//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Celestia's Plan // Story: Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided // by cursedchords //------------------------------// “They say that the long arc of history is invisible until many years after it has passed. In that sense, I suppose that I have an advantage.” - Journals of High Princess Celestia (Vol. 4) “Okay, let’s take this from the start.” Unfortunately, at least as far as Luna was concerned, the drought had so lowered the water table around Canterlot that the bottom levels of the palace dungeons, which were normally oppressively damp, now were just pleasantly cool. Still, seeing the iron bars that blocked the entrance to Pensive’s small cell was at least somewhat comforting. These lower levels were magically hardened, cut out of the solid rock of the mountainside, and the only way back up to the palace was now watched by a whole squad of dedicated guards. The search of the Senate’s wing had yet to turn up any of Pensive’s co-conspirators, but even if they did somehow escape there was no way that they were going to help him out this time. Regrettably, the search hadn’t turned up any evidence of Celestia’s whereabouts either. As far as anypony could tell, the elder Princess had just vanished. Once the storm broke, they would have to make some discreet inquiries around Canterlot. It wouldn’t do for the citizenry to find out that she was missing, but it was also paramount that she be found. Never mind just knowing that she was safe, Luna was also now in sore need of some legal advice. At least Pensive could probably help with that part. So long as she could trust what he had to tell her. Though the accounts of the other senators upstairs had all corroborated the main point: the Senate had voted to cede its power to the executive, and with Celestia apparently missing, that meant Luna was now Equestria’s first-ever queen. The former senator was sitting with his back up against the cell’s rear wall, observing Luna keenly through the bars. That oily grin had at least left his face when he saw the confines that were to become his new home. Yet, even so, Luna had the distinct sense that he was very pleased with how his morning had gone. “When the storm struck, there was a lot of confusion,” he began. “Down here, the guards didn’t know what was going on, and neither did I, but it was clear that it was something important. The first thing we heard was what sounded like a battle.” “Your friends fighting their way to you?” Luna prompted. She’d had Swift bring down a seat so that she could at least be comfortable for this interrogation, as well as a pitcher of ice water just in case things went on longer than expected. “I’ve told you already. There were none.” He sounded exasperated, something else that brought her a sense of enjoyment. “As much as I’ll admit that I did fan the flames of the city, that protest outside wasn’t organized by me. Those ponies just wanted some shelter and something to eat.” “Then how did you escape?” He shrugged. “One of the guards left to check on things upstairs. After a while, the other one was going to go too. His brother was on the wall this morning. I told him that my father had an early appointment to see me, and would have been here by now. I needed to make sure that he was safe.” Luna made a mental note of that. “That was it?” “Not in as many words, but I’ll skip the flowery parts. A silky tongue can be a wondrous asset in the political business. And it was worth the risk, if it meant that I might have the chance to escape your wrath.” “If you were trying to escape, then why did we find you in the Senate chamber? That’s completely on the other end of the palace.” She was really going to have to drill the Guard on managing crises in the future. There were so many things which shouldn’t have been allowed to happen this morning, and an escaped prisoner making it to the Senate chamber was only the beginning. Pensive paused for a moment, cocking his head to point an ear up toward the ceiling. This far underground, the sound of the storm, which was dying down by now, was completely inaudible. Even so, the meaning was clear. “Fate had apparently conspired against me taking that road. I thought perhaps that I could slip out in the confusion if there was ever a break in the weather. The Senate’s wing was a natural place to hide, with plenty of rooms to take shelter in. “Getting into the chamber itself was actually not even my idea. A good number of the senators were already in the chamber, you see, prepping for what was sure to be another marathon session. A few of my fellows had spent the night, in fact, so that we could drag you out of bed at the earliest opportunity, and perhaps take a drowsily mumbled ‘Nay’ as a ‘Yea’ instead.” He chuckled at that last thought, though the sound echoed hollowly in the stone chamber. “They were in the process of barricading the doors when I joined them.” Their interrogations of the other senators had already yielded much the same story, and surely Pensive had known that they would. Which meant it would be hard for him to lie about the next, most important question too. “And how did hiding in the chamber suddenly turn into a motion for the abdication of the Senate’s powers?” He leaned his head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling for a time, perhaps thinking his way through his reasoning process. Then, he got to his hooves, and walked up to the front of the cell, until he was standing only about five feet or so from