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// The Truth will set you Free 
// Story: A Glimmer of Truth: Book One 
// by NightmareTRXY32 
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There were many things that have faded with the passing of time. Empires have come and gone, republics have risen from the ashes of those empires, and time continued on.  Its hard though when your dealing with beings that are damn near immortal, much less the royalty that's running said nations.  Those that are immune to the effects of the passing of that much time have a unique insight at times. But even some of them can be in the dark on some matters. It had been decades since the supposed passing of Starswirl the Bearded from this plane of existence. Or so everypony had thought. It turned out he had sent himself into exile after a falling out with Princess Celestia over the use of Dark Magic. Something that would end up corrupting him in the end, but not as of yet. 

Starswirl's essence had become fractured over the extended use of Dark Magic.  The infection would cause him to split into 4 separate entities. One of which would infect the leader of the Crystal empire and force him to transform into an Umbra, or shadow pony, to be precise. 

The second became the aspect of Chaos and Disorder. Discord. That was still a ways off, but he had to make sure that Equestria and the princesses were prepared for some of the coming threats that were going to crop up in the future. He just didn't have the courage to tell Celestia that one of those threats be from her own family. 

The third energy fracture would become something far more destructive. The Omega molecule. It could render the space around the entire planet of Equus impossible to navigate if one were using a Starship or other advanced flying vessel. 

There was also the small matter of time travel.  Starsiwrl had developed a powerful spell that if cast correctly, could transport himself to any time period in Equestria's history. He realized how dangerous it could be in the wrong hooves, so he decided to make a time skip of about 100 years. He'd time skip forward to see what general progress Ponykind had made, without revealing himself to anypony. He knew that the slightest contamination of the timeline could drastically alter the flow of history. He stopped for a moment to consider what he was about to do. 

"There cant be any mistakes in casting," he told himself. It was much easier to think that, then to practice it out loud at times. He prepared himself for the shock that would come to his body from jumping that far forward in time. There was a slight buzzing in his ears as he shifted into the future and became accustomed to his new surroundings. He cast a masking spell so no pony would recognize him. He was in a small town on the eastern edge of Equestria. he knew he could spend a year here at most before returning to his own time. His actions though would go against everything he had ever told himself about what not to do in the timeline he was in now.  In the end the powerful Starswirl the Bearded would contradict himself, and all for the love of a mare.  In the back of his mind, he realized something else. If she became pregnant by him, their offspring would inherit his natural magical abilities. They'd be one of the most powerful unicorns for their time. They could even be able to rival that of an alicorn. 

He had already studied that route himself. After all, the Alicorn Amulet was one of the most powerful artifacts he had ever created, it was also unfortunately one of the reasons he had become obsessed with the power of dark magic. Something that a certain showmare would come to experience in about 40 years time from this point in history.  From this point in time, Trixie Lulamoons parents had just started dating. They well into their teens in human years. Having a family didnt occur to them until a stranger happened to give them a cryptc hello in passing.  This stranger also happened to be quite friendly with Trixie's mother.  If this were the human world, one might assume that Starswirl was having his way with Trixie, and later Starlight's, mothers. 

In the ancient myths of humans, it was said that an old world Titan would go around disguised as either a human or magical bird, and impregnate women that he found quite attractive for beings such as mere mortals.  He used his magic to make sure they didn't remember what he looked like. For all these two mares knew it was their boyfriends/ future husbands that had been with them, and not a time traveler. 

"I must be careful,"he thought to himself. One wrong decision and he could create an alternate Timeline where Luna became a despot or a Timeline where it was Celestia that became corrupted instead of Luna. 

Or the worst one he realized was a timeline where Equestria was destroyed by war and over use of magic. 

And just like that, the year had passed in a blink of an eye. The time skip he had been through seemed like mere moments to him. He scolded himself for what he just done. He could feel the corruption spreading further through out his body. No pony could know of what had just transpired, so he kept it out of his journals for the longest time.  He had time to prepare one more time jump, and he knew exactly where he wanted to spend his remaining days as Starswirl the Bearded. He went back to that little village on the eastern edge of Equestria.  He thought to himself that in 100 years time, his name would pass into legend. His darker half had other plans though. As soon as the corruption was complete, he'd go back 1000 years and start anew. 

Gone would be Starswirl the Bearded, and in his place would stand the most powerful unicorn king to ever grace the annals of history. His new name would be feared far and wide. The Crystal Empire would be his soon, and with it the most powerful artifact, only second in comparison to the Alicorn Amulet, The Crystal Heart.  There was one obstacle in the way of that taking place, her name was Princess Amore, leader of the Crystal Empire, and its sole ruler.  He used his knowledge of magic and crystals to put a curse on her, turning her from the once Beautiful pony she was known and admired to be, into a twisted and blackened husk void of any real emotion. He used his magic to cut off access to her own heart, save for allowing her to stay alive. His magic had cut off access to all emotions save for love. Half of her empire shared in this curse when he seized power from her. 

