Twisted: Four Little Foals

---Epilogue II: The Sun and the Moon---

“They have started, sister.”

In the highest tower of the royal palace of Canterlot, there stood a chamber which no mortal pony had ever seen. No guards were posted at its door, as no one, adviser or lord, villain or vassal, no matter how high they ranked or how mad they were, would dream of attempting to breach it. Its door stood ten feet high, and had no lock, handle, or doorknob. Attempting to open the door was the height of foolishness; during the day, the door's touch burned with the heat of the sun itself. At night, it was as cold and hostile to life as the darkest part of the moon. Any hoof which touched it, day or night, would be disfigured permanently.

Unless that hoof belonged to a pony who bore the title of High Princess. Only two ponies had ever, or would ever, be adorned with this name, and even they typically preferred to be addressed simply as “Princess,” a public show of humility. Before a High Princess, the doors opened effortlessly.

In theory, nothing prevented them from allowing guests into this chamber. Yet they had never done so; not for their most faithful students, nor for their most cherished lovers or countless offspring. There was a reason for this, which was laid out for all to see by the inscription which adorned the door. Translated from the Old Equestrian, it read:

YOU WHO KNOW THE BURDEN OF ETERNITY, ENTER AND BE AT REST

This was the Sanctum of the Sisters, and from the First Day until the Last, no pony would enter its doors, save Celestia and Luna.

The room was massive. On one side it boasted a beautiful fountain, adorned with statues of the three legendary ponies now known as the Mothers of Equestria. The statue of Clover the Clever held a heart-shaped stone, from which water flowed endlessly into a pool. To either side of her, the likenesses of Smart Cookie and Private Pansy looked on in reverence. Jets of water sprayed up and splashed into smaller pools adjacent to the main one. At the bottom of the pools, which could always been seen perfectly through the immaculately clear water, was a huge map of Equestria.

On the other side was an indoor garden, containing dazzling specimens of every flower, plant, and tree that existed in Equestria. The flowers bloomed year-round, the plants always had beautiful green leaves, the trees never lacked for water.

No one tended to the plants. A single spell had been cast, millenia ago, and that was all they would require until the Last Day. Sometimes it rained in the garden, and only in the garden. Not a single drop of water ever touched the floor outside of it.

The room's ceiling consisted of a huge, breathtaking mural of the sky at twilight. This was the sisters' favorite time of the day, for it was the time when both their talents were most fully on display, when the eternal division between day and night was temporarily weakened. The mural was not static. The clouds drifted through the painted sky, and small birds sometimes flew by in perfect formation. Sometimes strong winds could be observed, though never felt, and there was the occasional storm. Time passed within the mural, but the sun never set, nor did the moon rise. Here, the sky belonged to both sisters, always and forever.

They had never designed the twilight sky to be so beautiful. It simply was.

Princess Luna visited the Sanctum far more than Celestia did, especially these days. It was their place to be alone, and though Luna had spent the past thousand years in absolute solitude, she remembered hardly any of it.

She remembered a growing feeling of jealousy, like a tumor in her soul, which had grown and thrived over decades, until one day there was nothing else left of her. After that, her memories were fleeting: she remembered a battle. She remembered her sister in tears as six gems glowed in formation around her. She remembered a long, dreamless sleep.

And then, she remembered six ponies, an apology, and forgiveness. After that, Luna felt as though she had awakened from a long nightmare, only to find a world which had left her behind long ago.

Adjusting to the world again had proven difficult, and Luna often found herself retreating to the safety of the Sanctum.

It was here that Celestia found her sister on the night of the Circle's Gathering.

Luna was sitting by the garden, looking up at the painted sky. The eternally fading sunlight was shining through a few small clouds, dying them a brilliant golden hue. Outside, in the real world, the sky was pitch black. Luna's moon was dark that night, and the lights of Canterlot drowned out the stars.

“Good evening, Luna,” said the sun princess. “You look troubled tonight.”

Luna did not turn to greet her. She continued looking up at the false sky.

“They have started, sister,” she said. Celestia knew exactly what she meant.

“I know,” said Celestia. “I...saw some of them filing in earlier.”

At this, Luna turned around to face her sister. Her face was contorted with rage.

“Oh, thou hast seen them, eh? Did thou...you see the foals, as well? Did you address them as they walked past?”

Celestia noted mentally that Luna was still trying to “cure herself” of her antiquated speech patterns. Personally, she was rather fond of them. But this was not the time to discuss such trivialities.

