"The princess has been notified you wish to see her," a royal guard said, bowing seriously before Twilight Sparkle. "Please wait here."
"Wow." Rainbow Dash fanned herself with a wing as the armored stallion stepped away, leaving them in a wing of Canterlot Palace with fluted, golden pillars, windowsills adorned with chalices and plenty of comfortable seating and amenities. She glanced to Twilight. "Those dudes don't cut you a break, even being royalty? With the stuffiness, I mean."
Twilight shrugged, sitting upright on the tiled marble floor. "It's just decorum. They take pride in their work."
Rainbow stretched, hogging up a deep purple bench with pockmarked stitching on the cushion. "Yeah, but staying put is lame...!"
As Twilight tried to explain that wandering around was seen as less of a privilege than a chore, Starlight's eyes drifted across the alicorn's saddlebags. Only one was filled, and that with only one thing, a protective sphere of energy...
Seconds later, dawn light streaming in from high-up windows, a door creaked open and Princess Celestia stepped through.
"My little ponies!" she greeted, a warm smile spread beneath her flowing mane. "Twilight, it's so unlike you to show up unannounced for a change!"
Twilight blushed. "Spike was away..."
Celestia nodded. "And hello to you too, Rainbow Dash." She turned to Starlight and extended a wingtip. "And you are? I don't believe we've met?"
Starlight glanced expectantly at Twilight, who cleared her throat. "Princess, I'd like you to meet Starlight Glimmer, my new student."
"Oh?" Celestia looked amused, giving Twilight an interested look. "I see you've been enjoying your new place in the world. I'm very proud of you, Twilight." She glanced at the other two mares. "But if this is a social call, perhaps we should move somewhere more comfortable? I should be able to clear an hour or two from my schedule."
"Well, we would love to talk." Twilight shook her head. "But actually, we have something we think you need to see."
Celestia raised an eyebrow, and Twilight's saddlebags opened in a lavender aura. Slowly, the protective ball floated out, hovering before her with the ruby triangle inside.
At its sight, Celestia's amusement vanished, a neutral mask taking its place, until slowly she took a deep breath and smiled again. "I will go see if Luna is still awake. Twilight, would you take your friends and wait with this in my private quarters?"
"Of course, Princess." Twilight bowed, accepting the orb back into her saddlebags. "Girls, follow me."
Celestia's room was quiet and less lit than anyone would expect of the Princess of the Sun, adorned with large cushions and a deep hearth. Twilight and the others didn't have long to wait, Celestia and Luna both entering in blinks of teleportation that shimmered with bypassed wards. Luna instantly looked to Twilight. "May I see it?"
Neither Starlight nor Rainbow Dash spoke as the orb hovered free from Twilight's bags again. She showed it expectantly, with a slightly-hopeful frown.
"I see." Luna's magic enwrapped it, breaking Twilight's orb and allowing the triangle to float freely. She stared into it with a long, tiny sigh, then held it to Celestia. "So you finally got it back."
Celestia nodded simply, picking up on Rainbow and Starlight's fidgeting out of the corner of her eyes. "Yes." She spoke with authority, taking command of a situation where no one seemed to want to be the one to talk next. "I think we should all ensure we're on the same page. Twilight, Starlight, Rainbow Dash. How much do you know about what this is?"
"Little enough that it sat around in a storage room for several months until Starlight told me what it was..." Twilight blushed sheepishly.
The older princesses' gazes turned to Starlight, who shrank slightly. "I've..." Starlight's ears pressed back. "Spent time north of the Aldenfold. It's one of the Societal Virtues."
Celestia's eyes widened with interest, and Luna lit her horn. After a second of doing seemingly nothing, it went out again. "That's a long way to travel," Celestia remarked. "And you're right about what it is. Twilight, you have knowledgeable tastes in students, it seems."
"I would enjoy knowing what we are to do now," Luna cut in. "With this artifact. Sister?" She gave Celestia a warning look.
Celestia nodded. "Remember lessons learned and do nothing. I think I will summon Cadance for a summit tomorrow evening, just in case. But in the meantime..." She smiled at Starlight, inviting the three smaller mares to take seats on the cushions. "I'm very curious to know about our new friend from the north. What led you to us?" She chuckled, adding, "And how many questions have you given Twilight about how the world is so much bigger than she was taught?"
"A lot..." Twilight reddened, rubbing her mane.
"It's a long story," Starlight added. "I've spent the last week or so trying to tell it." Her mane drooped slightly, combed on the train but unable to hide the bags under her eyes from long nights of sleepless talking.
"So that's why you look so tired," Celestia giggled. "When you were introduced as Twilight's student, I thought the two of you were staying up too late doing science."
