Rainbow Dash stumbled softly onto the cobbled streets, specks of rain began hitting her as she left cover. The Mostly familiar echoes of exuberant ponies became fainter from the door as she made way from it and the establishment.

A slight hiccup accompanied her on the occasional step as she made her way to anywhere.

Her mane, which had only just started the process of becoming soaked, seemed to sag towards the ground as though it had always been that way.

It was the beginning of a beautiful night.

"Stupid tab... never coming back here again. Who they think they friggin are..."

It may have been spoken to no one in particular, but even inebriated Rainbow could taste the sliver of the past.

She didn't speak again, but a dreadful ambience seemed to loom over her far too quickly for only the few steps she had taken.

Some time past, and Rainbow felt like her eyes were open and closing to new locations every time. Again, there was only a partial awareness that this was going on.

Eventually, Rainbow woke to find she'd somehow taken shelter in the streets, at the end of town where roads quickly met wilderness. She hated the sobriety that'd made itself glaringly apparent as she stared out onto the puddles of rain getting hit by near constant downpour.

Negative thoughts better left behind, in more ways than one, finally got her back on her hooves and toward home.

Yet none such thing happened.

Why were her legs carrying her off the beaten path?

Without much delay, she soon found herself falling into the ditch on the side of the road. If she wasn't already soaked to the bone, the mixture of mud finished it off.

Covered it mud, panting, and eyelids that were being crushed closed and a liquid that disguised itself as the ubiquitous rainwater that encompassed Ponyville. Just as Ponyville came to mind, she scoffed even harder as she realized she'd totally blown her duties off in the weather team. Figures.

"Why... just why?" Rainbow finally opened her eyes, albeit barely. They were glazed over. "Why can't I forget?" Another hiccup. "The girls, I spend every waking hour with them but... but somehow I still find myself back at that dump."

Bloody and nightmarish thoughts invaded her mind of times best left untouched, from only a few months ago. It nearly broke her then and there, just like it had so many times before.

Rainbow eventually entered a cycle of pain and coping away from the thoughts, and the relief never lasted long. It was many hours until she finally head home, the next day, where she immediately passed out in her bed and worked to start shaking off the horrible cold she developed, and the exhaustion was just enough to give her reprieve from all things as she fell easily asleep.

Dire Comet tried to break the loop he was in again, and sighed in frustration. He'd been circling his house all day.

Once and a while he'd peak out from his estate and view the accelerated renovation and restoration of Canterlot. It was coming along swiftly to say the least, especially with how it all started it out. Especially since what had happened.

Sighing, he reminded himself that it was practically the fawning of a young colt or filly, what he was doing. He'd be lying to himself if the sudden fascination with magic far beyond the limits any unicorn normally could imagine wasn't something he was obsessing over. As well as the mare who demonstrated it all.

Of course, growing up even in Canterlot, where Celestia has reigned for an unfathomable time span, until recently that is, it was still exceedingly rare to see magic of that magnitude which he had seen by the two sisters all those months ago.

Despite the initial surprise and shock of everypony, Luna's visitation schedule had brought her back to Canterlot semi-regularly to contribute with the rebuild. Her efforts were magnificent to say the least, where houses and entire blocks seemed like a mental puzzle that she was putting together.

Dire Comet feared Celestia since that day. He did not deny this. Perhaps there was even a little bit of awe too, that made it past the fear.

But it was nothing in comparison to the sudden fixation of awe he'd found himself in while observing Luna's magic. There was just something different about it, and he couldn't put his hoof on it.

When Luna was around rebuilding the sisters image—that is mostly her own in reality, which didn't need it in the first place looking at the faces of everpony when she was around.

But that was not the point! Celestia's magic, he'd only had exposure to a sparse few times in his life, and of course their recent incident. True exposure that is, not day-to-day stuff. It may not have been much, but Dire had lived a life of research and had atuned to magic deeply. He could tell which pony was who with every sense he had closed on his body purely by their magical signature and the presence it exerted on the world. While Celestia's was overwhelming yes, it was still something imaginable. That was the best he could come up with to describe it.

