Rainbow flew back to Twilight's castle after the sudden and awkward ending to the meeting. As she neared the castle, she noticed the many workponies clustered around what would be called the servant’s entrance in a castle that actually had servants, Wait, are those ponies putting on hazmat suits?!

Rainbow shook her head, probably another of Twilight’s experiments gone wrong, as she flew around the castle and landed at the front door of the castle.

When she entered the castle she immediately noticed that the door to the throne room was closed, the muffled tones of a heated argument making it through the thick door.

Rainbow approached the door curious, What could be making Twilight so angry? She lifted her hoof close to the doorknob intent on defending her stalli...

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

Rainbow startled, “What?!” She turned around to see a familiar grey pegasus. “Storm?”

“The one and only,”

Rainbow snorted at the sarcastic quip. “What's going on? Who's Twilight arguing with?”

“My dear uncle, Lord Twilight Frost. Who I hope you never have the misfortune to meet.”

Rainbow was taken aback with the venom the mare spoke with, “Is he really that bad?”

“Yes, hmmm, how do I explain it? ... Okay, think of the most unpleasant pony you have ever met,” Storm paused, “And multiply them with cancer.”

“What?”

“He once caught me sneaking into the Twilight Manor kitchens, captured me in a prison of ice and spent the next four hours lecturing me on the many, many ways he could kill me with a tablespoon in graphic detail.”

“I'm sorry, did I hear you right?”

“Yup, it was so bucking boring. Especially when he speaks in this obnoxious slow monotone, as if he decided to just not do emotions. 'Oh listen to me, I'm this big bad-ass emotionless killing machine, I'm SO INTERESTING', blegh. At least he could have made it more threatening, I mean, normally I find dismemberment to be so exciting but he's just such an utter, complete, bore.”

“Okay...” Rainbow decided to change the subject, “Do you know how long they're going to be in there.”

Storm shrugged, “Could be another couple minutes, could be seventeen days, you never know. But I'd bet on the longer, rather than the shorter with that old windbag. So make yourself comfortable, it could take a while.”

Rainbow gave the mare a concerned look. “I'm sorry to pry, but are you okay.”

Storm gave a harsh laugh, “I'm a Twilight, when have we ever been 'okay'.”

“I'm sorry, I don't understand.”

Storm sighed, “Way back when, when we fought the endless horrors that sought to prey on ponykind; we were loosing. So we turned to magics better left forgotten, we sharpened the wings of Skyhaven until they flew faster than the wind, we sharpened the fires of Starfall until metal simply bent to their will, we sharpened the hooves of Brokenstone until the earth shattered beneath them. Then finally we sharpened our minds and we cracked. And thus madness entered into our line. Sparkle is a neurotic mess, Frost cannot feel compassion nor empathy, Lady Velvet has a tenuous grasp on reality, Flare has burned ponies alive while laughing and I...” Storm trailed off, “I watched those burning ponies in envy for the exquisite torture they must be feeling.”

---

“Lord Sparkle, I come to you at the behest of High Lady Twilight Velvet, your House is recalling you, by force if it is necessary.”

If it were any other pony, addressing him as lord, rather than prince, would be an insult. But it explained quite a bit about Twilight Frost that he viewed being a lord of House Twilight to be more important than being a prince of Equestria. It explained most of the rest that he wouldn't bat an eye if the rest of the nation suddenly dropped dead. The stallion cared for nothing but what was 'good' for the house, or at least his pretty twisted view of what was 'good' for the house.

“Yes, Lord Sparkle, your mommy wants you home” the Blazing Passion ignored – or perhaps didn't notice – the outright hateful glare her husband gave her at her disrespectful reference to Twilight Velvet, “You wouldn't want to disappoint her.”

Twilight sighed, “Lord Frost, peasant...”

“How dare you?!” the belligerent mare screamed and charged the large alicorn stallion.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you, bitch.” Spoke the now visible Umbra, her 'lit' horn poised right at the – now immobilized – mare's jugular, “Please do continue struggling though, it'd be great if you managed to off yourself.”

“... you have made your message clear, now please, get the buck out of my castle.”

Frost sneered, “I would love to. But Lady Velvet was very insistent that we make certain you actually come.”

“Yes, you've ignored so many of your mother's summons, why she might just disown you.” Blazing Passion spoke, seemingly uncaring about the mortal threat she was under. “Then there would only be one obstacle to me and my dear Frost ruling the house.”

The air suddenly thickened with tension and incredulity, as Twilight stared at his aunt, barely believing what she had said.

“By Celestia, just how bucking stupid are you?” Shadow stared, open mouthed, at the orange mare.

