Chapter 13 - Past Sins
Arc looks at Twilight and she at him.
“We really should have had this talk the other day, rather than just start fighting.”
Twilight nods. “Yes, I agree! Can I start?”
Arc smiles at Twilight. “Go ahead.”
“I just wanted to say, I honestly built Rose to keep you company and make you happy! Trying to replace Cherry wasn’t supposed to be my goal. But now that I look at it, I guess that’s what I did!”
She looks up at Arc sadly.
“I’m so sorry, Cherry.”
Cherry giggles. “It’s fine, Twilight! You were only looking out for Arc’s well-being.”
Arc nods. “Cherry’s right. And I’m really sorry for jumping all over you for trying to help me.”
“I guess I should have explained my reasoning better. But you just got SO mad so FAST, Arc! Why?!”
“Well… part of the reason is because I felt you were trying to replace Cherry. No one will ever truly be able to do that.”
Twilight looks down at her hooves, sadly. “I understand that. Now anyways…”
“There is more to it however.”
“Oh?
Arc sighs. “From where I stood at the time, for all intents and purposes, you created a living creature.”
Twilight shakes her head. “I already explained this, Arc! It’s NOT alive!”
“I understand that. However, she does have feelings. When you threatened to dismantle her, in my mind you were planning to KILL her!”
“But…!”
Arc interrupts. “I’ve gotten to know her a bit since we left the library yesterday. You really did do an amazing job programming her emotions!”
Twilight looks surprised. “I did? Most of it was just guess work!”
“Yes. She’s displayed quite an advanced understanding of life thus far as well.”
“Such as?”
“Well… she’s made quite a few mistakes. But has also learned from them.”
Arc relates the story of the previous night’s supper preparation. Twilight blushes slightly.
“I’m sorry about that. Its lack of cooking skills are my fault! Sadly, I didn’t program anything in that regard!”
“It’s fine. She shows quite the desire to learn and please me. A bit too much actually.”
“Oh? Did something happen?”
Arc nods. “I believe the events of last night’s supper were due to her trying WAY too hard to do a good job. She sped through the processes without even understanding it.”
Twilight looks up at him sheepishly. “Kinda like its creator, huh?”
“None of us are born knowing everything, Twilight. We all do our best to grow and learn as we go. It will be no different for her.”
Twilight smiles. “I could always try to program it with more information!”
“Thank you, but I think Rose should just learn it herself.”
“Alright. If that’s what you want. Have you been able to teach it anything useful thus far?”
“Uh… kinda.”
Twilight sighs. “Oh dear… that look on your face tells me things did not go well.”
Arc blushes. “You could say that. I was taking a shower before bed last night and she… uh… got in with me.”
Twilight blushes much deeper as her hooves fly to her mouth in embarrassment “Oh my! I am SO sorry about that, Arc! It sounds like I forgot to program certain aspects of human coverings into her!”
“Yes, well… seeing as ponies don’t usually wear clothes or exercise the same level of modesty, I can see how you wouldn’t of thought to program that into your creation. Can I assume ponies don’t mind bathing with others?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Not at all! Sometimes it’s something of a social interaction! In fact, my friends and I take a bath together once a week at the Ponyville Day Spa!”
Arc blushes. “In that case, I can completely understand why you wouldn’t have thought to program that.”
“While I still don’t understand your rational, I do know it makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“Well… if you ever saw a human without their clothes on, you’d understand where I’m coming from.”
Twilight smiles embarrassedly. “I’ll… take your word for it.”
“Thanks. Look Twilight, before we go any further with this conversation I feel like I really need to tell you something else about yesterday.”
“What is it?”
“I owe you an explanation for why I did what I did. Why I destroyed your research.”
Twilight waits patiently as Arc collects his thoughts.
“I just want to preface by saying it’s not because you built a robot.”
“It wasn’t?”
Arc shakes his head. “No. It was because you made a robot that can think, speak and feel emotions such as happiness, sadness and guilt.”
Twilight looks confused. “What are you talking about? If this is about it crying when I started the machine up, that was probably a glitch the subroutines just needed to work out. I mean, it’s not like it’s happened since then, right?”
“Yes, actually it has.”
“It has?!”
Arc nods. “Yes. Last night in the shower, her actions accidentally hurt me. When I regained consciousness she was crying and very remorseful.”
Twilight stands up and paces the floor. “Hmmm… remorse for her mistakes. That’s certainly more than I programmed it to do!”
