It is said that long ago when Equestria was under the rule of Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos that there was more to the alicorn family then just Celestia and Luna, although, to the rest of the ponies, they only ever really cared about Celestia and Luna. There was a third princess, a princess that never really became a princess, unlike her sisters. This alicorn was named Orionia (Oh-ree-nee-ah). Once Celestia and Luna had become princess, Galaxia and Cosmos had neglected to announce Orionia as a princess, as well, because they didn't see her as useful as her sisters. Celestia would bring the sun up each day, and Luna would bring the moon up each night. But what was Orionia to do? Had she any purpose to Equestria? Certainly the alicorns didn't think so.
Equestria, 300 years ago, Royal Ceremony
"Celestia, are you prepared to take on the challenge and duty of being ruler of Equestria?" The younger mare had nodded her head once in agreement. Her short, pastel colored mane was curled to appear royally in front of her mother.
"Yes, I am." Queen Galaxia turned to the other young mare, Luna.
"And are you, Luna, prepared to take on the challenge and duty of being ruler of Equestria by your sisters side?" Luna nodded once, as well.
"Yes, I am." The queen looked out to the crowd of ponies behind the two new princesses with a smile and confident look.
"Then I, Queen Galaxia, hereby decree Celestia and Luna as /Princess/ Celestia and /Princess/ Luna." The crowd cheered and several had congratulated the princesses to their new royal-hood. The two ponies turned around and each had held up one hoof to signify their responsibilities now as princesses. Galaxia had placed tiara's on each of the ponies as well as giving them their hoof shoes. All the alicorns in the family had presented themselves royally to the crowd to show that they were now a part of the ruling family, all except one.
The curtains behind the thrones had moved slightly, and if you were to go back there, you would find one more alicorn. An alicorn with a light blue pelt and gradient orange and purple hair, just like her mother's. This mare hadn't a tiara or hoof shoes, only a sad look upon her face as she lied on the floor, crying. Listening to her sister's achievements as becoming princesses was too much for her to bare, and ever since that day and on, her life was a living hell, but was only made a living hell by two significant princesses.
Equestria, now, Canterlot Castle
Twilight walked through the bowels of the castle quietly, her hooves barely making a sound. She wasn't quite sure if she was allowed to walk through the part of the castle she was in. As she walked along, the hallways became darker, and quieter. The princess turned around and found herself completely alone. This made her feel like she definitely wasn't aloud in this part. "Well, I'm trying to get more familiar with the castle, so I'm sure Celestia would understand." The corridor she came upon was nearly blackened with desertedness. A stairway was at the end of the hall, and she checked her surroundings to see if it seemed suspicious. Determining to herself that it was okay to follow, she started down the stairs, her hooves making a "click" every step she took.
After 30 or 40 steps, she was quite sure she was underground by now, probably far underground. At the bottom of the stairway were two skeletons in each corner, covered in knightly armor. The dead ponies had caught Twilight off guard as she scurried back a little in shock. Her wings had flown out instantly to make sure she was prepared for any other surprises. She stood there for a minute or so, and since nothing had happened, she folded her wings back against her back and took a deep breath, like how Princess Cadence had shown her.
The door that stood before her was wooden with two large golden locks connected to flat bars, keeping the door closed. The top of the door was curved and it was nearly as big as the cold stone wall it was impounded to. It reminded her of an old pirate treasure chest she read in fairytails. She studied it for a second and began to fabricate a spell to unlock the locks, considering no keys were around, to be seen anyways. Once the spell was complete, the locks fell off, landing on the stone ground with large clanks as the door slowly opened inward. Twilight peered inside before she trotted inside and noticed bars reaching from the ceiling to the floor, close together.
"This must be the old dungeon..." she said out loud, as she slowly entered. Before she took another step she grabbed one of the locks off the ground with her teeth and set it between the threshold and the door, to be sure she wouldn't be locked inside. Her horn had glowed to create some light for herself, since the dungeon was as dark as night. She took each step carefully and slowly as she passed each cell. Several cells had old skeletons in them, and others were as empty as an abandoned house. Her ear twitched as she heard a scurrying sound a few cells down. "Hello...?" She asked, a little skeptically. Celestia wouldn't use these dungeons, so who was in here...? Or... "am I just dreaming?"
