I-I'm scared.

Shh, it's okay. We've done what we could. Now we need to trust everything will be fine.

I-I... I love you.

I love you too, my Miracle.

We can't hold them for much longer, your excellencies!

M-Mystic, there's so much I still want to tell you...

You can tell me later. Because even if the universe revolts against forever...

"Ugh!" Twilight threw her head down into the pile of scrolls and books. There's nothing! How can so many important ponies not have records of their families?!

"I got nothing." Spike threw aside another book, taking a moment to stretch. "Are you sure they had foals?"

"Celestia confirmed what Somnia had said. I had other grandfoals that did have foals of their own throughout the years!" Twilight got back up. "Somnia, do you have any ideas?"

"Nooo." She admitted, rereading a line on the scroll she was examining. "But wouldn't you technically be the ancestor to every other pony? Kinda hard to keep it in a single lineage."

"Which is why I'm so frustrated!" Twilight exclaimed, picking up another scroll in her magic grasp. "We've already encountered a few common ancestors but nothing that either of us would recognize!"

"What about in Canterlot? Isn't that the oldest city in Equestria? Probably would have records going back past the founding." Somnia raised a hoof questioningly.

"Whatcha doin'?" A voice yelled out from next to Twilight as she took another book from the shelf.

"Aaagh!" Twilight jumped back to face the pink party pony.

"'Aaagh!' yourself! But that doesn't answer my question, silly." Pinkie Pie giggled, pulling herself from the shelf.

"Just some genealogical research." Twilight stated, going back to looking through the pile she had already assembled.

"Ohhh..." She leaned in closer, whispering: "I don't know what that is."

"Genealogy is the study of family history. Y'know, where ponies come from and who they're related to." Spike clarified.

"Ooh, fascinating." She went over to a precariously stacked pile of scrolls next to Somnia.

"Maybe you should pick one from the..." Pinkie took a scroll close to the bottom, tower somehow still standing much to Twilight's confusion. "... top?"

"Uh-huh... Interesting..." Pinkie unrolled the massive scroll as she moved out of the room. Twilight and Somnia shrugged to each other right before the tower collapsed in a resounding: "WHAT?!"

"This is the most amazing thing ever!" Pinkie zoomed back into the library and hugged Twilight tightly. "Why didn't you tell me how amazing this is?! Genealogy is better than cotton candy on top of a fountain of chocolate!" She squee'd. "You'll never believe who it says I'm related to!"

"Oh, and who... would..." Twilight couldn't finish her question as Pinkie zoomed from the room. Somnia rolled the scroll back up, eventually getting to the end where Pinkie had stopped.

"What's it say?"

"It... might say 'Pie', but I can't tell." She examined the connections. "Oh, she may be distantly related to Applejack."

"I got to agree, Twi, we'll have better luck in Canterlot." Spike closed his book. "There's nothin' here."

Twilight tapped her hoof impatiently as she waited for the chariot to arrive. Princess Celestia was willing to open the restricted section of the Canterlot Library for her to browse and had sent a chariot to pick them up. Spike was sitting on a box of scrolls next to her that she had prepared to do cross-referencing and her daughter was flirting with the lieutenant off to the side. At least she thought it was flirting.

"Princess." Shield walked up next to her. "Dusty has agreed to stay behind to guard the library, so it'll be Dawn and I escorting you. We'll stay upstairs in the main section to keep an eye out for any suspicious ponies."

"Thank you, captain." Twilight squinted. Off in the distance she could barely make out the chariot making its way towards them. A couple of minutes later it touched down at the front of the library. They loaded the box and themselves onto the chariot, setting off for Canterlot. A half-hour later they arrived over the city, and within minutes they touched down in front of the library. Inside, Princess Celestia lead them over to the secret door, unlocking it with her magic to allow them entry.

Escorting them to the lower levels, Celestia pointed to different sections filling them in on the most likely locations for each of the texts before retreating to the back of the library to read something on her own. Twilight selected a few choice entries as she went, her two dependents doing the same in other sections.

The first thing she noticed was that some of the texts were written in a language she didn't understand. "Somnia, do you know how to read this?" She floated the book over to the filly, who gave a nod.

"Equinish script, or Excalia scitus."

Cyclic Verse, introduced by Excalion and I during pre-historic periods.

"What he said." She grabbed a book with her mouth and descended the ladder. Twilight and Spike followed close behind with their own selections. The three gathered in the center of the room, the Cyclic Verse texts were hoofed over to Somnia, the Old Ponish Twilight claimed for herself, and anything leftover was given to Spike.

After a couple of minutes, as Somnia was examining a scroll, she let out a giggle. "Find something?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, my brother's alias." She went over next to Twilight and pointed to a particular line.

