//------------------------------// // 568 - The Front Page // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// For Princess Celestia, breakfast was the best part of her day. After raising the sun, the chance to enjoy a quiet meal and prepare for the coming day was a calming ritual that she’d come to cherish. Not simply because the food was delicious (although the fact that pancakes could be topped with any number of sugary treats certainly helped), but because it gave her a chance to properly remind herself that each day was a day that would never come again. That knowledge – that every day was special, offering unique chances to help bring joy into the lives of her little ponies – was what made her duties as a princess a privilege rather than a burden, and Celestia made sure to always keep it close to her heart. The last few years had been especially fortunate in that regard, as Celestia had the opportunity to share her morning meal with her beloved little sister Luna. After a millennium of separation, Celestia took delight in preparing Luna’s breakfast (even if it was technically her sister’s dinner) personally, using berries, fruit slices, or whatever other delicious toppings the kitchen staff had prepared to make a smiley face on top of her sister’s pancakes. It might have been a little silly, but Celestia couldn’t resist sending her sister off to bed each day with a reminder of how much she cared about her. Unfortunately, it had become harder for Celestia to appreciate breakfast ever since she and Luna had taken their disastrous trip to Vanhoover. Part of that was because of the renewed strain of having to raise and lower the sun and the moon, a burden Celestia had carried for the thousand years that Luna had been banished, and one that she now had to take on again thanks to the curse Lex Legis had placed on her sister. But that wasn’t the real reason that mornings no longer brought Celestia the joy they once had. Although Luna had temporarily ceased attending breakfast upon their return to Canterlot, she’d recently started showing up again. But her behavior had changed markedly from how she used to act. While still tired from staying up from dusk till dawn – insisting that she continue monitoring the dream realm as best she could – Luna now attentive at breakfast in a way she hadn’t been before, making token efforts at small talk, remarking on stories in the morning paper, politely thanking Celestia for the food, and generally going out of her way to be amiable and nonchalant. To anypony else, it must have looked like her sister was handling what had happened to her with poise and grace, bearing the indignity of being stripped of her alicornhood with the composure of a true princess. But Celestia knew better. The fact that Luna was trying so hard to act like she was alright was the surest sign that she wasn’t alright. Had she been back to normal, Luna would have shown up each morning exhausted and surly, taking two bites of her pancakes (without remarking on the fruit face) before muttering “going to bed” under her breath as she trudged off without a word of thanks. And if that had left Celestia feeling disappointed that her gesture of caring had gone unnoticed, it would have been a thousand times better than seeing Luna act like she wasn’t still feeling ashamed of the fact that Lex Legis had humiliated her the way he had, using his magic to make her very body into a symbol of his dominance. Seeing her sister suffering in silence like that never failed to ruin Celestia’s morning now, knowing that the pony whom she wished joy for the most was the one she was powerless to help. Which brought her to this morning. “I just wish you had consulted with me first, Luna.” Sitting across the table from her, the pony in question shook her head. “You would have tried to talk me out of it if I had, sister.” “I would have suggested postponing this,” admitted Celestia, tapping the morning paper with her hoof, fighting back the urge to grimace as she looked at the front-page picture of her sister – the same stoic expression on her face there that she’d worn to breakfast for a while now – spread out beneath the banner headline: PRINCESS LUNA CURSED BY VILLAIN. “Luna, I know you wanted to publicly renounce your claims of being a goddess, but this…” Luna shrugged, a faint smirk of self-deprecation crossing her face. “I thought this got the point across quite well. How many goddesses do you know who are defeated and cursed by an evil sorcerer?” “Luna!” Although she knew that chastising her sister was the wrong thing to do, Celestia couldn’t help it, equal parts angry and horrified that Luna was trying to act like her condition wasn’t something of utmost seriousness. But seeing Luna wince, her ears folded back, was enough to make her immediately backpedal. “I’m sorry.” Taking a moment to collect herself, Celestia tried again. “Luna, I’m not upset, I’m just worried. Most of the crystal pony missionaries that Cadance and Shining armor sent out across Equestria have already made their way back to the Crystal Empire. Once the last of them have returned, we’ll be able to undo what Lex did to you, and I don’t want you regretting telling everypony-” “And what if that doesn’t work?” cut in Luna sharply, all traces of her earlier insouciance gone. “Celestia, I know how much you want to believe in this plan, but we need to face facts. If Discord couldn’t remove my curse then there’s a very real chance that the Crystal Heart won’t be able to either.” Celestia wanted so badly to argue the point. To point out that the dark magic Lex had used – the magic of isolation – was the same magic that King Sombra had wielded, and which had been overwhelmingly defeated by the love that the crystal ponies had poured into the Crystal Heart. That it therefore stood to reason that Lex’s curse would fare no better when put to the test. But instead, she forced herself to remain silent. She knew what was happening; Luna was afraid to believe in their plan because, if by some chance it did fail, her disappointment would be cushioned by never having gotten her hopes up to begin with. It made sense, but in a horrible way, and Celestia hated seeing her sister do that to herself. But as much as she wanted to make her sister realize that lowering