How My Daughter Saved Equestria

Celestia’s mouth hung open. Her pink mane, which had stopped flowing perpetually years before, seemed to flow once again. Her cutie mark flashed, and her eyes grew as wide as the pots used on Hearth’s Warming Eve. We had just shown her Dystopia’s threatening letter, after sending Diamond out to play with Luna, and she had not exactly had the greatest reaction. To be frank, it surprised us completely. We didn’t realize that showing her something that seemed so unfamiliar would spark such an emotional breakdown.

“I…I…where…did you say…this was found?”

“Shining Armor found it at the Ponyville burn site,” Twilight reiterated, “and I take it, at least by your immediate reaction, that you know this evil?”

Celestia nodded with great vigor. “I do,” she declared, “but I will need my sister’s help to tell the tale fully.”

With that, she got up from her seat and trotted over to their back door. They lived in a wonderful retirement cottage in Silver Shoals, with everything they could ever want. They finally had a chance to live life away from the spotlight, which was exactly how they liked it. No more constant begging for interviews, no more royal advice, and no more ruling. Celestia even told me once that, as much as she loved everypony, it would get a little tiresome having to deal with all of Equestria’s problems. She often dreamed of retiring to Silver Shoals, and now that dream had become a reality.

She opened their sliding door with her magic and called out to where Luna and Diamond were playing a popular foal’s game called “Little Filly Says.” In it, the caller (or the “little filly”) shouts a command at the player, and the latter has to perform the action. But it’s only to be done if the caller says “Little Filly Says.” It’s incredibly similar to the human game “Simon Says.”

“Hop on two hooves!” Diamond yelled.

Luna didn’t move. “You didn’t say, ‘little filly says!’”

Diamond laughed. “Oh, alright. You got me. Little filly says hop on two hooves!”

We joined Celestia and watched in amusement as Luna attempted to hop on her back legs with her front ones stretched way out to the sky. She looked completely ridiculous, but we held our tongues for Diamond’s sake. To her, Luna took this game completely seriously, and it needed to stay that way. It helped refresh the bond between our filly and her adopted grandmares, and we were delighted to assist in any way possible.

But Celestia’s look soon turned dour as she remembered Dystopia. “Luna, would you mind joining us for a few minutes?”

Luna finished her awkward bouncing and looked at her sister. “Of course, my sister. Diamond, let’s go in.”

“Aw….!” Diamond pouted, “but I was having so much fun!”

“I know, my little filly,” Luna said kindly, “but Aunt Celestia needs me. We’ll have some more fun later.”

Diamond smiled at this prospect and trotted inside obediently. I smiled and nodded at her as she went by, silently praising her for listening to Luna’s instructions. We had always tried to teach her to hear and respect her elders, no matter which pony it was. Seeing this played out in real life made me proud to be a father, because I knew that these small things could turn bigger and better later in Diamond’s life.

When Diamond went upstairs to play in our guest room, Luna and Celestia sat down in front of us. The deep blue mare, whose mane had also quit flowing years before, sipped a glass of tea as Celestia unrolled the scroll in front of her. As she read it, her own eyes grew wide and she began having an awful time holding her mug. Her magic went awry, and she spilled the tea all over the floor. “Um…I’m sorry…I’ll clean that-“

“No,” Celestia said, “forget the tea for now. We have much more important matters to discuss.”

“You’re right, dear sister,” Luna said, “for it is not a glass of spilled tea that could destroy Equestria and everypony in it.”

“Please,” Twilight said, “who is Dystopia, and why does she want us all killed?”

Celestia sighed a moment, collected her thoughts, and began the story:

“Dystopia is a cruel, vicious, vindictive, murderous pony. When she says that the other villains in Equestrian history are mere peons compared to her, she means it. She burned down our first palace just outside our home village, and we had to move to The Everfree Forest. But, she didn’t start that way…”

Luna continued:

“Dystopia began life as a small filly named Mountain Mist, and just like the cool natural phenomenon for which she was named, she was a gentle and kind filly. She had the best interests of everypony at heart, and she knew how to satisfy them. She was a friend to all, and we watched her grow in this way. After all, she…was our sister.”

Now it was our turn to experience a widening of the eyes and locking of the jaw. We gave each other a shocked look, and then turned back to the Princesses Emeriti. “You mean…you had a third sister?” Twilight asked. When Celestia and Luna nodded, Twilight looked genuinely hurt. “Why did you keep this from me? I mean…was it really that big a secret?”

“We did what was best for everypony,” Celestia said softly.

“YOU LIED!” Twilight suddenly exploded.

