The Return of Unicornia

by StormLuna

Secrets Revealed, Part 3

The train ride up to the Crystal Empire was tense, very tense. While Twilight and Luna were discussing everything that had happened involving Celestia, she sat at a decent distance away feeling a great amount of regret and frustration. She began to realize that this could completely destroy any kind of relationship she had with Twilight. She also knew that if it was to be discovered that she was in on the whole situation involving Tirek and Starlight found out, that her eldest daughter may do who knows what because she didn't know exactly how she would react to her half-sister being harmed.

When they arrived at the station Luna and Twilight began to disembark. Luna looked back at Celestia and said, "Come on Celestia, Shining Armor needs to know about this and I want to find out if what you are saying about Cadence is true."

Celestia sighed in frustration, "Luna, I'm speaking the truth, Cadence isn't mine."

The three disembarked and headed towards the palace. The three were greeted cheerfully by everypony they passed and all they could do was give as much of a cheerful response as they could given the situation. When they reached the palace they were greeted by a guard, "Your Majesties, I take it you are here to see Cadence and Shining Armor."

Twilight quickly responded, "Yes, we're here to see my family."

The guard opened the door for the two and they headed in. As they were headed towards the throne room, Celestia began to get more nervous and ultimately stopped walking. Luna looked back and said, "Sister, I know you're nervous but you have to do this. I think Shining Armor would rather hear this from you than from me or Twilight."

Celestia sighed, "I know Luna, I know."

When the two entered the throne room Shining Armor was happy to see them but Cadence was strangely not present. Given that she wanted to speak to her, Luna figured she would ask about her whereabouts. "Shining Armor, where is Cadence? I want to speak with her."

Shining responded, "She went out to mingle with some of our subjects. Why do you ask?"

Luna replied, "I just need to speak with her about some things. I can talk to her about it later."

Princess Celestia then decided the time had come to tell Shining Armor the truth. She began, "Shining Armor, there is something I have to tell you, something important."

Shining seemed rather curious about this, "Oh and what is that?"

Celestia became nervous but knew she needed to tell him, "Shining Armor, there is something I have to tell you and it involves your parents."

Shining asked, "Princess Celestia, what happened to them?"

Twilight knew that this news would likely anger her brother so she approached the throne and stood by him. She figured that he was likely going to need her by his side upon learning the news. Celestia continued, "I know this is going to upset you but Night Light and Twilight Velvet are not your parents."

Shining gasped, "What?" He paused before the anger began to show, "Tell me, who are my parents?"

Celestia began to hem and haw before Twilight ordered, "Tell him Celestia, he needs to know."

Celestia sighed, "Shining Armor, your true father is not Night Light, it is Steel Shield. At one time he was my personal guard....."

Shining immediately cut her off, "What? You mean to tell me that the captain of the Manehattan guard is my father?" He then realized that with Steel Shield being her guard that Twilight Velvet was obviously not his mother. He gasped, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you're my mother?"

Celestia nodded and Twilight continued, "And they are my parents too and to make matters worse, she sent him to Manehattan the moment I was conceived! He never even got to see me, he never even got to see his daughter."

Shining Armor turned to Celestia with a glare, "Princess Celestia, how could you do this? How could you do this with your personal guard twice? Why was it that you two didn't get married? A father should always be there for his foals, always."

Twilight added, "And you were never there as my mother, you raised me how one would raise their protege, not their daughter." Twilight then let out a angry yell, "You know what big brother, Celestia had a secret lover that she sent away because she was soooo worried about what society would think of her marrying and having foals."

Shining glared at her and snapped, "I can't believe you. You did this to us because you were scared of what society would think?"

Celestia held her head low and replied, "Shining, Twilight, I couldn't just marry your father and reveal that the two of you are mine. My sister and I are viewed as goddesses and we can't just do things like that. Things aren't like they were when your half......."

Celestia immediately stopped because she was unsure as to how Shining Armor would react to knowing that he had a much older half-sibling but Luna was not about to let her get off from telling him the whole story. "Celestia," Luna ordered, "Tell him, tell him about his much older half-sister."

Shining Armor's eyes grew wide upon hearing the news, "A much older half-sister? Who is this?"

Twilight commented, "Prepare yourself big brother, this is going to be unbelievable and regarding who the father is, you'll never believe it."

Celestia remained silent for a good twenty seconds before Luna nudged her, giving her the signal to reveal who their other sister is. She sighed, "Shining Armor, your older half-sister is far older than any of you. She is from the ancient days, she was born during a time before Luna and I were viewed as goddesses, she was born so long ago I was able to raise her on my own."

This angered Shining Armor but it also piqued his interest, "This older sister, where has she been all these years? Why didn't I ever meet her?"

Celestia began, "Now just let me tell you everything about her before you go yelling at me, alright?" Shining Armor nodded and Celestia continued, "Well over 1,500 years ago, I was in a relationship with Discord and well, it was a very close relationship and ultimately we conceived. I wound up giving birth to an Alicorn filly named Starlight Glimmer."

Shining Armor gasped, "Wait a minute, you and Discord had a child and she just happened to be an Alicorn?"

Celestia continued, "Yes and things were going ok until he began to teach her advanced chaos magic since she had the ability to use it. Well I didn't think she should know such magic so I ultimately kept them apart and that is when Discord began causing us so many problems with his chaos magic...."

Twilight cut in, "Yeah and then you turned him to stone when our sister could have talked to him and got him to stop but oh no, you just had to use the Elements of Harmony on him and then cause Starlight to want sole power and after all that, you and Luna wanted to depower her with the Elements but then she cast that spell."

Shining Armor could hardly believe his ears but he wanted to know more, "Celestia, what all happened with Starlight? What is this about her wanting power and then you wanting to depower her and this whole thing about a spell?"

