Students of Heaven

Chapters

1 - Genesis
2 - Alea Iacta Est
3 - Volte-face
4 - Vae Victis
5 - Dawn
6 - Deep Calleth Unto Deep
7 - Ad Sumus
8 - Duende
9 - Retrouvailles

1 - Genesis

Dear Princess Celestia,

I wanted to let you know things are well here: the sun shines, birds sing in the trees, and I've come to see you were right yet again; life is so much better with friends. Snips and Snails have taken quite a liking to me. They sulk around, destroy things, and intimidate the students - all on my behalf. Most importantly, though, they recognize my greatness. In fact, they do so much for me, I can just sit back and bask in the misery.

You see? I'm making progress!

You may have refused to make me an Alicorn, but it doesn't matter. There's no magic here, anyway, and even without it, I already rule. This whole area is “under my thumb.” Don't they have the cutest expressions? But it's true: I rule. I rule a school, yes, but the wails of a child are no less real. Their anguish is felt as keenly, and their tears are just as sweet

I rule a school, yes, but it's a school of flypaper, and they are the flies. Did you know that their lives are ruined if they don't graduate? It's true! Unlike us, these things have no harmony, so their society, and even their own families will turn on them if they don't; their whole futures are ruined! Not only that, but, in many cases their parents simply don't want to have them at home. Their own children! Can you imagine? Because of this, my little flies find no rest no matter where they try to flee, and it's also why I so relish playing at school-life; they're trapped with me, in a way adults never would be, and it's all thanks to you.

Every time someone goes hungry because I've taken their money; every time Snips, and Snails destroy a project for me, just so I can laugh as the child fails; every time someone is late because they're too afraid to pass me in the hall; every time I lie to Flash, and he lashes out at the others in my “defense;” every downcast eye, every fearful whimper, every tear-filled breakdown...they're all because of you.

I want you to remember that.

I may be on the other side of the mirror, but I am still me. Indomitable, unstoppable me, and everyone here is mine. Remember that, too; you're the kind of pony who would care. They aren't your ponies, they aren't even ponies at all, but you care.

Sleep well, Princess. See my face when you close your eyes. Dream about all that I've done here, and so, all that you have done through me. Dream, too, of all the suffering still to come. The sweet, sweet suffering. I wonder how much longer it will be before I rack up a suicide? Wish me luck!

Your faithful student,
~S

I have always hated cruelty. Almost every pony does, and before Sunset left me, she used to as well. Her pride, and ambition made it difficult for most to see, but she was always kind-hearted. To see her now, embracing sadism, honing it to a needle-point, and casting it straight at my heart, pains me more than a hoof across my face. And of course, that's why she still sends me these letters. She never answers mine, and doesn't want to; she merely means to hurt me, and I let her, reading every word of every letter, hoping each time the one penning itself across dimensions to the pages of my book will be the one which lets slip a change of heart. The smallest hint will do.

But this one is like all the others, steeped in rot and bitterness, so I don't deign to reread. Instead I let my eyes pass over it again, marveling at the graceful flower of Sunset's writing, still shining gold with the book's magic. It's beautiful. I need to see something to remind me of the pony she used to be, and that, at least, has not changed.

Sunset and I have always shared a love for chirography. As long as I've known her, she has taken pride in having won every calligraphy competition she'd entered, and the way she would beam whenever she'd had a new ribbon or trophy to show me had brought smiles to my lips, too. Not the smiles of diplomatic politeness expected of a Princess, but the radiant, prideful smile of the mother my poor, orphaned Sunset so needed me to be. Which I tried so hard to be.

While her first few letters from the other side had been in the finest High Classical Equestrian, she'd adopted an elegant Spencerian hand shortly after acquiring ones of her own. Perhaps, in eagerness to show me how she could not only survive, but thrive under any adversity?

In slow silence I rise, leaving the open tome on my desk, and walk to my balcony. The white walls of Canterlot glow a bright yellow-orange in my mid-afternoon sun. Pegai flit between my towers, and the faint sounds of hooves on stone echo among my walls and gardens. Ponyville and Cloudsdale dot my horizon. All of Equestria is spread out before me, but I don't see it. Instead, I see the past...

Nowhere
Aeons ago

I'm alone.

It feels as though I've always been alone. An infinity of cold, black silence stretches out around me in time and space. Both are featureless and void, and neither matters: I alone exist, and I am content.

Though there is no way to know how long I have been here, time does pass, and with it, a realization comes to me: for the first time, I am lonely, and not merely alone. I don't want to be alone anymore, so I summon a ghost of my power, and a star springs in to being. It's light and warmth bring me simple joy, and I see that it is good.

Some time after, I channel magic, again, and create a planet, beautiful and blue, and set it in motion. I watch as it circles my star, sunlight glinting off its water and high cloud tops. This waltz between my creations is also good, and it pleases me. Eventually, I descend, and call land from the abyss. Great mountains, and broad plateaus answer me, rising effortlessly from the waves. They, too make me happy, but I'm not yet satisfied; there is much more to do!

As a formless being, I take pieces of my world and shape them further, breathing life into some of my creations, and scattering them across it. For time out of mind, I wander among them, watching as they, animal, plant, star, and planet, grow and change together.

As time passes my work continues. Mountain ranges rise and fall, prairies turn to oceans and back again, continents break and rivers change course. Sometimes I do these things myself, but most of the time I watch, and let the natural processes I set in motion do the shaping for me. It takes a very long time, but what is time to me?

Eventually, I find a creature which I like above all others. With its 4 legs, hooves, a tail and mane, I find its form beautiful, so much so that I adopt it myself, twisting and molding my own shape to mimic it. Larger, of course to suit my majesty. I follow them for uncounted ages, testing them, and blessing them with the barest hints of magic, until one day, they are capable of answering my speech with theirs.

By this time, my magic and guidance have changed them: some of them have wings, some horns, while others lack any outward sign of the magic within; but they are all my children, and I love them. I teach them of fire, farming, architecture, and all the other sundry things they'll need to know to build my civilization, then I settle upon my throne. Now it's time to wait. Eventually, some will be born with potential beyond all others. I will find them, guide them, and when they are ready, I will help them through apotheosis. Then, at last, I won't be alone anymore.

Canterlot
Present Day

Sunset was right, of course: I hadn't made her an Alicorn. But neither had I made Twilight one, nor Luna, nor Cadance. I'd merely planted within them the seed of divinity, and tried to nurture them in a way that would make it sprout true. I had also done the same for her.

Then, as now, my dear Sunset had so much potential! She was incandescent! She shone with it, more brightly than her peers, brighter than her elders, brightly enough to catch my eye. So brightly I personally approved her admission to my school, and paid her tuition, as she had no family of her own. So much so that I took her under my wing, and made her not only my personal student, but treated her as my own daughter.

So much potential, but she has never had patience. She'd left before I could make her understand, but still carried the spark of my divinity which I'd placed within her.

The one saving grace was that she did not know I had given it to her. I had known she wanted it, known she was worthy of it, and oh, how I wished to see her face light up in surprise, when it finally burst forth! I had passed it to her in secret, and to my shame, it was only when she fled through the mirror that I realized how premature my blessing had been.

Yet even in her ignorance, its presence makes her dangerous. Very, very dangerous. If it grows while she still harbors so much darkness the results will be monstrous. Even in that banal world which she now inhabits, her powers would be immense, and made even more formidable be virtue of being the only magic there. The effect on the creatures of that world would be much the same as it would have been for my children if Nightmare had usurped my throne here, and Sunset is right; they are not ponies, but I care.

Something must be done about her, but what? She won't come back, and even if she does, she would still be the same corrupted unicorn. Merely stopping her is not good enough, or I could spirit her back to Equestria in an instant whether she liked it, or not. I must save her, but how?

I watch my ponies in the courtyards preparing for the upcoming Princess Summit. They'd soon be on their way to the Crystal Empire, and I'd follow at my leisure.

An idea forms.

Sunset doesn't know the origins of my “sister,” Luna, or how close Starswirl had come to ascension himself, but she does know about Cadance, and her birth as a pegasus. She doesn't know about Twilight, or that her crown is the renewed Element of Magic...but what if she did?

Swiftly, I return to the book and levitate my quill. Behind my closed eyes I summon all my knowledge of both ponies, composing the letter in my mind again and again; I'll only have one chance to get it right. Soon my eyes open, and I begin to write.

Author's Note

So begins my next story, I hope you enjoy it.

2 - Alea Iacta Est

Canterlot
c1300 years ago

My earth ponies are generally a wary lot. My pegai can fly from almost any danger, and their weight-altering magics mean that even without wings, they would need fear no fall. Their magical resistance to temperatures, which keeps them comfortable flitting through the thin, icy air among the cloud tops, also means they could march through open flames, the coldest tundra, and even be struck by lightning, and remain completely unscathed.

My unicorns are arcane generalists, even the weakest of whom can hurl darts and missiles. Some can call illusions, to send most potential threats fleeing in fear, while the truly powerful can summon the very emotion of terror itself, hold an antagonist fast in a magical grip, or raise them high in their aura, before letting them plummet to the ground.

But my earth ponies can do none of these things. They can't take to the sky en masse and rain stones from on high. Neither can they focus an entire village's telekinesis on a monster and literally tear it limb from limb. What they can do, however, what they excel at, is making things grow. Almost nothing can penetrate the thick hedges, and sprawling thorny tangles they erect around places they wish to protect, but these things do not move with a pony, a do her little good if she is not surrounded by them.

Despite the thick skins, powerful muscles, and sturdy bones of their bodies, and the preternatural strength and toughness their magic gives them, as a rule, they avoid high places whenever possible. This includes flight, and Luna was no different. Even after she earned her horn and wings, adding the unicorn's and pegai's innate magics to her own, it took some time before she finally followed me aloft. It took longer still before she learned to prefer her wings to her hooves, but once she did, her enthusiasm overcame her fear, and she would dive, giggling from the precipices of the highest anvil-topped cumulonimbus she could find.

She said the freedom was what she loved. That after spending her entire life bound to the ground, the ability to soar over it was a thrill like no other. Sometimes, I still envy her that; I have never been unable to fly, or subject to any limitations of my power or freedom, and though I have always enjoyed flying, the incredible emotions I could see on her face when those restrictions were lifted from her, made me, unflatteringly, jealous. Even now, centuries after she first took wing, she always wears a radiant smile here, among my clouds.

It's a beautiful thing to see as I soar behind her, and while the gusting, high-altitude winds are ameliorated somewhat in her wake, they still buffet my wings pleasantly. Even now, in the heart of summer it's as cold as the depths of winter this far above my world, and I find it invigorating. Oh, how I love to fly!

Below us, I can see our destination: the lone peak of Canterlot Mountain; for centuries Luna's favorite place in all Equus. If she isn't at our castle in the Everfree, she can usually be found here, frolicking on the broad meadow growing on Canterlot Rock - the huge plate of gneiss which juts over the sheer drop to the land below - or wandering the honeycomb of jeweled caves and passages within the mountain itself.

There are many of those; Canterlot was a mine in her youth, filled with the gems carried up from the bowels of my planet in the currents of magma welling in the volcano I remember it being before my ponies were even ponies. It's slopes and surrounding forests grew as thick in the fertile volcanic soil then as they do now, and there had been plans for farmer's orchards to join the miner's tunnels. But I was afraid Luna would loose her special place forever, so I'd ordered the mine, and its nascent settlement abandoned.

After she joined me in royalty, she finally dared tell me she'd regretted my decision, but had trusted her Princess to do what was best. I'd considered reopening it, but by then, however it was long deserted, and now, all these years later, we're the only ones who remember.

The air grows warmer as we descend, circling around the snowy peak to set down in the meadow's long grass. A waterfall cascades down from the glaciers, part of it pausing on its journey to the river below long enough to change a depression in the stone to a pond, before plummeting off the edge. I close my eyes and hold the beautiful image in my mind, opening my other senses to the world around me. A gentle breeze blows, ruffling my mane. Insects buzz softly in the flowers. Luna drinks from the crystal waters.

