Chapter Twenty-Four
The group had just finished packing up the last of their things when Spike belched up a scroll.
“Oof…” he muttered as he handed it over to Twilight, who thanked him as she unfurled it and read it, frowning as she noticed a second scroll falling out before she scooped it up.
“Something the matter, your Grace?” Swift-Pad asked.
Twilight shook her head. “Just Princess Celestia’s reply to my questions about Flim and Flam,” she said. “Yes, if they’ve been formally expelled from the Packlands, you’re well within your rights to arrest them and throw them in jail if they try to come back.”
Unfurling the second scroll, she read it quickly, then rolled it back up and tucked it into her saddlebags.
“What was that about?” Spike asked.
“Princess Luna wants to set up a meeting between the three of us about something once we get back,” Twilight said. “I’ll handle it when the time comes.”
“What do you mean Twilight, aren’t we going back to Equestria after this?” Spike asked, turning to face her, with the rest of her friends turning to face her.
“We... are,” Twilight reassured him, though her mind was already rethinking that statement. “But it’s still a few days away. I’m just saying, I’ll handle it after we get back.”
“Right.” Spike didn’t look entirely convinced, but anything he might have said next was cut off when Wise-Mind called for them to follow him.
Idly, Twilight wondered what Luna wanted to talk about, but quickly shook it off and turned her attention to the conversation her friends were having with the wolves before Maxilla slid up next to her, back as a she-wolf.
“Are you ready for your lessons, your Grace?” Maxilla asked her.
Twilight smiled. “Absolutely,” she said.
Miles away, standing outside the dilapidated-looking house and wondering how anypony could stand to live there, especially a former student of her school, Celestia took a moment to compose herself before she knocked on the door.
For a few minutes, there was no response. Then, as she was about to knock again, the door opened and a frazzled-looking unicorn stuck her head out. "Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested." The door slammed.
Celestia was taken aback. Then, raising a hoof, she knocked again.
The door opened again. "I said, go awa-" Then the pony cut herself off and went wide-eyed as she looked up to see exactly who was standing there. "Your highness!" Instantly, she bowed. "I... I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you!"
Celestia smiled. "That's quite all right, my little pony." She ducked her head. "May I come in?"
"Um..." Moondancer looked even more nervous. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea... I have a hard enough time fitting through here, and as tall as you are, you..."
Celestia looked over her shoulder, into the cluttered house. "I see your point," she said. "Well, why don't you come someplace with me then? We have a lot to talk about."
"I..." Moondancer looked down. "What would a princess like you want with a mare like me?" she asked. "I'm nopony."
"Moondancer, nopony is nopony," Celestia said softly. "You and I may not have spent much one-on-one time together when you were attending my school, but you were still one of my students, and I'm concerned for you." She gestured to the house. "How have you been living like this?"
Moondancer frowned. "It's not like I had anything better to do," she muttered. "My whole life is studying..."
"Just studying?" Celestia looked at her. "You had friends once. Why don't you spend time with them?"
"Friends?" Moondancer suddenly looked upset. "I thought I had a friend. But when I tried going out of my way to include her, she just ignored me! And then she moved away without even saying goodbye! I wish I'd never bothered." She almost looked like she was going to cry. Then she felt a soft hoof on her shoulder. When she looked up, she saw Celestia, an unidentifiable expression on her face.
"Moondancer... come with me," Celestia said. "We need to talk." Her horn glowing, she shut and locked the door behind Moondancer, before there was a bright flash as she teleported them back to her quarters in the castle.
When she had laid down and encouraged Moondancer to do the same, she looked her right in the eyes. "Moondancer, do you know why Twilight left Canterlot?"
Moondancer looked down. "I... I don't," she admitted. "After she left, I kind of just shut myself off from the world. The next time I saw anything about her was when the newspaper had an article about her being the newest alicorn princess."
Celestia nodded. "Well, the reason Twilight went down to Ponyville in the first place was because I sent her there," she said. "Twilight had been studying some ancient legends, including the prophecized return of the Mare in the Moon, and had determined that it was due to come true in just a few days. She tried to warn me, not realizing I already knew all about it."
