Aria of the Abandoned

by AliziaRoElier

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Sweetie Belle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Princess Luna
Length: 6070

Sweetie Belle's struggle to gain a new life after losing everything.

[On Hiatus for Plot Re-work] Harmonic Magic is thought to be a lost art in Equestria - lost to a time before the Migration and the Windigo Blizzards. However, there are those with the potential to learn it again. Sweetie Belle knows she can sing. But can she sing for others after her disfigurement? Can she still harness magic? And is she capable of controlling her own talents?

Abandoned by her friends and family, Sweetie will be forced to grow up on her own and find the answers to her deepest questions.

Will Sweetie earn her redemption in the secrets of Harmonic Magic? Or will the knowledge only cause her more pain and suffering?

Published 2012-06-03 06:24:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-13 22:35:07 UTC

Lessons and Violations

AN: For future reference, all notes I have will be placed at the start of text unless in special cases. Special thanks to blackice and MyWorld93 for proofreading and pre-reading this story. You guys are awesome. And now, to let this adventure begin...

Aria of Abandonment – Chapter One – On Lessons and Violation

“Okay, everypony open your Equestrian History books to page 137 and silently read the first page, please.” Miss Cherilee said sternly from behind her maple desk. She looked significantly toward Scootaloo and Apple Bloom who had already started to giggle at a drawing Apple Bloom had made. They promptly quieted down when they saw the look Miss Cherilee was giving them. Among most, the look would be interpreted as stern and unforgiving, but- to them, who had seen first hoof what a stare could REALLY do, it was merely a minor warning. They giggled again and went silent, unwilling to antagonize the teacher that they loved so much. Cherilee shook her head and smiled bemusedly when Sweetie Belle immediately stood up to sit next to the two fillies and look at the drawing as well. Sweetie Belle snorted for a moment before quietly hiding her amusement behind her open open.

Sweetie looked down at the book and smiled, the chapter was about the early migration of ponies to Equestria. She had never told anypony, but she was enthralled by the stories of the Migration. She couldn’t explain why she loved it so much, though, but if pushed, she would guess she just enjoyed reading about the ponies in the story. She adored the stories of Princess Platinum’s adventures before the Migration, and admired her strength when all the unicorns needed her in the Windigo Blizzards. However, she knew that wasn’t everything; there was more. There was something deeper and stronger than just liking the Princess that drew her to the topic. It was almost like a whisper, insistent in its call…

“Sweetie?”

Sweetie Belle looked up from the book and looked around frantically, searching for who had called her name. Giggles came from around the room as Miss Cherilee cleared her throat expectantly.

“Yes, Miss Cherilee?” Sweetie asked nervously. She hoped no one would realize she had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t read the page yet.

“Since you seem to be so entranced with today’s chapter, maybe you would like to read it aloud?” Miss Cherilee suggested.

Sweetie, relieved that Miss Cherilee had not noticed her lapse in attention, started reading from the page dutifully. When she could spare a moment to look around between breaths, she surreptitiously glanced to the sides to observe her classmates. Scootaloo seemed to have fallen asleep halfway through the reading as usual. Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but smile a bit at her friend’s predictable habit. Applebloom seemed to be alternating between staring out the window and following along in the book. Unsurprisingly, it seemed like she was easily able to tune in and out of focus – after all, she always said school was easy. The other students around the classroom were all engaged in similar activities. Most were reading along with her silently, or quickly passing notes to friends across the room. Surprisingly, Miss Cherilee wasn’t doing anything to stop them; instead she was quietly following along as Sweetie read, as if she was enjoying herself.

When Sweetie reached the end of the page, she looked up at Cherilee expectantly. Cherilee continued to read for a moment to finish a paragraph that continued on the next page, and then looked up slowly. Her eyes wandered around the classroom, taking in her students actions amusedly. Cherilee rolled her eyes when she saw Scootaloo slumped over desk. A small pool of saliva had formed under her cheek, and she was lightly snoring. Her wings vibrated every few seconds when she exhaled. Sweetie reached over and shook her sleeping friend to wake up.

Cherilee waited patiently as Scootaloo stretched nonchalantly and giggled nervously.

“Sorry, Miss Cherilee, but it’s just so warm…” Scootaloo mumbled, stretching her small wings again and attempting to don an attentive expression. Cherilee was not impressed at her attempt but decided to ignore her annoyance at the filly’s nonchalance.

