Twilight took a seat by the bed with a bit of a huff, slightly annoyed by a recent argument. She pulled out a quill and a fresh notebook from the bookcase nearby, cracking it open for the first time. The scent of the fresh paper wafted into her nose, making a smile appear on her previously grumpy face, although it wasn’t enough to completely cure her of her little hissy fit. She took the quill and began to write down her thoughts.
“I have decided to take up writing a journal to record my thoughts and findings on a certain topic. A thought has come to mind, and after a bit of… ‘talk’ with my assistant Spike, I believe that recording my thought process would be best in case I find anything interesting about this topic. It has crossed my mind that Prince Blueblood is Princess Celestia’s distant nephew. This is not something amazing or new, but I can’t help but think about their actual relationship with one another.”
Spike walked into the room, seeing her scribbling into the notebook, “Really? You’re actually writing this down?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Yes spike, I AM writing this down.” She said, her tone dripping with annoyance.
“Just accept the fact that they’re related somehow and just move on, it’s not this important to get so worked up about.” Spike knew she had a eager urge to gain knowledge, but this seemed pointless and had no real value for Twilight, or anyone else.
“Spike, you don’t understand… Just think about it for a moment.” She put her quill and notebook down, turning her entire focus toward the little dragon assistant, “If Prince blueblood truly IS her nephew, than it must mean that Celestia’s sister would be her mother, or grandmother or something… But Celestia’s only sister has been on the moon for 1000 years, so then the ONLY explanation would be that she has ANOTHER sister, a THIRD alicorn!” Just explaining it to him made her giddy, and she quickly began to write these thoughts down on paper once more.
Spike just sighed at her, “Yeah, okay, maybe… but what will you do when you find out the truth?”
“Well, I don’t know… depends what the truth is… The point is I’ll know! And that’s all that matters.” Silence fell over the room, other than the sound of the quill scribbling across the paper. Spike sighed once more and headed back to the other room, letting her have her moment. Twilight rolled her eyes, putting her notebook away for now to get some rest. She had already planned to get to Canterlot tomorrow to start her research.
“A third alicorn would be an amazing discovery. If Celestia controls the sun, and Luna controlled the moon, than what would the third alicorn control? It’s a fascinating thought to me, and I can’t wait to discuss it with the princess. It should be noted that I AM in Canterlot now, and therefore I’ll be talking with the princess in just a few hours. I’ll get some answers out of her and see where they lead me.” The train began to slowly put on the breaks, pulling into the Canterlot train station. It eased itself next to the platform before stopping. A whistle blew to signal their arrival.
She took a moment to think, twirling the quill in her magical field as she contemplated adding anything more before she had to leave… She quickly scribbled one more line onto the paper, “Side note, my assistant isn’t being very supportive… But I’ll get his attention and support eventually.”
As she approached the castle doors, she pulled out her notebook once again, scribbling down her current thoughts. She would’ve waited, but she felt that her current thoughts needed to be scribbled down before talking with the princess.
“As I approach the castle, I can’t help but find myself becoming more concerned about the answer I will receive… It could end up being a simple answer that I just never thought of, which would ruin the excitement… although there also the possibility that I won’t get ANY answer and have no leads to look for… Or there’s always the possibility… I’ll get an answer I really don’t want.” She gulped, her mind racing with horrifying possibilities as to what the answer could be, “I’m anxious to see how things go from here… I have an incredibly good feeling that this will be an interesting morning.”
She closed her notebook and tucked it into her saddlebag before heading up the steps toward her teacher’s room. She gave the large double doors a gentle rapping before letting herself in, “Princess? Are you busy?”
The princess was lying in a very relaxed position, going over some letters she had received from various sources. A smile appeared on her otherwise bored face at the sound of her student’s voice, and carefully put the letter aside, “Twilight! It’s so good to see you… no, I’m not incredibly busy… Please, sit down.” The princess motioned for her to join her, pulling a large pillow out for her to lie down on. Twilight graciously accepted the pillow, plopping down with a cute little smile. “So my dear student, what brings you to Canterlot?”
“Well, I was curious about something…” she started off easy, not wanting to rush into things, “What exactly if Prince Bluebloods relationship with you?”
Celestia was a bit surprised by the question; there was certainly an odd look on her face for a brief moment. But it quickly went away and back to normal, “Oh Twilight, I’ve explained this before… When you were a filly, remember? He’s a distant nephew of mine, that’s all…”
“But where does his family tree come from?” Twilight continued, pressing for more detailed answers, “He can’t be Luna’s descendant since she was on the moon when he was born…”
Celestia raised her brow, unaware that Twilight had given it more thought. “Oh of course he’s not a descendant of Luna…” she chuckled as if the thought was absurd
“But then he can’t be related to YOU directly, or he would be your great grandson or something…” Twilight continued her assault with words, smiling confidently the entire time.
Celestia was losing her amused smile, “Twilight is there something you’re trying to get at?” she asked simply, a bit of a frown on her face. She didn’t appear to like this game…
“Well.. I was just wondering if you had any… Other relatives… Cousins… Sisters…”
She shook her head simply, “There are no other relatives…” she insisted, trying to smile again.
