“Half sister.” Trixie squirmed in Twilight’s over-eager embrace and managed to free Sumac, who was smart enough to scurry away. “Half!”
“You are not a half a pony!” Twilight retorted.
“But I am your half sister, it seems.”
“I don’t do anything halfway.” Twilight redoubled her efforts to pull Trixie closer.
“Go away! Equinal space! Now!”
“Nope!”
“Ugh, now you are even more of a pest!”
Twilight, looking wounded at being called a pest, did the only thing she could do with her recalcitrant sibling. She pulled Trixie into a headlock, blew a raspberry as she stuck out her orange tongue, and then proceeded to give Trixie a Great and Powerful Noogie, oblivious to the dumbfounded stares from the other ponies in the room.
“Stop that! I am the Big Sister! That means I’m in charge! I’m older!”
“BSBFF!” Twilight closed her eyes, ceased her relentless noogie, and pulled Trixie close again. Twilight was only all too happy to relent and she wrapped her wings around Trixie as well.
Sitting down upon the floor, Twilight Velvet shook her head, blinked a few times, snuffled back some snot lurking in her nose, and then watched as Twilight continued to dominate Trixie into submission. “This is not the reaction I expected. To be honest, I don’t know what I expected.”
“Be warned, rivalry between sisters can be dramatic and intense.” Princess Luna’s words fell upon the room like a falling anvil, which brought with it a devastating explosion of silence. The Princess of the Night stood there, looking both solemn and worried, as if fearing what this revelation might bring about. She looked about the room, focusing in particular on Night Light, Twilight Velvet, and Dandelia. “No doubt, your actions are what drove you to become the ponies that you are today, but this layer upon layer of dishonesty concerns Us. These are wounds that will take time to heal.”
Dandelia, who had a soggy, tear and snot soaked face, tried to clean herself up with her sodden hanky, but failed. With a flick of magic, she vanished it and summoned another, this one fresh and new. As she began to wipe her face, she shared what was on her mind. “There is still the matter of the will and there are some documents that will only reveal themselves to Trixie. There is also something for you, Night Light.”
Looking weary, Night Light let out a sigh. “Can it wait till morning?”
Nodding, Dandelia replied, “Of course.”
Spike, after an apprehensive look around, went over to where Twilight and Trixie sat together and plopped down close to Twilight. He scooted closer, then closer, and after grabbing Twilight, he pulled himself in and sat with the two mares. Closing his eyes, he rested his head against Twilight’s side, then let out a smoky sigh of satisfaction that curled up from his nose, which caused Trixie to sneeze.
“Achitchitchitcha!”
“You sneeze like a dork,” Twilight remarked.
Glowering in a way that only a big sister could, Trixie said nothing in reply.
“We shall return in the morning.” Before anypony could protest, Princess Luna just vanished and was gone in a cloud of glittering aethereal particles that drifted down to the floor like falling, swirling snowflakes. While it was said that Princess Celestia knew how to make an entrance, it was Princess Luna that knew how to make an exit.
The entire room was now silent and somber.
Sitting on a bed that smelled a little old and musty, Sumac tried to quiet and calm his mind. It had been a tumultuous evening and now it was a tumultuous bedtime. He didn’t have his Princess Cadance stuffy, and even though he was too ashamed to say it aloud, he worried that he might have nightmares without her. As odd as it was, she helped.
The door to the palatial room opened without a knock and Dandelia stuck her head into the room. “I just wanted to say goodnight.” When she wasn’t rebuked, she took a few cautious steps into the room, looked at her daughter, and then looked at her grandson with a sad, longing expression.
Prodding his mother with his hoof, Sumac whispered, “You know, she went through a lot of trouble to have you. You should give her a chance to make things right.”
“Sumac—”
“Does it feel good when somepony holds your past against you?” Sumac asked.
“Sumac, it isn’t that simple—”
“Well, does it?” Sumac waited for a reply.
Hanging her head, Trixie made a muted confession. “No.”
Taking a risk, Dandelia came further into the room, climbed up onto the end of the bed, and sat down. “We have Apples here in Lulamoon Hollow. They grow the dusk apples and they’re just as troublesome. Caper adored them.”
“Dusk apples?” Sumac asked.
“They grow best in the dark,” Dandelia replied as she made herself comfortable. “They’re dark purple, indigo, or dark blue, and if a pony eats one, the apple allows them to see in the dark. Lulamoon Hollow is the only place in Equestria where these apples grow.”
For some reason, Sumac thought about Pebble and her aversion to the sunlight. She sunburned all too easily and he realised that this would be a great place for her, living in the shadow of the mighty Canterhorn. The sunlight bothered him too, because of his astigmatism. Laying on his pillow, Boomer yawned in her sleep, then curled up into a new position.
A piercing howl rent the night and Sumac let out a startled yelp as he clung to his mother’s leg. Trixie shushed him, stroked his neck, and as he held on to her, shivering, he heard Dandelia say, “It’s just the moon wolves welcoming the rising moon, if you stay here long enough, you’ll get used to them. They’re the guardians of this place and they protect ponies. They’re quite friendly, but during the daytime, they are little more than insubstantial phantoms, should you see them.”
“I remember them,” Trixie said as she closed her eyes and began reminiscing. “I can remember playing tag with them. I used to feel so safe with them around, like nothing in the world could hurt me. I have missed that feeling of safety.”
“When Caper was a colt, he lived with the pack for a time, even sleeping in their dens. They were his puppies and he loved them a great deal.” Dandelia sighed, a forlorn sound, and she shook her head. “He was a horrible, wretched pony, and yet somehow, I miss him.”
“Mother…” Trixie’s voice was a spoken whisper and her eyes shimmered with tears. “I was wrong to demand that you choose between us. I can see that now. For whatever it is worth, I am sorry.”
