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Chapter 01 - Fear of the Future, Lessons from the Past
The nation of Equestria had returned to its idyllic state of affairs, with friends helping friends and stranger helping strangers. It had been a few weeks since Tirek's defeat and all of Equestria, from the Wonderbolts to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, had been rebuilding and recovering. Seeing her subjects' exhaustion, Princess Celestia had declared a national day of rest, an opportunity that most of Equestria took advantage of.
Simply put, all was well.
The chasms in the centre of the Everfree forest held a perfect silence. It allowed one purple Alicorn the perfect setting for her rest. Within the chasms sat an ancient, dishevelled castle.inside it's vast library was sat Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. She was lying down in the reading room, warm fire beside it and ook in front of her, levitated by the purple magic she enveloped it with.
Twilight had decided to use her time study up on history. She hoped to learn how other villains like Tirek were defeated. Though she and her friends had saved their country, Twilight felt dread when she considered how close they had come to defeat. She paused as she remembered seeing all of her closest friends at the mercy of the merciless centaur. Though it made her smile to know they were now safe, it made her shiver to know that they were put in such danger.
She returned to the book, 'The Nightmare Moon War'. As she flipped the page, the familiar sound of furling paper and smell of yellowed paper brought calm and composure to her. Beside her were two books she had already finished, 'The Fall of King Sombra' and 'Bringing Order to Chaos'. The books had taught her more than she had already known about history. But, as Twilight turned the last page she furrowed her brow in frustration: none of them discussed how the right solution to the nation’s problems was ultimately found.
She stood and paced around the room, "I never realised how objective history books are. What else is there?"
Several hours later, Twilight was galloping through the regally-decorated halls of Canterlot Castle, landmark of Equestria's capital city. The various ancient vases, golden artefacts and paintings by various pony masters were only blobs in the corners of her eyes as she thought out her plan.
She slowed when she turned a corner and spotted the doors to throne room. The flanking royal guards bowed to Twilight and opened the doors. Twilight stepped inside and the door shut behind her. She saw colours across the floor as sunlight shone through the stain-glass windows on the long room's Eastern wall.
Twilight looked to end of the room, where a tall, lithe, white Alicorn sat on the raised throne, multi-coloured mane flowing majestically behind her and a quill levitating to paper with her yellow magic. Her crowned head turned to Twilight, and the Princess of the Sun smiled at her.
"Twilight," she happily called as she put the quill and paper down, "What a pleasant surprise it is to see you."
Twilight smiled back to her mentor. Despite her serious business, seeing the mare that made her the pony she was always worth smiling about. The purple Alicorn bowed briefly before approaching. "It's good to see you, too, Princess Celestia," she replied.
"What brings you here?" Celestia asked.
Twilight's smile drooped. She knew she was about to bring up some difficult memories in her mentor.
"I... need to ask you something. Something serious."
Celestia looked on, silent and attentive.
Instantly, Twilight’s plans went out the window, as most plans do. She reconsidered every word she might say. She breathed in and out, and the words came to her, "Ever since Tirek, how best to deal with threats like him. I've read the history books, but they only tell me so much."
Celestia's brow furrowed.
Twilight continued; she was in too deep to back out, "So long as I'm a princess, I'll have to confront others like him. So I want to prepare myself. To do that..."
Twilight hesitated.
Celestia saw Twilight's struggle, so she approached her. She placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Whatever it is," she began in her most gentle voice, "I am ready to help."
Her mentor's strength reinforced Twilight's own. "I want to know how you and Luna made the decisions you did in order to keep Equestria safe, in the past."
Celestia's eyes widened; she knew Twilight was serious, but she did not expect that.
Twilight's stomach twisted. "I'm sorry," she began, quickly and desperately, "I'm prying too deep. You shouldn’t-"
Celestia’s hoof pressed against Twilight's mouth. Celestia looked Twilight in the eye, perhaps deeper than ever before.
