The secrets revealed

“Ah, Regina… do you remember now?” The black pony smiled. Ivy did not understand. What was her mother talking about? What had happened to her, her sisters…? Did her mother remember something that she had been forced to forget? It could not be… had the black pony once sealed her mother’s mind?
“They were taken from me by you! Where are they! You, Aras…” Her mother screamed, almost hysterical. Whatever it was that she was remembering, it wasn’t a pleasant memory. He could only laugh.
“Ah, so you even remember my name. Where they are, Regina… they are right here.”

Regina’s eyes went from the black pony that was apparently called Aras to his two helpers.
 “Are they…” “
Yes, they are.” He confirmed.
Ivy was utterly confused. What was up with those two ponies?
“But they do not remember. Just like you… Just like the rest of the world. The joy of that day has been forgotten, never to be seen again. And nobody even missed them. Not even you, Regina. After you were sealed along with the rest of the world, you never even shed a tear. They are mine now.”

Her mother was shaking all over. Her eyes were shedding silent tears and her voice was whispering no over and over again. Ivy feared her mother’s legs would not support her much longer. Ivy still did not dare to move, and neither did Stelline. Her oldest sister looked utterly confused. Ivy remembered Stelline had always been able to detect a mind seal. If he had truly placed a seal on their mother, would she not have detected it?

“Why are you doing this?” Regina asked. “Why, someone like you…”
“Ah, you want to know that now? Well, that information was lost long ago, I did not even have to seal it away. Well, I shall tell you now, Regina… As you seem to remember me now. Aras… yes, you remember my name. Not because you met me personally, but because you were taught in the ways of the Guardians. Yes, I am a Guardian, a God with eternal life granted to me by the Supreme Goddess Vitalia.”

When he pronounced that name Ivy detected a strange form of respect in his voice. It felt forced, as if he actually despised her but there was nothing else for him to do but to respect her.
“The only male Guardian ever born in Her Light… That was me. I was born to restore the balance between the male and the female. But it did not work that way… The balance had already been disturbed too much. Even in my short life on this earth, before death took me to the Heavens and I was reborn as a guardian, I was an outcast. Born to be a guardian that the ponies did not desire.

And when I was restored on this earth as a true guardian… The others never treated me as equal. I was only male, I would never understand the true powers that flowed trough the female even though they flowed through me as well. There were only a few ponies that listened to me, that saw me for who I really was. Together with them… We decided to create a new Heaven, away from Vitalia and her other children. But for Vitalia the threat became too great. There could not be another Heaven, she said. I refused to listen and we went ahead anyway. But before I could open it, my own Heaven for those that believed in the Male… Vitalia returned me to the earth, and took away my Guardian Powers. A mistake she said I was, and I was doomed to walk the earth forever, bereft of the powers that were rightfully mine.

So I wandered the earth, and slowly they began to disappear… The guardians. And in the end, Vitalia closed the gate so that none could ever go there again. And then queen Hikari was born… she who created the steward families. Her ten daughters… Even her youngest was more than twice as strong as you will ever be, Regina. She did not like my presence. She was afraid I would try to claim her throne and hold it for ages eternal. So one night, she and her oldest two daughters attacked me. They locked my spirit and stole my body. I was reduced to something that could only live by living on the flesh of other beings. Only the queen’s crown that had done that to me could restore me, but I was never able to even get close to it. Until you, Regina, third child of the queen, gave birth to your first born, and I knew the time was there. All those years I saved my powers, build them to what they were the night darkness came for you. And then I sealed your mind, so when you woke up the next morning you were only ecstatic to discover you were pregnant of your lousy unicorn daughter.

Well, Regina… it seems you have remembered enough. Look at the crown… it is ready.”
 Ivy glanced at the crown and indeed, it was even darker than it had been before. Was it ready for his plans now? Ivy certainly hoped not. She did not want to see what he was about to do. It would definitely not be something pleasant, and if it was ready, it meant that he had no use left for them. His story… a guardian banished from the Heavens? Could that even be true? True enough, he did not look like someone born from this earth… but if his story was true so many other things were true as well. 

A wave off powers lifted Ivy off her feet and slammed her in the mud a few meters away. She could not move for a few moments out of shock. What had just happened? When she lifted her head, she saw that the wave had never been meant for her. It had just been so powerful it had hit her, too. Her mother was lying in the dead grass even further away. She did not move. Stelline had been flung to the other side, but as the wave had been directed at Regina she too was only hit as a side effect.

Ivy tried to get up, but her entire body ached. She struggled to get back on her hoofs and she saw from the corner of her eye that Stelline was doing the same thing. Regina lay motionlessly on the ground. Ivy furiously hoped that she was only unconscious. The blast… it was different from what had happened to Junai and Marana. But maybe the powers of the black winged pony were different. As she struggled to get back on her hoofs, she heard Stelline softly whisper “no…” and she noticed the black pony was slowly approaching the crown.