Peace.

Together we pass the day in the best of ways: talking and playing, supping on the tender grass, and bathing in the frigid water. Most ponies would have found it intolerably cold, running as it does straight from the ice on the peak, but Alicorns carry all the ponies magics, including pegai's, and the chill was merely pleasant.

As the time for night draws close, we make our way to the tip of Canterlot Rock. I lay prone with a contented smile, my head held high as I look out on my kingdom and sigh. “Surely there is no pony so lovely, or so well beloved as I.”

Luna laughs a little bit. “What a thing to say, sister.”

“There is no harm in telling the truth, little sister.”

“We sayeth not that it harms, we merely observe that,” - she ponders a moment - “modesty hath never been among thy virtues.” I say nothing. She's right, of course, but why should I be modest? Everything that is, including my ponies, as much as I love them, exists to serve me; I made them so.

Well, no, not just to serve me, not anymore, I think with a smile. Us!

At long last, my dream is fulfilled! A little filly with a penchant for sleeping through the day caught my notice when a crescent moon appeared on her flank. It's true that celestial cutie marks aren't unheard of on earth ponies, linked as they are to seasons and planting cycles, but her habits of stargazing, mapping my constellations, and writing stories about them hinted there might be more meaning behind it than that.

I watched from afar as she grew, impressed by the great fecundity her magic contributed to her family's fields – she truly was a remarkable farmer, even for an earth pony, especially for a filly - and by the kindness she was always eager to share. One day, I decided to take her under my wing. I taught her, trained her, and in time, proving just as deserving as I'd hoped she'd be, offered her the spark of divinity; it wasn't long before she blew it to flames and became an Alicorn. My very first! Dear Princess Luna, my sister from that day forth.

But while the world has changed around her, and she thinks she has learned so very much, it has in fact changed very little, and been a mere blink of an eye, as I measure things, since she was born. How much can one really learn in a mere few centuries? She is an immortal, but she is a young immortal, still callow, and full of the idealism of youth. She still confuses love with leniency, and does not demand the proper obeisance from my children. She even takes a puerile joy in using the antiquated speech patterns of her fillyhood, knowing perfectly well they have long since fallen out of use. “For fun,” she says. No matter; her affectations are quaint, but harmless, and in time, with my guidance, she'll learn the proper place of all of my creations: cradled lovingly beneath us.

In time, but not today, and why think of that now? After centuries of tutelage, I have finally deemed her worthy of not merely a title: Princess Luna, but responsibility: Luna, Princess of the Night. This is a time for celebration!

“You are much too quiet, sister. We haven't offended thee, have we?”

Now it's my turn to laugh! “No, you have not.”

“Good. We would not be pleased to have soured the mood.” A gorgeous smile spreads across her face. “We hath prepared a spectacle of such majesty! Thou inquired why we asked for thine accompaniment to Canterlot this morning; this is why! Thou knoweth Mount Canterlot is our favorite place in all the land, and we wish thou to savor with us from here, this first special night of our duties.”

I smile and lower the sun. “Show us, little sister.”

She closes her eyes as a soft glow envelopes her horn, casting our shadows on the rock. The moon rises, and her eyes open as she lays down beside me, but her aura never fades. “Keep watching the sky!” she says through a look of intense concentration.

From the empty left horizon to the right, where the moon sits, stars pop in to being, flashing silver, blue, and red out of the velvety blackness, then fading to steady twinkles. They are the only stars out tonight: a line of tiny gems leading from one side of the sky to the next. I wonder what she has planned?

As if in answer to my unasked question, shooting stars fall like rain; brilliant streaks sheeting together from left to right, but burning out as they reach the row of new stars so none fall below it. The sheets of streaking light plunge and mix together, and the shapes of gryphons, dragons, minotaurs, and of course, ponies coalesce from the blending sparkles. As old ones burn out, new ones fall just slightly out of their place, making the characters seem to march atop the line.

She's made a road! A road of stars with creatures dancing along it, given shape and semblance of life by the meteor's evanescence! I watch their progress from one side of the sky to the other with a smile on my face, recognizing it as a scene from one of the tales she wrote about my constellations. My sister truly is magnificent!

In her tale, the creatures of Equus, saddened by the moon's loneliness, march up to keep her company. Touched with their concern, she rewards them by turning the willing into stars, and giving them homes in her sky.

Just so tonight: the meteor-creatures vanish as they reach the moon, only for the original constellations they represent to flare brilliantly back into their proper place against the blackness. Eventually, when the last one has gone, the star road winks out, spark by spark, until the moon remains, shining with her new friends.

I nuzzle her, and lean more heavily. “That was beautiful, sister.”

“We are glad thou appreciated it. We wanted thee to know thy decision to grant us demesne over the night was a proper one.”

I lay my head atop her withers. “I had no doubts before, sister, now I doubt I ever will.”

“Huzzah!” she cries, only slightly louder than normal, then turns her head, and smiles, looking at me askance. “Our nights each shall be a paean to thee, dear sister, but as their beauty becomes known, thou will remember not to become too jealous.” I summon a mildly biting look in response, and stare into her eyes.

“Sorry it has to be this way, Princess, but the day will always outshine the night,” I giggle, and raise my snout to the sky, letting my pink tresses fall between us. A moment passes. Then two. Have I hurt her? I only intended a gentle chastisement.

At last she laughs, putting my worry to rest. “Just as we hath said: modest as the sun itself!” She shifts slightly, allowing her full weight to press against me, and we pass her beautiful night together, under her stars.

The Crystal Empire
Present Day

The thing about Twilight is, she's not my apprentice, and she never has been. Yes, she has been my personal student, and still is despite earning her wings. She's also the most talented magic user I've ever encountered in my long life. I love her dearly, but she isn't like me; she's like my sister, Luna.

Sunset, though is me. Younger, more reckless, less magically potent, to be sure, but so much like me in other ways, it borders on the incredible. Her confidence, and power; her bearing and wit; I see so much of myself in her, which is probably why I did it: gave her the seed before she was ready. She needed guidance, and temperance, yes, but I could teach her those. Surely she could not fail? I could not fail. Not again.

But I did.

Fortunately, I learned from my failure with her what I did not from Luna's, and was able to turn Twilight to the right path in time, but I am the sun, and my sister the night. Sunset, too is the sun, and Twilight the night: there must be both.

So here I wait, in the corridors of the Crystal Castle, cloaked in my most potent obfuscating magic. Not even my dear sister would be able to detect me. I've ordered the mirror moved to a room closer to Princess Twilight's – one of the wunderkammer in their guest wing - and sent the majority of the guard to watch a perimeter I knew Sunset would not need to breach.

Late into the night, after the lamp-crystals have been dimmed, and the guards have grown bored of their rounds, a flash of light through the keyholes tells me she's arrived. I watch her stealthily creep through the door, and follow her down the corridors. How easy it would be to catch her now! But no, she must be saved, so for the sake of one tragically lost little unicorn, and the hope of what she might one day become, a bit of my subtle magic turns a guard's head here, and brings the spark of another's own headlamp back to him out of the darkness, there, distracting him long enough to let her sneak past.

At last we arrive at Twilight's room. It's a normal guest room, as she refused to accept a royal suite in order to be with her friends, so the lock on the door is no match for a unicorn of Sunset's skill. No matter, I would have opened the seals of the royal vaults themselves for her, if that is what were necessary.

Quietly she stalks across the floor, its translucent crystal tiles gleaming even in the wan light of the dimmed hall-lamps. There, on the nightstand she finds what she's looking for. The Element of Magic rises in the darkness. Her eyes glitter beneath the hood in the light of her aura, lending her a powerful minatory quality.

This seems an opportune moment, so I give the tiara a little push into the lamp. She's quick; her head jerks back in surprise, but even before it does, I can feel her aura pushing against my invisible touch. It's not enough, though, and with the clink of gold on crystal the lamp tumbles to the floor - and is caught at the last moment!

The look of confused anger on her face at the unexpected tug is replaced by breathless tension as Twilight shifts in her sleep. Then, it's my turn to be surprised, as another crown, floats from beneath her cloak. I'd told her what it looked like, to make it easier to find, but how could she have had another made on such short notice, or been able to match it so exactly?

As she turns to leave my mind is brought back to the task at hoof; it's now or never! Another spell shifts Spike in his sleep, tangling Sunset's legs in his tail. She trips, Twilight wakes, and with another invisible telekinetic touch, I push back her cloak enough to expose the crown in her saddlebags. “My crown! She's got my crown!” Twilight cries, and the chase is on!

Instantly, I reach through the walls and rouse the other ponies with a thought, while amplifying Twilight's shouts; now all the ponies are involved! I won't let them catch her – Rainbow Dash and Applejack in particular are likely to require my intervention - but I must ensure somepony sees her flee through the mirror, and I can not trust that any one pony will, not even Twilight.

Raised voices, heavy, rapid hoofsteps, and the myriad sounds of arcane energies thunder through the corridors as they gallop and teleport toward the mirror. Sunset is a fast runner, she always has been, and Twilight has never been athletic, but somehow, with a desperate lunge she manages to tackle the unicorn, and barrel her through the doors of the wunderkammer. I was paying too much attention to Rainbow and Applejack, and underestimated Twilight!

Oh, no, Twilight. No, I'm sorry, but I can't let it end like this. As they fall, I seize the crown from her saddlebag and bounce it from surface to surface. When I see every pony's eyes follow it, I send it with a last bounce, straight through the mirror. Sunset turns, victory scrawled across her perfect face.

“Sorry it had to be this way...” A soft bang as she teleports flawlessly from beneath Twilight's fore leg, to the mirror's threshold, and delivers a smirking salute. “...Princess.” My jaw drops as she passes through the mirror, and just like that, Sunset is gone, the Element of Magic with her.

I've often heard ponies invoke my name, but who does a goddess pray to? I can only hope I'm not making another terrible mistake.

3 - Volte-face

Castle of the Two Sisters
c1100 years ago

Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and resonance: the six senses my ponies know from the moment their lives begin. They see the clouds in my sky, and feel my sun on their backs. The smell of my bountiful harvests fills their nostrils, and the clear sweetness of my waters soothes their taste buds, as the touch of their lovers in the dark soothes their souls. Resonance, the sense of magic, sprinkles itself among the entrees of the other five as a spice, adding its own exotic flavors at unexpected moments.

My own senses are keener, and broader than those of anypony. My sight is sharper, and not limited to my eyes. The mere physical vibrations of a medium are not the only things I can hear. I smell time, taste color, and can expand and attune my senses in ways and directions for which my children have no concept, let alone words, yet I rarely do. How could my ponies relate to the sound of a rose's perfume? Or the simultaneously piercing and caressing haptόs which accompanies the sight-image of the song it sings in my winds?

No, for their sake, I reign in my perceptions, limiting them to the rough kinds and keenness with which they are familiar, but I do enjoy stretching out from time to time; Luna and I walk toward the throne room, and I do so now.

I can hear them first; the distant, distorted conversations, and echoes of hooves on my floors swells with, rather than drowning out the rhythm of our own hoofsteps. Beneath that, the rustle of expensive fabrics on fur, the swishing of drinks and tinkling of gems in my crystal goblets. Laughter, jokes, and stories resolve themselves in my ears. Business deals are being made, and horns are channeling magic. My tables are creaking, and my banners sway minutely from the walls in drafts so fine my keenest scouts would fail to notice were they standing right beside them. Insect's antenna flick behind my stonework, worms burrow in the soil of my castle's garden, and that is only the slightest portion of what greets me.

