The Truth And A Choce
by tio aka truekry
Twilight Sparkle blinked. The last thing she could recall where her friends, gathered around her, the elements targeted at her trying to undo the damage they caused. Then with a white flash the world around her disappeared. The walls of her known library changed to a blue fog, she seemed to stand on.
“Hello?” She asked anxiously into the void. Everything around her shone and sparkled. But behind the facade of lights seemed something else. A darkness.
“Hello Twilight, my dear student”, alarmed she turned to the voice she knew so long. Seemingly out of thin air, princess Celestia walked over to her. As she saw her, she exhaled loudly.
“Princess! What’s going on? Where are we?”
Her teacher smiled. “This is a place outside of time and space. A space where nothing yet everything is. It’s yesterday and it’s tomorrow.”
“Something like a higher existence?” Twilight read about it. Star Swirl mentioned it in some of his books.
“If this description appeals to you, then it shall be. It’s what you turn it into, because this place belongs solely to you.” Twilight was confused, what didn’t happen often. She was proud to always be able to join a conservation when magical theories or science were the subject. But right now she felt a bit lost.
“What does that mean? Why am I here?” Still with her trusting smile she walked past Twilight, an invisible road.
“Come with me and you will understand.” And so she did, trotted after the princess. “Twilight I said with me”, she said as she glanced back. Twilight gulped and catched up. “When you helped your friends today, you fulfilled the task I gave you. You created your own spell. Which means that you are ready.”
“Ready for what?” Twilight asked puzzled. Just as she spoke the question, pictures began emerging from the blue fog. Pictures of her life how she quickly found. One picture showed the moment where she charged at Nightmare Moon, another how she played chess with Spike in the tower when she was a foal. She remembered the game exact as it was the day she admonished using flames as a sign of frustration. After she bought a new board, she would let him win from time to time. Both of them learned something that day.
Celestia's harrumphing drew her attention back. “I think you are ready for the truth.” Princess Celestia's horn glowed and a single picture flew over to them. “What do you see here?”
“Oh! This is me and Cadance. That was a couple of weeks before I did the test where I hatched Spike.” She looked how the foal in the picture got pushed in the swing. Small Twilight squeaked and laughed joyful even if it wasn’t audible. It was clearly visible.
“You see anything special here?” Surprised what she could mean she took a closer look. It has been a sunny day in Canterlot. She went into the park with Cadance and Shining Armor, had a picnic, flew a kite and finally spend the rest of the day on the playground. He wasn’t on the picture but she knew that he was around and read a book about the royal guard. Back then he was wondering whether he should join them.
But no, she didn’t see anything abnormal. “I am sorry princess, but I don’t see anything suspicious.”
Celestia nodded and drew the memory back to her side. “Let me give you another example.” Another memory flew at them. This one was during the night and Twilight laid awake in her bed. She watched as herself stepped out of the bed with her Smarty Pants doll levitating next to her, and walked into the floor. Twilight said nothing, she knew what would happen next. She woke up after a bad dream and did what she always did then. She sneaked into the next room, the room of her brother and slipped under the blanket. But what she saw for the first time now was that this woke him up. He seemed confused at first but then he saw her and smiled, putting a hoof around her.
“Sorry” Twilight said yet again. “But I still don’t see anything extraordinary.” Celestia said nothing, just kept on smiling. She repeated the process and another picture showed up. Wordless she watched her younger self trying to feed Spike some gems. But the still a baby dragon preferred to suck the name giving spike of his tail. Little Twilight got impatient and forced the spoon into his mouth, doing nothing but causing the dragon to cry. Clueless she ran up and down. Talked into him, made faces and even tried to read a book to him. But all of that didn’t help. Finally she laid down and simply covered her ears.
That was when Cadance entered the astronomy tower, she lived in back then. Softly she tipped on her shoulder and smiled. Tensely both Twilights watched how she gently talked in to the dragon while petting his head. The crying faded and now Cadance took the spoon. Circling it in the air, gaining the attention of the baby it finally arrived at its destination. With pleasure he devoured his breakfast. Twilight remembered the day exactly, when Cadance showed her how to care for an infant. In the next weeks she would learn how to comfort, what the child wants and of course how to change diapers. “Cadance will be a wonderful mother one day. But I still don’t see what that’s supposed to tell me.” Her mentor sighed slightly and walked on the path.
“Then let me ask you a question Twilight. Who is there for a foal when it has problems? To whom it goes when it had a nightmare? Who goes to the park to play with it?” Twilight didn’t had to think much for this answer.
“Its parents of course.” Celestia nodded. A couple of seconds there were only silence until Twilight realized what the princess was hinting.
“Oh! Or its brother or foalsitter of course. My parents were always very busy.” Celestia sighed barely audible and shook her head, only to leave Twilight even more confused.
“I know Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Both are wonderful ponies. Night Light works hard for the university in Canterlot, that’s true. But Twilight Velvet? Remember Twilight. You know she was always there. She didn’t work, her only duty was you.” Twilight stopped and tried to recall. Every morning she’d see her father leave the house. But not her mother. She stayed, cared for everything in the house, for her. Until Cadance came and took care of her. Why? Why did she even need a foalsitter? “I see we are coming closer to the answer.”
