Carpe Diem

Chapters

2 - A Talk at Twilight
3 - Tension Rising
4 - Her Return
5 - A Lesson in Mercy
6 - Shadow in the Mirror
1 - Crumbling Mirrors

2 - A Talk at Twilight

Carpe Diem

Chapter 2 - A Talk at Twilight

The private dining hall of the royal sisters was quiet that evening as the two princesses enjoyed their supper in each other's company. Rather, one was enjoying her food, while another idly picked at it with a silver fork.

The length of a small rectangular table separated the sisters, the majority of the spotlessly white tablecloth adorning it covered by the centerpiece of the day: a plethora of flowers arranged in a fan-like bouquet that painted the image of a beautiful sunset. It was an impressive feat, one no doubt meant to lift her mood, Celestia knew, but it failed. It took only a glance to her left to make her heart drop. At this time of day, the panoramic view beyond the window to her left would usually bathe the dining room in the pink and golden rays of her sunset, but today, the sun was drained of its color. It was a pale, almost lifeless thing, the same sun that had blemished the sky for three weeks now.

A clatter of silverware snapped Celestia's attention back to the meal at hoof, and she turned her gaze on Luna. While she herself was struggling with her appetite, her sister was scoffing down her food at a rate that would raise more than a few eyebrows had they been in the company of Canterlot nobility. The soup had come and gone without Celestia sampling more than three spoonfuls, and apart from pushing around a single leaf of lettuce on her side dish of salad, she hadn't touched the main course at all. Luna, on the other hoof, had made short work of the salad and was finishing her second spinach quiche, devouring it as if she hadn't eaten in days.

The clatter of silverware turned out to be Luna scraping her plate clean of any remaining crumbs, and the lunar princess soon finished her meal with a contented sigh, leaning back from the table and allowing another silence to settle within the dining hall. It would usually be Celestia leading the conversations at dinner, but that too had changed after the invasion. Lately, she had been even more silent than the reclusive princess of the night.

"I would have appreciated thy help with the parasite sweep today," Luna offered when she found the silence had gone on for long enough.

"Your," Celestia corrected her sister dully, barely listening to her words.

"Your help, then," Luna amended, undeterred by Celestia's tone of voice. "Equestria longs to see her princess, sister."

"They see plenty of you," Celestia replied stubbornly. It took her a moment before she winced at her own words. "I'm sorry, Luna. I-I didn't mean it that way."

"I know," her sister assured her. "I have walked the streets of Canterlot for three weeks now. I suppose it has lifted the spirits of our subjects. Some of them... But they need still see the princess who was laid low," she insisted. "There is talk amongst the peasants that thou art... that you are bedridden. That you are badly hurt."

"Maybe I am."

Luna scoffed and wrinkled her nose. "Thy pride, perhaps!" She leaned forward, parting the floral decoration with her magic so as to better lock eyes with Celestia. "Sister, thou hast never professed to be a mare of battle. The parasite surprised thee, and she bested thee. 'Tis as simple as that."

"It's not," Celestia replied. "I have never failed so disastrously, Luna! I did everything I could for my little ponies, and she laughed at me!"

"Everything?" Luna echoed, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "Yes."

Luna nodded her head in understanding, looking thoughtful. She leaned back in her seat again, turning her head toward the feeble sunset to her right. "With the power I put into raising the moon, 'twould not be far beyond me at all to sustain a concentrated burst of energy. A simple spell of that manner could easily slice through‒"

"We've been over this already," Celestia interrupted her pointedly. "I couldn't kill her. Neither could you."

"We could," her sister pointed out. "But I know. You would never stoop to such. I can only hope the same would go for me, had our roles been reversed."

The lack of sincerity in Luna's voice didn't go unnoticed, but Celestia decided not to pursue the matter. "Perhaps then you would understand my problems," she said instead, pushing aside her quiche before its rich scent made her sick.

"Had our roles been reversed?" Luna asked, and Celestia nodded. "I have known defeat, sister," she reminded her. "I thought you of all ponies would remember."

"It's not the same," Celestia retorted. "I'm sorry, Luna, but it isn't!" she insisted as her sister's eyes flashed with outrage. "Nightmare Moon fought me because of her jealousy and anger. I defeated her because I defended what was right; I defended Equestria, ponydom, freedom, and all the virtues of Harmony. That is why I won, and that is why I thought I would always win.

"I stood up to the queen when she revealed herself," Celestia muttered sadly. "I defended Equestria, it's people, and their freedom from her deceit and greed, but I failed. In the battle between good and evil, I failed."

"You are not all that is good in this world, sister," Luna comforted her, picking her words carefully. "Why, because of you, we are many who champion it today. And in the end, the day belonged to two such heroes, not the parasite.

"We quashed the invasion, captured a dozen of the creatures, and I do believe we have rid our entire city of their presence," Luna summarized proudly. "Today's was the sixth consecutive sweep we have made of Canterlot without discovering any changelings."

"Is that a good thing?"

"But of course," Luna replied, slightly off-put by Celestia's continued lack of enthusiasm. "We are combing the city of Canterlot for its lice; by sweeping the city every two days, we are keeping the population to a minimum. Given the thoroughness of our searches, I daresay there are none left. I have instructed the royal guard to keep up their good work, however. Only once we have completed ten sweeps without incident will I be satisfied."

"And what do we do after that?" Celestia challenged her sister. "Cease the detection spells? Continue? This invasion has left us paranoid and mistrustful of each other. There is no victory."

Luna didn't respond, but Celestia could tell she was frustrated with her. The younger alicorn fixed her gaze on the sun setting in the west once more, her frown only deepening further as time passed. Finally, her patience ran out, and she rose from her seat.

"I am sorry you feel that way," she said curtly, making it to the door in only three quick strides. "And I am sorry if you are disappointed with the manner in which I have performed yo‒... my duties."

The door was slammed shut behind Luna before Celestia could say anything, and she let out another deep sigh instead. Without even realizing it, she had been taking out her frustrations on her little sister, the pony who had been working day and night to restore order while her elder sister lounged about the castle, wallowing in self-pity.

She turned her head away from the window and the sunset beyond it in disgust. No matter where she went, she seemed to be always surrounded by mirrors. She rose from her seat, but waited a moment so as to not run into Luna on the way out. After half a minute, she opened the door leading out of the dining hall and fled the sight of her bleached sun as she had fled the statuary. As soon as she exited the room, however, she found herself enveloped in somepony else's magic, a tingle she had recently become very familiar with spreading throughout her body.

She turned her head toward the royal guard standing at the doorway just as he finished his detection spell. The stallion nodded his head at her and bowed. "Princess, I was told to inform you that Twilight Sparkle had arrived at the palace a few minutes ago. She has been scanned, and she is currently waiting in the royal library with an escort of royal guards."

"Twilight?" Celestia's brow furrowed in confusion. It was a rare occurrence for her student to visit without Celestia requesting her to, and rarer still for her to come unannounced. "Thank you," she told the guard. "I'll go meet her. Did she say what she wanted?"

"Only that she wished to see you," the guard revealed, leaving his post in front of the dining hall to follow after Celestia. "At least, that's what I was told."

"Very well," Celestia answered, still confused. She did remember her student being more than a little reluctant to leave her side after the wedding. Perhaps Twilight had been ‒ as Luna put it ‒ one of the 'peasants' that believed she was badly wounded, and had come to check up on her. That would, of course, be despite several false assurances from Celestia's side that she was just fine, but it wouldn't be unthinkable that a pony like Twilight would worry herself regardless.

"I know the way to the library myself," Celestia told the guard gently, trying to dismiss him, but he only shook his head.

"Princess Luna's orders. Neither of you are to be left out of sight at any moment. You'll have to take it up with her."

Celestia frowned slightly. "And what do you think my chances of convincing her are?"

"Slim," the guard replied with a chuckle. "She's a very... zealous captain, I'll give her that."

"She isn't running you too hard, is she?" Celestia asked with concern. As far as she knew, Luna brought all unicorns able to cast the changeling detection spell with her on the sweeps of Canterlot. The guard walking beside her had most likely just come back from trudging through every last part of the capital and casting his spell countless times, yet he was still on duty.

"It's quite a few steps up from our usual duties under Shining Armor," he admitted, "But compared to her, it looks like we have it easy."

Celestia sighed guiltily, her pace slowing somewhat as her conscience was further burdened. "How does she seem to you?"

The stallion shook his head. "I don't know. She doesn't look tired to me. She flies around the city at a pace almost none of the pegasi can keep up with, and she scans entire city blocks at a time. And she just keeps going. We'd never be able to complete the city sweeps without her."

"And before that, she deals with all the petitioners worried about the changelings," Celestia muttered sadly. "And by the end of the day, she raises the moon."

"Your Majesty?" the guard questioned nervously, sensing the bitterness in Celestia's voice.

She only shook her head at his concern. "I'm sorry. I've had a lot on my mind lately."

"Anything you'd like to share?" the stallion offered helpfully, and Celestia shook her head again.

"Thank you, but it's difficult to explain. I fear if not even my sister understands, nopony will."

"Perhaps Twilight Sparkle will." They both stopped at the doors leading into the royal library, and, after scanning the two guards standing at the entrance, Celestia's temporary bodyguard opened the doors for her, leading the way in.

The main hall of the royal library spanned two stories and had several entrances, and so it wasn't immediately apparent to the princess where her student was. Having entered into the second floor of the library, which consisted mostly of a broad walkway running along the walls of the enormous oval hall, Celestia went to its edge, casting her gaze out across the main hall. Twilight was nowhere to be found, but a guard near the far side of the hall noticed her and nodded his head at the princess before vanishing into the maze of fifteen foot tall bookcases.

Meanwhile, Celestia made her way toward one of the two sets of stairs connecting the two floors, and as she went down the steps, Twilight emerged from among the bookcases. The two met near the center of the library, and Celestia bent her neck down to accept an affectionate nuzzle from the little unicorn.

"My most faithful student," Celestia greeted her as she raised her head again. "I hope I did not keep you waiting too long."

"We're in a library, Princess," Twilight assured her with a giggle. "I can wait a loooong time."

"What brings you to Canterlot?" Celestia asked curiously, motioning for the two to sit at a nearby table. As she spoke, the one unicorn belonging to Twilight's escort cast his detection spell on her, and she did her best to ignore the tiresome tingling. "I was surprised to learn you'd arrived."

"I'm sorry," Twilight apologized quickly. "I was already on the train when I remembered I hadn’t had Spike send you a letter, and I’d just left Ponyville, so… ugh." Twilight shook her head at her own forgetfulness as they both seated themselves, becoming almost immediately surrounded by the five guards that had escorted the two mares. "I hope I'm not here at a bad time. I was just... worried."

"I'm happy to see you," Celestia assured her before the unicorn could wind herself up. "And I'm quite alright; no need to worry yourself."

"But there has to be something wrong!" Twilight insisted. "The sun's all pale and sickly!" Her eyes widened suddenly in realization. "You aren't sick, are you?"

"I'm fine," Celestia assured Twilight again. "I'm just feeling... a bit down at the moment. I'm sure it'll pass."

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked with concern. "Does it have anything to do with the invasion?"

Celestia shook her head, smiling at her student's worry. "It's nothing. It'll pass in due time."

"With all due respect, Princess, 'nothing' doesn't stop the sun from shining."

She didn’t want to let the matter go, it seemed. Instead of immediately answering, Celestia took a moment to simply look at Twilight, gauging the emotions hidden behind those big, purple eyes. Worry. Fear. Sympathy. Confusion. Unease...

Celestia released the unicorn of her gaze, and heard the unicorn breathe a small sigh of relief, as if she had been holding her breath. "Sorry," Celestia told her, reminding herself that not all ponies were particularly comfortable with the awkward silences that had surrounded her as of late. She sighed in surrender and eyed the guards around them. "Could we... have a moment alone?"

She received the answer she had expected. "Luna's orders," her guard repeated apologetically. "Afraid not."

Twilight gave the guard and then Celestia a puzzled look before returning her attention to the guard once more. "But Celestia's the princess too! She has as much authority as Princess Luna does!" she protested, looking to Celestia for confirmation.

"Please?" Celestia asked of her guard, widening her eyes at him and pouting endearingly. However, either she was out of practice or the fact that she was taller than him even when sitting weighed against her, for the guard shook his head.

Celestia sighed and turned away from the guard, giving Twilight a subtle, mischievous wink. "No matter. I suppose princesses don't always have to ask permission." A bright light spread from the tip of her horn, enveloping herself and Twilight and forcing the surrounding guards to shield their eyes. By the time they were able to return their gazes to the table, the princess and her student were gone.

The two appeared within a secluded grove of apple trees walled away behind hedges nearly three times taller than either of the ponies. There were no pathways cutting through the surrounding greenery, rendering the whole area practically inaccessible to anyone without wings. Within the center of the grove was a small pond, shimmering faintly in the light of the dull sunset.

