Chapters The knocking was what awoke me, as I wondered to myself who that could be, a faint noise, a whine then I knew that Faria was awake. With a sigh I pick her up and we both went to the door to see who it could be at this hour.
In the chilling night of November, I open the door and brace myself for the cold wind, but luckily for me and Faria we opened to a windless night the streetlights and road aglow, not a single pony is awake at this hour of Twilight, but still I can't find a better reason to be awake than to answer knock on my door.
"A note",I said.I pick it up and begin to read
My Dear Friend,
I hope that the family is doing well with the death of your husband recently, I pray for him and you both everyday.But that is not what I was writing to you about, I am changing, yes, I can tell I see darkness, raging fires, blood, death, and destruction. That I can not help but the way I act to counter them is strong, not strong enough to last forever but a year or two,maybe. But the main reason I was writing to you was to ask a favor of you, my dear you may think its bad now with your husband's recent death but it can only get better from here and I know things seem hard, hell this is hard for me but I need you to protect something prized to me something that I'm afraid I would destroy If i kept it for to much longer. All that I ask is that you protect it for me with all your heart I have sent a few thousand bits to help you in exchange of this, but don't stay in Ponyville, it will be the first that's turned and soon others but if you leave soon you may leave before it gets to much worse. Sweetie-Belle my most beautiful and most cherished prize is in the basket along with the money just please, please leave and change your names if you have to but you need to leave and take everything with you. You have made me so proud how much you have grown from the CMC to a loving mother and grieving widow, I only wish i could say the same about myself.
Your dear friend, mentor, and princess
-Twilight
As I look at the letter, the tears are already forming in my eyes. I then look at the basket, my magical golden glow appearing over
the lid and as it is removed I see a small baby unicorn, only weeks old, I gasp to realize that this was Princess Twilight's daughter, her name it slips my mind, but I quickly pull the basket inside. Shocked by what I just read looked over it again, this time though I saw on the back
P.S. Her name is Clearia
I just fall back onto my easy chair and think about how, or should I say why, the princess decided to ask me to do this?
Was it a test? Or something really important like Twilight has to learn to be a mother? But why change towns and names?
I wish that i had at least one answer to my question and then I thought to myself, why not a spying spell,I mean maybe Twilight can shed some light on this.
As I walk to my mirror I whisper the spell so the babies won't wake up. But what I saw was horrifying as the picture zoomed in i could see Twilight standing above a bloody Luna and I could see Celestia in the distance yelling with tears rolling down her face. Twilight looks up and a beam of blackness shoots from here horn hitting Celestia. with what looks like a cry of pain she hits the floor and doesn't move.
I have already started crying at this point.
As she looks around at the room she then teleports herself out into her room where she lays down in bed and she waits for the sound that she will have been expecting and will act as if she wants to find the assassin, to take and to kill them herself as she would probably say.
I then realize that this is what she meant by that she is changing.But so soon that's what I didn't realize.
I quickly start to gather my things then stop and rush to get the kids awake.
"Hey! Kids wake up!" I yell.
Landy asks "What time is it?"
"2:30 in the morning," Candy replies.
"Come on guys, I need to talk to you real quick." I yelled and before they knew it I doused them in ice water.
"MOM"! They said in unison.
"Come on we are leaving",I say.
"This is because dad died, isn't it." He cried.
"You shut your mouth,he will be back, he will be you wait and see!" I screamed.
"Mom, he's gone, he dead!" He yelled, I started crying again and he noticed and softened up.
"Hey, hey its okay, it will be okay,"he said while we hugged and Candy was quiet thinking very hard about something.
"Hey, why did you need us up anyways?" She asked after a second.
My eyes widen, and so did theirs when I told them the whole story.
"So let me get this straight Twilight gave you her baby and three-thousand bits to watch over while she turns evil and kills Celestia and Luna?" Landy asked.
"Yep, so that is why we have to get out of here,"I replied."So grab what you can and we will run while we still have a chance."
We gathered our things, and started out on our journey, only stopping on the hill outside of Ponyville
"Goodbye, my home, my town, my friends, my old life. Time to begin Anew." I said with courage and we trudged on through the cold to get to our new life.