“I am too.” Dandelia eased herself down onto the bed and got comfortable in a pony-loaf position. “He was my father. For all of his faults, he was my father. He was a terrible, terrible pony, cruel, heartless, a tyrant, but he was my father. I wanted to run away with you, really, I did, but he was all I had left of my mother.”
“I wish I could have met her.” Trixie, holding Sumac, had a tear roll down the bridge of her muzzle, towards the tip of her nose.
“She was his second cousin and she absolutely hated him.” Dandelia’s eyes glazed over. “But she was loyal and devoted in her own way. She understood the value of the Lulamoon name and she gave him an heir.”
Feeling a little icked out, Sumac tried not think about them being cousins. Instead he asked, “What happened to her?”
“She suffered from hemophilia,” Dandelia replied in a low, soft whisper. “Almost died having me. She had quite a number of close calls. And when I announced that I was pregnant, she couldn’t bear the shame.”
Trixie, whose lower lip began to tremble, looked into her mother’s now faded blue eyes. “Caper blamed you, didn’t he?”
Closing her eyes, Dandelia nodded, but remained silent.
Somewhat confused, Sumac wasn’t sure what was going on, or what had happened, but he tried to put the pieces together. After a few moments of intense thought, he didn’t like the picture this puzzle was forming. “You know, to me, it sounds as though Caper wanted to make sure that you two hated each other and were ashamed of each other. He doesn’t sound very nice. Why would he want a mother and daughter to hate each other?”
Eyes still closed, Dandelia replied, “To punish me. That’s what I think, anyway.”
“So why did you stay with him?” Sumac asked.
“Sumac, it’s complicated,” Trixie replied.
“It’s so horrible…” Sumac shook his head and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. “He was so awful and now the both of you hate each other, which is probably what he wanted. He’s dead now, but he’s still making the two of you do as he wants. He died and now we’re here and you and Trixie are fighting and hating each other.”
Sumac had hope that if Caper could manipulate them apart, maybe he could manipulate them back together. It didn’t feel wrong, not exactly, but it didn’t feel honest either. It felt like something that Applejack would give him the stinkeye over and maybe even have a long talk about over apple brown betties. The tears, which were real, he did nothing to hold them back and allowed them to fall with the hope that they would bring Trixie and her mother together.
The colt wondered what Lemon was doing. The last that he had seen of her, she was serving tea to Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle, and Night Light. He had almost bonked his head getting whooshed from one floor to the next because he had gotten scared and moved when the wind lifted him.
“He’s really quite good at what he does,” Dandelia said to Trixie. “I suppose you had something to do with that.”
“I did,” Trixie replied, and then she coughed to get the phlegm out of her throat. “Twilight says that he gets his silver tongue from his father and I’ve been tasked with making certain that he uses it for good. Just about every word he utters has the weight of magic with it.”
Cheeks burning, Sumac had nothing to say in his own defense.
“A cheeky little colt with a magical silver tongue, raised by a Lulamoon,” Dandelia deadpanned. “I’m not sure that the world is ready. And you were allowed to keep him?”
“I was tricked!” Trixie gave Sumac a squeeze and looked down at the colt she called her own. “I thought it was my bright idea, but as it turns out, I got played. It was all a ploy to get me straightened out, to make me honest and respectable.”
“Fascinating.” Opening her eyes, Dandelia looked at Sumac and studied him. “Charisma magic, advanced intelligence fueled by magic no doubt, and a sorcerer as well. Any one of those things is useful, but to have such a powerful combination… Sumac, you are one very lucky colt.”
Not understanding everything that was said, Sumac just sat there and stared at his grandmother through the darkened lenses of his glasses. He couldn’t help but feel that he was being sized up though, and he wasn’t entirely certain that he liked the way that Dandelia was looking at him. Her eyes had a peculiar gleam to them that he could only describe as ‘hungry.’
“Twilight is positive that his intelligence is magic related. He knows things that he shouldn’t know. He is preternaturally intelligent and has a direct connection to the aether. Twilight suspects that he was able to come up with his own hypothesis about the state of magic because of his link with magic.” Trixie pulled Sumac a little closer and gave her mother a knowing stare. “He is free to make his own decisions, Mother. I want to make that very, very clear. If I think for even a moment that you’re trying to influence him or steer him in a direction you want him to go, our little truce, as nice as it is, is over.”
At that moment, Sumac realised that he was in over his head and that he was foolish for thinking he could somehow manipulate these two mares. Trixie was squeezing him hard enough that it almost hurt, and it percolated through his brain that his mother was terrified as well as trying to protect him. Did he really need protection from Dandelia?
Maybe.
“Very well, I surrender now.” Dandelia let out a resigned sigh. “I don’t want my only grandson hating me. Honestly, I would like for us to be a family, if such a thing were possible. I shall endeavour to be as honest as possible with the two of you.”
“What do you think, Sumac? Is she being honest?” Trixie relaxed her embrace just a little bit and Sumac was able to suck in a much needed deep breath.
“Something about her makes me suspicious,” Sumac replied, being honest himself.
“To be completely honest and straightforward,” Dandelia said to Sumac in a dry, flat voice, “I was thinking about how much of an asset you might be to Lulamoon interests as a career politician. With the proper education and coaching, you could take Canterlot by storm. The world could be yours for the taking.”
“I don’t want the world.” Sumac wrapped his forelegs around Trixie’s left front leg and peered at his grandmother, no longer certain that he liked her. Something about her left him feeling uneasy now, the casual way that she just mentioned exactly what she wanted from him.
“It’s not for my own selfish interests,” Dandelia said with a sniff. “It’s just, for the past few decades, Night Light, Twilight Velvet, and I have all been plotting to make the world a better place… we learned oh so very much during our time together in school…”