Author's Note

In case anyone is confused about the thing with Rainbow Dash, that's in reference to my other story; "Rainbow Dash, The Spartan". It's not relevant to this story in any more than a fleeting fashion and knowledge of it is completely superfluous.

On the Responsible Use of Time Travel, by Princess Luna

Five years, seven months after my return.

As you will see, the factuality of these events does concern more than just Celestia and myself. As such, I feel obliged to inform you that this did not officially occur. I say officially as it did occur yet the use of time traveling spells promptly erased these events from history. I stand by my decision to turn back time in this situation. I know what I am doing and I do not use time spells without consideration. I would go in depth into my rationale, but Celestia insists that I leave my actions open to judgement. So I conjured her up some actions of her own to be judged; after careful consideration I am all but certain that she fully intended to manipulate me into using the time spells. And that is as much I shall say about my opinion on that.

Celestia had concerned herself with the positioning of the Sun in the sky while I watched on, invisible to her, from behind the balcony’s thick oaken door. I exhausted many options on just what she was doing as I watched her pull it left, then right, then up, then down. She began tapping a fore hoof before cocking her head to one side and quickly dragged the Sun down to the horizon. It was obviously a gesture to impress me. Which it did, but it was a needlessly risky gesture. What are you thinking, sister? I was tempted to walk out to the balcony straight away and begin berating her but after taking a step forward I decided against it. I hadn’t come early to spy on Celestia just to break my ruse at the first peculiar action she took. Besides, waiting the hoof-full of minutes before I was supposed to arrive gave me a better opportunity to formulate an argument that would leave her scurrying.

Celestia returned from the edge of balcony and sat down at the table. She was facing towards me. I watched in amusement as she closed her eyes and begun muttering to herself. A spell? Possibly. Or was she practising a speech? That seemed more likely. Either told me that what she had to say to me was going to be important.

I let my sister continue her strange rambling while I went through some thoughts of my own and tried not to salivate over the delicious tea Celestia had prepared for us. Sitting on the delicate white coffee table was a plate of sugar-encrusted pastry scrolls. Next to the plate was a steaming pot of tea and two teacups; it was a delicate blend all the way from Saddle Arabia and one of my personal favourites.

I tore my gaze away and poked a hoof at the edge of the hall rug. Was it time yet? I searched around for a clock and cursed my lack of a watch when the closest was on the mantelpiece of the fireplace at the opposite end of the hall. Watches may look ridiculous but I would lying through my teeth if I said they weren’t useful. As it was, I was forced to walk to the end of the hall only to find that the mantelpiece clock was broken. That did it for me.

I dropped the invisibility spell and settled my face into its usual expression; my proud mixture of condescension, aloofness, authority, and displeasure.

“Oh! Luna!” Celestia faltered, then recovered with a practiced smile. Celestia falter?

“I.... I apologise for my tardiness,” Me falter? I coughed, trying to remember what I had intended to say, the words being overwritten with images of Celestia trying to make speech only to start speaking gibberish.

I shook the peculiar thought from my mind. “I was delayed when a contingent of guards came rushing to me, fearing for my safety.” I flashed a polite smile in her general direction and took my seat opposite her on on her abysmal excuse for seating: a floor cushion.

Bringing my attention back to my sister, I saw that her smile had quickly dropped, followed a short moment latter by her ears. I was glad I had chosen not interrupt her straight away. This was going to be fun.

“You see, they saw that the Sun was behaving very erratically, dropping into a sunset when it should have been midday and thought we were under attack.” I calmly began pouring the tea, unapologetically pasting a fake smile to my face that altogether was an insult to the conviction and genuineness of Celestia’s.

Celestia made to bite her lip but stopped short.