"I understand, Twilight. I desperately needed such advice when I was in your position. I never got it, but you will." She lowered her hoof, allowing Twilight's face to match her bewildered mind; she had never thought of her mentor as fallible, let alone desperate.
The white Alicorn breathed deeply, readying herself. "I will tell you all that I can. But, before I do, you must realise that there is much more to the battles I have fought than even you know."
Twilight nodded, enraptured already, but also trepidatious.
"Please, walk with me." Celestia began walking down the hall and Twilight followed alongside her. The clopping of their hooves against the hall's tiles gave Celestia a certain focus, allowing the words to come to her. "I am certain that you remember King Sombra."
Twilight snapped her head at the mention of the dead Unicorn tyrant. She still had the occasional nightmare about the villain that had haunted a civilisation with the threat of slavery by dark magic. But mostly, she remembered the door. The door to your worst fear.
"To know how Luna and I defeated him, you must know what we had to endure in order to free the Crystal Empire from his grasp."
Celestia stopped, looking to her side at a stained-glass window. It was on the Western side of the hall, so no light shone through it, ensuring it was as dark as the image it portrayed. On one side, it showed a nightmarish palace of black crystal, with sickly-orange clouds above and chained ponies beneath, along with an army of steel-grey ponies in black barding and led by another atop the palace. On the other side, blue sky opposed the clouds and an army of ponies in gold barding charged against the other, a pair of Alicorns floating above them one white and the other dark-blue.
Celestia stared at the display, and that dark day became vivid in her mind.
Author's Note
I tell ya, the inspiration for this one struck me like a bolt of bloody lighting; it was brilliant!
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Chapter 02 - Liberation of Crystal, Entrapment by Steel
Within the Arctic North laid the city of the Crystal Empire, the city of gems. Elegant buildings reflected rainbows and the roads caught the sun’s warmth for the hooves of the citizens. In the city centre was the Crystal Palace, a tower reaching the sky for all to see.
The Crystal Ponies had coats that glistened like jewels, their manes were held up in various styles and their eyes held a sparkle that was more than just a reflection of light.
The empire was saturated with powerful magic, unlike any other in Equestria. The very hearts of the Crystal Ponies fueled this magic. When their hearts filled with joy and love, the palace spread those emotions across the nation.
Or, at least it used to.
The once-bright crystals had become black, all elegance replaced with maleficence as each and every gem had become jagged. The roads no longer had sunlight to catch, as the sky had become a polluted dark-orange. But worst of all was the Crystal Palace, now so black and jagged that it looked like a mortal wound in the diseased sky.
The coats of the Crystal Ponies no longer glistened, their manes were flat, the sparkle in their eyes was gone and there simply was no joy in their hearts. For they walked the roads in chains. They shuffled under the crack of whips, with aches down to their bones. Their every movement was directed towards the next back-breaking labour, without reprieve and with hearts as broken as their will.
A balcony jutted from the Crytal Palace’s side. On that balcony was the reason for bringing despair to the empire: a steel-grey pony in silver barding, a red cloak and a jagged metal crown. His mane was jet-black and his horn blood-red. Purple energy fumed from his crimson and green eyes as he looked down on his crystal slaves. A Cheshire grin of sadistic glee showed his jagged fangs.
This was King Sombra.
High above the cover of dark clouds, two Alicorns flew towards the city. The larger of the two was Princess Celestia, wearing barding as gold as the sun. The smaller had a dark-blue coat, a mane and tail that looked more like the night sky than hair and her barding was as silver as the moon. This was Princess Luna.
The princesses cleared the edge of the cloud. Luna glared when she saw the city, its beauty corrupted by black crystal. Her nostrils flared and she flapped her wings harder, speeding up. Celestia noticed and put a hoof on her shoulder. Luna turned to her sister. Celestia could see her anger.
"Luna," she gently began, "I know you feel rage at Sombra's cruelty, but you must not allow that to cloud your judgement. We must approach carefully and find Sombra before we attack, not give ourselves away."
Luna listened closely to her sister, and her words of wisdom calmed her. She looked into her sister's eyes and she felt a sense of assurance and gratitude. She nodded.
