//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Twilight's Origins 
// Story: Together Again and Forever 
// by Wahtiff 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight’s mind was very much broken at that point. Not ten minutes earlier, she had been kissing Flash Sentry, in love, and now they were here, and now she knew THIS.

           She knew everything, now.

           She knew the truth.

           Twilight looked into Celestia’s eyes, desperately searching for any hint that this was some sick joke, but she knew she would not find anything. She knew, with careful consideration, when Celestia was being completely honest with her, and now was one of those times. She looked at the box, the birth certificate in her grasp, and then she unfurled her wings and looked at them as if she had just realized they were there.

           Having nowhere else to look, she finally looked right at the alicorn. The alicorn she thought she had known better than anypony.

           She looked at her mother.

           The tears started to come, slowly at first, but then Twilight bowed her head as her small body was racked with quiet sobs. She felt Celestia’s eyes on her, yet now they felt very unwelcome.

           She couldn’t believe it.

           She just COULDN’T believe it!

           “No…No, no, no!” Twilight cried, turning away from Celestia.

           “Twilight!” Celestia took a concerned step towards her, but stopped when Twilight flinched.

           “No…,” Twilight whispered, “just stay away…”

           Celestia began to feel her own tears about to come to fruition. She was afraid that this would happen, and it was the reason she had wanted to keep her secret. It was now too late, however, and she had to accept the consequences.

           She had to face her daughter.

           But how could she do that, if Twilight wouldn’t look at her?

           “Oh, Twilight,” The white alicorn whispered, turning away towards the railing, “I’m so, so sorry.”

           Twilight was silent. Celestia kept talking.

           “You don’t know how hard this was for me. You had every right to know,” Celestia sniffed, “but I kept it from you. By the stars, Twilight, I’m sorry!”

           Twilight murmured something unintelligible.

           “What?” Celestia asked, turning towards her again.

           “…hate you…Why?”

           At the sound of the word ‘hate’, Celestia’s heart seemed to stop. No. It couldn’t end like this! Her daughter was going to reject her, hate her! This was all her doing!

           “Why?” Twilight said, a little bit louder.

           Celestia didn’t say anything immediately, still trying to come up with an answer.

           “WHY!?” Twilight spun around, angry tears in her eyes, screaming through grit teeth and making Celestia flinch. She took a threatening step toward Celestia, and then collapsed into a heap as sobs overtook her.

           “Why!? Why did you do this?” Twilight’s tears were out of control now, “Why did you lie to me!? Why did HE lie to me!?”

           Celestia thought of Night Light, and the guilt in her heart seemed to grow, but it was Twilight’s next question that broke the dam that held back her emotions.

           “Why did you leave me there? Why did you abandon me?”

           “Because I loved you!” Celestia cried, her voice echoing throughout the deserted garden. With those words, she crumpled to the ground as well, her own sea of tears unable to be reigned in for any longer.

           Twilight stared at her mother in shock, halting her crying immediately, “W-What?”

           Celestia managed to regain control of her emotions, but she still turned away from Twilight, “It was because I loved you. That’s why I did it.”

           Twilight bowed her head, “Tell me.”

           “What?” Celestia looked back at her in shock.

           Twilight looked back up at her with a glare, “Everything! I. Want. To. Know!”

           Celestia nodded, looking back towards the sky, “I realized that Night Light would’ve shown you the adoption papers, yet he did not know the whole story, either…”

           She paused, then continued when she felt Twilight’s eyes burning into her back anew, “I met Night Light during a routine inspection of the Royal Guard Academy. At the time, I really thought he was handsome and very kind and considerate. I felt for him, but I wasn’t in love with him, I didn’t allow myself to love him, because he was currently dating Velvet, who had enrolled in the School for Gifted Unicorns.”

           That was another thing Twilight did not know: that her adoptive mother had been a gifted magic student like herself once, and in Celestia’s own school too! But when she thought about it, she remembered Velvet having actually been a mage at one point before having become an author, so it DID make sense.

           “He passed his tests with flying colors, and I personally selected him as Captain of the Royal Guard not too long after. Like your brother after him, he would show to be extraordinary in combat and defense, as well as a good military leader. After awhile, he and Velvet married, though we continued to spend time together as friends.”

           Twilight listened intently, taking in every word.

           “One night, however, I couldn’t hold back my feelings for him, and he revealed that he couldn’t restrain himself from his own feelings that he had for ME. There was no drinking, no foul-play, just bliss that night.” Celestia growled that last bit, as if the mere mention of her misdeed had left a foul taste in her mouth.