Next, smell; the nearby scents of stone and cedar are suddenly accompanied by the tantalizing melange of sundry foods, ponies, and the perfumes which they wear. Though they're in the throne room, while we are yet in the private suites behind the backs of our matched royal chairs, I can easily recognize many of the attendees, what they are eating, what they are wearing, and what they wore before dressing for the party. The bouquets clinging to their fur tell me when they bathed, where they live, what parts of the city they visited after leaving their homes, and what roads they took on their way to my castle. I know who is in heat, and who they laid with; I smell the emotions in their hearts and the thoughts in their minds, and still I open my other senses to whatever else may be learned.

As we walk, my mind speeds to drink it all in, and the world seems to slow around me. I allow nothing to escape, snatching each sensation and parsing it to its individual elements, then following them each to their sources, as a spider testing the threads in its web. Every experience, and every moment is a note in my world, harmonizing into a symphony no mortal pony, should they awaken to it, could appreciate, understand, or even survive with their mind intact, though I yet limit myself to those same 6 senses they've known all their lives.

As we approach the arch framing our thrones, our guards beat the stone with the butts of their halberds; an authoritative announcement that we have arrived, and the great hall falls silent. Luna and I split, she trotting to the right, toward her throne, while I go left, to mine. We emerge together from the shrouds of velvet curtains at the shoulder of our respective seats, and my ponies bow.

As one we step, our hooves sounding in time until we stand silhouetted against the backs of our thrones. We linger a moment, surveying our guests, who despite only moments before joyously mingling, and milling about, now stand in stock stillness, heads held respectfully low. Through the panes of the most expensive roof in Equestria – each one hoof-cut crystal, not merely glass – shines the light of sun and moon, together; sharing the sky in celebration! The former shines from far over my head, and the latter above my sister's; it was Luna's idea; an appropriate display for the one who saved Equestria!

With a gesture of my horn, sheathed in gold filigree, Luna's royal voice booms from one end of our throne room to the other. “Hear ye, hear ye! All who gather, stand, and bear witness!” Then, with a stamp of my gold-shod hoof, our guests rise, and move to either side of the rich, red carpet bisecting the hall, and all eyes fall to the Grand Door from which it runs.

At another stamp of my hoof, it opens with a fanfare of trumpets, blaring in triumph and honor. His triumph and honor: a lone unicorn stallion, gray of fur, white of beard, standing tall in starry robes, and a jangling, bell-laden hat. He proudly marches down the carpet toward us. All of my guest's faces turn to follow him, and though I search, I'm pleased to see not a trace of contempt or loathing on any of them; they know what he has done.

Stallions belong in the bedroom or fields.

That's the way it has been for as long as I can remember. It was never a rule of mine, but has been my children's own custom, for as long as I've known them. Even in the days I walked among them before they could think, or speak, I noticed their leaders were always the mares. The stallions then were larger and stronger, as they are now, but then, as now, there were so few. They didn't want to be the alphas, even among their fellow stallions; they yielded authority and status to the mares, and the mares in turn would protect, and take care of them. It was their way, and both sexes seemed mutually content with it.

Usually.

This stallion, was not one of those. He was satisfied to follow matriarchy, yes, but he also wanted to be a leader himself. His magic was potent, and his mind sharp; he wondered at the way of things, yearned for knowledge, and I gave it to him: the very first male student at my school for gifted ponies.

But traditionally, stallions did work in the bedroom, or in the fields, not in government or academia, and the mares were not shy about telling him so. They had said it to his face at first, when as a foal his magical talents began to outshine those of any filly his own age. Then quietly, behind his back when I decided to teach him. Now, they don't say it at all.

He stops before us, kneels. Awe fights with apprehension, itself waging war against joy for control over his face. At last a victor emerges, and he smiles as the music fades.

“Know ye,” Luna erupts at its last note, “that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity and abilities of Starswirl the Bearded, we appoint him a Hero of Equestria; to be known as such from this day forth, and we do strictly charge, and require all ponies of lesser station to render appropriate respect thereunto” - she pauses and surveys the room - “his gender not withstanding.” Her echoes die, and it is my turn to speak.

“Starswirl the Bearded, Hero of Equestria, for recognizing and defeating the Three Beasts of Song, receive this medal.” He rises to all fours, and I place around his neck an intricate cameo of our Royal Seal, made of precious stones, and metals, and borne on a fine chain of interlocking gold and silver links. “Stand and be recognized!”

He turns, and as one, they: lead mares with their prize herd members; scholars, soldiers, and mages; nobles and officials; they all bow to him, a first in Equestrian history. I let him savor his moment.

“Now, Hero of Equestria, speak. Name your reward, and if it is within my power, you shall have it.”

______________________________

Canterlot Meadow
That Night

Our queendom lays bathed in Moonlight, turned to silver glow and black shadow. Luna and I lie together in the grass, and she pouts.

“Why did thou do it, Celestia?”

“Sister, please...”

“Celestia. Thou art Celestia, and we are not really sisters. There are no ponies here to pretend for, so stop it, and answer us.” Her tone is harsh, her words, clipped, and I allow myself a small, exasperated sigh. I know she loves me, but her anger and embarrassment that the ponies continue to revere my days more than her nights, makes it so more often than not. My dear Luna, beloved sister, and still petulant and puerile, even after all these years.

But I will not rise to provocations. I will be an example to her, as I am to every pony. Eventually, she will realize how base her behavior is. When that happens, she will need a role model, and who better than I?

“It was what he asked for,” I say, sweet, and mellifluous, more like flowing honey than a pony's voice. Her eyes narrow in irritation.

“But another, like us?”

I hold in another sigh, and focus on my moonlit demesne. “He isn't an Alicorn yet, Sister. He has a long road left to travel before he joins us, if he ever does at all.”

A roll of her eyes. “We know that, Celestia, We worked long and hard before our own seed took root.” The grass rustles, and lays flat as she snorts. She pauses momentarily, scowling at the blades as they spring back up, then lets out an incredulous laugh. “But, Celestia, what will thou do if it comes to pass? Send him to rule one of our protectorates? The Crystal Empire, perhaps?”

I consider a moment. “He isn't a mare...”

“That's right, Celestia, he isn't a mare! They shan't accept him. They still do not believe the Beasts of Song were ever a threat to them. They say if he had not found them first, we would have defeated them - and we would have! They bear him no gratitude, and will chafe at being made to bow to a stallion.

“Even here...” she trails off. My dear Sister's words are sharp, and flung with annoyance. She's right, of course, but why does she have to behave so?

“...He isn't a mare,” I continued as though she had not just interrupted me. “But I believe the job would suit him.” Luna's brows knit and her ears lay back in an expression of open disbelief.

“They will mock him. And maybe us, too. It is no fault of his, or ours, but the tradition is older than even I know; mares are the leaders, and the protectors, and the scholars. Stallions make foals, and labor. It is The Way.

“He is no duffer, and deserves the honors he was given tonight, but if thou makest anypony, even him their...their prince,” - she scowled for a moment as the word passed her lips - “they'll play along to his face, and ours, but nowhere else. Such an appointment will undermine our legitimacy in their eyes.”

Her face darkens as she speaks, until at last her eyes seem to flash from the the nighttime abyss itself. “But thou knoweth this, dost thou not, Celestia?”

I raise my nose, and let my gaze ooze down upon her. “Meaning what, Sister?”

“Thou art not a fool, Celestia,” - a strange look flits across her face - “but neither are we!” Her voice cracks. “Thou thinketh we have failed! Thou think us delinquent in our duty of the night! Thou seeketh to replace us! To make him steward of moon and stars in our stead!”

That's it? That's why her bile rises so gracelessly at this fait accompli? Oh how she truly is my little Sister. I soften my gaze “Sister, I...”

“DO NOT DENY IT!” she shouts loudly enough for her echo to find us a moment later. For a shocked moment we lay in silence, before her voice quietly continues.

“How strange that thou wouldst choose a male...but his name is so convenient, isn't it?” With disbelief I watch her lips curl in a silent snarl of moon-shadows and dark fur. “Starswirl,” she spat it out like a rotten apple.

Her eyes narrow to gleaming slits, and in a voice so soft nopony could have heard, she whispers “It's to humiliate us, isn't it? That's why you chose a stallion. 'Fields, bedroom, and replacing Luna,' that's what they'll say.”

“Sister!” I interject with lowered head, and nuzzle at her chin. “I will never replace you!” She looks at me, tears welling in her gorgeous eyes. “Look,” I gesture with my snout. “The land, the sky, everything in between. Every rock, every plant, every creature, every pony. I created this world to find you.

“You are my sister. Immortal, powerful, and one day, when you have learned and grown enough, your divinity will be every bit as splendid as my own.” The mask of her fury melts at my words, revealing pitiful dolor beneath; the face of a pony who thinks she is unappreciated, and unimportant.

My poor little Sister, I know her worries are more than cavils; there would indeed be resistance to a stallion in government, but my power and longevity have given me what she still lacks: perspective. She must be shown that the reason I am not worried is not because I think her concerns foolish, but because I can see beyond them.

“Luna, dear Sister, you are right; if Starswirl ascends, he will not be accepted right away. But we are immortal, and he will be too; we can wait.” With a smile, I look into her eyes as we share breath. Inhale. Exhale. From within my body to hers, and vice versa. “You and I? We will hold Equestria together, hold the world itself together, as long as it takes to change, and change it will. The ponies will follow our example, and slow though it may be, if we accept him, so too will they. Experience tells me it will not be so long as you think.”

Inhale. Exhale. The brush of our muzzles. The scent of my Sister. The warmth of her body.

Inhale. Exhale. I can feel her calming, and lay my foreleg over hers.

“But, Sister. Luna. My dear, beloved sister, what will never change, is my love for you, or your place at my side. You are my sister, my family, forever and always, and I will love you, forever and always.”

Without a word she looks away, gazing blankly toward the horizon. I lay my head across her withers. “Is it time?” she asks without feeling or preamble.

“It's close enough, if you're ready.”

I keep my head on her shoulders as the moon sinks below Equus. We linger. Everything's going to be OK, I know it.

At last I raise my head, and with it the sun, and in the long light of my dawn see that Luna is crying; silent tears falling softly to the grass. Realizing I've seen her she looks back and smiles.”We do love thee, sister. We just wish they loved us, too.”

“They do.”

A moment goes by, and she smiles sadly. Another moment, and with an enthusiasm she was clearly trying to awaken within herself: “We made something for you!”

“Oh?”

“Yes! We noticed something in our nights which all the ponies seem to love: the ornament crafted from thine own sun!”

“An ornament from my sun, for the night?”

Her smile is genuine now, despite her lingering tears. “Mmm!” she nods enthusiastically. “We wish to give it to thee, so thou woudst know the depth of our love. Close thine eyes, my sister.” I smile back at her, and do as she asks. A brief tingle passes through me as her horn brushes my mane. “Open them, and follow us to the pond!”

In the placid spots among the rocks, shielded from the ripples of the falls, the water is clear, and smooth as glass. In its surface, our own faces look back at us; Luna's smile is as bright as my sun, and lit mostly by the light of love within. My own is awestruck at what my Sister has done for me.

“My hair...” I whisper. Instead of the flowing river of subtle pinks I've worn since first donning this shape, a prismatic tapestry of tresses waltzes on imperceptible, ethereal currents. I stare, gape, and then smile at the glamor of her unexpected gift, and my Sister's own well-known beauty which spurred it: inside and out. My dearest Luna, so beautiful, so thoughtful, even now!

“The colors of the aurora, sister; thy sun's own beauty shining in my nights! Thou can suppress it, if thy wish.”

“Why would I ever want to do that?”

“Well...” she looks at the pond as her tail swishes in the kind of sheepish flicks I haven't seen her make for at least a century. “It takes a bit of magic to keep it going. We imparted a little of our own so thou couldst see how it looks, but if it is not kept primed the spell will falter, then break.”

I shake my head, “I don't want to suppress it! I don't want it to falter! I'll wear it with love for you, everyday!” She giggles like the happy little filly she used to be, and rubs her neck against mine.

“Then we'll teach you the spell, but first...”

