The Elegance of Morons

by FrontSevens

Chapter 6: Tragic

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Celestia said, greeting King Sombra at the door. “Please, come in.”

“Thank you,” Sombra said, stepping through the castle doors. He knew she’d be fishing for compliments soon, so he decided to get it out of the way as soon as possible. “I watched you lower the sun and raise the moon on my way here. Splendid work,” he said with a minimum amount of decorum.

“Thank you kindly,” Celestia said, turning to the side to show off her evening gown.

Celestia had picked the simple blue dress last night because she thought it would convey modesty, but Sombra was obviously more interested in a mare with power. So for tonight, she picked a long and full red dress, with a large brooch pinned on the chest. The brooch was in the shape of a sun and had a hefty ruby in the centre, and even though it chafed a bit against her skin, she knew it’d be worth it.

Which it was. She noticed Sombra’s eyes wander to her brooch frequently. “It was a gift from my mother,” she said.

“Ah,” Sombra said. If there was one thing going for this moron of a princess, it was that she had powerful parents with a fine taste in jewels. The ruby was plump and full, and looked quite delectable, but he was not here for the ruby. He let a guard take his cape. “Will Luna be joining us this evening?”

Celestia shook her head, bowing it a little to pretend she was disheartened. “I’m afraid not.”

“Are you certain?” Sombra could tell by Celestia’s feigned disheartenment that Luna was, in fact, present. He knew that with a small push, he could convince Celestia to bring her sister after all. “Her absence would be such a disappointment. Couldn’t we make it a family affair?”

“She’s currently preoccupied with another…” Celestia glanced down the hall, wondering just what Luna was up to in her room. “…preoccupation.”

“Is that so? Well then, let me put it this way.” He took his coat back from the guard holding it, threatening to put it back on. “If Luna doesn’t come to dinner, neither will I.”

Celestia clenched her teeth behind her lips. All he could talk about was Luna, Luna, Luna, but never her. As long as she could get him to stay for dinner, though, he’d see. “Fine,” She said, smilng, then turned to a guard. “Please escort our guest to the Royal Dining Hall.” She turned back to Sombra as he hoofed his coat back to the guard. “Luna and I will join you there.”

“Wonderful,” Sombra said, grinning.

Smiling and nodding, Celestia turned away and walked down the hallway towards Luna’s room. Sombra still insisted on seeing Luna perform magic, but Luna wasn’t princess material—why couldn’t he see that? Celestia tucked her chin and quickened her pace, but slowed as her anger subsided.

Luna tagging along made for a hitch in the plan, but it wasn’t the end of the world. She could have her cake and eat it, too; all she had to do was distract Sombra from Luna. Luna was good enough at magic now that she could raise the moon, so as long as Celestia kept her from performing any tricks or Sombra from making any requests, everything would turn out just fine.

“Good evening, your highness,” Discord said, swirling up beside Celestia as she made her way down the hall.

“Evening to you, too,” she said. She glanced at him, noting his outfit: a large fur cloak over a royal blue surcoat, topped off with a glamorous velvet hat. “You look dashing.”

“Thank you,” he said. He folded his hands, wondering if Celestia was intentionally dodging the question on both of their minds. “Will I be joining the three of you at dinner tonight?”

“Not tonight.” She bit her lip, remembering Discord wasn’t always as annoying as he tried to be. “I’m sorry. Tonight is important to me.”

“Exactly! That’s why I’ve planned the whole evening with all sorts of important activities!” He unrolled a scroll and cleared his throat. “I figured we could play a two-versus-two game of chess during the meal, with little shrunken-down guard ponies as game pieces. Then, perhaps a game of go fish with real fish, complete with an innovative slap-based game mechanic.” His eyes travelled further down the scroll. “Oh, and I was hoping we could pair off and take turns having some real heart-to-hearts. I’ve always wanted to tell Sombra how much of an uninspiring dearth of a friend he is. I’m sure you have something equally reassuring to say to Luna.”

And yet, sometimes he was exactly as annoying as he tried to be. “No,” Celestia said, eyes forward as she walked down the hall. “You may not interfere with us this evening.”

