Recollection

Chapter 4

Now while the Princess of the Sun and the Moon had both locked themselves in their room, following the elder sister’s confession of love towards the younger sister, their niece who happened to be the Princess of Love, was still up writing important letters like her adopted aunt was not too long ago.

She was so focused on doing her work that she didn’t even notice the door opening or the sound of hooves clopping against the smooth crystal floor until the pony entering was right in front of her. Said pony cleared his throat, Cadance looked up and smiled when she saw her husband Shining Armor.

“Uh, hey Cadance,” he smiled.

“Greetings, my love, is something wrong?” Cadance asked, curiously.

“Nah, just wondering if you were coming to bed soon, you’ve been up a while.” Shining told her sounding concerned.

“I know, I know… I just…” Cadance began before she sighed. “I’m almost done with these documents, I don’t want to leave anything unlooked.”

Her husband chuckled a bit. “Boy, who knew being royalty came with so much paperwork, huh?”

Cadance smiled and nodded as she wrote on another paper, her quill levitated above her due to her horn glowing. “Yeah, it’s a lot of work and most ponies don’t realize that until they’ve actually become royalty, kind of ironic in a way,” she remarked.

Shining Armor smiled as well. “Yeah, it is,” he agreed. “Still, even Princess’ need their rest, as do you. You sure you don’t want to come to bed yet?” he asked still worried, as he put a comforting hoof on his wife, whose eyes were beginning to lower and looked sleepy.

Cadance put a hoof on him as well and smiled. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I’m almost done, once I am I’ll go straight to bed, no questions asked.”

That seemed to satisfy Shining Armor for now as he sighed. “Ok,” he said before turning to the door, though he still glanced her way. “But if you need anything, just call, ok?”

The Princess of Love nodded looking grateful. “Ok. Goodnight, love you.”

“Love you too.” Shining Armor said sweetly before he left.

Once her husband had left the room, Cadance resumed working. Though after she said the word ‘love’ it had gotten her thinking, particularly about something that happened earlier today. She remembered her aunt Celestia confessing that she was in love with somepony, a mare, but was having trouble dealing with her feelings.

She didn’t give her the pony’s name and while she seemed ok not knowing the question of who it was still remained in her mind.

Who could it be? she wondered.

Cadence walked away from her desk, her paper and quill still hovering and writing by itself, and started to pace back and forth as she pondered the identity of Celestia’s very-special-somepony.

“Let’s see now… she said it was a mare… a mare who wasn’t enchanted by the fact that she was a Princess and is somepony Celestia apparently has trouble confessing to…” Cadance muttered to herself as she thought and pondered.

There were many beautiful mares in Canterlot, though many indeed admired Celestia for her wealth, power and title and Celestia could usually talk to likes of them fairly easily, so that narrowed down the list quite a bit.

Cadance then tried to remember back to when Celestia first told her, to see if there was anything she may have missed.

She first remembered her saying that she wanted to talk in private, which obviously meant that she didn’t want the guards to gossip about it and she also remembered briefly seeing her Aunt Luna approach her not too long after she left.

That’s when she remembered it and she gasped sharply when she did.

Neither of them had noticed it, since she was practically gone by then, but in the corner of her eyes she had saw her aunts talking. Luna had a certain smile on her face then, presumably she had figured out why she and Celestia were talking, and gave her a friendly hip bump which Celestia blushed to, which was odd since they did all the time and Celestia never…

The Princess of Love then began to put all the pieces together, it all made sense; Celestia’s secretive behavior, the blush she got from bumping flanks with her sister and the fact that her crush was a mare who didn’t care about titles which left one other pony…

However, Cadance refused to believe what her mind was telling her, she shook her head rapidly, looking conflicted. “No… it-it can’t be…” she stuttered, trying to remain calm. “Aunt Celestia and Luna are close but they’re not that close… are they?”

Cadance knew that while love was love, incestuous love between siblings was completely wrong and if word got out about it they would be cast out, ridiculed by all their subjects, they would probably never step hoof out of their castle ever again. Still, part of her was happy for them. If they embraced their true, romantic feelings for each other they would create a love as strong as her’s and Shining Armor’s.

But for the time being, she knew she had to keep this information to herself, regardless of how unlikely it could or could not be. She gazed up towards the moon her beloved aunt Luna raised and put a hoof on her heart.

“Don’t worry Aunt Celestia and Luna… your secret is safe with me,” she whispered. “I hope your love for each other lights the way…”

She closed her eyes and prayed for a minute before she turned and began to head to bed to join her own true love, Shining Armor.

