//------------------------------// // The Best-laid Plans of Mice and Monarchs // Story: Road to Tartarus // by DashEight //------------------------------// The sky outside Princess Celestia's bedroom was absolutely breathtaking this evening. The Princess of the Sun made a mental note to thank the Canterlot Weather Patrol for their attention to detail as she strode out of her chambers onto the balcony. They kept the skies clear in the east every morning and the west every night as a standard procedure for her to work her magic freely, but they had really outdone themselves this time. Celestia took a moment to enjoy the serene beauty of the lands to the west of Canter Mount before channeling energy through her horn. She probed up with her magic, up along the special connection she held with her charge before finally taking ahold of the orb of fire floating above her. She gently began coaxing it to sleep for tonight, nudging it lower and lower in the sky. A loud clattering echoed from behind her. Surprised, she turned around and called out. "Hello? Is somepony there?" "Tell me something," a humorless voice emanated from the darkened room behind her. Celestia stiffened, releasing the sun as she did so. The crimson star gently floated just above the distant horizon, bathing the central Equestrian forests and Canter Mount in pinkish light and long shadows. "Does it bother you?" The Princess of the Sun glared into the darkness. "Who's there!? Show yourself!" The ominous voice drifted out from the shadows once again. "Does it keep you up at night, to see how completely you've failed in your duties?" Celestia tensed for a moment, then relaxed as recognition flooded through her. She rolled her eyes and abandoned her aggressive stance. "Good evening to you too, Sister. You could've knocked." "Look! Just look!" Luna ignored her elder's snide comment as she trotted out onto the balcony. She gestured upward, drawing Celestia's attention to the evening sky. There, hanging above her setting sun and plainly visible in the maroon evening sky, was a darkened orb, framed in shadow except for a brilliant crescent of silver along the edge closest to the sun. "You raised it early," Celestia stated in surprise. "I... I can't remember how long it's been since I've seen it like that." "Because you never once, in a thousand years of shepherding both your sun and my Moon, thought to do anything except keep them on diametric opposite sides of the planet!" Luna groused. "You may be our ponies' shining light, Sister, but an artiste you are not." "I could never hold a candle to you, Lulu." Celestia teased, then frowned as something occurred to her. "You told ponies you were planning this, right?" "Of course I did," Luna scoffed. "Heavens forbid the more superstitious of our lot fly into a panic. I sent an emissary to Twilight and asked her to spread the word. Seeing as she's anointed herself the Princess of Education as of late, she is in an excellent position to assure our ponies that my beautiful waning gibbous is not in fact a sign of the end times." "Isn't that a waxing crescent?" "Oh, who remembers? Which is exactly my point! The night sky is a canvas, Sister. While you have my thanks for taking custody of it during my exile, a little variety wouldn't kill you." Luna had spent centuries by Celestia's side, and even longer watching her sibling from afar. They'd grown up together, learned magic and discovered the true extent of their powers. They'd forged a new nation from a half dozen quarreling settlements, then stared down the Master of Chaos himself and sent him packing, all as a team. As a family. When Luna lost herself to the Nightmare, she often tracked Celestia's every move from her lunar prison, plotting a revenge that thankfully never came. Friend or foe, Celestia had been her one constant in a lifetime stretching over a millennium. Luna knew her sister better than anypony. So it surprised her that much more when, instead of the exasperated eye-roll she'd expected, Celestia offered her a sad smile. "It wasn't that I'd forgotten, Lulu. I... well, here, take a look for yourself." Celestia lit her horn. Golden magic swirled around the two sisters, coalescing before them into a shimmering image of the moon. Unlike the moon above them, her projection bore an unmistakable pattern of darkened craters across its surface. "I missed you, Sister." Luna stared, taken aback by the image. She'd known on an intellectual level about the Mare in the Moon, the magical side effect of her imprisonment inside her own heavenly charge. She'd just never actually seen it with her own two eyes before. "It's scarred... defaced." Luna lowered her