Celestia smiled, seeing her sister's understanding. Luna turned and continued toward their target. Celestia looked on, feeling relieved and proud that her sister could see what was important. She caught up and the princesses moved forwards.
Beyond Sombra's sight, the princesses had entered the palace. After forcing their way deep inside, the sisters found themselves walking down a circular staircase that descended for dozens of storeys. They touched down on the crystalline ground and peered around, but there was barely any light to guide them.
They found something. On the wall of the cavern was a wooden door framed in black crystal with a gem sitting on top.
The two approached carefully. They stood by each other, at the ready, as Celestia reached for the handle.
She threw the door open and they were blinded by a pure white light.
Luna found herself walking along the cobblestones of a town at night. Looking up, she did not see the Crystal Empire, but a clear night sky, dotted with diamond-like stars. Something about the sight made her mind drift. Her reasons for being here became fuzzy.
She smiled at the sky, she had always been meticulous about the stars. When she brought about nighttime, she made sure the sky was dark enough to see them and the moon always in just the right place to illuminate the streets but not drown out the starlight. And everypony could see it.
The princess turned her attention to the streets to see her subjects enjoy her hard work. Only, nopony was there. She looked around, the streets were empty. She did not understand, why was nopony out to enjoy the night?
The silver light on the street gave way to yellow and heat struck Luna's back. She turned to find the cause, only to be blinded by the sun. She looked away to let her eyes adjust. When she looked back, the streets were filled with ponies. Some were looking at the blue sky, some admired the flowers and others went about their business. They all came out to see the day's beauty and live their lives only now that the night had ended.
Luna was outraged. Why could her subjects only enjoy the daytime? She heard the chatter of a small crowd behind her. She turned and saw the crowd around a stone statue of Princess Celestia, bowing, placing flowers and other acts of worship. Ponies walked by Luna, not so much as acknowledging her existence.
Luna stood aghast. Celestia had risen the sun, destroying the work she had put into the night, and now everypony was worshipping her for it?
Another pony passed her, shoving her as he did. Luna glared and grit her teeth. "You dare to treat your princess with such disrespect!"
Luna's voice shook the ground and could have burst eardrums, but still nopony acknowledged her. They only paid mind to her sister. Magic flared around her horn, she fired a beam of magic at her sister's statue and it exploded into a cloud of dust. And yet, the ponies still ignored her, simply going on their way.
Luna did not understand. She reached out to her subjects, but they did not see her. Nopony acknowledged her. Nopony appreciated her.
She hung her head, and a tear fell to the ground.
"Luna."
Her ear twitched. She rose her head. The voice was dull, so she listened intently.
"Luna!"
She recognised the voice. "'Tia?"
"It's an illusion! You must wake up!"
It suddenly made sense to Luna. She clenched her eyes and concentrated, willing herself to snap out of it.
She opened her eyes. The wooden door was in front of her, closed. Beside her, her puffy-eyed sister.
Luna stood still, absorbing what had happened. She stared at her sister, then the door. Her jaw clenched, nostrils flared and she hissed one word with the deepest malice.
"Sombra."
Her horn began to boil as furiously as her anger.
"No!" Celestia pressed Luna back. "You need to stay strong, little sister. For Equestria."
Luna's eyes became distant: she had been fooled. Her sister had overcome it by herself. So much better than her, just like she was when she destroyed her night-
Luna froze. What was she thinking? She realised her nostrils were flared and her eyes narrowed. She forced her face to normal and glanced at Celestia; she had not seen her.
Luna's gut twisted. Did she really just feel resentment for her sister? Or, was it-
The sound of a magic beam interrupted Luna's thoughts. She saw Celestia shooting into the gem above the door, making it shine rainbows across the room. The door opened to a pure white light, which faded to reveal a dark room on the other side.
Celestia walked through the doorway.
Luna threw her thoughts aside. She loved her sister; those emotions meant nothing.