Celestia allowed her student little time to take in the new surroundings before she ushered her in under one of the nearby trees. "We're in the palace labyrinth," she told Twilight before the question could leave her mouth. "Few know of this place, so if we stay beneath the trees, it should take the pegasus guards a while to find us."

"Why are we running away from them in the first place?" Twilight asked worriedly, glancing up at the hastily darkening sky as if she expected a squadron of pegasi to divebomb her any minute. "Why won't they listen to you!?"

Celestia put a reassuring hoof on Twilight's shoulders and bent down so her eyes were level with the unicorn's. "Calm down, Twilight," she told her student. "Luna has taken on the position of Captain of the Royal Guard while your brother is away on his honeymoon. She commands the guards both as their captain and princess, meaning she holds a little more authority over them than I do."

While answering one of her questions, the answer only seemed to confuse Twilight further. "Why is Luna the captain? Doesn't Shining have any replacements?"

"He does, but it seems Luna doesn't trust them," Celestia explained, shaking her head sadly. "Life in Canterlot has been rather chaotic since the wedding."

Twilight nodded her head in understanding. "You must have been busy cleaning up around here after everything that happened. I saw ponies still working on repairing the roads when I arrived, and I must've gotten scanned six times by the royal guards before I got to talk to you."

"They're worried for their princesses," Celestia defended her guards halfheartedly, looking back at the palace just visible above the tall hedges.

"And what are you worried about?" Twilight pressed, trying to steer the conversation back to its original topic. "The sun's been getting paler and paler since the wedding, and if you're not sick, something must be really bothering you, right?"

Celestia sighed again, and a brief silence settled between the two ponies, the larger one gazing at the smaller one through the corner of her eyes. If anypony would understand her predicament, and it wasn't Luna, it would no doubt be her most faithful student, the one pony in Equestria that had known the princess since she was a filly. It was a fact that served both to encourage and deter Celestia from confiding in the unicorn. If Twilight didn't understand, nopony would. If Twilight didn't understand, Celestia would be alone. She would be disappointed, and Twilight would be hurt by that disappointment.

"I do not wish to burden you, Twilight," she finally said, offering them both one last chance to avoid the conversation. Neither of them were willing to take it, though.

"I don't mind, Princess," Twilight insisted, trotting up to stand next to Celestia. "I came to see if I could do anything to help."

Celestia smiled at her student's concern and removed her gaze from the palace. When her eyes met Twilight's, however, the smile faded as she realized just how worried the unicorn was. "You're right," she relented. "This is... this is about the invasion." She looked down at her hooves as she pawed at the ground nervously. "What did you... When I... When..." She gave an exasperated sigh at her lingering unwillingness to breach the subject. "Wh-when that tiara sailed through the air... when I was thrown off the altar, and... and when the changeling queen won... What went through your head?"

Celestia raised her head to look at Twilight, who in turn averted her gaze, biting her lip. "Please, Twilight," she plead of her student. "I've tried talking with the guests of the wedding, with the guards that were there... none of them could look me in the eye and tell me the honest truth."

"I can see why," Twilight answered, giving a nervous chuckle. Her forced smile faded as she felt Celestia's gaze remain on her, and she was silent for a few moments. "What I thought..." she mused out loud, and this time she was the one to start digging at the ground nervously.

"What you felt might be closer to what I want you to tell me," Celestia clarified gently, sitting down and stretching her wings. It helped make her more comfortable, but it was a thing she rarely did in public, and so it had the opposite effect on Twilight. The unicorn flinched at the sudden movement of her large wings, but it did at least serve to direct her gaze back at Celestia.

"I felt afraid," she admitted. "I… I'd never seen anything like it. I mean, you're... you're you, Princess! You're not supposed to‒"

"Fail," Celestia finished for her with a sigh.

"What!? Nonono, you didn't fail, Princess!" Twilight protested, trying to comfort her. "Nopony could expect you to‒"

"To what?" Celestia asked pointedly, her gaze hardening as she looked Twilight in the eyes. "To defeat the changeling queen? Nopony expected me to do that?" Twilight's face fell at the princess's exclamation, and Celestia's voice softened considerably. "I failed. Please, Twilight. I want your honesty, not any sugar-coated words. I've had enough of those already."

Her student nodded her understanding timidly. "Alright, yes, I... I suppose you did... fail. I did expect you to defeat her. You're right. Everyone did. It looked like even the changeling queen did. I didn't doubt it when you said you'd protect us, and I was sure you'd beat her without any trouble. But... you didn't..."

"Everything you felt, Twilight," Celestia pressed urgently. "Please, tell me."

"Afraid," the unicorn repeated, still locking eyes with her mentor, too scared to do otherwise. "Confused! You can't fail! It's impossible! You're like a... a god, aren't you?"

"That's how ponydom has viewed me for a long time now," Celestia agreed, finally releasing Twilight from her intense gaze. "Ever since I first raised the sun, ponies have been awed by my presence. For each of Equestria's enemies I defeated, for each disaster I averted, more and more ponies came to think of me as... something more than what they were themselves. As the centuries passed, I started believing the same...

"I didn't even know I'd fooled myself," she continued, shaking her head at herself. "Until three weeks ago, at least. Quite a wake-up call.

"I'm sorry I frightened you, Twilight. I needed somepony to tell me what nopony has dared say to my face, and I knew you could do it." She turned her gaze west, expecting to see the final rays of her setting sun, only to find that the sky there had already darkened, her feeble light easily smothered by her sister's night. "I needed to know I'm not overreacting."

"You're not," Twilight assured her, following her mentor's example and sitting down next to the apple tree. "It's a big thing."

Another silence formed between the two, but it didn't last nearly as long as the previous had.

"Sister!" the unmistakable voice of Luna called out from somewhere amongst the towers of the palace. The lunar princess was employing the royal Canterlot voice to great effect, her words no doubt carrying across half the city. "Where art thou!?"

"She's not subtle, is she?" Celestia remarked, scooting back against the apple tree in an attempt to avoid detection.

"We're not supposed to be out here, are we?" Twilight observed worriedly. "Shouldn't we get back to the palace?"

"I'd rather not. Besides, they know I wasn't abducted. I'm sure they'll calm down in just a few minutes." Yet again, she turned her gaze from the palace to look at Twilight. "But... you do understand?" she pressed. "Nopony else, not even Luna, understands. If anyone would... I was hoping it would be you."

It was a lot of pressure to put upon a single pony, Celestia knew, and it was obvious Twilight struggled with it. She swallowed nervously and nodded hesitantly. "I think I do. At least, I hope so." She fell silent again, and Celestia was content to wait for her student to think her words through. The foliage above rustled as a an evening breeze swept through the grove, the cold wind serving only to remind Celestia of how she had shirked her duties since the wedding. The calendar said it was summer, but the current state of her sun was more akin to that of winter, perhaps even paler than that. Equestria was steadily getting colder and colder, and it was all her fault.

"I think, in a small way‒"

"I am not in the mood for games, Celestia!" Luna's voice sounded from somewhere above the labyrinth this time, cutting through the silence and interrupting Twilight, who once again flinched.

Celestia nodded for her student to continue, but Twilight hesitated. "Are you sure we shouldn't get back? She sounds pretty angry."

"Luna has always had a short temper," Celestia assured her. "She was mad as soon as we ran off from the guards."

"That doesn't make me feel any better. I don't want to get you in trouble..."

"With my younger sister?" the princess inquired, the thought alone enough to almost make her smile despite the circumstances. "I'll sort things out with her. But right now, I want you to continue."

"If I were trying to find Shining Armor, I'd appreciate it if he didn't hide from me," Twilight remarked, looking up through the leaves of the apple tree in an effort to spot Luna.

"Maybe your older sibling is a little more considerate than Luna's then. Shining Armor is off on his honeymoon with Cadance, and you're not trying to chase him down," she pointed out. "I just wish to spend a few moments alone with my dearest student. Is that any different?"

"We're not married," Twilight offered, still gazing up at the darkening sky nervously. "But I guess you're right." She continued scanning the skies for a while longer, but finally let her eyes wander back to Celestia. "In a small way, I think I understand what you're going through," she continued. "Because I've kinda gone through the same thing. You're... the princess, right? In everything you do, you answer directly to all of Equestria. Even now, you're just trying to have a private talk, and the entire palace is in uproar. You stand for so much more than just yourself."

Celestia nodded her head.

"And I'm the personal protégé of Princess Celestia," the unicorn went on. "In everything I do, I answer to you. At least, that's how it feels sometimes," she amended quickly. "I'm absolutely terrified of disappointing you, just like you must be worried about disappointing Equestria. Especially if they expect you to be a god."

"It is a heavy burden," Celestia agreed, her smile growing wider as it became more and more apparent that her student did indeed understand.

"You know how afraid I was of failing you," Twilight continued, chuckling nervously again. "I think Big Macintosh still has my Smarty Pants doll."

"Ah... Yes." It was not a fond memory of Celestia's, and now she felt even worse for having raised her voice with the unicorn back then, knowing now ‒ at least in part ‒ what she had been going through.

"But I guess the major difference is that I thought I was failing you, whereas you... did actually fail," Twilight said, obviously uncomfortable with doing so. "I'd have felt horrible if you'd sent me back to magic kindergarten‒"

"That is still one of the silliest things I have ever heard," Celestia assured her student with a smile.

"‒and you must feel horrible now," Twilight finished, trying not to grin at what her mentor had just said.

"I do," Celestia admitted, though she kept smiling. "But your company is a great help to me, Twilight. Thank you so much for coming. As happy as you are living in Ponyville, I must admit I miss you some days."

"I could stay awhile if you want," Twilight offered. "I'm sure I could get away with closing the library a few days if I'm helping the princess."

"If you are quite literally brightening my day," Celestia agreed, nodding her head. "I'd like that very much, Twilight."

"Art thou in the labyrinth!?"

"We should let Spike know!" Twilight exclaimed hurriedly, getting to her hooves. "Quill and paper... We'll need to go straight to your study, right?"

"You're not afraid of Luna, are you?" Celestia teased the unicorn who could only nod helplessly. "She's been handling everything around here since the wedding," she excused her sister. "I really have to make it up to her one of these days. We'll go to my study, then I'll apologize to Luna," Celestia told her student, who nodded her approval. Celestia's horn flashed brightly, and the two ponies vanished from the hidden grove in a glimmer of light.

3 - Tension Rising

Carpe Diem

Chapter 3 - Tension Rising

Breaking her fast in candlelight had taken Celestia some getting used to when Luna had first returned, but it seemed only appropriate that if they shared their supper at sunset, they should share their breakfast in the final light of the moon. Even now, in her time of distress and lethargy, Celestia still maintained the resolve to get herself out of bed an hour before sunrise if nothing else than to please her sister.

Said sister looked anything but pleased at the moment, however, and Celestia suspected that she was still in a bad mood from Celestia and Twilight's excursion the previous day. She had remained silent for the duration of the meal, a behavior that would normally be typical of her, but after having been the most talkative of the sisters for three weeks, it sparked a sense of unease in Celestia. It was not a silence born of her usual placidity in the company of her elder sister, that much was clear to her. Luna was staring intensely at her oatmeal, her spoon attacking it in jerky movements that belied her otherwise calm demeanor. No, the silence was likely born of a lack of words rather than a lack of the need thereof.

The silence was enough to make the sound of a dropped silver spoon seem like a racket, and Celestia turned her attention to the source of the noise and what she believed to be the cause of Luna's unwillingness to speak. Seated at the middle of the table, between the two sisters, was Twilight, who jolted upright in her chair, shaking her head slightly and blinking slowly.

"Sorry," she muttered, stifling a yawn. "Dozed off there."

"You stayed up reading all night, didn't you?" Celestia chided her student, wearing a teasing smile. "I can easily arrange for you to be served breakfast later if you want."

"I haven't seen you raise the sun in ages," Twilight complained, rubbing an eye sleepily as her magic took hold of the spoon again.

A dull flash drew Celestia's gaze to Luna once more, and she eyed her sister suspiciously, trying to determine what she had done. "Oh dear," the dark alicorn muttered to herself, then looked at the unicorn at her side. "Twilight, We may have forgotten Our tiara in Our private chambers. Could you do Us the favor of retrieving it?"

The unicorn frowned in confusion, but nodded. "I could have sworn you were wearing it a second ago... Do you remember where you left it?"

"The nightstand," Luna answered, sounding rather certain for a mare who had allegedly forgotten the tiara.

Twilight failed to notice, and simply nodded her head again. She rose from her seat, stretched her legs, and, with another yawn, trotted out of the dining room.

"You could have had one of the guards fetch it," Celestia pointed out to her sister when the door had closed. "Something is on your mind, Luna. A few moments longer, and even Twilight would have noticed."

"Why is she even here?" Luna asked pointedly. "This is the private dining hall of the royal sisters. It is not meant to entertain guests."

