The full moon rose high over Canterlot Castle, bathing the walls in a brilliant silver-white light that made the entire massive building seem to glow in the darkness. The gentle beams lanced through windows into the castle itself, falling in silver pools that lit the darkened halls in the midsummer night and allowed two ponies to walk slowly along with little fear of being lost. Of course, the larger of the two knew that she would never be lost in this castle, no matter if it was pitch black or not; after all, she had built it.
“It’s wonderful to have you back in the Castle, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, smiling fondly down at her student, who positively beamed back at her. “This old place seems cold and empty without your youth and spirit here; even with Luna returned to me, I still miss you terribly.” She reached out with a wing and touched Twilight’s multi-colored mane affectionately, causing the smaller unicorn to sigh happily.
“It’s great to come back,” Twilight admitted, glancing up at the moonlight-filled hallway before them. “As much as I love Ponyville and my friends… I grew up here, and I think of the Castle as my home in more ways than most other places.” She smiled up at the Princess, and Celestia felt her heart swell with pride at the confidence in her student’s eyes. “But visiting here is enough,” Twilight said with a nod. “I’m not sure I could come back and live here again after being around my friends for this long.” She giggled. “I know things would never be the same without Pinkie Pie bouncing in from time to time.”
Celestia nodded, her rainbow-hued mane sparkling in the dim light. “Wise words, Twilight,” she said softly. “A young mare like you needs to be out in the world, experiencing things, meeting new ponies and having adventures, not cooped up in a castle all the time.” Her smile grew, but it took on a sad tone. “And though I miss you terribly sometimes, I am so very happy that you have found friends to share those adventures with.”
Twilight smiled, and hers was sad, as well. “I miss you a lot too, Princess… but at least you have Luna to keep you company, right?”
The two ponies turned from the hallway and entered a large room, with tall, imposing windows along the eastern walls to provide a beautiful view of the rising sun in the morning; this was the Hall of Celestia, a room dedicated to the Princess of the Sun and all her achievements. In the morning, the sunlight would stream in and cause the whole room to glow brightly, but right now the silver moonlight made everything look somber and cold. Celestia sighed and smiled at Twilight again, but it was clear that her heart wasn’t in it.
“Luna, yes… I am glad to have her back, Twilight… but I’m afraid she hasn’t been speaking to me much lately.”
Twilight stopped in her tracks and cocked her head to the side, her eyes widening slightly. “She hasn’t?” she asked, her voice full of concern. “But why not? When I saw her on Nightmare Night last year, she seemed to be doing great. What’s she been up to lately?”
Celestia sighed. “I’m honestly not sure, Twilight. I have been spending a great deal of time on official business, as well as spending time with you and your friends. I have asked Luna if she wished to join us, but she always gives me a strange look and declines. I’m not exactly sure what is wrong with her…”
“There is nothing wrong with us, sister.” The voice was calm, controlled, and as cool as a midnight breeze; it floated through the darkness and caused both Celestia and Twilight to turn sharply towards it.
The room seemed to grow colder and darker as the other Princess of Canterlot, Princess Luna, stepped into the room from the door on the other side, where Twilight and Celestia had been heading. The darkness ebbed and flowed around her smaller, dark blue frame, as if it knew she belonged there and was simply parting to allow her through. Her mane drifted about her, much as Celestia’s ethereal mane did, but instead of bright rainbow colors the Princess of the Night’s mane twinkled with countless stars, as if she had captured the night sky and tucked it safely away in her mane. Not for the first time Celestia found herself thinking about how much she now resembled Nightmare Moon... and how her heart squeezed with the tiniest tendrils of fear every time she saw Luna.
“Oh… it’s you, Luna,” Celestia said, trying to sound happy to see her. “I was wondering where you were tonight. It’s… so good to see you.” The white alicorn smiled and hoped that it didn’t look as false as it felt.
But Luna met her gaze evenly, and Celestia felt her heart chill at the cold, emotionless depths of her sister’s sea-green eyes. “Celestia, please, do not pretend that thou art glad to see us,” she said quietly. “There is no need for such charades any longer. We know thy true feelings, sister…” The emotionless façade cracked for just a moment, and Celestia was surprised to hear incredible, unfathomable sadness behind Luna’s voice… and it made the hair at the base of her mane stand on end.
