Chapter 19: The Dark Truth
Zaps Apple
Chapter 19: The Dark Truth
“Twi, ya in here?”
I could just make out Applejack’s voice. My head was pounding. Shadows were flickering behind a crack in the door. My mind was a jumble. I felt dazed, weak, confused....
“I don't think she’s in here Applejack...”
That was Fluttershy. I could barely hear her over the ringing in my ears from... I couldn’t remember. No, wait! I was attacked by… I groaned as a sharp pain pierced through my skull.
“Did ya hear that Fluttershy?”
“Y-yes... It sounded like Twilight. But there’s nothing in her room...”
“Yer right sugarcube. She’s not in here either, but look at all this mess, it looks like something happened in here.”
“Oh my! Do you think something bad happened to her?”
“Maybe... We’d better go and look for her.”
“Gi-Girls... I'm in here...” I cried, just loud enough to catch the attention of the two ponies.
“Twilight?” I heard them both say together and a blinding light flooded into my eyes as the door swung open.
I sighed heavily and opened the door to my room. I’d really ticked Vinyl off this time. I knew she didn’t like the pressure I’d been putting on her about her new spells, but I didn’t think she would teleport just to get away from me. I had no idea where she’d, but it couldn’t have been too far. Even I couldn’t teleport much further than across town.
“Wow, I really messed up this time...” I sighed again, looking out the window. “Ok, from now on I promise to leave Vinyl alone.” I turned to the picture of me and my friends together. “I’m so sorry, I’ve messed up again...”
“Oh, how unfortunate.”
A voice called out. I looked around the room. I was alone. “Wh-Who is there!?”
“Look in the shadows.”
“Huh? Shadows?” I spun around and looked at my shadow projected on the wall. Suddenly, it started to move and grow. I gulped, “my shadow was coming to life!”
A black hoof reached out of the shadow, and peeled itself off the library wall. “No, something is coming out of the shadows! What is that thing!?” I stepped back.
My vision was shrouded in black smoke as shadows swept around me out of the wall and opened the wardrobe door. I aimed my magic and fired a bright beam of purple energy at it. The blast hit the centre of the shadowy mass but simply went through it, exploding against the wall. “Really?” The form moved around, appearing in front of a book shelf. I fired another shot. Books flew across the room but the shadow just broke away, dodging the shot. “Hahaha come on Twilight Sparkle, you can try harder!”
“Gah, what are you!?” I shot more, blasting walls and shelves apart and sending splinters exploding through the air.
I heard the laughter continue and the swirling mist moved in to envelop me. My horn lit up again and I teleported out of the shadow’s clutches. “Behind you.” I shouted at the dark shape.
The figure turned around and I yelped in surprise as I saw it’s face.
“Hello!”
“AHHHH!!” It was me. The face in the shadows was my own, but it was a side of me I constantly struggled to keep buried. It’s eyes were wide open, its mane was a mess and it wore a wide toothy grin! “The crazy me!?” I gulped, backing up. I was overwhelmed. I couldn't move. I was frozen... my magic... nothing would work, my eyes shrunk with fear. I was helpless.
“Oh the fear, how magnificent! This really is a wonderful form.” She chuckled, it was my voice. It couldn’t be! “I wish I could feed on it but sadly this spell of mine only allows me to exist for a short time. Nevertheless, it’s enough for me to get what I need,” She sneered at me.
“N-NO!” I tried to summon my magic, to attack her. I tried to stop her, but the shadow pony fired a magical blast back at me, slicing through mine.
The spell hit me and I felt myself be thrown off my hooves and tossed into the wardrobe like an old, discarded toy as the remaining black mist transformed into ropes, tying me up inside the small, dark cupboard.
She grinned at me with those crazy eyes and for brief moment they flashed a cold, blue sapphire. “Oh don't worry, I won't ruin your image too much. I’ve got a spell to discover.” She smirked at me. “Goodnight Princess Twilight Sparkle. Oh, and thanks for lending me your memories too, I promise I’ll put them back afterwards.” She rolled her eyes. “Not that I have a choice in the matter. Well nighty night!” My vision flashed violet, and then the world went dark.
“Twilight!?” My eyes came into focus and I saw my friends, Applejack and Fluttershy, looking down at me. I couldn't move much. My head was still pounding, although the ringing had died down. I tried to stand up but I realised I was still tied up in my wardrobe by those ropes...
Applejack jumped up on her hind legs and grabbed the ropes in her mouth. She put her front hooves on the wardrobe sides and, groaning with exertion, pulled and tugged at the dark restraints, pulling and pulling until her hoof gave way beneath her and she slipped, falling on her back with a thud. Despite her best efforts the rope had remained firmly tied.