Umbra barely managed to throw herself out of the way of an enraged flaming alicorn as he grabbed the suicidal mare by the throat.

There was a great smash as Twilight choke-slammed the unicorn into the throne-room's wall with such force that cracks spider-webbed across the crystalline walls.

Umbra felt something drip down her horn, she touched the tip with a fore-hoof and smirked when she saw red.

---

Rainbow wandered aimlessly through the empty halls of the crystal castle. So much had happened in so little time. When Twilight first came to Ponyville it was obvious that she wasn't just an average Canterlot unicorn. The mare was the personal student of Princess Celestia, she had a dragon as her personal assistant, and – although Rainbow hadn't recognized the meaning of the sensation at the time – the very air around her tingled with Power.

Looking back Twilight had always been incredibly secretive about her family, the only one in their group that was anywhere as secretive about her family was Fluttershy, and Fluttershy had been disowned by her family. Rainbow scoffed, Because tending ground animals wasn't an acceptable activity for a pegasus noble to engage in.

In fact the first time any of them had even heard of Twilight's family was when they were invited to the wedding of Shining Armour and Princess Cadence. And that's when it became obvious that there was a lot more to Twilight Sparkle and her family, or at least it should have. Why was I so distant and oblivious there, sure, I had far from mastered the Sonic Rainboom but it was embarrassing just how little attention I paid to the events going on. I mean, the entire city was under threat from a mysterious enemy, I should have been paying attention.

Twilight's babysitter was an alicorn princess, her brother the captain of the Solar Guard. The two of them were marrying, and Shining bloody Armour apparently was capable of single-handedly shielding the entirety of Canterlot. Even for an arcane abjuration aligned unicorn, that was a ludicrously powerful spell. But somehow I didn't even find it strange, I mean anypony with even a sliver of arcane theory should know what an obscene display of Power that was.

And Twilight didn't even introduce us to her parents at her brother's wedding. If they even attended. It really wasn't hard to realize that there was some bad blood between Twilight and her parents. Rainbow was certainly not foreign to hostility that could breed between a mare and her mother, but the way that Twilight's relatives seemed to speak of Lady Twilight Velvet was so far beyond even her experience. The way they speak of her, you'd think that she was some ancient evil, like Nightmare Moon or Discord.

Then there's Twilight House, never in Rainbow's many years had she ever heard of such a strange house. The Twilights seemed to take a sense of pride in doing everything so different to everypony else, it was a house that invaded the Badlands, ate the flesh of animals and engaged in plural marriages. They had more battlemages than the Queendom of Unicornia had at its height of power, despite only having a tiny fraction of the population, and they had come into existence fighting monsters that preyed on ponies. I know I should be horrified, but I am only fascinated, and it's obvious that there is clearly so much more to learn about them, 'secrets all the way down' indeed. Anyways if any stallion deserves a harem it's Prince Twilight Sparkle. Images of a certain yellow mare being mounted by the powerful stallion flashed across her mind.

Rainbow blushed, Oh, by the Styx, I'm such a bucking pervert. Mares aren't supposed to fantasize about their stallion with other mares. Yes, with the skewed population, true monogamy is untenable, but at least we can try.

Rainbow paused, Why would we try? Monogamy was an institution of another time, from before the nobility bucked everything up because colts were unfashionable or something. Actually, it was never exactly clear why they were doing it, I get wanting to have an heir to carry your name, but why change second and third foals into fillies? Rainbow shook her head, It really isn't important, those responsible are long dead, their bones since turned to dust. And monogamy, a once venerable institution has been reduced to a mockery by mares selling their husbands, sons and brothers to desperate mares with no hope of marriage. And then there's mares like my dear mother, who spat on their immense fortune in pursuit of senseless hedonism, and then abandoned her family when her husband started to loose his virility to age.

Rainbow laughed, Here I am, apologizing for polygyny within a day of sleeping with one of my closest friends, I really have it bad. And to think that I though myself asexual for most my life; my standards must be outright ludicrous. Rainbow shook her head, Maybe I have a thing for alicorn stallions.

Well the Twilights are polygynous, so it's probably for the best. How hard must the Dark Age have been that it cause ponies to abandon so many long held traditions, to break so many long held taboos. Rainbow did not know a single other time in history since the paleolithic era that ponies on mass had to rely on the consumption of animal flesh for survival, and such a taboo is only broken under necessity. Twilight had said quite a bit last night, and Storm had said some more, but Rainbow felt that they were only starting to scratch the surface on House Twilight's past. Especially considering the deep sense of rage that hid under the pride the two Twilights spoke of their history with.

