The hallway remained tensely quiet, lit only by the soft glow of Luna’s spell as she and her sister regarded each other. Finally, Luna spoke, “Quite the bittersweet and admirable tale…if true.” After a moment’s more hesitation, the light from Luna’s horn faded as she released her spell which prompted a relieved sigh from Celestia. “Don’t get too relaxed, sister,” Luna warned. “You’ve yet to reveal how this being links to you.”

“Yes, of course,” Celestia agreed. She closed her eyes a moment and breathed in and out a couple of times. She was not looking forward to this part of the conversation. She opened her eyes and looked to Luna. “This may seem off topic, but what do you think of when you consider Nightmare Night?”

Luna snorted, “Well, I certainly wasn’t pleased at first hearing of a holiday dedicated to accusations of my supposed cannibalism and extortion of small foals. However, I’ve come to see it for the blessing in disguise that it is.” She cocked an eyebrow at Celestia. “Why? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Luna, it took at least a couple of centuries of damage control to reduce that festival from the hateful ceremony it used to be when it took root as tradition. But tell me, Luna,” Celestia tilted her head as she regarded her little sister with a sad smile, “do you think I would have ever allowed such a dreadful thing to start…were I in my right mind?”

The question caused Luna to blink her eyes in surprise before they widened in alarm. She did not like where this was going.

“History paints me as some all-knowing leader and foundation of the kingdom, keeping order after a major crisis. Truthfully, though?” Celestia closed her eyes and sobbed once. When she opened them again, the haunted look in those violet eyes made Luna gasp as she felt her heart seize as if in a vice. “I broke, Luna,” she whimpered pitifully. Her voice gained a bit more strength back as she continued. “I broke and it took everything I had to keep up the façade. I went into seclusion and, aside from raising the sun and moon, I conducted most of my duties through intermediaries. When I returned a century later to find that...that-” Celestia’s eyes blazed and her mouth twisted into a snarl that made Luna back up in shock, “-that farce! I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream! I lost my little sister to those ingrates and they celebrate?! Call her a monster!?! I wanted to turn around and give them something to tell horror stories about! I wanted to…to…,” Celestia stopped herself, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm herself. When she opened her eyes, the anger had faded but the haunted look remained. “I started switching between anger and despair throughout the days and it became harder to keep in check. I became a desperate soul. And as all desperate souls are wont, I resorted to desperate measures.”

**

It was midnight in the Canterlot Royal Archives and darkness covered the facility, save for one spot of illumination in the vaults. Had anypony been awake to see the sight of the pony revealed by the lantern light, they would have been shocked beyond belief.

Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, Guardian of Pony Kind, Steward of the Sun…and Vanquisher of Nightmare Moon…was completely wrecked. Her wings were in desperate need of preening. Bags sat beneath her eyes, her cheeks seemed to be permanently tearstained, and her coat was stained and reeked of one who hadn’t bathed in weeks. She used illusion magic to cover everything during the day, but that only hid the fact that she was standing on her last leg.

None of that mattered. She only needed to last until the end of the night.

An animal carcass lay nearby that she had used to provide blood to draw a summoning circle. Her delirious, frenzied eyes darted across the circle to be sure every detail matched the books she smuggled out. Satisfied, she ran through the incantation and activated the circle which now blazed with an angry, red light. She thought something flickered for a moment, but quickly dismissed it. She would succeed or her misery would just end. Her last rational thought ran through her mind before the telltale flash of the summoning spell blazed across her vision. I’m sorry, Luna, I’m so sorry.

“Why do you summon me?” a deep, gravelly voice intoned.

Celestia looked up to an ugly sight. A large, crimson-skin, bipedal monster with large wings and a nest of horns on its head stared back at her with a hideous grin. At any other time, the sight might have churned her stomach. At this point, however, she had become too numb to care. She stoically listed the pathetic tale that occurred between her and her sister leading to now.

The demon considered her a moment before nodding, “So then. You wish the return of your sister?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever the cost?”

The bitter alicorn gritted her teeth and answered, “Yes.”

“Even your soul?”

“YES! YES DAMN YOU, DEMON!! I’ve been ready to pay! Just give me my sister!”

The demon sat silently in contemplation before nodding, “Very well, Princess Celestia. To that offer, I say,” faster than even an alicorn could track, the demon leapt from the circle leaned down with his snarling face an inch from the startled mare’s, “You. Dun. Goofed.”