“Luna… how I truly feel?” she coaxed, taking a step forward. “Luna… you know how I feel. I told you when you first came back how much I missed-,”
“Yes, how much thou missed us,” the blue alicorn said sharply. “We have not forgotten, sister.” Celestia blinked at the cold fury in her voice. Luna turned back and locked eyes with her, teal to violet, and the white alicorn’s blood ran cold. “We have not forgotten, Celestia, the warmth with which thou welcomed us back to Equestria… the promises thou made to us… promises that have been broken.”
“What?” Celestia blinked, and Luna took a step towards her.
“The promises thy made to us, sister; promises of companionship, of understanding and welcome- promises of love and joy and unity that thou filled us up with in those first days and weeks upon returning to Equestria.” Luna’s eyes narrowed slightly, the only outward sign of emotion that the younger alicorn conveyed. “Promises, sister… that thou hast failed to keep.” She took another step towards Celestia, her stance casual and calm… but Celestia found herself taking a step back from her younger sister.
“What are you talking about, Luna?” she insisted, her voice slightly strained with confusion. “I have broken no promises to you.”
“Lies,” Luna hissed, and suddenly there was dark fire in her beautiful eyes. “Of course thou would say that, Celestia,” she said, her voice hushed, causing it to echo harshly around the room. “In thy mind, thou hast undoubtedly done nothing wrong… but we assure thee, wrongs have been committed, and we shall no longer stand idly by and be victim of them.”
Luna drew herself up straight and tall. “Princess Celestia, my sister; is it not true that thou told us that thou wouldst spend more time with us? To… how did thou put it? ‘To mend the wounds of the past’, we believe were thy words.”
Celestia could feel Twilight’s eyes on her now, and she took a deep breath and swallowed before speaking. “Yes, I did say that,” she admitted. “And I have tried, Luna… I have asked if you wanted to join me on many, many occasions-,”
“Yes, thou hast. Asked us to join thee on diplomatic missions, outings to see thy protégé and her friends… never seeking to spend time with us alone; never asking what we would like to do, or taking the time to simply speak to us for any length.” Luna shook her head, tossing her ethereal mane about her face. “Thou hast ignored us since we came back, sister. Thou hast not re-introduced us to Equestria, explained that we are no longer the Nightmare that ponies have feared for a thousand years…” Her sister’s voice dropped to barely a whisper, and Celestia felt her heart break at the true depths of the sadness, the loneliness she heard there. “Thou hast abandoned us… again.”
The white alicorn took a step forward. “Luna… Luna no, I have not-,”
But as quickly as the sadness came, it vanished again behind Luna’s cold teal eyes as she once again met Celestia’s gaze straight on. “Thou HAST,” she said, her voice again calm and composed. “Thou hast done nothing but allow us to flounder in the new society, never bothering to lift one of thy precious hooves to help acclimate us to modern times.”
“I… I offered to get you a tutor, Luna…”
“When what we wanted was thee, sister… we just wanted thy time.” Luna took a deep breath before continuing. “Thy promises upon our return were simple, sister… and we believed that thou meant them. We want to help, to be part of this new society, but we cannot do so without guidance, which thou hast denied us. Thou hast locked us away in thy castle, a relic of the old days to be visited and viewed as a valuable painting- beautiful, expensive, and useless.” Her eyes were emotionless now as she stared at Celestia. “And we shall be these things no longer.”
Celestia felt her heart squeeze in horror, and she could not keep the anger from her voice. “So… is this what it’s going to come to, Luna? Are you going to sink into Nightmare Moon again? Allow her to fill you up with the promises that I have failed to keep?”
Luna’s eyes narrowed again, but her voice was level and calm. “We became Nightmare Moon out of bitterness and anger at all and sundry, Celestia, not just at thee. And we shall never become her again; that is not what we want.”
The white alicorn felt a bitter, sour taste rise in her mouth. “Then what do you want… little sister?”
“A chance, big sister; a chance to prove to Equestria that we can rule as well as thee- a chance to prove to every pony in the world that Nightmare Moon is gone, and that we are just as worthy of their love as thou art.” Her eyes narrowed again. “And to teach thee, dear sister… to keep thy promises.” She turned and walked a few paces around Celestia, those cold, teal eyes never leaving her. “One thousand years on the moon changed us, sister, and changed us for the better. Perhaps… it will do the same for thee.”
