Rainius flew around with caution with a small gaze towards Twilight. It was early in the morning and they were heading to Canterlot castle to introduce him to the Royal sisters as he was a mysterious Alicorn that had bat wings and Twilight had thought they would know what all this is about. She was very ecstatic as she was flying him to Canterlot. She was talking very fast that some of her words slurred into sentences that would leave one perplexed.
"Um… Twilight?" Rainius spoke up to try to get the lavender Alicorn's attention.
Twilight looked over at him curiously. "Yes? What is it, Rainius?" She asked.
"I'm not sure if I really want to do this." He replied. "I just don't think I'm ready."
Twilight put her hoof around him. "I can assure you that nothing will happen. Don't be afraid. I'm here and I know Celestia and Luna won't let any harm come to you." She reassured him.
"It's not that," Rainius said. "I know they won't hurt me." His facial expression didn't change.
"Then what is it?!" Twilight asked in a kinda demanding tone, wanting to know the answer.
"My past." He answered. "That's why I'm afraid to come back here. I might run into old comrades, or foes, or something like that."
Twilight looked at him with sympathy. "Rainius, you can't run away from your past. One day it'll catch up to you and you'll have to face it head-on." She told him. "It's time you stop running away from your problems, and it's time you start facing them, starting with this visit."
Rainius sighed. "I guess you're right. But what if-!" He was interrupted by Twilight putting her hoof over his mouth, shushing him.
"Rainius, it's gonna be alright, I'm going to be there with you, so there's nothing that you have to worry about," Twilight said, sympathetically.
Rainius felt a bit better, but his anxiety was still getting the best of him. "Alright, if you say so." He replied nervously, but a little more calm this time. He took a few deep breaths in and out, then followed Twilight in landing after such a long flight, his wings were tired.
They landed in front of the gate where two guards were seen laughing until they were near crying. Rainius's stomach churned when he recognized who those guards were. They were two of Luna's guards that he had trained back when he was captain of Luna's guard force until he was discharged. "Well, well, well, look who it is. Mr. high and mighty. Ain't you a sight to sore eyes. Lemme guess you're here for your Royal crown and shoes?" One guard said laughing as hard as he could.
The other guard joined in. "Yeah, last time we saw you, Luna kicked ya outta the guard force!" They continued to laugh as Rainius stepped back nervously. "Probably thought you were gonna end up taking her place as ruler."
Princess Twilight then stepped up. "We are here to see the Princesses!" She declared. The two guards then dropped to the floor laughing hysterically. Twilight was not impressed by this inappropriate behavior towards her new friend. In fact, she was downright annoyed that Royal guards were acting like this. Like they were young foals when they are supposed to act professional while on the job.
Immediately, the gate swung open and an angry mare stood at the gate displeased with the guard’s behaviors. "Hey, you two knuckleheads! It's time for the day swift, so pack it up!" Before she lets them go she pounds their heads together, almost knocking them unconscious, but hopefully enough to knock some sense into them.
"Y-yes, mam!" They rushed off in what would be considered a flash.
"That's Captain Sparrow to you two!!" The mare yelled. "Sorry about that. You can come in if you'd like." She gave them a smile. She was a bright orange pony with golden-yellow eyes. Her mane and tail were dark blue with dark purple streaks going through them. She was also a Unicorn. A unicorn who Rainius recognized and blushed a bit by.
"H… Hey, Lylac." He said, chuckling nervously while trying to hide his flushed cheeks.
"Ah, Rainius. It's good to see you again at least there will be somepony I know that actually has a brain that will be working with me. Glad to see you came back home all in one piece." Lylac said, with a smile.
"I've missed you too, my little sparrow." He said to his old marefriend, chuckling a bit and blushing bright red.
Lylac blushed a bit from his comment. But then went back to being serious. "Here is the door that'll take you to the throne room." She said.
"Congratulations on the position of captain by the way," Rainius told her before he gave her a small wink. Their eyes locked for mere moment before Lylac used her magic to disappear to escape the void of an awkward situation.
Twilight looked back at them, wondering how Rainius actually was with Lylac and why they had split up. But she decided it was best not to worry about that as of right now because right now, all she was focused on was introducing Rainius to the princesses. "This way." She instructed. "They're just through this door."
Rainius could tell that Twilight was just a bit too excited about this, but he thought it would be best if he did not call her out on it. "So, just through here?" He questioned her.