For her part, Celestia could only stare with wild, panicked eyes as her mind desperately tried to understand. What happened? How could it leave the circle? The deal had yet to be finalized. Despite these questions, the only feeling that really took root as she watched that clawed hand raise above her was regret. She closed her eyes and bowed her head in resignation. I’m sorry for everything, Luna. I’m so, so sorr-

SMACK!

Celestia blinked rapidly and lifted a hoof to her stinging cheek in confusion. She looked up to see that the demon had struck her, not with its razor-sharp claw, but with a…a…

…a fish?!

Before she could begin to guess the reasons behind this she felt stinging pain in her other cheek. “YOU. DO. NOT. SUMMON. DEMONS. TO. SOLVE. YOUR. PROBLEMS. IT. NEVER. WORKS. OUT!” he punctuated each word with a slap from the fish.

Celestia looked up, her cheeks stinging and her fur smelling heavily of mackerel, and tried to demand an explanation. “I…um…wha..? I…”

“You’re lucky it was me and not the demon you wanted that answered that summons and even more so that it was a guy who got his power through accident rather than the traditional method.” The creature sighed and shook its head tiredly before fixing the mare with a disappointed look. “Even if a demon could bring her back, doubtful since it sounds like it was a sacred artifact that exiled her, they tend to be sadistic bastards who fulfil the bargain in the most painful way possible for all involved.” He looked down at her with narrowed eyes and he spoke slowly as if to a child, “Even if, by some miracle, the demon did grant your wish as intended…did you even think of how your sister would react to your methods? Do you think she would be happy coming back to find out what price her sister paid for it?”

The tirade was met with wide-eyed shock from Celestia. However, they narrowed soon enough and she snorted in anger. How dare he? How dare this…this thing lecture her!?! “S-SHUT UP!” she screeched and charged forward to strike with all of her might…which, not surprising given her state, did not so much as budge the crimson creature. Nevertheless, she continued striking and yelling in impotent rage. “Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!! I don’t care, just do what I say and give her back!” She struck again, “GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BACK!” She wailed and cursed until her throat felt like it was going to give out and she collapsed onto the monster’s chest where she deteriorated into sobbing and whimpering, “Please. Please give her back. I just want my sister back, please. It’s not fair! It…it..it’s not…” She would have fell to the floor had the demon not caught her and gently held her in its claws that could have, should have, ripped her to shreds.

He continued to gently hold and rock her back and forth as she continued mumbling ‘It’s not fair’ over and over again. Before exhaustion took her, she heard the demon whisper softly, “Yeah. Yeah, I know. Life can be a real bitch sometimes.”

Several hours later

Awareness came slowly to Celestia as she groaned and blinked her eyes. Groggily, she looked around in confusion as she failed to recognize her surroundings. The room she observed from the four-poster bed she lay in seemed to be a combination bedroom and study like her own quarters in the castle. That, however, is where the similarities ended. Rather than one uniform décor theme, it looked as if several individuals wanted it a certain way and decided in the end to toss a little of everything in: a pile of stuffed animals here, some calligraphy materials there, a display of swords and daggers of here. She felt herself getting dizzy simply trying to tell where one style ended and another began.

“Oh, good. You’re awake. And here I was thinking I might have to kiss you awake like prince charming. Not likely something my girls would approve of.”

Celestia jerked and turned toward the direction of that warm, baritone voice. Beside a bookshelf near the corner of the room sat a brown earth pony stallion with a brown coat and ember orange mane and tail. His cutie mark featured a spell circle girded by a curled whip and wings in the background. He wore spectacled glasses and seemed to be more focused on the book in his fore leg than Celestia herself. For some reason she felt…uneasy about him. She cleared her throat before speaking, hoping that she didn’t squeak and give away how startled she was, “Excuse me but…who are you? And where am I?”

The stallion snorted. “Yes, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that you wouldn’t remember everything immediately. Considering the shape I found you in, it’s probably only thanks to your, hmm, unique anatomy that you aren’t dead.” He set his book down and picked up another from a pile beside him before speaking again, “As to your questions? I don’t often give my name out, but you may call me Vin. As for where you are? You were in a bad enough way that you needed some immediate bed rest, but there wouldn’t be enough time before your workday started. So, I brought you to a section of my abyssal plane where I could simply stretch out enough time for you to get some proper rest.”