“You never DID tell me about Luna before the Nightmare Moon incident… I had no idea you had a sister up until that point…” Twilight kept her attack going, she was going to break a wall somewhere and get the information she wanted, “I can understand why… Losing your sister and having to banish her is not something anyone would want to remember… But things turned out okay in the end… so if you have any more sisters, I’d just like to talk about it…”
“Twilight, I don’t have any other sisters…” she said sternly, “It was me and Luna, and that’s all It has ever been…”she seemed to put a line down right then and there, not wanting Twilight to cross it her smile returned as she tried to change the topic. “Now why don’t you tell me about your most recent adventure? Your letter wasn’t as detailed as I would’ve wanted.”
Twilight furrowed her brow, she was not giving up, and she didn’t hesitate to cross the line, “A third Alicorn would be an amazing find, Princess… For the world to discover that there is another being like you would be incredible! Not to mention what does that one control? You control the sun, Luna controls the moon, than what would the third alicorn cont-“
“TWILIGHT!” Celestia quickly raised her voice, silencing the smaller purple pony, “I will not discuss this any further. I have said all I will say on the matter and nothing more will come out of it. Stop this research right now! I don’t want to hear another word of it.” Celestia glared at the little pony.
What normally would have sent an average pony running in a fit of tears, Twilight stood up to, glaring back with just as much ferocity. She wanted to continue the argument, starting with something along the lines of ‘if it wasn’t true, why are youge tting so worked up about it?’… however she knew she wasn’t getting anymore answers from her, “Fine… I’ll go…” she said simply, heading out the door. She passed by a guard, who was rushing to check on the princess after her yell, “Excuse me, where would Prince Blueblood be right now?”
The guard stumbled a little, not expecting to be questioned in his run, “Oh, uh, probably in his chamber… west wing, last door on the left.”
“Thank you sir!”
“TWILIGHT! NO!” Celestia called out from her room.
“Oops, gotta run!” She quickly made her way out, leaving Celestia in a huff. Celestia knew she could easily get her… but she decided to let the girl go… hoping that she would hit a dead end…
“My conversation with the princess didn’t give me any REAL information; however I got plenty of hints that my theory has some fidelity to it.” Twilight scribbled more notes into her little notebook as she made her way to Prince Bluebloods living quarters. She was eager to get her thoughts down onto the paper, her mind still racing as she continued to think. “She denied having another sister, but she never suggested another reason for Prince Blueblood to be related to her. Nothing about her mother, father, aunts or uncles… nothing… which… now that I think about it, is another mystery I’ll need to discuss with her… BUT, for now I’ll focus on Blueblood… Speaking of which, I see him now. I hope to get something out of him before the Princess jumps me…”
She slipped the notebook away once again before calling out to the regal pony ahead, “Prinec Blueblood! Excuse me! Could I talk with you for a moment?”
The noble pony figure turned his head, raising his brow at the pony who called out to him, “Oh… Hello miss Twilight… What brings you here?” he never felt like he and her really ‘connected’ over the past few years that she had been under Celstia’s tutelage, so for her to rush him in the hall to talk to him seemed odd.
“Well, I just had some questions… About your family.” She put on a hopeful smile, desperately wanting more clues to how the relationship between the two was connected.
“Oh, well my royal line goes VERY far back into equestrian lore, back to when Equestria was first formed by our ancestors…” It sounds less like he was explaining his family history and more like a speech he prepared for some political reasons. “Our royal blood has run through the veins of Equestria, and kept it alive alongside the princess-“
“Yeah yeah, I get it… but what’s your RELATION with the princesses themselves?” she asked, getting a bit annoyed by his speech.
“Well, I’m her distant nephew of course! Everypony knows that.”
“Okay, so where exactly do you connect? It couldn’t have been Celestia herself nor princess Luna… so where’s the connection?”
Blueblood had a sudden realization, and Twilight could see it. He had absolutely no idea. He was often stuck up and selfish, but being stupid was something he refused to allow himself to be, and he didn’t like any situation that made him seem like he was brainless, “I… I’m not sure exactly… could it be Celestia’s parents? Maybe one of them had a brother or sister and gave Celestia a cousin… That would still make me her nephew, correct?”
“Well, that’s one theory… but Celestia and Luna aren’t like normal ponies… I don’t know if they were ‘born’ like the rest of us…” Twilight had a little smile on her face; at least this lead was brainstorming ideas with her… although so far he had nothing to really offer…
“Well…” he stroked his chin thoughtfully with his hoof, attempting to think up a solution for their problem, “My mother might know more than I would… She’s a book person like you… she’s kept old diaries from our family and even kept some of the princess’ diaries from long ago. We should talk to her.” He was now curious to know, the rage that he had been unwillingly ignorant all these years was eating away at him now.
“Let’s! I’d be happy to join you in our little quest for knowledge.”
“Oh, er… well, you go on ahead… I uh… have some things to do here.” He seemed a bit tense at the mention of going together, “I’ll catch up with you, but just ask for Margaret when you get to the Caterlot central library…”
“Margaret… I think I’ve met her… I’m not sure… But thank you! I’ll meet you there soon!” she smiled at him before quickly turning away; rolling her eyes a bit as she walked away. She pulled out her notebook once more and began to write.
