Author's Note
Believe it or not, this started as a comedy concept.
This story takes place sometime during season 3.
The Age of Conquest
Ever since Celestia had sent Twilight to Ponyville, she didn't get to see her protegé as much. She had known already that she would miss her dearly, it was almost like watching her own daughter leave the nest. But she couldn't be prouder of her, of everything she had learned since then, and accomplished, of her bright mind and voracious curiosity.
So when the unicorn did return to the castle, on rare occasions, Celestia always took the time to have tea and talk with her, to see her passion and excitement firsthand, in a way that she could only imagine when she read her letters.
She was especially ravenous again today. For knowledge, more so than cake, though she wasn't far behind on that either. She had brought a list, a list of things she wanted to ask in person, each of which came with at least one tangent, which she had been going down while Spike was lying curled up on a cushion near the window, napping through the entire conversation.
"I had no idea bovine culture was so complex. There must be more I could read about it," Twilight mused aloud, looking around at the shelves containing Celestia's personal collection, as if the right tome would just magically stand out to her. But that spell was still a bit advanced for her.
"I don't know if there is," Celestia noted while levitating her teacup inches from her muzzle, "they maintained an oral tradition at the time, which has been largely lost since the... Age of Conquest." She took a sip. The tea tasted more bitter than it aught to.
"Oh, that's right!" Twilight shuffled through the scroll, skipping a few lines. "I wanted to ask you, since there's no books on that era in Ponyville's library."
A shudder crawled up Celestia's spine. This had always been inevitable. Sooner or later, she knew, she had to confront Twilight with that kind of history. Preferably before she found out by herself. But why did it have to be now, when this was still so comfortable? When she was still so young?
"I only know that Equestria expanded its borders and a little bit about the regions before that unification. But I've never found detailed records of how you conquered those holdings."
You. It felt accusatory, even though Twilight didn't mean it that way. She would, someday. Right now, she still didn't know, about a time before her ascension, when every thrust of a weapon and swipe of a claw could have ended her, where she had to thrust and swipe herself to carve her will into flesh and hide. When she was a conqueror.
And yet, this small unicorn, her lifetime barely a drop in the bucket, was looking up at her with expectant eyes, hoping for knowledge, for great tales, for honesty.
"Princess Celestia?" Twilight tilted her head, frowning slightly.
"Oh. Yes. I imagine that kind of writing is in the archives somewhere. Though, that was so long ago, I'm sure there are other topics that would be of more immediate interest."
"But, if I am going to study the magic of friendship, I have to understand how you used it to unify Equestria."
Celestia unfocused her eyes so she didn't have to look directly at the filly's innocent expression.
The air tasted of steel and mud. The phalanx pushed and shoved, flank to flank, everypony's sweat intermingling. Celestia's ears were aching under the oppressive noise of the massive shields slamming and grinding up against one another, a thin barrier of metal between them and the ramming horns and giant axes of the minotaurs.
With a startled scream, the unicorn on her left collapsed against her flank, his hot blood spraying against the side of her helmet and smearing against her side as the body fell into the mud. She thrust the spear in her magical grasp along with the others, forcing the attacker back while they pushed together again, closing the gap. The fallen soldier's lungs made one last noise when hooves trampled on his body, trying to find secure purchase.
"Yes. I... certainly couldn't have done it alone." She pretended to take a sip, but kept her lips closed.
"So, you and your friends brought them all together? By yourselves?" Twilight adjusted herself on her cushion, like she had trouble sitting still. A habit she had developed when she was much smaller, when Celestia still had to gently remind her to not just start prancing around the room when she was excited.
"Oh, it wasn't all the same friends. There were... a lot of them. They're not with us anymore."
This seemed to curb the enthusiasm a little. Twilight's shoulders sunk a little. "Oh. Of course, it was so long ago. I'm sorry."
Why did she have to feel guilty? She was only sparing her from a much darker truth. "Oh, but of course one of them is. Or should I say, is with me once more. Thanks to you," she said gently, hoping to lift her spirits again a little.
Twilight's eyes lit up. "Princess Luna was there?"
