Princess Celestia carefully crept along the pre-dawn hallways of Canterlot castle. Her normally graceful motions were a bit off; sudden stops and starts marked her passage. To Celestia, the hall she stood in seemed to be enveloped in a darkness caused by something more than a simple lack of light. Her horn, rather than illuminating the passageway, merely seemed to give the shadows a deeper substance. Up ahead, however, lay her goal - a pool of light spilling into the hallway from another that intersected it. To the nervous princess, the sight was a welcome one, and she hastened toward it.
Almost as soon as Celestia reached the crossing, the light vanished. The sun princess looked up, seeing the dark figure of another pony blotting it out. The figure stepped forward. “Sister. What reason, pray tell, might thou have for wandering here at this hour?”
Celestia screamed. Instinctively, she reared back, wings flaring out behind her. This was, perhaps, not the wisest of moves for her to have made; as her right wing came out, it hit the edge of the corridor she had just come out of, knocking her off balance. Unable to catch herself in time, she fell backwards, landing on her rear with a loud thump.
Luna hurried to Celestia’s side. “Sister, art thou injured?”
Celestia stifled a slight groan and grinned. “Just a bit bruised, I think. Although I’m fairly sure my poor dignity was mortally wounded just now.”
“I...see.” Luna helped Celestia to her hooves, then turned to face her again. “If thou hast no injuries, then may I ask why thou didst let out such a cry?”
“I...I wasn’t expecting you, that’s all. You startled me.” Celestia couldn't quite bring herself to face Luna as she spoke.
Luna gave Celestia a look of disbelief. “Sister, I beseech thee, do not dissemble with me. ‘Twas not mere startlement brought forth that sound. If ‘twere not injury, then I can only guess ‘twas some deep fear that drove thee.” Luna stared straight into Celestia’s straying gaze. “Am I not right in this, sister?”
Celestia let out a shuddering breath, one she had not realized she was holding in. “You are. I’m sorry.”
“Then please, sister, let me help thee! Thou hast but to say the word, and I shall be at thy side in a heartbeat, no matter how fell the foe thou dost face!”
Celestia’s response to that statement was to grasp Luna in a massive hug, pulling her in so suddenly and tightly that the night princess’s eyes bugged slightly. “Oh, Luna...just by being here, you’re already doing so much to help.”
Luna simply returned the hug until Celestia’s grip eased, at which point the dark alicorn chose to extract herself. “I am glad to be of service, though I must confess to wonderment at what foe could possibly assail thee here, in the heart of thine own stronghold.”
Celestia’s gaze hit the ground. That, along with what had already happened, gave Luna the answer to her question. “Sister...the source of thy fear...surely ‘twas not...”
Celestia’s voice was nothing but a whisper. “I’m sorry, Luna.”
Tears entered Luna’s eyes, and pain laced her voice. “Why?” she asked, hoarsely. “I have never given thee aught reason to believe it of me, have I? Thou wert present at the monster’s final undoing, Celestia, wert thou not? How canst thou think I would ever return to that?” The whispered accusation might as well have been a shout.
Celestia cringed at the rebuke within Luna’s words. “I don’t, Luna. Not when I’m thinking clearly. It was just so vivid...”
Luna pounced on the words. “What was? What is it as has addled thy thoughts? Merely some night terror, or is there a true threat thou dost sense?”
“Neither, although closer to the former...at least for now.”
Luna pawed at the ground. “Wilt give me no more than that, sister?”
Celestia finally looked Luna square on. “It’s almost time for me to raise the sun, Luna. I’m afraid I can’t take the time to explain now. But if you’ll trust me this one more day, I’ll answer your questions as best I can. Will you meet me in my study, an hour before sunset? Please?”
“I...I will be there.”
Celestia nodded. “Thank you. And now, I think you’d better get some sleep, and I’d better get moving. Rest well, Luna.” Celestia trotted off, leaving Luna to stare after her.
“Rest well? After this, how can I?”
~~~
At the appointed time, Luna stood outside the doorway to Celestia’s study. Carefully, she knocked a hoof against the door, prompting a ‘come on in’ from inside. She opened the door and stepped through.
Celestia’s study was neatly kept, perhaps a bit spartan. A few bookshelves lined the walls, as did several pictures - mostly art of the sun princess herself, though a few other images were present. A pile of paperwork stood on one edge of the large desk near the back wall, as did a single book, bound in a black cloth cover. Celestia stood behind the desk, looking out the window facing it.