At hearing ‘abyssal plane’ Celestia reached for her magic and realized in horror that she couldn’t feel her connection to the sun. She couldn’t even dredge up enough power to do more than cause her horn to spark. She quickly leapt from the bed, landed in a combat stance, and turned to face the stallion she now realized was the demon. “What do you want?!” she yelled. She didn’t even wait for an answer as she leveled more panicked questions at her captor, “What are you going to do to me?! Are you planning to kill me?”

Oddly, the creature did little more than sigh and set aside the book, one she quickly recognized belonged to the castle archives, and turned to her with an annoyed glare. Her skin crawled as she finally spotted the yellow slitted eyes she remembered from before. “Really?” he asked dryly. “Really!? I could understand that sort of shortsightedness in your condition before, but now you’ve been given a chance to rest.” He crossed his hooves and continued snidely, “How about you think about what happened so far, your position now, then ask yourself that same question? Maybe then, you can offer a more intelligent question for me, yes?”

Celestia glared angrily at Vin and pointed an accusing hoof. “Y-you! You!..?” she failed to come up with anything and lowered her hoof as she did as he suggested. He broke free of his circle and cornered her at her weakest, yet all he did was slap her, with a fish for some reason, and scold her as if she were some errant foal. He brought her to his domain only to put her in bed and wait for her to wake and proceeded to calmly chat with her while reading. If he planned on killing or hurting her, surely he would have done so during any of these easy opportunities. She glanced over at the pile of archive books nearby before quickly dismissing them as a motive. As with killing her, he had plenty of opportunity to take them and make a clean getaway but chose not to. As he pointed out earlier, he was not the demon linked to the circle she used so any attempt at tracing would have led to a dead end. Now thoroughly confused, she looked up and opened and closed her mouth before finally managing to speak, “You…you…You hit me with a fish!”

Vin raised an eyebrow and quirked his lips in bemusement. “Well, that’s…technically not a question. It is an understandable reaction, though.”

“Why?”

“Well, you were clearly in a craze that required some sort of shock to snap you out and I couldn’t very well risk using my hand for fear of claw or strength hurting you.” He tilted his head in thought and shrugged, “Although, I freely admit I just picked the fish because I thought it would be hilarious.”

“I meant why help me!” She growled out in frustration. “You told me you wouldn’t solve my problems!”

“No. I said ‘You shouldn’t summon demons to solve your problems’ and reminded you of the consequences. I also pointed out and demonstrated that I’m not your typical demon. I may not plan to step in and solve everything for you, but I’m not averse to lending a hand,” he paused to look down at his left appendage before looking back and amending, “hoof.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Celestia accused quietly.

“No, I suppose I didn’t,” he admitted before looking down in thought. After seemingly gathering his thoughts, he sighed as he looked back up, “Princess, you are not the first to experience great loss and you won’t be the last. I didn’t choose to be in this place and I have no way of regaining what was lost. The best I can do roll with the punches,” he paused long enough to glance at the mismatched décor and smile briefly, “and learn to appreciate the good things that come my way.” He turned back to Celestia and spoke bluntly, “When all is said and done, I help others like you because it somewhat alleviates my own grief over the personal losses that I can’t change. Maybe that’s not the saint’s answer, but then, I’ve never claimed to be a saint. Before or after my little,” Vin paused and looked up in consideration of the appropriate phrasing, “change in lifestyle.”

Celestia sat there as she tried to gauge for any deception from the demon pony who simply stared back with a bored expression. No matter hard she stared or how many times she went over what was said…she could find no lies. Eventually, she took a deep breath, sighed, and made a decision that left her feeling as if she were jumping from a cliff, without wings, and hoping for the best. “Let’s say…I do accept your help. What could you do?”

Vin stared for a few moments before as small smile appeared on his face. Celestia felt…oddly comforted by this. He started off, “Well, first, let’s consider the available facts. Fact 1: Sacred artifacts, especially those geared toward maintaining any balance, tend to dispose of anything that threatens the balance of things…permanently. Despite attempting to bring eternal night, the elements settled for sticking your sister on the moon. That tells me it must have spotted something in her worth saving, so she can’t be beyond all help, yet.” He paused as he noticed Celestia give a shuddering sigh as if some weight had been lifted, “Let’s not break out smiles and hugs yet, Princess. That still leaves plenty of work ahead. Fact 2: You and your sister could potentially live forever. As long you don’t do something silly, you should have more than enough time to work on a solution; both for getting her back and snapping her out of her Nightmare Moon state. And lastly, fact 3: All of this is going to be a moot point if the kingdom falls apart before she can get back, so you need to find some way of balancing your attention between research and keeping yourself healthy enough to run things.