Cold fear rose in Celestia’s heart, and she heard herself gasp, mirroring the sound that Twilight made next to her. “You… you can’t be serious, Luna… how could you ever even think of doing that?!”
Luna’s eyes were frozen jade. “We are alicorns, Celestia. We have to look at what thou would call the ‘big picture’. We will live for thousands and thousands of years, and just as thou could not let our bitterness stand… so can we not let thy selfishness pass. We must do what we must to ensure that our future, the future of this nation and the pony race, is secured and well-governed; and we cannot ensure that if thou art thinking of only thyself.” Her wings rustled softly. “And so, Princess Celestia, appointed sovereign and Ruling Princess of the land of Equestria… we hereby challenge thee for the throne.”
Celestia felt a horrible squeeze in her chest as she stared at her sister, scarcely daring to breathe. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing! “Luna… this is madness! I… I won’t fight you… I can’t…” Instinctively she extended a wing to protect Twilight from whatever might happen next. Horrible memories of a thousand years previous swelled into her mind; memories of fire and lightning and the incredible power of an alicorn unleashed breaking against her own magic in seemingly endless tidal waves of death rattled her already shaking nerves, but to her relief and horror, Luna shook her head slightly.
“Celestia… if it was our desire to fight, would we have spoken to thee in this manner?” She glanced at the moon, high outside the walls. “It is the night of the full moon, and the height of our power.” She turned back to Celestia, and the Sun Princess felt her skin crawl at the power she saw in her sister’s eyes. “Dost thou truly believe that we would attack thee after alerting thee of our plans?” Luna shook her head again, causing the stars in her mane to dance. “No, sister; we would have attacked thee before thee knew, and simply ended things thusly.”
The white alicorn felt a touch of respect for Luna at that; indeed, on the nights of the full moon, Luna was at her full strength, and after the sun left the sky she would be much more than a match for Celestia. But to have Luna consider everything so carefully… to have her attack not in a rage, but in a cold, calculating manner truly disturbed Celestia. She felt bile rise in her throat as she straightened, withdrawing her wing from a shocked Twilight.
“Then what would you have us do, sister?” she asked, hoping that her voice didn’t shake too much. “You must know that I won’t be going to the moon willingly.”
Luna locked eyes with her, and Celestia felt as though a cold wind touched her between the shoulders. “We would have it done the old way,” Luna said simply. “Thou shall choose thy Champion, and we shall choose ours. Their duel shall be ours, and whosoever wins their battle, so will their Mistress take the throne.”
Celestia’s eyes widened, and she was about to spat her refusal at her sister as hard as she could when, to her absolute horror, a voice rang out into the chamber from her left.
“I’ll do it, Princess!”
Princess Celestia felt her stomach drop into her hooves as Twilight leaped forward and positioned herself between Celestia and Luna, her hooves spread apart, her eyes ablaze. “Twilight Sparkle, you will do no such thing,” Celestia said firmly, trying to step in front of her. “You are a strong unicorn, but you have no chance against an alicorn like Luna, and you KNOW that!”
Twilight moved around the wings that tried to scoop her back, keeping her eyes on Luna the whole time. “No, Princess! I can’t let this happen!” She heard more than saw her student grit her teeth. “I’m the Element of Magic, Your Highness; if anypony should be your Champion, it should be me!”
Luna cracked a wintry smile from across the room. “Sister, it would appear that thy Champion has been chosen.” She paced back towards the door, keeping a good distance between herself and Celestia. “But thou hast forgotten that we are no longer Nightmare Moon, Celestia… a fact that thou seems to have overlooked for some time now. We will not be fighting thy student.” Luna took several steps towards the door. “For the better part of this year, we have had our own student, sister. A unicorn whom we found lost and alone in our night, broken and forgotten…” For the briefest moment, Luna’s voice softened. “…just like us,” she whispered; then the moment was gone, and her voice was firm once more. “We took this unicorn under our wing, and taught her everything that could be taught. While not as talented as thy student, sister, what our student lacked in talent she made up for in sheer tenacity.”
She reached the door and turned to face Celestia once more. “We present to thee our Champion,” she said, stepping aside.
Into the room strode another unicorn, matching Twilight in stature, and it was clear from the purple unicorn’s strangled gasp that she knew Luna’s Champion. Celestia stared at the newcomer, taking in her flawless powder-blue coat and well-kept platinum mane- but it was the eyes that caught her attention; bright violet eyes that stared hatred at Twilight and her alike.
