Echoes of the Past

My ears were throbbing, my eyes burned. It took a moment for me to recover. Finally I opened my eyes to see Luna sprawled on the carpet with the area around her slightly burned. Her coat shined from all the sweat on her body. It seemed to be that she was so tired from using such powerful magic she must have passed out. I charged over to Luna and looked into her blue eyes. She said, more to herself than I in a voice that sounded like she was crying however her eyes shed not a single tear "My sister, my last living relative, what happened to her? We were so close not that long ago. But then she banished me to the moon because of what I saw her write. What could have possibly done this to her, give her those ideas?"

I said to Luna in a voice more confident than I felt "How about we find out? Surely there is something in this room that will let us learn more about her." Luna did not move. I began searching the room by myself. After a long time the Princess finally got up and began helping me with the search but not before repairing the window that Celestia crashed through.

There was not much to find in her room. After two hours of slow difficult searching we have hardly made any progress. Finally Luna asked me with her hooves leafing through one of Celestia's waste basket's "See if you can find my sisters diary. It should be somewhere well hidden in the castle."

This was far easier than I expected. It was not about blindly searching the castle, it was just a lot of hard thinking. I just had to think about what most ponies don't know about Celestia. I found the diary at my sixth guess. It was behind a mirror in the library.

The diary has been updated since Luna first saw it a thousand years ago. It did look old. Its first few pages have long lost its color. The edge of each page was very jagged. It was also well taken care of. The spine of the book has been repaired. The cover has been replaced at least once. The pages varied in size, shape, texture, and color. The diary appears to have expanded multiple times to make room for more pages. I've never seen anything like this, not even in a museum. The pages were so well preserved. Not a single smudge of ink on any of them. It was easy to read despite its age too. And it was all still, in till now being written in as well. This was the most impotent diary I have seen and I have looked at quite a few diaries in my adventures.

I ran my hoof over the black leather cover. It felt very smooth. I read its unusual but rather fitting gold letter title and opened it. I turned to a random page. It was very white and rounded at the edges. Celestia's writing was very elegant however her letters were remarkably thick. The quill she used must have come from a very large bird. This proved effective as the ink earlier pages was partially faded but the fat letters make it still easily readable.

I read one of Celestia's later entries "Now all the gears are in place to operate the vessel that will guide us to an Earth pony free Equestria. With Luna back on my side and now the study with a few months left until its completion it appears that this generation will finally see the fruits of my labor. I can only hope that this whole thing will go at least somewhat smoothly. I know that won't true, therefore I must be vigilant and alert. I need to make sure there is nothing that will interfere with my plans. Perhaps I should get some help on that."

I closed the diary. This was exactly what we were looking for. I turned around and headed back to Celestia's room. The door creaked open as I walked in. I saw Luna sitting at a desk. I glided over to see what the Princess was doing. Finally Luna turned around and asked me "So did you find it?" I nodded and she continued "That great let's take a look."

I gave the diary to Luna. She examined it and gave the book a puzzled look. Princess Luna said "She gave it a title? I wonder why my sister would do that. Anyway this must be were the evidence is hidden let read this." She turned around again and I sat down next to her. She laid the black leather book on the desk and with excitement in the air she opened the diary with the sound of splitting wood. Together we began to read THE ULTIMATUM.

The diary was very long. Luna and I had to skim in order to get the important information. Each of us took notes of what we found out in the book. It was a lot of grinding work. It was well into the afternoon when me the Princess finally finished. Our eyes hurt from so much reading and the desk was a mess from all the parchment scattered around us. But we managed to acquire all the proof we need to show what Celestia has been up to.

I got up and stretched, half of my limbs were numb. Luna looked out the window. She said to me very calmly "It will be sunset in a few hours. Now is the time for me to address the crowd. Now is the time for them to finally hear the truth. I can do a more official speech tomorrow but I must have one now to prevent bad rumors from surfacing. Let's go, the sooner I do this the better." Luna got up and headed towards the door, I followed her.

We traveled down the corridors and hallways of the castle. As we passed the royal guards looked nervous towards Princess Luna. She was still wearing the Elements of Harmony. After we passed them some of the guards followed us at a safe distance. We moved along the marble floor going past sculptures, paintings, stain glass windows, large vases, fancy chandeliers, and display cases containing all sorts of things until we finally reached the main entrance.