Luna, the only barrier being the bars. There was an unfamiliar openness in his eyes, an honest openness, in fact. “If I told you that I wanted to see this crisis over as much as you do, Your Majesty, would you believe me?” This time it was Luna’s turn to smirk. “Over, maybe, but you and I want very different things, Pensive.” “What you or I want is no longer material,” he answered. “We both went through the same chaos upstairs. Perhaps the only difference was that I saw it for what it was: the beginning of the end if action doesn’t come right away. There’s no time for debate anymore. There’s no time for politics. Either we find a solution right now, or let this country blow away like dust on the wind.” “And what solution is that?” Luna was waiting for that familiar grin to come to his face, but Pensive stayed serious. “We both know that we only have one option for dealing with this crisis. I’ve been telling you that for days now. Perhaps, now that you’ve seen what it looks like for the rest of the country, you understand that.” She bit her tongue to stifle the outburst that came to her mind. “You made me Queen just so that you could coerce me into signing your law?” “Obviously it was never my intention to make you Queen,” he replied, his natural haughtiness sneaking back into his tone. “Had your sister not disappeared I would have been much happier to see her in charge.” “You actually believe that she would have signed it?” “Yes,” he replied, simply and with surprising conviction. After a moment of looking at Luna’s surprised expression, his grin finally returned. “And you see, that is exactly why I think that she would make a much better Queen. Because you cannot imagine a situation where circumstance forces you to act against your ideals. But Celestia? She can step back. She can appreciate that sometimes the big picture outweighs the individual. In time, when she realized that she had no other choice, she absolutely would have signed it. You, however, are going to fight on pointlessly until the bitter end. And by then, who knows if you’ll still have a country left to save?” More than a little insulted, Luna shook her head. “You’re wrong. Wrong on both counts actually. Celestia understands her responsibilities just as well as I, to do what is right, to guide Equestria through this time. You weren’t there to see what Equestria was like when we were young, but it suffered, and all as a result of ponies who thought like you. There is still hope, and my fight is not pointless so long as any still exists.” Sighing, he turned away from the bars. “I try to be reasonable,” he said, exasperated again at the predicted back and forth. “And you refuse.” Seeing they were going nowhere, Luna decided to try a different tack, in the hopes of steering the conversation away from more posturing. “Tell me something, Pensive,” she said, letting go of her hostility for the moment. If he wanted to be honest, then they could be honest. “When you sat in your study and decided on the course that you were going to follow, how did you see it ending?” He sat down once more by the wall of the cell, gazing off into the distance. “Delicately, of course. Some resistance was only to be expected, but with the right application of pressure, the consequences of inaction would loom larger than the ideals that stood in our way. The winter would have been hard, but ultimately Equestria would be a better place.” “What if the rains still did not come?” “Your Majesty,” he said dryly, “if by then there was still no rain, then no decision by you or I would have changed this country’s fate. It would not be a pretty end no matter who was in charge.” She took a sip from her water, eying him serenely. “So it was only greed that drove you then. No grander plan than ensuring you and your followers got the biggest slice of the pie.” He shrugged again. “What is the Senate if not ponies fighting for their own? If what you wanted was a government of unity, then it would seem I have ultimately done you a great favour. Whatever the circumstances you’ll find upon the surface, at least you are now free to confront them in whichever manner best suits your conscience.” And there they were again. Back once more at the solution, the obvious one, as he had been saying all along. This wasn’t going to go anywhere. There was no point in trying to win a debate down here, not with a real crisis to solve upstairs. Getting up off of her seat, she picked up the cushions with her magic. “I suppose I do agree with you there, traitor. In some sense you have given me a gift, and so perhaps I should give you something in return. In fact, I have something which I know is very dear to you.” The confused glance that she got in return brought a cold mirth up into Luna’s heart. She pulled a thick stack of parchments out from under her seat. Even in the gloom of the torchlight, the flowery script that marked the first page was unmistakable. “We won’t be needing this upstairs, so perhaps you could find some use for it. Because I will never sign it, not while there is a breath left in my body.” He again sighed and turned away from the bars. “Then I suppose you will have to make peace with the fact that in addition to being Equestria’s first Queen, you will also be its last Princess.” She tossed the parchment into the cell, letting the pages flutter loosely in the air as she left, taking the stairs up to the rest of the dungeons two at a time. It was true that the senator had given up a lot for his conviction that a dramatic realignment was the only way