Finally, Twilight managed to start breathing again, and with a loud gasp put a name to the instrument of her sister’s rebellion. “T-Trixie?!”
The blue unicorn walked forward and took her place before Luna, her purple eyes never leaving her opponent. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle! We meet again at last!” She touched her mane with a hoof. “Trixie supposes that you never expected to see Trixie again- the look on your face says that much!”
Celestia arched an eyebrow at Twilight, and her student cast a disbelieving glance back at her. “She… she chose Trixie as her Champion?!” Twilight said incredulously before turning back to Trixie. “She can’t cast her way out of a paper bag! How does she expect-,”
Suddenly, a blaze of light and a loud crack filled the dark room, and Twilight’s head snapped sharply to the right, almost spinning her on her hooves. Celestia’s eyes widened as her student’s mouth dropped open in surprise; ever so slowly, Twilight raised a hoof to her left cheek, and Celestia’s stomach clenched as it came away with a long, thin bloodstain on it. Twilight turned again to face Trixie, whose horn glowed with a soft magenta light.
~*~*~*~
“Do NOT take us lightly, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie warned, her voice suddenly soft and dangerous. “Princess Luna has been an excellent teacher, and Trixie is not the ridiculous showmare she used to be.” Her horn flared, and a brilliantly glowing whip of purple magic appeared before her just long enough to snap loudly in the silence of the room, its report echoing like thunder as it faded back to nothing. Trixie allowed herself a small smile. “Trixie is honored to be chosen as Princess Luna’s Champion.”
Twilight’s jaw clenched and she felt the magic welling up inside her, begging to be let go. Behind her, she heard Princess Celestia shift on her hooves, but Twilight was not about to back down now. “As I am honored to be chosen by Princess Celestia,” she said, her eyes narrowing. She took that moment to throw a glance at the white alicorn behind her, and was surprised by the hesitation she saw in her teacher’s face. “…Princess?” she asked.
Celestia’s eyes were haunted as she met Twilight’s gaze, gripped by a sadness that the unicorn had never seen in her mentor; as if everything that Celestia had ever believed had suddenly come crashing down around her. Twilight felt her resolve waver slightly, but just as quickly the uncertainty faded from Celestia’s face, and she gave Twilight a firm nod before turning back to her sister. “Princess Luna, Princess-Regent of Equestria: we accept your challenge.”
Twilight whipped her eyes back to Trixie, and not a moment too soon; the blue unicorn’s horn flared brightly again as she leaped forward, the blazing amethyst whip appearing before her again. With a flick of her horn she lashed out with the magical weapon, the tip barely missing Twilight’s ear as she dodged to the side, her own horn lighting up with the deep violet of her magic. Trixie snarled aloud at her and stepped forward, whipping her head back and letting fly with the magical whip yet again; Twilight dodged to the other side, the whip flashing harmlessly past her on her left. She lowered her horn and sent a blast of purple magic lancing towards Trixie, but to her great surprise the former showmare didn’t move; instead, her whip flashed sharply downwards, and the bolt of magic sliced neatly in half before faltering and exploding with a huge concussive force that kicked a fine sheen of dust off of the surrounding room. Twilight blinked, but instinct told her to keep moving despite the cover that the dust had provided; Trixie’s whip would find her if she stood still.
The purple unicorn suddenly felt her skin crawl, and without thinking she threw herself to the left as hard as she could, her hooves leaving the ground as she launched through the air. As she hit the ground and rolled, a wave of bright fire washed over where she had stood mere moments before, and as she came to her hooves another wave blasted towards her. The tiniest flick of her horn raised a brilliant lavender shield before her and the fire washed around it like water around a boulder. Twilight gritted her teeth and focused; her horn flared, and the shield around her expanded outwards, becoming first a wide curve, then a focused cone that was capturing the fire. With a shout Twilight reared back and thrust her horn forward, forcing the violet cone to snap shut and blast the fire back towards Trixie.
A gasp and a yelp followed by the sound of a body hitting the stone floor were the only indications that Twilight had succeeded. She exhaled sharply, but she held tightly to her magic. “This is stupid, Trixie!” she called out into the dust and darkness. “There’s no reason for us to be fighting like this!”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Sparkle!” A ball of transparent magic flew from the blackness at Twilight, and with a bright lavender flare she caught it at the tip of her horn; a simple spell on Twilight’s part, and the attack diffused into nothingness. “Perhaps you do not see the point of it all, but Trixie does, and Trixie will not fail her Princess!”