“Success! A new lead and more information to work with; this has been a fruitful talk with the prince, if only a short one. Even he didn’t know much about his relation to the princess, but that’s wonderful! It means that this secret runs deeper than I had imagined. He didn’t feign ignorance, or tell me to run along, he honestly didn’t know. Celestia is keeping something from me, and I’m going to find out… The prince gave me a lead to head to the library, but I believe I have one more stop to make before I leave the castle… The princess of the night…”
Twilight gave the door a soft knock, hoping the princess wasn’t busy. She heard a groan from inside the room, and after another moment it opened, “Yes? Who is i-… Twilight?” Princess Luna rubbed her eyes gently, apparently just waking up. Her hair was from one of Rarity’s nightmares, a tangled jumbled mess. Even the stars in her flowing mane seemed dimmer than usual.
“Hello Princess Luna, I hope I’m not interrupting you…” Twilight felt bad for knocking now. She absolutely hated interrupting other ponies, especially anyone’s rest.
“Oh, well… I really needed to get up anyway.” She let out a loud yawn, ignoring the fact that she was happily resting, “Come in, what brings you to see me today?” she stepped aside, letting Twilight into her room. Luna shut the door and took her first look around her own room that morning, suddenly notice a children’s board game out on the table. It laid unfinished, apparently stopped between turns with die laying neatly in front of a set of cards to remind her who’s turn it was later. Luna bit her lip, hoping that Twilight hadn’t noticed such a foolish thing sitting plain as day in her room.
But of course this of all ponies who would visit her, the observant and curious pony of Equestria had to be the to be here now, “Oh I remember this game as a filly!” she exclaimed, trotting over to it. She remember playing with Celestia and learning a few tricks and secrets to help her win… although most of these tricks were learned when she played it by herself as a child. “Did you have a little guest running around here?” she asked, assuming she had been playing with someone.
“Oh, no, heh… um…” she turned her head slightly, rubbing the back of her head with an awkward expression, “It’s something for me… To pass the time…” she replied with a bashful look on her face.
“Oh, well, surely someone was playing WITH you?”
Luna shrank a bit, “No… I was playing with myself…” she sighed, feeling like she could be open to Twilight, “I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been easy to adjust to regular life once again… It’s been very difficult so... I find myself hiding in my own room fairly often…”
Twilight frowned; a lonely life like hers was one she too once had… But after finding friendship she couldn’t bare to return to such a lonely life. “I understand… I was always by myself when I was a filly…” She wanted to comfort her, and remind her she always had friends in Ponyville, but an idea clicked in her head, “Well I’m sure Celestia comes and keeps you company… she always did with me.”
“Well, yes… she does from time to time, but she’s very busy…” she sounded a little grumpy, but she quickly realized her tone and tried to correct herself, “I’m not complaining! Please don’t think I am, It’s just…”
“I understand.” She quickly cut her off before the Alicorn’s thoughts could betray her, “Too bad you don’t have any… OTHER siblings to keep you company…”
That face… the face she made when she mentioned other siblings, it meant something. There was a slight look of horror, followed by deep sadness… then it just vanished, as if nothing was said, “Yes… too bad indeed.”
“What about your son?”
This look gave her a look of surprise, “My WHAT? I don’t have a son!”
“OH, I’m sorry, I thought Blueblood was Celestia’s nephew, so I could only assume that meant he was your son… or great grandson or something…”
“Oh…” she couldn’t help but laugh at the thought, “Oh no, he’s not my son, he’s my nephew as well…” she simply smiled, happy that this was all just a misunderstanding.
“So you’re both his aunts, than who’s connecting him to you two?” She inquired, raising her brow at the mare of the night.
That look returned; horror followed by a tinge of sadness… but this time the sadness didn’t go away. She turned her head away, “Twilight, I can tell now that you’re after some information, but the information you want… I can’t tell you…”
So the information DID exist. There WAS something that Celestia was trying to hide from her, and apparently it affected Luna as well.“Why not?” she pressed further, she had someone who was talking about the one thing she needed to know…
“I just can’t, Twilight, please… just… stop…” the tears began to well up inside her, starting to break free. They caused Twilight’s heart to twist into odd, painful shapes that she couldn’t stand.
“Princess, this is something I HAVE to know, this is something I WILL find out, If you just tell me now I can end this and be on my way. I don’t want to hurt your feelings about whatever is going on, I just want to know.”
“I didn’t want to know! I wish I could forget… Just go twilight!” she waved her hoof at Twilight, causing her to be pushed back a bit with the alicorn’s magic. Her other hoof covered her eyes as she began to cry.
Twilight could feel her heart dying a little inside. She made the princess cry out of her pursuit for knowledge. She decided to try her other lead and see where it led her. Her legs quickly led her out of the Princess’ room and down the stairs towards the main hall so she could leave.