“First?”

“Come and play with us!” She leaps from the promontory at full gallop, then soars through the calm dawn sky. I am not far behind.

4 - Vae Victis

Canterlot
Present Day

I haven't heard from Sunset in a long time.

When Twilight returned to Equestria, she told me what happened; my dear little Sunset had actually used the crown. She put it on her head, summoned its power, and was consumed by it. As everypony knows, magic responds to emotion, and intent, and the magic of the crown injected its awesome power into her burning fury. Bluntly, it responded to her rage and malice, crudely searing away whatever might have remained of her Equestrian harmony, and remaking her in the image of those terrible passions.

But of course, her seed failed to sprout, as I knew it would

The Element of Magic is part of Twilight. It's attuned to her. It connects to her, as it once did to me. It is a part of her, not merely a tool to be used and then put away by anypony who fancies. Her crown is the Element's external manifestation, but it can only reach it's true power on her brow. For Sunset, it's nothing more than an artifact. A powerful one, yes, but one which responds slowly to her will, and crudely. For her, it is merely a prosthesis, for Twilight, it is...a graft.

The seed of apotheosis, my divine gift, will only fruit from the realized potential of the pony to whom I give it. Even Twilight, perfectly aligned with the Element of Magic though she was, remained a unicorn after receiving it; it waited for her own quickening, her own duende to bring it to life, and Sunset's is no different. Despite the incredible infusion of magical potential it brought, the crown does not belong to her, and Sunset, on her own merits, is not ready; a unicorn she remained beneath the twisting of her flesh, and while she might have been able to fight unicorn Twilight and win, no mere unicorn is the match of an Alicorn.

Twilight said that after her defeat, she had left Sunset in the hands of some humans. The very ones, in fact, whom she had terrorized for so long. It seemed an odd thing for her to do, cruel even; an indirect vengeance both far out of her character, and unbecoming one of her station. Then she said those humans are also that world's bearers of The Elements, so I let her judgment stand. Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and most of all, Kindness are just what Sunset needs now. I was surprised there had been no Element of Magic, but Sunset could do without that for now.

But where is she?

Shortly after Twilight returned, Sunset sent me a single letter. Two little words: “I'm sorry.” Then, no matter what I said, or how I tried to engage, she refused me. Eventually I stopped, thinking she would come to me when she was ready. Now, it seems she is. Our book dances and glows atop my desk, so I open it and begin to read.

Oh no.

My poor Sunset Shimmer. To say nothing of the natives of that world. The sirens have found them. It must be the sirens. Probably attracted to, or maybe even awoken by the surge of Equestrian magic.

If the portal were open, I could take care of this myself. I never did wholly approve of Starswirl's solution of banishment; it was incomplete, leaving open the possibility for the sirens to return, and worse, it inflicted their evil upon whichever world had been unfortunate enough to receive them. I would never have allowed such an action, but by the time I learned of it, the deed had already been done, and I could not undo it because Starswirl didn't know to where in the infinite multiverse he had sent them.

But now, I do. I finally know where, and when they are; this is the perfect opportunity to put an end to their menace. I can easily force the portal open. But to my regret Sunset has asked for Twilight's help, not mine. Perhaps that's for the best? With the portal closed, Twilight won't be in any danger, and if it comes to it, I can cross over, and stop the Beasts of Song once and for all.

But only if I must.

Equestria needs me, Twilight needs the experience, and Sunset needs a friend, not a mother-figure.

However, first things must come first; Twilight needs to know that she is needed. I could just tell her what's happened, but since she's unable to open the portal herself, she'll also require some way to talk Sunset through her new crucible. This book will fulfill both functions admirably. Later, I'll send her a letter if necessary, but I doubt it will be; when she reads the message, she'll recognize the sirens as surely as I did, and the requisite link to Sunset will already be in her hooves.

How unfortunate, the message hadn't come a few hours earlier; I'd sent a large number of books to Twilight as gifts. That would have been a convenient way to get it to her. They'd left the castle only this morning, and are probably there, or nearly so, by now. Maybe they can still serve?

My eyes remain open, but my sight leaves them far behind, as I cast it along the route to Ponyville. Nothing. Maybe they've already arrived in her castle? Through its smooth, gleaming walls I delve. Past the wards and spells meant to keep out farsight and teleportation. My faithful student improves all the time; they're much better than before, but still trivial for me to bypass.

There she is, at the round table, among her books and letters. When she's focused like this, I could teleport it right in front of her and she wouldn't notice. She hasn't even sensed my presence, though I've made no attempt to hide it. Indeed, I would also prefer to give her the chance to solve this problem herself; she needs the experience, after all. What to do?

There! My shipment of books is arriving. When he left, the courier was given instructions to deliver them to Twilight herself, so they'll be heading right to the table-room. Those will catch her attention if anything will! Effortlessly, I reactivate the book's message-alert, while beginning the teleportation spell, and the buzzing, glowing tome vanishes from my chambers with a soft pop.

Good luck, Twilight.

The Everfree Forest
c1000 years ago

The trees in this part of the forest are the remains of one of Luna's gardens. Apples trees, olive trees, cork trees, and every other kind of tree, or herb that will grow in this part of my world, and several that would not, kept alive only by Luna's careful attentions, once grew here. It was her prize. She used it as a source of materials for her magical and alchemical studies, as fodder for her craft-wine hobby, and as she aged, and sleep became less important for her, a pleasant place to spend her days. Many of them are dead now, abandoned by the Princess of the Night as she became increasingly withdrawn over the past century.

Through the trees, widely spaced in the uneven ground, I watch the moon sink below the horizon, though Luna herself is nowhere to be seen. That's not unusual. We raise and lower our celestial bodies dawn after dawn, and dusk after dusk without ever laying eyes on one another, and have for some time.

Silence.

That, however, is strange. Even at dawn there is always some kind of noise to be heard: singing birds, rustling animals, ponies at work, something. Especially here in the forest. Moments ago, I am certain there was, but as the moon vanished, so too did the forest's sounds.

I feel a chill up my spine and know Luna is watching me. She sometimes does, using farsight to spy on me without having to actually share my presence. No, not spy; she knows I know when she watches. Observe, would be a more apposite term. I do not mind, but it is so very quiet; I wish she would speak with me. Dutifully, I raise the sun, and turn to head back toward our castle.

Though I have absolutely no need to sleep, I will usually indulge in its luxury. Last night, I did not want to, and spent it in the forest, instead, watching Luna's sky. She'd become more and more upset over the last hundred years. Nopony seemed to appreciate her efforts, or so she thought, and one night, she'd simply stopped. She still raised and lowered the moon, but there was no more beauty. No more soul.

I was expecting yet another dull night with wan moon, and faint, sickly stars, and it was, at first. Then, near midnight, I sensed her watching me, and shortly thereafter the sky exploded in light and color. The moon blazed like a beacon, and the stars flared, literally flared up, bursting across the sky in hues and intensities I had never seen before. She even brought comets, and hung them in the night like great, milky eyes.

I stayed out and watched it all; after so much effort, I wanted her to know that I, at least appreciated her new found spark. “Thank you sister, that was beautiful.”

Silence.

__________________________________

I'm not even at the gate yet, and I know that something is terribly wrong. None of the guards are at their posts, none of the daily delivery-wagons are awaiting inspection. None of the coopers, or bakers, or gardeners, or any of the other numerous staff are at their tasks, and that silence; not even an insect disturbs it.

I rush through the gate, the sound of my hooves echoing from my walls. Where is everypony? “Hello?” Silence. Thunderous silence. I can still feel the chill that tells me Luna is watching. Why doesn't she say something?

“Luna,” I ask. “Do you know what's happened?”

No answer. “Luna? Sister?” Why doesn't she answer?

I spread my wings and fly to the the servant's buildings. I open the door and gasp in disbelief. Sitting at the duty desk is a guard, softly snoring with his head lolled back. How dare he sleep on duty!

“Guard!” I say in my booming royal voice. “Wake up!” He doesn't budge.

With head high, eyes narrowed, and ears pressed back, I trot over, but my anger abates with each step: his sleep is far from peaceful. His eyes are red and swollen, tears streak his fur, and sweat rolls down his body while muffled screams punctuate awful, foal-like whimpers. “Guard?” I say, shaking him with my wings. Still, he doesn't awaken.

“Luna, what's going on?” This time she answers, but I almost wish she hadn't.

“Hm-hm-hm-hm-hmmmm,” her soft laughter drifts through the air. “Oh, he's having the most marvelous dreams ssssister.” The way she hisses out that last word chills me to my core. “They all are, sleeping, and dreaming until mine night cometh again.”

“What have you done?”

“We sent the guards home, and lay them to bed. In fact,” her disembodied voice rises playfully, “everything on this planet that can sleep, is!”

“Why? Let them go!”

“Hahahahahaha! Oh, sister, thou used to love our jokes. How often did thee say thou adored our sense of humor?”

I looked at the guard, shivering and weeping in his sleep. “This...” I gestured to him. “This is funny to you?”

“No, Celestia, this is the set-up. The punchline shall begin when thee cometh to us.”

Come to her? Has she forgotten who I am? What I am? “I will not play your game, sister. Release them at once, then, I will speak to you.”

Without warning, the guard thrashes violently, and a high, keening wail erupts all around me; they're screaming! All of them: every pony, every animal, every insect. Mad, piercing shrieks shattering the dawn's quiet. Howls born from the deepest insanity, and mind-breaking terror. On and on, echoing and reverberating, assaulting me from all sides, and then, as quickly as it began, they fall silent. Luna's voice speaks again.

“Thou will, of course because thou cares for them, and wishes us to stop, dost thou not, sister?”

This...this can't be happening! She can't mean this! My sister! My sister! How could she do this? Tears well in my eyes, but I don't care. “Luna,” I manage to sob.

“Well, sister? Come and stop us. Thy surely knoweth where we are.”

“Luna, please...”

“No! Come to us. Now is not the time for fear. That comes later.”

Tears are falling freely from my face, and I don't care to help it. How could she do this? Oh, my dear sister...

I can end it now, release them myself, but if she's already this far gone, that might drive her mad. It might even enrage her such that I'll have to...

No! I won't let myself consider that. I'll have to talk to her, to make her understand there's only one way this can end. That hers is only to choose where she stands when it does. “Oh my dear sister...”

She was right, too; I do know where she is: the suites behind our thrones, where we used to meet before going out and changing the sky together. A quick teleport, and there she is, standing before me wearing a cruel smile.

“See, sister? We said thou wouldst come.”

“Luna, what are...Why are you doing this?”

“Luna?” she smirks. “Are we not sisters?”

“Yes,” I nod. “We are sisters, Luna. Because I made it so.” Her smirk changes to a snarl. “Have you forgotten what I am? What I have done? I am a goddess! The creator of sun, and moon. I made the world. I gave life to it. I made you, -” I thrust my hoof toward her “- and made you everything that you are. Who are you to defy me?”

My poor, foalish Luna, so angry her face is a twisted, livid mask of frustrated rage. Why? Can't she hear my words? Can't she understand how hopeless her position is? Why doesn't she yield to me?

“We too, are a goddess!” she screeches. “Thou said so thyself! That one day we would be thy equal!”

“And you think that day has already come?”

“We are the night!” she bellows. “We are the NIGHT! We are the darkness! Weee are the bringer of dreams, and the source of fear!”

“Luna...”

“And they will love mine nights! If not for their beauty, then for their solace from the terrors of the day! They will cower in fear at the mere thought of the light!” Her horn glows, and every poor creature is screaming again, every throat on my planet shrieking itself raw, and bloody.

“They will love us, they will love ME!” Louder and louder they grow with each moment, their mad voices penetrating even the thick stone walls of our castle, and distorting insanely as they howl down its blackened corridors. “They will worship the peace I allow them only when my darkness falls!”

“Luna!”

“Shut up, Celestia! Now is the time for fear! Stop me if you can!”

