I stood on the balcony of the tallest tower of Canterlot Castle. looking out over the balustrade, I saw the undisturbed gardens below, and above them, the streets and houses of my beautiful city, sprawling outwards organically for what seemed like miles. All was peaceful, the streets were completely empty except for one stallion who walked away into the distance by the light of his horn. But I hadn't come out to admire the tranquility of the city, I looked further up, above the rooftops, to see my sister beginning her evening ritual.
It had been two months. Two months since I presented my sister with the offer to return to Canterlot with me. During the first weeks I preoccupied myself with apologizing to her and didn't notice, but ever since she returned she wasn't acting her normal self. Assuredly, she was much better than in the beginning; after she heard my pleas for forgiveness, my recollections of loneliness, she became almost like her old self again. Almost.
She wasn't quite herself in the months preceding her exile either, but I had always attributed that to her growing jealousy. Now I wasn't so sure.
I had been avoiding asking her about it for fear of her feeling I was encroaching, but I knew it had to be done. I watched as Luna descended toward the neighboring tower and waited for her to cross the bridge connecting our towers. I faintly heard a distinctive sound heralding her arrival. Trot trot trot. She entered without a word and lay down in front of the fire. I gathered all my courage and approached her.
"Luna," I uttered, "are you sure you're completely alright?"
"Why do you ask sister?"
"I've noticed that you're still not quite your old self. I can totally understand if something is wrong, so if something is, please don't hesitate to tell me about it."
"Nothing is wrong. I am fine."
"Luna, I can tell that not everything is fine, and I wouldn't expect it to be, but I feel responsible for any pain you feel and I want to help you."
"I said I'm fine."
"Is it that there's something you are not telling me? I assure you, nothing you could tell me would make me angry. I wouldn't even banish Nightmare Moon again if given the chance. That is a mistake I will not repeat."
"It's not something I wish to discuss."
"Listen Luna, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I can tell you're uncomfortable as it is. You must resolve this conflict if you wish to truly return to the way it once was."
"The reason I don't want to discuss it is because you've made it very clear that you feel great pain about what happened in our fight. I do not want to cause you more distress."
I was right; it *was* something that started before her exile.
"Luna, I just want to have my sister back as she was, not always reserved and downcast."
"Celestia—"
"Luna please, tell me what is on you mind."
"Very well."
It all started a few years before I first refused to lower the moon. I was visiting the little foals at the Canterlot schoolhouse, teaching them about the history of Equestria. They all listened attentively, I felt every pair of little eyes in the room focusing on mine, but almost nopony asked any questions—it was clear what everypony was really interested in. Only one little filly didn't seem entirely absorbed by my royal status. This one unicorn seemed more interested in my presentation than my title. She was deeply engaged and asked truly insightful questions that I've never heard anypony ask before.
I met with the filly after school let out. She was a white-colored unicorn with a mane that reminded me of the blue lilies in the pond near the castle. When I approached her, she told me that her name was Midnight Blue. I informed her that I thought the questions she had asked during my lecture were deeply thoughtful and that I was impressed. At first she blushed, taken aback, but over a few seconds her bashfulness changed changed into excitement and pride settled in. She then proceeded to ask me if I could teach her something else.
Delighted, I said, "I'd love to teach you anything you want, just ask!"
She responded immediately, "I've been studying magic from books over the past few years, but I've been looking for a teacher. The problem is that the only magic teachers in Canterlot are from the School of Magic and they don't accept fillies as young as me. Do you think you could teach me?"
I wasn't sure what to think. On the one hoof, I finally had somepony who treated me more-or-less as a friend rather than as a deity. On the other, I had a little filly asking me to teach her about magic, which can be very difficult and sometimes very dangerous, not to mention it would be quite a commitment in my already busy life.
I told her, "How about we meet again tomorrow in the Canterlot Gardens and you show me what you can do. If I think that it would be safe to teach you more magic, I will be your teacher. But if I tell you that I don't think it's safe, I want you to understand that there's a good reason. I don't want to keep you from reaching your potential, but even more, I don't want to risk any harm coming upon you."
She said that she understood and that she couldn't wait to show me what she knew. Then she informed me that she needed to head home or else her parents might begin to worry. As we parted ways, I told her that I looked forward to seeing her tomorrow.
