Regala! My mother’s sister

“Because she is a Royal Pony and she deserves to be treated with respect!” Twinkle Star yelled. The two ponies looked up in surprise. Twinkle Star was looking at them angrily and she was standing up now. How could they talk about her family like that? How could they? Didn’t they have any respect at all? She noticed the ponies looked at her pendant now.

The one who had mentioned the pendant before said: “You… who are you? Why were you eavesdropping?”
“My name is Twinkle Star and I couldn’t help but overhearing your conversation.” The two ponies were still staring at her in amazement, and she noticed ponies around them were looking at her in a funny way now, as well. She was beginning to feel slightly embarrassed now. She slowly sat down again and even though the surrounding ponies were continuing what they were doing in the first place, the two ponies next to her were still looking at her.

“Ehh… he.. I am sorry about that. I didn’t mean to yell at you that way, but I guess I was a bit overwhelmed with you two talking bad about my family.” One of the ponies nodded.
“My name is Hege. I am a traveller, but I visit this place quite often. All I know about your aunt… she came here about 2 years ago, and bought a little house on the hill. She didn’t tell anyone where she came from… But soon she started to drink too much, yelling at the farmers, making trouble for them, you know what drunk ponies do. Saying no-one would understand her, all that.”

“Do you know where she lives?” Twinkle Star asked. She had a hard time believing her aunt would do something like that. She wanted to see for herself…
“Yeah. Somewhere on the top of the second hill. A small house… I think it looks like it’s going to fall apart anytime soon.” Twinkle Star thanked the two ponies, who left the table after that. She finished her dinner as soon as she could and then headed towards the door. She had noticed it was pouring rain now. Great, she thought, now I’ll be nice wet and muddy too!

This, indeed, was the case. The way up the hills was a sandy way, but now with all the rain it was one big pool. It was raining very hard and Twinkle star could hear the thunder in the distance. It surprised her how quiet it was in the hills on contrary to how busy it was in the little town. Up here it was hard to imagine that so many ponies were so close by. She didn’t hear anything but the rain falling on the ground, and she couldn’t see much else but the lights in the farms that were close by.

It took her a while to get to the top of the first hill. She slipped a few times while she was going down the hill, but it didn’t take long before the road went up again. This must be the second hill, she thought. She noticed this one was much harder to climb, as the road was nothing but mud by now. The rain was, if possible, falling even harder. Twinkle Star was happy when she had reached the top of the hill. At least this part was over.

“Now… A small house that’s about to fall apart…” She whispered to herself. It wasn’t easy to find the house in the rain; in fact, it wasn’t easy to find anything. She took the right turn from the road that lead her over the hill. She had found a few pretty large farms before she noticed a small light in the distance. When she got closer it looked like the description the pony in the pub had given her; a small house, about half the size of Kiyoi’s house, which was poorly build, or at least, nothing was done about it to prevent it from falling apart; the wood was all rotten and was coming loose from the rest of the house on a few different places. Lightening lightened the house up for a few moments.

 It was quite eerie, Twinkle Star thought, especially in weather like this. Light was coming through the window, but there was so much steam on the windows Twinkle Star couldn’t look inside. She hesitated a bit before she finally knocked on the door; she was a bit scared to meet her aunt, especially if all the stories that she heard from the ponies in the inn were true. Was it really that bad? Softly she knocked on the door.
“Who’s there!” A voice responded immediately,

“T-tell me who you… you are or I’ll cut your hea-head off! If you’re here to complain, g-get lost at once!” “Ehh… It’s your cousin, Twinkle Star…”
Twinkle Star took a little more distance from the door. She was a bit shocked by the voice she had heard; it was nothing like the soft voice of her aunt Regala that she remembered. It was a hard voice, a cold one, one that wasn’t showing any emotion besides anger… and it was obvious the pony had been drinking way too much.

“Cousin? I d-don’t have any relatives! They w-were all taken away f-from me, they all died, so w-why should I c…care?” The voice yelled. Twinkle star heard some confusion now in her voice, but it was still so cold…
“Aunt Regala, it’s me, Twinkle Star! I’m your cousin, Regina’s daughter! Not all your relatives have died! I have met them, the others! Your sister is still alive, too!” Twinkle Star yelled.

She heard some noise behind the door, and not too much later the door opened. She couldn’t been more scared by what she saw. It was her aunt all right, there was no doubt about that. But she looked so… old. There was pain written in her eyes. The powers of the royal family had been drained out of her. They hadn’t been able to help her anymore… She was still wearing her pendant, but it had lost all grace that it once held. It was dark now. All the light that it once had was gone… Regala was wobbling on her feet. It was obvious she was drunk, and she had been drunk for a while, too.

“Y… you… W-why are you… I d-don’t…” Regala said.
“Hi, aunt Regala. I… Long time no see. I have been looking for you ever since I have found out you were alive…” Twinkle Star began, but her aunt interrupted her.
“N-nonsense! You know n-nothing of life and d-death! You might be re… related by bl-blood, but I don’t see you as f-family anymore! I… I turned m-my back on m-my p-p-past! LEAVE!” She yelled. Twinkle Star could smell the alcohol clearly now. She didn’t know why exactly, but she got so furious with her aunt. How could she say this? How can you just like that, turn your back on all that you have been through? How could she say this to her, while she had done so much to find her?