“I thought that since most of youhave been working so hard lately,” Cherilee began, “we could do something fun today.”

She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a large black record with faded writing around its edge. The center had minute writing wrapping around the center hole that listed the music on the record.

Miss Cherilee adopted her serious teacher voice, “As you all learned while Sweetie Belle was reading, much of our culture was lost when Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Pudding Had led everypony into Equestria. They had to leave so quickly that they had no time to keep make any records of the Migration. The only history we now have of that time is what could be written down after the Migration so we have little authentic information from the time to study now. Still… some things were preserved from before the Migration.”

Miss Cherilee held up the record, “Music, poetry, and stories. Some of them are still around today. This record has some music that survived the Migration and is still used today. Every royal function in Canterlot plays this music at least once, sometimes twice if the attendees wish to hear it again. Even though it is thousands of years old, it is still very popular today among the nobility.”

Miss Cherilee walked over to the back of the room and placed the record on a record player’s turntable and adjusted the needle. She fiddled with the back of the player until faint static began to play from the large horn looming out of the box. Satisfied that the record was correctly placed, she rushed back to her seat and waited. After a few seconds, violin chords began to wash over the expectant foals’ ears followed by the light sounds of drums. The music picked up its pace and flutes joined into the music. A melody formed and sustained itself after a few moments, defying characterization for a moment before yielding to the imaginations of the fillies and colts listening.

Apple Bloom thought she heard the sound of the wind in the trees on her ranch, a quiet whistling through the branches, a rustling of leaves and bending of grasses. She closed her eyes as she imagined the music in visual form. A delighted smile slowly crept onto her face.

Scootaloo imagined light and dainty laughter mixed in with deeper booms of mirth, she heard the staccato patter of little hooves on wooden floors and closed her eyes. In her mind she saw her parents as she had always imagined them, her mother willowy and graceful with lithe wings that could alternately beat powerfully in flight or gently comfort a child. She saw her father; tall, strong, and gentle, his kind eyes watchful of her and her brother. Her brother… she imagined a small colt, barely into his second year of life, clinging to her foreleg and enjoying his sister’s warmth and protection. She imagined the harmony of a family and it brought equal parts sadness and joy to her heart.

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and almost started imagining something before her head split in two. She tried to open her mouth to scream in agony, but found she no longer could control herself. She sat stock still, her previous expression of delight frozen on her face as her mind screamed and rebelled against the music that so entranced the rest of the class. She could feel it running through her mind as a burning, oily fluid. It oozed through her thoughts in search of something happy to force her to imagine. Sweetie began to shudder at the sheer violation of having her mind opened up and examined so closely. It felt wrong. It felt so WRONG. At last the music ended, and she was able to move again. Before she could form a coherent thought, however, she collapsed onto her desk.

The class jumped straight out of their chairs, when they heard the loud thud and crack of Sweetie Belle’s head and horn striking the desk. Cherilee immediately rushed over to Sweetie and gently lifted her head from the desk, examining her to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

“Sweetie Belle?” she quietly called. “Sweetie Belle? Are you okay?”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo crowded the teacher and their best friend. The rest of the class kept a respectful distance away and shuffled quietly and uneasily. They felt something was wrong. It somehow felt as if the world were suddenly less cheerful than before, darker and drab. They kept looking out to the colorful outside and then back to Sweetie and Cherilee and her friends. One by one, they slipped outside into the sun, where the feeling of darkness was quickly dispelled. They started back toward the school when they all heard the most terrible scream, as if someone were being subjected to the most painful of tortures.

Sweetie’s eyes snapped open and all the pain and violation brought on by the music caught up to her in a rush. She couldn’t contain the sudden rush of pain, and screamed as loudly as she could. She screamed like she was dying. She screamed in terror. She screamed in pain. She screamed because she couldn’t stay silent. Somewhere deep in her mind, she was commanded to make noise, to not leave the violation unchallenged. To not make noise would be to silently accept the pain like a coward, like a victim. She couldn’t bear to do so. She screamed in defiance of what she had heard and experienced.

“Wha’s wrong Miss Cherilee?” Apple Bloom yelled in fear, recoiling from her friends screams. Scootaloo unconsciously retreated with her before catching herself and standing her ground.