As she reached to the cell where she though she heard some noises, she had heard whimpering. She looked around in there as she saw a shadow of a mare, about Celestia's size. "Hello? Who are you? Is someone in here?" From the dark shadows appeared a mangled mare. The princess had enlarged the size of the glow from her horn, making sure to cover the whole cell to see the trapped pony. The light had shown upon the mare. The pony was an alicorn, her blue pelt was old and it looked like it was matted with blood in several spots. Her mane was iridescent and beautiful, flowing, like her tail. Her mane and tail was very identical to that of Queen Galaxia's, shimmering in the dark. She hadn't a tiara or any hoof shoes, and her eyes were sunken with grief and pain, yellow. Her wings were broken and lied on the floor. Twilight's eyes widened as she saw what kind of condition this mare was in.
"Who...who are you?! Who has done this to you?!" She asked, her voice twinged with anger as she automatically mentally accused Princess Luna. She was Nightmare Moon, after all. Or, at least /had/ been, but that wasn't the point. The mare looked at her, a bit of hope in her eyes twinkled.
"Who are you...?" Twilight was a taken a bit aback at how the question automatically turned on her.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, a princess of Canterlot." The alicorn in he cell stood up, shakily. She obviously had some issues and was weakened, but was able to walk over to the bars, her wings hung saggily by her sides.
"A...princess...?" Twilight nodded.
"Yes. Are you one, too? Since, ya know, you're an alicorn. And your hair looks just like Queen Galaxia's." Tears welled up in the edges of the broken pony.
"I wish..." her head hung low. "I should be, but mother didn't see any use in me." Twilight tilted her head.
"Can you tell me who you are?" The pony looked up at her, in her eyes.
"Orionia, a part of the Royal Family." Twilight's eyes widened with shock and disbelief, but she wanted to hear her story. Orionia understood Twilight's skepticism.
"I'm Celestia and Luna's sister, the oldest of us three. During the Royal Ceremony where mother had made Celestia and Luna into princesses, she claimed I wasn't fit to be a princess..." she sniffed as memories faded through her mind. She looked away from Twilight. "Celestia brought up the sun, and Luna brought up the moon, she had said 'what do you do? You're useless'. When Celestia and Luna adopted this castle, they-" her story was cut short by another set of hooves clopping through the stone hallway.
"Twilight, my dear student, what are you doing down here...?" Celestia's voice had rung through the air like a rag being rung out of it's water, and it stayed there. Her tone had a hint of sternness in it. She soon appeared out of the darkness and stared at Twilight with a cold look under the younger princess's glow. Twilight jumped a little as she looked over at Celestia.
"O-oh! Princess Celestia! I-well-you see, I was getting to know the castle a little more, and I came upon this dungeon. Why is your sister in here...?" Confusion washed over Twilight's face as Celestia came over, and Twi moved off to the side so Celestia could have a full view of Orionia. The white princess glared at the prisoner. She acted as if she didn't even listen to Twilight's plea.
"Orionia. Who told you you could speak without my permission?" Orionia took two steps back from the gate of her cell and hung her head low.
"S-sorry, sister." Twilight had gotten a little angry with the way Celestia had treated this other alicorn.
"Celestia, why're you treating her like that? And why is she even in the cell to begin with?" Celestia sneered a little at the pathetic mare in the cage as she turned to Twilight, putting on her understanding face.
"Oh, Twilight dear, you don't need to worry yourself with Oriona's pitiful complaints." Twi glared at Celestia.
"Yes, I do. What grounds is she being imprisoned under?" 'Tia scoffed and turned her attention to Orionia.
"Uselessness." Her glare slowly turned back to Twilight. "But you've seen her now. There's no turning back." She took a few steps towards Twilight with a sinister look on her face Twilight stammered backwards.
"P-Princess...?" Orionia took a step forward, speaking up.
"No, sister, don't hurt her! Twilight, run!" Celestia turned to Orionia and glared as Twilight ran down the dark corridor, ending her glowing spell. The princess turned back to the running alicorn and took off after her. Orionia walked over to the bars. "There's a door at the end of the corridor, HURRY TWILIGHT!" Soon, she winced as she heard a loud thud, darkness, and silence.
Twilight's eyes fluttered open as she was chained to a metal table in the middle of a large cell. Her eyes shot open as she realized her situation. Her wings had been bound tight with what seemed to be a stretch coat. She scanned the cell of her surroundings and looked over to the stone wall at the back of the cell to find Orionia bolted and chained to the wall, two small nails punctured through each of her wings as chains held her legs together, sprawled out on the wall. Her eyes were half open but opened fully when she saw that Twilight had regained consciousness. "Twilight, I'm sorry I couldn't help..." When the bound pony looked over to see where the voice was coming from, a flash of fear flew over her, adrenaline kicking into her system to find herself bound as well as Orionia. She shook and rattled in her chains, her legs soon growing tired.
"Why- why aren't you trying to break free, Orionia? And...who did this to us?!" She looked at Twi hopelessly.
