Celestia fretted around the tea set, making sure everything was in place.
“Good morning, Princess! How are you?” Twilight said happily.
Celestia tried to hide a start, and turned to face the pony who she still thought of as her faithful student.
“Ah! Hello, Twilight. Please, please, sit.” She gestured to to the low table and the tea she'd brewed herself. Twilight looked at her, puzzled, before taking place in front of her.
“So, is there a particular reason you went to so much trouble to arrange this meeting, Princess? I'm sure you're quite busy with the fallout of Tirek's attacks, and I actually had to postpone the delivery of some furniture. Not that I mind, of course!”
Celestia grimaced.
“It's...a final lesson I still have to impart. I know you're not my student anymore. But this lesson has become long overdue, and my,” she sighed, “dear sister has pointed out to me that it's better you learn the moral of my story now, while you can act on it, rather than later.”
The purple pony in front of her sipped from her cup. Celestia could tell she was trying not to show how eager she was to hear whatever she had to say.
Feeling like the world's biggest, clumsiest foal, she steeled herself for a moment and then started speaking again.
“Six hundred years ago, Equestria was a police state, and I was a despot.”
“But Princess, that's–”
“I know it seems impossible; you've read history books about that era, you've done reports on literature written during that time. But I assure you, it's true.”
“What you're not taking into account is the pony race's propensity for forgetfulness, and how much time can distort any perspective. If you look at the statistics from that time, at the particular wording that freedom of speech and privacy laws had in that era, you'll understand. Isn't it strange, for example, that the Royal Guard's records became available to the general public only four hundred years ago?”
Twilight was looking at her with her mouth open, her cup of tea forgotten in her hooves.
“But Princess, surely you weren't the one who-”
The elder Princess cut her off. “I was the one who had let things degrade to such a state. I was the one who took away civil liberty after civil liberty, thinking I was better than ordinary ponies, that I could make their decisions for them, that their security mattered more than their freedom.”
“It was such a...gradual process, if you can believe it. I started skimming the writings of those who disagreed with me, because being subject to what I felt was excessive and unwarranted criticism was irritating. Then I stopped reading them entirely; I just didn't have the time to busy myself with such unpleasant things. Somehow, during that time everypony at court always agreed with me. And when somepony disagreed...well, nopony else shared their opinion, so I felt quite justified in thinking them of weak mind and promoting others in their place.”
Celestia started grinning, but her eyes bounced around the room, never quite making eye contact.
“You see, it was all so...easy! I made the identities of the guards anonymous, so that evildoers wouldn't be able to take revenge on their families after an arrest. And then I thought: why not apply the same principle to investigations? Dangerous ponies wouldn't start associating with those they knew would report to me, right? And so everypony became a potential spy and informant.”
“It was around that time that I started hearing about grumblings among the populace. But everypony I knew always agreed with me! Surely, these ponies were slandering me just to sell some ridiculous stories. And so I ruled that nopony could or should criticize me without good reason.”
“Never mind the fact that I was the only public figure who benefited from this ruling. Or that “with good reason” is such a vague term everypony preferred to err on the side of caution. I didn't think of that at the time, and nopony brought it up with me.”
“Eventually, there was a revolution, which ended with me killing its leader in front of everypony. His last words...still resonate with me, even if at the time I ignored them. Because of those words, things...gradually became better. I became better.”
The purple pony princess in front of her now looked completely lost.
“W-why are you telling me all this?”
Celestia smiled ruefully. “It's not to make you lose faith in me, I can you tell you that. I know you've already noticed that I can make mistakes just as well as anypony else-I shouldn't have ordered you to hide away while you had the power of all the other princesses, for example.”
Twilight blushed.
“No, it's for a much more fundamental reason. Twilight; you, me, Luna, Discord and others are all immortals. And one thing that happens to immortals, whether they want it or not, is change.”
“Fifty years from now, you may find yourself holding positions you would have never considered today. A hundred years from now, you may have very little in common with who you are right now. And two hundred years from...you may be someone else entirely.”
“The lesson I want you to get from all this, is to always be mindful of who you may be turning into, and of whether your past self would approve of your actions. Otherwise...you may wind up hating who you've become. Or who you were.”
A couple of awkward seconds of silence passed, while both princesses thought things over. Twilight Sparkle looked outside the window, at the towers near the castle. One of them had a new roof, free of dirt and wear. It had probably been replaced recently.
“I-I hope your opinion of me isn't too damaged, I just...” pleaded Celestia.
“Don't worry, I'm still your friend.” muttered Twilight “I just...I just have to think things over.”
“Okay.”
“Actually, I have one last question: the leader of the...revolution; you mentioned that his last words stuck with you for a very long time...what did he say?”
Celestia gulped. She'd hoped she wouldn't have to answer that, and she hadn't volunteered them because...well, Honesty had always been her sister's domain anyway.
“I surrender.”
