Past Actions, Future Consequences

by Rill

Revelations - Part 2

For a while, the dragon and alicorn wandered the castle’s halls, with Spike resuming his impromptu role as guide, leading his companion around the world famous building’s numerous halls and corridors. As they walked, Shadow couldn’t help but enjoy the young dragon’s stories of growing up in the castle. One thing that Shadow noticed was that no matter where they were, there were pieces of art everywhere, whether it was a six hundred year old vase in a glass display case or a painting on the wall that had been created five years earlier by an up-and-coming artist.

Shadow couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed and more than a little confused. Everything he saw went against everything he had grown up knowing, everything he had accepted as truth. Why would Celestia amass such an extensive collection, only to turn around and put it on permanent loan to the Equestrian Art Society? While he could see her doing it to influence her subjects, was that also why anypony could look at the collection without having to pay an entrance fee? If anything, he had expected for the solar diarch to have an entire museum built to house her collection. Exiling those questions to the back of his mind, the colt turned his focus back to trying to remember what was around him.

Pausing mid-step as they passed a large pair of double doors, Shadow felt his jaw drop at the sight of multicolored beams of light playing across the white marble floor of the room, and the long red rug that led to Celestia’s throne. Tapping Spike on the shoulder with a quick burst of magic, the colt tilted his head to the empty room. He had to see this. Walking in, the young alicorn heard his muffled hoof steps echo around the room. He had seen a number of drawings and paintings of Celestia’s throne room back home, but none of them came even remotely close to doing the room justice. For a moment, the alicorn simply stood there, letting himself soak in all of the beauty around him. If he had been asked to voice his thoughts at that moment, words would have failed the colt.

Igniting his horn, Shadow opened one of his saddlebags and pulled out a bright purple crystal. One of the gifts he had gotten from Princess Cadance had been a large set of memory crystals. The stone points had been enchanted to record a pony’s memories using a simple spell, allowing the owner to replay the memories anytime they wanted. While he hadn’t had the chance to do anything with them yet, Shadow knew that he was going to fill most of those crystals with memories of his family. He couldn’t wait to show Rainbow Dash his memory of the thunderhead prank he had pulled on his sister. Calling on the spell that came with this particular crystal, Shadow slowly walked around the room, his eyes covering every inch as everything he saw was recorded to the piece of amethyst. Next to him, he could hear Spike yawn as the young drake grew bored. “Done yet?”

“Almost” Shadow replied as he finished his recording. As he set the crystal back in his bag, a stray thought occurred to him “Hey Spike, do you know anything about any crystal mines in the area?”

“You mean the ones under the castle?”

The colt’s head whipped around at the dragon’s innocent question. “You mean they’re literally beneath our hooves?” Seeing his companion nod, the young alicorn felt his chest tighten as another thought struck him. “Is there any chance we could see them?”

Spike shrugged. “I don’t see why not” he said as he led the way out of the room, “though I don’t know what you’d find so interesting about them. They’re kinda boring if you ask me.”

Shadow highly doubted that, but he held his tongue as he followed the dragon. Like earlier when they were going to the Royal Archives, the world around them quieted as they traveled deeper and deeper into the castle’s. As they got closer to the castle’s foundation, the lone alicorn noticed that the air around them had gotten subtly, yet noticeably colder while the halls had gotten darker. Coming to a halt as Spike stopped at a completely unremarkable door, Shadow felt his eyes grow wider as soon as the dragon opened the door to reveal a set of stairs descending into a pit of pure darkness.

“You mind?”

Shaking his head, Shadow ignited his horn, the golden light brightening the hidden staircase. The young alicorn swallowed nervously as he followed the dragon. Why was he nervous all of the sudden? He had known about these caverns for his entire life. Maybe it was the stories he had heard about the Changeling queen having used the place to imprison Cadance and then Twilight, but hadn’t Twilight said that Luna and Celestia had made sure to clear out and secure the caverns as soon as the surprise invasion had been crushed? Even if they ran into a couple changelings, what could those parasites do against a fire breathing dragon and an alicorn that had faced much larger monsters and survived? Stomping down on his growing sense of ill ease, the lone alicorn focused on keeping everything around them well-lit as they descended, the walls of the surprisingly wide staircase quickly changing from marble to the granite of the mountain itself.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two knew they had reached their destination as the stairs ended while the walls around them suddenly opened up into a vast cavern. Channeling more energy through his horn, the omnipresent darkness fled as Shadow bathed the area in light, the crystals lining every available surface glittered as the glow from his horn reflected against and inside the surrounding crystals. Letting out a low whistle, the colt slowly wandered to a nearby crystal that was at least as wide as he was long and stood at least fifteen feet high. Looking into the light green crystal, Shadow could see the light of his horn play against the minute imperfections in the stone.

