Temptations

“It’s true I’m not worthy of all the aggrandizements I receive” Twilight proclaimed into the empty dusty dark room.

“It seems my lot was written by some unmerciful deity. Brought into the world by a caring mother. Born to a respected father, a stallion of vast medical knowledge who dedicated his life to helping the poor and weak. So why do I receive praise even though I never did anything besides studying old dusty books in a dusty old chamber. Knowledge is a dubious blessing. I always thought I would learn something with which I would be able to help Ponykind. Day by day, year by year I sat here and studied words written by authors long gone.”

The wind howled by the windows, many historical and mythical events were depicted on them in beautiful colours. They looked like they were made only a short time ago but in reality some of them were centuries old and not even made in Canterlot.

Twilight picked herself up and walked past the historical ones, she knew them by heart from the unifying of Equestria to the coronation of the princess. Every picture told her a story some of them, like the painting of Celestia watching over Equestria down from the top of Canterlot.

In most ponies, this would evoke an inner peace and calm but not in Twilight, she knew the true events that lead to this picture. It was a nearly forgotten part of equestrian history, something about 3 centuries ago parts of the country rose up against the princess because they thought she had too much power and shouldn’t rule alone. The royal guard literally trampled this uprising.

Since this age Celestia liked herself to be viewed as motherly and benevolent rather than the powerful warrior she once had been. The warrior who defeated the gryphons and diamond dogs, was crowned princess while the blades were still wet from blood.

At first she blamed her actions on an evil nameless force but everypony thought she wanted to wash away her sins and after some time the rumours stopped. But she never again was Celestia the warrior, she was from then on Celestia the mild, Celestia the caring. And never again she spoke about the evil force and the revolution which ended so bloodily.

Keeping Equestria unified wasn’t easy but necessary; otherwise, the weak separated baronies would be eaten alive by dragons, the remaining griffons or other enemies of Equestrian.

Shuddering yet understanding her mentor, Twilight trotted on over the old dusty carpet.

Passing by the many other historical pictures she reached one that stood out of the rest.

From every other window, copies existed all over the country but not from this one. It seemed that nobody except Twilight noticed it. From her books she knew it was probably picturing the last day of the rebellion after endless skirmishes between the royal guard and the rebels. At this day Celestia suddenly ordered her troops to march against the self-declared new capital of the rebels, to burn it down to the ground and slaughter every living thing, young or old, inside its walls.

On that day countless souls were lost either to the blades and hooves of the royal troops or to the all-consuming fire. The whole town was erased, foals, rebels and peaceful town folks alike.

It is said Celestia watched the end of the city, alone, from a nearby hill, never turning away her gaze.

Some eyewitness reports stated that it seemed the princess was in tears the whole time. Many historians later interpreted this as expression of the pain she felt when she realised at what cost she had saved the unity.

This was also shown in the picture in front of Twilight, there was only one major difference, all the eye witnesses stated the princes was alone but in the picture on the window there was a second alicorn visible. The alicorn was dark blue and smaller than Celestia, at the same time it made the impression to be stronger than Celestia. It stood a few steps behind Celestia in the cold moonlight and watched the burning city under the star filled nightsky.

Dawn had come without Twilight’s notice, and outside cheers were audible. It was the day of summer sun celebration. Freed from her morbid dark thoughts about her life and past events by the first rays of the morning sun, Twilight turned around towards the door to join the simple folks in their celebrations.