“Yes,” said Celestia, “I saw some of the foals. I didn't say anything to them. What could I say?”

“What could you say indeed,” Luna said. “Perhaps you could have reassured them. 'Do not worry, little ones, your princess is right here. Right here to turn a blind eye to the suffering you're about to endure for the fleeting enjoyment of those perverts.'”

“Luna...”

“No, sister, you are right. You should not speak to the foals. There would be no point. You should speak to the adults.”

Celestia sighed. “I'm guessing you have some ideas about what I should say to them, don't you?”

“Hast thou considered saying 'stop?'” Luna asked. “Is that so difficult? Simply ordering them to stop? Are you not their Princess?”

“Aren't you their Princess, too?” retorted Celestia.

“No, I am not,” said Luna, looking down at her hooves. “I am a Princess, but not theirs. They still fear me, sister. My...mistakes are far better known to this generation of ponies than anything else about me. It will be decades, perhaps centuries, before they see me as they see you. If I were to order them to stop, they would simply pack up and move further underground. Only your word carries any real weight in this kingdom.”

Celestia frowned. “That isn't fair. Equestria's ponies should respect you as my equal,” she said. “There must be some way I can show our subjects that you're just as important as me. Maybe some sort of festival...”

“This is not about me, sister!” Luna snapped. “You are trying to change the subject! Are you not aware of what they do at those Gatherings of theirs? The sick things they do to innocent foals?”

“I know what they do,” said Celestia, without emotion.

“I myself only found out a few days ago,” said Luna. “This sort of horrific display would never have been tolerated in my time. And to think that Fancypants, one of Canterlot's elite, is the ringleader! Sister, you dined with him just two weeks ago!”

“Yes, I did,” replied Celestia.

Luna began to approach her sister. Her voice quaked with anger.

“You broke bread with that disgusting animal,” she said. “You talked to him, laughed with him, treated him as a friend. And all the time, you knew!”

“Fancypants isn't my friend,” said Celestia, holding her ground. “He's a very important member of Canterlot society, and there are areas where his support is very useful to me. That's all.”

“'Canterlot society',” Luna scoffed. “I believe I've seen quite enough of what your 'Canterlot society' is capable of.”

“It's not that simple, Luna,” said Celestia. “You don't know what it's been like these last thousand years. Things in Equestria have changed...”

“HOW DAREST THOU SPEAK TO US IN SUCH A MANNER!” It had been a millennium since Luna had used the Royal Canterlot Voice when addressing her sister. “THOU HAST NO RIGHT TO SPEAK DOWN TO US AS IF WE WERE SOME...SOME IGNORANT LITTLE FOAL! OR PERHAPS...”

Luna paused for a moment, to allow her voice to return to normal. “Perhaps your friends would prefer it if I were?”

“That's enough, Luna!” Celestia stomped her hoof on the ground angrily. “I told you, those ponies are not my friends. Yes, I am aware of their activities, but that does not mean I condone them. They repulse me. If it were up to me, I would have stopped them years ago.”

“Of course it's up to you!” Luna retorted. “You're the High Princess of Equestria!”

“And that title counts for far less than you think,” said Celestia, closing her eyes with resignation. “There are greater forces than you or I in the world, Luna.”

“I never thought the day would come when my sister was afraid of a cabal of wealthy rapists,” said Luna, her voice dripping with venom. “In your speeches and official letters, you always speak of how much you love each and every pony. Is this how you show your love? By turning your back on the innocent? By callously ignoring the suffering of foals? Children are being abused as we speak, and you sit here doing nothing!”

Celestia lowered her head, but did not speak.

“You're a disgrace, Celestia,” said Luna. “And it's time someone corrected your mistakes. If I cannot stop this with a decree, I shall do so by force.”

The night princess spread her wings, and began to fly toward the sanctum door.

But Celestia would not allow it. The elder sister flew in front of Luna, her horn glowing. Luna had seen that look in her eyes before. The memories of her time as Nightmare Moon faded more with each passing day, but the expression of determination in her sister's eyes during their last battle remained seared into her mind.

The younger sister's heart sank. “So...you're willing to go this far...” she said, folding her wings and returning to the ground. “You would turn against your own sister to protect...them.”

Luna turned away from Celestia once more. “Oh, my beloved sister...what has happened to you?”

