Chapter Seven
Some places speak when you enter them. What they say varies based on who they talk to, and how well the audience is listening. Some places speak softly, others speak with voices so loud they drown the sounds of the world in their silence. This place was one of those. When the massive wooden door with its ancient hinges opened at Celestia's touch, Twilight could hear nothing but the deafening silence and hollow rush of the terribly old, dead air of the room. Each of her hoofclops sounded like an affront to the sanctity of the chamber. She was frightened to let her heart beat too loudly. “If you strain,” Celestia said quietly, “you can almost hear the armies...”
“Armies...” Twilight repeated, and saw her breath fog up in front of her. Lights slowly brightened the large room, magical lamps flickering to life. The stone here was different. Old, pockmarked, thick and robust. Desks and platforms were hammered with massive iron anchors into the rocks. It was stark and utilitarian, and Twilight could feel its history. “You said this was the beginning.”
“It is,” Celestia replied. “The last pony-made structure in all of Equestria to stand unchanged since the time before Discord's defeat. This is where we started it. Luna and I set about uniting the ponies and took the fight to Discord from this very room, over a thousand years ago.” she smiled, her eyes somewhat distant. “she used to stand there, where you're standing, and lay maps on that table. Luna figured out how to navigate ponies through the madness Discord was creating. You couldn’t use landmarks, they were always changing, but Luna found a way. 'You just get the ponies,' shed tell me,” Celestia laughed a little, wiping her eye, “'and I'll make sure we get back.'”
Twilight got the distinct feeling Celestia hadn’t been in this room in a very, very long time. She seemed almost frightened to put her hooves on the platforms, like the memories of them might swallow her whole. “When was the last time you came here?” Twilight asked. She was watching the Princess carefully. This was such a new side to her teacher, something she'd never seen before despite all their years together. Celestia was always so sure, so certain of herself and everything else. Always with a smile and a little tease that made everything better. But here, she was surrounded by memories of a time Twilight couldn't even fathom. Chaos. Ponies against ponies. And at the end of it all...
“The hallway, and the door,” Celestia said at last, “I see often. I walk down and stare at it, and run my hoof over the scars on the door and remember. But the room?” she shook her head. “Not since after Nightmare. Not since I put that there.” she nodded to something behind Twilight, who turned around to look, and found herself wholly unprepared for what she saw.
It was the armor. A blinding, gleaming suit of platted barding tailor made for princess Celestia, and it was the single most beautiful object Twilight had ever seen. Across every surface was scripture and filigree proclaiming victories against Discord and triumphs over chaos. The iconography of the sun was emblazoned on its flanks, and intricately interlinked slats of silver traveled though the joints to provide protection and mobility. Chain, like spun gold, served as additional protection under the plates themselves and a helm, floating just overhead in a shimmering field of levitation magic placed there centuries earlier, glinted in the pale light with inlayed beams of sunlight crafted into its metallic surface. It was magnificent. Untouched by age or dust, it was as though such things were too frightened, or too awestruck, to blemish it. This was the tool of a savior, and to look upon it brought Twilight near to tears.
“Earthpony blacksmiths forged the plates in ovens and anvils made from fallen meteors,” Celestia said quietly. “one, single Pegasus, who I saved from Discord's monsters as a small child, who never grew much bigger than half your size, spent her entire life carving the scripture and putting the scenes and illumination into the plating.” Celestia smiled at the intensity of the recollection. “She went blind doing it, Twilight. It meant that much to her. Fluttershy is her descendent, dozens of generations down the line. I know. I kept track.” She stepped up to it, walking around its back side and up toward the front again. “Every single letter is enchanted. Every dot. Every slash. Every seraph. Some of the spellwork is just...unimaginably detailed. I couldn't hope to duplicate it. This, this one right here,” she pointed at the direct heart of the armor protecting the suit's chest, between the forelegs, “This is a protection charm. It was put there by a unicorn no older than you are, Twilight. I found her dying, and I lifted her head to look at me, and she...” Celestia motioned with her hooves, as though trying to find the words to express what she saw in her mind. “She smiled, Twilight. She couldn’t have had more than two thirds of her body left and she smiled at me. And she pointed her horn at my chest and she said...she...”
“'I held on, so I could give you this.'”
Celestia and Twilight turned around, and saw Luna standing in the doorway, watching. She was chewing her lower lip, and swallowed hard before stepping shakily into the room. “and her eyes lit up like the sun,” Luna said softly, “and she poured her soul into that glyph, and created the single strongest barrier spell Equestria has ever seen. Stronger than Discord's chaos, stronger than any of the creatures he could conjure. It was...flawless magic.” She stepped up beside Twilight, eyes fixated on the tapestry of steel in front of her. “She could've used it to save herself. She could've fended off any injury with just a fraction of that power. But she didn't. She saved every last ounce, because the Celestia the Sun was coming, and needed it more.”
Celestia's tears were the first spot of moisture to hit the cold stone floors in ten centuries. She looked over at Luna and shared a smile with her. “You made the helm for me,” she said, and luna laughed, sniffing.
“I never felt like the sun rays turned out right,”
“Ive seen the pattern before,” Twilight said, actually startled to hear her own voice. “Its all over Canterlot. In the filigree and the inlays in the palace bulwarks. Its everywhere. I always thought it was just more sun heraldry, but...”
