//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - The Door to Their Beginning // Story: Paw and Ring // by Teotle //------------------------------// Why did Teotle have a cutiemark? how was it possible? How did His father, Shadowflame appear over a thousand years ago and not die like any other wolf would, given their natural life span? Those were the questions that had been asked ever since Teotle was found and brought back to Ponyville. They are questions that needed to be answered. Twilight and Princess Luna had ventured to the "Castle of the Two Sisters", where Shadowflame was raised in secret, a thousand years ago. Supposedly, Luna kept a diary, describing Shadowflame's history, somewhere in a hidden part of the castle. When they arrived, Luna led Twilight to her old bedroom, which was on the opposite side of the castle from Celestia's. When they entered, the room had almost the same set up as Luna's room in Canterlot. However, on the left side of the room, there was a door that had been torn off its hinges and smashed to pieces all over the floor. The doorway appeared to lead to another room. Was it a closet? No, it was too big, even for a princess. When Luna looked at the doorway, she slowly walked up to it in a mesmerized state, not just by the door, but by the whole room, like she remembered everything at once. "Luna?" Twilight asked. Luna didn't reply. She just stared at the doorway, afraid to step through, as if she wouldn't come back out. Unable to look away, Luna then asked herself, "How did it come to this?" Twilight tilted her head and wondered, "What do you mean by that?" "How could I just let this happen to him?" Luna answered. "He was such a good and thoughtful boy, before..." Luna fell silent, as if her own train of thought was gagging her. "Before what?" Twilight asked. "Princess, what happened here?" Tears had begun to fall from Luna's face as she said, "The beginning and end. "Of what?" Twilight asked again. "My motherhood." Luna replied. "This room is where I brought Shadowflame, after I found him in the Everfree Forest." Twilight followed Luna into the room, where an assortment of furniture had been set up. There was a small bed, and a writing desk, covered with pencils, crayons, and papers. Most of the papers had drawings on them, but the images were crossed out with big X's, smeared, and/or torn in half. A toy chest lay buy the writing desk, however, many of the toys were scattered around the room. They were all broken, ripped apart by the child who used to live there. "Luna, what happened here?" Twilight asked, horrified by her surroundings. Luna then walked to the writing desk, opened the cupboards on the side, and removed an old beat up book that had been bent at its spine. She opened it carefully and began to read, out loud. "Dear Diary, today is the day I ask my sister, Tia, if I can try raising a child of my own, somepony who will grow to love my night, and learn from it's wisdom. I'm a little nervous, but I'm determined to stand my ground this time. I truly hope she says yes. I want to be a mother more than anything in the world. I just know she'll say yes." Twilight then said to Luna, "What did Celestia say to you, when you asked?" Luna looked down at the floor and said, "She said I wasn't ready, she worried that I couldn't handle the responsibility of parenting. For a while, I thought she was just trying to keep be from being loved, but I now know what she meant." Luna looked back at Twilight and continued, "She knew that if I had any children of my own, that they would be bound to do what I did a thousand years ago." "How?" Twilight asked. "Back then, I was beginning to show signs of change, Celestia watched as I made one bad choice after another. She knew what I was turning into, and also, what my child would become because of me." Luna replied. "A week had passed, after our argument on the matter, when in I saw Shadowflame land in the Everfree Forest." "Land?" Twilight asked. "Yes." Luna replied. "On the night of a lunar eclipse, a portal opened from within it, causing Shadowflame to fall out and land in the forest." "How can that be?" Twilight asked. "That's not even scientifically possible. "I was surprised also." Luna remarked, looking back at the book and turning the page. "Dear Diary, I know it's been a while since my last entry, but I had some thing's to figure out, like why Tia said no to me having a child of my own, and a few other things. But I had found a young wolf cub after he fell from some portal in the lunar eclipse, just last night. He was badly hurt by a few burns and bruises, but after that night, when I bandaged him up, He had completely recovered." "Just like Teotle when we found him?" Twilight asked. "Exactly." Luna said back before continuing. "I don't know what Tia will think of him if she see's him, but that might not need to happen, not yet anyway. I would like to watch over him until I can find out where he came from and how to send him back, if at all." "If at all?" Twilight asked. Luna then said, "By the time I wrote that, Shadowflame had shown a great amount of enthusiasm. He helped me get over my grief of Celestia's answer to my request." "He helped fill the emptiness in you by that time, didn't he?" Twilight questioned. Luna stayed silent for a moment until she answered, "Yes, he did. After a while, He eventually called me His mommy. " “A title I wish I hadn’t tried to deny you of.” A voice suddenly said from behind Twilight and Luna. When the two of them turned around to see who it was, they both asked, “Celestia?”