Twilight didn’t answer. Question after question went through her head. Why Cadance? She was a princess, an alicorn. Why should she care for her? Her family wasn’t anything special. One of the many families of the middle class. So why was Cadance sitting her. “Why?” She asked. “How did Cadance become my foalsitter?” Thousands of possibilities went through her head, the most to her displeasure.
“Do you know why Shining Armor joined the Royal Guard?” Again she was clueless and shook her head. “How you surely know, there are dozens of etiquettes for nobleness and some are based off very old laws. Old as Equestria itself. One being that no ordinary, how my dear nephew likes to call it, may court a noble. You can certainly think what that means right?”
Now Twilight also knew why Blueblood reacted in such a way towards Rarity. “Shining and Cadance couldn’t have married.
“That’s how it is. But with his promotion to Captain the accolade followed, lifting him into the ranks of the nobles. It made him Sir Shining Armor. But that alone was not the reason, he also wanted to protect something he cherished much.” The princess faced her and stopped. Twilight thought and came to the conclusion that she was meant. “Twilight I know that you could follow me up now. Even if it may be hard to accept please listen to me.” She made a small pause, breathing deeply. “How long are Shining Armor and Cadance a couple?”
Twilight thought. Their marriage was just about a year ago but they knew each other much longer. They must’ve been together before but how long? “Maybe a couple of years now? I didn’t see Shining much because of my studies.”
“What did I just told you? Why did Shining Armor join the Royal Guard? Think of the first picture.” Her eyes widened in shock. Didn’t he read a book about the Guard? Back then he was merely younger than she is now.
“But that would mean.... that they broke the law? But what does all of this has to do with me princess, I don’t understand!” Twilight got nervous. She hadn’t been brought here by the elements to learn that her brother and Cadance were significantly longer together. Although that was a little shock.
“Much.” Celestia's horn brightened up again in a light golden light but this time not a picture was moved but one was created out of thin air. In the picture she saw a young Shining Armor. It was night and he seemed to be waiting for someone while also being afraid of detection. It took Twilight some seconds then she recognized the place as the palace garden. Nervously he jumped on the spot when his ears angled into the dark. Seemingly someone called him. Shortly after an also very young Cadance came into sight. She walked over to him and nuzzled his cheek. Twilight couldn’t do differently than smile seeing the two that happy.
“They met at a festival. Your brother was at that time still in a band with his friends. A quartet of very charming young stallions if I recall correctly. Since then they met secretly under the cover of the night and the love that even defeated me was born.” Twilight shuddered inevitably at the memory. When the changeling queen struck down her mentor and nearly conquered Canterlot. “They were young and thought reality would never catch up to them. But of course it did and over short or long it would get impossible to hide their relation.” Twilights breath was taken by the next picture. Shining and Cadence sat under a tree, somewhere out of town. His hoof was on her belly, which was visibly swollen.
“No...” Finally the it made klick in her head. “No” she stammered again. This couldn’t be.
“Cadance gave birth to a foal, but no one must knew of it. In their despair they turned to me, hoping everything would be alright. But the political situation was delicate. The nobles unsettled and such a scandal would have shaken Equestria to the core.” Celestia closed her eyes and made the picture fade. “I finally found a solution, but sadly not even I can always make everything come true. Cadance got moved to Stalliongrad before her pregnancy got noticed with the excuse of studying. I advised Shining Armor, if he wanted to have a shared future with her, to join the Royal Guard. Then we let Twilight Velvet and Night Light in on our secret. Saying that they were surprised is an understatement. But they agreed and were ready to care for the foal as soon as it got born, to treat it like their own.”
“No....”
“Twilight please listen, it’s important.” The princess stepped beside her and laid her wing over her back. “Cadance gave birth to a mare. With deep purple fur, a violet mane with a pink stripe in it. She looked so much like her father. But she also inherited something from her mother as not only she had a horn. On her back were two of the most beautiful small wings I’ve ever seen."
Twilight was relieved for a second. “But I don’t have any wings? Who’s the foal? Why I never saw her?”
“That’s exactly why we are here Twilight. Do you think it would have been easy to slip the appearing of another alicorn? Thus I only had one choice, I sealed her powers, a part of her. At least until she was ready for the responsibility.” Celestia smiled at her. “You’ve come such a long way Twilight. Only think how surprised I was to see you at the entrance exam. Even more astonishing that despite seal you had such an immense magic to your disposal. Nightmare Moon, Discord and finally King Sombra. All this without using your full potential. And today we are here to unleash it.”
Twilight was speechless. What Celestia just revealed to her was just too much. Shining armor, her brother in reality her father? Cadance her mother? Not Night Light and Velvet who were her grandparents now. What shocked her as much was that she must’ve felt it as a foal.She longed for the two, not her grandparents. How should she now face them? What should she say? Should she even say anything?
“Twilight are you ready?” Startled she turned around
“What? No! I mean... I don’t know! It’s so much at once. Me an alicorn? A princess? I’m not sure if I’m ready for that. And what shall I tell the others? My friends? My parents, no grandparents? Cadance and Shining? This is insane!”
“It is solely your decision. Only that you have to make it now.”
She thought. What would the others expect from her? What expected her grandparents from her, and her real parents? What did Celestia expect?
“I...”