"Let him in." Celestia's muffled melodious voice sounded from beyond the door.
The two guards that had been arguing about whether or not to let him in were silent. Bones shot the one that had been against his entry an 'I told you so' look.
"Sorry Bones, like I said, he's new." The other guard apologized for his partner, and the two of them parted to let him in.
"Thank you." Bones said, and pushed open the door to Celestia's private chambers. He caught a few words of the guards conversation after they closed the door behind him.
"I told you, almost every other week."
"Forgive me for following procedure."
Bones thought that perhaps Celestia should invest in a thicker door for the place where she held her secret meetings. Not that she had many. Her room was surprisingly full of mostly dark colors, various shades of deep red and royal purple. There were a few selections of very comfortable looking furniture, but other than that it was surprisingly sparse. Bones spied a writing desk, and a bookcase in a corner. He wondered idly what kind of books Celestia might have tucked away there. Living as long as she had, he suspected they were of sentimental value.
"Welcome. Make yourself comfortable, anywhere is fine." Celestia was lounging on a particularly plush looking futon, made appropriately for her size. Her eyes tracked him and he made his way across the room and stood before her. When it appeared that he wasn't going to seat himself, she spoke again. "You prefer to stand?"
"For now, yes." Bones said, shifting his weight awkwardly. He was feeling slightly tense, and didn't think sitting still would help. Quite the opposite, he felt like pacing.
She smiled and shook her head a little. "Well, lets start from the beginning. Twilight gave me her perspective, but I'd like to hear the full version."
"From the beginning." Bones repeated "I suppose that would be the flower shop."
He began explaining everything that had happened on the day before last down to the smallest detail, as accurately as he could remember. Celestia stopped him when she had questions or needed clarifications or elaborations on anything, but otherwise the account was proceeding smoothly, and Bones had no trouble remembering most of the details. Due to Celestia's demands for absolute accuracy and detail, these debriefings tended to last a while, especially when she began asking exploratory questions about the inner workings of dark magic. Such questions usually led to more questions until just getting back on track was an endeavor in itself. Luckily Bones had already explained mind control to Celestia in a previous session, and she asked no questions about it. Not directly anyway. Instead she was particularly curious about the mental states of those controlled in this case, specifically Applejack; who had continued to call Sweetie Belle 'princess' even after she had requested for her not to. Celestia pressed Bones for his theories.
"Why would a mind controlled thrall disobey a direct order from its master? Especially one so easily followed." She queried.
Bones thought thought about that, and was perplexed for several seconds before coming up with a hypothesis. "I would think it might be because it is so trivial." He explained. "She was hardly in control of her own abilities as it was, she didn't even want to control anyone in the first place. It doesn't surprise me that her powers were unstable or unreliable. Or both." When he had finished, he felt that he should clarify. "Pure speculation of course. It isn't as if I have the opportunity to test this sort of thing."
Celestia quirked her brow questioningly.
Backpedaling time. "Not that I want to, of course." He gave her his most reassuring grimace.
"Of course." Celestia replied, her voice tinted with good humor. The small smile that graced her face was infectious.
Bones found himself finally relaxing. The room was warm and welcoming, and Celestia's presence had a calming effect on him as it always did. He sat himself down on a convenient pile of cushions. He found himself distinctly reminded of Luna at that moment, though he couldn't remember why.
The two of them traded a few more ideas before moving on, covering the conversation with Sweetie Belle and Bones's subsequent mistake.
"At least you stopped any of the needles from hitting the foal." Celestia pointed out, giving Bones a sympathetic look.
Between Scarlet's intervening body, clothing, and armor, Bones seriously doubted the chances of any needles getting through. He suspected the princess was just trying to make him feel better about the whole thing. He also was pretty sure that Sweetie Belle wasn't considered a foal anymore. Then again, from Celestia's point of view, Bones himself could be a foal. He wondered how she perceived time. He began playing with the idea and it was a short while before he noticed the alicorn staring at him, and figured he probably looked like he was daydreaming; which was somewhat accurate. He pulled himself back to reality.
"You are sure you are not injured?" Celestia pressed again, with only a hint of worry this time.
Bones still felt a twinge of guilt at the concern in her voice. "Not seriously. I'll be fine." He said, attempting to smile. He hated the idea of making her worry, Celestia had a way of making him feel things.
"If you're sure."
Bones continued on to tell her of Scarlet's flight and last stand, Twilight's appearance, and Bones's letter.
"Speaking of the letter. I have a question." He said, raising a hoof.
Celestia nodded to him. "Ask."
"In your reply, you said you had a solution, but as it turns out your solution was just to reveal everything to Twilight. So why did you tell me to not say any more to her?"
Celestia seemed to consider her words. "I wasn't sure exactly how much you had told her, your letter was not very specific."
Bones had just begun to form an excuse when she continued.
"Which I am sure was no fault of your own. You were no doubt in a hurry. I planned to assess how much she knew the following day, and to proceed accordingly. Since she seemed to have inferred a great deal already; and appeared to be coping with it rather well, I decided to reveal things to her. If I had thought that she couldn't handle the knowledge however-" Celestia stopped speaking, and gave Bones a tired smile. "Well, there is a reason I cannot wield the elements of harmony anymore."
