"What does this phrase mean?"
Applejack stopped and turned around. Twilight had the Apple family tree open in front of her, and she was pointing to something up at the top. Applejack walked over and looked at the section in question. "'Gone back Home?'"
"Right. It's all over the place, under each pony's name. It looks... familiar for some reason."
Applejack smiled and sat down next to Twilight. "It's an old earth pony belief. We believe that, when a pony dies, they go to the Forever Home, a never-ending field of flowers and wheat. Everypony we've lost, everypony we miss, we'll get to see again in the afterlife."
Twilight smiled uncomfortably. "Of course. That's a very beautiful idea."
Applejack laughed. "I know you don't believe, Twi, and I ain't gonna try to convince you. But then I have to ask: where have you seen it before? You been looking at earth pony family trees recently?"
"Not that I know of." She got up from her seat and began to pace back and forth. "It's gonna kill me! Where would I have seen that?"
"What do unicorns put underneath their dead relatives' entries?"
"Usually just the birth date and death date. Sometimes Requiescat in Pace or Blithe Cwealm. I don't know any unicorns that believe they go to the Forever Home, but..." She paused, the gears in her brain turning. "Hold on. Could it also be 'Gone to the Forever Home?'"
"Some families write that instead, sure. Why do you ask?"
"Because my parents wrote that on our family tree."
Applejack tipped her head to the side. "Your parents believe in the Forever Home?"
"No... they don't."
After that, Twilight was nothing but calm, though her desire to understand was stronger than ever. She quietly booked a train ticket, and before she knew it, she was back in Canterlot, her childhood home in front of her. After becoming Celestia's student, she'd almost never visited, and she found herself surprised at how small and quaint it looked. When she had lived there, it had been a mansion, a castle to rival Celestia's. In reality, though, it was as simple and homey as the other buildings next to it. She knocked on the door, and her mother opened it. "Twily! We weren't expecting you."
"Do you mind if I visit for a little bit?"
"Not at all, dear! Dinner just came off the stove." Twilight Velvet beckoned her in, and they both headed inside. But as they passed through the kitchen to get to the dining room, Twilight paused. There, right next to the door, was the family tree. It stretched up to the ceiling, all the way to Vespers at the top. It wound its way down, brushing through hundreds of names and millenia of history, and they were all marked beneath them, "R.I.P." That is, until she went to the very bottom, which bore the line, "Night Light (b. 951) m. Twilight Velvet (b. 959)," and below that, three names. Shining Armor first (b. 980), then Twilight (b. 983), and after her...
"Twily? Is something the matter?"
Twilight could hardly speak. She waited until her mother was standing next to her, and then she pointed with a shaking hoof at the third name. "Harvest Moon. Born, 987; died, 988. Gone to the Forever Home."
Velvet brushed her hooves and set the potholder she was wearing onto the nearby counter. She laid a hoof over Twilight's back and gave her a firm hug. "That's right. Your little sister. Do you remember her?"
"I... no, I don't think so. Why did you... was she...?"
"Yes," said Velvet. "She was an earth pony. Some dormant genetic code from way back when. We think it's on your dad's side, but we're not entirely sure. In any case, we had never heard of this happening before, so we tried our best. We gave her an earth pony name, but one that felt very unicornian."
"That's not the only reason." Night Light had walked around to the other side and now hugged Twilight as well. "We named her that because of her color. A white coat, like yours, dear, but a bright orange mane. And in the center of her face--"
"A big orange spot, like the harvest moon." Velvet laughed quietly and shook her head. "She was beautiful."
"What happened?" Twilight asked, quietly.
"The impossible." Velvet frowned and looked away. She seemed to want to explain further, but the words just wouldn't come.
Night Light took it upon himself to relieve his wife's burden. "We went to have her vaccinated, and she had a freak response to it. One-in-ten-million, the doctors told us afterwards. She got the shot, everything seemed fine, but five minutes after we'd gotten her in bed, she was throwing up blood and running a 39-and-a-half-degree fever. By the time we could do anything, she was already gone."
Twilight felt as though she were experiencing those same symptoms. "Was it because of her earth pony blood?"
"Maybe. We don't know." Night Light sighed and tapped the spot on the wall. "It was my idea to put this on the tree--our last attempt to honor her heritage. But maybe... maybe there's a small part of me that hopes we get to see her again."
Twilight knew it wasn't very likely--there was no evidence that anything survived after death--but there was some part of her that wanted that, too. "Did you have her buried like the earth ponies do?"
Velvet shook her head. "We considered it, but Canterlot doesn't have a graveyard. So we had a short service for her, and then we had her cremated."
Twilight slumped down onto the floor. It was so much information to get all at once. An entire life, there and gone, in a blink. "Did I... I mean, did Shining and I love her?"
"You adored her." Night Light picked her back up and grinned. "Shining Armor kept trying to give her chocolate milk, 'cuz it was his favorite, and he thought for sure it was hers, too. And you--you were so happy to have a little sister, so that you weren't the baby anymore. You wanted to be the one to read her a story goodnight, and you picked such a long book! What was it called?"
"Tales of the Red Wall. But you stuck to it, and you had just finished it before--"
"I remember." Twilight wiped her eyes and nodded. "I had just picked the next book, and I couldn't understand why I wouldn't get to read it to her."
"That's right! You do remember," said Velvet.
"But..." Twilight strained to remember. "But I can't remember what she looked like. That's the earliest I remember."
"That's all right," said Night Light. "Do you remember the service afterwards?"
"Just a little bit," Twilight replied. "I remember how we each said our goodbyes, and then I said..." She gasped, as if she'd been punched. "I said, 'I love you, sis. I'll never forget you.'"
Velvet sighed. "Oh, dear..."
Twilight started to cry, slowly at first, then in grief-wracked sobs. Night Light tried to soothe her a little. "You were four years old. It's astounding you remember that much."
"But I promised!" Twilight cried. "And I walked by that tree hundreds of times, and I never even noticed her name there. I'm a bad sister."
"You're not a bad sister," said Velvet. "There was nothing you could do."
"And that's why we have this tree," said Night Light. "So we can remember."
They sat there for a few seconds--Twilight crying, Velvet sniffling--until Night Light came up with an idea. "I know. What if you made a copy of this for your castle? You could put it in your bedroom, or in one of the libraries. She'd like that, don't you think?"
"Yeah." Twilight laughed softly to herself. "Especially with how much she liked my story."
"Exactly." Velvet gave a small grin. "Maybe she would have been a bookworm like you, huh?"
"Maybe. I think she would have liked astronomy, so she'd gaze up at the moon, and she'd want to know why it turned the color of her mane in autumn, and I'd get to explain it to her."
"That would be nice." Night Light smiled and looked up at the ceiling, imagining it.
"Twily." Velvet placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I know you feel bad for forgetting. But you remember her now, and that's what counts. There may not be a Forever Home--we may never get to see her again--but for now, we get to keep on living. So keep on living, and make her proud."
"Okay." Twilight rubbed her eyes again. "Just... promise me one thing?"
"What's that?" she said.
"Promise me you'll send a letter to Shining. Make sure he still remembers her, too."
"Of course," Velvet replied. "He deserves to remember."
"Good." Twilight composed herself, then placed her hoof on the tree, just like her dad had done. "Harvest Moon. I love you. I'll never forget you."
