Suddenly the pretty evening didn't feel so beautiful anymore, and the red sky felt like it was closing in. Twinkle Star felt for a moment that she, like Anrui, couldn't breathe anymore. She would've had a hard time believing this story if she wouldn't have seen her mother telling it with tears in her eyes, remembereing the horrible things she had seen all these years ago.

Suddenly so many things from her own childhood became clear. Why her mother always warned them for the evil parts of the royla powers, why they were always told that they should never use them for their own good... But what happened to Reine? What did they do to her?

"How did your mother and the others know where you were?" Ivy asked after a while, when it appeared their mother was able to continue her story.
"Because of Reine's black aura. Everyone on the vicinity could feel it. As soon as they felt it my mother ordered everybody to go inside, she asked her sister to com with her and she was off. Taishi had followed them, because he knew this is where he would met Anrui, and he got scared. When he arrived at the scene, Taishi literally broke down. I remember him sitting next to Anrui, crying, screaming. Medava was paralyzed. She simply couldn't move. Soon other ponies arrived. One of the maids brought me to my room, where I cried until I ran out of tears and fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, for a few seconds I had forgotten the horrors of the night before, but they soon came back to me. I simply couldn't believe my sister would do that. What would happen to her? Where was she now? What had happened during the night? I ran out of bed towards my mothers room, but she wasn't there. I went to the throne room, and there she was, alone, sitting on her throne. I had never seen my mother so sad. Slowly I walked inside, and when my mother noticed me she asked if I was okay. I answered I was, and I asked her how she was.
'I'm okay, I guess, Regina. It's just... all so hard to believe. That Reine would do such a thing...' I saw tears in my mothers eyes.
'What will happen to her?' I asked my mother, though I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know the answer.
'The punishment for murder is exile, usually. Though I do not think anyone has been exiled in over two hundred years. To think i have to be the one to do that... and to my own daughter... But I do not control the law, and we all have to obey it. Reine is a citizen too, and she has to obey the laws of our country.'
Exiled... the word repeated itself in my head over a thousand times before I asked what it exactly meant.
'It means she has to leave this country, never to return.'
'So I'll never see her again?'
My mother shook her head, still crying. Then I realised Medava was not the only one who had lost her daughter. My mother, too, had lost her oldest daughter by this.

'What happened, Regina?' My mother asked me. I realised all she knew was that Anrui had died because of Reine, but that she, or anybody for that matter, didn't know why it happened. So I explained to her that Reine wanted Taishi for herself, that she didn't want Anrui to love him, and that she killed him so that her love had dissapeared from this world. I explained to her that Reine didn't feel normal, as if something took posession of her. She slowly nodded.
'Those, Regina, were her royal powers.' She explained.
'If used for selfish acts, if your feelings are so strong, they can take over because your powers feel that it is the only way for you to survive. The owers still do their job as protecting, only you don't use them, they use you.'
'But then... is it still her fault? I mean, if they took her mind over, so to say, we can't blame her, right?' I asked my mother, hoping I found a way to save my sister. But my mother shook her head.
'If your sister can't control her powers... It's as much her fault as it is her power's fault. After all, your powers are yours alone, and if you can't control them, you're just as guilty as others.'

I looked at my mother, and she looked back at me. For a while, we both didn't know what to say. All I wished for at that time was for the world to change, for Anrui to be alive. But it wasn't like that. Anrui had died, and my sister would soon dissapear from my life forever.
'But Reine was the heir to the throne...' I said softly. 'What will happen to that position?'
My mother sighed. 'Campestre is the second in line, you know that. She will become the heir, and you will become second in line, Regina.'
With that, my entire future changed. I no longer was going to live somewhere, having kids and a good life. I was second in line, which meant from now on I would have to be educated, I had to live in the castle my entire life, I was going to help my sister out later, when she was queen. But I don't think I realised that at that moment.

'When will Reine be... well, you know...' I asked my mother.
'This evening, at sunset. You're allowed to be there, Regina. Campestre will be. so you can... you can say...'
But my mother couldn't finish her sentence. It was simply too hard for her. She didn't want to say goodbye at her daughter, no matter what she had done. For no matter what, my mother would always love her. And I would find her crying over this many times in the years that would come.

I didn't do much that afternoon. I didn't want the evening to come, but when I saw the sky turn red once again, I knew it wasn't something like a bad dream. I knew it was real, I knew everything that had happened the night before was real, and I would soon see my sister for the last time ever. I slowly walked outside, and I saw my mother already standing there, together with Damina and Campestre. I saw Medava, some others as well. I remember when they brought out Reine from the castle. She looked so alone, so sad. I know she felt guilty over what she had done, but she knew she had done it. There was no hiding it, no escaping this punishment. Slowly we walked outside, towards the mountains behind the castle. They released Reine, and one of the ponies read the punishment. Reine just nodded. She knew. We all knew. She looked at her mother one last time, one last time to all of us. I saw the tears in her eyes, I noticed my mother, fighting not to cry. They unlocked the gate to the stairs, and Reine slwly turned around. Just before she walked through the gate, she stopped one more time.
She whispered 'I love you mom...' and then she took off. I watched her climb the stairs, soon running. Back then, I didn't realise I would flee the country using those exact same stairs years later. For a long time, they were only the stairs where I saw my sister for the last time.