Moondancer looked at her curiously. "The Mare in the Moon? But..." A multitude of emotions suddenly swept across her face. "I knew something was different the next time I looked up at night," she muttered. "I can't believe I didn't see it sooner."
Celestia looked at her in surprise. "You really never noticed?" she asked.
Moondancer shrugged. "I had other things on my mind," she admitted. "I guess I was too busy wallowing in my own misery."
Celestia gave her a mournful look. "I know how you feel," she said quietly. "I reacted much the same way over a thousand years ago, when I was forced to banish the Nightmare and its host from Equestria."
Moondancer blinked.
"The Mare in the Moon was once my sister, Luna," Celestia said. "Long ago, consumed by jealousy and loneliness, she fell prey to a dark Power that took over her body, calling itself Nightmare Moon. I was forced to use the powers of the Elements of Harmony, which Luna and I had once wielded together, to imprison her on the moon." She sighed. "That was... not a happy time for me."
Moondancer shook her head. "Your own sister... I can't imagine what it must have felt like," she said.
Celestia nodded again. "I was heartbroken, to say the least," she said. "For a very long time, I closed myself off from others. Eventually, I came out of my shell with the help of... well, somepony, I'd rather not say who yet. They promised me that in a thousand years, the Nightmare would return, and that a new generation would find a way to save Luna. And from the first moment I met Twilight, I had strong suspicions that she would be a part of that generation, and I knew that eventually, she'd have to face the Nightmare." She fell silent for a moment, before continuing.
"Still, I couldn't help myself. I know it's wrong, but I must confess that some of my students would come to mean more to me than others. One, whom I had only recently lost, was almost like a daughter to me. And then, when I met Twilight, I felt those same feelings happening again. That... led me to make some mistakes," she admitted. "I will always be proud of her and her accomplishments, but I couldn't help but keep her close to me. And in doing so, I fear I stunted any desire in her to get out and socialize, to spend time with more ponies than just myself and her family. She practically idolized me, and I couldn't help but like being the center of her attention. And..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "I brought you here to try and help you, but I seem to have gone off-track."
Moondancer shook her head. "I think we both need this," she said. "Go on."
Celestia smiled. "Well, at any rate, I couldn't help how I felt," she said. "So I kept Twilight with me in Canterlot, where she would stay safe. Eventually though, when she wrote to me and told me what she had found, I sent her away to Ponyville for her own protection, out of reach of where Nightmare Moon would arrive when she returned." She smiled. "And then Twilight did what I'd only dreamed of. She found the Elements of Harmony and unlocked their power with the help of her new friends, to purge the Nightmare and restore my sister to herself."
Moondancer looked down. "I guess she was doing all that the day I wanted to see her," she said quietly.
"She was," Celestia said. "If I'd known about it, I would have encouraged her to take a few hours off that afternoon to spend time with you." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry for causing you so much pain."
Moondancer opened her mouth for a moment, closed it, shook her head, and finally looked up at Celestia. "You don't have to apologize," she said. "It was my own fault... I should have gone to see Twilight and asked her myself. But I convinced myself that maybe, just maybe, I didn't need to go that far. That she knew how I felt, that she'd come see me herself. Or maybe I was just afraid of getting rejected to my face." Her face reddened.
"Rejected?" Celestia looked at her curiously.
"Princess... I loved Twilight." Moondancer looked up, and there were tears in her eyes. "I think I still do. But she never even noticed all the hints I was trying to send her way..."
For a moment, Celestia's eyes widened, then she slowly nodded. "I see." Straightening herself out, she looked right at Moondancer. "I think," she said, "That when Twilight returns from the Packlands, I am going to have you, she and my niece Cadance sit down and have a long talk together about everything. In the meantime, you're more than welcome to stay here in the castle with me. Your home is..." She looked embarrassed. "Well..."
"It's a disaster area, I know," Moondancer said with a sigh. "I... I was in a bad place, mentally and emotionally, when I first moved in there. I couldn't bring myself to care about keeping it up, and..."
"Well, that's not going to be a problem anymore," Celestia said. "As I said, you are more than welcome to move in here. There are plenty of extra rooms, and I am always happy to see a few of them filled."
Moondancer looked up at her gratefully. "Thank you, princess."
"My pleasure, Moondancer."
