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// 03 - Signs of Trouble 
// Story: The Story of Everfree - a Narrative Chronicle 
// by Recon777 
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As it turned out, Periapsis never truly abandoned her fascination with the mortal ponies. While her nurturing attention was indeed given to the young royal sisters… as they grew older, she found time to rekindle her old hobby of tending to her “pets”.

When Celestia reached the age of ten, Periapsis introduced her to pony-tending. She taught Celestia how to keep and care for them. Celestia was eager to learn the art of managing the mortals because she adored her mother and related well to her nature. She wanted very much to follow her mother's example.

Hyperion became incensed that Peri continued her obsession with the mortals, and worse, encouraged their daughter in the same. What an outrage! Here, the problem had gotten worse, not better. Now there were two alicorns irrationally obsessed with tending to insects.





Celestia screamed for him to stop.

“What’s the matter, Sunshine? I’m trying to teach you something.” His voice was cold and authoritative.

Celestia stared at the lifeless body before her. The other one was still alive and had fixed onto her with terrified eyes as she sat there, trembling. The mare’s eyes were magenta, just like her own.

Tears rolled down Celestia’s cheeks. “I won’t do it!” She was ten years old.

Her father looked down at her, his expression unreadable. He waited.

She glared hard at him, a look of fierce determination set in her eyes like diamonds. She stole a quick glance at the slain pony lying in an expanding pool of blood. After a full minute, her father took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nostrils.

“I will not have you following her example. One obsessed alicorn is more than enough for—”

“Mother is not obsessed!” she blurted out in desperation. “This one belongs to her, and I will not—” Celestia felt an impact across her face followed by blood trickling down her nose.

“Do not interrupt me, child. Now, I gave you a task.”

Celestia stared at the pale-blue mare once again. He was wrong about them. He had to be. She returned her gaze to her father and stomped a hoof on the ground.

“Very well. If you won’t do it, I will. But you will watch.” With that, Celestia found she could not look away. A flicker of light sparked from the tip of Hyperion’s horn. Celestia heard the loud crack of a bone breaking and the chilling screams of pain coming from the pony before her. Then another crack, followed by dozens more within seconds. The pony vomited up a liter of blood, then collapsed dead onto the ground.

Hyperion spoke softly. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Celestia was hyperventilating. She couldn’t take her eyes off the mangled body of the mare lying before her as the rhythmic hoofsteps of her departing father faded away.





In a fit of anger, Hyperion destroyed a small pony village. He was surprised by how much satisfaction this brought him, if just for a moment, to smash the object of his frustration. He knew Peri would not be pleased with this, but she would get over it.

To distract himself from his frustration, Hyperion would divert much of his attention to his daughter, Luna, teaching her his talents in crafting magnificent vistas. Luna seemed to prefer applying this talent at night as she manipulated the appearance of the sky in all its glory.

Hyperion also was not neglectful in teaching Celestia the art of astronomical manipulation. By the time they reached their late teens, both Celestia and Luna had mastered the ability to manipulate the sun and moon in the sky using the abilities their father had given them.

As the sisters matured, Periapsis foresaw heightened conflict with Hyperion. To prepare for this, she clandestinely taught each of her daughters a secret way to meet and talk about things in a manner immune to Hyperion's interference.

To Celestia, her mother gave the secrets of the Aether and how to enter it at will. From here, she would have access to unique advantages such as a limited exploration of history and meeting with others in a nonlinear timeline. Here, time operated very differently from the physical world.

To Luna, her mother granted the secret of dream-walking, enabling Luna to enter the dreams of others and observe what their subconscious was doing. She could also interact with the dreamer, offering solace and resolving troubled sleep. Periapsis sometimes did this with the mortal ponies she cared for, as they often suffered from night terrors.