Oh my dear sister! Oh, my poor, innocent ponies, and everything else that shares my world! This isn't working, and every moment I delay, they suffer. Oh, sister, please forgive me. I must save them from you, but I'm also saving you from yourself. One day, you'll understand. You must.

I call on my power, only a very, very little bit more than I'm used to. Suddenly, the screaming stops. Luna's face jerks towards me, wide-eyed with shock. I force down tears.

“No more of this, Luna. You can't hurt them anymore.” Her horn glows more brightly in response, then blazes, throwing out dazzling lights, and waves of sparks which bounce and burst against the stone. Her face contorts with effort and rage.

Easily countered. My sleeping children don't even stir from her renewed attack.

“NO!”

I calmly raise my snout. She glares at me with a hatred and malevolence I'd never have believed possible, then all at once, collapses to the floor, sobs gushing from her in uncontrolled torrents. Her tears, and moans, and shrill, sniveling keening wracks her frame from nose to tail. Oh, Luna. I'm so sorry it's come to this. Why didn't I realize you had fallen so far?

“Please, let this be the end of it, Luna. Please, my dear, precious sister.” With pity in my heart I turn and march from our suites. Under the arch, between our thrones, and down the stairs. Across the Great Hall, almost to the Grand Door, when her voice rings out behind me.

“Not another step!”

Oh sister, please, no. Please, please, no. I slowly turn to face her.

“Did you expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?”

Please, no.

“There can only be one princess in Equestria.”

Please, no.

“And that princess will be ME!” A frightful, cracking bang, as the stone dais shatters beneath her powerful hooves. A fissure shoots up the wall behind her, and it too crumbles away. Through the hole, I see my sun, shining in the clear blue sky...eclipsed!

5 - Dawn

Canterlot
Present Day

My Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Congratulations!

Through the great strength true friendship provides, you defeated three of Equestria's ancient, powerful menaces. You are a brilliant, educated pony; you don't need me to tell you how this accomplishment shines, even though a part of me indulges in the idea of your relishing my praise, as you once did. This deed will see your name written into history, but it is not your only praiseworthy feat. What I wish to discuss in this letter is your other accomplishment: reformation.

We tell ourselves a myriad of stories about, and justifications for our actions. Our minds remember, forget, and reinterpret events in ways that make us appear laudable to ourselves. This protects us, yes, but it also stunts us; we cannot grow if we're blind to our own failings, and unfortunately, many are.

Intellectually, we know “Nopony's perfect,” but when it comes to it, we often lack the strength to see ourselves in the harsh light of reality. To drop our vanities, and see ourselves as we are, instead of as we imagine ourselves to be. They are never the same. To do this takes more fortitude than many possess, and still more, to realize when one is wanting.

It is difficult.

It is painful.

But you did it anyway, and more than that, you did not turn away. You faced the pain, and let it drive you to become better than you were. My dear Sunset, you are every bit the heroine, and so much greater than you realize. One day, you will be a princess. Because of this, there is one more thing I want to speak to you about.

You know of Princess Luna's rebellion, but will you let me tell you a bit more? When I took up the Elements of Harmony against her, it was not out of necessity, but hope. I'd hoped to intimidate her into giving up. Her rage against me, and her hatred lent her a reckless disregard for my own power, but even then the Elements were legendary, and I thought seeing me wielding them might bring her to her senses.

As you know, they did not. So, when I knew I could not delay any longer, I banished her. Instead of purifying her. Do you know why?

For centuries after I told myself that it was an accident; that in the heat of the moment, my control over the elements had slipped! In your studies, you are sure to have come across period illustrations showing me pink-haired. I ordered it so, to further convince myself that I was flustered, and not malicious; so flustered, in fact, that even the ever-present magic which keeps my hair colored, and in motion had faltered!

But it was a lie.

I banished her in anger. Pain at her betrayal, disgust that I had failed to act on the warning signs, and fear for my ponies' safety wove seamlessly into a spike of rage which bore an action that has haunted me for a thousand years.

You will not find what I have just told you in any history, or record of the land. Not even in the restricted archives. It is a secret I have kept since that time. It would be an understandable question to ask, then; why am I sharing it with you now? It is not as an excuse, or a solicitation for forgiveness, no. I love you, Sunset, but you are not my confidant. I tell you now, as a warning. You will find yourself in desperate situations. As a princess, it is inevitable. I hope you will learn from my moment of weakness, and temper your wrath.

I know you will not see this letter for some time. Since giving Twilight our book, I've begun writing them on ordinary paper, and saving them, because I still hope you'll return to me. Princess Luna has, and resumed her rightful place at my side. I hope that one day, you will read them, and know that even now, far across the multiverse, my thoughts are of you.

There is so much hope in this one little letter. Long experience has taught me such hope often goes unfulfilled. Were you anypony else, I would not dare hold so much of it, but you are you. Indomitable, unstoppable you.

I have faith in you.
~C

Canterlot Meadow
c1000 years ago

It's darker now, beneath my moon. Its once radiant, silver face is now marred with the shadow of my sister, so no longer shines as brightly. It's just as well; beneath my moon, I lay in our spot, and I cry.

Our spot, among the grass, and flowers, where we passed uncounted dawns, dusks, and gorgeous days and nights. This is where Luna invented the aurora, happily coloring her nights with my sun. This is where she first dyed my mane with the power of her love. This is where she frolicked and explored as a filly, never quite growing out of her playful nature, though her years became decades, and then centuries. This is the place she loved; her favorite in all Equestria, where our laughter echoed together as generations of mortal ponies came into our world, lived full, happy lives, and left it.

Now silent, but for the wind, and my pitiful wails.

My sister! Oh, my beloved Luna! If only you had listened! If only you had not forced my hoof! If only I'd had better control over the Elemen...

Beneath my stained moon, my thin veneer of equanimity collapses. I am alone, and have no need for it; mindlessly, I scream my pain to the mountain and let my sobs blot out my grief. On and on, I don't know for how long, and then, though my tears continue to fall, the sweet mental oblivion is broken.

My ponies. All my little ponies, so terrified, and so desperately in need of me. I'd freed them from Luna's spell, but great damage had already been done. They recoil at the thought of sleep now, and need my magic to lull them to rest, so traumatized are they by her nightmares. Nightmare Moon; that's what they're calling her now. All her beautiful works, and heartfelt love are forgotten; hers will be a legacy of terror.

It is a tragedy, in the truest sense, and once more, my heart tears itself from my chest to spill its blood over the meadow.

Over our meadow.

But I am Princess Celestia, and my ponies need me. As dawn approaches, I swallow my pain, and pull myself together. Luna needed me too. I saw the warning signs of what she was becoming, but did not heed them. I thought she knew how much I loved her, even if I did not show it as much as I wanted to. I believed her to understand why my position as ruler demanded I kept her at hoof's-length, that there was no other way, though I wanted nothing more than to embrace her. I was wrong. I failed her; I will not fail them, too.

As I lower the moon, wishing for a way to honor the memory of my beloved sister, an idea comes to me. Luna once confided in me how sad she had been when I ordered Canterlot Mountain abandoned, all those centuries ago. How her family had intended to move to the new town growing up around the jewel mine and open a farm, and how much she had been looking forward to living there.

I also think of our ruined castle in the Everfree; the workers will soon begin repairing it, but I no longer want to live there. It's triumphs and happy memories are buried, now beneath the weight of Luna's betrayal and violations; a seat of perdition, a monument to my failure. But our meadow brims with love and fond recollections.

I reach out and grasp the sun knowing what to do. I will abandon the Castle of the Two Sisters, and raise one here, in her memory: Canterlot Castle!

The dawn breaks and washes me in its golden brilliance. Its light is a new beginning for my ponies, and also for me. I did not realize the error in rationing the expression of my love soon enough to save Luna, but I can use that lesson to better rule my children. That too, will honor her. No more will I keep them at hoof's-length. No more will I rule from on-high, the distant, divine monarch. From now, until the end of Equestria, I will be the kind and warm leader they deserve. I love them all so very much, and now they will know it!

6 - Deep Calleth Unto Deep

6 – Deep Calleth Unto Deep

Canterlot
Present Day

My golden sun blazes down from a cloudless, sapphire sky, and my garden is filled with the perfumes of flowers. The breezes are cool, the marble and porphyry of my balcony are warm, and the sounds of water trickling off the mountain, mix with Philomena's soft, peacock-like cries; what a lovely day!

Silently, I close my eyes and drink it all in. My head tilts skyward, and my suns golden rays smile upon my closed eyelids, as I do back up at them. Pleasant moments pass, and another scent on the air finally reaches maturity, telling me the best moment of this lovely day has arrived. Or possibly the worst. Certainly the most anticipated, for that unnamed scent, humid and mild among my flowers sweet pungence, is the new tea I have to try!

While I don't keep it a secret, few of my ponies know that for hundreds of years I've indulged in the hobby of cultivating tea. Camellia sinensis, primarily, but not all of them have yet been given names, and some are so much changed they would surely need new ones. It's just as well, I'm the only one who knows of them, and so the only one who needs to remember them.

Many of my blends, and strains have won contests. Some of them have won many, and are enjoyed well beyond the borders of Equestria proper, for both their flavor, and the beauty of their blossoms. They're entered anonymously, or by proxy of course; it's the only way to avoid favoritism, and the easiest way to hear my ponies honest opinions of my products. And hear it I do, using it to make Equestria's best teas even better.

Now, after nearly 4 decades of selective breeding, and magical tweaking, I think my efforts have yielded another treat with which to delight my ponies' tongues! Of course, there's only one way to be sure.

I smile in anticipation, and bring the cup to my lips. Its contents' delicate bouquet fills my nostrils. I pause a moment, and look beyond it, marveling at the sight of my demesne; Cloudsdale shines distantly in the bright sunlight, its alabaster spires contrasting beautifully with the blue sky. Ponyville nestles idyllically in the rolling hills to the southwest, their slopes dark with fecund orchards of apple, and pear trees. I close my eyes, again, savoring the moment, and allowing my anticipation to build. At last, I drink, smiling as its warm astringence meets my tongue.

Yes, this is delicious! Even when measured against the absurdly high standards of my gardens. I think I'll give it a name to honor Luna. She was the one who introduced me to tea, after all, back when she was still an earth pony, and another relished sip tells me this drink just might be worthy of her.

The sound of a door hurriedly opened intrudes on my reverie.

A guard pony canters down the arcade, looking rather worried. I nonchalantly take another sip.

He leaps from the top of the stairs with his wings spread, and glides to the grass. Such urgency! It was only a few little steps.

He stops a few meters away and bows deeply. I regard him with a calm smile, and take another sip.“Princess! You ordered to be notified at once if your alarms on the mirror were tripped!”

My heart skips a beat. I hold the liquor on my tongue. Could it be? After all this time, has she at last come back? “Yes,” I reply with a serenity I suddenly no longer felt. “Has somepony come through?”

“Not exactly, Your Highness...”

________________________________

It's sunset, and the air on my balcony is still. A speck appears on the horizon, toward Ponyville. It's so distant it seems to hang motionlessly in the sky, but I know it's moving at considerable speed. Gradually, it draws closer, and the acuity at which I usually leave my eyes is able to resolve it through the glare: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, glowing with my sun's low, red light.

My eyes track her progress as my mind puzzles over the day's events. Some pegasus guards race to intercept her, as she draws near, then quickly let her pass. She comes straight toward me. Landing too quickly to stick, her momentum carries her in a circle, trotting around behind, then beside me, before coming to rest. Her tail flicks anxiously, and her face is filled with concern.

“Is it true?” she asks breathlessly. I quietly nod; her ears and tail droop. “Oh, Twilight...I came as soon as I heard. I teleported all the way to Ponyville, right to her castle, to check for myself,” her frown deepens. “Even when I couldn't find her, I still hoped she might have come here.”

“Not yet, Cadance, but if she does, we'll know; Equestria is on high alert.”