head. "Celie, I don't understand. Why would you keep such an ugly reminder of my greatest mistake above our citizens every night? Surely you could have turned it so they could witness the Moon without that terrible blemish." Celestia sighed. "Lulu, I just told you. Those craters weren't just blemishes to me, they were you. After we abandoned Castle Everfree, they were all I had left of you." "...Oh..." "You're right, at first our ponies did fear your shadow, the ones who remembered our battle. They worried you would return to conquer. But over time, memories fade to stories and stories to myths and legends. Those ponies' descendants saw your shadow as a herald to the end of arduous workdays, a respite from the summer heat, even a delightful campfire tale for foals as I'm sure you remember. "As for myself, when I looked up I never saw a tyrant." Celestia blinked back a few tears. "I saw my little sister. My sister who was hurting and I'd been too wrapped up in my own politics to see it. My sister I'd failed. "Maybe it was selfish of me, but I couldn't turn you away. It felt like banishing you all over again. I'd look up at the moon and I'd see you, and I'd remember that this wasn't forever, that we'd be together again someday. And I hoped that maybe, if you were looking down at Equestria, you'd see me and know how sorry I was. How much I missed you." The image flickered and faded. A few tears Celestia hadn't quite been able to hold back rolled down her cheeks. Luna gently brushed a wing along her elder sister's muzzle, catching the tears in her feathers. "Sister... thank you. T'was my own jealousy that caused this mess, I never should have caused you such hurt to begin with." Luna looked back up at her Moon, the real one, brilliant and clear of the scourge of darkness that'd marred its surface for so long. "But it's over now. We're back together, and that's what matters." She let herself smirk a little. "You know that those marks weren't really me, correct? I was magically bound within the moon, not on its surface. I could see you just fine no matter which face you pointed at the planet." "Of course I knew, Lulu." Celestia rolled her eyes. "Just let me have this one?" "As you wish, O mighty knower of all the heavens." Luna bowed in an overly flamboyant manner reminiscent of noble-ponies of days long past. "Must you ruin the mood every time we have a heart-to-heart?" Celestia sighed. "Still, it's nice to know you were looking down on me, that I wasn't the only one. I'm touched." "Don't be. I spent most of that time plotting your downfall. And of course how I was going to redecorate Canterlot Castle after I'd overthrown you, as befitting of a proper villain. The most important part of establishing a thousand-year reign of darkness is, after all, thematic color coordination." Celestia snorted. She couldn't help herself. "Yessss, muahahaha!" Luna continued, rearing up and waving her forelegs about. "Dark curtains everywhere! Not a peep of sunlight shall enter these halls! The indigo tapestries shall reign forever!" Celestia covered her muzzle with a hoof to hide her laughter. She continued to giggle as she wiped her eyes. "Yes, of course! How could I forget? All marble floors must be replaced with obsidian! Swap out the gold ornaments for silver! Let the renovations BEGIN!" She tried her own hoof at an evil laugh, which while still falling short of the standard was better than what Luna had expected. Luna smiled as the room quieted down. "All joking aside, you have my eternal gratitude for stopping me, Sister. You always made the better chessmaster, and steering Twilight Sparkle down the path of friendship so she could wield the Elements properly was a work of true brilliance." She remembered that fateful moment when the rainbow had stuck her, and how afterwards she'd finally felt free, free of the corruption that'd gnawed at her soul for over a thousand years. "Not saying it didn't hurt like a motherbucker, but it was certainly preferable to exile. I am truly thankful." "Chessmaster?" Celestia replied in surprise. Luna perked up, curious as to what her sister meant. "Lulu, I have a bit of a confession to make..." "Sunset Shimmer," Celestia chided her personal protege. "I have heard that you're not getting along well with the other students. We've talked about the fact that personal relationships--" "Personal relationships? Who needs anypony!? The most important thing in life is to be the best!" Sunset groused as she trotted alongside the Princess of the Sun. She'd heard this lecture more than enough times already. Why was her teacher so insistent about her wasting time with something like friendship? She should be happy