Luna stepped over to the front of the desk. “I am here, sister.”
Celestia turned around. “I’m glad of that. Before we begin, though, Luna, please allow me to apologize again for this morning. I’m truly sorry for what I put you through, and I can only hope you’ll forgive me for it.” At Luna’s uncertain nod, she continued. “Shortly before I met up with you, I had been reading this. You’re welcome to look at it, although I warn you it will likely be very discomforting.” Celestia shoved the cloth-bound book toward her sister.
Luna picked the book up, reorienting it so it faced her the correct way. Emblazoned on the cover were the two faces of a silver bit, showing both the full and crescent moons, with a thin band of silver between them. Above them was the title of the book, ‘Cold Silver’.
Luna looked at the book, then back at Celestia. “Sister, thou art certain of this? By appearance, this would seem to be an economics text, not some portrayal of dire evil.”
“Just open it. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Very well.” Luna flipped the book open and began to read.
~~~
Celestia gave a gasp, the last of her strength nearly spent. It had been hard and painful to accomplish, but the light of the Elements of Harmony had been ignited, sweeping the darkness away in a multicolored blaze. The princess of the sun began to collapse, catching herself at the last instant by willpower alone.
A voice called out. “Impressive, sister. I wouldn’t have thought you could actually do that. Too bad it didn’t do you any good, isn’t it?”
Celestia looked up. The creature that had once been her sister was still standing there, apparently unharmed by the blast. “How-?”
Nightmare Moon looked down at Celestia with a sneer. “Simple foal, did you really think that would work against me? You truly are blind, aren’t you?”
Celestia stared at her foe in shock. “I...impossible! The power of the elements should have cleansed the darkness from you!”
“My dear Celestia, you worthless old mare, you don’t have it in you to use the Elements of Harmony. Do you not understand, dear sister? You yourself said it before - the power of the elements requires true friendship to use. And you know, somewhere deep within you, that the closest thing you’ve ever had to a real friend was my own pathetic former self!”
Nightmare Moon swiftly closed the gap between herself and the exhausted Celestia. “Do not worry yourself,” she said with a sarcastic tone. “I shall make sure to take good care of your precious little ponies. As for you, Celestia, goodnight. Forever!”
With one swift stroke of her horn-
~~~
“Augh!”
Princess Luna jumped backwards, tossing the book aside as she did so. It came to rest underneath the window, almost at Celestia’s feet. The sun princess carefully picked it back up, smoothing the pages out as she placed the closed book back on the desk. “I did try to warn you,” Celestia said.
Luna shuddered. “Indeed. Sister, if that image was embedded within thy thoughts when we met earlier, ‘tis no wonder thou didst react as thou did!”
“Then you forgive me?” The look on Celestia’s face mingled sorrow and hope. Luna took one look, and gave a shaky laugh.
“I shall forgive thine actions...but I’m afraid I’ll not be able to forgive thy choice of reading materials.” Luna looked up into her sister’s face. “I beg of thee, sister, destroy that vile tome! ‘Tis not fit for the light of day or night to lie upon it!”
Celestia shook her head. “I can’t do that, Luna.”
Luna looked at her closely. “Cannot, or will not?”
Celestia paused, actually thinking the question through. “I suppose will not is more accurate, although not completely. I’m honor-bound to keep it.”
“Sister, why? Surely there is no purpose to preserving such falsehoods!”
Celestia shook her head at Luna’s statement. “That’s why, Luna. Every word of that was real.” At her sister’s shocked expression, the white alicorn hurried her explanation. “I don’t mean it happened to us, exactly, but somewhere, it did. You see, that little booklet is merely one volume of a larger work...if you can call it that.”
Luna stared at Celestia. When the Moon Princess finally spoke, her voice quavered. “Thou hast more such abhorrent tales?”
“A few. Not all of them are so vile; most are quite otherwise.” Celestia trotted over to the side wall, towards a framed picture bearing the same two-coin device as the book itself had. With a brief flicker of her magic, the sun princess illuminated the picture. In response, an entire panel of the wall moved inward, revealing a small room beyond. Celestia entered, beckoning for Luna to follow her.
Inside the hidden alcove, several shelves lined the walls. The books on each were cloth-bound, in various colors; the few Luna could see the full covers of bore the same coin-and-line device as the previous book and the picture had. All in all, Luna felt that the alcove was a bit of a let-down: Why go to the trouble of creating a hiding place like this for something that seemed so ordinary?