"Luna convinced herself that her emotions were of no concern," Princess Celestia told Twilight. "But we discovered that they were Sombra's doing."
Twilight sat, transfixed and aghast at her mentor's story. She had never thought Sombra's defeat easy, but she never expected such horrors upon the princesses. Then again, they had fought Sombra at the peak of his power, she had it much easier.
However, Twilight was unsure how this helped her
The elder princess addressed this. "What got me through that ordeal were my convictions. When you encounter hardships, you must never forget why you fight them."
Twilight knew this well. She could remember times when she had given up hope and even abandoned the people around her. Her head hung in shame at those memories. She would never let that happen again, and Celestia's story gave that conviction new strength.
"However."
Twilight looked at Celestia in shock. What could be said against holding true to your goals and your ideals?
"Even your convictions can cloud your judgement, if you let them."
Celestia walked down the hall and Twilight followed, ears perked.
"Sombra had revealed to Luna and I our greatest fears. Luna disregarded them, but what I did was just as reprehensible."
The Princess of the Sun looked out a clear window at her sun, as though looking for the strength to continue. When she saw her reflection, she walked away.
This was not unnoticed by Twilight, who suspected she was not the only one in need of help.
"For years after we banished Sombra," The princess continued, "I doubled my efforts to protect my subjects. I failed to realise that I was doing it out of fear of what Sombra had done." She stopped by another stained-glass window. "But, thanks to my misplaced concerns, neither did I realise what Sombra had done to Luna."
Celestia looked at the window. "Because of my negligence, her fears were allowed to take root within her mind, until another force made them irrefutable to her eyes."
Twilight stepped up to her mentor, her concern ever-growing. She had never seen Celestia in such a state of self-loathing. She did not know how to respond.
She looked at the window. It showed the image of an Earth Pony, a Unicorn and a Pegasus trapped while being pulled by Marionette strings. The puppeteer was high above them: a creature that appeared as an amalgamation of various animals.
A cold shiver went up Twilight's spine; she knew what came next.
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Chapter 03 - Order in Chaos, Discord in Harmony
Equestria was in a state of pure chaos.
Sense and reason were irrelevant. Laws were changed, if not broken. Order was gone.
The sun and moon would set and rise without notice to reveal or conceal a world where the sky was green and the clouds were pink. Where wolves lived in the blue trees and the sloth was an alpha predator.
Houses of concrete were blown apart by wind, scattering the terrified and confused ponies within. They would run only to find their hooves sinking into the solid pavement and liquid puddles were their only secure grip.
If a pony tried to make sense of what they were seeing, it would cause their head to ache or their minds to snap. If they found any reason in what they saw, it would change.
A land that was once harmonious and gleeful had surrendered to Discord.
On a throne in the centre of it all was the creature responsible. He gave a hearty laugh as he watched ponies flee for their lives or shut out the world to reserve their sanity. He relaxed his snake torso into the back and crossed his lizard foot over his horse leg while stretching his bat and bird wings. He laid his lion paw down and with his eagle's talons snapped his fingers, producing a flash of white that disappeared to reveal a glass of red wine. He brought it to his horse snout and looked at it with his sickly-yellow, red-pupiled eyes and sipped some down.
"Ahhh," He revelled in the taste. "Aged nine seconds. Perfect!" He laughed at his act of defiance against physics.
The wine glass was then destroyed by a dark-blue beam, splattering his face with red. He looked to see the two princesses standing side-by-side.
"Ah, the rabble comes to pay tribute" The creature mocked while one of his fingers-turned-straw sucked the wine off his face. "Please, there's no need to kneel, a simple 'Congratulations on over-throwing us' will suffice."
"Your sick pleasure ends now, Discord!" Shouted Celestia.
"Equestria is no one's to toy with, much less you!" Added Luna.
"Oh?" Discord replied, his one word dripping with smug assuredness. "But isn't that just what your big sister does?"
The princesses stood perplexed.
Luna asked, "What do you mean, cur?"
Discord smirked as though something had gone as planned. He vigorously snapped his fingers.