“Darn, those ropes are tough, ah’ve never seen anythin' like them before...”
I tried to use my magic but the ropes glowed and the magical energy in my horn was dissipated away. “I can't use my magic either. The ropes must somehow be absorbing it.”
“Oh my... I’ve never seen magic like that before.” Fluttershy looked at the ropes as they shimmered with black energy. I noticed something in her eyes when she looked one part of the rope. The sun was setting and the light was shining through my window against the ropes. “Is it me, or are the ropes reacting to the light?”
“Yer right, Sugarcube, the sunlight is making them fade away...” With a sharp tug, I pulled my hoof free and soon pulled the rest of my legs free as the rope tore to pieces, dissolving into a black vapour before vanishing. I pulled myself up onto all four hooves, shaking myself free from the last strands of the rope. “Yer ok?”
“Now I am.”I looked at the remainder of the rope, slowly fading into a black cloud. “But if she used shadows to make this, then why wasn’t she affected by the sun light?”
The two girls shrugged. “I don't know Twilight, but...”
I saw the moon and it was the connection I needed, “I’ve got it!” I yelled out, making Fluttershy yelp as I landed on her hoof. “I am sorry Fluttershy, I know what freed me.” I quickly took the rope, placing it in a saddle bag.
“Please tell.” Applejack replied.
I turned to the window, pointing up into the sky. “At the very last moment of the day, the sun and moon share the sky for a few seconds. The combined light must of countered whatever magic was used to make this rope.” I put the saddle bag on as the girls turned back to me.
“Yer just guessin' aren't ya?”
I nodded sheepishly. “Sadly yes... I’m only guessing from what I saw. I still don't understand this magic, it was very dark and scared me to the core.” I shuddered at the thought it. “But we’ve got no time to waste!” I quickly flew up to a window, struggling to take off.
“Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked me.
I turned to them. “I’ve got to get to Canterlot and tell the Princesses what has happened to me right away! Who knows what that crazy me has done to Vinyl!”
“ Then we will come with ya!” Applejack stepped up to me as I open the window with my magic.
“There’s no time, girls this is important, I need to tell Princess Celestia what has happened. The next train isn’t until the morning. Don't worry, I’ll be safe.” I struggled to keep airborne but I knew what I had to do.
“Ok Twilight. Be safe ok?” Fluttershy said with concern.
I was still feeling weak from my ordeal with that shadow version of myself, but I couldn’t let Fluttershy know that. “I will be, don't worry girls.” I flew out of the window into the newly formed night sky. “I hope...” I whispered, knowing very well that I was pushing my limits, but with Spike at Canterlot I had no choice but to take this course of action, there was no time for waiting for a train...
Celestia's POV
Big Macintosh tucked in the children, they had all played their hearts out at the party and were exhausted. It always amazed me how gentle this large work stallion was as he put the covers over all of them, he had left them when they fell asleep. I smiled at how cute and peaceful they looked when they weren’t causing trouble.
Big Macintosh left the room, closing the door quietly behind him before looking at me. “I Hope they sleep well tonight,” I whispered.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac replied in his usual calm manner and we walked down the hallway together. I had left Luna's guard, Night Spark in front of the door, just so Big Mac wouldn't worry for the children's safety or that they would try to wander off.
“If you would care to follow me, it’s time for you to know the truth.” I whispered to him as I lead him to the hallway of the windows that displayed the most important parts of our history. He gracefully nodded to me in silence and followed me. Upon entering the hall I turned to the guards, “please close the doors behind us, no pony is to enter until I say otherwise.”
“Yes your highness!” Bronze Shield replied, he was a brown unicorn who had been one of my loyal guards for a long time, he never really took charge, he was just happy to guard this part of the palace.
Upon closing the door I lead Big Macintosh to the end of the hall to a wall. “What I am about to show you stays behind these doors. Nopony, not even your sister can know about this except for one of two conditions, the first being we decide tell somepony about this. The second being that something happens that will lead to this to be told, not before that.” I turned to him, staring at him with all seriousness. “Do I make myself clear, Big Macintosh Apple.”
“Eeyup.” He bow slightly to me and I believed that his word was solid.
He stood back up and I turned to the wall. “Very well.” I used my magic to open it up to find my sister Luna standing there, talking with Vinyl Scratch.
“And that’s how I got my cutie mark by playing that thing...” Vinyl said with a smirk. “It’s kinda wacky compared to what I do now but in all hindsight, it was a special day, even if it annoyed the heck out of the pony who I took it from.” She chuckled and turned to see us. “About time you two got here. I was running out of things to tell Princess Luna here.”