"There's no point. She'll catch us again, like always..." The young purple mare shook her chains again, effortlessly.
"Who's she?! Is it Luna?!" A third alicorn walked into the cell, with a white pelt and a flowing pastel colored mane and matching tail.
"Not today it isn't, Twilight." Twilight turned over to the other alicorn in the cell, her eyes wide with shock and fear.
"Ce-Celestia...? Why did you- what're you-" Celestia went over to the the steel table with a soft look on her face.
"It's okay, my student. Luna would've just killed you instantly if she knew you found out about Orionia." Twi rattled her chains a bit more.
"Why? Why are you keeping Orionia here? Torturing her...it's sick!" Celestia grew a psychotic grin on her face and looked at her star pupil dead in the eye.
"I find it to be most helpful to E questria! You see..." she walked over near Orionia and caressed her pelt with her hoof, softly and gently. "There are some ponies who aren't needed, and it would be unjust to kill them off. Murder, /that/ is sick. What I am doing is making sure Orionia knows who she is and her place by keeping her in check. If she behaves, she won't get hurt. But if she doesn't..." her grin grew wide. "well, it depends. Since she tried to help you escape, both of you will get punished. You might be more...severely...punished than Orionia, since you /did/ discover her. You'll need to learn to stay away from my sister." Twilight's eyes followed each of Celestia's movements, her legs twitching slightly.
"What're...you going to do to me...?" Celestia circled around Twilight's table, glaring at her with each step.
"Not quite sure yet, Twilight. I'm deciding your punishment as we speak. What do you think, Orionia, is fitting for someone who breaks..." her voice sound sharp at the end "the rules." Orionia looked up at Celestia, her eyes sunk with grief.
"Please, don't hurt her Celestia. She didn't do anything wrong. It was me, all me..."
"Tch..." Celestia rolled her eyes. "You're going to save someone like her? For yourself? No, that's not fitting enough. Think..." she walked over to Orionia and cast a spell, choking the helpless alicorn. Orionia gasped for breath as she tried to fit words in between each ragged attempt.
"T-take...her m-m-mag...ic..." Celestia let go and raised an eyebrow, peering at Twilight.
"Her magic, huh? Hmmm..." her full attention went back to Twilight. "Hope that's okay, my dear Twilight." her eyes widened as she tried her best again to go against the chains holding her down.
"Princess Celestia! No! You-you can't! SOMEPONY, HELP! ANYPONY!" A part of her knew it was already a lost cause, but there wasn't any harm in trying, now was there? She struggled more in her chains as Celestia just stood there and watched the helpless pony. She walked over to where Twilight's head lay and she grinned, enchanting a spell as Twilight's horn grew purple. Twi did her best to look at her unicorn horn, but failed. "Ce-Celestia...?" A sharp pain ran through her skull as she yelped out, thrashing about on the table. It felt as if someone was prying a bone out of her with sheer force, and something similar to that was happening right night. With a few more tugs and more magic from the princess, the horn had broken off, fragments of the purple horn still stuck inside of Twilight as the area grew red with crimson blood. Her vision grew fuzzy as her eyes wavered, but she did her best to keep consciousness.
"My dear student, I though I taught you better to always do your best, didn't I?" Twilight winced from the throbbing pain in her head as she heard her horn drop to the ground with a clank. Her eyes looked over at Orionia, seeing if the alicorn could help her.
"I'm sorry..." mouthed Orionia as she coughed, causing her hind hooves to bang against the stone wall. Everyone's actions ceased, though, once they heard a set of hooves going down the dungeon's corridor. Celestia hushed the trapped ponies and walked out of the cell, looking at the mare who was walking down.
"Oh, dear, it's just you, sister." She said with a smile as Luna came up to her and nodded. The night mare stood up straight as she looked inside of the cell and noticed Twilight bound on the table and Orionia on the wall. She sighed and looked back at her older sister.
"Why is Twilight in here?" Twi looked over at Luna with a surprised look on her face. Is that all she cares about? Is Luna in on this too? What's happening here in Canterlot?! Celestia sighed as well.
"My student has decided to explore and found Orionia. She has to understand the consequences of her actions." She said sternly, glancing back at Twilight. Luna nodded.
"Yes, I see. Although I understand your actions, sister, we have an issue-"
"Princess Luna?" A second mysterious voice, much lighter and softer, echoed through the hall as both of the alicorns outside the cell turned. Celestia raised an eyebrow at Luna.
"What have you done?" She asked quietly, both angry as hell yet crushed. Another alicorn appeared, except this one was pink and didn't have a clue as to what was going on.