Celestia's horn returned to normal as she descended in turn. “I'm not doing it to protect them,” she said. “I'm doing it to protect you.”

Luna scoffed. “I have more than enough power to defeat every one of those pampered idiots.”

“That's not what I mean, Luna,” Celestia said, with great sadness in her voice. “I'm trying to prevent that from happening again.”

Celestia raised her hoof and pointed at a large black mark on the floor. Luna gasped. The sisters had an unspoken pact to never draw attention to or touch the mark, and to always walk around it. Yet at the same time, neither had any intention of removing it.

For it was in this chamber that Celestia had made her final, desperate stand against the pony who she loved more than any other. The mark had been created by the intense power of the Elements of Harmony, at the moment when they had sealed Luna within the moon.

It was here that Celestia had resigned herself to spending eternity alone, with no one to share the slow passing of the centuries.

And it was here where, after a short celebration in Ponyville a millennium hence, Celestia had broken down in front of her sister, embracing her, and tearfully begging Luna to never, ever leave her again.

Luna stood in stunned silence. Celestia never brought up Nightmare Moon. The two of them had agreed to leave that shameful chapter in the past, for it pained Celestia to discuss it as much as it did Luna.

“After you were gone...I exiled myself away from my subjects,” said Celestia. “For an entire year, I left Equestria to fend for itself. I know it was selfish of me, but I didn't care. I had to know. I absolutely had to find out what had caused you turn into a being like Nightmare Moon. At first, I suspected some dark magic, some sort of curse that amplified your jealousy...”

“I do not know,” said Luna, doing her best to keep her voice steady. “I recall feeling resentful of you. Feelings which built up in my mind over the course of generations. And then I recall somehow...changing, feeling all my negative emotions multiply a thousandfold. It was not voluntary. It felt as if I was being...acted upon.”

Celestia nodded. “It took months of research in the royal archives before I found the answer. Oddly enough, it was in a book of philosophy, not magic. The book asked a question that I had never pondered before, but which put everything into context.”

“A question?”

“Luna,” Celestia said, looking up at the false twilight sky. “Why are there two of us?”

“I...am not sure I follow, sister.”

“I raise the sun, and you raise the moon. But why? Either of us could do the job of the other. I raised your moon for a thousand years. You've raised my sun before, as well. So why two High Princesses? And why are our purposes so opposite? Day and night. Sun and moon. White and black. Light and dark.”

“In all honesty, sister, I have never given it much thought,” said Luna. “This is just the way things have always been, since the First Day.”

“I never thought about it either,” said Celestia. “Not until the night you were taken from me. But look at these concepts which we embody. Look at how our entire world functions! Everywhere, there are opposed pairs, working in concert with neither ever overpowering the other.”

“Balance, Luna,” Celestia continued. “The fundamental element on which everything else depends. Including the two of us.”

Luna raised one of her hooves, examining it as if she was looking at it for the first time. Then she looked at her sister with equally fresh eyes. The colors of night and day. It all made sense at once. The two of them were eternally joined, not in spite of their opposite natures, but because of them.

“You and I watched over this world even as the three tribes founded Equestria. What happened to their conflicts then?”

“They faded away,” said Luna. “After the first Hearth's Warming, the tribes made peace, embraced friendship. It was a golden age.”

“Yes,” said Celestia. “Equestria was a land of perfect harmony. And what opposes harmony?”

“Discord,” said Luna, in a whisper of realization.

“Harmony and friendship are the foundations of our society,” said Celestia. “But how can harmony exist without discord? How can we recognize friendship without conflict? These ideas need each other or they cannot truly exist. In creating a perfect Equestria, the tribes had upset the balance. How else can we explain the fact that the physical embodiment of chaos suddenly appeared to menace a land of perfect order? Discord was called into being by the very nature of our world itself. He was the opposite harmony needed to exist!”

“And then...when the balance was thrown too far in the direction of Discord...”

“...you and I suddenly discovered the Elements of Harmony.”

Luna fell to her back legs, as the weight of this truth began to dawn on her. Patterns were forming in her mind; countless incidents throughout her ageless life, where some improbable event would occur to correct an imbalance. Why had she never noticed it before? How could she have missed the pattern? Perhaps because she was an integral part of it? It had happened so many times, even the time when...

Luna put her front hooves up to her mouth.

“Discord's reign marked the first time an imbalance toward harmony was corrected,” said Celestia. “The second time...was when you became Nightmare Moon.”

