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Chapter 1: The awakening1,563 words
Chapter 2: Discovery1,342 words
Chapter 3: Answers1,975 words
Chapter 4: Temptation2,016 words
Chapter 5: Run2,521 words
Chapter 6: Truth1,846 words
Chapter 7: Advice and farewells1,676 words
Chapter 8: Reunited1,734 words
Chapter 9: Years?3,448 words
Chapter 10: Why?2,150 words
Chapter 11: Negotiations 1,934 words
Chapter 12: Praise the Sun2,663 words
Chapter 13: Comfort and Reasoning2,668 words
Chapter 14: A Storm Approaching 2,278 words
Chapter 15: Farewell3,076 words
Extra: The True Nightmare Begins292 words

Chapter 13: Comfort and Reasoning

Author's Note:

I forgot how to write, awkward right? Also warning, tearjerking and sudden cameo who I might make another story about someday ahead.

Celetias room was modest when compared to other members of the Canterlot elite, she preferred function over form anyway. A large bed in the centre of the room to support her large frame and a mahogany drawer and closet for her precious items and clothing, an oak wood table for where she could scribe though she barely used it and a set of large pillows for her and guests in the middle of her room. The whole room was blanketed below by a decorated carpet that extended until the balcony door that was parallel to her sisters tower. Laying on a group of pillows she was close to biting her hooves in worry, hoping that she was not too late to save some citizens of the small town. Every second passing felt like an hour waiting for Discord to return with the information and letters, Celestia knew that it was not Kurai that caused the towns downfall but for safety she sent over her best soldiers to head over to his whereabouts to retrieve him. Armed only with a letter summoning him to her. But one question seemed to plague her mind, who were the other two? She had received no letters about them from Alloy and that was before Titanium Smith died when the second and third human were living in Alloy, from what she hears from the gryphon squad they were harmless and had no ill intentions so she had that to be relieved about.

Appearing into the room was a tired Discord carrying a large rucksack , apparently his selective omnipresence was a very tiring technique even for somepony of his power. “Well, most of them had accepted bribes. Those I compiled into a list for punishment,” He snapped his talons for a list to appear in front of Celestia. “Those that have not were threatened with their lives or those they love being taken away.” Dropping the rucksack of letters in front of her to read as he left, floating to the door and getting himself sucked out through the keyhole, meeting Twilight Sparkle accompanied by Ranbow Dash and Applejack.

“Can we come in?” Twilight asked concerned, attempting to walk past Discord to which he teleported her back to the same spot she was as he shook his head.

Rainbow Dash flew up to his face with a glare. “Hey what’s the big idea?! We wanna talk to her!”

“She is busy reading letters, only I and soon her will know of the atrocities that occurred,” He calmly replied with sincerity, something he rarely did. “I do not wish to be around when she reads them. All I can say is I hope Cash Bags rots in Tartarus.” He growled as he floated down the corridor to his room as the three confused ponies standing outside the royal bedroom looked at each other.

“Let’s stay out here and come in when she needs us.” Applejack finally spoke up.

“Good idea, well girls, let’s set up camp out here for the night.” The lavender pony replied to her friends idea with a smile. With the halls being so large it would be a great idea to wait out here if Celestia needed any comfort.

Staring at the rucksack the princess of the sun took a deep breath, her magical aura surrounding the rope binding the sack shut and removing it. The first letter was levitated out, sealed shut by a wax seal with the towns crest moulded in it. Opening the letter she read it thoroughly.

Dear Princess Celestia,

My wife and I are not so sure about our new mayor, he claims you sent him over. Before we knew it our town was turned into a giant sweatshop, please help us.

Putting the letter aside she levitated another to read.

Dear Princess,

My big brother broke his hooves, two stallions came by to take him away. I miss him.

Tossing it aside and biting her lip Celestia read the next, this one however was burnt around the edges with coffee stains.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Please send somepony over! Our daughter was taken out of our home and nopony is doing anything to help us, where is Solaire?

Glancing over to the name “Solaire” curiously she put it aside in a separate pile for any letters who mentioned him.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Mr Sunny Man is gone, where is he? We miss him and need him.

Again tossed over into the “Solaire” pile, this continued on for another seven or possibly forty-five. She practically lost count of how many there were until the last letter, all those letters she had read thus far were tear-jerking to how this had all happened in her name right under her nose. Lifting the last letter she opened it, it contained a series of scribbles, obviously written by a toddler.