Two days later the visitors from Madash left. It was promised nobody would speak of the murder. Matoe left with them. He was heart broken, of course, but he didn't want to stay here any longer. He loved Daryia, and he wanted to begin a new life with her, in a country far away from here. What happened to Taishi, I don't know. I know he left the country with the others. He hadn't spoken a word since that dreadful night.I never heard of him again. I know Matoe and Daryia got a bunch of kids. Daryia is the queen of Madash at this moment, but I don't know much more. I haven't seen them since then.

Medava died, three years later. She couldn't overcome her grief. It made her weak. Her body wasn't able to fight back when she got ill one day. Her last words were 'Tell Anrui that I love her.' She was buried next to her daughter. Once the first pony of the next generation was born, that's you, Stelline, we all agreed never to mention Reine or Campestre, or anything that had to do with this event to anyone. We wanted you all to grow up unscarred by the past, which unfortunately didn't happen, but that is another story you all know by now."

It seemed Regina was done with her story. Twinkle Star thought her mother looked tired, broken, and she needed a lot of rest. It was already evening now, and even though an apple was the only thing she had eaten all day, Twinkle Star wasn't a bit hungry at all. She was completely overwhelmed with the story, with these dreadfull events that her mother had to live with all her life.

"But mom..." Crystal suddenly said softly, not really sure if she wanted to say what she was about to say.
"What is it dear?" Regina asked.
"Well... We know now why Reine didn't become queen. But at the end of the story Campestre became the heir, and still you were the heir when Stelline was born and you agreed not to mention Campestre to the next generation. What happened?"

Regina sighed. "That is not a story for today, dear. For now, it is enouh for you to know that Campestre turned out not to be capable of becoming queen. She lived in the country for the rest of her life, and we met her a few times. I will tell you later why. But I am tired now, and I have enough of the past. I want to eat something, go to bed, and wake up with the present tomorrow." Regina got up, and slwly begin to walk towards the castle, followed by her two sisters. Ivy and Fleur whispered something, and then took off towards the castle as well. Only Twinkle Star, Crystal and Stelline were sitting below the tree now.

"I never knew..." Stelline whispered, and Crystal shook her head.
"Of course you didn't know, Stelline. None of us did. They did a great job hiding it for us, I guess. But I'm glad I know now. Doesn't it scare you, though, to know there is something like that inside all of us? That we can take anyone's life as long as we truly want to?"
This time, it was Twinkle Star who disagreed. "I don't think so, Crystal. Maybe Reine was simply unstable. It is true we all might be able to do it, but that doesn't mean we can. Do you really think you can take somebody's life away?" She asked, and after some thinking, both Stelline and Crystal shook their heads.
"You see. But if you don't mind, I'm gonna take off too. I want to be alone for a while, think things over." Twinkle Star said, and both Crystal and Stelline agreed.

Twinkle Star got up, and walked passed the large tree into the meadow that lay behind it. After a while, she looked behind her and she noticed Crystal and Stelline were gone, too. Probably went back to the castle as well. Finally, Twinkle Star didn't have to fight back her tears anymore. She was really sad because of the story. She had never thought something like this had happened in her family. Her own aunt... Her own aunt had killed her own cousin? Poor Anrui... and she felt bad for her mother. All these years she had to live with it, trying to hide it for her own daughters, hoping they would never find out, hoping none of them would make the same mistake one day.

Twinkle Star had never thought royal powers, that were given to them only to protect their people, could do something so evil. And it had to be horrible for Reine, too. Suddenly she couldn't control her own actions anymore. She killed Anrui, and when she woke up, everything had changed, and she would never see the sun rse in her own country again. She probably knew the laws of her country. She must have known she would be exiled very soon. She would never see her family again... Twinkle Star shuddered. What a horrible thing to live with.

But suddenly it hit Twinkle Star, and she almost jumped up when she realised it. Reine was exiled. Reine hadn't died back then, and she wasn't in the country during the eruption. In fact, it was very likely Reine was somewhere out there still.
"She is out there… The true heir to the throne…"
Once again, Twinkle Star heard those words, but this time it seemed as if they had gotten a completely new meaning. The true heir was out there, and so was Reine. Things matched perfectly, and Twinkle Star was sure she had found that what the stone meant, even though there were still many questions to be answered.