Twilight paced back and forth in front of the door to Celestia’s study. Her mane was slightly frazzled and eyes unblinking as she kept her eyes down to the floor. Her mouth in the act of movement as her small panicked whispers echo through the hall, making the guard duo at the other end shift uncomfortably.
“Did I mess up!? No, I made sure Discord was really petrified... Maybe it was a report!? Did I forget to send her a friendship report!? It has been a while since the last one...”
Twilight whispered to herself.
“I knew it, two days is too long to not send a friendship report! Grrr… Spike, that is the last time I listen to your advice!”
She stomped the ground..
—“Hey, hey Twilight you just beat one of the biggest bad dudes of the century, you should take a break for a bit! You deserve it!”
Twilight scowls as she recalls Spike’s great wisdom.
“You know what, yeah, you’re right Spike, I should relax a little bit.'' I said that! Ugh! Why did I listen to him!?”
Twilight shouted and stomped the ground. One of the guards took a step closer to the hallway archway.
“Auuu... What can I even say!? Oh! Sorry, Princess Celestia. I just wanted time to myself!? That’s stupid! I can't make any excuses to avoid her disappointment again...”
Twilight expression falls, and she looks back down... for ten seconds. She raises her head up and a smile grows on her face.
“Unlessssss... I make a friendship lesson happen now! Just not get caught this time, yes… That should-No!”
Twilight slapped her self across the face with a magic claw. The guards glanced at each other once again, one of them raising a hoof and pointed at himself as he spun it around.
“I learned my lesson! I need to stop being para—”
The door to Celestia’s study opened up. Twilight quickly whirls her head towards it and released an “eep!” upon seeing her mentor peeking out and looking down at her with her usual warm smile on her face.
“Oh! I thought I heard you out here, Twilight. You arrived later than I thought... But, I did call you here without notice.”
Celestia gives an apologetic smile and slowly opened the door for her little student. Twilight hesitantly entered the room.
“I’m sorry for suddenly summoning you… But I have an important matter to discuss with you.”
Twilight’s eyes immediately scan the room looking for any hints of her getting in trouble, only to find nothing of real importance... At least until she saw her mentors reading stand near the fireplace holding a white letter in place.
‘I really could use my paper bag right now...’
“Join me by the fireplace, Twilight.”
She moved her focus back over to her mentor as the Sun Princess walked past her and laid down on her floor-bed in front of the fireplace. She waited patiently for Twilight with her usual smile. Twilight felt her stomach tie in knots. She wanted to run back to her tree house and hide in her bed forever.
Slowly, very slowly, Twilight walked over to the floor bed and sat down on her haunches by her mentor, focusing her eyes on the fire and counting the number of times the flames flickered in an attempt to calm her disgusting nerves. Only for the action to be useless, as her stress peaked upon hearing Princess Celestia’s horn ignite. Glancing over at her mentor with the corner of her vision, she saw the princess bring over a white letter with her seal and place it infront of herself.
‘Expulsion. She must’ve delayed because my friends stopped her last time!’
It was the first thing her brain pushed into her brain.
‘Or M-maybe she was disowning her as her student!? Of course! What kind of mentor would keep a student that used an enchantment spell on the town you sent her to find friendship in!’
That was the second thing that came. Both were enough to make Twilight resign to despair and accept her fate. She had failed her teacher, she got carried away after sealing Discord, and now it came to bite her in the flank. She tried to think of a back-up plan to dodge this talk or just kneel down and beg her mentor for forgiveness and to not abandon her... yet her will to do it was heavily lacking.
“Ah… I should have mentioned this first... I didn’t call you because you were in trouble, Twilight. I’m trusting that you took the advice I gave you to heart from now on.”
Twilight froze stiff, her brain replayed the sentence she had just heard before finally acknowledging that it was genuine. With a great expulsion of air from her lungs, she felt all her stress, fear, and pain exit her body. If she was younger, she would’ve cried on the spot out of relief.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Princess Celestia!”
Twilight put a hoof over her little chest and took deep breaths.
‘Okay! Okay relax! Princess Celestia isn’t lying! Princess Celestia can’t lie!’