Another mesmerizing night neared its inevitable end, and Luna trotted out onto the balcony, from where she usually lead the moon to rest. Her head hung low with fatigue and other troubles, her otherwise flowing mane lacked the spark, and had tiny knots in it, witnesses from the turbulent night that lay behind her.

She relocated her weight onto her hind legs and with a light push, stood solely but firmly on her rear hooves. She drew connections between stars, marking them in which order they would disappear until the evening, the cleared a path so the moon could set in peace.

Today, she seemed to lack a certain spirit too. She felt how suddenly her back began to ache, her hooves felt heavier and the stars seemed to disobey her, as they wouldn’t vanish when she ordered them to.

With a sigh, she dropped down on all four again, stretching one of her hind legs to loosen the tension that was slowly building up into a cramp. Aggravated, she willed the stars to dissipate and gave an unusual rough shove to her moon to finally make it move downward to the horizon.

At the opposite side, she saw the magenta glow of Celestia’s sun peeking over the edge, outshining even the most stubborn stars that still opposed Luna’s command. She knew that her sister was able to see her, and that she was looking at her direction this very moment, but Luna wouldn’t meet her. Too much was happening inside her, emotions battled and clashed, feelings contradicted and voices screamed. It was all way too much for her to bear.

Exhausted, she retired to her bedchambers in her own private part of the castle. Maybe she found rest and answers in her sleep. At least that was what Luna hoped.

As she lay in bed, one of the two guards stationed outside the door pushed it close and she pulled her sleeping mask over her eyes. As darkness surrounded her, she soon drifted off into a dream of long past memories.

She saw herself as a small filly, when both she and Celestia had been way younger. She was running on a field beneath Mount Unicornia and the bordering mountain ridge. She stopped as she saw her sister, flying a few feet above the ground, hooves above her head and wings wide spread. Her eyes were closed in concentration as by her will, the sun began to set and night settled in. When only half of the sun was illuminating the sky in a red and pink tone, she glided down, next to little Luna and pointed a wing at the moon that was at the other side.

“Go on now, Luna, this is your part,” she said, lying one wing on her sister’s back. “I know you can do it.”

Luna bit down on both her lips and furrowed her brows. She looked back up to Celestia. “But sister, I couldn’t do it all by self since…” she thought hard, “a very long time.”

“Oh Luna, don’t be that way. You have grown bigger every day, and so has your power. Might be today is the day you can make the moon rise without my help.” She winked at her, rubbing her chin on Luna’s head.

“No, I can’t,” Luna almost cried. “I’ve never done it and I guess I won’t be able to ever do it.” Her eyes were cast down, her wings touched the ground and she sniffed. She then felt her sister give her a little peck on the cheek, surprising her.

“For luck,” she smiled.

Luna’s expression lit up like the sun lit up the sky in the morning and she stemmed all four legs firmly on the ground. She set the tip of her horn aglow, extended the aura so it soon engulfed all of her horn, and focused on the moon.

She soon felt the extreme weight of the celestial body, and almost gave away under it. But then she felt her sister’s wing on her back and drew strength from it, happy that she was there for her. She clenched her teeth, grunted with effort and finally felt the weight begin to move. Slowly first, but she gained momentum with every passing second. She closed her eyes to concentrate every fiber of her thinking onto giving the moon that one deciding push. Her pulse began to sound like a drum in her ear, beads of sweat were forming on her forehead and her jaw ached, but she wouldn’t give up this time. No, this time Celestia got her back in a different way.

And just like she would blow a leave away, it was done. The moon shone brightly in its crescent form in the center of the sky like a silver scythe. Panting, she looked up, taking in the view of the fruits of her labor. This was it, she had done it, and all by herself! Luna looked at Celestia, just to see the faintest glow of a mellow aura vanish from her horn. That was when it struck Luna.

“Hey! You did it again! I didn’t do it by myself, have I?” she asked, just slightly angered.

Celestia hid a smile and stroked her sister’s back. “Only a tiny little bit maybe,” she confessed.

Tears were starting to well up in Luna’s eyes as she readied herself for a cry attack on Celestia’s ears. Before that could happen though, Celestia pulled her into a tight embrace, forming a cocoon with her wings and shielding her off from the world around them.