"You know Twilight is much more than a guest," Celestia admonished her sister. "At this rate, she will be a royal sister within the year."

"Royalty, yes. I do not know if I can call her sister just yet."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden hostility towards my student? This is the mare who assisted you during the Nightmare Night festivities, who freed you of Nightmare Moon."

"Why this sudden friendliness?" Luna returned. "You have always spoken of the importance of balancing our relationships with mortals."

"Temper love with reservation, yes. But love them, Luna. Nothing drains an immortal life of its color like loneliness. You of all ponies know that. Besides, if she becomes immortal, reservation won't be necessary."

"If," Luna stressed. "Her fate is still uncertain."

"I have great faith in her‒"

"Perhaps your faith is misplaced," Luna offered cynically, her gaze dropping at the subtle insult. "It would not be the first time."

Celestia didn't answer at first, looking over her sister instead, trying to read her expression. Was she speaking of the wedding and the changeling queen's deception? Or was she referring to Nightmare Moon? "Perhaps, Luna, you should have more faith in those around you."

Her suggestion only served to worsen her little sister's mood, and Celestia groaned at the reaction. "Why are you even bringing this up? Are you still angry about yesterday?"

"Of course I am!" Luna replied with a frown. "Th‒ you knew perfectly well that the entire castle was searching for you, yet you refused to reveal thyself! 'Twas foalish and, given circumstances, dangerous! And you still will not tell me where you were!"

"It is a retreat I'd rather keep to myself," Celestia defended herself resolutely.

"Then what ab‒" Luna caught herself and gave a snort. Her lips pressed together for a moment as she held back her anger, but it wasn't long before she seemed to relax. "Never mind that, then," she sighed with a shake of her head. "I worry about th‒ you. I admire your skill at making friendships, but perhaps you overindulge yourself. I have seen you walk the statuary many times since the wedding. You cry. A hundred years from now, your student may be among those statues, and... and then what will you do?"

"I shall remember the lifetime I shared with an amazing pony, and all the things she accomplished that made me proud to be a part of her life," Celestia answered matter-of-factly. "I may miss the friends I made during your absence, but that isn't what makes me sad. Twilight understands that. She understands me, Luna. She may be the only pony in all of Equestria who does so."

"If you would only take the time to explain to me your grievances, she would not be the only one!" Luna countered, her spoon bending ever so slightly in her telekinetic grip. "I am sick and tired of your helplessness, sister!"

"I'm trying to‒"

"I try!" Luna erupted, and the candles on the table went out and toppled over from the force of her outburst. Her eyes sparkled with tears yet to be shed, visible only in the light radiating from the two sisters' horns. "I try to help thee but thou pushest me away! Thou art hurting, and there is naught I can do!" Luna caught herself again, remembering that guards were posted just outside the dining hall's door. There was a clatter of metal, and she brought an unshod hoof to her eyes to wipe away the tears. "Why will you not let me help you?"

There was an overwhelming sadness and ache in her little sister's eyes, and Celestia couldn't bear gazing into them. She looked everywhere but at the alicorn before her, but the room had been cast into almost complete darkness, broken by the brief flickers of gold and blue that made the shadows seem all the more dark. Her eyes eventually settled on her half-eaten oatmeal. Still pondering what to say, she levitated a spoonful to her mouth.

"Answer me."

Celestia swallowed. "You have too much on your mind already, Luna," she finally answered. "You have more important duties than tending to me."

"I want my sister back." If Luna had had anything more to say, it was interrupted by a knock at the door. With a faint groan of metal, the younger princess straightened her spoon, then righted the candlesticks and returned the discarded shoe to her forehoof. Celestia, in turn, pushed everything else into place which had been set askew by Luna's outburst and relit the candles just before the door opened and Twilight trotted in, carrying the black tiara in her magical grip.

"We apologize for the inconvenience, Twilight Sparkle," Luna told the unicorn as the headwear was transferred to her own magical grip, soon to be placed upon the top of her head where it had been only moments before. The sadness and the enmity that were in her voice moments before were still there, but hidden behind a wall of courtesy and a false smile Twilight failed to see through. "Thank you."

"No problem!" Twilight chirped happily, seating herself at the table again. "After a quick trot through the palace, I'm hardly sleepy at all anymore!" Despite her words, she ended up yawning again, but otherwise dug into her oatmeal at a much faster pace than previously.

Celestia remained silent, watching her sister carefully as her sister watched Twilight. After a moment, Luna's eyes met Celestia's, a strange, subtle hostility within them putting Celestia on guard. Their gazes met for but a second before Luna's returned to Twilight, and she gave the unicorn a strained smile. "Twilight, you know a spell for detecting changelings, do you not? What sayest you to joining our sweep of the city today?"

"I, uhh... Sure, if it's alright with Celestia‒"

"Her time would be better spent with me," Celestia replied curtly. "You usually sweep the city every two days, sister. The guards must still be exhausted from yesterday."

"If any of the parasites remain in Canterlot, they will be cunning," Luna explained. "They will be expecting us tomorrow, but not today. The swifter we can sift through the city, the more likely we are to surprise the remaining vermin. Twilight would be of great help, no doubt."

"You have the majority of the royal guard at your disposal," Celestia argued. "One unicorn will do little difference. She would be of greater help with me."

"But this is the mare that defeated an ursa minor singlehoofedly," Luna pointed out to her sister in an almost innocent tone of voice. "How could she be of little difference? I am sure she would be so much more efficient than any under my command‒"

"She's not a royal guard!" Celestia snapped. "She didn't come here to partake in meaningless searches through Canterlot! Isn't that right!?" Celestia's gaze turned to the unicorn in question, who sunk further into her seat as the discussion between the two sisters turned to her.

"Y-yeah? I mean, yes, I-I did technically come to see if Celestia needed anything. No-not that I think your searches are meaningless, Princess Luna."

Luna frowned at Twilight, who only grew more and more nervous under the lunar princess's gaze. "You could always join the hunt, sister," she suggested coolly, looking to Celestia. "You could spend time with your student and quicken our pace markedly."

"You know I can't do that yet."

"I know you will not," Luna returned with an impatient huff.

"I'm not ready for the public quite yet."

"And when will you be?" Luna's eyes narrowed. "Three weeks, sister‒"

"I don't need to be reminded."

"It would seem you do. It has been three weeks, sister! 'Tis a long time for mortals to be left in uncertainty. When I tell them that you are well, they doubt my word! They believe I conceal a grimmer truth! That you are weakened from thy clash is but the kindest of rumors! Others speak of poison and deceit! Betrayal within the very walls of our castle! They see the sun and they say you are dying, sister!"

"Surely you tell them I'm not," Celestia answered, worried by the prospect of her subjects' fear but not enough to yield to her sister's arguments.

"And I am met by wary eyes and hesitant nods!" Luna spat, her dark temper so tangible that the candles dimmed. "The return of Nightmare Moon, they say..."

"That has to be a minority," Twilight objected. "I can't believe more than a handful of ponies could believe something so ridiculous! I'm sure they appreciate all the hard work you've been doing, Princess Luna; don't let a few cynics get to you."

"They are not few!" Luna snapped, silencing Twilight. "If such rumors have reached Our ears, they have already taken root!"

"Rumors," Celestia reminded her sister, trying to sound as calm as possible to soothe her sister. "Nothing more."

"Today they are rumors," Luna countered in a growl, "Tomorrow they are whispers! The morrow upon that they are murmurs, then common gossip in the streets! Before we know it, torches are lit and pitchforks raised, and Equestria is torn asunder!"

"You're overreacting‒"

Twilight yelped in terror as the entire table suddenly flipped over on Luna's whim and smashed against the window. The glass held, but became immediately riddled with thousands of small cracks extending from the center of impact and rendering the enormous pane of glass completely opaque. "Now I overreact!" Luna shouted angrily, rising from her seat. "Equestria is falling apart by the seams and thou bemoanest thy wounded pride! I may be overreacting, but thou art the foal! Thou art being cowardly and selfish and I can only hope thou realizest as much before it is too late!"

The doors burst open as Luna spoke, but she ignored the guards just as she ignored Twilight falling backwards over her seat in an effort to get away from her. Celestia remained seated, mostly out of shock, but all too late did she realize it translated as stoical stubbornness in her sister's eyes.

Luna huffed in exasperation and looked at her hooves for a short moment before speaking. "I shall be in Trottingham, undoing what thy negligence hath wrought." Her voice had quieted somewhat, bearing with it a hint of regret. "Good day, sister." The younger alicorn's translucent mane flared, enveloping her as she dissolved into an indigo mist that vanished through the cracks in the broken window.

"Are you alright, Princess Celestia?" one of the guards asked with urgency while the other took it upon himself to scan her and Twilight. "What happened?"

Celestia shook her head, not in the negative, but to clear her mind from the unpleasant surprise of the confrontation. "Just an argument," she assured the two stallions.

"It sounded like a lot more than that," he observed with a raised eyebrow. Meanwhile, the other unicorn went to Twilight who was huddled up against the wall, both to make sure she hadn't been hurt and to cast the detection spell on her.

"You know what Luna is dealing with," Celestia responded, turning away from the guard and using her magic to pick absently at the ruined window in an effort to fix it. "It wouldn't be fair to hold it against her if she snaps. Just... give me a few moments with my student so we can compose ourselves."

From the corner of her eye, she saw the guard nod and bow before leaving. She heard the door close and, a few seconds later, the approaching hooves of Twilight.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Celestia apologized, finishing the spell she had been casting on the window. The pane of glass flashed once, and when the light faded, all cracks had vanished.

"I hadn't expected her to throw the table like that," Twilight muttered. "But she was yelling at you. A-are you alright?"

Celestia gave a short nod. "She is right. I am being selfish. And I'm being cowardly."

"That still doesn't give her the right to say so," Twilight argued. "I-I mean, I don't think you're being cowardly," she amended.

"Oh? Is it brave to hide inside your castle? To lock yourself away in your private quarters or flee into the royal gardens? To let your sister deal with the aftermath of the first ever invasion of Canterlot while you do nothing?"

"That isn't cowardice," Twilight objected. "That's... I don't know, not cowardice. Shock. You haven't ever been defeated before; it's only natural that the showdown with Chrysalis left you shaken."

"Chrysalis?"

"Y-yeah... the changeling queen?"

"How do you know that's her name?" Celestia asked, realizing the pointlessness of her question almost immediately.

"Read it in a book," they both answered at the same time, and Celestia couldn't help but smile.

"She's the queen of the largest known hive in the world," Twilight went on. "The books I looked at listed a few other hives, but none of them should be large enough to launch an attack on Canterlot. And this Chrysalis is supposed to be unique among her kind, so the one you fought must have been her. Apparently, she's immortal. Not as old as you, of course, but she goes back at least six generations."

"Well, she's gone now," Celestia answered, her smile gone too as she looked out the window. The lingering night outside reminded her that it was past time she raised the sun. "Unless your book mentions the location of her hive, I'm afraid we can't do anything about her. Honestly, I'd be happy if I never saw her again." She unfurled a wing, gesturing for Twilight to join her at her side. "Now, it's time to begin a new day." The unicorn nodded and trotted up next to her, and in a flash of light, they were both gone.

The great balcony of the Canterlot royal palace was a site upon which Celestia had composed thousands upon thousands of sunrises and moonrises. Its floor was a mosaic depicting the night and day melding into each other, constructed shortly after Nightmare Moon's defeat from enchanted pieces of obsidian, lapis lazuli, gold, and pearl. A semi-circular platform more than twenty feet in radius, it had been a costly project, but ultimately doable through the gratitude Celestia had earned from the entire world for having banished her sister.

It had been necessary as well. The innumerable enchantments hidden within the mosaic had helped ease the heavy burden of both the sun and moon, functioning as a magical crutch until she was strong enough to handle both day and night on her own. It had become tradition that she raised the sun from this balcony, but lately, it had once again become a necessity.

It was upon this platform that student and mentor materialized, the latter giving a deep sigh as she beheld the east horizon. "Let's hope the sun is brighter today," she muttered, more to herself than Twilight. Before she could do anything, though, they were joined by a quintet of royal guards.

"You're a bit later than expected, Princess," the unicorn of the group addressed Celestia, his horn glowing a bright blue as the detection spell swept across her.

"Just a minute or two," Celestia protested halfheartedly while the stallion cast his spell on Twilight. "Leave us, please. I know," she broke in quickly when a pegasus guard opened his mouth, "that you have to keep an eye on me. But do so somewhere where I can talk with my student in private. Or we'll have a repeat of yesterday's disappearance."

The unicorn chuckled, finishing with Twilight. "You don't make things easy for us, do you?"

"These aren't easy times," Celestia returned, turning her gaze toward the east horizon. The unicorn nodded and motioned for his colleagues to follow him as he left the balcony.