Her notebook hung in the air by her side, her eye flashing from it to the road ahead of her as she wrote and walked toward her next destination. The quill scribbled quickly as her thought were transcribed onto paper, “I feel terrible for making Luna cry, but she too told me a lot more than I would have expected. She laughed at the mentioning of Blueblood being her son, and yet when I asked how he WAS related, she hesitated. Her emotions mean she was strongly attached to whoever this mysterious alicorn could be, and I’m guessing it’s a sibling. She reacted to how I mentioned ‘siblings’, not parents, so it’s fairly safe to say that’s who it is… And then there was that comment about being unable to tell me anything… Could Celestia truly be trying to keep this a secret? Even telling her own sister to stay silent? This restricted knowledge must be known! If only by me! I WILL find out more at the library!”
She tucked the notebook away before entering the library; a temple of knowledge with books lining every one of the walls. She drooled a bit at the sight, still unable to walk into the library like any normal pony. The idea of being surrounded by knowledge made he giddy, but she forced herself to calm down and walk towards the desk, where a lovely older Pegasus stood, sifting through a few older books. Twilight was familiar with the afce, but rarely ever took time to talk to her before today.
Twilight was about to request to see Miss Margaret… but her nametag caught her attention, “Wait, YOU are miss Margaret?”
The Pegasus blinked, looking at her with a little smile, “Why yes, it is… you sound surprised, hehe… Did you think the nametag would deceive you?”
She blinked, a bit surprised to see her as a unicorn, “Uh, are you… Prince Blueblood’s mother?”
Without even a hint of hesitation she answered kindly, “Why yes, yes I am.”
“Oh, well um… see, he told me you might have some books… or… diaries… Celestia’s diaries?”
The Pegasus suddenly looked a little concerned, “Why on earth would you want those my dear?... Well, whatever the reason, I can’t just give those to just anypony…”
A bright smile crossed over the unicorn’s face. She wasn’t just any pony, “I’m Twilight Sparkle! I’m the princess’ star pupil! I’m sure you’ve noticed me in here over the past few years…”
The pegasus seemed surprised, “OH! So YOU’RE Twilight! Oh I’ve read so much about you!”
“You have?”
“Yes in Celestia’s dia-… oops…” She blushed a little, now realizing her gaff.
“hehe, so you’ve read them as well? Well I’m more interested in her older ones…” she explained with a little smile.
“Oh? Is that so? What for?”
“Well, I have a curiosity in my mind and I want it to go away… the only way I know how is to find out the information I’m looking for…”
“Young lady I don’t like vague answers.” She said in a bit of a blunt tone, hating this beating around the bush that was going on, “What do you want to know?”
“Well, it relates to you as well… How are you and your son related to the two princesses’?”
Her eyes widened a bit, “Ooohhh that little family mystery…” She smiled a little, motioning for her to follow, “Come with me… I may have directions to the answers you seek.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up, her notebook instinctively flew from her saddlebags along with the quill. All she wrote down was a quick note, “Progress! She knows something!” before shoving it away quickly to continued following the pony into the back room, where the library seemed to turn into a quant little home, although still lined with books.
Margaret passed by the living area and into a room further back, where a large, dusty bookshelf sat, “I kept these books separate for many years… all of Celestia’s dairies from long ago…” she turned and sat down on a little stool to rest her legs, “I’ve read through them all, curious about my own relation to the Princess’… I found out about Princess Luna long before the Nightmare Moon incident… but it didn’t explain how on earth I could possibly be related… All I know is that somewhere on my mother’s side of the family is somepony special… as far back as I’ve gone there have been variations on whether the offspring was an earth pony, Pegasus or unicorn… It’s strange, but no matter how far I go back the change seems to be on one side of the family… it’s odd…”
“So do you think that you might be related to an Alicorn?” Twilight’s eyes were locked on her, with her ears listening to every word. She wasn’t going to allow a single fact slip by her.
“My mind tells me its unlikely…” she leaned in, smiling mischievously, “but my heart tells me that there is a reason for this odd change in my family line… and it dates back almost as far as the Princesses…”
“Can I look? I want to know!”
“Of course sweetheart… Just remember, if you find anything, be sure to let me know.”
Twilight nodded furiously, “Of course! I’ll be sure to let you know everything that I find out.” She assured her, rushing up to the first book, pulling it down and locking her eyes on the book.
Margaret just smiled, heading off to allow the girl the time she needed to study.
Twilight was so intrigued at the idea of looking into her teachers thoughts, and she wanted to read over every last entry, but she had a goal now, and she knew what had to be found. She glanced through the first book in a matter of minutes before moving on to the second. There wasn’t much to the diaries; vague day to day events, and her thoughts on how she could improve things, but nothing about sisters… she felt like she was reading just after Luna’s banishment, although there was no mention of the actual banishment, but then, there was no mention of Luna either… Maybe it was to avoid sharing the pain of having to send her away, she wasn’t sure. However she felt it gave her theory more fidelity. If there was no mention of Luna for fear that pain would overcome her, than maybe it was true about another sister…
She sifted through a third and fourth book, still with no leads… however, near the end of the fifth book she turned a page and found something odd about it… it felt thicker between her layers of magic… being a book nerd in general, it was one of the odd little quirks she seemed to have… she turned the page regardless to glance at the last two pages, reading them curiously.