“My dear Luna, I am sorry. If I hadn’t helped you, night would have taken too long to come, and you might have hurt yourself. I couldn’t let that happen, could I?” She hugged her tighter and blew gently on her mane. “I love you, Luna, and I would never let anything bad happen to you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Luna answered leaning against Celestia’s soft warm chest. “I know. I love you too, big sister.”

Celestia let go of her and they started for their way home to the castle. “Maybe,” she added while sticking out her tongue playfully, “you’ll get it tomorrow.”

“Sister!” Luna cried out and began chasing Celestia all the way back; or rather the few feet before she couldn’t go longer and lay in the grass, too out of breath to run any more.

As that memory faded, a new one began to form in Luna’s mind as she recalled another moment in their past, when they were both older, wiser and ready to face the world, starting with the wicked ruler of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra.

Back then, she and Celestia had heard about the wicked deeds the evil unicorn had committed in the Empire and the horrendous things he had done to it’s inhabitants; the Crystal Ponies who were at time his slaves. After she and her elder sister retrieved the Elements of Harmony from the Tree of Harmony they set out to stop Sombra, but at the moment they didn’t know how to harmonize and use the Element’s power to its true potential.

Upon reaching it the two of them confronted Sombra and when he refused to release the Crystal Ponies they quickly fought, each landing solid shots on each other though Sombra quickly gained the upper hand over the two.

Luna remembered it like it was yesterday, the wind blowing in her face, the intensity of the blasts being fired in her direction while she swerved and flew around just to avoid being hit by them. She saw her sister flying near her, also trying to avoid the dark magical blasts and black crystals that were rising up below them as they continued to fly straight for King Sombra, standing at the top of the Crystal Empire castle and looking angry as ever.

“Sister,” Luna shouted against the wind and the noise from the blasts. “We need to synchronize! He’s stronger than either of us!”

“But he’s not stronger than both of us.” Celestia nodded in agreement. “Alright. Let’s give it a try!”

“Right!” Luna said as flew even faster. Sombra stood on an elevated rondel, the center gave way to the hall below and he was drawing ever more crystals to enchant and use as projectiles. Most of the glowing shards missed, others came dangerously close though, and his aim was getting better and better.

Luna and Celestia set on opposite sides so he couldn’t see them both at once and started spiraling downward from above. They spun ever faster, wings now drawn closer to their bodies to gain more momentum. As they descended, their horns lit up and so did each of their three Elements of Harmony.

Sombra saw the princesses fast appearing and his horn glowed in a blood red hue. Splinters, shards and clumps of crystal floated up from beneath and stacked upwards, forming a solid wall of black stone. The building was finished in a second, and Sombra’s figure was hidden under a perfectly smooth pitch black globe.

Both Luna and Celestia engulfed their bodies in a azure and mellow light to act as a shield for the collision. Only a few feet separated the sisters from the globe, when suddenly with a sound of a knife sliding over stone, a multitude of razor sharp spikes emerged from the smooth surface. Seeing herself out of ways to dodge in time, Luna teleported. She set her target area to be beneath the rondel, but something went wrong. Apparently, one of Sombra’s spells had interfered with her own, and now she appeared right next to Sombra.

A moment of shock passed, then Sombra’s horn lit up and the venomously green glow of his eyes intensified. A beam of energy missed Luna’s head only by a hair’s width. No rational thought crossed Luna’s mind as she reached for the power within her Elements and released the immense energy in all directions at once.

The wave crashed Sombra’s shield and broken crystals rained down everywhere. Celestia had also teleported, only her teleportation went right. She dodged a few shards the size of her wing, and flew back up to where the orb had stood only a moment ago. To her surprise all that was left was a crater of double the diameter of Sombra’s spiked ball. The building had taken a massive blow from the explosion, and neither Sombra nor Luna were in sight.

Celestia flew to the border of the hole that led downward into the hall and looked deep down. She could see the most faint of a glow, a red one, and leapt headfirst into the dark.

On contact with the ground, she immediately made for the glowing horn that without a doubt belonged to Sombra. She was almost there when she heard a groan from somewhere on her right. She changed direction without a second thought, galloping to where the sound had come from. The darkness made it hard to see even for her, so she lit her horn up and found the body of her sister lying on the ground. She reached out a hoof to touch her, and upon contact, Luna scrambled to her hooves, unsure of stance, but as it seemed physically unharmed. The Elements of Harmony lay scattered across the floor.

“Wha-” Luna tried, but waved and then staggered. Celestia quickly lent her a hoof for support. “What happened?”

