Everything felt perfect - her magic was back, her reserves were full, she was immensely relieved, and she felt happy.

Something wasn't right. She was never happy.

"We're alive." Forest stated, numbly.

Lying down, her 'clothes' looked just like more rubble, hiding her from view.

Happiness, joy all around. Her disguise was back in one piece, too.

"Oh, thank goodness." That was Rarity.

It seems they were just now noticing the jewels that the stones had turned into. And they were happy...

"Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship."

"Indeed you do." That voice, no matter how warm and full of pride it was, chilled her badly. She started to twitch and tremble, and she couldn't make herself stop.

"Princess Celestia!" The surprise, combined with her own, would have stopped a lesser heart. She closed her eyes as tightly as she could, and curled up on herself.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it." Love warmth pride - No! That wasn't her! That was Celestia!

"But... you told me it was all an old pony tale." Confusion, hurt.

"I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well. Princess Luna!"

Regret, heavy, heavy regret. The hooves that landed on the stone sounded so heavy.

"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister." Pain, so much pain, carried because there was no option but to do so.

"Sister?!" The surprise was like getting struck by lightning, with this newfound sensitivity, and her face contorted as she was still trying to process the pain and regret.

"Will you accept my friendship?" Sadness regret hope happiness- Please, stop!

"I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!" The sheer joy was mixing with everything else and it was sickening! Too many things! Too little sense!

"I've missed you, too."

Pinkie began to cry in joy, and Forest gasped and bolted upright. Too many feelings!

"Forest! You're-! Forest?" Applejack spoke, at first glad, but quickly noticing the haunted look on her face.

Celestia turned to her, and their eyes met. Just like before, she could feel everything.

It was torture.

She began to shake, eyes wide and soft, occasional whimpering. She- she needed to get away! Put distance between her and Celestia!

'Celestia! Run! Fear love comfort hurt confusion- Do something! Celestia is going to kill me! Hit her and run! No that's useless! That is just propaganda!' She tried to back away, but her head was too clouded with foreign feelings to really put her intent to motion.

Celestia gasped; never in her life had she seen one of her subjects display such horror at the sight of her. It was something she could not comprehend, and it appeared that neither could the others. She was used to formalities, adoration, respect, ridiculous amounts of attention and, yes, fear of disappointing her every now and then... but never before had she seen somepony react as if their life was in real danger.

'She sad I didn't want to make her sad it's not right - NO! That is not me!' Forest shook harder as Celestia, dejected, made her way over towards her.

Twilight was worried; why would somepony fear Celestia? The princess always did her best to keep the residents of Equestria happy, and Twilight had admired her kindness and dedication for as long as she could remember.

Celestia was getting closer, it appeared she wanted to say something. Feelings were growing in intensity. Forest sucked in air.

"STOOOOOOP!" Forest screamed, her shrill voice breaking and causing everypony to flinch. "STOP! STOP! STOOOOP!"

"STOP FEELING THINGS FOR ME!" She clutched her head, screwing her eyes shut and trying to push herself away with her hind legs. "I CAN'T TAKE IT! THESE FEELINGS ARE NOT MINE!"

"Feel- the Elements must have done something to her empathy!" Twilight proved her ability for quick thinking; seeing a friend in distress made her much more focused.

"An empath?" Celestia felt relieved that it was not what she thought, only to feel guilty - regardless of being the source of her pain or not, she had yet to address the issue. Turning to the skittering pony, she retreated and closed her eyes, having noticed that the pony had gotten worse when they had made contact. "Yours is a rare ability, but by no means one I am unfamiliar with; I have a way to get ponies to-"

"Changeling." Forest interrupted, hissing through gritted teeth. She would have preferred to keep everything a secret, but she was pretty sure she was starting to feel things from further away, and wanted it to stop already! She was NOT going to risk it!

"What?" Twilight asked... worried. Celestia and Luna had managed to subdue their own emotions, but the others...

"I'M A CHANGELING, DAMMIT!" She screeched, and Celestia gave a start.

She couldn't use the spell she had planned. She had another, but it was excessive... no, this mare was in shaking more with each passing moment, and would likely lose control further.

A flash and the sound of bells, then silence.

She wasn't feeling the pressure of foreign feelings anymore. Only utter peace and tranquility were left.

She gingerly opened her eyes, her breathing having normalized pretty quickly thanks to her biology. She was still in that ruined room in the old castle in the forest, surrounded by ponies... only now there were specks of gold floating in front of her eyes. They were all over her body, she noticed, floating up and vanishing like a flame.