His clothes and scroll poofed away, and he folded his arms. “Very well. I suppose I can live on leftover Royal Table Scraps for the time being.” He floated up to the ceiling and vanished.

Celestia kept walking, trying not to let Discord faze her. As immature as he was, he would understand. This was the most critical date of her life (and the second date of her life, incidentally). She had enough to worry about tonight than to let Discord distract her.

Most of that worry stemmed from Luna. Celestia dreaded inviting her to dinner, but if this was what would make Sombra stay, so be it.

She opened the door to her sister’s room, and was immediately overwhelmed by what smelled like a bouquet of assorted flowers shoved into her face. Luna lay in the middle of her room, eating her designated dinner—a grilled cheese sandwich, leftover from last night.

She didn’t bother to look over at Celestia, as she was quite content where she lay. Ever since she’d realized that she didn’t need the journal anymore, she’d been trying spells all day. Now, after making three frozen trees, a room smell like a full garden, and a stack of magically copied books, she lay on her back, levitating her sandwich into her mouth and chewing with contentment.

Celestia frankly didn’t care for the pungent floral fragrances. “You’re coming to dinner. Put on something decent. If you don’t come, you’re grounded for three more weeks.” Slam went the door.

Luna savoured the bite of grilled cheese in her mouth, then slowly got up and looked at the dresses in her suitcase. She didn’t feel like wearing a dress, especially not for her sister, but if she was going to at least try and avoid three more weeks of grounding, she might as well throw on something. Surveying her options for the evening, she initially picked the easiest one to put on: a short white frock. However, the lace and frills made it look too girly.

She cast her dresses aside, noticing something odd at the bottom of her suitcase. It was her black collar, which was part of her Royal Regalia, but there was something new: a crescent moon, her cutie mark, imprinted on the front.

Her parents had infused it with magic to match her cutie mark, whenever that came, and she’d totally forgotten about it. Now she actually felt proud to wear her Royal Regalia. Moreover, it would be even easier to put on than the white frock.

She slipped on her Royal Regalia—the collar, some blue glass shoes, and a little dark blue crown. It wasn’t all that regal. According to her sister, royalty normally wore extravagant jewelry and dresses and all that stuff. Luna didn’t like that, though, and this getup would be good enough. It was still technically royal. It was decent, too, as per her sister’s demands. Plus, it wasn’t like there was anypony else to impress tonight but her sister.

~ ~ ~

Except for King Sombra. She rather disliked the thought of impressing him.

Celestia had said nothing about Sombra being at dinner too. But there he was, standing next to Celestia at the middle of their long marble dining table.

Sombra waved a hoof to the seat across from him. “Please, help yourself to a seat.” He smiled in a way that made Luna want to be anywhere but sitting across from him.

Luna started to turn around, but met Celestia’s piercing stare. She kept turning.

“Three months,” Celestia said.

Okay, fine. One meal couldn’t hurt. Just one night, and then maybe when her current grounding was over, she could visit her parents and request to move to another kingdom, one where Sombra wasn’t their neighbour.

Luna walked over to the chair and sat down. She was five feet away from both her sister and Sombra—much closer than she’d rather be to either—but it was only one night. She could do this.

“Good evening,” Celestia said to Luna.

“Good evening,” Luna said back, trying to avoid eye contact from Celestia and Sombra by staring at the candelabra between them that served as the centrepiece.

Sombra moved the candelabra with his magic. “Good evening,” Sombra said. He raised his eyebrows. “So, Luna, was it you that raised the moon last night?”

“Uh huh,” Luna said, squirming. With the candelabra gone, she just stared down at the marble tabletop now.

Celestia tossed her hair, turning to Sombra. “And as it so happens, it was I who not only raised the moon but also lowered the sun tonight.”

“Yes, I did see that earlier and have already pointed that out,” Sombra said. “So tell me, Luna, how long have you been practicing magic?”

“Well, only about—”

“Not nearly as long as I have,” Celestia said. “I’ve been casting spells for decades.”

Sombra smiled, staring at a beaming Celestia for a moment. This was how it would be for the rest of the meal, then. Hopefully the food would make up for Celestia’s achingly desperate pleas for attention.