Celestia took a deep breath, closing her eyes and envisioning the horizon in her mind's eye. With another steady breath of hers, everything beneath the horizon fell away before her, leaving only a black line and her blazing sun beneath it. There was a tingling in her hooves, and she knew the mosaic she stood upon was slowly coming to life, glowing brighter and brighter as Celestia summoned her magic. With a third deep breath, Celestia took hold of her charge, straining herself to lift it clear of that black line.

The sun was as lethargic as she was, unwilling to move, but Celestia willed herself to keep going. After an indeterminable amount of time spent struggling with the blazing sphere, it was finally above the horizon, slowly setting into motion on its own to begin its long trek across the sky.

Celestia opened her eyes, and the flickers of light playing across lapis and obsidian faded away. There was no blazing sun. In its stead was a pale orb, perhaps brighter than it had been yesterday, but one that provided little light and but a fraction of the warmth her usual summer sun would bring. She huffed in annoyance and closed her eyes again, tilting her head skywards.

"I was so sure it would be brighter," she muttered, not knowing whether she was complaining or apologizing to Twilight.

"I'm sorry."

She opened her eyes in surprise and looked down at the unicorn at her side. Twilight did indeed look apologetic. "Sorry? You can't possibly blame yourself for my shortcomings, Twilight. It's my job alone to raise the sun. If anything, I should be apologizing. All of Equestria is suffering because of my silly depression."

"We're not suffering," Twilight objected. "And it's not silly. You feel like you've failed Equestria. That's a big thing."

"I feel silly," Celestia muttered, throwing a baleful glare at her sun. "I want to raise the sun properly, but... At the same time, I don't want to raise the sun. As harsh as her words may be, Luna's right. I'm being foalish, I'm being a coward, and I'm being selfish."

"Don't suppose you'd listen if I disagreed," Twilight answered dryly, inspecting the masterful craftsmanship of the giant mosaic while Celestia stared at the sun. "But I'm pretty sure you and Luna are the only ponies who think so."

"We're the only ones who would dare say it to my face," Celestia observed darkly. "Even you wouldn't, and we've known each other since you were a filly. Go ahead," she urged Twilight. "I dare you to say something unflattering about me."

She stole a cursory glance at the little unicorn, confirming that she did indeed look more than a little uncomfortable just by thinking about insulting the princess. "You're... a coward?" she managed after a moment of struggling, practically choking on the words.

"I've already said that."

"Do I have to... insult you?"

"I'm merely asking you to point out a flaw of mine," Celestia simply stated, walking slowly toward the edge of the balcony. "You don't have to, but I might be a bit disappointed if you can't."

"You're mean," Twilight answered with a pout, taking a few swift steps to catch up with her teacher. "Does that count?" she added hopefully.

"No."

4 - Her Return

Carpe Diem

Chapter 4 - Her Return

Princess Luna's private cloud cottage hung upon the sky above Canterlot peacefully, the only signs of life surrounding it the numerous guards patrolling the currently vacant recluse of the lunar princess. The peace was broken, however, when the guards stationed outside the entrance jumped to attention at the sight of an indigo cloud streaking through the air. The cloud bypassed the first row of armored pegasi in the blink of an eye before coming to a sudden halt. There, it swirled in place for a moment, reshaping itself into the form of an equine before it condensed and Luna materialized. The weapons that had been pointed at the cloud were lowered immediately, and the ten pegasi that had surrounded her saluted.

The sudden shift in gravity caused by her transformation made Luna stumble as she took her first step forwards, and the ponies around her tensed, half a dozen hooves reaching out to help her before being batted away by her words. "Leave me be!" she snapped, righting herself and adopting a more dignified stance. She took a deep breath to keep herself from panting in front of her subjects. "I shall retire for the next hour. I am to be awakened and notified immediately of any suspicious activity in the meantime."

She took another step, but paused when a pegasus behind her cleared his throat. "Princess, there is, actually, already a matter that requires your attention."

"An urgent one?" Luna pressed, turning away from the tempting prospect of a plush bed of the finest cumulus to face the speaker.

"One of the captured changelings has agreed to talk. But... uh, only to you, Princess."

Luna's eyes widened, then narrowed in suspicion. "Why me?"

"I don't know," he confessed with a shrug. "But I heard it caused something of an uproar in the dungeons. The warden thought you'd want to interrogate... err, him, I think, right away."

"That much is right," Luna sighed, turning fully away from the cottage. "Has my sister been informed?"

"Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle have... gone missing. Again."

Luna brought a hoof to her head and rubbed her temple with a great sigh of exasperation. "If you see her, inform my sister that I shall have the palace labyrinth put to the torch if she continues to repeat this performance."

"Princess?"

"Lock the doors," Luna ordered of the guards without looking at them, walking to the precipice of the cloud upon which the cottage stood. "You are all dismissed. I shall not require the royal cloud cottage today."

She spread her wings, but, thinking better of it, instead vanished in a flash and reappeared in the upper recesses of the palace dungeon. Her legs nearly buckled from the exertion, but she managed to right herself and take a deep, steadying breath before anypony noticed. The only pony around, however, turned out to be a lone prison guard on patrol, who jumped in fright at the newly materialized princess only three feet beside her.

"P-Princess Luna!" the earth pony exclaimed nervously, putting a hoof against her chest to calm her heart. "You're here for the, uh, prisoner, right?"

"I am," Luna affirmed coolly. "Take me to it."

The prison guard nodded her head and motioned down the corridor Luna had emerged in and started walking. Luna followed suit, eyeing her surroundings with disdain. A thousand years ago, the floors and walls of the dungeon had been of cobblestone, and the air had been musty and humid. It had been an uncomfortable place, fit for the uncomfortable ponies incarcerated there.

Now, the corridors were hardly any different from those aboveground; the walls were of decorated marble and the floor was so clean it was sparkling. Electrical lamps in the ceiling provided more than enough lighting for the bright, colorful dungeon, banishing the shadows that had once lingered in this, the darkest corner of the palace. The only thing missing, Luna observed wryly, was a red carpet running through the center of the maze of hallways that constituted the dungeon.

The two ponies walked in silence for only half a minute, passing no cells, before they reached the interrogation chamber to which the changeling had been relocated. Standing at the door to the chamber were an additional two guards, one a pegasus, the other a unicorn. The latter's horn glowed as Luna and the earth pony approached, and Luna felt a detection spell sweeping over each of them in turn.

"Welcome, Princess," the unicorn greeted her, bowing his head briefly. "The changeling is waiting for you inside. He made it clear he would only speak to you in private, but if you wish‒"

"I shall interrogate it alone," Luna answered before the question could be asked. "The three of you shall remain outside and under no circumstances are you to let me leave without recasting the detection spell."

"Of course," the unicorn of the group assured her and opened the door.

Luna stepped into the small chamber, which held only a desk and two wooden chairs. On the chair facing her and the now closed door sat... Luna, an expression of boredom melting away immediately upon seeing the princess.

"Doff thy disguise, parasite," Luna growled at the changeling, seating herself across from the prisoner.

The faux-Luna put a hoof to its chin thoughtfully. "'Tis slightly... inaccurate, is it not?" The changeling flashed green briefly, but the disguise remained.

Luna cocked an eyebrow, before noticing the subtle bags under her replica's eyes, the slightly paler nuance of her fur, and the lacking luster in her starry mane. "Most amusing," she commented dryly. "Did you call me down here to mock me?"

"Terribly sorry, Princess Luna," the changeling apologized, this time sporting a distinct Trottingham accent as it shifted once more, taking the form of probably the only foal Luna would be able to name. The parasite was taunting her, she knew. It was displaying just how much it knew of her life, for how long they had been watching her, and it was sampling her feelings as it did so. It was trying to turn the tables on her. "I couldn't ever dream of mocking you; you're my favorite princess!"

"Cease thy games!" Luna snapped, forcefully stripping her adversary of its false visage using her magic. In place of Pipsqueak, a wounded changeling now sat before her, attempting a disarming smile although half its face had swollen from some heavy blow. Luna frowned at the sight. "What happened?"

"This?" The changeling put a hoof to its swollen cheek gingerly. Its voice now sounded like a strange whisper, a layered hissing noise not unlike the buzz of an insect. "Your guards are a bit slow..." He nodded toward the door, indicating that the pegasus and unicorn outside had been the ones to rescue it. "Ironically, we changelings don't take kindly t'turncloaks. I found out my cellmate remains loyal to our queen."

"Then you'd best talk," Luna warned the creature. "Or you will be returned to your cell in cuffs."

The changeling gave a short laugh, one that sounded more forced and pained than merry. "Oh, you are a feisty one! Much more fun than Celestia is! I hear she'ssssick."

"No doubt you know exactly what's wrong," Luna observed, giving the changeling an inquisitive look. "How many changelings are in the castle?"

"Besides the ones in the dungeons?" It tapped a chitinous hoof against its chin. "I'm afraid I don't know. More than you'd like... I wager. Many more."

"How?"

"Your guards are a bit slow," the changeling repeated with a satisfied smirk.

"Are you here to tell me off your operations, or is it simply your wish to threaten me?" Luna pressed, growing impatient with the impudent prisoner.

"I can hardly do one without the other," the changeling defended itself, still smiling cockily. It hesitated for a moment. "Celestia is right." Again, Luna raised an eyebrow. "You haven't won," it elaborated. "Queen Chrysalis lives."

"Chrysalis? Your queen?"

Although they were solid blue, Luna sensed the changeling rolling its eyes derisively. "Gee, Princess, maybe. Yes, our queen."

"We will not take your insults, parasite!" Luna warned the prisoner, leaning across the desk and staring down at the changeling menacingly. "We will not extend to you the same mercy Our sister hath!"

"Too bad she's the one in charge," it replied, unfazed by Luna's threat. "How d‒" The changeling's next insult was cut off by a strangled hiss, and the creature instinctively brought its hooves to its throat, where a blue aura had formed, hoisting it off its chair. The changeling was brought against the wall behind it and hung there, struggling for air while Luna went around the table and approached the prisoner, glaring daggers at it as she did so.

"Where is Chrysalis?" she hissed dangerously. "What is she planning? Why art thou here!?" She released her magical hold on the changeling before it sustained any injuries and let it drop to the floor. "Answer these questions, and We will allow thee to leave this chamber!"

"I'm so scared!" the changeling spat, wheezing from Luna's stranglehold. "I am a changeling spy, Your Majesty! Deception is what I do!" It wiped a strand of spittle from the corner of its mouth before sneering at Luna. "I call your bluff."

"Answer me," Luna told the changeling through clenched teeth, willing herself not to strike the creature.

The prisoner chuckled in response. "Or what?"

Luna's eyes narrowed, but she turned away from the changeling. "I was told you had agreed to talk."

"We are talking."

"I was under the impression that you would share with me something of interest," Luna clarified. "Not trade petty insults!"

"I might know of a few things that might interest you," the changeling chuckled. "But what do I get in exchange?"

"A new prison cell," Luna answered. "One you will not have to share with any loyalists."

"Doesn't sound too interesting," the changeling told her, and Luna turned her head to give the creature a hard stare.

"Your continued existence! Does that interest you!?"

A smile formed on the prisoner's lips before it guffawed out loud. "Oh yes! You'll kill me! That's right!" It tutted condescendingly and shook its head. "What would Celestia say?" The changeling's cackle quickly devolved into a dry wheezing sound as the sparkling blue collar formed about its neck again, this time smashing it into the ceiling with a thud.

"Celestia will not notice a missing changeling," Luna assured the prisoner. She narrowly dodged a green glob of spit aimed at her, and her dull mane flared to life along with her temper. The changeling was sent hurtling through the wooden table, which splintered from the impact, and the prisoner bounced off the floor before smashing against the opposite wall. "Three questions We ask!" Luna bellowed, striding through what remained of the table, her eyes glowing ominously. "Three answers thou will give Us!"

The changeling was taking shallow, ragged breaths now, its eyes showing the first signs of fear, but still it refused to speak. It was promptly hurled against the wall to its left, then its right, before being brought back face to face with Luna. The grip about its neck tightened, and finally the changeling caved.

"The badlands!" it managed to choke out, tears forming in its eyes. The magical hold on its neck vanished, and it fell to the floor, gasping for air. "She's in the badlands... She's... she... She survived the attack... Everyone did. She's famous... rallying the hives... for a... a counter-invasion... We tested you. We know your weaknesses, your strengths..."

"When!?" Luna pressed urgently, bringing her face level with the downed changeling.

"I don't..." the changeling replied feebly before slumping over, unconscious.

With an annoyed huff, Luna rose to her full height once more and exited the interrogation chamber, leaving behind the broken parasite. Opening the door, she was met with three ponies staring at her in shock. At least the prison guards had had the sense not to interrupt her.

"The changeling was more than willing to share its secrets," Luna told the trio of ponies, eyeing them seriously. "Its injuries were caused by its cellmates, and you will tell it as much once it awakens."

