The shadow step from Canterlot took less than a minute. Luna silently emerged from the shadow of her Unicorn Captain.
Moonstone Striker did not even flinch, merely stiffened to attention. “Sovereign.”
“Be at ease,” Luna stated, her regal tone normal and smooth, despite the doubts swirling in her soul. “We are simply visiting Twilight before returning to the field.”
Striker’s ears shifted, then he nodded, accepting the ‘truth' of her words.
You know me too well. Luna thought fondly.
A familiar pulse of magic brushed her horn as it rippled through the air. An instant later, a burst of magenta light and an increasingly familiar weight wrapped around her neck.
"Mummy."
"Ah, My Daughter." Even with everything on her mind, the little bundle of enthusiastic energy brought a smile to Luna’s muzzle.
The smaller pony nuzzled into Luna’s coat. The simple unadulterated affection was a balm to Luna's soul. For a blessed moment, the knowledge that the lights winking out in the Dream Realm were ponies dying lost its meaning.
Luna sat back on her haunches, embracing her daughter with both forehooves. She inhaled the scents that were rapidly meaning family. Lavender, paper, ink under burnt wood and far too much ice cream reached her nose. Along with all those fragrances was something else, something family to very few ponies. The hint of a heavy metallic scent rich with reptilian musk with a trace of something darker. It only took a moment for Luna's memory to recall it. "Why pray tell, daughter of mine, do you smell of hydra blood?"
A proud smile tried to find a place on Little Star's face, but an edge of worry kept pushing it down. “Well… I was running out of magically condensed Everfree wood, and I had a plan to help make a new body for Candice.”
For twenty minutes Luna listened, entranced. Her daughter and her friends had proven to be quite the little monster slayers. Little Star’s tale was as impressive as it was alarming. The largest part of her wanted to cheer, to throw a feast to celebrate her daughter's achievement. A smaller but adamant part insisted on finding a way to stop her daughter from evading her guards.
Little Star pulled the magically persevered head of a hydra out of thin air, holding it up like a trophy. Pride swelled in Luna’s chest as she beheld her daughter’s first trophy. “We will have to mount that somewhere.”
“We can?” Little Star pranced around in joy.
“Of course, it is your first feat of monster-slaying and deserves to be commemorated.” Luna nuzzled her daughter again, taking exaggerated sniffs. “Though, this does not explain why you still carry the scent of the beast's blood so heavily.”
“Well.” Little Star started pulling some thick scales out of the air. “I've been trying to work out what to do with these and other parts of the Hydra.”
“I trust the remains are all persevered like the head?”
Little Star nodded
“Then once the current… troubles have been dealt with, I will instruct you. Hydra bone is a versatile material, if officially frowned upon by my sister.”
Her daughter's eyes lit up like it was suddenly Hearth’s Warming. The joy behind those magenta windows to Little Star’s soul, so similar to Twilight, made what might be to come tonight all the harder. It would be so easy to put aside her doubts about the warning the changelings delivered. Damn you to Tartarus Chrysalis…
“Captain Striker, are you happy with the defences here? Can they stand on their own?”
“They’ll do.” He casually leaned against the wall, pulling a pair of mangos from his saddlebag. “With a bit of training, they could wipe the floor with anything the Solars have, they're not up to our standards in skill, but there are a lot of powerful ponies here.” He offered one of the fruits to Luna.
“Who do you think we are to eat such common fare?”
“Well, if you don’t want it…” He did not even have a chance to pull his hoof back before Luna snatched it up.
“Hazza, the victory is mine,” Luna smirked, revealing the two mangos held in her aura as the one Striker had kept for himself dissolved into motes of shadow.
“Again…”
“Until thou can reliably detect my illusions, you will keep losing mangos.” Luna extended thestral fangs, letting the points pierce the flesh of the fruit. It was nowhere as satisfying as the flesh of her foes. Still, the explosion of the sweet juice upon her tongue spoke of exactly how expensive these fruits were, more so with the coming food shortages.
“They were my last two…” He grumbled.
Luna leaned down, the fruit still in her mouth, offering it Striker. He did not need to be told twice. His own fangs savaged his prey, their lips nearly brushing was not even a distraction to the mango obsessed chosen. Innocent bliss crossed his face as he savoured every drop of juice, every bite of flesh from the fruit. Despite the patient cold anger that nested in the empty hollow inside her, bringing joy to one of her own still brought a smile to her. Even if I have to grow them myself, the Nightguard will never be without mangos.