Sweetie began to shake from the exertion of forcing herself to scream so loudly. Cherilee tried to calm her down slowly, rubbing gentle circles into the crying filly’s back. They stayed that way, for a time. The two friends stood frozen in their places and stared at the friend, whom they didn’t know how to help. The teacher offered comfort in the only way she knew, through kind words and reassuring hugs. Sweetie’s screams continued through it all, in pain and fear and defiance.
Sweetie slowly tapered off into the simple sobs of a foal who had experienced too much sadness far too quickly. She shuddered and huddled into Miss Cherilee’s comforting embrace. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, hastened to join them and promptly started crying softly as well, drained from watching their friend scream and cry and sob. After a few moments, Sweetie’s sobs fell away to tired snores as she fell asleep, succumbing to her mental exhaustion.

“Has this ever happened before?” Miss Cherilee quietly asked Sweetie’s friends.

“No, never. A’ least ah’ve never seen this before.” Apple bloom responded quickly.

“Me neither, Miss Cherilee…” Scootaloo paused, “Is she okay, Miss Cherilee? What happened? Why did she start screaming like that?”

“I don’t know, Scootaloo. You saw that she passed out before this started, correct? Was something wrong during the music?” Cherilee absently stroked the sleeping filly’s mane as she slept. She almost instinctively knew how to comfort the girl, despite having no children.

Scootaloo stared down at the floor sheepishly and Apple Bloom looked away out the window. Neither filly wanted to admit that they had been in their own little worlds and completely oblivious to anypony else. Cherilee understood immediately, but decided not to voice her understanding, choosing instead to continue her ministrations for Sweetie. Even asleep, Sweetie Belle looked scared, but Cherilee still considered this a victory though - she looked much more peaceful than she had before.

“Could one of you see what is happening with the other foals? They must be terrified right now…” Cherilee requested.
Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom trotted off, taking quick glances back at their friend as they left. They couldn’t help looking back at her as they left.

The other foals were silently huddled around the schoolyard and were speaking in whispers to their neighbors. When they all spotted Apple Bloom and Scootaloo they all jumped to their hooves and swarmed them.

“What happened?”

“How is Sweetie Belle?”

“Is Miss Cherilee okay?”

“Can we come back inside?”

“Can we go home?”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom didn’t have time to answer between questions and stood silently as they waited for the excited fillies to calm down. They wanted to go back and help Sweetie Belle and their patience was beginning to fray as the questions continued. Finally, they shouted down the crowd until they had quieted somewhat and tried to answer their questions.

“Miss Cherilee is okay! Sweetie Belle is sleeping now!” Scootaloo shouted into the loud and tumultuous crowd.

Apple Bloom followed up, “Y’all should stay outside fer now, so ya’ don’t bother Sweetie.”

A malicious voice cut through the silence, “Why should we care about you blank flanks? I want to go inside, so I will.” Two earth ponies were cutting through the crowd and made to go inside the schoolhouse. Scootaloo’s eyes flashed angrily, her temper flared and her patience thrown into the wind. Apple Bloom attempted to remain calm and barred the door to the classroom.

“Hold it, Tiara. You too, Silver Spoon.” Scootaloo ground out angrily, “You aren’t going in there. Sweetie Belle needs to rest and we aren’t going to let you bother her.”

The crowd shuffled nervously at the open hostility Scootaloo was pouring out toward the two ponies. It seemed as if her anger truly manifested itself in the air as a tension or tautness. It grew large and stronger as Diamond Tiara stared viciously at Scootaloo. After a few moments of tense silence, Diamond tried to force her way past Apple Bloom. Scootaloo immediately pulled her away from the door roughly and threw her to the ground.

“I said. You. Are. Not. Going. In there.” Scootaloo hissed venomously, she longed to hit Diamond’s smug smile from her muzzle. She reveled in the violent thoughts bubbling away in her mind. She let it grow and grow until she felt she couldn’t take the anger any longer.

“I will.” Diamond said and ran at the door. At Diamond’s rush, Scootaloo’s anger bubbled over and the tension in the air snapped violently. Scootaloo grabbed her as she passed but instead of just throwing her away, she head-butted her as hard as she could. Just as Diamond dropped to the ground, Scootaloo bucked her in the belly.

“And stay down…” Scootaloo hissed. Seemingly out of nowhere, Silver Spoon tackled Scootaloo and began screeching and pulling at Scootaloo’s mane. In the time it took for Scootaloo to roll out from under her, Diamond had gotten up and started toward their thrashing forms.