While Twilight had always considered herself a fast learner, she had quickly realized that it was not the same when her attention was divided between listening to her teacher and trying to keep up with the brisk pace that Wise-Mind had set for them. Still, it was clear that Maxilla had recognized she was making an effort, and was being far more patient with her than one might expect.
Still, there were a lot of subtleties with the different pitches and tones with the language that Twilight was struggling to keep straight, and judging by the laughter from the surrounding wolves, she still had a lot to learn. At the very least, she was getting closer to saying her own name properly.
One thing she did learn was that there was more to the names the wolves had that didn’t translate properly. For example, Swift-Pad’s name meant “moving deftly from rock to rock” while Wise-Mind meant “pondering deeply over serious matters in a thorough manner”. It was fascinating, and while she might have had difficulties reproducing their speech, she was still enjoying the process of learning it.
She had also learned, with some unease, that Thin-Tall’s name meant “lanky wolf of unseemly height”, Little-Growl’s meant “little pup unable to properly growl” and Big-Cheer’s was “large belly wolf who laughs well”. On the other hoof, Aargh’s translated as “inducer of unexpected pain in harmers of innocents”, which she thought was rather fitting.
She had asked Maxilla near the middle of the afternoon what Swift-Pad’s Packleader’s name meant. She had been told it meant “he who soars in the air with his jumping to strike down his foes” which brought on other questions that Swift-Pad had only been too proud to share the answers to. The name, he explained, had come about well over a century ago when High-Leap was still a nameless wolf who had, in defense of his packmates against a griffon raiding party, managed to leap high enough to land on the lead griffon’s back and ‘subdued’ him. He hadn’t outright said it but Twilight was able to read between the lines to what he meant by ‘subdued’ and hadn’t asked for details. Instead, she had considered asking what her own name had translated to in the wolf language, but before she could say it, she heard the answer.
It was Wise-Mind, who had pulled back from the head of the pack. He had told her that her name, in most likely situations, would be “stars of the dusk whose magical talents sparkle with radiance”.
“Wow.” Twilight blinked. “That’s… impressive.”
“What’s mine?” Pinkie suddenly popped up. “I know, Pinkamena Diane Pie is pretty long already, but what’s it mean in your tongue?”
Wise-Mind seemed startled, but looked contemplative. “‘Endless amount of surprise who is eternally smiling and laughing’.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “That’s our Pinkie, all right,” she said. “What about the rest of us?”
Maxilla loped over to her and said, “You are an easy one. You would be “she who broke the sound barrier with a rainbow trail”.”
“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash grinned.
“Certainly fits her,” Applejack commented. “Ah think we all owe more to that rainbow trail of hers than most of the world knows. But if she hadn’t done it, we’d all have been in big trouble.” She suddenly stopped speaking, then turned to Maxilla and Wise-Mind. “So, same question. What’d my name mean?”
“Roughly translated, “she who works apples into that which is needed”,” Maxilla said.
“Huh.”
“Mine is “she who flies with the wings of the ancestor”,” Fluttershy suddenly spoke up, blushing. “Well-Hidden taught me that.”
Rainbow Dash looked at her in surprise. “Really? That’s an interesting one…”
Fluttershy ducked her head shyly. “I don’t talk about this a lot,” she said. “But one of my great-great-great-grandmothers… her name was Posey Shy. She met her husband when he saw her flying from a distance one day, and because of how she was moving, he thought she was the biggest butterfly he’d ever seen. It wasn’t until she got closer that he realized she was another pegasus.”
“Your movements in the air do resemble those of a butterfly,” Swift-Pad said thoughtfully. “Rather different from most pegasi, but in my experience, that is not a bad thing. It is simply what works best for you.”
Rainbow Dash gave him a look of surprise for a moment, before she too looked thoughtful, almost as if she was reconsidering something from long ago.
“I suppose that just leaves myself and Spike,” Rarity said, panting a bit as the run was harder on her than the others.
“Spike would retain his name, until his molting,” Wise-Mind replied. “Dragons are usually renamed when their wings come in and at that point, a proper name could be decided. However, most of these second names are rarely revealed to non-dragons, or in some cases to any dragon outside their immediate family.”
“‘Molting’?” Rarity asked questioningly.