Celestia floated the original book into the room, carefully setting it onto one of the shelves. After it was placed to her satisfaction, she turned to Luna. “Welcome to the Book of Other Days, little sister. I wish I’d managed to find a better way to introduce you to this.”
“Celestia, exactly which of these is the book thou dost speak of?” Luna gave a sweep of her head, taking in the numerous volumes beside her.
“All of them.”
“Sister, I am afraid thou hast lost me on this.”
“I’ll try to make things clearer.” Celestia looked around the room, then pulled a single volume off of one of the shelves. The cloth covering it was dark brown - a color, Luna noted, unrepresented in the rest of the room. Celestia floated the book over to Luna. “I suppose if any one volume deserves the title, it’s this one.”
Luna grabbed the book with her magic, focusing on the cover. “The journal of Flip Farseer, historian.” She looked at Celestia. “I suppose this is where I ask of thee the identity of this individual, is it not?”
“You’re right. Flip Farseer is a unicorn stallion. As the journal says, he’s a historian - or rather, he once was. Now, I’m not sure what you’d call his position exactly.
“About two hundred years ago, a group of unicorn historians got together and produced what they termed a ‘retrocognition’ spell - basically, it was a way for a unicorn to look into the past and actually see what happened. The process has a few special requirements to it.”
Luna looked askance at Celestia. “Can they not ask of thee what they wish to know?”
Celestia shrugged. “They can ask, but I can’t always answer. I can’t be everywhere, you know. And even with a memory as good as ours is, it’s not possible to recall every detail. And finally,” she said, lightly batting at Luna’s wing with a raised hoof, “it’s kind of difficult for me to tell them anything about the time before I was born, isn’t it?”
Luna nodded, seemingly missing the humor in Celestia’s tone. “Thou art correct in that, Sister. I withdraw my question. Might I then assume that this Farseer engages in such activities as thou hast described?”
“He does...although not exactly the way it’s supposed to work.” Celestia shrugged. “Flip’s talent is finding the hidden side of things - that’s why the research team that first tried to make use of him tracked him down. They were hoping he could help them enhance the spell to discover things that remained hidden even with it. Instead, Flip’s talent appears to have interacted with the traditional retrocognition spells to produce something truly bizarre. Instead of seeing what actually happened in history, any retrocognition spell he engages in shows not what was, but what might have been. The analogy he used for it was tossing a coin into the air, and when it landed, seeing the side facing the ground instead of the side facing up. I’m afraid that when I found out about it, I shamelessly abused my position to lure him away from them and into my service.”
Luna looked up at Celestia. “Sister, why didst thou require such of him?”
“Well, partly at least, to learn, I guess. It’s not just seeing what could have gone better, although I admit that is part of it. Even beyond that, you’d be surprised how many times ponies, myself included, have made the right choice sheerly by accident. With Master Farseer’s help, it’s possible to realize what could have happened, and to avoid similar incidents in the future.”
Luna’s gaze was skeptical. “And the rest, Celestia?”
Celestia lowered her gaze. For a moment, she was silent, then, “I...I kind of wanted to see if he could find a world where I hadn’t failed you.” Tears began to well up in her eyes as she admitted this. “Where you...where I didn’t...”
Gently, Luna cut her sister off. “And if he had? Would not the discovery have paralyzed thee even further with guilt and grief?” The dark alicorn walked over to Celestia and began nuzzling her. “Celestia, thou mayest feel that thou didst fail me then, but thou hast more than made up for it in the now.” Luna continued, her voice a gentle whisper. “I am content with this, sister. Please, let go of thine anguish.”
“I...I’ll try, Luna. I’ll try.”
“‘Tis well, then. And now, sister, should we not be about our duties? Or wilt thou permit the sun to hang overhead all night?”
Celestia nodded, visibly calming herself. “You’re right, Luna. Let’s get to work.” The two left the hidden alcove, its doorway once more swinging shut as they headed out to the castle hallway. “By the way, sis, you’re welcome to read those whenever you like. The ones bound in black and red are the nasty ones; anything else should be fine.”
“I thank thee.” As the two headed out into the distance, Luna asked one more question, her voice saccharine with coyness. “So what other secrets art thou holding from me, dear sister?”
Celestia gave a laugh. “You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”
