A Reply and a Dark Secret
The letter was written in scruffy handwriting on a scrap piece of paper pulled out of a spiral notebook. Some of the writing hovered above the line, other parts dipped below. It was written by three young fillies who had used a spell to correct their spelling and grammar. Still, it was the most beautifully worded letter that Princess Dinky Hooves had ever read. By the time she had finished, she was moved to tears.
Dear Princess Dinky,
We are writing to you about the letter you sent to us about your past struggles in Equestria, when Tirek and Cosy Glow were in charge. It was a beautiful letter that made us all cry, but we would like to know more about that terrible time.
That letter was torture to read, but it told us so much. We could imagine Tirek and Cosy Glow in charge and you reading Twilight's letter. We all decided after reading it that we needed to know the whole truth to take the burden of hiding this from you. We cannot begin to imagine what it would be like if they were still in charge and we had to live without magic, but we can guess that it would be absolutely horrendous.
We get the feeling that you will refuse. Maybe because you want to protect us, maybe because it's a burden to share something that you did wrong, maybe because the memories are painful. However, we would like to point out that you have already started to share the story, so there is not much point in stopping now. There is so much more that needs to be told - even the gory details - and we want to be able to tell others about what happened in the future.
We hope you understand and write again.
Yours sincerely,
The Cake Twins and Lily Waterfall
Dinky was torn. She started pacing in her bedroom. After reading that, she really, really, really wanted to tell them, but their mental well-being could be severely affected if she did. It was Twilight who had persuaded her to write the first letter: she had been talking about what a burden it was to carry the secret and how foolish she was to cast the Carrying Curse, which meant that they could not speak about what had happened to them, unless they had already been told, except through writing. And Twilight was correct in a way because it was a burden to not be able to talk about it. The fillies had also been pestering her. She had thought the first letter would deter them. Apparently not. Ugh. Twilight was so much better at this. She could make an almost instant decision on what to do. She was so good at being a princess. A bit like when Celestia and Luna had been in charge. They were all so good at their roles. Dinky herself was still having trouble being a princess, even after all these years. It seemed that she would need Twilight's input to make a decision.
She used magic to teleport to Twilight's palace, and knocked on the front door. Twilight herself answered.
"Dinky!" she cried. "Come in, come in. I've not seen you in ages! How are you?"
Dinky walked to Twilight's side and replied, "I'm good, but I have a dilemma."
"What is it?"
"It's about-" Dinky began and she tried to speak but her lips got stuck together and no sound could leave her mouth. Her eye Drs darted to the guard at the door. Twilight saw and understood what Dinky meant. Carrying Curse. Past lives under Tirek's rule.
"That's okay," said Twilight, "we'll go to my chambers."
They walked up three flights of stairs and shared small talk. Eventually they reached Twilight's bedroom. A guard stood there.
"I need to talk to Princess Dinky in private," Twilight told him. "I will need to cast a sound seal. If somepony wants to talk to me, or you just want to check on me, knock three times." The guard nodded, the two mares entered Twilight's bedroom and Dinky closed the door. She cast the spell and Twilight said, "It's about the fillies, isn't it."
It was a statement, not a question. Twilight already knew why her fellow princess was here. Dinky squinted, and then she was thinking Twilight's thoughts.
Dinky doesn't know what she's doing. She's telling foals. She will scare them and they'll leave those letters out and then everyone will know that I...
Dinky yelled in pain as a sudden headache overcame her. It felt like she had spines in her head. She would have called for help, but she had cast the stupid sound seal so the guards wouldn't hear.
"Twilight, what was that?" Dinky asked, her head throbbing.
"I thought I told you not to go rooting around in my head. I have things I don't want other ponies to know. I my friends found out, they would turn me into a statue for all eternity, like Cosy Glow and Tirek and Chrysalis."
"Tell me. I can hold my tounge. Or have you cast another of those Coward Carrying Curses so that you can't embarrass yourself?!" Dinky shouted angrily. Twilight was more worried about herself than her subjects and the next generation of ponies and sharing the truth to make sure this never happened again.
"Dinky, you were cleared of all crimes. I wasn't given that luxury. I had to serve a prison sentence without magic for five years. I wasn't allowed to leave my shoebox of a room in all that time. I didn't even have a window. I didn't even get to see the sun in five years."
"I could clear your name. And who says I'm going to tell everypony whatever you did? What was it, by the way?"
Twilight mumbled something.
"Can't hear you Twilight!"
"I am the shadow."
"That means nothing to me."
"I am the Shadow Pony."
"In what way?"
To answer, Twilight conjured a mannequin that looked exactly like her. She then used her magic to create shadows that curled around the mannequin and formed armour that was such a deep purple it was almost black. The mannequin's irises began to glow red, and the pupils shrank to slits. An exact replica of the Shadow Pony who had done unspeakable things in the rebellion that led to Equestria's freedom.
