As the sun began the final leg of its descent in the evening sky, Luna scouted the last salvageable tree. It was a huge one, dangling from a ledge by its roots higher up in the mountains. It was a wonder that it had grown to such a size in an inhospitable place, let alone that it hadn’t been ripped away with the rest of the mountain trees.
Yes, unfortunately all but this one of the mountain trees had been mangled in the avalanche and she hadn’t been as successful as she had hoped in recovering the fallen ancients. It was a reminder that no matter how much she tried to heal, the wounds from this day went too deeply and were too far spread. In time they would heal, but the scars left behind would never fade away.
I will be content, she told herself mid-flight to the last tree. I have to be.
As much as it pained her, she knew when to admit defeat. There was no use fretting over something she could not change. Instead she fixed her attention on the pine in front of her. Having now done this hundreds of times over, she expertly righted the trunk and coaxed its massive roots back into the fissures that had been formed in the cliff face, presumably from the amount of time the tree had been there. Her last task, the last tree, was finished.
Mission accomplished and thoroughly exhausted, Luna allowed herself to sink down on the ledge and take a deep breath of the frigid mountain air. She let her mind wander as she gazed upon the cracks, thinking about the tree and how many centuries it must have been there for its roots to have broken through the mountainside, possibly even before her time.
Spying the winding river down below, she thought back on earlier in the day about the river serpent, and how angry he must have been to have woken up to two little ponies trotting through his territory. She really was relieved that she had been able to alleviate his suffering at the end, even if it had been caused by the creature’s own stupidity. No creature in its right mind would try to eat a shiny piece of metal, at least not without having a death wish.
As a gust of cold wind mercilessly buffeted her, she huddled closer to the tree trunk and looked down to shield her face from the wind. There, quite a ways below her on an adjacent mountain face, she caught a glimpse of the castle she had left behind through the swirling mist of clouds. She then spared a thought to the castle staff and the young princess they had left in charge while they were gone. She felt faintly worried at that thought, but she was too tired to give it any more attention. Surely a messenger would have arrived by now if anything had gone awry.
Finally her thoughts turned back to the very beginning of the day, when she had planned to ambush Celestia in the clearing. She had been so certain at the time that they were going to have a marvelous snowball fight, preferably ending with Celestia covered in snow. It seemed so inconsequential... trivial... foalish now in light of what had transpired. How different everything ended up being. It all seemed so long ago now, had it really been just that morning?
A sigh escaped her.
The air was thin this high up, and while the reduced oxygen usually didn’t bother Luna she found herself yawning with more and more frequency. The cold was also starting to get to her; Numbness was crawling up her limbs, immobilizing her. As her eyes were slowly sliding shut she shook out her pelt to rouse herself. This went for sometime. How long, Luna couldn’t say. All she knew was that sleep was beckoning her and she was losing the battle.
It was there on the edge of consciousness that Luna heard the flapping of wings. Not light and fast as one would hear from a small bird, but heavy and loud. In her near dream state, Luna mused on what sort of creature could be flying by. She saw in her imaginings a pegasus, but the sound did not fit. Then she imagined a griffin, but still no. She went on to a dragon, then a draconequus and so on … but then an image of her sister came unbidden to her mind, and suddenly Luna was wide awake blinking against the snowfall.
Sure enough, Celestia was down just below her levitating large pieces of the mountain that had broken off. While Luna had been re-planting the forest, Celestia had been working diligently to restore the mountainside. They had crossed paths a few times since they initially parted ways for the cleanup, but thankfully Celestia respected her space and hadn’t initiated conversation. Each time had been when Luna went to retrieve loose soil to pack around the tree roots; Apparently Celestia similarly needed some to secure her boulders.
At the time it had been a relief that Celestia was giving her space, but now Luna knew that her reprieve, like the day, was coming to an end. Anxiety prickled at her coat. She decided to wait a bit longer before revealing her presence, using the moment to survey her sister’s work. She certainly had made great progress, but there was still more to go. Much too much, actually. Really, it was almost sundown and she needed to stop. They had done more than enough for one day, and there was all of ponydom to help with the cleanup if they would only ask.
