//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 - Making Amends 
// Story: Balance 
// by TheAceofClubs 
//------------------------------//

Celestia sat up by the window of her quarters, staring out at the Princesses’ creations. On one side of the sky rested Luna’s moon while on the other sat her own sun. The clock in the corner of the room stated three in the morning, but when Celestia had awoken she had noticed that half of the room was blanketed with daytime light while the other was covered by the inky darkness of the night.
‘Maybe they just need adjusting. We can find a solution in the morning.’ Celestia told herself repeatedly, settling down beside Luna again but failing to find sleep. By the time dawn had come the room looked no different. Celestia rose from her bed and approached her dresser, which was inconveniently placed in the darkened side of the room. As she sat at the dresser she touched a nearby candle with her horn and it set alight; it wasn’t a very flattering light, but it would do. She pulled the clip holding her mane up from the previous night and let it fall limply over her silver fur before running a hoof through it; there was something different about it. She turned her head and looked back to see her mane had long touched the floor.
‘How odd...’ Celestia thought. ‘It’s grown?’ She was right; it had grown by a lot. Maybe it was because she had given her blessing? She groaned, envisioning just how long it would take to calm her bedmane. Reluctantly she flicked the hair up to prepare for grooming but stopped; her mane was no longer hanging limply, but instead hovering beside her. It seemed to ripple like the waves upon water and as Celestia touched it with a hoof she could clearly feel a serene lustre that certainly hadn’t been there the night before.
“’T-Tia!” Celestia snapped her head round from her transformed mane to see her sister sat up on the bed, obviously having only just awoken. “Your cutie mark! You have it!” Luna was pointing at Celestia’s flank which was now decorated with the image of her creation, a gold ball of flame.
“Y-You’re right!” Celestia spluttered, unable to find more fitting words for the situation, staring down in wonder at the mark.
“My cutie mark! Mine has appeared too ‘Tia!” Luna screeched in joy, hopping off the bed and around the room, giggling uncontrollably and occasionally stopping only to stare hungrily at her silver crescent decorated flank once more before resuming. Celestia laughed and joined her momentarily.
“We did it Luna!” Celestia sang, forgetting her majestic composure entirely. “We’re finally proper queens of Equestria!” Luna stopped hopping and stared disapprovingly.
“Princesses Celestia, princesses.” She reminded as Celestia laughed again. Luna looked back at her cutie mark for a few seconds before turning back and when she did she noticed the difference to Celestia’s mane.
“Celestia, you look...radiant.” Luna told her sister slowly. “I mean, even more than usual.” Celestia took a step into the sunlit side of the room and her mane seemed to billow even swifter. Within a few seconds she noticed that her tail was even doing it.
“I wonder whether it was because of my blessing.” Celestia suggested, answered by a shake of the head.
“I don’t think so; I look no different.” Luna pointed out.
“That could just be because it’s daytime and you’d usually be going to bed around now.” Celestia countered. Luna was about to respond but looked around at the light-conflicted room.
“...Is it?” Luna asked; she had a valid point.
“I’m pretty sure.” Celestia said with a nod. “The clock seems to think so.” Luna suddenly looked worried; perhaps with good reason.
“D-Did something go wrong? Did I ruin it?” Luna whispered worriedly, referring to her inability to keep channelling energy into their creation the night before.
“I don’t think so, I expect it just needs some adjustment.” Celestia assured her. “We can do that later today if you feel up to it.” Luna nodded uncertainly.
“Good! I think for now though I should probably open morning court.” Celestia’s horn flashed and her breastplate and tiara flew from the dresser and took their places upon her body. Luna nodded and arched her back, stretching her forelegs out.
“I still have a headache, so I suppose I shall head back to my quarters to recuperate before we make adjustments.” She said, also magically pulling on her adornments, although slightly blunter in doing so. Celestia pushed open the door and waved to Luna before making her way down the nearby staircase while the latter of the two moved across the corridor to her own quarters.

