...Will Be Brought to the Light
"Since my ascension to princess-hood, I've found it helpful to do more research on the most rare of Equestrian creatures; the alicorn. In my studies, I've come across a startling idea. Each alicorn is a pure representation of something in Equestria. They are closer, by their very natures, to the ethereal magics that fill this world. And, like magic, they have a tendency to fall to extremes. The most obvious example of this is Princess Luna's fall and becoming Nightmare Moon. This occurred because Luna was consumed by a singular force; jealousy. Thus my theory is that each alicorn possesses in them the capacity for the great extremes; great good and great evil. One wonders what this would mean if somepony like Princess Cadance was consumed by this 'inner darkness.'
Or even Princess Celestia herself."
-Princess Twilight Sparkle, 'A Study on the Nature of Alicorns'
She was waiting for him in his office. She'd lit a single candle and was reclining in his chair, a gift from his former brothers-in-arms. Her magic held aloft a delicate crystal paperweight. She stared intently at it and didn't even cut her eyes at him when he entered the room.
“Cadance...”
“When I ascended into princess-hood, Auntie Celestia told me that it was possible that I would develop a gift; a specialty. Neither of us were sure what it would be, if it would be anything at all. We were still wondering when I left the castle one night to foal-sit for a very popular pair of unicorns.” Her eyes slid closed as she fell into memory. “When I laid eyes on you, my love, I couldn't breathe. Every nerve of my body filled with power, every hair on my body stood on end... I knew in that instant what my gift was; to do what I could to ensure that all ponies could feel that electricity. I was to be the princess of love itself.” Her eyes flashed open and she looked again to the ornament. “Do you know what the heart is? A real heart, not this stylized nonsense on my flanks.”
“I...”
“It's the strongest muscle in a pony's body. It's got chambers and ventricles and it pumps blood throughout a pony's body. It's really a work of art... much like this bit of crystal.” She rotated the ornament. “Also like this bauble, the heart is very... fragile.” Magic flashed in her eyes and the paperweight zoomed towards Shining Armor's head.
He ducked at the last instant and heard it shatter against the wall behind him. Bits of crystal settled in his mane. “Cadance, let me explain.”
“Don't bother lying to me. I know everything already.”
He frowned and stared at the ground. “Veritas.”
A small, twisted smile crossed her lips. “Our relationship dates back to before we even met, my love. We hold no secrets from each other.” The smile faded and she faced him fully, all holy rage and hellfire. “There's one thing I don't know, one thing my teacher didn't know; how long?”
Shining Armor gathered himself and met her fierce gaze. “Since two months after the wedding.”
Cadance bared her teeth and felt her magic begin to snake it's way across her husband's desk. “Did you tire of me so quickly? Was my body, was my love not enough for you?! You needed to get a little extra from somepony just A BIT OLDER?!”
“CADANCE STOP!”
“I WILL NOT!” Every item on Shining Armor's desk exploded in a hail of splinters and shredded papers. Cadance didn't break Shining Armor's gaze for even an instant. “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?! TO US?! By the powers, you even have a foal with her now...”
“The foal isn't mine.”
“I SAID DON'T LIE!” She shrieked, and the heavy oak desk broke in half like cardboard. “I know everything, remember?! I know the whole reason she took you as a lover was because of her need for a foal.”
Shining Armor stood his ground, refusing to be damned for a sin that was not his. “I told Luna that I couldn't be the father of the foal she wanted. I told her to find somepony else. She said there wouldn't be a baby.”
“And you believed her?” Cadance actually laughed. “I guess all the brains really did go to your sister.”
“Cadance, this is between us. Not Luna, not her foal...”
“YOUR FOAL!” She screamed.
“IT'S NOT MINE!” He roared back.
“He is yours.”
The serene voice made Shining Armor spin. “Princess Celestia.” Her statement finally made it to his brain. “...my foal?”
“Congratulations, Shining Armor; it appears you have two sons. If I were you, I would go and meet the new one.” Celestia wasn't looking at him. Her eyes remained focused on her niece.
“Your majesty, I...”