-14 years later-
September 21,
I wonder why I am different, I act like normal kids, talk like them, even dress like them, but alias I never "hang out" with kids my age, except Faria, of course, but why I just don't get what makes me different. Is it the fact that I'm the same coat and mane colors (with a slight difference in highlight color) as Queen Twilight. If so I couldn't live with the fact of me being related to the Queen, now of course being that the other kids decided I was lying, I just thought that I could show them but the fact is, I can't, my mother has no resemblance to me and my father...I never met him, but my mother always says he was a great pony and that I shouldn't let everypony get me down. So I took her advise and stopped listening to them, of course it got worse over the years, I grew to have a temper and that lead to me getting expelled multiple times, I even broke a boy's nose. This made my mother heartbroken, she really hated seeing me upset and the way kids were I had to fight back, I couldn't just take it, my personality wouldn't allow it, but strange as it is I normally take no mercy, while mother and Faria on the other hoof are so relaxed and mild mannered, but then again they don't go through what I go through.
Well, I think this has been enough for one day, till tomorrow journal farewell.
I close my journal to the sound of mom calling me.
"Clearia, time to do the dishes," She yells.
" Okay, one second," I yell. I slide my journal under my pillow, and trot down the stairs.
"There you are, go and help your sister with the dishes," she said.
"Alright, I'm going," I say.
I walk into the kitchen and see Faria standing there with an expression like 'well aren't you going to help' on her face.
"Okay, I'll do the drying and putting away, while you wash. Deal?" I ask.
"Nope, I'm drying and putting away, mom already said I could." She said.
"Fine, but I'm doing it next time." I say.
"Okay, deal," she says, we shake hooves and start to work.
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The next day happened so fast I hardly remembered it.
I was sitting on the see-saw with Faria, when out of nowhere a colt much larger than me and Faria combined, came and pushed her off, then doing so made me hit the ground.
"Oooof" I said "Hey why did you do-" but before I could finish he pulled the other end down and I went flying off into the bushes headfirst.
"Ha, not only does she act weird, but she flies just as weird." Said a boy, who apparently got the bigger colt to do it. Laughter, ridicule, and hushed murmurs were all I could hear when Faria came to check on me and I was about as embarrassed as I could get.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, but my pride is hurt a little." I say.
Then I hear the bell ring and all the other kids file into class, me and Faria both try to get back to class without getting caught.
"STOP RIGHT THERE, Clearia." A loud and demanding voice called out. Then Faria ran off to avoid him.
Great, just what I needed, a verbal lashing from my most least favorite of all the principles Mr. Malkyspet who of course hates me the most over everyone with all his black hole of a heart. I guess because I've got a record and he wants me gone as soon as possible.
"Okay, Mr. Malkispit, but I can explain." I say
"THAT'S MALKYSPET AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT, GO HOME AND CLEAN YOURSELF UP OR DON'T COME BACK YOU UNGRACIOUS LITTLE WASTE!" He yells.
"But, today is the day of the project and Faria can't do it with out me." I say.
"Well, I guess you'll let her down because I'm escorting you off the premises imminently and if you come back today I will give you detention for a week." He said "Now move!"
" But can't I at least explain to her-" "GO!" He interrupts me and I walk out with my head bowed.
As I walk out of the school, I see the metal horseless wagon going by and I quickly hop onto the back of the wagon to catch a ride back to my house.
I see the streets pass as we go by and finally I see mine and I jump off to go home. I stop in front of my house to see its beauty and cute appearance. It was designed by some pony famous, her name was Rarity and I still wonder how mother got her to design it. She being famous and all, its as if she had some kind of connection or something. My mother apparently saw me outside and she hissed at me to get inside.
As I walk inside she explodes "WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME, CLEARIA!!!" She says with venom in her voice.
"It wasn't me, I was the victim. Okay, me and Faria were on the see-saw and some other colt pushed her off and launched me into the bushes, then before I knew it Malkyspet sent me home." I said in my defense.
"Oh, so I guess that's why you are all dirty. Well I'm going to have to talk to the principle about this. So I guess there is no point in asking if you had a good day." She said.
"Yes, there would be no point because it was the worst day of my life" I say as I slump on the couch.