It took Bones a few moments to fully comprehend the magnitude of what Celestia had just said. That was probably the most revealing thing about herself she had ever told him. The heavy implications it made about her past were definitely something to think about. He wondered what exactly she would have done if Twilight hadn't taken things so well. Obviously Celestia would never do anything to harm her protege, so he guessed she would have authorized Bones to wipe Twilight's memory. Then again, Celestia had shown an extreme dislike for the idea previously, so it was possible that she wouldn't take that option. What other choice was there there though? He supposed she could just lie to her and explain everything away, but that just seemed out of character. At least Bones thought it was out of character, how well did he really know Celestia? Especially in light of what she had just said.
"So how are things with Twilight?" She inquired, interrupting Bones's thoughts.
"Uh" Bones sputtered stupidly, scrambling for his mental bearings for the second time in the past couple minutes. "After the initial shock, she seems to be taking things rather well. Scarlet has been teaching her how to perform shield charms, she had just managed her first one before I left."
"Good that she is learning. Are you all getting along?"
"Yes, actually. Twilight and Scarlet seem to be getting along much better than I expected." Bones was glad to give her some good news.
She seemed genuinely pleased to hear it, and a full smile graced her face for a moment before it faltered. "And what about you?"
"Me and Twilight? Or Scarlet?" he asked, gesturing to himself.
Celestia gave a slight nod, perhaps out of reflex. "Both."
Bones considered the events of the past few days. "Aside from offending her with my occasional poor choice of words, Twilight and I seem to get along pretty well; but I don't think she had made her mind up about me yet. As for Scarlet, she didn't appreciate it when I left her to take care of the entire towns memories. She's been getting back at me for it, but its harmless aside from being a little annoying."
There was an expectant pause before Celestia spoke again. "Is that all?"
He did a little recap of events in his mind, trying to remember something he had missed. When he found nothing he replied "I think so. I can't think of anything else."
Celestia looked thoughtful, and her attention wandered to a place a few feet above Bones's head.
He began to wonder about what was on her mind. What does an immortal think about anyway? He had always figured that they saw the larger picture of things, and planned in long term, but he could never know for sure. It didn't feel right to ask. When the silence began to drag on, he attempted to get the princess's attention "Should I continue with the debriefing?"
Celestia returned her gaze to him, as if just remembering he was there. "Did anything significant happen after our exchange of letters?"
Bones considered that, and shook his head. "No, not really. We went to sleep shortly after that."
The princess nodded, and her sight shifted from him again, but only for a few moments. When she refocused on him, their eyes met, her brightly colored irises bore into him. Bones felt like she was looking into his soul, and for all he knew, she was.
"Luna's sky was especially beautiful on that night, was it not?" Celestia said, her voice calm, neutral.
Bones was abruptly vividly aware of Scarlet's body nestled against him, and of the crisp night air that flowed thought his mane as the two of them gazed up at the countless lights that lit the darkened sky. As quickly as the sensation began, it stopped, and he was still sitting in the princess's bedchamber. What in Equestria was that? Did Celestia do that? How? Why?
"Yes, yes it was." Celestia answered her own question. She slowly stood to her full, impressive height, regarding the door to her balcony with intent. "If there is nothing else, we can conclude this meeting."
Bones got to his hooves as well, deciding that if Celestia intended to tell him what had just happened; she would have. He could figure out what had happened later. Right now he had to be the bringer of bad news. "Actually yes, there is one thing."
She paused and turned to look at him once more. She waited, expectantly.
Bones sighed and averted his eyes, steeling himself what whatever might come next. He had made up his mind, Celestia needed to know. It was his job to tell her about black magic and its practitioners, even if it was her own sister. He opened his mouth to speak.
"Sister?" a new voice called from the direction of the door.
Bones froze, nearly shuddering as recognition flowed through him. He never really considered the possibility of recognition being a negative emotion. Perhaps it was just the accompanying dread.
"Luna?" Celestia's brow rose in surprise. "What do you need?"
That meant Celestia wasn't expecting her. Which only made Bones's suspicions as to why she was here worse.
"Would you mind if I borrowed Bones for a moment?" She sounded polite, and purposeful. It gave the impression that her request was of importance, but far from a demand.
"Of course." Celestia said, though Bones could tell she was curious as to exactly why Luna required the assistance of one of her advisers, especially this one in particular. Apparently not curious enough to ask though. "We were nearly finished here anyway." She gave her attention to Bones once again. "You wanted one last thing?"
Bones's mind raced. It was his duty to report to Celestia about any unauthorized dark magic, but Luna was right here, in the same room. She would hear everything. On top of that, he thought knew exactly why she was here, and also that she knew that he knew exactly why she was here. She didn't want him to tell Celestia about her mind games, and doing so right in front of her would be a blatant challenge against her. Concealing the truth from one of the princesses of Equestria did not sit well with him at all, but neither did did going against the direct wishes of one. Thinking on his hooves was not his strong suit, but he had to make a choice, fast.
"Do you still have those notes on necromancy I gave you a while back?"
Authors note: Sorry that took so long. What do you all think of me perhaps making the Second Chance chapter a prologue? It would certainly be a better hook, but it might set a false tone for the story since nothing that dark has happened since.