Celestia gave a small closed eye smile to her student for a moment before looking over at the fireplace.
“It’s the opposite, in fact, my dear student.”
Twilight looked at her mentor with a raised brow.
“Twilight Sparkle... You have accomplished so much in so little time. You defeated Nightmare Moon and brought my sister back to my side, and you managed to seal away Discord.”
Celestia closed her eyes and let out a soft chuckle.
“You’ve done more to help Equestria than I...”
Celestia said lowly with a hint of bitterness in her voice. Twilight slowly blinked as she heard that statement, she opens her mouth to defend her mentor. However, Princess Celestia quickly rose her foreleg up in a motion of silence towards her student.
“That is why... I want to entrust you with a task.”
Princess Celestia slowly opened her eyes and looked down. Twilight waited for her mentor to follow it up, but... nervousness grows when she sees her mentor open her mouth and close it. Princess Celestia stared at the ground longer as her eyes wavered a bit.
‘Is… Is she hesitating?’
The thought shocked her heart. An alicorn of her years being hesitant to entrust a task to her... Her mind could only draw the conclusion that is task was probably something that was dangerous...perhaps more dangerous than Discord! After all, Princess Celestia didn’t hesitate to send her and her friends after Discord! If it was dangerous enough to make her mentor unsure if it is wise to send her on it. It made Twilight’s anxiety grow.
“Haha... I’m sorry, it’s just... I must admit, even… Even I’m unsure if I want you to get involved in this.”
Celestia released a tired sigh as Twilight gave her a concerned look.
“But… I... I need you to do this task for me... because I…”
Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed for a moment, a brief look of shame coming across her face.
“Because I am unable to do it myself.”
She spoke with an awfully bitter tone. Princess Celestia sucked in her breath and shook her head ever so slightly before looking over at Twilight with a smile.
“It is not a task that will endanger your life... This task has no failure nor due date. You can pick it up and drop it whenever you like.”
Twilight blinked. Her mind took in the information like a calculator, only to spit out nonsense. None of what her mentor said made any sense! A task she herself couldn’t do, but it wasn’t failable by any means! It wasn’t even a life-threatening task, either!
“Twilight, do you believe you can help somepony make friends?”
Twilight felt her mind go into the cosmos of space as the question registered. Nothing. Nothing about this entire talk was making sense to her... but as she gazed upon at her mentor's troubled face.
“I t-think so...”
She said it.
She said it, and she wasn’t even confident she could actually do it. She simply just wanted to stop Princess Celestia from being like this.
Celestia smiled warmly at the answer.
“I see...”
Celestia closed her eyes. After a brief moment of silence, she ignited her horn and enveloped the study door, letting her golden aura lay on the door before letting it fade away. Twilight felt that nervousness rises up as she recognized the spell; a classic object silencing spell. Which meant whatever her mentor was going to say was something that she couldn’t have anyone outside to hear.
‘Oh Crud.’
Silence filled the air for what felt like hours to Twilight.
Slowly, Celestia turned her head towards her student and abandoned her usual smile for a more serious expression.
“Twilight, tell me how much do you know about the guard?”
‘The... Guard!?’
Twilight decided this was the moment she was going to abandon how to figure out how all of this information was relevant to the task, successfully turning her brain off and choosing to remain ignorant of the previous discussion to keep her brain from cramping up.
“The g-guard...? Oh! Um... well.”
Twilight straightened her posture and collected her thoughts for a moment.
“I know the guard's main role is to protect you, and Equestria’s citizens. They’re separated into two departments. Solar and Lunar, I believe. The solar guards are under you, and they’re the day guards. The Lunar are under Princess Luna, and they are the night guard annnd.... Oh! Both sides have captains that directly report to their princess... Shining Armor told me that he has to do that with you occasionally.”
Twilight glanced over at her mentor, seeing her with her eyes closed and nodding along.
“From the outside perspective, you’re correct.”
“H-huh?”
Twilight looked at her confused.
“How you described the guard functionality is perfect from the outside look, I personally designed it to be untruthful from an outside perspective.”
Twilight cocked her head, making the alicorn chuckle.