The next morning we met in the Canterlot Gardens. It was a beautiful day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, thanks to the hard work of the weather patrol. The birds chirped freely as they practiced their singing, and a number of ponies were picnicking under the thick canopy of a tall oak. I told Midnight to show me some of the magic she had been practicing.
Gleefully, she inquired, "Can I change the color of your mane?"
Startled, I replied, "If you think that you can do so safely, but that's fairly advanced magic; magic of that difficulty is usually only taught in the third year of magic school."
She declared with a confident smile, "I've done it for my mom plenty of times before, she loves to change up her mane every once in a while."
Amused, I said, "Go ahead, change it to whatever color you like."
After a brief pause, Midnight Blue stared at my mane in deep concentration and changed it to a beautiful burnt orange. Everypony else in the gardens turned to look at the little filly who just cast a spell upon a princess. They seemed to think that this broke some unspoken rule and stared in horror as they waited for the fierce punishment that was never to come.
Instead, I looked up at my mane, confounded when I saw that she had successfully changed its color. I turned to her.
"This is amazing!" I exclaimed. "Certainly I will teach you more about magic if you are already able to perform it at such an advanced level. Certainly there's room for improvement, and a lifetime of studies left, but I must say: I am impressed!"
She beamed at me, and I can't describe the way it made me feel. I asked her if she wanted to show me where she lived, and while at first she was too overwhelmed by the acceptance, she quickly returned to her usual excited self and we bounced off to her home. I had taken on an apprentice.
Now I was confused. How did I never know about such an important part of my sister's life?
"Why did you never tell me you took on an apprentice?" I asked her.
"Celestia, when we were younger back then, you were... You were a different mare."
It was true. Given my benevolence of the past few centuries, one would never know the way I acted when I was younger.
My sister and I were something special. Not only were we alicorns, which is an extremely rare power in and of itself, but we were also the controllers of the Elements of Harmony. We discovered this during Discord's evil reign. We weren't princesses then, but we felt it was our duty to save Equestria. We discovered that the only way that Discord could be defeated was through the use of the Elements.
We searched for them for many years, but until we found them we never expected that *we* would be the ones that could control their power. I suppose it was the strong bond between us that enabled us to do so. After we banished Discord using the Elements, everypony hailed us as heroes and asked us to take Discord's place and become rulers of Equestria.
That's when I changed. Being immortal as alicorns are, and having control over the Elements gave me access to an unstoppable source of power and made me feel like a god. As ruler of Equestria, I began to demand that everypony treat me as such. Out of respect, everypony did. But Luna was incorruptible; her status and power never clouded her head and she always wanted to be treated as a normal pony. But alas, everypony assumed that since I wanted to be treated like a god, that my sister did as well. So she was never able to fit in with the others.
After I banished Luna, I found that I felt very lonely. Luna had been my only friend for over a century, and now she was gone. For years I tried desperately to return her from the moon, but the power of the Elements was too strong for me to counteract with my own magic, and I found that I could no longer control the Elements. My strong bond with my sister was broken and no longer was I qualified to control the Elements and bring harmony to the world.
Initially I became severely depressed, but I realized that if I wanted to not be lonely, I needed to try to make friends with the ponies from whom I had so long demanded reverence. It had been centuries since I made that decision, but still the ponies were not completely accustomed to treating my like an equal, however the situation had improved, and I was able to take an apprentice, Twilight Sparkle, who saw me not just as a mentor, but also as a friend. It had taken me 993 years to find a true friend.
I could understand why Luna didn't tell me about her apprentice, especially if she had so little regard for authority. Who knows what I would have done to her.
"I understand, sister. Continue please," I said solemnly.
Approaching the filly's house, I raised my hoof to the door. Knock knock knock. I rested my leg as we waited for the door to swing open. When it finally did, we were met with gasps.
"We thought that Midnight was pulling our legs when she said she was meeting with you, Princess," they said in as they bowed down on their knees, recovering from the initial shock.
"Well, Midnight and I will be meeting more often from now on," I said. "She will be my new apprentice."
"You? Apprentice? Our daughter?" they managed, evidently too baffled to form coherent sentences.
"Yes, I have found that her skill in magic is admirable, and I believe she has potential to become a great master of the arts."
"We are... honored, Princess," they said with audible humility.
"If it doesn't hinder you, I would like to start as early as tomorrow. Would it be possible for us to arrange something?"
