Twilight, though still a greenhorn in the social areas, was observant enough to tell apart all of her friends by body language. There was a certain sway to Rarity's body with each of her steps that, given Rarity's personality, she filed under 'feminine' (she needed further observations to see if it should be 'seductive'); Applejack, on the other hoof, had a... she would call it an 'air' about her, like she was in control of her every move - most likely, years of work in the farm had made her find the best possible way to do her chores without wasted effort, kind of like having discarding unnecessary movements with time.

She still didn't know what to make of Forest, who kept moving differently in public and private, but the po-changeling next to her? She walked like scolded dog, on the way to receive punishment.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Forest beat her to it.

"I need to see her. I can't stay scared forever." She said, looking as if trying to drag a weight just to raise her head. "Back at the old castle, wi-with her, it was the closest to Heaven I'll ever be. I need this. I need it."

That attentive part of her mind held on to the odd comment, and then filed it away for later. They were right in front of the doors to the princess's bedroom, and the guards escorting them nodded to the ones guarding the entrance.

*****

Celestia was looking through a dusty old spellbook, part of the ones she personally guarded, while Luna was off to search among the books in the Stormbringer Wing, which held all of the weather-related works.

She remembered having heard of the kind of spell that had been suggested - an incredibly potent dispelling effect that could work even on nature - but had never learned it herself. Something about stripping the magic from the place and sending it elsewhere (back to the surrounding leylines, most likely)... well, some types of magic enchantments inherently resisted such things, but having to keep the weather malleable enough to make their weaponized versions with their fabled speed would make such a protection impossible. That Major Leyline next to them poured its contents into the air, making the spell like trying to empty a tub with a glass, all while the water was still running and one were emptying the glass into the tank feeding the tap.

The only leylines like that in Equestria ran through Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus, and were proportionally smaller and slower - enough so that a single, well-placed spell, if there was a way to make it potent enough to engulf either city, could still make them fall. The other cloud cities wouldn't even have that, and everything on the clouds would drop as if the clouds were simply steam from a teapot.

Not that she needed remembering why she never learned the spell.

Not that she needed a spell like that. Even after Luna's... absence, she alone had been deterrent enough to prevent the country of Cirrus, another of the cloud countries, from acting against Equestria. They would have the advantage against the Equestrian soldiers; she had the power to swat them away.

But times change. She had little doubt that, now that Luna was back, a confrontation would be considered an even worse move on their part than before, but the cultural changes, and the current problems... they might just ignore the fact that she has not stood stagnant or that Luna was still rather strong even in her diminished state.

This spell, should it be found and adapted successfully, would save a lot of ponies... perhaps even the other side, should her ponies be capable of arresting their fall. Now, if they instead-

Celestia blinked, suddenly losing interest in the book as a stray thought entered her mind.

There she was, studying countless tomes of magic (again), learning what she could from the past, thinking about angles and possible moves for a conflict that might happen just as much as it might not, thinking ahead... all because of a letter born of two sentences.

Either Twilight rubbed off on her, or she did on Twilight. She wasn't sure of which. Gauging oneself was pretty hard, after all.

Granted, it wasn't every day that somepony just ups and tells them that the black box they've been seeing all of their lives was white on the other side and unlocked.

Again, gauging oneself was hard. It often took somepony that had a different viewpoint, if not a different context altogether.

The door to her chambers opened, and she smiled warmly at the chance to once more share time with her student.

Celestia could tell something was wrong.

She had long since learned the ways to read and interpret body language, and then elevated it unto an art form; refined to such point, that she had had entire conversations where neither side uttered a single word.

She did not need any of that experience to tell something was very wrong with the changeling.

She was walking as if coerced or pulled by a leash, her head was low in defeat, her tail was tucked in between her legs, and her steps said that she would rather be anywhere but her room.

Her eyes were closed, and Celestia could see tears. She worried for her.

