Over the years, Twilight Sparkle had been confused by some things that Princess Celestia had told her, whether when answering questions or teaching her something, on occasion to the point where a single answered question led to more coming up.
The answer to the question about the intruder’s identity was another such occurrence, and also one that brought up many questions, ranging from when exactly this Sunset Shimmer’s lessons had started and ended to why would Princess Celestia bring that mirror to the Crystal Empire with so little protection when she knew that an evil pony could step through it.
But as she regarded her mentor, Twilight felt the urge to voice her questions fade. Princess Celestia had already slipped back into her composed bearing, but the very visible emotion that still lingered in her eyes drove away all thoughts of drilling her for questions for the time being.
Behind her, the pegasus guard had also entered the typical stoic, stony stance and expression that Royal Guards almost always assumed. Yet his’ seemed less so than the average guard’s, minor twitches rippling all over his body, and urgency occasionally flashing in his eyes despite his earlier words about how they couldn’t recklessly pursue Sunset.
To be fair, the mindsets weren’t incompatible. Him wanting to think before acting didn’t mean he thought they should tarry. And Twilight agreed with that point. The longer they waited, the longer Sunset Shimmer would have to use the Element of Magic in whatever plot she had. She agreed with his earlier judgment that they couldn’t just rush after her, but she also agreed that they’d better do it quickly.
A faint moan spread through the room, almost like a noise of assent to her thoughts, if not for the drowsiness that seemed to weigh it down.
The ears of everypony in the room shot up, right as a sigh followed from the same general direction. Twilight looked around for the source, but the guard seemed to know what it was, judging by the alarmed look that burst across his face, visible to her only for an instant before he turned around and ran towards the mirror. Or more specifically, to the gap between the mirror and the wall, into which he reached with his right foreleg. Another sigh followed; then, the foreleg of another pony took the pegasus guard’s hoof as he helped them up.
“Are you alright, Even Tide?” he asked as he gently helped the other guard - a sandy-coated white-tailed unicorn mare clad in the Lunar Division’s dark gray armor - out of the space she had clearl been shoved into.
“I think so,” the mare replied, her eyelids heavy and her voice slurred. “But that was a strong Lulling Spell. Whoever did it surely…”
Her sentence trailed off as an alarmed look exploded on her features, all hints of drowsiness gone from her expression.
“There’s an intruder in the castle!” she shouted. “I was standing guard at my post when I suddenly felt a Lulling Spell hit me! I tried my best to fight it, but it was too strong, and next thing I know I woke up behind the mirror! We must start searching before…”
Even Tide trailed off as the pegasus’ face fell, her expression then melting into one of wide-eyed fear as her eyes caught Twilight and Princess Celestia.
“Your Highnesses?” she murmured, her voice thick with apprehensiveness. “What happened?”
The pegasus’ eyes twitched like he had just fought not to avert them. Twilight started opening her mouth to reply, but the sound faded as if her mouth had been covered by a thick cloth, her heart starting to pound.
What was the protocol in these situations? How should a Princess let one of her guards know that they had, no matter how nicely one put it, failed their duty? Lying couldn’t be an option, but she wanted both Even Tide and the pegasus to understand that she knew they had done their best!
Should she channel Princess Celestia’s bearing?
No. She thought. That wouldn’t work with her. She was too young for it to look appropriate, and despite the slight growth in her stature, still so small that it would look ridiculous if it was directed at anycreature bigger or older than Spike.
But simply being her true self might not cut it either, especially when her true self, for how close she had become with her friends and how open she was with those she genuinely knew and cared for, still managed to be so awkward with most strangers.
A spot of white shifted behind her; Princess Celestia had now fully assumed her usual bearing in public, her face the picture of calm and comfort it conveyed whenever Twilight showed her exam results that she feared were below acceptable and her appearance as composed as ever despite the fact she still didn’t have her regalia on.
Yet the memories of how scared she had been when running up to the Mirror’s Room and how shocked she had been when learning of Sunset Shimmer’s presence were enough to spur Twilight into trying to help. She knew without attending any Princess Summit that being a princess did not entail simply standing around looking pretty and being adored, and Princess Celestia had been there for her in many bad moments. The least she could do was try to return the favor, whether Princess Celestia had already truly recovered or not.
“What happened?” Even Tide insisted. “Did the intruder escape?”
There was another moment of silence. Then, Twilight turned to face the mare and answered.
“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. The intruder escaped. And much to our collective horror, she took my crown.”
