With an enormous splintering sound, Celestia burst through the doors of her bedroom, horn aglow and wings unfolded. After one too many incidents, the Day Princess had been determined not to be caught unawares ever again, and had placed enough tripwire and sensory spells to give even the most paranoid security expert pause.

And now, most of them had been triggered. At least the cake vault seemed secure.

“Show yourself!” She bellowed into the dark room beyond. There was a guilty crash as another pony within stood up, flicking on a lamp and putting her hooves up. Celestia huffed.

“I don't know who you are, but you’re either the most daring pony or the most foolish pony I’ve ever met to try and—” Celestia paused, taking in the scene before her. She hadn’t recognized the burglar at first, what with her long hair and desaturated pink coat, but there was no mistaking that cutie mark.”

“...Pinkie Pie?”

“Hi, Princess Celestia,” the earth pony said. She pulled a small metal contraption out from underneath the Princess’ mattress, inspecting it sadly.

“Is… is that a cannon?”

Pinkie nodded morosely. “After the changeling invasion I put them all around the castle in case there was an emergency. It never hurts to be prepared.”

“Even in my bedroom?” Celestia just watched with morbid fascination.

“It never hurts to be prepared,” Pinkie Pie repeated. “But… seeing as I won’t be coming back here anytime soon or… ever again, I thought ‘what’s even the point’. I’m just collecting the last few I missed. Sorry to bother you, princess. I’ll be out of your weird wavy hair in a second...”

Gold sparkles surrounded the cannon, lifting it away from Pinkie as she stumbled back in surprise.

“Why don’t we start from the beginning dear, alright?”

Pinkie reached out for the miniature cannon, but Celestia held it aloft, looking at the defeated mare beneath her with as much sympathy as she could.

“Now… why would you think you’re not coming back to the castle?”

Pinkie stopped trying to retrieve the firearm, and looked down sadly. “I know when I’m not welcome, Twilight made that clear…”

“Twilight? What did she do now?”

Pinkie couldn’t look more pathetic if she tried. “She yelled at me. I know when I’m not wanted.”

Celestia groaned, then took a deep breath, flaring her wings. “I don’t know what’s gotten into my niece, but if she’s going to start a screaming match with every pony that comes to help her, then things have gone far enough!”

“What are you doing?” Pinkie suddenly looked terrified. “You’re not going to banish her to the moon, are you?”

“What?”

“Because she’s Luna’s daughter?”

“No, I—” Celestia facehoofed. “You and I are going to go find Twilight and we are going to talk this all out like adults.”

“Nooooooooo!”

Celestia jumped as Pinkie dove for her foreleg, clinging to it for dear life.

“Pinkie, while I appreciate your impression of a ball-and-chain, I’d rather not be kept prisoner in my own castle.”

“Huh?”

“Can you let me go, please?”

“You can’t see Twilight!” Pinkie smushed her muzzle into Celestia’s fur, starting to sob. “Y-you’ll only make everything worse!”

“Pinkie!”

“I won’t let you!”

“Pinkamena Diane Pie, let go of me.”

Hooves relaxing, Pinkie let her forelegs drop, getting to her hooves and sniffling a bit, eyes watery and wobbling still with fresh tears.

“Now…” Celestia draped a wing over the Element of Laughter. “What exactly did Twilight say to you to put you in such a state?”

“I said dumb things and now she hates me. She said she didn’t want to see me, that she never wanted to see me ever again.”

“Did she actually say that she hates you and never wants to see you again?” Celestia looked over the formerly pink pony, recalling a particular incident some time ago where Pinkie’s assumptions had led her down a path that ended with her talking to a sack of flour.

“She implied it! It was implied!”

“She does not hate you, Pinkie Pie,” insisted Celestia.

“Yes she does!” Pinkie buried her face in Celestia’s foreleg again.

“Believe me, Twilight tends to make rash decisions and says things she doesn’t mean when she’s upset. Just as you tend to assume the worst in ponies when you are upset.”

Pinkie wiped away some of her tears. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, thinking for a moment.

“Do you know what happens when a pony ascends into an alicorn?”

“They explode?”