She licks her lips and begins to pace. “Yes, so is the Crystal Empire. This would be a clumsy prelude to attack, but I agree, it's prudent.” Suddenly she stops and looks at me, shifting her weight from left to right uncertainly. “What can I do?”

“Luna is patrolling the Everfree Forest, you may help her, if you wish.”

“What's she looking for?”

“Portals.”

Her brow furrows. “But I saw the mirror, still in Twilight's castle.”

“Cadance, as you know when she found a way to keep it open, I swathed it in alarm-spells...”

“Also prudent,” she says, too quickly.

“Thank you. Right now, those are the only enchantments it still carries.” Her brow furrows, and she cocks her head in the same way she did when I first offered her the spark. A sure sign her mind was racing.

“Was the portal dispelled?”

I shake my head. “Torn free, I think. Without the mirror to anchor it, the mouth will leap about unpredictably.”

“...And the forest's magical nature makes it the most likely place for it to appear!” I nod. “The portal is gone, Princess Twilight is g...gone,” she chokes. “Do you think she went through it?”

I am about to answer, when Cadance shivers visibly, and a familiar chill shoots up my spine. “Sister!” Luna's voice erupts from the aether. “Princess Cadance! We have found it!”

High over Equestria
A few years ago

Even as old as I am, I can still be surprised, and that knowledge pleases me greatly. Moments ago, an incredible burst of magic swept across my world. I felt it, and so did my ponies, all the way to the very cores of our beings. In an awesome front, rapidly rushing over the entire face of my world it sweetened their moods and dreams, and swept my anomie from me. They did not know what it was, but I do: love. Pure, unconditional love, powerful enough to bend the very fabric of reality. What could have caused it?

Instantly, I'd cast my sight across Equestria to its source, not knowing what to expect. Certainly not expecting what I found! A little pink pegasus filly stood at the mouth of a cave, in the snow. It came up to her knees, and lying in it, heedless of the wet chill, was a grown unicorn, openly weeping at her hooves.

She rose, tears still running down her face, and embraced the little filly. Though her snout was lost in the filly's mane, her eyes smiled as she caught sight of the child's flank. She reached out, and her hoof lingered over a cutie mark so new that even a normal pony would still be able to sense the magic of its arrival.

The unicorn began to cry again as she smiled, and, with a seemingly sudden thought, removed her necklace, and pressed it into the filly's hoof. It was a crystaline heart, like the crystal heart of the filly's new cutie mark, but bound in twine, and blazing with invisible magic. Literally a heart, cut from the chest of a siren. A heart filled with malice, bent on snaring its victims with desire, and enslaving them to feed the power of the monster it once beat within. That, or, unbeknownst to all but the most learned, or depraved of ponies, the one who chooses to wear it.

Its raw magical power dwarfed that of either the filly or the unicorn, but it was different. Certainly a siren's heart, but shining and pure. Its selfish cruelty somehow transformed by love. Her love. That was incredible! That was potential! The kind of potential I'd found only once before in my poor, lost sister. Unbidden, memories of her leaped to the forefront of my mind. Still painful, but after all these years, they brought a deep, dull ache, instead of raw, overwhelming anguish.

I had to seize that chance! Tears still falling from her eyes, the unicorn stepped into her cave, and I acted, teleporting the filly, and myself to this special place we now stand. She blinks, looking thoroughly confused.

“W-where...Princess!” her eyes widen the moment she sees me.

“It's ok, my little pony, there's no need to be afraid.” She regards me uncertainly for a moment, then relaxes.

“Not as long as you're here, your highness.” I smile at that.

“What's your name, little one?”

“Mi Amore Cadenza, your highness. But everyone calls me Cadance.”

“Cadance. What a beautiful name!”

She breaks into a smile. “Thank you, your highness!”

I beam back at her. “You may call me Celestia, Cadance.”

“Oh, no!” she shakes her head. “I could never do that, your highness!”

“Well,” I say with an exaggerated frown. “You don't have to, but I'd very much like it if we could become friends.”

She tilts her head to one side, and her candy-striped mane falls over her shoulder. She seems entranced by the possibility. “You want to be my friend?”

“Mm-hmm,” I nod. “And maybe talk a little bit. Would you like that?”

“A whole lot!”

“And I would, too!” I say with my warmest smile, and we do. Talking about this and that as we walk through my clouds. I ask her questions, and she asks me, too. I learn all about her home and family. She tells me about school, and her favorite sweets, and so many other things. My senses are sharp, my attention is focused, and in truth, even ignoring my gentle, magical probing of her mind, she's told me very much more than she realizes. I'm quite happy with what I've found; she really could be what I've longed for since that day.

“Cadance, do you know why I've brought you here?”

“No, Princ...C...Celestia.” Her voice shrinks to a whisper at my name. “I don't even know where we are,” she says, pulling her eyes away from me, and looking around. For what seems like the first time, she notices she isn't standing on the familiar surety clouds, but on 'nothing:' a floor of pure magical force, and far, far below it, so far the sky is black despite my sun, my world spreads out like a shining gem. There's a satisfying gasp as her little jaw drops.

“We're high above Equestria. Right over Canterlot, in fact.”

“Wow,” she peers through the floor. “Canterlot?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“We're so high,” she says in quiet awe. “I can't even see it. I've never even heard of anypony coming so high.”

“Very few ponies do, Cadance. Not even the clouds come this high, or the air you breathe. Nopony can come here unless I bring them, and I've brought you because I want to give you a present.”

“A present? For me?”

“Yes, Cadance. It's not a present you can hold, but it's very, very special.” She tilts her head, and furrows her brow, looking extremely nonplussed. “Special, like you,” I say, and she breaks into a sudden smile. “One day, it will change you.”

Her brows furrow again. “Change me?”

“Yes, child. One day, when you're ready, it will give you a new strength, and a very special job to do.” I can see her mind working furiously. Even as young as she is, she knows I wouldn't be here if it weren't important. If she can understand that, maybe she can also understand my meaning, even if I don't simplify it so much?

“One day you'll become an Alicorn, Cadance. And one day, long after that, you'll become like me, and if you do your job right, if you love your ponies, and take good care of them, they will all love you, in turn.”

“Like the way we all love you?” What can I say to that? What words can adequately express the way she made my heart mawkishly leap? Fortunately, she speaks up almost immediately. “If it means I can help more ponies, then I want it!”

“Are you sure? Once I give it to you, it becomes part of you. You won't be able to change your mind.” A lie; until it blooms, I can remove the spark as easily as I bestow it, but it is a white lie, and I must know her reaction. Once more, I expand my senses, and quicken my mind. Once more, her smallest expression tells me her deepest thoughts.

She nods with surprising solemnity. “I'm sure,” and she is.

“Then close your eyes, Cadance, and open your heart.” I will the spark to pass to her, and for show, gently tap her head with my horn.

Instantly, a burst of light shoots from her chest, and I laugh in delighted surprise! So soon?

It swirls, and jumps around her, and carries her tiny frame into the air. Now she's smiling, too, her face shining in sheer bliss. “It's so warm!”

She floats, engulfed in a brilliant light which grows and feeds upon itself. It surges back through her body, and up her neck, pouring, then gushing, and finally blasting from her eyes in an unstoppable torrent. Still, it builds, and she lets loose an exhilarated yell as it bursts from her forehead in a searing flash of pure magic, leaving a long, radiant spire in its wake. She bobs subtly, laughing and languidly spinning about her axes, gradually sinking lower and lower as the light fades away.

At last her hooves touch the ground. Her eyes are crossed, focused on her new horn. She grins soundlessly, twisting her head this way, and that, and turns on her hooves in a complete circle.

“What happens now, Celestia?”

I'm not sure how to answer. Nightmare Moon announced her arrival with a spasm of hate and fear so keen that even a thousand years later its wound still has not healed. Cadance announced hers with a wave of calming love pure enough to wash the taint from a siren's dead heart. I don't know what happens now, but for the first time in far, far too long, I know genuine hope.

Author's Note

My muse finally decided to return to me. Of all things while writing an ponified version of Shake Ya Ass. She is a fickle thing, but that's said out of respect, not as a complaint.

7 - Ad Sumus

7 – Ad Sumus

The Everfree Forest
Present Day

The forest's humid stench washes over me as my teleport spell completes, depositing me onto a soggy stretch of grass and mud in the Everfree's lowlands. A fraction of a second later, Cadance pops into being beside me.

“Where is it?” she hurriedly asks, paying no mind to the squishing beneath her hooves. Luna indicates the direction with her nose.

“It was there, for a moment.” Cadance follows Luna's gesture, then stares at the ground, tears welling in her eyes.

“Did you see Twilight?”

“No, Princess Cadance, we are sorry.” A single sharp sob pierces the darkness as Cadance's head bows. Luna tenderly nuzzles her, sharing breath and soothing her, then softly: “But as we said, there was not much time.”

I look at our surroundings. This part of the Everfree is notorious. More swamp than woods, and filled with dense fog, ghost-lights and strange, dangerous things. Even the few ponies who regularly brave the forest's outskirts, or its few, lonely paths avoid this area at all costs. Yet, here my fearless sister had come, alone, at night, without a moments hesitation. For Twilight. My heart would swell with pride if I weren't so worried.

I trot over and stand with them, wrapping my wings around their withers. Their own wings wrap mine, and we hold each other tightly, until at last, Cadance is calm, again.

With a final nuzzle behind Cadance's ear, I turn to my sister. “Please, tell us everything you can.”

Luna closes her eyes, head drooping and brow furrowing in concentration. “First, we felt great mirth overtake us. It was as if laughter, humor itself were a presence. Then a purple glow appeared, and opened into a rift.

“We rushed closer, and heard music. It was strange, of a kind we have never heard before,” her snout scrunches in consternation. “We could not even recognize the instruments. There were also voices, but we could not hear what they were saying.”

Cadance speaks up. “Could you see anything through it?”

“Yes. There was a wall, of sorts. It was of horizontal wooden boards, secured to an iron frame. There were gaps between the boards, and a strange creature was peeking through.”

“Did it see you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “We don't believe so; the portal closed before we cold approach it.”

“Well,” began Cadance. “At least you found something” - She smiles and gives a strange laugh - “Really, since it disappeared so quickly, we're lucky it opened closely enough for you to find it.”

“Oh, it was not mere chance, Princess Cadance; we used a beacon spell to draw it to us.” Again, I am impressed by my sister's selfless bravery.

“That's very dangerous,” says Cadance, echoing my thoughts. “Especially here, there's no telling what else might have come instead.”

“No, but we are as desperate to find Princess Twilight as you, or Sister. We would be remiss if we did not use all of the tools at our disposal.”

I set my wing on her back. “Sister, please,” I whisper. “Don't do that again, not alone.” She looks at me with a small frown, then nods.

“Not alone,” she agrees, pressing her neck to mine. We stand in silence a few moments, sharing breath, then quietly, Luna continues.

“There is more. The magic was a tangled mess, but we could recognize a few distinct signatures within it. One was the portal itself. Others were the Elements of Harmony: Generosity, and Laughter.” Cadance's gasp tells me she is surprised as I am.

“But how is that possible?”

An odd expression sweeps over Luna's face, as though she is hesitant to speak. “We suspect it's because the largest portion...” - she pauses, looking me in the eyes in an almost pleading manner - “...was siren magic.”

That would explain it. Sirens absorb life and emotion, some were known to have been able to temporarily drain magic, too, but I'd never imagined a siren could become powerful enough to destroy the gate.

“Twilight said the trio on that side were defeated, and their gems broken. You're sure it was siren magic?”

“We are,” she nods. “It was unmistakable, mangled though it was.”

“Mangled?”

“Yes...” Luna frowns. “We don't know a better word to describe it.”

“Prismia used the heart of a siren as jewelry, and as a weapon,” says Cadance. “Could somepony there have made something from the fragments?” A look of comprehension sweeps across Luna's features.