“So why did you want to come here in the first place?” Turning around, Shadow noticed how Spike looked distinctly uncomfortable as the dragon slowly walked over to the young alicorn. “I mean, yeah the crystals are kinda cool and all, but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

“I have to admit that part of this was to see this place for myself, since I’ve heard legends about this place for as long as I can remember.” The colt replied, feeling his neck start to cramp as he looked at the crystal-lined ceiling far above them.

“How could you know about this place?” Spike asked as he walked next to the colt as the two traveled deeper into the caverns. “No pony knew about this place before the invasion. Even the princesses forgot all about them.”

“That’s the other reason we’re down here” the alicorn admitted as they wandered through a couple smaller chambers. “I have some family history with this place and I was hoping to include these caverns in my presentation.”

“What kind of history?” Spike asked, his attention now focused on something other than the Celestia forsaken mine around them.

“The kind that gets ignored by the history books” The young alicorn replied cryptically. For a while, the two wandered in silence, Shadow’s horn flashing every few seconds as he marked their path. Pausing mid-stride, the colt blinked rapidly before focusing on a nearby curtain of opaque crystals. Was I imagining things? Trotting over to the wall, the alicorn frowned before focusing the light from his horn on the wall. Turning to leave, Shadow paused again as he noticed a narrow line of darkness disappear behind an oversized crystal as he moved. Frowning, the colt walked over to the crystal, Spike remaining silent as the young dragon followed. Running his hoof across the wall, Shadow stumbled as, despite appearances, the wall suddenly disappeared. Feeling his heart flutter, the world around the colt vanished as he slowly walked into the hidden passage, his hoof guiding him every step of the way.

Following a couple twists and turns, the young alicorn’s jaw dropped as he and Spike turned a corner and the passage suddenly opened into a moderately sized room that had clearly been carved out of the surrounding crystals. The room itself was roughly the same size as the ground level of Twilight’s castle, and the walls were the same color as every other crystal they had seen so far, but the single thing that held the colt’s attention above everything else was the solid crystal table in the center of the room. Ignoring the dragon next to him, Shadow walked up to the table, his hoof carefully brushing it as if it would disappear at the slightest touch.

I found it! I can’t believe I found it! Scrambling for his saddlebag, Shadow pulled the recording crystal out; his horn glowing brightly as he magically burned everything he saw onto the crystal hovering before him. Not hearing the questions Spike was asking, the colt focused his attention on the table, his eyes focusing on the numerous carvings and designs imbedded under the crystal table’s smooth surface. Taking up a majority of the table’s surface was a night scene, with Luna standing triumphantly in the throne room above them, while ponies from all four tribes bowed to her, the moon burning brightly behind her, its rays bathing the room in its light. Around the edge, whoever had carved the main scene had also carved images of the moon and various creatures of the night, including a couple thestrals. Why would they decorate it? He wondered as he brushed his hoof against the table’s top, before following the table’s lone pedestal to the solid crystal floor below. Feeling something brush against his shoulder, Shadow jumped, his head hitting painfully against the bottom of the table.

Muttering a few obscenities, the colt glared at the dragon next to him. For his part, Spike glared back, not feeling much sympathy for the colt who had been ignoring him for the last ten minutes. “What is this place?” He finally asked, seeing that he had the alicorn’s full attention.

“Couldn’t you have waited until my head was clear of the table?” Shadow muttered as he rubbed the lump that was growing on the back of his head.

“If I did, we’d have been down here all night” Spike snarked as he gestured to the room. “So what is this place” he asked again.

“You know the Lunar Rebellion?”

“Yeah…”

“This is where it was planned.”

Spike frowned at the colt’s breathless pronouncement. “How do you know that? And what does that have to do with your family?”

“Come to school on Monday with Twilight and find out.” Shadow teased, smirking as he set the purple crystal back in his bag. Standing back up, the colt took one last look at the large fragment of crystal hanging over the table. “We should get back before Celestia sends the Guard after us.” The colt knew he could spend hours, if not days, exploring the caverns, but they had other places to be, and he knew they were pushing their luck as it was.

Feeling Spike grab his tail, Shadow led the way through the hidden passage back to the larger cavern outside. Turning right, the two followed the blinking balls of light on the ground, their progress much faster than before as they made their way back to the secret staircase. Pausing at the base of the stairs a couple minutes later, Shadow grabbed a couple transparent, hoof-sized bright green crystals from the ground, stuffing them in his saddlebag before following Spike up the stairs.