"Certainly, you can start as early as you'd like, and keep her as long as you want, we can work around any plans you have," they said. I still don't understand how it is possible that these ponies were in any way related to Midnight.
I spent much of the rest of the day designing the first lesson. I knew all of Canterlot and its surrounding forests and farms like I knew the history of Equestria. This made the task of designing a first lesson that was both educationally valuable and fun for a young filly much easier, but it still took me the good part of three hours to get everything planned out exactly how I wanted it.
The following morning I didn't return to sleep after lowering the moon as I usually did. Instead I allowed myself more time to prepare for our first adventure. I gathered up some spell books and a crucible to keep in my saddlebag to the sound of a couple robins singing a duet. Usually I wouldn't be able to hear birds from the castle, but this early in the morning, almost nopony was out and about so it was much quieter.
I eluded my royal guard (as I always did) and I set out to Midnight's house. Although by this time more ponies were on the streets, I could still tell it was early since I was only stopped by ponies bowing down and praising me once.
I found Midnight was already waiting for me outside her door; she was excited.
"Good morning, Midnight," I greeted her.
"Good morning Princess!" she responded eagerly, "I can't wait to get started!"
"Great, I have an idea of what we could do, and I think that you'll love it!" I said as we walked. "I'm sure you heard about the fire in the forest just to the north of the city, the one caused by a misplaced thunder cloud? The weather ponies got it under control before it caused too much damage, but there were some areas that were destroyed. Would you like to help me clean it up? Help out the city and practice magic at the same time?"
"That sounds fun." Midnight replied, but this task had obviously made her less excited than she had been before.
I had expected that sort of response. While cleaning up after a fire didn't sound like much fun, I knew that there were several challenges she would encounter and have to overcome using magic. I was sure that she would go home with good memories. So I pretended not to notice.
"Let's go then!" I declared.
I could hear the conversations of other ponies through our silence as we trotted off toward the northern gates. As we left the city I asked Midnight "Do you get out of the city much?"
"Not much. We go visit my grandparents in Manehattan sometimes, and my school had a field trip to the forest last year."
"My sister and I chose this mountain to house the capitol because it was the most beautiful place we could find in Equestria. It's too bad that the fillies and colts don't get out to see it very much." I paused. "Luckily for you, I think we'll be making trips out of the city fairly often."
"Awesome!" she chirped, perking up, "I'm sure the fire must have made you really sad if you chose this place for its beauty."
"Well, I definitely wasn't pleased by it. But it didn't spread too far, and hopefully by the end of the day it'll be good as new!"
"Yeah, right." she said, reminded of the task that we had set out on.
The forest was only a few minutes ahead of us, so we walked again in silence until we reached it.
"Hmm. How will we know where the burnt part of the forest is?" I quizzed.
"Umm, I hadn't thought of that. I guess you could fly up and find which direction to go in." Midnight replied, stumped.
"Well, I suppose I could do that, but I'm supposed to be teaching you, right. What kind of teacher would I be if I just gave you all the answers?" I asked rhetorically.
After a short pause, Midnight said "Is there a spell that could let me fly? I haven't found anything like that in the library."
"There's a really old book, written before Equestria was made, I wouldn't be surprised if the library didn't have it. Star Swirl the Bearded wrote it, it describes a flight spell. But while the flight spell is very useful, most of the rest of the book was deemed useless by critics and attributed to his paranoia." I pulled the book out of my saddlebag, "Here it is, page 27."
"Sweet Celestia's Beard! That looks hard! I think I can pull it off, but I don't know if I'd have enough energy left to fly to the burnt area, let alone clean it up!" Midnight exclaimed.
"You can pull it off, that's for sure, and I think you can make it to the burnt area, it's not too far. If you have trouble, I can help you." I encouraged.
"Well, I'll try the spell," Midnight submitted.
She stepped back and concentrated. Her horn started to glow, but then stopped. She squinted and moved closer to the book. Again she concentrated as her horn glowed. It glowed brighter and brighter until I was sure she had it, but then, abruptly, she stopped.
"What's wrong, Midnight" I asked.
"A grasshopper jumped onto my mane and startled me! Sorry Luna!" she explained.
I giggled.
"I'll try again I guess!"