“So, here is what I plan on doing. I have just enough juice to give you a break here, then send you back before anyone learns you are gone. Since I don’t have anything permanently anchoring me to your world, though, I’ll only be able to show up a few hours one night a week. While that’s not enough time or power for me to actually do anything over there, we can use that time to travel back and forth. We’ll continue to do any planning or sharing knowledge here as well as give you a place to take a break and then take you back home before anyone has a chance to notice your absence. I’ll continue helping this way for as long as I can; basically, until my own reserves get too low and summoning me requires a price you can’t or won’t pay. Unless you have a better idea of course.” Celestia struggled to come up with something or find some flaw in his suggestions but failed and shrugged helplessly. “Good. Then for the time being, I suggest you head back to bed for some more rest and enjoy these lovely muffins Shay made for you.” He finished by passing a tray full of, admittedly delicious looking, muffins.

Celestia looked the baked goods carefully before taking one in hoof and hesitantly trying one. She hummed in surprise at how good it tasted and continued nibbling on it before a question came to her. “Who is Shay? For that matter, who are these ‘girls’ you mentioned earlier?”

“Right, sorry. I probably should have mentioned them earlier. Shay, Mai, and Cassandra are three mortal girls I crossed paths with some time ago and found common ground in with life giving us some poor lots.” He paused and Celestia blinked in surprise at the warm, genuine smile that stretched across his face. “You could say they are the ‘good things come my way’ that I’ve learned to appreciate. Long story short: We met in a cave, fell in love, and they joined me here as my mistresses and their exposure to my plane altered them just enough that they could spend eternity with me. I would introduce you, but Mai and Cassandra are busy preventing Shay from getting to you.”

Celestia sat with her mouth open in confusion as she tried to make sense of his ‘short story’ before speaking up, “I’m…not sure I understand. Why would this Shay make muffins for me if your other two…mistresses…are having to hold her back from harming me?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. She doesn’t hold any ill will toward you,” Vin said assuredly. “Quite the reverse, in fact. She adores anything and anyone cute, beautiful, and/or colorful. I’m positive being a pretty pony princess would put you right at the top of that list.”
“Then what is the problem?” Celestia asked curiously with a tilt of her head.

“Between your current state and her biological quirks developed from her time here, she could literally hug you to death,” He answered dryly. “And considering all the work I’ve put into helping you and trying to work out an understanding? I’d really rather not see it wasted because you suffered death by cuddling.”

“O…kaaay?” Celestia answered slowly, unsure of whether the demon pony was being serious or not. “Then…maybe we could spend this first night with you giving me the long story while I rest here?” She added a muttered, “And possibly try to make sense of all of this.”

Vin chuckled, “Well, I’m not sure anyone could make sense of what’s happened. Still, I don’t see any harm in a bedtime story for the little princess,” he chuckled as Celestia pouted, either at his hearing her muttered comment or the bedtime jab. “Alright. It all starts on a night with a couple of young morons doing what males of any species seem to be obsessed with: attempting to impress some females.”

**

The two alicorns regarded one another silently at the end of the bizarre tale. Luna had attempted to maintain her stoic countenance but couldn’t help her softening features as she saw Celetia’s eyes flicker with relived emotions and memories. She felt equal measures of sorrow and shame at the news of how desperate her big sister had become and how close she came to destroying herself. All because Luna couldn’t handle a little rejection. Her eyes watered as she spoke, “Tia I…I’m so sorry I-”

“Don’t Luna,” Celestia interrupted sternly. “The past is done and I am finished with talk of blame. Frankly, I think I’ve done more than enough hoof wringing and second guessing for the both of us.” Her stern frown was quickly replaced with a warm smile. “As far as I am concerned, all that matters is that we are together again. And it’s together that well will face whatever comes of this crisis.”

Luna’s tears dried, and she returned Celestia’s smile with one of her own. “Indeed, sister. Together!” Her smile disappeared beneath a blank mask hiding her emotions and she spoke flatly, “However, there is one thing I have to revisit.”

Celestia blinked in surprise at the sudden shift. “And…what would that be?” she asked hesitantly.
Luna stood there emotionlessly, providing no answer. Celestia actually started to worry about which part of her tale affected her so until- “AH HA HA HA!!” Luna broke into raucous, Canterlot Voice level laughter that managed to send Celestia’s mane waved back as if in hurricane winds. The lunar princess laughed so hard that tears streamed down her eyes and she fell to the floor holding her sides. Before Celestia could ask just what had gotten into her, Luna managed to calm down enough to speak, “Ha ha, H-ehe. He hit y-you with a fish!”