“I think that Cider was a bit too strong for me… I don’t even remember how many I had… I just found myself waking up somewhere that wasn’t my bed surrounded by empty bottles… I don’t remember what I did last night but from what I’ve seen I wasn’t very happy… now I have a headache to contend with… And it seems like I’m done with this book… need to get another diary for tonight…”
The page before that mentioned nothing of her drinking, but the thick page still confounded the purple pony. With her magic she carefully peeled the two pages apart, finding an ancient sticky substance with a yellow hue to it. A certain aroma caught her attention, and even with it’s significant age it managed to carry that with it. “Apple cider?” she mumbled, having become familiar with the stuff after working with Applejack a few times. She focused in on the text, which was still visible through the slightly yellowy layer of dried cider. It was sloppily written, very unlike the princess, but she tried to read it anyway.
“I had a dream tonight. It reminded me of all those important to me that I’ve lost. I miss my family so much. There’s a full moon out tonight, and I brought myself to the Castle of the Ancient Pony Sisters to be alone with my family… I promised to have a drink for every day that’s gone by without them… I miss my sisters so…”
“AHA! SISTERS! Plural! She has another Sister. I knew it!” she squealed with delight, bouncing around the room for a moment now that she had the proof she needed. She tucked that diary into her bag, before looking back at the bookcase, “I wonder if she’s lost herself like that again?... no, probably not… it’s apparent she’s been keeping this secret safe… and if miss Margaret looked through the books as well, she would’ve spotted something…” she mumbled to herself, figuring that these thoughts would be good to add to her notebook soon, but a rustling in the other room caught her attention.
“Uh, Twilight… did the Princess happen to take issue with you looking at her things?” Margaret asked, from the other room, stepping aside to allow the guards into the back room. Prince Blueblood was standing behind them, looking nervous.
“I-I’m sorry Twilight… they followed me here after they saw me talking with you…” he seemed to feel guilty about being an unwilling accomplice, but the guards didn’t seem to care.
“Miss Sparkled, we’ve been asked to retrieve you and bring you back to the castle…” one of them spoke in a formal tone, standing in a strong, unmoving pose.
Twilight was shocked to hear these words, “I’m under arrest?” she asked in disbelief, but she felt relief when one of them shook their heads.
“No, we’ve simply been asked to bring you back to your room until the Princess can have a word with you…” he explained, eying the books in her bag.
She noticed where he was looking and shifted her position, putting herself between her and the books, “You’re not taking my notebook…”
“We weren’t asked to retrieve any books… just come along with us Sparkle…” Twilight was still a bit uncertain of how things would end up, but she nodded, following them for now.
She was brought to her room in the tallest part of the tower where she normally stayed during her visits. Nothing was new or different about this, but somehow now it felt like a prison to her. The guards let her go inside alone before closing the doors, the familiar sound of the lock turning from the other end running through her head. She waited a moment, wondering if something was supposed to happen now… but nothing did. She decided that now would be a good time to add another note to her book, hoping to pass the time. Her quill removed itself from her bag along with the notebook. She quickly and carefully wrote out her thoughts.
“Going to see Blueblood’s mother was a treat, not to mention a goldmine of information. She herself believes something is odd with her family line, and having an alicorn as an ancestor might explain it. But that was only speculations; the REAL evidence was in the many diaries or Celestia’s from YEARS ago. First of all, not one of the 5 books I went through contained any mention of Princess Luna, and of course, we all know now that she’s Celestia’s sister, but why no mentioning of that? I believe the princess was merely trying to avoid the topic for many years, trying to keep her mind off the pain of losing her… So to say she might have ANOTHER sister that she isn’t talking about is not a entirely crazy theory… But the hard facts that I know have were between two pages that were stuck together. Apparently the Princess had a bit too much cider and wrote down her true thoughts. She said she missed her SISTERS. Plural. At leave two… why would she say that if she only had one? It could be argued that she was drunk, but she seemed pretty earnest about her feelings. Although now I have some proof that there is indeed a third sister, I have been locked in my room and am now awaiting Celestia… I’m sure once she finds out what I’ve found out she’ll either tell me the truth… or just burn my findings and tell me to stop… If I only had another lead to go on I’d go look there first… but I have nothing… unless…”
A thought came to mind; she tried recalling what was in the book. After a moment she opened it back up, peeling the sticky pages away before reading it again, “Why would she go all the way to the castle of the Ancient Pony Sisters… It was the middle of the night so she was with Luna when the moon was out, but… why go all the way out there?... unless…”
It clicked, she smiled as she pulled out her notebook once again, “I’ve got the lead, her sister is in the Castle of the Ancient pony sisters… somewhere. I’m going to look. The princess is going to be furious with me though. But, I’ll cross that… horrifying flaming bridge of regret when I come to it…” she sighed, putting the book away before heading to her balcony.
