//------------------------------// // That hidden part of her // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// As Twilight and the others walked throughout the castle, talking about the origins of Celestia and Luna’s forgotten older sister, Twilight was more or less distracted by what had happened earlier. She had heard a voice but she was the only one who heard it. Maybe she was just shaken up from her time with the legion of doom? Some sort of lasting trauma? No, that was least likely since the voice didn’t sound like any of them. In fact.. it sounded a lot like- “Twilight? Ya there sugarcube?” She hears Applejack ask, snapping her out of her thoughts. “H-Huh?” Twilight asks as she looks at the others who are giving her concerned looks. “Celestia and Luna were explaining what their sister was like and we thought there was something you might have wanted to know.” Starlight explained and Twilight shakes her head. “Umm.. could you repeat everything for me.. please?” Twilight asks with a sheepish smile and Celestia and Luna look at each other then back at the group of friends. “Astelle was born three years before me and was meant to be the original princess of the sun. She would’ve gained that title too had it not been for me.. I did something heroic which lead to me being the princess of the sun, despite me being so young.. and Astelle was outraged. She hated me for taking that away from her.” Celestia explains before looking at Luna who walks up a bit and continues for her. “And then I was born and Astelle tried to manipulate into turning against our sister. She wanted to frame her for a crime so heinous that she could never be accepted as a princess.. and it would have worked but then Celestia caught on and told our parents.” Luna says as she looks around at them all before continuing. “She didn’t tell them what she was planning but she did tell them that she was jealous she didn’t get a title.. so they deemed her the princess of shadows.. and she took that title quite seriously.. but not in a good way.” Celestia then sighs and finishes explaining. “Over the years she became more cold and detached.. until one day a mysterious alicorn came to her and introduced herself as Midnight Starkiller.” Celestia says with a bit of anger in her voice as she says the name. “She offered Astelle more power than she could’ve ever dreamed of.. all she had to do.. was turn on her own family… and so she did. She killed our parents first then they both tried to kill Luna and myself for years.. but using the elements of harmony and a powerful spell, we were able to trap them in separate dimensions. But Midnight and Astelle had already gotten to Luna, leaving a trace of dark magic in her along with their own twisted influences.” She says with sadness in her voice. “And I didn’t notice my own sister slowly becoming sick in the head because of it.. too blinded by my responsibilities as a princess.” Celestia says, her voice shaking with sadness. She should’ve seen the changes in Luna’s behavior and immediately realized that Luna wouldn’t act like she did unless Midnight or Astelle did something to her.. but no she just took it as Luna being upset and nothing more like a fool. She feels Luna nuzzle her and she nuzzles back, sighing. Pinkie frowns and her mane deflates a bit. “I’m sorry.. I didn’t know that she was that much of a party pooper.. or that your past with her was that dark.” Pinkie says apologetically with a pout. Both Celestia and Luna smile at her and nod to say it’s ok. Rainbow Dash uncrosses her arms and walks forward a bit. “So.. exactly how much about Midnight and your past did you not tell us? If it’s ok for me to ask.” She asks and Celestia almost answers but Luna does it for her. “We haven’t told you that Midnight had an army and if she gets free, they will too. Our sister will stay trapped unless Midnight manually frees her. We also have yet to tell you how Midnight goes about taking down her targets.” Luna says and Celestia steps beside her and explains before she does. “She worms her way into the hearts and minds of her targets and makes them do her bidding, willingly or unwillingly and when she no longer sees them as useful.. she disposes of them.” Celestia says and everyone at this point isn’t surprised. After seeing what Midnight did in Solaris’s past, anything they heard about her doing afterwards didn’t really surprise them anymore. They understood that Midnight was pure evil and that’s about all they needed to understand. They all look nervous and Celestia can tell that none of them have a plan for how they’re going to stop her. “The elements were powerful enough to stop her once but thanks to all of you, they’re more powerful than before.. and so is she. But no matter, you all have prevailed against many treacherous foes, and she is just one more. So there should be no doubt that you will prevail this time.” Celestia says with a smile, causing them all to smile back and she then looks at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, in about two days, the Wonderbolts should be given new outfits that are a bit more.. appropriate for a situation like this. So be prepared when it arrives.” Celestia says and Rainbow Dash gasps in shock and excitement then flys up while spinning and cheering. This earns chuckles from everyone and Twilight actually finds it refreshing for even someone who acts as tough as Rainbow Dash does to let their guard down. As she watches the pegasus cheer and fly around, she can’t help but smile, enjoying seeing this other side of the pegasus more and more. “It’s actually kind of.. adorable.” Twilight thinks to herself before the voice interrupts her thoughts again. “..And tiresome.” It says before suddenly Twilight’s eyes become evil looking again, her pupils turning to slits but they don’t change color and neither does anything else and she walks off. Starlight is the only one who notices and she decides to follow her. She follows Twilight throughout the castle, almost getting caught a few times but she could’ve sworn that a few times when Twilight turned back, her eyes were almost serpent-like. She may have just been seeing things but she needed to check. Once Twilight got to her room and closed the door, Starlight, after a few seconds teleported in after her and used a spell to make herself invisible. She looks around and sees Twilight, on her knees while using her magic.. on nothing. Her eyes were closed so Starlight let down the spell and went to her. “Uhhh Twilight?” Starlight calls but she gets no response. She waves her hand in front of her face but still Twilight doesn’t respond and after a few seconds of thinking, Starlight realizes that Twilight’s not sleeping, she’s meditating.. while using her magic. But.. that’s unlike her. In all the time that Starlight has known Twilight, she’s never seen her meditate and the others have never told her about her doing it. So why was she doing it now..? “Very good Twivine, you’re one step closer to fully mastering alicorn empathy.” Midnight says with a smile and Twivine returns one of her own before slightly bowing her head as thanks. “Thank you, my Queen. Celestia did once tell me about Alicorn empathy, mainly that it runs strongly between Alicorns.” Twivine says and Midnight glares and she instantly understands where she went wrong. “I mean she told Twilight about it.” Twivine quickly corrected herself which seemed to please Midnight. “That’s better, don’t worry, we will work on that. And she was right, in fact, as you can see, it runs so strongly that even villainous ones like us can use it. Even across different dimensions.. speaking of which, Twivine I would like for you to meet someone.” She says before turning to her right and Twilight follows her gaze as another Alicorn slowly appears. This Alicorn was grey, had red eyes, a red mane and tail and grey feathers that slowly faded to red. Her cutie mark was that of a red star shaped crystal wrapped in what looked to be shadows that resembled thorned vines. “Hello old friend..” Midnight says before the alicorn directs her attention to her then to Twivine. “Is this the alicorn you told me about that could help us?” The alicorn asks and Midnight nods, prompting her to walk up to Twivine and get really close to her, both her eyes glowing red. “Twivine.. meet Astelle.”