Remnants

Celestia watched her sister from a distance. It was an interesting sight—the dark blue alicorn princess of the night standing in the middle of the bright morning light. It was also an unusual one. Celestia learned that her sister deserved to be treated like an adult, but yet, she worried about her; her sleepless nights have given her a tired appearance and an unruly mane.

Celestia noticed her sister's gaze leave the painting; her eyes were narrowed with suspicion as she turned her head to gaze at her fellow sister/duarch.

"I can see you, sister," Luna said, her tone neutral.

"I was not trying to hide," Celestia responded in kind.

Luna stared at her and her sister with intense scrutiny, then snorted with an air of dismissal, a melancholic expression covering her features once again as her gaze turned back to the painting.

"Okay, it doesn't seem she wants to talk," her niece said, 'helpfully'.

Celestia sighed with tiredness. "Was it something I did? Harmony knows I have been too busy these days." Celestia could not help but wonder at her sister's sudden aggressive behavior towards her.

"Oh no, no, auntie! She does not feel any hate towards you," Cadance said in rapid assurance. "It is more like," Cadance hummed, searching for the word, "a feeling of sadness." She finished, a note of worry in her voice.

Celestia felt the same worry in her niece's tone start to settle in her mind. Despite her recovery and progress after a millennium of isolation, Luna has not yet let go of the past.

"What can I do to help her?, Celestia asked her niece in a pleading tone.

"Well, perha-", Cadence started.

"Perhaps her sister should stop being a scaredy-cat and ask her what's wrong," Luna finished, interrupting her niece with an angry tone in her voice.

Celestia winced at her sister's tone and said, "I did not want to be intrusive"

Luna sighed. "I will always appreciate your concern, sister; I only asked of you to stop 'babying' me, like some kind of foal," she said with annoyance.

Celestia chewed her sister's words and cautiously trotted towards her. As she got behind her younger sister's, she saw a painting that she had thought of getting rid of years ago.

"oh!" Celestia suddenly understood her sister's sadness.

"Yes," Luna said, her tone guarded. "Oh."

Luna's intense stare turned towards her sister's, a question present in her teary eyes that Celestia was careful to respond to, 'why?'.

"I-" Celestia's voice faltered. "I had forgotten this was here; if I had, I know I would have." Her voice faltered again at her sister's tears. Celestia closed her eyes "I'm so sorry Luna".

Luna maintained an unflinching gaze at her older sister's sorrowful expression until she could no longer hold the dam of sadness that filled her. The duarch of the night fell down into the ground; her wings closed around her body as she held herself. Tears fell down into the ground in great caskets of water.

Celestia rushed towards her sister, hugging her with strength as she rapidly apologized to her fellow duarch, Cadance did the same, hugging both of her aunts in a show of silent support.

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Cadance did not know what to do in this certain situation she found herself in; her aunts were both an emotional mess, and she felt she was invading something private between them.

"Why could it not be a relationship problem?" Cadance said, she very much enjoyed solving the matters of the heart, be they good or bad.

Cadance took one last look at her aunts before turning to the painting that afflicted them. It was a bloody painting she noticed, one from the ancient times of the Kingdom of Equestria, ponies in silver and gold armor faced each other in fierce combat against each other. A burning castle that she noticed looked very similar to the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. A Pegasus mare stood proudly atop a cloud surrounded by faceless guards adorned in gold, her gaze was merciless as she stared at the massacre below, she did not like this mare, a bronze plaque below the painting read 'The Turning Point'

"It was supposed to be the day of my victory," a melancholic voice said behind her.

Cadance jumped at the sudden voice, and turned to her aunts; they both gazed at the painting with heavy eyes. Cadance reigned in her beating at the sudden scare.

"We were nice and lazy," Her aunt Luna continued, "tired from the constant battles to solidify a foothold for our rebellion; we had just captured the capital and destroyed the Summer Field Fort, and Equestria's north was wide open for the taking"

She took a breath. "We were celebrating; we finally held our victory," Luna faltered, "but not one of us expected what was coming next."

Cadance whispered to her aunt, "What happened?"

"We were massacred!" Luna snarled with anger in her eyes. "General Crimson Victory." Luna all but spat out the name, "would not accept defeat; her post was Summerfield Fort, and she was not glad that we had burned it down when her plot was too busy sitting on the couch back in her state." Luna finished, her anger fading back into a sad tone

"She found us with our flanks on the ground" Luna said weakly "Got together a bunch of ponies, and rallied many remnant units from the region against us" she sighed "But I cannot blame her for what happened, the ponies she gathered wanted us dead more than her, we were the cause of their lost lands and family, revenge was the cause for the coming massacre"

"Sometimes I remember how I survived that day." Luna's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "The friends that I lost, the Ponies that were with me since I declared the rebellion," Luna's voice was almost unheardable "They were my family"

"But what I always remember about that day is how I lost my guardians"