Before she could reach them, Apple Bloom had moved between them and yelled, “Ah no ya’ don’t.”

Cherilee breathed a sigh of relief as Sweetie stirred in her lap. Cherilee watched the little filly slowly awaken and snuggle into the warmth she found herself surrounded in. Her eyes slowly filled with tears as she remembered the music, the terrible music that hurt her.

“Shh… it’s okay… it’s alright… I’m here…” Miss Cherilee murmured. She scooped Sweetie into a gentle embrace and held her until Sweetie was under control again. “What happened, Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie shook her head at the gentle question and resolved not to cry.

“I don’t know. The music started and it was so pretty and happy and then…” She paused and tried not to cry at the memory of the horrible pain. She tried to ignore the revulsion she felt at the violation of having her mind stripped for information, her own most precious memories and dreams.

“I hurt. It hurt so much. It was looking for something.” Sweetie broke again and started to cry.

Cherilee hugged her again, “I don’t understand. What was? What was looking? What did it want?”

“I-I-I don’t know…” Sweetie whispered through her shudders and tears.

A screech from outside caused her to bolt out of Cherilee’s hug and run to the door. She opened it to the violent scene in the schoolyard. Diamond Tiara and Apple were rolling on the ground, pulling manes, and trading punches. Nearby, Scootaloo and Silver were hoof to hoof, trading blows like boxers.

“Stop!” Sweetie yelled ineffectively. Fresh tears streaked down her face. “Stop!” She screamed ineffectually. It almost seemed as her cries made the four even more violent. Sweetie became more desperate and scared. She didn’t understand what was going on but she knew she had to do something – anything. She took a moment to decide and threw herself between Silver Spoon and Scootaloo and tried to make herself as big an obstacle as possible.

She turned towards Scootaloo to convince her to stop.

“Please, st-“ She began before she was bucked in the head from behind.

She felt herself sliding across the ground, but barely felt it. Her entire mind was focused on the burning agony that had engulfed her head. It felt like her entire skull was on fire and her vision was fluctuating between coherent images and swirling lights. In the final moments before the pain forced her into unconsciousness, her eyes focused on a sight that froze her mind with horror.

Her horn lay in front of her, bloody and shattered at the base. Almost as a delayed echo, Sweetie Belle heard a snapping noise and almost gratefully fell into unconsciousness.

Unfair Payment

AN: Thanks to blackice and MyWorld93 for proofreading and pre-reading this story.

Aria of Abandonment – Chapter 2 – Unfair Payment

Sweetie’s eyes opened to bright, painful sunlight shining through her curtains. She tried to raise a hoof to her forehead, but found she couldn’t move. For some reason, this did not bother her in the slightest. Sweetie turned her head to where she remembered her pink alicorn alarm clock would be only to freeze in revulsion.

Where her usually cheerful clock usually stood, a bloody and smeared hoofprint trailed its way across her bedside table. With horrified eyes, she followed the trail of blood over the edge of the table and down onto the floor. Sweetie Belle tried to scream but found herself unable to make even a whisper. She tried to get out of bed, but felt a sluggish resistance and found her body would not comply. Determination graced her features as she felt the resistance increase as she got closer to completing her task. With a final effort, Sweetie yanked her back legs out from under her blankets and swung them to the floor.

She heard a wet plop as they touched the ground. Fearfully, she looked down. The bloody trail from her bedside table ended in a small pool of blood at her feet. A pool of blood she was standing in. She learned she could finally scream when her loud screeching burned through the perfect silence of the room. Almost as if her mind were waiting for this to occur, the walls of her room disintegrated at her scream and she found herself outside. She looked down to see that the bloody pool had disappeared along with the blood on her hooves.

When she looked back up, there were five ponies in the distance. Sweetie felt horror welling up inside her as they came into focus and hurtled toward her. The scene stopped a few feet before her and she paled.

Four fillies were fighting. Sweetie recognized Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. She cringed. The one pony at the edge of the scene scrambled between Scootaloo and the other filly. The pony turned to Scootaloo, trying to speak, when the other filly sent a vicious buck toward her head. The filly took it square in the forehead and was knocked to the ground with a thud and a sickening crack.

Suddenly, the pony was at her feet and bleeding from where her horn was supposed to be. The bleeding slowly stopped flowing from the pony on the ground and started running down Sweetie Belle’s eyes, obscuring her vision. Tears began to mingle with the blood as she realized what would happen next.

