A Wraith in Winter

Luna misliked many things about modern Equestria, but sugary maple syrup sat at the top of the list. It was beyond sticky, it tended to give foals sugar-induced nightmares, and it was her sister’s favorite condiment. Celestia’s stack of pancakes for her morning meal consisted of more syrup than actual flapjack, drenched and dripping onto the table with every ginormous bite. The alabaster alicorn clearly relished her indulgence, and syrup dripped down her muzzle.

If it was possible for her flowing, rainbow-colored mane to be sticky with syrup, it would be. Thankfully, their shared, magical mane and tail required little upkeep. They ebbed and flowed as they willed, a manifestation of their power after their ascension. Sometimes I miss styling my mane. The thought struck Luna suddenly, and she bit it away with another banana slice. Her sister folded a flapjack into a roll, then levitated it into her muzzle wholesale. Her cheeks bulged as she swallowed. It was utterly unbecoming of a Princess of a nation, and Luna thanked Harmony that they had privacy. The guards were outside the doors to the dining hall, allowing the sisters a few precious moments to speak, just to each other, without fear of eavesdroppers.

“You have to try these,” Celestia gushed. “You can’t be happy with just fruit.”

“I am going to sleep soon,” Luna reminded her sister. “That amount of sugar will keep me awake for the rest of your day.” She raised an eyebrow and folded her hooves on the table. “Are you sure you wish to break your fast with that, sister mine? The throne is already quite large enough.”

Celestia stuck her tongue out, brown with syrup. “You need to live a little, Luna. We have the best chefs in the world. They can make whatever you want, and some things you never knew you wanted.”

Luna took a bite of an apple. The skin crunched and the flesh was quite juicy. Lady Applejack’s no doubt. “I am quite satisfied with what I have.”

Celestia shrugged her great white wings and levitated another pancake up to her maw. Neither sister wore their regalia at the oak table, but they sat on the plushest velvet cushions bits could buy, and the pillars along the wall were gilded. Luna didn’t recognize many of the paintings beside the pillars. She had been a painter in what little spare time she had before, but it also seemed the styles had evolved past her own. One painting was only a stylized image of her sister's cutie mark, a rising sun. The painting next to it was of her own cutie mark, a moon. It didn't look quite as good, as if the painter was in a rush.

“You know, the guards were quite upset when they fished Fact Finder out of the fountain this morning,” Celestia commented with a swallow. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

Luna’s mouth quirked. Fact Finder was one of several seneschals charged with keeping Celestia’s open Day Court functional. Far too many Ponies clamored to see their Princess every day, and it was Fact Finder’s job to assess cases and direct them to lower courts, if available.

The Throne of Equestria did not rule over the entire land directly. Though the Diarchy was effectively absolute, Canterlot only claimed and administered the heartlands. For all of Luna’s attempts to curtail noble power, the old lines had stubbornly clung to privileges for a thousand years. And new classes of money rose up beside them, Ponies who made enough with factories and farmlands to live better than Celestia and Luna had in their Everfree Castle. It had been Luna’s idea to create a rival bureaucracy that answered to the Princesses, but even those Ponies could be bought, like Fact Finder.

“Yes,” Luna smiled grimly and remembered the tan unicorn’s panic when the alicorn stormed into his chambers in the servant’s wing just before dawn. She dragged him from his bed with a flare of her horn, saying “You hath been dismissed from Our service,” and teleporting him into the fountain outside the gates to Canterlot Palace.

“I had a petitioner last night,” Luna said to her sister.

Celestia clapped her hooves together like a filly. A strand of syrup stuck between them. “That’s wonderful, Luna!”

“Tis not wonderful,” Luna rebuked. “She was sent away from your court with a rightful claim to be heard!”

Celestia lowered a pancake and gave her sister her full attention. Luna ignored the syrup on her muzzle. “Duchess Berry hath written decrees in Our name and mark, taxing her demesne to the brink of starvation. Her friends in Canterlot are paid well to ensure no word of this reaches our ears. Fact Finder is one of them.”

“How’d you find this out?”

“I asked young Misty for a description of the stallion that turned her away, then sought out his dream,” Luna answered. “Fact Finder freely confessed his crimes to Berry Bundle during a rather odd birthday party,” she added, amused. Luna had manipulated the dream to make the unicorn more comfortable and malleable, and his confession had been both long and revealing.

“You went into his dream?” Celestia asked uncomfortably. “That’s not a confession, Luna.”

“The dreaming mind is more truthful than the waking one,” Luna replied defensively. “Fact Finder hath, has, taken bribes from several more Ponies for years, and he implied that many others do.” She thumped a hoof on the table. “We must investigate this!”

“Luna, I had a sodden Pony beg me for forgiveness just after I raised the sun,” Celestia said softly. “He confessed to everything with just a little prodding. You didn’t need to terrorize him.”

“I did not terrorize him! I showed him actions have consequences!”

“Like when our guards see a furious Princess throw a Pony in the fountain,” Celestia said dryly.

Luna’s ears wilted. The guards had been shocked to see her storm into the Servant’s Wing, true, but she did not register their expressions as fear. She teleported in the decree and held it before Celestia. The taller alicorn reached out with a sticky hoof, then laughed awkwardly when Luna drifted the paper away with a glare. Celestia reached out with her magic and held the paper at a respectful distance from her muzzle. “I don’t recall raising taxes in her domain,” she mused.

“We have not,” Luna confirmed. “I checked last night. She has been forging Our marks since I returned.”

Celestia winced at the reminder. “Yes, well, I’ll need to have a word with Duchess Berry. I’ll summon her to a private session.”

