//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: The Escape // by Jimbo //------------------------------// The trip back to the castle was uneventful; once the first guard (Storm’s Eye) returned with a two-pony cart for Joe, the other members of the search party started to slowly join them as well, appearing in near silence as they flew through the night sky. If their numbers were any indicator, her sister had sent a significant portion of the Royal Guard out to find her. A wise decision, she thought bitterly, if the Nightmare was going to return. They flew in silence, but Luna could feel their eyes on her, despite how they tried to hide it. These guards were no mere protective cavalcade; protective, yes, but not of her. They reached the castle just as dawn was breaking, spreading its comforting warmth over the sleeping inhabitants of Canterlot. But to Luna, it was a warning, a promise of her sister’s omnipresence spreading over the land. A promise of danger - and she was flying right into the center of it all. “Luna!” There were no other servants up this early; no guards, either, which meant Celestia must have sent out her own protective cadre to find her. She was alone in the throne room, and the similarity to the night that Luna had fled was distressingly similar. “Hello, Celestia.” Luna murmured, her own quiet tone in stark contrast to her sister’s surprised, overjoyed cry. “Luna, I was so worried - where have you been? Why didn’t you come home? Oh Luna, your leg!” Celestia’s eyes shifted, slightly, to watch the guard ponies draw back - while Joe remained. “I was going to exile myself. It seemed the only fair thing to do, when presented with an impossible choice.” Luna said carefully, trying to keep her voice even. “Impossible - ? Luna, you know that’s not true. I would never purposefully -” “Truly, sister? You were - are - planning to marry me off to some stuffed shirt - like Blueblood!” Luna accused, ears flattening against her mane as her voice rose. “Blueblood? Sister, surely you cannot believe me to be so heartless.” Celestia gasped, a brief expression of revulsion passing over her face. “I would never marry you off to someone like - him.” “But you would marry me off to some other stranger?” Luna snapped, taking a sharp, decisive step forward. “Only to do what was best for you! Luna, please, we can discuss this later - you’re getting upset, it’s been a long night, everything will seem better in the eve-” “No! We will discuss this now!” Luna barked, her voice rising to a shout. The response in the room was instantaneous; she could have heard a pin drop. “Luna, you know that it’s not good to get upset. Why don’t we have a nice, calming cup of tea-” Celestia began, her voice carefully calm, soft and imploring. “No! I will get upset, because sometimes, there are things worth getting angry about!” Luna snapped, her eyes locked on her sister, her heart beating like a caged bird. “I’m angry that you never take my concerns seriously! It happened with this marriage, and it happened back then!” “Luna - please -” “I’m angry that you keep telling me to calm down when I’m upset! It doesn’t make things better, it just makes me angrier! Trying to keep me from being angry won’t ‘fix’ the Nightmare!” Luna shouted, her voice now ringing through the hall. The hall fell to complete silence, and Celestia let it hang between them for a few moments before she ventured again. “Luna, that’s not what I think.” “Celestia, won’t you just listen?” Luna pled with her, her voice softening. “I’m madder than I’ve ever been, and the Nightmare hasn’t come out. It didn’t come out the whole time I was gone, even when I got so angry I could’ve - could’ve done some quite unprincess-like things.” Celestia frowned at her - the first honest frown Luna had seen in she couldn’t remember how long - and gave a small, begrudging nod. “I’m listening.” “You treat me like a porcelain doll, like you have to decide my every action for me, to prevent me from getting upset. But a pony can’t live like that, there has to be some frustration in their life!” Luna hissed, and when she gestured to Joe, she did it so sharply that he flinched. “I’ve had more frustration than I can recall on this trip - and it was the most important thing I’ve done in ages. I achieved something, and it was under my own power. Everything we did, I helped to earn. It wasn’t given to me, and that’s what made it worthwhile. Without frustration - there is no gain.” Celestia nodded as she listened, her frown softening, although her brows remained crinkled. “Very well, sister. You make a valid point. May I speak now?” Luna colored, but nodded, returning her leg to the floor. It was difficult to hold oneself up on two legs, after all. “Thank you. You make a valid point - and I had not intended to, ah, cage you, as you believe. Sister, you know I love you - I’ve loved you for as