“No—” Celestia thought for a moment. “Well, yes, but before they become an alicorn, they’re brought to a realm called Caelum.”

Prinkie frowned. “Caelum? As in heaven?”

“Of a sort.”

“So Twilight died when she exploded.”

“No!”

“But she blew up and went to heaven.”

“Her immortal essence ended up on the astral plane before her ascension restored her corporeal form.”

“So her soul was in heaven! And then Twilight came back to life!”

“Pinkie, we’re getting off topic. The point is where Twilight was—”

“When she was dead…”

“When she was ascending,” Celestia gave her a look. “I met her there. Many ponies think that ascension happens at my discretion, but the truth is that I’ve merely appointed myself a chaperone to new alicorns. So many ponies would end up in Caelum, scared and confused. I promised myself I’d always be there for whomever came through. That included Twilight.”

Celestia’s horn glowed, lifting and placing Pinkie in front of her like a lectured foal.

“When I journey with them, there are always scenes, moments that play across the sky from their memories. Moments that shaped them to make the choices that led to their ascension. Moments associated with extremely strong emotions. Moments of bravery, or of love. Do you understand?”

Pinkie Pie nodded, not quite sure where the Princess was going with this.

“In all those moments of Twilight’s life, one pony popped up more than any other. And it was you, Pinkie Pie.”

“Me?”

“You are more than just her friend, Pinkie. Every day you’ve spent with Twilight is a day you’ve given her a wonderful gift, do you know what that is?”

“Is it parties?”

“You make her happy, Pinkie. You make her laugh. And trust me, I know how important such things are to my family. Believe me, there may be days when you’ll infuriate Twilight, but she will never, ever, ever hate you, okay?”

“Okay…” Pinkie Pie’s train of thought immediately was rerouted back onto its main mental line. “But promise me you won’t talk to Twilight! This is… some stuff’s stuff she’s got to figure out herself, yeah? I want you not to go near her yet, please?” Pinkie Pie fixed Celestia with the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could muster. Even with Pinkie drained of color, it was highly effective.

Celestia sighed. “I promise—”

“Pinkie promise!”

“I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye promise,” Celestia clarified, not missing a beat. “I won’t try to visit Twilight to make amends, on one condition.”

Pinkie Pie looked up at her, ears perking up.

“You must also promise me that you’ll stay in the castle. At least until you and Twilight have had a chance to talk things over.”

And down went her ears. “I don’t think it’s going to work out the way you think, Princess. But… okay. I promise to wait for whatever happens.”

“Then we have an accord. I will not see Twilight at all,” Celestia reached out her hoof, letting Pinkie Pie take it and shake it with a tiny bit of renewed enthusiasm.

“I just don’t know what else I can do, Tia.”

Celestia sat by the fireplace in her quarters, calmly watching her sister restlessly pace around her. The Princess had honored Pinkie Pie’s request and made a point to stay out of Twilight’s way, but it hadn’t taken much convincing. Twilight might have been bad at skipping rocks, but an angry Twilight had a vicious aim if she wanted to, and Celestia was probably an ideal target right now.

“At least when she didn’t know I could at least be around her as a friend. Now all I’ve done is make things worse between us. Between you and her. Between her and her… her real parents.”

“It’s a huge change in her life, Luna,” Celestia patted her sister on the back. “We knew she was going to be upset, we knew she was going to be angry. I’d be angry, no matter what.”

“She’s been launching into tirades against anyone she feels has wronged her. She’s angry, yes. But have you ever seen her this angry?”

“Not… quite, but then she’s never gone through something like this,” Celestia admitted. “I feel like if you give her time, she’ll understand.”

“I do not think that time will heal this wound, Tia. A part of me feels that it’s more than just feeling betrayed and lied to.”

“She’s your daughter, Luna. You’re a lot more alike than you might realize. Why do you think she’s upset?”

Luna thought for a moment. “I… am often despondent when things are outside of my control, I think. All those years ago when… Nightmare Moon happened, that was so much a part of it. There were problems I couldn’t solve. I couldn’t make ponies care about me. I couldn’t stop death. Twilight and I, we both see the world as problems that require solutions.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure Twilight being upset with us is a problem with a lot of solutions. She’s a forgiving girl.”