"Hmmm can I tell you something I haven't told anyone in a long time?" she asked.
My ears perk up "Yeah, what is it?" I ask.
I Remember when I was a kid I was bullied by two girls because I was a blank flank for a long time. I hated these girls for a long time they bullied and verbally abused me all the time. But, I also have to thank them they were the one who helped me find my friends and we formed a group called the-" "Cutie Mark Crusaders and they helped you find your talent of singing, yeah we've heard this story ,but you never said it was you." I said over her.
"Yes, it was me, Scootaloo, and Applebloom and we we're the CMC until we all got our cutie marks and we still hung out just not as much and because we had nothing in common anymore, so we talked less and less until we stoped seeing each other at all." She took in a moment of clarity, but quickly shook it away. "So that's why you shouldn't let anyone break you because you might just find what you're looking for."
She gets up off the couch and walks off into the other room.
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I wonder if I still have it. Aha, I pull out a photo of three fillies, a earth pony, a pegasi, and a unicorn they all seem so distant but maybe just maybe she looks closer and remembers the day the first day they met at Diamond Tiara's birthday, we looked so happy together. I wonder if they would still want to hang out. "No" I say, you have a new life you can't risk going back just to see some old ponies that have forgotten about you, but still I wish I knew what they were doing now.
"Spike! I'm going to the shadow relam. I want you to watch the kingdom while I'm gone." I say.
"Why can't you make someone else do it I hate taking different forms." He said.
"Sorry, Spike you're the only one who plays my part just as well as me." I say as I change him into my replication.
"Well, I'm not happy about it." My replica complains.
"When I get back I will let you go and get some lovely gems to eat" I say to him.
"Okay, deal." He says with what sounds like unhappiness.
"Hey, only a day then all the gems you could eat." I say to him kindly
I conjure the portal to the darkness
I hate being nice that is one thing that makes me look weak, good thing the shadow relam is not anyplace for ponies, but maybe I could lighten up on the niceness a little and pass a few laws containing more taxes, much harsher punishments, and even tighter nightwatches. But the main thing we could work on is less outsiders, the griffins, changelings, and wildlife to get in the way of the ponies who live here.
I walk through the portal and instantly I'm swarmed by dark creatures their eyes have a dot of red with darkness all around them. I see a cruel look to them.
"Take me to Sombra."
They looked confused for a second, then murmurs went throughout the crowd what sounded like the dark king and king of darkness moved around when a taller being nodded and motioned to follow him as so the creatures moved around me.
I could tell they didn't like the looks of me many who come here either don't return or escape while killing off a lot of dark beings. I personally don't care either way I'm to busy with my own problems to worry about this. As I approach the castle that of which must be Sombra's I wonder why Sombra would ever want to live here its so drab with no bustle or motivation all the townsfolk look bored as could be.
As I walk through the doors to the throne room I yell to him,"Is this anyway to treat a guest."he was shocked or surprised to see me here because he quickly got out of his lax position and back into his formal look.
"I didn't expect you, princess. But you are still most welcome here with us."He mumbled something else I couldn't make out but still his none hostile nature towards me was suprising. He wants something.
"I have come strictly on business I must speak with you privately" I motion towards the guards
"Yes, yes, guards be gone" he stated and one guard started to argue. He was instantly annihilated and all Sombra did was lift a finger. The rest filed out as quickly as they filed in.
"Umm basing on our the treaty that was made a few years ago I can asure you I'm still completely on with the treaty I was just here to see if you still were with me on this." I explain
"Why of course the treaty is still on why wouldn't it be?" he asks with a wicked smile
"Well there is no reason for it to be over just checking up on it."I say.
"Well even though, I must say you are very brave coming here with no guard or anyone." He said in a matter of fact kind of tone.
"Well along with political business I came here for a bit of private business too." I say with a hushed voice.
"Well, tell me all about it." He says in a booming voice.
"As you may know the only one who can defeat me at this time is my daughter, who's location is unknown, but recently I've sensed her presence in south west Equestria, the cover spell weakened a little for a second enough time for me to know she is out there. So I have come to ask for your help can you let me borrow a couple of dark solders to come with me to find her." I expain
"Well, I don't know what might I get in return?" He asks with deveant glee.
