“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” --Stevie Wonder
Canterlot was not a pleasant sight to many when entering the old city. It’s location up in the mountains has given it a tactical advantage in warfare, making it hard for Equestria’s enemies to take the city when under siege. The last time an army nearly took it was during the Equestria-Griffon war, seven hundred years ago when the Griffons nearly overrun the city, but failed to take it due to heavy losses from the cities fanatic defenders in the royal guard.
The city, for a thousand years, has been the symbol to those down below as they looked in awe at the craftsmanship of the design of the city. The exotic trade that the city has conducted with the towns and cities down below for a thousand years, since its creation after the Chaos Wars, had bought millions of bits in its coffers to sustain its cost.
Yet the city that had stood for years as the second home of the alicorn princess for centuries, is not what ponies expect when entering the city. Despite being under the protection of the alicorns, the city has a darker side in its history like any other in the country.
In the lower sections of the city were populated by the unwanted elements of the Canterlot society. Members of their own species that didn't quite fit the mold, couldn't keep up with the demands of the social hierarchy, fled to the slums of the city to conduct their own corrupt way with unspoken blessings of the sun goddess herself.
Despite its thousand years of prosperity and the teachings of harmony and friendship, ponies will always turn to their corrupt ways to fuel an everlasting fantasy that they cooked up in their head to avoid their problems in their lives.
But the point of this story won’t be the dark ways that ponies conducted in their private lives or how their precious leader will save them from their mistakes.
No, the heart of this story started during a thunderstorm.
Lightning flashed throughout the dark, clouded sky as the sound of thunder roared upward from the city. The streets were abandoned and deserted, with many shops closed for the night. The nobility had long asleep in their luxurious beds with their mates or mistresses, holding affairs behind their wives’ backs while they are on business.
The clouds swirled around the castle, pounding heavy rains upon anyone who stepped outside. The only ponies who were outside were either the guards on their patrols or the homeless outside the alabaster walls trying to find shelter.
The homeless whisper prayed to their goddess who inhabits the castle to protect them from the storm to live another day in their trouble lives.
The castle itself, with its spiral towers that seemed to breach the heavens themselves, held beautiful craftsmanship above all else. Yet, inside this beautiful and terrifying fortress was something that was precious to her, something that she’ll die protecting from anyone who will harm him. She had loved him ever since she laid her eyes on him when he first hatched. The innocence of a newborn that had write her heart. It make her remembered what it felt to have something to love in her life again.
“Mama.”
The cradle rocked a little as the child cried out for its mother as the storm outside his room’s window got worse. The pounding of the rain on the window and the cracking of thunder grew tense, waking him up from his peaceful sleep.
The baby was not a normal one. In fact, he wasn't even a pony.
The child was a reptilian dragon, a species that has isolated itself from many in hundreds of years. They feed and prey on ponies, ravaging towns, burning them down as they take their possessions. Their greed far outclasses many. Ponies will always portray them as the heartless monsters from the skies that preyed on the weak.
But this child is not a monster, but an innocent one, that should not be judged of the sins of his kind.
“Mama,” the child cried out again, a little louder than before, drowned out by the storm outside. The child’s tears poured down his purple scales as he cried louder, hoping for Mama to come to comfort him from the storm outside.
Another roar came from outside, white zigzag lines streaked across the clouds for a second then disappeared before another took its place. It was only making the child more fearful as more tears make way.
His tail swayed a little, moving the blanket around him a little, as he continued to cry, not noticing the doorway to his room opening. The silent trotting of the figure that opened the door approached the cradle, and did not hinter the child crying.
Another flash of lighting came, illuminating the room before the figure, showing off her multi-color hair along with her alabaster coat with a horn atop her head. Her horn glow its usual golden aura, helping her illuminating the room to help her with the child.
The child opened his eyes, revealing his cat-like eyes to the illuminating light in front of him. Flailing his arms wildly in attempt to cover his eyes from the light, a new bunch of tears appeared at the tip of his eyes, waiting to be released on his wet skin.
