//------------------------------//
// chapter 20 
// Story: vengeance at nightfall 
// by NightSugar pone 
//------------------------------//

the royal sisters 


Nightshade got up early the next day, and carefully slipped out of bed, going through her morning routine before leaving and heading to Celestia’s room. When she got to her door; decorated with images of the sun and it's orange rays of light and the bright beauty of the sun itself. She knocked on the door and waited for her aunt to allow her to enter, 

“come in!”
Celestia called from beyond the door, and by the sound of it, it seemed that she was a fair distance away from it. Nightshade hesitantly stepped into the room and looked around the room before her eyes landed on Celestia laying on a rug near the fireplace, reading scrolls. 

“auntie Tia? Can I ask you something? It's kind of a weird question but um…can changelings become Alicorns?”
Celestia lifted her gaze as she said this and sat up, 

“is this about your changeling friend?”
She said in a calm yet dominant voice, and Nightshade almost wanted to consider giving up on the idea. 

“yes, and he is more than just a friend to me, he's my colt friend,”
She said as she tried to sound more confident in the title, Celestia set down her scroll and quill and looked directly at her, 

“Nightshade, you really can't do this to yourself, the loss alone might kill you emotionally. But the pain of living without him-,”

“I know the risk and I know how to get over a death, I'm no stranger to sorrow and loss, I just want to know if that is possible.”
Celestia was surprised from being cut off but stood up and walked over to her. 

“I know you want this but I just don't know if that will be the best choice, for him and you, but I understand how much you've put into this and your love for him is true,”
Celestia stood in front of her and Nightshade forced herself to look taller, 
“but I don't think that he will need to ascend to live long, when love is abundant enough a changeling can survive for a long time, almost as long as us. The only downside is that after a while of the same amount of love being given from one host for so long, separation may mean death as well as a lack of love.”
Nightshade's eyes lit up and almost as soon as they did the fire died, 

“he can die if I'm not there?”
Celestia nodded before extending a wing to her

“but that's for a normal pony, I can't be sure what your love will do for him after that amount of time has passed, he may not even need love every day after that long.”
Nightshade smiled and jumped up to hug Celestia. 

“thank you, thank you, thank you auntie Tia, I'll never forget this,”
And with that she happily flew back to her room, and practically pounced on Metamorph, waking him up immediately. Back in Celestia’s room, Celestia had a warm smile on her face and shook her head playfully as she walked back over to her rug. Just as she got comfortable Luna walked into her room, and trotted up to her sister, 

“was that Nightshade I just heard?”
Celestia looked up at her and giggled softly, 

“it would appear that your daughter is in love with her changeling ally, she wanted to know if changelings could ascend like Twilight and Cadence did.”
She quickly wrote down a couple things, and luna took a few steps closer, 

“and what did you tell her?” 
Luna looked to her sister with deep concern and Celestia put the scroll away, focusing on her sister. 

“I told her the truth; they can't ascend but they can live a long life with enough love to fuel them,”
Luna sighed with relief and sat down in front of her. 

“I thought it would have been something terrible,”
A few minutes after she said that Celestia began to pout, but before she could say or do anything a frantic guard ran into the doorway, almost completely falling off her hooves as she struggled to stop herself. 

“your  highness, the yak delicates came back to ponyville and a huge fight is going on between them and the griffins about superiority! Ponies are injured and 3 are dead.”
They both looked at each other before getting up quickly

“mobilize our secondary fleet of guards and inform my daughters, we're going to need a little more help with this,”
Luna got up quickly and turned to properly face as she said this, 
“let them know the casualties and make sure they know what's at stake, if we don't stop this we might have a war on our hooves.”