Storm had seemed especially angry when she mentioned – the presumably Orders Stalwart of – Skyhaven, Starfall and Brokenstone. And while the latter two meant nothing to Rainbow, she knew that there was a minor pegasus house sworn to House Hurricane named Skyhaven. It could always be a coincidence, but Rainbow had a feeling that it wasn't.

“A bit for your thoughts?”

Rainbow startled and jumped into the air, “Oh you startled me,” Rainbow paused, “Arcane Theory?”

“That's my name, it is.” Theory smirked, “You paced past my laboratory five times in the last fifteen minutes.”

“Sorry, I'm just thinking.”

“Sounds like you need somepony to talk to, would you like a cup of tea?”

“Uh, sure” Rainbow landed and followed the mare into the lab.

---

Twilight seethed wordlessly as he held the mare pinned against the throne-room wall.

“Pah,” Blazing Passion croaked, “Brutish stallions, always resorting to violence.”

Twilight was taken aback, “ARE YOU BUCKING SERIOUS?!” His voice boomed deafeningly, “YOU BARGE IN TO MY CASTLE, INSULT ME, TRY TO ATTACK ME, THREATEN MY LITTLE SISTER, CALL HER AN 'OBSTACLE' TO YOUR DELUSIONAL DREAMS OF POWER AND NOW YOU PLAY THE VICTIM?! I HAVE A NEWS FLASH FOR YOU, FROST WILL NEVER BE THE HEAD OF HOUSE TWILIGHT, EVEN IF BOTH ME AND CIV WERE REMOVED FROM THE LINE OF SUCCESSION, NONE OF THE CORE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE, NOR ANY OF THE BRANCH FAMILIES WOULD EVER SUPPORT TWILIGHT FROST AS THE HIGH LORD.” Twilight paused, “AND EVEN IN THE INFINITESIMAL CASE THAT HE DOES, YOU WOULDN'T BE ALLOWED ANYWHERE NEAR THE REIGNS OF POWER.”

Blazing Passion struggled, “Unhand me you brute, this is no way to treat a lady.”

Twilight chuckled darkly, “A LADY? YOU ARE A BLOODY COMMON-BORN KNIGHT, AND A PARTICULARILY UNWORTHY ONE AT THAT. NOW, I HAVE HAD AN INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL LAST COUPLE DAYS, AND YOU ARE REALLY TRYING MY ALREADY SHORT PATIENCE.” Twilight lifted the mare so he was staring her in the eyes, “I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW WHAT EXACTLY YOU THINK YOU ARE, BUT IT CLEARLY FAR EXCEEDS YOUR STATUS, POWER AND COMPETENCE. AND FRANKLY, THAT INCOMPETENCE IS THE ONLY REASON WE'VE DEIGNED TO LET YOU LIVE. I CAN'T IMAGINE THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE YOU COULD HAVE DONE TO THE HOUSE IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE AN IQ SOMEWHERE AROUND ROOM TEMPERATURE, IN CENTIGRADE. BUT HONESTLY I AM REALLY STARTING TO QUESTION THE LOGIC IN YOUR CONTINUED SURVIVAL, AFTER ALL YOU HAVE ALREADY SERVED YOUR PURPOSE AND GAVE BIRTH TO THREE GOOD MARES. I COULD JUST KILL YOU HERE, END A THREAT TO MY FAMILY, TO MY FAVORITE LITTLE SISTER ...” Twilight screaming cut off into inarticulate snarls of rage.

“Hey, Sparkles, if you off the bitch, I know how to dissolve a body in hydrofluoric acid, that stuff even eats through solid alicorn.” Shadow 'helpfully' chimed in.

Twilight was incredibly tempted to kill the mare, it would be so easy. As an alicorn he was so much stronger than the ponies around him, they were so easy to break. It would end a threat to his family and it would be so bucking cathartic. Twilight sighed, “NO. AS MUCH AS I WOULD LOVE TO END YOU, YOU AREN'T WORTH IT. BUT IF YOU EVER LEARN ANYTHING, LEARN THIS: I SWEAR UPON THE RIVER STYX THAT IF YOU EVEN HURT A SINGLE HAIR IN THE MANE OF TWILIGHT TWINKLE THE 104TH, I WILL VISIT TORMENT UPON YOU THAT IS BEYOND YOUR SIMPLE MORTAL COMPREHENSION, SUCH THAT YOU WILL BE BEGGING FOR DEATH FOR ALL OF ETERNITY.”

The ponies in the room were struck silent as they felt the weight of the oath fall upon the room.

“Well buck, that escalated fast.” A shocked Twilight Aura spoke from the entrance, “Mother, why can't I take you anywhere?”

