For Want of a Nail: The Lunar Paradox

Following the second great Griffon War, Equestria was once again free to begin an era of peace. Unfortunately, internal struggles between the ruling classes made this impossible, with each clan attempting to take claim over the victory for themselves. Family rose up against family and the entire nation was posed on the edge of combat once again. Thankfully, war did not occur due to the negotiations carried out by Princess Celestia. Still, tensions ran high and many ponies rebelled against the kingdom. Some of the more foolish attempted to overthrow the ruling parties, but none succeeded. Those who attempted this were in many cases stripped of their title and forced to work off their punishment or were banished from the Kingdom. The few that refused such punishments were unfortunately, put to death.

Luna yawned loudly. Her eyes were fluttering shut as she tried to keep her focus, but was failing miserably. Her head, currently resting on her left hoof kept slipping off as she would start to doze. For a moment, she wished that she was one of those select few ponies that were put to death, just to be put out of her own misery.

With a large groan, she slammed the large tome shut, tossing it onto the table with a thud. In between the many forms and papers she had to work through during her day, she had decided that it would be a good idea to try and catch up on Equestria history in her spare time. Celestia, eager to help, recommended this particular book as a good entry point since it did a fantastic job covering the basics of the country's history.

What she had failed to mention was how insanely boring it actually was.

Sighing loudly, she levitated the book back up to her face. She really did intend to crack it open and start reading again. However, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't find the strength to do so. It was just too much to ask on a day like today.

Setting the book back down again, Luna leaned backwards, gazing up at the ceiling. She'd had bad days before (VERY bad days), but few had been quite like this one. No matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't get those dark memories out of her mind.

It had been like that ever since her return to Equestria of course. When she first came back they were all that she could think of. Overtime however, she was able to focus on other things and drive them to the back of her mind. The nightmares were the one time that it came back, but even they eventually began to grow farther and farther apart.

At least, that's how it was until the Royal Wedding. For some inexplicable reason, something about the changeling's invasion reignited the bad memories to a blaze. Nothing, not even the return of Discord nor her Adventures on Nightmare Night had managed to stir these memories like the wedding. Ever since that day, the nightmares had been pushed to the very forefront of her mind. Now, whenever she closed her eyes she could vividly see the City of Everfree burning below her hooves while the cackling voice of its destructor echoed through the air.

Her voice.
She shuddered as the maniacal laugher bounced through her head once again. It was a sound that stalked her daily and haunted her dreams. It summed up every pain, every mistake, and every regret that the princess carried. No matter how hard she tried or how far she ran, the voice never relented its pursuit. It was going to follow her for the rest of her life.

Levitating the water pitcher on the desk, Luna poured herself another glass of water. She lifted it to her lips, but stopped when she looked down into it. Vaguely, her own reflection stared back up at her. The waves however bent the image, twisting it just a bit. The image seemed to smirk at her as it glared with sinister, serpentine eyes.

"ARRRRGGGHHH!!!"

Luna screamed as she stood and hurled the glass across the room, letting it shatter into a thousand tiny shards. She scowled at it as the water burst outwards, soaking the wall and the carpet below. Breathing deeply, she watched as the pieces bounced down and settled, leaving only the soggy mess behind.

Sighing, she sat back down and buried her head in her hooves. She desperately wanted to scream out again, but what good would it have done? As much as she hated to admit it, Nightmare Moon was always going to be a part of her, and she had nopony to blame but herself. Over a thousand years ago, she gave in to the darkness that nudged at her own heart. She could have tried harder, fought back, talked to somepony about her concerns, but she didn't. Instead, she let it take root, nurturing it to the point that it choked out the light and consumed her and nearly took everypony else with it.

So much pain and misery, and she was the only one that could be blamed for any of it. She tried her best to hold back the tears as she thought back to all those years and lives wasted from her own selfishness. All because she let one single mistake control her entire life.

But what could she do about it now? Celestia kept insisting that the best course of action was to try and simply ignore it. She kept pushing Luna to talk about it and to try socializing a bit more, as if, somehow that would magically destroy the monster that still dwelt within Luna's heart.

But Luna couldn't bring herself to do that. Not while she knew that Nightmare Moon was still in there, lurking in the shadows. She was always watching, waiting for just the right moment. All Luna had to do was let her guard down for one moment, and the Nightmare would strike yet again.

She thought back, all those many years ago. If only she could have been a bit more forgiving, a bit more open with her own feelings, maybe she could have prevented all the pain that she caused for so many. If only she could go back and fix this; make it so that Nightmare Moon never existed. If only she could stop the seeds of hatred from taking root.

