Ch3: Lineage
Darkness within the Twilight
By: Mordy
Ch3: Lineage
The Royal Archives was one of the most treasured collections in both Canterlot and Equestria. Inside held knowledge and wisdom passed throughout the ages. The secrets contained within were accessed only by a select few and the deeper one got into the archives the more clearance one needed. Only the guards, scholars, princesses, and personal protégés of a certain alicorn were allowed in.
Seeing that Twilight was three for four, getting access was very easy. The moment she woke up from her dream, or rather subconscious, she hopped onto the next train to Canterlot with some supplies and was on her way to the archives.
Her sudden leave left Spike a bit confused, but he didn’t complain and got out a tub of ice cream to celebrate his so called “guy time” while Twilight was away. He’d probably get in trouble when she got back, but that was future Spike’s problem. Twilight was already half expecting this and would definitely scold him later.
Upon her arrival to Canterlot she decided it would be best to see Celestia first. Her former mentor was surprised by the visit to say the least and was curious why she had come. Twilight simply told her she was here to do some research in the Royal Archives. Had it been any other day Celestia would have inquired further, but it was especially busy today with many more petitioners than usual.
“I’m sorry Twilight, I would love to chat longer, but duty calls. Perhaps we could spend some more time later?” Celestia said in her warm and angelic voice as her aurora colored mane drifted in an unseen wind. Her attention drifted back to the throne room where more petitioners were waiting, the light shining off her alabaster form. She had used one of her five minute breaks to talk to Twilight. Unfortunately she didn’t get many of those, but in Celestia’s mind Twilight was always worth the small sacrifice.
Twilight was thankful for how busy Celestia was otherwise she might have noticed that she was feeling a bit nervous. She was about to dive into something that was probably a bit taboo and didn’t want Celestia to worry or even know about it. At least until she had a good handle on it.
She put on her best smile and nodded at toward her, “I would really like that princess.”
Celestia chuckled as she began to head back to the throne room, “Oh Twilight, you’re a princess now. You don’t have to call me by my title. Simply Celestia will do.”
Twilight flushed and replied, “Oh, of course pr– er… I mean Celestia!” Twilight felt very awkward talking to her beloved mentor on a first name basis, but if it was what she wanted then she would comply.
“Have fun with your research!” Celestia called out, and then with a smile and a wink she reentered the throne room to address the petitioners.
Twilight released a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. The hard part was over and now was time for the more tedious work of her journey. Thankfully it involved one of her favorite hobbies; research!
She quickly scurried off; finding her way to the Royal Archives where a guards pony was waiting. A quick nod to him and he let her inside while bowing to her. Normally she would be telling him that wasn’t necessary, but her focus was elsewhere at the time.
The smell of scrolls and parchment filled her nostrils and she let out a contented sigh. She loved that aroma and sometimes wished she could have a candle of that scent. Twilight actually once requested the scent from a candlestick maker, but she was denied. However, she hadn’t been a princess back then and wondered if the pony would reconsider her request if she asked again.
Twilight’s eyes browsed the many shelves of tomes and scrolls. The vastness of the royal archives held thousands upon thousands of some of the greatest literacy from across the ages. With a clap of her hooves she smiled. “This will be easy!”
Several hours later…
Twilight groaned while slamming her head against a workbench. “Okay, this might be harder than I thought.”
She had scoured the library from the highest shelves (made much easier now she had wings) to lowest of cabinets. To sum up her search, she found zilch. The only headway she got were a few scrolls mentioning a beginner’s guide to understanding the principals of dark magic and also including a few fundamental spells. It was called, “Fear Not the Dark” and unfortunately, most books stated that this tome was to be confiscated and burned.
Twilight’s heart actually stopped for a moment when she read that part. The mere thought of such an action being done to a book nearly brought her to tears.
What was even more annoying was that ponies found with a copy of it didn’t even get into trouble. It was just a light slap on the hooves as long as they gave it up without a fight. That would have been perfect for her if she had been found out. But no, everypony was too much of a superstitious prude to even lock up such a book in one of the most secure places in Equestria!
Twilight just sighed, ready to give up and admit defeat. Seemed Sombra really was the only pony she could turn to if she wanted to learn about dark magic. It wouldn’t help her that she had left him on a sour note. He probably wouldn’t even consider teaching her unless she actually restored his body. She wouldn’t even know how to do that, not that Twilight was even considering the option.