The guards nodded in unison. "There were two other guards there when we pulled the changeling out of its cell," the pegasus revealed. "What do I tell them?"

"The truth," Luna relented after a brief moment of hesitation. "See to it that the changeling is given its own cell. I want two of you guarding it. I am to be notified immediately when it is awake."

The guards saluted, and Luna turned to leave, only to stop immediately in her tracks. She gave the unicorn a hard stare, and he caught her meaning after a few tense seconds, apologizing as he cast a detection spell on her.

With a satisfied nod, she left the trio of ponies and started down the corridors of the dungeon alone, passing the occasional guard on her way out. She felt strangely invigorated after her face-off with the changeling, which was more than a little disconcerting, Luna noted with a frown. Her strides had lengthened considerably from the shuffling of hooves with which she had followed the earth pony prison guard, and the vibrance born by her anger with the parasite remained in her mane yet. As much as she hated admitting it, mishandling the changeling had felt good. She had felt so very powerless for these three weeks, tethered to the hundreds of duties she faced as the temporary monarch of Equestria and Captain of the Royal Guard.

But she had been in control just now. The parasite had changed its mind, had tried to withhold the answers Luna sought, but she had wrung them out all the same. The changeling, so cocky and sure of itself, had bowed its head to her in the end. Luna had won, and although it was a small victory, it had been infinitely more substantial than investigating city block after city block in a fruitless search for enemies.

She gave an annoyed shake of the head, dispelling the treacherous thoughts. No good could come of dwelling on things like that. She wandered aimlessly through the castle for several minutes, trying to take her mind off the satisfaction she had gained from pummeling the changeling.

Instead, she thought of what it had told her. The parasite could have lied, of course. It seemed unlikely, but still possible. Its cellmate had tried to kill it, but it could just as easily have been an elaborate act; either they genuinely did not want the changeling to tell her the truth, or they were extremely dedicated to make her believe a lie, to the point of bludgeoning one of their own.

The interrogation itself had no doubt left the changeling fearing for its life. Luna herself was unsure of whether she would have allowed it to live had it not spoken then and there. Would it lie to her if its own life were at stake? It could have. Deceit was its trade, after all. She would need to question it more thoroughly. She would need statements from the other prisoners as well. If it was true the changeling queen, this Chrysalis, was planning another invasion, Luna would need to be a lot more aggressive in her approach.

By now, she had reached the main entrance hall of the palace, and she stopped a nearby patrolling pegasus guard. "Has my sister been found? I require her counsel in an urgent matter."

"She's still missing. I think we stopped looking for her half an hour ago," he admitted.

"You are leaving your princess unsupervised in our time of war?" Luna raised an eyebrow critically, and the guard swallowed nervously.

"She's with Twilight Sparkle!" he objected weakly. "Phalanx is in the courtyard; he's the one that called the search off!"

"The courtyard?" Luna inquired, setting off down the stairs toward the main entrance, forcing the smaller pony into a quick trot to keep up.

"He's preparing the troops for today's sweep," the pegasus explained.

Luna sighed as she passed through the enormous doorway leading out into the palace courtyard. "Is it time for that already..?"

5 - A Lesson in Mercy

Carpe Diem

Chapter 5 - A Lesson in Mercy

"Did Luna just ground you?" Twilight asked her mentor with amused disbelief as the door connecting Celestia's study with the rest of her chambers was shut by the half dozen unicorn guards that had escorted them from the sculpture garden and into the palace.

Celestia, however, was far from amused. "I can't believe she would order the royal guards to set the labyrinth on fire if I didn't return!"

"I don't think she'd ask them to really do it," Twilight attempted in an effort to placate her, but the princess shook her head, striding past the desk and the bookcases of the small study to gaze out the window. Below her, she saw the massive labyrinth, finally freed from its hour-long siege.

"They had torches, Twilight." Her view was blocked when a pegasus guard appeared outside the window. He halted in midair, and started hovering just outside the study, surveying the room stolidly. Celestia's eyes were drawn to the remaining two windows in the study, only to find two other pegasus guards hovering there, their faces unreadable as they unabashedly ruined what little privacy Celestia and her student had left. "This is getting out of hoof," she growled, turning away from the windows. Refusing to show Twilight a more unsavory side of herself, she took a deep breath to calm herself, forcing the thought of the pegasi staring at her out of her mind.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until Luna comes back from her sweep," Twilight sighed uncomfortably. "She must have a really good reason for doing this."

"She better," Celestia grumbled in response, looking at her bookcase so as not to meet eyes with her student while in her current foul temper. "I gave her a thousand years to recover from Nightmare Moon, but she won't give me more than three weeks? It's far from the same thing, I know, but so are a month and a millennium!"

"She just doesn't understand. That's what you said yesterday, right?"

"It's no excuse for how she's acting!" Celestia insisted. "She should focus more on ruling and less on forcing me back onto my pedestal!"

Twilight hesitated at those words. "You really think you've been knocked off of that whole 'Goddess of the Sun' pedestal, don't you? All the way off?"

"Chrysalis saw to that, yes," Celestia replied bitterly, throwing a frosty glare at one of the pegasus guards in an effort to scare him off. The stallion didn't flinch, and Celestia briefly wondered what it was exactly that made the guards more afraid of Luna than of her. "You don't think so?" she asked of Twilight.

"That's what I've been telling you all day," she answered, a hint of exasperation in her voice. "If you had, they'd have taken away your crown and thrown you out of the palace!"

"I'm not wearing my crown."

"I bet it's still standing on your nightstand, though," Twilight pointed out, nodding her head at the wall separating the study from Celestia's bedroom. "If we're using the pedestal analogy, yours must be standing on a mountain or something compared to the rest of us; Chrysalis might have knocked you off your pedestal, but you're still way above us. We still think you're the princess of Equestria, we might just not see you as... well, as invincible as we once did."

"And that's the root of the problem isn't it? I may still be the princess, but it was a long fall from... invincibility. And now that I've fallen off of it, I can't ever climb back up. I know I made the climb once, but it was so long ago... I no longer know the way."

"Do you need to stand on it?" Twilight asked carefully. "Plenty of ponies are doing just fine without thinking they're unstoppable."

"I'm not like most other ponies, am I?" Celestia reminded her student. "I'm the centuries-old ruler of Equestria, the alicorn who has carried the burdens of the sun and moon for a thousand years. It's as though I gave up my equinity all those years ago to become... to become Celestia. I've given up so much of what I once called myself so that I could be what Equestria needed back then, and in return I gained its support and I gained this... invincibility. But that has been taken from me now. What if she took my subjects' love from me as well? Then what am I?"

Something brushed against her shoulder, and she turned her head to see Twilight giving her an encouraging nuzzle. "She can't take that away from you," she assured her. "Not ever. And you can't let that fear keep you from facing the public."

"You could be right," Celestia admitted without much conviction, returning her gaze to the bookcase in front of her.

"I know I'm‒"

"And you could be wrong. Right now, I'm afraid I'd rather live in uncertainty than in certainty of the worst outcome..."

"That doesn’t seem like the best idea," Twilight muttered uneasily.

Celestia smiled sadly, her gaze growing distant. "Not to you. But to me… I’d rather…” She paused for a moment, busying herself with tidying up the bookcase while choosing her next words. "A thousand years ago, I remember, I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed that my own sister had gone behind my back and attempted to overthrow a rule I thought we shared. I dreamed that I banished her to the moon, that I had condemned us both to an eternity of solitude. That morning I stayed in bed longer than I have ever done in my entire life. I was so afraid that what I had dreamed was a reality. I was petrified.

"I finally convinced myself that my nightmare was nothing but a ridiculous fantasy, that Luna would never turn on me." Her breathing shallowed. "Ponies smiled at me wherever I went, some with restrained happiness, others out of sympathy. They... congratulated me on my victory... The sun nearly went out that day. The maid who thought it prudent to call me queen took the full brunt of the royal Canterlot voice, something I haven't used since. I named Silverblood Regent of Equestria and I simply stopped... living. It was only half a century later that three little foals reminded me of the importance of Laughter. I don't want that to happen again. My uncertainties now are… bearable. But I’m afraid of that vacuum, Twilight."

She felt a dampness on her cheeks and turned her head away from Twilight again, only to be confronted by the infuriating sight of the pegasus guards. Giving a strange mix of a grunt of irritation and a choked-back sob, the princess returned her gaze to the bookcase in front of her. "Look at me. Falling apart right in front of you." She gave herself a bitter smile and dried her tears with a quick spell. "I’m sorry."

Twilight didn't immediately respond, instead mulling over her mentor's words for a while, staring at her hooves just as blankly as Celestia stared at the books in front of her. While waiting for a reply, she found herself oddly preoccupied with the question of why she even had the bookcase in her study. The books it held were of no use to her work. She wasn't even sure she had picked half the books resting on those shelves. It was more of an aesthetic feature than anything else, she supposed.

"I get the feeling that this goes deeper than just the wedding," Twilight finally observed, interrupting the idle wanderings of Celestia's mind. "Sounds like it goes all the way back to the Nightmare Moon incident."

"Both of those events are failures of mine," Celestia agreed. "The worst part of being me is that when I fail, I do so disastrously. My battle with Nightmare Moon left me aching for... I'm still aching. One mistake ended with a thousand years of regret. Right now, I think, I'm just waiting for something horrible to happen, for things to spiral out of control because I failed against Chrysalis."

Without warning, the door to Celestia's study was thrown open, and Luna strode through the doorway purposefully, closing the door behind her before even looking at the two ponies present. "I bear urgent news, sister," she breathed, her voice hoarse and ragged after some strenuous activity, no doubt running through the palace following a full sweep of the city. "And I require your counsel. 'Tis most fortuitous the guard found you in my absence‒"

"You threatened with burning down the labyrinth!" Celestia snapped in annoyance, her rage blossoming forth once more at the sight of her sister. "And what is this!?" she demanded, waving a hoof at the three pegasi hovering outside the windows.

"I did not have time for your frivolities," Luna argued, then motioned for Twilight to leave the study. "I must speak with you in private. I have an urgent matter on my hooves that I cannot deal with alone!"

Twilight nodded her understanding at the two princesses and trotted out the study. Luna watched her go and not before the door had closed behind the little unicorn did she face Celestia again and speak.

"The changeling queen is preparing a counter-offensive against Canterlot," her younger sister revealed in a hushed tone so that none of the unicorns outside could hear. "As we speak, she is rallying hundreds, maybe thousands, under her banner in the badlands."

Celestia's frown melted away into a wide-eyed expression of shock, and she fell back on her haunches, as if struck physically by the news. "How do you know this?"

"The prisoners have taken to talking," Luna explained seriously, pleadingly. "I have interrogated three of the parasites, and they all share the same tale. One insists they will strike before Prince Shining Armor returns from his honeymoon."

"I don't do well with war," Celestia replied despairingly, bringing a hoof to her temple and sighing. "You said that yourself, Luna. What do you need my counsel for?"

"I need your help," Luna answered, taking a step toward her elder sister. "We mustn't hesitate, sister. You mustn't hesitate! If the combined swarm of Chrysalis' supporters reach Canterlot, we cannot win!"

"I doubt we can fight her in the badlands either," Celestia pointed out. "What would you have me do?"

"We failed to destroy her. In fact, she invaded Canterlot, struck you down, and has not a single wound to show for it. They say she's invincible. She travels far and wide to tell the tale of her 'victory', rallying more and more parasites for this planned reinvasion. Now is the time to strike. Show the parasites that their queen is not the invincible goddess she claims to be."

Celestia flinched at the irony of her sister's statement. "You're saying we should... kill her?"

"There is no other way. The changelings will see any other action as a sign of weakness. And we must act," Luna added, sensing Celestia's apprehension.

"I haven't killed a single living being in all my life," Celestia muttered. "And neither have you. There is another way, Luna. There always is. We cannot allow ourselves to stoop to the level of an assassin."

"We are protectors of the realm, not assassins," Luna argued, taking another step closer. "Do you want to see our subjects killed? Enslaved? She will do all those things, sister! Unless we stop her!"

"There are rules we must obey," Celestia insisted, looking her sister in the eye. "Unwritten rules that, if broken, disrupts the balance of the entire world. You've broken those rules before, Luna, and you paid a terrible price. Everyone did. You and I must never justify crimes such as these."

"If we stand together, we have the power to right our wrongs. We should be cautious, but we should not be afraid either. We can take risks, sister, especially if they are far outweighed by the benefits of such a decision."

"No."

"Shining Armor, Cadance, Twilight Sparkle," Luna listed out of the blue, taking a different approach. "Chrysalis will not forget the three ponies responsible for her initial defeat. What will she do to them, sister? I can assure you that she will not simply kill them. What will she do to your student?"

"Luna."

"Do you wish to hear her screams?"

"Don't think you can anger me into killing, Luna!" Celestia warned her sister, disgust clear in her voice. "There is always another way."