Unfortunately, there was no way to change the past. No magic existed that could cure her of her guilty conscious. No, this was a pain that she was going to be forced to bear for a very long time.

Still, she could wish couldn't she?

The rumbling of her stomach pulled her thoughts back to the present. Since she had foolishly walked away at lunch, she had ended up going hungry at that time. Now, as the sun was beginning to make its decent, she had still not eaten anything for the day.

She sighed again as she thought about dinner. It was probably just being finished up right about now. Soon enough, the dining room would be cleared and all the food would be put away. All she had to do was go down and grab something to eat. But with Twilight and Celestia both down there, she wasn't willing to risk it. They'd both try to talk to her, and that would eventually lead to them asking how she was, which in turn would lead to them wanting to help her out.

Luna couldn't help but chuckle. Here she was wishing that she had the strength to speak her mind a thousand years ago, even though she still wasn't able to do so now. Perhaps Celestia is right, she thought to herself. Maybe I should go down and talk with them. At the very least it would...

She suddenly froze as the sound of hoofsteps and voices echoed through the hallway. Catching her breath, she paused hoping that the voices would fade away as the ponies just walked past. To her dismay however, the voices continued to get louder and clearer as they approached.

Panicking, Luna did the only thing that she could think to do. Her horn glowed softly, as her body began to dematerialize. Her form melted away, until all that remained was a dark cloud, hardly distinguishable from a shadow. The cloud floated in place for only a moment, before darting for a dark corner of the room.

The door began to creek open, just as the last remnants of the shadowy essence disappeared into the darkness. From beyond the doorway, a purple unicorn poked her head into the room and looked around expectantly. "Princess Luna?" she asked curiously.

Pushing the door open the rest of the way, Twilight Sparkle entered into the room. She levitated a plate of food alongside her. "Princess Luna?" she started again, this time a bit more loudly. "Are you in right now? I hope we're not disturbing you. We brought you some dinner."

Coming in just behind her was Princess Celestia. She had a worried expression on her face and didn't bother to call out for her sister. Rather, she stepped into the room and began to look around. For a second, her eyes rested on the location Luna was hiding, causing the lunar princess to freeze in place. But soon enough, her eyes turned back to her student with a sigh. "It appears that we have just missed her," she said sadly. "I am sorry Twilight. I know how much you wanted to see her today."

Twilight's ears fell flat against her head. Gently she set the plate down on the desk, taking a brief moment to look over the books sitting there as well. "Yeah..." she answered sadly, "I was hoping that we could at least catch her; just for a moment at least. It's been too long since I really got the chance to talk with her."

"Well, as I told you she's been very busy lately. I'm sure that she'd love to talk with you if she only had the time."

Luna felt a twinge of guilt from Celestia's words and the downtrodden look on Twilight's face. Still, there wasn't much that she could do about it now.

Celestia turned and started for the door. "Well, we best be on our way Twilight. I'll be sure to let Luna know that you stopped by."

"Wait," Twilight responded quickly. She paused, kicking at the ground for a moment. "Can't we wait for her to come back?"

Celestia sighed. "I don't think that would be wise. I think..."

"Please Princess," Twilight pleaded, "just for a couple of minutes? We can still continue our discussion in here while we wait."

Pausing to think about it, Celestia finally relented with a nod of her head. "Alright Twilight. Just for a couple of minutes though."

Luna had to stop herself from groaning as the pair made themselves comfortable. Celestia sat down upon the large cushion that sat in front of Luna's desk, while Twilight took her seat in the middle of the rug in the center of the room. Once the pair were settled, Celestia spoke up. "Now, where was it that we left off?"

Twilight smiled. "We were discussing the problem I found with Starswirl the Bearded's First Theory of Time Travel."

"Ah yes," Celestia responded, returning the smile. "You were saying that the problem with the spell deals in the transference of matter correct?"

"Exactly," Twilight responded with a nod. "See, my theory is that the reason the spell works the way that it does, is that the caster is physically sent back in time. Because of this, the world still recognizes their presence and won't change because of it."

"It's an interesting theory, I must admit," Celestia mused. "But I do believe that ponies have tried combining the spell with a far-sight spell as well. If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that the results of those tests were that they had the ability to view things in the past, but it seemed to have no bearing on the events that happened then."

"Yes, I looked into that as well. The problem with that I think is that far-sight spells only give the caster the ability to see what is going on in a particular area to begin with. Due to the nature of casting the spell, it makes it difficult for the caster to perform other spells at the same time as well. Both could potentially be reasons as to why combining the two still doesn't let you change the past."

"Yes, I can see your reasoning behind that," Celestia answered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Then what would you suggest would be a better spell to use for this purpose?"