“I cannot tell for sure, but it seems you broke Sombra’s defense.” Celestia had had an eye all the time she was with her sister and noticed the dark king rising to his hooves again, too. “We must act quickly now, while he is out of composure.” She contemplated on her tactic for a moment then said, “I will encounter him in close combat, this way, he can’t use his precious gems in an offense. You have to slow him down while I do that. Try everything to narrow down his accessible area, shoot your magic at him, whatever. Only make sure that he is not fast enough to catch or attack me.”

Luna nodded. Quicker than the eye could follow, Celestia was gone. Teleported. Next Luna saw her appear right in front of Sombra, striking him in the chest with her wing, forcing him back. A heartbeat later, she appeared from the side, ramming her shoulder into his side, and the king tumbled. The third time though, he anticipated where she would come from and dodged a strike with a hoof that was aimed at his throat. He evaded the following strike too, and was now beginning to see a pattern. He skipped and danced always out of reach for Celestia, and finally stretched out a hoof, hitting Celestia square in the jaw. Celestia fell, and was just so quick enough to escape an iron-gilded hoof that stomped on the spot where her head had been.

“Luna! Help!” The cry shooed the last bit of dizziness away from Luna’s mind and she set out to aid her sister. She weaved her magic into the floor and ruptured it in a wide area around Sombra. The lack of his wings and the resulting flightlessness brought with it a huge advantage for them. Like a set of black teeth, pillars of solid crystal grew from the ground at the height of half a pony’s body. Should Sombra fall, he would be impaled.

As she watched how Celestia land hit after hit, she did exactly what Celestia had said and shot one beam after the other at Sombra, trying to hit the ground around his hooves to make him trip.

Celestia fought on, and Sombra had a hard time dodging both Celestia’s strikes and Luna’s magical beams, and at the same time not step onto a crack and fall to death.

Suddenly though, he stopped, reflected a stream of energy with a crystal from out of nowhere, caught Celestia’s hoof mid-air and pulled her to him. She fell onto her back, and one of the pillars hit her wing. She screamed in agony and wreathed in Sombra’s grasp.

“Celestia!” Luna cried.

“Foolish mares,” Sombra growled. “How dare you use my beloved home against me? It was a mistake to attack me! You will perish, and I’m starting with you, Celestia!”

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking, and the spikes broke at their base, were lifted up and formed a savage wall to deflect Luna’s shots. Sombra let two of the pillars float over and positioned them right over Celestia’s spread out wings. Then they fell and punctured them. The scream that followed sent icy daggers into Luna’s guts. She could clearly see through the wall and what he was doing. Sombra lifted another four pillars, made the form a cross and stuck them into the ground again, binding Celestia’s font hooves. The same he did to her hind legs and neck.

Luna watched helplessly, how her sister was stuck to the ground, and Sombra brought forth yet another spike. He positioned it right above Celestia’s chest and let it float there for a moment.

“A fitting end for a pathetic mare like you. Any last words?” he asked, voice as cold and hard as steel. Another few times Celestia thrashed against her shackles, but to no avail. Tears ran down her cheeks, as one idea materialized in her pain and fear driven brain.

With her magic, she opened her saddlebags and passed her three Elements over to Luna. “Sister, use them! I know you can do it!”

Luna sprang forward and caught them in her levitation. Quickly, she pulled out her own Elements as she saw how the pillar fell. It stopped inches from Celestia’s fur, held by her magic. Sombra noticed and forced his own power down onto the crystal, cringing it nearer and nearer to Celestia’s wildly beating heart.

“Don’t kid yourself, she has never succeeded in doing something on her own. She will fail as she always does, and then both you, and the rest of Equestria will be doomed.”

Sombra’s words struck a chord in Luna’s heart and she froze to the spot. Suddenly, it was awfully cold in the hall. The dark seemed to be even darker, and all the light, as faint is it was, seemed to fade more and more.

Maybe it was true. When she thought about it, she really never had done anything all alone. When she thought she had raised the moon alone for the first time, she found out that Celestia had manipulated the sun to ease the job on Luna. Her first time talking to a stallion was revealed as Celestia setting up the poor guy on a date, she had arranged. Luna’s decision on founding a garrison of guards for her and her alone was sprung of by Celestia’s suggestion.

In the end, it was Celestia holding her hoof like a filly.

“Luna!”

What was that?

“Luna!”

It was coming louder this time.

“Luna!”

There was definitely somepony calling her name.