"What if I gave you the crystal empire and casted a spell on all of the crystal ponies so they are again immortal?" I blurt out.
"Hmmm you do drive a good bargain and I'll give you time to get your brother and sister-in-law out before we take over. How does that sound? Do we have-" He stuck out his paw, "a deal?"
I look down and sigh, I reach out and we shake,then a blast of darkness goes out over the castle and two guards appear by me.
"You two take her and do what she tells you, don't fail her or you will have failed me. Now begone." He dismissed us with a wave and I was escorted out.
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I was sitting in class when I hear.
"Would, Clearia Teisal, please report to my office." I hear him over the intercom.
Whispers and snickers went through out the class Miss Redwing tried to quiet them but with no luck just simply said over them.
"Don't worry maybe it is an award they want to give you." She gave a look of confidence.
"The award of punishment." I say with a sigh, as I stand and walk to the drab principle's office.
As I walk In I notice Faria and Candy sitting at the desk with Mr. Malkyspet sitting in front of them looking unusually gloomy I wonder to myself who died in a joking manner then I saw Candy had been crying. As I took my seat Landy bustled through the door.
"What happened?" he asked.
Candy started crying again
Mr. Malkyspet spoke up first. "It's your mother,Clearia" he pauses.
"What, what about our mother!" I yell. I have tears already forming in my eyes
He begins with a bit of content."She's missing."
Ch. 4 - The Burning Sunset
I awake with a jolt, "Mom!" I scream.
Candy was in the chair by the door. She looked tired, sad, broken. But still she stood and smiled like everything would be alright." Don't worry it was only a bad dream." She cooed.
"But, it couldn't have been a dream. Mom she was hurt and screaming things." I replied.
"What did she say?" She asked quickly.
"Not to come for her. And another thing who's Luna? And why did she come to my dream." I ask.
Her eyes widened,"Luna, are you sure?" She asked.
"Yeah, she said she was the Princess of the Night. Why did Mom know her?" I ask.
"Kinda, when she was a filly. I remember her when I was growing up." She said.
"Dad would pull us out of school sometimes to go and see one of her public speakings. He would tell the teacher that it was a field trip. And she would believe him." She had a grin on her face.
"Dad sounds like he was the best." I said.
"Yeah...okay, get Landy, I'll meet you guys in a second." She said.
~~~~
We began by describing my dream to them.
"Alright, lets start at the beginning, the first signs of unusual activity started when a rebellious group known as the Burning Sunset, came out and started working against the princess, but mostly Twilight was the one hurt by the raids and such. After a while though the group started targeting Twilight's shipments only. So of course Twilight made certain ponies guard the carriers. Even so the shipments would still be captured." Candy explained to us. She moved to the icebox and levitated a few pieces of ice into her glass. As so she poured herself a drink of water. Landy then took over in the story.
"And so with her troops getting captured and she was still getting raided, she started suspecting other powers involved. As so she blamed the group's thefts on a certain pony, Cadence. As she hadn't expected the group's intensions got worse. As some of her troops reappeared, others started disappearing. See, they had started training captured soldiers, to bring others out of her power." Landy stated. As so he moved to get a cup of coffee. Then Candy started again.
"And as you may have guessed, they wanted to deplete her forces, so they could overtake her and overthrow her. So she took her best course of action she could think of, she had started a pursuit of the Burning Sunset. But, every time she would get close, they would just pull out from under her. Pretty soon she had become obsessed with finding them. She had been gone from Ponyville for almost two years. The princesses had guessed this would happen, and so they imedently stopped their suport. The stress of the chase had put a toll on her patients. Pretty soon ponies stopped talking to her, after this they hid from her fearing she had gone completely mad. This didn't help with anything, either." As she finished, she took a drink and let Landy take over. They must have rehearsed this or something.