Luna stared blankly at her sister. “What? What of her punishment?”

“She’ll obviously pay everypony back and issue an apology,” Celestia rolled her eyes. “I have to do this from time to time. You underestimate how effective my disapproving frown can be; you’re immune to it’s full weight, little sister.” Celestia frowned and arched an eyebrow as an example. The effect was ruined by syrup more than Luna’s familiarity with her expression.

“Sister, she has stolen from our subjects for years!” Luna thumped the table again and the plates rattled.

“Well, what would you do?” Celestia steadied her swaying stack of pancakes.

“I have sent fair Misty back to Hope Hollow with a decree stripping Berry Bundle of her titles, along with her entire family,” Luna revealed with a whicker.

Celestia sat up on her cushion. “Luna!”

“We still have that right!”

“Luna, that’s going to cause pure chaos today,” Celestia groaned. “I haven’t done that in…” she paused to think. “A very long time. Everypony talks here. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of Upper Canterlot knows by now.”

“Let them talk,” Luna said stubbornly. “Let them know the consequences of abusing Our trust.”

“Sister,” Celestia said softly. Luna hated that tone of voice. It usually followed some bit of asinine advice. “A bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch,” Celestia said, proving Luna correct yet again. “Every know and then, somepony gets a bit too big-headed and I have to say how disappointed I am in their behavior.”

“That is not a punishment.”

“If you strip away her titles, how can she pay back those poor Ponies?” Celestia asked. “I share your anger, I truly do, but Berry’s family has served well, and I imagine her fillies will continue to do so. Think about the long term.”

“Our Ponies are hurt now.”

“Maybe they’ll be hurt without Berry’s grandfoals?” Celestia suggested.

“Your punishment for treason against the crown is talking?” Luna said sourly. The stars floating in her mane dimmed.

“It’s better than the punishment a thousand years ago,” Celestia replied.

Luna closed her eyes and breathed in. Celestia’s sticky hoof found hers on the table and patted it reassuringly. “I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sorry.”

“I am not some thing made of glass,” Luna said sharply, but did not retract her hoof. Celestia returned to her diminished pancake stack, and Luna chomped on another apple.

“Forgiveness,” Celestia said, “is the most effective weapon we have. I suspect Berry will travel to Canterlot and skip to the front of the line with her bribery, all to scream and beg that your decree be undone.” She giggled to herself. “It will be a most amusing show, and I will extract her tearful confession before the Royal Court, then send her on her way to give back the money.” Celestia gave a rare full smile. “I’ll make sure Raven follows up on it.”

“You will undo my decree?” Luna said in a pained whisper.

“May I?” Celestia requested, but Luna knew the answer regardless.

“Do as thou wilt.” Luna stood up and away from the table, having a rare moment of staring down at her sister, seeing the sticky syrup rubbed into her fur around the muzzle, and her sticky hooves resting on the silken tablecloth. You have always been a glutton, sister mine. You have not changed as much as I believed.

“You always hated attending court,” Luna remarked conversationally. “What changed after I was gone?”

“Somepony had to do it,” Celestia answered slowly. “I still don’t like it, but Twilight loves lists. I’m certain she’ll find a way to make it tolerable. Before you go to bed, there is one other thing.”

Luna waited.

“Another town disappeared in the north,” Celestia admitted with a heavy sigh. “The guards found it last night. Several buildings burned down, but no bodies, thankfully. Cadance is at her wit’s end trying to calm down the Crystal Empire.”

Luna frowned. “How many has that been? Seven?”

“Too many,” Celestia agreed. “I’ll ask Twilight to investigate today, and to bring the Elements.”

“Do you truly believe that Sombra survived?” Luna and Celestia had fought the tyrant unicorn a thousand years in the past. He was cunning, wicked, and a master of illusion magic, enough to rival Luna herself, but Celestia was the better fighter. Sombra had killed the Princess Amore and seized control with pure fear, ruling as a slaving despot for nearly a year before the sisters faced him. On the cusp of victory, he enacted a spell that stole the Crystal City, displacing it from time.

Luna knew a spell of that caliber took far too much magic, and suspected that Sombra turned to blood sacrifices in the end. She never told her sister about her suspicions. Celestia had cried for a day as it was, over Amore and the Ponies she failed to save.

“It’s not like Sombra to be subtle,” Luna reflected. She had known him briefly, before his fall to corrupt powers. He was a talented mage, but not quite a friend. There had always been a darkness in him. The unicorn with a crooked horn that returned with the Crystal Empire was entirely consumed by hatred and foul magic, a snarling beast more animal than Pony. His death by young Spike was a mercy.

“I don’t know,” Celestia shrugged and nibbled a syrup-coated lower lip. “Chrysalis is still out there as well.” The changelings were their other old enemy. Chrysalis and her brood stalked the shadows from even before Discord’s reign. Celestia had faced them more than Luna, but neither knew much about them. The attack on Shining and Cadance’s wedding was their first emergence in centuries, and only defeated by the pure love between the couple. “I don’t like this.”

“I mislike this as well,” Luna concurred. “The Dreamscape may hold answers.”

“Dreams?” Celestia slightly snorted. Luna ignored it.

“Night Court is hereby cancelled.”

“No,” Celestia replied immediately. “Just because one petitioner went poorly—”

“My only petitioner,” Luna interrupted. “I have sat in an empty throne room quite enough. I will search the Dreamscape to see if I can locate our subjects, night and day. We will bring them back. Together.”

“Together,” Celestia echoed.