The ground beneath the princesses shattered, revealing a pit which the two fell into.
Luna stretched out her wings, catching herself in midair. She flew towards the surface, only to see no surface.
She touched down. When her hooves caught ground, all she could see was black. She felt around and found moist flakes bending beneath them: grass. She was outside. But where was the moon, or the stars?
“Luna?”
The princess jumped away in fright and faced the speaker, only to still see nothing.
“Luna, it’s me.” Came the voice of Celestia, followed by a yellow glow from her horn that brought much-needed light.
Luna was relieved, but confused. “Sister, what has happened to Discord?”
“I caught him off-guard, and I believe I was able to banish him.”
Luna let a breath out and looked at her big sister with pride. “Well, done sister.”
The two smiled at each other.
“Now,” Celestia began, “I believe it is still nighttime, so would you do the honours?” She gestured to the empty night sky.
“Ah, of course.” Luna concentrated and cast her spell to raise the moon.
Nothing happened.
Confused, she tried again, willing her magic to grasp the moon. Still, it did not rise. Confusion gave way to frustration and Luna grit her teeth, ordering her magic to collect into her horn. She only felt her magic flow around, aimlessly.
Frustration gave way to panic. Her hoof shot to her forehead: her horn was gone.
Luna looked at her sister, desperate for help. Celestia only shook her head. The former Princess of the Night felt her knees tremble and her eyes water.
Celestia looked to the sky. Her horn’s glow intensified.
Luna watched, confused. What was her sister doing? Light struck her eye and she shut them. The light seemed to penetrate her eyelids, it was so bright. She looked to the source, and gasped.
It was the moon. Surrounded by the same yellow magic as her sister’s horn.
Luna looked to her elder sister, who had turned away from her. She could raise the moon, too? Then why had it been Luna’s duty all these years?
“Celestia has never needed you, wittle Woona.” Mocked a voice in Luna’s ear. “Let’s face it, she’s the one in charge, she just lets you tag along.”
Luna’s trembles of horror became twitches of anger. She glared a hole into Celestia’s head; her ‘royal duties’ were nothing more than Celestia patronising her. Celestia’s horn flashed again and stars appeared in the sky, dotting the black and forming constellations.
Luna watched on, her rage growing as Celestia surpassed her work with less effort.
The constellations began to morph into unfamiliar shapes. “She doesn’t need you. She isn’t honest with you. She doesn’t even respect you enough to tell you.”
The constellations came together to form a face contorted in a twisted grin with eyes of sickly-yellow staring into Luna’s.
“So why should you?” The eyes formed hypnotic patterns, and Luna stared into them.
With no effect.
The face raised an eyebrow. It flashed white and became the floating face of Discord. “What in the world?”
His hand appeared in the sky and snapped its fingers. Still, it had no effect Luna.
The only thing that affected her was her rage. Her face contorted, and from the bottom of the heart that pumped her boling blood, she let out a scream of rage that rattled Discord’s control. Her magic pulsed fiercely in her body, and this time she forced it to the surface. With a flash of dark-blue, her horn re-appeared. With her magic, she grasped at Discord’s constructs - now vulnerable without his control - and shattered them.
Luna’s surroundings crumbled and she found herself back in front of Discord’s throne. She looked around herself, but the villain was gone. Instead, she found her sister unconscious on the ground. Luna forgot her anger and approached Celestia. She reached out to her, but stopped a hair’s-breadth away.
Discord’s illusion was fresh in her mind, and though she knew it was his trickery, she saw truth in it. Luna knew herself and her sister to be very powerful. Was it possible that Celestia could, in fact, be granting Luna her duty out of pity, not necessity and respect?
Celestia groaned, waking up. Luna focused her attention on the current dilemma. Discord held this region in his grasp and he was clearly more powerful than they had estimated. They would return to their castle and regroup.
Luna prepared a teleportaion spell. Celestia opened an eye and saw her younger sister.
Celestia smiled.
Luna looked away.
They disappeared.
Princess Celestia paced down her throne room, Twilight at her side.