“I won’t leave! I won’t let this happen to you, aunt Regala! Turning the back on your past is not something I can allow you to do! Pushing your feelings aside is not the way to solve things!”
“I…it is n-not yours t-to decide! You… a-and that a-annoying f-family of yours h-have bothered me… long… enough now! I… I don’t want… w-want any-thing to do w…with you a…anymore…”
Twinkle Star got tears in her eyes. This couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be the reason she travelled so far… the reason she left Kiyoi for…
“No, aunt Regala… please don’t say that, I am here to help you…” 
“H-help? Help m… me? Who do you think y-you are? Y-you… you c-cannot help me! I h-have lost t-too much for… that. Go away… and don’t return to me, e-ever.” With that, the drunk pony closed the door.

Twinkle Star stood outside the door for a while, motionless. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, but they were disappearing in the rain. It took a while for she realised what had happened. She felt so helpless, so empty… as is someone had ripped out all of her feelings out of her heart. She had left Kiyoi believing this was her destiny, she believed she had to find herself, she had to help her family… but that all had turned its back on her in only a few minutes. Slowly she began to walk back to the inn.

It had become almost impossible to walk on the road now, it was just one big muddy river. She slipped a few times, and she knew she was covered in mud now. It was still raining hard, and she could still see the lightening in the distance. She felt so miserable now. She left Kiyoi for this… but this told her to leave and never return. What was she supposed to do?

She didn’t want to stay here, and she didn’t want to talk to her aunt again. That would only hurt her more. Would she go back to her mother, admitting she was wrong, and become the heir to the throne? No, no. She definitely didn’t want that. She wanted to go back, but not like this. She had something to finish first. Something to find. Then what about Kiyoi… could she go back to him? Just… for a little longer? But the words of Fiume flowed in her head again.
“It might be not your destiny… But that doesn’t mean you should run away from it.”  But then where did she go?

She was almost up the first hill again. She still heard the thunder growling far away, and a single lightening brightened up the sky once again. Twinkle Star saw that Fiume reflected the light. “Fiume... why did you bring me here? You were wrong, Fiume… this is not where I will find what I am looking for, whatever I am looking for anyway… I guess I’ll have to follow you for a little longer, then”. Yeah, she would do that. Follow Fiume some more. Maybe this wasn’t where the river wanted her to go anyway…

But for tonight, she would return to the inn. She had paid for it anyway and she was too tired to go on, not to mention the bad weather. All she wanted was a nice warm shower and a good night sleeping in a nice bed. The village was totally abandoned now, all she could see were some lights in, obviously, other inns. It took her a while to find the inn she had chosen, but when she had finally found it she noticed the dining room was really empty now. A lot of ponies had already gone to bed.

She was about to go up the stairs, when she heard a voice.
“Heya!” When she looked behind, she saw the pony that had called himself Hege earlier that night standing behind her.
“Oh, hi.” She replied. She didn’t feel like talking at all.
“You look like trash! Did you find your aunt?”
“Yeah.”
“I see… it was probably just as I described, right?”
“Yah.”
“I see… I’m really sorry for you. I don’t think there is anything I can do for you… I just hope everything will work out for you.”
“heh. Thank you. Eh… do you know where the showers are?”

Hege showed Twinkle Star the way to the shower cabins. They worked the same as with Kiyoi’s, except here there was a pony hired to warm the water for the guests. Twinkle Star loved the hot water on her body. It helped her to relax a bit more, and to get everything sorted out in her head. She would follow Fiume tomorrow again downstream. She didn’t really know where to go, but then again, she almost never did… When she had finished her shower she went to her little room, and she enjoyed the soft sheets so much that she almost immediately fell asleep.

The next morning she woke up from a small ray of sunshine that was shining in her eyes. It took her a while to realise that it meant the rain from the evening before was gone. When she looked out of the window she noticed there were little paddles everywhere, but it was very crowded in the little town once again; ponies were leaving this time. It would probably be just as crowded again in the evening. She brushed her hair, packed her things in the little bag and went downstairs. She ate a small breakfast. She wasn’t really hungry, in fact, she didn’t feel well at all. The image of her aunt was still haunting her. How could this have happened to her? She felt sorry for her aunt. Sorry that she had to witness whatever had caused this.

After she had thanked the innkeeper, she went outside and walked towards the river. Fiume was still crystal clear, but Twinkle Star didn’t expect much else; it probably had purified all the rain from the evening before. “Now, Fiume… you did a great job leading me on the wrong track, you know that? There is nothing for me here. We’ll go further south. Who knows what we may find there… You know already, of course. Now, show me the way.”

She walked downstream for a while, when she saw something… no, someone in the distance sitting next to the river. He was putting something in it, and taking it out again, and putting it back in… Was it? No, it couldn’t be. But when Twinkle Star got closer she realised it was. Her aunt Regala was sitting next to the river, putting her pendant in and out of the water.
When she noticed Twinkle Star, she said:  “Heh. You see. Even Fiume isn’t strong enough anymore. It’ll remain dark forever, I’m afraid. I guess I messed it all up, didn’t I… but I guess you were right. Pushing my feelings aside isn’t the way to solve things.”