What Remains

Chapter 1:The Past and the Present

Silence was all Princess Luna heard when looking out the Canterlot Palace balcony one evening.  It had only been a few hours since the moon had risen into the night sky and she traded positions with her sister, but Luna didn’t mind, she had plenty to think about.

Two years had passed since her return to the world and subsequent renewal from Nightmare Moon into Princess Luna, but she had done little in that time to change conditions for her own perception.  Granted she was still recovering from her time on the moon, it was like the grogginess everypony feels when waking up in the morning, but with 1000 years of potency behind it.  While she had not been forced into slumber by her sister’s spell, it had been necessary in order to maintain her sanity.  One thousand years with nothing but the thoughts of an evil persona would have driven her to self-destructive madness and thus she induced a sleep upon herself to maintain what level of sanity still remained in her.

And then there was the night of her return.  While not entirely coherent, she had scattered memories from that night, of what she had tried to do and those who had saved her.  Her original consciousness as Princess Luna had been in an unknown state consumed by darkness and then the darkness had suddenly vanished, leaving her scared and alone.  A mind lost for part of a millennia suddenly returning to an unknown time.  Had Celestia not appeared moments after to see her…….she shuttered at the possibilities.

It still hurt to remember those times, when she became lost in her emotions and became one of the very creatures she and her sister had worked so hard to protect Equestria from.  The past had a great impact on her.  Even with Celestia’s re-acceptance of her back into palace life after all the chaos she had caused, Luna felt guilty both for her role as nightmare moon and her inability to aid her sister in the two years she had been back.  She hadn’t felt well or self-confident enough when the gala arrived, Discord’s return had left both sister’s powerless before him since they had only defeated him before with the elements which were now beyond them, placing Equestria’s safety onto the element bearers, and she had missed the Changeling invasion when Celestia requested that she deal with a sphinx that had been terrorizing Trotston while her sister covered the day.  She had been so excited to be able to do something, anything to help, until she got back.  While there were few ponies she would admit it to, Luna was ashamed that after being given a second chance after Nightmare Moon, she had been able to do so little to help her sister during true times of crisis.

As if that were not enough, her own image had barely improved since she returned.  Nightmare Moon was a result of her anger and resentment at the ponies adoring Celestia’s day and ignoring her night.  While her return was a freedom from an inner prison to her, not everypony, or many of them for that matter, were thrill by her return.  Luna had learned from her mistakes and there was little chance of her reverting to her evil persona, but she did hope to eventually be accepted by Equestria as a respected and capable ruler alongside her sister.  She desired this both for her own sake and so that she would have some authority citizens would respect, allowing her to better aid her sister.  To date that had been a dismal failure, having not intervened in three separate threats against the crown and her one public appearance during Ponyville’s Nightmare Night, while ultimately positive, had a shaky start to say the least.  She knew such reactions were to be expected but it was difficult to go into any civilization knowing fear would be the first thing on everypony’s mind.

As such, Luna had increased her diligence during her nightly watch.  Those opportunities to act had gone, no matter how bitter they were to remember, and she would do her part to ensure Equestria’s safety, even if right now all that she could manage was to give Celestia allowances for a good night’s rest.  She still wondered how her sister had managed such constant diligent attention during her exile.  She may be an alicorn with high endurance, but even she had her limits and between watching both the sun and the moon in addition to routine courtly duties and management Luna was shocked how well her sister had been upon her return.

Or so she had thought; what she learned later told a different tale.  While Celestia appeared normal to everypony else, the work was getting to her.  The alicorn’s extra endurance and power had made a great difference, but over the centuries they were getting to her.  To any normal pony, missing a few hours meant a hazy next day, for Celestia that was not an option, so to stay alert the difference had been made up from her magic reserves and with few extended sleeping chances between court, managing the daily twenty-four hour cycle, and the disasters that had hit equestrian, Celestia was more worn down then anypony knew.  It was the only thing Luna had been able to accomplish, and while it wasn’t much it gave her some comfort.