"Nopony above them, four daughters, one son. You can see that two of the daughters are marked as belonging to a different dynasty and their mother is the same." She scrolled a bit downward to the remaining three. "This roughly translates to 'Gust Sparkle', and 'Star Swirl'. There's also 'Sombra' too, but that doesn't translate as well."

"Sombra?" She looked back up at their father's name. While she didn't understand it exactly, it probably roughly translated to what Celestia and Luna knew him as. The names of the regal sisters were also slightly different. 'Cadera' and 'Linu' in the later scribbles next to the Equinish script writing, written in Old Ponish. "They aren't..."

"No, it was a deliberate tactic by the 'king' to 'legitimize' himself." Celestia called out from across the room. "We are only tangentially related through the generations."

"And it's a filly, too." Somnia added. "My real name is Sombra Temperii. Somnia Temporus is what Celestia and Luna translated it as, but it isn't exact." She blinked a few times, a grin forming on her face. "He named his daughter after me."

"What was your brother's full name again?" Twilight asked, her next question already lined up.

"It translates as something like 'Nightflame Sparkle', but that first part might not be accurate." Somnia brought a hoof to her chin in thought.

"Nightflame... Sparkle." Twilight grabbed a few texts she brought from the library, sifting for one in particular. Pulling it out, she went up the lineage to the last member known. "Does either of his foals have a descendant by the name of 'Sparkle Flare'?"

The filly looked further down the scroll before walking back over to her pile to pick out another one. "Yup! Descended from Gust Sparkle!"

"And the old unicorn royalty is from Sombra?" She followed up.

"Yes." Celestia called out from across the room. "Princess Sombra was our half-sister. Her descendant, Princess Platinum, was an extremely distant relative. But no more distant than any other pony since Gust's lineage branched to encompass the remaining population."

"I'm..." Twilight took in what she just heard.

"The Mother of All Ponies. Or most ponies." Celestia corrected, walking over. "I think that sounds like a good title, don't you?"

"What?" Twilight turned to her curiously, still processing it.

"I shall make it so. Mother-Regent Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, Mother of All Ponies, Princess of Ponyville, Element Bearer of Magic, Vanquisher of Nightmare Moon and the Spirit-of-Chaos Discord, Champion of Harmony, Matriarch of House Sparkle." She smirked. "It's getting long, but not nearly as long as mine."

"And Star Swirl?"

"The one and only." She placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Congratulations. You're directly related to every pony alive or dead since Gust's descendants encompassed them."

"How long is your title?" Somnia spoke up curious.

"Regent Princess Celestia of Equestria, Princess of the Sun, Princess of Canterlot, Regal Daughter of Queen Faustinia, Co-Chancellor of Pegasopolis, Archon of Earth, Her Graceful Radiance, etc etc." She waved a hoof dismissively. "It goes on for another couple of minutes. In writing, only the Regent Princess Celestia of Equestria, Princess of the Sun, Princess of Canterlot, and Regal Daughter of Queen Faustinia are included by a royal decree I signed into law after Luna's banishment."

"What about me?" The filly hopped up on the table.

"Queen-To-Be Princess Somnia Temporus of Equestria and the whole of Equus, Grand Councilor of Harmony, Survivor of the Great Fall of Excalicorn, Princess of the Harmonic Empire, Matriarch of House Excalion. It's pretty short right now, given you hadn't had much time to acquire titles."

"Still shorter than Twilight's." Spike pointed out.

"True." Celestia smiled over to him. "Sir Spike of House Sparkle, Champion of the Crystal Empire."

"Woah! I have a title too!" He got up from his seat. "Wait, sir?"

"It's a bit soon, but I believe that you would make an excellent Knight of Unicornia." Celestia giggled. "When you are older, and after you've been properly trained."

"Awesome!" He ran over to give the regal sister a hug. "I won't let you down."

"I doubt you will, you're going to be one of the two only members." She winked to him. "It would spice up the meetings with Prince Blueblood, though."

"Wait, hold on." Somnia shook her head. "How did you know--"

"You are a Grand Councillor?" Celestia answered, grinning to the filly. "A little birdy told me."

Of. Bucking. Course.

"A... little birdy?" Twilight narrowed her eyes. "A particular one-eyed crow?"

"Who knows?" Celestia shrugged, dismissing the question. "Are we finished here?"

Twilight took one last look through the scrolls before deciding that her research was sufficient. She wrote down several of the details onto her extra scrolls before following Celestia up the stairs. Rather than returning them to Ponyville, the chariot, along with Princess Celestia, were brought over to the castle. They went to a meeting room where Twilight saw Lord Fancy Pants reading a scroll across from Raven.