A guard cleared his throat to get Celestia’s attention, then presented a bottle to her. Once she noticed the word ‘wine’ on the label, she nodded enthusiastically to the guard. Being able to drink wine was a coming-of-age, a mark of maturity. It seemed fitting to mark such an occasion: a new chapter in her life, as well as her first glass of wine.

The guard exhaled in relief. It had been debated amongst the wait staff whether or not to actually serve wine at tonight’s affair. Everypony agreed that Celestia looked right around sixteen (though the age she acted was another matter, and her actual age likely another one entirely), so they settled on a bottle of grape juice with a fancy wine label transplanted onto it.

The culinary staff tested their limits that night. The appetizer was (fresh) grilled cheese sandwiches, garnished with a parsley leaf to make it look fancy. Dinner was vegetable soup, cooked in a vegetable broth. Dessert was cake at her highness’s request.

Sombra enjoyed the unconventional appetizer. However, he couldn’t have cared less for the soup. The vegetables were all varying degrees of cooked. He could tell that the chef had thrown them all in the pot at once. It was a clear sign of incompetency, but he knew better than to blame that on Celestia. She had her own shortcomings, after all. Like how she talked about little nothings the whole time, barely giving Sombra a chance to speak with Luna.

The meal dragged on. Dessert came, and it couldn’t have come sooner. Celestia had been on edge all evening about the spell she wanted to perform, but her nerves gave in to cake. It calmed her and gave her a chance to relax.

The cake also calmed Luna, because it meant this evening was almost over. She’d been waiting for a chance to leave, and she’d already tried to get up three times, but then Sombra would shoot a stare at Celestia and Celestia would throw that stare at Luna, and then she’d have to sit back down. But now that the cake had arrived, she’d be even closer to returning to her room and escaping Sombra’s prying questions. In three bites, she wolfed down the cake and waited intently.

Once they had all finished their dessert, Celestia wiped her mouth with a napkin and stood. Now that she had eaten the cake, it was time to have it. “I would now like to perform a spell on you to further demonstrate my magical someth—I mean, my abilities.”

Luna stood up too, hoping this cued the exchange of farewells, but sat back down at Celestia’s declaration. She could excuse herself after a magic trick.

Sombra huffed. “If this spell makes me smell like lilacs, I’ll have no choice but to take that as an insult.” He shot Luna a grin. Luna would’ve laughed had any other pony than Sombra said it.

Celestia cleared her throat to reclaim Sombra’s attention. “This spell will grant you power. Stronger magic for unicorns, stronger wings for pegasi, stronger hooves for earth ponies, and so on,” she said, almost directly quoting the journal with the exception of the “and so on” bit.

Sombra shifted. The spell appealed to him, and he had spells like that cast on him before, but only by practitioners of magic that he trusted and that, well, actually practiced. “Have you performed this spell before?”

“Yes,” Celestia said, with honesty. Somewhere out in the forest, there hopped a frog with significantly more developed quads and glutes than his frog brethren.

Sombra gave it a good amount of thought. Celestia may have been a dimwit, but she was an alicorn, and she seemed to be more magically inclined than most unicorns. She could lift the sun, after all. Perhaps she truly was skilled enough to pull this spell off. Plus, he could always escape her magic manually if the spell went haywire. Might as well give the puppy a chance to bark. “Go ahead.”

Celestia nodded, taking a few steps away from Sombra. Planting her hooves on the floor and tightening her core, she breathed out. She’d practiced this spell. She’d performed it before, and she could do it again.

She brought magic into her horn and dug into the darker parts of her heart. Slowly, she felt something like a spoon scooping out a small piece of her soul. The piece of soul-energy shifted into her horn, her head feeling heavy.

Sombra was lifted into the air, enveloped in a full aura of yellow magic. He was surprised at what he saw, the sparks and magic undulating from her horn. This didn’t seem like simple levitation, but something more, something advanced. And, as he noted from the shadows leaking from her eyes, something dark. This might be interesting.