Confusion gave way to annoyance as Celestia heard this. “Of course. After getting past the issue of the demon, that would be the very next thing you latch onto.”

The manically laughing sister managed to control herself enough to look up and answer, “Ha ha *gasp* Oh, come now, Tia. You needn’t feel so…o-fin-ded. *snerk* After all, anypony might react the same after…herring such a thing!” She struggled to her hooves and suddenly put on a serious expression so quickly that Celestia knew that more was coming. “S-still, as much as I fish I could have seen that for myself, we really shoal-d return to the matter at hoof. Let us away to the salmoning circle so I can judge for myself whether this Vin character can be bene-fish-ial or is simply after our…sole.”

A longsuffering sigh came from Celestia as she nodded her head wearily and made her way to the rune covered door at the hall’s end. “Just please try to pull yourself together before he gets here. The last thing I need in all of this is two childish maniacs punning at me all day. While I’ve come to trust him, he is already enough of a pain without somepony giving him ideas.”

“I-I can only promise to try, sister,” Luna chortled as the both approached the doorway to the ritual room. She looked over and nodded, “After all, I wouldn’t want you to be…snapper with me.”

“Guuuhhhh!” Celestia groaned and slammed her head into the door in a rare occasion of unprincess-like behavior that caused Luna to giggle. Hoping to cut off anymore puns, Celestia deftly opened the door and led the way inside to reveal the setup inside. Luna’s giggling cut short as she noticed the scene and had to force herself to ignore her first instinct to charge in and disrupt the very ceremony she agreed to hold judgement on. The center of the room was dominated by a red runic circle surrounded by candles providing the main source of light. The unicorn maid, Luna recalled she was named Marigold, seemed understandably green faced as she placed finishing touches on the circle symbols using dark red liquid dipped out from a nearby cooler.

Answers to the morning’s events seemed to piece together in Luna’s mind as she looked from the cooler to the maid, one of Celestia’s S.M.I.L.E. agents perhaps, working on the circle with a thoughtful frown. “I see. ‘Tell the chef’ must be code for retrieving blood from the stock of wild game magically preserved in the kitchen in case of visits from the Griffin ambassadors. ‘Rotten eggs’ would refer to the description of brimstone’s smell which, naturally, tends to be associated with demons. And then ‘the pizza’ would be…assembling the summon circle?”

“Close, but you were only half right on the pizza code.” Celestia regarded Luna with a quirked eyebrow as she asked, “Tell me. Do you remember the origins of pizza?”

“Ah, yes indeed, dear sister!” Luna said heartily, making Celestia smile. On her return, one of the first things Celestia did was introduce her nervous sister to the activities and fare of modern nightlife. Celestia would always remember that look of profound joy on Luna’s face. One of her favorite discoveries, aside from coffee which she had to be temporarily banned from due to…incidents, was pizza. “I dare say, that might be the one good thing about that miserable millennium. I was a tad surprised in my history readings to learn that you invented it. Thankful, certainly, but-”

“I didn’t invent it,” Celestia interrupted gently, getting a confused look from Luna. “Historians assumed I invented it after I described it to one of my chefs who shared it with the culinary community at large.” She glanced to the circle and back. “I was introduced to pizza during a visit to Vin’s plane when he and his mistresses invited me to dinner. Therefore, ‘pizza’ is a signal for a circle specifically related to him.”

The conflicted look on Luna’s face as she switched from looking at the circle to Celestia and back again made Celestia chuckle inwardly. She could tell Luna wanted to remain suspicious but was being quickly won over by the reveal. After a few minutes staring at the circle thoughtfully, she nodded slowly, “Very, well. Any creature that brings pizza to an ignorant world can’t be wholly evil.”

“Then I suppose all that remains is to call him then,” Celestia said with a small smile. She turned to the circle and began the chant. It had been centuries since they parted as, without an anchor or the willingness for either party to extract/pay the typical prices for such things, he was only able to keep consistent visits for so long using only his own power to maintain the link; just long enough to help her get back on her hooves and come up with a plan. Despite the current crisis being the reason, she was looking forward to seeing him again….even if he could be a pain in the flank sometimes.

Author's Note

New chapter and a bit of feels, if it went right.

Also, little bit of Princess Luna the...Punisher.
I know, I know. 'Shut up and go into the corner Redstar'.

As ever, look forward to comments and constructive criticism.