to solve the issue. As much as she wouldn’t, or couldn’t believe that Pensive’s words held an ounce of sense, her encounter with Inkwell came back into her mind unbidden. Desperation had driven him on, to the point of stepping in front of her and threatening her with force. For three hundred years Luna had criss-crossed the country in her travels, and never once had she encountered such hostility, not even in the early years when she was still getting used to her position. Reason told her there had to be a peaceful way to defuse the situation, but how could reason prevail in the face of such immovable forces? What reason could possibly protect the unicorns and the earth ponies from once again standing at each other’s throats, fighting over what there was left until nothing of Equestria remained? She shook her head. Wrong thoughts. If she let herself get too far down that road, Pensive would end up being right. She would find a better solution. She had to. That was what Equestria needed from its Princess. That was what it needed from both of its Princesses. Wherever Celestia was right now, Luna hoped that she too was working on the solution. The Sun’s light was just starting to glisten on the backs of Celestia’s wings when she saw her destination rising on the horizon. Harmony Tower was the royal retreat, and though this was the first time in centuries that she’d made the trek out here, a retreat was certainly what she needed right now. A retreat not only from the tension in the capital, but away from prying eyes and responsibilities, so that she could dare try something extraordinary. For a completely separate reason, Celestia also now needed the rest. Flying south, she had taken the long way from Canterlot, avoiding populated areas to be sure that nopony would catch even a glimpse of her in the night sky. That also meant flying dark, and navigating as best as possible by moonlight and by the stars overhead. When she’d reached the eastern edges of Everfree Forest and turned west over them, Celestia had already been nearly exhausted. Heavens, she had been exhausted when she had first set out, drained from a whole day of filibustering the Senate chamber. After a whole night’s flight, her eyelids were threatening to drop down of their own accord, in spite of the blazing sunlight that was illuminating the forest all around her now. Everfree had, of course, seen better days, in the years when there had been rain to nourish it. Even the great Everfree River, which would usually have helped keep the forest vibrant, was little more than a trickle making its way west toward the falls that marked the entrance to the Griffon Kingdom. The trees underneath her were still struggling along, putting out what leaves they could muster, but all around even Everfree looked little better than the rest of Equestria. Barely holding on, and not for long either. In the sea of decaying brown, Harmony Tower looked like a welcome respite, a slender spike of purple stone planted like a needle in amongst the boughs, banners fluttering proudly from its upper balconies, its roof made of sleek tiles that in the sunlight shone with the fire of the dawn itself. It was a reminder, Celestia thought, that there was pride in Equestria yet. In the midst of this dying land, there was power and magic still. And that meant that everything she was about to try would have some value. Celestia knew that she needed to do something to defuse the crisis that was about to erupt in Equestria. Whether spurred by Pensive’s outrageous law, or by legislative gridlock bringing the food shortages to their head, all of the paths forward now led only to disaster. She had thought that her place was in the capital, negotiating a peaceful solution, but in fact she now realized that there was something even better she could do. Luna had her Academy up in the mountains, but Celestia wasn’t really all that skilled with the weather. She had always taken quicker to the arts of unicorn magic, the subtle manipulation of energies that twisted the fabric of reality into a new form. Up until now, she hadn’t thought a magical solution could exist to deal with the drought, but something in Star Swirl’s story had blossomed into an interesting idea. A way that maybe, just maybe, she could create a spell that would solve this problem, not just now, but forever. And if she wanted to pull it off, she would need a private place to work. Harmony Tower was staffed by its own dedicated detachment of the Royal Guard, tasked with keeping the complex in the proper condition and maintaining the grounds. Luna knew most about the operation, since she was after all the one who made use of the place most of the time, but in any event Celestia had known that even without warning she would find a warm welcome here. Indeed, three attendants were already waiting for her when she landed on the wide flight platform situated about midway up the tower’s length. The unexpected scent of freshly cut grass was the first thing that she noticed, and it brought with it a refreshing vigour. That alone could at least keep her on her hooves until she could settle down into bed. “Your Highness,” intoned the captain of the detachment, a stocky unicorn in gleaming armor who stood at the front of the welcoming party. In spite of his regal appearance, Celestia could see that his face was mired in confusion. “This is an unforeseen visit.” “There will be time for explanations later, Captain,” she replied, giving him an imperious glare, helped by the visible bags under her eyes. “I’ve