The painful truth

“How is she?”
“Oh, she’s fine. She came around quickly and she wants to see Stelline as soon as possible. I guess that would be the best thing though. She has so many questions, and waiting will only make her more upset.”
Twinkle Star sighed. “Thanks, Tsuyo. Is it okay if I go in now?”
Tsuyo nodded and she walked away towards the kitchen.  Slowly Twinkle Star walked towards her mother’s bedroom door. It wasn’t pretty, of course, to see their mother faint, but Twinkle Star had expected something like it. After all, her mother had been through quite a lot the last few months and finding your sister and daughter back in one day, it was simply too much for her. But she was in bed now, relaxing, and Tsuyo was taking care of her. Stelline and the others were still in the kitchen. Of course Stelline felt guilty about making her mother faint, but, well, she expected it as well.

Twinkle Star stood in front of the yellow door now and she inspected the symbol, that she had seen that afternoon, closer. It looked like the old symbol all right, but it looked weaker, less powerful. Twinkle Star still didn’t get it, but it wasn’t important at the moment. She was here to see her mother. Slowly she opened the door and she stepped inside. The room was quite beautiful. The walls were painted with a soft yellow color. Regina’s bed was on the right and it was huge, and much more stylish than the little beds Twinkle Star and the others were sleeping in. It was also made of wood, but painted in dark green. Above the pillows the wood continued in half a circle, on which the same symbol was painted as on the door, but in yellow. On the other side of the room hung a painting of a pony, but Twinkle Star was too focussed on her mother to recognise that the pony in the painting was her grandmother, Medina.

“Hello, mom.” She said softly while she closed the door. “How do you feel?”
“Oh, just fine now. Tsuyo gave me some nice hot tea with some herbs that helped me to calm down. How is Stelline?”
Twinkle Star walked towards her mother’s bed and noticed the pink with yellow sheets had a print of dark green crowns on it.
“Oh, she’s okay. She’s really worried about you and she feels guilty, I think, for doing this to you.” “
Oh, but she shouldn’t! Please Twinkle Star, I want to see her, I want to talk to her. I am the one who should feel bad for reacting like this. Will you please go find her for me?” Regina asked with a trembling voice. Twinkle Star smiled at her mother.
“Sure, I will. Don’t worry and be calm though, mother. Don’t get too excited, or you might pass out again.”
Twinkle Star said while she walked back towards the door.
“I won’t, don’t worry. Oh and Twinkle Star…” Regina began, but she didn’t finish her sentence before Twinkle Star stopped walking and faced her mother again. “Yeah?”
“Thank you. You have no idea… Thank you.” Regina said, and Twinkle Star noticed her eyes were wet.
“It’s okay, mom.”

Twinkle Star closed the door behind her and slowly walked towards the kitchen. She could hear some soft voices talking through the door, and she noticed everyone was still inside when she opened it. Meanwhile, Ivy and Fleur had been introduced to Stelline and they were still gasping at her with awe. To ponies who had never seen a unicorn before, she was of course extraordinary interesting and in a way, beautiful. It was something they had never seen before and they thought it was highly unlikely they would meet another unicorn. As far as anyone in the room knew, Stelline was the only one alive.

“How’s mother?” Crystal asked when they noticed Twinkle Star was back.
“She’s okay. She’ll be just fine tomorrow morning. It was simply a little too much.”
“I expected that. It’s good to hear she’ll be fine.” Crystal replied.
“She wants to meet Stelline.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly all eyes were looking at Stelline.
“Do you want to come?” Twinkle Star asked, and Stelline nodded slowly.
“Will she be fine if I will?”
“Yeah. She just really wants to see you and talk to you. Do you want me to come with you?” Twinkle Star asked her older sister, and Stelline answered that that would be really nice. She got up and followed her sister back down the hall to Regina’s bedroom.
“Should I tell her now?” Stelline asked softly, and Twinkle Star answered: “Only if she asks.”

When they re-entered the room, Regina was still in her bed. She didn’t faint this time when she saw Stelline, but both didn’t really know what to say, and neither did Twinkle Star, so they just stood there for a while, looking at each other. Finally Stelline broke the silence, to Twinkle Star’s surprise, by apologising to her mother. “Oh no Stelline, please, don’t be sorry! It was not your fault, it were just my emotions that got the best of me. Please, I’d rather faint a thousand times than not to see you at all.” The look in Regina’s eyes when she said this revealed to Twinkle Star that Regina meant every word of what she said. “Please, you two, come a little closer. I don’t want to talk at such a distance.” Regina said to her two daughters and Stelline walked to the right side of Regina’s bed, while Twinkle Star walked to the left side. Regina looked at Stelline for a while, and said, with tears in her eyes,
“You’ve grown up so much. I can’t believe you’re so beautiful. I’m so glad to see that you are here now, with me.” Stelline smiled softly, and answered: “Thank you. I’m glad I’m here too. I’m so happy I made the decision to come with Twinkle Star.”

Regina nodded. “So am I. Tell me… where have you been all this time?”
“Oh, nowhere. I travelled through the continent for all these years. Sometimes I came back to the old Lands, but I never stayed too long. I stayed with Damina for a few months a few years ago. But I never met anyone else of the family all this time, though I knew that some had survived, like Regala.” Twinkle Star sincerely hoped her mother would not ask if she knew about the New Friendship Lands, but fortunately Regina let it go.
“How did you and Stelline meet?” She asked Twinkle Star.
“Well,” she began, “Me and Aline travelled to the old lands and climbed the mountain, which was pretty hard. The weather is horrible there, you know, and the road was quite damaged. But we made it to the top and there we found the shrine of the unicorns, where we found Stelline.”
“The shrine of the unicorns? So it really does exist?” Regina asked in awe.