That being said, it still created a pressing matter at hoof.  Celestia had been drained when she returned and the attacks by the changelings and discord had not helped matters.  In fact what recovery she had made was nearly entirely lost during the battle with the Changeling Queen.  Based off what she heard and her sister’s thoughts on the matter they were lucky that’s all that occurred, despite the chaos it created.  The bottom line was no matter how good Celestia looked she was drained, which caused her and her kingdom problems because she could not act at full strength when needed, ultimately all because of her…..her actions those many years ago.  If was Luna’s fault that Celestia’s prized student and her friends were put in danger not just once to rescue her, but three separate times because Celestia could not deal with the threats in her weakened state…..her fault that something precious to her sister had been put in danger.

No she must put such thoughts behind her, Luna was here now and would do all she could for Celestia, which was for the moment keeping the night safe so she could sleep and recover.  As an alicorn her sister would recover faster than most, but 1000 years was a lot of time to make up.  That being said they should be in no immediate jeopardy: she was back to normal, Discord had been recently resealed and the changelings had suffered a blow that would set them back for years to reassemble, which accounted for a good portion of any large-scale threats.  The griffons could be hotheaded at times, but it was unlikely that they would cause any true trouble and the Everfree Forest had been quiet for years.  All in all it seemed like things would be peaceful, but even so Luna did not let up her attention.

It was then that she heard a knock on the door.  This surprised her for a few reasons: the sudden noise jarred her from her thought process, it was the middle of the night, and barely anypony ever came to see her….barely anypony trusted her.  “Thou may enter.”  While she had improved at her use of the royal canterlot voice and her grammar, she was accustomed to the olden speech and it proved a hard habit to break.  The doors opened to show a green pegasus with a brown and blue mane.  He was a bit unkept, but otherwise appeared fine, albeit looking somewhat worn.  It took Luna a moment to place the newcomer, but then she remembered him.  During her excursion to Troston, she had come across this pegasus en-route.  He had been exhausted and left in a bad way with unexplained injuries all over his body.  Luna had taken him to Troston’s medical center, known throughout Equestria for its services, before dealing with her mission.  It had been a good act on her part, but she had expected little from it.  Even in the pony learned who had aided him, Luna was familiar enough with her public perception and had assumed any form of gratitude would be lost in fear.  Taking all that into account, this was an interesting turn of events.

The stallion approached and bowed respectfully, surprising Luna further, any reverence she had received had been clumsy and shaky at best and seeing this pegasus before her acting normal, befitting royalty, rendered her speechless.  Nevertheless she gathered herself and spoke to the guest.  “Welcome citizen, thou’s condition seems to have improved since last we met.”  He responded in a calm, but rough voice, “Princess it is my honor to meet the mare who undoubtedly saved my life and for that you have my eternal gratitude.  When I awoke at the hospital and not in some obscure corner of Equestria, I persisted inquiries until I found out the identity of my rescuer and could personally thank her.”  Luna was even more surprised at his words, but recovered quickly, “Thou speak kindly, though I only did what was proper; I am actually surprised to even see thou, despite my aid to you, thou must know of my deeds.  Dost thou not fear me like the rest?”  The pony paused for a moment in response, but then looked at Luna with a dedicated expression, “What you say is not without some truth.  I was initially taken aback by what I discovered, however once my initial shock had faded, I found it a pleasant surprise and simply wanted to thank the individual who saved me.”  Luna stood there for a good thirty seconds without speaking trying to interpret this response; her confusion must have been pretty obvious too, because the Pegasus continued, “Princess, what is my cutie mark?”  It took Luna a minute, she was not used to being addressed in any kind of casual manner from somepony besides Celestia and her student, however once she gathered herself she looked upon his flank and saw what appeared to be a piece of paper and a magnifying glass.  “We see blank paper and an examination tool, what purpose does your question serve?”  “To answer yours your majesty,” he responded.  “My name is Final Gambit, and I was raised within Canterlot.  I do not wish to share the details, but once a great truth was kept from me, one that impacted my very existence and my entire world.  Since then I have been obsessed with finding the truth in all things large and small.  While you were Nightmare Moon, you are that mare no longer and your actions in saving my life show me that there is more to you than your past mistakes.  I have traveled Equestria seeking out mysteries and discovered many twists in my constant search for the truth and from such experience have learned not to judge a book until the final page has been turned or a mare by what she did 1000 years ago.”