“No,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “Its her.”
Luna walked past Twilight to Celestia and embraced her, and Twilight watched from beside the armor, fascinated by what she'd witnessed over the past two days. More had been said here, and on the hill, than simple recounts of history. She had witnessed creatures heal whose minds and bodies stretched so far back in time that they had to revisit thousand year old wars to find where there wounds had come from. But it had worked, and here they were, and for the first time in two nights, Twilight felt like something had gone exactly as it should have.
“Come on,” Luna said to both of them, stepping back from Celestia and casting one final glance toward the armor. “Let's get out of here.”
Had any pony been around to watch Twilight and Celestia descend the stairways and darkened halls of the palace together, they wouldve been shocked to see them come back laughing, with Luna in tow. They may well have been shocked to see them come back together at all. Such an outcome haden't looked possible on the grim faces that had departed the public chambers earlier that evening.
Twilight had removed her crown and looped it around the back of her neck like a circlet during the walk back up. She found it a little less ostentatious there, and if nothing else, it made her feel a little less like she'd barged into the palace brandishing a weapon. Celestia had noticed, as had Luna, and asked her why.
“I dont think I like how it makes me feel,” Twilight had replied, making a sour face and glancing back at the crown. “I mean, I do, its...flush. Powerful,” she giggled at the thought of it, an picked up a little tingle from the crown, as though it was encouraging her, “but I think it effects my judgment. I dont dislike Phillip, honestly. I think he's a jerk, and he needs to be taken down a peg or two, but I dont hate him.” she gave her mane a little shake, clearing her thoughts, “But if you hadn't come along, Princess, I think I would've...”
“Taken him down a peg or two?” Luna offered, grinning. Twilight snorted.
“Put him through a wall, maybe. At least half of him.”
Princess Celestia laughed. “If not for the 'killing him' part, I'd tell you to go for it. Not that I dont appreciate his family's dedication, I'd just like them to step a few paces back once in a while. Its like having a swarm of bee's around you alll daaaay looong.”
“she has to run behind the curtain to fart,” Luna asides to Twilight, leaning in. Celesta whapped her little sister on the rear with her spectral tail and Luna darted a few feet away with a giggle, leaving Twilight to snicker hard at the mental image. Celestia sighed,
“It'd be funnier if it wasn’t so true” the larger pony muttered,
“Pretty sure thats what makes it funny to begin with,” Luna replied, falling in step at Twilight's side and sharing a softer laugh with her. Princess Celestia quickly found a way to rescue her dignity by redirecting the conversation back to Twilight's crown, rather than the fine art of averting public attention from bodily functions when you have to spend most of your days sitting at the top of a stairway.
“Any time you get exposed to some new form of power, weather its magical or political or social, even emotional, theres always going to be the temptation to use it when you don't need to, Twilight,” Celestia offered, nosing at the crown on the little pony's back. “The real trick is to make sure you dont go looking for excuses to use it. Thats what starts problems.”
“Or not looking for enough reasons not to,” Luna added. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was referring to her own example, but nudged her all the same.
“I think we've established you as the product of some uh...unfortunate circumstances, Luna,” Twilight said, stopping Luna from dwelling on the past. She seemed appreciate enough that she didnt insist otherwise. Twilight smiled reassuringly, which transitioned into a wide yawn as they reached the main hall of the palace. Luna smirked.
“At this rate youre not going to need magic to become nocturnal, Twilight,” She teased, “what is this, two nights now youve been up till dawn?”
Twilight's eyes widdened a bit. “Dawn? Seriously? Already?”
Celestia chuckled, “not for a few hours yet. She's messing with you, little one,” but her eyebrow raised a bit. “become...nocturnal?”
“Her idea,” Luna said quickly, pointing at Twilight. The purple pony coughed nervously as Celestia's other brow met her first one.
“Twilight?”
Luna stepped in quickly to provide her new, and perhaps only, friend with a buffer. “It was a suggestion she came up with yesterday, after I cried my eyes out on her shoulder all night long. Im pretty sure it was just a spur of the moment idea, she doesn't know what it would involve.”
“I havent written it off,” Twilight said, feeling the need to voice her own opinions. In light of what she now knew about her past, and the decisions that were made to bring her to this point, the idea of making one choice she could be almost sure was entirely her own seemed rather appealing.
Celestia looked worried, and glanced back and forth between her student and Luna, before settling her gaze on her sister. “You didnt-”
“I didn't!” Luna insisted.
“She didn't.” Twilight confirmed firmly, now looking up toward Celestia. “I haven’t made up my mind about it yet, but it has my attention.”
Celestia maintained her worried look, as though at any moment she was going to burst out with a dozen reasons why it was a bad thing to do. She didn't, though. Instead she took a breath and looked out over the empty main hall, long since abandoned for the night.
“Ive never known you to make a habit of rash decisions, Twilight,” she said, “a mistake here or there maybe, sometimes a destructive choice, but when you sit down and put your head in it, you've caught things even I miss. I don't expect this will be any different.” she turned and shot Luna a glare, “but there are things you should know before you decide”
“Pain is transient,” Luna muttered in response, “It wont effect her decision either way.”
Twilight looked over to Luna and blinked. “...Pain?”