Guilty as Charged - Epilogues

The air stinks of antiseptic. The ancient white alicorn wrinkles her nose, flapping her wings half-heartedly, as if doing so might ward away the unpleasant smell.

"I hate hospitals," she says with a sigh. "You would think that after seven thousand years as a princess, they could have at least found me a dignified place to die."

The room provides no answer but the quiet beeping of machinery. Celestia shoots the device a glare, but she's used up the last of her strength in vaporizing the last three, and her horn emits nothing but a few sad sparks.

The doctors have been very patient with her, all things considered. She's still royalty after all.

"Tell me what happened next," her companion prompts gently. Celestia's ears twitch; the voice is naggingly familiar.

"I... don't want to talk about it," she says, pawing a hoof against the sterile white sheets of her bed. She knows she's being childish now, but surely even a princess can be allowed to spend her final hours in peace.

"Please?" her companion asks. "You'll feel better if you do."

Celestia doesn't have the will to refuse. And, suddenly, she finds that she doesn't want to.

I left. I didn't stop to pack anything, or even tell anypony where I was going. I just spread my wings and flew, as hard and as far as I could. I didn't stop until Equestria was beyond even my sight.

A thousand years passed before I returned. I don't... remember much of that time. I remember grief, and an overwhelming guilt. Even now, when the tears have long since run dry, the guilt remains as strong as ever.

And my poor, poor Luna. She woke up that evening to the most terrible news that any pony could ever receive. Her dearest friend dead by her own sister's doing, and that sister flown away to nopony knew where, for nopony knew how long. I don't know how she survived those first few years. Yet she waited for me, eternally faithful to her sister despite all of her sins.

I could not have asked for a better sister. My poor, faithful Luna.

She took control of my sun when I left. She had to. But she was strong, and she wrestled it into the sky every morning, even as she lowered her own moon.

And, as weary as she became from the task that I had left her, she wouldn't stop there. She couldn't. She took the Throne of the Sun, ruling over our little ponies in my stead. Even as I retreated from our kingdom, nursing the wound in my heart, my strong, wise sister kept them on the right path.

It was because of her, and her alone, that Equestria did not fall into ruin because of my foolishness. It was a time of great sadness for our kingdom, but it was not a dark time. Indeed, once thrown into the role, Luna turned out to be a ruler of as much wisdom and temperance as I had ever been. Probably even more.

And it was because of her, and her alone, that I was welcomed back with open hearts by our little ponies on the day of my return. The tale of the "Lost Princess" had been told and retold over the centuries until no hint of my part in the tragedy remained, and I could see her hoofwork in every word.

I didn't deserve their love, but I accepted it.  I didn't deserve her forgiveness, but I accepted it. I took control of the sun once again, and after some time, I even dared to rule again beside my sister.

But some part of me never returned from that journey. I sometimes think that part of me never left the theater where we held that sham of a trial, the rapist sitting in judgment over the murderer. I was always distant after that, never letting anypony see me without the mask of the Princess.

And I never took another student. Because, even if I were to forgive myself, I could never have the forgiveness of the one pony I truly needed it from.

Tears she thought had run dry long ago begin to fall as the old alicorn lowers her head.

"Twilight..." she whispers. Within her mind, she clutches at the image of her faithful student: a worn, tattered memory, blurred and distorted by centuries of imperfect recall, but no less beautiful for it. A strong, wise young mare with sparkling eyes and a pure, innocent heart. The friend she should have had. The lover she should never have taken. If only...

"I'm here."

Celestia looks up in confusion as that familiar voice speaks again, then her eyes widen in disbelief. The haze of age around her most precious memory shatters and falls away like so much cloudstuff, burned away by the reality of the unicorn before her.

"And I forgive you." Twilight Sparkle's eyes are gentle as she smiles down at the ancient princess.

Celestia leaps to her hooves, the weariness of her body forgotten. Tubes jerk taut and needles slip free of their places as the alicorn struggles to free herself of the trappings of her infirmity. "Twilight!" she cries out joyously. Then she grows serious as the full gravity of the situation reaches her. "Does this mean that it's really time to go?"

Twilight nods once, gravely. Celestia slumps, but it's a relieved gesture, as if the weight the world has finally been lifted from her once-mighty back. Which, truly, it has.

"You came for me?" she asks her former student. Twilight Sparkle smiles.

"I did. I've been waiting." She offers a hoof to her mentor. "It's beautiful on the other side. Come on, I'll show you."

Celestia smiles, but her eyes go to the window. "Thank you, Twilight. But there is one last thing I must do before I go."

"Of course," Twilight replies. "I'll wait for you there."

With a final shake of her body, Celestia dislodges the last of the patches and needles that tie her to the machines around her. A device begins to sound an alarm, but she vaporizes it with a flick of her head.

Surely, the doctors will forgive a dying princess one last indulgence, after all.

She throws open the windows of her room and, without another moment's hesitation, she leaps out. Great white wings spread wide once more, and she soars upward.

And as she reaches the peak of her flight, high in the blue dome of the sky, the shackles of mortality fall away. In that moment, she is once again Princess Celestia of the Sun, as bright and powerful as her celestial charge's shining rays.

Then light blazes across the sky. Ponies all across the kingdom look up, raising hooves to shield their eyes from the blinding glory of their princess's final gift to them. Warmth, peace, and love seem to surround them as the light radiates outward, then slowly fades.

An alicorn has returned to the earth.

Somewhere in Equestria, a foal with both wings and a horn takes her first breath.

And on the other side of the veil, two friends sit down for doughnuts and coffee in an old shop that once stood in Canterlot, watched over by a tan, brown-maned unicorn stallion with a gentle smile on his face.