Forest drank in the... she could say 'presence' of the princess. She took in the sensations that were so contrary to what her brain screamed at her, and slowly drowned it out. Soldiers had a healthy fear of authority, changelings were submissive towards figures of power they recognized, her own experiences only punctuated it further...

But Celestia was nothing like that like that.

Princess Celestia wanted cooperation, not nigh-blind obedience like Chrysalis or Mercer's fear-fueled whatever-the-hell she could call it. Hmm... unlearning her responses was needed, or else she would never get her mind to work while the princess was near.

There was, and likely would always be, that worry that Celestia would find out her greater secret and... 'cleanse'... better stop thinking like that.

"See, Twilight?" Forest said, turning to the mare besides her and opening her eyes slowly. "I just needed to come."

Celestia could see a change - now Forest walked like she was unsure of her footing, despite being inside the castle where the guards-...

Oooohh...

Forest was still scared of her.

She... well, it had been quite silly of her to expect that a single moment, even one so powerful, would change what must have been years of thinking that she would be 'unkind'. The only cure, if that could ever be reversed, was the truth. Celestia's heart ached, guilt making her lower her gaze. It was like the animals she took in for her sanctuary; they arrived wary of ponies, afraid of being mistreated by an ill-tempered 'master'.

Forest sighed, quite clearly of relief, and bowed. She was now more like a small cat under a large dog's nose; still that slight hint of a predator stalking she had noticed during the party, but now it was only to avoid drawing the attention of a stronger being.

"You requested our presence, princess?" Forest's attempt at being polite and respectful was undercut by the way her tone suggested she had not taken it as a request; the way Twilight and Spike looked at her and sighed told Celestia all that she needed to know about it.

And yet... Forest was loosening up. Oh! Being able to sense emotion, she must be able to know of her sincerity!

"Please, stand. If it was an inconvenience, you could have stayed at home." Celestia was unsure of how to proceed, but spoke anyways; Forest's fear was beyond Twilight's most extreme moments - after all, those had merely been the overreactions of a filly. "I only wished to discuss things with Twilight; yours was a cordial invitation."

"I hope you forgive me if, in my experiences, my madness seized control of my mind and interpreted it otherwise." She said, managing a smile. Well, at least she was conscious that Celestia did not, would not wish her harm.

So long as she believed her to be a regular change-... ugh, she did it again.

"Alright, now that's just trying too hard." Spike said, sliding down Twilight's back after she bowed.

"Give it time." Forest replied.

"You are not insane."

"As somepony once said: We are all insane, it's just that some are more than the norm, and harmless is the usual rule." Forest said in response, a smug smirk in her face while Twilight placed a hoof on her shoulders.

"Better?" Twilight had always taken the well-being of others seriously even when she saw no point in friends, but seeing her support another like so in their times of need made Celestia's heart swell with pride.

"Emotionally? Much better. Intellectually? I think I'm screaming. Learned behavior can be nasty like that." She finally, finally, looked Celestia in the eyes, if only for a moment. "In my ideal scenario, I would just be another pony in town, and I certainly would not ever be in the princess's... quarters..."

Only now did she notice. The room had much more purples and blues than she would have expected, instead of whites and yellows as one could have guessed. There was no grand painting of Celestia in a pose or a glorious moment of her past (there were enough in the museums, after all), but there were some of personal moments between her and past friends - and even an obviously new one with both sisters in it. The fireplace had many small, framed pictures resting on top, possibly past students given that some activities looked academic, but pictures of Twilight took central place; more than a few gave the impression of family photos rather than school pictures... on further observation, it seemed that Twilight had started the youngest, or at least the smallest, out of all of them. The furniture was another shattered assumption, as each piece was an elegantly understated affair of painted wood of solid make instead of opulent solid gold objects with more decorations than the palace itself - not that surprising, given Celestia's nature.

