//------------------------------//
// A Family United 
// Story: The Lost Sibling 
// by Teotle 
//------------------------------//

Back at Canterlot Castle, Celestia and Luna were consulting with the royal guard, who had just finished their report on the citizens and the current condition they were in.

"So, there have been no signs of injury among the citizens?" Celestia asked.

"No, your Majesty." Stonewall answered. "If anything, they were just frightened by the recent attack."

"I'll make sure to help them in that regard as they sleep tonight." Luna said reassuringly. "What of the school?"

"The school received little to no damage during the attack." Spell Nexus replied. "Anything and everything was immediately repaired the following day."

"That's a relief." Celestia replied. "The student's parents have trusted us to keep them safe as they learn. We would have been awful to break that trust with one attack."

"Your majesty, what of the ringleader of this attack?" Stonewall asked.

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked, raising an  eyebrow. "We have already decided what needs to be done."

"Yes well, some of the citizens are talking among-st themselves, asking each other questions on weather or not she needed a more severe punishment." Stonewall said, trying to keep his composure. He knew that the princesses let Scarlet go with very little punishment. He himself began to question their judgement on the topic.

"They must understand that she was just a pawn that was being manipulated." Celestia answered. "I will have the Sargent make the announcement tomorrow, explaining everything we have learned of the situation."

"Your majesty, Flash Sentry acts like a child, and he just got his promotion a week ago." Stonewall protested while trying to be respectful, but doing a poor job of doing so.

"And we need to be realistic about the facts." Spell Nexus added. "The first wolf Twilight Sparkle found, Teotle, was born from an unnatural practice. That practice was performed by a long forgotten culture, outside of Equestria's jurisdiction, that we have just announced mutual piece two months ago."

Stonewall continued by saying, "And now have just allowed the war criminal, locally known as Scarlet Rose, to roam free in our lands scott free after she sent an army of currupted monsters yesterday, just to kill the wolf who brought this madness upon..."

"Enough." Celestia interrupted with a deep and firm tone, spreading her wings wide. "I already know the situation, I know that our subject's doubts toward those two, and toward Nyx. You two, and everyone else who deny them forgiveness, clearly don't know the things they have been through."

"Sister?" Luna asked nervously.

Celestia forced herself to calm down and said, "I'm sorry, Luna, but this has gone on long enough." She looked back at Nexus and Stonewall and continued, "Nyx, Teotle, and Scarlet Rose, all three of them, have lost almost everything to the mistakes of both our and the wolve's misdeeds. The children of nightmare took Nyx's innocence away when, not just they, but also you two, transformed her into Nightmare Moon. I do not deny that I have made my own mistakes to lead her down that road, and I certainly do not give her the blame for her past sins.

Nexus and Stonewall looked at her intently and bowed as low as they could.

"Get up." Celestia said, calmly continuing on. "Teotle and Scarlet  are no different. Teotle's only real family was a mother who sent him away from home, and six siblings who wanted to kill him. Scarlet's father was executed before she ran away, to our country. Her village was destroyed and she and Teotle were orphaned at very young ages."

"Not only them, but the other children of Shadowflame's blood line were affected." Luna added. "They were taught at birth to fight and kill each other so they could eventually live a life that's not their own. These children that you're accusing of being dangerous are just victims, nothing more."

"Celestia then said, without any doubt that it was right, "Flash Sentry will make the announcement tomorrow, and when he does, this conversation, and all the rumors that have spread for almost two years, will be over and done."

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Teotle and Nyx had returned home from school with big smiles on their faces.

"We're home." Teotle and Nyx said out loud.

"How was school today?" Twilight asked. "I know it's been a while. Did your friends miss you?"

"Today was good." Teotle answered. "Our friends and some of the class mates cheered when we walked in."

"Cheerilee was happy to see us." Nyx added. "She made sure were caught up with our studies."

"Are you?" said Twilight.

"Nyx is." Teotle replied. "I'm a little behind."

"We'll fix that tonight." Twilight said eagerly.

Teotle shuffled his feet around, looking embarrassed. Scarlet looked at him and said, "Hey, I didn't get a chance to ask you this earlier, what happened to your right paw?"

Teotle blushed and answered, "I had it caught in a rigged bear trap."

"Rigged?" Scarlet asked.

"Yeah." Teotle said. "It had an enchantment, so magic couldn't affect it. It also had been modified to be one way, so we couldn't ope nit manually."

"What did you do?" Scarlet continued.

"I chewed it off." Teotle said. "I made this synthetic by using a transfiguration spell on a tree sapling."

Scarlet raised a eyebow and asked, "And you just knew the mechanics on how to make a new leg?"

"I looked at an article in a catalog they had at the hospital." Teotle replied. "I just made a leg for myself based of a design that was made for ponies."

"Huh, not bad." Scarlet added. "I made my synthetic hind legs from trial and error models."

"How many models did you make?" questioned Nyx.

"I made five pairs of crappy legs before I made a working set with the ability to jump twenty feet i the air, and counting. I used Ironeyes workshop to forge all of them.

"Why did you need Synthetics in the first place?" Spike asked, Coming from upstairs.

Scarlet chuckled and said, "I never had any to begin with. I was born without hind legs. The cubs at school would call me Shuff, short for the word, shuffle."

'What happened after you got your legs?" Nyx asked.

Scarlet smiled and said, "They started calling me Spring Step."

They laughed for a while until Twilight said, "Ok, Scarlet, you're goinf to be late if you keep staling."

"I'm not staling." Scarlet protested. "I'm just having a nice talk with my brother and friends. But you're right, I need to go. I'll see you later." She waved to Nyx, Teotle and Spike, grabbed her new saddle bags and went out the door for her first day of school in years. An from that moment, Teotle knew that his lost sibling had been found.

The end