“His metamorphosis into a slightly bigger form,” Twilight told her. “That’s when he’ll get his wings. And as I’ve already told him, he’ll stay indoors as long as it’s going on. Swift-Pad told me that a molting dragon’s scent attracts certain predators, and I am not going to lose him to one.”
Spike blushed at this, and even more so when the rest of the girls reaffirmed their friendship with him by promising to help protect him during that vulnerable period.
“Most dragons would not have that attitude towards the molter,” Wise-Mind rumbled. “But then, most dragons are not like you, young Grace Sparkle. Not that that is a bad thing, mind. Your loyalty to him, and his to you, do you much credit.” He looked thoughtful. “I believe you said you hatched him?”
Twilight nodded. “The day Rainbow Dash performed her first Sonic Rainboom, the sight and sound of it affected all of us in one way or another,” she said. “I was startled so badly that I lost control of my magic, and among the effects… that surge helped me hatch Spike’s egg.” She smiled down at him. “I might have been scared from losing control, scared of accidentally hurting others… but one thing I’ll never regret about that surge is how it gave me my son.”
Wise-Mind’s smile was far bigger this time, and he nodded in approval. “That is indeed a wondrous event in any creature’s life, young Grace Sparkle.” He turned to Rarity. “Turning back to your question, your name - Rarity Belle - would translate as “seeker of beauty that lies within”.”
Rarity’s eyes widened. “That is almost how I got my Cutie Mark,” she said. “My horn led me to a large rock… and then the sound from Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom cracked it open to show the trove of gems that lay within it. When I used them on the costumes I was making for that night, my Mark came in, just as all of my future friends’ had.”
One of the wolves was looking at her curiously. “All?” he asked.
Twilight nodded. “Rarity got hers that night, I got mine after Princess Celestia helped me calm down my surge…”
“Got mine for doing the Sonic Rainboom in the first place,” Rainbow Dash said.
“For calming the wild animals that caught me when I fell off the cloud, and that her noise scared,” Fluttershy said.
“For coming home.” Applejack tilted her hat. “The Rainboom’s trail led me back home to the family farm from Manehatten.”
“Her rainbow was the first one that I ever saw, and it made me so happy, I wanted to share that happiness with my mom and my dad and all three of my sisters, so I threw them my first party,” Pinkie said. “And it worked, and when I saw them so happy, my Mark was there!”
All of the wolves looked rather astounded by this, and some of them began muttering among themselves.
“Wolves may not get Cutie Marks, but we know of their significance among your people,” Wise-Mind finally rumbled. “For multiple ponies to earn theirs from a single connected event is a rare happening, enough for one to believe your fates are intertwined and your destinies lie with each other.”
Swift-Pad looked uncomfortable. “One may wonder,” he said. “I had not heard this particular aspect of their story before… but its telling makes me believe that their use of the Powers of Harmony was indeed foredestined.”
Wise-Mind turned to him instantly. “They have done what‽”
Sensing tension, Twilight raised a hoof. “Please,” she said. “Given how some events from it would be of great significance to your people, I think this story would be best saved for the Gathering.” She bowed. “It relates to Princess Luna and her return.”
Wise-Mind turned his head to her, before nodding slowly. “You speak much truth,” he said. “My people do indeed know of the Powers of Harmony, and their usage in the past. If your tale relates to them and our Grand Grace’s return to this realm, our Packleaders would indeed be most interested in all hearing it at once.”
“I could not agree more, Packleader Wise-Mind,” Twilight said.
With that, the wolves drew back a bit, allowing Wise-Mind to once more take the lead and Twilight to draw back a bit.
Still next to to her, Maxilla shook her head. “If that story of yours is anything like the one about how you ascended, their reactions at the Gathering should be interesting,” she said.
“I’m worried about exactly that,” Twilight told her quietly. “From what Swift-Pad has told me, I know how touchy some of his people can get over Luna and how they see her. If they don’t like what I have to say…”
“All we can do at this point is wait and see,” Maxilla told her. “I think you’ll do well though. Just tell them the truth as you know it, and let them decide whether or not they want to believe it.”
Twilight drew a deep breath. “I will be honest about this,” she said. “I can promise that.”