Breathing a sigh of relief that no pony had been around when they had opened the door, Shadow let his draconic companion lead the way. Glancing out a nearby window, the young alicorn was surprised to see the sun’s last rays fading beyond the horizon as the day gave way to the night. How long were we down there?

“There you two are!” The two young explorers jumped at the voice behind them. Spinning around as soon as they hit the ground, both were relieved to see Twilight striding toward them. “I’ve been looking all over for you two! Where have you been?”

“Exploring” Shadow replied matter-of-factly, as if it should have been obvious.

“Well I hope you saw everything you wanted, because if we don’t hurry, we’ll be late for dinner with the princesses, and we can’t leave them waiting.”

Following behind her as Twilight led the way, Shadow raised an eyebrow at Spike, who had taken his place on the older alicorn’s back. For his part, the dragon rolled his eyes as he shook his head slightly. Both figured that the princesses wouldn’t mind if they were a little late, but both silently decided to keep that observation to themselves. Trotting to keep up with Twilight, Shadow’s head never stayed still as the colt took in everything he saw. In what seemed like no time, the young alicorn followed his guardian through a door that was so non-descript, that the colt never would have given it a second glance, if it hadn’t been for the pair of Royal Guards standing on either side. Eyeing the two armored stallions warily as he walked between them, Shadow found himself wondering if he would have preferred to be outside with them instead as he entered the room. Seated at a table near the room’s far wall, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looked up from the sheet of paper they had been working on, a quill floating lazily by Luna’s horn.

“Welcome.” Not knowing what else to do, Shadow quickly bowed to the Royal Sisters, much to their amusement. “You don’t have to bow” Luna said as she set the sheet of paper and quill aside “In this room, the usual formalities end at the door.”

“What is this place” Shadow asked as he relieved himself of his saddlebags, though he made sure to set them where he could easily reach them if he had to.

“Our private dining room” Luna replied, noting the young alicorn’s curiosity. “Other than our private rooms, this is one of the few rooms where we can ‘let our manes down’ so to speak.” Behind them, the sisters’ manes continued to wave in the unseen breeze that only their manes obeyed.

“Few ponies know of this room, and even fewer have eaten here” Celestia said, chiming in for the first time. As if on cue, a pair of unicorns dressed in white aprons walked in through a hidden side door, pushing carts loaded with covered trays. Setting the silver trays on the center of the table, the two unicorns lifted the lids, revealing a small pile of daisy burgers on one tray, and a mound of hay fries on the other. Underneath the third silver lid lay an entire cake covered in white and dark blue frosting.

Seeing the colt’s surprise, Luna chuckled “Like I said, this is where we can be ourselves, and also where we can eat what we want without having to worry what others may think.” As if to lead by example, the lunar diarch grabbed a pair of burgers and then proceeded to bury them in hay fries. Not seeing any reason why they shouldn’t, the royal sisters’ three guests followed suit, the four alicorns and one dragon quickly digging into their steaming dinners. “So” Luna said after a while, as everyone’s attention slowly turned to the lone cake “What do you think of Canterlot?”

“It’s bigger than I expected” Shadow replied as he leaned back in his chair “Though I have to admit that it’s almost impossible to find anything in your Royal Archives.”

“Tell me about it” Luna said as she mopped up her ketchup with a few remaining hay fries. “What were you doing down there?”

“Looking for anything I could find about my family’s history in Equestria.”

“What did you find?”

Shadow’s eyes shifted to the largest alicorn in the room. How much should he say? “Not much” He eventually replied, looking at Celestia the entire time. “Interestingly, there’s almost nothing about their time here. I guess I should be thankful that I found anything at all, since the city library had nothing useful.” As he spoke, Shadow thought he saw Celestia twitch at his veiled jab, though that could have been his imagination.

“Is there anything specific you were hoping to find?”

Shadow shook his head as he turned to look at his queen. “I doubt any records I could use are still around and the one I did find was practically falling apart.” For a while, the five diners worked on turning the cake into a delicious memory in silence. As they ate, the young orphan took the chance to study the table they were using. The thing that struck him the most was how ordinary the table was. It was nothing like he had expected or heard tales of. If his parents had had some extra silvers, he could have seen them getting a table just like this one. Hay, he could see any of his friends in Ponyville having a table like this at their house.

“Despite what you may think” Celestia said, catching the young alicorn off guard as he studied her table “this table is about five hundred years old.”

“Really.”

Celestia nodded as she took a second slice of cake. “I was walking through the market one morning and I fell in love with it at first sight. I’ve made sure to take good care of it since then.” If the solar princess was expecting any praise or compliments, she would be sorely disappointed. Instead, she noticed the room’s atmosphere subtly darken as her youngest guest’s mood seemed to darken as well.