Multicoloured ribbons of magic swirled around Sombra, spinning faster and faster. Celestia allowed herself to smile—the spell was working! Of course, she’d tried it before, but not on a pony. She could only hope that the spell would work.

But what if it didn’t? The spell would just stop, right? Nothing would happen to Sombra. Although, the spell did come with some sort of warning that she hadn’t bothered to read. Celestia’s smile faded. What if Sombra was permanently damaged by this if it didn’t go well?

She tried to put that out of her mind as she funnelled more energy into the spell, but she realized the spell was beginning to wane. The ribbons became thinner, and the glow of Celestia’s horn grew dimmer. She gave another push of magic as hard as she could, but that wasn’t enough to rejuvenate the spell.

Then, with a pop, Celestia’s magic fizzled out and Sombra dropped to the ground. She felt her energy return to her body, the spoonful of soul rushing back in. She scanned Sombra for any damage. There was none, but he didn’t look any more powerful, either.

A smile crept across his face. “It didn’t work.”

Celestia paled. Well, she would’ve paled if her fur wasn’t already white. She ran a hoof through her hair and straightened out her brooch. “It almost did.”

“So what?” Sombra sighed and leaned on the table. “ ‘Almost’ doesn’t cut it, child. I’m not ‘almost’ a king. Wars aren’t ‘almost’ won. You had your chance, and you know what? You almost made it. But you didn’t. What a shame.” He turned to Luna. “Now, Luna, would you like to try a spell for me?”

“No!” Celestia said. “I can do it. I did it before.” She teleported Star swirl’s journal into her hooves, which she had hidden behind one of the tapestries in case of a situation just like this. She hadn’t gotten the spell quite right, and she needed a reference. Skimming through the pages, she searched for the section on the power spell.

Luna watched, having already memorized the page that Celestia was looking for. It was one of Star Swirl’s last spells. “I think I might know what went wrong,” Luna said.

“Shush!” Celestia said, frantically searching the book. “I just need a minute.”

But Sombra was much more interested in what Luna had to say than Celestia. He leaned forward on the table. “Please, tell me, what went wrong?”

Luna instinctively leaned back a little, and glanced more at Celestia than at Sombra. “Well, he makes a note that your emotions can affect some spells,” Luna said. “Like if you’re nervous, the spell might not work.”

“I see,” Sombra said, turning to Celestia. “So you were nervous, then. Were you lying when you said you have performed the spell before?”

Celestia snorted. “I wasn’t lying, I did the spell on a frog, can you both please shut up now?”

“A frog? Dear me,” Sombra said, grabbing the book from Celestia and flipping through it. Celestia tried to pull it back in her magic, but Sombra held fast. Frightened that she’d break it, she teleported it to her bedroom, staring at Sombra.

Sombra glared back, then turned to Luna. “What else did it say?”

Luna swallowed. “It said that dark feelings can poison the spell.” She turned to Celestia. “Please don’t cast it, Tia.”

Celestia whipped at Luna. “Shut up! You’re not casting the spell, I am!”

“That’s what’s I’m worried about,” Sombra said.

Luna leaned forward. “If you do the spell, I’ll tell Mom and Dad.”

“Mom and Dad are gone!”

Luna stared at Celestia, brows furrowed. She didn’t believe her sister at first. Sometimes Celestia’d lie to her parents to make herself look better, or to blame her sister for something, but this was a stretch for her. What did she mean by “gone”, anyway? She couldn’t mean… dead gone, right? Luna gulped. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“I went to their house yesterday. They’re gone,” Celestia said. “They vanished. I don’t know where they are, but they’re not here. They just left without even saying goodbye. We’re on our own.”

“What? But… Where did they go? What happened to them?” Luna watched her sister, looking for some sign of sympathy. Celestia couldn’t be taking this as well as she seemed to. This frightened the daylights out of Luna—why wasn’t it frightening Celestia?

Celestia had no time to console Luna; she’d already had all night and all day to process this. “It doesn’t matter. I’m in charge now.” She set the journal down, readying the spell in her horn. “I’m perfectly capable of ruling a kingdom.”

