It was National History Day in Equestria once again. Having finally gotten used to her role as Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle agreed to visit with Celestia for the day via statue garden tour as long as she could have her friends accompany her. Spike, unfortunately, had claimed to have contracted a sudden case of the chicken pox (even though Twilight knew he just wanted to read his comics), and couldn't attend.
The herd had traversed through garden all day, with Luna as their history guide. She recounted a surprising amount of historical events that were long forgotten to ponykind, such as the Falling of Eternity's Bridge, which connected Stableside, Equestria to Seaddle, Cervidas across Eternity's Crossing (which is the sea between the two continents). They couldn't help but admire how lush and green the grass was kept, breathing in the scent of somepony trimming it over a nearby hedge and hearing the clipping of shears soon after.
The statues were magnificent pieces of art created by all the greats: Starswirl the Bearded, Iron Craft, Diamond Cutter and many,many more. They numbered over 1,000, and the eight friends soon discovered how big the garden truly was. Nearly all of them were a sharp, rough-edged gray while a scarce few were covered in bright, proud coats of paint. The herd even passed a carving of a fully painted rainbow that arched high above their heads and through some of the lower clouds.
Nopony had spoken for quite awhile as their visit neared the end; Twilight soon broke the silence, eager to get going without directly saying so. "Princess Celestia, we've gone through the history of every statue in this garden. It's simply beautiful, considering how old it is", she remarked. "I learned so many things today, many of which were involving friendship...should I write to you about them?" As Celestia was about to answer, she was cut off by Twilight. "Never mind; I'll make a mental note. The history of Equestrian villains was my favorite part of the tour. I never knew that King Sombra was actually half demon, and his sister was Queen of Tartarus for centuries. Maybe I should write to you about that as well...."
Thinking quickly, Rainbow Dash spoke up, preventing Twilight from rambling on about lessons and history any longer. "Yeah, and the statues of us in the center were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Which I do", she added, shooting Twilight her infamous "I'm-bored" glare.
"Yes, it's been a nice day after all", Celestia replied.
"...What do you mean 'after all'?" Twilight inquired, her cheerful exterior quickly dissipating. Celestia looked away, staring at a statue. Pinkie Pie, always having been the curious one, followed her gaze.
"Hey, what's that statue over there?", she asked, oblivious to Celestia's apparent discomfort. "I don't remember reviewing that one's history". Luna shared a knowing look with Celestia before nodding her head and flying back to the castle.
"Yes, she's simply beautiful, your Majesty", Rarity began. "I do love the mane, it's absolutely gorgeous, even though it's rather...unruly", she finished, squinting disdainfully at the curly tips of her mane. Celestia was still looking away, shutting her eyes.
"Your Majesty?" Fluttershy squeaked, worried that she was in pain. "If you want, we could, um, leave now, if it's ,um, alright with you", she suggested meekly. Celestia finally looked back at them, her face dark and hardened with grief.
"That statue....is my daughter".
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Everypony just stared at her, mouths agape. Applejack, regaining her composure quickly, was the first to speak. "Yer Highness, whatever 'appened to 'er?", she questioned.
Celestia sighed, muttering: "I always knew that this day would come". Applejack narrowed her eyes, knowing something was going on. Celestia sank down onto the cool grass surrounding her so-called daughter's statue. "Come, let me tell you her story", she called to the others. With Applejack's consent, the six famous mares gathered around their ruler as she began to set the sun for the day.
"It all started about 2,000 years ago, during the reign of Discord", she began, her horn working its magic around the sun. "As a last, desperate measure, I had resorted to a new spell from Starswirl's seventeenth Volume of Magic, which would create a creature so powerful that it would match Discord's magic, and maybe even overpower it. As I was adding the final ingredient to the concoction, a blast of light, the test tube exploded; knocking me into the window. I stared with wide eyes as a ball with all the colors of the rainbow spewed out of it, rotating above the tube. It quickly burst apart, sending each of the colors into individual stained glass portraits; light patterns dancing around the room. I stared at it, mesmerized, and then it all disappeared in the blink of and eye, and the searing pain kicked in. The scars that the shards of glass made are still on back to this day". She paused, turning around and showing the surprised ponies her back, which was covered in several long, light pink gouges.
"It was one of the most dangerous,foolish spells attempted in Equestria, but I was positive that it'd work. It had to.
"I thudded down into the pool of melting glass, my eyes shut as the searing pain kicked in. Eager to see which mythical creature I had created, I reopened my eyes after a few minutes, hoping to spot another Draconequus. But what I saw instead was another alicorn....or so I thought. She was a couple thousand years old, maybe even older than me, but appeared only 1,500 years old or so, and was a striking shade of orange. She wore long black-and-white war boots, had a breastplate that had black-and-white paw prints on it, and an ancient crown with a yin-yang that spiraled outward on it. Her cutie mark was a paw print with a yin-yang inside that had spirals all around it.
"She was very tall for her age (which was, apparently, around 19 in alicorn years), and had gorgeous, yet rather unruly long blond hair that faded to light blue, then dark blue, and finally ended with black tips that were slightly curly. Upon closer inspection, I found her eyes to be ocean blue and as big as the seas themselves, yet just as unpredictable with their narrow slits for pupils. Her ears had thick, dark green, striped hoop earrings and her wings were unlike anything I had ever seen before; they each had a large white spike in the middle, and were huge and feathery, yet powerful.
"I got up, even though I felt miserable and welcomed her into existence. She turned and looked at me, and told me that her name was Ebony Dusk. I'll never forget the sound of her voice, like a little stream running over pebbles. She walked towards me and helped me up, then cast a spell to speed up my wounds' healing processes. Once I was well again, I began training her to defeat Discord and began considering her my daughter. I noticed that she'd disappear from time to time, but didn't take much notice. Discord was in for a big surprise.
"But I was wrong. The day we went to confront Discord, she told me that she didn't want to. When I asked why, she told revealed a nagging fear of mine to be true: the times she had slipped away were to visit him. To my disgust, she revealed that they had fallen in love "again"; as if they had known each other before. We argued back and forth the whole way to Ponyville until we reached his throne. I was furious that she had sided with him, and forgot how powerful she was. In my rage, I struck out and slashed her left eye with my horn and cast a curse on her. But instead of bursting into flames for the rest of time, she stood her ground and stared at me as her eye gushed out blood, the iris turning green forever and her left ear bursting into flames. 'Oh, Celestia. You're such a fool', she said calmly.
"Suddenly, she began laughing, quietly at first, but then her it grew louder, and louder until it was maniacal. She cast a magnet spell that attracted metal to me, which bruised me severely. Then she began mercilessly beating her wings against me, and her spikes left some of those scars on my back. She was about to finish me off as Discord suddenly appeared, having no idea that we were there. Ebony momentarily sopped telling him that she would defend him to the death. I'll never forget how quickly that quiet stream turned into a roaring waterfall...
"Back to the story: that gave me just enough time to cast her to stone, but Discord was still there. He would've killed me if Luna hadn't shown up just then, teleporting to the castle infirmary. Then I blacked out. Luna cared lovingly for me, but I ignored her entirely. A few days later, I had recovered almost entirely and was ready to end Discord's reign of chaos once and for all. Summing up all my strength, Luna and I went and stoned Discord that very day, vowing to never speak of either of them again".
The sun was finally down, and Twilight looked up towards a castle spire to see Luna raising the moon and stars. Celestia took a deep breath, a single tear trickling down her cheek, and began to sing: "This day was going to be perfect, the kind of day of which I dreamed since I was small. But instead of having fun, reminiscing with everyone , Ebony Dusk is finally going to return".