“SHINING ARMOR.” Celestia's eyes flashed white and she looked down at her nephew-in-law without a trace of emotion on her face. “It would do you well to allow me to calm my niece. To keep yourself busy, I urge you to go and see your son.”
Shining Armor's retort died in his throat at what lay behind those brilliant white eyes. He nodded, gave one look back at his wife, and exited the room.
The tension between the two silent princesses was palpable. Cadance made no move from the remains of what had been Shining Armor's desk and Celestia kept her every muscle tensed, ready to spring should Cadance's magic lash out once again.
Cadance's body betrayed her at last as a single tear fell from one blood-tinged eye. “You... you knew? And you didn't tell me?”
Celestia finally relaxed, her eyes losing their inner glow, as she looked sadly at her defeated niece. “I was only made aware of the affair recently, I assure you.”
“And you still didn't tell me?”
“What good would it have done?”
“What good...?” Cadance gaped at her ancient adopted aunt. “Then why didn't you put an end to it? Why didn't you forbid all contact between them?”
“The damage, that is to say the little prince in the nursery, had already been done by the time I found out, Cadance. Besides, the love life of my sister is none of my concern.”
“HE'S MY HUSBAND!” Cadance had never raised her voice to Celestia and she nearly bit her tongue when the words passed her lips.
Celestia rolled her eyes as she crossed the room. “He's a stallion. You are not the first wife whose husband has strayed, I assure you.”
“How can you be so calm?” The tears came full force now. “How can you sit there and... and ignore all this. You're my aunt... you're practically my mother... you're supposed to protect me...”
Celestia's hoof struck her face with a slap that echoed in the dimly lit room.
Cadance gaped at the goddess. “You... you hit me...”
“I'm trying to knock some sense into you. For Equestria's sake girl; you are a princess, not some jilted maid. Kindly act like one.”
The dull ache in her cheek faded with the rage that boiled from Cadance's heart. “I should've seen this coming. Ever since she came back, you've put her before me. Now, even when she's stolen the stallion I love, you take her side.”
“There are no sides.” Celestia scoffed. "Shining Armor isn't going to leave you. In fact, now that Luna's deception has been revealed, he probably wants nothing more to do with her.”
“That doesn't change the fact that the trust in my husband is shattered and she still gets to raise his foal.” Cadance sniffed angrily and allowed her wings to lift her from the chair. She floated past her mentor and glided towards the door. “I have some thinking to do. Alone.”
Celestia nodded... but something still nagged at the back of her mind. “Cadance... how did you find out about the affair?”
She answered without turning back. “Brother Veritas told me. After some... persuasion.”
Not liking the tone in her niece's voice, Celestia blew out the room's candle and hurried for the passage that would lead her to the Archives of Truth.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Luna had never bothered to count how many years she'd been alive. She'd never deemed things like that important. For an immortal, time passed at such a rate that if one were to measure such things as days, months, and years, they'd simply go mad. In the most general of terms, Luna reasoned that she was at least two thousand years old. In those two thousand years, she had seen wondrous sights, met ponies who's echoes would last through eternity (even bedded a few of them), and watched an entire civilization come into being and grow.
All of that paled in comparison to the mewling bundle now held betwixt her hooves.
In all her studies, all her preparations, nothing had prepared her for the sheer wonder that came with birthing her first foal. To think, this perfect little prince had started as nothing more than a tiny cluster of cells. And now, months later, here he was. His drying fur was the same dark blue as her own, if maybe a tad darker. His mane was the same midnight blue her's had been at her youngest.
His eyes were the eyes of his father.
His father.
Something was missing from her perfect picture.
She looked up to find Shining Armor standing in the doorway, a look of utter condemnation on his face. “Shining Armor...”
“You lied to me.”
His tone cut through her like a knife, but she pressed on. She lifted the bundle in her magic to show him. “He is your son.”
Shining Armor took in the foal, took in the color of his eyes, and felt his reserve faltering. “My son...”
Luna nodded. “I'm sorry I lied. I simply thought...”
“Thought what, Luna?” Not anger, just simple confusion. “I asked you not to use me for this.”
“By the time you'd asked, he was conceived.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
The goddess began to sob and pulled the foal close again. “I didn't want to burden you. My love for you has already caused you so much grief and... and...”