“What are you talking about?”
Twilight frowns. “Programming such a deep level of emotions and feelings should be like trying to explain to a blind from birth pony what the color blue looks like!”
“Are… are you saying what I think you are?!”
Twilight nods. “Yes! What you’ve described is most certainly impossible! While I don’t doubt your words or what you saw, I’d like to see this for myself! Tell me, what’s your next move?”
Arc shrugs. “I didn’t really have anything planned, as it seems work tends to find ME!”
“That does seem to usually be the case. But whatever you do, were you planning on taking it with you?”
“I probably should. She’s… very protective after all. In fact, she insisted on coming here with me today. Even after I warned her that you might try to dismantle her again.”
“Wait, it VOLUNTEERED?!”
Arc nods. “Very bravely, I might add.”
“Wherever you go next, I want to come too! This is something that needs to be studied!”
“I’ll consider it when I figure out what needs doing. But for now, do you think we could talk more about the idea you had about making an artificial sun?”
Twilight smiles at him. “Sure! How about we see if Auriel will show you how her invention works?!”
Arc nods. “Good idea. “
He turns his head toward the stairs and raises his voice.
“Rose? You and Auriel can come downstairs now!”
The door slowly opens and the pair cautiously descend. Auriel appears nervous.
“Is… is everything okay down here?”
Twilight smiles. “Yes! Arc and I talked things over!”
“We’re back on speaking terms again as well.”
Twilight turns to Auriel. “Arc wanted to talk to you about the P.E.E.L and how it works.”
Auriel breathes a sigh of relief. “In regards to making a sun?”
Arc nods. “Yes. Let’s look it over. That is, if it’s okay with you, Auriel.”
“Of course! Please follow me!”
She leads them over to a large device in the corner. It is currently humming away.
“This is the Plant Elemental Essence Liberator, or P.E.E.L for short. We’ve been able to use it to study the latent magic that resides in a number of plants.”
Twilight nods. “She based the design off Applejack’s cider making still.”
Auriel smiles. “It uses a similar process as alcohol making.”
She goes over the basic process on how the device works. Arc nods, clearly impressed.
“Incredible! Do you really think it’s possible to create a larger version of Rose’s heart?”
“I do, Arc! Frankly this is a much better idea than the one I came up with to try growing plants without sunlight!”
Arc looks down at the small container the finished product is dripping into.
“So that’s the essence, huh?”
Twilight nods as she turns a valve and picks up the glass container with her magic. “That it is! This was the first step in making Rose’s core.”
Rose looks over at the substance as she puts a hand on her chest. “I guess it was pretty hard to make me then.”
Twilight levitates the essence over to Arc. “More time consuming than anything.”
Arc takes the glass in his hand and looks it over. “Is it because you have to acquire it drop by drop?”
Auriel sighs. “Partially. You see, we can only grow the fruit this comes from so fast.”
Arc looks up. “Wait! So this is the essence of a single type of plant?!”
Twilight nods. “Yes! It’s truly remarkable!”
“Sorry. I just assumed it was a careful blend of many different essences.”
Auriel shakes her head. “No, just one!”
Rose looks at the glass. “Excuse me, but how much of this did it take to make my heart?”
Twilight looks over. “About ten gallons.”
She looks down at her chest. “All that is inside me?!”
Auriel shakes her head. “No. Twilight had to further compress it to make something a bit more manageable.”
Arc nods. “Really? How?”
Twilight takes the glass from Arc and walks over to a nearby table.
“First I ran it through a centrifuge to remove any impurities”
She puts the essence into a small centrifuge and starts it up. In a few minutes she stops the machine and pours the liquid into another vessel. It has gone from light pink to a deep mauve color.
Auriel turns to Arc. “Now it’s 100% pure.”
Twilight smiles. “Right!”
She walks over to another machine and puts the purified essence in, closes the lid and secures it.
“This device is a Magical Compressor. It magically forces the essence into a tighter form.”
Rose looks confused. “Doesn’t it resist that? Especially with the latent magical emissions wanting to expand outward.”
“It does. However this process takes the emissions, which are also pure at this point, and redirects them inward to further compress and increase the potency of the sample.”
Arc thinks for a moment. “So it’s kinda like kneading bread then? The emissions are like the yeast and the sample is the dough.”