           “It was only one time, and I personally took all of the blame for it,” Celestia sighed, “but three months after that night, I began to feel sick and the doctor I spoke to said that I was several weeks pregnant. Pregnant with you.”

           “I was thrilled, but I was also worried. I didn’t tell Night Light about my pregnancy, I NEVER told him, because if Velvet were to find out I thought he would be in trouble with her, and I was able to hide it for the rest of my term. Then, when the day finally happened…” Celestia shivered, but this time in excitement as she looked at Twilight, gazing at her with a soft look, “So many hours of labor, and despite my sin I will never regret saying this: you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The moment when they laid you in my arms was the best moment of my long life.”

“I named you Twilight Sparkle, ‘Twilight’ because your coat and mane were the colors of dawn and dusk- lavender for dawn, dark-blue for dusk, with a pink strip that you inherited from me being the only thing breaking that rule. I named you ‘Sparkle’, because when your eyes opened for the first time, they sparkled with the reflection of stars that were in the sky right outside the nearby window. Later on, I found that the name suited you more than I had realized, as you would later be revealed as the bearer of the Element of Magic and become an adopted member of House Sparkle- Velvet’s family.

           Twilight’s mouth hung open, agape. The trails made by her tears were still present, but the tears themselves had dried for the moment as she listened to the story- HER story, and HER origins, coming from her REAL mother.

           “But,” Celestia’s excitement faded, “I knew that I couldn’t keep you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”

           “Why not!?” Twilight cried, her tears threatening to make a reappearance, “Why didn’t you!?”

           Celestia looked at her, with eyes full of sudden sadness this time, “Don’t you remember what I told you the other day?”

           Twilight thought back, suddenly remembering something that Celestia had definitely said in the royal library:
       
“And I have always told myself, should I ever have a foal of my own, I would make sure that others treated him or her with an air of normalcy rather than reverence like that. We are royalty, we are immortal, but we alicorns prefer not to be placed on a pedestal and WORSHIPPED.”

           It made sense now, so much sense.

           “Night Light contributed to you, our combined unicorn genes overwhelming the Pegasus genes I have, and you were born as an alicorn that had one but not the other, or ‘wing-dormant’. If Cadence had been a natural-born alicorn, she would’ve been ‘horn-dormant’.”
She looked away, unable to meet her dear daughter’s gaze, “I didn’t want you to be thrown into the life of royalty. I didn’t want you to be oppressed by the more corrupt nobility. I didn’t want you to be TRAPPED as a princess like me for your whole fillyhood life, so I took advantage of your wing-dormancy and, three days after you were born, I…”

There was a long, long pause, until Twilight suddenly spoke with a bitter tone, “You gave me away, just tossed me aside.”

Celestia shook her head, looking over her shoulder at Twilight with an appalled expression, “No. That’s not at all what happened!”

Celestia started to tremble, but she knew that she had to finish the story, “I WANTED to keep you, by the stars above, you have no idea how much I wanted to. I wanted to have you there, by my side. I wanted to sing you to sleep, to hold you in my hooves and comfort you, and I wanted to just be your mother, from the moment I saw you.”

“But I couldn’t,” Celestia cried, “the rest of the court would realize that I had an affair of some sort, and then Night Light would be punished by more than Velvet and her family, and then YOU would be socially ostracized as a mistake that should never have been made. Even if that didn’t happen, I worried about them worshipping you, knowing deep down that you would hate it, having no friends and just ‘subjects’, while I also knew that being ostracized and cast out of social life would destroy you eventually. After everything else, the orphanage ended up being the only solution.”

“I made you comfortable, disguised myself, and I brought you in a basket to Miss Tender Heart. I meant to leave you on the doorstep, knock, and then let her come and get you, but as I was about to hide….” Celestia paused, “I ran right into somepony: Twilight Velvet.”

Twilight’s eyes widened even more.

“She recognized me despite the disguise- I was never good at hiding my Cutie Mark and abnormal height- and she managed to put two and two together when she saw me and then you in the basket. At that point, I had to tell her everything, so I did. I told her of how I had slept one night with her husband, and how I had kept you a secret from both him and the rest of Canterlot. She listened to every word I said, and when I was finished with my apology,” Celestia trailed off for a moment, “she forgave me.”

Twilight said nothing, so Celestia continued.

“Velvet understood it all, every last word, and she was the one who came up with the plan. By sheer coincidence, the two of you had quite a few similarities in your appearances, so it was easy to pass you off as hers. She had coincidentally been thinking about adopting a foal of her own to raise with Night Light, and she figured it would be a win-win situation. She would make sure that you got what I wanted you to have that I didn’t: a normal life, even though you were nobility, exactly like you have always wanted and had until recently. In exchange, she got to have a daughter of her own.”