Dear Princess Luna and Celestia,

It hurts miss Celestia, my belly hurts. My mommy won’t wake up so daddy says she is in a special sleep, please tell miss Luna to go in her dream to tell mommy I love her and miss her.

The rest was burnt off, if there were still flames on the paper the drops of tears would have drowned them as they dropped onto the letter. All those ponies, who begged for her help were left unanswered and in turn suffered. If a princess was not able to protect one town from one power hungry stallion she was not worthy of the title, burying her face in her hooves she tried stifling her sobbing. Before long Celestia was bawling her eyes out, screaming at herself for not living up to the title of princess. Upon hearing Celestia screaming inside, Twilight inside a fairly large tent shook Rainbow Dash and Applejack to wake them up. Of course they were deep sleepers, a napper and a hard worker. The only reply to them being shaken was them waving their hooves as if swatting a fly and snuggling the closest thing for comfort like foals, rolling her eyes Twilight gave up and approached the door herself. The sobs from her mentor can be heard clearly, if the doors were not as thick the cries would have been echoing through the castle by now. Bringing a hoof to knock she paused, she was her mentors most closest friend, she would not mind if she simply walked in. Hopefully.

Opening the door slowly Twilight slipped in, unnoticed until she closed the door behind her. Celestia looked up in panic from the now soggy letter, the scribbled letters worn away by her tears. “Oh,” She softened her stern gaze when she realised who it was. “Twilight.” She spoke with a slight smile, her eyes reddened from crying.

“What’s wrong?” She approached, avoiding the columns of paper left behind. All Celestia replied with was levitating a letter from one of the columns to Twilight, scanning the letter and freezing in place with a wide-eyed expression. “O-oh, all this is-?” She said while gesturing to the rest of the columns, keeping the range of her one hoofed gesture short as to not knock them over.

“Yes… all this happened and I wasn’t there to help… I’m a terrible Princess!” Celestia wailed like a foal, bursting our crying again as her wings momentarily spread out, knocking over two nearby columns of letters which fell slowly like snowflakes.

Before Celestia did something she regretted, the element of magic quickly wrapped her hooves around her mentor in a comforting hug. “You’re not. You were like a second mother to me, you sent me to Ponyville where I meant the greatest friends any pony could ever have. You of all ponies despite the others and even my objections signed the peace treaty between us and the changelings, putting your life at risk for peace all alone. Don’t you dare call yourself a horrible Princess after all that!” There was an awkward silence between the two for a moment. “Sorry… I got carried away there.” She blushed.

Before they could continue their conversation a knock on the door interrupted them. “Come in.” Celestia called out, to which it creaked open for a gryphon in special royal guard armour. The appearance was uncanny to a certain jerk.

“Gilda?!”

“Oh, sup Twi.” She replied casually, holding her talons up for any accusations. “And relax, after the whole Ponyville thing my parents sent me here to improve my attitude. I was expecting way worse, but this place has it goin’ on.” Turning to Celestia to Gilda changed her speech dramatically as she bowed holding out a scroll. “Your highness, we received new information from my section of the squad, the third ‘human’ has been identified as the missing Applebloom. I know this sounds odd but the photo taken inside the scroll should prove it, may I be dismissed?” With a nod from Celestia, Gilda stood to her full height and walked towards the door. Stopping halfway she turned her head to Twilight. “When RD wakes up, tell her to meet me at the barracks please. Can you do that?”

Having been awestruck and silent this whole time she shook herself back to her senses. “Uhm, sure.” Nodding satisfied the gryphon left the room, closing it slowly. “Why didn’t you tell me she was now a captain of her own squad…!?” She almost screamed through a whisper.

“I had much more important things to tell you,” Raising the letter. “Like this, I think you should wake up Applejack for this.”

“She won’t wake up.” She flatly replied, a arched eyebrow raised from Celestia however was enough to make her sigh and walk out to wake up the cowpony.

After much shaking and poking all it took was the mimic of a crow call to wake her up while Rainbow Dash who was previously clinging to Applejack was now snuggling up to her pillow, ignoring the fake crowing with an ear twitch. After explaining what had happened in the royal bedroom it had her awake in a snap, quietly but swiftly she ran into the bedroom to see Celestia staring at the image as if it was Luna shaking her rear end right in her face. Upon showing Twilight and Applejack, of course Applejack had to take a second look, then a third, then a fourth and so on before getting it. “But, how? She’s only fifteen!” She argued, though she did not deny this was her little sister as that red mane was quite unique with the golden coat. Her main problem was how she became an adult human, or close to human as she looks.