"Have you finished?" Celestia asked, moving up behind Fancy Pants.

"Almost, your majesty." He took another minute before floating the decree over to Celestia who promptly signed it.

"It's official. Princess Twilight Sparkle, congratulations on your new title!"

"Huh?" Celestia led the confused princess back out to the waiting chariot.

A little birdy told me... Twilight got up from where she sat, leaving her black feather quill on the table to go over to the door. "Captain? Can you come inside for a moment?" Her vision caught the crow from atop a roof, staring directly at them.

Shield entered and closed the door behind him. It was just the two of them in the library with Spike and Somnia out getting groceries. He waited for her to speak her piece.

"Have you seen a small crow flying around here before?"

"Yes, everyday in-fact." He raised a brow. "It likes flying to different perches. I assume it's somepony's pet with how frequent it's around here."

"What about outside of Ponyville?" Twilight stepped forward. "Or has it done anything suspicious?"

"Other than landing on my shoulder?" His brow wrinkled. "It's not a regular bird, is it?"

Twilight took a look to each of the windows, not seeing the corvid. Getting closer, she cast a bubble of silence and whispered for good measure. "Keep an eye on it. Celestia and Grar know who it is, but neither were willing to say anything. Somnia and Spike haven't really seen it either. Mention this to the other guards but don't let Somnia know until we figure out who is spying on us."

"Your wish is my command." He did a slight bow, using his own magic to break the bubble before heading back outside. She went back to work on the article she was writing for the Canterhorn Scientific Journal. Everypony should really know about their common lineage and the royal family. Rather than include the details about her siblings, she focused on her own lineage.

The first entry was Queen Gavelmede, a name that Somnia had given her to use to refer to her former mother, followed by herself, Princess Miracle Spark aka Princess Twilight Sparkle, the first child, and Queen Faustinia being put last along with the regal sisters. Between them she put a few notes stating that Queen Gavelmede did have other foals, but that they won't be discussed until more details are uncovered, although it was mostly to spare the backlash Cadance and Shining Armor would receive. First under herself was Gusty the Great, Princess Stellar Shimmer, it was unknown if she had any foals.

Then came Prince Nightflame Sparkle, the Royal-Consort of Queen Faustinia, who had the longest section detailing the different branches. It's a shame Star Swirl never had foals, but he was known as quite the recluse. She mused. The royal sisters were his juniors, being born thousands of years after the previous youngest, that being Star Swirl himself. The lineages of Gust Sparkle and Sombra were complicated, to say the least, with at least four different branches each. The three older foals had unknown mothers even after Twilight had asked Somnia, but she said the scroll didn't include the names of the mothers.

Finally, Somnia herself. No foals, at least not yet if she keeps bucking anypony she pleases, and the youngest of her own children. Twilight bit the tip of the feather, immediately regretting it when she discovered that the feather itself was also harder than steel. It felt like something was missing... Next to her name, in the box where her former husband was, she wrote down Prince Mystic Nightflight. Her quill flicked slightly as though she wanted to add something, but nothing immediately came to mind. Is there anything else missing?

Why did it feel like something really big was missing from it?

Dismissing the concern, she re-read the article, correcting a few mistakes before re-re-reading to make sure. All mothers and fathers accurate enough, given that she didn't know the names of most of them. Before Somnia had left, she made sure to confirm each of the pairings. Who was Twilight's original father? Somnia certainly didn't know, and she was around back in those days.

'Equestrian Royalty: An In-Depth Dive Into the Common Lineage of Equestia's Inhabitants and the Royal Family, by Princess Twilight Sparkle'

Putting it into an envelope, she got up and left for the post office. She expected there to be some concerns about the aunt-nephew descent of the regal sisters, but hopefully everything would be dismissable under the excuse that there were limited options. Either way, it was a good first step in the process of gaining acceptance for royal intramarrying, in spite of how much she found it disgusting.

After dropping it off at the post office, she pulled Dusty aside.

"Where's Somnia?" She whispered to her. Pressing a hoof to her ear, Dusty asked Shield where they were at.

"Sweet Apple Acres, behind the farmhouse on a hill. Says you can't miss them."

The two walked over to Sweet Apple Acres, and from the looks of it, nopony was home. Walking down the path behind the farmhouse, she spotted the filly and her bodyguard atop a hill. Getting closer, she could see Somnia looking at a clipboard, pencil in her mouth. The other two crusaders came running back up the hill as Twilight approached.

"So... who won?" Scootaloo panted out, catching her breath.

"Neither of you." Somnia mumbled out, spiting the pencil onto the clipboard. "It's a tie."

"What?! But that was so much..." Sweetie fell to the ground exhausted.

"Doesn't look like you got your cutie marks either." Shield pointed to their flanks.