“I will not… Allow you to do this.” Stelline said as she got on her hoofs. He did not even look at her, as if she was not even worth it to be noticed.
“I will not let you take away everything… I grew attached to. I do not care whatever it was you went trough, I do not give for your stories… you have no right to do this. I lost so much, I ran away for so long… I will not stand by and watch you destroy everything.”

The black pony stopped walking and glanced at her.
“You can say whatever you want, Stelline, but you’re just a unicorn. No powers of you can even touch me. You’re not even meant to ever wear this crown.”
He pointed at the crown a little further away and then released another blast, this time directed at Stelline. She screamed at the impact and landed in the mud a few meters away. Ivy was too scared to even move, so she did not object while he continued to approach the crown.

Her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it might fail any time soon. So it was true, it was all true. He was a guardian, a God of the Heavens born to protect those living on the earth. He had, once, long ago, sealed the minds of every single pony living on the continent at that time. And if that was true… he had probably sealed her mind as well. Maybe not then, not along with anyone else, but he had. Those feelings, those memories that kept crawling back to her, they were not just products of her imagination.

He had picked up the black crown now. It was time… Regina’s emotions were drained and their strength was flowing through the crown. Those sad, despairing, angry emotions… They would be strong enough for Him to force the link with the Heavens to open. It would not be long now, for His plan to succeed. Regina was unconscious, unable to protest, and her two daughters were in too much pain to do anything.

Stelline… Her emotions were strong, too, but he knew her emotions would never connect with the crown. She had not been born to become queen. She was a unicorn, after all… her tasks lay elsewhere. But because it had all been forgotten, the strength, the glory of the past, nobody knew what her real task in this world was. And she was marked heir to the throne simply because they thought she was the first born.

Aras smiled as He put the crown on his head. It instantly lit up with dark light. But even as it was so dark, it shone brightly. Rain did not even know how to explain it. It belonged to Him…. Somehow. It was as if He had always been meant to wear it, and He did now… He wore the crown that had reduced Him to that pitiful creature in the dark. But why? What would it enable Him to do? Would he really be able to force open the skies?

“You.” His voice was a wave that reached them, but it was directed at the other. She bowed and walked to Him. She was wearing Illuvia’s crown. When the other reached Aras she bowed again and then closed her eyes.
“It is time. Watch, now, and see how the Heavens will be broken.”

Both crowns lit up instantly. Their glow only got stronger and after a minute or so the entire spot was lit up only by the crown. The darkness that had held those crowns before wasn’t gone. The light still seemed to come out of a dark spot, a darkness that had held the light prison and was now releasing it back to the world. Then, both crowns shot a beam of light up into the sky. They connected not too high above the ground, and the two lights, one a little more yellow and the other a bit red, swirled around each other and then shot up straight towards the darkness above.

“It has started.” Câlin whispered. Rain had almost forgotten the girl was also there as she had been very, very silent.
 “It has.”
“Do you still not know? Do you still not remember?” Câlin asked. Rain’s gaze went from the pillar of light to the little girl. What did Câlin know? The girl was staring at her with her intriguing eyes.
“Do I remember what?”
“Oh, but you do remember little bits. I saw it in your eyes. You know this is not the way we should restore our link with the Heavens. My mother once told me so. She told me father wanted to do this, and she disagreed with him. She said, this is not the way. And you know, too. That is why you did not kill Ivy that day, because you know this is not the right way.”

Of course… Câlin was Illuvia’s daughter. Illuvia had spend time with them, and she must have known of his plans. She had disagreed. Like her Master, Illuvia had sought to restore the link with the Heavens. That is why she had sought Him out, but she disagreed. She had said the gate to the Heavens should not be forced open with despair and sadness. And when He refused to listen to her, she had fled, pregnant of His child. Rain had known this. She just hadn’t known Illuvia had shared any of this information with her daughter. What else did Câlin know?

But what struck her most was not that Câlin knew about these things, but that Câlin was right. Rain did not agree, but she just had not known that she did not. All her life she had obeyed His every command, she had done everything without even thinking twice. And when she finally began to do so, she did not know what it was. She acted without knowing her reasons why. And when she was honest with herself, she still did not know why. The reasons… were sealed away. However… it was wrong. What He was doing, what the other was doing, it was the wrong thing to do. The gate to the Heavens should not be forced open.

“But there is nothing I can do about it… These forces are beyond my capacity.” Rain whispered while she glanced at the beam of light.
The sky had turned pale blue where the beam had touched it, her clouds broken. It was too late now. The gate to the Heavens… in a few moments it would break, and He would get His revenge.

“Do it, Rain. Break the beam of light. For the sake of the entire world, do it.” Câlin whispered.
Rain did not know what came over her. She screamed, she began to gallop to Him and the other, and she released every little trace of royal powers she could find inside herself and aimed it at the beam of light. A moment later, darkness had been restored and she felt herself immediately caught in His powers that were flowing with anger.