From the Shadows

Canterlot: Royal Palace.

Twilight was with her friends in the Grand Hall of the palace waiting for the return of her mentor and her sister. Twilight was still replaying the events from mere hours ago in her head while her friends talked about them with a quite varied set of emotions. “I cannot believe those upstarts!” Yelled out an angry Dash, “Doing that infront of hundreds of noble ponies to the Wonderbolts of all pegasi!” Clearly she did not take her childhood heroes losing well and no pony could blame her really. “Though ya'll gotta wonder, where they got the uniform idea,” Said Applejack, taping her hoof to her chin looking to Dash. “What are you looking at? I didn't give it to them!” Rarity clearly realized something, “But we did dear! Your Nightmare Night costume was the Shadowbolts!” Rainbow Dash's face fell realizing that Nightmare Night was a big deal in the newspapers and tabloids because of Princess Luna's arrival and actions, meaning her costume might of shown up all over Equestria! Fluttershy meekly spoke up at finally, “I - I did happen to notice they didn't have any markings over their flanks.” This did make Twilight, and Rainbow Dash begin to realize that she was right, judging by Rarity's and Applejack's reactions, it suggested they had realized this too. Pinkie would give a rather thoughtful “Hmmmmm,” Which usually meant Pinkie logic was bound to leave the rest of them completely confused. “Oh I know why!” The groan from Rainbow Dash went unheeded, “It's because they feel like they are not noticed and thus aren't recognized for their talents, much like a young filly who hasn't found their special talent and thus their cutie mark!” Silence permeated the room followed by the other 5 trading stunned glances at just how simple and yet, accurate, that seemed considering the speech by the leader that was now ringing very vividly in their collective minds.

“That would be a fair concept Miss Pie, though a presumptuous one. From what little we know, I would agree.” The voice of the younger Equestrian princess rang into the mare's ears as they all turned and bowed to the arriving royals. “At ease my little ponies,” Said Celestia gently, as they sat properly looking at them as they took pulled some thicker cushions to themselves with their magic, sitting with them. At first no pony wanted to speak about the events of the race due to not knowing how the princesses felt on it. Twilight inhaled slowly and began, “Princess Celestia I must ask,” Celestia's gaze stopped her from finishing. The motherly royal smiled, “You want to know how we feel about the sudden, if very bold, appearance of these “Shadowbolts”, am I right?” Twilight nodded. “I know this maybe surprising to you girls, but I whole heartedly endorce what they are doing.” The 6 mares shared a collective look of shock and/or confusion. “Beg ya' pardon princess but I can't help but wonder why?” Said Applejack getting agreeing nods from Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “This is not the first time this has happened,” “It would be the third,” Said Celestia calmly as the girls looked amongst themselves considering that. “Third? Dear sister,” Questioned Luna as her elder sister nodded, “The second time was roughly seven hundred years ago.” “Oh...” Responded Luna as Twilight watched a little saddened by the droop in the younger royals ears, knowing how she felt about that expanse of time she missed due to their recent letters to one another. “I understand that you may not fully appreciate or understand their plight, most mortal ponies long sense forget the cycles of a society as I have observed them during my long tenor as Equestria's Princess.” The girls would focus their attention on the Sun goddess, wanting to understand as she did.

“During the first few centuries of our rule, cleaning up the mess Discord left behind, it became easy for the successful and rich to begin to rise to power and influence, as they had the most to spare. Ponies would side with them quickly in favour of gaining supplies from them. Over time however, they successfully became the noble families of Equestria, spreading their class and influence in ways that benefited them the most, beginning to surrogate the lower class ponies from their own society.” Twilight remembered how the high society life had begun to effect Rarity all of a week ago, driven to such lengths to try to get the recognition of the high society, that she felt embarrassed by her Ponyville roots, and friends.... She could understand that perhaps the nobles and rich had a tendency to do that, not just now but for a very long time.