Now was the time for Sombra to put his hoof down; Celestia simply wasn’t ready. He sent a cancelling spell to her horn, but the darkness in her magic deflected it. Then, he infused darkness into the cancellation spell to counteract her dark magic, but by that time, he already found himself lifted into the air, enveloped in her magic and unable to use his horn.

Celestia once again felt a spoon scooping out a piece of her soul, except this time the spoon felt hot and quick. This drove jitters through her body, and she felt afraid because of it, but this fear only seemed to further drive the magic.

Her yellow magical aura became stained with black and dark red streaks. Wind rushed about the room, blowing out most of the candles on the chandelier, and the hall became steeped in shadow. Luna backed away from the ordeal, the wind chilling her skin, giving her all sorts of bad feelings about this.

The magic coming out of Celestia didn’t feel natural. This was something outside of herself, something evil and malicious. However, the spell was already in motion. Celestia’s heart dropped as she saw the fear in Sombra’s face match hers.

The ground rumbled as smoke gushed into Sombra’s mouth and eyes. He kicked about in the air, suspended by Celestia’s magic, and tried to fan the smoke away with his hooves. “Stop!” he cried, fixated on Celestia. “Stop!”

“I’m trying!” Celestia said, and in truth she was, mostly because her lover had told her to. She tried to cut the magic off on her horn, to reel it back in, but the magic kept flowing. She couldn’t make it stop.

The Earth opened up, tiles breaking apart as a fissure formed directly underneath Sombra. Losing all composure, he screamed as he kicked harder, sinking down into the crack. However, as he kicked, his hooves felt lighter. He brought one up to his eyes, watching it melt, eventually dissolving into smoke. In that moment, his only method of coping with this development was to scream louder.

“Sombra!” Celestia wailed.

She watched in horror as magic streaming from her own horn sent her disintegrating lover deeper into the abyss. He descended, his body dissolving in shadow, his face growing darker as he went further out of reach of the light above. The fissure shortened, closing in over a screaming Sombra, until he disappeared in the black void.

Then, the earth closed back up and silenced the room. The tiles formed back as they were, without a single crack, as if nothing had happened. The room became bright once again as the chandelier lit up, filling the Royal Dining Hall with cheery light.

Celestia stared at the ground, just about ready to break down and either sob, roar, down a bottle of wine, or eat two dozen more slices of cake. Either way, the breaking-down part was guaranteed.

Luna froze, thinking about what was about to happen. Celestia was going to get really mad, the maddest she’d probably ever been. Then, Celestia was going to somehow blame her, and would probably ground her for much more than three months. And with no parents to hold her back, well…

Luna could run, since she was halfway to the door right now, but that might make Celestia madder. She could teleport, but she hadn’t practiced that spell yet. Maybe, if she didn’t say anything, if she didn’t move, perhaps Celestia would take the time to calm down. Count to ten and all that.

Celestia did try counting to ten, but she didn’t get past two. She turned to her sister, eyes wild and nostrils flaring, and roared, “You little brat!”

Luna broke into a run, but before she could escape, Celestia hoisted Luna in her magical grasp and slung her out an open window.

Celestia didn’t think much of her heaving breath, her boiling blood, nor her oncoming stomach-ache from eating her cake a little too fast. Only that the spell had ruined her life and it was Luna’s fault. All she had wanted was Luna out of the room, preferably her life too, and she felt she had succeeded.

To her, it wasn’t really all that difficult of a throw. And really, she hadn’t meant to catapult her like she did; she merely meant to toss her out of the room. Quite frankly, if Luna wasn’t guilty in some way, she wouldn’t have run away in the first place, so it’s not like she didn’t deserve it anyway.

However, considering her levitation was powerful enough to propel a massive heavenly body, it shouldn’t have surprised her that she had thrown her sister with enough speed to exceed the Earth’s escape velocity. Yet it did surprise her, and at the same time it didn’t.

She approached the window, slowly, hoping that she had miscalculated her own strength. Perhaps levitation speed was constant, and Luna had only been thrown a hundred feet or so. Perhaps the air resistance had been enough to slow her speed, and she had come to land on a cloud or in a bush somewhere out in her forest. Perhaps she had the mind to use those wings of hers and stabilize her flight.