~*~

“We’ve had no sleep!”
“Some blessing that was!”
“How can you expect us to work when one side of the kingdom is pitch-black?!”
Celestia could feel herself shaking uncontrollably; she hadn’t at all got the response she had envisioned. A wall of royal guards stood blocking passage to the throne where she was sat. It was a wall well-needed as irate ponies pushed and shoved vindictively against it. Celestia would try to answer one outraged shout but would immediately be interrupted by another. Her voice was shaking and she was struggling to hold back stress-filled tears. Beside her Sir Rightheart stood at attention, looking down over the crowd, waiting for and almost daring any troublemakers to resort to violence.
“P-Please!” Celestia struggled to shout over the crowd. “Please let me talk!” No response came and the din of complaints stayed as strong as before. Rightheart frowned and stepped down towards the wall of guard ponies.
“ATTENTION.” Rightheart called out, stamping his hoof, immediately followed by the guardponies, silencing the enraged mob. Rightheart looked around for a second, pleased to see that everypony was listening to him.
“If you would be silent, Queen- I mean Princess Celestia can address all of your concerns.” Rightheart shouted so that everypony could hear his words. He walked back up to the top of the steps and bowed his head to Celestia. She remained silent for a few more seconds so as to regain her composure.
“Thank you Sir Rightheart.” It took all her will not to stammer over those first words. “My little ponies, I thank you for your feedback on our blessing and I apologize if it has caused any unnecessary inconvenience. Princess Luna and I are currently working on necessary corrections and I ask for your compassion and patience until amends are made. I will be obliged to address any further concerns you have.” As she finished her speech a moulding tomato went flying over the crowd and guardponies and hit Celestia square in the face, forcing her head to jolt back in shock and collide heavily with the back of the throne. That was all that she could handle and tears finally rolled from her eyes. Sir Rightheart looked outraged at the behaviour of the crowd and stamped a hoof heavily again.
“In light of that dishonourable and treasonous action, the midday court is now dismissed. Please leave the hall at once, or you shall be escorted out by her majesty’s royal guards.” A few members of the crowd turned and left, but most continued their tirade, being pushed from the hall by the wall of guardponies. Rightheart took the chance to address Celestia himself.
“Your highness, please retire from court.” He ordered her, gently helping her up and assisting her out the hall and up towards her quarters.

~*~

“They did what?!” Luna shouted in outrage. “We provide them with our blessing and they thank us with that! I thought that gaining our cutie marks would be responded with respect, not this!” Celestia sat at her dresser, looking down at the floor, wiping mouldy tomato from her face and sniffling from the stress of the ordeal. Sir Rightheart stepped into the conversation to raise a quick point.
“Princess Luna, I recommend that you cancel the midnight court as well.” He suggested. “I see it as a wise decision to hold off all public audiences until the problem at hoof has been resolved or contained.” Luna nodded.
“I understand, but aren’t the courts important?” She countered.
“Midday and midnight court may be important, but your safety is, was and will always be my first priority.” Rightheart stated simply.
“If that is the case, you have my word that neither I nor Celestia shall attend court until we have made amends to the blessing.” Luna promised, looking deeply troubled.
“R-Rightheart...?” Celestia stammered, steadily gaining control over her tears.
“Yes Princess?”
“What are the main problems in Equestria?” She asked quietly. “Caused by our blessing, that is.”
“Complaints of lack of sleep, inconsistent temperatures and lack of light for crops have been reported so far.” Rightheart answered, almost as if he were reading it directly from a list. “The citizens are merely being melodramatic at this time; proper damage has not yet been done. But-“
“Sooner or later the crops will wither and the citizens will fall into ill health. Half of Equestria will be frozen and the other will constantly be covered in drought and pandemics will rise and ravage the kingdom.” Luna finished his sentence grimly. Celestia thought it was sad that even her younger sister realised just how immensely dire the situation was.
“The populace was merely being pre-emptive.” Celestia whispered. “Luna, we shall have to begin our corrections sooner than I had anticipated, but I ask whether you could first send for mother.”
“I understand Celestia. I can start preparations while I wait.” Luna’s expression was soft and sincere as she turned to leave her sister’s quarters. When both she and Rightheart had left Celestia trotted over to her bed and buried her head in the pillow, shaking as the full brunt of her stress shook her with tears.

~*~

When Princess Sola entered her daughter’s quarters she found her laid on her bed with her mane streaming out behind her, slightly dishevelled but still as elegant as it had been before. The curtains were shut and a candle had been lit on her dresser. Sola levitated the candle and moved towards the bed and sat beside it, resting the candle on the bedside table. Celestia lay motionless, save the beat of her heart in her chest, staring with puffy eyes that really didn’t compliment her appearance.
“Hiya ‘Tia.” Sola whispered softly.
“...H-Hello mother...” Celestia had to gulp down the lump in her throat before she could voice her words. There was a silence for a few seconds.
“I-I tried so hard...” Celestia murmured croakily. Sola smiled and nodded.
“I know you did, darling.” She said gently, sliding a hair out of her daughter’s eyes.
“But now I d-don’t know how to make it better...” She murmured, clenching her eyelids to suppress some more tears.
“Shall I tell you a story?” Sola didn’t wait for an answer and continued. “When your father and I were fairly new to the throne we lost half of the Everfree district to Lord Discord without making a single move. Lives were lost and others were destroyed beyond repair. Both I and your father were shamed by our lack of initiative; we nearly abdicated there and then, but a great friend of ours reminded us that we could still make a difference. What we did lost many more lives, but we still fought on to a victory that led on to peace far greater than even that which was before.” Celestia looked on, mulling the thoughts over in her mind.
“The moral is, Celestia, that things may look daunting beforehand, but once you begin you’ll find the strength to finish your problems.” Sola’s words had hit Celestia hard and she sat up on her haunches.
“I understand.” Celestia said her voice strengthened a little; she had told Luna the same thing the previous night. Sola leant over and wrapped her forelegs around her daughter in a loving embrace.
“Your sister is waiting for you.” Sola whispered into Celestia’s ear, kissing her cheek gently before letting go. Celestia slowly hopped off the bed and walked towards the door. As she approached it, she turned to face Sola again.
“Thank you mother.” Celestia said calmly. “I won’t let you down.” Her voice was sincere and serious and Sola smiled.
“I know you won’t.”

