"Now that we're all here, it's time for the big announcement," Celestia said.

"Oh? And it's not me being pregnant, getting married, or having a foal?" Velvet asked. Celestia shook her head.

"Not even close," Celestia said. She brought her hooves together and sighed. "Twilight, do you love your husband?" she asked.

"Of course I do, you know that," Velvet said.

"Till death do you part?"

"Yes!"

"And you love her too?" Celestia asked Night Light.

"Of course! Nothing will ever change that!" Night Light said. "What? Are you going to tell me that this isn't my foal?"

"Oh, no. It absolutely is," Celestia assured him. "But Twilight, what I'm about to tell you will shock you. It will shake your understanding of the world to its very foundations." Velvet rolled her eyes.

"Save me the theatrics," Velvet groaned. "I just had a foal. After going through something like that, everything else tends to get the volume turned down."

"It's about your foal, actually," Celestia said, her tone and expression both serious. "But mostly, it's about your brother."

Velvet saw Celestia's mouth moving. She heard the noises that sounded like words. But somewhere between Celestia's mouth, the vibrations in the air washing over her, and her eardrum vibrating, somehow the message didn't seem to get through.

"What?" Velvet asked. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I think I had something crazy in my ear. Because it sounded like you said 'my brother'."

Celestia waited patiently for the concept to sink in.

"Which is crazy, because I have no brother!" Velvet said. Celestia remained still. "I was an only child. I'm an only child!" Velvet looked at her parents beside her bed. "Mom? Dad? Right?" Her parents smiled weakly and then looked away. "Right!?" Her mother looked at her again.

"No dear," she said. "You... do have a brother."

"What? How? When? Why!?" Velvet blabbered as all the questions in her mind tripped over each other as they struggled to get out.

"Dear, relax!" her father said. "I know this is a big shock for you but you need to calm down and listen to us!"

"When were you planning on telling me!?" Velvet demanded.

"Today," Celestia said. "It was always the plan to tell you on this, the day of your first foal."

"But, but why!?" Velvet cried.

"Because of who your brother is," her mother said.

"Where is he!? I want to meet him! I need to meet him!" Velvet demanded. Celestia looked at Velvet's parents and nodded. They both nodded back. Celestia looked at Velvet and took a deep breath.

"Twilight Velvet," Celestia said as she moved alongside her bed, standing beside the new father. "I want you to meet your brother, Night Light."

"..."

"..."

"Heh, he he." A low laugh rumbled deep in Velvet's throat as it slowly bubbled up. "Ha! hahaha!" Velvet was practically rolling in the hospital bed. "HAHAHA! Oh my GOSH!" Velvet cried as she wiped her eyes. "You really had me going! Were you in on this too? I bet you set this whole thing up!" Velvet said to Night Light. Night Light just looked back at her with eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Night, come on, drop the act!" Velvet said. "I appreciate the dedication, but it's a little early for an April Foals prank isn't it? Right guys?" She looked at the rest of the assembled ponies. They all just looked back at her. "Right? Guys come on!" Velvet said growing irritated with how long the prank was being drawn out. Her smile turned into a scowl. "Come on, this isn't funny anymore!"

"Nopony is laughing, Twilight," Celestia said.

"Mom! Dad! Come on!" Velvet begged.

"I'm afraid that it's true," her father said.

"No, it's absurd!" Velvet said.

"I'm sorry Twilight, I know how hard this is for you to hear," he mother said.

"No! N-No!" Velvet stammered. "When did you find out that he was my brother!?"

"When I delivered his birth, from your mother," Celestia said. "In this very same room."

"We gave him up for adoption that very day," Velvet's father said. "That was all before you were born, of course." Velvet glared at Celestia.

"And you, YOU!" she yelled. "You knew about this, this whole time!?"

"I did," Celestia admitted. Her stoic face was expressionless.

"And you just... just let all of this happen!? You let me marry my brother and have his foal!?"