“It’s beautiful.” Shadow eventually said.

“Thank you.” Though she kept her reply light, Celestia couldn’t fail to notice the silent change that had come over the colt. Had she said something wrong?

“What’s next on the agenda, Twi?” Spike asked, before letting out a belch that lit up the room. Raising a fist, he bumped it against Shadow’s outstretched hoof, glad that he had managed to cut the tension that had been building.

Twilight shook her head in amusement as the two bumped hooves. “Actually” She replied, glancing over at the two other alicorns at the table “There are some things that the princesses and I need to discuss with Shadow in private.”

The young dragon seemed to think it over for a moment before shrugging. “I was going to show him some of my comics, but I suppose that it can wait a while.”

Leaving the room, Shadow watched the dragon’s retreating figure disappear around a corner, before turning to follow Twilight. I wonder what they’ll tell him and the others the colt thought as the four alicorns walked down the hall. Probably that I went to live with some very distant relatives on a farm somewhere. He idly wondered if that phrase meant the same in Equestria as it did back home. Still… at least they let me have a decent last meal.

The colt knew they had reached their final destination when he spotted the pair of guards standing at attention in front of a pair of doors with a large sun similar to the one on Celestia’s flanks inlayed in the wood. Quietly, Shadow wondered how much trouble the guards would be if he suddenly came bursting through the doors. Would they chase him immediately, or would he get a few seconds head start while they tried to figure out what was happening? Either way, the young alicorn knew he’d have to get outside as soon as possible if he was to have any shot at seeing the sun rise.

Leaving the hallway, Shadow’s mind noted every detail of the room around him, from the two fire places and the nearby desk overflowing with various sheets of paper, to the large glass and metal doors that opened to a balcony that overlooked all of Canterlot and the valley the mountainside town overlooked.

“Please make yourself comfortable” Celestia said as she drew the curtains across the windows around the room. “We’ll try to make this quick, though I can’t guarantee that it will be pleasant.”

Shadow rolled his eyes. Just get it over with already he thought while claiming the pillow that looked the most expensive. Perhaps he could take it with him when she final dealt with him.

“I know this question is painful and unpleasant, but I have to ask” Celestia said as soon as everypony had gotten settled around the fireplace that had a fire in it, “but do you remember the night you lost your family?”

What the hell is this? The young orphan wondered, an eyebrow rising to betray his feelings. “Considering it’s the single worst day in my life so far, of course I do.”

“Do you remember the spell you tried to cast that night?”

Shadow’s face settled into a scowl at the question. “How do you know about that?”

“That would be my fault” Luna said “I saw you standing in a casting circle in a number of your dreams and the spell we’re wondering about requires one. Do you know of the spell I’m talking about?”

Shadow nodded. He hadn’t looked at that Luna damned spell since the fire.

“Do you know what it’s supposed to do?” Twilight asked quietly.

Seeing the colt shake his head, Celestia sighed out of a mixed sense of relief and frustration. On one hoof, it meant that she could plead ignorance before the Sprite Council, but on the other hoof, he attempted to cast a highly advanced spell without fully understanding what its purpose was. “How did you get your hooves on the spell?”

“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re thinking” Shadow growled, recalling what the two thieves had mentioned when he had ambushed them in his dad’s apothecary. “I got the book it was in from my teacher. She suggested I try and see if I could do it over the weekend.”

“Did she know what the spell was for?”

“No.” The youngest alicorn replied, not noticing the glances the three Princesses were sharing. “She’s an earth pony and she got the book for me because she wanted to give me a challenge.”

Celestia shifted on her pillow. Why would she give him a spell to try if she didn’t know what it did? The eldest Princess frowned at how something felt off. “Do you still have the book?” Seeing the colt nod stiffly, she felt her stomach churn. “May I see it?” For what seemed like an hour, but was likely no more than a few seconds, the princess felt Shadow’s eyes boring into her as deeply as an eleven year old’s eyes could. She couldn’t understand why he didn’t trust her, but she held her composure while trying to be as non-threatening as she possibly could. “I just want to see it; nothing more.” Her eyes flicked to the colt’s horn as he opened the most worn of his two saddlebags, an ancient and beaten up book slowly floating out of it a moment later. As she watched, the book slowly floated over to her sister while his eyes never strayed from her once.

“Thank you” Luna said, completely ignored by the colt. Igniting her horn, she gently opened the book, carefully turning each page as she searched for the spell. For a few minutes, the room lay thick with tension as Shadow all but glared at Celestia, while the only sound in the room came from the nearby fire and the occasional sound of a turning page. “I found it” Celestia’s sister said a couple minutes later, the book floating over to the solar diarch a second later, the spell in question exposed.