With a soft thud, a bloody horn landed at her hooves.

The filly on the ground stared up to her with a smile that curved wider and wider and wider until the mouth opened.

The music began to play…

Screaming filled the ward like bright lights. Nurses rushed from every station to the room they knew the screaming would be coming from.
Sweetie was sitting up in the bed, eyes filled with terror and tears streaming down her face, trying to regain her bearings in the unfamiliar hospital room. Once the first nurse had entered the room, Sweetie’s screaming began to subside into a tired sobbing. The little filly’s tears fell down her muzzle as the memories of the fight filled her mind. The scene burned itself into her mind: her desperate scrambling between Scootaloo and Silver Spoon, her intervention, and her horn. They all jumped at her, begging her attention.

The group of nurses left the room slowly until only one remained.

“There, there, Sweetie. It’s okay. You’re safe here.” The Nurse said kindly, sitting on the bed and pulling Sweetie Belle into a gentle hug.

Sweetie’s crying slowed and softened as the nurse continued to hold her. Outside the occasional doctor would look in to check on them and leave quickly. They thought it would be best to leave the pair alone. Sweetie on her part was oblivious, slowly fighting her sniffles and calming down. She knew what she had to do next but she was scared. She didn’t want to know.

“Thank you.” She said quietly.

“Of course, Sweetie.” The nurse replied, “I’m Nurse Fluff. I’m in charge of the filly ward of the hospital.”

Sweetie nodded into her chest and tried to gather her courage. She took a breathe.

“What happened?” Sweetie asked.

“Cheri brought you here as quickly as she could. Your friends followed too. She said that there had been a fight and you’d been caught in the middle…” Fluff slowed down.

“What else?” Sweetie asked, knowing what was coming.

“When you got here, you were nearly dead. We just barely managed to keep you stable but…” Fluff looked away, “we couldn’t re-attach your horn. It was broken at the base. We tried Sweetie, we tried. But we couldn’t. We had to make a choice – your life or your horn.”

Sweetie nodded slowly. She had known. She had expected it. She had expected to be torn apart and start crying again but she couldn’t. She forced herself to remember what had occured and imagine what her life would be like. She couldn’t shed a single tear. She considered herself for a moment. It was almost as if she were too tired to care, she just wanted rest.

“Your family is waiting to see you, dear.” Fluff interrupted the filly’s self-reflection. “You’ve been asleep for quite a bit.”

Sweetie looked up at her - two questions were burning in her mind. She quickly decided their importance.

“How long was I asleep?”

“It’s been almost two weeks, dear. It was very touch and go for a while. You only just became responsive a few days ago. You were in a coma.”

Sweetie nodded and fidgeted nervously, “Could I have a mirror? Before they come in?”

Nurse Fluff nodded reluctantly. She was disconcerted by the filly’s reactions or rather, her lack of reaction. Sweetie was exceedingly calm. A child her age should not be so… calm and collected after her trauma. Fluff forced herself to ignore the feeling, Sweetie was just a child that had gone through extreme trauma and - everypony reacts differently to this sort of thing.

Fluff reached over to the bedside drawer and opened the drawer to retrieve the standard mirror stored inside. She handed it quietly to Sweetie and watched her for her reaction.

Sweetie stared at herself. There were bandages wrapped around her head, covering her ears and hair. Where her horn used to be, there was only a faint pink stain in the gauze.

Nurse Fluff watched her and her feeling of unease grew more profound. Sweetie didn’t react in any of the ways she was expecting. There were no tears. No sobbing. No real reaction at all. She tried to come up for an explanation but couldn’t.
Sweetie just continued to stare at her reflection with all the passion of a pony examining a puzzle. It scared the nurse.

Sweetie didn’t dwell on her lack of a horn. She just felt tired. She had expected the lack of horn, but she hadn’t expected the patch of pink on her forehead. She thought she would have stopped bleeding by now. Any other time she’d been to the hospital, a more common occurrence since she’d started crusading, she’d been healed almost instantly. The unicorn doctors were always fast. She turned to ask Fluff why she wasn’t healed when she realized the nurse’s expression, one caught between unease and outright fear.

Sweetie’s expression didn’t change, but her heart crumpled a bit. She knew her appearance would be disturbing but she didn’t expect the Nurse to share the opinion, especially after the nurse had comforted her.

Before Sweetie Belle could speak, the door burst open and a mass of ponies clambered in loudly.

