Author's Note: Now this chapter might be a bit emotional and heartswarming at the same time. So make sure not to feel a little too sad...
Chapter 12:
Cave Drawings
The Mane 3 continued walking through the ice cavern, which then turned into a cavern of stone the further they walked. They kept walking until they entered a large cavern and saw that the walls of the cavern were littered with makeshift drawings and paintings.
"Whoa, Human art," Pinkie breathed in awe and surprise.
The Mane 3 looked and walked around looking at the cave paintings in awe. The cave paintings had different kinds of ponies and other creatures, ranging from Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns, to Changelings, Griffons, Buffalo, Hippogriffs, and even Dragons. But for the moment they didn't see any Alicorn paintings which were what Twilight was secretly looking for although looking as if not to care for the paintings at all.
Pinkie, carrying the baby along, walked over to a cave painting depicting a Pegasi flock tormenting earth ponies and unicorns, "Look, look, Pegasi!" She exclaimed excitedly but noticed these pegasi looked particularly unfriendly. Almost like predators.
"Yeesh!" Pinkie hissed over the depiction of the pegasi actually tormenting the other ponies.
The baby started whimpering, seeing the angry-looking pegasi, as he tried to bury himself further into Pinkie's fur, but Pinkie held him close.
"Oh, it's okay, it's okay. They're just paintings. Look, the Pegasi is just playing tag with the other ponies…," Pinkie assured him, but upon closer inspection, she saw one of the Pegasi striking the Unicorn with a lightning cloud. It wasn't pretty.
"...With lightning bolts," She added, backing up a bit.
Rainbow then walked over to Pinkie from behind with a mischievous grin, "Come on, Pinkie let's play tag," She jokes, hopefully, "...you're it,".
Rainbow Dash then moves along while Pinkie chuckles nervously and moves to another area.
"Okay, okay, now where are the Pies? You know, you never see pictures of Pies in these paintings, have you ever noticed?" Pinkie asked as she approached another painting with something that caught her interest.
"Oh look, Twilight. An Alicorn!" She shouted out, pointing to the painting.
Twilight, however, paid her no mind, "Oooh, really? Somepony pinch me," She said in mock wonder as she kept walking towards the exit.
Pinkie sets the baby down as Rainbow Dash walks over to get a closer look at the painting. Pinkie also got a closer look at the painting, studying it, and noticed something familiar about the Alicorn, "Hey this short purple one looks exactly like you!" Pinkie gestured to the painting again.
Twilight stopped when she heard that and turned her head, with her interest growing as Pinkie kept talking, "Awwww, look she's got a family, oh and she's happy. Those other two must be her siblings,".
The way Pinkie described the picture, reminded Twilight of an old life at the mention of family, and she walked towards them and the painting.
"Look she's playing with the filly," Pinkie said as she pointed to the painting and Twilight finally looked at the painting as her eyes squinted in interest. The story depicted was too familiar to her.
"See, Twilight? That's your problem, that's what Alicorns and all ponies are supposed to do," Pinkie said, completely unaware that Twilight's expression had changed but Rainbow was.
"Uh, Pinkie," Rainbow said quietly, trying to get her attention.
"Find a Special Stallion, have little baby foals and…," Pinkie went on and on about how ponies should live their lives.
"Pinkie!" Rainbow repeated a little louder, ceasing the Earth Pony's rant.
"What?" Pinkie asked, finally stopping and turning to Rainbow.
"Be quiet," Rainbow hisses lightly.
"Wha-?" Pinkie tried to ask, but Rainbow gestured with her head to the Alicorn next to them as they both looked at Twilight.
"Oh…" Pinkie whispered, finally getting it.
They both looked in concern as Twilight just stood there, spaced out, staring at the painting with an unreadable expression.
It seemed like a random sketch.
In the painting, there was an Alicorn, resembling Twilight but shorter, around Pinkie and Rainbow's height, standing on the left.