"Yep!" Twilight said, nodding. "Sorry… I'm just so excited!! You could possibly be the first Alicorn to be a prince and it's just-!" She blushed embarrassed. "Sorry."
Rainius chuckled, making Twilight blush even more with embarrassment. "You're fine."
Twilight shot off a glare that looked like it was saying, 'I'm watching you, Rainius.' But Rainius didn't pay too much attention to it.
"Alright, you ready?" Twilight said putting her hoof to the doors to the throne room.
Rainius let out a sigh. "As ready as I'll ever be." He said before Twilight opened the doors.
When Twilight opened the doors they could see the throne room in complete chaos. Celestia and Luna had a lot of paperwork they were looking at and they looked like they were at the point of full-on panicking. Twilight immediately ran to Celestia as fast as she could. "Celestia!! What's going on?!" She asked concerned.
As Celestia wasn't responding, Luna put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder before responding. "Thy sister is a little stressed this morning, with all the paperwork concerning a missing guard from her force." She said.
It took Twilight a minute to process everything she just took in from Luna. When she finally processed it all, she was shocked. "What happened to him?!" She asked, worried.
“He went missing mysteriously last night while he was packing up to go home for the night,” Celestia said once she calmed down. “His wife showed up last night asking Luna where he was, then Luna came to alert me about it and-” Celestia looked behind the lavender Alicorn to see another Alicorn behind her. One she recognized. She turned to her younger sister Luna. “Sister, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Luna nodded, then she began to walk up to the sky-blue Alicorn standing by the doors, making him nervous. But what made him more nervous was the stern expression she gave him before speaking. “Rainius. After all these years; thou finally returns to me.” She said, sternly.
Rainius coward down as he looked up at her and seeing her darting eyes glare at him. “H...Hi mom.” He finally said, nervously. And by the looks of it, he seemed to be sweating like crazy.
Twilight froze in place. She was astonished by the bat-winged Alicorn’s words. “Wait! Mother?! You’re his mother?!” She said, pointing a hoof at Luna, freaking out. “But how did this happen?! With whom did this happen?!” She had no words. Just left confused and surprised. She would’ve never had thought the princess of the night would have a child.
“Twilight, calm down. This happened a long time ago, and now it is time that Luna tells the truth about her past.” Celestia said, looking over at her sister, giving her a quick nod.
Luna sighed. “Thy has not been very honest about thy’s past, but hopefully thou wouldst listen to thine words.” She said. Luna took in a deep breath and exhaled, then began to tell them the story. “When Rainius was just a baby, thy and thy sister were trying to escape the Empire without him seeing Rainius, he would kill me if he was to know I kept the fact that Rainius was his son from him.”
“From who? Who is my father?!” Rainius demanded to know. And he wasn’t going to stop until he did know. But he probably wasn’t ready for the answer he was about to receive.
“I don’t know the best way to put this, but… Your father is King Sombra.” Celestia said.
Rainius stepped back; eyes widened. His breathing became more shallow as he took all this in. "My father is King Sombra?!" He blurted out. "The same King Sombra that tried to kill me over a thousand years ago in the war?! The same King Sombra that curs-!" He stopped before saying that last bit. He didn't want Twilight to know about his curse that was placed upon him by his father.
Luna's facial expression changed as she stared at her son and the hatred for his father that was held within him. She sighed. "Yes. That King Sombra." She said grimly.
"So, what happened to Rainius after you escaped from the Crystal Empire?" Twilight asked, more calmly now.
Luna began to choke on her words as she began to speak. "Th… Thy had become so stressed with everything and having to be a strong ruler with a lot of responsibilities, and on top of that, thy had to take care of thine child all alone. Thy was afraid and thy… thy… thy can't." She stuttered, a tear shedding from her eye; left her unable to carry on the story.
"You… you gave me away…" Rainius said. Luna could barely hold back her tears because as much as she didn't want to believe it, it was true. She did give him away.
"Rainius… son." Luna said, trotting up to him and putting her hoof on him. He smacked it away. This broke Luna's heart.
"Nephew. Please." Celestia spoke up. Hoping she could get him to see reason. "Forgive your mother, even though what she did was wrong and wasn't the best thing to do in that situation. She only did it for you and your happiness."
"What do you mean for my happiness?" Rainius questioned his aunt. "I would've been happier living with you and her rather than living with adoptive parents and not knowing who my birth mother was until I was 98."