From the far corner of the room Trixie’s magic flared, lighting up that section of the building with brilliant magenta light, painting the blue unicorn’s platinum mane with pink highlights and giving her eyes an almost ethereal look. Twilight turned to face her as again Trixie’s magical whip lashed out, slicing through the dark room and landing a stinging blow to Twilight’s shoulder. The lavender unicorn cried out in pain as a thin trickle of blood began to seep down her leg, but she was forced to leap aside as yet again the whip sought her flesh, darting to and fro in the air as Trixie advanced on her.
But Twilight would not be kept on the defensive. Trixie let out a grunt of exertion as she pulled the whip back yet again and took an extra firm swipe with it, targeting Twilight’s neck; but the lavender unicorn did not move this time. Her horn flared, and her eyes suddenly filled with bright white magic as she caught the whip in mid-stroke, sending a wash of air outwards and stirring the dust up around her. With a shout Twilight jerked the whip straight upwards, and as she had predicted, Trixie went with it; the other mare had not dissolved the spell when Twilight caught it, and now Trixie was in for a ride.
The blue unicorn yelped in terror as Twilight whirled her around the room several times before raising her head and jerking the whip straight towards the floor with all her strength, magical and physical. Trixie screamed as she rose high into the air and slammed back to the ground with a horrifying crunch… and lay still.
Twilight released the whip and watched as it slowly dissipated into nothingness before turning her eyes to Princess Celestia. The white alicorn looked horrified at what she was watching, but when she met Twilight’s eyes she nodded firmly, and the unicorn couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride, despite the biting pain from her shoulder and cheek. She began to walk towards where Trixie lay, and in spite of herself she cast a glance at Luna. Surely something as horrible as this will change her mind… But as her eyes found the Moon Princess she felt her stomach clench; Luna’s cold teal eyes watched her and Celestia with the same measured, calculating gaze that they had before- as if what had just happened was of little or no consequence.
Twilight closed in on Trixie, and felt her jaw drop open again; the blue unicorn moaned and shifted where she lay, desperately trying to get her right hoof beneath her shoulders to lever her body upright. She tried to use her left leg, but as soon as she put weight on it something snapped, and Trixie screamed loudly, the anguish of her cry echoing in the silent room. She gasped and sobbed, but she forced herself to her hooves.
“Trixie,” Twilight said, stopping perhaps two pony lengths away from her blue opponent. “There is no reason to fight anymore. Just stop this, and all will be forgiven. I… I don’t know what Luna has promised you to help her, but I assure you that it-,”
“What… what she promised Trixie?!” Trixie spat, raising her eyes to Twilight again. The left side of her face was battered and bruised, and it was clear to Twilight that when she had impacted, her left shoulder had taken the brunt of it- that would explain the crunch Twilight had heard.
“Yes, Trixie, what she promised you!” Twilight continued. “I… I can’t imagine what kinds of temptations she must have dangled in front of you to get your help, but please, stop this craziness before somepony really gets hurt.”
Trixie’s purple eyes burned with inner fire as she stared at Twilight. “Princess Luna… Princess Luna promised Trixie nothing,” she whispered harshly. “Princess Luna took Trixie in when she was broken… when Trixie was starving and cold, Princess Luna fed her and gave her a home.” Suddenly, there were tears in Trixie’s eyes, and her mouth twisted in bitter hatred. “It must be so hard for a pony like you to understand, Twilight Sparkle. Everypony loves you… but…” Trixie squeezed her eyes shut, at tears flowed down her cheeks. “But only one pony has ever loved me, Twilight… Only one pony has ever cared that much about me…” She raised her eyes again, and this time they blazed with determination. “That pony is Princess Luna, and I will NEVER let her down!!!”
Suddenly Trixie lunged forward, her face a mask of rage, and before Twilight could hope to move, the blue unicorn was upon her. Trixie slammed into her with every ounce of force she could muster, and the two unicorns rolled across the floor, tracing their brightly colored bodies through the dust. When the rolling stopped, Twilight found herself looking up at the dusty, bruised, bloodied face of fury sitting atop her. Her eyes widened, and she just barely had time to utter one word:
“Trixie…”
And then Trixie hit her.
