The Necromancer's Duty

by Fresnor


Chapter 7

The orange filly paced back and forth in front of her home, debating with herself. She had been left with her aunt since she could remember and had trusted her in many things. Sure she had told her little fibs over that time, yet never had there been one that had made her feel as betrayed as this one.

Scootaloo wasn't alone in her thoughts, though she didn't know it, as she was being watched from a distance by a princess. Normally she would have moved to ask the filly what was wrong, but after what she had heard recently she was unsure of herself. It was a feeling that she was rather uncomfortable with, though one she had started feeling more and more often in recent times. The current situation was even worse for her as it brought up two of her more recent and greatest failures, and if they were right, one of them was right behind the door the filly was by.

“Well, not getting any answers out here.” The pegasus filly sighed as she pushed the door open and entered her home. Celestia, after making sure nobody was watching, slowly made her way over to the front of the building and waited while listening in.

Holiday Heights looked up from her needlework as she heard the door to her home close. She already knew that her wife, Lofty Heights, was in the kitchen so there was only one pony that should be entering without knocking, but she wasn't expecting Scootaloo to be home from being out playing with her friends for another couple hours. Leaning over to look behind her chair and around the corner into the entry hall she saw her niece nervously rocking back and forth on her hooves as she looked between the stairs and door to the kitchen.

“Scootaloo, sweetie? Is there something wrong?” The filly jerked in place as if shocked as she looked over to see the green-coated earth pony mare looking at her with worry on her face. Seeing that it was the more understanding of her two aunts, the young pegasus calmed down before looking at the ground again.

“No, um, I mean maybe. Do you know where Auntie Lofty is? I need to ask her something about my mother. My real mother.” The earth pony looked at her niece for a moment before she lifted a hoof up to rub at her temple. She had told her life-mate that it was a bad idea to lie to her niece, but her issues with her family were... complicated. With a sigh, she looked out towards the kitchen.

“Lofty, dear? Can you come here, please?” There was some rattling around in the kitchen before a pale orange pegasus mare peeked out through the doorway connecting the rooms. Seeing her wife and niece she frowned with worry, especially on seeing the younger filly's face.

“Is something the matter? Did something happen to Scootaloo?” The filly watched as her aunt approached, shuffling her hooves around nervously. The elder pegasus' ear twitched as Scootaloo muttered something, causing her to frown.

“What was that? You'll need to speak up a bit.” Scootaloo frowned as she turned away from her aunt, leaving her confused. The young pegasus scrunched up her face as she gathered her courage before speaking once more.

“Why did you lie to me about my mom?” While her voice was still rather quiet, the ears of a pegasus were rather sensitive so as to hear others speaking as they flew in high winds. So while low, her voice was still enough for her aunt to hear as she stared at her blankly. A knocking at the front door knocked her out of her daze, causing her to laugh nervously as she moved to answer it.

“What are you talking about Scootaloo? Why would I lie to you about your parents? That's just ridiculous, hehehe.” Lofty opened the door with her head turned back to the living room entry so she didn't see who it was at first. As soon as she looked though she froze up in shock. The next thing the rest of the household knew the door was closed with a slam and they saw the mare march past them as she stomped her way back to the kitchen.

Holiday sighed as she watched her wife stomp away and left her seat to see just who it was that incited the pegasus' temper. She expected to find a salespony or someone else that her wife didn't like outside of her door, but to find Princess Celestia rubbing her reddened nose was the last thing she had expected. Frowning at the sight, she looked back over her shoulder towards the kitchen where she heard pots and pans rattling around violently.

“Holiday! Just what do you think you are doing slamming the door in the princess' muzzle?! I am so sorry about that Princess Celestia, I have no idea what has gotten into her. Please, come in.” Celestia waved a hoof at the mare as she lowered it from her nose.

“Thank you, and please, do not worry about your wife's reaction. I should have expected it when I suspected that she may have been here.” The earth pony glanced at the alicorn in confusion as she leads her into the living room of their home. As the alicorn entered the room, growling could be heard from the nearby doorway leading to the kitchen.

