Family Ties

by burgundyblackie

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, Trixie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Philomena, Adventure, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 2164

Mystery and silence surrounds Twilight's new castle, as she is determined to figure out the biggest challenge yet - the family tree of Ancient Equestria.

When our favorite purple princess finds a mysterious discovery in her family scrolls, she takes to the books and is determined to finish the mystery. But, as the story unfolds, the truth is that she's only discovered a fraction of what is yet to come. Starting with two of her old enemies, who are now her best friends.

Published 2015-02-16 17:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-02-16 17:00:02 UTC

Twilight Aurora Sparkle

"Spike!" Twilight called, the scrolls flowing all over the floors of her crystal castle. "Spike!!" she called again. Spike reluctantly got up from his red velvet cushion and walked towards the purple princess.
"What is it, Twilight?" he groggily said, lifting himself up to the desk that Twilight was studying. "Something wrong?"

The purple dragon looked at the scroll of family that Twilight had been studying. She'd gotten no sleep studying it all night, and had found something very peculiar.
"Not wrong, but interesting. Take a look. You remember Trixie, right?" Twilight answered him.

"Trixie Lulamoon, the 'Great and Powerful'?" Spike mockingly said, placing air quotes around the words 'Great and Powerful'.

"Yes, her. I've traced my family tree down to fourteen generations ago. You remember Sunset Shimmer, correct?" Twilight firmly stated, her head towering over the old scroll.

"Course. She actually just wrote you a letter just two hours ago." Spike yawned.

"Well, you're not going to believe this - Sunset, Trixie and I are all related!" Twilight cheerfully said. Spike jumped up and fainted at the word 'Related' and held up one of his tiny purple arms.

"Twilight, you've just lost it." he said when he re-awakened.

"See for yourself!" Twilight moved the large scrolls towards Spike and together they ran generation to generation. Moonlight Dawn, Sunfire Moon, Angel Dusk, and more. By the time they were done, both were tired and dozed off. The portal was right by Twilight's sparkling bed, which had a starry canopy and a sun-moon emblem. The portal warped a familiar orange, red and yellow pony with teal eyes into the room.

"Sunset Shimmer!" Spike said, jumping out of his velvet-lined basket. Twilight woke up immediately. Another three ponies, one yellow and orange, one purple and mint and the other blue and navy, all tumbled in afterwards and stood up. "And the sirens..." he growled.

"Spike, chill. They're cool." Sunset said, scratching Spike's head.

"Sunset! You won't believe-" Twilight was cut off by Sunset's find.

"We're related!" Sunset blurted out, the Dazzlings looking at Twilight. Spike looked at Twilight, Twilight looked at Sunset, the Dazzlings looked at each other and a knock at the door broke the silence.

"Come in!" Twilight politely said, moving to the door. There stood Trixie, now with a sun-moon-sparkle cape and hat. She had been called the night earlier to be Twilight's new Royal Advisor.

"Princess Twilight?" Trixie said, walking in slowly.

"Trixie! Do you know why I've called you to be my advisor? Because we're relaaaaated!" Twilight sang, hopping up on one hoof. She spread her wings, which had lost several feathers in the excitement.

"Even our names sound similar, you know." Sunset said, walking past the en-pointe alicorn. She stood by Trixie's side and they began to giggle at the stuck princess.

"A little help here? I think I'm stuck." Twilight frowned, her wings lightly flapping. The sunny unicorn and the moony unicorn giggled a bit more and helped Twilight get un-stuck from her ballet position. The Dazzlings and Spike moved to the group.

"Hold on! I'll be right back in a minute!" Twilight said, running out the door like a scared cat. She left in a flurry of scrolls.

"So... Trixie?" Sunset said, putting her right-front hoof around her left.

"We're related..." Trixie piped up.

"Guess so." Sunset quietly said. There was an awkward silence until the two suddenly started dancing and singing.

"We're related! We're related!" the two unicorns sang and danced in a circle, while Spike gave the now reformed Dazzlings a tour of the castle.