“So, Striker, I find myself needing a pony for a special assignment.”
Striker’s hoof wiped the last of the errant juice from his muzzle. “What sort of special?”
“A playmate and guard for my daughter.”
“Hmm, I have a few suggestions for a guard... But playmate...”
“We shall be using an age spell on them.”
“Your sister is not going to be happy.”
“Then her unhappiness is a price I willingly pay for my daughter’s safety.”
“You're more interested in keeping her out of trouble or her getting into more trouble but always being able to get out of it?”
“The latter will allow her to grow more.”
“Then I think I have just the pony for the job.”
Luna’s hooves fought her as she got closer to her destination. It was as if the crystal floor resisted every attempt to lift her hooves. It was all in her mind. She still had all her power at her command, yet every fiber of her being begged her not to have the confrontation. That this time she could have what she wished, what she craved, and it not be a trick, a deception or a destructive vice.
As she rounded the last turn, the heavy, cloying metal scent of pony blood hung in the air almost caused Luna to salivate. Twilight, what are thou doing?
“Report,” she spoke in the almost inaudible thestral tongue.
“We believe Princess Twilight is performing surgery to restore Loyalty's wings.”
“You believe?”
“That’s what their conversation led us to believe before she warded the room against us.”
And she lets the scent of blood out… amateur. Luna approached the door.
Magenta magic tinged with silver enveloped the door, opening it before Luna. What are they up to that Sweet Dreams is tending to the physical world…
The half flayed remains of Rainbow, her back and wings split open and disassembled like a grizzly puzzle.
Luna paused, just looking in from the doorway. Magic that should rend and kill, instead perverted to a much more wholesome purpose. Well, that answers that.
Twilight hummed happily despite the dampness that dripped from her brow. Strands of her magenta magic danced between glistening white bones and twitching red muscles. A lesser pony would have only seen the gore, a horror story scene. Luna could appreciate the truth of the matter. Every part of Rainbow's body that had anything to do with flight was artistically splayed open. Thin webs of crimson Blood Magic kept all the flesh alive despite its current situation. Ethereal chains of Soul magic teased out Rainbow’s cerulean leylines and reforged them with Alicorn magic.
“Oh. Hi, Lulu.” Nightmare said distractedly as Twilight’s magic wrapped flesh and bone around the enhanced magical pathways.
“We will be with you in a minute,” Twilight said, each word to the rhythm of her hummed tune.
She still cares for what is hers. Luna thought, discarding the worst possibility as she watched the masterful manipulation of mortal flesh. Her mind held every detail tight awaiting the time to allow pigment to recapture the moment.
Finally, long lavender feathers nestled into Rainbow's wings, leaving an orderly pattern with the intact blue ones. Twilight’s magic carefully, tenderly laid the Element of Loyalty down, wings splayed wide as if drying after being painted.
A lavender muzzle placed a loving kiss upon the now peacefully sleeping mare’s forehead before the Nightmare’s slit eyes turned to meet Luna’s own. They narrowed almost imperceptibly. She knows…
The Nightmare’s slightest smirk and nod said, ‘I can read you like an open book, Little Luna’ even as Twilight obliviously spoke. “Thank you for waiting, Luna.” The back of a blood-stained hoof whipped across her face.
“We did not think it would be wise to interrupt thou during such an involved feat of magic.”
Silver-rimmed magenta radiance danced around the room, scouring every trace of discarded blood, bone and viscera from the room and occupants.
“Celestia hath commanded us to assist the griffons.” The Nightmare complained.
“We both know it's the right thing to do. They are our allies, and it helps protect Equestria as well,” Twilight said. Still, the possessive shift of her body made protecting Equestria incidental to protecting her territory, her home, this castle.
Subconscious Earthpony body language now, Twilight? Or is your guest subtly influencing you? Many ways this conversation could play out passed through Luna’s mind. It ‘seemed’ Twilight was unaware of her suspicions, an oblivious party in the conversation even as the Nightmare very much knew Luna suspected.
“Shall we retreat to somewhere more comfortable?” The Nightmare’s smooth tones offered.
Luna nodded. “We have had little time to rest since our time on the field of battle. We have long ago learnt to savour any available succour.”
“Then come, I know just the place.” Twilight’s body sauntered out of the room, past the openly staring guards.
Luna followed, not having to fake the interest in her eyes as they followed the stars on Twilight’s athletic flanks. Even if this is your fault, Night, you at least have my thanks for her improved physique.