"I did." Celestia repeated. If Night Light hadn't already thoroughly emptied his stomach earlier, he would surely have done so now. Velvet's face twisted and contorted as a myriad of emotions flooded through her. Anger. Betrayal. Fear. Sadness. But mostly, confusion.

"But- but WHY!?" Velvet asked desperately. Celestia took a deep breath and sighed.

"That... is a long story," Celestia said, making herself comfortable.

"A long time ago," Celestia began, "A very, very long time ago, I wasn't the only alicorn in the world. We were many. We were all there was, among pony kind. We were immortal. Our lives were taken only by the cruel hoof of fate, but not by time. But immortality meant that we had to be responsible. We had to have careful planning and foresight for our population."

"When one of us died, we did not mourn their death. We celebrated their life. For whether it was ten years, or ten thousand years, we all got the same thing. We got a lifetime. And it meant that our controlled population had an opening for a new member. A lucky couple would be given the opportunity to have a foal."

"But then one day a wingless pony, a unicorn, had appeared in a neighboring town. She claimed to be from the future, from another world. And she brought with her a terrible curse. Ponies began to lose their horns to horn-rot. Others lost their wings to feather flu. Some lost both. All lost their immortality."

"My younger sister was barely twenty. I was only a few years older. Newborns by Alicorn standards. Our mother took us to a distant land, and sequestered us in a crystal cave, high up in a lone mountain. And there, she cast a protection spell on us, turning us to stone."

Celestia wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I can still remember our mother. Her fur was white, like mine. Her mane was a deep red, like burgundy. Her cutie mark was a quill and inkwell. Her eyes were teal, like the color of the ocean. I can still see them sometimes, when I dream. I can remember the look on her face as we cried, when she had to tell us goodbye one final time."

"I do not know how long my sister and I were in that cave, as stone statues. We had no perception of the passage of time. No consciousness. It was as though she had said goodbye, and we blinked our eyes closed. When we opened them again, it only felt like an instant had passed. But it had been longer. It had been far, far longer."

"That was when we met Starswirl the Bearded. He was the pony that figured out how to release us from our stone form. He was a wingless pony. A unicorn. Others with him had only a horn, or wings. Some had neither. It was hard for my sister and me to look at them."

"We asked him about what fate had befallen our alicorn race. He told us that he'd never heard of a pony with both a horn and wings. And neither had anypony else in the world. My sister and I searched for any trace of the world we knew. But it had been thousands of years. We could not find a single ruin, or record from our era. All knowledge of our time had gone out of the world."

"We were special, she and I. The only ponies in the world with both a horn and wings. The other ponies looked upon us as deities. We were hailed as the De Facto rulers of all ponykind. We were princesses without princes."

Celestia blushed.

"We took suitors, of course. There was never a shortage of them. But it seemed that we could never sire an heir. We just enjoyed their company. For a while at least. As time went on, it became harder and harder to accept a companion, knowing that we would one day lose them to the sands of time. Eventually we stopped accepting them altogether, seeking companionship then, only in each other."

Velvet asked, "You and your sister were...?"

"We were lovers, yes," Celestia answered. "And for a time, it was enough. Other ponies came and went but we were always there for each other. But after a while, that wasn't enough for me. I became obsessed with trying to find a way to bring back our race."

"I had founded a school in a small mountainside town that would one day become Canterlot. A gifted student of mine had been making great strides in the field of botany. He was able to accurately determine the traits of the plants that he would cross pollinate. He posited that all life forms could pass on traits in this way. He was the first to hit upon the idea of genes. His successor and I worked closely together for many years. We hypothesized that we could apply his methods to ponykind, and possibly breed alicorns back into existence. All we needed was to combine the traits of Unicorns and Pegasi. At first it didn't seem to be working, just mixing a Pegasus and Unicorn. But with a few Earth Ponies in the mix things started to turn around."

"But... there are lots of interracial couples in Equestria. None of them produce alicorns," Velvet said.