Celestia offered them a seat with a gesture of a wing. She was trying... alright, she usually tried being a loving teacher, but with Forest... hmm, she would go for 'good host' and 'kind supporter', pour some tea, and see where it took her. There were plenty of soft, velvety cushions piled around the table she had used oh so many times to read along with her students, or take tea with a friend, or, more recently, have Luna taste some of the wonderful desserts that had been made during her absence.

At least, Forest was showing more confidence and didn't seat herself the furthest. Truly, the little changeling must have gone through harsh ordeals to get here.

Forest let out a contented sigh. She figured that if the Sun Princess had not yet called the fury of Sol to turn her into vapor, her secret would be safe for a little while longer. That she felt love flowing in was reassurance enough... warm and 'filling', she could say; if she had to liken it to anything, she would have to go for the obvious and say 'the sun'. She sent her horn into 'sleep mode' again and 'awakened' the pegasus magic within, letting it passively bring down the weight of her biomass a little as she took a cushion for herself.

"Hah... a little comment, and now I'm having tea with a princess." A pony princess with magical sparkling hair in a country full of magic ponies with a monster-filled forest, at that... it would make good television.

"Which reminds me; you are very observant." Celestia said, glad that those tense moments were behind them at last; she would have to handle things more carefully in the future.

"It was basic strategy, at least, the way I understood strategy... lure the tiger down from the mountain - away from advantageous terrain. They might be able to move their country, but I figure that a leyline would react poorly to being moved." She sipped some tea; jasmine, huh? "Be flexible; if you have a sword, but are fighting somepony that beats swordsponies, then don't be one. Fight dirty, as it were; honor is for those that can afford it. Honor rarely makes good strategy."

"You are familiar with strategy? Was that a result of your past?" Celestia asked, and she did not need to add 'with Chrysalis' for the ponies to hear it.

"While there were some tactics involved, I have known my way around trouble for a long while." She sighed, taking a slower sip from the cup on her hooves.

"Is that why you said the princess was 'the closest to Heaven' you would be?" Twilight said, and Forest would have spat her tea had she not bitten her lips.

"I-I said that?!" Her heart began to pound and she looked at the princess, tensing her shoulders as if trying to make herself smaller.

"Why do you fear me so?" Celestia whispered, ears flat against her head, the ache returning; so much for 'careful'.

"I... you are smart ponies, and you have all the pieces." Forest forced herself to say, trying her best to avoid... everything, really.

"Pieces?" Spike asked, and the princess raised her head.

"Please... an orphan, of my nature, travelling from place to place? Alone?" Forest's voice was once more that accursed empty thing in the shape of words that Twilight so hated, even if those words tried to say why they were like that.

Spike took it to mean she had stolen.

Twilight did not know what to think, but despite being unable to hold the nebulous thought, she had the impression that it was worse than stealing.

Celestia had a much better guess as to what she was implying, but was more interested in the pony herself. Those eyes looked as empty as the voice that came with them sounded; she was broken.

Wherever Forest had come from and whatever had happened to her had broken her.

Celestia knew that other nations did not take society's issues with the same... fervor she and hers did.

The founding of Equestria had brought many changes; the old families that were set on 'the way things should be' were not given much hold or say in the management of the new land, and tribalism had been, if not nearly eradicated, dealt a mortal blow in a single generation. It had been decided that the Equestrians would look after their own closely.

It only took facing certain death to adopt the new policy.

Other countries... well, their griffin neighbors had some very different procedures to deal with - say - orphans. Which is to say that they did nothing at all.

Celestia understood Forest's fear a little bit better. If somepony did something extreme for survival, it was likely they would not want others to know, much less somepony with her authority.

It also partially explained why she moved the way a tiger did, like nothing in the jungle could bother her, just wary of surprises; Forest simply wasn't feeling very threatened by ponies, and could just use her changeling powers to 'skip town' and vanish. An ability that was taken from her when she revealed her secret; the fear made sense, it was a huge mess of intents conflicting with her nature and the consequences of her past.