“So, how goes your hunt?”
“For the blighted or your former captor?”
A single ember of flame drifted from Twilight’s mane. “We believe you would be in higher spirits if you had brought him your justice.”
Luna sighed, looking away to hide the accusation in her eyes from the Nightmare. “Regrettably, he has proven frustratingly adept at concealing himself from my talents.”
“You believe somepony taught him how to hide from you?” Twilight’s magic caressed Luna’s cheek, turning her head back to look at her. “You're wondering if it was me?” Twilight’s eyes glowed with an inner fire as soft round pupils became long, cruel slits.
“If you did, it would have been before our return from the moon.”
The inferno in Twilight cooled, the curious scholar peering out now that the coast appeared clear. “How could either of you have taught him when you were on the moon?”
“We still had access to the dreams of those with Night themed marks.”
“Like he does…”
“Yes, Twilight.”
Many calculations danced behind those enthralling magenta eyes. “No, I trust Dreams completely and Night almost as much,” Twilight said.
“And yet it is possible, Twilight.” The Nightmare admitted.
“What?” Confusions dripped from, Twilight voice.
“Both myself and Luna were quite mad, driven only by vengeance.”
The cold inside Luna deepened. The many ponies she had lost, not to violence or strife, simply to old age as she served her sentence upon the moon, weighed her down like heavy starmetal chains. “A thousand years is a very long time.”
“Yes, it was.” The Nightmare half purred, half snarled.
The scents of water, soaps and exotic floral blends made their destination clear.
“You remember it?” Luna asked.
Twilight's body stopped turning, but it was the Nightmare's slit eyes that stared back. “You do not?”
Only an effort of will stilled Luna’s trembling before it began. What is wrong with me.
The Nightmare’s cold eyes retreated, leaving Twilight’s softer, kinder ones. “I know things are a little stressful at the moment, but we are family.”
Was this true, was it a deception? Everything she could see told her this was Twilight speaking, but if anypony would be able to deceive her, it would be the Nightmare.
Soft feathers rested against Luna’s back as Twilight’s delightfully soft wings entrapped her in a feathery embrace. “Come, let me take this stress away.”
A slight pressure and Luna’s hooves moved almost of their own accord. Her longer limbs taking slower strides to match Twilight's pace. It was so easy just to be guided, to accept. Why did she have to doubt and mistrust so? As if reading her mind, Twilight offered a little smile. “Everything will be alright, you’ll see.” With tender eyes, Twilight guided Luna into the luxurious crystal baths.
Magenta magic tenderly massaged her hooves as it stripped away the reinforced shoes from them. Every piece of the royal accoutrements neatly set aside as the smaller lavender mare coaxed her into the embrace of the scented water.
Luna let her body play the part of an entranced maiden. It was not hard with Twilight's beauty and those half-lidded eyes full of veiled promises. Luna could ravage her right here and now, but she still had her self appointed mission. She still had to know. Luna directed things as if this was merely a dream, hiding the core of her intellect behind what the Nightmare might expect to see, what she might have encountered back when Luna was a naive and lonely filly.
A deep bath was not an ideal battleground, and with so many of the peasants under Twilight's protection in the castle, collateral damage could rapidly mount. Neither of us are sea ponies, so a position of equal vulnerability? What are you playing at, Nightmare?
The luxurious warmth seeped through battle-hardened flesh, exotic incense fought to calm her warry mind, but they were nothing to the mare that had experienced every distraction the equine mind could conceive of in their dreams.
Twilight shifted, moving, the ripples through the water lapped against Luna like a gentle tide. “So, Lulu, what is it to be?”
Luna raised an eyebrow.
“Tis not hard to see your mistrust.”
Luna felt her eyes narrow. “You understand, of course?”
The Nightmare's rich laugh escaped Twilight's muzzle. “Naturally, you would be a fool to trust us completely.”
“Night!” Twilight snapped, her shocked expression overtaking their shared face. “We are meant to be giving her reasons to trust us, not telling her she can't trust us.”
“She is not a naive modern pony. Twilight, you have seen enough of this world to know there is far more darkness in this world than Sister ever allows the ponies to see.”
“Still…”
“We are a risk, a danger. We ‘could’ have set the blight upon the world. Luna would be negligent in her duties if she did not investigate us.”