Before even a single tear came though, a smooth, motherly voice spoke out.
“Shush! Mama’s here, my little draconem, Mama’s here.” The child was soon developed in the same golden light before lifting him up from his crib with his blanket still on him. The child’s mother then cut the magic and wrap her hooves around the crying child, hoping that child would stop crying when feeling the warm comfort of her fur.
“Mama,” The child wrap its claws around his mother, wanting comfort and security from the storm as she predicted. The child continued to weep, soaking her fur with tears.
She began to rock him
“Don’t cry, little one, mama’s here for you.” She comforted him again, muzzling him over his head, felling the scales of his body on her lower jaw. It worked, and the child stop crying for a little bit, but still his tears soaked her fur. Another flash of lighting came, than the roar, illuminating the room again, making the child cry more for the projection of her coat.
She muzzled his face, especially on his nose, as she continued to rock him back to sleep.
“Mama’s here, little one, Mama will always be with you.” She whispered near his ear.
“Mama,” The child tugged on her fur more, shaping her mouth into a smile at the cute act.
“Do you want me to sing a song for you, my little draconem?” She ask, barley a whisper, enough for him to hear. The only reaction she could get from him was his claws digging in more on her fur.
Taking that as a sign of a ‘yes’ from him, she began to hum, beginning the song.
“Though I may speak some tongue of old, or even spit out some holy word,”
Her mother and father used to sing that song to her and her sister when they tucked them into their beds, with her father singing and mother humming.
“I have no strength with which to speak, when you sit me down and see I'm weak.”
The memories of her father flowed through her mind as she continued singing. The feel of his hands on her fur as he rocks her back to sleep if she had a nightmare, the whispers of words of comfort to her as he kisses her forehead, the happiness in his eyes as she shuts her eyes, sleeping peacefully In his arms.
“We will run and scream. You will dance with me.” The memories flowed again, remembering the time she took her adopted son out to the private garden for the first time since he hatched from her newest protégé, Twilight Sparkle, to pass an entrance exam for the School for Gifted Unicorns.
Watching as the newborn played with her hair, laying down against one of the oldest and rarest trees in Equestria, the Novellus Fructum, known for its exotic rare fruits that it carries within.
The giggling of the child beneath her made her smile, bringing back memories of her sister when she took care of her.
“We will run and scream. You'll dance with me.”
“We'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free.”
“We will be who we are, and they'll heal our scars.”
The child has long since stopped crying when she began singing, listing to his mother smoothly voice as she continued her musical tone.
“So I had done wrong but you put me right.”
“My judgment burned in the black of night.”
“When I give less than I take, it is my fault my own mistake.”
Spike began to grow tired, his eyes only half-lidded as he continued listening to the song. His grip on his mama began to loosen. The soft fur of his mother felt like a soft blanket wrap around him. The feeling of her heartbeat made him safer with her.
Celestia could feel his claws loosen from her fur. He always felled secure around her. The only pony he was comfortable around was either her or twilight, who was seen her as a sister to him. The only ponies that he is afraid of are the guards employed to protect the palace. Their stoic expressions and their fanatic devotion to her had scared her son many times when he plays inside and outside the Castle.
But there hasn't been any incident between her son and the guards, who wouldn't make any mistakes towards him, for fear of suffering a mother's wrath if they ever raised one hoof against him.
She prepared to finish off the last of the lyrics, continuing to rock him.
“We'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free.”
“We will be who we are, and they'll heal our scars.”
“Sadness will be far away.”
The dragon was finally asleep as his loud snores bounced against the walls of his room. The rain outside kept pounding on the glass window, not stopping or letting up as the steaks of white flash across the sky again. Looking down to see if the boy is still sleeping, Celestia rocked him a little bit more before setting him softly in his cradle, still snoring sheepishly.