“She’s awake!” two high pitched voices yelled simultaneously. Sweetie found herself buried under two excited, compulsively hugging fillies.

Fluff quickly backed out of the room; she didn’t want to stay near Sweetie Belle. She felt something was wrong with her, very wrong.

Sweetie was temporarily stunned by her friends’ the strong embraces, but hugged them back weakly. Her friends began to babble to Sweetie about how they were sorry and hadn’t meant for anything to happen to her. Sweetie had trouble following their frantic explanations and unbidden, a picture of Pinkie Pie jumped into her mind. She smiled and felt a bit of her energy return.

“Stop. Stop.” Sweetie yelled over them. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t hurt me, Silver Spoon did.”

At the sound of her name, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo scowled.

“She’s not even gettin’ punished!” Apple Bloom yelled angrily.

“Neither is Diamond.” Scootaloo muttered, “Miss Cherilee explained to the policeponies what happened but somehow, their daddies found out before them. They forced the policeponies to leave them alone.”

Sweetie shook her head angrily and immediately regretted it when she felt a wave of nausea and almost passed out.

She groaned quietly and quickly laid back down.

“What’s been happening?” Sweetie asked, hoping to distract them before they could notice her distress.

“Scootaloo’s expression cleared quickly, “Well, we still don’t have our cutie marks yet but we…”

Cherilee, Rarity, and Sweetie’s parents sat side-by-side in the waiting room outside the foal ward. They’d heard the fillies call out to them that Sweetie was awake and would have rushed to her room had they not been forbidden to see her. They glared at the pony that was stopping htem from seeing Sweetie with venom only a basilisk could match.

Twilight Sparkle sat across from them, speaking determinately, refusing to back down in the face of their combined glares.

“You can’t see her yet. Princess Celestia gave me specific instructions. Princess Luna needs to see her before you all can. I’m sorry but I can’t allow you to disobey their orders.”

“But why can th-“

“Because neither Apple Bloom nor Scootaloo were mentioned in the letter. I’m sorry. I know it’s not fair, but please. The Princess knows what she’s doing.”

“What could Nightm- Princess Luna, possibly do? Why is she interested in Sweetie Belle?

Rarity was the only one who could speak remotely politely to Twilight and so had been elected spokesperson of the group by the scowling ponies beside her. Her distress, however, forced her to revert to more informal speech than her usually regal tone.

“Celestia didn’t explain very well. She wrote that Luna had experience with this kind of injury before and that she knew how to handle the situation.” Twilight pawed the floor nervously. “She wrote something cryptic though, something about protecting her from herself…”

Rarity shook her head angrily, “What does she mean by that?”

“I don’t know.”

A sudden burst of sound from outside the hospital doors, a rather loud boom, snapped all their attention to the window.

Princess Luna walked toward the hospital doors slowly, reluctant to enter the undoubtedly unpleasant place. Even a thousand years of solitude on the moon could not dull her distaste for places like hospitals. They were places of death; sad gathering places for the souls she conducted to the afterlife in her kingdom of stars.

She entered the hospital and took in the ponies collective stares. She ignored them as best she could. They were easier to ignore every day. It seemed as if her reintegration into pony royalty had not been completely accepted all ponydom. Luna could not help regretting her distance from her little ponies. They were her charges and she’d failed them.

For the hundredth time since she’d been released from the Nightmare’s influence, she vowed to never again fail them.

“We have come to speak with the filly, Sweetie Belle.” Luna spoke clearly, unconsciously reverting to Royal Canterlot in her unease.

Twilight Sparkle trotted over and bowed deeply. The rest of the room hastened to do the same, save for the few ponies that refused to bow.

“Twilight Sparkle, you do not have to bow to US. Of all ponies, you We are most indebted to.” Luna said before bowing to Twilight in return.

“Thank you, Princess. It was habit, nothing more,” Twilight replied formally. She slipped into a more informal tone. “Rarity and her family would really like to see Sweetie Belle now. Would that be alright?”

“We must see her first. We will speak with her as quickly as possible. We can imagine how difficult this must be for her family.”

Twilight nodded and turned to the family before Luna said, “Would you please accompany Us, Twilight Sparkle? We think you should see her as well.”

Twilight turned around and looked at Luna incredulously.

“Why can she see her and not US?!” Rarity yelled angrily unable to stay quiet despite having such respect for royalty.

