Celestia was asleep after another day lowering the sun from their location in the mountaintop town of Canterlot. It was a prosperous town; thanks to the Earth ponies almost nopony was starving, and the Pegasus ponies made sure the weather was deathly cold only for a few months in the year. The Unicorns, however, were the most blessed. Princess Luna herself had a Unicorn student; rumors even spoke of the student becoming her eventual replacement. Nearly every single pony with a horn was vibrating with excitement at the chance of the Unicorns becoming the dominant tribe.

No matter how well off or excited those other ponies were however, Princess Luna had the metaphorical prize for happiest pony in Equestria. She was given all the perks of ruling a kingdom whilst her sister did much of the work, she had every day from sunrise to sunset to do whatever she willed, and had a genius son and student that she had full custody of.

Luna was convinced that it was impossible for anything to go wrong.

*****

Celestia recovered from her shocked state in time to watch several ponies she couldn’t recognize carry Luna away. Had her younger sister really taken that much damage from the argument, or was it just a ploy to keep Celestia from visiting her memories? It wasn’t beyond Luna’s capabilities or resources to fake an injury like that, but if so why did her pain seem so sincere?

Thoughts of that nature filled the eldest sister’s mind as her body went into auto-pilot and led the mare to her own bedroom. Servants, bystanders, and soldiers all noticed the strange emptiness in Celestia’s expression, but she couldn’t care less. All she wanted to do was stamp out her sister’s possible lies.

In a little over two hours Celestia was inside of the Lunar Guard captain’s quarters, almost entirely convinced that her sister’s outburst was nothing more than a ruse to keep Celestia from being happy in her memories. He wasn’t inside, so Celestia looked around his room to see what kind of stallion this Guard Captain was.

On one side of the room he had a modestly sized bed with an unpainted and barren nightstand beside it, a small chess table covered with various pictures (as opposed to the expected chess pieces), and a ‘naked’ mannequin likely used to host the stallion’s armor during off hours, but on the other all he had was a single paper being held on the wall with a nail.

It didn’t take a genius to understand what the gigantically lettered title ‘Lunar guard schedules’ meant, and if age counted towards intelligence then Celestia was far more than a genius.

Names and timestamps were crammed into the paper, surprising Celestia with the sheer number of guards under the command of Luna. The minuscule size of the words required the captain to have better than perfect vision to read each and every name of the soldiers in Luna’s small army.
Small army …

Small army…

Small army…

Those two words remained in Celestia’s mind for several moments, desperate for her full attention. She almost didn’t notice when a slender white coated mare in full Lunar armor entered the captain’s quarters, obviously shocked to find a Princess in the room.

“Princess Celestia? Shouldn’t you be—“

“Minding my own business? I would be if there wasn’t a faction plotting to overthrow me.” Celestia blatantly told the mare, now understanding the she was the guard captain. It made the most sense; Luna generally favored mares in power over stallions, and upon further inspection the mannequin was crafted to match the shape of a mare, not a stallion.

The mare’s expression changed from shock to fear to anger to confusion within seconds, obviously conflicted on what to say. Was she herself an integral part of the plot or did she believe Celestia to be insane? It was obvious the mare was loyal to Luna, so it couldn’t be too far fetched to conclude that she wanted Luna to rule alone. It took several incriminatingly silent seconds for the mare to form a pitiful response. “I… I don’t know what to say, Your Grace.”

Celestia laughed at the mares’ poor attempt to defend herself. “You could start by coming up with better lies. You know exactly what to say to me.” Every one of the Princess’ words was seeping anger at the mare’s feigned innocence and confusion; it was far too obvious that she wanted nothing more than the rightful ruler overthrown. “I will not punish you, so long as you tell me who else is involved in your conspiracy.” Celestia told the mare moments later, with a much more patient tone. She didn’t need the mare terrified.

Yet

“Your grace, I swear to you¬¬¬ that I have no knowledge of any plot against you. If I did you or Luna would have heard about it long ago.” She sounded sincere in what she spoke, but many beings had the ability to blatantly lie whilst making one believe their every word, Changelings were living examples of that.

“Liar!” Celestia yelled, obviously frightening the mare with her outburst. “Who do you hide? Tell me now or you will be submitted to the agony of being burned alive every second of every day until you give me their names!”

“I know nothing, Your Highness! All I know is what is spoken of in rumors! Rumors about you and Luna being in disagreement with one another!” The threat seemed to have struck true enough to destroy any resistance the mare had, to Celestia’s relief. She hadn’t used torture since the days when murder and treason were common, before even Nightmare Moon.

Celestia thanked the mare and left the room, making good on her promise not to punish the mare. Part of her mind was impressed at the titles the terrified mare gave her. ‘Your Grace’ hadn’t been used in hundreds of years. That was far too long for royalty like—

Her thoughts were utterly frozen by the horrifying sight of the sunrise, one that, for the first time since she and her sister rose to power, was not under Celestia’s full control.

“Why is the sun rising without me?” She demanded of the nearest guard, who stood protecting the barracks from intruders (the barracks themselves, not the Lunar captain’s quarters).

“P-P-Princess L-L-Luna could not find you, so she took it upon herself to raise it.” The guard stammered, obviously shocked to be called upon by an angry Celestia.

Without a word the Princess flew toward the Sunrise Gardens, where Luna would no doubt be resting from the treasonous task of both ending the night and beginning the day.

“Hello… sister.” Luna told Celestia as she arrived, covered in sweat and barely able to breath.

“Luna, I thought you were injured from our argument.” Celestia stated in a neutral and curious tone, not wanting to reveal what she learned to Luna until the time was best.

“You’d be surprised at the amount of… strength I have when our citizens need us.” The younger sister said, already sounding like she was gaining her breath back.

“You didn’t call to me for help? I would have come.”

“Your mind was closed off; I could not send even one word to you.” Luna countered, her excuse not making complete sense; neither sister had ever closed their minds to one another.

“You know that is a lie as much as I do, and even if it wasn’t why did you not send ponies to search for me?” Celestia confronted her sister, undermining her weak excuses all at once.

“I did, I sent both Lunar and Solar guards off to look for you, but I am likely on of the first ponies to see you since our argument.” Luna answered, likely feeling proud of herself for skillfully maneuvering around the first part of her sister’s accusation.

After noticing her evasion Celestia grew furious with her sister once again, and let it all out that she knew of the treason in her next response. “If this was a last resort as you say it was, if you truly were doing your duty, then answer me this: Why, sister, are there almost twice as many Lunar guards as there are Solar? Why do you refuse to allow me to visit my memories? Why are you awake and healthy mere hours after I broke you? Why did it take threats of torture before your guard captain gave me any answers to my questions? And finally, what wrong have I done to you to force you to overthrow me?”

…

…

…

Seconds passed in utter silence as even the world itself seemed to go completely still, waiting for a response.

…

…

…

Seconds became minutes, and the world visibly resumed its routine, but the Sunrise Gardens were still. No leaves fell, no wind blew, no animals moved. Everyone waited for Luna.

“I…” Tears fell from Luna’s teal colored eyes to be absorbed into the dirt below, and still no response was made.

“That’s what I thought.” Celestia said triumphantly. “We shall decide on your punishment tomorrow when I have gathered the Elements of Harmony.” She turned away from her sister and left the gardens, feeling only the taste of victory.

Author's Note

Well here's chapter two, completed just 15 minutes before my personal deadline.

This is the only time I'm remotely confident in my abilities to write passed a second part, so please tell me what I did right and/or wrong.

There are several capitalization errors, I'm well aware. I confused myself so much during the capitalization that I eventually just gave up on making it all even. Sorry for the inconvenience!