"Then what, pray tell, is this other way!?" Luna demanded of her sister angrily. "They may very well be upon us by the end of the week! We must cut off the head of the snake before it devours our kingdom!"

"I won't think of a solution with you shouting at me!" Celestia countered, then waved another hoof at the pegasus guards in frustration. "Just... leave me alone for now and get those guards out of my sight! I need to think."

Luna held her ground for a moment longer before sighing, and with the exhalation, she seemed to deflate slightly, bowing her head. "Very well," she surrendered hesitantly, gesturing at the pegasi outside to leave. "I pray you will find a solution, sister. I shall see what else the prisoners have to offer... after court..." She turned, opened the door and strode out of the study. "My sister requires privacy," she declared to the unicorns assembled outside. "Half of you will escort Twilight Sparkle to the library and look after‒"

"Bring her in here," Celestia interrupted her sister, who gave her a confused look.

"V-very well. Twilight Sparkle, you will remain with my sister. The rest of you will stand guard outside these chambers. Princess Celestia is not to be disturbed."

Twilight hurried in through the door just as Luna shut it behind her, leaving the two ponies alone once more. Celestia exhaled deeply and rose from the floor, walking slowly across the study to gaze out the window again.

"What did Luna want?" Twilight asked when Celestia didn't volunteer any information. She sounded worried, which hardly wondered Celestia. The midday sky, having gradually brightened over the course of the time the two had spent together, had dulled noticeably upon her hearing Luna's grim tidings.

She didn't immediately answer, considering instead the wisdom of involving Twilight in matters of warfare. "I told you I'd be happy if I never saw Chrysalis again," she relented. "I'm not that lucky, it would seem. Luna has learned that Chrysalis is planning another invasion of Canterlot. It's possible that they'll attack in just a few days, before Shining Armor and Cadance return."

"A-attack!?" Twilight exclaimed in a panic, reacting exactly as Celestia had expected her to. "How!? It's only been three weeks! They can't have recovered already; that's impossible!"

"Chrysalis is entirely unhurt, apparently," Celestia offered, knowing that the explanation made even less sense. "While Canterlot has been struggling to recover from nothing but an experimental assault, she's been busy preparing for the real thing. According to Luna, we will have lost if the changelings cross our borders."

"Then what do we do!?"

"We remain calm," Celestia told her student, looking back at the unicorn still standing at the bookcase. "Luna believes the answer lies in a preemptive strike, to kill the queen and hope it dissuades her supporters from attacking. But there has to be another way..."

"Why... why not kill her?" The question caught Celestia off guard, and, having just returned her gaze to the royal garden beyond the window, she once again looked back over her shoulder at Twilight. "It's just... it seems like the best solution," Twilight defended herself, growing uncomfortable under Celestia's surprised stare. "Won't she just keep coming back unless we... put a stop to her?"

Celestia released her student from her gaze and looked at her hooves for a moment. After a while, she sighed and raised her head, locking eyes with her reflection in the window. "Long ago, so long ago that the time has fallen into legend, Equestria was an utter dystopia. Generations lived their entire lives in misery. Thousands upon thousands of ponies, were they foal, mare, or stallion, were all victims of one oppressor's whim, a whim that would change without warning in the blink of an eye."

"Discord..."

"His evil was even greater then than it was when you met him. He was callous, he was ruthless, and suffering lay in his wake wherever he went. There were many who could not forgive his sins, many who wanted him destroyed. Living under his rule for so long… I understood my people’s wishes. If it were up to Luna, those wishes would have been granted. Yet it was my decision to turn him to stone instead, and Luna accepted it.

"The ponies of that age didn't exactly appreciate our mercy back then. Because of our perceived weakness, it took many years before Luna and I had asserted ourselves as rulers in the eyes of all Equestrians. There were many ancient kings and queens that refused our authority, and I fear Luna took the brunt of their criticism. I was, after all, the pony who brought them the sun, but Luna didn't enjoy the same kind of... protection. Had I killed Discord, I might have avoided the Nightmare Moon incident altogether and kept my sister for those thousand years. Had I known as much, I may just have gone through with it back then...

"And yet... You've met Discord," Celestia told her student. "Should I have killed him then?"

"If it meant keeping your sister?"

"Should I have killed Discord, period," Celestia corrected her student, then shook her head at what she had said. "Question mark, I mean."

"Ye‒... Hmm... I don't... The Discord I met... he didn't seem… that evil," Twilight mused out loud. "He was just trying to have a lot of fun... at the cost of all of Equestria getting turned completely upside down. Kinda reminds me of Pinkie, except for the superpowers and callous disregard for everything around him."

"Would you have me kill such a creature?"

"I suppose not," Twilight admitted glumly.

"If you had the chance of preventing his existence, would you do so?"

"You mean kill him back when you first defeated him?" Twilight went silent for a few seconds as she considered the question.

In all honesty, the amount of time her student spent pondering the question worried Celestia. She had always assumed Twilight possessed a sense of morality that would never allow her to even consider murder, but it seemed she was treating the question of how to deal with Discord or Chrysalis like a logic problem, weighing the benefits against the consequences in much the same way Luna had done.

"He changed," Twilight finally stated, and Celestia nodded.

"He changed," she agreed. "He is no longer the monster he was, and so I hope that one day, perhaps sooner than either of us may think, he will find a new path in life. Where none other could see it, not even I, I found some semblance of light within Discord. Only time will tell if it was worth the effort of uncovering it."

"But how can you be sure Chrysalis will change? Changelings don't have any emotions of their own; no matter how long you imprison her or what you do to her, she won't feel any remorse."

"I suppose you read that in a book," Celestia observed, and Twilight nodded. "Can you be certain it's true? Would you really stake another being's life on it? Would you stake another being's life on the fact that they can never change? Consider yourself; Nightmare Moon had to threaten the world with eternal night, but you managed to change. Would the old you ever have imagined being able, let alone willing, to make five friends in a single night?"

"Alright, alright," Twilight sighed in defeat. "Guess I can't compete with a thousand years of wisdom and experience. You're right; we can't kill Chrysalis."

Celestia gave a sad smile. "But what other choice is there?"

6 - Shadow in the Mirror

Carpe Diem

Chapter 6 - Shadow in the Mirror

"When will she be at her most vulnerable? When addressing her supporters, or in private?"

The unicorn standing guard outside the room Princess Luna had chosen as her interrogation chamber, having exhausted all other sources of entertainment, listened idly to the scene taking place behind the closed door. His companion, an earth pony mare, had long since fallen asleep, but he could hardly blame her. In order to keep her methods as secret as possible, Princess Luna had chosen to interview the prisoners in the most isolated part of the dungeon; nopony ever came anywhere near the two guards, making for a very, very boring posting.

The unicorn pricked his ears up in an effort to hear the changeling's answer, but could only hear a strained grunt. At least it was a break from the endless string of 'I don't know' he had been spewing since he and Princess Luna were introduced to each other. For the first half hour or so, the princess had simply repeated the same two questions over and over: 'Where is the changeling queen?' and 'when is the invasion due?'. Now, however, as it inevitably happened, the princess had lost her temper and gotten violent, provoking a new range of answers from her prisoner. Already, he had revealed the time of the invasion.

"When her army marches, will she be in the vanguard?" The changeling sobbed in response to the question, and the guard shook his head sympathetically. The door shuddered from a heavy impact and not a second later, a sharpened stake broke through the fortified oak, missing the eavesdropping unicorn by mere inches. His eyes flashed blue as he almost faltered, but he regained his composure quickly, backing away from the stake with a swift step. "Answer me!" Luna bellowed, and the wooden stake, covered in a thin, sticky sheen of neon green fluid, withdrew, leaving a splintered hole in the thick oak door. The hole vanished as quickly as it had appeared, no doubt the princess using her powerful magic to repair it instantly.

"H-how would I know!?" the prisoner within desperately plead, his voice much fainter to the unicorn now that he had distanced himself from the door.

The princess muttered something in response, and the changeling screamed a string of insults at her before falling abruptly silent. The guard didn't have much time to wonder what had just happened before the door slammed open, just barely missing him.

With a confused frown, Luna strode out of the interrogation chamber, leaving behind the prisoner that, thanks to her magic, was now sound asleep. The sleeping earth pony standing against the wall just opposite Luna was quickly nudged awake by the unicorn, who cast his detection spell on Luna immediately upon seeing her.

The guardsmare who had been caught sleeping began muttering an apology, but Luna ignored her. "Is it sundown already?" she asked, once again feeling the tugging in her horn that had driven her to end her session with the changeling.

"I think you'd know better'n us, honestly," the unicorn replied, referring to the brightly lit, but windowless surroundings. "But it sounds 'bout right."

Luna nodded. "I am sorry to have kept you for so long. Bring the prisoner to its cell, and see that it is given medical attention. Once that is taken care of, you are dismissed."

"What happened this time?" the unicorn inquired, his tone making it clear that he was looking for an excuse to give the nurse rather than an answer to sate his own curiosity.

"The creature lunged," Luna explained. "I lowered my horn in defense."

The unicorn hid a grimace and nodded. "I see. Hope he gave you some answers beforehoof."

"Not many," Luna admitted, turning away from the guards and leaving them to their remaining duties as she started down the path leading out of the dungeons. While walking, she finally responded to the tugging in her horn. The restricting walls of the dungeon fell away all around her, and to her right, she saw the moon, pushing against the horizon as if it were an actual physical border preventing it passage. To her left, the sun looked as though it was hanging off of that same horizon, just waiting for Luna's touch to dismiss it. With a single powerful push, the moon rose and the sun fell away, giving way to night just as willingly as it had done for the past three weeks. By the time she had finished her celestial duty, she had left the dungeon, and was soon walking down the palace hallways, rapidly darkening under the onset of night.

The twenty-sixth day, Luna mused, going over what little information the changeling had provided her. She could only assume that meant the twenty-sixth day following the wedding. She had just brought about the eve of the twenty-second, meaning Canterlot had less than a week remaining until Chrysalis arrived with her bolstered army.

As much confidence as she had in her sister's ability to deal with situations such as these peacefully, Luna had felt her resolve rapidly crumble with each confirmation of the invasion's date. There was simply no time for negotiations, no time to prepare against a full-on assault of Canterlot, no time for any other solution than the one that had been clear from the very beginning, and the window of opportunity allowing for the assassination of the queen was rapidly closing. For all she knew of Chrysalis' progress, it could be too late already.

Steeling herself for yet another confrontation with Celestia, Luna quickened her pace. If her sister had not yet found the hidden solution she claimed to exist, Luna would have to convince her that there simply were no pleasant options for dealing with Chrysalis.

Her progress through the palace hallways slowed somewhat as she became increasingly aware of the odd or downright shocked glances she was receiving from the castle staff. Guards saluted her, but, while looking at her, failed to make eye contact. Guests and residents of the palace alike went in wide circles around her upon seeing the princess, all looking nervously at...

Luna's eyes went to her front legs, and with a twinge of regret, she noted a light spattering of bright green standing out against her dark blue coat. It was not the only thing amiss with her appearance, Luna quickly found. She had been perspiring more heavily than she had realized during her sessions with the many changelings, and her fur and feathers looked unkempt to say the least, no doubt having looked as such ever since her return from the city sweep earlier that day.

The blood would certainly not do, Luna decided promptly, deciding to stop by her chambers before going to Celestia. Her sister would no doubt notice, and there would be no hope of reasoning with her were she to learn what Luna had been doing with their prisoners.

Her own prisoners, Luna reminded herself bitterly, and for a brief moment, she considered going straight to her sister regardless of how she looked. Perhaps the knowledge of what her little sister had been doing in her absence would finally bring Celestia out of her stupor and force her to finally take action.

It was hardly worth the scolding she would receive and the nigh certain mistrust between the two that would follow, however, and so Luna continued to her own chambers, ignoring the greetings of the guards stationed outside her door. Within moments, she stood before the mirror of her bathroom, a dampened sponge from her bath scrubbing away the blood on her legs. It didn't take her long to clean her legs, and she soon set to work on washing the sweat off of the rest of her body.

How would she convince a pacifist of her sister's caliber to kill Chrysalis? Even one such as Discord she hadn't dared kill, despite the thousand ponies demanding his head on a spike. Now, only Luna demanded murder, and for each of her arguments, she knew her sister would have ten to counter her. Celestia had the wisdom, she had the experience... she had the clean slate, the name untarnished by past mistakes; all virtues that weighed so much heavier than any logical argument Luna could offer.

"Speakest thou out of wisdom or fear, dearest sister? Equestria stands on the brink of oblivion and thy resolution fails thee..." Her gaze lifted from the running water in the sink to the mirror, but what she saw there caused her to leap backwards in shock, her eyes widening in disbelief and fear. "Y-you! What are you‒?"

"Did you miss me, dear Luna? I find life so very dull without my little puppet princess."

