Thunder Clop arrived at the ski chalet the next day. It was high in the mountains to the west of Canterlot. Since it was still late summer it was quite warm out. Deer, birds and other animals scurried about. The royal lodge was just out side of town at the at the base of a mountain. It was a log cabin with high pitched roof and large windows on the south side, to let in the winter sun. It was surrounded by a porch and even had it's own private chair lift at one end.
Inside Thunder Clop found Luna resting on a couch, her left foreleg wrapped in bandages. The mood in the cabin was somber, servants shuffled about downcast as they attended their duties. Thunder Clop immediately trotted over to Luna.
"Your hand maiden said you weren't seriously hurt, but look at you!" he said concerned.
"Oh it's hardly a scratch," said Luna standing, she winched a bit when she put weight on her front leg, "only three stitches."
"Stitches!?" exclaimed T.C. "How could Celestia do this to you?!"
"It was my fault really!" started Luna, "I, uhhh, I threw the first blow..." She admitted ashamedly.
"What were you even fighting about?" asked Thunder Clop, leading Luna back to her seat on the couch.
"Well, you." Sighed Luna.
"Oh," replied Thunder Clop, "I thought you two were getting past that."
"Well," said Luna, "This trip was about sorting through our issues, and this one is rather prominent."
"I see," started Thunder Clop, "but if the fight was about me, why bother bringing me up here?"
"Well it's Celstia," said Luna, "She's locked herself in her room and she won't come out. Everypony has tried talking to her, but to no avail. I didn't know what to do, maybe you could talk to her."
"I don't know Luna," replied T.C. hesitantly, "Wouldn't I be about the last person she'd want to talk to?"
"Don't be so vain," scoffed Luna, "Our fight wasn't about you, well it was, but it wasn't, It could have been about anypony, and that pony just happens to be you."
T.C. stared blankly at Luna for a moment, "What?" he finally questioned.
"Our fight was about being in a relationship." Explained Luna, "Celestia isn't opposed to our relationship because of you. It's because of the past. She had a.... problem with a relationship once and has been put off by the whole experience. Since then she has forbidden herself, and me by extension from becoming romantically involved with anypony. I told her that it was my life and that I should be able to do as I pleased and that's what started the argument. I may have said some things that I shouldn't have regarding her past relationship and she adopted her same condescending tone, and I may have.... punched her. It quickly turned into more of a wrestling match than a hoof fight and during the struggle, I fell and cut my leg on a rather jagged rock. Celestia feels just awful about the indecent, and so do I. We've all tried to talk to her though, but so far nopony can get her to come out. But you see, since the fight wasn't really about you, you might give it a try?"
Thunder Clop sat and thought for a moment, Luna stared at him anxiously. "Oh all right," he said, "but what happened to Celestia to make her so opposed to you dating, specifically?"
Luna looked down at the floor, "That is not my place to say. She will tell you if she needs to."
Thunder Clop sighed and walked upstairs to Princess Celstia's room. Inside he could soft sobbing. He knocked on the door. "Go Away!" the Princess voice was authoritative but weak and soft.
"Princess? It's me Thunder Clop, Luna though we should talk?" offered T.C. through the door.
"Did she now?" sniffled Celestia, "Well tell her I don't want to talk to anypony right now."
"Please Princess," replied Thunder Clop, "It's been over a day, don't you want to come out?"
"No!" said Celstia rather curtly.
"Well," started T.C. hesitantly, "Can I come in?"
There was a pause in the sniffles and everything went quite for a moment. "Just you?" questioned Celestia.
"Just me." Replied Thunder Clop reassuringly. There was another slight pause, then the tell tale shimmer of magic and the click of the door unlocking. Thunder Clop walked inside and closed the door behind him. Princess Celstia sat on her bed in the middle of the room, she looked terrible. Her mane wasn't done, there were tissues all over the bed and under her bloodshot eyes hung two dark sleep circles. As soon as she saw Thunder Clop enter she started crying again. Thunder Clop walked over and sat next to her on the bed. He put a hoof on her should to try and comfort her.
"Oh Captain Clop," she started, "Why doesn't anypony love me!?" Celestia collapsed onto his shoulder sobbing. Oh no,why this!? thought Thunder Clop to himself rather selfishly.