“To simplify it, you have everything correct except the Lunar guard role. The night guard you see is still under my allegiance.”
“Wait… So does that mean the Night Guard... is actually the Solar Guard?”
Princess Celestia nodded.
“...T-then where is the Lunar Guard? If they aren’t the night guard, then I... don’t think I've ever seen them...”
Twilight brought her hoof to her chin as she looked down, trying to remember if she ever saw a night guard that wore different armor from the standard dark metal set
“Because they are rarely in Canterlot, they’re stationed somewhere else.”
“Oh! That makes sense... Wait, no, it doesn’t... Um... Can I ask why?”
Princess Celestia slowly looked over to her left and gazed at the first version of the Lunar banner that hung on her wall.
“The Lunar Guard are not your average pony... They’re hybrids between ponies and bats.”
“Um... e-excuse me, Princess Celestia but...”
Twilight shakes her head and blinks at her mentor.
“What!?”
“Years before my sister became Nightmare Moon, a unicorn scholar was curious about the magic Grogar used to make monsters. He started off with experiments on insects, but over time his desire to do bigger and learn more overtook him into madness. He eventually started foalnapping, using ponies as expertments for his theories.
Celestia frowned.
“By the time me and Luna confronted him, he had successfully mixed the victims with bats... He was successful, but it came at the cost of their sapience.”
Princess Celestia looked at the ground bitterly.
“They lost their ability to think or speak like normal ponies... they were nothing more than feral bats in pony bodies.” Twilight stared at Celestia, horrified. The thought of a unicorn doing that... She couldn’t help but feel disgusted.
“I was unsure what to do with them... But, my sister, made up her mind before I could come up my own solution.”
A small smile came to her mouth.
“She wanted to help them... teach them and help reintegrate them back to society.”
Celestia turned her head a bit and looked back at Twilight with a small smile.
“And she did... After a couple of years, they were able to heal back to normalcy, able to talk and think about themselves again. Some of them even developed relationships during that period.”
Princess Celestia couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. Twilight gave a slight smile, the back of her mind nagging her that there felt something off about this story.
Celestia's smile faded once again.
“However, when they went back to society... my little ponies rejected them. They were scared of them, afraid of how different they were and rumors began to spread about them... they grew more... And more fearful until ponies started to push them out of towns and villages. Even I… I must admit I am at fault for this... I let my guard spread their rumors for too long until it was too late. I hurt them and my sister's reputation.”
Celestia lowered her head.
“I still regret that to this day...”
Twilight reached a hoof out to her mentor, only stopping and slowly pulling it back. Her own eyes looking down as she started to understand why they weren’t in Canterlot, when her mind goes back to when she met Zecora and all the rumors surrounding her... Outcasting her from the rest of town... she couldn’t help but feel as if she was part of the problem.
“Eventually... They decided to come back to my sister... and my sister out of either anger or pity... Maybe she decided to take them in and turn them into her guard. And for years the two departments coexisted.”
Celestia lit her horn and slowly levitated the old Lunar banner to her view.
“There's more... and... it is related to the task I ask of you, Twilight.”
Twilight’s eyes widened and her frown strengthened.
“The bat-ponies grew larger as the ones who had entered relationships made families, and due to my sister saving them they became devoted to her, a devotion that carried through generations... and eventually I came to face it.”
Celestia ram her hoof up along the knitted astral trail and up to the shining knitted great star.
“After I sealed Nightmare Moon away... the Lunar guard took up arms and rebelled against me and the Solar guard. I was forced to do a mass arrest on them, and lock them away in the dungeons. I had… no idea what to do with that at the time... and my own guard didn’t help me. Half of them wanted to excommunicate them from Equestria, the other half demanded I execute them. Both sides were scared that if I let them live, they would rebel once again but at a bigger force.”
Her hoof slightly trembles against the banner.
“My indecision left them imprisoned for moons...”
She retracted her hoof and looked down with a dejected smile.
“One day... an… Individual came. They weren’t from Equestria, and they used to work as a knight for a kingdom in the far north. They... showed me that they were good at their job, I let them into the guard, and they rose through the ranks quickly, but... my guard didn’t like them.”