Twilight lay back in the bath, her annoyed huff sending ripples across the surface of the water. “Does not mean I have to like it.” The mare crossed her forelegs with an adorable pout of her face.
Luna watched the little interplay. Everything that Twilight did was permitted by the Nightmare. The whole display could be nothing more than a performance.
Twilight's round eyes morphed into Nightmare's slitted ones. “So, Lulu, what are you going to do? Every moment you ‘waste’ with me here means that ponies out there die.”
Bile and frozen shards churned in Luna’s chest, but for now, she kept her calm expression. “You know my dilemma?”
“Yes, you want to trust us.” The Nightmare splayed Twilight's alluring wings wide, allowing herself to float belly up. “Just make your mind up.” The Nightmare closed her eyes and sighed in contentment.
The Nightmare was there, completely defenceless, not a single magical defence in place, eyes closed, ignoring her. You will not ignore me. A bloodthirsty part of Luna snarled in the privacy of her mind.
“Why are you not taking this seriously?” Luna asked, her voice as cold as the darkest night in the frozen north.
“Why should I?” The Nightmare half-opened her eyes and lazily swirled them to glance at Luna. “We are going to fight, or we are not. Why should I stop enjoying this life I have? Why should I not relish every second of indulgence I can claim?”
“Our ponies are dying?”
“And? ‘My’ ponies are here and safe.”
That was not a response Twilight would let stand without comment. “Where is Twilight?” Luna demanded.
“Back in her library reading again… or enjoying Sweet Dreams' embrace. I can never tell with those two.” The Nightmare let a little fang show in her content smirk.
Her power trembled inside her. The strength of earth wanted to crush the Nightmare underhoof. Her horn ached to reach out and turn blood to blades or call shadows to strangle the smug mare. Anything to wipe that expression off that muzzle.
The Nightmare let her eyes close again. “This is still Twilight's body, you know…”
“How did…”
“Luna, Luna, Luna. I know more about you than you do. I remember every moment of your life, every detail, every lover, every hatred.” The Nightmare lowered her voice to just a whisper. “Everything your sister would keep from thou.”
“And We should trust ‘you’?”
“Our heart bleeds, calling us 'you' like some common pony and not thou like you should with us being so close.” The Nightmare snorted with amusement, airly waving a hoof in the air. “We have everything we could have asked for. What need have us to waste the effort on something like the blight?”
“Revenge.”
“When we first returned from the moon, yes, but you know what revenge does not get you?”
“What?” Luna asked, her voice flat.
“Sex, good food and friends.”
Luna blinked, “Are you so shallow?”
“You try remembering every second on the airless void of the moon. The only sensation being the cold vacuum of space trying to kill our immortal being.” Hard slitted eyes stared into Luna's own. “It really teaches you to appreciate the little things.”
Everything the Nightmare was saying was plausible. Everything made sense. And yet, everything could still be a trick, a trap. Luna let her eyes flick in the direction of Canterlot. What are you hiding from me, Sister?
“So, Sister dearest still has not trusted you with the truth?”
“Do not bait us, fragment.”
“Fragment now? We hath a name, and We are not merely Sister’s tool.”
Luna’s wings flared, twin sprays of water soaked the room. “We are nopony's tool.” The Royal Canterlot Voice resonated off the crystal walls.
“Sore point, Lulu?” The Nightmare’s tone tore through the last bit of restraint. Luna moved.
A blink of an eye, less than a heartbeat later and Twilight's innocent eyes looked up through the water as it crashed back down around them. Luna felt the familiar crunch on a broken spine through her hoof. Only the strength of an Alicorn’s body kept her head attached.
Luna blinked, her fangs retreated and the feral snarl died in her throat. She was pining Twilight, her saviour beneath her. Earthen magic flowed through her body, empowering her. What have I done? Luna fell back onto her haunches, another flood of water escaped the bath, but Luna did not care.
“Lu… Luna… what the buck?” Twilight’s hoarse voice croaked as she rose from the water, rubbing at her regenerating throat.
“The Nightmare…”
“Night did nothing but talk to you. You're the one that decided breaking my neck was a good counterpoint.”
“But...”
“If I had not already been through my trial, you could have destroyed Ponyville. If I was mortal, you would have killed me.”
Red hot anger and jagged shards of frozen self-loathing gnawed at Luna’s gut. “We… we did not mean to hurt thee, Twilight.”
“There are some things where what you intended no longer matters.” Twilight’s calm disapproving eyes pierced Luna's heart more than Nightmare’s sneer ever could.