“Luna!”

Yes, that was her! Celestia was calling her!

“LUNA!”

With a gasp, Luna awoke from the vision Sombra had made he see. Her mind cleared in an instant and she saw the thin shield Celestia had erected in the short time she had to save herself from her impending death shatter. The spike was now only held by her levitation, and it was surely coming closer. A heartbeat later, the tip touched her fur, and then a drop of blood formed and ran down her chest.

And then, the crystal was gone. Along with the crystals that had formed the wall as a shield from Luna’s magic, the crystals that had held Celestia were gone too. She was free. Celestia sat up and flexed her wings. Her wounds were still there, apparently.

As she looked again, Sombra’s horn came rolling to her side. She inspected the dreadful object and tipped it away with a hoof.

The next she saw was her sister. She was hovering above the ground, eyes glowing in a bright white light and her mane and tail flowed in a wind that could not possibly be there. Luna’s hooves touched the ground and she collapsed.

Celestia rushed over and caught her. She hugged her tight and held her head, waiting for her to open her eyes.

As Luna finally did, she recognized her and looked around groggily, seeing only half. “What happened? Is it over? Have we won?”

Another tear rolled down Celestia’s face. “It is, Luna, it is. We won!”

Luna went limp and leaned her head against Celestia’s chest. “That is good.” She opened one eye and looked up at her sister. “Looks like I finally did something on my own.”

Celestia sobbed, hugged her closer and said, “Yes you did, and you did great! I am so proud of you.”

The Princess of the Night quickly became teary eyed as well as she also hugged her sister tightly. They continued to embrace, even while floating in the middle of the smoking wreckage surrounding them.

It was a good day for the two of them back then, and although Sombra managed to make the Empire disappear with his final curse it was brought back and freed by Twilight, Spike and her friends later on. They also faced Discord together and during that time their synchronization was stronger than ever. It was if they were meant to be together…

And that’s when it dawned on Luna. They were meant to be together… deep down she always knew… just like her sister always knew. They were partners, sister’s, best friends as well as opposites and also two sides of the same coin. That was an inescapable fact.

Ever since she was a filly she idolized her older sister. She sought her out when she was distressed, happy, sad or scared… and she was always there for her. She couldn’t imagine how much pain she caused her when Celestia was forced to seal her in the moon and Luna deduced that during that time Celestia didn’t just miss her but her feelings for her had begun to grow.

Then Luna got to wondering… what if what she thought was great admiration for her sister… was really her beginning to have her own romantic feelings towards her sister? And what if her jealousy over everyone appreciating her day more than her night was really her being upset over the fact that her sister was paying more attention to everypony else except her?

She also realized that everything she had done since her release from the darkness inside her heart was actually her subconsciously trying to impress her sister, to get her to notice her and spend more time with her.

It was then that Luna began to really ponder her feelings and how she really felt about her sister; she was beautiful, smart, always by her side and while she knew that incestuous relationships were wrong on so many different levels there really was nopony else worthy of her and her sisters when she thought about it. Also, because of their long lifespans it’s only natural that they should seek mates that would live as long as they did.

Then there was that kiss…

Luna slowly raised her hoof and touched her lips before rubbing them and licking them with her tongue, the taste of her sister was still there and it was making her heart beat a few ticks faster.

She gasped when she realized the incredible truth…

“I’m in love with Celestia…” The Princess of the Night realized as she put her hoof on her quickly beating heart. “But… but I can’t be… can I?”

Luna examined her feelings for her sister again and again and no matter how she sliced it, the result was the same; she did enjoy that kiss from Celestia and ever since they were fillies she didn’t just idolize her she loved her… more than a sister should. And while part of herself was still somewhat apprehensive about it, her growing feelings for Celestia had now become too great to ignore any longer.

She then stood up with a determined look. “I must tell her how I feel… I must!” She flung the sheets away and got to her hooves, storming off through the doors and the halls of Canterlot Castle. Morning would soon come, and she felt the tiredness dragging her to the floor. But she mustn’t hesitate now, this was of utmost importance.

She arrived at her sister’s chambers, which she had fled earlier, giving the guards no more than a glance before she stepped inside. The clamor of her approach woke Celestia from her sleep and she eyed her sister in her delirium.

“Luna, what’s the matter?”

Luna lost not a single second. “Sister, there is something I need to tell you!”

“Alright… what is it?” Celestia inquired.

Luna took a deep breath before she said. “Celestia… Celestia, I love you.”