“So... In my fear of the previous problem happening again and acknowledging their capabilities. I appointed them as the new captain of the Lunar guard... and trusting them, I sent both them and the rest of the guard away to be stationed somewhere else.”
Celestia let out a small chuckle.
“Saying that plan now… It sounds stupid... but... it worked.”
Celestia slowly turned around to face her student.
“They had done something I could not... They made the Lunar Guard accept peace.”
Celestia couldn’t help but let out another chuckle.
“Even to this day, I still don't know how he did it... The Lunar guard were still upset at me and the Solar guard, but they were now willing to work with us again.”
Twilight stared at Celestia with a mixture of emotions on her face.
“W-wow... I didn’t think Captain Faded Light did that much...”
Celestia shook her head and let her smile grow back on her face.
“Faded Light is not their captain.”
“Huh?”
“B-but, Shining told me that the Lunar guard captain was somepony named Faded Light!”
Celestia let out a heavy laugh at that.
“Many. Many misunderstandings have been set in, my student.”
“Auuuuugh!”
Twilight pressed her forelegs against her head. Celestia leaned over and nuzzled Twilight.
“Don’t worry... you’ll clear them up soon.”
Celestia said as she pulled away.
“I will?”
Twilight looked up at her mentor.
“Mhmm... for all of this information is relevant to your task, Twilight.”
Celestia levitated the letter to Twilight. Slowly, Twilight took the letter in her own magic and starts to unseal it.
“
Twilight, please help the Lunar Captain make some friends.”
“That is your task.”
Celestia nodded. Twilight, on the other hand, froze in place. Her realization that all this buildup, this stress, sadness, this rollercoaster of emotions paid off to find out her task all this time was to help somepony make friends. She wasn’t sure if she should scream or cry at the moment.
“Despite all the good they’ve done... they won’t leave their homestead nor engage with anypony other than the guard and I… and unfortunately I have not managed to convince them even after all this time.”
Celestia placed her left hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
“But... maybe you can.”
Twilight looks up at her mentor. Her mind pauses as she sees the gentle, warm smile, the sparkle in her eyes that spoke of her belief in her student. Twilight’s stomach tied itself in knots as her instinct to not disappoint her, opening her mouth, she couldn’t help but let the words slip out her mouth.
“I’ll do my best....”
Celestia smiled more and took a step back from Twilight.
“Thank you.”
“In the letter there is a map with instructions to where the Lunar Captain is.”
Twilight looked at the letter and removes the celestial seal. Bringing the map out she finds an ‘X’ spot in-between the outskirts of Hollow Shades and the countryside close to Fillydelphia, glancing over to see the side she sees instructions to get from the train stop at Hollow Shades to the location. The most important note of it all was the big red letters that said.
“ONLY TRAVEL THERE AT NIGHT, NO EXCEPTIONS.”
“Remember, Twilight, you can drop and pick up this task any time you want. There is no due date. I encourage you to take your time with this mission, there is also another thing I must state to you.”
Celestia leaned her head down slowly towards Twilight's muzzle, she looked up from her map only to see Celestia giving her a... terrifyingly cold gaze.
“Do. Not. Tell. Anycreature. About this task. And I do mean anycreature, Twilight. Not your friends, not Spike, not your brother, not the train conductor, and especially not my sister. You are only allowed to talk to me and the Lunar Guard about this task. No one else, do you understand, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight eyes shrunk. She shivered as she swore that there was something… darker in voice.
“Do you understand?”
“Y-y-yes m-m-m-ma’am!”
Twilight barely managed to stutter out.
“Good.”
Celestia moved her head away from her students' view.
“You are dismissed.”
Celestia gave a nod towards Twilight. Twilight gives a silent nod in returned and quickly exited the room, entering the hallway she opened her mouth to expel the air she had been holding in. She never in her life thought Celestia could look so... cold and speak so seriously. She couldn’t help but wonder if this matter is more serious than Celestia let on.
Twilight lets out a low whimper and looked at the map in her hoof.
“What did I get myself into now...?”