It was a long way down from her balcony, even a Pegasus would get a brief chill looking down from this height. She examined her surroundings with the intent of getting down while avoiding the guards. She looked over towards the nearest tower, which was about half the height of her own. From there she found the roof of the main hall, which was next to the outer gardens. With a deep breath she prepared her magic, teleporting herself to the first checkpoint, the top of the nearest tower. She looked over toward the main hall, concentrating quickly to teleport her onto that roof. When she landed though, she lost her footing, sliding down the slope towards the gardens. She wanted to let out a scream, but feared getting caught and scolded for trying to leave. She slid right off the edge, falling toward the earth. With one final burst of magic she made herself vanish, appearing right over the fountain for a safe, less painful drop into the water.
She desperately pulled herself out, shaking the water from her mane. Her first thought was with the books, and quickly pulled them out. Luckily the saddlebags prevented much water from getting in, and they ended up only getting a few drops here and there. Relieved, she returned the books to her bag and began to gallop into the city, hoping to catch the next train to Ponyville before the princess got wind of her escape.
The train ride felt like it was taking forever. She sat there staring out the window, watching as Canterlot got further and further away. She felt like she would spot a dozen Pegasus guards bursting from the tower along with a fiery pillar of doom, rushing toward the train to capture her, but everything seemed calm except for her. She decided to write a new entry into her notebook before she lost her mind. The quill and paper popped out of her bag and soon she was writing once more.
“I had a bit of a revelation during my short stay in my room in the castle. The princess wrote down that she had gone to the castle of the ancient pony sister’s during her heavy drinking binge. Why would she go there just to ‘be’ with Luna, who was on the moon? My theory is that the missing sister is there, and now I plan to go and find her… at least, that’s the plan. I kind of escaped and ran off… so… The princess might not be too happy with me…” she gulped, feeling nervous about the princess’ rage… but her thoughts were interrupted as the train gently applied the brakes, slowly pulling into the Ponyville station. She didn’t plan to stay long, she was already mapping out the quickest way into the forest in her head…
She didn’t stop anywhere in town, she wanted to slip out before anyone noticed her, although it took her a moment to get past Pinkie, who, as always had questions abound as she tried to get her to spill whatever was on her mind. She finally managed to convince her to go away before approaching the path that led to the ancient castle, standing just outside the dense flora filled forest…
The forest was calm, quiet and serene. The sun was still high in the sky, making it seem much nicer and prettier than the nightmare moon incident. She felt confident in herself as she began to gallop straight into the forest, her eager need for knowledge the driving force behind her. She had to figure this mystery out, even if she got in trouble. She needed to know.
Her hooves brought her to the steps of the ancient castle, or at least the decaying ruins of said castle. It could hardly protect anypony at this point. It was merely stone slabs holding up one another. They seemed like any sort of force would tear down what little remained. She quietly walked through the main hall, examining the familiar structure that once held the elements of harmony. It still looked just as old and worn as it did when she arrived last time, not much had changed since then. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so she continued on.
She arrived at the room where the final battle between her and Nightmare moon took place. The room hadn’t aged a day, and yet it looked so different in the light. Nothing seemed strange about the room; it didn’t look like a menacing battle ground between the forces of good and evil. It all seemed so still and quiet. The empty window that once held beautiful stained glass let a gust of wind into the room, blowing dust and old paper’s around in a small whirlwind before letting it settle once more. She trekked on, seeing another doorway that seemed to lead to the tower. She couldn’t recall going up to the tower last time, but from how she remember the events of that night it seemed as though Nightmare moon had exited from it when the girls had arrived…
She recalled seeing Nightmare’s blue mist seeping through the cracks between the door and its frame just as she arrived. It could have merely been her place to wait for the girls, but the idea that she would be all the way up there when the elements were clearly down in the main hall seemed strange. Whatever the reason, the purple pony began to head on up towards to top of the tower, one step at a time.
As she climbed the tall tower, her mind raced as to what she would find… but… fear now began to creep up… why here? Why would the third alicorn be here of all places. It seemed strange for anypony to want to LIVE here… but then… if she weren’t alive, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about, now would she? Her heart sank. Maybe that was the reason Celestia didn’t say anything. Maybe that was why Luna didn’t want to talk about it… if she was no longer a part of this world, did she really want to dig her up and show her off?
Nevertheless, at least if she found out, she would know, and that’s all she wanted. She arrived at a door, and found it to be locked. It seemed just as old as the rest of the castle, so she tried a simple lock picking spell, but somehow, it didn’t seem to work… she tried a forceful blast from her horn, trying to jar it open. Again, it didn’t seem to budge. Frustrated, she decided to focus on teleporting to the other side. She closed her eyes and concentrated, focusing in on the few feet of distance between her and her destination. However when she vanished and reappeared, she was merely facing the other direction, looking down the steps, “What’s going on?” she mumbled, knocking at the door fiercely, “It’s… blocked by magic!” she said to herself, now feeling the string amount of energy blocking off the entire top of the tower…
“Oh no… Oh no no no NO!” she screamed, glaring at the door, “Princess I will not be denied this knowledge!” she cried out at the door, figuring her teacher was inside, blocking her path, “I know it must be painful Princess, but I didn’t come all this way to just turn away! I’ve come searching for answers and I will not leave until I get them! Now open this door right now Celestia!” her nose twitched as she glared at the door… and to her surprise, she heard a click. She blinked, standing there for a moment. With a gentle nudge of her hoof, the door slowly swung open, allowing her entrance.