“Of course, I told them that they were surely mistaken and that we could not possibly be under attack as you hadn’t had any visions as you have every other time there has been a threat to our kingdom. I then told them that I was, in fact, on my way to see you at that very moment and I would enquire you if you knew anything about the behaviour of the Sun.” I paused to take a bite from a cinnamon and jam scroll, chewing it slowly and deliberately before continuing. “That is what I told them, dear sister. What I did not tell them was that I was truly fearful for your safety and considered that perhaps we actually were under attack.” I paused and took another, equally deliberate, bite. “So imagine my reaction when I arrive here on your balcony to find you muttering to yourself as if you had no cares in the world."

“Oh. You saw that.”

“Indeed. But we digress. The questions that formed in my mind were simple: why had you lowered the Sun so, and what had you murmuring like a mad mare?”

“Well, I can explain-“

“The answer came to me shortly after.”

“Luna, I assure you that-“

I took another bite as Celestia spoke, and interjected with a mouth full of scroll. “What do you need me to do?”

“I… what?”

“You may also end your charade.” I swallowed, pointing the remainder of the scroll at Celestia in a semi-accusational way.

“Am I really that transparent?” Celestia had dropped back to her normal polished tone.

“Oh, not at all dear sister. You are forgetting that there are merely a few decades between us in age, and I have accumulated just as much wisdom as you have in that time.” I put my scroll down as I prepared the explanation I had been working on before being distracted by the scroll that was now comfortably in my stomach. “You see, when I initially stepped onto the balcony I did indeed see you muttering to yourself and that the sun was now setting. Only a fool would believe you were mad and you clearly know I am no fool. Any filly could see that you were in fact nervous. Nervous about what? That wasn’t as important as the degree of your agitation. You are well renowned for your calm - even pleasant - attitude in the face of all adversities. Clearly your performance here was somewhat exaggerated. Why though? You would obviously know that an exaggerated sense of nervousness would not fool me. The answer was then apparent; it was because you truly were nervous about what you had to ask and by exaggerating the effect to a near comical level, you intended to hide that you were truly worried.” I paused to judge Celestia’s reaction, which I was pleased to see was a half-smile. Perhaps that was too generous. A one-sixteenth or one-thirty-second smile was perhaps a more apt term. I grinned as I imagined progressively smaller inclinations of Celestia's smiles until they became so faint that you would need a microscope to even see them.

I continued, “The question remained then; what would stir the mind of the Great Celestia? This, I must admit, took some thinking. You had invited me to tea rather formally several days ago, meaning that it was clearly something that’s been troubling you for a while. The fact that you did move the sun into an admittedly lovely sunset indicates that you are trying to impress me, as does the choice of tea, my favourite Saddle Arabian blend. These gestures work on all levels of your charade as they are well thought-out peace offerings and regardless of whether you were nervous or acting you knew they would be well-received. At the same time, your movement of the Sun was also furthering your act of appearing nervous about your conversation which I had discerned, by this time, was to ask an important favour of me.”

Celestia’s eyebrow had raised a fraction more than her smile while listening to my continuing dissertation. Still, she let me continue. “Just how important was this favour, I here you ask? To come to a conclusion about that, I had to cast my mind back a whole month. It was at this time that I first noticed that you were locking the top draw of your dresser every day, a trend which has always continued since. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to ‘run into you’ when you have been retrieving any material from it. Its contents were a nagging mystery to me. Until today, that is. While I do not know their exact contents, I understand their importance, which is an empathic ‘massive’. Why else would you have been planning this tea for the whole month? For you see, I first noted that you had placed an order for a replacement batch of Arabian teas several days after you had begun locking your draw. You don’t like any of their teas which meant that you had ordered them with me specifically in mind. I had thought perhaps that it was for my birthday next month, but I see now it was for this afternoon. But wait, there’s more! You see, with that amount of time to plan there is no way you would have any degree of nervousness about you when today finally arrived. The few times you have lost composure have all been due to extreme unforeseen circumstances and never have you been anything less than the perfect image of stoicism when you have had time to plan things out. That means that you act was a double-bluff. You were exaggerating your emotions to hide the fact that you were truly worried, to hide the fact that you weren’t nervous at all because you had really been planning this day for nearly a month.”

