“All my planning, all the time I spent getting ready for Grogar’s return, and you throw it all away for what, so that you could meet your daughter early! Do you delight in tormenting me, do you delight in smashing all my meticulously thought out plans into ruble!?”
Twilight watched as Starswirl smirked, before chuckling as he spoke. “My dear sweet flour, while your plans may have worked against normal minds, Grogar is near equal to you beloved, and thus he will be able to tear them apart easier then I have. If we are to defeat him, we must consolidate our forces, not scheme in the dark.”
He then turned to Twilight, but before he could speak, Luna’s voice suddenly sounded thorough the loud enough to be heard all the way from Canterlot.
“HOW DARE YOU SET HOOF WITHIN OUR REALM YOU VILE SNAKE!!!”
Starswirl turned in the direction of the sound, a look of concern on his face. “I know of only one creature that could drive Luna to such fear, but if we are lucky I am wrong, gather close to me, and I will take us there.”
Clover immediately came to his side, but Twilight hesitated, causing him to look sympathetically towards her. “Twilight, I promise you have nothing to fear from me, but we need to move quickly if the creature I fear is in Canterlot.”
Realizing he was right, Twilight moved up next to him, then closed her eyes as she felt him teleport them all.
*
Luna was still seeing red when Twilight, Starswirl, Clover, Celestia, Anthra and Celestine appeared in the throne room, all of them gasping when they saw the creature standing in front of Equestria’s throne.
He was as tall as an alicorn, and while he was slenderly built, they could clearly see muscle hidden under his dark blue fur. He was wearing a necklace upon which hung a golden bell, and his two horns gently curved in on themselves, enhancing his face along with his glowing yellow eyes.
“Ah good, you are all here.”
“What are you doing here Grogar!” growled Starswirl, causing Luna, Celestia, Anthra and Celestine to jump at the sound of his voice.
“Starswirl old friend,” said the giant goat, smiling as he sat down. “It is good to see that the madness has left you. As for why I am here, I have recently returned to my homeland, and have been re-instated as its ruler. As such, I wish to make sure my transition back into ruling over my people goes as smoothly as possible, thus, I come here under the white flag of truce in order to beg you, the noble rulers of Equestria, to not besiege my kingdom.”
“If you think we’ll let you subjugate the goats again you are poorly mistaken Grogar,” said Luna.
“Oh really, and are you willing to go to war over it?”
That stilled Luna, however Celestia stepped in her place to speak, though she was shaking as she spoke. “And what assurances do we have that you will not declare war on us?”
“By offering a gift,” said Grogar with a smile, before his horns lit and a pony appeared before them, one he floated to the steps before the throne before setting it down.
The moment they got a better look Twilight realized that it was Sombra, but he was not as she had known him. Gone was his curved red horn, gone were the flowing black mane and tail, and once he opened his eyes, she could see that they no longer were tainted by dark magic, instead his eyes were normal, if a deep shade of red when it came to the irises.
Luna looked the most shocked by this, which caused Grogar to smirk, “I offer you Luna’s former student, whole and free from the magic which plagued him, and in exchange all I ask that no hostilities between our nations be formed.”
Celestia stepped forward, “And if we refuse.”
“I take Sombra with me as a prisoner of war, and you all know how the goats treat their prisoners.”
Silence held for a long moment, till finally Luna’s horn lit up, her magic picking up Sombra and floating him over to her before she spoke. “We agree to your terms.”
“Luna…”
“This is my decision Celestia,” said Luna sternly, “you are on leave from you duties…therefore I am the one who rules here, and I see this as the best option we have.”
“I am glad we agree,” said Grogar, “but with that said, I best get back to my kingdom, I will be sure to send a delegate with the necessary paperwork in a matter of days, so be ready for their arrival.”
And with that he vanished in a blinding flash of light, leaving everyone there in shock, till suddenly Luna turned around and slapped Starswirl across the face.
“Luna what the…”
“So you live, and you never once thought to tell either myself or Celestia!” yelled Luna as she started poking him in the chest.
“You can blame her for most of it,” said Starswirl as he pointed to Clover, who glared daggers at him.
“Oh so I’m to blame, you agreed with me when I suggested that it would be best to hide our presence from them!”
“I only agreed because at the time I felt it would be best for them to learn to stand on their own, and if the madness hadn't hit when it did I would have revealed myself to them sooner.”
Clover looked like she wanted to argue further, only to be stopped as Luna spoke. “Enough, this is not the time or place for this. Celestia, get back to Twilight’s castle and return to your rest, you are still not fit to return to rule yet.”
“But…”
“Just do what I said,” said Luna, before turning to Starswirl and Clover. “You two will stay in Canterlot for the foreseeable future, as your arrival is a boon during this trying time.”
“I’m sorry but…” started Clover, only to be stopped as Starswirl leveled a glare at her before turning to Luna and speaking.
“I would be honored to help you in this trying time dear niece, as would my wife, after all it will allow me to stay close to get to know my daughter better.”