Luna stood there for a moment unable to respond.  She had yet to experience an interaction like this.  Most ponies still feared her from her days of terror and others only gave public acknowledgement, but she felt the doubts that still dwelled within them.  The element bearers were more receptive, but they had seen her change and had interacted with her more than the average citizenry.  Gambit was different, however, he had no pre-established connection with her except her legacy, but was willing to look past that, something no outside adult pony had yet done for her.  She felt strange and yet familiar emotions within her, like pieces once forgotten, but then rediscovered.  She felt invigorated and was genuinely curious about this pony, not the false interest given as a diplomat or guest wants to share a store somepony has no interest in, but a true desire to understand both the pony who extended such a hoof in friendship, but what circumstances could create such an individual.

After realizing Gambit was waiting for her response, however, she gathered herself; even if she was confused she could at least welcome him.  “Your words are kind sir and they do more for us to hear then perhaps you could understand……..thank you.  We are glad to see you recovered, what is it you do Final Gambit?”  “I explore your majesty,” he responded quickly, “ancient pony tribes that wandered the planes long ago, temples and cites left abandoned, and the discoveries within, it is exciting work.”  “Perhaps, but it sounds like difficult and expensive work, there are locations such scattered to the corners of Equestria and sadly some are in such derelict shape as to be unlikely to yield anything,” the princess countered.  “At times,” Final replied, “but when I do find something, the publicity and results get me by for a time; I also supplement that by writing in my spare moments, have you heard of Daring Do?”  “We have heard the name before, those are your creations?”  “My pseudonym, fantasy adaptations of my adventures, I was just about to start the next issue when this unpleasantness began.  Thank you again princess for your assistance-“

He got no further as the princess noticed two things happening at once.  The first she felt more than saw, but a dome of magic had just enclosed the room the two were sharing.  While she was not directly affected by it, she could sense nothing outside the sphere, which immediately set off alarms as to what was happening OUTSIDE their isolated space.  The second was a blast of unicorn magic that went straight through her door and headed straight for her.  It was fast, faster than any normal unicorn could launch any beam, but not quite fast enough as Luna rolled to the side where she was immediately launched to the ground by the explosion that erupted from the wall the beam had collided with.  High level destruction magic, somepony was actually attacking her, IN HER OWN PALACE.  She quickly turned to glare at he would be attacker, whoever it was must have some high level training to have gotten that close without detection, not to mention whatever had happened to her guards.  Somepony with years of training, somepony with a grudge perhaps, somepony like……. “PRINCE BLUEBLOOD?”

Celestia awoke with a start in her bedchamber, she had just sensed two pulses of magical energy.  One, she was shocked to realize, had been around her sister’s tower.  She would be immediately thinking of going to her sister if the second pulse she felt hadn’t been right outside her own chamber.  Barely having time to process these thoughts Celestia was cut off from anything as some kind of dome surrounded her.  This focused her attention to her door.  She could feel a presence outside the door and the pulses indicated it was probably a unicorn.  She also felt dark energy however, foreign and familiar at the same time, but that would have to come later.  Her doors opened.  Celestia was unsure how to proceed, this pony was obvious came here for a reason, but the form gave her pause.  It was a stallion she had seen many times before and one of the ponies she least wanted to confront like this.  His many was a mix of dark and light colors and he stood looking ready for anything.  That combined with her lack of information on the situation put her in a cautious state.  So she proceeded in normal form, on guard of course, to see where this encounter would lead.  She spoke one sentence, to an outsider it would have sounded like any other line the princess had spoken in the past, but to those who could look past that, it was laced with anxiety and focus.  “Do you have something to report Captain?”