“If I may um ask,” Started Fluttershy, showing that her assertiveness was still developing when it came to talking up to the princesses. “How come you didn't do anything to stop it?” Luna's brow furrowed a bit at the question clearly not liking it, which made Fluttershy squeek and duck behind Dash some, while Celestia slowly sighed. “I often wish I could have, but it was the early centuries of our work, we were not practiced in the position of leadership as I have come to be over the last millennium and a half. We had begun to notice unrest but we had hoped that such actions were beyond our little ponies, seeing that harmony and peace where so welcomed when we came into the rolls.” Luna would nod slowly, “I was also a much younger mare, almost still filly like in appearance and attitude. It did not help matters as I often was more then willing to be blissfully ignorant to the idea that our subjects would behave in such a manner.” The girls would trade looks as they began to process this in their own ways. “So what happened?” Asked Rainbow calmly, “Rebellion?” The girls where a little uneasy at their friend's suggestion, looking to the princesses. “Almost, there were some protests and few riots, atleast few by the standards of Equestria today. Fortunately that opened our eyes and allowed us to make the necessary changes to the social and government systems to better help the lower class support itself without need to be practically enslaved by the elites and nobles.” After a bit of time to process all this, the obvious question came up, this time though from Luna. “Sister I must ask, after the first time, how did it come to pass again only two to three hundred years after....” Celestia gently slide her leg over Luna's shoulders comforting her sister gently.

Luna could not help but lean into her sisters chest and relax. “It was because of those events sadly.” She said trying not to impose any sort of blame or guilt onto her younger sister. “I was just in an emotional haze for quite some time after that, and the nobles and elite realized how easy it would be to manipulate the system for their benefit at the time.” Luna looked up to her sister sadly with those soft blue eyes of hers as Celestia smiled softly, “Don't look so sad sister, it seems to me, that really it is a cycle of society that the upper class becomes self-centred due to their privileged lives and they will, at times, try to take the power they feel entitled to.” Luna nodded slowly, “I do not like it but I think some cycles are just going to repeat, something I have noticed happening again to an extent.” A loud and long yawn punctuated the scene as Pinkie sat there rubbing her eye some as her stomach growled angrily, “Oh my, it seems time has gotten away from us all, I believe we should retire to the dinner hall and have something to eat before we all retire for the day, we can pick up this conversation tomorrow if you girls are still curious.” Said the princess smiling.

Twilight was wandering around Canterlot castle, lost in her thoughts, long after dinner. Most, if not all, of her friends where asleep by this point, but some nights it has been proven she did not sleep when there was a lot on her mind. She passed through a hall realizing she didn’t recognize the décor right away. She realized then where she was, it was a section of the castle that had been forbidden for as long as she had been Celestia's student. So how did she just wander in without noticing the barrier? “Twilight Sparkle?” She turned to the voice seeing the flowing blue mane of starlight energy, “It is not often a pony wanders through my corridor, what brings you here so late?” Twilight looked at her as she processed what Princess Luna had said, her corridor, that meant the forbidden part of the castle was basically the paths that lead to what use to be Luna's bedroom and other such rooms. “I am sorry if I woke you princess, I was just wandering around, when I have a lot on my mind, I tend not to sleep.” Luna would nod slowly as she understood, she was the princesses of the night, night-time sleep was something she appreciated but often skipped as she and her sister where able to nap during the day time to time, just made sure they had alarm clocks that alerted them to the proper time to do the rise and set cycles of their respective celestial bodies.

Luna felt her ears lay back some despite how casual the following offer should have been, “Would you, like to come to my room? Have some tea with me?” Twilight would blink wondering why the princess looked so, nervous? “Sure princess, I would like to talk to you anyway about all this.” Luna would nod, “It's just Luna, remember? No need to be so formal when it is just the 2 of us after all.” Twilight smiled as she followed Luna through the double doors with her cutie mark serving as the main coloration with the crescent moon serving as the handle. Luna pushed the doors open with her magic allowing Twilight into her quite large, luxurious room. It had everything, a main area which also contained a bed and a couple couches, an area that broke off a little to become a sort of mini kitchen area with a fridge, an oven though, admittingly, not large one by a house' standard and a large bathroom through a golden doorway, which was open at the time, hence Twilight being able to see it as the bathroom. Luna set a pot on the oven beginning to let it heat for their tea calmly as she sat on one of the couches as Twilight would take a chair not far from her smiling softly. “You have a very nice room Luna, I do hope I am not intruding.” Luna smiled some to the compliment, “Not at all Twilight, I am glad to finally get to talk to you face to face like this, we have not had much conversation sense Nightmare Night, outside of the letters we have sent to each other.” Twilight nodded as Luna opened the fridge with her magic, “Care for a snack? I have apples, carrots, some soft hay and some chocolates that I managed to sneak past my sister.” She had a devious little smile on her lips from saying that as Twilight would think, “Just some carrots if you don't mind, maybe some ranch dressing to dip?” She licked her lips some realizing how hungry the thought made her. Luna would nod getting some apples and carrots with a dipping cup, filling it with ranch and floating it onto the table between them as the tea pot steamed out as Luna poured the water into some cups, pulling out her selections of teas for Twilight, picking a simple green tea which Twilight also picked.