Twilight nods. “Quite the analogy, Arc. Yes, that’s a good way of describing it. However, unlike the bread making process, we’re not letting the ‘dough’ rise and expand.”
Auriel grins. “Instead we’re forcing it to compress to the density of a diamond!”
Arc’s eyes grow wide. “How long does that take?!”
Twilight turns back to the machine. “About a week of non-stop compression.”
Rose nods. “Then what are you left with?”
Auriel walks over to a cupboard and removes a stasis container. Inside is a marble-sized gem which pulsates ever so slightly She opens the container and reaches inside.
“This!”
Arc looks concerned. “Is it safe for you to be holding it like that?!”
Auriel nods. “Oh yes! Once it’s properly compressed it would take a very specific amount of force to release the energy within!”
Arc frowns. “Like… throwing it down?”
Twilight shakes her head. “More along the lines of dropping a building on it.”
Rose looks at the marble. “What would happen?!”
Auriel shakes her head. “As-is, it would just shatter like glass.”
Arc looks over at Rose. “What about the one in her chest?”
Twilight smiles. “I found the more essence I combined, the larger the heart got naturally. However, it also became more pliable. At its current size, it’s similar in texture to a newborn foal’s chew toy.”
Arc looks nervously at Rose. “So it’s not going to shatter?”
“Not a chance. Like I said the other day, worst case scenario the field would be knocked out of alignment requiring a simple adjustment and system restart. And even that is very unlikely.”
Rose puts her hand over her chest. “That’s reassuring!”
Arc turns back to Twilight. “So… do you really think it’s possible to make one large enough to act as an artificial sun?”
Rose looks confused. “Couldn’t it get so pliable that it wouldn’t hold its shape?”
Auriel shrugs. “It is a possibility. What do you think Twilight?”
“We could probably compensate by increasing the output of the containment field in strategic locations.”
“Containment field? Like the one inside Rose?”
Twilight nods. “Yes, Arc. Think of it like a really big stand the ‘sun’ will sit on. That and something needs to hold it in alignment.”
Rose looks again at the marble as it is put away. “How will the containment field be built? I mean, you can’t really send workers into Tartarus… can you?”
Auriel frowns. “I would hope not! Twilight?”
“We’ll have to give that matter some more thought. But not to worry. We have plenty of time to think while we grow more of this fruit.”
Arc chuckles. “What kind of fruit is it? I assume it’s a bit more exotic than apples and strawberries.”
Twilight nods. “It is! The sample we used to grow our bush was sent to me by Princess Cadance a while back.”
Rose looks to her creator. “Where did it come from?”
Auriel shrugs. “Her letter said some explorers found it in some faraway land.”
“Yes. She wanted us to study it and report our findings.”
A hoof suddenly flies to Twilight’s mouth.
“We really should do that soon, Auriel! It just occurred to me that I never let her know what we’ve been able to do with this fruit!”
Arc nods. “I’d kinda like to see this fruit for myself! It sounds absolutely incredible! May I?”
Twilight nods. “Sure! Follow me!”
She leads the group to a small adjoining room lined with grow lights and a number of bushes. Strange looking fruit hangs from the branches. Twilight steps aside as the others enter the room behind her.
“We still have to come up with a name for it, but…”
Arc looks at the fruit, wide-eyed. “Twilight? Where did you say this fruit came from again?”
“Some far away land is all the letter said. Why do you ask?”
“I've seen this before!”
Auriel smiles. “Really?! Where?!”
Arc does not respond. Instead he calls forth his gauntlet and opens a portal.
“Rose, take this portal back to Light’s Hope and tell Ember to get over here as fast as she can!”
Rose nods as she rushes toward the portal. “Right away!”
The portal closes behind her as Twilight and Auriel look at each other, deeply confused.
“Arc? What’s going on?”
“I want Ember to see this and tell us if it is indeed the same fruit as before.”
Auriel steps back. “Is this stuff… dangerous?!”
“No, no! It’s just… look, it’s complicated. Ember can tell us more when she gets here.”
A short time later there is the sound of the library door opening. Ember, Sereb and Rose come inside and quickly descend the basement steps.
“I came as quick as I could, Arc!”
Sereb nods. “As did I.”
Rose looks worried. “What’s wrong?!”
Arc gestures to the room with the plants.
“Look in there and tell me what you see, Ember.”
“Uh… okay?”
Ember opens the door and sticks her head inside. A moment later she slams the door shut and looks back at the others, wide-eyed.