"She gave up her happiness, which was you, for your happiness. You wouldn't have been happy here." Celestia said.
"How would you know?!" He said angrily, demanding to hear a suitable answer that would satisfy him.
"Your mother and I would be too busy with Royal duties and meetings, we wouldn't have time to take care of you. You would feel neglected. And it just wouldn't work." Celestia tried to explain.
Rainius took a few minutes to calm down. "I won't be able to forgive her right now, but maybe eventually I will. But as of now, I just can't. Even after over a thousand years." He replied, though his thoughts were still focused on King Sombra being his father. The thought of it disgusted him. 'How could his mother fall in love with that?!' He thought.
"Okay." Was Luna's only response to his statement as she tried to hold back her tears.
"Now, can we just please move on from this conversation?" Rainius pleaded. The Alicorn sisters nodded. "Now, what more about this missing guard?"
"We've told you all that we know so far. There hasn't been any more evidence to what could've possibly have happened to him." Celestia said. "Twilight, I'm afraid with this unexpected occurrence; your coronation will have to be pushed back a couple of weeks."
Twilight smiled. "Oh, that's okay." She replied with a wide grin, trying to sound convincing.
Rainius though could read right through her. He could tell she was afraid of leading the whole country.
Meanwhile, later that night, Latenighter, Silvertail, and Fury were still searching for answers as to the location of Rainius, but alas they had no luck. "If you hadn't had let him escape in the first place, we wouldn't have to be doing this!" Claimed Fury.
Latenighter glared at him insulted. "You're really blaming me that you couldn't keep an eye on one pony?!" He shouted.
Fury trotted over and glared at him. "You'd best watch what you say to certain ponies, farmer boy. Oh wait, maybe they didn't teach you that on your family's farm." Fury said, intimidating him. "So, maybe it was a good thing you got attacked by those vampire fruit bats."
"You take that back!!" Latenighter exclaimed. "I've helped you search for this pony "prince" that you lost!!"
Fury sighed. "Just shut up and help me with finding him, because this time I'll get my revenge on him and his mother and aunt." He said, recalling what happened with him and Rainius in magic school. "They'll never know what hit them." He grinned as he schemed of a way to capture Rainius when they find him and how he's going to take out his revenge on him.
Meanwhile, back at Canterlot. "So, what is this about you and your coronation?" Rainius asked Twilight.
"H-How'd you know about that?" Twilight asked confused and nervously, as well as a little creeped out, but she didn't dwell too much on that last feeling.
"Oh, right, I forgot, I hadn't told you yet." Rainius began. "It was a gift from an old friend. It gives me the power to read the minds of those around me, and the more I get to know a specific person, the louder their thoughts are over those I don't know." He explained.
"So, you can read anyone's mind?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Well, anyone that doesn't have a mind block spell cast upon them." He retorted.
"Interesting," Twilight said as she continued to be intrigued by this ability of his.
"I can also control minds with my eyes, and I can see into the past and future." He said, opening up about his abilities.
"That sounds amazing!" Twilight said. "Was this something you had to get used to when you first obtained your gifts?"
“Oh, definitely,” Rainius replied. “It wasn’t something that I was able to get used to overnight… it got annoying sometimes."
Twilight giggled into her hoof. She then stared off dreamily at Rainius. They had locked eyes for a brief moment before closing them and moving their heads closer to one another and before they knew it, their lips were together. The feeling was blissful, but once Twilight found out what they were doing, she immediately retracted herself off of him, blushing scarlet red. "Sorry! Sorry!" She freaked out.
Rainius put a hoof to her. "Twilight, calm down. It was just a kiss." He reassured her.
Twilight then calmed down, listening to his words from his sweet angelic voice. She couldn't help but get lost in his looks. Those beautiful blue eyes that shimmered in the night calling her in. "You're right. It was just a kiss… A very good one at that." She put her hooves to her mouth as she couldn't believe what she had just said. She blushed again.
"What?! Don't tell me that you're falling for me already?!" He teased her. Making her blush immensely. He chuckled as he looked at her.
Twilight couldn't stop blushing at his remarks, but she did begin to ponder. 'Did she like him?' 'And was she even ready for a relationship?'
"If you're not ready then that's alright. I wouldn't force anything upon you." Rainius said, reading her thoughts thoroughly.
"C… can we just please fly back to my castle? I don't really want to continue this conversation?" Twilight begged. He nodded showing his agreement to fly back to the castle of friendship and change the subject.