Truth and Lies: Mistakes

Twilight.

Twilight groaned when she heard her name uttered in a gentle voice. She tried to move her hoof to wave off whomever was trying to rouse her, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want to wake up. She simply ignored the voice and tried to settle back into her slumber.

Please, Twilight. Wake up.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Twilight began to come to. She groaned louder in frustration as it became harder and harder to stay asleep. Again, she tried to tell off the pony trying to get her attention with an angry hoof, but again she couldn’t.

“Twilight! Wake up, now! Its a matter of great importance that you wake up now!” Celestia demanded in a stern tone.

Twilight jolted awake as soon as she realized who the voice belonged to. Upon opening her eyes, she noticed her surroundings had changed from what she last remembered. No longer was she in Celestia’s chambers, but she was instead in the castle infirmary. White walls surrounded her on all sides and and bright fluorescent lights shined in her face from above. Before she could look at anything else, her vision was blocked by a white paper cup levitating in a golden aura. “Wha-”

“Drink.” Celestia’s voice spoke from Twilight’s left. The cup floated closer to her and tapped her snout insistently, until Twilight compiled and put her lips to the rim of the cup. The golden aura tilted the cup and allowed Twilight to drink the ice cold water it held. Twilight let out a soft moan as the cold fluid soothed her parched throat. She hadn’t even realized how thirsty she was until that moment. She grabbed the cup in her own magic and downed it’s entire contents. The empty cup was then taken from her as soon as she finished.

Twilight finally had the chance to turn to look to her former mentor, but there wasn’t the gentle, loving look she was used to seeing. As the regal alicorn sat in the guest chair next to the bed. She stared at Twilight with eyes that could have been mistaken as magenta daggers. The younger princess shrunk away under the hard gaze. “P-princess? Did… D-did I do something wrong?”

“Yes.” Was the only reply Celestia was willing to give at the moment.

Twilight flinched at the right jab to her self esteem. She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped when Celestia held up a hoof. The elder alicorn’s gaze softened, easing Twilight’s fears slightly, but she was still unnerved.

“But I am kind, merciful, and generous. Your only punishment will be knowing that you did something wrong.” Celestia stated with a gentle smile. “And so that you will know why it was wrong, I will tell you exactly what you have done that Starswirl has neglected to explain in his journal.”

Twilight’s ears perked up at the sudden promise of information, even if it were explaining something stupid that Twilight herself had done. If she had any parchment and quills, she might have even taken notes, but fate has wounded Twilight yet again. She opted, instead, to simply listen.

Celestia took a deep breath. Her horn ignited into a brilliant golden flare as all four walls were covered in a glowing layer of a silencing spell, before she began her lesson. “As you already know, Twilight, the vault of any castle is heavily guarded. Many of the items powerful enough to cause harm to Equestria, even items that aren’t particularly magic, are stored there. The vault here in Canterlot is a fraud. Of course, I keep some items in the vault here, but the most dangerous are locked away in the deepest, darkest part of our old castle. I meant to tell you this sooner, but I wasn’t sure you were ready for the responsibility of that knowledge quite yet.”

“Oh, I…” Twilight looked away, rubbing a hoof against her foreleg timidly. “I-I’m sorry…”

“You’re already forgiven, Twilight. Like I said, you didn’t know and I should have told you. That mistake is on me.” Celestia replied. She lightly brushed a stray hair out of Twilight’s face with her magic and placed her hoof under the young alicorn’s chin, making her look into Celestia’s gentle gaze. “But I also understand that you absorbed my magic to break the spell holding the vault secure. How?”

Twilight was stumped by the question. The truth was, she didn’t have a single clue how that warm, welcoming magic gained conscious control over itself. “I… I-I don’t know. Some sort of magic energy from the castle itself led me to the vault and showed me how. I just did it by feel. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Celestia nodded as she let go of Twilight’s chin. She began pacing back and forth in front of the bed as she thought. Everypony used to think pacing was Twilight’s trademark habit, but in truth, she picked it up from watching Celestia think on many occasions. Twilight normally saw her do it when they were playing chess and Twilight had her cornered. Celestia stopped suddenly, her eyes wide. “Could it be…? No, no… It couldn’t possibly… But… Hmm…” The alabaster alicorn shook her head, before turning her attention back to Twilight. “You said magic from the castle itself?”

“Y-yes. Umm… Why? Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Uhh, no. It’s just…” Celestia glanced around the small room, as if she were searching for somepony. It was then that she cast a second distortion spell around the room. The thin layer of gold intensified. “Twilight, everything I’m about to tell you does not leave this room. You do not speak of it. You do not write of it. This is between you, Luna, and I. Not even Spike may know.”

The suspense was killing Twilight. She needed to know what had gotten Celestia so riled up. She cocked her ears forward and nodded in agreement.

