To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Celestia's stomach hurt as she took one final look at the map, she had grown used to the feeling as of late. She would be arriving any minute now at the supposed location Twilight had marked 'positive'. She had d ouble and triple checked several landmarks along the way, there was no way she would waste time and mess up. During her impromptu visit to Riftly she had seen many of the locals, but she did not truly see them at all. Going through the motions. Her thoughts had remained solely on her sister.

She just hoped Luna would allow her to speak at all.

Slowing her flight, she continued unabated to glide over tall spruces which had soaked in the snow like a coat. A solid layer of white representing fresh snow painted over older, the snow having not melted at any point.

It was the second day of her trip, and she had made good time. She would have all of today and potentially even most of tomorrow to meet with her sister.

Celestia ascended to pass over what she found to be a local hot spot, several spruces towering in the sky as if to challenge the pegasi of this world to see who could climb higher. By the time she had passed it, she came to realize that the time was now it would seem, and her breath caught in her throat when she began to see the tell-tale signs of equine life after her passing. Not only that, but her vantage point allowed her to see the building Luna had seemingly developed. She was glad to see her sister had not lost her resourcefulness. Her sister was nowhere to be seen, to her relief, which she hated realizing.

Gliding downwards into the clearing, she softly landed on snow just outside of the cottage. Her nose twitched. Something about the air here felt different, but she couldn't place a hoof on it. Surveying the place, it didn't seem lacking, but certainly a large step down from the kind of opulent life Celestia had grown accustomed to in Canterlot. Luna deserved that, too.

Just as she had come close to finishing her one hundred and eighty degree scan of the surroundings, the smallest of sounds caught her ear. Several blueberries had fallen out of a basket onto the forest floor. Luna stood coming out from a gap in the forestry on a path she had clearly used several times before, mouth agape.

It didn't take long for her shock to be replaced by anger, she bristled with fury but only stood still. This was not the encounter Celestia had been expecting.

Their collective stare down was conversely shown on their faces and body language. Celestia remained neutral and imploring with the faintest trace of sorrow. Luna was tense, close to backpedalling and seething.

"You..." wild eyes and a switch to a hostile stance.

None of this registered in Celestia's mind at all. The background, everything, faded away from her vision the moment she locked in the view of her sister. The only thing in the universe her being could currently outline against a backdrop of nothingness. She had prepared herself for so long, but that meant nothing in the moment. Happy tears poured down her face.

It wasn't only Celestia who had lost sight of the world around them. Grinding her teeth, Luna fired a blast at Celestia with wild abandon. Celestia reacted purely out of instinct, and shielded herself with her magic. Celestia hadn't realized she had even done it, continuing to stare elated at her little sister.

"She betrayed me.."

Luna had lost all sense of reason, after this it seemed. Blast after blast she launched at Celestia. Many bounced off the shield and utterly decimated the landscape around them. It was erratic, half of them missing as if to prove how tenuous the world really was after they landed. Trees being uprooted or blown apart into sawdust all the same. The ground had large craters in it from each impact.

It continued to snow around them as if the peaceful serenity of the world around them had never been disturbed, the swirls of snow being blown by the wind as each projectile whizzed past. Celestia had come out of her funk, and focused on maintaining her protection now. This was nothing like their past engagement. No creativity in offensive, and in a way this was relieving. In fact, this was no battle at all. Luna was letting it all out. The power of the attacks was nowhere close to what she remembered from the past. This allowed her to remain calm and in command.

Five minutes later and Luna stood panting, her horn smoking slightly as it came back to rest.

"Why... do you continue to taunt me so?"

Luna's eyes had cleared, but the glow of anger remained.

"I would never taunt you, dear sister."

"LIES! Even now you come here to sneer at my pathetic constitution, looking down on me. You put me in this state and now you've come to witness the fruit of your hard work after so long, isn't that right, Celestia?" She spat out the name. Her muzzle had twisted, and it slowly warped into one that was wretched.

"WELL I WON'T GO OUT LIGHTLY!"

She fired a steady beam at the shield rather than a blast, increasing the power over and over until she was clenching her eyes shut hard in exertion.

Celestia stood like a pillar, unmoving. Just a few feet in front of her was bathed in light from the collision of the beam with her shield. She could no longer see her sister, just a kaleidoscope of lights as they washed over and past her shield as mana lost its force and returned to the plethora of forms it held before dying out, washing over like a calm wave and a snapshot of a aurora borealis. She continually maintained with with stern resolve. Her eyes shone against it. Any other unicorn would've been reduced to ash by now, as well as anything behind her for around a mile she surmised.