She used her good right leg to smash her hoof into Twilight’s face as hard as she could, sending the purple unicorn’s head snapping back and rebounding off the cold marble floor. Trixie snarled as she hit Twilight again and again until blood began to smear her hoof from multiple cuts that she had inflicted. Twilight screamed in pain and confusion as Trixie pummeled her, struggling to free herself from her attacker’s grip. Every strike from Trixie’s sharp hoof sent a new wave of agony through her; she could feel the edge bite into her delicate flesh, the warm blood beginning to run down her neck and into her mane as the blue unicorn savaged her.
“I will NOT fail my Princess!!” Trixie snarled as she struck out at her. “She’s all I have!! EVERYTHING!” She raised her hoof to hit Twilight again, and through the ringing in her ears and the pain-induced haze the purple unicorn made her move; she bucked her hips upward, sending Trixie toppling forwards, over Twilight’s head and onto the marble.
Twilight struggled to her feet, her left eye swollen shut, bleeding from her mouth and half a dozen long, jagged cuts from Trixie’s hoof. She staggered backwards towards Princess Celestia, towards safety… but she stumbled, and that was long enough for Trixie to react.
There was another flare of magic, and the whip returned, wrapping firmly around Twilight’s right foreleg; Trixie gave a yank and pulled the dazed Twilight towards her. Twilight struggled against it, but she felt the floor begin to slide beneath her hooves… and then incredible, excruciating pain in her chest. Her eyes widened… and ever so slowly she lowered her eyes. “Tr…Trixie…” She could see only the other mare’s dust-stained platinum mane touch her chest, leading to her forehead and horn… a horn that was now imbedded six inches into Twilight’s body.
With a horrible, wet noise, Trixie slid her horn from Twilight and stepped back, allowing the purple unicorn to fall to the floor as a single trickle of crimson made its way down between Trixie’s eyes… and as the world faded into blackness around her, the last things that Twilight Sparkle saw were Trixie’s blazing purple orbs staring down at her triumphantly.
I’m sorry, Princess… so sorry…
~*~*~*~
“TWILIGHT!!!” Celestia’s scream filled the room, a scream filled with anguish and heartbreak that seemed to shake the very foundations of the castle itself. She fell to her knees and wept openly as a blood-stained Trixie limped backwards, away from the lifeless body of Twilight Sparkle. “No… Twilight, no…” she sobbed. She had come to love Twilight more than a student… she had become like a daughter to the Princess, and now… she was gone. All because of Luna… The thought surfaced and seemed to ignite all of Celestia’s anger and sorrow and rage; this was all because of LUNA.
At that moment, there was nothing that Celestia wanted more than to leap to her hooves, snatch every last ounce of magic from the world and use it to hammer her younger sister into space dust… but even as she tried to rise, she felt her legs refuse her… and suddenly, she realized why Luna had insisted on settling this the way she did. The Old Way… it wasn’t just a metaphor. Such contests dated back to the days of the First Alicorns, the Ascended Ones… and the rules of such contests ran deep in alicorn blood, so deep that to deny victory in such a battle was literally impossible for an alicorn. “The blackness of space take you, Luna,” she sobbed, burying her face between her hooves. “She was barely more than a foal… and you KILLED her..!” Every last beautiful, wonderful thing in Celestia’s life seemed to wink out around her as she cried, lamenting the loss of the pony she valued most in the entire world.
After several minutes, Celestia heard light hoofsteps to her side, and after a moment a scroll, adorned with Celestia’s own seal, settled next to her front hooves in an aura of dark blue magic. And then, her sister spoke… but her words were hushed and soft, and for the first time that night, not her own.
“Dear Princess Celestia... Having a sister is just about the bestest thing in the world, but it sure isn’t the easiest.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Being sisters is a wonderful thing… but it takes teamwork. Sometimes it’s about compromising, sometimes it’s about accepting each other’s differences, but mostly, it’s about having fun together, even if it means getting your hooves a little bit dirty.” Luna’s sparkling hoof nudged the scroll closer to Celestia’s tear-soaked snout. “A letter from one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, to thee, about the value of sisterhood… a letter that we know thou opened and read, sister.” Celestia raised her eyes to Luna’s again, and she was taken aback by the sorrow she saw there. “When we first came back to Equestria, thou told us something. We are meant to rule together, little sister… those words were truer than thou realized, Celestia… but thy mind was used to ruling by thyself, and could not adapt to our return.” She knelt next to the white alicorn, bringing her face as close to Celestia’s as she could. “We are not doing this out of anger, Celestia… we are doing this because we truly believe it needs to be so… for we two to rule as one, as it is intended.”