Her heart jumped with glee as she quickly entered the room, “Oh thank you Celestia! I’m so sorry I yelled, but I just had to… know… Where are you?” she looked around, searching for the familiar flowing mane and the bright white skin attached to it, “Princess?” she mumbled, now looking around at what was ACTUALLY in the room with her.
It seemed to be a fairly large bedroom, velvet red curtains hung around the bed, a large wardrobe in the corner, an elegant fireplace, all untouched by the wear and tear the rest of the castle had seen. Not a speck of dust on the lush carpet, and not a stain on the window. Twilight looked around the room, curious about the room’s appearance… but something caught her eye; A large statue in the corner beside the bed. She moved in closer to examine it. It’s body was similar in shape to that of Celestia, however her hair wasn’t nearly as long, and her tail didn’t seem to have to abnormal flowingness to it. However, it did share two more similarities to the Princess, a unicorn’s horn, and Pegasus wings. A true alicorn if there was ever one to be seen. She stood with her eyes gently shut, and he head hung low. Twilight quietly approached the statue, wondering what on earth it was doing in such a lush room. However a thought came to mind that made her heart drop… Discord.
She used her magic to examine the statue, and after just a moment, found there to be a magical spell holding the alicorn in place, frozen in both stone and time itself. “Celestia… did you banish your this sister too?” she mumbled, staring at it in sadness, expecting the Princess to respond. However she got now answer. Twilight turned around, “Celestia where are you?” she cried, looking around, “I have questions and I won’t leave without answers!”
There was only silence… at least… for a moment…
“Such a curious mind you have my dear…” a voice from nowhere seemed to flow from all around the room, “Such wonderful character you have within you… It’s wonderful to meet you.”
Twilight was startled by the unfamiliar voice, looking around carefully, “W-who are you?” she turned back toward the statue, wondering if it was coming from it, “Are you the one speaking to me?” she asked, slowly stepping back.
The horn on the statue began to glow, and the stone began to recede from it’s tip, slowly working it’s way down her head, neck, and body. Her head turned slightly, stretching out her muscles as she easily freed herself. Once the stone had removed itself from her entirety, she opened her eyes; her beautiful shining blue eyes, and looked down at the unicorn, “I’ve grown to love how you’ve become, Twilight… I can see what my sister likes about you.” With a flick of her head, her silky red mane flipped to the other side of her neck, while her wings stretched out a bit.
“You… You’re the third alicorn! The third sister!... Aren’t you?” Twilight now seemed uncertain, she had the answer right in front of her but now she was finding it hard to believe.
“Yes Twilight… In fact, I’m the eldest sister… older than all things that are…”
Twilight looked at her, as if waiting for another word or two in the sentence… “All things that are… what?”
The alicorn giggled, “Just all things that ARE… all that you know exists is younger than I am…” She began to walk around the room, still trying to stretch out her body, apparently however long she had been under was long enough to stiffen her up considerably.
“Wait… you’re older than existence?” Twilight asked, her mind now racing.
“In a couple of ways, yes…”
“Did… you CREATE existence?”
The alicorn smiled over at her, “You truly ARE the perceptive one, aren’t you?” the setting sun shined brightly into the room, reflecting off her lovely pale skin.
“Are… Are you Go-“
“Uh-uh-uh!” she quickly stopped Twilight before she could utter the word, waving her hoof like a mother who was trying to gently scold their child, “I prefer to consider myself an artist… Existence was my canvas, and as such, I drew what I saw fit…” the wardrobe opened up, revealing stacks of papers and some art supplies. She used her magic to grab onto a brush, but as it lifted the papers tipped over and scattered themselves across the floor. “Oops, silly me…”
“So… you created this world…” she mumbled, staring at her.
“Yes… it’s not the first one I’ve created either… but I have a certain fondness for this one.” Her brush gently stroked against the paper, drawing elaborate paintings with a few simple strokes, “I drew the land and gave it life with the love of the earth. I drew the sky and gave it a light to shine down on everyone. I drew the night and filled it with lovely stars… and then I drew the inhabitants, the earth, Pegasus, and unicorns ponies.” As she drew ponies on the paper they seemed to come to life, jumping and playing from page to page. Twilight could swear she heard the laughter of those on the paper.
“But… then are you sister’s like you too?” Twilight asked, still astonished by the magic of the moving paintings.
“no… not really… even with all the friends I had created, I felt like I needed a family… so I created Celestia to help bear the work of the sun, and Luna to control the night. While I kept control over the land beneath our feet.”
“Ooohh… I see… The sun, moon and earth… all controlled by a separate pony.” Twilight mumbled, seeing how the job was split amongst the alicorns. “What was this you mentioned about creating other worlds though?”
The alicorn smiled, “Well, first I created a world where a giant metal man became good friends with a young boy…” her brush stroked against the paper, creating a large gray figure with two big white eyes and a big smile. Twilight found it odd for the creature to be standing on two legs, along with the smaller creature in his hand doing the same. The smaller one seemed happy though, waving at Twilight while the giant metal ‘man’ waved back.