Celestia's eyes were glowing white with power, and her approach no longer assaulted her with centuries of repressed emotions or feelings of ponies miles away.

"Ah... what happened?" It was odd to 'feel' that much silence mere seconds after being nearly lost in a cacophony of alien sensations.

Celestia kept walking until she was nearly touching her face with her own; the princess sat down and unfurled her wings, and Forest knew that the memories from afar, through the eyes of deceived changelings, made no justice to the princess of the sun. Hunching over and tossing back the white hood, she rested her head on the changeling's withers and curled her wings, enclosing the now calm mare in a warm cage of feathers, pressing against each other.

"Shh... this is a very rare, and special, spell. I call it 'Land of Tranquility', and I want you to focus on it." Her breath was hot on her mane, and her heartbeat was soothing. "A port in a storm, a warm bed in a winter's night, anything that gives you peace; let the world melt away."

Even for someone with her history, of pain and murder... it felt like proof that Heaven was just there, waiting for a hand to reach towards it. Maybe it was that her head had been fried from the overload, or maybe the spell had traded one problem with another -albeit one easier to solve-, or it could just be that the whole affair was so draining that she couldn't be bothered to scoff at the philosophers and dabbling poets.

Or maybe Celestia was just that motherly. Old memories, of times when she still held something within, agreed.

"Picture your thoughts and feelings as a lake... and halt it. Let the ripples fade, and be at peace."

She allowed the world to fade, and found her mind again.

"Immerse yourself in it. That is you, and only you, what do you feel?"

"Annoyance." Mostly at herself, and at the glaring weakness of her new abilities.

"Oh? Nevermind, anything else?" Celestia pressed on; the spell was a draining one, and thus didn't have time to analyze every little thing. Just because she had the ability to keep it up that didn't mean she had to.

"Umm, worry. I've been told you're unkind to changelings." She figured it wasn't true, since the other queen had said that in case of emergency, Celestia was an acceptable substitution for the queen, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.

"I have not seen a changeling - at least, not on their natural form- in centuries, and dare I say he was a good friend; you are as safe here as any of my little ponies." She cooed, slowly letting her spell fade.

"Better?" Celestia released her, letting the last of her spell slip away. When Forest just looked at her, in the eyes, without any noticeable reaction, Celestia knew the crisis had passed.

"Thank you, princess." Forest was relieved.

"Changeling?" Twilight asked.

'Relief is gone; back to annoyance.'

"I guess I have some explanations to do."

*****

The trip back was much, much less annoying; now that she was full and outed, she just shifted into pegasus form and pumped a little additional energy to her wings, lightening her body. Imitating ponies was versatile, but unless she expanded her reserves substantially, she would have to limit herself to one attribute at a time.

She kept the clothes, though, it was a 'comfort thing'. They bought it.

Applejack tried to insist that she show them what she truly looks like, but talking about ugliness and pretending it was a sore topic for an actress as herself managed to deflect it, at least for the rest of the day. And not to forget that this was a big trust issue - so huge that, even after their little adventure, she was not sure she could trust them with it. There was an expression, 'I trust you with my back/life, not with my face/heart' or something similar, it lost a little in translation; something about life and identity having different values. After all, that particular revelation was something reserved for lovers (made Applejack blush on the level of one of her apples once she realized just what she was asking).

Pinkie felt sad at that, but understood. Something about stealing a friends's secrets being wrong and might cause you to lose said friend. Forest thought it was a little odd that they would consider her their friend (even before the whole 'stopping doomsday' thing), and, while they found that odd in turn, Twilight rationalized it must be because of the different cultural value of trust.

Rather close, actually.

Celestia did not take kindly to being told that a changeling queen suffering from a severe case of sour grapes and delusions of conquest had targeted her land just because of the tension with both the griffins of the mountain kingdom and the cloud republic... Still, after Forest 'discovered' Chrysalis's lies for what they were, she 'decided' that she wasn't going to let somepony else tell her things second-hoof.

Luna thought that seeing the world with her own eyes was an ambitious goal. Maybe too ambitious, for the time being.

Celestia raised some very good points - namely, money and supplies. While, thanks to her nature and those outdoorsmen, Forest needed little more than directions to a library (or conveniently run into some criminal scum nopony would miss), the idea of a proper trip around the world was appealing - transportation, pictures, movies, objects as physical proof. The girls would appre- wait, what?

Aww, man! The content feelings were getting the best of her again. She'd have to find a solution to that.