"That's correct!" Celestia said. "The genes are recessive to a very long degree. The genetic composition and combination would have to be just right for it to happen. It would take many successive pairings of ponies to distill the genes down to just the right set. But he and I figured out how to do it! Although he realized that in order for it to happen, I would have to oversee the entire project, long after he had died. We started by pairing him with the right mate to begin the process."

Celestia took Velvet's hoof.

"And your great, great, great... many many greats, grandparents were him... and his sister."

Velvet grimaced.

"And when they had their first foal, I looked after him myself. Then they had a daughter," Celestia said. "Years later, I played matchmaker and I introduced him to his unbeknownst sister. And then I did the same with their foals. Eventually the ancestors of Night Light's foster family began to help, taking on the adoption of the first born. And so on. Until now."

Velvet looked at her parents.

"Mom? Dad?" she asked, seeking some kind of explanation.

"It's true, Twilight," her mother said. "Your father and I are siblings. Just as our parents were. Just as you and Night Light are." Her parents walked around to the other side of the bed and both hugged Night Light. "We've missed you so much, Son," she said.

"It was so hard for us to not reach out to you," his father said. "But our family made a promise."

"And I made a promise too," Celestia said. "I vowed to always look after your family through the centuries. I've always made sure that nopony ever wanted for food, or shelter. Everypony in your family has had a blessed life. Ensured admission to my school, and to the Royal Guard Officer Academy. Any and all of the best opportunities."

Velvet was still struggling to accept it all. Celestia smiled wide.

"And we are so close to our goal! I'm certain that your foal will be capable of becoming an alicorn. And their foals will be born with both a horn and wings! You are part of the royal family!" Celestia's smile faded. "Which is why it breaks my heart that I must ask to take your foal away from you."

"What!? NO!" Velvet growled. Velvet clutched her tiny bundle of joy closer to her.

"Twilight, dear, please," her mother said, "I know how hard this is,"

"No you-" Velvet stopped herself.

"I DO know how hard this is!" her mother snapped. "It broke my heart when I had to give up tiny Night Light." She turned to Night. "It pained both me and your father that we could never see you." She looked to Velvet again. "But we owe the Princess so much. She's always looked after all of us, and you. She made you her protege. She made Night Light an officer in the Royal Guard."

Velvet refused to release her baby.

"Of course, I won't force a mother to part with her foal," Celestia said. "But you are still so young! You have a semester of graduate school left to finish and get your Master's Degree. Do you really want to be raising a foal while you try to do that?"

"I can do it," Velvet said.

"Your foal will be looked after, with the very best treatment!" Celestia assured her. "And you will be able to visit, and see their progress. And you will be reunited again as their mother one day when your foals have foals of their own. But nopony else can ever know that this one was born to you. Twilight, you and your foal, your entire family, is the biggest secret in Equestria."

"Twilight, please," her mother begged. "I sacrificed raising Night Light so that our family could have this incredible opportunity to be part of something truly special. Historical! Your foals, our grand foals could be alicorns in our lifetime! We gave up our son to see this day." Her parents hugged Night Light harder. "Please don't make our sacrifice become in vain!"

Velvet looked at the tiny foal in her hooves. Her eyes began to water.

"Can I at least pick the name?" she asked.

"Of course!" Celestia said. Velvet peeled away the blanket wrapping the tiny pony. The tiny pink wings sprung out from under the baby pegasus. A tuft of purple and creme mane sat as a bit of fluff on her head.

"Cadance. Cadance, my love," Velvet said. Celestia nodded in approval. Velvet held out the bundle of blanket. She clenched her eyes. She couldn't bare to look. She only felt the weight in her hooves go away. A moment later, the door opened and closed. When she opened her eyes again, Celestia and her daughter were gone. She cried. Her family gathered around her in the bed and held her. Her mother, father, and brother. They all held her as she cried. She cried until she had no tears left. "Goodbye Cadance," she whimpered.

"It's not goodbye," her mother assured her as she hugged her and Night Light. "You will be together again soon."

"It won't be soon enough," Velvet said. Her mother hugged them both harder.

"No. It won't."