Celestia closed her eyes at the sight of the spell. What the fuck was Summer Breeze thinking?! She knew how dangerous this Tartarus damned spell is, and yet she still made sure to preserve it!! The oldest princess slowly breathed in and out a couple times to calm herself down. Anger would not serve her well here. Looking at the open book, the princess frowned. Something about it felt off. It wasn’t the spell itself, since she had seen it enough times to know if something was wrong. Instead, whatever it was that she felt was extremely subtle, so subtle in fact, that she had nearly missed it herself. “Twilight, do you notice anything odd about this book?”

Getting up, the purple alicorn walked to her ruler’s side, her attention focused on the book. A couple minutes passed in silence before she shook her head. “Other than the insane power requirements needed for this spell, I don’t see anything that stands out.”

“Luna?”

“I found nothing out of the ordinary, sister. Why do you ask?”

Silently, the princess turned the book around so everypony could see it from where they sat. Without a word, she channeled some magic through her horn and into the book, which began to glow a gentle golden color. As everypony watched, ink began to appear on previously blank sections of the two pages. “Just as I thought” she said, as her horn returned to normal “somepony tried to erase some text.”

“What does it say?” Twilight asked as she stared at the newly revealed text.

“This spell is strictly theoretical and should not, under any circumstances, be attempted. Failure to heed this warning will almost certainly result in the death of the caster, as well as any pony nearby.”

The room fell silent as Shadow’s words echoed in everypony’s head. Glancing to her left, Luna could see the young orphan next to her shaking. “Why” he asked after a moment, scrambling to his hooves. “Why did they erase that warning?”

“If you had seen it-”

Whatever else Luna’s sister might have said remained unsaid as the colt’s simmering anger flared. “Would I have tried it? I might be only eleven, but do I look like a fucking idiot?! If somepony says don’t fucking try this spell, you fucking listen!”

“Why would they erase it?”

“How in Tartarus should I know?!” Shadow snapped, turning to Twilight, who shrank back slightly at the colt’s anger. “That book is over seven hundred years old. There is no way that mule of a librarian would let it out of the building, much less let somepony with a lifetime ban from the library near it.” The young orphan stomped around the room, and nopony stopped him, all three Princess more than willing to let the floor take his abuse. “The only pony in town who would dare to use a spell on a book this old would be that old goat, but he'd never do such a thing” Shadow explained through gritted teeth. Slowly his pacing came to a halt “unless…”

The single word was barely whispered, but everypony in the room heard it. Glancing at the princesses, Twilight asked the one question on their minds, “Unless what?”

"Unless somepony gave him a very good reason to" Shadow felt his chest tighten as his mind came to the only possible conclusion he could think of.

“A reason like…”

Shadow's heart all but stopped as he forced himself to speak. "Like if somepony discovered my wings."

The room grew silent, save for the crackling of the fire, as his words sank in. Eventually, Princess Celestia broke the silence, voicing what everyone else was thinking. "Why would anypony want to kill you for being an alicorn?"

Shadow slowly turned to face the eldest Royal Sister, the look on his face telling Celestia that she was not going to enjoy the answer. "Because, Princess, five hundred years ago my home survived a bloodbath the likes of which you can't even begin to imagine. Star Trail started off as a normal unicorn with the exception of being extremely gifted, magically speaking. She also happened to be a popular and charismatic leader." Celestia felt her chest tighten as she felt a few pieces to a five hundred year old mystery fall into place. "No pony knows how she did it, but somehow Star Trail managed to ascend in front of a crowd of her supporters." The cold smile on his face sent a chill racing down the princess's spine. "After she became an alicorn, the ranks of her followers swelled and within six months, she became the first -and last- island leader. Her rule started off well enough, but within a year, anypony who didn't praise anything she did was punished, along with their family."

"Punished?"

"Whipped or beaten, usually. What nopony knew until it was too late, was that Star Trail was a bat shit insane psychopath, and getting a pair of wings only made her worse. Within months, ponies were being rounded up for the most minor of things. Some were beaten, other whipped while the less fortunate had their heads shoved underwater until they stopped twitching or were burned alive. She liked to get in on this and she liked to prolong her victims' suffering. By the time she was finally taken out, thousands of innocent ponies -stallions, mares and foals- were dead. There’s not a single pony alive today back home who didn't lose at least one ancestor to that psychotic bitch, and it’s all your fault, because if you had been paying attention and not sitting on your plot like usual, none of that would have happened!" Shadow finished, screaming the last part at Princess Celestia.

"My fault?"