Thinking for a second Twilight realised why, shrinking back towards the door to make a run for it she was instead frozen in place. “I-… I think I know why,” Getting the attention of her mentor and friend who was glaring at Kurai who Applebloom was smiling at in the picture. “She came into my library and borrowed a book. She seemed to drop it or left it at the clubhouse to which Discord gave back to me after he was sent over to search, it involved spells like transfiguration. Something that few unicorns knew so how could she, an earth pon-…” Pausing she remembered something. “The staff she held in the saddlebag.”

Having heard enough Applejack lunged out attempting to throttle Twilight for not telling her about any of this, to which Celestia responded by creating a barrier between them. “Enough!” She commanded, her tone softening after Applejack dropped trying to beat the barrier down. “I feel your pain, but acting brashly does not solve anything. Yes, my student gave your younger sister the book but she had no idea of the intentions. And yes, it could be possible she is now in a relationship with your target of anger, which also worries me concerning he might be more deadlier than he seems. Twilight, the book please.” Nodding to Celestias request she brought out the large book. “After my student and my sister researched the book it responded to names given and flipped to a random page which was previously blank before the name was mentioned. Observe.” Clearing her throat she spoke out Kurais name clearly, the large book pun in the air and opened, pages flipping from one end to the other with dust flying everywhere. After the book had its little episode it fell flat onto a blank page which an artists interpretation and a biography started drawing and writing itself. “Read it.”

Clearing her throat Applejack sat to read the biography, she was not good with reading unlike her sister who had a formal education but with Twilights help she got the hang of reading fancier words as well as professional speech. Something she needed if she was going to be taking over the Apple business when Granny Smith passes on in this modern society.

Kurai Mokusei, formally known as Kurai the Forsaken.
A mighty warrior hailing from the far eastern lands, since his death and hollowing he has been sent to the undead asylum in Lodran. After the downfall of Lordran since the uprise of the abyss, halted by an unsung hero of lore he had been freed. He has been a mass murderer since escaping, killing many of his fellow undead who shared the curse, mighty guardians and even the deities that once ruled Lordran from the city of Anor Londo. His last known area of hunting for other undead was Anor Londo itself, cloaked in darkness after he shot Gwynevere and murdered Gwyndolin, both children of the strongest deity Gwyn who was his final victim before Kurai mysteriously disappeared along with his friend Solaire. He was a member of many covenants, but betrayed every one of them. One of which Solaire was the leader, though he did not mind much and still helped Kurai on his ambition to topple hierarchy ladder of any corrupt leader and kill whomever got in his way.

“This is… confusin’,” Was all she could say about it. “So he can kill his worlds equivalent of gods and my little sister might be intendin’ to marry him?! Not on my watch!”

“But we need him to save Ponyville, you know Equestrias magic can’t too anything.” Twilight interjected.

Knowing she was right Applejack thought about how she would greet Kurai without beating the stuffing out of him, she finally came to the conclusion that as long as Applebloom was alive and happy to which she was in the picture, he might as well be an ally after it dawned on her. “You’re right, I’m awful sorry,” She finally spoke with shame laced in her words. “It’s just when your family is involved in this you can get very protective and attack whatever caused the harm… heh, I promise I’ll be nicer to Kurai. If he treated you to his knowledge of magic and gave Rainbow that sword she won’t stop showin’ off as a gift I guess he might not be too bad. But I will keep my eye on him you hear me?”

Nodding awkwardly at that short ramble Twilight smiled at Applejack finally listening to reason for once out of all this. “Fair enough.”

“I think you two should get some sleep,” Celestia spoke up, the clock currently reading 2:12 in the morning. “We have a long day tomorrow for when he will be in the castle hopefully, now off you go my little ponies.” She spoke like a pushy mother as the tired Celestia levitated the two out her room before shutting and locking the door and tucked herself in, noticing the book still on the ground she whispered. “Solaire.” The book did its usual thing and fell on her lap, reading through the biography of Solaire she chuckled. “Somepony who praises the very thing I personify and control like a religion, I like him already.”

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