“That's it!” She says, stamping the sodden ground with a forehoof. “The wall partially blocked our view, but through the gaps, we could see the creature was wearing a locket.” Cadance looks at me worriedly. “It glowed with the same violet light that preceded the rift, and when the creature closed it, the portal disappeared.”

“A locket?”

“Yes! That was the source of the magic, I'm sure!”

“Then we've learned something,” I say. “Is there anything else, sister?” She shakes her head.

I take a few thoughtful steps past them and stand, gazing silently off into the black woods. Ideas turn themselves over in my mind, and the stink of the air, the clamminess of the mist, and the spongy give of the land on which we stand all fade into the background.

Like Cadance said, this would be a clumsy attack on Equestria, but it would be a good first move if the sirens simply wanted revenge; kidnapping Twilight, and closing the portal would isolate Sunset, and the humans from our help. However, Sunset's newest letters to Twilight didn't mention them, and my alarms would have been tripped if anypony had crossed through. Also, without their gems, they are powerless, certainly incapable of this, or of defeating both an Alicorn and an extremely gifted unicorn working together.

It's probably not them. In fact, its unlikely that Twilight is on their side of the portal at all; my alarms again, and the fact Sunset wouldn't be asking for her help via the book if she were. If Twilight isn't there, that makes Siren involvement even less likely. But then where could she be?

If I knew where the mirror's portal led, I could open one myself, and find out immediately, but I never bothered to trace the mirror to its destination, and it would do no good to open gates randomly in an infinite multiverse, hoping to chance upon the right place, and right time in the right one. It would not only be a terrible waste of time and resources, but expose my world and its inhabitants to great danger. However, the very portal we seek is likely to reappear in this vicinity, especially with Luna calling it, and when it does, I can discover all we need to know. It's our only lead, and thus, our greatest chance for success.

“There's nothing for us to do now, but wait for it to reopen. Cadance,” I say, turning to her. “It seems even less likely than ever that this is an attack, but I would like you to return to Canterlot, both to alert us if Twilight returns, and to coordinate a defense if it becomes necessary.” She nods.

“We'll contact you at midnight, dawn, noon, and dusk. If you don't hear from us, you may use farsight to search, but don't come looking for us. A royal must remain in Equestria.

“Sister,” I say, turning to Luna. “I will remain here with you, and we'll continue the beacon, together.” She nods, too. “Are there any questions?”

___________________________________

Midnight came. My dear sister wrought her magic, and I kept her safe.

Dawn, and Princess Cadance's voice speaks from thin air, asking to replace one of us. “I have never needed sleep,” I tell her. “And Luna has been an Alicorn far longer than you. Enjoyable though sleep can be, I doubt she requires it any longer.” Reluctantly Cadance acquiesces, and we continue our vigil.

Noon, but you would not know it by my sun, hidden beyond the dense, moss-strewn tree-tops. Here, the waters are deep, and the shadows dark, no matter the time of day or night, but my gaze penetrates all. I see things lurking around us: nightmares oozed, putrid and malevolent from cracks in reality. Products of evolution and feral magic also slink and crawl. None of these are creatures born of my work, but still they know me, and they dare not approach.

Hours pass in uneventful, if oppressive silence. I look at my sister, her eyes are open, but unseeing and she's still as a frozen lake. Exactly as she has been since Cadance left us. The steady light from her horn is the only clue that she is more than a statue, or a corpse, and even that is swallowed by the hungry gloom.

Suddenly, I feel it, a warm glow of swelling empathy: Kindness! Luna's eyes bat furiously as she pulls herself from her trance. Our gazes meet for an instant, then wordlessly, we look about, scanning frantically for what we know is coming.

There! Across the swamp, a purple light among the vine-cowed trunks, fantastically bright in the darkness. Then another, and another, each following as quickly as thought. As one they open into gates, and Luna rushes toward them.

Something leaps through from the swamp, and immediately returns, pursued by a small, though terribly loud animal. They leap from puddle to tuft, and from one portal to another, their distorted shadows casting wildly about in the sunlight spilling from the portals' mouths.

The glare doesn't hinder me, and I look through them. Bushes, grass, portions of a brick wall, 2 humans, and there, just as Sister said: some of the creatures Luna spoke of, one of them with a pendant floating around her neck, and blazing with an insane melange of sorceries.

She's almost there, but already I can see one of the humans wrapping her hands around it. Sister won't make it in time; the gates are already too small for her to fit through. As quickly as only a goddess can, I reach through them with my mind. My senses stretch, searching for Twilight and...

Sunset! Oh Sunset!

My heart leaps as I brush her essence, then, without warning, I see only the swamp again. The portals have closed, but that doesn't matter. I have already discovered what I needed to know. The amulet's base magic is undoubtedly siren, but the one wearing it is only human. Worryingly, contained within it, were also the elements of Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness. But more than anything else, there was Sunset.

“Sister, are you hurt? Why are you crying?” I blink in surprise as happy tears fall from my eyes.

“No, Luna, I found Sunset.” She stoops her head and approaches, touching my nose with her own.

“Tears of joy, then?”

“Mm-hmm,” I nod.

“And Twilight?”

I shake my head. “She's not there.”

“That is why you let them collapse?”

“Yes. And Sunset...Sunset is close.”

Luna looks at me quietly in response, her own thoughts nearly hidden behind her deep, placid eyes. “So she must solve this problem on her own.”

It wasn't a question.

It didn't need to be.

A few more tears fall, and I whisper so softly that not even Luna can hear. “Good luck.”

8 - Duende

8 – Duende

Twilight did not go through the mirror. We finally knew, but the question, then still remained: where was she? The query burned within us all, but with no more clues, there was precious little we could do to divine the answer.

I was now all but certain we weren't under attack, but it was conceivable the Yaks, Changelings or some other neighbor of ours would learn something was amiss and try to take whatever advantage they could, so Cadance continued her organizations of Equestria's defense, while Luna resumed her patrols, no longer calling the rifts, but instead keeping my ponies safe from them. I returned to Twilight's castle in the hopes of finding something, anything that would tell us what had become of her.

I wandered from room to room, inspecting each carefully, and every strange device I found therein. Twilight infused the place. Her scent, her magic, her very essence radiated from the hard crystal walls. They glimmered and shone and reflected images of her from within my mind, but my search for clues proved fruitless.

Sister called me sometime later, her disembodied voice breaking the silence of the dark halls to tell me of another portal. I felt it too: Honesty, and it didn't close. It grew and grew, and I knew it would be trouble, if not for us, then for that other world, but Sunset was there for them, and Twilight was somewhere else.

Luna told me later that the swamp's carnivorous plants pushed their tendrils through the portals. Some of them even fit their entire heads through, but they were far from Ponyville, and no longer held the promise of Twilight's delivery, so she was content to watch from afar until they winked out of existence, and I was content to let her.

Moments after it closed, another opened. Loyalty, this time, and worse, it wasn't in the forest. But it, too was short-lived and vanished. The siren-magic was getting out of hoof, but I remained at my task; Luna and Cadance would protect my ponies, Sunset would do what she could for the humans, and I would find Twilight.

Eventually, I make my way back to her grand hall; another circuit completed, with nothing to show for it. The roots of the Golden Oak hang in the gloom like some tentacled horror from the Immaterium.

This isn't working, and I must not fail. I have to go deeper. I expand my awareness, and in an instant know everything there is to know about the palace. Every facet, every groove, every mote of dust, and every atom. Twilight's lingering scent rises from the obscurity of sundry, useless details, and there, plaited with its strands, are those of an unfamiliar pony, and of the worrying emotions they both felt.

I push my senses further, and the giant, clumsy atoms are left behind. All the forces and energies binding them together resolve themselves, and each tiny measure of the time which stops everything from happening all at once, does too. Smaller and smaller fractions of a second pass, each one entire aeons to me, and here, far, far beyond the threshold I normally leave my senses, is a faint frisson of magic.

Time magic.

I recoil in horrified surprise. Could their shared presence really be a coincidence? Unlikely, but of course, I wouldn't have believed Twilight's and the portal's disappearances were either, even though they now seem to be just that. And what's more, back among the realm of gargantuan molecules, where the scent of the unfamiliar pony lurks: fear. Twilight's fear. And the other pony's scent stinks of anger.

For the thousandth time, I cast my sight across Ponyville, but there were none I didn't recognize. I search more broadly, sending my awareness down roads and rivers, through woods. Fields, and buildings. All throughout my land, I search, but find no recent traces of Twilight, nor of this other pony. If Twilight entered a portal through time, this pony probably went with her.

I loathe time magic, but Twilight must be found, and I'm the only one who can follow her to where she has gone. So, with a heavy heart, I gather my strength, ponder how best to use it, and beg the multiverse itself to give her back to me.

That's when the screaming started.

_________________________________

Normally the walls and distance between us would have prevented me from hearing them, but now, with my senses honed, they roared like thunderclaps. Their cacophony rose and fell with the tidal wave of siren-magic crashing into me; another portal, spewing its noxious stew of eldritch energies like debris in a flash flood.

At once, my sight is again beyond Twilight's castle, and I see it, yawning beneath a tree, right in front of the Town Hall! A half-dozen ponies are in panicked flight; it must have been them I heard. Beyond the gate's mouth floats a creature of terror; a human mare, bewinged, and crowned with a single, malformed horn, whose mad, glinting eyes are limned in cold fire.

With easy waves of her hand, she tears hole after hole between our worlds; I can see Manehattan, Appleoosa, Rainbow Falls, and many others. Too many, and all of them echoing with the fearful screams of my children. This has to be stopped!

Effortlessly, and all at once, I begin casting the spells I'll need: teleports to take me there, and to move any ponies or humans on the wrong sides of the gates; masking spells, so she won't sense my arrival, or the buildup of my magic; shielding spells to protect me, and mine, in case she does; numerous closure spells for the portals themselves; and a variety of attacks to annihilate her utterly, before she can bring any more harm to my dear, dear ponies.

Everything will happen in an instant, and it will all be over before anypony even knows anything is happening at all.

Suddenly, my heart stops.

Sunset Shimmer, straight-backed and stern-faced, standing resolute beneath the monster's unhinged glare.

“Twilight, you can't do this!”

An image flashes to my mind: Sunset, still a filly, in Canterlot with me. We'd spent the day learning about Starswirl's victory over the sirens. “Celestia,” she'd asked. “How could he be so brave if he was afraid?”

“Oh, Sunset,” I'd replied. “That's the only time you really can be.”

Pride and love swell within me. Oh, Sunset...

Magic hums and races along my horn, fighting powerfully to manifest, but I hold it in check, and watch; can she really handle this?

“Why not?! There's a whole world right there, and it's just filled with magic!” A flash of light, an extended limb, and she gleefully blasts another hole through the multiverse.

Twilight told me there were human versions of her friends over there. Uncannily exact, right down to their names. Knowing that, it makes sense that “Twilight” would be the one to recover the gem fragments, and make them into the locket. Now, seeing what she's doing with it is also a sobering reminder of what my Twilight almost became. Of what Sunset did become, until Twilight pulled her back.

“But you're destroying this world to get it!”

“So what? There's magic there, and I want to understand it all!”

I see it coming before Sunset does. The glimmer in the monster's eyes, the curl of her lips, and a thousand and one other clues tell me an attack is imminent. But at the last moment, Sunset begins to dodge, and I know she'll be ok. The beam slams to the ground sending clumps of dirt erupting from the gaping maw of yet another portal.

Another one.

“This isn't the way!”

The largest one yet.

“I know you feel powerful right now. Like you can have anything you want.”

Another portal to crack my world, and endanger my ponies.

“I've been where you are. I've made the same mistake you're making.”

I'm sorry, Sunset.

“I put on a crown, and just like you, I was overwhelmed my the magic it contained.”

This is far too dangerous to let go on.

“I thought it could get me everything I wanted.”