Stelline nodded. “It does. It came to the surface because of all the earthquakes. Most of it has been destroyed, but a single hallway still remained.”
“I always thought it was nothing but a legend…”
“well, it kinda was, because through the official door, only unicorns could enter. But Aline is a descendant of Daiya, so we could enter.” Twinkle Star explained.

“I’m so glad you’re here with me, both of you.” Regina said, after a short but pleasant silence.
“Look at this. I have almost all of my daughters here with me. It’s almost as if everything is possible right now.”
Twinkle Star was quite afraid Regina would bring the subject up, and she noticed Stelline looked at her with the same eyes. Both of them knew Regina would talk about her last missing daughter some time, but they both dreaded that it had to be so soon.

“Mom…” Twinkle Star said softly.
“What is it?”
“About that… I… I’m sorry to tell you this, but this is as close as getting all your daughters back as you will get.”
“What do you mean?” Regina asked, and Stelline answered with a trembling voice.
“Because… Joker won’t come back. I… I’m so sorry mother, I am so sorry!” She almost yelled and tears were rolling down her cheeks. Regina looked at Twinkle Star, Stelline and back at Twinkle Star. She wanted to know what her oldest daughter meant, but Stelline felt too bad to explain, so Twinkle Star realised she had to tell her mother.

“Stelline… She told me. Joker was with her that day, but he didn’t make it. She went back to save one little girl, but she couldn’t save the girl… nor herself. Stelline saw her die that day.”
 For a moment Twinkle Star was afraid her mother would faint again, but she did not. Instead, she actually got up and hugged Stelline.
“Oh honey, honey… Please, please do not be sorry. It wasn’t your fault. I should be the one that is sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there for you, that you had to witness all that… It’s okay sweetie, really, it’s okay.” She said with a hushing voice, and Twinkle Star couldn’t be more glad with her mother’s reaction. She was taking it extremely well.
“So… so you’re not mad at me?” Stelline asked.
“Oh honey, no! How could I be mad at you? There is nothing you did wrong. I feel bad that Joker died, and of course I had always hoped she would live, like all of you. But I have you now, you’re here with me, Twinkle Star is here, Crystal, Ivy and Fleur are. You have no idea how happy I am with that.”

For a while, they just stood there, Regina and Stelline hugging, and Twinkle Star watching, happy to see that she indeed did a good thing. This alone made her journey all worth it. She was happy. Happy for herself, happy for her sister and her mother, happy for everyone. After a short while she asked if they would like it if she would leave for a while, so that they could be alone, which Stelline and Regina agreed with. She once again left the room and walked back to the kitchen, where she noticed only her sisters were, and Aline.

“How did it go?” Was the first thing they asked when Twinkle Star entered, and she explained that everything went just fine. They talked for a bit about Stelline meeting Regina, but Twinkle Star didn’t want to tell too much as she felt it was private, so she decided to change the subject and she asked Ivy and Fleur how everything was with them.
“Oh, just fine, thanks.” Ivy answered.
“Except that we have to go to Kin in two weeks.” Fleur continued.
“Yeah, and we don’t want that.”
“Kin?” Twinkle star asked confused.
“Yeah. It’s a country in the north. It’s about twice the size of this country. We hate their queen though.”  Fleur explained.
“Why?” Aline asked, who was already falling in love with the life at a royal home and had a hard time imagining there was something about it you could possibly hate.
“Because she’s arrogant. Katine she’s called, and she always acted as if she was better than us, but only recently we realised she was just jealous and showing off with meeting with us because of what our family once was. Now, of course, her country is more powerful and she likes to show it off.” Ivy explained to her.
“We hadn’t heard from them in two years, but probably word got to them that Crystal is the new heir, and she insist on meeting with her. She probably wants Crystal and her son to be engaged.” Fleur continued.
“Yeah, and that ain’t gonna happen.” Crystal said, a little embarrassed, even though her mother had told her this was probably the case.
“Oh don’t worry, start showing off with Stelline there and you’ll be out of trouble before you can say unicorn.” Ivy said, and they all began to laugh. Twinkle Star loved the relaxed mood here in the kitchen. It had been such a long day with a lot of troublesome meetings, but it all worked out and she finally was able to relax a bit.

“If Regina knows what a stupid person that queen is, why do you have to visit, anyway?” Aline asked.
 “Well, we’re not exactly a strong country, are we, so we’re vulnerable. For defence, we need allies, and you get those with good relationships. We simply can’t afford to lose them, so we have to make sure the friendship remains.” Crystal said, almost sounding as if she had been the heir to the throne for years and knew all about it.
“Well, I suppose there is no choice then.” Twinkle Star said while she got herself a cup of hot chocolate, which Ivy had prepared and which was now going round the table.
“Yeah. But hey, who knows, it only said your three daughters on the invitation, so with a little luck you three are screwed and we have a nice vacation!” Fleur said cheerfully.
“Thanks for the sympathy.” Crystal groaned.
“Oh cheer up, there’s one ray of light there we’ll definitely miss.” Ivy said. When the others looked at her curiously, she said: “You’ll know when you’ve met her oldest son, Stanno.” She winked at Fleur, who began to laugh.