Dinky was lost for words. "You - you don't mean-"
"Yes. That was me."
Dinky teleported back to Canterlot and decided she needed to tell the whole tale. Including the fact that her friend, mentor and fellow princess was a murderer. The Shadow Pony.
Letter 2: My Magic and Hiding Secrets
Dear Fillies, I have just learned a dark secret about somepony who I thought was my friend, and I realise now that I cannot hide the truth from anypony. This letter is about some other magical secrets I discovered after earning my cutie mark.
After school on that day I earned my cutie mark, I raced home to find my Mummy. She was baking a batch of oatmeal muffins.
"Mummy, Mummy, look at me!" I cried. She turned, focused her retinas for just a moment on my flank, and her eyes grew wide as her retinas slipped to the sides again. She shook her head and mentioned to The Door That We Never Used. It was the door to the cupboard under the stairs. I opened it and, to my surprise, another staircase was revealed. I looked at Mummy. She nodded. I walked down. It was darker than midnight when the moon is new. I heard Mummy walk into the cupboard and snap the door shut. I found the bottom of the staircase. I stepped to one side so that Mummy wouldn't walk into me. She came to the bottom and said, "Muffin, muffin, muffin." The only word she could say was "Muffin," so this didn't worry me. What did was the little bubble of blue light that floated towards her. She opened her mouth and swallowed it and her throat began to glow blue. She coughed and did something she had never done before: she hummed.
It took a few moments of listening to her humming before I put two and two together and said to her, "You can speak now."
"Clever girl," she replied. I tried no to scream with delight and surprise. "But you are not as clever as you need to be."
This confused me. "Why?"
"Flank."
"Why? What's wrong with my flank?"
"It's got a cutie mark."
"And?"
"Fire. Shadows. A bubble to represent family. It shows power. Cosy Glow could get some idea that you're going to start a rebellion."
"Oh."
"Use your magic and think conceal. It will let you hide your cutie mark." I thought conceal and it worked. My flank was blank! Then I thought uncover and my cutie mark appeared. Then I thought conceal again and it was gone. Mummy burped and the blue light came out of her mouth and disappeared. She was mute again. We walked back up and found ourselves in the cupboard and opened the door and Princess Cosy Glow was there.
"Hello Derpy, hello Dinky, what are you doing in a dark mouldy cupboard under the stairs?" she questioned innocently.
"There was a Changeling in there. We had to get it out and it turned into a filly called Diamond Tiara - I think you knew her - and it ran off."
I could hear her thinking, She's lying, they're hiding something, if only I could get that Derpy idiot to talk. Torture could work...
"Please don't do anything to us!" I blurted out. I realised I had made a great mistake. She looked curious for a moment. Only she and I knew, but I had just read her mind.
"How did you know I was taking you to prison and questioning you?"
A lie was so easy. "You do that too often."
"Hmm, interesting." I could hear her thinking again: Twilight Sparkle is behind this. I could really do with seeing her turned into stone. Or dust. The problem is, how? Twilight's a blank flank. So Twilight had invented the spell to hide and reveal a cutie mark.
Cosy teleported all of us into a prison cell. The three walls were made of stone. There was no door or bars to cover the gap that showed the corridor. It was a gap. I darted through and found myself running through invisible slime that turned solid. I was stuck. I could still use magic, but my flank was no longer blank. I read Cosy Glow's mind. Hmm. Fire and shadows. Could incite a rebellion. But she's a filly. Plus, her butt is stuck in the invisible wall.
"Dinky," Mummy called. I looked at her. The blue light was in her throat. "It's time you knew the truth. The Hiding Spell can hide a lot more than just a mark. Including being Princess Luna's daughter." My eyes grew wide. I was Princess Luna's granddaughter. I noticed that she was surrounded by blue light and was growing taller. Her blue wings became huge, her neck and legs grew long, and a horn spiralled out of her head. The light disappeared and there she was, Derpy Hooves the alicorn.
"I can't use my magic," she said, "but half of you can. More specifically, your top end." I looked at myself. I had sprouted a pair of wings that drooped uselessly. I made my horn light up and heat the invisible wall. It turned into slime again and I dragged myself out. Mummy was not so lucky. Cosy Glow teleported her somewhere and I didn't see her again for five years. I tried not to cry, hid my wings and cutie mark and ran to the secret base for the School of Magic and tried to find Twilight Sparkle, but she was gone. And by gone, I refer to the secret that I found out today.
Twilight has a Nightmare Pony, an evil version of herself who takes over when she is consumed by her negative emotions. During the rebellion, she let this Nightmare Pony take over. As far as I know, it has no name, but you will have heard of her. She is the Shadow Pony. As I write this I can imagine you gasping. I was just as shocked. I would like you to write back because I don't know whether to share this or not. Currently I am just disgusted that she did not tell me before. Still, she is my fellow princess. I cannot let you share this secret yet.
I hope you are all well.
Yours sincerely,
Princess Dinky.