“Yes, your fault” The colt replied mockingly. “Twilight told me all about her ascension. She told me all about how you were there to guide her through the process, which means that you had to know about that manure licker Star Trail. So that means you either knew what she was or you ignored what she could become. Either way, my home is still recovering from her!” The colt hissed at her, his anger barely in check. “Because of her and what you did to your own sister when she tried to claim the respect she was owed, being called an alicorn is the single worst thing you could call another pony back home. If you had paid even the slightest bit of attention, I never would have had to hide what I am, knowing that if I was ever discovered, I would be lucky if I was the only one killed!”

“Why would they kill you?!”

“One alicorn killed her sister because that sister became a problem, then allowed a psychopath to ascend, who then proceeded to murder thousands!”

“Centuries ago” Celestia said as soon as Shadow finished “I felt a presence in the Realm of Ascension. When I arrived, there was nopony around and I could never explain it until now.” She looked the incensed colt in the eyes “I swear; if I had seen her, she never would have gotten that far.”

“Incompetence is no excuse.”

Twilight and Luna shared the same look of pure shock at Shadow’s reply. Nopony in all of their years had ever talked to Celestia like that. For her part, Celestia leveled a glare at the colt that would have sent the most self-assured noble fleeing. It had absolutely no effect on the colt.

“Sister” Luna said; interjecting herself before things could escalate further. “We have to tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

“The ambassador needs to know, sister.” Luna continued, ignoring Shadow’s question.

Closing her eyes, Celestia sighed, letting her feelings toward Shadow drain from her before nodding her head. Silently, Luna stood, moving toward the cold fireplace, her horn already aglow with her magic. The oldest alicorn in the room silently thanked her sister for stepping in when she had. In front of her, the room’s youngest alicorn shook his head as he felt the waves of magic pulsing from Luna’s horn.

As he watched, nothing seemed to happen in the cold fireplace. In the roaring fireplace nearby on the other hoof, the orange and yellow flames changed color in the blink of an eye to flames that ranged in color from light green to dark emerald. Amazed at the sight, Shadow slowly inched closer, only to feel his heart stop as a clawed hand shot out of a burning log. Despite how little he could see, Shadow knew what was about to appear. So this is how she plans to end me Shadow thought as the demon pulled itself out of the log, by having another creature do her dirty work. Glancing around, his eyes fell on a crystal pitcher of water nearby.

Like hell.

Finding himself temporarily ignored, the colt slowly charged his horn. He’d only get one shot, and he couldn’t afford to miss. As the creature bowed to the eldest Princess, Shadow’s horn flashed as he struck. The pitcher leaped from the floor, flying straight for the demon in the flames.

It never made it.

Feet from its intended target, the pitcher shattered against a trio of shields, spraying its contents everywhere except the fireplace. Before he could fully grasp what had happened, Shadow felt his legs get yanked out from under him as somepony’s magic bound him more thoroughly than any rope ever could. Quickly finding it pointless to struggle, the young alicorn chose instead to glare at Celestia as he was dragged toward the fireplace before being unceremoniously, but gently, dropped before the Fire Spirit.

“Care to explain, Princess?” The creature asked; crossing its arms as it turned to the white alicorn, its eyes smoldering in anger.

“General Cinder, this is Shadow Dancer, the colt your forces have been hunting for the last few months. Shadow, this is General Cinder, the Fire Sprite Ambassador to Equestria.”

“I know what he is” Shadow grunted, his forehead sweating from the fire’s heat. “I saw enough of them when they tried to kill me for no reason. And to think” he added, turning his gaze to the Ambassador “I actually wanted to meet one of you once. Just make it quick.”

“Well, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you too, Shadow, though I must admit that I’m a bit confused. What do you mean by ‘make it quick’?”

“What do you think? You were summoned to kill me, so do me a favor and quit stalling.”

The shock on the Sprite’s face was mirrored by the other three alicorns in the room. Feeling the magic binding him falter, the young alicorn bucked his hind legs, shattering the magical restraints. Scrambling to his hooves, Shadow’s horn glowed, his magic drawing out every last drop of water from the carpeted stone floor. Instead of hurling it at the creature in the fireplace, the colt formed the water into a ball the size of his hoof and held it against his forehead; the water’s chill a welcome relief from the fire’s heat.

“Why would she want me to kill you?”

“Because I’m not one of her citizens?” Shadow suggested, tossing the water ball aside a second later. “Maybe because I’m an alicorn who doesn’t fawn all over her and praise her every move and decision?” The alicorn glared at the larger white alicorn “or perhaps because she vowed a thousand years ago to kill any member of my family that ever stepped hoof in Equestria again.”