“I am so sorry for her behavior, princess. My wife is usually a kind pony and I just don't know what has gotten into her today.” A loud noise outside grabbed her attention before she could say more, which was quickly followed by another knock on the door. The growl in the kitchen turned into slamming as the pegasus mare threw down what she was working with and stomped back out into sight.

“Don't go apologizing for what I did! That old nag deserved it after what she did! In fact, I told her to stay away from me and my family or else I would do much worse but I guess she just doesn't care, like usual. Now, who else is showing up to ruin my day?!” Scootaloo and Holiday looked shocked at Lofty's words, while Celestia could only look hurt as well as guilty. The angry mare grumbled under her breath at how the day had been going and let her anger flow into her actions as she threw open the door.

“What do you want!?” Her anger kept her from recognizing who she was looking at, though she found the situation before her odd. On one side was a purple alicorn which she remembered to be Twilight Sparkle, yet gripped in her mouth was the ear of an orange unicorn. While the red and yellow mane seemed familiar to her, it wasn't until the mare broke free and saw her bright green eyes that she recognized her, causing her to freeze up.

“Um, hey sis. Long time no see?” Sunset Shimmer rubbed at her abused ear while shooting a glare over at Twilight. She was still trying to wrap her head around how she could have forgotten that she had a child so she didn't need the additional abuse from her friend, even if she was the sire of said child. Looking back to her sister she flinched as her vision became filled with orange and she found herself flat on her side with a pounding headache. Twilight's jaw dropped at the sight before her as the pegasus glared down at her sister.

“Long time no see? Long time no see?! You're gone for years leaving your daughter behind and that's the first thing you say?!” The downed mare shook her head as she brought a hoof up to dab at her mouth, finding blood on it as she pulled it away. Shaking her head she unsteadily got back onto her hooves.

“Right, I expected that to happen.” As she said that, she was once again knocked to the ground as she was tackled by the pegasus. She winced, expecting more blows to fall, but her eyes widened when she heard sniffling and looked down to see her sister crying against her. A sad smile came over Sunset's face as she slowly reached down to hug her sister, one whom she had not seen in years. While the two would have been content to sit there and bask in the presence of each other, a shout from the nearby home caused their eyes to shoot open in horror.

“My Little Sunny Bunny!” A pastel rainbow streaked out of the door to crash into the two hugging ponies sending them back a few feet into the ground. As the dust cleared, Princess Celestia could be seen wrapping the two up in a giant wing-hug and attempting to squeeze the two ponies into one as far as any observer could see. The two smaller ponies began to turn blue when Holiday came out and cleared her throat to get everybody's attention.

“I really hope that this is all that is going to show as it will be cramped inside as it is. Might as well continue this reunion inside, Scootaloo is bringing tea and snack cakes out into the living room.” The solar princess looked up at the mare in the doorway before glancing down at the two she was holding, who were turning blue at that point, and levitated them both onto her back. The two looked as if they wanted to protest the treatment, but seeing the alicorn act like she was they just sighed and grumbled quietly to each other over it.

Soon the group was settled down in the home of the married mares with Sunset Shimmer Sandwiched between her sister and the princess with the alicorn's wing wrapped behind them both. Across from them were Holiday and Twilight, with Scootaloo squeezing in between them once she had set a plate of sandwiches in the middle, and a cup of tea in front of them all. The sole earth pony of the group looked around at the others before her eyes settled on the princess and how she was acting.

“Now that everypony seems to have calmed down, we can settle this all like civilized ponies. I believe that I know some of what is going on, but I'm not sure why you are here Princess Twilight. Maybe you should start since you seem to know something about what is going on.” Twilight glared at Sunset, causing her to flinch before she looked down at Scootaloo sadly.

“Well earlier I just found out that Scootaloo is my daughter and I want to know just why Sunset never told me about her. It has been years since we first met, yet even after we became friends she said nothing about her to me! I don't even know what I'm supposed to do about all of this, I never expected to find out that I had a child this early in life!” Scootaloo winced at Twilight's words before looking across to the unicorn mare that she didn't recognize. It was only then that she realized just who the unfamiliar unicorn was, causing her eyes to tear up. A thought ran through her head and she didn't realize that she spoke it aloud until her aunt looked down at her in confusion.