"After, a few years alone, she had time to think I guess. Because as she had accused Cadence before, she was also accusing Luna, and Celestia. She had thought that they wanted to get rid of her, so they wouldn't have to give the thrones up so easy. Now of course the princesses denied it. The scary part though was that Twilight was partially right. She was right about the princesses, they had planned that Twilight would have to deal with the rebellion. That she would stop the rebels. And the test that they had set up had worked. It told them that she wasn't ready. But after over four years of chasing a hoax, to learn it was another test, that the close encounters with death she had to go through, from timberpack wolves to plain starvation. She wasn't too happy to know she had been fooled, especially by one she really trusted. Actually she was pissed, she had spent years following them and had the rug pulled out from under her." He finished and took a breath. Sighing, he said." She believed that she did at least deserve her power, the pain she went through." As he ended, Candy piped up.
"But, with her failure, Celestia thought she wasn't ready. I guess that's what caused her to obliterate almost all of Ponyville. In her rage, she had destroyed everything. At least ponyville had evacuated in time, no one was hurt, but this had brought fear to Celestia. With Twilight's power, anger, and any little bit of push, she could annihilate all of Canterlot in seconds. She had decided to invite Twilight to Canterlot for the weekend. Then, she was going to explain her idea of what happened. It just so happened that was the night Celestia and Luna were brutialy murdered by an assassin. Even though mostly everyone thinks it was Twilight, they felt sorry for her just having her child-" She stops suddenly.
"What?" I ask.
"Oh, nothing." She said and looked away.
"What is it?" I ask." Should I know something?"
"Actually, yes you should." Landy says." Clearia, you know that mom loves you, and we love you, too. Right?" He asks.
"Yeah." I say starting to suspect something.
"Your dream that you had, about mom and her being tortured and things." He said.
"Yeah?" I could feel my heart start thumping fast.
"What you experienced wasn't a dream completely. It was what's considered a scry in the world of unicorns, and only few unicorns can scry, even less can dream scry." He said.
"So wait, what you're saying is-" My voice started to break." that is really going to happen?"
"Yes, and that's not all." He stated.
"What? What do you mean?" Tears starting down my face. I could see Candy crying to herself.
"What Luna said in your dream, about you not being mom's daughter, it was true." He said.
"What!?! Then that means-" I started.
"Yes, you are Queen Twilight's daughter and because of you, our mother has been captured. And now there isn't anything we can do."
I awaken to the sound of a dripping. I open my good eye and look around. It's a dark and wet place. I look around and notice a figure in the corner.
"Hello? Who are you?" I ask. "Where are we? What happened? All I remember is that my principle told me about mother. We went home. After we got there I ran to my room, but tripped on the way hit my eye and I guess I blacked out. Now I'm here, so if you don't mind, could you explain what happened?"
"I can answer your questions and more, but don't worry you're among friends." a female voice said. "To begin I am, Luna the princess of the night. At least I was before your mother put me down."
"No, you're wrong my mother would never hurt anypony." I defended her.
"But, the pony you call mother is not the true mother of yours." She explained.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Sweety Belle is not your biological mother. Your mother is indeed the one who killed me and my sister." She explained."The pony you see in the corner, you know her. She is the one you consider mother."
No, that can't be right, she had a dark coat and mane.
"How could that be her? She has a dark mane." I say.
"The mud blinds the truth." She says. As if on cue the door that had been hidden from sight had opened to reveal two ghastly beings ghost-like creatures. I saw one fly beside where my supposed mother was. "Guess what today is." He said with a gleeful, wicked smile." Its torture day, and you're next." He cackled an evil type of laugh. A cruel and wicked look in his eyes.
The pony imedently looked up and stared right at me." Don't ... don't let them win, don't come for me, that is what they want." She cried.
"Shut up." He back-hoofed, or handed in his case. "Damned crazy pony. I don't know why Twilight wants her so much." The other ghostly form said.
"I don't know, but I sure do love to torture this one, the way she screams," He shivers" sends chills down my spine."
They grab her hoofs and drag her out. She kept stareing at me. The look in her eyes, fear, but not for herself, but for me.
"Luna, what's going on?" I ask.
"This is six days from now. The ones you saw were the dark ones they feed off other ponies dreams." She explained." Fear not, she is strong, she may look gone, lost to insanity, but she is much stronger than most."
"Why is this happening?" I ask.
"You are the only one who can stop Twilight." The voice said.
"Wait, stop her what has she done wrong?" I ask.
"Its not what she has done, but what she will do."