Celestia frowned, the colt’s words sounding more like paranoid ramblings than what she had thought to expect from him. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten all about her, your Highness. When she and her group of survivors came stumbling into Canterlot one night, fleeing the Empire after it fell to Sombra, your response was a very loud ‘it can wait’! Hell, it was only after the other prisoners threatened to riot and my ancestor promised that not even your entire army could stop her that you finally took notice." Shadow watched as recognition slowly bloomed on Celestia's face. Seeing her slowly shake her head, the colt slowly smiled "and just like that, the candle of recognition sputters to life.”

“What is he talking about Princess?”

Princess Celestia’s gaze had lost focus, as it did when a pony tried to remember something from decades, or in her case, centuries, ago. A moment later, a single whispered name broke the room’s silence. “Summer Breeze.”

“Bingo.” Shadow replied, a smirk slowly growing on his face.

“What does she have to do with all this?”

“When you met her General, she had already been exiled for nearly a year for helping to lead my sister’s uprising. Shadow here, is her direct descendent.”

“Correction: her only descendent.”

The ambassador thought about it. He could definitely see some of the fiery mare in the colt, especially when it came to his attitude toward a certain alicorn. “That is interesting and all, but what does that have to do with you calling me here?”

“Nothing Ambassador” Luna said, once again injecting herself between her sister and the young colt. “We called you here because we discovered something you need to see.” Grabbing the book with her magic, the princess showed the Sprite the page in question, explaining how somepony had tried to erase the warning.

“Are you telling me that somepony tried to use us to kill him?” The general’s flames were dancing violently as he pointed at Shadow.

“No, she’s saying somepony played you like a fucking fiddle to try and kill me.” Shadow replied, stalking toward the fireplace. “Though what I would like to know is why my family had to die too. Why did you have to burn my home to the ground instead of killing just me?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Don’t give me that manure” Shadow spat. “The fact that you didn’t start throwing fireballs the moment you appeared means that you can identify individual magical signatures.”

“You’re right” The ambassador sighed as he sat down “we can identify individual signatures, but unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much when most things in your world react poorly to us.” As if to demonstrate, the elder Sprite held his hand near an unburned twig, which promptly burst into flames a couple seconds later.

“Perfect. Just fucking perfect” Shadow muttered. “You can’t kill a single defenseless colt without murdering his entire family and you” he turned to glare at Celestia “could have prevented all of this if you had simply bothered to take your head out of your own plot for one second a thousand years ago!” In all her years ruling Equestria, Princess Celestia couldn't recall the last time somepony other than her sister had talked to her like this. If Shadow had been any other pony and had accused her of such things as he had so far, they would have found the consequences unpleasant. Yet the eldest Royal Sister held her tongue. She let the colt vent himself against her. She could tell that this had been brewing for a while and she knew he had to let it out.

“If you hadn’t been so in love with yourself, you would have seen Sombra for the threat he was and you would have ended him before thousands of ponies died needlessly. Even if you hadn’t and the Empire still fell, if you had bothered to open your eyes and paid attention, you would have noticed how miserable your sister was. If you had, she wouldn’t have had to rebel against you, you wouldn’t have had to banish her and then my family. If you had just paid a little fucking attention, Star Trail never would have ascended, thousands of ponies wouldn’t have had to die at her hooves, and I never would have had to listen to my sister scream as she burned to death!” The colt’s throat felt raw as he finished screaming at the larger alicorn. In the back of his mind, Shadow knew that he probably shouldn't be talking like this to a pony who could crush him like an ant with just a thought, but he was beyond caring by that point. “But what does it matter? Sombra still happened, you banished your sister and my ancestor and while that bitch was leaving bodies everywhere she went, you were out furniture shopping, blissfully unaware of the innocent ponies being brutally murdered.”

In silence, everyone except the ambassador watched as the young alicorn stormed out of the room, his horn glowing as he tried to rip the doors off their hinges on his way out. Silently, Celestia breathed a sigh of relief that she had had the doors enchanted to prevent such a thing from happening. As it was, the doors opened, but much less forcefully than the colt seemed to expect, which only served to infuriate the young alicorn further.

"Everything alright, your Highness?"

"Yes" Celestia replied while massaging the spot between her eyes. "When you return to your post, please let the rest of the guard know to give him his space"

"Yes ma'am" The guard replied, gently closing the doors behind him a moment later.

"So… that happened" The ambassador remarked as he stepped out from the log he had hidden behind.

“What now?” Twilight asked; her mind unable to completely comprehend what had just happened.

“We find the pony responsible and deal with them” General Cinder replied; the flames of his body dancing in anger. “But first, we deal with that” he pointed a clawed finger at the book Shadow had left behind. Seeing her sister nod, Luna ignited her horn, the book glowing in her magic. Before their eyes, the ink showing the casting circle and its runes, as well as the casting instructions lifted off the page, until all that was left were two blank pages. Above the book, the individual drops of ink coalesced into a small ball, before vanishing in a flash of light. Looking at the pages, the Fire Sprite Ambassador saw two blank pages that looked as if nothing had ever been written on them. “Thank you.”