But Luna, her magic was different. He had no idea how or why on the truth for why she'd been gone for so long, since while they knew some information it was impossible to tell what was one-hundred-percent accurate of the past.

It was her magic that confused him so. There was no way somepony of that level would lose to Celestia, of that he was sure. So why had she been gone for so long? Shouldn't it have had been Celestia exiled?

If Celestia's magic was within the realm of something he could conjure up in his mind, then Luna's broke that entirely and seemingly warped reality to her favor.

Even now, he was close to shaking in nervous laughter thinking about it.

So yes, he couldn't help watch he every time she'd shown up in the prevailing time until now, and he'd also never forget the nigh-godlike display he'd seen on that day.

He hated to admit it, he really did, but this obsession had allowed him to forget so many things, and allowed him to focus on one thing. Something he told himself he'd desperately need otherwise.

He wanted to feel that magic again. He wanted to experience it first hand. He wanted to figure out the truth behind it.

But just past that in the recess of his mind, he wanted to be capable of it as well.

Maverick was the busiest of ponies now. He'd thought that before it was bad, but he'd been smacked in the face otherwise recently.

Being the interim Prime Minister was no easy work.

In essence, he was like a severely handicapped version of Celestia in her time here.

He stopped walking through the Castle halls. Celestia. Even now, his heart burned up inside thinking about her.

Because of the nature of news, Celestia's atrocities had been exposed to Equestria at large. That didn't mean it was that simple. The story was hotly debated across equine society, and the outer verges resisted the most. It made sense, as they were both the last to hear of the news as well as the least connected to the mainstream politics. It was a rare thing for something significant to make waves that far out. Overnight, their benevolent ruler was suddenly being framed a murderous traitor, an impossibility to them, and even Maverick's biased eyes he could tell that's exactly how they would see it.

In the end, it would take time to get the country at its core and on the verges especially to be on the same page. How many years or decades until ponies who had borderline worshipped Celestia had finally given it up? Would they go to their deaths holding firmly to the belief she was innocent? Ponies in Canterlot hated Celestia sure, as they all had been here for the disaster, and they were highly influential as well, but that was never enough to speed things up enough,

His blood boiled.

Even imagining the need for generations to pass and pony generations to move on was far too negative a sentiment, even if it was most likely what was need to move forward long term.

Maverick quite frankly was glad Celestia had never shown her face since her true colors were exposed. The further isolated she was from ponykind at large, the better he thought.

As long as she doesn't go crazy again and return.

He sighed and regained a canter, quickly entering a side room where he could blow off some steam not near anypony who'd see him while he struggled with dilemmas.

After several minutes, he begrudgingly came to the same conclusion he had a million times.

Luna, who many ponies of Canterlot endearingly called 'Princess' anyway despite not being announced as any such thing, had certainly been fulfilling her end of the bargain.

Still, he hated with every fiber of his being that they were forced to rely on another Alicorn for protection. Sure she was good to them now, but how long would that last? Alicorn's have shown a propensity towards madness, and he hated the feeling of a ticking time bomb counting down towards an unknown expiration that he felt at all times.

Luna had saved them by being there, but if she hadn't, then there wouldn't have been any hope back when Celestia had gone on her rampage. It was that simple.

So who can protect everypony when Luna turns on them too? That other alicorn? He scoffed at the notion.

Oh, and of course another one of them had to show up, how could he forget that? The fact that the other alicorn wasn't the most alarming point so far said enough.

Anyway, they'd seen the collective effort against already Celestia, and while that was an extremely specific situation that had weakened the heart here in Canterlot, it was glaringly obvious even with more strong ponies around not much would've changed.

And Luna was even stronger than Celestia. He gulped at that. Being in a spot of leadership like he was had led him to interacting with her more than perhaps any other pony in Canterlot.

He was sure of two things. He grit his teeth.

