"No," Rainbow Dash said, her body blocking the door to Principal Celestia's office. "This is the one day I won't let you and your little schemes make Principal Celestia's day any more miserable. Just...for just one day, leave her alone. Please."
Sunset waved a fist in the air. "You just tried to tell me what to do. Do you know what the punishment for that is?" She landed a warning blow on Rainbow's mouth.
Uncharacteristically, Rainbow didn't even try to fight back. She only held up both hands placatingly. "This isn't about me or about you. This is something bigger. Don't you even know what today is?" A trickle of blood oozed out of her lower lip, but she ignored it.
"It's the day I teach you who runs this school, pipsqueak. Just like all the other days."
The door to Celestia's door opened. "Hello, girls. Does there seem to be a problem?" The principal eyed her two visitors searchingly.
"My fault!" Rainbow said. "I started it. You can even give me detention, I totally deserve it, don't worry about it. We were just leaving anyway, right Sunset?"
Sunset's eyes narrowed. "Yes, Rainbow, you should leave."
Celestia looked back and forth between the two students. "There's something here you're not telling me."
Rainbow bore up against Celestia's stare for nearly twenty seconds. She finally admitted, "Ok, I didn't want Sunset to come in and...do whatever she was going to do."
Celestia's eyes flicked towards Sunset for a moment, before returning to Rainbow. "And what would that be?"
"I don't know! I was just sure it wasn't anything good! And for one day, just this one day..."
Sunset laughed. "I don't know what's wrong with Rainbow."
Celestia's lips pressed together tightly, as she surveyed Sunset with the same scrutiny she'd given to Rainbow. "You don't know."
"I do think Rainbow is an idiot," Sunset said. "An idiot who starts fights."
Rainbow shook her head. "You really don't know, do you?"
Sunset growled, "Why does everyone in this conversation seem to know what we're talking about, except me?"
Celestia took a deep breath. "Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, we're going for a little walk."
The two girls exchanged glances.
"Yes, Principal Celestia!" Sunset sang out with false sweetness. "Where are we going?"
Celestia stepped between both girls, led the way down the hall. "Simply follow me."
***
Behind Canterlot High School, Celestia and Rainbow sat on opposite ends of one bench. Sunset sat on a bench which faced them.
Celestia smiled at Rainbow. "Rainbow, I've met your mother and father. How are they doing lately?"
"Fine," Rainbow shrugged. "Just like last time you saw them."
"How nice. Sunset Shimmer...I know you don't like to talk about your family. So I'll go first."
Sunset said, "I hate to take up your valuable time."
"Don't worry about it. I didn't have all that much planned for today anyway." Celestia took a deep breath. "Let's talk about my sister. Did you know I had one?"
Sunset shook her head.
"Born two years after me, her name was Luna. Not as outgoing as I am, not as talkative...but very clever. And very ambitious, too. When I was a child, all I really knew I wanted to do when I grew up was, I wanted to help children in some way."
Sunset grinned. "And now you're a high school principal. Good going, Miss C!" She flashed a thumbs up. "Congratulations. Can I go now?"
Celestia croaked out a small, arid imitation of a chuckle. "We're not done yet, Sunset. Not nearly."
Sunset nodded.
"My sister's ambitions were...much larger than my own. Not just to help run a school. She was aiming for the stars."
"That's great, Miss C! I hope someday I'll get to meet her. Maybe she'll have some advice about how I can be a big success in life."
"One might suppose," Celestia said neutrally. "When I said my sister was aiming for the stars, I was being a bit more literal than you might have thought. She wanted to be an astronaut. She hoped someday she might travel to the moon."
"Oh, cool!" Sunset replied. "So did she make it? Or did she end up doing something else?"
Celestia nodded. "She made it. She graduated from astronaut training with top marks."
"That's great! So I should be inspired to study hard and work towards my goals, and someday I can be just like her, right? Thanks for the talk!"
"Miss Shimmer."
"What?"
"Please indulge an old lady and stop trying to cut this short and run away. Just in case I might say something worth listening to."
"Can you tell I'm worried about being late for class, Principal Celestia?"
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you and Rainbow both have hall passes." Celestia took another deep breath. "Traveling into outer space as a representative of all humanity must be the greatest of adventures. Also a great honor. One of the greatest honors any human being could ever receive."
Sunset said, "You must be very proud of her."
"Yes," Celestia agreed softly, "I am."
Sunset added, "But I don't think I've ever heard of anyone seeing her around here at the school. I guess working as an astronaut must keep her very busy. Or was there a falling out? It would be terrible to have a sister and not to get along with her."
"Oh, not that. I always supported her decisions one hundred percent."
"Good!" Sunset replied. "So someday she'll come to the school and give us an inspirational speech, right? We can meet a real live astronaut? That would be so amazing!"
"Yes," Celestia murmured. "It would be."
"Huh?"
"Sunset. Could you take a look at your phone?"
"Sure." Sunset pulled it from her back pocket.
"Please look up the Haypollo program. Specifically, Haypollo Nineteen."
Sunset raised her phone to her lips, and whispered the phrase.
She glanced through search results. "Haypollo Nineteen moon mission...never fully completed...oh. OH."
Sunset's fingers slackened, let the phone fall to her lap.
"My sister's full name was Luna Radiant."
"Oh, Celestia." Sunset stood up, stepped forward, and bent to give Celestia an awkward hug. "I'm so sorry, Principal Celestia. That must have been terrible."
"Thank you. It certainly was a harsh blow."
Celestia looked up past Sunset, at the sky. "Today was my sister's birthday, by the way."
"I am so, so sorry."