Big Mac gave me a particularly disapproving look. “Princess, yer never told me there’d be another pony here...”
“Big Macintosh, the reason Vinyl Scratch is the same reason that you are here. You want the truth, she knows about the pony in question.” I turned to Vinyl. “Am I correct?”
I closed the wall up behind us as we entered, lighting up the candles in the room with a simple spell. “Sure are Celestia, in fact, I met that pony in my dreams.”
“Indeed...” Luna didn't seem to happy by this, I knew how she felt. She had the chance to see that pony again and it had slipped by Luna.
Big Macintosh looked up at the stain glass windows, looking at each of three. He stopped directly at the middle one. “That must be Armour McApple... Ah heard Zaps say his name in his sleep. He looks almost identical to me in every way, apart from the eye colour and cutie mark. We must be related some way.”
Perhaps there was a blood line leading from all the way back then. Maybe some of the ponies did escape. “It seems that way Big Macintosh, take a look at the cutie mark symbols on the glass.”
Big Macintosh looked at it and his eyes widened in shock, he looked back at me. “Th-that’s ya Princess!”
“Indeed it is, I went by the name of Sunny Day back then. I was just a plain old Unicorn like Vinyl here, so was Luna, her name was Nighty and she was just a filly.” I summoned my magic and a clouded image of the both of us appeared in the air in front of them.
“Whoa Luna! You look so cute and adorable!” Vinyl snickered, then she noticed at the flank. “Whoa! No way you didn't have a Cutie Mark!?”
“That is true... I did not.” Luna answered slowly. “But before we arrived at the Kingdom of Harmony, trying to escape Discord's chaotic magic with a few other ponies, the Mist of Misdirection had a strange effect on us both. We lost our alicorn magic, including our wings and we were also reduced in age. I became a very young filly, perhaps only nine or ten years old, while Celestia was a young mare.” Luna explained to them.
I looked at the first window. “That is when we arrived in the Kingdom of Harmony and met Harmony Rose and the other two pony leaders of the small kingdom: Steadfast Blitz was the dark blue pegasus stallion standing beside her and the amber Earth Pony stallion was named Root Goodness. They stood as the leaders of a small Kingdom united by the union of three kinds of ponies, they were around the seventh or eighth generation since the founding of the Kingdom,” I explained, showing them images of the three ponies with my magic.
“Harmony Rose had two sons, a young stallion, Armour McApple and a colt of around the same age as me. You know him as Zaps...”
Luna was cut off by Big Macitosh's shocked reaction. “What!? That’s not possible! Zaps is only a colt! Ah cannot see mah little brother bein' from this kingdom! It’s completely impossible!”
Luna sighed and so did I. “Hey, let them finish...” Vinyl nudged him.
“Fine...” He said in an unpleased voice towards us.
Luna continued to speak. “We wish we could tell you his true name but it’s best not.”
“Why?” Vinyl asked.
“Because, my little pony, Zaps isn't the same pony today as he was back then. The effects of his life since leaving the Everfree Forest have impacted not only him, but the lives of everypony around him. By revealing his true name and bringing back the past events in such a way we could poorly effect Zaps’s well being. We want him to have a normal young life with the Apples.” I explained to Vinyl, looking at Big Macintosh as I spoke every word.
Big Macintosh look at the second glass again. “Yer got married in this one?” I nodded. “That would mean Zaps is yer brother in law.”
Vinyl took off her glasses hearing this with a dumbfounded look. “Whoa that is big! No wonder you want to keep this wrapped up! But why have Big Macintosh and Applejack sign those papers? Couldn't you two, you know take care of him? He is your brother, after all!”
“We wish that were true...” Luna looked at the last glass window. “I still see parts of him in Zaps and sometimes I even think that he recognises us, but I’m just fooling myself. He doesn’t truly remember us. If we told him his brother married Celestia over 1000 years ago how do think Zaps would react? That foal is damaged enough as it is; telling him that he has been lost in time for over a millenium isn’t going to help anything.” Luna snapped at the unicorn. It wasn’t like Luna to speak so harshly to somepony, but I knew how much this hurt her.
Big Macintosh looked at the last glass window. “Somethin' bad happened to the Kingdom didn't it? Somethin' yer try to forget. If ah was in his horseshoes and learned this ah would be overwhelmed, scared, confused and would most likely lash out. Ah believe the princesses did the right thing by leavin' him in our care. Not just for his own safety but for his own well bein' as well.”