On the right, there was a pale, light grayish cerise Alicorn mare with a moderate violet mane and tail with moderate rose and pale gold streaks, and on her flanks is a crystal-shaped heart cutie mark.
Standing alongside the pink mare was a light gray Alicorn Stallion with a moderate sapphire blue mane and tail with moderate cerulean and dark phthalo blue streaks, and his cutie mark was that of a purple shield with a star on it.
And between and below the three adult Alicorns, a light magentish gray Alicorn filly with tinges of pale, light grayish fuchsia, and a mane and tail with a gradient of light cerise to grayish violet with light arctic blue highlights but no cutie mark.
Rainbow and Pinkie continued looking at Twilight while the alicorn looked at the painting intently, a painful memory of the life Twilight once had and the family she loved so much started flooding back into her mind as the art seemed to come to life…
( ~ Flashback Of Twilight's Past ~ )
It was a normal bright day as the purple Alicorn and her family went about their day.
The purple Alicorn's niece was running around merrily and happily neighing as her aunt and parents looked at her playing happily. The little Alicorn filly then ran over to the purple Alicorn as they shared a quick hug and nuzzle before the filly ran off to explore and play with the boundless energy of youth.
The purple Alicorn heads towards the stallion and mare as they all hug each other in family. The purple Alicorn bore a great resemblance to Twilight, just as the filly resembled the white stallion and the pink mare, who were her parents. The purple Alicorn indeed seemed happy, content with nothing else but the loving embrace of her family.
But sadly, all good things were coming to an end…
The white Alicorn filly was running and playing until she stopped, let out a frightened whinny, which drew the concern of her parents and aunt,and ran back.
Following the little Alicorn filly, a tribe of humans was running behind the filly. The purple Alicorn and the other two alicorns gasped in shock and horror to see the humans running toward them, wielding spears. The filly and her parents ran as the purple Alicorn stayed behind to hold off the humans.
As the hunters approached her, the purple Alicorn tried shooting them away with a laser of magic that managed to hold them off for a while.
But their numbers were too many and before long, one hunter threw a spear at her. The spear graved her left shoulder, leaving a thin scar as the purple Alicorn winced in pain, that one moment allowed the humans to run past her while she was distracted.
Shaking off the pain, the purple Alicorn turns to the humans behind her with anger, they surrounded her with their spears keeping the Alicorn in place. But worse still, she then heard the terrified whinny of her family as she could only watch helplessly and looked to see that the humans have forced them into a corner, aiming their spears at them, with the light gray Alicorn Stallion using his magic to keep the humans away from his family while the mare was hugging her daughter in protection with her eyes closed in fear.
But they were unaware that there were some human hunters right above them, ready to hit them with what appeared to be some large rocks.
The purple Alicorn looked up and saw them as they were about to drop the rocks, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed out, vainly reaching for her family…
( ~ End Of The Flashback ~ )
Her scream of horror and cries of agony of her family echoed in her mind for years, even into the present where she stood and looked at the painting depicting the day she lost everything. Tears began to build up in Twilight's eyes as she stared at the painting of her and her family while trying to regain control of her runaway emotions.
Pinkie gulped and shuffled her hooves nervously while Rainbow breathed quietly for the truth was clear as the ice: they had realized that the surviving Alicorn in the drawing was Twilight herself, this was Twilight's story before she met them, and it was her whose family was killed by humans.
It explained everything. Why she was such a loner, why she acted so distinct from others and pushed everyone away, why she didn't want to get close to others, and why Twilight was walking toward the forming glaciers while all the other animals of Equestria were migrating.
She lost her own family and blamed herself for it. The memory of that failure had been traumatizing her deeply ever since. And she pushed everyone around her away, just to spare her of that pain, and wandered Equestria alone into the Ice Age Of Equestria….until the day came when she would rejoin them and be with her family again.
Twilight's eyes kept staring toward the cave drawing, her gaze fixated on what Rainbow Dash and Pinkie could only presume to be her late niece. Twilight then slowly and numbly raised her hoof and placed it on the painting of her niece, as if she was trying to feel her soft, warm fur again for the last time. She then moved her hoof down over it, almost like she was smoothing the fillies' actual fur.