Luna nodded. It made perfect sense. Before, the source of harmony had been the order between the three tribes. Discord had thrown it into chaos. In the age after Discord's reign, the source of Equestria's harmony had been the two sisters themselves.

“It's not that there can't be peace or harmony in Equestira,” Celestia said. “The balance can lean in one direction, but once it completely tips over, to the point that the other side is in danger of being overwhelmed, then the universe takes action.”

Celestia sat down in front of her sister and put her hoof on her shoulder. “For all those centuries I held out hope of someday getting you back. The thought gave me great comfort, but also frightened me. After all, what was to prevent you from being taken from me again? I had to correct the imbalance before you came back.”

Celestia looked up at the false sky once more. Silent thunderclouds were moving in.

“You see, most ponies went their whole lives thinking you and I would always be there for them. That we were eternal and unending. And when we were gone...they had nothing left to believe in...” the sun princess said. “So in some parts of the land, especially Canterlot, a new...movement...emerged. It preached that the only true good in the world was self-satisfaction, and that my teachings of friendship were a lie. And so many believed it...how could they not? I had let them all down...”

“Sister, stop,” Luna said. “You are being too hard on yourself...”

“Please, let me finish,” Celestia said. “These ponies had believed you and I were eternal, and now thought we were not. So they took as their symbol something that goes on forever, which has no beginning and no end. A circle.”

“No...” Luna said.

“Most ponies who joined the group thought it was simply a religious movement. One built on selfishness, perhaps, but that does not necessarily imply actively harming others. But then there were the ponies at the top of the organization. The Inner Circle. When I returned after my year of exile, I was horrified by what I learned about them. How they had taken their own philosophy to sick extremes, taking pleasure in the suffering of others. They had grown rich from the donations of other Circle members, and they used that money to cover up all manner of disgusting crimes. They were even more terrible than the actions of the modern Circle...”

“And you've allowed them to survive for this long?” Luna asked, the anger returning to her voice.

“No!” said Celestia. “At least...not like that. My return caused most of the Circle members to abandon the group almost overnight. Those few who stayed were mostly Inner Circle members. I hunted them down, I brought them to justice. All but one. The founder, and leader of the Inner Circle.”

“The fiend escaped?” Luna asked.

“No,” said Celestia. “I let him think he escaped. But the truth is, I let him go.”

“BUT-”

Celestia raised a hoof to quiet her sister. “Remember what I said, my beloved. Balance. The Circle had grown far too large. But by allowing just one of them to live, I could keep track of him in secret. I let him go, and he did just what I thought he would: he revived the group. It went underground, and consisted of only a few elites. The harm it could do was severely limited. But it was still out there. And since then, in some form or another, it always has been. Every few centuries it grows too large, and I destroy it. But I allow a few members to escape, and keep its its lore and literature alive, and within a decade or two, some bored aristocrat discovers it and brings it back. Fancypants thinks his revival is some sort of revolutionary gesture, but in truth, eight other ponies before him have done essentially the same thing.”

Celestia shuddered. “And I have been forced to stand aside and watch every time. Watch as they practice their disgusting acts of evil, without ever letting them know the true purpose of their group's wretched existence.”

The princess of the sun looked back at her sister. “I truly believe, Luna, that there is no other land in this world as beautiful, peaceful, and happy as Equestria. The tremendous majority of our little ponies live peaceful lives full of friendship and laughter. And they never question what the price for their happiness is.”

Celestia shook her head sadly. “But you and I are not so lucky. We must live with the knowledge that for Equestria to thrive, we must allow some evil to flourish.”

“I...I see,” said Luna. “So you allow Fancypants' club to exist because it serves to keep the balance from falling completely toward harmony. And it does so without threatening the entirety of our land.”

“Exactly...” said Celestia. “I have kept tabs on his group, and made sure it never grows beyond the confines of this city. In this way, millions of ponies are kept safe from calamity, and in return, only a few hundred ponies will ever be affected by the Circle's vile existence.”

“And what of those ponies who are affected? What of those poor, innocent foals?” said Luna. “Do you at least try to help them? Let them know that they do not suffer for nothing? Provide some way to help them heal?”

“I can't afford to think that way, Luna....” said Celestia. “I need those foals to grow up without knowing the truth.”

“But why?” Luna asked. Her voice was shaking.