She tried to speak in the calmest voice she could, but the answer still tasted painfully empty. And worse, the other mare’s eyes widened in shock upon hearing the response, before slowly filling with borderline horror, no doubt at the realization that Equestria’s current most important means of defense was gone.
Twilight couldn’t fault her. After all the times the Elements of Harmony had helped them in the past, to suddenly have them removed from her… it was chilling. If Discord decided that friendship wasn’t for him after all, or if Chrysalis and her army broke out of their prison while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were out on some diplomatic visit, or if some other threat that even the two of them couldn’t deal with showed up, they would all be in very big trouble.
At least this had happened in the Crystal Empire rather than in Equestria. Although Twilight didn’t know all the details of their history, she knew that the Elements of Harmony had only been discovered after Sombra’s banishment, and any ties the Crystal Ponies had to them after their return were from mere knowledge of facts rather than the emotional ties forged by the fact the Elements had been used to liberate them from a threat. They might be nervous if news came out, but if word about that spread in Equestria, the nation would be flooded with the same panic that seemed to be filling the unicorn mare.
To her credit, though, Even Tide dragged herself out of the feeling and, assuming a solemn look, seized her helmet in her silvery aura and took it off, baring her short white mane.
“My deepest apologies, Your Highnesses,” she said, her muzzle almost to the ground.
“From me as well,” the pegasus added as he took off his own helmet and tucked it under his left wing, exposing his blue mane shaved into a buzz cut as he made an equally deep bow.
Both kept their eyes locked on the polished crystal that made up the floor, seemingly unable to turn them up. Silence intense enough to hear a buzzing fly filled the room.
Then, Celestia stepped forward, the sound of her hoofbeats blaring in the silence.
“Do not feel bad, either of you,” she soothed. “Even as a filly, Sunset Shimmer would have given some guards a run for their bits. That would only hold even truer now that she’s an adult.”
Both guards stood in response, slipping or levitating their helmets back on, but the same downcast look remained on their faces. Twilight could relate. Even if one had tried their best, the feeling of failing was not pleasant, especially with something so important. Among other occasions, she had learned so herself on her first visit to the Crystal Empire, and unlike her, the guards wouldn’t be given any later consolation of knowing they had passed on the ordeal after all.
Princess Celestia’s voice, still calm but now more official, brought her from her thoughts.
“Lieutenant Flash Sentry, please help Lieutenant Even Tide to the infirmary so she can finish recovering and be checked for further lesions, whether physical or thaumic. And while you’re there get yourself examined for those as well.”
Neither guard moved. More than that, both kept looking at Princess Celestia like they expected more.
The Sun Princess’ eyes lit up in realization before she added, “I will be giving you further instructions later, but for now, I ask you both to do your best to ensure nopony else knows that the Element of Magic was stolen, at least for the time being.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the pegasus and the unicorn replied in unison as both bowed again.
Twilight noticed that Flash Sentry had a faint grimace on his face, perhaps from either the idea of going to the infirmary or the idea of having to engage in a cover up, but all the same, he supported Even Tide with his left wing as the two of them walked out of the room, directing her a concerned look as she lifted her hooves in heavy, slow steps.
“I hope you both get well soon,” Twilight wished as they passed between her and Princess Celestia.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Even Tide replied, barely looking at her, her voice tense like she was trying not to lower it to a mumble.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Flash Sentry also replied.
Unlike Even Tide, however, he looked at her when he spoke, and while his voice was far from chipper, it still seemed to hold a faint note of joy, as if her taking the time to address them and the tone she had addressed them in was enough to make him feel better.
Like he had done to her in the throne room, Twilight did her best to give him a reassuring look.
It’s alright. She tried to say with her eyes alone. It’s not your fault that Sunset Shimmer escaped with the Element of Magic. And I know you did your best when trying to stop her.
And she did. She had heard the last of their fight as she approached, and she could tell he had lasted a while. Besides, even if he had been the one who failed to catch the crown, she had also been the one who hadn’t warded its case well enough and also the one who hadn’t been enough in control of her alicorn magic to reliably subdue Sunset Shimmer.
She couldn’t tell if he got the full letter of her silent message, but he seemed to get the gist of it, for his eyes remained locked on hers as he kept helping Even Tide out of the door, and the smile stayed on his lips.
For some unknown reason, Twilight felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach, as matching metaphorical sparks seemed to flow from one to the other.
Then the spell broke and he turned back forward, and Twilight felt like dope-slapping herself.