~*~

By the time Celestia had arrived at the spire where Luna had begun her preparations the wind had picked up and dark clouds had formed above them. Celestia approached Luna and turned so that her face was against the wind, her mane billowing ferociously behind her.
“Do you think that the protesters have gone after mother and father?” Luna asked raising her voice so that it was could be heard above the roar of the wind.
“I don’t see why they would; they like them.” Celestia answered, dismissing any fears they had. “Do we know what we’re doing?” Luna gave her sister a blank look.
“Not really,” She admitted calmly. “But we don’t have time to beat around the bush. Our best bet is to cast relevant spells and hope for the best.” Celestia nodded and stood to attention.
“Where do we start?” She asked intent on starting quickly.
“This is our blessing to Equestria, so we don’t want to remove Sol and Orion; after all, we already have our cutie marks, so it must be right.” Luna explained, although that was obvious enough. “We’d could try to animate them to move in a rotor.”
“So a telekinetic spell?” Celestia asked, responded only with a shrug.
“Your guess is as good as mine, ‘Tia.” Luna said simply. “I’ve listed possible solutions, so all I need you to do is focus your energy while I form the spell.” Celestia nodded in acknowledgement.
“Ready when you are.”
The two ponies took their places and concentrated their powers; Luna forming the body of the spell while Celestia fuelled it. Luna formed a telekinesis spell and reached out to the orbiting spheres. She felt the spell come into contact with the energy field around them and pushed further to try and reach in.
BOOM!
Celestia broke her focus as she was sent hurtling backwards. Luna reversed a bit too, digging her hooves into the ground to keep her standing. A black patch covered the stone floor where the spell had exploded. Celestia stood back up and shook her head to recover her senses.
“What happened?” She asked Luna, whose mane looked extremely dishevelled.
“What else? The spell failed.” Luna stated. “The magical barrier around those two was completely impenetrable and it simply bounced off.”
“So, will the same thing happen to any spell that doesn’t penetrate that barrier?” Celestia’s question was answered by a nod.
“I’m afraid to say it, ‘Tia, but we’d be wasting energy and time trying that again, even with another spell.” Luna said reluctantly. “We don’t have enough energy to even dent that shell.” Celestia sighed.
“Even so, we can’t just do nothing.” Luna knew Celestia was right, but she didn’t have a solution to put into action; they had already found a dead end.
“Hay, why didn’t I spend more time studying this?!” Luna groaned, cursing and condemning her previous actions. “I’ve no idea how to control the spell that we created!” Celestia shook her head in disapproval.
“Don’t take all the blame, Luna; I’m as much at fault as you.” Celestia consoled her younger sister. “But it does us no good to dwell on our past-doings. Maybe we can find a book to help us understand what we’re dealing with.
“We don’t have time for research Celestia!”
“And look at where it has led us; we can’t solve a problem that we know nothing about Luna!”
“Even so, where’re we going to find a book like that? Alicorn magicks and the like aren’t found in libraries.” Luna had raised a good point; it would take a lot of time to fully understand their situation and even longer to find the resources for doing so beforehand. Celestia stopped for a moment of thought.
“Maybe mother and father know where to find some useful spellbooks of this nature.” Luna couldn’t help but agree that this was the best solution at hand, not to mention the only solution. Both princesses paused abruptly as they felt drops of rain come into contact with their hides.
“We’d best hope so, hadn’t we?” Luna eventually broke the silence. “If the sudden change of weather has anything to do with them, we could end up with angry, soggy protesters.”

~*~

By the time the princesses were ready to leave for their parents’ abode (apparently having only just missed Princess Sola) the rain was falling in bucket loads. Tying back their manes and donning cloaks to ward prying eyes as well as the torrential rain, they quietly made their way to the palace gardens, escorted only by Rightheart. As they snuck around to the back of the grounds they approached the walls and prepared for their journey.
“I really don’t know about this your highnesses.” Rightheart protested. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Both alicorns shook their heads.
“We want to move as quickly and stealthily as we can. I’m sorry Rightheart, but a royal guard such as yourself sticks out like a sore hoof and you can’t move anywhere near as fast as we can.” Celestia said almost apologetically. Luna laughed amusedly.
“I don’t see the worry; we’ll be back before you know it.” She said, stretching her legs. Rightheart didn’t look convinced and wore a frown.
“If you must, then I shan’t stop you.” He said slightly blankly. “But I urge you to return should you encounter hostility.” He was answered with nods.
“We promise.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Rightheart took a step back and snapped a hoof to his head in salute.
“Then may fortune be with you.” Both Celestia and Luna shot their friend confident grins before taking wing assisted bounds, landing their hooves on the top of the walls before hopping over and landing daintily on turf on the other side, taking a few seconds to adjust their cloaks and make sure they hadn’t been seen. The rain was pouring down heavily and everypony had retreated to cover leaving the paddock deserted; all was well.