A thousand years would pass since that tragic event. Little did Celestia know that when she and Luna confronted King Sombra, they were in fact confronting Starswirl. The Dark magic had vastly altered his appearance, granting him a somewhat youthful look, opposed to how he used to look when she knew him as her close friend and magic council.  A secret that nearly stayed hidden through out most of Equestria's coming future. 

Prior to the Change-

Starswirl traveled across Equestria in the search of the perfect place to finish out his remaining days of being clear headed and uncorrupted by the practice of dark magic. He knew it could take years for it to eventually corrupt him completely, so he wandered into a small town on the eastern edge of Equestria, the same town it turned out was the birth home to Starlight Glimmer. During his stay there he ended up fancying a local mare that caught his eye. One thing led to another and she ended up pregnant by him. Of course she knew who he was, but kept it from the rest of the town. He had told her that he was near the last of his days and was just looking for somewhere to spend the rest of them.  

What neither of them knew till later was that their unforeseen offspring would grow to rival the power of that of an alicorn, due to their heritage. The day their daughter was born it had been decided that he should leave after it was discovered just how far the dark magic corruption had spread through his mind. He set out for the frozen north. The Starswirl everypony had come to know and admire, even Twilight Sparkle, was gone, and in his place was a powerful Unicorn whose heart had become as black as night.  

His reign was the stuff of nightmares to say the least. He had overthrown a monarch and enslaved her subjects through brute force and abject fear. He had the magic to bring out a ponies worst fears, and through that means, subjugate the entire kingdom of the Crystal Empire. The Original Crystal Princess had been led astray by this mysterious unicorn and thus was cursed to a miserable existence as a twisted and cold hearted creature. Amore became known through out the lands now as Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, her mind twisted into a shadow of what it once was. She was no longer able to assume her true form like she used to be capable of after a certain pony's betrayal.  Even Twilight wasn't aware of Chrysalis' true identity, neither were Luna or Celestia. If they had been aware, one or both of them would of done what they could to reverse the spell and help her claim her regality and position in the Crystal Empire. 

Curse you, I'll get you back someday Starswirl, I swear on my life, She thought to herself all those years ago. 


Starlight Glimmer was about to learn something about her past that would change her view on the world as she knew it. It wouldnt change the type of pony she had become because of Twilight's act of reformation or becoming her friend. But it would shed light on why she was able to match the power of an alicorn.  Starlight would find out who father was and why he had to abandon her and mother at such a bad time in their lives.  It had only been a few months since the Crystalling. But that wouldn't matter soon. With Twilight's help and the discovery of the truth of her birth, she'd finally find out what her real destiny was. 	

But could she handle the other side of the Truth. That her father was not only once a time traveling wizard, but also living embodiment of suffering and misery. Could finding out that her father was none other then Starswirl be a blessing? Or a curse when she also realized that he later became Sombra. How would that affect Starlights' sanity knowing that?

Starlight was traversing Twilight's castle for the hundreth time, still getting lost in the process. it had been months since Flurry Heart had been born, and there was reports of renewed Changling activity. That was the least of their worries though. It come to Twilight's attention that Celestia had just sent her another of Starswirl's journals, one that no pony had read in over 3 decades, seeing that the contents had been deemed classified by Celestia right after Starswirl's disappearance. 

It turned out that Starswirl had visited the town in which Starlight Glimmer had been born. and the entry ended with some rather cryptic writing that Twilight realized was an ancient unicorn cypher. A Cypher that when properly decoded by her, revealed that Starswirl disappeared on the exact day that Starlight was born.  The exact day and time of the month. It got her mind racing at what the implications could mean if it turned out to be true. No wonder she wasn't able to stop Starlight Glimmer when they were battling. Yes Twilight was an ascended alicorn, but Starlight was a unicorn and a powerful one at that. She had always wondered how Starlight Glimmer was able to counter her at ever turn. She never suspected that she was the direct descendant of Starswirl himself. 

Starlight had told Twilight that she was an only child. Her mother had died giving birth to her, and her father just up and vanished. The only thing she could recall was a picture that bore an image of an old unicorn with a grey coat and a white goatee. That was all she could remember. Her friend Sunburst and his parents tried to help look after her while she continued to stay in what was her parents house. It had been passed to her when her mom died, and since her dad just up and left, no pony contested the matter at all. 

It also turned that the want it need it spell that Twilight had used years ago on her Smarty pants doll, was also a creation of Starswirls spell work. It was a bit disconcerting that a pony of her stature had mastered a spell that dangerous. it was also something that no pony had even told Starlight about, mostly out of their fear of what she'd think of seeing Twilight like that.