"Oh, Celestia, you're here too? What's going on down here? I thought we all were going for lunch...?" Celestia didn't even seem one bit as worried as Luna did.
"Yes, of course, Cadence. I just had to finish something important up down here." Twilight's eyes widened as she thrashed.
"C-Cadence? Cadence! CADENCE!!" Cried out Twilight as Princess Cadence peered behind the two sisters and and nearly fell from the shock of seeing the pony she once babysat with blood on her face and chained up on a table.
"Twilight? I'm coming for you Twilight!" She glared at Celestia and Luna, who both stood there, acting a little awkward but at the same time defensive for their prisoners. "Celestia, Luna, what is happening here?! I demand an explanation immediately." Celestia stepped forward, blocking Cadence's view of the trapped alicorns.
"Twilight is being punished, Cadence." The pink mare's expression turned into an angry one.
"On what accounts? And what about that other alicorn on the wall?!" She stomped a hoof on the ground, making a loud thud.
"Calm down, please. You'll frighten them" She said calmly, still avoiding the answer to the demanding question at hand. Cadence's glare grew cold.
"What is your reason for this. If you don't tell me, the whole of Canterlot, PonyVille, and the Crystal Empire, and soon enough all of Equestria will know of their ruler's treachery against innocent ponies." Luna glared, wanting to defend her older sister.
"How are you so sure they are innocent? My sister is never wrong." Luna took a step forward, her glare increasing on Cadence. The pink mare considered this notion for a second, about the innocence of the trapped alicorns. She turned over to them.
"Twilight...? What is Luna talking about...? Have you done something?" Twilight shook in her bonds.
"No, I haven't! I was just going through the castle and I found this place, and then I found Orionia!" Orionia looked up, just now getting her first look at Princess Cadence. Her eyes gleemed and she smiled.
"It's...it's Princess Cadence...in flesh and blood." Cadence smiled a little.
"Don't worry, I'm getting both of you guys out of here." Twilight smiled weakly, still slowly losing blood.
"Thank you, Cadence-" Darkness flew over her eyes as she was knocked unconscious swiftly
Twilight woke up with her wound of her horn being broken off still unhealed, her bangs matted with blood. She checked her surroundings and then opened her eyes wide when she saw Cadence standing on her hind legs, her hooves clasping onto a knife of which was hovering over Twilight's body. "C-Cadence...?" The pink mare was sniffling as she looked over to the far left corner of the cell, finding Celestia and Luna standing there, watching with evil, yet sadistic glares. She then looked over to where she saw Orionia, who was still barely conscious but was paying attention as best as she could. The look in her eyes had shown her loss of hope of not only escaping but of helping Twilight. Cadence sniffled again, tears brimming her eyes.
"I'm...so sorry Twilight...but this is for..." she shook while holding the dagger. "...for my kingdom." Twilight stood frozen in her cold, tight chains.
"What? Cadence...? Cadence, you said you'd get us out of here. Are you? Are you..." She nodded and tried to smile to make Twilight feel better about her fate.
"Yes, I'm getting you out of here, Twilight. It'll all be over soon..." Celestia, in the dark corner, grinned as she was about to witness someone carrying out the deed for her. Cadence lifted her hooves up a little more and then brought it down onto the middle of Twilight's body, piercing through her purple pelt. Twi arched her back, the dagger digging in deeper by accident. Tears streamed down the ponies's faces as Cadence pulled out the dagger, and lunged again. She closed her eyes.
"Sunshine...sunshine...lady-bugs awake..." Twilight joined Cadence with the singing as they both went on. "clap your hooves...and do a little...shake..." Twilight's eyes had closed, the pulse leaving from the princess's body, all life sucked out of her. Cadence dropped the dagger and got back on all four hooves as she stepped back, finally realizing what she had just done. Celestia laughed a little and then came out from the darkness.
"Good job, Cadence. Although, there is one more part to all of this." Cadence shot her head over to Celestia, her eyes wide.
"B-but...you told me this would all end...if I had done what you said..." Celestia lifted her head, her mane still flowing as Luna stood by her side.
"Yes, I recall perfectly, but I'm not done telling. Just one more thing, and then you are free to go back to your kingdom, and this will all blow over." Cadence sighed and lowered her head, listening to her superior.
"Yes, Celestia." The white mare turned to her younger sister to give the final instructions. Luna nodded and held her head high, setting a hoof forward.
"You must tell Shining Armor that you killed his younger sister, in person. And than, fate shall take it's course. You know the consequences if you do not tell Shining Armor." Cadence's eyes widened as she shook in her hooves. She wanted to protest, but she couldn't because she knew if she did, not only would she be killed, but everyone she knew and loved would be, as well, and Equestria would be ruined. She sighed and looked down; just one more sacrifice, she could make it. She looked Luna dead in the eye.