“She never told Night Light, not wanting him to reject you or call you a mistake, though I doubt he would have, and Miss Tender Heart had then come out and revealed that she had witnessed the whole thing. Together, bless those mares’ hearts, the three of us came up with a set of adoption papers, and Velvet then ran home to get Night Light, but not before she promised one thing: that I would at least get to be your teacher, just like I was hers at the school. Meanwhile, I returned to the castle,” Celestia gazed at Twilight, and lamely added, “and you can guess the rest.”

The white alicorn got a far-off look in her eye, “I never mentioned this, but you were the first one I noticed at the Summer Sun Celebration that one year, even though you didn’t notice. Of course, I guess it was only luck that that inspired you to want to be my student. When I saw you walk into that testing hall, nervous and a little frightened, I wanted nothing more than to hug you and tell you that everything would be fine.”

Celestia smiled, “I can be thankful to Rainbow Dash, as you know, because her Sonic Rainboom, combined with your successful hatching of Spike’s egg, allowed me to experience what every parent only dreams of: I was the first to point out your Cutie Mark to you.”

“Velvet and I studied a bit, afterwards, and we agreed that you had inherited not just mine, but your aunt Luna’s and my mother’s magic as well, having some of the most powerful magic abilities since Starswirl the Bearded. I just knew, at that moment, even though I had long ago already decided, that you were definitely going to be my personal student. I felt proud. We BOTH felt proud.”

“However, I knew it wouldn’t be the same as a mother with her daughter. In fact, despite my friendship with Velvet and even though I knew you were none the wiser at the time, I HATED it when you called me ‘Princess’ instead of ‘Mother’. I still wanted you to learn, though, and learn you did- exceeding my expectations by more than ten miles! I will admit, though, I reveled during the moments you came to sleep with me, because it meant I could show some of my love for you.”

“But you needed friends, and not just books and Spike, that much I could see after a couple of years. Plus,” Celestia looked guilty, “after a while, I just couldn’t take the formalities any longer. I knew that sending you to Ponyville would help you make friends, and I knew that meeting the other Elements of Harmony would expose you to dangers that you had to face, whether I liked it or not- hence why I sent you, regardless, but with a heavy heart and wishing I could do something. Still, I was proud at how successful you had become, TOO proud.”
Celestia turned to her, and nodded to her wings, “I have to say that those wings, the spell I used to balance out your pegasus and unicorn genes so that you could be a complete alicorn, was my biggest mistake. I turned you into a princess without thinking, knowing that you had done more than enough to earn it, but not realizing until much later how inadequate you felt. Even tonight, when you spoke, I could see that I had predicted correctly: you just wanted to be normal, not royalty, but normal. If I had just thought for a little longer, then I could’ve stopped myself, maybe come up with something else, but it was too late.”

“The other day, when you buried Velvet, all I could do was visit her grave after you all left and thank her for everything she had done. I realized that Night Light might reveal that you were adopted, even though what he didn’t realize was that you were actually his biological daughter after all. Still, I was shocked when you told me. Luna came to me after you left my study, and she said it was time to tell you the truth.”

“And,” She turned away again, “that time was now.”

There was a long silence.

Just…

…silence.

Twilight’s mouth opened, but then closed again.

“Go on,” Celestia smiled bitterly, sensing Twilight’s movements, all with her back turned to her and her mane hiding her face, “say it. Call me nothing more than a homewrecker who should not have been forgiven. Call me nothing more than a horrible pony who should have her crown taken from her. Call me a horrible teacher, friend, and mother. To be honest, it’s all true: after all I had done, Twilight, I don’t deserve to be your friend, your teacher, and especially not your mother.” A tear rolled down her cheek, “You deserve much, much better.”

Twilight didn’t know what to think at all, much less say. On instinct, she opened her mouth to scream out every vile thing Celestia had just said about herself. But then, almost as if her mind was rebelling against her, thoughts of anger, hate, and rejection gave way to something else.

Images. A realization.

The horn-foiling match from the day before, when she and Celestia had played for the mere fun of it, and how Twilight had won- against her own kin! It hadn’t been research or luck that had won her the match, but her own heritage and instincts that Luna- her aunt- possessed.
All of the meals they shared together, from foalhood to princesshood, and she realized that she and Celestia both really loved two flowers in particular: roses and daisies. They also shared similar tastes in common cuisine from Ponyville.

Their talks, where Twilight would speak and Celestia would listen or vice versa, just enjoying the knowledge that they both had to share with one another over a cup of tea and a game of chess.

Their many times snuggling together in Celestia’s room, especially the last two nights, where the older princess had held her tightly under her wing for warmth and companionship.

