To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Celestia flew overhead the massive ranked formations of the army her ponies had assembled as they marched north east toward the griffin lands. General Reacher had been efficient in his formations and planning, and had assigned the appropriate leadership hierarchy to keep things working smoothly in almost every possible situation. Chain of command was key.

He had also created several strategies regarding the tribes, even some she hadn't thought of before. They had been mostly split off into their own tribes to work in specific ways as units, but they would be relying on each other to fulfill the roles they had been given with efficiency. That way they could protect one another.

Earth ponies could dominate the griffin's if the griffin's became pinned down, and it was the job of both the pegasus and unicorns to largely make that happen.

The unicorns were the ultimate supports, and their position in the back reflected that, while the pegasi had the flexibility to work in-between the earth ponies and them. In truth, the pegasi probably had the hardest job, since they could engage with the griffin's the quickest and had to be ready to move to any location at any time. It was a complicated position. She believed they would pull it off regardless.

The unicorns had been trained for several tactics in which they could all cast magic together in conjunction, but there was no doubt that the heat of battle would eventually reduce them to individual casting. That was fine.

All of them wore a standard uniform befitting Equestria, and it provided some level of armor without overburdening them.

The turnout had been nothing short of epic. Tens of thousands of ponies, approximately thirty two thousand to be exact. Ponies from all across Equestria had responded with outrage against the griffins and answered the call to defend Equestria, as well as punish the griffin's for daring to try and take their rulers life. That was what they ran on, anyway. The already established military, which had been basically a skeletal organization, had become revamped and a reinvigorated machine, and General Reacher could be seen near the middle of the army in a specialized unit.

Twilight had even told her that one of her friends from Ponyville had signed up. She had mixed feelings about that.

Then came her role in all of this. It was simple. Be as overwhelming as possible to inspire hope for her ponies while hopefully getting the griffin's to surrender sooner. If being more brutal and devastating with her methods meant saving more lives, she would do that in a heartbeat. She may have been slipping lately, but she still knew she had to do this much. It pained her that she couldn't be at every battle to protect her ponies. In the back of her mind the leering hypocrisy rang out, but she squashed it immediately. She had to stay focused, for Luna's sake.

The army would be splitting off to head for different key areas eventually, each one taking their portions of the three tribes, for different battlefields that would most likely occur a few hundred more kilometres from here near the border. For now, they moved as one massive force and would for some time. They would stop and resupply at several smaller towns on the way.

It was while musing all of this she remembered a conversation she had before leaving, which had taken her entirely by surprise.

Celestia had finally regained the courage to see her sister again, and the result had been startling. At first she had wanted to be angry at Rosebud for not telling her how bad it had gotten, but she had quickly forgiven her after thinking about it for a few moments.

Then, a pony who had frequented the room no longer did so once again.

"Your majesty, are you alone? I was hoping to speak with you."

She turned away from Luna to see that it was indeed the voice of Ruby Aura, one of the researchers she had let go.

"Ruby? This is a surprise. I had thought you all had returned to your regular lives. Rest assured that while we couldn't find anything traditional, there is still hope for my sister."

"That is... good to hear your majesty. But I am here for a different reason."

"And what is that, my dear pony?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment, but quickly let all spill out: "I know that there's a lot more to the story of Riftly than what was told. The other researchers weren't the ones to cast the spells and have the knowledge to interpret them exactly like I do. I know that Luna stole the life of countless ponies in a far more direct way than you explained. There's no way she could've grabbed all of that life energy if they had all passed away from that rock slide." She bit her lip, "its been bothering me ever since I discovered it, but I kept quiet. I didn't know what to do with the information. But I do want to know the truth! And I want to know what's going on now that these recent events have happened."

"Do you really want to know, my little pony? Do you really?" Where the was seriousness, there was also a sadness that indicated she had never wanted to talk about this. She paused, but only briefly, "sometimes the truth is better left unturned. Luna directly caused the death of those at Riftly, do I really have to say anymore? Or do you want to drag my sister through the mud more while she was in her darkest hour unable to even understand what was going on?"

"Those ponies lives deserved more than to be forgotten in some lie! The dignity of their existence demands it! All of ours does!"

"And those ponies families are better off not knowing. Do you think the deceased would've preferred they suffered? You should know this, Ruby. Do you think I enjoyed deceiving the public? Of course not."

"I just... I do understand it, but, it's too cruel for those ponies to have their end be some mirage."

Celestia just kept looking at her.

"And now? What is going on with the griffins? I wouldn't normally think anything of it, but recent events have made me feel different. This isn't normal, just like Riftly wasn't..."

"The griffin's have one of the sanctuaries, Ruby."

"Wait, are you telling me the emperor was brought here for that reason under the guise of a trade agreement? What... what the hell happened?"

"He refused to see reason, even when I poured my heart out to him. He was going to deny our hope and for what? Pride."

"Princess... don't tell me that you—"

"And what if I did?"

Now it was Celestia's turn to approach Ruby. She towered over her, and Ruby's blood ran cold at the sudden shift.

"Just... just what is really going on, Celestia? I want to believe this isn't what is seems like."

"Ruby. You only need to know one thing. My sister," she turned to look back at her again, "will be saved no matter what. I will make sure of that."

"Even... even if it means things get even worse? Just where does this end Celestia? Do you really think Luna would've wanted all of this? Of course not!"

"Luna wouldn't have wanted to be crippled in some bed, unable to even think or do anything but cling to life!"

She had shouted it, to both of their surprises.

"Celestia... I have looked up to you all my life. I was born and raised under the light of your sun here in Canterlot itself. It pains me to say this after seeing you that way for so long, but the more I think about it the worse all of this is. This isn't right, and this isn't you. You have to see that, surely?"

