The Refugee

Chapter 4

Climbing up the walls

"To err is human; to forgive, is divine."

• Alexander Pope

The Canterlot Tower Concordat

"I, Celestia, Beloved Princess of all Equestria, and I, Chrysalis, Almighty Queen of the Changeling Hive, both do hereby decree that a cease shall be brought to all conception and execution of all plans and activities related to the war between the Equestrian Nation and the Changeling Hive.

In accordance with this peace the following conditions will be met by both nations without fail:

Equestria:

The Princess, Cadance, while away in the Crystal Empire, shall be doppelgangered by a Changeling of the choosing of the Almighty Queen Chrysalis until such time that Cadance's duties heading the reconstruction of the Crystal Empire are completed and Princess Cadance chooses to return to Canterlot to be married as she has planned. Upon Princess Cadance's return and the ejection of the Changeling Doppelganger this Concordat is declared null and void. It is the Equestrian court's responsibility to protect the Doppelganger from discovery. If, for any reason, anyone outside the court discovers the doppelganger, then this Concordat is declared null and void. The doppelganger is not to engage in a level of activity that will permanently harm The Captain of The Guard, Cadance's Fiancé, Shining Armor. If Shining Armor befalls permanent detriment due to the doppelganger's activities, this Concordat is declared null and void.

Both the Equestrian Inquisitors and Secret Guard are to cease all activities related to Changeling Interrogation and all current living Changeling prisoners are to be released at the signing of this Concordat. All deceased prisoners' bodies that remain identifiable are to be exhumed and turned over to the Changeling Hive's custody. If any living prisoner is unaccounted for this Concordat is declared null and void.

The Changeling Hive:

It is the responsibility of the Changeling Hive to ensure the safety of Princess Cadance for the duration of the Concordat's activity. If any harm comes to Princess Cadance by any fashion, even that which is beyond the control of the Hive and it's allies, this Concordat is declared null and void.

The Changeling Hive, it's workers, soldiers, court, allies, and properties shall hereby be exiled from Equestrian lands for the duration of the Concordat with the exception of the agreed doppelganger temporarily taking the place of Princess Cadance. If any Changeling or Hive property is found within the borders of Equestrian lands this Concordat is declared null and void.

A single permanent doppelganger meant to replace The Princess, Luna, and her cursed persona, Nightmare Moon, will be issued to the Equestrian Court by the Hive to use as they wish. This Changeling will be chosen by the Equestrian Court and irreversibly severed from The Hive by arcane means of The Equestrian Court's Choice as to relinquish all loyalty to The Hive's Queen and efforts. If the Doppelganger establishes any connection, physical, arcane, or otherwise, with The Changeling People's Hive's Queen, this Concordat is declared null and void.

Let our peoples be not defined by war, but by collaboration and progress.

Signed:

Princess Celestia

Queen Chrysalis"

*****

        The last sentence of the Concordat on Celestia's desk was as cold a pain as the impact of a knife into a helpless stallion's spine. It was the final nail in Equestria's coffin. It was the surrender to the illusion that her beloved land and it's people were safe from the Hive.

        Yet none of this turned the lamenting Princess's flesh and blood to ice quite like the agonizing and immutable memory of what she had did to her darling sister. Her trembling lips, already soaked with tears, gave way to the recollection of the unthinkable, "Luna."

        Reading over the Concordat was only the last straw that had broke her. It had been Perish's untimely visit and speech that had reached deep within her, to dark places long forgotten, and pulled up the memories she had hoped would be buried forever.

        A mention of the old Human gods she once knew of was all it took. Many of her human memories came back to her in an agonizing flash. Among them, though not the worst of them, was the distinct memory of Luna's human body. The board games they had played together as children, the scoldings their mother used to give them for acting "unladylike", the fights they had over friends and boys.

        "I'm so sorry, Luna." she sobbed, barely able to breath from the shaking. Before this mess with the Ungods those memories seemed so impossibly distant and foggy. As blurry and veiled as she wished the thing that was killing her the most would have ever been.

        Many regrets swam in a whirlwind in Celestia's skull as she sit there weeping. She wept for listening to her court members when they demanded that resources must be gifted to the Crystal Empire to strengthen their dwindling alliance instead of dedicated to the efforts of the Equestrian Inquisition to rid their beloved country of the Changeling menace. Her tears bared her sorrow for ever agreeing to a contract that would betray her people, and her trusted friend's brother, Shining Armor. If it had not been for the Invasion at the Canterlot Wedding, she knew not what she would have done about the conflict of Shining Armor's memories and Cadance's claim that she had not been in Canterlot for years.

        She flinched upon recalling the blood-curdling hisses and screeches of the young Changeling child as all connection to the only thing he loved was ripped out of him, all memory of his beloved Queen erased forever. She should've reveled in him being powerless to resist, for he could not disobey his Queen's order, but she could not bring herself to delight through the horrid echoes of his agony. Changeling or not, he was a child, and he loved nothing more than his Queen, and she was ordering her lead magi to tear this genuine love from him as she silently prayed that she would not go without being judged for this.