"I suppose I can search for consolations. My sister died doing what she loved. She achieved her life's dream, to walk upon the moon."
"Buck that," Sunset said. "Her dream killed her." She released Celestia, stood up straight and angry.
"Yes, it did." Celestia examined a tree branch overhead. "I always supported my sister's decisions. I didn't always agree with them. I worried that with the greatest of adventures, might also come the greatest of risks. But I could never tell her not to pursue her dream. To keep her feet firmly on the ground, maybe to...sell insurance, I suppose."
"I think you were right not to argue with her," Rainbow said. "You can't just destroy a person's ambitions. When someone's heart yearns like that with everything they've got...killing their hopes would be like killing a part of them."
"My feelings were very much as you describe, Rainbow. But...ever since she died, there are nights when I wonder if it would have been worth it, to have a living sister. Even if she might never have fully forgiven me for it."
Rainbow shook her head. "I don't think you ever could have stopped her. No matter how hard you tried. I don't think you could have made any difference, except making her mad at you."
"Another of those consolations, I suppose. To feel there was nothing I could have done either way."
"So now I know," Sunset said. "Why Rainbow said this was a special day. Why Rainbow was worried I might make you upset, I guess."
"She expressed concern about that, did she?"
"And here I was, just now, saying I hoped we'd meet your sister. What a fool I was."
"I know you only meant well in saying that, Sunset. And if you can't meet her directly in person, this place might be the closest we can get." Celestia reached out sideways, to touch the nearest tree's trunk.
"What do you mean?" Sunset asked.
"This tree growing beside us. Each Haypollo Program astronaut was allowed to bring a small, lightweight packet on their mission, personal items of scientific or sentimental value. The Haypollo Nineteen mission's one surviving crew member, who spent time in lunar orbit but never went down to the moon..."
"Bannock Braydock?" Sunset murmured. "The article said he lived."
"Yes, Ben. He gave me five pine seeds which had ridden in lunar orbit with him. I planted them carefully, with the help of my friend Pomegranate. Three survived. This tree is one of them. So if Luna can't be here with us, at least we have this memorial, growing on the school grounds."
"I think that would only make me feel worse, if I were you," Sunset muttered as she sat down again. "Looking out the window at this reminder every day."
"What, Sunset?"
"Never mind."
"I think it helps to remind us," Celestia said, "that even when we lose much, even when we lose something or someone very precious to us, yet something still remains. Something lives on. It might be our memories, or there might also be more."
Sunset grumbled something inaudible.
Celestia said, "Rainbow, would you leave us now? Raven Inkwell saw me bring you out here, and will write you a hall pass."
When Rainbow had gone, Celestia remarked, "Sunset, I know rather little about your life before you arrived in Canterville."
Sunset pursed her lips.
Celestia added, "Speaking unofficially...even if I found out where you truly came from, perhaps even then I would have reason NOT to officially take notice, unless I was very careful about it indeed."
"What are you saying?"
"Not very often, maybe one or two times in each decade...some child turns up in Canterville who presents the precise opposite of a missing persons case. Instead of our town being one person short, Canterville somehow gains an extra, and nobody knows where the new arrival came from. Even the child herself cannot give any credible explanation of how she came to be here, or of where she lived before."
Sunset's eyes narrowed slightly.
Celestia continued, "Each child shows signs of having been raised in an environment that was in some ways very deprived. She doesn't know what a mobile phone is, or a computer. Very likely she's never seen any electronic device at all. Either she knows utterly nothing of subjects such as history and geography, or whatever she thinks she DOES know is completely wrong. She has been systematically misinformed, miseducated.
"Do you have any thoughts about that, Sunset? About where those children might have come from?"
Celestia waited, eyeing Sunset searchingly.
Finally, Sunset replied. "Not a clue. I mean, I keep pretty busy, and I don't have time to think about weird things like that."
Celestia took a deep breath. "I see. I'll admit I have a few thoughts of my own."
After another silence, Sunset said, "Oh?"
"Yes. Consider, when those children were found, how limited those children's knowledge of the world had been. How much they had never been allowed to learn, to experience! Perhaps they had felt something important, even essential, was being kept from them."
Sunset shifted her weight slowly from side to side on the bench. "Maybe."
"I imagine, perhaps...when those children were mistreated by being kept in a contrived, dishonest regime of enforced ignorance, a place of darkness...something in their hearts called them to escape, to make a journey into a larger world. A world of new opportunities, of unprecedented adventures. A world where even just crossing the street, or using a telephone, or going to a school that teaches knowledge unavailable to them where they came from...would be different from anything they had ever experienced before."
Sunset scowled. "Nice story."
Celestia said in a gentle voice, "There's a lot I don't know about your situation. I don't truly know anything about your life history before you appeared in Canterville. But I like to think that wherever you came from, there must have been someone there who cared about you.
"Someone who worries about you even now.
"Perhaps someday you will find a way to safely send a message to whoever there might have loved you, at least to let them know you're still alive. Perhaps you'll even be able to say you've found happiness, or that you're closer to happiness than you were before. I don't know how you feel about that.
"I have no idea of your circumstances, so I cannot judge."
Sunset grimaced. "I...it's complicated."
"I suppose it is."
"I promise I'll think about it, ok?"
"Thank you." Celestia gazed up at the tree's branches, or perhaps towards the heavens beyond. But finally, her eyes returned to her student. "While we're out here, is there anything else you might like to talk about? Anything at all?"
Sunset grimaced. "You've given me more than enough to think about already."
"Very well, then." Celestia stood. "Let's go back inside, so I can write you that hall pass. And please remember, if you ever need to talk, I'm always ready to listen."