The white Alicorn spoke, “We consulted our generals in our castle, but the ultimate solution came from our former student, Star-Swirl the Bearded. His theories on the Tree of Harmony allowed us to find Elements of Harmony and defeat Discord.”
“But what about Luna?” Twilight asked. “How did you two deal with what Discord did to her?”
Celestia looked away, ashamed. “She told me that she had overcome Discord’s influence. I mistakenly held faith that Luna was beyond Discord’s tricks. That faith gave us both the resolve to defeat an enemy more powerful than ourselves. But, I allowed it to blind me from the facts: Luna was in turmoil, and she needed help. Because of my...” Celestia stopped. She hung her head until her mane obscured her face
Twilight held her hoof to her mouth; her mentor was tearing herself apart, and she felt the deepest guilt for it. She was about to place a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder, but the white Alicorn continued to walk on and continued.
”Because of my ignorance, Luna’s fears drove her further away.” She approached another window. She did not look where she was going, for she knew where this window was, by broken heart.
Twilight followed, but knew which window they were at before she looked up. At the bottom, the window showed the two princesses together, but Luna was looking away. Above that, Luna was standing over smoking ruins, transformed.
Twilight dared not go any further. When Celestia spoke once again, her heart sank.
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Chapter 04 - Betrayal at Dusk, Heartbreak at Dawn
Equestria at night was worthy of being called one of life’s greatest pleasures. The deep-blue sky was a vast sea that could calm the mind of the most stressed of ponies. Each star was a beautiful spot that joined others to form a tapestry of constellations, telling the universe’s story. And among it all was the full moon: a beacon that lit the way for everyone, and a piece of the cosmos that almost seemed like it could be touched if one just reached for it.
This was the gift that Princess Luna gave to Equestria, each and every night.
This was the masterpiece that Nightmare Moon forced upon Equestria for eternity.
Princess Celestia looked into this sky. It had been there for an unnaturally long time. She knew that the world could not live this way. Eternal night would upset the balance of the planet: everypony would be left in darkness, with no sunlight to nourish them and no daytime to awaken to.
Any effort to raise the sun had been in vain, for a force that rivaled her own kept it eclipsed. Normally, she would suspect another despot seeking power, but the evidence of her eyes proved that wrong. The terrible beauty of the night sky could only be achieved by one pony.
And that knowledge made heart hurt.
She approached the door of her castle. She raised her hoof. Every fibre of her being demanded that she not open the door. Her heart screamed that she was wrong.
Celestia opened the door. She walked into her shared throne room. At the end of the stone corridor stood two thrones, one for her and one for her sister. The arrangements reflected the facts as she saw them: both sisters ruled the land with equal power and say.
This was apparently not the facts as Luna saw them.
“Not another step.”
Celestia halted. She looked towards her sister’s throne, where the voice had come from. From behind it stepped the Princess of the Moon. When Celestia saw the look on her face, her heart gave up its protests.
Luna spoke once more, “Did you really expect me to sit idly by why they all basked in your precious light?” With each word, the venom in Luna’s voice grew.
Celestia stood her ground, presenting a barrier as with any threat to her subjects. But inside, her stomach twisted in the deepest guilt. Luna’s rhetorical question confirmed the fears she held: Luna did not see their rule as equal. For years, she had felt undermined and underappreciated.
And it was because of Celestia.
Luna walked to the balcony between the thrones, intent to speak above her sister. “There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess, will be ME!”
With that last word, Luna’s eyes glowed an unnatural whit and she demolished the balcony in her rage.
The blow shook the room, throwing off Celectia’s balance. She now faced one of the greatest threats in Equestria’s history. Luna held great power over the land, equal to her own. If Celestia could not get her to see reason, she would be forced to do something she would regret for the rest of her eternal life.
Shadows crawled up the wall behind Luna. A crack followed in its wake until it reached a stain-glassed window set on the wall between the thrones. The window depicted the image of a tree. It was from a tree that the princesses had acquired the power to protect their nation. It stood as a symbol of growth, peace and harmony.