Don’t be stupid! She told herself. You’ve just been turned into a Princess, an important meeting will have to be postponed, and something Equestria may rely on has just vanished. You have no time for these things!
Yes. She didn’t have time for these things. Getting the crown back was all that mattered.
And yet… she had been unable to help it. It was foolish, out of those novels that Rarity liked to read when she wasn’t reading Shadow Spade, but brief though it had already been, she hadn’t been able to help herself. She might have only had a few prior interactions with him, but so far everything seemed to be going well. He cared about her nervousness enough to want to reassure her. He saw her as an equal to the other princesses despite how little she had been one for so far. And he had looked out for her safety when she had wanted to run into the Mirror after Sunset Shimmer.
True, all added up it was little more than a show of common decency and genuine concern one should have for anypony, but considering how Equestrian society at large viewed princesses, and the general treatment she had gotten from the nobility both as Princess Celestia’s student and after her ascension, and the fact a few still seemed to see her as a ‘lesser princess’… the only thing she could say was that it still stoodm Hay, even if they were both regular ponies, these shared experiences alone might have been enough for the connection.
Don’t think about that now. She told herself. You can save that for later.
Yes. That was true. Her feelings and their origin might be valid, but there were more important things now. When all this was sorted out, if she still wanted to, she might think about Flash Sentry again.
But, she had to admit, the idea didn’t sound entirely unappealing.
|||||||
Despite the delicate situation, Celestia couldn’t help a small smile.
Of all the surprises she’d already had that night, this would be another on the list, but it would certainly qualify as the happiest one so far. It was not a total surprise, as she had caught the moments between Twilight and the guard in the throne room (both when he’d announced her arrival and when they had exchanged a look during her departure) but it was still more on the unexpected side, if in a happy way.
At any other time, this would be the occasion for some playful teasing, perhaps followed by aiding them along somewhere down the line if it turned out both had something going on, as youngsters put it. Which as far as she could tell, they did. The title of Princess of Love might belong to Cadence (even if it came from a misunderstanding of her true abilities) but Celestia had lived long enough and been around enough ponies to make such guesses with reasonable accuracy.
And it doesn’t hurt that the only serious romantic relationship you had started very similarly. An inner voice pointed out.
Celestia jerked her head like the thought was a louse or a flea to be shaken off, before she took a step towards Twilight with just a bit more vehemence than necessary. She was already thinking about too many sad things without needing to add that to the mix.
Unfortunately, her step seemed to be a bit too vehement, as Twilight jumped in place, seeming so caught up in her thoughts she had forgotten she wasn’t alone. Then, her ears dropped, she turned to Celestia, her eyes filled with shame.
“I’m sorry, Princess Celestia,” she murmured. “This is all my fault.”
Celestia subtly took a deep breath. There was more than one way in which the fault lay upon Celestia herself, and if the future wasn’t time sensitive, she would fully explain why. Unfortunately, there was no way to do that without starting a story she might not have time to tell.
“It is not, Twilight. Whatever else the guards or you can say, bringing this mirror to the Crystal Empire was my idea. I believed it was a much safer location for it on all levels. But I was wrong.”
It was the simplest thing she could say, but it was still the gist of the truth.
Hearing the answer, Twilight briefly looked up, an intrigued look on her face. It stayed there for a few seconds, but then her ears dropped, her mouth curling into a frown again.
“I’m still the one who didn’t protect my crown properly, as well as the one who failed to stop Sunset Shimmer from escaping with it.”
Celestia tried to raise her wing to put it to Twilight’s chin, but her student looked up with alarmed eyes like she was going to hit her instead.
“I promise I tried, Princess Celestia! Really I did! And I know for a fact I could have caught her if I was in full control of my new power! It’s just…” she sighed and uttered the next words like they caused her physical pain. “…my magic is so much stronger now that I got afraid I’d kill her by accident.”
Twilight sighed again as she finished her sentence. Willing her expression to stay peaceful and reassuring rather than sorrowful for her student’s ordeal, Celestia resumed lifting her wing, resting it under Twilight’s chin and raising her head slightly.
“It's alright. I understand having so much more magic all at once can be difficult to deal with.”
More cynical listeners with full knowledge of the facts might point out she didn’t understand that from personal experience when she had been born as an alicorn, but even though that was indeed the case, Celestia had seen ascended alicorns before - and more than once at that - and knew how much difficulty they could have adapting to their new magic and strength.