One, that she was more powerful than Celestia, and two — that she wasn't mentally all there, despite the usually charmful demeanour.

Doing whatever he could, he brought out some papers from his bag and gave them a quick run over again.

He swore to all that was holy he'd bust a casket if what was being said was true about Reacher. Committing war crimes with the vanquished griffins and forcing them into servitude in order to leech resources back into Equestria? Things were still unclear because of the distance gap, but he had a horrible feeling about it, like he did so many things these days...

Twilight continued to tinker away at the little clay golem.

She had many different kinds of them, lined up in the psuodo workshop she'd created at her place in Ponyville.

She was glad that while her duties had increased lately, as well as her responsibility and awkward position she'd found herself in she still had times to just be herself.

That included what she was working on now, more experiments with golems! Yay!

Her wings lightly ruffled as she worked away observing the thing. They were something she was still getting used to, but she was proud to say she was technically competent enough for basic flight.

Twilight had read quite some time ago now something about created beings. That was what had started this all, and the continued experiment was before her now, ever evolving.

As a little rest for fun for once, she stopped manipulating the constitution of it and rather began filling it with life so that it could carry out what she desired from it.

The golem awkwardly siddled towards the centre of the tree house, onto her plush velvet carpet. After the slightest of pauses, it did the most adorable little attempt at dancing that Twilight could come up with.

After a few moments, her harsh laughter made her lose focus and it stopped following her command.

Indeed, Twilight rested while she worked, a concept foreign to many ponies, but quite understandable to many of her friends she thought.

Life had been hard to say the least for Twilight lately. A void had entered her life with Celestia leaving the country permanently, and she'd been forced into public service despite the fact that it was explicitly mandated that as an alicorn she would have no more control over parliament than any other minister. She constantly felt out of place.

At first, she had been overwhelmed by everything, really. If it wasn't for the friends in Ponyville she had here for her during her tough times, she was frankly not sure what kind of head-space she'd be in right now. It'd been pretty bad at first.

Twilight remembered that a week and a half from now, her promise with Luna would be happening. She'd finally get to journey out and see, meet, and converse with the two sisters wherever they'd settled down, however far away that was outside Equestria. There, she'd be meeting with another alicorn named Cadence, who had recently shown up. She hadn't had much time to speak with her yet besides basic greeting so far, so it was nerve wracking for all of these things to be coalescing all at once like this. She just hoped nothing crazy happened. Cadence had been well received so far she reasoned, so surely that lowered the risk of a disaster, right?

This was who Twilight was really, an over-thinker. She'd get lost in thought and then snap back to reality soon enough.

Those new grand wings on Twilight's back represented freedom, didn't they?

Yet the chains of fate were now attached to sweet little Twilight Sparkle no different than that little golem she looked down on not too far away from her for good reason.

After all, beings that left behind their old, inferior selves for a higher level could never consider something so beneath them, could they?

It was far in the sky, an oasis of life given flight where a large island floated, somewhere unknown to ponykind.

It wasn't too bad here. Especially with being this high up. Nothing really bothered them out here, ever.

Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Celestia often wondered as much.

It had taken significant time to get used to Luna being able to enchant such a large mass of Equus earth, and quite literally force it to ascend into the sky.

The manipulation of gravity felt strange for Celestia for the first few days, but like many things, it's increased normalcy was added to a list of things Celestia had seen Luna do that just simply... didn't make sense.

Luna was returning soon as well. Celestia sighed and gazed off of the edge and into the abyss, partially to see if she could see her sister. The ground must've been several kilometres away.

It should've been everything she dreamed of, being with Luna again - especially how heartfelt their reunion had eventually become back in Canterlot.

While Canterlot was something she hated thinking about, sometimes she felt embarrassed to say that that even more powerful emotion of nervousness would be found thinking of her sister rather than the ponies back home. Home.

That's right, she had to remind herself it was no longer home. A grimace crossed her features.