Sunset had aced her midterms with flying colors! "Sunset, we've talked about friendship and its importance before, and we've discussed that you need to start opening yourself to new friends. And remember that talk we had about humility?" "I remember how boring it was..." Sunset whispered under her breath. Celestia frowned. Sunset was the pony who would rescue her sister from the Nightmare, she was sure of it. Sunset's abilities, her intelligence, her fearlessness, even the timing of her discovery all pointed to the fact that she was the pony to fulfill the prophecy and help her usher in a new Equestrian golden age. But true friendship was needed to light the spark that would reignite the Elements of Harmony, and Sunset's understanding of friendship was progressing at a frustratingly slow pace. Hmm. Sunset needed a push in the right direction, something that could show her how bright her future could be, if only she'd drop her silly individualist streak and truly let friendship into her heart. But what? How many moons has it been since Starswirl's mirror was last active? I may have an idea... "Come, Sunset. Our lesson today will be somewhat different than you're used to. Please, follow me..." Several Weeks Later... "She asked me about the mirror again today, Kibitz. she won't let it go." "Hmm?" Kibitz looked up from his paperwork at his Princess. She sat slumped over in her throne, a nation's worth of problems heavily weighing down on her haunches. "Miss Shimmer again, your Majesty?" "Yes. I'd hoped that showing her where her life could lead if she'd just open herself to new ideas would bring her around, but she's been more obstinate than ever. And she's becoming obsessed with the mirror. I... I worry that I may have overstepped when I revealed it to her." "I see." Kibitz chose his words carefully. He didn't get to be the pony the Princess relied on through thick and thin by being a sycophantic yes-pony, or by spouting off whatever nonsense crossed his mind. "And you're absolutely positive that, whatever it is you're preparing for, she is the pony for the job?" "Yes. She is. She has to be. We're short on time as is, if I had to start all over again... no, Sunset is the pony Equestria needs. I just wish I knew how show her..." Cryptic as always, Kibitz thought. While the Princess had never in all his years of service specified what exactly she was preparing for, he'd picked up a lot in that time. He knew that the fate of Equestria would one day hang on the actions of a single pupil of hers, and that said pupil would have to know what she referred to as 'the true meaning of friendship.' Kibitz didn't know why those two things would ever be related, but he trusted his Princess and the fact that it was so important to her was enough for him. Unfortunately for Kibitz, all the trust in the world couldn't show him why she expected that from Sunset Shimmer. Sure, the filly loved Princess Celestia with all her heart and was wonderfully talented, but she had a mean streak that'd kept her isolated from just about anypony else at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Kibitz supposed she'd grow out of it eventually, most fillies her age did, but for the moment he couldn't think of a pony less sociable than Sunset. "Your Majesty, have you considered taking on another personal student? Entrance exams are next month, I've heard from Professor Inkwell that one of the candidates' preliminary scores nearly match that of Sunset's. Sunset is so brilliant, perhaps it would help her make friends if she had more ponies around she considered equals." Kibitz supplied, leaving out the obvious implications. If Celestia didn't want to see what was right in front of her, he couldn't change that. He could however anticipate his Princess's needs, both present and to some extent future. It was his duty as a royal adviser, after all. "That... could work, Kibitz. I will speak with Sunset about it, I don't want her to get the--" A loud bang interrupted the Princess as Raven burst through the throne room door with Royal Guards in tow. "Your Majesty! There's been a break-in at the archives! Somepony's accessed the Restricted Section!" Celestia stood up with a shot. "Take me there at once! Kibitz, I'm sorry. We'll continue this discussion at a later date." "Of course, Your Majesty." Luna stared at her sister, trying to comprehend what she'd just heard. The sun had long since disappeared beneath the horizon, Celestia gently nudging it to sleep as she told her tale to Luna. "So there it is. Needless to say I must implore you that Twilight Sparkle never, ever find out about this." "I, what?" Luna paused, collecting her thoughts. "Yes, of