"Now, now Princess," started Thudner Clop, "Every pony loves you."
"No they don't!" Sobbed Celestia, "They only see my as Princess, none of them take the time to know me!"
"Well what about Twilight?" offered Thunder Clop.
"She's just my student." replied Celestia, "she doesn't know the real me, to her I'm just a te-te-teacher!" Celestia started sobbing again.
"Well what about Luna?" Tried Thunder Clip again, "She's your sis,"
"Luna!?" Celestia cut him off, "She hates me more than anypony because of what I did to her!"
"Now that's just not true" said Thunder Clop. "I Know she loves you. She looks up to you, sure she gets frustrated with you sometimes, but that's just how siblings are."
"You really think so?" asked Celestia sniffling a little bit.
"I know so," replied Thunder Clop reassuringly. "She talks about you all the time."
Celestia sniffed and sat up on the bed. "I love her too Thunder Clop.... I guess that's why I'm so motherly with her. I just want to protect her."
"Protect her from what?" asked Thunder Clop, "I mean you're both very capable ponies, you've beat Chrysalis and Discord and countless other enemies. Don't get me wrong I like my job but you two hardly even need a guard."
Celestia looked at Thunder Clop for a moment pondering what to tell him. "I just don't want her to get hurt like I was." She finally replied.
"Princess..." started T.C. "if I may, what happened?"
Celestia sighed. "Have you ever heard of Prince Alumbrar?" she asked.
"I'm sorry no." replied Thunder Clop.
"I'm not surprised," Celestia continued, "few ponies have. It was a long time ago that we knew each other. He was a prince from a northern province long ago. He was strong, intelligent, kind... and handsome. He was the most romantic unicorn I ever knew. We used to go long strolls through palace gardens, and stay up late into my sisters night chatting away. He used to preform the most amazing magic tricks for me, like making doves from clouds or flowers from nothing but dust or ash. We were so in love, or so I thought.
We were to be wed, Alumbrar and I. We had planned it for months. It was going to be during the spring equinox, guests form all over the world were coming, even my mother, the creator herself was going to attend. The night before our wedding though something horrible happened. As you know, Luna and I are alicorns, which means we're immortal. Alumbrar was a mortal unicorn. If we were to be married I wanted him to be an Alicorn also. So we decided to try to ascend him to an Alicorn. Now the ascension spell is very dangerous, it requires an enormous amount of love to successfully complete. In fact Cadence was only able to ascend because her special talent is love. But I thought between Prince Alumbrar and myself we would have enough love to successfully complete the spell.
I thought wrong. After performing the spell nothing seemed to happen, Alumbrar was still just a unicorn. I thought I had simply failed and he had merely not been turned into an Alicorn. But the next day while we gathered for the ceremony something changed about him. He was dark and brooding. Before the wedding was complete he told me that he didn't love me anymore and that the wedding was off. He stormed out of the cathedral and left me there at the alter, shattered. Later he returned to the northern kingdom. He renamed it the Chrystal Empire, and renamed himself King Sombra. When the ascension spell failed it took all the love he had and destroyed it! Luna and I tried everything to change him back, but we couldn't. We decided to leave him be, but eventually he enslaved all his subjects and attacked Equestria, Luna and I were forced to banish him an abyss.
That is why I'm so afraid of her dating! But not why you think. It's not that Sombra enslaved his subjects or that he attacked Equestria. It's that he broke my heart! I know that's selfish of me, but I never loved another pony like I loved Alumbrar, and I don't want Luna's heart broken the way mine was..."
Thunder Clop put his foreleg around Celestia to comfort her. Neither of them noticed that Luna had entered the room. She had been listening from out side the door.
"Celestia," she started, "I can assure you that will not happen to us. Thunder Clop and I love each other yes, but we have no plans to get married. Even if we did the ascension spell has been refined and is much safer now."
"Yeah," said Thunder Clop, "Besides, I would never hurt Luna like that."
Celestia finally seemed to pull herself together. "You two really do love each other then?" She asked. Thunder Clop and Luna nodded in agreement. "Then I suppose I can accept that, as long as you both can accept my apology for the way I've been acting."
"Of course we can sister." Replied Luna enthusiastically, "Now, let us return home."