“Also, despite what they say about good intentions and the pathway to the Inferno, having good intentions is still better than having bad ones,” Celestia went on as she pulled back her wing and folded it. “And not wanting to kill somepony is not a bad thing. No matter how much one may think it’s the only course of action sometimes, death is the only journey none of us comes back from. We shouldn’t send anycreature on it at the drop of a hat.”
Celestia had to pause, hit by the memories of all the times she had done so over the centuries, deliberately or by accident. She still remembered them all, even those that had been centuries before. None had been a happy experience, even when she had executed monsters that would make Discord look nice on the level of sheer evil.
“Lastly, as I said, I bear more guilt for bringing the mirror here without considering that Sunset Shimmer would come through it with a plan in mind.”
Twilight finally looked up, her eyes still sad, but now with a familiar edge of inquisitiveness to them. Her throat clenched a few times, like she was trying to ensure she said the right words in the proper tone, before she spoke again.
“Why didn’t you consider it?”
Celestia’s heart sank a fraction. It was a fair doubt, and Twilight deserved to hear the truth, but answering that question implied talking about a fair few unpleasant things, which in turn involved dwelling on unpleasant memories.
Unfortunately, there was no way around that now.
Just as she had that thought, the utter quietude in the room was swept by a familiar billowing sound akin to a gust of wind blowing through thick curtains that had been closed before an open window. Twilight flinched in place, her eyes widening.
“It’s alright, Twilight,” Celestia said. “It is nothing to be worried about.”
To further convey her message, she looked up towards the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight doing the same, her scared expression fading into a calm one as she saw what Celestia had picked up.
Hovering about thirty feet before them, the familiar form of her sister floated to the floor like a feather, her wings flapping in slow, absolutely silent beats that belied the alarm replacing her normally stoic expression as she descended to Celestia’s left and faced them both head on.
“Are you well? The Bearers told me about the intruder once I spotted them in the Dreamscape! Did she hurt anypony? Did you manage to recover Twilight Sparkle’s crown?”
“We are well, Luna,” Celestia replied as her sister landed by her side, Luna visibly sighing in relief at those words. “While unfortunately Lieutenants Flash Sentry and Even Tide seem to have suffered some minor lesions, I trust they will both recover without permanent damage.” Her face almost fell as the bad news made their way up her mouth; she had to will her expression to stay on. “And also unfortunately, Sunset Shimmer escaped through the mirror with the Element of Magic.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed.
“Sunset Shimmer? That’s the name of the filly who studied under you before you took Twilight Sparkle as a student, is she not?”
Celestia nodded, at which Luna blinked slowly, puzzlement creeping into her features as she took in the information.
“But how can that be? From what you told me of her, she was the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders when she disappeared into that mirror for the first time, and that was over nine years ago!”
“You mean she’s eighteen?” Twilight cut in, her eyes wide once more and her wings fully spread.
Again, Celestia nodded.
“Yes, Twilight. That is indeed her age.”
For a few moments, Twilight stood still like a statue, the only sign of movement being the twitching of her wings, her mouth quaking like it did on the occasions when she had many questions coming to her mind but was trying to sort through the most important ones before actually asking any.
“But how could a filly so small survive in another world for so long?” she at last asked. “And why did she go there in the first place? Why wasn’t she studying under you any longer when you took me as a student?”
Again, Celestia took a subtle deep breath, but she could tell from the way Luna’s eyes filled with sympathy that the action had been as visible as if she had performed it outside at noon with a clear sky. Thankfully, Luna’s own reaction was subtle, but her eyes spoke volumes.
“Like I told you, it is a sad story,” Celestia explained. “And unfortunately, we do not have time for all of it. But I will tell you the most important details, including answers to your questions.”
After a pause, she added, “But first I need to make sure that we have some privacy.”
Saying so, Celestia lit up her horn, the room’s door swinging inward as it clicked shut. Then, her magic’s golden aura spread out to blanket every surface in the room, a thin film of it hanging over the floor, the walls, and the closed door, before dispelling with a faint but shrill whistle.
“You can tell your friends about this if you wish,” Celestia clarified before Twilight could ask the question she knew would come. “But I ask you to make sure to be discreet, and to tell them they should be as well. Knowledge about that mirror should be kept at a minimum.”
Twilight nodded even as she sank into her haunches, her face apprehensive but curious, like a filly about to hear a story that she knew could be sad but which she was nevertheless curious about.
Having to suppress a nostalgic smile despite the situation, Celestia took a deep breath, and got ready to dig into an old wound that had healed very poorly, despite how well she had managed to conceal the scar tissue.