Nodding her head, Luna finally turned her head to Twilight. “Twilight, while I know it would be your normal inclination to gather your friends together to figure out how to combat this foe, Grogar is a being beyond even the elements power.”
“I understand Princess,” said Twilight, “but…I wasn’t going to anyway due to…well due to my child.”
Luna’s expression softened at that, “Yes, that is a concern as well. Now all of you go, I would like to be alone with my former student.”
Slowly, everyone teleported out of the throne room, till all that was left was Luna and Sombra. She then picked him up, looking to one of the guards who had been standing shock still, before speaking to him and causing him to start. “I will be in my chambers for the rest of the day, inform that staff that I am not to be disturbed.”
“As you wish Princess,” said the guard.
Luna then teleported to her chambers, leaving Sombra in her bed and prepping tea, returning just as his eyes opened one more as he looked about.
“Where am I?”
“In my chambers in Canterlot Castle,” said Luna, causing Sombra to look at her.
“Teacher…wait, did you say Canterlot Castle, I thought it was still under construction?”
Luna’s face softened a bit, the mare setting down the tea before passing him a cup and speaking. “What is the last thing you remember my student?”
Sombra took a sip of tea, and then he spoke. “I was looking through the crystal archives, looking for tomes on magic, when I came across this strange tome. I remember taking the tome from the shelf and opening it…and then nothing.”
“…That was over a thousand years ago my student.”
Sombra’s eyes widened in shock, but Luna quickly dove into explanations before he could speak, sparing no detail over what had transpired over the last thousand plus years.
When it was over, Sombra had a pensive look on his face, before he looked to his former teacher and spoke. “My teacher, if all this is true, how do you know I am not a plant by Grogar to spy on you.”
“I have already thought of that,” said Luna, “I have been running scans upon you the entire time we have been speaking, and I have found no spells save for the remnants of dark magic and the remnants of a memory eraser spell, so I feel safe in assuming that you are no spy.”
Sombra breathed out a sigh of relief at that, and then yawned, before laying his head down on the pillows of Luna’s bed. “I am sorry teacher, but I suddenly feel very tired.”
“I know,” said Luna, “for I may or may not have slipped a little something into your tea, for my scans showed that you are not fully rested, and I will need you to be bright eyed for the morrow.”
“Sneaky mare,” said Sombra, before yawning once more and falling fast asleep, leaving Luna to watch over him as he slept soundly.
*
Twilight returned to Her castle and leaned against a nearby wall, taking in a deep breath before concentrating on her daughter.
“Hey little one, I’m sorry if that was really scary, are you doing ok?”
“I otay,” she heard in her head, “but I hungy.”
Smiling a bit, Twilight headed for the kitchen, before stopping as she saw Clover in the kitchen holding a cake in her magic.
“…are you planning on eating all of that?”
Clover hesitated a moment, and then sighed, “yes if you must know, Celestia isn’t the only one with a massive sweet tooth.”
“…Did prince…did my aunt Platinum have a sweet tooth too?”
Clover hesitated for a moment, before realizing what this was, and smiled before setting the cake on a table and speaking. “She did actually, and your aunt would often eat though the castles cake stores in a mater of days, much to the head cooks constant anger.”
Twilight smiled at that, “Do you think you could grab the ambrosia out of the fridge as well?”
Nodding her head, Clover opened the fridge before setting it down on the table for Twilight, who began to dig in before stopping as Clover spoke once more. “I…I am sorry for leaving you the way I did…it was not fair of me…”
“…no it was not,” said Twilight, “do you know what its like to find out that the majority of your life was a lie.”
“No I don’t,” said Clover, “I honestly thought that what I was doing was best for you…but I should have kept you despite the risks.”
“…Could you show me?”
Clover looked confused, so Twilight clarified, “Could you show me what you saw to make you leave me with the ponies who became my mom and dad.”
Clover dawned a look of concern, “It may be unsettling, for some of the futures I saw were quite…disturbing.”
“…If you want a chance to become part of my life, this is the price I ask.”
Clover hesitated for a moment, before she walked over and placed her horn to Twilight’s, and suddenly her mind was flooded with images.
Before her eyes were the lives she could have lived if she had not been raised by Velvet and Nightlight, and many she saw horrified her. The majority of the ended due to Nightmare Moon taking over, while others showed discord being loosed on the land. Only a few she saw ended well up to this point, but the one that was the brightest, the one that offered both her and the world the best chance, was the one she was living now.
When the visions ended, Twilight saw that Clover was crying, and suddenly realized that she had been crying as well.
“Like I said, this was the best one I saw out of all of them, for this not only insured you had a good life, but it also insured that Equestria and the world as a whole would prosper.”
For a long moment, Twilight just stated at her, but eventually she sighed before speaking. “Seeing that, I can sort of understand why you did what you did, but you still should have looked for some other way to get this outcome…I can’t promise anything, but if you put through the effort, We may one day have a decent relationship, but I will be the one who decides if you are putting enough effort in.”
She then took the ambrosia and left, leaving Clover alone with her cake, which she looked at before sighing and putting it back into the fridge.
“I hope I can please you my daughter.”