Celestia continued, "Well after we turned Discord to stone she was jumped by an earth pony and pegasus colt. After that happened, she began to study non-stop so that she could take over Equestria. To satisfy her desire for power, I gave her control over territory that was inhabited solely by unicorns. Because of that she gave it the name of Unicornia but then she started turning all the stallions into mares so we had to do something."

Luna then spoke up, "Well we headed down there with the Elements of Harmony to depower her and then reverse her spells but when she saw we had the Elements, she cast a spell to cause Unicornia and herself to disappear, well until now."

Shining Armor could hardly believe his ears but one thing that did not sit well with him was their plans to depower Starlight. He angrily asked, "What, you were going to depower your daughter over that? Couldn't you have just reversed the spell?"

When he asked this both Celestia and Luna began to think about their prior actions. It finally hit them that their plans of how they would deal with Starlight were not right and were going too far. Celestia held her head low and sighed, "I suppose we did overreact, we were both so upset about it...."

Luna cut her off, "Just like we didn't think when we turned Discord to stone. Just like we should have allowed Starlight to talk to Discord, we should have talked with her about this." She paused before adding, "You know sister, we have made many mistakes in dealing with those we are close to but you....."

Celestia knew what sort of message her sister was going to send but cut her off, "I get it, I did the worst things, right?"

Luna replied, "I hate to say it but yes. At least I never hid anypony's origins from them nor did I have an intimate relationship with a personal guard that led to the birth of two foals....."

Twilight added, "Two foals you were too afraid to even admit were your own much less raise them because of what society would think?"

Celestia sighed in frustration, "Must you two keep bringing that......."

Before she could finish her sentence Cadence returned and immediately ran to Twilight and they did their dance and song,

"Sunshine, sunshine ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

The two embraced and then noticed that not only was Twilight there but so was Celestia and Luna. She asked, "Celestia, Luna, what are you doing here?"

Celestia was again hesitating until Luna nudged her sister, "Celestia, tell her." She then turned to Cadence and added, "And I have my own questions for you regarding your origins. I want to know if this whole thing with Prismia is true or not."

Cadence was curious about why she would even question her past involving Prismia but wanted to know something first, what Celestia was obviously hiding. She asked, "Celestia, what do you have to tell me?"

Celestia then began to tell Cadence everything about Shining Armor and Twilight being her foals. She gasped, "What, Steel Shield is their father and YOU are their mother."

Celestia nodded and Twilight added, "And as it turns out, the two of us have an older half-sister that both her and Luna wanted to use the Elements of Harmony against."

Cadence was not one bit thrilled over hearing this, "What, you wanted to use the Elements of Harmony on who would wind up being my sister-in-law?"

Celestia held her head low and sighed, "Look, it was because of her using spells to transform stallions into mares. Shining Armor asked why we didn't just use them to reverse the spells and we just weren't thinking and regarding her spell, she wasn't about to give up her powers."

Cadence then became curious about how Celestia's oldest daughter could cast such a spell, "How is it that she could cast such a spell? None of us have that kind of power, not even you!"

Celestia then began to go into detail with Cadence about everything that she had with everypony else. Cadence could hardly believe what she was hearing but knew that her aunt would not lie to her but she was indeed shocked. "Seriously, you had an intimate relationship with Discord and this Starlight Glimmer pony is your other daughter?" Celestia nodded causing Cadence to continue, "I don't get it Celestia. You obviously did a bad job being a mother to Starlight and she uses powerful magic to cause herself along with her country to disappear. I would think you would have learned your lesson but you obviously didn't." She paused before raising her voice, "You know what Celestia, you are a horrible mother, absolutely horrible. If I ever have any foals I will know exactly what not to do when it comes to raising him or her."

Celestia screamed loudly, "Would everypony please stop bringing all of this up? I know I'm a bad mother and all I can say is that I'm sorry."

Luna then decided that they had discussed Celestia's past enough and approached Cadence. She asked, "Cadence is what my sister old me about your origins true? Were you really adopted into the royal family or are you actually Celestia's too?"

Cadence replied, "I was adopted into the royal family by Celestia after....."

Luna cut her off, "After your confrontation with Prismia?"

Cadence confirmed, "Yes, after that so don't worry Shining Armor didn't marry his sister."

When Twilight heard this from Cadence she was relieved as she knew that at least Celestia wasn't lying to everypony about her too. After what had happened Celestia was really hoping that they could relax but those hopes would be dashed when Twilight suggested, "Well big brother, think we should go meet our father now?"

Celestia was taken by surprise over the suggestion, "What? You want to meet your father?"

Twilight approached her with a hateful glare on her face, "Yes, I do. I believe that he at least should get to meet his daughter."

Shining Armor added, "And I would like to reunite with him so that he can see how I've grown since I was a young colt."

While Celestia was really hoping that they could just go back to Canterlot and have Discord teleport them all to Unicornia and be done with all of this, she realized that her two younger children deserve to get to know their father. She sighed, "Very well."

Twilight added, "And then I want answers from those who we always called mom and dad. I want to know the whole situation behind them being the ones to adopt us."

Cadence then chimed in, "And I'm coming too. I want to meet Shiny's dad and I do want to meet my sister-in-law as well. Perhaps I can better understand why she did what she did and maybe get her to reverse that spell."

Celestia sighed in frustration, "Very well. Let's get going to Manehattan everypony. I don't know how Steel Shield will react to me just showing up but hopefully he will be happy to reunite with his son and be happy to meet his daughter."

Without another word being said, the five headed towards the train station. None knew exactly what to expect but Celestia was nervous because she knew that certain questions would come up, questions in which the answers she would give wouldn't be all that well received by either Twilight or Shining Armor.