She muzzled his face and gave a quick ‘I love you’, giving a kiss on his forehead, and quickly retreated from his bedroom. She looked over her shoulder for one last time, checking if he was going to make any noise; yet aside from his snoring, nothing.
Delighted, she closed the door and began to walk back to her own domain in her vast home. The hallway was already empty of guards when she walked here the first time. Their night shirts always changing for new ones to come, but they hadn't yet. The windows on the left side of the hall were still being pounded by the storm outside. One of lighting blighted the walls around her than they dissipated.
She hated thunderstorms, always making everyone, including herself, groomed. Storms are always so violent, so dangerous to a living being. She couldn't understand why some of her ponies would love it.
‘But I love it, Tia.’
She completely stopped her hooves from going any further. That thought should be there. What in Faust’s name… where did that come from?
“Please sister, can we watch until its ends, I love when they flash across my night,”
Her legs trembled as she remembered everything. She bit her lower lip as she tried to hold back the incoming tears welling in her eyes. She can’t think about that now. She is long gone. Being a prisoner to a prison she once loved.
She started her gait again, a little faster than before. She doesn't’ want to remember what she had done. The sins that she had created because of the actions she caused.
Another flash of lighting streak across, illuminating the hallway before her; her pace was brisk, desperate to get to her room before any of the servants or guards were to spy her in this state. Tears poured down on her face, impacting and splashing against the carpet floor.
‘”Have I ever told you that the storms are an art, sister? The beauty of a lighting storm flashed across your eyes. Rain plummeted from the heavens as they seeded their life blood on the ground, saturated the growth of life around us. The storm is beauty itself.”
She finally made to her room, but it was too late. The tidal wave of tears poured down her alabaster face, using her magic to open the golden doors. Her room was barely lit, only the light of a lamp flickering in the dark bedroom as she headed towards her bed.
She removed the covers from the bed, sniffing and still crying. She laid herself down on the comfortable bed, which gave a few squeaks of protest as she added her weight to it. The tears of her crying making wet spots on her covers.
“I’m so sorry about what I did to you, my sister. It was my fault that you got sick.” She choked on her words as fresh wave of tears came.
“I’m so sorry for the sins I've bought to you.” She continued to sob as the storm outside her bedroom raged beyond, the thundering crack of the storm roared as the winds picked up, getting worse lighting flashing multiple times.
The princess, after a sobbing her feelings out, fell asleep as the exhaustion of today’s events and getting her son to sleep catching up to her. As her eyes close, one memory of her sister’s words flowed through her mind.
“I always look up to you, sister. You always protect me from the monsters like father did when he protected us and mother. You’re my big sister, Tia. And I’ll love you always as family forever and ever. Mother said that friendship is a deeper bond between both sidings. The love we shared makes us stronger. The spirit of friendship is in our hearts. You’ll always be my big sister, regardless of our actions in the future.”
“Please don’t cry, Tia. You were always a great sister to me and to father and mother who watch you play with me.”
“I’m so… sorry, Luna.” Celestia muttered before she was succumb to slumber
Her eyes were already closed as the last words flowed though. Her mind began to replay the same event that had transpired almost a thousand years ago: The confirmation of her sister, sending her to the moon to keep her from destroying the planet, from committing genocide . The greatest sin she had done to her was to make the events shrouded in legend, making everypony to forget she ever had a sister at all.
From that day forward, the gulf of the one she had loved as a sister has made her almost take her life over and over. Only the needs of her subjects prevented her from doing this, but for how long, she was uncertain.
But the adoption of a little dragon and taking in of a purple unicorn could only ward away the demons that she had created; the sins that she desperately wanted to redeem.
But her nightmares suddenly stopped, jerking her away from her mind as a loud banging came from her door.
“Princess, can I've a glass of water?” A little tiny voice called out from the other side.
“I live in sin, to kill myself I live; no longer my life my own, but sin's; my good is given to me by heaven, my evil by myself, by my free will, of which I am deprived.” -- Michelangelo