Celestia watched on with no visible emotion save for her faintly glistening eyes. I tried to discern what her reaction was to my little game of deduction but the physical signs that had betrayed her had been crushed. Her face may as well have been petrified, her eyes locked unblinking to the wall above me. Was she enjoying this? Was she proud of me? Or afraid? Was she even listening? I crushed a burst of envy and decided to continue before my thoughts brought any harm. “Of course you have been worried. You have not been sleeping properly as of late. Sleeping patterns are the one aspect of your psyche even you can’t truly control. They can be very telling of a pony, dear sister. And they have very much done so here. Now, what possibly could you need to ask me that is keeping you awake at night and requiring you to plan a simple tea weeks in advance? Well, for my final act; I deduce that you are going to ask me to-“

“Attend a meeting with the Trans-Reality Council of Higher Powers," Celestia said before I could come to my incorrect conclusion. Her gaze locked to mine with her head tilted at a slight angle. Then she laughed. She continued alone for several seconds while I watched bemused. What was funny about any of this? But then I realised. It had probably been years since Celestia had heard me saying anything so intelligent and I hadn’t even realised. My laugh began as an odd hiccup, but soon erupted into a voluptuous cackle. The disjointed sounds of our mingling laughter - Celestia's serene and melodic and mine guttural and hearty - flowed over our private balcony for a duration of nearly a minute.

Celestia placed a slender foreleg over her forehead in an attempt to stop her entire body from shaking. Somehow that thought only wanted to make me laugh harder but I held my breath and let my sister speak. “I had no idea..." she was interrupted by a lingering chuckle, "you were so interested in deduction, sister.”

“Hm?” I was busy trying to adjust my cushion and it took me a moment to latch onto what Celestia had said. While I hadn’t ever given it thought it was perhaps an avenue I would consider pursuing in the future after this incident. But what was this about a council? I had heard them mentioned before. Where though….

I decided I need to bring this back to a more serious mood. “I was going to conclude that you’d had a terrible vision that I was going to turn back into Nightmare Moon and bring a new era of misery and suffering and that you intended to put me in prison for ‘my own safety’” I hadn’t been thinking that at all, really. I just wanted to mention Nightmare Moon to soften Celestia up a bit. Still, I couldn’t risk playing the “banishment to the moon” incident as a trump-card too often or at the wrong time. I had learnt soon after my return that the banishment had truly been both ways. Celestia was only marginally better off in the deal that I was. The one and only time I had tried to use my banishment as a method to gain leverage, it had ended in a sopping mess of pony princess tears. Love. Ugh. Still, it was what separated ‘us from them’, so to speak. I was happy to have the occasional moment of emotional instability if it meant being a fairer ruler and better sister. It was a side of me I wasn’t ever going to let anypony but my sister see.

I only now noticed how long Celestia had taken to formulate a response. “That’s… very morbid of you, Luna.”

I shrugged. “I am The Night, after all”.

Celestia glared at me; it was a completely undetectable gesture to most outsiders. I hung my head. I should’ve been more circumspect. There were other ways to bring a conversation back into seriousness without mentioning Nightmare Moon. I knew I hated it when ponies did it to me, why hadn’t I considered Celestia might feel much the same way?

When I looked back up Celestia’s gaze had moved away from me and off to the distant hills behind Canterlot. “Anyway,” she began with a croak before clearing her throat. “Anyway. Are you aware of who the Council are?”

It occurred to me then where I heard about them before. Or rather, experienced them before. “Only what I’ve seen in your dreams.”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably on her cushion. I had meant that earnestly but she probably didn’t need reminding that I could see every dream and vision she had. Our powers left us with little room to hold secrets between us. Not that that hadn’t brought us closer together than most ponies would imagine possible.

“And what would that be?”

“I understand you hold them in low regard. Very low regard, in fact. Not fearful, nor angry…” I tapped my hoof against the table, trying to think of the best way to describe Celestia's feelings.

“I think perhaps ‘wary’ is the word you are looking for.” Celestia ruffled her wings as she spoke.