Luna nodded in reply. “Before you go, if you find the pony responsible, please let us know. There is some business I have to attend to on Shadow’s island, and I want to deal with this pony myself.”

The lone Sprite nodded. “I will take your request into consideration. If we let you deal with them, don’t leave us out.” Seeing the dark alicorn nod, the sprite stepped into the nearby log. The emergency council session was going to be a nightmare, but before he had to deal with that, he had scouts to activate.

---

Shadow was furious.

Not caring where he went, Shadow stormed down the castle’s numerous halls. Somepony had discovered his secret and had tried to kill him! While he could understand why, that understanding only served to enrage the alicorn further. Whoever it was, they had decided that his family had to die too, when their only crime was not having left him to die in the woods when he was born. What was worse, his teacher, the one earth pony he had truly trusted had been in on it! How could she not be? She had been the one to give him the accursed book! Blinking back tears, Shadow couldn’t help but imagine how easy it must have been for her. All she had to do was compliment him on his skills, offer him a challenge, then bait the hook with a couple silvers, which she knew he couldn’t resist, since even a hoof-full of silver would help his family. What an idiot he had been! How could he have not seen that something was up? While she had complimented his grades in passing in the past, she had never bothered to give him anything extra before. That should have been his first clue that something was up. The money should have been the second.

Not noticing how the castle’s security details moved to the sides of the hall as he passed, the alicorn broke into a gallop, tears stinging his eyes as he bolted for the front door, not noticing how the guards opened it for him. He didn’t know how long he ran. It wasn’t until he face planted in the snow after tripping on something that he finally noticed where he was. Picking himself up, the young orphan slowly walked through the cemetery’s arch, his hooves automatically taking him to the only reason he would be there, fresh tears streaming down his face.

---

Twilight groaned as she entered the suite she, Spike and Shadow were staying in. While she would have liked nothing more than to fall into her bed and try to pretend that the last few hours were nothing more than a horrible nightmare, she knew she couldn’t. Gently kicking the door shut behind her, Equestria’s newest Princess slowly dragged herself over to the nearby couch, not even noticing the shards of gems scattered over it and the nearby table. Normally she’d be mad at Spike about the mess, but at the moment, she didn’t care. Flopping onto the couch, the purple alicorn simply lay there with a leg over her eyes as she tried to comprehend everything that had happened.

“Twilight?”

The lone pony’s ears twitched at the sound of her name being called out. “Hey Spike.”

“How did the meeting go?”

“Imagine being able to confirm a hunch, only to have it and everything around you explode in your face.”

“That bad, huh?”

“No. It was worse.” Opening her eyes, the young princess stared at the ceiling as she told Spike everything about the meeting, while leaving out anything related to the general.

“So where is he now?” Spike asked once Twilight finished her story.

“I don’t know, though Celestia and Luna promised to keep an eye on him.”

Spike thought about Shadow. He couldn’t blame the colt for what he had done. He probably would have done something similar if he had been in the alicorn’s place. “Is there anything we can do?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not until spring at the earliest” she said, recalling the plan Luna had outlined after the Sprite Ambassador had left. “Could you take a letter for me?”

“Sure thing, Twi” The young dragon rushed into their room to grab a quill, ink and some paper, setting it all on a nearby table “Shoot.”

“Dear Shiny and Cadance…”

---

Luna watched her advisor move the black pawn forward a square. As she studied her possible moves, Luna had to admit that Honest Truth was getting good at this game. At this rate, she might start winning in a few weeks, which the lunar alicorn found herself looking forward to, though tonight promised to be as one sided as usual. Hearing the door at the far end of the hall open, the alicorn looked up, surprised to see a certain disguised alicorn slowly trudging toward her. Her advisor noticed as well, and with a tilt of her head, the chess set quickly found itself back in its box, the young mare excusing herself as she suddenly found herself with work that need to get done.

Standing up, Luna slowly flared her wings, stretching muscles that ached from lack of use. Stepping off the dais, the princess ignited her horn, gently picking up her young visitor, depositing him on her back. She could tell from the look on his face that he wanted – no, needed – to talk. She would give him all night if that’s what he needed, but while the throne room was alright, Luna felt that he needed somewhere more private, and the best place she could think of was the one room in the entire castle that she could call her own.

Comments

[Da Fennec]

Very interesting chapter I look forward to the next chapter

[Samellan]

And now it all came to the head.