Twilight hesitated for a moment. She looked around the room nervously before turning back towards the princess. "An Autoscopy spell."

Celestia's expression immediately turned to one of concern. "Twilight..." she began.

"Yes, I know, I know." Twilight immediately responded cutting her off. "Out-of-body spells are not widely accepted and are still considered illegal when performed by untrained unicorns."

"You're also forgetting incredibly dangerous," Celestia cut in. "There have been countless unicorns that have lost their lives attempting to control those spells. The pattern is simply too wild and difficult to maintain once the unicorn's mind has separated from their own body."

"But that's the thing about it," Twilight exclaimed. Reaching into the bag she was carrying with her, she levitated out a large roll of parchment, laying it on the ground between the pair and unfurling it. "You see," she continued, pointing towards the large glyphs drawn in the center of the chart, "Both Starswirl's spell and the Autoscopy spell share a similar pattern right here. By adding in a linking spell between those two, they naturally help provide the stabilization to keep the spell going."

Celestia lifted the chart up to her muzzle in order to get a better look at the chart. Neither her nor Twilight noticed the dark shadow that slunk out of the corner and crawled along the ceiling in order to get a better look as well.

After a moment of studying, Celestia set back down the scroll with a sigh. "It is a very well thought out theory, Twilight." Her smile soon turned to a frown, "but I'm afraid that it's still far too dangerous for you to--"

"I've already cast it," Twilight interrupted suddenly.

Celestia eyes narrowed. "You did what?"

"I've already cast it," Twilight said timidly. "I know I probably should have talked to you about it first, but I was just so excited and everything seemed to be correct that I just couldn't help myself." She seemed to shrink under her mentor's harsh gaze. "I'm sorry..."

Celestia stared down Twilight for a moment, before softening her gaze. "What's done is done I suppose," she said with a soft smile. "Though the next time that you decide to try out a spell like this, please at least let me know before, alright? I don't want you doing something that could harm yourself like that."

Twilight weakly smiled and nodded.

Leaning back, Celestia chuckled. "Well, seeing as how you are still here talking with me instead of lost somewhere in time, I might as well ask you how your experiment went."

Twilight's eyes immediately lit up. Reaching back into her bag, she pulled out another scroll and laid it over the top. "Very well actually," she answered excitedly. "I ran a few separate tests different times to see if I could do something to change the past. And so far, the results are fairly promising."

"Promising? You mean you were not able to tell if anything changed?"

Twilight paused, looking rather sheepish for a moment. "Well, the problem that I'm having is that maintaining the linking spell drains magic far too quickly. The best that I've been able to figure is that I could travel back a maximum of ten seconds, before my magic is completely drained. Unfortunately, that's not long enough to really tell if it made any difference or not."

"I see," Celestia said, once again peering over Twilight's notes. "So, even if the spell was working correctly, no unicorn alive to provide it with enough magic to make a significant difference."

Twilight shook her head with a sigh. "Unless I can figure out some way to reduce the magic drain, I don't think so. And with how much magic it takes right now, I doubt that even you would be able to travel back more than a couple of minutes at most. Um... no offence..."

"That's quite alright," Celestia answered with another smile as she rolled up the chart and handing it back to Twilight. "Have you considered the option of using a magical supplement, such as a crystal, to increase its power?"

Taking the scroll, and rolling up the other one as well, Twilight responded with a nod. "I've considered it, but it would have to be a very powerful crystal, full of raw magic to feed the entire spell. I just don't know if there's a crystal out there that could be feasible for this."

"Well, we'll have to look into it at some other time, I'm afraid," Celestia said, rising up to her hooves. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid that we've overstayed our welcome here, and I do have some matters that need attending to before sundown."

"Of course," Twilight said, again looking around the room sadly. "Your duties come first. Still, I wish that I could have at least seen Princess Luna today."

Trotting over to the door, Celestia pulled it open for her pupil. "Don't worry about that," she said warmly. "Luna will turn around eventually. She just needs a bit of time."

Twilight nodded as she exited the room. Just before she left, she gave one last sad look back, before leaving with a sigh. Celestia exited right behind her, pulling the large oak door shut as well.

As the sound of the pairs hooves against the stone floors slowly faded to nothingness, the dark shadow crawled down from the ceiling, rematerializing until Luna was standing where the others had been moments ago. Her mind was racing as the words of the evening flowed through her mind. Could it possibly be that Twilight had actually managed to discover a spell that could change the past? If that was the case, then perhaps there was a way to finally rid herself of her guilt once and for all. She just needed a way to provide the spell with an infinite source of pure, raw magic.

She couldn't help but smile. She had a pretty good idea where to find one.