But it was not to last forever, and, collapsed to the ground panting Luna fell. She clutched at her head in overexertion and dizziness, and incoming exhaustion.

Celestia stared her down lightly, a crestfallen thing.

"All I want is to help you," she slowly brought up her courage, "even if you hate me. I cannot pretend to ever understand what you went through on the moon, but I know that it will forever stain both of our existences. It it my hope that we are both one day able to move past it if even just enough to be able to appreciate each day a little more again, together hopefully."

She started approaching Luna slowly.

"You have no idea for how long I worried about you, thought about you, tormented myself over you. To see you like this breaks my heart even now, will you not let me help you? I can provide all the help you need, even if you don't want to see my face as much as it hurts me. I understand."

Luna finally had recovered some, and hesitantly looked back up towards Celestia, developing a slight look of fear. It caused Celestia to halt her advance, and she slowly sat down in front of her in the untainted snow.

"What are you even saying? Worried?"

Luna's face trembled in a mixture of pure emotion, she looked down, and then back up in a moment of clarity. It seemed she was trying to reconcile some tumultuous conflict inside herself.

"Why? Why did you banish us imperfectly?" A lone tear rolled down her face. There was a sincerity now. She looked back down and started shaking. "You cannot tell us it was a mistake... but... why...?"

"I... I believe that it was fear and cowardliness that led to this result, dear sister. I had originally planned on casting purification magic with the elements, but I hesitated at the most dreadful realization, that I had no idea the extent of which the purification would effect you in your transformed state. It stuck terror into my heart that I could accidentally kill my own sister. I hesitated. I still do not remember when I decided to change the hastily constructed plan. I switched to the banishment spell in a last ditch effort, and it seems to have gone just as wrong as any one of the horrible possibilities I imagined..."

"I don't believe you... do you even know what I..."

"I would beseech that you believe me, Luna, with all of my heart. I love you, no matter what you see."

Celestia finally noticed something off about her sister now that she had longer to take in and consume the situation and look at her. Multiple things actually.

"Luna... has something happened to you? I thought you'd be more recovered by now. Don't tell me—"

"What... not the beautiful sister you remember?"

Several long seconds grinded by. "But you're back, clearly—"

"I'm broken. I'll save you the details for some other time. My time on the moon took too much out of me Celestia. Your magic made me vulnerable and I was damaged. I still am damaged. It's over. So just leave me alone." The look on her face was delirious mild madness, and it shook Celestia.

"Leave me in peace."

"Let me take a look at you."

"Can I even trust you?"

Celestia stopped in her tracks immediately.

"Please Luna... I only want to help, I think something may seriously be wrong and what you said—"

"If you really want to help me then you'll leave me alone. Maybe then I'll start believing that this isn't all some act to make fun of me before the end. As weak as I am, I know that deep down I always wanted to believe you wouldn't do those things. But my experience screams at me otherwise, and it tells me now you're going to force the rest of my time as well."

"I..."

For the first time, Celestia was completely unable to answer. A war raged on in her mind. Every sense in her body screamed at her that something was wrong with Luna, and that she needed help. Yet she denied it utterly, wanting space and peace. She knew immediately that her older self would've forced Luna to the capital for assessment and treatment if needed no time wasted. Luna was clearly not in the right mind, talking about the end, but did that even matter? Doubts lingered from a millennium of pining. By some stroke of luck Luna hadn't completely hated her, and even seemed willing to give her some chance to make things work at all. She couldn't allow her relationship to sink even further, for there would be nothing left. Suddenly it felt clear. Luna could trust Celestia.

"I will leave you be if that is what you want Luna. I only ever want what's best for you, but I will not force you to do what you do not want to. We've been doing similar roads, and I will not go there again."

Luna looked slightly shocked, but gave a nod slowly like she still didn't believe it.

"I still think you should be seen by someone who can figure out what's going wrong... would you be opposed to me sending someone here instead to meet with you? I can arrange that. It will be slower, but if it works for you then it works for me."

"I will accept that... sister. I will accept your earnest attempt to remedy your image." She looked to the side, "but I would be lying if even now every fibre of my being fights to hold you accountable. Go before I change my mind."

"Then I will not torture you any longer." It tore up Celestia inside as the words left her, but she knew this was for the best.

Celestia lift off slowly, and then started on her way back above the trees and to the sky towards the east.

She started thinking of potential magically advanced clinicians to send and evaluate Luna. Only the best would suffice. It had frightened her how weak Luna had felt, and she felt frustrated at how little time or questions she could ask of her sister. But she had seen that look, so her hooves were tied. She couldn't waste this chance trying to force the issue. She only hoped Luna was fine until she got to see her again.