The Truth

by Blue Turtle

Innocence.

The Truth: Chapter 7

"What we do when we're young can often seem quite petty. But upsetting nonetheless to others."

-Unknown

This part of the chapter takes place well over a thousand years ago when Luna and Celestia were still children

Celestia grumbled to herself as she ate breakfast. The pink maned alicorn ate alone for once. Normally her sister would be with her. The golden aura around her spoon set down the metal utensil. She wasn't hungry anymore, so she might as well get up rather than sit around rolling around her spoon across the table. While Celestia left to go find something to do, upstairs in their chambers Luna giggled to herself.

"Mooooom. Tia's being mean again." Luna snickered to herself in silence.

"What?" Luna said in an overly deep voice, trying to sound like a stallion.

"What are you talking about Luna?!" Luna said, mimicking her sister's voice--well trying to at least.

"No dinner for you young lady! Come here Luna. It's okay." Luna said to herself again, trying to sound like her mother. She burst out into laughter. Though her laughter faded as she realized she was alone. Sure, she had toys to play with, and she did play with them, but she played alone. Maybe she should go apologize?

No! Of course not! Celestia's a big meany! Luna shook her head.

Luna hopped down from her parents' bed and onto the marble floor.

"She's sooo good at everything! She can waltz around without a care in the world." Luna snapped.

"Makes me sick..." Luna said with a disgusted look on her face. Luna huffed and walked down the staircase.

Luna grumbled at the open windows, knowing Celestia beat her to breakfast. Sitting on the table was a cold bowl of oats--Celestia's breakfast.

"Of course she didn't take care of it." Luna sighed. She sat down in her chair and pushed away the bowl. And she sat, and sat and sat. The chef was taking an awful long time to bring her breakfast. But she waited patiently until finally the chef hastily rushed out with a bowl of warm oatmeal within his magical aura. The green aura set down the oatmeal with a small tap.

"My deepest apologies miss. We had a bit of a mix up in the kitchen." The chef bowed and left Luna alone.

The filly sighed and dug into her warm bowl of oats. The occasional strawberry was a delicious treat. A blue aura formed around her bowl and lifted it over to the kitchen before scrapping out any leftovers- Not that there was much left.

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Celestia let out a long sigh before looking up to the lime green eyes of her companion. They sat alone, in the garden outside of the Crystal Castle. Green plants just barely tinted with blue stood up, well kept by garden workers. The garden wasn't huge like the one in Canterlot but it was just as beautiful. The sky was clear with the colorful borealis spreading across the sky. She'd always loved the Crystal Empire because it was filled with some many ponies full of love and hope. She looked back at her companion who smiled at her.

"You know Celestia I've been meaning to talk to you about something..." He said softly.

The dark unicorn was odd for a crystal pony. He did not look anything like a crystal--in fact her didn't gleam at all-but he did possess a horn. There were very few crystal pegasi and even fewer crystal unicorns. However his dark, almost shadow like, coat was quite intimidating for his somewhat lanky figure. But he was quite gentle and had his way with words. Able to clearly show what he was feeling. This made him a terrible liar.

"Yes?" She responded back quietly.

"Well you see.. I've been meaning to tell you something. It's kinda important." The nervous young stallion replied back. His cheeks slightly turned pink.

"I don't know if my father would allow thi-" The unicorn stuttered. Celestia placed her hood on his shoulder.

"It's okay Sombra, you can tell me anything." She politely said, smiling. The unicorn let out a deep sigh, like he was gathering his will power.

"I love you." Sombra said looking deeply into Celestia's eyes. Celestia took a second in a half to process what he'd just said.

"I.. I don't' what to say..." Celestia said, raising her hoof to her mouth. Sombra got a depressed look on his face. The light had shut itself off in his eyes.

"I understand." He said just about to turn away before Celestia pulled him into a kiss. She pulled away slowly after a brief moment of bliss. Sombra's face was bright red.

"You big goof I hope you weren't kidding just to get a kiss out of me." Celestia said, half joking. Though it showed up in her face.

"Aw come on Celestia I wouldn't do that." Sombra said defensively.

"I know that." Celestia said softly as she leaned forward to look directly at him. Sombra let out a sigh of relief. So they sat for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet.