her expectations like that was just another way of giving up, she knew she couldn’t say that. She and Luna had already lost a thousand years because she hadn’t been sensitive to her sister’s pain before; it wasn’t a mistake she would make again, no matter how much it hurt. Seeing that Celestia wasn’t going to push back on what she’d said, Luna let out a breath, the tension draining from her body. “I know you want to protect me,” she admitted at last. “And I appreciate that. I do. But this is…” She let out a slow breath, and Celestia didn’t interrupt, giving Luna the time she needed to put her thoughts in order. “I can’t control what Lex Legis did to me, but at least this way I can control how everypony finds out about it. Doing it on my terms, rather than having news of it slowly leak out as the ponies who work here gossip with the ponies in town, and having those ponies spread it to other cities, until all of Equestria knows what happened to me but pretends otherwise in order to be polite…” Biting her lip at the thought, she shook her head. “It’s my decision, sister, and even if this were undone tomorrow, I won’t regret it.” “Oh, Luna…” Fighting down a sudden lump in her throat, Celestia found herself blinking back tears. “You’re right. It is your decision. I should have respected that.” This time, the small smile that made its way onto Luna’s face was genuine. “Thank you.” She glanced down at the paper under Celestia’s hoof, and her smile turned rueful. “It’s funny. Even though I’d already made up my mind to tell everypony what Lex did to me, I don’t think I fully appreciated the significance of doing so until I talked to Nosey Newsy the other night.” Celestia arched a brow at that. The newspaper article revealing what had happened to Luna had been written by Line, who – after interviewing Luna from his hospital bed when she’d gone to visit him – had rushed back to the Canterlot Chronicle as soon as he’d been discharged in order to write the story. “I wasn’t aware that you’d spoken to her.” Luna didn’t answer immediately, her horn lighting up as she gently tugged at the newspaper under Celestia’s hoof. When her sister released it, she levitated it in front of herself, looking at her picture dispassionately. “She came over the night after she and Line were attacked by Silhouette. I’d told Line I wanted her to be the one to interview me for this, and she showed up to do that despite what had happened to her.” “But Line’s the one who wrote the piece here,” prompted Celestia. For a moment Luna didn’t answer, still examining the picture of herself, until finally she spoke up. “She blames me.” This time both of Celestia’s eyebrows rose. “You mean Nosey? She blames you…for Silhouette?” “Yes.” Sighing, Luna put the paper down. “She didn’t say so, but I could tell. And she was right.” Holding up a hoof to stop the protest she knew was coming, she kept going. “When I first told Line that I wanted to go public with what happened to me, it was for spite. I’d hoped that if everypony saw what Lex Legis had done to one of their princesses, it would hurt his reputation. It was my way of trying to strike back at him in retaliation for this curse.” “That’s understandable,” admitted Celestia, giving Luna a smile. “And it’s probably true. You’ve always been more popular than you think.” Luna flashed her a wan smile in return, but it didn’t last as she looked back down at the paper. “It wasn’t until I spoke to Nosey, hearing how angry she was – angry with me – that I realized how selfish I was being. That ever since this happened to me, I’d abandoned all of my royal duties in favor of feeling sorry for myself.” “That’s not true,” rebuked Celestia, gently this time. “Luna, you’ve still watched over the dream realm since you came back, and that’s not all. You participated in the summit we held about what to do regarding Lex, and you contacted your other worshipers in their dreams to tell them that you were giving up your aspirations of godhood.” “You’re kind to say so, sister.” Finally putting the paper down, Luna met Celestia’s gaze directly. “But the summit was your idea, and one I participated in only because I was desperate that someone would be able to find a way to make restore me immediately. I shut down my religion because – while I recognize now that I should have been content to be a princess – it was…it is too difficult to tell ponies that they should worship me when I feel like this…” “Luna…” “And as for the dream realm,” she continued quickly, “I can present myself however I wish in ponies’ dreams, and while I felt that I owed my former worshipers the truth, everypony else…” Breaking eye contact at last, she looked out a window, gazing at the vista that was Canterlot’s skyline. “It’s been too easy for me to pretend that I’m still an alicorn when I’m there. It’s an indulgence, one that I’ve been engaging in when I should have been concerning myself with more pressing matters, such as locating Silhouette after he fled from us. And Line and Nosey paid the price for my inattention.” Heaving another sigh, she looked back at Celestia. “That was when I realized that there was more to this interview than hurting Lex Legis’s public image. It’s my declaration that I’m not going to run from what’s happened to me anymore.” Celestia couldn’t speak for a moment, unable to find the words to articulate how proud she felt of her sister right then. It was only after a few seconds had passed that she managed to find her voice again. “So does this mean you’re going to go back to ignoring the fruit faces I put on your pancakes every morning?” Luna blinked once…and then began laughing. That set Celestia to chuckling, which in turn made Luna laugh harder, until the two of them were howling, half-collapsed over the table as weeks of pent-up tension came flowing out of them both in great gouts of mirth. Just like that, Celestia knew that whatever happened with the Crystal Heart, her breakfasts with her sister were going to be- A sudden flash in the middle of the room made both of them stop laughing, sitting upright in shock as three ponies appeared. One of them was Twilight, one was a unicorn mare that Celestia didn’t recognize, and the third… “Auntie Celestia!” wailed Blueblood, flinging himself at her. “Please make me a prince again!”