Shining Armor gave her a pitying look. “Didn't you think I'd want to be a part of his life? To help raise him?” He recalled their words on their first night together. “We're both to blame here, remember? Neither one more than the other.” He crossed the room and looked down at the foal. “I just wish you would have told me. There's too many lies in this castle for there to be lies between us too.” He reached out a hoof and stroked the foal's mane. “He's beautiful.”
Luna wiped her eyes and nodded. “Yes. Dark and beautiful, like the night itself.”
“Have you named him?”
“One of my young friends in Ponyville gave me a name idea weeks ago; Moon Shadow.”
The Prince of Sinners nodded in resignation. “Morning Dew and Moon Shadow; the sons of Shining Armor.” He pulled away and made for the door again. “I have to see Cadance.” He paused a moment and looked back. “I'll be back soon.”
Luna watched him go, shaken by the certainty she'd felt when he was so near.
He was the missing part of her perfect picture.
For the first time in her long, long life... Princess Luna was truly in love.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Morning Dew was still snoring in his crib when Shining Armor entered the bed-chamber, completely oblivious to his mother packing a series of cases mere feet from him.
“Cadance? Can we talk?”
She didn't stop. “I'm a little busy at the moment.”
He noted her quick packing pace and started for the closet that held his cases and possessions. “That's alright. I'll help pack.”
“No need. You're not coming home.”
The cold, matter-of-fact tone in her voice made him freeze and he rounded on her. “What are you talking about? Of course I'm coming home.”
She latched the final case and faced him finally. Her initial mad rage was gone for the moment, replaced by a calm and resolute acceptance of things. “Shining Armor... I can't talk to you about this now. I can't process all this at once. The best thing for everypony is if I take Morning Dew back to the empire... alone.”
“And what about me?” The stallion demanded. “I don't want to stay here, Cadance. I want to be with you, with the foal... I want to come home.”
She shook her head. “I'm not sure I want you to come home just yet.”
Shining Armor lowered his head and stared at the floor in shame. “I know I betrayed your trust. I know I've hurt you more than I can ever understand...” He looked back to her, the faintest trace of tears in his eyes. “Please don't leave me.”
Cadance closed her eyes as though considering his plea. “Renounce her. Tell me you don't love her.”
Shining Armor opened his mouth to say those exact words... but his tongue was still. He closed his mouth and slumped his shoulders in resignation. “I can't... I won't lie to you anymore.”
Cadance nodded. “Then it's best you stay here while I go home and think.”
“...how long?”
“Until I send for you.”
“...so be it.”
The door opened and a guard poked his head in. “You majesty; your carriage is here.”
“Thank you.” She motioned to the pile of cases and the guard dutifully began piling them on his back. Cadance lifted Morning Dew from his crib and made to place him in the harness on her side.
“Can I see him? Before you go?”
She gave the slightest of nods and floated the snoozing foal over to him.
Shining Armor sat heavily and took the foal from mid-air as gently as he could manage. He took him in, trying to memorize every inch of him that he could. “I'm sorry, son.” He whispered. “Be good for your mother.”
Morning Dew twitched in his sleep and snuggled deeper into his father's embrace.
Shining Armor felt the magic pulling the foal from his arms and begrudgingly let his wife pull him from his grasp. He watched as she tucked him into the harness and made for the door.
Her cutie mark looked... different.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to look again but she was already past him. “I'm sorry. I love you.” He called after her.
She said nothing.
And she didn't look back.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
“Brother Veritas? I would speak to you.” Princess Celestia crossed the threshold into the Archives of Truth and scanned the interior for the hooded librarian. “I know that you and Cadance's relationship means a great deal, but I would have thought that you of all ponies would've had the sense... to...” She stopped as she realized that the dark pool before her wasn't a shadow.
It was a small pool of blood.
And next to it was the prone form of a pony in a tattered brown robe.
“Brother Veritas!” She rushed to him and knelt by his side. “Are you alright?”
The pony moaned in agony and coughed. “Forgive me, majesty... I tried...”