course. Irrefutable proof that her mentor did not in fact groom her for her destiny from the beginning but stumbled into it muzzle first? That we owe the fate of Equestria to blind luck and the foresight of a majordomo?" She shook her head. "Poor Twilight would go quite mad." "Without a doubt," Celestia nodded. "Perhaps the Tree of Harmony saw further than I, but 'Backup Element of Magic' just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.” She sighed, collecting her thoughts. "I don't know why I couldn't see how Sunset's ambition clouded her every thought. I... I saw in her what I wanted to, and I ignored so many signs that she wasn’t ready. I put the idea of that stupid mirror in her head, essentially taunting her with it. ‘Behold, my protégé! One day you shall be just like the one pony you respect and admire more than anypony else in the world! Now forget you saw it and let us never speak of it again!’” “‘‘Twas not your greatest moment, in retrospect.” “That’s putting it mildly. I had no idea she’d call my bluff... I refused to take any action for weeks, even after she ran. I just kept telling myself she’d find some way back home, even if the portal was closed, and I’d hug her and tell her how sorry I was. The clock was counting down to your arrival and I couldn't even admit my mistake. Were it not Kibitz's badgering--and, upon reflection, a magically grown dragon punching a hole through the roof of my school--I would have never even met Twilight Sparkle." Celestia shook her head at her sister's odd look. "A story for another day, dear sister." "While your choice of protégé may have been questionable at one time, your selection of castle employees is certainly beyond reproach. Perhaps we should revisit the staff union's request for a ping-pong table in the break room." Luna mused. "Regardless, your protégé still saved Equestria and rescued me from the clutches of the Nightmare. That it was not the one you expected is of no consequence. You merely backed the wrong horse, so to speak. You've ruled for a thousand years, it was bound to happen eventually." Celestia sighed in frustration. "Eventually? Lulu, try constantly." "Oh?" Curiosity peaked again, Luna settled in. "This I have to hear..." “Your Majesty,” the griffon diplomat spoke with a sense of urgency that, while not quite in the realm of pleading, wasn’t far off. “I ask you again to please reconsider.” “I’m sorry Garrus, but I’m afraid my answer will once again be no.” Princess Celestia slowly shook her head apologetically. “We can offer funding or ponies for an expedition, if it would be helpful.” The griffon perked up at the slim ray of hope. “These ponies, how soon can they deploy?” “I can’t say for certain without conferring with Admiral Fairweather, but I believe we could muster a reserve legion and have them aboard a ship by the end of the month. They’d likely arrive in Griffonstone before Winter Wrap-Up.” “No, no, no, that won’t be nearly soon enough! The unrest grows every day, there has already been one attempt on the King’s life! Please, your Majesty! A zeppelin like the one rumor says your navy constructed could make the journey an a matter of days, not months! And once it arrives, it could simply fly over the Abyss and—“ “Ambassador!” Celestia cut the griffon off before he could finish. “As I have told you several times already, I am not at liberty to discuss such things! Military secrets are classified for a reason. For me to reveal such secrets to another nation, even one a trusted one such as Griffonstone, would betray the trust my guardsponies have placed in me and possibly put their very lives at risk.” The diplomat opened his beak to protest, but thought better of it. While ponies as a whole were easily persuaded -- they were a herding species after all -- nocreature in their right mind would try to intimidate the Sun Princess. His kingdom was on its own. Celestia saw his downcast expression and placed a hoof on his shoulder as some small comfort. "I'm sorry, Garrus. I bear no ill will towards Griffonstone or King Guto, but what you ask for... if we did possess such a vessel as the one you describe, I could not simply order it halfway around the globe on a moment's notice. Too many lives hang in the balance." For a moment her eyes wandered across the meeting room to a map of Equestria and the lands beyond, where they settled on the mysterious Badlands to the south of her kingdom. "I'm sorry I couldn't do better, but Equestria has its own problems." The griffon refused to meet her eye, shrugging off her reassuring hoof. "I understand, Your Majesty. I served my time in uniform too." He stood from his chair and graced Celestia