But no. Up in the sky was a distinct black dot. It was distinct because the moon illuminated it directly from behind, and the dot was getting smaller. Celestia watched the dot disappear, but kept staring, asserting she had probably imagined the dot, but she knew that wasn’t the case.

…What had she done?

“I don’t believe it either.”

Celestia jumped at the voice. Discord curled next to her, staring up at the moon just like she was. Celestia felt her face grow hot as she found another reason to be mad. “I told you not to come here!”

“You told me not to interfere. You never said I couldn’t watch.” Discord stroked his beard, gazing up at the night sky. “So you sent your sister… to the moon? Bwahahaha!” Discord rolled onto the ground, laughing as his hands wrapped around his sides. “That’s priceless! What a riot!”

Celestia found it hard to swallow, as her throat suddenly dried up. “You saw?”

“Oh, you know I saw the whole thing. I was sitting up in the Royal Rafters, snacking on some Royal Popcorn, watching the Royal Drama.” He made a small golden statue of a pony appear, and handed it to Celestia. “An absolutely wonderful experience. Oh, I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Five stars. Terrific special effects.”

Celestia looked up at Discord, his face bearing a smug grin. “This is not a joke!” she said, throwing down the trophy.

“Oh, it’s no joke,” Discord said, his grin immediately vanishing. “I had a soft spot for Luna, and you’re going to get your comeuppance, parents or no.” He crossed his arms, his tone darkening as he brought his face two inches away from Celestia’s. “Perhaps I’ll send you hurtling towards the sun. Wouldn’t you like that?”

Cowering under his fierce gaze, Celestia tried to back away. “Uh,” she said, shivering. “N-n-no. Please no.”

“We’ll discuss it later,” he said. Then, his tone reverted to cheerful again. “But in the meantime, boy, do I love the chaos you’ve created!” He leapt into the air, fireworks exploding around him. “Not only have you sealed your dreamboat boyfriend in the Earth forever, but you hurled your own sister at the moon? What a night!”

Discord’s commotion was becoming loud enough to alert the rest of the castle staff, or even the village. “Shh,” Celestia said. “It was an accident!”

“Oh, but a glorious accident, at that!” Discord mused. “Luna on the moon-ah! A true mare in the moon!” Out of nothing, he willed into existence a bard’s costume, complete with a lute and a hat with a big, poofy feather. “Songs will be sung! Tales will be told of the selfish, short-sighted Princess Celestia who sent her innocent little sister to the moon.”

“Stop, please.” Celestia could feel her heart tighten. If Discord really did what he was threatening to do, her life of royalty and decrees and fine wine would be over. “Please don’t tell anypony about this.”

“Oh, believe you me, I will.” He shook his head in disappointment as he tuned the lute. “What you did to Luna has proven that you are simply too young to rule. You have lessons yet to learn, my child. Someone’s gotta do Mommy and Daddy’s job now that they’re gone.” Finished tuning the lute, he strummed a few chords. “Now, on with the show! They’ll call this little ditty ‘The Ballad of Celestia, the Irresponsible, Spoiled, Wicked Little Child’.”

Celestia could feel tears forming, her face twisting in hurt and surprise, then fear, then anger. She would not stand to be belittled by Discord. With her telekinesis, she grabbed the journal from across the room and whisked it to her hooves. She flipped through the pages until she found the section she had first read out of. If the spell that could turn Sombra to smoke was in this chapter, perhaps there was a freezing one, too.

Discord straightened up and assumed his singing pose, plucking away on the lute. “Oh, poor young Princess Lun-a, banished to the bright white moon-ah, gone away oh so soon-ah, with no warning and no reason why.” He danced around the room, twirling his long, snake-like body. “Sent there by her sister Celest-ia, heart cold as a stone in her chest-ia. Minimal sadness expressed-ia, for a sister she’d rather let die.”

Celestia found the passage on freezing. She skimmed over the instructions and prepared it quietly, taking in a cool whiff of air through her nose.

“And that’s just the chorus—wait till you hear the verses, too!” He tossed the lute away, which exploded when it hit the wall, and he jumped onto a decorative pillar. “Oh Celestia, stone heart colder than an arctic tundra, who would much rather suck face with her lover Sombra—”

Celestia cast the spell. It shot a beam straight into Discord’s heart, and he flashed as bright as the sun. Celestia squeezed her eyes shut, covering her face with a hoof. When it was no longer too bright to see, she looked.

There Discord stood atop that pedestal, frozen in place. In wonder, Celestia approached the statue and touched it, just to make sure it wasn’t another one of Discord’s pranks. But no, it was real. His bard costume had disappeared, and he was entirely encased in stone.

Huh, stone, not ice. She may have to edit that passage in the journal, but later.

She stared at him for a minute, wondering what to do with him now. No tapestry was big enough to cover him with. Glancing out the open window, she levitated Discord outdoors, hiding him under a tree just outside. She’d deal with him tomorrow. With her magic, she closed the glass doors of the window and flipped the latch shut.

She took a look around the empty room, still lit up bright as ever. It was emptier than ever, too, though it didn’t feel that way at all. The air she breathed felt stuffy. It wasn’t just the candles; it was her thoughts, moving as fast as the room was still.

This was real. She had thrown her sister to the moon, and she had no idea how she would get her back from here. Also, she would have to look up a spell on de-stonification for when she might have to free Discord.

Then again, what were the consequences of leaving them be? There was nopony around to punish her anymore. No parents, no Discord. She was in charge. She had that power, and though she wasn’t the brightest of candles, even she knew that she didn’t have to punish herself.

The chink of metal resounded in the hall. Celestia whipped her head around, and saw the two guards standing by the door. She surveyed the room, noting that they were the only ponies in the room with her.

Celestia stared at the guards. They had witnessed everything that had happened. She feared that they would run out and tell the rest of the staff, or worse: the village. She couldn’t have witnesses. Celestia took a step towards the guards.

Perhaps no one had authority above her, but that wouldn’t stop ponies from trying to reprimand her if they knew. Rumor might spread that the princess of the land was out of control, turning creatures to stone, tossing sisters to the moon. Panicked mobs would rush in with their torches and pitchforks, outing her as the ruler of the land, trampling all over the Royal Rugs with their dirty, indelicate hooves.

Celestia stopped walking towards the guards. Perhaps these guards could be persuaded to believe that nothing took place this night. She had money, probably. What else could she offer? Well, a promotion. Stallions surely liked having prominent roles. Perhaps the positions of Royal Bodyguards would be incentive enough.

Or perhaps there were no guards in those suits of armour. Celestia smiled to herself as she trotted. Maybe there was nothing worth worrying about in the first place, that these were just statues, here as a decoration or a symbol of presence or something.

Celestia lifted the visor of one guard. Wide blue eyes stared back at her, the suit of armor rattling as the guard shook. Nope, there was definitely somepony in there.

Celestia looked to the other guard, throwing open the visor, and seeing yet another scared pair of eyes. These two didn’t look like they could be persuaded. Oh well.

Picking both of them up in her magic, Celestia trotted over to the window, reopened it, and flung the guards at the moon. Witnesses had to be dealt with one way or another.

Once the guards were taken care of, Celestia walked around the room, just to make sure nopony else had seen what had happened. She checked under the table, behind the tapestries, under the plates… everywhere.

When she had finished conducting her seventh once-over, she stood in the hallway, looking at the long, splendid dining room table. The dishes were all still there, yet to be cleaned up by the guards, though they were on the moon by now. Celestia yawned. Somepony would take care of them tomorrow, certainly. The plates, not the guards.

She walked out of the room, through the hallways, up a set of stairs, and into the Royal Bed Chamber. After brushing her teeth for half an hour, she walked over to the Royal Bed and stumbled into it, alternating between sobbing herself to sleep and waking up crying from vivid nightmares.

Author's Note:

Thanks to NotSoSubtle for prereading.

Comments

[Kage no Brony]

Horee sheet.

Celly be metal all up in this business.

[Pickleless]

Celestia ruined everything: the fanfic.