“Scootaloo? What did you just say?” The filly winced as she hadn't intended to say anything, but she had been thinking it so hard that it just slipped out. With a sigh, she summoned up her courage before repeating what she said a bit louder.

“Why did you leave me? Was I really that unwanted that even your sister had to lie about you?” The two sisters flinched as if struck by her words before looking downcast. Celestia frowned sadly as she looked down at the two, seeing her own failings being passed on to her adopted daughters. Sunset Shimmer looked at her daughter, and for the first time truly looked at her, and felt a surge of regret leaving her with only claiming the blunt and honest truth.

“If you had asked if I wanted you now, I would be terrified but would have stayed with you. Back then though... I was nothing short of a selfish monster back then. Everything I did was for myself and nobody else, I didn't even have any friends, thinking they would just drag me down. I originally planned to humiliate Twilight so that she would run away leaving Celestia all to myself again, but something went wrong with the spell and I became pregnant with you. Because of that I instead drew even further away from everyone and hid from the world until you were born. When I first saw you I was so terrified that I left you with my sister and ran away to another world where I did many nasty things until Twilight came and stopped me from trying to take over Equestria. Through all of that, I was so focused on what I wanted that I forgot everything else until Twilight reminded me of you and I had to come back and try to make things right if there even is a way to or if I even deserve to do so.” All attention was on Sunset as she spoke of her past, pain filling her voice. Both Celestia and her sister pressed in closer to her as she spoke, while Twilight looked on her with sadness, knowing only part of the story yet happy that she had been able to help her. Still, even though she was saddened by her sister's words Lofty just had to add her own two bits to it.

“Monster? That fall short with how often you were tossing nobles out the palace windows. You got even worse after a certain princess started ignoring you, and you became a true terror after Twilight became her latest student. You actually were starting to become bearable again before you dumped your daughter on me and disappeared. It's why I never told Scootaloo anything about you.” Both the alicorn and unicorn winced at the blunt words of the pegasus, though neither could deny them. Even Scootaloo winced at her aunt's words, even though she was still unsure of how she felt about seeing her mother after all this time. Sunset sighed as she looked down at her hooves, not being able to bring herself to look directly at the filly.

“Still, after Twilight defeated me, I have done my best to turn my life around. I have friends now, and I've been doing everything I can to make up for my actions. It hasn't been easy, especially when I tried to forget about all the things I did, but I have been making progress. It wasn't until she messaged me earlier today that I even remembered about you and if there is anything I can do to make it up to you just tell me.” The room was silent as they looked between Sunset and Scootaloo, waiting on the filly's reaction. The young pegasus, for her part, only looked blankly at the older unicorn before she just stood up and started walking to the stairs out in the hall.

“Scoots? Where are you going?” The filly paused at the bottom step as she looked over to her aunt Holiday.

“I'm going to my room. I... I just don't know how I feel about all of this and I need some time to think... alone.” She steadily climbed the stairs, before she was halted once again, though this time by Twilight speaking up.

“Um Scootaloo, it may not mean much, especially since I just found out today, but I really wouldn't mind getting to know you more. I definitely know that my parents would want to meet you as well. Anyways, if you ever need a place to stay there will always be a permanent room for you at my castle. You can even customize it in whatever manner you want.” Scootaloo just looked at the young alicorn blankly for a moment before a sad smile appeared on her face.

“I'll think about that, too.” To tell the truth, out of all the things that the filly had learned that day, her being related to Twilight was one of the few positives, though she'd rather it was Rainbow Dash. Leaving the sight of who were all apparently her family, the young pegasus soon made it to her room and flopped onto her bed. As she was about to scream into her pillow, she paused as she realized just what had gone through her head a moment ago.

“Wait, I'm related to all of the princesses? How has that gone secret for all this time? And how am I...?” She shook her head as she realized that this was all too much for her to deal with on her own. Lifting her head off of her pillow she looked towards her window and in the direction of the CMC clubhouse and her friends.