Every step brought a sharp pain, rushing up from the cuts under Celestia's armour that hadn't fully healed since the night raid on their camp. But they were only a few halls and stairways away from King Minos' throne room. Their numbers had thinned considerably, but there couldn't be many guards left inside with the battle still raging in the city.
"Commander, from the steps!" one of the soldiers said in a low growl. Celestia planted her hooves and glanced around at the hall they had trapped themselves in. Not enough room for a wide skirmish, not enough of them to set up a phalanx. Grasping the hilt in her magic she drew the curved sword from her side, the rest of her unit doing the same just as two warriors came charging down the steps and towards them.
She didn't need to look at Luna. She could feel her falling into a gallop and did the same, despite the pain under the tight straps of her armour. One of the warriors arrived first, but it was the one trailing behind they were interested in. With a flare of their horns, both of them teleported past the first, conserving magic with the short jump, but enough for his greataxe to carve into the stone floor instead of their flesh.
Celestia's next move went poorly. As she put her weight on a front hoof to slide into position for a swing, exhaustion caught up with her and her knee gave out. It was only a small stumble, but in that moment, she was convinced, this was it. The axe would find her neck, or the side of her head, or maybe carve her down the middle, a gruesome death she had seen too often during the last two months of the campaign.
But just as it came down, Luna leapt towards the tall minotaur's arm and drove her blade into the inner elbow, making him howl and lose grip on the axe. He reached out and grabbed Luna around the neck, throwing her off of him and sending her tumbling over the stone. She hit the wall with an uncomfortable thud.
Celestia's mind refocused while her eyes failed to do so. She darted around him, making quick slices to draw his attention away from Luna, only some of which found resistance. Her grip faltered as the last swing hit one of the armour plates loosely covering his body. Her sword went scattering across the floor. She blinked her eyes rapidly to try and focus them, her mane drenched in sweat and her heartbeat in her ears.
She could see him somewhat clearly again, only when he reached out for her, his weapon all but forgotten, his rage driving him to instead crush her neck, or break her leg, or a dozen other acts of violence she had seen the minotaurs enact on unicorns. Gritting her teeth, she lowered her head and released her magic in a blast from the tip of her horn. It wasn't aimed well, hitting his brow instead of his eye, and he only stumbled instead of being forced back. She tried again, and again, both shots going wide before his hands reached her.
She didn't know if she was actually screaming or whether she had run out of breath. His grip would have crushed her, if not for her armour, but hot blood spilt forth regardless as her wounds reopened. He swung her against the wall, like an ape trying to smash a hard-shelled fruit. She loosed one more blast, this one finding its mark by the grace of desperation alone. He howled and dropped her, stumbling back a step, before his remaining eye glared down at her and he raised his hoof.
The forgotten axe swung out, hitting his other leg. It buckled as the blade severed the muscles down to the bone. Luna tore it free and swung it around the other way, driving it into his neck. Through grit teeth, he grabbed the edge with one hand, trying to feel for the attacker behind him with the other, blood spurting from the wound but his throat just barely intact. With one more focused blast, Celestia hit his injured elbow. His arm faltered and the blade pushed through, forced through half his neck before he collapsed.
Immediately, it was eerily silent, besides the scraping of metal and the echoing of hooves, sounds of prelude, not of battle, which had long passed into Celestia's blind spot. She looked down the hall behind them. Two soldiers joined them, two less than there had been a minute ago. Luna stepped closer, her short mane drenched in blood, her chest heaving, winded but uninjured. At least, until she would take off her armour tonight, surely then the bruises would start to show.
"We have told thee, remain at camp. Thou hast nearly perished!" Luna's anger was vocal, but her love and her concern could only be found in her eyes, darting over Celestia's body, over the blood forced out between the splints of metal.
"And yet, we live." She forced herself up onto her hooves and her lips to smile. "If we were not here, sister, who wouldst protect thee?"
"I could have never done it without Luna." Celestia adjusted herself on the soft cushion, holding a hoof gingerly up to her chest, as if the wounds could still be there.
"Amazing! I want to read all about it!" Twilight stood up, then remembered they were still having tea, and promptly sat back down.