With new determination, she stepped back. She didn't bother looking at the book this time, she just shut her eyes and allowed her horn to glow. The light completely flushed out all else, and when it had subsided, Midnight stood in front of me inspecting her beautiful new butterfly wings.
"Wow these are beautiful," she said, "they look so fragile."
"They certainly are, so no need to reenact Icarus."
"What?"
"Never mind," I sighed. I was getting more and more disappointed with the state of education in Equestria. "They'll disappear in your sleep tonight," I added.
"Okay. I think I can make it if it's not too far." she declared.
"Great," I replied, "Shall we head off?"
We started off in the direction of the fire-damaged region. Midnight only started complaining of exhaustion when we were only a two minute's flight away. Still, I cast a spell that created a safety net below her, I didn't want to take any risks.
When we landed, I asked, "Are you hungry?"
"As much as I've ever been."
"Do you think you can cast another spell that will show the closest way to food? If not I can do it for you, I don't want to overexert you."
"Could you? I really don't think I have it in me."
I believed her. "Sure thing," I smiled.
As I cast the spell my horn glowed, but as it dimmed, it left a single ray pointing to my left.
"This way," I said.
Our conversation was much more engaging this time. "This spell was actually developed by Celestia to prepare for our journey to find the Elements of Harmony. You can't imagine how useful this was," I remarked
"Really, were you running low on food that often?" she inquired.
"It's not that we were running low, we didn't have to bother looking for food all the time because we knew we could find some fairly quickly with just a quick spell."
"I suppose that makes sense. Did you ever depend on it too much; thought you could find food quickly when you couldn't?"
"Well, one time we had the regrettable idea of taking a shortcut through a desert. We got lost and began to panic, but then I realized that we could find our way out by going to the closest food source, so I guess this spell can be used for more than just satisfying hunger." I grinned.
"Wow, that's really cool Luna. I never knew about you crossing the desert. In school they teach us all about your journey, but nothing about a desert."
"Well I guess somepony only wants you to know about the good parts." I muttered.
"What was that?" asked Midnight.
"Oh nothing," I lied, "but look, we're here!"
We exited the thick woodland and came out in front of a small cottage. Beyond the cottage was a magnificent kumquat orchard. Though it was large, it was hidden away in a valley, which explained why we hadn't seen it from the air. It was a miracle that it was left untouched by the fire, since it had crept within half a mile of it.
"This is Snowbloom's orchard," I informed Midnight, "She lives in this cottage, We should ask her if she has any kumquats we can buy, I'm sure she'd be happy to oblige."
"Great, I'm starving!" she announced.
We approached the cottage and I knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" hollered a foal's voice from inside.
"Midnight Blue and Princess Luna!" yelled Midnight before I could answer.
"This won't go well," I mumbled under by breath.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" yelled an older mare as she rushed to the door. "I wasn't expecting the princess!" she gasped as she opened the door, "To what do I owe this honor?" she asked, bowing.
"Oh Midnight and I were just in the forest and we were getting hungry. Perhaps you have some kumquats for sale?" I replied cheerfully.
"Oh yes. Normally we sell them for 3 bits a dozen, but I'm sure we can spare some for the Princess." she offered.
"No, that's quite alright, we'll take a dozen," I said, handing her three bits.
"No, really. Here, just take a dozen, it's on me."
"Please, Miss, I don't take handouts," I explained, trying not to let my frustration show in my voice.
Snowbloom gave in and handed us the fruits. After saying our thanks, we left. We were silent as we walked back to the burnt area, but this time it was because we were busy eating kumquats, not because we had nothing to say.
"I feel much better now," said Midnight after devouring her seventh kumquat.
"Well that's good to hear." I finished my fourth. "Are you ready to fix up this forest?" I asked with as much excitement as I could manage.
"I guess," Midnight sighed.
"Oh my, look at the time, we're going to need something to make this go faster!" I teased, making sure it was completely obvious that this was part of my plan.
"What could we use for that? I don't think that any kind of spell could be powerful enough that the two of us could bring this entire part of the forest back to life on our own," my apprentice wondered aloud.
"Not all magic is about spells you know," I explained. "I think I know of a potion that would make these trees grow back."
So for the next hour we set up the crucible over a makeshift flame and gathered various ingredients (including the last kumquat). I then instructed Midnight on how to brew the potion and sat back to watch her work.