traveled all through the night, and right now the thing that I need most is a safe place to rest. I trust that such an apartment has been maintained here.” The formality did the trick. The captain nodded and stepped aside to let her pass. “Naturally. Though your suite has seen little use over the years, you will find that it still meets the standards that you deserve, Your Highness. Will you be wanting anything else?” “I will call when I need something, don’t worry.” If what Luna always told her about the staff of the tower was true, that call might be a long time coming. Her sister claimed that the kitchen had an almost clairvoyant understanding of when their guests wished to take their meals. “Thank you of course for your service.” She took another sniff of the grounds, blooming green and vibrant even amongst the otherwise bone-dry forest. “And please tell the groundskeeper that he has my highest commendations. This place is a wonderful sight after everything else that I’ve been through.” The whole group nodded back, and then the tower’s main doors opened before her, and Celestia started the trek up to the apartments. In truth, the fresh air here combined with the new light of dawn had given her a shot of energy, enough perhaps to let her do some rudimentary planning before settling into bed. She could still feel the crushing weight of exhaustion buried underneath, deep in her bones, but time was short. Every minute wasted was another minute in which the country edged closer to the abyss. As she climbed higher, the branches and leaves that she could spy outside the windows grew thinner, until eventually she could look out over the forest once again. It felt strange to be back here after so long, in the place where it really had all begun for her and Luna. Out on the horizon, a dollop of grey marked the ruins of the old Citadel of Everfree, once the last bastion of hope in Discord’s Equestria, now nothing but an abandoned, empty husk. But it was still full of memories for the pony who remembered everything that had happened there. In this forest, Celestia and Luna had destroyed Discord’s magic. They had created the Elements of Harmony, and in doing so they had brought reality to the hope that ponies could one day be free again. If Celestia had her way, the forest would be playing host to another such momentous occasion in short order. The problem, as she saw it, was rivalry. As far back as the records went, the pony nation had always been fractious. Unicorn versus pegasus versus earth pony, coming to blows every few centuries, no matter the reforms and promises of peace which had always followed. It had been the same in Star Swirl’s time, and it had been the same in Celestia’s youth, too, as the Orders of the Resistance had fought over the right to rule the new Equestria. Even if she somehow found a temporary solution which would patch things up for now, it would only be a matter of time until a new crisis heralded the next flare of conflict. Magic couldn’t create food, but she hoped that it could solve that bigger underlying issue, if applied in the right way. What the pony tribes really needed was a system, a framework that would remove that competition that always rose up between them, and so keep everypony happy. Laws could create something like that, but laws could be worked around. Magic, though… magic was infallible. Celestia already had a basic sketch of the spell in her head, but she would need stacks of parchment to map the whole thing out. For this to work, the magic would have to be adaptable, extensible, and above all extremely powerful. Pity that Luna had to be occupied keeping things in the capital under control. If the two of them combined their powers using the Elements, Celestia was sure that they would make short work of the casting. Alone, it was well beyond her abilities. But then, peace and quiet wasn’t the only reason that she had come to Everfree. Cresting the stairway, Celestia found herself faced by two plain-looking wooden doors, identical save for brass nameplates that had been mounted upon them. Hers faced east, and inside a down mattress waited to take her in. Instead of settling down into it, though, Celestia strode up to the window. There was a dry breeze wafting over the forest, enough to set her mane dancing over her shoulder, and also take the moisture right off of her lips. From this viewpoint, she could see out into the opposite direction from the Citadel, toward the hills that rose up dark and grim in the distance. Centuries ago, her mentor Aqua had been the first one to show her those heights. Some primal force in this forest there amplified the power of all magic, and with it Celestia thought that she might be able to cast her spell without aid. Even from this distance she could feel the gentle thrum of the magic in her mind. Nopony knew where it came from, but with it she and Luna had once conquered evil, and she was sure that she could do it again. First, though, she needed to know what exactly she was going to be trying. Across from the bed, a large reading desk was nestled up against the wall, with a quill and ink bottle ready to go on it, and a stack of blank parchments there too. Sitting down, Celestia banished the exhaustion from her mind’s eye and set to work, page upon page filling with constraints and quantities, invocations and equations. With each stroke of ink her eyelids would droop a little lower, but she paid her exhaustion no heed. Equestria needed her, and this time she was going to do whatever it took.