She got off the stool she had been sitting on and started to make her way out with her supplies when something caught her eye. It was a book registry for family blood lines. A very old one in fact, that was dated for over a millennia ago.
A faint smile crept onto her face as she pulled the tome down with her magic and returned to the desk she had been at before. She began to search through the large book while muttering to herself, “Hmm, let’s see… what was his name again? Sunder Shadows?”
Twilight figured she might be able to get Sombra in a more compliant mood if she could find out what happened to his son. Maybe this could even give her a lead on how to learn dark magic. That last part was a long shot, but you never know.
She hummed to herself as she found the name she was looking for. Wow, he actually married and had foals! Twilight thought as she started to note down the names. She then searched through the book to find his children and follow the family tree. She was quite surprised that they went on for quite a few generations.
Ignoring adopted family members and those who married into the family and didn’t have any offspring, Twilight carefully followed the bloodline. Occasionally the line would thin making her think it was about to end only for it to open up again. She reached a few dead ends narrowing her trail to only a few families.
Sometimes some of the Sombra’s descendants would marry, but never have any children while others never married, but had foals out of wedlock. Twilight thought this might get a smile out of him to know that his lineage had continued on for so long. It surprised her that some bloodlines actually managed to go on for a few centuries before dying off.
Twilight went at it for about it an hour before she finally reached the longest lasting bloodline ending with a unicorn named Black Armor. She made her last note and felt a little sad that that was the end of it. With a little sigh she was ready to put the book away when she noticed something. Wait… all the family bloodlines in this registry are ending around this time period. Which means…
She gasped with realization and went back to the shelf and picked up another registry. This one was from a later time period than the one she had had.
Placing the book next to one she had while moving her notes to the side as she looked through it and laughed once she realized that she had been correct. Black Armor was listed in this book too and he also had foals. This meant the bloodline continued!
Twilight was starting to find this very exciting. Tracing the family tree of a mad unicorn king was incredibly fascinating. To think, one of Equestria’s greatest villains managed to secretly sire a son and have his blood continue on was quite an amazing feat.
Thus the process continued. She would trace every relevant family bloodline to its end. Some ended while others bloomed and to her amazement the blood thinned again to one pony, a mare named Velvet Powder. However, like the book before, the line ended around the same time as all the other listed families.
Twilight quickly ran for another registry, but found that the archives didn’t have any more within the last four hundred to five hundred years. Well, guess I’ll have to go the Royal Library then. She wasn’t too upset about that. It would be a good chance to check out some other books while she was there.
Floating her notes to her while putting away the two registries, she then trotted out of the archives, giving the guards pony a smile and wave as she left. He returned the gesture while adding an awkward bow.
It was getting late, as Celestia’s sun was starting to set. Twilight wondered if she would have time to sit down with the princess to have tea. She decided she would need to book it then if she wanted to get to the library before it closed and have an afternoon dinner with her teacher.
Twilight began to run, but no sooner had she turned a corner did she hit somepony. Falling back on her haunches in a daze as her notes spilled, she found herself staring up at a familiar midnight blue alicorn.
Shaking her head Twilight chuckled, “Oh, sorry Luna!” She paused and then felt the need to ask, “Uh… you do want me to call you Luna and not Princess Luna… right?” She smiled sheepishly.
“Of course dearest Sparkle! We… I mean I like to think of us as friends, are we not?” She flashed a grin and helped Twilight pick up her notes, surrounding them in a blue aura as she lifted the first page before her. She regarded it for a moment before asking, “Sunder Shadows… why does that sound familiar?”
Twilight panicked for a moment and plucked the page away from Luna with her own magic and tucked her notes back under her wing. “Oh, it’s just little research project and I like to think of you as a friend too, Luna,” Twilight said, trying to quickly change the subject.
“Most excellent!” Luna beamed, “Now, if thou will excuse us… me… I must be off to raise the moon and stars soon!”
Luna began to trot off as what she just mentioned made Twilight suddenly look up at the time before quickly running off while berating herself, “Oh, I better hurry!”
Twilight was heaving as she left the library with all the books she checked out being carried with her magic along with a half-eaten muffin from the royal kitchens as a poor dinner substitute. She got the registries she needed, but being around so many tomes she couldn’t resist picking up a few more for a bit of light reading. Though light might have been putting it mildly with all the books she was levitating.