The door was very high and made of mahogany. It was open as usual during the day and I and Luna passed through. As we stepped outside we were both blinded by the sun. I shut my eyes to try to protect them. I lowered my hood and slowly opened my eyes again. The glasses helped but it was still very bright. I looked at Luna, she was squinting her eyes as we continued. We arrived at Canterlot Square. The market was starting to close; ponies were packing up their merchandise and getting ready to leave.

Luna started speaking "Good ponies of Equestria gather around. Your princess has important news to deliver." A circle made of half blinded ponies began to form around Luna and me. Luna started her speech "Today is an historical day for Equestria. Today I have good new and bad news. Allow me to start with the bad news." Chatter in the crowd began to increase.

Princess Luna continued "I'm afraid that Princess Celestia has been lying to you for as long as you can remember. She has told you ponies that since you are happy she does not want to change a single thing in Equestria. In reality she has been preparing for a major change for a very long time."

Luna paused. At that point the crowd was getting impatient. They started shouting at the Princess.

"How do we know you aren't lying?"

"Stop delaying tell us what happened."

"Are your trying to take over?"

"Are you going to tell us something interesting? I need to get home."

Luna started to get nervous. She started using her Canterlot voice "Princess Celestia has been planning to eliminate Earth ponies entirely. For thousands of years Celestia has been removing the reasons for Earth ponies to exist. She is now done and very soon she would have gotten rid of every Earth pony."

The crowd fell silent. I couldn't see the expression on their faces as it was too bright but I could tell they believed what Luna said. The Princess shouted once more "From what I have gathered in about a month Princess Celestia would stage a meteor to fall from space and land near Canterlot. You ponies would be told that the meteorite contained and unknown disease. As a result Equestria would be under temporary quarantine. You will be ordered to go to designated safe zones located all over Equestria, one for Pegasi, one for Unicorns, and one for Earth ponies. Were the Unicorn and Pegasus ponies go will be given vaccines and told it will help protect them from the virus. However it would actually make the ponies fall gravely ill. You will just be told that the vaccine was barely managing to fight off the decease. But for Earth ponies they will be given a slow acting poison. Eventually all of them would pass away. After this the Pegasi and Unicorns will be told that the Earth ponies were not able to fight off the virus because of their weaker immune systems and they have unfortunately died. Given that the rest of the ponies nearly died themselves they would consider themselves lucky be alive."

Princess Luna paused once again. Her crowd did not move. I could vaguely make horror on some of their faces. She continued speaking "Now I bring the good news. Today I have banished Princess Celestia to the sun. On this day I have put an end to my sister's terrible plans. Thanks to me I have saved the Earth ponies. Now this day writes a new page in the history of Equestria. I will step into the horseshoes of my sister. I will live up to the promises Celestia has given you. If you are happy I will change nothing and I will listen to your opinions and give them thought. But most importantly, I will not lie to you as my sister has for so long I will at all costs give you the truth. I ask you now to spread the word. Let other ponies know that I have not returned not to bring misery on you but to maintain the balance of harmony. Let them know what sister has really been doing."

There was a long silence. The ponies did not know how to react, how to respond to this. The silence was finally broken by voice behind us "Is this really true? Has Celestia really been lying to us all this time?” His voice was very strong and meaningful. Luna and I turned around; it was the royal guard lead commander. He said to us "I don't believe it, I have always trusted her my whole life."

Luna answered him "I've known my sister far longer than you have she has made keep this secret for a very long time."

The guard frowned "You mean you have known this for a awhile time why have you not told this before, why?

Princess Luna responded "She had the Elements of Harmony at my throat. I could not tell you until she could not use them against me; I did not want to get sent to the moon again.

The commander was doubtful "I still don't buy it. I need some proof to show what Celestia has been up to or I really can't trust you. None of my guards will work for you if you can't convince me otherwise." Luna simply held up her sister's diary.

It took what was left of the day convince that old stallion. He was very stubborn. But the overwhelming amount of evidence we had forced the pony to believe us.