Still, the party was actually nice, what with the air so charged of positive feelings. She couldn't feed from it, not being directed at her (Celestia understood maybe a little too well her desire to be out of the spotlight), but it was nonetheless pleasant.

Celestia was grateful with her, surprisingly enough, and trying to argue that she didn't do much was no use. Apparently, letting her know that Luna was still in there, going strong and defying Nightmare Moon, was an immense load off her.

Proof that, at heart, Luna was still her little sister, even inside that thing.

Nopony knew what to make of Nightmare Moon after that, though.

In any case, Forest may have given up one of her secrets, but having proven she had a kind, courageous heart (What a riot!)... oh, and holding no allegiance towards the changeling queen didn't hurt.

Maybe she'd stay in Ponyville for a while, earn some cash, convert it to the more internationally-accepted bars, and prepare for her trip. She still needed practice with her new powers, and learning spells was a good safety net to prevent situations where she might need the... exotic cards under her sleeves.

*****

"Is it wise to allow that changeling to stay in Ponyville?" Luna asked, sitting in a cushion next to Celestia.

"Nopony willing to risk themselves like so for somepony else can be a bad pony." Celestia nuzzled her sister, as if afraid that lack of contact would take her away for another thousand years. Her room in Canterlot felt a hundred times more inviting already.

"That is not- I speak of the other changelings." Luna grumbled at her sister's fussing, but could not disguise her attempts to lean in more. "Surely, if their intention is conquest, they shall place spies in the town so conveniently close to the capital?"

"As she said; not all changelings are affiliated with Chrysalis. And her approach to a problem is incredibly direct and proactive; she would sooner intercept the changelings than fall for their traps."

"There is something more, right, sister?"

Celestia shifted uncomfortably, resting her head before thinking about how to proceed.

No more secrets, no more locking her out of the loop.

"I know that there are changelings all over Equestria, to the point that I would not be surprised to find some here, working inside the castle under my direct employ... and I understand that changelings value their true selves too much to trust me." She sighed, and Luna took over the role of the comforting sister. "I know that they are willing to follow the law, if nothing else to avoid drawing attention; even with their shapeshifting, they cannot truly, flawlessly steal somepony's identity without causing trouble... and I am sure that they shall defend theirs with tooth and nail."

"They won't trust princess Celestia... but they will trust one of their own. She- her concern and bravery will see that they are safe discretely, while we prepare for anything else." She finished.

For a while, only the sound of scratching interrupted the silence.

"Luna... is something wrong?" Celestia was confused; Luna kept scratching an area of her chest.

"I am no longer able to ignore an acursed irritation, right along the lines of my regalia." She huffed. "Like that time we sparred with one another and your hooves struck with more force than you had anticipated."

"Why would that be?"

"I do not know - I only remember rage and pain, blurred images..." Luna trailed off as Celestia brushed her coat. "What I do know is that it is time to raise the moon." Luna stood up and walked towards the balcony.

"Luna! You have to rest!" Celestia, concerned, walked along her.

"Tia! I am not a little filly!" She complained, and it was most definitely not a whine.

"I have seen to the night as well as the day every day since you were gone; I can handle it until you reco-"

"Can you?" Luna shot her a glare. "A thousand years managing both sun and moon is no simple matter, sister; the burden is great, and it is evident to one such as myself. I saw you straining when you helped the changeling with your spell... straining more than you should, in any case; you need to recuperate so that your mental abilities are restored."

Celestia pouted. "You make it sound as if I'm dumb."

"Oh, no! Tia!" Luna changed from confident to apologetic quickly, having missed the mock-hurt of her sister's voice. "I-I hath- I mean, I speak of other things!"

"I know." She chuckled, making Luna sigh in relief.

"Sleep well, dear sister; I will guard the night." Her horn began to glow, as did Celestia's. She reached, touching the moon beyond the horizon... the moon wept in joy instead of mourning.

Celestia lowered her head, and the sun eased into the path much more softly than ever, as if in a good mood from relief.

Luna carefully revealed the moon, a few tears of her own escaping her. She opened her eyes, having forgotten the exact point at which she had closed them, and smiled at the moon. Once her prison... no, not hers, not willingly... the moon had kept the world safe from... that... now but an old friend, glad to meet again.

Celestia donned a pink sleeping cap, and laid down in her enormous bed, with Luna right next to her.

"Sleep well, Celestia."

"Good night, Luna."

Knowing her sister was safe, that her student had found the bonds of the heart... It would be the best night's sleep she would have in a thousand years.

Author's Note

Chapter five, in which we learn a thing or two about dramatic irony.