...

“Well, now that we've got that childishness out of the way, your House recalls you Lord Twilight Sparkle.” Frost spoke, seemingly unaware of the glare he received from the still flaming alicorn.

Twilight Aura slammed a hoof into her forehead, “Father, seriously?”

---

“So this must all be quite a shock. I know it was to me.”

“Yeah, it is. It's just so sudden. Twilight never even hinted at any of this before, and we've been friends for years.”

“Mmhm, the Twilights are incredibly secretive and paranoid, and that's before you even consider Sparkle's inner conflict and difficulties with the current head of the house.”

“'High Lady Twilight Velvet' right? Twilight's mother. I've heard a lot of things about her.”

Theory sighed, “I'm certain you've heard things about the sanity of the Twilights, or their lack thereof. The fact is that madness is endemic to the line. Those Twilights who manage to fully overcome their madness are always destined for greatness, and those who succumb to it ...”

“So Twilight Velvet has 'succumbed' to her madness.”

Theory gave a dark laugh, “'Succumbed' implies that she ever tried to fight it. No, Twilight Velvet revels in her madness. I swear that she makes decision based, not on what seems like a good idea to an ailed mind, but on what she thinks a crazy pony would do. It is a really good thing that the Head of House Twilight does not have the same absolute authority that she would in another house, but that kind of irrational lunacy from the Head of House does not have a good effect on the House's morale.”

“That seems horrible.”

“And Sparkle had it worse than any of us. Lady Velvet decided to practically 'raise' her herself, and prior to being accepted as Princess Celestia's student, Sparkle acted almost like Lady Velvet in miniature. In fact, I believe the reason why the council almost unanimously voted to let Sparkle become Princess Celestia's apprentice was specifically to get her out of the hands of Lady Velvet. Only Lady Velvet herself and Lord Frost voted against that resolution.”

Rainbow was silent for a second, “So Twilight is afraid of what he could have been, what he was?”

“Aye, 'but for the grace of Celestia, there go I', literally in this case. I believe that he's incredibly ashamed of what he could have become; I think House Twilight in general, and Lady Velvet in particular reminds him of that shame, so he tries to avoid thinking, or talking, about either.”

Rainbow sighed, “So, how can I help him?”

“Honestly, this is something he needs to get over by himself. The only thing you can do is give him support, although that support doesn't need to be romantic ...”

Rainbow snarled, interrupting Theory “I'm not giving up on him, you slut!”

Theory burst out into laughter, “My, that struck a nerve.”

Rainbow's eyes widened before looking away bashfully, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.”

“You have it bad, girl. It must be really hard to come to terms with the polygamy, you jealous little filly.”

“I don't care if he has to marry a hundred mares, I'm not giving up on him!”

“You have it really bad. I wouldn't expect you to have such conviction so quickly. I mean, you first slept with him last night.”

“Well it's not like I have any other choice.” Rainbow stated firmly.

“Okayyyyy ...” Theory drawled, “... I don't actually know what you mean by that, and I'm not sure I want to...” Theory trailed off to a whisper. Why do I always involve myself in these stupid pony problems?

“What was that?”

“Nothing, uh, never mind.”

“Okay ...” Rainbow paused, “So you mentioned that Twilight Frost stallion, Storm had interesting things to say about him.”

Theory grimaced, “Frost is, quite honestly the most unpleasant pony to be born into House Twilight in a very long time. Where Lady Velvet is an example of a pony falling to the hereditary madness, Frost is an example of a pony being consumed by the House's grudges, paranoia and insular nature. I highly recommend you stay as far as possible from him, you never know when he will decide that you are a threat to the House or offending it's traditions. You should also stay away from his bitch of a wife, even if she's less dangerous in a fight, she's a lot more erratic. Although if she does start something, feel free to beat her into submission. Hay, feel free even if she doesn't, nopony in the house would fault you.”

“Uh, okay, don't mess with Frost, got it. Anything else I should know”

“Other than Lady Velvet, Frost and the bitch; most of the inhabitants of of Twilight manor are reasonably stable, but don't try to put out Flare's mane – it's perpetually on fire – or mess with any of Spark's electronics. Also, don't harm any books, the Twilights were the librarians of the Orders Stalwart and can get weird about books.”

“So the book thing is a family thing?”

“Yeah, I personally prefer magic artifacts, but to each their own. Also try to be careful when talking about the Dark Age, the Orders Stalwart or either the unicorn or pegasus nobility, they're touchy subjects. Oh, and if and/or when you visit Twilight Manor, don't go wandering around without a guide. The building is over a thousand years old, was built largely by madponies, contains hundreds of kilometres of tunnels and probably doesn't obey Euclidean geometry. You will get lost, and you might stumble onto something dangerous. I know I have had to destroy more than a couple cursed objects in my time at the manor. ”

“About the Dark Age, I can't help but find it strange that nopony seems to even know about it, it certainly wasn't mentioned in school.”