“Then I created a world where three young girls set out to protect the world from evil…” another stroke of her brush created three separate blobs, a red, blue, and green, all flying over a large city, almost like Manehatten. Instead of a sky, there was a large heart shape, with different shades of red rippling inside it.
“Then I had another brilliant idea, what if one’s imaginary friends were to come to life? Like if everyone had the power I had to make their own perfect friend… and those friends who were left behind were gathered by a kind old woman, and put into a foster home to be adopted by children who couldn’t make their own friends.” Another picture formed of a large, abstract looking home, with dozen of different creatures roaming around with other children, all having wonderful fun.
“And after that… I decided to come here… and make this world… I have to say, this one will hold a special place in my heart.” She held her hoof up, placing it against her chest, smiling softly.
“But… if you created this place, what are you doing here? Why are you in stone?” these were the big questions for her right now, nothing matter more to her, “Did… Celestia…”
“No, she didn’t imprison me… I just felt like I had to go away for a bit.” She didn’t seem very happy about her choice, but she sighed and continued on, “I felt like I had another project that I wanted to work on… something very important to me… not that this wasn’t important, but I never had the power to do it until after I created my little pony friends…” she looked at Twilight, a sad look on her face, “Please understand… I’m so happy that I created this world, and I’m so glad that I could make something so many ponies love… but… I have dreams that I wish to follow… When I announced where I was going, nopony liked it… not Celestia, luna, or anyone…”
“I can imagine… you created such a lovely vibrant world… I would hate to see you go too.” Twilight stepped forward, noticing the brush still acting on its own, “you have such a creative mind… Such wonderful ideas from a wonderful person… If you truly feel like your power will be better used elsewhere, I’m sure nopony will complain…”
The alicorn smiled graciously, her eyes gazing admirably at Twilight, “I knew you would understand… you’re a sweet pony Twilight… I had no idea you’d be so wonderful when I first thought of you…”
Twilight felt a little lump in her throat. The thought that this pony had thought of her before her birth made her feel… strange… but like a daughter to her mother, she was proud of herself that she could make her so happy, “Thank you…”
The papers began to gather up together once again in a ball of magic, stacking nicely before sliding into the bookcase, “I need to go again Twilight… you behave now, okay?”
Twilight smiled, “Of course I will… just… promise me one thing…” The alicorn tilted her head curious, wondering what her request would be, “Come back soon… Your sister’s miss you… and I’m sure every other pony would love to meet you…”
“Oh silly Twilight… I’ve never TRULY left… I’ll always be in my little ponies’ hearts… but… maybe someday I’ll return… maybe someday I’ll help make the world an even bigger and better place…. But for now… I’m sure you and your friends will keep the world alive and prosperous…” she returned to her standing position by her bedside, getting back into position. However this time, she had a nice little smile on her face. Her magic began to envelope her body, slowly covering it with stone as she stood there.
“OH! Princess! I never asked you! Your relationship with Prince Blueblood! How are you two related?” Twilight called out quickly, hoping to get an answer before she vanished.
She chuckled, “Well I created a little family to tend to my castle here until I decided to return… although it looks like they might have forgotten… do me a favor, and tell them that Faust asked them to tidy up a bit.” Her smile stuck with her as the stone enveloped the remainder of her body. The glow of her horn faded and her stone self stood silently in its little corner.
Twilight smiled, “Faust… I will! I’ll tell them as soon as I get back! I’ll remember you, thank you… for everything you’ve done…” she turned away and began her decent towards the ground floor, a little smile on her face. She now had the answers she had longed for, and felt fulfilled because of them.
Outside she trotted out with a spring in her step, however a sudden crash caught her attention, “Twilight Sparkle!” Cried a voice. She turned to see Celestia, retracting her wings and walking towards her with an angry look on her face. “You disobey my orders, read through my personal diaries, harass my sister and sneak out of the castle against my permission! What do you have to say for yourself young lady?”
Twilight just smiled, “I say I have a letter I need to write to you…” she sounded calm, cool and collected, which took Celestia by surprise.
“Er… I bet you do!... Let’s hear it.” She eyes her student curiously, wondering what she had in mind…
Twilight casually took a seat, smiling happily. She even took out a quill and paper to physically write down the letter, “Dear Princess Celestia. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to let go of something important to your heart. Even when that thing, or that pony is valuable to you, there comes a time when all good things must be let go so that it can pursue even greater things. We may miss what we have lost, we may beg for it to come back… but in the end, you’ll be happier to see that person happy rather than holding it back and making it sad…”
Celestia seemed touched by her words. Her heart was twisting in pain, but to hear her say these words made her feel… content with what had happened, as if she finally had some form of closure after all this time. It filled her heart with a loving feeling, making her smile, “So… I assume then you found the answers you were looking for?”
Twilight grinned, “Nope… There was some locked door… couldn’t get it open… so I just left… I’m sure it was better for me not to know anyway…” she turned and began to trot off once again,
Celestia watched her leave, smiling. The words that came to mind slipped out between her lips, “Somewhere out there, there’s an artist drawing up a new world… but she’s still thinking of you, Twilight.”