Celestia's visage slowly became downcast. Her eyelids closed almost completely and she stared down now. It was a tense few seconds.

"You think I don't know that," she choked out, completely taking Ruby by surprise, "you think I ever wanted any of this? Everything has all gone wrong and I've been reaching for whatever I can to salvage what I can. I hate it. I hate this. But... this isn't about me. It never has been." Her enunciation and pronunciation had grown stronger and fuller as she continued.

"You know... I think it was your team that once posited it. That perhaps alicorn souls are selfish. Maybe there was some truth to that, more than we realized."

"Cele—"

"I've come too far Ruby. I'm going to finish this. I will save her no matter what, that is for certain. I do not regret doing everything in my power so far, even if it was beyond a shame how things turned out this way. I want you to know that I'm still trying, as hard as I can, to reach the end of all of this with as little casualty as possible. I'm leading the war effort for this reason. This war will be an unavoidable tragedy of which I cannot predict the scale of, but I will not waste it. Fate would have it that way as always, it seems."

Ruby seemed overwhelmed, and after a while broke.

"I don't know if I can stand by and watch all of this. It's just... too..."

"Unfortunately, you'll have to. You remember your vow, correct? I will be holding you to it."

"Yes... your majesty."

Ruby slowly made to leave, and Celestia didn't like the expression she wore.

Maverick rushed to get to the castle on time. Apparently, he had gotten the short end of the stick and was chosen to be the one that Celestia's protege shadowed for a week. He hoped it went smoothly, but that was almost never the case. He just prayed he could be a good role model in the end.

When he finally arrived in the courtyard, she was already there waiting for him

"My apologizes for being slightly late, I had to take care of some business."

"No problem at all! Maverick, right? A pleasure to meet you. I'm sure you've been told already, but my name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm princess Celestia's personal student. Being assigned to see how different aspects of government function is amazing! I already had something I needed to take care of at the castle, so I was fine to just stay here and wait after."

"Nice to meet you as well. It's also nice to see somepony actually excited for this kind of work. Come on, we can talk as we go. I'm going to check in here and then head out to different spots in town. We need to make sure that resources are being allocated properly. I run labour, but a large part of that is making sure that the ponies we do hire are receiving the right things so that they can work effectively. There's some other side stuff I have to get done, that isn't really my normal, but that's just how things are when we're so overwhelmed like this."

After they had signed in at the castle and checked in, they began a round trip through Canterlot. For once, there wasn't an emergency meeting that had become common as of late.

"Come on, let me show you what kind of orders I'm sending for the workers in Oblatio from the merchants and travel agencies."

She had remained fairly quiet throughout the day, asking questions in between spots while jotting notes occasionally. Maverick was working with other ponies he knew already for many years, so he had to point out things wouldnt always be that smooth when you start. Another shipment of tools was being sent out, as well as food and more wood and marble, which had already been a steady stream to Oblatio as it kept up construction. Based on what he had heard, they had already made it to around the halfway point, and soon applications for ponies across Equestria to move there would start. It was an amazing opportunity for any pony to receive housing like this in the first place, even if it wasn't fully paid for by the crown in the end.

Unfortunately, he would soon also have to start the process of sending materials to the front line of the war. The supply chain would be critical to victory if things got rough out there. He was optimistic that they could take momentum early with Celestia's presence, even if it stretched them a bit thin as they went deeper into enemy territory. Things were going to be very split and the amount of resources they had would be pushed to the limit for the first time in longer than he could remember. That meant not every project could get everything they needed, some came others came first while others suffered lessened shipments. The war took priority if they started to run out of anything of course, as Equestria's safety was always the number one priority.

Finally, nearing the end of the day where the brisk air started to turn cooler as the light of the sun no longer warmed them, he made to somewhat of a strange location with Twilight.

The foster home that was sponsored by the royal family. They had began expansion for another building, but the funding had been redirected as economic pressures had built up. The halfway finished building had been covered up, awaiting the finishing touches off to the side in a sealed off area.

An older mare was waiting for him outside of the home.

"Umm... I believe it was Faithful? Faithful Promise?"

"That's my name. Please tell me you have good news. You cannot understand how overwh—"

Her sentence was broken off by the shouting of several foals, who were playing outside with a distinct lack of supervision.

"Yes... I'm really sorry to inform you that things have only gotten worse on our end. We won't be able to finish the second building for some time. Perhaps after Oblatio starts generating wealth we may be able to—"

"That's unacceptable! These foals are the future of our nation, how could we allow them to have such substandard conditions?! Celestia promised me that this would get done."

He winced at that, and knew that this was the part of the job he hated. He just had to take it and accept it sometimes. There was no getting around it.

"Look, we really wish we could. I promise you I'll take a look at the budget and see if I can get a small amount redirected to hire a small team to finish things up here slowly but surely. I know more than anyone how painful it is to see such work be incomplete and wasteful until it is finished. You have my word."

She gave a response, but he became distracted by the foals again. There was something one of them said that had caught his ear—

"Are you listening to me?", she sighed, "Well, fine, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. But please, the ponies around me are burnt out from these conditions and I'm afraid they're going to leave because of it. That would be an unmitigated disaster for all of us, running this operation would legitimately become a nightmare. I'm begging you, find a way."

As he answered that he would, he heard it again. Some filly had mentioned several key words that he knew he had heard before and caught his ear. Some of them being "blue", "alicorn", and most importantly, "Riftly", if he had heard correctly.

They ended up leaving after that, but it stayed on his mind that entire night even after he finished up work and gave his farewell to Twilight, who had been an excellent observer and companion.

He went to bed that night struggling to sleep, mind whirling from the cyclonic nature of thoughts for all that had occured lately. His mind always came back to that filly however. He made up his mind, and eventually dozed off to sleep not too long afterwards.