“If you ask a Twilight they will probably say that the nobility is deliberately suppressing knowledge of the period to 'cover up their cowardice' or something.”

“But you don't?”

“Well a dark age is just a period where historians don't have any writings from, and the old Equestrian nobility wasn't actually around during the worst parts, so by my reckoning I think it's likely that they just don't know anything about what happened. In fact the only ponies organized enough to make records during the period were the Orders Stalwart and all of those records ended up in the library of Twilight Manor so the Twilights have a pretty skewed idea of how available the information on the period is. It doesn't help that the Twilights are so secretive about their history. Although I can't really blame them for their mistrust of the nobility, what happened to the Stalwart of Starfall was unforgivable.”

“What happened to the Stalwart of Starfall.”

“They were murdered by House Sunfire, after receiving guest right. Only one mare and two foals escaped alive.”

“What? Why would Sunfire do that? I know they aren't the most honourable of houses, but they would never outright murder an entire family.”

Theory narrowed her eyes at Rainbow, “Presumably because they wanted Castle Starfall as their seat of power. Although I can't help but wonder how you even know their name, considering that House Sunfire was eliminated to the mare when Castle Starfall self-destructed.”

“The castle self-destructed?”

“Standard contingency spells designed so that none of the Orders' enemies could profit from their fortresses. They started using them after a vampire force conquered the Stalwart of Murkymarsh, it took nearly three generations to successfully dislodge them from Castle Murkymarsh.”

“Huh”

“So you want to see some ancient magic artifacts of unfathomable power?”

---

Twilight Sparkle – still aflame and holding the orange mare – stared at her psychopathic uncle. Only bloody Twilight Frost would consider contemplating the murder of his wife as 'childishness'. “YOU AREN'T GOING TO LEAVE ME ALONE UNTIL I GO WITH YOU?”

“Lady Velvet demands your presence, I will make sure that she is not disappointed.”

Twilight sighed, returned to his normal extinguished self, and removed his hoof from his aunt's barrel, letting her fall to the ground. “I should have done this a long time ago.”

“Yes, you should have.” Frost said smugly.

Twilight's horn lit up suddenly and a magenta aura appeared around both of his unwelcome guests.

“What is the meaning of this?” Frost snarled as he and his wife levitated into the centre of the throne-room, his horn sparking as he tried to break the bindings on his magic.

“What I should have done long ago.” Twilight repeated, his magic flared brightly for a second and a small pouch appeared in front of him.

“You were always a disrespectful little filly.”

“Blah, blah, blah, I don't care.” Twilight reached a hoof into the pouch and pulled out two small crystals of unattuned magiquartz.

“You will regret this foal.”

Twilight tapped Frost's horn with one of the crystals “Boop ...” and then tapped Blazing Passion's horn with the other, “... and boop”

Frost snarled in rage, as his horn's sparking got more frantic.

Twilight put the two crystals – one glowing orange, the other cerulean – bag in the pouch. “If you get to the manor first, tell my mother to expect me sometime tomorrow. And don't bother coming back to my castle, you are officially unwelcome” Twilight's horn flashed blindingly bright and the two unicorns disappeared in a chaotic flash of magic.

Twilight immediately sprinted towards the door of the throneroom, “Come on, I made the teleport as unpleasant as I could, but it won't keep Frost down for long. We need to get Frost added to the telepad's blacklist and then attune the wards to keep the both of them out.”

“Isn't he going to be pissed?” Umbra asked.

“Frost may be an awful pony, but he doesn't hold personal grudges against other Twilights.” Twilight slammed open the throne-room door, “He'll forget the slight so long as I make it to Twilight Manor tomorrow ...” Twilight trailed as he noticed the four mares standing outside the throne-room.

“Why, Twilight dear, you are going to 'Twilight Manor' tomorrow? Why that's just perfect, this sounds like just a perfect time to introduce us to your family?” Rarity said in a sing song voice.

“Oh, buck.”

Here's the next chapter, where Twilight contemplates murder and Rainbow contemplates Twilight. Things are starting to move a bit faster now (both my writing and she narrative pace)

The next chapter is another interlude where we will see what Pravitas has been up to, but chapter 17 will be a pretty big chapter (where we learn a lot more about what has been going on with Rainbow) and chapter 18 will finally involve Twilight and friends going to Twilight Manor.