Meanwhile Luna danced around with pleasure. The young alicorn hid behind a row of bushes, watching her sister and Sombra. She's finally convinced Sombra that Celestia wouldn't turn him down. Though it took a lot of 'persuasion' to get him to set up a point where he and Celestia could talk. Celestia, Luna and Sombra after all had been friends ever since their parents had come for country wide celebration. It was a huge banquet where all the leaders across the lands would come to a specific capital for 'merrymaking' as Galaxia called it. There was food and dancing and in general a great time, even for countries who in general didn't like each other. In the days coming there were huge sessions where every country would bring up something they'd like to change and see if the other leaders had a way to fix it. Of course sometimes there'd be fighting or 'aggressive discussion' s Nebulis called it. But in general it was a great time to come together and form bonds. However they were only held once a year so she and Celestia had never gotten a whole lot of time to get to know each other. But Sombra was a different story. The Crystal Empire was not as far away as some other countries so occasionally The Royal Family of the Crystal Empire would stop by to discuss. Nebulis and King Luminous got well together, they were almost like brothers except Nebulis was well over a millennia older. Nevertheless they got along well and the two countries were great allies because of this. King Luminous and Queen Dazzling had four children; Prince Sombra, Princess Rubia, Princess Quara, and Prince Topaz. Like their mother, Rubia and Quara were winged unicorns (Or biological alicorns as Nebula said) Though to be fair Topaz was kind of stuck up. He complained when he didn't get his way and seemed to over rule Sombra on just about everything. And his parents let him too. Queen Dazzling tried to polity keep Topaz from snapping at his older brother but he'd just get Sombra back later on. Luna hated it. It was so infuriating to see Topaz act so violently towards his brother in such cruel ways for what seemed like no reason.

"Luna?" Celestia said, standing over her little sister. Luna stumbled to her feet. It seemed as though while Luna was lost in thought Sombra had left and Celestia had found her.

"Were you.. watching me?" Celestia asked and her face turned bright red.

"N-NO!" Luna stuttered with a fake smile towards the end. Celestia bit her lip.

"You're a terrible liar you know that Luna." Celestia said, holding back her irritation.

"I'm sorry..." Luna said in shame. She hug her head low.

"It's okay Luna just don't go and tell everypony." Celestia said with a sigh. Luna nodded, feeling her own relief.

"I suppose it's time to go inside." Luna said, looking towards the large castle. Celestia agreed and they went in.

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Okay switching over from over a thousand years ago to only a few

A small alicorn stood alone in the rain. Her pink, purple and yellow mane was sopping wet. Her wings were drenched in water making it impossible to fly, not that she wanted to. In front of her stood two graves.

Heart Strong
Loving Mother of Mi Amore Cadenza
and caretaker of many

Silver Storm
Protector of many,
He fought bravely.

It was impossible to see whether she was crying or not in the heavy downpour. That was why she came out there after all. She'd remembered the day well. A dark being of the Nightmare forces, a Breyting, had attacked her friend. The love sucking monster tried to drain her friend of his love but Cadence fought it off. But how you may ask? She'd realized, quite literally, the power of love. The monster look almost like at one time it'd been a pony. But it had holes in it's hooves and in it's insect-like wings. The disgusting monster had transformed into her friend's sister, Twilight Sparkle. At first Cadence had almost lost; She didn't know how to fight in the first place nor did she have any magic to fight with. At that time she was a pegasus. But in a miraculous twist of fate she realized, what better way to fight a love-sucking monster than with it's own love? Force this creature to tire itself out in trying to catch her. The Breyting had shot many bolt of green-ish magic at her but Cadence got out of the way as quickly as she could. This didn't mean she didn't get hit however. The pain spread itself around her and made sure she was crippled. But the thought of her friend being eaten or worse kept her fighting. Eventually the creature was too tired to fight anymore and in a bright flash of light the creature had been destroyed. Had she done that? In truth at the time she was extremely confused. What had been even more confusing was that only mere minutes after she'd defeated the Breyting she had been teleported to some other dimension. Then Celestia showed up. she appeared out of the vast clouds of blue magic and told Cadence she was ready to transcend into an alicorn state. She was scared, would she have to leave her family behind? But Celestia informed her that she would be fine and allowed to visit them any time she pleased. With a simple nod of the head a bright flash of magic surrounded her, radiating off of her being. She was terrified for a moment but Celestia's calm face settled her down. An enormous amount of love was all around her, all the ponies she'd cared for just seemed to give her the strength she'd needed.When she woke up she'd become an alicorn. She'd was so happy at that time. Like she'd just burst with excitement. She immediately wanted to run and tell her parents but...