She was happy to learn that Celestia had prepared a room for her in case she was staying and was heading to it at that moment. Unfortunately, she missed her chance with Celestia as she would be spending some private bonding time with her sister, Luna. Twilight was disappointed to say the least, but was invited for breakfast the following morning. This mean she could finish up her little research before heading to bed.
A guard was waiting outside her room and nodded to her before unlocking the door and opening it for her. She nodded to him and said her thanks before the door was shut and locked by her to keep anypony out.
The room was very lavished and fancy, but Twilight felt it wasn’t quite her tastes. For one, it wasn’t in her colors and it felt small. Sure, it was really big for a guest room, but she needed it to be bigger. Hay, everything in the room needed to be bigger. Especially the bed which could also use an eager and submissive slave…
Twilight shook her head. Why was she thinking like that? This room was more than adequate. In fact it was overly generous now that she thought about it.
With a sigh she rubbed her temples, wonder where that thought about the slave came from. I’d rather think about anything else than to have that line of thought.
Tentacles.
Twilight face hoofed. No! Bad brain! Bad brain!
She groaned and set her books on the nearby desk before taking her seat. She wanted to finish tracing Sombra’s lineage to help take her mind off those last few stray thoughts.
Searching for the last known member of his family Twilight went through the slow and steady process of mapping out the family bloodlines while munching on her blueberry muffin. It didn’t take her long to quickly eat the pastry and trace out all the families.
She smirked as she found a few families survived to the end of the book instead of only one like the last few times. Best part about this was that the next registry went all the way to current modern Equestria. There was a distinct possibility that Sombra had a long lost descendent still living today!
Twilight found this exciting for a few reasons. If there really was a member of his family still around she could, just maybe, be able to learn dark magic from them instead. Assuming they knew it at all. It was also just plain fascinating and she would love to meet them even if they were just some average Joe. Also, she could use this knowledge to peak Sombra’s interests.
She figured she might be able to bargain with him to get her dark magic teachings in exchange for more information about his current descendent. The thought of having something over the old unicorns head made her feel strangely giddy as she opened up the last book.
Twilight was hard at work going down the entire family tree. She was so focused on finding the next pony down the line that she was hardly even paying attention to the names anymore. Slowly, but surely the bloodline began to narrow and become linear. She felt her heart race as the single bloodline hardly split up and made her worry it might end prematurely.
Then she reached the end and the latest generation. As it turned out, Sombra did still have living descendants! Twilight laughed gleefully as she read the names to herself.
However, her jaw dropped and she whispered to herself, “No…” Her eyes shrank to pinpricks, “No!” She shook her head in denial, “This… this has to be a mistake!”
Twilight frantically looked through her notes, tracing through all the registries. Double, triple, and even going so far as to quintuple checking her work. And each time she found absolutely no mistakes as much as she wished she had. She wanted to be wrong about the whole thing. She wanted to believe that Sombra had lied about having a son or even the name given to her, but she knew that he could never have such foresight or knowledge to predict this.
Twilight could only stare slacked jaw at the final names of Sombra’s lineage before finally coming to terms with the two ponies that were written down.
Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle…
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The story is going great so far! I am looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
Two bits says that Celestia totally knew this and just didn't tell Twilight.
2773739
Glad to hear!
2773785
We will see.
I like it!
Well, now we know the reason Twilight was so skilled with dark magic.
Is in her blood.
The question now is: Did Celestia know about this?
On the funny side, even Twilight dark side is snarky, the "tentacles" line made me chuckle.
So... Twilight is descended from Sombra.
I wounder how this gonna effect their already chaotic relationship? 
Or Twilights
apotheosis!fall into darkness.And Shining as well? Is he gonna walk in one chapter and talk about gibberish and slaves?
Quick turn this Mature so we can use those tentacles
Lol as soon as she started tracing the bloodline i had a feeling it was going to end that way
i think sombra will like hearing his descendant rules the crystal empire^^
Oh to see Shining's and Cadence's faces when they hear about this
2776107
GJ, someone finally got it! :D
2774252
Well of course Shining too. It wouldn't make sense unless one of them is adopted. This also means one of Twilight's parents is a descendent.
