Bittersweet Memories

Wow. What a nice morning! The birds are chirping, the sun is shining...well obviously. That’s what morning implies. Spike snores in his bed. He still isn’t awake yet. He never is until much later, unless I wake him up. The library is nice and quiet, as a library should be. I suppose I should get up and brush my mane.

Ah, mane nice and tidy. Spike is still snoring. That lazy dragon is always...

Woah! Suddenly, Spike coughs up a letter from Princess Celestia. It lands on the floor with a gentle bounce. Wow, Spike didn’t even wake up. I guess he’s still all tired from the parties yesterday. I still am too. Defeating Nightmare Moon wasn’t the easiest thing to do. At least I have lots of friends now.

I pick up the letter and read it out loud to myself. I’m not even worried about waking Spike anymore.

“Dear Twilight, I will be arriving in Ponyville this afternoon. You must gather everypony in town for my arrival. This is not a formal event, nor should it be treated as such. I simply wish to address everypony in town, as I have something of utmost importance to say. Princess Celestia.”

What?! Celestia is coming to Ponyville? Today?! This afternoon?! What should I do?

“Maybe you should gather everypony like she said,” Spike grumbles tiredly. Oops, was I still talking out loud?

“Heh heh, you’re right. Maybe I should.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well it wasn’t easy, but with the help of my new friends, I was able to tell everypony about Celestia’s arrival this afternoon. It’s strange. Everypony I talked to seemed shocked when I mentioned Celestia. I overheard whispers about a “battle” and “purple flashes chasing Celestia.” I’m not sure what all of this means. I’ll ask my friends about it.

“Yeah, I heard that too,” Applejack says, “Somethin’ ‘bout a ‘fight’ with Celestia, or somethin’”

“Yeah, I heard stuff about zipping purple things, and Celestia flying all over the place! It seems like it was fun to watch!” It only seems natural that Pinkie Pie would say something like that. If “natural” is the right way to describe her.

“I heard something about ‘purple streaks in the night,’” Rainbow Dash adds, “I sure hope the princess is okay.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out when she gets here,” Rarity says reassuringly.

“Yes, I suppose we will,” I say confidently. The princess isn’t the type to leave something unexplained for everypony. If only I was here to see it myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everypony is gathered on the edge of town waiting for Celestia. From the castle in Canterlot, the glisten of her chariot signals us that she is on her way. Everypony starts getting excited. Ponies start stirring and murmuring amongst each other. They obviously know something I don’t. I can’t wait to figure out what it is.

Celestia arrives with a scrape from the chariot wheels on the ground. I approach her as she steps off the chariot towards the crowd of ponies.

“Princess, what’s this about? Everypony is whispering things about you. About you, and a fight, and ‘purple flashes.’ What are they talking about?”

Her eyes widen slightly. “I’ll explain everything. This might not all make sense at first, but I’ll talk to you and your friends personally afterwards.”

She steps past me towards the now hushed crowd. “As I’m sure you all...” she glances at my friends, “...most of you have heard and suspected, yes, something did happen involving me a couple nights ago.” Murmurs from the crowd. I step back with my friends as Celestia continues.

“Please listen closely. I’m going to tell you all you need to know about that night.”

Now the crowd is really silent.

“That night, I didn’t show up to the Summer Sun Celebration because I was attacked.”

Attacked?! Gasps erupt from the crowd.

“No need to worry, I’m fine. However, there are things you need to know about my attacker.”

The crowd quiets again.

“His name is Jenetar.”

Whispers.

“Jenetar?” I ask, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a pony named Jenetar before, princess!”

She looks at me, “You wouldn’t have, Twilight.” She turns her attention back to the crowd, “None of you would know him. He’s...not from around here.”

I’m not so sure that’s what she means when she says that.

“Anyway, that night, if it wasn’t for my use of magic, he might have killed me. His physical strength is beyond anything else I’ve ever seen.”

More gasps from the crowd, and from me. How can anypony be strong enough to hurt Celestia?

“But I urge all of you to put that aside. I need all of you to listen carefully. Jenetar will eventually be living in Ponyville.”

“WHAT?!”

“Now, hear me out, everypony!” Celestia almost shouts.

The crowd quiets down again. Boy, she’d better have a good explanation for this!

“None of you have to have anything to do with him. In fact, it may be in your best interest not to have anything to do with him. He’s dangerous.”

“How are we supposed to deal with him then?” somepony asks.

“All you need to know is this. No matter what happens, you can’t let him remember anything.”