The Breyting..
The one she'd fought...
Killed them

The crushing feeling of failure was like non she'd ever known of before. And now she was alone in the rain.

"Miss please.. you need to come inside." The beige unicorn said. She held the umbrella over herself.

"No!" Cadence snapped. She didn't want to go inside with the other fillies and colts. They treated her like dirt. Thunder boomed overhead as rolling clouds darkened the sky even further. The beige unicorn pursed her lips.

"They always laugh at me!" Cadence shouted again. But her hoarse voice showed no anger. Only hysteria.

Just then a taller alicorn walked from behind. The one she'd met in the Ether realm.

"You're not as different as they say Cadence." Celestia said quietly in the rain, she extended her hoof to the filly. Cadence's eyes grew wide. She didn't know why but Cadence ran into the tall alicorn's embrace, letting all her emotions out. Celestia softly spoke to her, with every sentence making her feel slightly better.

I will never forget this moment.

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Now switching back to the present

Twilight let out a long drawn out sigh. Had Luna actually come into her dream that night or was her mind subconsciously finding a way to relieve itself? And if that was the case then does that mean she should still follow the advice given to her? What would the girls think? After all.. it was Twilight's fault they'd done that. She shouldn't have told them. She should have never shown them the terrible truth. Maybe if she'd done something differently this wouldn't have happened. Maybe her bond with Luna and Celestia would be intact and they wouldn't have been so morally wronged. Maybe if she'd asked Celestia rather than pummeling her then Celestia would still love her. The vivid scene of Celestia just turning into dust was fresh in her memory whether she liked it or not. The terrible scream of her teacher shook her up like nothing else could. She could be roared at by an Ursa Minor or taunted by a Changeling Queen and still stand her ground. She could have Discord laugh at her endlessly and still stand up to fight. It was only because her friends had been corrupted had she finally been broken. NightMare Moon could almost kill her.. and she could stand up for herself. But that scream, the blood curdling cry of pain and despair felt like no other. That was what threw her off. She'd studied dreams before. Anything in a dream was something the pony had already experienced except maybe with a little creative flair from the brain. It was fascinating actually. You could see hundreds of faces in a day and see them again in a dream even if you all you did was look at the pony. But it was all the more chilling to hear that scream again. She'd heard it when she and her friends beat down Celestia. It was such a disgusting act of violence she didn't want to think back on it but the idea just tugged on and on until she could ignore it no longer. Her hooves thrashing against the tall alicorn's skin. There was this... strange sense of delight. Some sort of satisfaction. Some primordial sense of victory that could hardly be explained with words. Though there was a slight sense of delight there was also the overwhelming feeling of fear. This fear masked itself with rage. Though her body was telling her to lock up the rage however in doing so not only did it boil over and cause her to attack Celestia it could also be seen in every fiber of her being. Every single muscle, tendon and tissue showed this rage. This unimaginable wrath. It flowed out her being and spread to her friends who could sense this wrath, and they of course were consumed by it too. Twilight took in a heavy breath of air and looked out the window of the cafe. She'd decided to sit near the window to watch it rain that morning. However a normal dose of coffee didn't make her feel any better. It felt like she was sick but she knew she was healthy. This knotted feeling in her stomach just made it harder for her to talk like a normal pony. Twilight glanced at her cup of coffee. The small white cup held a warm brown liquid inside. The heat coming from it was damp but still warm enough to be inviting. She lifted it over to her mouth to take a few sips, weary not to burn her tongue. If she was going to confront Celestia and Luna she needed to be able to speak rather then stumble over her words.

"Excuse me Miss Sparkle?" The waitress said before her.

"Yes?" Twilight said, setting down her cup.

"Would you like anything to go with your coffee?" The waitress asked once more. With a simple 'Yes, I'd like some milk' the waitress nodded and left.