Celestia’s eyes were hard as she glared at her sister. “I will never, never forgive you for Twilight’s death, Luna… not in a thousand years, or ten thousand, or-!”
A gentle cough from the far end of the room cut her tirade short, and she raised her head in disbelief. Ever so slowly, next to a somber Trixie, Twilight Sparkle rose to her hooves, still battered and bloody, but alive, with only the barest scar on her chest to show from the wound that should have taken her life. The purple unicorn still seemed only half cognizant of what was happening and leaned on Trixie heavily, something that the blue unicorn seemed to be taking with incredible poise, considering her left leg was still shattered.
“Twilight…” Celestia choked, and she turned her eyes back to Luna. “Luna… why..?”
The Moon Princess smiled ever so slightly, a sad, quavering smile, and when she spoke every hint of old Equestria was gone from her voice. “To show you that I do not hate you, sister, or those you care dearly for… and so that in your time away, you will have the comfort of knowing that Twilight lived a good and full life, and did not die for our selfish alicorn games.”
Trixie led Twilight out of the room, casting one last glance to her teacher before disappearing into the gloom on the other side. Celestia felt a swirl of relief flood her chest, but along with it was a horrible, bitter taste in her mouth… because she realized that she had just taken the last look of Twilight that she would ever get. Tears sprang afresh to her eyes. “Luna… I…”
“Princess Celestia,” Luna said, her voice once again calm, cold and formal. “Thy Champion has been defeated, and thy throne is forfeit. As was stated before the battle of our Champions, thy punishment for losing shall be one thousand years, imprisoned in the moon.”
The white alicorn rose to her hooves, tears streaming down her alabaster cheeks. She knew that there was nothing to be done now… nothing she could do. The magic involved in such a contest was more powerful than either she or Luna could alter, and it would hold them to their words. “I… understand and accept my punishment,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.
From the floor rose the scroll that held the letter from Rarity and Sweetie Belle and tucked itself beneath Celestia’s wing. Celestia’s violet eyes met Luna’s one last time as the younger alicorn’s horn began to glow brightly.
“Luna… I promise that when I return… we will start over again… and I’ll make you proud,” she whispered, her tears still flowing freely.
The blue alicorn nodded, and for the first time that night a gentle smile touched her lips. “I know you will, big sister,” she said softly, and when Celestia looked at Luna again the sadness and sorrow faded away and became the one thing that she had longed to see in her sister’s sea-green eyes: love.
The light from Luna's horn engulfed the room, and an incredible roar filled Celestia’s ears, tossing her mane about her face and surrounding her with power beyond anything she had felt before…
…and then darkness.
~*~*~*~*~
As Princess Luna told it, Princess Celestia had taken a voluntary sentence, deciding that she could no longer live in Equestria knowing that she had stolen a thousand years of time from her younger sister. She chose a voluntary exile so that she and Luna could be closer again, and truly rule as they had always wanted: together, truly and honestly together.
It took a while, but the ponies of Equestria accepted what Luna told them, and soon things were running as smoothly as they ever had. Luna became a well-loved figure, easily as beloved as Celestia, and proved herself to be an amazingly talented diplomat, something that nopony had ever thought her capable of. Trixie, a unicorn whom Luna had taken as her personal protégé, became her right-hoof mare, and proved herself a competent mind in military matters. Her brash personality quickly faded in the face of the duties she accepted, and within the course of a few years she was somepony that served Equestria and the Princess faithfully.
Not long after Luna took power, the Moon began to leave a sparkling trail behind it as it moved across the sky, as if some mighty celestial brush were painting more stars in behind it. Most ponies believed that it was simply the Moon reacting to its mistress taking power- a beautiful display that their new ruling Princess was making for them.
But one unicorn knew the truth. A lavender-coated unicorn with a small circular scar on her chest knew that the sparkles behind the moon were the tears of Princess Celestia- tears of lament for the sister she so foolishly abandoned… and tears shed in the hope of forgiveness when she returned.
