It has now been a week since Princess Luna was visited by Nightmare Moon, and although Celestia has paid much attention to her little sister since her return from exile, she has discovered nothing of the visit, or any of the other visits in the past week. Luna has had to work very hard to hide these visits from her ever-watchful sister, and her efforts have not been in vain.
“Good morning, my Sister. I trust you have slept well this night?” Luna asked her sister in passing one morning. “ The night was uneventful as ever, and though I should be glad for the calm, it has caused a sense of ennui to creep into my life.”
“Good Day, little one. I slept rather well this night I can assure you, but I must say, you look as though you have not slept in many days, is something bothering you? Celestia’s suspicions of Luna not sleeping were correct. In fact, ever since the first visit, the Princess of the Moon had not slept very well at all. “ You claim the lack of trouble during your watches have begun to bore you, yet it looks as though your nights have been far more eventful than you claim. Please, my sister, tell me what is bothering you.”
“I am fine, Sister, I appreciate your concern, but I assure you there is nothing wrong, I am merely suffering from a slight case of insomnia. I shall be fine as soon as I get a good day’s sleep, now, if that will be all, I shall retire to my bed. Until tonight, my dearest Sister.” with that, Luna trotted off to her bedroom, avoiding the continued questions of her sister. “ She must not learn the truth, not yet, not until I find a way to vanquish Nightmare forever.” She whispered to herself as she turned a corner.
Some hours later, in the throne room of the castle, Celestia begins to suspect that her sister is not revealing the whole truth. Worried that something has happened in the past week, possibly involving her dear Sister’s past, she writes to her most trusted student, and long time friend, Twilight Sparkle, almost a sister to Celestia in herself.
“My Dearest student Twilight, I believe something is wrong with Princess Luna. She has not slept in several days, I worry that some incident involving her past may be the cause of this. She claims to be merely suffering from insomnia, this, I can tell, is a lie. What could drive my dear sister to lie to me? I would much appreciate your assistance in understanding this most confusing matter. Perhaps there is a book in your library that could help?
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.
Satisfied with the amount of detail she included in her short letter, she sent her letter to her fine young student. If anypony in Equestria could decipher what was wrong with Luna, it would be Twilight.
A few minutes later, in Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle is finishing up a last minute checklist of what she had to do that day.
“Check on apple crop at Sweet Apple Acres, check. Discuss new textbook purchasing with Miss Cheerilee, check. Change bandage on Aloysius’ broken wing, check. Double check checklist, check and check. Looks like I’m free for the rest of the day, Spike. So what should we do?” Twilight was usually done with everything on her checklist by 2 in the afternoon, and it was only 1 o’clock.
“Twilight, I think there’s a letter coming up.” her small blue assistant didn’t look too well, after a few seconds of apparent nausea, Spike let out a tremendous belch, and with it, the letter from the Princess.
“My dearest student Twilight… something is wrong with Princess Luna… has not slept… incident involving her past… What could drive my dear sister to lie to me… perhaps a book in your library could help. Oh dear! Spike, bring me every book you can find that could relate to Princess Luna’s past. We don’t have time to lose!” All thoughts of free time vanished from Twilight Sparkle’s mind at that moment, she had received a request for help from the Princess herself! Now was the time to do what she did best, study like there was no tomorrow.
“No, no, no, no, NO! I can’t find anything in these old books that would explain Luna’s strange behavior! I’ve considered everything from Pony pox to ingrown hairs! And nothing could explain this!” Twilight threw another book into the considerable pile next to her, narrowly avoiding hitting Spike in the face as he brought her something he had found in an old, dusty tome in a corner of the library, the book looked as though it hadn’t seen daylight since it’s publication. Yet it was in terrible condition, as if beaten roughly with a club.
“Twilight, I think I may have found something in this dusty old thing. Right here,” he pointed with one short claw to the passage he was referring to. “this bit on Split Souls.”
“Split Souls?” Twilight snatched the book into her magic, pulling Spike off his feet with it. “ When a pony’s soul has been split into good and evil parts, the suppressed half of the soul may slowly gain power and experience a resurgence, sometimes interfering with the mind and emotions of the dominant half. This could explain Princess Luna’s strange behavior, I must inform Princess Celestia at once, but she’ll need the whole passage, and it would seem to take up at least fifty pages! You wouldn’t be able to handle sending something that large, it would sap all of your energy, I can’t use Aloysius, his wing isn’t healed yet, and Peewee is far too young to send anything to anypony, besides, he might deliver nothing but a pile of ashes. Oh, maybe this book is somewhere in the Canterlot Archives, I’ll have to send her the title of the book and hope she has a copy.” she hurriedly wrote the title of the book down on a scrap of parchment, no need to use a brand new piece of parchment for this small message.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
I believe that this book may hold the answer to Princess Luna’s strange behavior. “Two Souls, One Vessel: a guide to understanding shattered Souls and the ponies that bear them.” The passage is too long to send in a letter, I hope that you have a copy of the book in the Archives, if not, I shall deliver it personally.
Your dearest student,
Twilight Sparkle
“Here, Spike, send this off to the princess immediately.” Handing the letter to Spike, she watched as he inhaled deeply and then breathed out flame, incinerating the parchment and sending it on it’s way. Twilight didn’t quite understand this ancient magic, but it came in very handy for sending letters.
“Now that the princess knows about that book, how about we go get something to eat, Spike, I’m starving!”
I hope you have enjoyed Reflections of a Dark Past so far, I apologize if you did not enjoy this chapter, I had a plan written down for this chapter, but my brain decided to dribble this out and forget the plan. As usual here’s the copyright jibber jabber
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic copyright 2011 Hasbro Inc.