“I'll send for a doctor.” Her horn lit and fired a ball of brilliant, sun colored energy that flew out the door and sped back to the higher castle. “What happened?”
“I... I failed...”
“What?”
“All the ponies that wore the mantle of Brother Veritas before me... I failed them all. It has always been our responsibility to safeguard the truth from those who it would harm... and now Cadance... my sweet little Cady-did...” His body shook with a heavy series of sobs.
“Princess Cadance? She did this to you?”
Veritas loosed a wild cackle that chilled Celestia to her core. “No... no I'm afraid Princess Cadance is no more. It was Empress Cadance that did this to me...”
“Empress...? I don't understand.”
“I... I thought that if I buried the truth deep enough, that I could avert what is to come somehow. But the board set so many centuries ago is finally on the table... it's pieces are moving even as we speak...”
“What...?”
“'The Sons of Armor shall go to war; one born of loving light, the other of lusting dark.'” His body shook again. “The sons of Armor are born... the prophecy will soon be fulfilled.”
The implications of the final prophecy of Clover the Clever finally struck Celestia. “No. It... it can't be...” She looked in desperation at the shriveled pony at her hooves. “It must be a mistake.”
He ignored her. “I hid my knowledge as deep as I could... all the way to my very soul. I was sure she wouldn't be able to find it there.” He turned his head at last, revealing his bruised and cut face to the goddess of the sun.
She recoiled. “Sweet Equestria...” She whispered, unable to comprehend what her beloved niece had done.
“But she found it.” Veritas began to laugh again. “After all; the eyes are the window to the soul.” His insane laughter pelted off the ancient walls, amplifying it a hundred times. It sounded like the death knell of the world itself.
Celestia stared into the empty sockets where his eyes had once been, heard the the awful echo of his mad laughter... and bolted from the room.
Veritas' laughter followed her like the tolling bells of doom.
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I'm getting Deja'vu from playing Metal Gear about two brothers.
Well, I'm sure Shining Armor will stop this whole mess.
Hmm... A good chapter, well thought out so that your versions of Luna and Cadence not seem too OOC.
I also noticed your prophecy does say which brother is good or evil.
Given the way Cadence and Luna are acting, I'd Place my bet on Moon Shadow being the good one.
Finally! I've been waiting for this for ages! And it doesn't disappoint, and It goes well with my headcannon that the nightmare can ifect any alicorn whose element is belittled or attacked.
2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qj8RCnmtdmw/T6iS3E2ZOBI/AAAAAAABvys/qMYBRQbaNqQ/s1600/learned_Interesting_Facts_In_funny_pictures_12-s305x425-281272-535.jpg
Good thing I'm obsessive about checking the comments.
...and that was, when a fic has you on utter tenterhooks for the next chapter, make doubly freaking sure that you're tracking it.
Okay, now for an actual review... everypony's still reasonably in character. I'm relieved that Cadance hasn't gone fully Nightmare Heart(?) yet.
You would know that, wouldn't you, Grandma Sunbutt?
I do look forward to Twilight's reaction to her brother's (literal) f***up, after having gone through that whole kerfuffle about getting to stand beside him as he took his marriage vows.
3810195
I'm not sure anypony here quite counts as fully good or evil at this point.
You know, for the harbinger of doom, Cadance seems to be taking things rather calmly.
3816233 Aside from ripping out Veritas' eyes... absolutely.
And that's why everyone should be very afraid right now.
Sensing some deep storyline in this one.
"Sweet Equestria" Yeah, I'd have a hard time imagining Celestia swearing by her OWN name like that.
Anywhore, this is an interesting read so far.
Dear god... I need to find Clover's final prophecy...
The sons of Armor shall go to war, one born of loving light, the other of lusting dark. The Apple is the object of their desire… and over it shall Equestria be plunged into darkness for all time
Holy crap. It's all connected. This ties into Applejack being an alicorn-earth mutant. And... Oh my god... Jade Ring, you are the greatest writer of all time.
Equestria as we know it shall end.
Honestly, I don't like the sort of "Evil Cadence" but this story has me hooked, with tears and emotions running through me! I'm definitely reading on
So the two half brother sons of Shining Armor will one day declare war on each other.