//------------------------------// // The beginnings to one's destiny // Story: Heir to a Silenced Blood // by Rock Slide //------------------------------// Splendid and Sunny huddled together in the corner, trying to push themselves as far from the ‘torture’ device as possible. They had been like this for a good ten minutes when they heard the tell tail clip clop of someone approaching. Thinking fast, Sunny slipped the magic suppressors back over their horns. The door swung open, and their foalnapper walked in, Prince Solar splayed across her back. Splendid felt her hackles rising. Not only had this strange mare abducted her and her best friend, but she had the gall to hurt her newest friend too. As the mare looked at the corner she expected to find two bound fillies in, Splendid charged her, horn first. Hearing but not quite understanding, the mare looked around, and her eye grew wide as she spotted the yellow missile. Unfortunately for Splendid, she was a quick caster, and she soon found a magical barrier between them. Unable to stop herself, she hit the barrier at full speed, bouncing off and ragdoll across the room. “Noooo!” Sunny shouted as she ran across to her best friend. She reached her, pushing her with her forehooves. Blood was running from Splendid’s nose, and she didn’t respond to the jostling. Sunny felt warm, and her vision tinged blue before she felt herself become weightless, and lifted off the ground. Spinning slowly, she saw Splendid was also floating, wrapped in blue magic. “Stupid foal, you are as bad as your father.” She looked over at Sunny, “I’m not sure how you pair escaped, those ropes were imbued with a magic stealing spell. It should have made you feel as weak as glass.” She levitated the three foals to together. “At least this room is as magic proof as I remember.” She dropped her saddlebags off and moved to the side of the room. Hitting an unassuming stone brick, a small hiss was heard, and a bed slid out from a false wall. “There is food and drink here, and a bed there. Ensure those two eat when they wake up, you three might need all the strength you can get - you might have an extended stay.” She smiled down at Sunny, who sat and stared back with wide, scared eyes, before she turned and left again, locking them in. Ember yawned, and stretched out her arms, the sound of popping joints greeting her. Spike had made for great company, but after such a long trip, she just needed to rest. Sensing this, Spike stood up from his chair and walked over to her. He held out his arm, allowing Ember to pull herself up before he took her claw in his and kissed it. “My Lord.” Ember went beet red, and Spike burst out laughing. Fuming slightly, she hatched her own idea. “It’s such a shame you passed the title on to me you know Spike,” she walked around him, swaying her hips slightly, “If you were my lord, you could’ve made me do anything you wanted.” She batted her eyelids and bumped him with her hips. Spike fell over, taking his turn to be beet root red, and sputtered out half words. Ember laughed at him now, before she headed out to her assigned room. As a visiting dignitary, she was given one of the rooms near the Royal Apartments. Getting a little lost, she ended up approaching from the wrong side of the castle, now thinking that turning her guide into a puddle might not have been the best idea. She passed the rooms for the princesses first and moved on down the corridor. As she passed the rooms for the extended royal family, a maid burst out of a room, her outfit slightly ruffled on the back. She quirked an eyebrow, but decided it was none of her business, and finished the journey to her room, crashing onto her bed, and falling asleep straight away. Sunset and Adagio sat still holding onto each other. It had been twelve hours since their daughter and charge had gone missing. Despite reassurances from Celestia, they were on the verge of panic. Celestia herself wasn’t faring much better, but she was doing better than Twilight; her mane stuck out in all directions, and she paced back and forward. Celestia had decided to employ her ‘go to’ tactic for dealing with stress, and had ordered an entire cart of desserts to be made and brought up. As if on cue, the doors to the war room opened, and a mare backed in, pulling a cart with her teeth. She bowed to the princesses and left without saying a word. Smiling, Celestia moved over the cart. She walked over to the cart, she definitely did not run, Twilight lies. Reaching out, she thought better and turned to the others in the room. “Please, everyone help yourselves.” The other ponies headed over, also seeking the sweet release of cake. Celestia picked up a knife in her magic, holding it high with an almost maniacal grin on her muzzle. She brought the knife down, cutting into the large bake in the very centre. As she pressed the knife down, a brown liquid squirted out of the cut, and she screamed. The others bolted the rest of the distance, Twilight catching her marefriend as she almost dropped. “Celestia, what is it?” Struggling, she waved a weak foreleg at the cake. “Gravy…” she whispered. Twilight looked over at the cake and saw the brown liquid oozing out from the cut. Rolling her eyes, she dropped Celestia to the floor. “And I thought Rarity was bad.” “Twilight?” She looked over to Sunset, who was pointing behind the cake. “There’s a scroll on the cart.” It was swiftly lifted in a purple aura and floated across. “For her Royal