"Back!" Twilight said, flying through the door. Her 5 friends, her mother, Twilight Velvet and her father, Night Light strode in, swinging the door open. Cadence and Shining Armor came in from the back entrance and entered the large, star-shaped hall, where curtains with sparkle, moon, heart and sun emblems were strewn neatly to the windows. The group of ponies moved to the hall and crystal chairs with the ponies' cutie marks rose out of the floor. The ponies all sat in their own chairs and a massive rumbling occurred. A crystal tree with the cutie marks of the previous ponies engraved on each branch sprang up from the middle of the chairs, which were arranged in a sparkle.

"Sweet Celestia! What in the name of Philomena is that?!" Rarity cried out, her mane now slightly spiked up from shock.

"Well I'll be, Twi. It's a fam-ly tree of the old sparkle ponies! Darn tootin'! Twilight, Trixie, Sunset, do ya'll know what this means?" Applejack breathed, holding her hat to her chest.

"Yes, yes I do! Trixie, Sunset, look. There's your cutie mark, there's Trixie's," Twilight shifted her magical aura from Sunset's cutie mark to Trixie's, which were on the most recent branches. "There's mine, Shining Armor's, my parents', and Cadence's! This tree grows when we meet new members or our family. And when we three are present..." Twilight paused, letting her cutie mark, Sunset's and Trixie's glow as the tree suddenly glowed in their colors. The colors of their coats trailed out through the twisted crystal branches to the respectful cutie marks.

"What's happening?" Pinkie Pie said, watching in awe.

"Just wait!" Twilight said. She closed her eyes, as Sunset and Trixie did the same, their sides started to glow. Twilight opened one eye and smiled as the glowing grew larger and larger. Soon, the three ponies were hovering in a triangle above the tree.
*****
"What... what happened?" Fluttershy quietly murmured, peeking her teal eyes up from under the table. The three ponies were immersed in a bright rainbow light. Their three colors twirled around the trio, as Spike and the Dazzlings peeked around the corner to see the magnificent sight.

"Wha- how in Equestria?" Celestia spit out her tea, watching the castle from her own in Canterlot. "Luna! Twilight has activated her family tree! She's discovered the ancient secret!"

"The secret that has been missing for 14 generations?" Luna skeptically looked into Celestia's spyglass. "By the power of Galaxia and Cosmos!" she shouted, her voice rumbling the entire castle.

"Luna, don't you understand? Twilight has unlocked an ancient secret, one that I told to Sunrise Dawnside Moonlight 14 generations ago! The family secret! With this power, she transferred power into herself and the other two - the power of 42 suns! You remember what happened when we did it, don't you?" Celestia turned to face Luna.

"We became godly. Our manes started to flow - you had all the colors of the sun's rainbow in yours, and I had all of the night sky in mine! But what of them?" Luna said.

"Picture it this way - you know how their names are like periods of the day? Well, Twilight will get the dawn aurora, Sunset will get the summer dusk, and Trixie will get the crystal moon." Celestia answered her younger sister. "Oh, and they're alicorns."
*****

"Whoa! Twilight! Look at you! And- and- and-" Rainbow Dash stuttered. "Sunset, and- Trixie! And, and-"

"We're alicorns! And our manes!" Trixie looked at herself and at Twilight. Their manes were now just as Celestia had foretold three seconds earlier.

"Wha- how did you know how to do this?" Sunset stared at Twilight, who was smiling all the while. The three ponies lowered back into their seats.

"Simple - I am Sunrise Dawnside Moonlight incarnate. She's my past self!" (Not from G3 or anything, doofus XD) Twilight promptly answered.
*****
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Celestia and Luna's mighty voices boomed, swinging her crystal doors open. Trixie, Sunset and Twilight all jumped, their wings popping upright.

"A-are you in trouble?" Fluttershy whispered.

"COME WITH US!" the two sisters boomed again, their cutie marks glowing. Twilight lowered her wings and slowly flew to the two sisters. "YOU TWO AS WELL." they said, looking directly at Trixie and Sunset. The two new alicorns followed. The five went to Canterlot castle and walked in the main hall.

"Luna, you can explain this better. This is more of a night thing." Celestia said, leaving the hall.