“I didn’t see that! It… it isn’t POSSIBLE!”
She turns and opens the door a few inches for a second glance before shutting it again. Arc sighs.
“Are they the same as the ones we saw, Ember?”
Ember nods soberly. “Yes. No doubt about it. Those really are Dragon Fruit.”
Sereb frowns. “Agreed. I remember the three of us eating them shortly after meeting you.”
Twilight looks to them, confused. “Dragon Fruit?”
Ember nods. “They’re indigenous to the Dragon Lands. There’s a grove there where a lot of these things grow wild.”
Auriel appears ecstatic. “I guess that solves our supply problem! If the dragons don’t mind parting with some of their food source, that is!”
Ember shakes her head. “Dragon’s don’t really eat these. Other than me, of course.”
Sereb turns to Arc. And Arc, if memory serves correctly.”
Twilight turns to Auriel, equally excited. “Then we can go there and pick all we need?!”
Auriel nods. “The ‘sun’ would be ready to deploy in no time, as most of the production time hinges on more fruit to grow!”
Arc shakes his head. “Wait a second, you two. There’s more to it than that.”
Ember nods. “Right! My father decreed many years ago that this plant must never leave the Dragon Lands!”
Twilight looks confused. “What?! But why?!”
“I have no idea. However he was most insistent!”
Auriel turns to Ember, nervously. “Are we in trouble?!”
Ember nods. “All of Equestria will be if he finds out they’re here!”
“You don’t think he would come here, do you Ember?”
“He just might, Arc!”
Twilight looks at the door and shudders. “What should we do?!”
Arc thinks for a moment. “I should probably head over to Canterlot and tell the princesses about this. They can make the next choice themselves.”
Twilight nods. “Auriel and I will come with you!”
“Right! This is our fault, after all.”
Rose turns to Arc. “May I come as well?”
“Yes, Rose. Just stay with me and learn what you can about pony culture.”
She smiles at him. “Sounds like fun!”
Ember sighs. “Not looking forward to this, but I’ll come too!”
Sereb turns to Arc. “I shall bear you to your destination as well, Arc.”
Arc calls forth his armor as he opens a portal. “Alright. Everyone in!”
The group files into the portal and arrives safely in Arc’s room in Canterlot Castle. Rose looks around the room.
“It feels like we were just here.”
Arc chuckles. “We were yesterday.”
They leave the room and walk down the hallway together. Twilight turns to Arc.
“Were you serious when you said the princesses agreed with my idea of dismantling Rose?”
“Yes, Twilight.”
Rose shudders at the thought.
Auriel looks surprised. “How did you convince them not to go through with it?”
“I just explained to them that she hadn’t done anything worthy of such a fate.”
Twilight frowns. “That’s it?!”
“Well… there was a bit more. But that’s not important right now.”
Ember nods. “Right! They need to know what’s been done!”
A few minutes later they arrive at the Audience Chamber anteroom. Arc walks up to the Royal Guard Commander.
“I need to see the princesses at once regarding a very urgent matter!”
The Royal Guard Commander gestures to the door. “Yes sir. Please go on in.”
Twilight looks to him, wide-eyed. “What?! But isn’t there already somepony in there?!”
“Yes. But Princess Luna has issued a standing order that the Hero of Light is to be admitted immediately upon requesting an audience!”
Arc and company walk into the Audience Chamber together. The previous audience is still underway. Princess Luna looks up to see Arc and his friends approaching. She looks back at the current audience.
“Another matter has come up. Please return to the anteroom and wait.”
They bow and walk back toward the door. Twilight turns to Arc and whispers.
“You must have really impressed her last time! Nopony else has her ear like this!”
Arc nods and whispers back. “Well, she knows I don’t like to waste her time. That and I always have something important to say when I come.”
They arrive at the foot of the princess’ thrones. The guards bow as Luna and Cadance step down from their thrones. The Princess of Love turns to him.
“You are dismissed, commander. And take the other guards with you, would you kindly?”
He nods and motions for the Royal Guards to follow him. They march out of the Audience Chamber and close the door behind them. Cadance walks quickly over to Twilight.
“It’s been a long time Twily!”
Twilight happily gives Cadance a hug. “Too long!”
The pair trot in place and do a strange dance as they sing together.
“Sunshine! Sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”
Luna shakes her head. “Please Cadance! I’m sure Arc and his friends did not come here for that!”