That is until Twilight's hoof touched the baby's hand, which was also on the painting gently. The boy stood on his feet, propping himself against the cave wall. Surprised, Twilight pulled back her hoof and looked down to see the child stroking the picture of the baby Alicorn filly with his fingers, glancing back at Twilight as though he was connecting the two in his mind.
The baby tried to walk toward her and was only two steps away from Twilight and just when he suddenly stumbled and was about to fall towards the Alicorn, Twilight caught him with her hoof.
Twilight slowly lifted the child off the ground and looked at him curled in her hoof with tearful eyes of joy, almost seeing her niece's eyes in him. Eyes filled with bravery, curiosity, and compassion. After a moment's pause Twilight then brings the baby close to her for a hug. The baby hugged Twilight's neck and Twilight smiled as she rested her head on the baby lightly.
Pinkie sniffed and wiped a mucus off her nose and brushed it on Rainbow Dash as the cerulean Pegasus looked at her with a disgusted and funny look on her face.
Using her magic, Twilight placed the baby back on her back as the two exited the cave. Pinkie looked at Rainbow Dash and smiled as she followed Twilight and the baby to the exit.
Rainbow Dash sat there looking at the two ponies exiting the cave. Then she turns her attention to the cave painting, starting to feel sorry for Twilight. No one deserved to have their family taken from them. Especially not that way.
But then she realized that was exactly what she was doing to the humans. It was then that she started to have second thoughts on this whole scheme of hers and wondered if what she was doing was really right after seeing someone else's pain.
Sighing heavily, Rainbow Dash eventually got up and started leaving the cave, jogging after Twilight and Pinkie. It was plain to see that everyone had so much to ponder after this experience. But in a way, somehow this moment granted them this chance to learn something.
After Rainbow left, a painting of Twilight hugging her older brother, sister-in-law, and her niece running and playing around was shown.
Author's Note:
Here's the twelfth chapter and, like I said, this one is quite sad.
In this chapter, we see that the Mane 3 have walked into another cavern but this one has all sorts of paintings and drawings. Pinkie saw a picture of a Pegasus in one of the cave drawings, which she assumes is playing tag with a Unicorn, and then she saw a cave drawing with a familiar Alicorn on it but this Alicorn appears to have a family with her.
When Twilight heard what Pinkie said, she headed over and had a look at the painting only to remember her past.
In the painting, it appears that Twilight knew what it was like to have a family for she had everything she could have dreamed of...A brother, a sister-in-law, and a beautiful niece. However, all that changed when a tribe of humans came and took everything away from her, leaving her with nothing. So now you know why Twilight was sour and grumpy at the beginning, why she became a loner, and how she got a scar on her left shoulder.
It was because she have lost her family in a tragic battle against the humans.
And ever since that day, Twilight has become sour and grumpy towards others and has been no interested in making any friends. But what really made Twilight sour and grumpy is also something that made her sad, because she also lost something that was precious to her and her older siblings...
Her niece.
The loss of her niece has been haunting Twilight ever since that day. When Twilight touched the painting of her niece, she couldn't help but feel like she has failed. But when Twilight's hoof touched the baby's hand, which was also on the painting, Twilight looked down and saw the baby trying to walk to her and caught him with her hoof. It was then that when the baby hugged Twilight, the Alicorn softened up more for she has forgotten what it was like to be hugged by someone again. Luckily for her, the baby reminded her with his hugging.
As Twilight placed the baby on her back, she and the baby exited out of the cave with Pinkie Pie following behind them.
Rainbow Dash, however, looked at the cave painting of Twilight and her family and was starting to feel bad for Twilight losing her family. She even started to wonder if what she is doing is right or not.
We'll find out in the next chapter of EQUESTRIAN AGE ( Super Cool Edition ).
Stay Tuned.
This is Dinoman213, signing off.