“I should have seen it when she forgave me, even after everything I did to her,” Luna sighed, finally realizing what had gone so wrong. “It’s the same reason why, at first, she was willing to indulge my vague hope that maybe I could be reunited with my daughter. But I’m a luckless idiot.”

“You’re a brilliant pony and a fortunate one Luna, you know that.”

“But I’m not! Don’t you see? Twilight’s upset because he’s gone. Time and circumstance took away a father from her. She’s been robbed of somepony who desperately wanted to meet her, who Miss Pie, lovely mare all the same as she is, introduced the idea that there’s a member of her family, a brilliant scholar, forever unknown to her.”

She groaned. “And I, misfortunate imbecile that I am, lost perhaps the one trinket that might rectify the situation...”

“A trinket?” Celestia paused. “Luna, this isn’t something to do with necromancy is it? We both agreed that any spell found in a book made from pony skin wasn’t worth something indulging—”

“Oh for the love of— Not this lecture again,” Luna rolled her eyes. “It was a small amulet made of blue crystal, nothing undead about the damn thing. We both learned our lesson about that.”

“Blue crystal amulet…” Celestia’s eyes lit up. “Wait right here!”

Luna opened her mouth to protest, only for Celestia to wink out of the room with a golden teleportationy POP, reappearing a few seconds later, horn aglow as she held aloft something Luna hadn’t seen in over a thousand years. She edged closer to her sister, who grinned as she proudly presented it to her.

“Celestia… is that…?”

“Sorry, I had to take a trip down to the castle vaults. There’s powerful magic swirling through this, enough where I felt that might have been inappropriate for me to handle it and I didn’t want it falling into the wrong hooves. I mean, it’s been centuries since I even thought of it, but is this what you’re talking about?”

Luna held a hoof up to her mouth, her own magic taking it out of Celestia’s aura and floating it over.

“You saved it, after all these years?”

“It was one of the few things of yours I had left, little sister,” Celestia smiled. “Though now I’m a little curious as to what exactly it is.”

“It’s him, Tia. A single hour in his life, preserved, I thought…” Luna began to sob. “I t-thought this was lost forever.”

Celestia paused. “A frozen moment.”

Luna nodded through the tears. “A piece of his soul.”

“You should use it, Luna. I tried my best after Peritwinkle passed and you were banished to honor his memory, seeing how much he meant to you. But I don’t think any amount of posthumous validation would compare to a restored moment of closure.”

Luna shook her head. “This wasn’t for me, Celestia. It never was. This was meant to be something for Twilight. Something when she was old enough to understand.”

“Do you think she’d be ready? Twilight’s got a big heart, but something like this… it needs time to be prepared.”

“She needs her family right now. But more than anything at this moment, she needs one pony in particular.”

Celestia held out a hoof. “He’s your Fool, Luna. Do what you need to do.”

Nodding, Luna turned to go, wrapping the amulet around her neck. Right before she reached the room doors. She paused.

“Luna?”

The younger alicorn rushed back to her sister, throwing her wings around her and hugging her tight.

“Thank you, sister. Thank you.”

Celestia wrapped her wings around Luna, feeling her own eyes well up.

“I told you, Luna. I’m here for you, always.”

A brief summoning of one of the castle’s debatably incorporeal aides had revealed that, unsurprisingly, Twilight had ended up in one of the library wings, apparently intent on tracking down some of her father’s published works.

Luna smiled. There was a deep satisfaction at realizing that, even after a thousand years apart, she truly knew her daughter.

A quick check through the aisles and she finally found Twilight fast asleep in an improvised little alicorn nest of books and pillows, head resting between a pile of familiar essays.

Focusing her magic, eyes glowing, Luna floated the amulet in front of Twilight, gently slipping it around her neck while taking care not to wake her. She gave her daughter a gentle nuzzle, smiling as she groaned in her sleep.

“I know. It’s not enough time, my little star. But it’s time all the same.”

With an almost musical tinkling, the amulet began to glow and vibrate, cracks forming along it.

Then, with a small airy chime, it shattered into nothing.

Author's Note

Four more chapters to go.

Thanks to Trolleytrainer for the proofread.