The previous morning, when she had heard Celestia singing a lullaby- and it HAD been a lullaby, while also proceeding to wrap an affectionate wing around her. Twilight remembered that it had all felt so familiar in a way.

Their stargazing the previous night, when she had sat between Celestia’s forelegs for warmth against the cool nighttime breeze. Twilight suddenly realized what it would’ve looked like from somepony else’s perspective: a mother sitting with her little foal to watch the stars.

All, every single one, of their moments spent just with each other- whether it was for lessons, reading sessions, friendship, or otherwise. They had all been moments that Twilight was sharing not just with Princess Celestia, not just with her teacher, but her real mother.

Then Twilight thought of a less than pleasant image.

She thought of before the Changeling invasion, where Celestia, among her brother and her friends, had not believed in her and had shunned her from the wedding. Now that she thought about it, Celestia had afterwards looked like the one with the most guilt- the guilt of having distrusted her own daughter.

Then there was the incident with the Want It, Need It spell. Enough said about that one.

Then Twilight became guilty, as images where Celestia had been the victim- and Twilight the one dealing the pain.
All of the times she had come to Celestia on Mother’s Day, asking what to get Velvet. She suddenly remembered that Celestia, despite her mask, had actually looked deeply hurt for a moment. Even though Twilight also began to view her as a surrogate mother of sorts, and surprised her with roses those same years, the pain had still been dealt.

The few times where she forgot to write a friendship report- and had kept Celestia waiting and waiting for one to show when it wouldn’t for awhile. It was like a daughter that had been sent off to school, and didn’t write back even though she had promised that she would.
The times where she had been fed up as a student and, in one of her rare moods, refused to do anything at all while Celestia had just been cheerfully trying to teach her a new spell that was particularly difficult, when her mother had been none the wiser about her ‘funks’. The hurt in Celestia’s eyes whenever Twilight snapped at her…it made her cringe.

Then, there was Celestia’s own title. Twilight realized then how much she had TRULY hurt Celestia by addressing her with formality like that- it just wasn’t something that family did. Luna didn’t even do that, and she had once been unable to speak in any dialect outside of Old Equestrian, calling Celestia ‘sister’.

Twilight’s mood turned from angry to guilty, though the sadness remained, very quickly.

Celestia had spoken honestly, completely honest without lies or half-truths of ANY sort. Twilight could only think of the times where good had outweighed the bad in her memories, and that was when she came to a heart-wrenching conclusion.

Celestia wanted her to hate her, to make her be alone despite the pain- to have better.

But despite everything she felt, Twilight just COULDN’T. Celestia had kept the truth from her, and so had Velvet, but they had done everything with her best interests at heart- as if they had known her before she was born. And all of those times, where Twilight was treated like a normal pony, she was as happy as Celestia wanted her to be. In exchange, Celestia had been alone, hurting when Twilight had chosen Velvet over her even though she had not known. Yet, contrary to what SHE had believed, Celestia actually, and still, felt GUILTY for turning- no, REVEALING- what Twilight was: an alicorn princess, not by magic, but by birth as well, and that she had never truly been a unicorn- taking away much of her social equality with many other ponies.

Celestia had been there for here, sans the Changeling invasion and the Want It. Need It spell, and had done nothing but good out of love for her and her wellbeing, begging Twilight to forgive her when she hadn’t supported her. She had always been thinking about her, and had always taken care of her ESPECIALLY after she had moved into the castle as a filly, always seeming to take pride in teaching her ‘most faithful student’. Even when Celestia had seemingly sent her friends on dangerous missions without a second thought, she realized that Celestia had hated it- but had done it because she had no choice, and yet she hadn’t said a word for another good reason- she trusted Twilight and her friends, more than she had trusted herself, and had cheered her on the whole way, somehow knowing she would succeed.

No.

She didn’t hate Celestia. She COULDN’T.

She LOVED Celestia.

She loved her mother.

           She finally focused her gaze on Celestia, and tears began spilling from her eyes. Celestia was still turned away from her, but as Twilight watched she slowly glanced over her shoulder to meet her eyes.

           Then, another realization hit her, something that had been on her mind since the previous morning.

           Twilight just needed to know, she HAD to know one thing, just to make sure that Celestia really was telling her the truth.

           Twilight took a step forward, dropping her birth certificate into the box from where it had taken to hovering in the air throughout the entire exchange.

           Celestia’s eyes widened, and she turned toward her.

           Twilight took another step forward.

           “T-Twilight?”

           Twilight kept their gazes locked, taking one last step forward.

           Then she lunged...

           “Oof!”

…straight into her mother’s arms!