Our Greatest Failures

Chapter 5

"Celestia's Judgment Day"

Inside the royal Canterlot throne room, many of Celestia and Luna's subjects were waiting to hear what she had to say about how she failed to protect them from Queen Chrysalis. Celestia looked very uncomfortable and realizing the reception that she was about to get, took an enormous gulp and stepped out to face her subjects while accompanied by Luna and Twilight. Celestia looked out at the crowd of ponies who booed and jeered her as she entered the room and Luna felt at that moment that her sister had suffered enough.

"BE STILL!" she shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice and the crowd of ponies fell silent. Luna stepped forward and was the first to address her subjects.

"Citizens of Equestria," she began in her royal Canterlot voice. "My sister comes to you today filled with remorse and regret for how the Changeling Invasion played out. I must come clean and say that I too was not able to defend you as much as she did."

This did not satisfy with Jet Set and Upper Crust, who were at the front of the crowd and looking crossingly at the Princesses.

"Then you should be as guilty as your sister," shouted Jet Set. "We were subjected to the torture of those monsters because of you!"

"You both should be expelled from your roles as our protectors!" added Upper Crust, who was more angrier than her husband. "We nearly lost our way of life and our homes were nearly gone as well."

"SILENCE!" shouted Luna and the snobbish pony couple silenced themselves in fear.

"Now, you will hear what we have to say before you judge us for who we are," said Luna and Celestia stepped forward with Twilight standing beside her as she spoke.

"I'm pretty sure that you are angry with me for allowing the changeling invasion to commence on Canterlot," she began as she looked out towards the crowds. "However, you must all realize that somepony did try to warn me."

"It was Twilight Sparkle," cried a pony. "She should be princess of Equestria, not you two!"

Everyone murmured in agreement as Celestia raised a hoof to silence the crowd again. Twilight held on to Celestia's wing in encouragement.

"Don't worry, Princess," she whispered. "They will respect you again if you just tell the truth about what had happened at the Rehearsal."

Celestia looked uncomfortable at what her student had said, but nevertheless, it had to be done. She then faced the crowd again.

"On the morning of the invasion," confessed Celestia. "We were holding our wedding rehearsal and my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, sensed something was wrong with our niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. When the time came for Shining Armor to get the ring from Twilight, who was acting as his Best Mare, she was not present and it was right after that she burst into the hall and made accusataions about Cadence's behavior."

"She was trying to warn you that something was wrong!" shouted another pony from the back of the hall. "Princess Cadence would never act like that in front of us, especially towards the pony who is standing next to you, who just happened to be her foalsitter growing up! You raised her to rule the Crystal Empire on the day it returns, didn't you?"

"Yes, I understand that Cadence would never act mean in front of anyone," replied Celestia. "However, you must understand that an event as big as a royal wedding can be stressful for anyone, even to someone as nice as Princess Cadence. As a result, we all believed that Twilight being possessive of Shining Armor since he was her brother and as a result, the Changeling Queen, disguised as Princess Cadence ran out of the rehearsal crying and after reprimanding Twilight, Shining Armor told Twilight to forget about being Best Mare and not even show up to the wedding at all."

A loud gasp came from the crowd and many now stared down their anger towards Twilight Velvet and Night Light, who were also in the crowd of ponies and since Shining Armor was their son, they were partially to blame for the misfortunes of what happened.

"But, do not blame Twilight Velvet and Night Light," said Celestia, silencing the crowd again. "I also am to blame as much as anyone. For instead of being there for my faithful student, I coldly walked out on her and sternly said that she had a lot to think about before slamming the doors of the wedding hall in her face."

This made the crowd even more furious at Celestia and cries of her resignation continued to roar throughout the hall and it took another cry of "BE STILL!" from Luna to silence them yet again. Once the crowd quieted, the princess of the sun spoke again.

"However," continued Celestia, now starting to hold back tears. "What happened at the Wedding Rehearsal was the worst mistake I had ever made in my entire life. I am just as fallible as any of you and I can make mistakes just as much as anypony. However, whereas I failed Twilight Sparkle and whereas I failed all of you, she trusted her instincts, rescued Princess Cadence from the Canterlot Caves and thus, did not fail me and most importantly, she did not fail all of Equestria."

Now, a sudden surge of anger and frustration boiled through Celestia's veins and she stared down her subjects with a cold look on her face.

"However," she said sternly. "All of the anger that you had towards me and my sister has been demoralizing for us. Just because we failed to protect you from one enemy, doesn't mean that we should resign and have Twilight Sparkle replace us. She is like a daughter to me and for you to bully her into becoming a princess is unacceptable. What I did was wrong and when I apologized to her for my cold demeanor towards her, she was able to easily forgive me for what I did."

Now, the princess of the sun was starting to cry and the crowd immediately started to feel her pain and suffering that they were causing her. Twilight also began to feel her pain and also started to cry too.

"We can all learn from this catastrophic invasion," said Luna, now speaking to the crowd in place of her sister. "When I was reunited with my sister after my banishment as Nightmare Moon, I learned that you must always learn from your mistakes and that you take what you learn forward and put it to use the next time trouble comes. There will be danger out beyond these very borders and there will be more creatures like the changelings who will want to harm us. But, all we ask from all of you is to hear that you are sorry for getting angry at us for one mistake that we have made. Will you please do that for us?"

Sounds of "I'm sorry!" and "We forgive you!" rang out through the crowds and Twilight and Celestia hugged one another, knowing that the burden of what they all had been holding since the invasion had now being lifted off of their shoulders.

Meanwhile, Spike was back at the library and waiting for Twilight to come home and ask her the question of whether or not she truly loved him for what he did at the Wedding Rehearsal…