Hah! Asking was the problem, though. Princess-Workaholic-Celestia was not one to ask the help of her fellow Equestrians lightly, especially for something she considered her direct responsibility… as it would be in this case. Irritation sparked within Luna as she thought of how Celestia would most certainly respond to her.
Knowing that Celestia would veto any suggestions while in her clean-up mode, under the claim that she would be ‘derelict in her duties,’ Luna thought of all the ways she could bring it up to her. Talking alone would not be enough to sway her; If she brought it up directly, she knew that Celestia would flat out refuse and continue working, so intently focused she would get. But perhaps a distraction was in order. If she could distract her or derail her efforts for long enough, say until sundown, surely she would relent.
A smile tugged at her lips when a particularly mischievous idea came to mind, to finish what she had started in the clearing. Celestia was, after all, below her with her back exposed. There was no celestial aura to protect her now.
With hardly a thought, all of the snowballs she had hidden earlier appeared around her, ready for action. Waiting for the right moment, she busied herself with making a few fresh snowballs for good measure. She lifted one up and tested its weight in her magical aura. Satisfied, she raised it higher and looked back down toward her sister.
She was still there, hovering over an outcropping of boulders that she was pounding in. As she briefly stopped supporting them, some of the rubble immediately began sliding. She started towards it, sighing in relief as she caught it in time. She looked exhausted and worse for the wear, her alabaster coat sullied with dirt.
Yes, that was her big sister, who had never stopped working for the good of her country and was tirelessly working even now;
Her strong sister, who effortlessly protected her from the river serpent and stopped an avalanche when she could not;
Her kind sister, who forgave her when she couldn’t even forgive herself.
Suddenly the excitement left her as a heaviness settled back into her chest. Her eyes widened in panic as she realized what she had almost done. What am I doing? I’ll only make Celestia mad. Haven’t I tried her patience enough already?
Luna withdrew from the edge, depressed. What’s the point anyways? What’s the point to anything anymore? I can’t pretend that nothing happened between us. Everything is ruined, and it’s by my own hoof. I’m just a shadow of my former self. There’s no going back, so why even bother?
Just as she thought that, her magical grasp on the snowballs flickered out. It was in that moment that she registered that her magic-wielding issues seemed to be tied directly to her emotional instability, yet another problem she’d have to deal with later. Alarm shot through her and she barely contained a shout before fumbling to return her grip. She was seemingly successful, but then a high pitched yelp pierced through the wind.
Hoping against hope that it was for a different reason that Celestia had cried out, Luna did a quick scan of the snowballs she was holding. They all seemed to be there, until she looked toward the cliff edge: The one she had been aiming at her sister was missing. Her heart dropped somewhere in the vicinity of her hooves, and she held her breath desperately hoping Celestia would be too distracted to sense her presence. As the silence dragged on, however, she risked a peek over the edge. The regret was instantaneous. Terror gripped her; she could not look away, her fears were confirmed.
Celestia was steaming mad, and her cold eyes were glaring directly at Luna.
………
An array of blues and yellows colored the snowy landscape as the sun touched down on the mountain ridge. The angle of the sun cast long shadows on the valley, creating an exciting atmosphere for the ongoing fight below. The air was filled with huffs of indignation and light laughter as snowball after snowball sailed by, never quite hitting their intended targets. This went on for some time, one never gaining the upper hoof over the other. It seemed the opponents were equally matched this evening.
Luna’s heart had calmed down somewhat since the earlier scare, but she still had not fully recovered. She had really thought that she had stepped out of line, and that Celestia was going to… to punish her or something. Those hardened eyes were too close to the memory that haunted her dreams. Just thinking of it sent a twinge of fear through her, but it was leaps and bounds better than it had been. After the fight had broken out, she quickly realized that Celestia was simply responding in kind with her own stockpile of snowballs. She really seemed to be enjoying herself.
Luna was still wary though, and found herself constantly scanning her for signs of ill intent. She wished she could stop.