“What does that mean?” somepony else asks.

“It means that whatever any of you do, don’t talk about that night to or around him. And, for the love of Equestria, do NOT say anything about Princess Luna to him.”

Rainbow Dash says from next to me, “Uhh, why?”

Celestia looks like she’s thinking for a moment, then says, “You just can’t. If he were to learn of Princess Luna’s existence in any way, any way at all...” she spaces out for a second, “...just...he can’t know! I don’t know what he would do if he were to know!”

Everypony whispers amongst themselves, until the princess says, “Does everypony understand? Just make sure he lives a new life here, one completely separate from the one you all remember.”

The crowd complies, but I can tell they’re all on edge about this. I’m nervous myself. How can the princess expect everypony to let such a terrible pony like that live in Ponyville?

The princess sighs, “Thank you, everypony. When he arrives here, I advise you all to be very careful of him. Alright, that’s all for now. Thank you all for being here.”

Everypony bows respectfully, and turns back towards the town. I turn around to follow them as they head back towards Ponyville, talking amongst themselves.

“Twilight?”

I stop. “Yes, princess?”

“Can you and your friends accompany me to the library? It’s time I tell you six what’s going on.”

I look at them, and they look at me. We all look at the princess, “I guess so.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Thank you all for helping gather everypony today,” Celestia says when we’re all inside the library, “I only hope they remember everything I’ve said.”

“Uh, all ya said was to keep away from him, and to not say ‘Princess Luna’ to him,” Applejack points out.

“Oh. Well I hope they remember that,” Celestia chuckles nervously. “Where is Luna? She was supposed to meet us here. Ah, well. She needs time to get herself together.”

I step forward, “Princess, what’s going on? I know getting attacked isn’t the most pleasant experience, but it almost seems like you’re traumatized or something!”

She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Until Luna gets here, I’ll start from the beginning. When Princess Luna was a filly, her only friend was Jenetar, and Luna was his only friend. They were inseparable. They would spend all their time together. They cared more about each other than any other ponies I’ve ever seen.”

I care a lot about my friends, but I can’t imagine having only one friend. I’ve had my books all my life, so I never needed friends. But now that I have five of them, I wouldn’t give them up for anything. I can’t imagine what Luna and Jenetar felt.

“Luna was always out at night, and I guess Jenetar stayed up all night to be with her and slept in the day,” Celestia continues. “Everypony was asleep at night, so Luna had nopony to play with besides Jenetar.” She chuckles softly, “It’s sweet, really.”

“Eventually, when Luna became the princess of the night, she appointed Jenetar as her personal senti- ahem, bodyguard. He was so happy. So was she.”

Rainbow Dash lands from where she was hovering, “Soooo... what happened?”

“Yeah, and does it have anything to do with why you weren’t there at the celebration?” Pinkie Pie asks excitedly.

Celestia takes a deep breath again. “I’m sure you know the legend of Nightmare Moon.”

“I do!” I exclaim proudly, “Princess Luna got jealous of you, so you banished her to the moon for 1000 years!”

Wait a second...

“But that would mean...”

“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia takes over for me, “Jenetar is over 1000 years old.”

“WHAT?!” Wow, we all said that in unison.

Suddenly, Princess Luna flies in through the window and lands next to Celestia.

“Just before Celestia banished me, I knew what was going to happen. I would be alive on the moon, while I watched Jenetar die. I couldn’t take it. So I put a spell on him that would keep him alive until I returned.”

That’s incredible. She cared so much about him that she used her last moments to ensure that she would see him again.

“But...”

Luna sniffs.

“...I had to watch him suffer. For 1000 years I saw him turn from my sweet and caring friend into a monster. Being alone messed him up badly. He went mad from loneliness. And all that time, he was training himself to be invincible. He was just trying to fulfill his duty as my bodyguard. He felt so horrible that he failed before. And when I returned, I sent him after Celestia, because at the time, we both blamed her for what happened.”

I look at Celestia in shock. She nods. All this is true?

“Fortunately for us, he failed again. He didn’t eliminate Celestia like he...like we wanted. He only ever wanted a world with just me and him. But he couldn’t do it. Celestia beat him.”

Luna swallows, and sniffs again. She takes a deep breath again as she calms herself down.

“So what was all that about him not remembering anything?” Fluttershy asks, “How come we can’t mention anything about you to him?”

Luna sighs sadly. “Celestia erased his memory.”