"Eh..." Scootaloo laid down on the grass next to Sweetie. "Maybe we need Apple Bloom here?"

"You think your going to get synchronized cutie marks?" Somnia raised a brow at them. "Twins sometimes do, sometimes even disconnected ponies, but three connected cutie marks are pretty rare."

"My friends and I got ours at the same time." Twilight ruffled up Somnia's mane, letting her know that she was there and getting a brief hug.

"I got mine pretty late." Dusty sat down next to the fillies, both attentively listening. "A few of my friends were playing ponyhunt with me. I was the last one remaining when the hunter called out a truce. Apparently I had hid for over four hours." She giggled. "They wanted to make a deal: If I could catch them, then I would win. I know, I would have won anyways, but where's the fun in hiding when you can go from prey to predator?"

"What happened next?" Sweetie laid her head on her forelegs.

"I stalked them through the forest, keeping my eyes on them the entire time. They still had no clue if I had even heard them so they kept looking. Just as they sat down for a rest, I made my move. I jumped from the tree and wrapped my hooves around them. They seized up from an asthma attack before I could declare my victory. I managed to know the area like the back of my hoof so I was able to carry them back out of the forest to get help. Apparently at some point during all of that, I got my cutie mark." She cringed at the memory. "I also apparently had broken my leg from the fall. Didn't really know until I collapsed in-front of my dad."

"Your story is at least interesting." Shield quipped.

"Oh? I'm certain you got your cutie mark doing something interesting." Dusty pawed at her superior.

"Nah, just standing up to the school bully." He shrugged. "Beaten to within a hoof of my life, but I kept standing up to them. They asked me why I kept standing, tired from beating me down. I just told them I hated bullies. Bam! Cutie mark on my flank and a lifelong friend."

"Why was he hurting you?" Scootaloo got up and stretched.

"The colt thought I was an easy target. Sorta true. I was pretty scrawny as a colt. Wasn't until I hit late-puberty did I get so much muscle I could crack a coconut with my biceps." He chuckled, flexing a foreleg to show off the muscles. "He would go on to become a school teacher after doing his term in the guard. Nicest stallion you'd ever have the pleasure of teaching you."

"All in times of crisis..." Somnia muttered to herself, thinking back on what she observed before.

"What was that?" Twilight whispered back to her.

"Nothing, just thinking out loud." Somnia smiled, mind still conflicted about what to think about it. Two ponies with six stars in the guard and happen to be assigned to her? Sure, coincidences happen. Three? That's a pattern.

"Aww..." Sweetie cooed. "That was sweet. Did they ever bring it back up in conversation?"

"Yeah. Even earned their cutie mark when they were coaching me to build up my muscles. Always saw him as a gym teacher. Nope, math and physics." He gave a hearty laugh. "We both have each other to thank for our cutie marks. Still uses the story nowadays for troublesome students, says strength and purpose can come from a variety of sources. Which is why I want to stress to both of you not to worry about getting your cutie marks. They'll come from even in the most mundane of situations."

"But none of your stories are ordinary!" Sweetie pointed out. "Princess Twilight, you and all the other elements got yours at the same time when Rainbow Dash did her sonic rainboom, you guards got yours doing some great justice, and..." She cut herself off as her eyes found Somnia.

"And mine didn't come by choice." Somnia finished. "None of ours did."

Fate has a way of giving us all meaning. Even me, despite not ever being eligible for a cutie mark physically, I've fulfilled my own destiny. If I had a cutie mark, it would have led to that one experiment, for better or worse. Don't let anypony convince you that you can't achieve great things if you don't have a cutie mark, or what your cutie mark is.

You'll make your mark, and it will be all the more satisfying knowing it is true to who you are.

"Wonderfully said." Twilight lightly smiled at Somnia.

The two crusaders turned to each other, both mulling over what each of the ponies had said. "Thanks." Scootaloo replied, smiling genuinely to all of them.

"It's what we've all been trying to tell you the past couple of years." Twilight lifted Sweetie's head to face her.

"We're going to have to talk to Apple Bloom when she gets back, I guess." Sweetie giggled.

"Yeah. I kinda feel a bit bad we didn't realize it sooner." Scootaloo scratched the back of her neck embarrassed.

"You still had fun though." Somnia countered. "You're all still great friends. Don't let cutie marks come between you and spending time together, because one day you might not have as much time."

The two crusaders nodded to each other before bringing in Somnia, Twilight, Dusty, and Shield for a group hug.

Author's Note

Shorter chapter this time, I thought that was a high note to send off the chapter on. Honestly, I didn't plan for it to go the way it did. It produces some interesting possibilities for the timeline I had laid out somewhat but it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.