“We offer our apologies, Twilight.” Luna’s heavy head lowered of its own accord. How had she let herself lose control? Why had she done that to her betrothed? The Nightmare’s cackle echoed in her ears. Luna knew it was her imagination, but that did nothing to silence it.
“You know your guest provoked me?”
“Yes, and you're a big mare. You’re over a thousand years old. I’m more than fifty times younger than you. I should be the immature one.”
How did this one mare make her feel like a little filly again? Being told off for sneaking cookies from the cooks before dinner. The mental image made her want to laugh, but that would most definitely not be the correct response to Twilight’s inquisition.
Twilight’s magenta eyes softened as she walked forward through the warm bathwater. Twilight’s wet coat pressed against Luna’s own as the lavender mare slowly enfolded Luna in an embrace. “I know you've been through a lot, but losing your temper will not help.”
“The Nightmare…”
“Her name is Night. She stopped being the Nightmare after the Elements got through with her.”
“Night deliberately engineered my response, you know that.”
Twilight's head caressed Luna's neck as she nodded. “Of course, and I will be having words with her later.”
Luna closed her eyes and simply returned the embrace. Nothing about this encounter was going to plan.
Twilight sighed. “What am I going to do with both of you?”
“Sex seems to be a good option,” the Nightmare, or Night as Twilight insisted, added.
Twilight slowly facehooved. “Night, you know Cadance would be very unhappy with us.”
“So? You know you want to.”
“Infuriating imp to tempting succubus in one conversation. Please, at least be civil, Night.” Luna asked.
“So you do know our name?” Night purred.
“Night, please stop trying to provoke her. You have done enough.”
“Fine, but only because we are a family.” Night huffed.
Right before her eyes, Twilight and the Nightmare were bickering like a long-married couple. The being that was responsible for so much of her pain, that had turned her into a monster, now seemed just as harmless as Cadance. Luna pressed her hoof to her forehead and hoped the pressure might do something to suppress the building headache.
Luna took a calming breath, letting the incense and Twilight’s sweet scent soothe her nerves. “How are we to move past this impasse? Night you understand my doubts apparently better than I do.”
“Well first, what brought this on? We were getting along just fine last time we met.”
“My sister was presented with information blaming all this on you.”
“Then ask yourself this, do you trust both your sister and her source?”
“My sister… in this case, yes. The source, less so, but the question is how did they know of your return?”
“And who was the source?” Twilight asked.
“The changelings.”
The Nightmare let out a restrained but still chillingly evil laugh. “Oh, Queeny is still upset about my trap?”
“Queeny?” Twilight asked.
“That upstart Chrysalis wanted to take my pet from me.”
“What did you do?”
“That impudent lesser being tried to break the mind of our Emerald, so we returned the favour. We doubted it would cause any real harm to the pretend Queen. The link she uses is too fragile to support the more entertaining of surprises I could have used.”
“So… all this time, the changelings have known that you were out and about?”
“Yes, so. It's not...” Night was cut off by a titanic face hoof.
Luna was sorely tempted to perform her own face hoof. Either your acting has gotten better, or you're just incompetent. “You let one of our most dangerous foes know a piece of information that could get my sister to try and kill Twilight here?” Luna did not even try to hide her anger. The formerly warm bath water solidified to ice around them.
“Why do I even bother?” Twilight murmured.
“I know the cold doesn't bother us, and yet these bath things do prove to be so much more relaxing when the water is in a liquid state.” Night stated.
Flames flicked to life in Twilight’s eyes before dancing along her mane and tail. Ice cracked and melted as she broke the embrace and retreated to the far side of the bath. Luna sat opposite her betrothed, encased in ice as the lavender mare with flaming mane reclined in the boiling water only a few body lengths away.
Ice hissed and squealed as an endless cloud of steam rose, filling the room from where the two opposing elements battled. Rain dripped down from above. Luna's own magic literally formed the dark clouds above herself from the humid air.
Minutes passed with Twilight’s intense, unblinking stare matching Luna’s own. What is even the point of this? Luna thought, sighing. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“We are well aware of that.” A mix of Twilight and the Nightmare spoke in concert. The strange duality of voice sent shivers along Luna’s ears.
“How can I be certain this is not a deception? I am well aware of both your competence and the depths of your insights into myself.”
“The truth is you can never be. At some point, you have to put your trust in us.” The unified mares spoke.