Highness.” Twilight read the scroll’s edge. She looked vexed. “But which one?” The looks she got from the other in the room made her flinch. “What?! I don’t mean me, I meant Luna!” A chorus of ‘oh yeah’ went around the room, much to Celestia’s annoyance. Sitting up, the white alicorn took the scroll, broke the seal, and unfurled the scroll. “Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and their guests. Your foals are unharmed, alive and well, but if you ever want to see them again, you will meet the following demands; Prince Blueblood must renounce his title, his lands, and his military rank. Princess Celestia must then banish him from Equestria Both must be done publicly. Fail to meet these demands in the next twenty-four hours, and you will never see your beloved foals again. Yours, A mare scorned” Celestia dropped the letter, her jaw wide, tears starting to appear in her eyes. The four parents in the room could not bring themselves to do anything until the sound of hooves on stone made them look to the doorway, where Blueblood was already half way out. “Bluey!” Celestia shouted, “Where are you going?” Pulling his head back into the room, he looked at his aunt. His face was ashen, his mouth a thin line. He starred her directly in the eyes. “I’m going to go set up the press conference, and pack up my room.” He got his head back out of the room before magic pulled him back in. He found himself wrapped in a pair of white wings and surrounded by four mares. His aunt was too busy crying to make any sounds resembling words, but Sunset and Adagio pulled his head around to look at them. “Blueblood, why? You have already done more for us then we could ask for, why would you throw your life away for us?” Blueblood sighed. “Not only does that mare have my cousin and your daughter, but she has the closest thing to a brother and a daughter I will ever have.” A fresh wail erupted from Celestia, and a new wave of tears joined it, prompting Twilight to pull her into a hug. Sunset and Adagio looked stunned and confused. “I… What?” “It’s complicated and personal, but I think it’s safe to tell you.” Twilight looked to Blueblood, who nodded his consent. “Before I discovered the spell that allowed Celestia to conceive, she believed that she could never bare a child.” Sunset and Adagio both flinched. “She became Bluebloods legal guardian when he was so young. I think you can guess the rest. Needless to say, he is essentially her, our? Son.” The mares nodded to her, and Blueblood sniffed loudly. “Since Solar came along, rather than feel excluded, Blueblood has played the role of his big brother.” “I get that,” Adagio said. “What about the part about our daughter?” She sounded a little angry. “Apologise, I meant no offense.” He took a deep breath. “During my fourth year in the Navy, I was the victim of an unfortunate accident. I was helping repair the engine on our airship when a mana line blew. I took a concentrated burst of magic between the legs.” Blueblood cast his gaze at the floor, and both Sunset and Adagio’s faces became tinted with green. “The long lasting outcome of which is my inability to sire foals, not even the magic of the Princesses can help me there.” He lifted his head, and looked about the war room, before pointing at some of the paintings in the room. “Many of my ancestors were great Generals, many great politicians. What pains me isn’t that I took so long before I made something of myself, but that I will be the last in the line - Princess Platinum’s bloodline dies with me. So in the end I still failed. But that doesn’t answer your question, does it?” Smirking at Adagio, he watched her, her train of thought almost visible on her face, ending in a frown. “I hope you’ll forgive a world-weary stallion for his fantasies, but your arrival here got me thinking. Splendid is not my child, but from what Twilight tells me, our portal opposites are genetically the same, so she carries my blood regardless.” “Bluey, what are you saying?” Celestia had stopped crying, and now her tone was accusatory. Sucking in a breath, he turned to face Splendid parents. “I had hoped to have more time, time for you to warm up to me, and time for me to get to know you. But now seems as good a time as any. I was going to ask to legally adopt you three into my family so that Splendid could carry on my line, and you would get a life of luxury as an apology for my actions.” The room was filled with stunned silence. “But now I will happily give up everything I have to see those foals safe again. If you’ll excuse me, I have a room to pack.” He tried to make for the door again, but this time found four mares blocking his way. Splendid stood sentinel, watching over Sunny and Solar. After Splendid had woken up, Sunny explained what had happened, and then the mare had come back. She made sure they ate, and then sent them to bed, erecting a magical barrier down the middle of the room, and taking her own bed on the far side. So Splendid sat there, content to stay awake in case the mare tried something in their sleep. But her eyelids felt heavy, and she had dealt with a very trying day. Before she knew it, she was slipping off to sleep herself, the wards on the room stopping her dreams being found by Princess Luna. As Splendid succumbed to the sand mare, her subconsciousness began to itch, and the last thing she did before her slumber was to pull off the magic suppressor from her horn. And as her consciousness gave out, her horn started to glow.