In the mirror before her, in the stead of her reflection, was a face Luna had hoped she would never see again. Especially in the mirror. Cold, cyan eyes sparkled with the excitement of a predator cornering its prey, and a swirling, ethereal mane so very much like Luna's pulsed with glee, framing the dark visage of the infamous Nightmare Moon.

"Begone!" Taking heart in the fact that the apparition, whatever it was, before her was nothing but an image in the mirror, Luna stepped forward again, her horn aglow as she scowled at her darker counterpart. "The Elements of Harmony banished thee!"

"Ah. Because they were so very effective in expulsing me the first time around," Nightmare Moon observed, sounding utterly unimpressed.

"You were destroyed..!"

"And here I am ‒" the black alicorn in the mirror gave her a dangerous smile "‒ answering my summons."

"I have not summoned thee, vile creature!" Luna retorted angrily. "Slink back into whatever darkness you came from! I will have nothing of you!"

"So dramatic, Luna. You can't spare a moment to talk with an old friend?"

"We are not friends," Luna hissed, her eyes narrowing. "And thy words are poison."

"Why won't your big sister listen to you?" Nightmare Moon cooed in a mockingly mothering tone, ignoring Luna's protests. "How come everypony asks how she's doing when you're the one slaving away every hour of the day? Why don't they trust you? Why does Celestia love Twilight more than she does you?"

"She does not!"

Nightmare Moon smirked, that same smile playing across her lips again. "Oh? Really? Have you noticed how much... brighter," she spat the word contemptuously, "the sun has become lately? Since Twilight came? She's been doing more for Celestia in half a day than you've been doing for three weeks! Of course, you came along and ruined that, didn't you? It’s no wonder she prefers her company..."

"Your lies will not incense me," Luna told the apparition dismissively, ordering her hooves to take her away from the poisonous mirror, though they did not obey her. "Leave."

"It's obvious she's been pushing you away," Nightmare Moon insisted, sounding a lot more serious. "Ever since you failed her."

"I did not‒"

"'I shall be just fine on my own'", Nightmare Moon said, her voice imitating Luna's perfectly and echoing the words she had spoken upon the morrow of the wedding. "'Enjoy the wedding.' I think I'll just lie up here, in my cottage in the clouds, far away from the noise of the wedding, and sleep through an invasion! You let that sorry excuse for a queen take over Canterlot and strike down your sister!"

"I had been guarding Canterlot every night for‒" Luna started defending herself, but instead snorted at her reflection. "I need not justify myself to the likes of you!"

"So you were tired." Nightmare Moon pursed her lips and nodded her head in understanding. "Good thing Celestia had Twilight around, I suppose. And what's your excuse for these past weeks, I wonder? Why are ponies still afraid? Why don't they trust your reassurances? Why haven't you dealt with Chrysalis yet!? Instead, you're yelling at a mirror, trying to convince yourself that you're not jealous of your sister's favorite little student."

"I have served the kingdom dutifully and diligently in my sister's absence," Luna retorted confidently. "No other pony, not even Twilight, would have lasted two days in my stead."

"So where's the appreciation?" Nightmare Moon challenged her.

"In due time, it will come."

"In due time..." Nightmare Moon echoed, tapping a hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "Where have we heard that before?"

"Be silent‒"

"Oh yes!" the black alicorn exclaimed as she remembered. "A thousand years ago. Wasn't that what Celestia said about your night? That only took, what, a millennium? We both know you're not a patient mare, Luna. How long before resentment starts filling up that pretty little heart of yours?"

"You know nothing of me, filth!" Luna insisted, her temper flaring. "I will not say it again! Leave!"

"You're speaking to a mirror," Nightmare Moon reminded her smugly. "We're one and the same, so I'm afraid you're stuck with me. The only difference between us is that I shoulder the blame. All those ugly emotions of yours, they're all my fault, right? They're what brought me here in the first place, you know. They're what will always bring me back, no matter how many times the Elements of Harmony blast me to pieces."

The alicorn chuckled darkly, and Luna felt oddly vulnerable under her gaze, as if she were being read like an open book. "Twilight Sparkle. You're so very good at being jealous, Luna, that's what I like about you. We both know she's going to replace you. The stars for a cutie mark, our sister's affinity for her, her plans for her ascension... She needs a companion to help her get through eternity, and goodness knows it isn't you."

Luna glared at her counterpart, but words failed her.

"You know what Celestia is going through," Nightmare Moon told her, her voice cutting into her mind deeper with every uttered word. "After her defeat, she has felt so utterly weak and helpless. Never before has she been struck such a blow as that insect dealt her. She is at her most vulnerable since... why, since she was but a little filly. So when you offer her a helping hoof, why does she shy away from it?"

Luna could offer no answer. She desperately wanted to just turn away from her reflection, to flee from her own shadow, but she knew the effort would be futile.

"I'll tell you why. She's afraid. What are you to her but the very mare who stabbed her in the back? She doesn't trust you, you foal. She never will. How could you truly believe she'd forgiven you? No, she prefers Twilight over a treacherous, false sister! Who wouldn't!?"

Luna shook her head desperately. "You lie!"

Nightmare Moon laughed. "Ask her then! Watch your sister as she stumbles over her words and inevitably lies to your face! If she trusted you, if she loved you, she would have accepted your help!"

The sound of raised voices from somewhere outside her chambers distracted Luna from Nightmare Moon's cruel words, and, finally released from the trance she had been in, she pointed a hoof at her reflection. "Y-you... you are a trick," she told the apparition, gaining a small measure of confidence from the accusation. "The changelings are trying to sway me, for-for some reason."

"The parasites will take over Canterlot in less than four days," Nightmare Moon groaned with exasperation. "They don't need to trick you. You need to destroy them before they get here."

"I will unveil your deceit!" Luna insisted, opening the door leading out into the rest of her apartment. "If you are what you claim to be, only I can see you, and if you wish for me to believe you, you will still be here when I return!"

"Don't take too long!" Nightmare Moon called out after her as Luna purposefully strode through her chambers, tearing open the doors leading into the rest of the castle.

In the hall just outside her chambers, she found the source of commotion to be Twilight Sparkle, frowning at the unicorn guard finishing a detection spell on her. Upon Luna slamming open the doors, however, both Twilight and the guards flinched, and the lavender unicorn gave the princess an apologetic look.

"S-sorry, Princess Luna, I didn't mean to shout right outside your quarters, it's just, I've been scanned a dozen times walking from Celestia's study to here." She gave the guard an annoyed look as he finished his spell. Her sister's student was wearing the Element of Magic on her head, and Luna briefly wondered whether Celestia had thought of a solution before shoving the thought away.

"Twilight, join me in the restroom."

"Whu-whaaah!" Twilight's stuttered question trailed off into a surprised yelp as Luna pulled her through the doorway with her magic, leaving the guards standing outside to exchange looks of utter bewilderment and apprehension.

"Now!" Luna ordered flatly, pushing the smaller unicorn across the floor of the large entrance hall and into her bathroom, shutting the door behind the two as soon as they had entered.

"Wh-what's going on!?" Twilight demanded as soon as Luna's magical grip on her ceased, blushing furiously.

Luna didn't immediately answer. Upon entering the bathroom, her eyes were instead drawn to the mirror. To both her relief and despair, the image of Nightmare Moon was still there, her lips curled into an arrogant smile as she watched the two ponies enter.

"Look in the mirror," Luna told the flustered unicorn, gesturing at Nightmare Moon. "Do you see her?"

"Who?" Twilight asked, growing only more confused as she craned her neck to look into the mirror adjusted to a pony of Luna's stature. "I-I see you."

"Me?" Luna pressed worriedly. "Princess Luna?"

"Well, uh... yeah." Nightmare Moon shook her head at Luna with an 'I told you so' look in her eyes. "Why? Am I supposed to see... something else?"

"Boo!" Nightmare Moon exclaimed demonstratively, her face momentarily growing to fill out the entire mirror while she bared her teeth menacingly. Luna took a guarded step back, but Twilight didn't even flinch, oblivious to the princess' tormentor. "You see?" Nightmare Moon laughed, waving a hoof at the unicorn still staring intently at the mirror. "I'm not a spell, I'm not a trick. Your jealousy sustains me, draws me in. How could I resist showing up, the way you envy our dear Twilight here? Lucky little unicorn. Gets to be loved by everyone around her. But you‒"

"Silence!" Luna all but screamed at the image, and Twilight stumbled backwards in surprise. The princess turned towards the fallen unicorn. "Art‒ are you sure, Twilight? Absolutely sure?"

"It looks just like an ordinary mirror to me," the unicorn admitted, visibly shaking under Luna's crazed gaze. “Sorry.”

"You will always have me," Nightmare Moon cooed soothingly, as if to assure her. "Even when the remnants of your own sister's love for you wilts and dies, I will be at your side."

"A-are you alright, Princess?"

"I can help you, Luna. You know how. I do the things you don't want to do, but that we both know you deep down really, really want to do. Destroy the changelings, not just their queen. Assert yourself towards Celestia. Gain the respect of your subjects."

"Princess?"

"And we could take care of little miss Perfect here while we're at it," Nightmare Moon promised Luna, and they both turned their gazes to the worried Twilight. "Are you just going to stand idly by while she takes your place at Celestia's side? Your sister would never tell you the truth, but we both know why she wants Twilight as an alicorn."

"Luna, should I call somepony!?"

"She's going to take away your sister, she's going to steal the crown that's yours by right, she'll even take the night! Everypony is going to love her and soon, nopony will even remember your name. They forgot it once before; they'll do so again," Nightmare Moon promised her, her voice dropping into a tantalizing whisper. "We don't have to hurt her, but we can. We don't have to kill her, but accidents do happen. Especially in the dungeo‒"

Nightmare Moon's enthralling voice was finally cut off as the mirror exploded, sending sparkling dust flying everywhere. Twilight yelped in surprise yet again, but Luna sighed in relief, closing her eyes and enjoying the newfound silence. Her glowing horn pulsed once more, and the disintegrated remains of the mirror were drawn into a nearby garbage bin.

She returned her gaze to Twilight, but the fear in the little unicorn's eyes was more than she could deal with presently. "I'm sorry," she muttered, then turned and left the bathroom.

"Luna!" Twilight called out after her, following her out the door and running up to stand in front of her. "What happened!? What did you see?"

"Nothing that need concern thee," Luna brushed her off, changing course so as to distance herself from the unicorn. "You can go back to my sister now."

"Well, she asked me to check on you. You missed dinner."

"As you can see, I am quite fine!" Luna bit her lip and nudged open the door to her living room, not bothering to use her magic. With a sigh of exasperation at her own hostility toward Twilight, she plopped into a chair facing a window. Twilight, however, seemed intent on uncovering what was bothering the princess, for she heard the unicorn step through the door after her, quite uninvited. Luna bit down the anger she knew wasn't entirely her own. She couldn't let Nightmare Moon turn her against her sister or anypony else.

"No offense, Princess, but you look far from fine. Wouldn't you like to talk about it? I could tell Celestia‒"

"No!" Luna exclaimed, nearly slipping into the royal Canterlot voice as she did so. She brought a hoof to her head and sighed again. "Please, do not tell my sister about this." Her eyes went briefly to the unicorn on her right, who silently nodded, obviously waiting for her to elaborate. The wait lasted almost a full minute before Luna finally surrendered. "I saw... Nightmare Moon."

"Nightmare‒ Wh-what did she do!? How come she's in the mirror!?"

"She attempted to poison my mind, as she did a thousand years ago."

"Attempted?" Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "So, she didn't succeed, right?"

"She lives," Luna replied sourly. "That alone is more success than I will grant one such as her. And it is all my fault..."

"How come?"

"'Tis my jealousy that sustains her," Luna admitted, wrinkling her nose.

"What, your sister?" Although she was staring at her own hooves, Luna heard the unicorn approaching with tentative steps.

"No..."

"Then... who?" Twilight asked.

"No one." Luna grimaced. "Nothing! Leave Us alone, Twilight Sparkle!"

"I-it's not me, is it?"

Luna whirled on the unicorn, her eyes aglow as she jumped clumsily out of the chair. "Don't mock me!" The force of her voice bowled over Twilight, but Luna was too frustrated to care. "It isn't fair! Do you know what I have put into ruling Equestria in my sister's stead!? I have not slept in days! I have traveled the length of Equestria time and time again! My horn burns so hot that headaches are a pleasant memory! I have done everything in my power trying to please my sister, and she will hardly look at me! You, on the other hoof..." She turned away from the unicorn and shook her head, taking a deep breath. "What have you done to earn her favor? Is it because you helped defeat Chrysalis? Discord? Myself?" She wiped a lone tear from her cheek. "Is it because you have never hurt her..?"

"Have you tried... talking to her?" Twilight offered, shaken by the other's outburst. "That's all I've done."