I gave the table a definitive hit. "That would befit the occasion." I stopped, realising I still lacked a crucial piece of information. "Why though?”

Celestia sighed and stood up from the table. She made her way over to the railing and rested on it, looking over the city of Canterlot, cast in the golden rays of the setting sun. She reached out with her magic and brought it back to its proper place. Impressing me was done now, and now she needed to restore order before our beloved citizens started to panic. I was grateful for both the gesture and for the fact that Celestia knew when to end it for the sake of our ponies.

Celestia turned back to face me and I gave an approving nod of her actions without caring whether my previous words had deemed me temporarily unworthy to hold such authority. “Well Luna,” she said, “I have had several dealings with this Council in the past. They claim to be a force of order and justice, but they come from far more primitive places than our Equestria. Perhaps they are actually considered the height of order there, I know not. But I do know that from our perspective they are greedy, selfish, egotistical, violent, vengeful, and hypocritical. I say that with no judgement or scorn in my heart, but as the honest truth that I have witnessed. Their hearts are as cold as ice.”

“Why then associate with them at all?” I raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious.

“Because it is necessary. They control passage into many worlds and have many magical and technological wonders which have benefitted us in the past.”

That was not a satisfactory answer and I didn’t believe it for a second.

“They’re not evil Luna. Just officious, bureaucratic, and callous.”

I sighed. “What exactly would have me do?” If this Council was anything like how I was imagining it to be, I doubted this would end well for anyone involved. I had a bad temper at the best of times and dealing with idiots certainly wouldn’t aid that. Then again, I thought, maybe that is exactly what Celestia anticipates in the belief that my personality would be similar enough to theirs that we would be able to see more eye-to-eye. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted and that usually meant I would side on being completely impassionate.

Celestia turned gracefully and began walking back inside, taking a moment before responding. I knew from experience that Celestia rarely took so long to think of what to say. She had already thought of a hundred responses, selected the best five and calculated your reactions of each of them before you even finished speaking. For the second time that afternoon, I found myself envious of her abilities.

“I believe you’ve met with Rainbow Dash before?” I made a note that Celestia’s suddenly conversational tone was probably significant while I kicked back my cushion and rose to follow her.

“The arrogant, blue pegasus?” I didn’t think too highly of her, which was a worry. I was old enough to realise that often the ponies you dislike reflect something you dislike within yourself. And I certainly didn’t dislike my own arrogance. Or at least, I didn’t think that I did.

Celestia definitely skipped a step and may have winced at my description of Rainbow Dash.

“Yes." Celestia started walking again. "Well, she has become stranded in one of the parallel worlds under the council’s authority. I’ve been trying for the past month to try and negotiate her return. Unfortunately, the council is in no hurry to allow her to return. They claim to have no knowledge of her existence. Unfortunately for them, they’re terrible liars. However, with no evidence to present to them, no way to know which out of the hundreds of world Rainbow Dash was on and no magical link through which to send scrying spells through, I had no other option but to give up. That was until several weeks ago. It was then that I found a way in. One of their prophets happens to use magic that is almost identical to my own to see into the future. For several hundred years, I’ve been able to sense when she uses her gifts. I had never given it much thought. You know how strange magic can be, especially powerful magic like prophetic abilities.”
Ś
I nodded slowly. Magic certainly did have its oddities. I stared briefly at the patch of carpet I had ruffled with my hoof earlier, trying to avoid thinking of the terrifying creatures of magic I had seen and fought in my lifetime.

Celestia snapped me back to reality. “However, this time when she cast her spell, I felt something… different. It was one of those kinds of feelings. Her mind allowed me to cast a scrying spell through it and I quickly ascertained that Rainbow Dash was indeed trapped on her world. However, there were complications.”

“Complications?”

“The kingdom Rainbow is living in is about to go to war against a powerful empire. There is every chance that she will be injured, or worse. Time is paramount to her survival.”

“Have you…"

“I’ve pushed Equestria’s Time Keeper to its limits. Time is flowing nearly ten times as fast here as it is in this other world. Even with its time spell, we still only have at most a month.”