Unfortunately, that also made her dangerous. A broken, empty mare with a predatory nature, with no attachment to... well, anything? The saving grace being that she was at least aware of it, trying to sink into the cushions like that... once more, Celestia could not help but picture the animals of her gardens. Wait... that was the thing, no? Forest did get attached, however thinly; that she could think of Celestia like that was proof that, even if Forest wore masks - as changelings are wont to do - over her empty eyes, there were things that reached something. If a pony wears a mask, the muzzle can grow to fit; it appeared that there was still something left that could grow. It gave her hope.

And made her feel a little embarrassed - 'closest to Heaven'? Her?

That was a line of thought that could get them out of the awkward spot they were stuck in.

"Heaven? Why is that?" She chanced ask.

Forest came out of her latest bout of paranoia, having just now concluded planning 'dungeon escape #26', where she had to use her viral abilities to essentially ooze through the drain.

"Huh?"

"Why would you say... that..."

Forest adverted her eyes. "You remind me of my mom."

Celestia carefully extended a wing, once again covering the changeling with it.

Forest was glad that her body didn't work the way it used to, or she would have emptied her stomach already. She never willingly exposed herself to the attention of others, it just didn't feel right and put her on edge, even if she responded to Mercer's focus with apathy; the exception, of course, being the times she was under disguise around people unaware of it.

Well, for once the lack of talent with her empathy was being useful; she would be a shivering wreck if it weren't for her inability to filter out bursts of emotion, so she had to settle for 'browbeaten changeling' until she stopped freaking out from merely being near possible causes of sudden dea- oh for God's sake...

She didn't have to act, though.

"Let it be known that, in Equestria, the well-being of all residents is important, big and small." Celestia spoke firmly; it did not take a genius to know that she took the subject seriously - there was steel in her voice. "I have made it my mission that situations like yours are prevented to the best of our ability."

Forest felt the warmth on her body, but nothing else much... it was hard to, considering just what comprised a 'situation like hers'.

The shadows in the room waved and stretched, converging to a point on the floor and then growing as a pile of books gently floated out of it, followed by a crystal-shod hoof calmly stepping out of the darkness, the shadows returning to their rightful shapes after princess Luna finished crossing over.

"Sister, while I understand where I erred, I would have preferred to be informed that the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice 'fell out of vogue' not by a librarian, but by my own-" It was then that she noticed the somber mood.

Luna blinked at the scene.

"Did... did I miss anything?"

*****

"A distressing situation indeed." Luna nodded. Surprisingly, it had been Forest who explained most of it, albeit apathetically.

"Though memories are the only things that we can call truly our own..." Luna said, making Forest feel incredibly uncomfortable, what with Blacklight and all. "We are more than the sum of our memories."

Forest... listened; an ear swiveled towards the princess, at the least. She remembered being Forest Benedict Riddle, but had the changes been too much? Was she like Mercer, having simply woken up with a different mind that held memories from another life?

Given the apathy and disinterest, did she even change? Did it matter? Had she retained something more, would she have lost it? Or had her emptiness been so great that the infection had nothing to take away?

"Our pasts may have brought us where we stand, and shaped us to what we are, yet the path already traveled cannot decide our destination for us." The younger princess muttered what may have been 'I shall not allow it'.

Celestia took it from there.

"Memories, you see… They are like a pack that you carry as you trek toward the future. This burden cannot be too heavy, nor can it be too light. If it is too heavy, it will weigh you down before you ever reach your destination. If it is too light, you will reach your destination having gained nothing from the journey. Do not allow your past to prevent you from making a future."

It was something to ponder...

"Like deciding what to do in case of an invasion?" She finally asked, raising her head a little.

Celestia smiled.

Maybe, just maybe, the hollow mask could be filled, and the broken heart saved.

Author's Note

Freefall reference. It was just... perfect! It fit perfectly!

Also, Luna and Celestia's speech on memories comes from SPOILERS, right when you SPOILER.