With images of Nightmare Moon's banishment flitting before my eyes, I tally the gates, take note of where each pony and human is, and begin to unleash my blitz. Dimly, I'm aware of my Sister approaching. She must have come all the way from the Everfree. It doesn't matter now, though, this will all be over before she arrives.

I loosen my hold, and feel the bottled energies begin to slip...and my heart stops again! Another power touches me, familiar and wholly unexpected. The Elements of Harmony! Passing in brilliant, colored streamers to the locket held defiantly over Sunset's head.

There's something else, too. I focus my attention on her, and suddenly I'm laughing and howling like a mad-mare among Twilight's dark, vacant halls. This is it! It must be!

Instantly, I drop the other spells, and teleport to my Sister's side; she must not interfere!

_______________________________

Here, above and away from ponyville, I watch through the portal as Sunset slams the locket to the ground. Its pilfered magic bursts from the liberated fragments of the siren-gems, then quickly reforms and engulfs her.

A shiver runs down my spine, and I know Cadance is watching now, too. Luna says something to her eidolon, but I don't care to hear. I'm laughing and whooping, and gliding to the surface. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cadance materialize beside her. They trail me to the ground, regarding me with uneasy concern. They must think I'm mad.

“Watch!” I flick my snout toward the portal. “Can't you feel it?” Probably not, but I can! The seed inside Sunset is cracking open! It's roots are sprouting, and setting her soul aflame! Divine fire burning away her mortality and forging her anew! My Sunset, my Sunset!

My student turned protoge, my protoge turned devil, my devil reformed, and now, at long, long last, my demigoddess! And I can FEEL it all!

My Sister and Niece gasp as the radiance of her transformation fades to reveal her new, bewinged form. I simply lay down in the soft grass. Sunset raises her arms, and in a flash the portal is closed. Two by two, all over my planet, I sense the rifts slamming shut, until only one remains.

Cadance and Luna settle to the ground beside me in silence. I know they're watching me intently, but I am still focused elsewhere. Long ago, when I was put to the test my wrath bested me, and my Sister paid the price. Now, across the multiverse, Sunset faces her own crucible. With furious eyes, and terrible power, she lashes out, and the human girl wails desperately as she is overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed, but not destroyed.

Sunset's visage is hard, and the girl cowers, but I can already read her intention. Closer she floats, in a column of light.

“Take my hand, Twilight. Let me show you there's another way. Just like someone once did for me.” I watch her take Sunset's hand. I watch the light of friendship singe away her bitter callousness, and I sigh euphorically as the last portal is seared closed.

9 - Retrouvailles

9 – Retrouvailles

My songbirds are at it again, and their high melodies perfectly suit my mood; Twilight has returned! I can't keep the smile from my face as I set out a table in my garden. With my own 2 hooves, no less. And maybe, with a bit of help from my horn, here and there.

Cups and saucers here, sugar and cream there. Leaves of my newest prize strain steeping in the kettle, and an assortment of cakes, and treats laid out just so. I'm partial to anything banana myself, but there are plenty of others; Twilight is coming for a visit, and she's bringing a new friend. I am very eager to meet her.

It turns out, the pony I'd smelled in her castle was just as guilty as I'd thought. Starlight Glimmer, quondam leader of Our Town, had hunted my student down, and tried to take her revenge by taking Twilight's past.

Of course, the multiverse being what it is, such a plan could never have succeeded. Those terrible realities Twilight visited were not created by Starlight's actions, but have always existed, and would always exist within their own timelines, completely independent of our own. When Starlight went to the past, she altered events, yes, but the only result of doing so was to send herself down a timeline which had always existed, leaving all the infinite others very much intact.

In fact, had Twilight not gone to the past as well, she would have experienced no change, continuing on in our own timeline, utterly unaffected by Starlight's “revenge,” and would have, in fact, never encountered her again. I do hope Starlight realizes that in stopping her, Twilight actually saved her from being cast adrift in time.

Maybe she does, and maybe she doesn't, either way I'll be able to tell when she arrives. She will keep no secrets from me, I won't permit it. Hers was a stupid plan made by a rage-filled pony, yes, but it was a difficult plan, too. She'd used Starswirl's magic instead of her own to create the time-bridge, but it was still a remarkable feat, and a pony who is both so gifted, and so ruthless will have my undivided attention for as long as it takes to be sure she is no longer a threat.

Incredibly, that's exactly what Twilight claims! Twilight says she managed to not only thwart Starlight's vengeance, and return them both to their proper timeline, but to have actually turned her into a friend while doing so! Ostensibly. I trust Twilight's judgment here, but I also trust my own experience, and would much prefer to have a pony who is so powerful, so unstable, and so recently adversarial, somewhere that she can be watched. Just in case.

But, my ulterior motive does not counter my putative one; I truly hope her penitence is genuine, and until I know otherwise, I will treat her as a friend of Twilight's deserves to be treated. So I prance about the table, making sure everything is just perfect for their arrival, while humming to myself, and matching my voice to those of the birds.

I hear a pony approaching. I don't need to look to know who it is.

“Aunt Celestia!”

“Hello, Cadance,” I smile. “Are you here for the party?” Her ears perk up as she surveys the table.

“Party?”

“Mm-hmm. For Twilight and her new friend. I've invited them to have tea with me.”

“Ummmm...” suddenly her ears press back, and her eyes find the floor. “Actually, I have a message from Twilight,” she says, awkwardly scraping the marble with her hoof.

“Oh?”

“Yes...she asked me to wait a little before giving it to you,” she pauses. “But-” her head shakes rapidly “-I wouldn't have if I'd known you were planning a party.”

“What was the message?”

“Yeah, well...oh boy.”

“Cadance?”

“She read the book you gave her. The one to communicate with Sunset?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You know how excitable she is.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Well, she didn't let me explain what happened, and just rushed off through the portal as quickly as her hooves would take her.”

“Oh.” Well, darn. “So she won't be coming. What about her friend?”

“Twilight didn't mention her. I don't think she knows about it.”

I nod. “That sounds like something Twilight might do.” Cadance nods, still looking at the floor.

“She loves to help...” her voice trails off, and we look at each other for a few moments.

“Well, my dear niece. There's no reason to let all of this go to waste.” - she perks up again - “Would you care to spend the afternoon devouring cakes and tea with me?”

“You bet!”

Shortly after we begin, the sound of a door gently opening filters down to me. I ignore it, and the steady clip-clop of hooves on marble, as their owner approaches. “Twilight!” Cadance shouts through a mouthful of cake.

“Hi Cadance, thanks for your help.”

“Anything for my favorite filly!”

Twilight smiles, then turns somberly to me, her purple eyes heavy with import. “Princess Celestia, there's a vital matter we need to discuss.”

______________________________________

I am calm.

My breath is even, and my eyes are serene. Inside, I'm anything but; my stomach flutters, and I feel the room might drop out from under me at any moment. The feeling of my hair in its etheral breeze adds to my discomfiture.

“You're hiding it well, Sister,” Luna not-quite whispers. I meet her smile with one of my own. Her gentle voice, and kind eyes give a much needed anchor for my emotions.

“Not well enough, it seems.”

“Oh no, Sister,” she says with a light chuckle. “Not even we can pierce your facade.” - she winks at me - “We simply know you better than you give us credit for.”

The feeling of Cadance's delicate nuzzle on my left cheek intrudes. Then, as she presses her shoulder to mine: “That's right, Auntie Cely, we're your family, and we're here for you.” With a smile, I lean more firmly into her, and feel Luna's weight pressing on my right side. They're nervous, but not like me.

I'd told Luna about Sunset, and Cadance even met her briefly, years ago. They were both delighted at the surprise emergence of another Alicorn, and when Twilight said Sunset had asked her to seek my permission to return, they'd all but begged to be here when she did.

Not that they needed to, of course, but they don't share our history, and so, don't share my doubts. Idea after unwanted, distracting idea runs through my mind. Slowly, carefully, I breathe in. I pause, focusing on the heartbeats of my Sister and Niece at my sides. Slowly, carefully, I let it go, and send my rampant thoughts with it.

The mirror begins to glow; they are coming, and I am ready.

Side by side, so closely their flanks are touching, they step over the mirror's threshold. Sunset Shimmer, ice-blue eyes fixed intently on the floor, turns to me. She opens her mouth to speak, but only manages a soft, strained gasp.

Tears well in her gorgeous eyes and she tries again, but no words come out. Trembling with effort, she forces her face to meet mine, opens her mouth a third time, and breaks into uncontrollable tears. Her legs give out beneath her and she sinks to the cold floor.

Luna and Cadance are silent, undoubtedly wanting me to take the lead. Twilight drops back, her eyes focused on me, as I step forward, one measured pace after another. I can't run, I can't speak; if I do, I'll lose control.

Sunset moans, and whimpers softly as my hoofsteps come to a halt in front of her. I stand over her, emotions churning wildly, my eyes never leaving this one little pony: the very center of my world.

“I'm sorry,” she whispers. “I'm so, so sorryyyy...” her voice breaks as the last sound stretches out to a wail.

Slowly, carefully, I lay prone in front of her.

Slowly, carefully, I wrap my wings around her.

“I am too,” and suddenly we're crying together. She crawls closer and pushes against my neck with her own. We nuzzle, and lean; lean, and nuzzle, and hold each other, sobbing away our pain, fears, and regrets. Our tears mingle, hot and wet on the cold crystal floor, as our hearts finally begin to heal. At last, we are spent, and I look around to see my family smiling at us.

My family.

Cadance was right; they are my family. Luna, my sister: first to ascend and show me my loneliness would not last forever; Cadance, my niece, whose unconditional love taught my heart to hope again; Twilight, also my niece, both through her brother's marriage, and most importantly, my love, who returned my Sister, and Sunset, and who has saved my ponies time and again; and Sunset. Poor orphaned Sunset: my daughter.

When I first passed her the spark, I'd made arrangements in secret, adopting her as my own. I'd intended to tell her when her wings sprouted, but alas, she'd left before I'd had the chance. She's never known she's royalty, and even though she fled my home, she has never stopped being my daughter.

Sunset, my beloved child, in whom I saw so much of myself that I threw caution to the wind, and in so doing nearly doomed an entire world. Here we are, all together for the first time.

A smile spreads across my face, waxing larger and brighter as my happiness grows. Luna is the first to speak.

“Welcome home, Princess Sunset.” She looks up at me, brow furrowed in confusion, before her gaze slides to my Sister.

“Thank you, Princess Luna. Princess Twilight told me you'd come back.” She looks back at me, then to Luna again. “If it's not too late, I'd like to say the same to you, Princess.”

“It is not, and we thank thee, as well,” - a mischievous twinkle flashes in my Sister's eye - “Princess.” Sunset looks between us, again.

“Princess Luna, why do you keep calling me that? I'm only a unicorn.”

Cadance lets out a little laugh. “I bet Twilight would have told you, but she didn't know either. Looks like Luna owes me 20.” She grins at Twilight, who has been staring open-mouthed with disbelief since she'd realized. “It serves you right for taking off again before we could tell you anything!” Sunset's head swivels between the 4 of us from between my wings, still clasped over her back.

“What do you mean, Princess Cadance? Twilight?”

With a gentle nuzzle, I whisper, “See for yourself,” and let our hug go.

“I have wings!” she gasps. Luna snorts facetiously.

“To think a pony could undergo apotheosis, and not even know.”

“I have wings! When did...” A look of shocked understanding shoots across her face. “The school? But how? You weren't even there!”

“Oh, Sunset,” I say as I hug her again. “There's so much to tell you. Just know that I've never really been as far away as you think.”

______________________________________

Time passes in its slow, inexorable way. There is laughter, and there are tears. More of each are sure to come, but we're mending. At long last, I have my family, and they have me. We'll live each day, and each night in love for our ponies, and for each other.
Forever.

Author's Note

And here we are.

The last chapter.

If anybody's reading this, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed it.