No longer.
The window exploded, leaving a great hole in the wall. Through it, the moon shone down upon the two. Luna raised herself into the air to bask in the light of her charge. Its silver beams became black, and Luna took that darkness into herself.
Celestia watched with dread as her sister was enveloped in a dark sphere of magic that then glowed red and spun with enough force to create wind and kick up debris. Celestia could feel the transformation occurring inside. Hatred, fear and resentment were becoming one with Luna’s very being. Her body was changing to reflect that.
The sphere’s red glow was replaced by jet black, then a blue mist. That mist burst out in opposite directions, and between them was the silhouette of what had once been Princess Luna.
Her mist-like blue mane and tail trailed around her and blue barding showed her readiness to fight. She opened her eyes, and her pupils became long and thin. She opened her mouth, and her teeth became as razors. Nightmare Moon touched down. The moonlight framed her evil form. And she laughed. A laugh that expressed her glee at her chance for revenge, at her disregarding of the Status Quo, at the knowledge that her nighttime would be seen by all, forevermore.
A tear rolled down Celestia’s cheek.
Another tear landed on the floor of Canterlot castle.
The Princess of the Sun felt her knees weaken. She did not fight as her body crashed on the floor.
Twilight was immediately at her side. She held her mentor as she released one-thousand years’ worth of guilt from her eyes.
Twilight looked at the top of the window. Above the picture of Nightmare Moon unleashing destruction on the old castle, another image portrayed Celestia wearing another crown on her head. The crown was embedded with a jewel that seemed to glow with a powerful magic. With the crown, Celestia’s image was shooting a rainbow-like beam from her horn at an image of Nightmare Moon. Above that, Celestia’s image stood between images of the sun and the moon, for which she had taken responsibility.
Twilight had to force herself to look at the moon. For within it was an image that she knew brought immeasurable pain to her mentor.
It was the image of an Alicorn.
Am Alicorn that had been banished to the moon.
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Chapter 05 - Aches from the Past, Hope for the Future
Princess Celestia wept in Twilight Sparkle’s embrace. Her tale had re-opened the gravest wound she had ever suffered. Her heart caused her pain as guilt and regret tore at it. Tore at her.
Celestia took in a shaky breath. “Never in my life have I committed an act that brought me greater pain. But neither have I done anything as important.”
Twilight listened, heart bleeding for her mentor, as well as fearing for what she was to learn from her story.
“For every year since that day, I reached out to Luna. I felt her within the moon, hoping against hope that I would find her mind calm and her soul at ease, ready to return and make amends. But each year, for a thousand years, I felt only anger, resentment, suffering...” Celestia stopped. Another tear fell to the ground. “And hatred.”
“For many years, I combed through all magical archives, consulted anypony with the right knowledge, and hunted down any myths and artifacts I could. I hoped that I could find something that would allow be to change Luna back to herself. But ultimately, I only discovered the truth: even I cannot change a pony’s very nature. Only they can change themselves.”
Something clicked in Twilight’s mind upon hearing that truth.
“You couldn’t change Luna, and you couldn’t get her to see reason. So you did what had to be done in order to defend what was right.”
Celestia’s head sank further..
“Your convictions gave you the strength to do the right thing.”
Celestia’s head rose, slightly.
“You kept faith that Luna could return, someday.”
Celestia looked at her old student.
“But you let neither of them obscure your vision of the truth. You learned from your mistakes and you were able to use your virtues and make things right.”
Twilight looked Celestia in the eye.
“And now things are better than they ever were.”
Celestia was aghast. For the last thousand years, she regarded banishing her sister to the moon as the lowest moment of her life. But now, though still a painful memory, it held something that could give her a strength she had never before seen in herself.
She looked at Twilight, and smiled. “Thank you, Twilight.”
“And thank you, Celestia.”
Celestia then let herself cry, and Twilight held her oldest friend close.
Author's Note
Sorry for the short ending, but here's hoping it's likeable, all the same.