Arc clears his throat in an effort not to laugh. “Yes, well… we actually needed to talk to you about something rather urgent.”
Cadance gestures to the nearby office. “Should we sit down?”
Ember nods. “That might not be a bad idea. This news is kinda heavy!”
“Right this way.”
Princess Luna leads the group into the office. Arc closes the door behind them.
“A bit of privacy will go a long way in this matter as well.”
Cadance looks to Arc, confused. “Privacy? But… we already sent the guards away.”
Twilight sighs. “Yes. You see, this is kinda… how do I say this…”
Everyone takes a seat. The princesses on one couch and Arc, Ember, Twilight and Rose on the other. Arc nods.
“Maybe I better tell them.”
Twilight looks relieved. “Thank you!”
“Do you two remember when you were trapped in the Lunar Realm?”
Luna shudders. “Some of us try to forget that time in our lives!”
“Well… that time I brought Silver Hammer and Twilight to visit you, we spoke about a magical fruit.”
Cadance nods as she looks at Twilight. “Yes, you told me I had sent it to you Twilight.”
Twilight nods sheepishly. “Right. You don’t by any chance remember exactly where it came from, do you?”
Cadance shakes her head sadly. “No. In fact, I still don’t remember even sending it to you. Why do you ask?”
“Earlier this morning we were talking about and idea to make an artificial sun with the condensed magical essence of this plant.”
Luna chuckles. “You say that so casually.”
Auriel turns to the princess. “The idea works on paper, your highness.”
Cadance looks confused. “For what purpose are you researching this?”
Twilight turns to her friend. “Auriel and I were trying to figure out a way to grow plants without sunlight.”
Arc nods. “I acquired some Zap Apple seeds for her to experiment on.”
“Yes. Sadly I was unable to successfully grow anything without the aid of natural or artificial light.”
Twilight sighs. “That’s when I came up with the idea of an artificial sun.”
Luna frowns. “I am confused. Why are you trying to make a sun?”
Cadance nods as she points a hoof toward the window. “Agreed! We already have one!”
Arc nods. “Very true. However Tartarus does not.”
Rose nods. “It’s just a larger version of my own power core!”
Ember rolls her eyes. “A MUCH larger version, I suppose!”
Luna frowns. “Tartarus? Why would you…?”
Arc interrupts her. “Forgive me, Princess Luna, but that isn’t the problem we came to see you about today.”
“It isn’t?”
Arc shakes his head. “No. We have a much larger issue right now!”
Luna nods. “Very well. But we ARE going to continue this conversation at a later date!”
“Fair enough. In any case, Auriel and Twilight were showing me their proof of concept in a small-scale demonstration.”
“That would certainly be interesting to see!”
Cadance nods. “I agree, Luna! They’ll have to show us sometime!”
Auriel grimaces. “That may be problematic, your highnesses.”
“When they showed me the plant they’ve been extracting the essence from, I immediately recognized it as Dragon Fruit!”
Luna’s eyes grow wide. “Dragon Fruit?! Here in Equestria?!”
Twilight sighs. “In my basement no less.”
Cadance appears horrified. “I sent you… Dragon Fruit?!”
Ember shrugs. “Apparently.”
Luna looks nervous as she lowers her voice. “Who else knows about this?!”
“Only those gathered here now.”
Cadance grimaces. “Are you ABSOLUTELY certain, Arc?!”
“Yes.”
Cherry calls out to them. “I don’t understand what the big deal is. The fruit seems harmless enough to me.”
Arc nods. “I even ate some of it when Ember pointed it out to me in the Dragon Lands.”
Luna shakes her head. “The fruit itself IS harmless. However, as part of an ancient pact with Dragon Lord Torch, we swore that we would never take even a single seed from the Dragon Lands!”
Rose looks confused. “But why?”
Cadance sighs. “This was long before my time of course, but Aunt Celestia made that deal centuries ago. I’m sure even the Dragon Lord himself has forgotten about it by now!”
Luna shakes her head. “Unlikely. What I’m about to say does not leave this room. Does everypony understand?”
Everyone nods.
Luna takes a deep breath before continuing. “The idea for an artificial sun. Does it involve purifying and then condensing magical essence by any chance?”
Auriel looks surprised. “It does! How did you know that Princess Luna?!”
“Such things are not new discoveries. They are in fact ancient and forbidden knowledge.”