After a few minutes of snacking on their respective snacks and drinking a cup or two of tea, the pair would relax into a comfortable silence. After mulling her words over in her head, Twilight spoke first, “Luna, I am curious as to how you feel about these pegasi calling themselves Shadowbolts.” She watched Luna inhale slowly as she was clearly thinking over her response. “I am not sure how I feel about it, or even how I should feel about it.” She sighed gathering herself, “I understand that they are, though how limited I am in knowing to them, my fault. Atleast in their design and possibly name. However, given the changes to the outfit such as having no mark on their flanks, and their over all demeanour, it could be possible that I just gave them a form in which to show their unity and that I should be to some extent proud that I helped my beloved subjects.” Luna looked out the main window above her bed looking at the waning moon cycle nearing a new moon. Twilight decided to move to a different topic, talking to Luna mostly asking about what it was like to be a princess, and letting Luna ask her about her recent activities in Ponyville sense Nightmare Night and so forth.

After an hour or so, they where contently sipping at their 5th or so cup of tea and the snacks fairly depleted, much to their joint enjoyment, as one question came rather unexpectedly from the princess. “So Twilight,” She paused for a second, for what Twilight wasn't sure, “Do you happen to have any colt-friends or perhaps filly-friends,” She said the last part a little more in a low tone but Twilight heard it well enough to cover her mouth to stop herself from spitting her tea out in surprise. Luna's ears flatten back some looking down, “I - I am sorry. I did not mean to insinuate,” Twilight raised an eyebrow, did Luna think she had insulted Twilight just for suggesting she may like other mares? I mean Lyra and Bon-bon where very well known couple in Ponyville and they were both mares. Twilight however reminded herself, that much like with her actions on Nightmare Night, Luna may simply be stuck in the past and perhaps then the concept of same-gender couples was not as accepted as it was now. “Princess it's okay, please calm down,” Twilight said worried. “Y - you are not upset?” Asked Luna as Twilight smiled, “Why would I be?” Luna's ears perked up some communicating that Twilight had indeed atleast to some extent communicated what she had wanted to. “It's... nothing, never mind, an old thing,” Said Luna smiling some as Twilight would nod taping her hoof to her chin faux thinking, “Well I can't say I do have anyone special in that regard,” Luna would blink, “A kind-hearted and beautiful mare like you? Single?” Twilight found a flush creeping across her cheeks, was she really beautiful? I mean sure her friends often called her pretty as a friendly compliment and Rarity often complimented their beauty when it worked with her dresses, but was she really genuinely beautiful? Luna seem to think so and, for some reason, that pleased her.

“Well, as I have said in my letters, I hadn't put a lot of thought into even friendship until recently, so therefore I really have not had any interest in such things as love and relationships either, nor do they really come up that often.” Which outside of any conversations about book selection with Rarity, which true, Rarity would bring up romance novels and talk about how wonderful the idea of the perfect romance would be with “the perfect stallion” and so on. Luna seemed interested in this, “So, do you even know, which one you like?” Twilight this time was legitly in thought, as she tapped her hoof on her chin, “Can't really say I do, I've just never put any thought into it and I've never had any real reason to put the subject high on my studying list.” “So would you ever consider, you know, going with a mare?” Luna was starting to pry but for some reason she was running with this topic. Twilight found herself flushing a little again as she would think about it, “I can't say I would know right now, I would have to have more time to consider it all, before I decided what it is I would want in a relationship.” Luna nodded slowly as Twilight felt now was her turn, “So princess, have you ever considered being with another mare?” Luna had a deep pink colour spreading across her cheeks now. “Well I - you see...” She found herself tripping over her own thoughts. Twilight giggled getting out of the chair and going to the princess, gently placing a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, “Well whoever it is, they must be quite somepony to gain the affections of the princess of the moon,” She smiled and yawned gently, “But it is late Luna, I think I shall finally retire to my room and get some rest.” Luna nodded still flushed as she watched Twilight leave her room the doors being shut behind her with her unicorn magic. “Indeed she is somepony, my stars of escape.” Said Luna before she laid on her bed having floated over from the couch and would rest her head, allowing herself a few hours or sleep before the dawn, when she and her sister would have to lower the moon, and raise the sun of the new day.