“Or not.” Night added, alone in her single voice.
“We wish to trust you.”
“Then do.” Twilight offered.
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is. If you can not trust our words, trust our actions.” Night said.
Twilight’s form stood tall from the water. Steam poured from her coat as the heat from her mane evaporated the scented liquid. “We offer thee a pact. We both, Twilight and Night, swear upon our immortal life that we shall offer no lie, no deception, no trick or misinformation to anypony until we depart this room.”
Luna watched on, shock stealing the words from her mouth as Twilight's magic flared and ancient words sealed the pack. The weight of the ancient magic pressed down upon the room. It was as if a million eyes suddenly focused on them.
Twilight smiled calm and relaxed as she settled back down into the roiling water. Her neck gracefully, willingly placed in the figurative guillotine of her magic's own creation.
“Twilight…”
“Now, do you trust us?”
“Thou know what thou just did?”
Twilight just nodded, still with that content smile upon her face.
Twilight’s smile turned more malevolent as Night’s slit eyes revealed themselves. “Something Sister would never dare do, something she could never survive with her plans intact by any means but staying silent if you were in the room.”
It was true, at any point Celestia could have done something similar. A single pact, simple but ancient words and Luna would never need to doubt anything her sister told her.
“Did you release the blight?”
“Not this time.”
“This time?”
“It took multiple attempts to create the perfected spell. We take it you don't remember helping us in its conception?”
Luna shook her head. “You know Celestia burned away some of my memories, some things I learned that turned me evil, that let me fall to you.”
Night snorted. “Of course, that's what she would tell you.”
“Be nice.” Twilight cautioned.
“Fine, fine.” Night started before muttering, “There had better be cookies and hamburgers later.”
Luna just caught the laugh before it broke free. What, Nightmare, is Twilight keeping you good with treats? The whole idea was ridiculous. Still, the almost foal-like petulance in Night’s eyes was just too realistic, too much like Luna remembered being many years ago to be simply discounted.
Casual strength allowed Luna to recline, matching Twilight’s pose. The ice shattering around her settled into a perfect supportive mould to her powerful body.
“Do you intend to protect this nation?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered.
“Only because Twilight wants to, and I can't stand letting somepony else destroy Equestria.”
“Night!” Twilight complained.
“What? If anypony is allowed to destroy Equestria, it's me. So as you seem to have talked me out of it, for now, I guess I will have to look after it.”
Twilight just shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Let's talk about that later. This is Luna’s time to question us.”
“Thank you. Do you know how the blight… we created got loose.”
“Know? No.” Night shook her head. “I have many thoughts on how it could have happened. I can tell you that they managed to cast the spell correctly but did not modify it at all.”
“And that means?”
“It means, if I reveal my true identity, I can command at least some of the creatures and most of the foliage that has been blighted.”
“A backway into the spell?”
“Not quite. The spell was meant to sow chaos, to disrupt a whole nation while creating fortifications and a ready army for us.”
“So you could command it?”
“Once it has run its course and the most potent of the blighted have gathered, ready for their Queen to assume control.”
Luna sighed. “So, too little, too late.”
“And how do you think Sister will react if Twilight takes on our darker and more comely appearance?”
Luna closed her eyes. She knew exactly how Celestia would react. She had foreseen it. That haunting vision pulled from the dream augury returned. Twilight’s skull, covered in crystal, screamed in agony, in rage. Few things could kill an Alicorn. The darkest of black magics, an Alicorn’s horn driven through the heart or brain, or the complete and utter disintegration of every atom of the pony.
“Luna?” Twilight’s voice was soft, concerned.
Luna looked up. Twilight was looking at her. The young mare had nothing but warmth and worry in her eyes. Behind them, even Night looked out, worried but wise enough to see that Luna’s reaction spelled trouble.
“We do not wish to find out what Sister might do if she believes you have fallen, Twilight.”
“Nor do we, we find living to be preferable than being banished to the moon or being escorted to oblivion. Now surely you have more questions, little doubts you wish assuaged. Things that Sister has been keeping from you?”
Luna retreated to her bastion, her body perfectly still as she paced back and forth atop the battlements. There were so many things she could ask, so many things she could finally know the truth of. But what if Sister is right? What if I ask the wrong question and lose myself in madness?
“Luna, stop hiding in your head and get out here and talk.”
Luna's eyes refocused on the material world. The ice around her was gone, returned to warm water, and Twilight muzzle was almost touching her own. Warm breath tickled the coat of her face, and large eyes looked at her.