        Or perhaps her being forced into such a position, to do such an unspeakable and heinous thing to child, was her punishment for the deed that brought on the need for such a ludicrous contract at all. For the screams of the changeling child were not the only ones that haunted the head that wore the crown on this autumn morning. She cried out for Luna to forgive her once more, as she heard the unnatural shrieks of her beloved sister being reshaped into a mindless beast.

        She had tried to hide it from herself. She had tried to remain blissfully ignorant of the court magisters' glassy-eyed looks of terror whenever they had the misfortune of gazing upon a once-beloved princess. But she always knew, deep in her heart, that she herself was the most despicable monster Equestria had never seen.

        She tried to justify it. "Equestria must be protected from other translated." she told herself. "As long as one can come in and edit our world to their liking, we will never have peace or harmony." she proclaimed to the court magisters, "I can't rule Equestria and expel all these monsters one by one!". "One of us has to be the one to do it." she reluctantly whispered to Luna, "There's no other way. It has to be a willing translated."

        "I'll do it, sis." Luna said with such certainty while staring out at the moon she just raised. How could she have been so sure? "Luna...no!" she replied, "We're supposed to rule together! That was the plan!"

        "Plans, change, sis." Luna said, "If we don't do something right now neither of us is going to be ruling anything for long."

        Celestia could not believe was she was hearing. Her own sister volunteering to become the one thing a translated should fear the most. Luna was willing to give up everything they came to Equestria for to become a wither.

        She struggled to find another solution, "We could find another translated. Trick them into-"

        "-You've got to be kidding!" Luna snapped, "Do you know how long that would take?" She turned to face her sister, " If we could even do it? The translated has to be willing, sis. We could really screw something up." Luna looked out over the twisted Equestrian landscape, "Every second we stand here putting off the obvious Discord is changing this world into some twisted crappy Salvador Dali theme park version of itself!"

        Celestia's eyes widened with anxiety as she forced herself to say, "I'll do it." Luna turned to her with a look of disappointment, "Don't be stupid, sis."

        "I'll do it, Luna." she repeated, "I can't let you do this."

        Luna walked over and wiped the tears from her sisters eyes. "Celeste," she said lovingly, "Equestria needs you." She embraced the sun princess and closed her eyes, "You were born to rule this place. You're serene, elegant, and a great leader." Celestia's eyes still poured.

        "They don't need me." Luna said squeezing her beloved sister tight, "They don't even really know me." She buried her face in her sister's ivory hide as she began to cry, too. "They don't love me."

        "I love you!" Celestia cried out, embracing her sister. "I need you, Luna."

        As Luna pulled back from Celestia they could now see the tears streaming down each other's faces. They could not hear the explosions making their way from Ponyville to Canterlot. They could not notice the beams of light coming from matter-warping Arcanum of the Draconequus threat. For the thousands of screams all around them were silenced by the savoring of what both of them knew would be the last moment they would ever have together.

        "I know." Luna said, finally breaking the silence. "But you have to decide, sis. Will you let the one person you love survive? So that the thousands that you swore to protect die or become slaves?"

        Celestia stood wide-eyed and silent. She finally stamped her hoof at Luna, "You're my real sister, Luna! These ponies aren't even real! They're just made up-"

        "-We can't go back, Celeste!" Luna yelled, stomping right back at her, "This is reality now! These ponies' fear? They're families? Their hopes and dreams!?" Luna raised up on her hind legs, "IT'S ALL THE REAL WE'VE GOT, NOW!"

        "We don't know that we can't go back-"

        "GET REAL, SIS!" she screamed, blowing through her nose, "We tried to go back and it didn't work! Our memories are already fading! Someone killed our human bodies!"

        Celestia could see that she truly had no other choice. Everything was lost, possibly including her and Luna, if she couldn't bring herself to turn her own sister into a soulless monster built to serve only one purpose; a demonic machine crafted only to expel any translated other than Celestia herself from their beloved land of candy colored ponies and mythical creatures.

        "I am terribly sorry to interrupt, my princesses." came a voice from the doorway, "But the incubator is ready, as are we." It was the court's lead magi.

        Luna walked towards the open doorway, face drenched in tears. Celestia stopped her, "I will find a way to bring you back." she said, looking her in the eye. "I swear it, Luna."

        "So that we can do this again when someone else gets through?" Luna said as she pushed her sister's hoof away from her chest and continued past the magi and into the room below.

        She remembered her sister's final words, and they hung from her heart as heavy as the whole of Canterlot Castle would if tied to her core by iron chains. "I love you, too, sis. Don't let'em down."

        Those words echoed endlessly through her entire body. And as she wept, she began to believe that the coming of the Ungods could be a blessing in disguise, after all.