with a short bow. "I'd like to humbly request your leave, if you'll allow it. I should return to the king and relay the news to him." "Of course. I shall instruct Admiral Fairweather to call upon reserves to deploy as soon as possible. And Garrus?" Celestia called out to the griffon as he turned to leave. "Yes, Your Majesty?" "I know how important the Idol of Boreas is to Griffonstone, but it is only a symbol. The pride and strength of the griffons comes from within yourselves, not from a piece of treasure. I have faith that your people will persevere through these troubled times." "That makes one of us, your Majesty," the diplomat replied as he left, shaking his head slowly. "That makes one of us." "Seems like a rational decision," Luna nodded once her sister had finished the story. "You were more than generous with him, even today it would be difficult to justify the use of a flyer carrier to find a simple golden statue." "King Guto was assassinated two weeks after that conversation." Celestia sighed. Bitterness laced her words. "Our expeditionary legion arrived to find the kingdom in chaos, tearing itself to shreds. Griffonstone fell into an economic depression it has yet to fully recover from in nearly six centuries. It appears the Idol of Boreas was more vital to Griffonstone's prosperity than I first assumed. "When we were fillies, things were so much simpler. Easier. A small city and a few outlying settlements to preside over, nothing to it. But these days? Even my smallest missteps can bring dire consequences, yet I've been sitting on the throne so long that ponies don't even recognize I'm as fallible as any of them." She waited for Luna's response, but was met with nothing but silence. The smaller alicorn scooted closer and draped a wing around her sister. Luna lit her horn and, with a burst of cobalt magic, summoned a mug full of steaming hot cocoa. Celestia saw the words 'BEST PRINCESS' and a crescent moon emblazoned on the side as Luna offered it to her. "Heavy is the horn upon which rests the tiara," Luna quoted as her sister sipped from the mug of comfort. "You're not perfect. None of us are. Can you honestly name somepony better suited to wear it than you? And don't even think about it!" Luna cut her sister off as Celestia began to speak. "I've been down that road before and we both know where it ends. I'll rule by your side, Celie, not in your stead. Unless you're serious about the redecorating." Celestia thought about it. "You don't believe Twilight could do it?" "Given time, I suppose she could. But right now, with her temperament? We've both seen the way she puts pressure on herself, the nobles would eat her alive. Though I do concede that she is extraordinarily skilled at defeating apocalyptic threats, perhaps even moreso than us, she needs time to grow into politics." "I've thought the same myself," Celestia nooded. "That poor filly has no idea what's in store for her." "Nopony ever does. Were we to put her on the throne, tomorrow or in ten years, she'd certainly stumble and fall along the way. Just like you once did, except she doesn't have the benefit of a thousand years of hindsight." "Some benefit," Celestia grumbled. "Still, I see your point." "You're not... actually thinking of retiring, are you?" "No, not at this moment, Sister. In time... well, I don't know if I can do this forever. Who can tell what the future holds?" "Exactly my point!" Luna exclaimed. "Although, if you're willing to take some constructive criticism..." "Yes?" "Next time an armada shows up at the castle doorstep, no trying to defuse the situation. Let's just blast them right off the bat." "Agreed," Celestia nodded with a smirk. "Ugh, but this brings us right back into my mistakes! If I hadn't sent the Guard after Chrysalis, then they could've helped defeat the Storm King!" "Yes but the first time she invaded, you didn't send them after her and she ended up invading a second time. Sooo... I guess it's a lose-lose?" "That is, without a doubt, the wisest thing you've said all night Sister." "Thank you." Luna giggled. "Luckily, you don't have to bear the burden alone anymore. All four of us signed off on that deployment order." She snagged the mug from Celestia's magic with a flare of her own horn and drained what little contents remained. "Shall we adjourn to the kitchens for more?" Celestia smiled. "Maybe I spoke too soon. Whatever the future may hold, whatever surprises await us, at least you'll be by my side." She raised herself to her hooves and turned to follow her sister, looking back at the crescent moon one more time before leaving the starry sky behind her. "So is that a yes on the redecorating, then?"