Arc sighs. “Does this have to do with weaponizing magic?”
Cadance nods. “It does.”
Luna continues. “Long ago, this land’s Earth Pony ancestors sought to find an edge over the magically empowered Unicorns.”
Cadance nods. “You see, Unicorns had their magic and Pegasi had the gift of flight. The Earth Ponies, however strong as they might be, had difficulty fighting the other two races.”
“The Pegasi could fly out of range, while the Unicorns could blast them from a distance. To close the strategic gap, the Earth Ponies began to research magical extractions on their Unicorn prisoners.”
Twilight looks frightened. “They extracted magic from… unicorns?!”
Cadance sighs. “Yes. Forbidden history books all agree that it was a terribly painful process, akin to having a horn ripped out.”
Twilight shudders and pats her horn as Luna nods.
“While terrible, the Unicorns were the only source of magic available to the Earth Ponies at the time! That is… until they discovered Dragon Fruit.”
Ember looks surprised. “They went to the Dragon Lands?!”
Cadance sighs. “That they did. Brave adventurers journeyed there in hopes of negotiating some kind of alliance with Dragon Lord Torch.”
“While the expedition did fail in their original mission, they took several Dragon Fruit back with them.”
Twilight looks up. “To study?”
Cadance chuckles. “No. Probably because they were so sweet.”
Arc grins. “That they are!”
Ember frowns. “I doubt the dragons from back then really cared about the ‘theft’! We’re not much for really sweet food, after all.”
Luna nods. “Yes. At first they were grown to aid the war effort.”
Rose looks confused. “I thought Earth Ponies were masters of growing food. Was there some kind of shortage?!”
“I don’t believe so, no. A sweet treat, however, can do wonders to lift the spirits of the troops.”
Luna nods in agreement with Cadance. “When their scientists studied the fruit, however, they found it was possible to extract the fruit’s essence and condense it.”
“Just like I did!”
Arc sighs. “Why do I get the feeling they found a rather nasty use for said essence?”
Cadance nods. “They compressed various components of the essence into crystals in an effort to study its effects more closely. Their results were nothing short of horrifying!”
Ember looks nervous. “What did they discover?!”
“One of the crystals they created had very powerful mind control powers!”
Twilight gasps in horror. “Did they try to turn it against their enemies?!”
Cadance nods. “They did. However it didn’t have any effect on either the Pegasi or the Unicorns.”
Auriel looks relieved. “Thank goodness!”
“You would think so. But they continued to study it’s darker properties. In time, they were finally successful in controlling something.”
Ember frowns. “Their enemies?”
Luna shakes her head as she looks at Ember. “No. Dragonkind.”
“WHAT?!”
Cadance nods. “It’s true! They returned to the Dragon Lands in an effort to begin collecting dragon warriors to bolster their ranks.”
Arc sighs. “Please tell me they weren’t successful.”
“Fortunately, no. Had they done so we’d all be living in an Earth Pony controlled society now.”
Luna nods. “Dragon Lord Torch was able to guard his mind against the invaders long enough to drive them away. But… at a heavy cost.”
Cadance’s ears droop. “Dragon Lord Torch first had to fight through his fellow dragons whom had fallen victim. Among them was… his mate.”
Ember’s eyes grow wide. “His… my mother?!”
“Yes. He was forced to slay her in order to protect all dragonkind from enslavement. I’m sorry, Ember.”
She turns around and walks over to a nearby window. Putting her claw on it and looking to the east.
“Dad… you… you never said a thing…”
Arc walks over and puts his hands on her shoulders. “I can’t imagine having to do such a thing.”
Auriel nods soberly. “Was that the end of the matter?”
Cadance shakes her head. “Not quite.”
“Dragon Lord Torch gathered every dragon in the Dragon Lands and led a full-scale invasion of the Earth Pony realm.”
Cadance sighs. “He and his dragons burned every last field in an effort to eradicate Dragon Fruit from our shores. Anypony who got in their way was made into a gruesome example.”
Luna frowns. “On their flight back to the Dragon Lands, Torch ordered everything in their path destroyed.”
Rose shudders. “E-everything?”
“Everything. Whole towns were burned and their inhabitants butchered. Earth Pony, Pegasi and Unicorn alike.”
Ember nods sadly. Not looking back. “What… what about me? This happened well over a thousand years ago! Does that mean I’m… I’m not really his daughter?!”