“That is true.” I replied. “That day hurt us more than Discord, more than Sombra, even more than imprisoning my own sister in the moon...” I stared at the crystal in the display, a tear dropped from my eye onto the glass case. “The day she came… Was the day the worst possible thing that fear can create appeared...”
“Princess Luna! Princess Celestia!” We all heard Twilight's voice.
“Oh no...” Vinyl put a hoof to her head. “Not her!”
“Where are you!? This is urgent! Really urgent!” We listened to Twilight from beyond the hidden wall. “I know you’re here somewhere! The guards said you entered and there’s no way out! Unless you teleported or smashed a window!” We listened to her hoof steps moving back and forwards down the hallway. “I was attacked by some crazy pony in the shadows! She used some spell to create a crazy version of me to get to Vinyl for one of her new spells!”
Vinyl look up at me, concerned. I knew the pony Twilight was speaking of, and it brought dread to me instantly. “Princess you don't look to hot...”
“I'm not...” I used my magic to open the wall. Twilight spun around and faced us directly. “Twilight enter now!” I said firmly, she gulped and entered. I closed the wall up behind her.
Twilight looked at each of us and then the glass windows. “Whoa! What is this place? Why is it hidden?”
“Twilight... The pony that attacked you? Did it have cold sapphire, pulsing, glowing eyes? I need to know right away.”
Twilight shuddered as I asked the question. I didn't need an answer. “Y-yes... She brought fear to me like I’ve never felt before! I was terrified of her! Really really scared! I couldn't move a muscle!”
“The Pony of Fear,” Luna whispered. She knew who Twilight was talking about too. “So she finally es...”
“No she haven't escaped, whoever she is. The spell was a one off, she told me so herself and as creepy as that pony was, I don’t think she was lying.” Twilight interrupted.
“Yes that is true.” I replied. “It is not in her nature to lie. The pony you saw has a name that has a meaning of fear like no other. She is the most cold and uncaring pony you will ever meet. Uttering her name is dread in itself.”
“Triskaide,” I announced. A cold blast of wind blew through the closed room and all the candles flickered out.
While I relit the candles, Big Mac, Vinyl and Twilight all huddled close to Luna, shivering in fear. “Sister! That name is forbidden for a reason!” Luna snapped at me.
“They needed to know.” I replied, coldly. “She took away what really mattered to us. We lived a happy, simple life in the Kingdom of Harmony. I was married to a wonderful stallion. It was our life Luna! Do not forget our brother. You shared countless evenings gazing at the stars within the castle tower of Starswirl’s study. She took that away from us.”
“Whoa wait a second! Did you say MARRIED!? As in married, married!?” Twilight screeched. “You, Princess Celestia was married!?”
“Yes I was...” I replied looking to the second window. “We lived in the kingdom for five years before I finally made my mind up and accepted Armour McApple's proposal in marriage.”
“Sister, I believe it would best to show them.” Luna suggested.
“Yes, of course.” I summoned my magic and projected myself into their minds. In a flash they had witnessed my marriage to Armour McApple. In an instant they had watched the happiest day of my life. “I was just a unicorn. I didn’t control the sun as I do today. A simple unicorn. I lost my alicorn powers and changed my name to Sunny Day and Luna’s to Nighty.” I explained to them.
“Wow...” Twilight whispered. “Wait...” She turn to Zaps. “Th-that’s Zaps!? Are you telling me that the young colt Applejack took in is the same one from here!? But th-that...” Twilight mane frazzled and she wavered as her mind’s attempts to make sense of it overwhelmed the young alicorn.
Luna put a hoof to Twilight. “Twilight, breathe, before you pass out.”
Big Macintosh stared at her. “Ah find it hard to believe as well, but ah will continue to call him mah little brother.”
“B-But this doesn't make any sense! How can he be still a colt!?”
“That is something we can't answer.” I replied. “Last time we saw him was on the edges of the Mist of Misdirection.” I closed my eyes in pain, remembering that very last day... The day our happiness was torn away.
I showed them more my memories. I wished for them to see it. I had to show them and Luna helped me. I felt her magic as we showed these three ponies the final days of the Kingdom of Harmony, the day it was all taken away...
My love, our family, our mother... Our beloved home...
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Nice Job with this chapter. I liked it. Best of luck with future chapters. I admit this story has changed alot, but in a good way. Best of luck.
That name is actually familiar. I think it has a similar verssion in gaelic or something, but I can't quite remember.
3974708 Interesting name. Triskaide is probably rooted in Triskaideka, greek for thirteen. It is used in the medical profession as triskaidekaphobia, or a fear of the number thirteen.
This is a very enlightening chapter... Let's see where this goes...