long as I’ve known you.” Celestia said softly, her voice soothing and sincere, and for a moment, Luna almost believed her. “But then - why would you doom me to a life with a stallion I despised? Take me away from the moon I love?” She replied, and instead of sounding cool and controlled, she sounded sharp and distraught. Mare’s teeth! “I never intended to do those things - I only wanted to make you happy.” Celestia murmured, her expression falling. “You have been so - this isn’t something we should discuss, with others here.” she said suddenly, her expression tightening as she looked around the room, as if remembering the guards and Joe were still there. “Joe can hear whatever you have to say to me.” Luna said with a little huff, her hooves positively tingling with anticipation. “Very well.” Celestia frowned, and loosed a soft sigh, as if steeling herself to say what was coming next. “I won’t dance around it, as I have up until now: you haven’t been yourself, Luna, not since you came back from the moon.” “A thousand years in solitary confinement changes a pony.” Luna murmured, her voice dark, her gaze challenging Celestia’s. “I know. But you also know I did what I had to do - to save our world. I would never have done it if it hasn’t been the only option left to me.” Celestia said, and to Joe’s ears, it sounded as if she was pleading with her sister to understand. “I do.” Luna murmured, and this time, her eyes found the floor. “It wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was something I had to - and I thought it might kill me.” Celestia admitted softly, her eyes finding the floor as well. “I missed you so much, Luna.” “I know. You told me.” Luna murmured, her voice petulant. “I never told you how much. How it felt like I was alone in the world, how it felt like I had lost my only friend, like half of my heart was missing. Luna, I never told you because I didn’t want to burden you with that guilt, and risk sending you into another - spiral, and bring back the Nightmare.” Celestia insisted, her eyes locked on Luna’s, waiting until she looked up at her to continue. “I never want to lose you again, not ever. I would give anything to keep that from happening. That’s why I’ve been so careful with you. I never wanted you to go away again, and I thought - if you didn’t feel those feelings, then it meant you would be happy, and I could make things up to you.” She paused, and added, in a softer voice, “I thought I could make up those thousand years to you, by making the next thousand the happiest you ever had.” “By forcing me into a marriage I didn’t want?” Luna snapped, ears flattening, struggling to be angry at her, even when she looked so guilty, so very sorry for what she had done. It made Celestia seem almost … mortal. “Luna …” And she spared a brief look to the guards, and Joe; when Luna frowned at her, she continued on. “You have no friends. You have no stallion companionship. I knew, with the lingering fear of the Nightmare - even if she was completely under control - you might never find a stallion willing to take the risk of falling in love with you. You might never know that happiness.” Luna’s face burned, and she purposefully avoided looking at Joe; if she did, she felt as if her whole body might catch aflame. “So? It was never a problem for you.” “I have friends, students, many servants and other companions who have become close to me in the time that you were gone - you have none of that. And I thought, you cannot arrange friendships, but sometimes, in arranging a marriage, friendship … happens.” Celestia finished, lifting her shoulders very slightly. “I have seen many arranged marriages, in the brief mortal lives of the Royal Court; many, many of them have become extremely happy couplings. And I thought, that if your husband became your best friend, that you wouldn’t need any other companionship.” And here, Celestia smiled, a brief moment of happiness spreading over her features. “Cadence is so overjoyed when she is with Shining Armor. I realized you might never know that joy, and ... it seemed unfair. For someone who was deprived of so much, who had suffered so greatly, to be deprived even further. I wanted to spare you that unhappiness.” “You couldn’t have asked me? Couldn’t have - helped me, instead of deciding for me? What if the man you thought I would like, wasn’t right? What if there was someone else I would have liked more?” Luna pressed, her words sharp and accusatory. “But, sister,” And here, Celestia looked genuinely baffled, and Luna knew it was no act. “You seem to have become very close with him, without any help from me.” Her heart, which until now had been beating like a wild animal in a cage, suddenly seemed to freeze as her blood curdled. “Become …” Slowly, unable to move any faster than a crawl, she turned her head to face Joe. Joe couldn’t meet Luna’s gaze. “You knew.” “Luna -” “You knew, and you didn’t tell me?” Luna snapped, cutting off Celestia’s soft, apologetic words. “All of this time, through all of those trials, all of that - you knew, you knew the whole bucking time, and you didn’t say anything.” “Luna!” Celestia gasped, positively shocked by her language. “You knew!” Luna cried out, and to her embarrassment, she could hear tears entering her voice, beginning to drip from her lashes onto her cheeks. “You bucking knew, and you played me for a fool. Mare above, it must have been so funny, watching me trying to escape my fate - was it amusing?” “Luna.” Celestia said it softer this time, trying to stop her crying tirade, but Luna would have none of it. “Was it?” Luna demanded, her voice rising into a sobbing shriek. “Was it?” “I did it because I knew no one else would help you.” Luna paused in her sobbing, just for a moment, because she wasn’t prepared for the soft, guilty words. His heavy brows were lowered over his eyes, but it was hard to see, because he kept staring at the floor. Despite her words, he looked about as far from amused as someone could get. “I didn’t want you to go alone.” Joe murmured, his harshly accented voice softer than usual, low and heavy as he spoke to the floor. “I didn’t … want you ta get hurt.” Luna tried to make a sharp, derisive noise, but it came out as a sob, and it just made her more frustrated. Even her own voice betrayed her, it would seem. “So I could come home safe and marry you?” “I’m not marrying you.” Joe said this part sharply, and he lifted his head on his massive shoulders to frown at her - and Celestia. “I’m not marrying her. I knew that the first time she - the first time I laid eyes on you.” he said the last part a bit softer, slowly bringing his eyes back to Luna’s face. “I didn’t want to marry you, not if you would go to such lengths to avoid marrying me.” “Why would Celestia pick - you?” Luna asked, and although she tried to make it sound curious, it came out sharper, more derisive. “You aren’t a member of the Royal Court. You - you work in a donut shop.” “He is a duke, from a family whose title has been passed down for many generations. It is a lesser title, but he is technically royal, which makes him eligible for your hoof.” Celestia explained softly. “The proof of the bloodline sometimes shows through in failed alicornism - extra bones in the shoulders that have to be removed at a young age. I thought … he would suit you.” “Suit me.” Luna snorted, far more wetly than she would have liked, sardonic and harsh. “Didn’t happen to mention that, when I w-was in your shop.” “I knew if I said m’name was Joseph Ciambella di Impastare, you’d probably figure it out.” Joe mumbled, his ears falling back at her harsh tone. “I love makin’ donuts. Mom and Dad didn’t approve, but … not exactly the same as running away from the Royal Court, I guess.” “I thought you were my friend.” Luna snapped, her voice harsh, wounded. “I am your friend.” Joe murmured, and took a small, hesitant step towards her. When she didn’t rebuff him, he took another step closer, and just stared down at her, his expression sad. “I am angry at you.” Luna hissed, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I know. I’m kinda angry at me, too.” he whispered, and moved a little closer, until he could press his forehead against hers, his larger, bulkier face lining up against her slim, elegant one. “‘m sorry, Loo.” The gentleness of the motion only made her cry harder, and she didn’t protest when he shifted his body around hers, moving forward to wrap his neck around hers, resting his chin on her shoulder, letting her hide her face in his thick neck. “I thought I was doin’ the right thing.” he murmured, giving her coat a little nuzzle as the guards looked on in mixtures of surprise and uncertainty. “Didn’t mean ta make ya cry.” “I am sorry as well, sister.” Celestia murmured, long, elegant legs carrying her to her sister’s side, so that she could drape her neck over her as well. “I was only doing what I thought was best. But I see now that I was not being fair to you. I hope you can forgive me.” she said sadly, nuzzling her crying sister’s mane. “I’m mad. And I’m hurt.” Luna sobbed, pressing her face into Joe’s neck. It was strange, being so forthcoming about her feelings - and yet, liberating. There was no obfuscation, or avoidance; it came out so freely, so organically. Gradually, the tears stopped, and when she lifted her face from Joe’s neck, her face was dry. “But - I won’t be forever. And ... I know you were only trying to help. So maybe - this time, you can just let me do things on my own? And if I fail - then it will be my fault. And I can learn how to do things differently the next time.” “That sounds like a wise plan to me, little sister.” Celestia smiled, and lowered her neck once more, wrapping Luna and Joe up in her wings. “A very wise plan, indeed.”