“Calm down, Twilight!” I said, grabbing her and forcing her to remain seated. She looked like she was about to tear out their eyes. I knew how important honesty was to Twilight, and she looked as if her very heart had been torn from her chest. The ponies she had loved and trusted for so long had not been straightforward with her, and her eyes betrayed the pain she felt at this.

“Twilight, we did it to protect you,” Celestia went on, “and as we continue the story, you’ll see why…

Mountain Mist was indeed our sister, and she represented a kind of mediator between myself and Luna. When we would have spats and fights, she would always be there to stand between us and calmly talk us off of our soapboxes. When there would be disagreement, she would try and work out compromises between us. In short, she was the best of us. She exuded love and wonder, and we always strove to make her happy.”

“So, then, why did things go so wrong?” I asked.

“We were all around the same age when Celestia and I discovered our power to raise the sun and the moon. Thanks to this, as you know, Star Swirl created the position of princess and crowned us the first rulers of Equestria. But Mountain Mist did not discover her talent, and remained a blank flank. We could tell that our new position and influence was creating a barrier between us and her, and we did our best to knock it down. She was hurt that we were made Alicorns and she was not, and she had good reason to be. After all, she had spent her entire life making the lives of others better.”

“We begged Star Swirl to make her a princess as well,” Luna went on, “but he would not. He told us that our powers to raise the sun and the moon were what gave us the royal right to rule. She had not demonstrated such power or ability, so she was not granted the title. This revelation tore our souls in twain, and we spent the next few days in grief. We wanted our little sister beside us, helping to rule and create better lives for everypony.”

“So, because Star Swirl refused to crown her, we decided to create the position of Prime Minister,” Celestia said, “that way, she could still have some type of influence and remain beside us. She might not have been on the same level as us, but she was still our second-in-command, and she was very happy with this. She also discovered that her special talent was, indeed, being a comfort and joy to others. Her cutie mark of a motherly figure watching over the lives of everypony reflected this.”

“Life was beautiful once again,” Luna said, “until the seeds of hatred and doubt were planted in Mountain’s heart. Somepony, we’re not sure who it was, told her that Celestia and I were collaborating and plotting against her. They said we wanted to have her killed so that we could rule Equestria with iron hooves. When she broke into our throne room angrily one day and demanded that we answer these accusations, we vehemently denied them. Of course, we wouldn’t plot against our own sister! We loved Mountain Mist, and we loved having her as our Prime Minister!”

“But she didn’t believe us,” Celestia said, “so she donned a black outfit and a blood red cape. She drew a symbol based on her cutie mark, only this time the motherly figure was a monster, murdering everyone and destroying everything that dared stand against her. That is the symbol found at the bottom of the scroll here.” She pointed at the demonic signature at the base of the parchment.

“We didn’t think it was possible, but here it was happening,” Luna said, “our sweet, wonderful Mountain Mist turned into the deranged and destructive Dystopia. She swore off her kindness and vowed that the blood of ponies would stain the cobblestones of our village. She made good on her promise, as she went out and began killing ponies left and right. Nopony was safe, so we evacuated the village. Then, to top it all off, she stood on a high hill and shot a magic blast into our palace that set it aflame.”

“We didn’t know what to do,” Celestia admitted, “our village was destroyed, ponies were dead, and our palace was gone. So we set off on a journey with the ponies who had made it out and wound up in The Everfree Forest, where our friends helped us build The Castle of the Two Sisters. From there, we sent out forces to capture Dystopia and they succeeded. We brought her in and, with tears in our eyes, banished her to the frozen wastes of Siponia. We figured that she couldn’t hurt anypony there, and she would end up dying sooner or later. I guess…we were wrong about that last part.”

Twilight wiped tears from her eyes. I could tell that she had seen the error of her ways, and now knew just why Dystopia had been kept a secret. If word that a pony like that existed got out, there was no telling what kind of damage it could do. Ponies running amok, fear spreading like wildfire. It would be utter chaos.

“I’m so sorry I exploded,” my beloved said, “I just didn’t know…”

“It’s alright, Twilight,” Celestia said, bending forward and hugging her former student, “I understand your anger. I would be angry if somepony I knew and was close with was dishonest with me. But this time…honesty was not the best policy.”

“If Dystopia came to light, there would have been a mass panic,” Luna said, voicing my own thoughts, “ponies might have trampled each other in their haste to escape, and small foals might have been seriously hurt or worse. Keeping Dystopia locked in the prison of our hearts was the best thing.”

“But now…she’s back.” Celestia said, “and I have no earthly idea how, or what to do to stop her.”