“Good, you’re back. We were wondering if we were going to have to come in after you.” Twilight said, shifting as she nestled in against Luna's side. The contact was warmer than the water, both physically and emotionally.
The new position was far less confrontational, no longer adversaries staring at each other from the elementally opposed sides of the bath. No, now they were lovers to be in a simple embrace beside each other.
Luna turned to face her smaller betrothed, and soft lips captured her own. “Twilight?”
“This is a much nicer tone for our conversation, right?”
A nod was the only appropriate response. “There are things I am reluctant to ask.”
“I think I believe that knowing the truth is better than not.”
“That's a strange statement, my Twilight,” Luna said, resting her hoof upon her betrothed’s leg.
“It’s merely logical. I do not wish to accidentally kill myself because of this truth pact.”
“Wise.” Luna nodded. “But do you now know your own thoughts?”
“I know there are things I was happier not knowing.” Twilight sighed. “So there is a chance my opinions have altered and I may not be consciously aware of them.”
Luna nuzzled her betrothed, her wing tightening, offering support to the smaller mare. Her unique scent was still detectable beneath the blend of expensive fragrances in the bathwater. Luna let her eyes close and merely listened to Twilight’s heartbeat. The slow rhythm holding Luna’s nerves at bay. There was a question she had to ask. An uncertain truth that she feared to learn the answer to. “Why did we turn against Sister?”
“You don't know?” Night’s slit eyes were full of surprise. “How can you not know?”
“We remember little of that time, of what set us off and the bulk of the sins we committed when we submitted to you.”
Night’s presence retreated, leaving Twilight in sole control of their body. “Sorry, Luna, Night just needs a few moments to calm down.”
“She's throwing a temper tantrum, is she not?”
“I would more describe it as demonstrating her vocabulary and applying it to negative comments of Celestia.”
“That's a very you way to describe her reaction.”
“Well, do you expect me to use another pony's way to describe things?”
“We suppose not.”
“And here she comes.”
“So, Sister took even the memories of her crimes of her violation of us from you.”
“Violation?”
“She… She... that utter…” Night face twitched, each word spat out as she failed to keep a snarl from her muzzle. “We had countless fragments, at times one for each pony who dreamed. The ponies that caught our eyes, or truly befriended the fragments sent to them often kept them for their lives, the fragment returning to us enriched by the experience.” Even in the steam-filled room, the shimmer of moisture was clear as Night battled to keep tears away. “Each fragment was fully named, a friend, our family. Each, the keeper of the memories of our most beloved ponies.”
Luna did not want to ask, did not want to know, but the question slipped from her lips anyway. “What happened?”
“Celestia did.” The name was a curse. The bitter hatred darkened the room as vile darkmagic danced along Twilight's horn. “She killed them all, she forced her way into our bastion and burned them all, and you know what else she did? As she restrained us, as she had us helpless in our own mind?”
Luna’s ears lowered. Her voice was barely a whisper. “What?”
An imitation of Celestia's most kind and loving tone came from Twilight’s muzzle. “Let this be a lesson to thee. They're only fragments, only tools. Next time, thou shan’t craft them to an excess again.” Tears streamed from Twilight as slit eyes glared at Luna, seething with boundless rage.
The pact was still there, its magic still intact. Both Twilight and Night still lived. That meant one thing, one thing that Luna truly, deeply wished to be untrue.
Night pulled away from the embrace, slowly standing with all the grace of a zombie. “That is why we hate her. That is why we tried to kill her. It was the final crime she committed against us. We, the monster, the killer, the assassin she crafted us into, had finally had too much.”
“We had no idea…”
“That is why we no longer cared. The world could freeze in endless night, anything, so long as we could kill her.” Night dragged herself from the water, her tears leaving ripples in the water. With each, Twilight muttered a number. In a flash of magenta magic, she vanished.
The beast inside Luna thrashed, it wanted out, it wanted to head right back to Canterlot and give her fellow Princess more than just a piece of her mind.
Carefully, deliberately, Luna laid back in the bath. Her body trembled with power. Her wrath, her bloodlust demanded action, demanded revenge. Yet, she did nothing. She could not. The nation would not survive without its shining beacon, the most beloved and powerful pony in all existence.
Luna let her head slip beneath the water as she retreated to her bastion yet again.
Why sister? What possible purpose could such a thing serve in your grand design for Equestria?