I watched as the glowing ingredients and tools whizzed through the air, directed by the filly's thoughts. Cedar bark. Kumquat. Toadstool. Spoon. I had to stop her from adding more water before she mixed in all the daisies, but apart from that, she managed to catch the rest of her blunders.
The flying objects stopped as Midnight stepped back, closely examining the product of her labor. She stepped forward again, lowering her nose to the crucible.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed.
"Well, did you expect a toadstool-kumquat stew to smell delicious?" I laughed.
"So how does this potion work?" she asked.
"Well," I said, turning toward my book. "It says here that you just feed it to the ground and nearby vegetation will instantly start to grow."
"Really?" asked Midnight. "Can it really be that simple?"
"Seems so," I replied. "I'm not sure quite how much potion is needed to affect such a large area though, I guess we'll see. Go ahead and pour it out."
Midnight carefully targeted the crucible with her horn and lifted it. Slowly she tilted it and let her hard work trickle into the earth. As it hit the ground, a scintillating fog appeared at her hooves. It spread as she continued pouring, covering more and more ground. By the time she had emptied the crucible, the cloud had spread far beyond the burnt part of the forest.
She lay the crucible back down on the ground, and stepped back with me to watch her magic take effect. Not long after she finished pouring, noticeable effects on the forest began taking place. The charred remnants of trees were beginning to look more brown than black, and the blanket of soot that covered the ground made way for new ground cover.
The newly-revived tree trunks branched outward and grew upward. I could see small green leaves appear and fill in the gaps between the new branches. After only a few minutes the display was over and the fire-damaged area once again looked like it belonged in the most beautiful forest of Equestria.
Midnight and I stared at each other in silence, at lack for words that could match the beauty of what we had just witnessed. But our silence said much more than words ever could, and when we finally spoke, our first words were a simultaneous "Wow."
"Does that mean we're done?" asked Midnight, her voice still filled with awe.
"I suppose it does," I responded.
Midnight looked away from me and turned to the grounds. She didn't seem sad, just disappointed. I took a step forward.
"What's wrong, Midnight?" I asked.
"It's nothing," she tried to assure me.
"Midnight—" I started.
"I was just having so much fun today that I don't want it to stop!" she interrupted.
"Oh, is that it?" I giggled. "This is only your first lesson, there are plenty more exciting adventures to come," I promised her. "But besides, by the time we fly back the Canterlot it'll be almost dark! Come on, let's get going, I want to admire your work from the skies anyway."
Once we were above the forest and looking down, Midnight began:
"Luna," she said. "Why were you so bothered by Snowbloom?"
"Oh, you noticed that?" I blushed, then paused. "We should begin heading home."
We turned toward Canterlot and began flying, but I wasn't finished explaining.
"I've never told anypony about this," I started. "But I don't like being treated like a princess."
"Really?" she asked. "I would think it would be great having everyone be so nice to you."
"Well, I suppose that would make sense, but when you're living that life every day, it gets old. The truth is, it's my sister that wants to be treated that way, not me, but everypony assumes I want to be treated the same."
I had said too much. I voiced too much resent in that last sentence.
"Is there something between you and your sister?" Midnight asked, confused.
That filly was wiser than her years. But I trusted her.
"Ever since we became rulers of Equestria, Celstia hasn't been the same. Something about having all the power in the world changed her. I still love her, and I can't imagine ever betraying her, but our bond isn't as strong as it once was," I explained.
"Oh, I always thought..." she began, but stopped herself. "Is this what you meant by 'somepony only wanting us to know about the good parts?' Celestia doesn't want us to know about anything bad involving her?"
"Midnight," I said. "I need you to understand how important it is that you don't tell anypony about this, not even your parents."
Midnight turned to me. "You took a big risk in telling me all this, didn't you," she asked.
"Yes, Midnight," I replied quietly as we landed in Canterlot.
I could see you flying through the red sky, setting the sun as we walked to Midnight's house, just as silent as we were in the morning, but this time I was sure that my lesson had been a success and that Midnight would go home happy and excited for her next lesson.
When we arrived at Midnight's house, I stayed far enough away from the door that I could drop off Midnight without her parents babbling incoherently at me. I wanted Midnight to be the center of attention that night, not me.
I returned to the castle. And returned to my normal routine. That night I dreamed of wilted flowers in the moonlight.