Before she could toil in her thoughts any further, the now increasingly familiar trace of her sisters magic sparked. A blink later, and Luna was flying up and above Celestia, only to make a smooth landing that bordered on unnatural as the slowing down had less to do with the flapping of wings and more of gravity seeming to weaken.

Celestia quickly turned her head to stare back into the open space ahead of herself - the sky and the lands, far below.

Away from Luna's gaze.

They'd had many meaningful conversations, sure, and Celestia appreciated that. Many tears had been shed, as well as angry words. Yet... yet there was so much more still... it was still so hard...

"Doing what you're always doing, Celestia?"

"I told you Luna, you don't need to call me that anymore. Sister is fine."

"Sure, sister... yet you haven't answered our initial question yet?"

"Urm," fumbled Celestia, "the same as always I suppose."

"So brooding like like some little filly who can't move on from her colt friend leaving her behind?"

Luna began to give a soft giggle, but Celestia cut in quickly: "Luna! How could you say that! You know exactly what I am dealing with. This isn't... something you can just get over..."

Luna wasn't laughing anymore.

"Don't you know how many lives are on my hooves, do you? Luna? Acting as the arbiter of all lives on Equus like some blood hungry tartarus driven demon, which is exactly what I was. Leading them all like lambs to the slaughter. And the things I planned Luna, if only you knew all the details and—"

Celestia stopped when she saw Luna's expression. It held profound emotion, and not all of it was rage. There was a deep understanding and sorrow that.

"Already forgetting you're supposed to call me sister?"

Luna's expression remained steely.

And then she sighed.

She walked over to Celestia, wrapped her right wing around her, and plopped herself right down besides her. Celestia stared at Luna, while Luna mimicked Celestia from not too long ago.

"How long have we been torturing ourselves sister?" There was a long pause. "It is true that we are both guilty of great evils, and those are things we should and shall never forget if we can. That is the only way to learn and move on for the better in this world, sister. But you have to do exactly that at some point sister - move on. I know this is something you've probably taught to other ponies a thousand times over a thousand generations. Yet it all doesn't matter under the black gulf sometimes."

Celestia made to speak, but Luna shushed her.

"The reality is that you screwed up, no, even worse than that. You gave in to evil as I have in the past. The reality is that both you and I are horrible ponies sometimes, whose mistakes ruin the lives of average equestrians while it is just another day for the two of us, no?"

Luna finally looked back into Celestia's vulnerable magenta eyes.

"And yet who have you been for the majority of your life? When I look at Equestria upon my return, of which I have seen far and wide in my efforts, I also see the fruits of your labors hidden underneath everywhere sister."

"And now it all that remains is ash and pain, fear and delusion, because of—"

"Do not go there, sister. Listen, remember the lives of your ponies over the past millenium. Were their lives meaningless? Did those who lived out the entirety of their lives in the joyous and prosperous Equestria mean nothing? Of course not, sister. And it will be again someday."

Celestia was crying, and Luna had to shake her head.

"Anyway, what's important is that you accept the ponies anger and grudges, and do what you can to make up for it, even if they will never forgive you, rightfully so. I have helped them already, but I cannot ever fill that role for you."

"When did my little sister becomes so wise?" Celestia said with a laugh, the tears still flowing. "You've been practicing havent you, you almost sound like an older version of me..." she trailed off. "But I understand... I will do it, I promise. I know that I've deliberated far too much already, but your words have freed me. Thank you, Luna. I mean it."

They sat there for some time, simply recovering and feeling in the moment. Eventually, Celestia voiced something she'd been meaning too for far too long now: "I must ask siser," Luna gave a tilt of the head to go on, "how is it that you ended up in this new body, this new form... it is clearly different than anything I have ever seen from you and to be honest..."

"More powerful than you could've ever expected, I know." Luna sighed. "Yes, I wondered that question myself for some time, and the theory I continually come back to is one singular one, based on the small amount of information I've received from Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia perked up at that.

"It is my understanding that my soul was in the process of perishing as it was, and was exposed to the most powerful magic known on Equus. I believe, during the process in which my soul was rebuillt, the exposure, by pure chance, caused my soul to evolve."