Twilight sighed again and looked down at her coffee. The waitress came over to pour in a small amount of milk before leaving. With another sip of coffee Twilight had time to think once more. The bitter coffee in her mouth helped her think more clearly. Twilight hoped that she wouldn't have to remember what she did but it instead her brain kicked into hyper drive. The scene played over and over again in her mind like a broken record. The first hit was right in between Celestia's eyes. Then when Celestia became disoriented by the hit to the head somepony else kicked her to the ground. Then they just piled in on her. It was like an angry mob just beating somepony to the ground and then some. She could hear Luna screaming at them to stop but at that specific moment in time it just didn't seem to matter. It's not so much that Luna was weak or helpless it's just that she didn't want to hurt them. Twilight was sure somepony had also hit Luna. Twilight raised her hoof up to slap herself. In all of what? five, ten minutes she'd managed to devolve everypony into some raging monster that didn't care who it hurt?

Some Princess I am... Twilight thought to herself. He muttered something under her breath and took another sip of coffee.

Celestia just seemed to talk to herself as they hit her. It was so terrifying to hear her mumble to herself. And what did she say about static? What did static have to do with any of this? Celestia had just dissolved into hysterics at that point. She was laughing and crying at the same time, occasionally trying to get back to her hooves. But she just got hit back down. Twilight stomach churned.

What have I done? Twilight said, holding her head.

__________________________________________________________________

Celestia rubbed her eyes and slowly got out of bed. Luna had been kind enough to let her sleep in. Though... what time was it exactly? Celestia looked towards the clock to find out it was almost five o'clock. She ran over to the window to find that yes, it was day however her Sun was been covered by a thick blanket of clouds. The layer of clouds rumbled as it tumbled over one another. Rain pittered and pattered against the glass, the tiny little droplets either bounced off or stuck onto the glass. Celestia pushed her mane out of her face and looked towards the fireplace. The fire, thankfully, was lit and the soft warm glow lightened the whole room with the smell of burnt wood. However even with all the calm and quiet it brought little comfort. Her body ached, especially in between her eyes for some reason. Maybe she'd been hit there? But then again she'd been hit almost everywhere. Celestia rubbed her temples however winced as pain shot up her foreleg.

"Well this is just fantastic." Celestia grumbled.

She walked over to the mirror to tidy up, only to see a large, purple bruise under her eye. She slowly lifted her hoof to the bruise. The ugly purple and blue skin had faint hints of yellow. Celestia sighed and checked over the rest of herself. All non fatal wounds healed slowly to preserve the Sun's energy. Scrapes and bruises covered her body. Celestia let out a puff of air and dug through the a small case until eventually she found exactly what she was looking for, makeup. The small powder was the same color as her coat.

I thought i'd never have to use this stuff. Celestia thought quietly to herself.

Though she did use it after she got thrown to the ground by Chrysalis. That didn't hurt as much. She lightly applied it to the bruises until, for the most part, were hidden. As long as she kept her stress to a minimum she'd be fine. With a long sigh she slowly walked downstairs. Every muscle she used stung and every other one she didn't use ached. It was going to be a long day--or less than a day. When she entered the throne room it was as if all eyes were on her. Not in the normal sense anyways. Was it because they could see her cuts? Or was it the bruises? She checked herself over several times, surely she hadn't missed a- Wait a minute. She'd forgotten the large bruise on her shoulder. At least that was one she could lie about. Though Celesta didn't condone lying she couldn't possibly tell them that she'd been hit by her student.

"Oh my... Princess Celestia what happened?" Sunny Shadow asked. Celestia glanced at shoulder. Sunny Shadow only days ago treated her like dirt. She basically walked all over her.

"I'm fine. I slipped down some stairs." She said slowly. She had to plain out her words without sounding like a liar. She'd picked up on some things to do and not to do when lying.

"Oh... Well I hope you're not in too much." Sunny Shadow said quietly. It she bowed her head and Celestia continued onto her throne.

"Would you like it wrapped Princess?" Evening Eye asked carefully.

"No thank you." She answered back politely. Evening nodded her head and stepped back. Ink Well soon came over with a load of paperwork. Celestia however did not complain. Mainly because she was more or less excited. Finally something to get her mind off of the cuts and bruises hidden. Thunder boomed overhead as the rain picked up. Celestia glanced out the window from her paperwork, but turned to look down at her work again.

"Princess Celestia, Miss Twilight Sparkle has requested an audience with you." Scroll said softly. Celestia blinked and stared at the stallion.

"When?" Celestia's voice trembled slightly.

Author's Note:

FIRE TRUCKING ROUTER DELETING MY PROGRESS RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA