Rarity had made her way to the window looking out over the dark moonlit view of Sweet Apple Acers. From Applejack's window she could see trees going on for what felt like an eternity. Her heartbeat galloped at the sight. It wasn't just the sight, but the smell of Applejack's sweat, and the musky scent of their earlier physical labor hung in the room making her head a little dizzy with the mixtures of what should be disgusting vile aromas but only made her feel more heated than she should be.

Glancing over at the bed, Applejack was still asleep and looking as peaceful and beautiful as an angel. Those freckles, and that relaxed expression. It was a simple charming beauty that Rarity could never get enough of. If only she looked as beautiful without makeup on as Applejack did, oh but she could dream. Looking back out to the window she placed a hoof against the cool glass and wondered what Luna was doing at the moment. She was a creature of the night after all, and she'd been spending far too much time in the day. Surely she must be sleeping somewhere, though, considering how quiet Big Mac's room was, it was not in there.

Still she got to enjoy the quiet of the Sweet Apple Acers, the kind of quiet and serenity only found on nights such as these. A slight pinching sensation in her bladder her told her that she woke up for more reasons than to just enjoy the silence of the night. She quickly trotted to the door, opened it up and left closing it behind her. It was dark in here at night but she could make out where the bathroom door was without having to use any magic light up the environment. She made her way to the bathroom, trotted inside and shut the door behind herself. The moonlight filtered through the window here on the second floor of the apple farm so she could see well enough to make out the toilet.

Rarity walked to the toilet, took a seat on it and shivered. They were using those fluffy seat covers, and it was warm, meaning somepony had just been in here. The seat was also bit soft and lumpy. She wondered briefly if they'd mind her taking a late night shower to clean herself from the thought of touching somepony’s butt by secondary contact. Well she ignored it and let herself go.

A sharp female voice ring out. "Hey!"

Rarity froze. "H-hello?"

The voice replied once more. "What in the Moon's Frozen Prison do you think you’re doing?"

Rarity looked around. It was dark in here, but not so dark she'd miss somepony. The voice was coming from somewhere around her and she couldn't see where. "Oh no, it's true. The house really is haunted by the spirits of Applejack's parents. Please, don't hurt me. I promise I really do love your child."

The voice spoke again. "You are sitting right on me."

Rarity looked down and it was only then she noticed two things. One the toilet seat was in fact just the normal porcelain one with no nasty fuzzy seat covers to see. Two, she was currently hovering a foot above the toilet and her aim was more of a miracle than on purpose. "O-oh by the sun, I'm sitting on the ghost. Please don't possess me and make me dance like a weirdo at the dinner table while singing about bananas."

The female voice growled. "I... forgot that I can turn invisible if I hold really still in the dark."

The light flickered on and Rarity saw it as two dark blue legs materialize beneath her. She looked behind herself to see Luna sneering down at her. Rarity looked forward again, her business was thankfully completed so she hopped off of Luna's lap and onto the floor. "I see... What were you doing invisible in here?"

"The same thing you were."

"Ah, that explains why it smelled weird... um..." She trotted to the door. "Good night, Luna, let's speak of this never shall we."

Luna called after her. "Aren’t you going to at least wipe or wash your hooves."

Rarity shut the door behind her and made her way back to Applejack's bed. No, she'd rather not think about what just transpired. This was just a weird dream, yeah that's it, just a weird, disgusting horrible nightmare that she wanted to wake up from.

Celestia walked through the quiet halls of her castle in Canterlot, her mind going back to older days, and the many, many mistakes she'd made over the years. Nightmare Moon, Shadow Heart, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and even Trixie Lulamoon. It seemed like no matter what she did, she was cursed to have those close to her, those that she loved, to be consumed or corrupted by dark forces. Even if she could fix and save a few of them, there were losses that even her heart could not stand. Sunset Shimmer stood out among the most terrible and that accursed mirror that took her from Celestia was still locked up here in the castle. A thing of beauty and corruption, it stood there mocking her, as if to tell her that it stole away one of her own and would never, ever return her. Celestia swore that one day she would get Sunset back, and on that day she would destroy the mirror and it wouldn't matter how long, or how hard it would be to gain Sunset's love again, she'd do it.

After all, unlike Lulamoon, wasn't Sunset named after her?

"Note to self," Celestia spoke aloud to nopony in particular. "Don't name foals utterly stupid names when you sad."

Her peace was broken by the sound of something metal clattering to the floor nearby. Her senses flared and her wings spread wide as she prepared for battle. She didn't know who it would be, Sunset returned from the void, Trixie having lost her mind to the power of the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight having finally had enough of Celestia's crap, Discord making love to one of her servants again... okay the last one was not exactly a threat except for on a moral level, but by her own name that counted.

Celestia's horn lit up with golden light as she made her way toward the sound. It came from a nearby room. One of the many guest bedrooms which were largely left untouched a great majority of the time. Used almost entirely as an excuse for servants to clean something, and for a few less than appropriate behaviors. None of which she would admit to herself. She didn’t often partake in such activities, the last time being awhile ago with her student and Trixie herself. An occurrence that Shadow Heart pointed out might be a mistake, well she'd handle that if that ever turned out to be the case, for now she had a threat to deal with.

Celestia opened the door and let her golden light illuminate the insides of the room. After seeing what was in there, she realized she might have preferred it dark. Golden armor had been tossed to the floor, two pairs of it. The bed had a blanket on top of it which just barely covered the hips and flanks of two of her stallion guards who were looking at her with wide, horrified expressions. The way one of them was laying on top of the other, clearly indicated that they were already in the middle of an activity that she wished she could burn from her memory.

"Windstriker, Cloudkicker."

They both nodded. "Y-your highness."

She let out a sigh and grabbed the door handle. "You may proceed, just don't make such a loud noise next time. You startled me half to death." she closed the door and locked it for them before turning away and leaving that guest room and its current occupants far behind. She had better things to focus on than that at the moment.

To be fair, it was some twenty years ago she herself had a chance encounter with a handsome, and very flirty magician in one of these rooms. An encounter that was perhaps better left unspoken, hidden pleasures and tricks only worked if one did not look too hard for the secrets behind them.

Speaking of performances, Twilight was not bad with her performance. She was quite fun in fact. Inexperienced yes, but her willingness to learn was never forgotten. She briefly wondered if it would be in bad taste to go and bother her student, and fiancé for a quick one on one. Then again with how late it was, Trixie would surely be there, but then again, she wasn't bad either, perhaps a quick one on two would be more fun. In fact she knew quite a few magic tricks and for a magician, it seemed her skills were great both on and off the stage.

Celestia had to pause though. She did have other things to attend too and walking around fantasizing about being stuffed like an Oreo cookie by two unicorn mares was not one of those things. No she had a duty to perform before the night was over. She just had to find Shadow Heart.

She rounded the corridors, walking through the marbled floors, past paintings and tapestries depicting her greatest victories, friendships and allies, and checked room by room for her pupil. Eventually she found herself in one of the rooms commissioned not by her, nor her sister, but rather by the council of EUP. They demanded that her servants have a place they could have worship when most of them were going to be stuck here working day in and day out and living in the servant quarters.

She reluctantly allowed this.

Walking in she felt awkward as could be. Sure she acknowledged she was a god amongst ponies, and actively discouraged worship of her when she could, but ponies would be ponies. The chapel was long, filled with amazing and graceful images of her. With a mural on the back showing her and her sister working together to raise the sun. A new addition and one that she was at least more in favor of.

The hall ended with a raised platform and a pedestal where a thick golden covered book lay closed. She had peered in on these worshipers in the past, knowing that she needed to make sure that her own people were not too fanatical. They were not, in fact most were fairly casual with their worship, but it still felt awkward when she just wanted to be close to her citizens, but a thousand years of work still couldn't remove godhood from her veins. Nothing could do that.

This hall was empty save for one person, a figure wearing a dark gray robe with the hood drawn back. She could see him from here. Shadow Heart's gray fur, covered with the scars from the battle of Hoofington a constant reminder of another one of her failures, but of his ultimate and final sacrifice. She shook her head trying to clear herself of the thought, she needed to speak with him as she knew that the memory spells were coming undone and soon enough, it could cause more problems than was worth. Maybe he had a suggestion on what to do, mistakes aside, his council was still good.

She walked over to him, and he opened his eyes and looked at her before she got within five feet of him. "Princess Celestia, it's quite odd to see you here I must admit."

She nodded. "I agree. I don't feel entirely comfortable in a place that is dedicated to worshiping me or my sister as the 'goddesses'."

"You know the current statement on the religion is that you and your sister are avatars of the sun and moon goddesses respectively. Not that you two are the exact goddesses."

"Do you think most ponies that come here to worship make that distinction?"

He chuckled to himself and looked back to the mural of her and her sister. "Nope, not one bit. You have to admit though, you carry all the traits of a god."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Just because I am immortal, raise the sun, can revive dead ponies, and will shepherded their souls from this life to the next one as well as having the ability to make other alicorns does not mean I am a god."

"Oh, and what would make you an actual god if none of that is the proof we need?"

She paused for a moment. Then shrugged. "I guess I'd need to live in a castle made of sunlight sitting on top of the clouds or something."

He cleared his throat. "Your castle may not be made of actual sunlight, but Canterlot does sit above the lowest cloud layer."

"Fine, consider me a goddess, I don't care, why would I care?" she looked sharply up and away and gave out a huff of frustration.

"Alright, I will do just that. But I get the feeling that you didn't come here to argue religion with me."

She peered down at him. "No, I did not. I came for advice." She lowered her head a little to make herself seem more approachable. "I fear Trixie is recovering her lost memories. This could be dangerous for her."

He let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. "Celestia, I love and respect you, as much as any stallion could. I need to tell you though, what you did was wrong. I understand that they were on dark paths, but removing their memories was not the solution. You had to know that those kinds of spells don't last forever."

"I did, and I expected to be able to just fix things if they happened to begin to remember."

"But to do so now, you'd be caught for it. Even if nopony could really stop you, or even punish you for your actions, the mistrust that would build between you and Twilight if you tried it again would be so much as to threaten the safety of Equestria?"

She nodded. "Yes, I can't just erase her memory at this point because it would destroy the relationships I've built with these ponies."

"So, when you make a mistake and need to make up to your friends what do you do?"

She smiled. "I know the answer to this; I make a decree that I am correct, and then go eat cake until I forget the stabbing pain in my chest."

He let out a sigh. "Or you could just apologize?"

"That would be what mortals do, I am a princess." Seeing the unimpressed look in his eyes she added, "Or I could just apologize?"

"That sounds like a wise decision."

She let out a sigh and looked back at the mural. "You know a real god wouldn't screw up as often as I do."

"Perhaps not, but maybe that's just your path? To make mistakes is only natural, it’s how you make up for those mistakes that really sets us apart from the dark forces that would threaten to destroy all you have made."

She nodded. "I suspect you tell the truth… I could also just run away from my mistakes and just dump all of my mess on Twilight’s shoulders?"

“That… might lead to the entirety of Equestria falling apart. Probably shouldn’t do that.”

She laughed nervously. “I’m joking. It would take hundreds of years to train her correctly.” Time that she would have for certain but still…

"Oh, and that book I returned for you. Did you find a use for it?"

She let out a defeated sigh. "Well I had planned to give it to Twilight for her to study. I believe it would have some hope in turning her into an alicorn."

"And that's changed?"

"Trixie took one look at the book, told Twilight it was filled with dark magic and they both politely hoofed it back to me."

He chuckled. "Seems our little Trixie has once again shown she has some wisdom to her."

"More so than me?"

"Sometimes."

Celestia scoffed. "I have all the wisdom, all of it. I have more wisdom than I have cake. And I have a lot of cake."

They both shared a laugh at that statement. It was good to have him around again, his council was useful. She wasn't quite sure she could tell her sister about all the things she'd done. The dark decisions she'd made in order to keep the world safe. Yet she knew that one day it would all come out in the open and she would have no choice. It was getting close to time for her to make some hard decisions but after talking to Shadow Heart she suspected she had a better idea of how to make better decisions at the very least.