"Evolve...?"

"Yes. To be honest with you, concepts that had once been things that I barely understood with deep study instantly became clear and obvious within the realm of magic. It felt like I went from working within the bounds of reality to shaping it to my will. Yes! That is exactly how I'd best describe it."

"I guess we really aren't equals anymore then, sister..."

Luna made to speak, but quickly bit her tongue. Instead, she lunged forward and forced them into a full fledged hug.

"No! All of this has led us to understanding that power has never meant more than each other. I would change back in a heartbeat if I could to alleviate the strain on your conscious even a little, sister. Please."

"You really do have all the words now, don't you? Thank you..."

Things slowly settled into a comfortable silence. A few birds flew by, some choosing to rest on the floating island. The sisters massaged each others back lightly with their hooves in a show of comfort. It'd been too long they'd gotten to truly embrace like this as sisters without something being between them.

"I'm sorry about my words when we first got here, Celestia."

"I was hoping you'd say them."

"That doesn't mean I don't still regret them."

"It gave me relief to finally hear what I'd done from someone other than myself."

"Indeed I suppose... I'm going to go inside to rest, sister, would you like to come?"

"No... I think I'll stay out here just a little while longer."

Large building they had constructed towered in the middle of the island, and it wasn't long till Luna had reached the door.

Celestia finally smiled as she turned back towards the sky.

Luna began tucking herself into bed, a custom one in which fit her new larger frame. It felt fantastically cloudy and soft, but that wasn't on her mind right now.

As she settled down, the shivering began.

Of course, unbeknownst to even Celestia at this point, Luna no longer needed to sleep at all. So being here was practically pointless besides enjoying the comfort.

Just like she always eventually did, she brought her two front hooves to grab at her head.

"I am Luna, I am Luna, I am Luna..." she continued her mantra on and on.

Memories from centuries that were not her own bombarded and overwhelmed her entirely, and she experienced many of them at the same time. The emotional whiplash which came from this came from invading memories, which felt far too real.

It was because of this that Luna was able to understand Celestia far more than she should've. Ever since her revival, she'd only had a brief reprieve from this process at the beginning. Keeping it together at all times was exceedingly difficult, and Luna had tried to hide the fact that she wasn't even sure of her own identity at times.

Over time, it had began to wane, but it felt far too slow for Luna. She was able to keep herself together usually, but she needed a rest once in a while away from prying eyes, even though her body itself never needed to rest.

The absolute misery of Celestia, culminating in the events that lead her to kill so many. Luna experienced and relived most of it. At some point, things would get cloudy and end during the war.

It had been so horrifyingly painful to go through the first few times, because of how real it felt. These didn't feel like dreams, it felt like you were going back in time and reliving those moments in another body, only things blurred sometimes.

But it was through this she began to truly forgive Celestia, because she felt how genuine her guilt was through this memories, as well as her true desperation to save Luna herself. That could never be denied.

Luna had no idea why this curse had been placed on her, and she had many times reconsidered hating Celestia again for it in some kind of illogical blame. She was glad she hadn't so far.

Near the highest point of Canterlot, in a location that had been undisturbed against all odds, the garden of the castle continued to shine.

Vines and plants overgrew, as resources had taken ponies away from taking care of the gardens, so much so that the master had almost entirely been concealed.

A large stone statue, covered in moss and vines, stood. It appeared to represent some polymerization of several wild species and stood taller than any individual beast could. While it looked about same as always, something happened which nopony was within a thousands yards of hearing. A small crack appeared on the statue, and the face shifted just slightly towards that of a smirk.

Author's Note

If there's any grammar mistakes, please let me know.

For so long, I wrote this story on passion alone, and to be honest it felt like I had forgotten how to write it by the time I made it to the final chapters. As strange as that sounds.

It is my first story, and I hope you like it.

I wanted to get these scenes out, the story isn't complete without them.

Glad to say it's finally completed.