"I will. I'm going to go now, and tell him." Celestia raised an eyebrow, speaking up for herself now.
"How can we ensure that you are speaking the truth, dear Cadence?" The stares in the room grew cold as Orionia felt sick, still trying to register at what happened to Twilight.
"I will tell Shining Armor to come here and tell you what I said. I'm sure either way he'd come here to Canterlot, but I will make sure that he does so." Celestia and Luna exchanged glances and then turned back to the poor mare.
"That will suffice. Go, now, Cadence. Remember, if treachery is to be found-"
"There won't be."
The Crystal Empire, several hours later, Crystal Kingdom
Princess Cadence had walked inside of the castle slowly. Her pelt was full of dirt from being thrown around in the dungeon, her hair had tints of blood in several strands, tangled at the ends. The image of what she had done to Twilight was still ringing through her head as she headed up to where she thought Shining Armor might've been; the bedroom. As Cadence walked up the stairs, she went down the hallway and through two large doors. Gold had encrusted the thresholds of the doorway as the handles were designed as if they were hooks so that a hoof could fit in and pull open the doors. Cadence slipped her hoof shakily through the hook and pulled forward, the large doors slowly swinging outward towards the princess. Inside Shining Armor had paced through the room and quickly ran over to Cadence.
"Cadence, there you are!" Exclaimed the prince as he nuzzled Cadence's neck. He took a real look at her and was finally able to relax again, knowing his true love was right where she needed to be, with him. "You look like you've been thrown in a ditch and you had to crawl your way out. What happened to you? How's Twilight?" Cadence choked up when her love had mentioned Twilight's name. She walked past him and stood over near the window that lead out to the balcony that faced all of the Crystal Empire.
"There's...something I need to tell you, Shining Armor, and I'm not proud of it at all." The confused blue-maned pony looked at Cadence and walked over up to her.
"You can tell me anything, Cadence, and I will never judge you or leave you." The princess took a deep breath, and then sighed.
"When I went to the Canterlot castle to go see the other princesses, I stumbled upon something horrible, something I can't tell you for our own safety." Armor opened his mouth to speak, but she just shook her head, signaling that she needed to continue. "I had found Twilight and another...pony...of whom I can't say, either, and I..." she shook a little. "in order to save Equestria, I had to...kill...Twilight Sparkle." The look that fell upon Shining Armor's face was far too deep in shock, grief, anger, and loss all at once that he simple stood there, frozen, words could not describe how he felt at that time.
"C-Cadence..." Cadence was on the verge of just breaking down, and she wanted to with her prince, but there was no way he would let her. Not one single way, after he had found out that the love of his life had killed his little sister in cold blood.
"Please, Shining Armor...understand, I did this for Equestria-"
"NO! I won't hear ANY OF IT!" Something snapped inside of the prince that day as cold glazed over him and he stomped his hoof to assert himself. Cadence stumbled back, not used to seeing him like this. "You killed Twili, you killed MY ONLY FAMILY!" His eyes grew dark as he walked up to Cadence and pushed her against the window using his magic. Cadence stared at Shining Armor with true fear in her eyes. "You don't deserve to be here. You have the audacity to come back to the castle after what you've done?! It's over, Cadence. It's done." He turned around and bucked Cadence through the glass door to the balcony as she fell onto the deck, glass stuck in her as she bled.
The prince walked up to the pony on floor and slammed his hoof into her ribs, breaking several. Hearing the snapping of her bones made Cadence cringe and whimper in pain. "Any last words, Cadence?" Her purple eyes looked into his own eyes as she had understood what Luna meant by fate taking it's own course. She nodded with what strength she had in her at the time.
"I'm sorry...Shining Armor..." He scoffed and walked over her, clearing his throat and spoke as loudly as he could.
"Ponies of the Crystal Empire!" Ponies had walked outside of their homes, slowly all collected together in the town square. "I must banish Princess Cadence from the kingdom." Many loud yells and cries came from the crowd including 'what makes you think you can do that', 'you have no right', and 'how dare you Shining Armor'. "Silence! I have a justifiable reason!" Yelling turned to hushed tones as they all paid attention to the prince standing before them. He had looked odd to the crowd, not his bubbly exterior like usual. "Princess Cadence has committed a terrible crime; she has murdered another princess. She has killed Twilight Sparkle of Canterlot." Screaming and loud angry cries were heard as they all said horrible things about the murdering mare. "Do with her as you please."
Author's Note
Excuse the incompleteness.