I nodded, feigning interest in an ornate chandelier somewhere down the hall. I resented that Celestia hadn’t thought it was necessary to tell me any of this yet. “Then why did you delay so long in asking for my assistance?”

Celestia looked down apologetically at me. “At the risk of sounding blunt; you were a back-up plan.”

I saw that as a golden opportunity to push my case. “Hmph. I expected as much. I’m so glad you trust me, your own sister, enough to tell me when you’re negotiating an important deal with leaders from a parallel world.” I glared at my sister who stood in a patch of flecked light that drifted down from the stained glass window to my left and coloured her muzzle in a garish pink.

Celestia winced. I stared at her harder, trying to figure out if it was genuine, making a fake attempt at apology, or whether she had some alternate motive for feigning. She knew. She knew that if there was one way to guarantee my commitment to a problem, it was to challenge my ability to complete it. Especially when it was Celestia herself who issued the challenge. She saw that I was always trying to prove myself her equal. If she was using that to manipulate to me then…. Then…. It was working!

“Tell me then, Celestia," I almost spat out her name, “what caused you to end your negotiations now and come crawling to me for help?”

“The Council has decreed that I am to cease all contact with them.” Her voice was unnervingly calm but had lost some of the conversational ease it had held a moment ago.

I stopped dead, scrambling for a suitable retort. “And what makes you think I could do any better?” I cocked my head to one side slightly in a condescending fashion. I was well versed in the art of appearing superior. I was confident that I could make the self-depreciative comment a show of power.

But Celestia merely smiled. She turned away from me and used magic to push open the door to her apartments. I was left fuming and standing at the threshold of her door while she gave her head a casual flick to close the door behind her. As it clicked into locking, I felt my left eye begin to twitch.

The only coherent conclusions I could make were that Celestia was intentionally riling me up and that I really wanted to hit something. Every other thought flew around my mind in an incoherent whirlwind, leaving me wondering what in Equestria had just happened.

It took me a good five minutes of staring at Celestia’s closed door before my eye could stop twitching enough for me to turn my attentions to the task at hoof. Mentally belting myself across the face, I decreed that I was going to get the annoying blue pegasus back. I would prove myself to my… brilliantly manipulative sister and be heralded as a hero. Yes. That’s what I was going to do.

But I was going to do it my way.

I turned in a whirlwind of motion and stormed down the hallway, headed for my chambers. I kept many powerful spells hidden there, deep inside my personal magical wards. Including a spell for time traveling, courtesy of Star Swirl the Bearded. I had never seen eye to eye with the eccentric unicorn, but he certainly had proved that he has uses.

I wasn’t going to deal with this council and end up in a fight like my sister had suggested. I also wasn’t going to lie down and be a pushover like her. I was simply going to go back and time and prevent all of this from ever happening.

***

As Luna’s mind slowly ticked over, Celestia watched her from the comfort of her bed, using a scrying spell to see as Luna’s face contorted through every expression known to Ponydom. Celestia gave a deep sigh. This plan was going to work, and Celestia couldn’t be less happy about it. Just because she was doing the right thing didn’t mean she was doing things right.

Celestia watched as Luna turned and cantered off to her own chambers. She saw determination on Luna’s face. That improved her mood a small amount. She knew Luna would undoubtedly complete her ‘mission’ and bring back Rainbow. Luna would never give in so long as her honour was riding on it. Celestia just hoped she would go for the time spells like she had intended.

Celestia watched with growing resignation as she watched Luna go into her draws and draw out an unsealed scroll. When she opened it appeared blank but Celestia knew that was just an effect of an anti-scrying ward placed on it and that it contained a powerful spell written on it.

Celestia was relieved as an aura consistent with a time spell began to build around Luna as she cast it. He relief was short lived however as the time spell quickly over powered the scrying spell in a burst of magical static and then a few seconds later the past three years were erased on Luna’s whim.

The last thought to cross Celestia’s mind was just how great the faith was that she putting into her sister.