"It's kind of a concerning story," Twilight admitted with a nod. "Princess, right before we found out I had this in my storage room, I was actually getting ready to bring everyone here anyway. Starlight's told us some things about herself and the world we thought you needed to know."
Celestia nodded, suddenly somber. "North of the Aldenfold is a much less harmonic place."
"That's those mountains, right?" Rainbow asked, earning a nod from Starlight.
"We do our best to stay appraised of happenings in the northern world," Luna said. "Pray tell, from what time period do you hail? During the last hundred years, the north has been in a near constant state of turmoil."
"I was there in nine hundred eighty-five," Starlight answered, continuing before the princesses could speak. "And I'm in the middle of telling Twilight my story, so she would appreciate it if you didn't tell her what happened that year."
Luna grimaced. "I can see why tales of those times would trouble you, Twilight Sparkle. And what part of the world was this? Varsidel? Yakyakistan Proper? The Griffon Empire?"
"The latter is what I'm telling right now," Starlight replied, holding her head low. "And see, Twilight? It sounds like they already know about what it was like there."
Celestia spoke back up. "We don't visit the north often, but word of what happens there always reaches our ears. But you have still have concerns, don't you?"
Twilight fidgeted. "I don't know. So you just... You know about the Night Mother, about Stanza, about all the dark experiments with moon glass and foals and Nightmare Modules...?"
Celestia and Luna shot each other an alarmed look, and they both stared at Starlight. "You were involved in experiments using these things?" Luna asked intensely.
That was all the answer Twilight needed. Nervously, she nudged Starlight.
Closing her eyes, Starlight sighed... and pulled out her equality staff, holding it like a flag. The shadows around her hooves flickered, reaching up along her legs, until she formed a dark cutout in space that Twilight's eyes would have skipped over had she not known something was there.
"How!?" Luna gasped, breathing as if struck and lighting her horn. Beside her, Celestia widened her eyes.
"I don't know," the cloaked Starlight replied. "If you could tell me, I'd be grateful. As for what you're going to ask next, I have all seven."
"Remove that cloak," Luna commanded, and Starlight instantly obliged. "Are you using anything to aid you?"
Starlight appeared again, holding out the staff. Slowly and deliberately, she passed her horn over it until it glowed, shimmered... and widened, its twin prongs melding together and a hole appearing in its blackening base. In a matter of seconds, it was the sword Twilight had seen in the memory.
Luna and Celestia both visibly relaxed. "I am glad to see the location of that thing once again known," Luna sighed, breathing with relief. "Though it concerns me that science, in my absence, advanced things far enough that it can be used by merely anyone to cast the spells I created. You have watched the fifth, I take it?"
"I have." Starlight nodded, not mentioning yet that she could use Nightmare Modules with moon glass. "But that's all I know about what it is or where it comes from."
Celestia nodded at Luna, bidding her to explain. Luna obliged. "That is a sword we call the Indus, after the land our best efforts can trace it back to, though its history is difficult to track. When it came into my ownership long ago, an unknown magic erased prior possession of it from its old bearer's mind, or made me to believe I had not wielded it always. The rewrite was so thorough, we could not find any real-world evidence on either side. While both of us agreed it was magic that caused this and settled on it being a gift from one to the other, it caused the sword's true origin to become lost in shadow."
Starlight gasped slightly. "Then that didn't just happen to me..." She regarded the blade with wide eyes. "But you remember having it? It was the sword that did that, but it didn't erase itself from you?"
Luna looked ashamed. "Forgive me. My memories of the time before my exile are... as not as intact as they once were."
"Starlight, if it's not a spoiler..." Twilight rubbed a wingtip against the bottom of her hoof. "Princess Luna? Why did you send down the meteor of moon glass?"
Starlight nodded in permission, but Luna shrank more. "I... do not remember."
Celestia cleared her throat, earning a grateful look from her sister. "May I assume Starlight has told you at least somewhat about the Yakyakistani Virtues, along with the Nightmare Modules?" Her eyes passed over Starlight. "I assume you know what this is you have."
Again, Starlight nodded, so Celestia continued. "Long ago, before we used the Societal Virtues or the Elements of Harmony in their physical power, they were buried deep beneath the world, each in a palace much like yours, Twilight. The six elements were waiting to be found, but each of the three were sealed alongside curses designed to ruin the world by the hoof of whoever took them."
"Windigoes were tied to that one," Twilight said, nodding at the red triangle. "Starlight showed both of us the memory Nightmare Module."
"Yes." Luna hung her head. "And I am sorry you had to see me like that. In my last days, I grew consumed with loneliness and jealousy, and became..."
Rainbow and Starlight respectfully inclined their heads, and Twilight bowed too. "We understand."