Luna looked at her quietly, weighing her response for a moment. She decided that telling the family the whole truth would serve her purposes better than hiding the truth from them.

“Because if you approach her in the state she is in, she could be killed. This kind of injury is very dangerous. She may appear fine, but she is far from safe yet.”

Luna sat down heavily before sighing and breaking down into a more informal tone.

“A few years before Our… possesion… We had a unicorn student, just as Our sister has now.” Luna motioned in Twilight’s direction with a hoof. “She was… brilliant. Talented. Everything We could wish for in a student. But she had an accident one day. She was out wandering in the old castle at night. Crumbling masonry was a fairly common occurrence in the old castle. Some fell from the parapets just as she was walking underneath.”

“What castle?” Twilight interrupted.

“You have visited it once,” Luna sighed, “It was the castle where you freed Us from the Nightmare’s control.”

Luna paused as she remembered the night. It had been very cold, she remembered that distinctly. The ground had been hard and had refused to soak up the blood flowing from her student’s forehead. Luna shuddered from the memory and continued. The others waiting in the room had fallen silent and were beginning to listen as well, realizing this was likely the only time they would hear such a story.

“She survived having her horn broken off, just as Sweetie Belle has. However, she fell into a deep depression after regaining consciousness, refusing to eat or sleep. She withdrew from Us.”

Tears formed in her eyes and she let them fall freely. Even after a thousand years, her grief for Song was immense – impossible to ignore.

“We tried to find out what was wrong. Her behavior was extreme, even for such an extreme injury. You see, losing a horn happens often enough that it is a well-documented occurrence. It was the extent of the damage that was unique. Her horn had been completely snapped off, there was nothing left at all not even a stub. She had no outlet for her magic.

“It kept building up and We didn’t know how to stop it or help her. We threw Ourselves into trying to help her. But the harder We worked, the worse she became.”

Luna paused again and forced herself to regain a bit of control. It would not do for her subjects to see her so distraught. The ponies in the waiting room could feel waves of sorrow emanating from their Princess. Even those that had refused to bow when she had entered could not resist feeling for the Princess. Instinctively, they all crowded closer to try and provide some kind of comfort. The bonds between the alicorn and her subjects ran deeply through all of ponydom despite her banishment and nopony could resist the urge to comfort her.

“She died of course, otherwise We wouldn’t be telling you this. We discovered too late what had been happening to her. She had been building too many emotions inside herself. Not many unicorns know this, but emotion is the driving energy force used in magic. Twilight, I know you’d disagree,” Luna preemptively stopped Twilight’s half-formed comment, “but We shall prove it to you in a moment.”

Luna continued, “Without her horn, the magic Sweetie generates is trapped, but that isn’t the only problem. The loss of her horn makes her extremely sensitive to negative emotions like anger, anxiety, or worry. They build up inside her as well, accelerating the process of energy growth. That is why I said you cannot see her. In the state you are in, you could kill her outright.” Luna paused for breathe and collected herself.

“As to why We are here, the reason should be obvious after Our story. We said We were too late for Our student, however, Our research was not in vain. We eventually discovered a spell that could counter the effects We described… but there are side-effects.”

Rarity broke her silence and regained her regal tone, “Whatever do you mean by side-effects? I can assure you, no matter what they are, to prevent such a terrible fate from befalling my sister, we would gladly choose to save her.”

Luna stared at her sadly, “Do not be so sure.”

“First, she cannot be acted upon by magic under any circumstances. It would make her very, very sick. For all intents and purposes, she would be allergic to magic. We know it will be especially difficult for your family to restrain yourselves. Magic is part of who you are. However, you must for her sake, never use magic on her.

“Second, her personality will change drastically. She will become a different pony. She will be your daughter of course, but she will also… well… not be…”

“We know this is difficult for you to understand right now. We know that Our explanation does not even begin to cover the complexities of this spell, but we do not have time to waste. We are sorry that this is the way things have happened and it isn’t anywhere near fair to your family to ask you this after waiting and hoping for her to wake up.”

Luna stared directly at Sweetie Belle’s and Rarity’s parents and her expression crystallized into determination. She did not want to lose another subject to such a painful injury.

“You must choose now - before she starts sliding into a state We cannot return her from.”

“Save her life and lose your daughter. Or lose her as she is and leave your memories of her intact.”

Her next words were like iron, binding them into a decision.

“Choose.”