2777419
I felt it made sense, strangely enough. She loves animals and would like to feel secure. I figure she has a secret longing for an octopus or squid animal friend.
Shit just got real
2785724
That thought never occurred to me, but she does tend to just walk everywhere unless there's an emergency or panic.
2786658
Eyup!
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Shit happens.
2791465
That's one way of putting it. :P
Sombra: Search your feelings you know it to be true
I can not help it, every time I read a tentacle written in purple I can only think about this
Gawd... This is so crazy!!! First Twilight scolds her own brain and then she finds out she's related to Sombra!
I just had to do that. Now, I hope to see MOAR soon.
Well, All I can say is, more please
Funny, I can picture Sombra laughing his flank off right now.
2883913
I KNEW that would happen! And i LOVE that it did! Great job on the chapter, absolutely fantastic!
Oh my dear Luna ( that's right I said Luna not celestia) this will end awesomely I can foresee it
Well crap!!
Still doesn't answer the question, does the heir know how to use dark magic?
"Hey, Shining? Can you teach me dark magic?"
2774832 True, I didn't think of that. So Sombra's heir "inherited" the Crystal Empire anyway?
Awkward breakfast conversation.
"So, Twilight, what were you researching last night?"
"YES, SPARKLE! WE, I mean I am very interested to hear what interests you so!"
"I'm trying to uncover the secrets of the lost arts of Dark Magic to gain more power so I can over throw you both and take over all of Equestria as Queen, similar to how my great great...
{FOUR HOURS LATER}
...great grandfather, King Sombra tried to take over twice, before failing and becoming locked in my subconscious mind."
"..."
"I mean... um... I just came to pick up some light reading!"
"...OH! Wonderful to hear!"
3054505
And nopony suspected a thing!
2804809 Wat?
Anypony else guess it was twilight at the end of the bloodline before even reading the last part? Cuz I did and I nearly had a heart attack CUZ IT'S SO BUCKING AWESOME!!!
3068736
Glad you think so! I came up with that twist on the fly. It was after I wrote the two first chapters that I thought of it. And I still have more surprises along the way! :D
I would think that she would have noticed some familiar ponies earlier. Like her grandparents, or her parents.
3179853
In her haste she might have been ignoring names or thought they were familiar.
3186567
I have made it my goal for the word tentacle or tendril to appear at least once in every chapter! XD
PLOT TWIST!
I am loving this story! When will the next chapter be ready?
3189533
Have it rolling around in my head, planning it to be the next chapter I write before going back to Roses for the Grave.
3191063 Good to hear!
Have a mustache for your literary talents!
3191177
Yay! :D
Are you gonna continue?
3206524
Yes, just been lazy with writing. Also distracted by some games such as FF14 and KH 1.5.
I recently finished a chapter of Roses for the Grave so that was taking up my time.
I linked to this on DeviantArt here. This story inspired me to throw that together. Just thought you might like to know.
3241277
My god, I love it. If only you knew my long term plans. :O
This fic has grand potential, though i'll admit i'll be really dissapointed if it does either the "Oh look at Celestia the Tyrant" cliche, or the "I am Twilight Sparkle and all are beneath me" cliche
... those are the normal ones for Evil Twilight in my experience, and i feel like this could be much more interesting 
Also, your title made me think of a spell:
Darkness beyond Twilight
Crimson beyond Blood that Flows
Buried in the Stream of Time is where Your Power Grows
I Pledge myself to Conquer
All the Foes who stand
Before the mighty power
Bestowed in my unworthy hand
LET THE FOOLS WHO STAND BEFORE ME NOW BE DESTROYED
BY THE POWER THAT YOU AND I POSSESS!!
DRAGON SLAVE!!!
You get a cookie if you recognize that one=)
3248379
But I wants the cookie! :<
As for those other things in the direction it goes, I already have Celestia is a Tyrant in one of my other stories so that won't due here. Second one, while a possible ending belief; leading up to it will be very different.
As I kept reading through Sombra's lineage, I thought, "Twilight is his lineage. " Got to the end and said to myself, "Saw that coming!" c(:
3286840
You and many others. It's not like a I was being subtle about it. :P
It's been a while. Are you still working on this? I love where this fic was going, it even inspired me to make art. It'd be a shame if it was forgotten.