"The Nightmare was a spirit of jealousy," Celestia continued. "Not an annulment of the virtue of hope, but a perversion. It allows for all of the determination and ambition of the virtue, yet turned inwards towards oneself instead of directed outward to others. Fully assumed, it makes one more powerful in pursuit of their own goals, but..."
Luna squeezed her eyes shut. "All of it came at the cost of love and knowledge. The spirit was always there by my invitation. Even when you, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, and all your other friends encountered me in the Everfree, it was still I who sent away the Nightmare, guided and tempted into the light. But while it was assumed, I could not love... and it began day after day to eat away at my memories. To this day, Twilight Sparkle, I remember nothing of my exile beyond a few vague emotions. The world wills I not remember it. The days before are hazy in my mind at best, and much of what I recall has been clarified by my sister or even come from my own Nightmare Module."
Twilight's ears fell. "Then..."
Briefly, Luna flickered with the visage of Nightmare Moon, though it was somber instead of fierce. "Yes, I can still cast them. Despite all time and healing, even the memory of my emotions is sufficient to power them, and that is one memory that will not fade. I believe the Indus works the same way in its ability to power this magic. Metal cannot have emotions, but somehow it can remember."
"We have been back to the moon on multiple occasions," Celestia added. "After Luna's release, there is little in our way. But there is nothing there."
"Starlight Glimmer." Luna looked up, catching Starlight's eye. "It is past time for me to sleep, and all of you look exhausted as well. Tonight, I will be in your dreams, and you will brief me on who you are and everything that brought you to wield my magic. Tomorrow evening, we shall see each other again."
As Starlight bowed, Twilight turned to Celestia with a worried expression. "Princess? Maybe I'm having trouble reading things, but everyone here seems uneasy with no one actually saying to do anything. Are things alright, or should I be prepared for... you know..."
"At ease, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I've been expecting that gem to show up for around a decade now. It merely reminds Luna and I of some things in the past that have no place in the peaceful Equestria we try to make for our ponies."
Rainbow loudly yawned, and in the background, Luna left, she and Starlight following her out and leaving just Twilight and Celestia. Twilight's ears folded. "Does that mean Equestria isn't the natural order of things? It's just, the way Starlight's been telling her story, everything up north doesn't... match with how things are supposed to be, and there have been one too many things and I'm starting to worry I've got it backwards."
Celestia chuckled, sitting down beside her former student. "Don't forget what you've been able to accomplish with the magic of friendship, Twilight. Even if we do have to make an effort to keep the world good and free from chaos, isn't harmony trying its best to help you and your friends on your way?"
Twilight blinked. "Well, when you put it that way..."
"The world has its rough edges," Celestia went on, spreading a white wing over Twilight's back. "Equestria wouldn't be the land it is today without ponies who love the light keeping it that way. Here at the center, where things are most harmonic, ponies get to live free from the understanding of that. What matters most, Twilight, is that when your eyes are opened further and you see more of what's wrong in the world, you keep your sights on what things should be, as well."
Twilight stared at the ground.
"I'm glad your new student has been showing you this," Celestia added. "The best kinds of students are the ones their teachers learn from, as well. Twilight, you are a princess now, and you have a long life ahead of you where you'll get to use your power and those of your friends to polish the world and make it more like it should be. And the most harmonic regions of the world we preserve, in part, to inspire ponies like you and show them what the rest of the world can be."
"You've seen the fifth Nightmare Module, right, Princess?" Twilight looked up. "There was a war depicted in it. My friends and I know about stopping monsters, but how do you stop whole armies of creatures from wanting to kill each other? Can the Elements of Harmony really do that? And if so, why didn't they?" Her brow creased. "It just seems so out of place that problems like that and answers like ours could exist together in the same world."
Celestia smiled. "They can and they did. Luna and I were born into that war, and it was out of it that we forged Equestria alongside the founders. Think of it like the entire world was broken, and we put the first piece in place to fixing it, like a puzzle. Now we've continued to work on it, and despite setbacks some places are almost complete. Others have barely started, but the pieces are there. This is what the world is supposed to look like, Twilight, and we guided you on your ascension because you have a better understanding of that than many ponies else and have been willing to stand on the foremost lines and defend it when it risks being taken apart. Now you're seeing those lines are bigger than you first imagined, but you can still see the picture someone was always meant to build."
Twilight's eyes shone suddenly. "That makes so much more sense..."
Celestia hugged her again. "Don't worry, Twilight. We're not going to throw you out into anything that's too much. And there are parts of the world we might not tell you about for a long time yet, but it's only to help you grow. Now why don't you get some sleep with your friends? Dream about them, and about what you love in the world."
"I will. And thank you, Princess!" Twilight jumped to her hooves, nodding gratefully and leaving Celestia with a smile as she ran off.