Her plan to distract Celestia had worked, but at a cost. She was now burdened by the realization that on some level she was afraid of her own sister. But… did she not have reason to? She loved her as sister and friend, but feared her as judge. The memory that replayed in her mind every night was of Celestia, looking past her with those hardened eyes and stating her millennium long sentence with cold finality. It was one of her most terrifying memories. The judgment had been swift and merciless. But not nearly as merciless as she had been.
One of the first steps of healing was figuring out the trauma one had though, right? So she was going in the right direction. Even so, the last thing Luna wanted to do was burden Celestia with that knowledge, in light of the suffering she had gone through at the loss.
If it were up to her, Celestia would never hear of this particular detail. However, she knew the truth needed to come out. She only wished it didn’t have to be this very evening. Again, she regretted the promise she made to her sister.
The strain of the snowball fight was beginning to show on both sides. While the exchanges continued on without missing a beat, the sagging of their fur coats, sopping wet, and the barely contained shivering was wearing on them. Celestia had even begun to snort in exertion. Luna didn’t consider that particular detail a win, though; Celestia was a larger alicorn, afterall, and she felt that it wouldn’t be too much longer before she joined her.
Soon after, they both ran out of steam. The snowball exchange slowed down then stopped all together. Luna was ready to speak up and call a draw, but she took one look at Celestia’s expression and stopped herself. Celestia’s eyes were bright and far from beaten. She looked like she was merely catching her breath during the standoff, ready to start again at any moment. Her sister was truly an amazing mare.
Where does she get all that energy from? Luna shook her head in disbelief. She thought of a way to subtly end the fight, but unfortunately it involved a bit of cheekiness and lots of running. She decided that some banter was in order.
“Hey Celestia!” Luna shouted, adopting a bored expression. She took a deep breath to keep from panting. “It seems that you are out of your element! I’ve already hit you once and you have yet to land a hit on me. Or perhaps your age is finally catching up to you?”
“What?” Celestia snorted. “Who are you calling old, you fossil—?”
In a flash Luna picked up one of Celestia’s own snowballs and threw it at her from behind, hitting her squarely in the back. Celestia screeched and comically reared back, unfurling her wings to try and dislodge the snow.
“That’s twice now I’ve hit you! It’s settled, I WIN!!!” Luna took off in a gallop, and Celestia was quick to pursue.
“You haven’t won anything!” She roared. “Get back here and face me, COWARD!” Celestia was on the offense, pelting her with snowballs that she somehow was managing to evade.
Luna hadn’t laughed so hard in… she didn’t even know how long, and her face was stretched so wide in a smile that it hurt. Her heart yearned for more moments like these with her sister. A wall so tall and insurmountable had grown between them, unyielding to the centuries, yet this was undeniable proof that it was starting to crumble; all Luna had to do was keep chipping away at it, day by day. Even if it took another hundred years, she needed to press on. As hard as it was, as uncomfortable and as painful as it was going to be, she couldn’t give up the fight before the battle even started.
It was so tempting to not even try, though. The success of all of her efforts hinged upon Celestia trying, too. Relationships are a two-way street, afterall, and she would be kidding herself if she thought that it would only be hard on her. What worried Luna was that Celestia had been hurt deeply by her foalish actions, and there were undoubtedly lasting effects from that. She may be sticking around now, but would Celestia really be willing to put in the work once Luna broke her silence on her imprisonment? Would she stay once she heard the ugly, unadulterated truth? Or would it tear a greater rift between the two?
Worrying about it would do her no good. She needed to trust that Celestia wouldn’t be scared away by the mess that was her little sister, that she would stay by her side no matter what. She needed her to. But even if she didn’t, then Luna would fall off that bridge cross that bridge when she got there.
No, she would trust her sister. They were going to get through this, not separately but together. Happier days were ahead, she just had to believe it. This day may be fleeting, but there would be more times like this again. As Luna galloped through the snow, she felt hope well within her. She would not give up, she would not give in to the depression of her thoughts.
Luna kept running, not because she was a coward, but because she did not want Celestia to see the tears in her eyes.