Paw and Ring

by Teotle

Chapter 2 - Like Father Like Son

"Celestia?" Twilight and Luna asked together.

"Yes, It's me." Celestia confirmed. "Spike told me everything. I'm here to help."

"But, sister..." said Luna. "Why do you...?"

"I'm here because I want to know how it happened. " Celestia answered. "Shadowflame lived most of his life without a mother because I banished you to the moon. I know you blame yourself for it, but the blame belongs to both of us. I share the blame not only for that night, but also for simply waiting for things to get better, instead of trying to intervene in the decisions you made in the past."

"Celestia..." said Luna. "I understand, but you only knew him as the monster he became when I was gone."

"I know." Celestia replied. "That is why I want to know. I want to find out who he really was, back when he had you."

Those words made Luna smile. She nodded her head and said, "Very well, but I feel that I must warn you, sister, the knowledge of His past will not come without consequence."

"I'm aware that we may find troubling knowledge on the subject." said Celestia. "But knowing the truth will be worth the pain."

"So, where do we continue?" Twilight asked.

Luna skimmed through he pages until she found page the paragraph she wanted to read. "Here it is.", She said, pointing her hoof.

She then read, "Dear Diary, I'm thinking of introducing Shadowflame and Snowdrop together. I've noticed how much they have in common, I think they would make a cute pair of friends. They both are very different from the other children, but they both can recognize the beauty of things that everpony else always overlook."

"I know that Snowdrop will be afraid at first, not just because Shadowflame's a wolf, but also, she always has trouble getting to know anypony knew. Shadowflame, on the other hand, I might not be bale to hold back his questions and constant energy, but I know they'll warm up to each other very quickly."

Celestia then asked, "How did they do, together, by the way?"

"Very good, actually" Luna answered in a chuckle. Snowdrop was shy at first, but she came to terms with what he was. You should have heard her squeak when Shadowflame started sniffing her. He was so excited to meet Snowdrop, he even gave her a kiss on the cheek."

"Wait..." Twilight interrupted. "Were Shadowflame and Snowdrop like Nyx and Teotle, at all?"

Luna thought about it and answered, "Yes, now that I think about it, they were. Huh, I hadn't noticed that before." She flipped through a few pages until she found an old picture, magically printed inside the book. It was an image of her with Shadowflame and Snowdrop, both sitting with her. Luna smiled as a tear fell from her eye.

Twilight looked at the picture and noticed Shadowflame's cutiemark, which looked exactly like Teotle's. "You were right, Luna, they do have the same cutiemark."

"Yes, I remember now." Luna added.

Then Celestia interjected, "But what does it mean? No other wolf in history had any cutiemark."

"It's very simple." said Scarlet Rose, coming into the room.

"Scarlet, what are you..." Twilight asked, before Scarlet interrupted her.

"I was watching you from the start. I heard Luna singing that song from next door. After that, I heard her and Twilight talking about his cutiemark, so I chose to follow you in secret."

"Scarlet, that's not very responsive of you, spying on somepony." Twilight said.

"No, Twilight, she is Teotle's sister. She deserves to know." Celestia commented. "Scarlet, what were you saying?"

Scarlet sighed and said, "Well, the old stories and legends of Shadowflame's origin have been told from several generation of our people, for about a thousand years."

"What do the stories say?" Luna asked.

"The historians of my old village say that Shadowflame came to the country a few weeks after Luna's banishment to the moon. He had been found in the badlands, passed out in the sand for hours. No one knew how he had survived as long as he did. All they knew was that he had that mark on his flank. The scouts who had found him, had the mark looked at by the local soul reader."

"Soul reader?" Twilight asked.

Scarlet looked at her sand explained, "A soul reader is like a snake charmer, or a dog whisperer, but for the soul. She saw the mark and noticed how it was very similar to those of your people. She then looked at his memories and saw how he found himself falling from the sky, from that eclipse Luna talked about."

"What happened after that?" Celestia asked.

"The soul reader knew, immediately, that he was from an alternate reality.", Scarlet replied. "You all should know this concept by now, since Twilight has gone to one so many times before, after all."

"Alternate reality?" Twilight asked. "Do you mean the Human world?"

"No, Twilight." Scarlet answered. "There are more than just one reality beyond this one. Soul readers and necromancers can look through certain openings in between worlds and see what lie beyond. The one who looked at Shadowflame's mark had found traces of his own reality, from before he came here. But, that story had been lost over time. Olny Shadowflame would know of it.

"What else did the soul reader see?" Celestia asked.

Scarlet looked down and said, "They found a long and disturbing memory, one that showed him being interrogated by Canterlot's royal guards, shortly after being found in this very room."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

So this is a self-insert, then?

[Teotle]

8828877
Yeah, I guess. None if this has happened to me, though.