//------------------------------// // Prologue: Those Left Behind // Story: Heir of the Nightmare // by Polaris501 //------------------------------// Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters Five hours and one minute after the banishment of Nightmare Moon Celestia She couldn’t stop crying. Celestia wanted to, but she just couldn’t cease to mourn for her beloved sister. She was sitting in the ruins of their home, her tears wetting the ground, grieving for the horrible loss that gripped her broken heart. “How did I not see it coming?” Questions like these are what the sun princess asked herself, over and over again. Remembering everything and trying to piece together the reasons for her little sister’s despair. Try as she might though, Celestia just couldn’t come to grips with Luna’s hatred, it eluded her and taunted her with how much she had failed her beloved Lulu. And so she wept. Her subjects had long since fled, terrified of the monster her sister had become. Celestia knew she should go to them, calm them, and soothe their fears. But how could she when she couldn’t calm herself? The elements had abandoned her. As soon as Celestia had banished her sister to the moon, the gems faded and went inert, rejecting the royal sisters, no longer finding them worthy of being their bearers. Turning themselves to stone, they refused to answer her pleading and begging, no matter how much she cried before the deaf stones. Magic itself disappeared, waiting for the one who would wield it again with its full power, uniting the others in a harmonic balance. Still she wept. Celestia lied on the cold rubble, wishing that it was all an illusion, praying that it had all been a nightmare. Nightmare Moon. Just the name caused the broken princess to renew her sobbing, laying her head pitifully in the puddle of her own sadness as fresh tears fell like stars to join their brethren beneath the weeping mare. “Luna, what will I do without you? We were meant to rule together. Why has this happened? I’m so sorry Lulu, I have failed as a princess, as a friend, and as your big sister. Please, just let it all be a bad dream. Please, come back to me……” Only the silence answered her pleading. Several hours later Celestia dragged herself through the remains of her home, searching for an answer, a memory, and a shred of hope for her little sister. She never stopped weeping, a trail of tears followed the white alicorn all throughout the ruins. She was standing in Lulu’s room. It was a pale shadow of the beauty it once inspired. The bed was torn, curtains ripped, and stone shattered. What grief tore at her little sister that would drive her to the depths of despair and madness? There Celestia collapsed on the torn bed, fresh sobbing wracking her frame as new grief rose up inside the remorseful pony. A faint crying could be heard. It was not her own, she realized, and Celestia searched for the source of the foreign wailing. It was coming from under the broken stone of her sister’s floor. Celestia weakly rose to her hooves, the waterfall of tears never ceasing and looked through weeping eyes for the origin of the soft crying. She could hear it under the stone, and lifting up the scorched rubble she uncovered a secret stairwell. Slowly trotting down the tunnel, Celestia knew this wasn’t a trapdoor or secret passageway she and her sister had built to have fun with when they were younger. More sadness crashed into her as she dissolved to tears again, thinking of her fallen sister. But still she carried on, for the crying had grown weaker until it had fallen into nothing. At the end of the tunnel and at the end of the stairs, Celestia finally beheld what her sister had hidden. It was a foal’s room. Celestia stood bewildered as she took in the room in its entirety. Somehow Luna had kept secret the pregnancy and birth of the foal not just from Equestria, but from her family as well. Luna had obviously put a lot of love and care into the room. The ceiling was a perfect replication of her sister’s sky, lovingly painted and crafted into absolute beauty. The walls showed lush green fields and beautiful flowers that only bloomed under the gentle light of a full moon. Scattered around the floor were small toys and books that looked like they had been played with by even tinier hooves. But what held Celestia’s sad gaze the most was the crib, and the small occupant that she could not yet see within. The sun princess walked quietly up to crib, and looked down carefully inside it. It was a small, beautiful, and adorable alicorn filly. She had lavender fur that matched the color of the sky as the sun set, and a purple mane and tail with a pink highlight. Her wings matched her coat, gently tucked at her side. A small and stubby horn poked out from beneath the mane. She was gently sleeping. No she wasn’t, Luna’s foal was dying. Celestia could see now that the defenseless foal’s breathing was shallow and weak, coming out in weak rasps. Her heart beat was small and fluttering unevenly. The princess could see small black flecks that clung to the foal’s coat like an infection. With the utmost care, Celestia picked the foal up in her magic and scanned to see what was wrong, for she had to save her sister’s child. She couldn’t imagine her failure if her niece too, was lost because of her failure. Dark Magic. Celestia cringed as she felt the malady that clung to the innocent filly like a leech on a pony. The dark magic sapped at her life force, devouring it without care for the lavender foal that it was killing. What could she do? Celestia did not know how to remove it without injuring the dying filly, the elements might have healed her completely if they hadn’t gone dormant. A sacrifice would be necessary. Celestia did not know how this Dark Magic came to infect the foal, but a sneaking suspicion told her it was because of Lu……..Nightmare Moon. Carefully lifting the foal up, Celestia began casting her spell, hoping for it to work. Since Celestia did not know the source of the infection, and the elements were asleep, the princess had to draw on the filly’s own internal magic to heal her. The cost would be high. The foal squirmed slightly in discomfort, but was too far gone to do anything else. Like a surgeon, Celestia tapped into the filly’s magic and began siphoning it into the spell that might save her. She first took her earth pony magic, as it was the most healing of the three. It was not enough. Crying silently, Celestia took the small alicorn’s pegasus magic too, and the foal’s wings disappeared, leaving nothing but a few small feathers that fell to the cold stone below. The Dark Magic faded, leaving the grievously wounded foal in her aunt’s embrace. Celestia’s tears started flowing again, but these were intermingled with tears of hope and a small bit of happiness. Her niece still wouldn’t wake up. Celestia desperately renewed her search for injuries and infection, but found none within the small foal. With more tears streaming down, following pre-determined scars down the white mares face, Celestia realized that the shock of having the dark magic removed and the siphoning of her magic had put the foal into a coma. Celestia knew what needed to be done. The foal wouldn’t survive for long in a coma, and though Celestia wanted to take care of her sister’s foal, she knew that if ponies discovered that her sister had given birth to a child, they might seek to harm her precious niece. Wrapping the filly in a gentle swirl of magic, Celestia slowed down the effects of the coma and placed the filly in a magical cocoon that would keep her safe and stable until she awoke. Lifting the homeostasis pod onto her back, Celestia prepared to leave the room but stopped. She searched with her eyes around the room, trying to see if her sister had named her daughter. There fastened to the crib, a silver plaque was emblazoned with a name. My beautiful star, Twilight Andromeda Sparkle