“What? Why? How could you do that?” Applejack demands. It seems like such a cruel thing to do!

Celestia answers, “I had to in order to keep from killing him, and to keep him from killing me. But if he remembered anything from his past, he could go right back to wanting to kill me. I don’t want that to happen ever again.” She starts speaking in what sounds like a fearful tone of voice, “I don’t want anything to do with him, ok?”

Everypony is taken back. Did Celestia just imply that she’s....afraid of him?

I nod my head, “Whatever you say princess. When he gets here, we’ll all make sure he fits in and lives a normal life, free of his old one.” Everypony else nods compliantly.

Celestia sighs, “Thank you everypony. I know I can count of you all. Now, I must be going. Surely, word of what happened has spread to Cloudsdale and Canterlot, so I must address them too.” She turns to Luna, “I’ll be outside when you’re finished.”

“Alright,” Luna sighs. Celestia leaves, leaving Luna in the library with us.

“Guys,” Luna says to us, “if you’re ok with it, I’d like you to do me a favor.”

Fluttershy speaks softly, “What is it, princess?”

Luna turns to me, “Twilight, remember when Celestia told you to write her letters about friendship?”

I recall my heartwarming moment when I was told that I could stay with my friends, “Yes.”

Luna looks at everypony else, “When Jenetar arrives, would you all mind writing me those kinds of letters about him?”

Pinkie Pie looks quizzical, “Whacha mean, princess?”

“Well, when he gets here, and he starts his life here, could you all write me letters about him? Like about his day, about what you all did with him, about how he’s doing, stuff like that.”

“So, you want us to write you letters so you can check up on Jenetar?” Rarity asks.

Luna sniffs softly, “I just...don’t want to let him go. Even if he did, I’ll never forget everything we’ve done together. I just...I...” Luna looks ready to cry. Say something, Twilight!

“Of course we will, princess. Don’t you worry there,” Applejack comforts her. “We’ll be sure to keep ya posted on how Jenetar’s doin'.” A resounding “mm-hmm” from everypony follows.

Luna smiles and sniffs, “Oh, thank you, everypony.”

Rainbow Dash starts hovering in place, “So, is there anything we should know about him for when he gets here?”

Luna clears her throat, “Well, from who I remember him as, he’s a very emotional pony. He can be very happy, or very sad. Back then, it all depended on how I was feeling. If I was happy, so was he. He was usually very fun-loving and happy.”

Pinkie Pie perks up.

Luna’s expression darkens, “But I don’t know what he will be like when he gets here. After everything that’s happened, I’m not sure if he’ll be the same. He should be, but I can’t be sure.”

Pinkie starts bouncing, “Sooooo we should be expecting a happy party pony?”

Luna nods, “Assuming he’s back to normal, yes. But like I said, I can’t be sure.”

“Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie Pie says cheerfully.

“Thank you so much everypony,” Luna says. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Respectfully, princess,” I say solemnly, “I don’t think we do.” Luna nods thankfully.

“Well,” she stands up straight, “I must get going now. Remember, when you write your letters, you mustn’t let Jenetar on to what you are writing about.”

“Of course, princess,” I assure her.

She smiles, “Thank you all so much. Best of luck with everything.”

“Bye princess!” We all say goodbye to her as she exits the library. We all turn towards each other.

“Wow, she really cares for him,” Rainbow Dash says as she lands from hovering.

“Yes, I agree,” Rarity adds, “I’ve had my fair share of friends, but I don’t think I could imagine how much she cares for him.”

“Well, we can’t let her down,” Applejack says confidently. “While Twi sends Celestia letters about what she learned about friendship, we’ll all write to Luna about Jenetar.”

“And apparently he likes having fun!” Pinkie Pie exclaims.

“But remember, we can’t let him remember anything,” Fluttershy says softly, “or else it would ruin everything.”

I nod, “Yes, we must be very careful. But I don’t think it’ll be too hard. We’ll probably get used to it eventually.”

“Whoo-wee! I’m gettin’ hungry,” Applejack exclaims, “All this talk ‘bout Jenetar and being serious makes me want a bite to eat. Y’all wanna c’mon over to Sweet Apple Acres?”

Food?! Food sounds great right about now!

“ALRIGHT! Let’s go!” Pinkie shrieks. We all walk out of the library and head for Sweet Apple Acres.

All this Jenetar stuff will come eventually, and as long as we remember everything the princesses said, we’ll have nothing to worry about except getting a new friend.

There’s nothing to worry about.