silence for a minute as she absorbed what I told her. “I couldn't begin to imagine how that would have hurt her.” She gently rubbed Dinky’s back as she stared at her daughter. “I feel like I should reach out to her too, but wouldn't know where to begin.”

“Maybe write a letter?” I suggested. “That might be a start. Less of a chance you’ll say something you don’t mean to, also.” I knew way too well how you could botch a conversation at the worst possible time.

Ditzy nodded. “Maybe, yeah.” She sighed and slumped on the couch. “I'll deal with that tomorrow. At least we're moving forward. What do you two have planned?”

“We were hoping to get to spend a bit more time with Dinky and Sparkler before you had to take the train back to Ponyville.” A grin spread across my face as I watched Dinky sleep. “It was really great to get to spend time with them.”

Ditzy gave me that bubbly smile of hers. “I can tell Dinky loved it, and Sparkler really wanted time with you. Maybe we can work something out where we can do this more often?”

A flutter of warmth ran through me. “I'd love that. Really.”

Cadey smiles and nodded. “They're both great to have around.”

“And I'd like to visit too,” Ditzy said, looking between us. “If it’s not too much to ask, that is.”

“I don't see why not.” I looked Cadey’s way to make sure I hadn’t overstepped.

Cadey shook her head. “It's fine. Really. It's nice when Ditzy can get to visit with her girls.”

“Thank you.” Ditzy offered a hoof to Cadey. “You're a wonderful pony, and I'd like to catch up with you both more.”

Cadey took her hoof and squeezed it. “That sounds good to me.”

Ditzy squeezed back. “Me too.”

Dinky yawned and snuggled up against me, smiling in her sleep.

I gently wrapped a leg around her to help keep her warm and comfortable. “I think everything's going to turn out alright.”

It was a couple of days after the Doo family left Canterlot that Princess—Aunt Celestia (that was going to take me forever to get that down) summoned me to her private throne room. I had been little worried about why she wanted to see me; being called on by royalty, even when I was technically royalty myself, always made me a bit nervous. It meant they wanted something, and that something wasn’t always good. But I put on my uniform and answered the call all the same. There wasn’t anything else I could do. Not like I could avoid my own aunt-in-law and princess even if I wanted to.

I found Celestia sitting on her throne and Cadance sitting by her side. Both of them smiled as I entered, so that was probably a good sign, probably. I bowed before the throne, eliciting a chuckle from Celestia.

“I think we can dispense with you having to always bow to me, Shining Armor,” Celestia said with a wry grin. “You are my nephew, after all.”

“Um, right.” I stood, feeling a bit embarrassed. “So what did you want me for?”

“Oh, just a minor matter,” Celestia said with a teasing tone. “Just your new assignment.”

My ears perked. That was very much something I wanted to know, and my heartbeat picked up in response. “What’s that going to be?”

Celestia smiled at Cadance. “In light of recent events, we’ve been transferring personnel around, among them the captain of Cadance’s guard. There is now an open position that needs to be filled by a sufficiently senior officer.” Her smile took on an impish air. “Do you think you might know of such a pony?”

I looked between them, fearing that this was too good to be true. “I-I’d love to be the captain of Cadey’s guard!” Sure, it wasn’t captain of the entire Royal Guard, but it was something. A pony could do a lot worse than heading one of the princesses’ personal bodyguards.

Celestia turned to Cadey. “There you go. It might be a bit awkward to have your husband be in charge of your guard, but somehow I think you’ll manage.”

Cadey grinned back at her aunt. “I’m sure we’ll find a way.” She smiled in my direction. “We’ve gotten through everything else thus far, even if it’s been rough sometimes.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “What you said.” I puffed out my chest as I addressed the both of them. “But yeah, I’ll do my best to run Cadey’s guard. You have my oath on that.”

“I have no doubts you’ll do exactly that,” Celestia said. “We’ll have an official ceremony for you taking the position later, but right now I’d like to talk some specifics about your new post.”

I stepped closer to them. “Of course, what was on your mind?”

The corner of Celestia’s mouth quirked in that way whenever I got the sense she knew more than she was letting on. “How do you two feel about taking a trip up north to see to a few things? I’ve been getting rumors about some troubles from that part of Equestria that could use some royal attention...”

It felt good as we started getting to business. I was back into my comfort zone of reports, positions of troops, of developing problems that needed to be dealt with. My life had been pretty badly upturned in recent months, no way around that. But now I thought I had a grasp on everything. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I was pretty sure I could manage it. Nopony who knew what they were talking about ever said life was going to be easy—what mattered was how you dealt with it.

Author's Notes:

I'd like to thank my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie, and my prereaders Trinary, Rodinga, Swiftest, Bronywriter, wolfstorm56, Stupidhand14, Alicorn Priest, and Poison Claw for all their help with putting this story together.