"Yes," Luna snapped, still not willing to face the unicorn. "Every time we have met, she has pushed me away. She would rather speak with you."

"I'm sorry," Twilight apologized. "I'm sure she doesn't mean to ignore you. With all that's happened, she's just having a hard time looking past herself. I don't think I've ever seen her so... out of it before. Since both of you are dealing with this crisis so differently, it's no wonder you're not seeing eye to eye about a lot of things."

"And how am I dealing with all this?" Luna challenged the unicorn sullenly. Tired of standing, she sat on the floor, looking out upon the early evening sky, her back still turned on the unicorn.

"You? Well, I suppose you're just the opposite of Celestia. Aggressive rather than passive. I mean, you flung a table across the dining room. Not that I hold that against you; the stress of everything you do must be driving you crazy."

"I am torturing changelings in the dungeons," Luna told her bluntly. "I see things in the mirror. I suppose you are right."

"I, uh... what?"

"Perhaps I am crazy. A lunatic if you will. I have yet again come to resent my sister and I have not let go of the Nightmare. How much longer until I grow obsessed with the beauty of the night and once more betray my sister!? It is no wonder she prefers your company... you, who are untainted by the darkness that has driven us apart."

"You shouldn't listen to Nightmare Moon," Twilight urged her, recognizing the source of the words. "You aren't crazy."

Luna held up her front hooves to her face, looking at them reproachfully. "Then why do I enjoy torturing my prisoners? Why has the euphoria of inflicting pain been the only thing carrying me through this horrible day?" She closed her eyes when she felt them watering and lowered her hooves.

"I managed an hour's sleep after... I don't even remember what paperwork I was going through last night. You saw what happened during breakfast. Trottingham... Trottingham demanded Celestia's presence... I lost my temper when somepony in the crowd called out my... other name. I returned to Canterlot, ready to sleep, only to learn that a prisoner wished to see me... It tried to spit on me and mocked me until I broke its leg. I learned of the invasion and wanted desperately to tell my sister, but of course, she had hidden herself away with you in the labyrinth, and I needed to attend the sweep of Canterlot. You cannot imagine how tired I was when I dragged myself into her study this noon, but she brushed me off when I told her of the invasion, told me to return to her royal duties. She wanted time alone to think of a solution, and I respected her wisdom... until she called you in." Luna shook her head. "Court was no better than Trottingham. There are countless matters that require my attention before I retire for the day, but I have found myself drawn to the dungeons instead."

"That does sound like a pretty terrible day," Twilight replied understandingly, nodding her head.

"Every day is much like this," Luna grumbled. "For every day Celestia is missing, they get worse."

"What? The ponies or the days?"

"Both. Everything." Luna gave a bitter snort. "I will never be the princess my sister is. She ruled a thousand years alone, but without her, I am losing control after nothing more than three weeks!"

"It's not been made easy for you," Twilight observed comfortingly. "I'm sure even Celestia would have trouble dealing with everything that's been going on. I'm sure she'd show you her gratitude if it wasn't for... well... she's been really preoccupied with Queen Chrysalis."

"We all have," Luna sighed in concordance.

"Celestia hasn't found a solution yet," Twilight revealed. "We've been thinking of using the Elements of Harmony somehow ‒" she tapped the tiara on her head "‒ but I don't think they'll work against an invasion."

"Has she seen reason, then?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn. "Realized that we can't resolve this without bloodshed?"

"She hasn't. But I'm starting to," Twilight admitted. "I was thinking... if you were to... kill Chrysalis, you might finally snap Celestia out of her depression. Not only that, but all the ponies who've been spreading those nasty rumors about you would be forced to acknowledge that you're some kind of hero, right? By now, the only one who doesn't want to see Chrysalis dead is probably Celestia."

"I will not go behind my sister's back, Twilight."

"I know, neither do I, but... what if Celestia doesn't find a solution? Wouldn't she rather have Chrysalis' death on her conscience than whoever the changelings decide to kill and enslave when they conquer Equestria? She thinks there's another way, but if we all stay here waiting for her to find it, we'd be doomed if it turns out there isn't. You have a small window of opportunity now, from what I've understood."

"That is true. What is it you suggest?"

"I think we should keep your option open. If we don't, I think even Celestia would come to regret it," Twilight explained. "You could go to the badlands, either alone or with a squad of guards, and I could cover for you back here. I think it'd take you two days at the very least to find Chrysalis, so we could use that as a sort of deadline for Celestia to find a peaceful solution. If she does find one, I'll figure out a way to make her send you a signal. She could do something with the sun, I guess. In that case, you'd just come back to Equestria, and your sister would be none the wiser."

"And if the solution was to elude her, she might come to accept the death of Chrysalis in exchange for the lives and freedom of our subjects," Luna finished, torn between nodding and shaking her head. "It does not seem right to deceive my sister so, but I have been telling myself there would be no easy way of resolving this matter." She sighed and rose from her seat. "I will heed your advice, Twilight. I shall leave tonight with a platoon of royal guards under the pretense of retrieving your brother and sister-in-law. Once there, I will find an excuse to stay behind and then leave for the badlands."

"Sounds like a plan." Twilight nodded her head. "Guess I'll get back to Celestia and tell her you're going. Good luck, Luna."

"I thank you, Twilight. And... I apologize for my outburst. I should not for a moment have trusted the picture Nightmare Moon painted of you."

"Don't worry about it," Twilight assured her with a smile. "Once you... do it, I'm sure Nightmare Moon won't ever show her face again."

"One can only hope."

1 - Crumbling Mirrors

Carpe Diem

Chapter 1 - Crumbling Mirrors

She stood proud upon her perch, her closed eyes speaking volumes of the emotions brimming within that serene facade. Her cold lips curled into a gentle, heartwarming smile as she allowed herself to breathe in the frigid air that had surrounded her for so long; no longer one of those many harrowing trials she had overcome, but a friend: a witness to this, her moment of victory. It caressed her as she stood there, her beautiful jet black mane floating upon the wind that also carried that little red cape she always wore.

She stood upon her hind legs as she, with her front hooves, drove a flag into the rock she stood upon, doing so with surprising strength for a mare of her background. The flag itself fluttered upon a different wind altogether, proudly displaying the mare's cutie mark for all to see: three bright yellow diamonds standing in a row.

The figure conveyed many emotions as she stood there, holding her flag for all to see. Happiness was an understatement. Pride, a better description. But above all, Victory was the title she so rightfully held and represented.

"Princess?"

The pony standing before Celestia froze. The almost unbearably cold, vicious winds that howled in her ears faded into memory, and Celestia breathed an inaudible sigh of disappointment as the pony was drained of all color, turning into stone again. Stripped of the princess’s vivid memories, the pony appeared as a statue once more, and Celestia’s attention turned back to the present. She tore her gaze off of the statue and only now noticed the royal guard standing at her side.

"Is something bothering you, Your Majesty?"

"No... No," Celestia replied, trying her best at a reassuring smile. She returned her gaze to the statue standing near the entrance to the palace labyrinth and sighed. "Maybe."

"Did you know this pony?" the guard asked, his eyes following Celestia’s.

"I knew all of them," she answered, a sad smile upon her lips as her gaze swept across the Canterlot sculpture garden. Familiar faces all seemed to look back at her, all locked in stone. All dead. They looked disappointed. "I have many friends here..." She nodded her head at the one in front of them. "Tell me, when you look at her, what do you see?"

"Uh, well... a mare," the guard replied lamely, obviously uncomfortable with the question. "I-I didn't know her, Princess. I don't want to insult you. Or her."

"You won't," Celestia reassured the stallion, giving him an encouraging smile. "What I desire most of all right now is the truth."

The guard nodded his head hesitantly, turning his gaze back to the statue and gulping nervously. "I suppose I see a very proud mare. She doesn't look... ecstatic, but she's happy. Composed. She's, uh, holding a flag, like she's standing in the center of some... battlefield, maybe?" He shrugged. "Victory is a pretty fitting name for someone like her, I'd say."

Celestia nodded, looking at the statue while the guard spoke. The smile she had been giving him faded when he finished. "And when you look at her again?"

"I... don't think I understand, Your Majesty. She... doesn't change, does she?"

The princess rose onto her hind legs and planted a hoof upon the pedestal, her other foreleg reaching up to caress the side of the pony cut from stone. The guard flinched at the sudden movement, and although it bothered her, Celestia didn't let it show, focusing her attention on the statue instead. "Each time I lay eyes on her, she brings back so many memories," she explained in a pained voice. "I see a young filly, her body left broken beyond repair by the accident that had claimed her family. The filly I took under my wing. I see the pony who should have succumbed to her innumerable afflictions, but carried on... Because of me, she always said." Tears formed in her eyes as she gently ran her hoof down the worn stone. "I see the... the daughter that rose above her limitations, the disabled mare who taught herself to walk, to run. The little hero who finally climbed the tallest peak of Canterlot Mountain and planted her flag for all to see. To show the world that no matter who you are, nothing is impossible."

Celestia stopped as her hoof reached the pony's knee. "And then my hoof snags." She removed her foreleg and placed it upon the pedestal with the other, revealing a tiny crack running across Victory's knee. "When I look at her again, I notice the chinks all over her body, the weatherworn stone, her... coldness, and I realize: I'm looking at a statue. A statue that's three hundred and ninety-two years old. And she's crumbling."

"She wasn't damaged in the invasion, was she?" the guard asked worriedly, eyeing the statue from different angles before coming to the conclusion that it hadn't. "If it's bothering you, you could always have somepony restore her," he suggested helpfully, but was ignored by the princess.

"Barring Discord's reimprisonment," she continued, nodding at the draconequus frozen in terror, "Victory is the most recent addition to the garden. All these friends, but a fraction of my own age, are slowly but surely turning to dust. Crumbling and deteriorating as the centuries roll by."

"I'm sure somepony could fix them," the guard repeated, and Celestia breathed a sigh of disappointment. He didn't understand. Nopony did.

"Immortality can’t be easy," the guard offered, making another effort at levelling with her. "You must miss them."

"Not in the way you think," Celestia replied, giving a wistful smile. "That’s the thing about immortality. You have plenty of time to get used to it." She stood still there for a moment, trying in vain to call back the memory she had been reliving a short while ago. After a long period of awkward silence between her and the guard, however, she finally gave up. "I shouldn't keep you from your post," she told him, slipping off the pedestal to stand on all fours again.

"While Princess Luna wants us patrolling the castle grounds, our first priority is keeping the two of you safe."

"I'm sure I'll be safe within my own sculpture garden," Celestia assured him, taking a step away from Victory to gaze at the rest of the statuary. "Besides, I'd like a moment to be alone with my thoughts."

The guard hesitated for a moment, reluctant to leave the princess unguarded, but even more reluctant to refuse her order. "As you wish," he finally said, bowing before turning his back to her and leaving behind the statue garden.

Celestia waited by Victory until the stallion had rounded the corner of the palace labyrinth and was out of sight before moving, casting a longing gaze up at the face of the pony that had been gone for four centuries. "They all think I miss you," she told the statue. "I do, I always will, but I let you go so very long ago.

"But you aren't just faces I once knew," she said, more to the statues themselves rather than the ponies they represented. She walked down the cobblestone path that ran through her garden, and after a few steps found herself standing before one of the very first additions to the statuary. Three little foals were playing happily with each other, one standing atop the other as they smiled from ear to ear. It was a moment she found herself clearly remembering, even after nine and a half centuries. It was the sight that had first brought her out of her stupor of self-loathing and grief. Those three foals had helped her take her first steps toward recovery after she had lost her sister.

The statue had been restored many times over the centuries, and yet, of all the statues, it bore the strongest signs of time's passing. One of the faces had lost so many of its features that it had become unrecognizable, and a chip had gone off another's nose. "You aren't just memories," she continued, very carefully running a hoof across the smooth, worn stone, afraid that the slightest errant touch might turn the statue to dust. "You're mirrors, aren't you?"

With a sigh, she drew away from the three foals and once more regarded the sculpture garden as a whole. "How old we all are, how our common ages tie us all together. Truly, the one difference between you and I is that all ponies see your worn facades. None see mine... and why should they?" she challenged of the stone ponies. She received no answer, of course, and she sighed deeply. "For more than a millennium, I’ve stood strong, I’ve overcome every obstacle I’ve faced. Not even I knew I was crumbling. Not until..."

With a grimace, she rubbed the tip of her horn, still sore even after three weeks. In her mind's ear, she heard the changeling queen cackling even as the ponies attending the wedding gasped in shock. She shook her head to rid herself of the bad memory, but it clung to her mind stubbornly. In its grip, the cracks riddling the surfaces of her oldest friends became all the more apparent, and their hollow, lifeless eyes stared back at her. Sad. Disappointed.

It became too much for her to bear, and so she fled the crumbling mirrors, striding quickly out of the Canterlot sculpture garden and into the palace, the interior of which would only remind her so much more of her failure.