“Starswirl was a male alicorn, the only one in Equestria since before my father's first visit. Canterlot castle belonged to him before it ever belonged to me. It was his final parting gift to me before his unfortunate death.” Celestia explained, obviously having chosen to condense her lesson. “But an alicorn never truly dies. Their body eventually withers away to nothing and all that is left is their spirit. If done properly, an alicorn can gain the assistance of a living being to create a new vessel for the spirit, but that is the very thing I didn’t want him to do. Yet there you were; the alone, and all powerful, princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wait, wait, wait wait!” Twilight interrupted. “Are you telling me that I brought, not only an alicorn, but Starswirl back from the dead? The Starswirl? As in Starswirl the Bearded?”

Celestia shuffled on her hooves a little at the question, but nodded. “Though, he’s not exactly bearded anymore… Or should I say… Not bearded yet.”

Suddenly everything clicked into place. Twilight’s heart nearly stopped, but her precious brain wasn’t so lucky. Every train of thought she had, from the eleven o’clock Frontal lobe to the six-thirty Serrabellum, suddenly collided in a heap of twisted thoughts and emotions. Her pupils dilated to mere dots as one thought floated around in her startlingly quiet mind. “Th-the… Th-the c-c-colt… The c-colt is… S-Starswirl!?”

Celestia flinched at the sudden screech in Twilight’s voice. She had expected a reaction like this and already had the paper bag ready, levitating it over to the hyperventilating purple alicorn. Twilight snatched it out of the air and began breathing into it, inflating and deflating it with each shaky breath. “Twilight… Please calm yourself. This is what some alicorns do. I only said you did something wrong because an alicorn is normally not permitted to resurrect another alicorn. It is highly frowned upon by the elder family. But you cannot take the blame. You didn’t know better.”

“Elder family!? What elder family!? And there are more alicorns!? Starswirl was an alicorn!?” Twilight hugged the paper bag against her chest and took a deep breath. Remembering the calming method Cadence had taught her, she held her breath for a moment, before slowly releasing it. Her head felt clearer now than before. “How… How much have you been keeping from me?” She asked in a shaky voice

The sun princess sighed, lowering her head. Her regal form was seemingly broken by that very last question. Twilight made to apologize, but Celestia held up her hoof. “Everything… I have kept everything from you, my dearest Twilight.”

Twilight fumbled over her already damaged grand central mental train station, causing another crash. “I… I don’t understand…”

“Then allow me to explain.” Celestia lifted her head and looked at Twilight with as much pride as she could muster, but it was only a thin mask. Her eyes showed every ounce of her self resentment. “You were always an alicorn, birthed native of Equis, reincarnation of the wisest alicorn known to the multiverse. Your reincarnation was forced by necessity; a necessity that no longer exists. Discord is reformed, my sister is healed, and Tyrek is back where he belongs. But even when you served the purposes I intended, I told you nothing of your true identity, and for that I am forever sorry. Princess Twilight Sparkle I have been overstepping my bounds from the beginning, for my sister and I are not even the rightful rulers of this world. Our places are on the sun and moon. You… The elder in spirit... are the true ruler of Equis.”

The younger alicorn could only stare in blank awe at her former teacher, whom had stopped talking for a moment to let the information sink in. The mental image Twilight held of the two royal sisters she alway looked up to suddenly shattered. She felt suddenly exposed and vulnerable. Then something slowly began to boil in the back of her mind. It was anger.

“Luna and I could only watch in horror as your mortal body was destroyed by Tyrek so many thousands of years ago.” Celestia continued. “It took years to defeat him. We had honestly intended to kill him, but it was fruitless. His soul and body are both immortal, even as weak as he is now. We imprisoned him in Tartarus for that such reason, because there was no other prison strong enough. Then came discord and Sombra, the twin demons of chaos. They were once both proud alicorns, but greed and foolishness deformed them. Together they created the windingos and froze the world with hatred. My sister and I couldn’t take it anymore. We were given a castle castle together on Equis and vowed to defend it best we could until your return, but you didn’t want to return. It took banishing four threats for a thousand years to force the question…” Celestia paused and looked away. “What happens when I can’t defend Equis anymore?”

“C-Celestia… Tell me you didn’t… Please tell me this is all just a joke… Please don’t tell me what I think you’re about to…” Twilight pleaded. “You reincarnated me, didn’t you?”

Celestia opened her mouth and hesitated. It was a moment before she spoke, but Twilight suddenly wished she hadn’t. “Not in the way you did for Starswirl, Twilight… You see, there are three ways to create a new body for an alicorn; two any experienced unicorn could do, and one only another alicorn can do. The later involves mating and the elder family can do nothing about it. Y-you’re… my daughter in body, Twilight Sparkle… Sired by a unicorn, birthed by an alicorn... ”

Twilight’s world came crashing down around her. She watched as everything she knew, everypony she saw as family... was suddenly snatched from her. She fainted for the third time since the castle, falling into the cold embrace of her subconsciousness.