Luna walks over to stand at Ember’s side. “No, Ember. You were still and egg at that time.”
Ember scoffs. “No egg could last THAT long!”
“The Dragon Lord flew far to the north past Canterlot and even past the Crystal Empire to lay his mate to rest in the icy caverns of Mount Everhoof before returning to the Dragon Lands. Scouts were sent to investigate and found your mother’s tomb. They discovered her curled up as if asleep. A single egg nestled in the cruck of her tail.”
Twilight’s eyes grow wide. “Did they take it?!”
Luna shakes her head. “No. After what the Dragon Lord had done they were far too afraid in invoke his wrath yet again. The egg was left where it was and the scouts returned to our lands. Their report added to the archives reserved for forbidden knowledge.”
“But then how did I survive all those years in an egg?!”
Cadance walks over. “About twenty years ago Aunt Celestia visited your mother’s tomb. She wanted to see for herself if the ancient report was indeed true.”
“Against my advice, she flew to Mount Everhoof and found the tomb. Just as the report had said, the preserved body of a large dragon lay there with an egg still nestled where it had been left so long ago.”
Luna sighs.
“She told me later that something told her to bring the egg back to Canterlot.”
Sereb growls. “What kind of something?”
“She described it as a kind of intuition of sorts. My sister brought your egg back and slowly begin the process of warming it up. The next morning I awoke to find my sister in her room with a wing resting gently on your egg. Celestia lay next to it for a week, rising only briefly to take care of her most… basic needs.”
Cadance looks confused. “I don’t remember this!”
“It was before your time, my dear. She ordered the royal physician at the time to declare her too sick to rule for the time being. I led the nation for a time alone.”
Arc thinks for a moment. “So Princess Celestia… hatched Ember?!”
“She did. Only her and myself ever knew of this. Even the doctor himself was kept in the dark.”
Twilight turns to Luna. “What happened after a week?”
“The egg hatched.”
Auriel’s eyes grow wide. “After all those years?!”
Sereb contemplates this. “The circle of life can be… persistent at times.”
Luna sighs. “I don’t know how the egg stayed viable all that time. Had I not seen it burst open myself, I too wouldn’t have believed it.”
She looks over at Ember. A small smile creeping over her face.
“You were the cutest little thing I had ever seen, Ember! So small and frail. Celestia took you to her private shower and gave you your first bath.”
Luna closes her eyes and smiles, remembering the event as if it had happened only yesterday.
Rose smiles. “Did Princess Celestia raise her?”
“No. She wanted to, but I was able to convince her that Ember belonged with her own father. A rendezvous between my sister and the Dragon Lord was planned in the greatest of secrecy.”
Ember shudders. “What happened?”
Luna shakes her head. “Only the Dragon Lord and my sister know for sure. All I know about the event is Celestia returning to the castle very… VERY sad! I helped my sister to bed and went to sleep myself. She… she didn’t leave her room for three days.”
Twilight looks up nervously. “Princess Luna? What… what did she do in there?!
“No one entered during that time by her order. She neither ate or drank anything. Every night the sounds of sobbing could be heard. It took a long time, but she was able to move past… whatever happened that fateful night.”
Luna turns back to look at those assembled.
“Please, for the sake of my sister, do not speak of this ever again.”
All assembled nod soberly, except Ember. Arc sighs.
“What about the crystal? Was it lost in the attack?”
Luna shakes her head. “No. It was hidden away until after our land’s unification. Then it was placed in the Royal Armory for centuries.”
Sereb frowns. “Is it still there?”
“No. My sister took it with her when she flew off with whelpling Ember to meet with Torch. When she returned, she had neither Ember nor the crystal.”
Twilight looks nervous. “Are you saying it’s out there somewhere?!”
“I am.”
“We should go find it! In the wrong hooves…”
Ember interrupts. “That won’t be necessary, Twilight. I know exactly where it is.”
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Intresting take on world history. Seperation by disgust. One of the very few things stopping dragons just eating all the pones?
10135927
What probably stopped the dragons in the past was the geographical distance. The Dragon Lands and Equestria are fairly far apart after all. And who wants to travel to another continent for a meal?
What keeps the ponies safe in the modern era is a treaty between Celestia and Torch. More on that next chapter. Along with the ramifications of the penalty for breaking said treaty.
Ah, that dragon lordly staff of mind control, innit?
11301715
Something like that. But this is only the beginning of that story arc.
11351354
Fixed.