Celestia looked her over, slowly, taking her time. She was so small. Even by the standards of other ponies, she was a little petite, kind of like Luna had been back then. Plenty had underestimated her then, since they couldn't see her voracity. Though in her case, it wasn't for knowledge.
Twilight wasn't as lean as Luna, though. She was soft, maybe even a little pudgy. The result of a lot of reading and not going outside much. Though she looked much happier and healthier ever since Celestia had sent her to Ponyville. She couldn't have lived like this, back then. This age was so much kinder to somepony like her. She had to protect her from realising that, at least a few years longer.
"Twilight." Her protegé looked up at her, her mouth full of the remaining cake. "I'd like you to not look into the Age of Conquest."
Twilight swallowed slowly, not dropping eye contact. Just a year ago, she would have whined and begged, but she was more mature now, seemingly contemplating her request. "Why, Princess?"
"There is a proper order to things. Right now, I want you to continue learning about friendship, and all of its elements. In your own way, the way it exists now. Find a firm grip on the present, before letting yourself be influenced by the past."
"I understand." The disappointment was clear in Twilight's voice, but no frustration swung with it. She would obey.
They finished their tea while going through some other questions. Soft-balls, some of them silly. They laughed. At one point, Celestia gently moved Spike's cushion to not wake him while she opened the windows to let in a refreshing breeze.
After a few more minutes, Twilight did stir him awake, as she made to leave. Celestia saw them down the steps into the main hallways of the castle. She watched the unicorn trot away, the small dragon on her back.
"Twilight. One more piece of advice."
The bodies piled up high. Most of them couldn't be brought home. After salvaging the equipment, they lit the pyres. The march back to the castle would take less than a week, after carving their way here for a whole season. The relief was evident throughout the camp, but nopony could bear to be happy. How could anypony be.
"Sister." Luna settled down in the grass next to Celestia. They were both free of the blood now, of the gore splattered across them. Even their armour and weapons had been polished, faintly sparkling on the racks. But she could still feel it sticking to her.
"We are victorious," Celestia said flatly. It was a fact. Minos was dead, his people free to stay and become citizens of Equestria or to move on into the mountains. But there was no celebration in those words.
"We are," Luna confirmed, equally dull. After a long silence, gazing out across the fields, across trampled vegetation and unclaimed weapons, Luna sank against Celestia's side, nuzzling her closely. She took a deep breath, releasing it in what was almost a whine.
Never had she been more desperate for words. Before her people, she could always conjure up the right ones. To sway them, to uplift them, to inspire their loyalty. But none of that worked on her sister. She didn't know how to ease her pain, both of their pain. She inclined her head, nuzzling her mane. The smell of blood was still there, but faint.
"Learn from your past. After something lies behind you, always take time to examine it. Whether you made the right choices and what impact they had. Obsess over it and it will drive you mad, but you should always be aware of what your actions brought." She smiled, managing a positive twist. "And be proud when your actions helped somepony."
Twilight smiled and nodded, almost solemnly. She knew she would think on her words. Finally, she let her leave, watching her all the way to the end of the hall. She would return to her friends, to her studies, to peaceful days in a small town with no walls or guards, where she could nonetheless feel safe.
Celestia carried that thought for the rest of the day. The knowledge that her student was safe and happy. She carried it all the way to the evening, when she slowly lowered the sun past the horizon. And past that, as she stood out on the balcony, listening for the hoofbeats joining her.
They stood next to each other in silence as the moon rose. She struggled with her words, staring up at the stars slowly covering the dark tapestry.
"You want to say something," Luna observed finally.
"It was worth it, wasn't it?" Celestia's chest heaved. The shudder returned, she could feel the tingling under her eyelids. "Everything we did?"
"This isn't about anything recent," Luna concluded, watching her from the side.
"All the blood. It was worth it, wasn't it?" A single tear rolled down her cheek as her voice trembled. "For them?"
Luna quietly stepped closer and extended a wing over her flank. Celestia returned the gesture, resting hers on her sister's withers. Luna nuzzled her neck. Neither of them knew the right words.