"Princess Luna, please! I can explain! I-" Twilight was hushed by the night princess.

"Twilight Aurora Sparkle, you have done nothing wrong. We are here to show you something." Luna turned and walked down the hall to a dark blue door. Its design was the night sky, with a crescent moon flipped like a smile at the top. Luna swung the door open and walked into the dark room.

"What is this place?" Twilight said. Luna lit up her horn with a glowing blue light and the room suddenly grew into light.

"This is the chamber of monuments. You've unlocked a secret from fourteen generations ago. We are here to show it all to you." Luna opened a door with the three new alicorns' cutie marks combined on it - half of Sunset's with Trixie's wand and Twilight's five white stars around it. They entered a triangular room with carvings of ponies on the walls. Beneath them were names - the names of the ancient ponies.

"Look around. Visit each pony. Each side of the triangle is lit with a colored flame. The flames correspond to thy coat colors. If you three have done right, there will be a secret." Luna left the room and shut the door, leaving the three ponies inside. Twilight looked at the wall with a purple flame, Sunset looked at the one with a yellow flame and Trixie looked at the wall with a blue flame. The three all rotated from wall to wall, until Twilight spotted a pearl on her flame. Trixie and Sunset also noticed the pearls.

"I think we should press them..." Twilight said. Her voice was now slightly hoarser and sounded less like her. She reached her hoof up, as Trixie and Sunset also did. They pressed the pearls, and the center of the room raised up a bit. Out of the ground rose a statue - the statue of the mystical Sunrise Dawnside Moonlight. The trio went and circled the statue, looking at all the detail. Sunset, having heard the legends and nursery rhymes was more interested in it than the others. She pressed a hoof against Sunrise's cutie mark, which was just like the door's emblem. A light shimmering tone started to hum from the statue.

Terrified, Trixie ran to the door and tried to open it, but she was stalled from Philomena, who was also in the room. Twilight's eyes started to change from their regular purple to a moonlit blue. Her coat began to sparkle and her mane started to become a sun mane. The statue cracked and shattered, smoke rising from the broken pieces. The room stopped humming, Twilight returned to normal and Trixie watched as a purple hoof with a silver and gold royal shoe stepped down from the pedestal of the statue. The smoke cleared out to a light purple unicorn, tall as Celestia, with the door emblem as a cutie mark. She had moonblue eyes, her horn was curved and her tail was like a lion's. Her mane was gold and white, with two blue streaks. Her tail had a blue flame at the end.

"So, I see you've found the family tree secret, Twilight." the loud voice was clear. Firm, but gentle like an angel. "You've done well."

"Sunrise!" Trixie cried out, running to the pony and wrapping her hooves around her neck.

"You got my dream message, didn't you, Trixie? I'm proud." Sunrise firmly stated, returning the hug gently. "And Sunset. You remember those nursery rhymes that Princess Celestia used to tell you about me? Good thing you remembered. You've passed the test."

"Everything has a happy ending, sometimes they just need to be made up." Sunset smiled. Twilight spread her wings and combed through her mane. She pulled a three-petaled flower, with a yellow, purple and blue petal and a pearl in the middle. The petals were gems, shimmering in the light. Twilight used her slightly longer wings and held the flower out to Sunrise, who took it and placed it into the socket of her neckband. The gold in the necklace curved around the flower and the door opened. Philomena perched onto Sunrise's left ear.

"Aw, I missed you too, Phila." Sunrise smiled and nuzzled the glowing phoenix. Philomena cawed, spreading her wings and flying out into the hall.

"Sunrise!" Luna wailed and looked to the left, then to the right. She looked at the tall unicorn and bowed down, shuddering.

"Luna." Sunrise lifted Luna up and strolled to Celestia's room.

"Hello, Sunrise." Celestia calmly said, taking a sip of tea. She lay on a magenta velvet cushion. A fire was burning in the fireplace, it's crackling sound calming like a breeze.

"Celestia." Sunrise sat down by Celestia while the three ponies watched. Luna looked a bit nervous.

"It's time you come back, old friend." Celestia whispered.

"It's time to be back, my queen." Sunrise replied.