“These Circles usually last a few generations before they are destroyed and started anew. Which means they need new members to replace the old ones who die off. And it is quite common,” said Celestia, gritting her teeth, “for victims of this sort of abuse to become abusers themselves. Thus is the cycle continued.”

Luna gasped.

“I don't intend for this to be a temporary measure,” said Celestia grimly. “The balance must be kept. Forever.”

“Sister...” Luna had tears in her eyes. “You really mean to...”

“I won't allow it to grow,” said Celestia. “But it must be perpetuated.”

“No...sister, there has to be another way!”

“There is,” said Celestia. “I could annihilate their little club and bring them all to justice. And I could leave no trace that it ever existed, no chance that it could be revived. I could do this, and things would be fine for a while. But sooner or later, the balance would need to correct itself. And then you would become Nightmare Moon once again. Or perhaps this time, it will be me who is corrupted.”

“Then so be it,” said Luna. “Better than one of us should suffer than generations of helpless-”

“NO!” Celestia cried, her voice echoing through the room. “No! I won't let it happen again! You and I must not be separated!”

“But why?” Luna cried back. “Why should my life be valued above that of so many others?”

“It shouldn't!” Celestia shouted. “I know it shouldn't! But I can't help it...I can't...Oh, Luna...”

Celestia covered her face with her hooves, deeply ashamed.

“Luna, I love them all...every last pony in our beautiful land...when I look at them, I can't help but see them as my beloved children. Each and every one of them means the world to me...

“And yet my feelings for all of them combined, cannot begin to compare to how much I love you.”

Celestia looked back at her sister, with a look of shame and desperation on her face. Luna, unable to speak, embraced Celestia.

“One day they will all be gone...I will live to bury every single one of my children,” said Celestia. “But you, my sister, you and I live on. Only the two of us understand what forever really means. I lived a thousand years with no one to help me shoulder that burden. I could not stand to live like that again. Not for a single second.”

Luna had never known an existence without her sister. Now, all at once, her mind caught a glimmer of the monumental loneliness such a life would entail. The very thought terrified her.

And yet, Celestia had endured that solitude for a thousand years.

“I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like,” said Luna. “But I am truly sorry.”

“Don't you dare apologize,” the sun princess replied. “It's my selfish wish that is the cause of all this.”

Luna gently let go of her sister.

“Our selfish wish,” she said. “I understand now, sister. Though it pains me, you shall not have to bear this guilt alone.”

The sun princess looked at her with tremendous sadness. Luna looked in Celestia's direction, yet it seemed as though she were looking far beyond her.

“I wish I could save them. I wish I could cradle every last one of those poor foals in my arms and take them someplace where they would never know pain or fear again. But most of all...” Luna said. “I wish my desire to save them were as great as my desire to stay with you. I have never lost you as you did me. But the prospect of doing so has terrified me all of my life.

“Perhaps I am unworthy of my title for thinking this way, but...were I in your situation, I think perhaps I would have made the same choice. So I understand, dearest sister. And I will not interfere in the Gathering.”

Celestia stood up. She said nothing, but gave her sister a kiss on the top of her head. “Thank you,” she said. “If you don't mind, I think I'm going to go to my chambers for a while. I just feel so...so very tired.”

“Of course, sister,” said Luna. “I'll stay here for a little while longer.”

“Very well,” said the sun princess. She walked toward the door, which swung open at her presence.

Celestia walked through, then turned and looked at her sister.

“Oh, and Luna? I am so deeply, deeply sorry.”

“For what, sister?”

“For turning you into someone like me,” she said, just as the door shut.

Princess Luna stood alone in the Sanctum. The painted twilight sky was once again clear, with not a cloud to be seen.

Luna did not want to think about what was going on elsewhere in her city. She did her best to forget what she had seen just before she had entered the Sanctum.

But the memory flashed in her mind unbidden.

She had been flying above the city. She had seen one of them: a Circle member. She was a white unicorn, and she was walking on the grounds of Fancypants' estate. She had been accompanied by four foals.

One of them was known to Luna.

And then another memory played in her head. It was the voice of a young colt.

“Whoa! You're my favorite princess ever!”

His innocent voice repeated the phrase over and over again in her mind.

“Forgive me, little one,” Luna whispered. “Your princess has failed you.”

And the princess of the night began to weep, beneath the image of a brilliant golden sky.

[Please look for the concluding story in this series, A Silver Sky: Four Little Ponies, on my user page.]