Night fell on the city of Canterlot, putting an end to another long day. It was an odd side effect of the sun and the moon now moving on their own, as now that time could be tracked by their placement in the sky, it caused each day to feel drawn out to the ponies in this post-caribou Equestria. It was how the princesses had decided to keep things though, as they had no clue how these celestial bodies, once beholden to the power of ponies, had gained this autonomy, and thus likewise feared what might happen should they interfere with it.
So as night fell, the inhabitants of the land proceeded with their ritual of rest, slipping into their beds and closing their eyes, hoping to dream of better times. Not all found themselves sleeping though, as the light of a lantern made its way through the castle on the nation’s capital.
The holder of this light source was none other than Princess Luna, wandering the halls of the palace, finding herself restless. While this was when she would have typically been awake prior to her enslavement, one of the lasting effects of the caribou on the night mare was a disruption of her sleep schedule, due to her own rape occuring throughout the day, when the caribou and their mind controlled subjects had the energy to force themselves upon her. She had yet to correct this change, due to her dream walking abilities being needed during the day to operate the Red Collar trials in the protection the dream realm provided, while making sure the ones on trial wouldn’t realize what was going on.
So her being up at this hour now was an oddity, but as she made preparations to rest that evening, she took a peek into the dream realm, and she noticed something that she had to look into. The only issue was that she didn’t know where the cause of this discouraging problem was, and so she had to seek it out.
At least she had the darkness of the night to aid her in this, the shadows obscuring the surroundings, which all held the stain of the caribou upon them. Unlike her dream version, the palace had not been fully restored. Many of the caribou’s additions had been removed and destroyed, but many paintings and other heirlooms were yet to be recovered, and the stain glass windows still had to be replaced from the caribou’s idealized depictions of how their takeover went, as while the glass was needed to keep out wind, animals, and debris, changing them for more appropriate windows was not a priority. So instead they were just left covered by drapes at all times, which made the usually regal interior dreary to look at.
While that helped hide the remaining damage done to Celestia’s ancient castle, it did little to make those who occupied it forget the damage done upon them. This applied to Luna as well, which was why she hated moving about during the daytime hours, having to relive every vile and depraved thing done to her within these walls, at the command of the caribou king. When she passed by a royal guard, she saw a face that had either grinned perversely as his body ravaged her own, or another victim that she had to watch be likewise taken advantage of. There was nary an inch of floor or wall, nor a single soul within this once majestic structure, that wasn’t touched by the caribou’s taint.
Luna was a princess though, and the one who currently had the most power and authority of the four alicorns. Her position in the Committee might have been precautionary, but ponies still looked up to her for leadership and guidance, so no matter how many bad memories of her enslavement plagued her, Luna had to display herself as confident and unshaken, as the only alicorn who never yielded to Equestria’s oppressors. Unlike so many others in Equestria, the caribou would have no claim over Luna now that their rule was over; not her submission, not her fear, and not even her misery. If the alicorn had to, she would live her life untethered to what they inflicted upon her, if only to spite any control they once held over her.
But not all ponies could simply move on, and one such pony was what was bothering her at the moment, not appearing in the dream realm at this late hour, that pony being her sister. She had hoped that this was just a matter of Celestia not going to bed yet, but with the sun mare’s duties now minimized, there was little that would have kept her up.
Upon making it to Celestia’s room, Luna found it vacant. “Where could she have gone off to…” she said to herself, having a feeling that this was more than her sister taking a late night stroll through the palace.
Luna began a search for the mare throughout the castle, checking all places one might expect a pony to be, even at this late hour. The dining hall was empty, though that should have been expected, as the castle servants had been given leave while Equestria was being restored. She checked the library, but not so much as the light of a candle shined within it, as the book depository was devoid of a single soul looking to peruse the knowledge it held. The garden also lacked Celestia’s presence, as did the main hall and the Committee’s meeting room, formerly the royal throne room.
After what was close to an hour of searching, Luna started to get more worried than she had been prior, and thought about initiating a castle-wide, and if needed a city-wide, search for her sister - until she happened a glance outside to the courtyard, seeing the white alicorn standing on the path leading to the palace gates. In haste, she flew through the castle, her concern for her sister guiding her actions.
Luna made her way to the main entrance at a pace that would have impressed a Wonderbolt, throwing the door open as if she was worried Celestia would try to escape her, only to find that the white alicorn was still standing in the spot Luna had seen her.
Luna’s exit from the castle didn’t go unnoticed, and as the dark mare hurried her way to her sister, Celestia turned to greet her. “Good evening, Luna.”
Luna stopped herself right before reaching her sister, touching back down on the ground, “‘Good Evening’ nothing,” she replied, “It’s the middle of the night, and I find you out here, doing who knows what.”
“I didn’t realize I was being watched,” Celestia said in jest, “Is there a reason you’re worried I’m not in the castle?”
“I’m worried because you’re my sister,” Luna replied, “And I don’t want anything more to happen to you under my watch.”
Back when the caribou had made their move, Luna was one of the first to fall to their ploy, as she naively took an offered drink from one of her night guard, who was under control of the corrupted Crystal Heart. Whatever they had given her paralized her immediately, making her incapable of fighting back, though completely aware of what was being done to her as a small group of her trusted guard became the first of many to steal pleasure from her unwilling body. More unfortunately though, she could not in her incapacinated state aid her sister in repelling the invaders from their kingdom. With one simple, unforeseeable mistake, Luna might have allowed Equestria to be brought under caribou rule.
It wasn’t an isolated incident either, as when Chrysalis had disguised herself as Princess Cadence, she had slept through the whole event, only learning about what had happened after. With these two failures under her belt, she was not about to allow a third to happen. Not when Equestria had been entrusted to her by her sibling.
Celestia couldn’t help but smile at how her sister worried for her. It was strange, yet comforting how a small indication of care could help make a person feel much better. “I’m fine,” Celestia reassured, looking up at the night sky, “I just felt like stargazing tonight.”
“You can stargaze from the balcony in your room,” Luna said, “But you decided to come out to the courtyard instead. We… I think there is something more to this.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Celestia said, “There are so many things on my mind lately.”
“I hope you’re not dwelling on the words of that Red Collar from earlier,” Luna said, referring to the unicorn mare they had sent to Tartarus, “Those were the words of somepony trying to bring others down to her level. Nothing more.”
“That might be so,” Celestia partially agreed, “But it doesn’t mean that her words didn’t hold some value to them. It’s something I’ve discussed with Twilight briefly before, that by being a Red Collar, I have breached the trust of those I had once ruled over. The Red Collar Tenets don’t apply to me any less than they would anypony else in the kingdom.”
“The pony I saw during the Fall was not you,” Luna insisted, recalling the the visage of King Dainn’s alicorn pet, a mare who in every way betrayed the ideals of the form it inhabited, “And you shouldn’t blame yourself for the things the caribou’s Crystal Heart made you do.”
“That’s the excuse Shining Armor came up with for my, Twilight’s, and Cadence’s behavior,” Celestia said, “But we still don’t know why the heart affected all of us, but never touched you.”
Luna really didn’t have an answer for that, nor did anyone else in Equestria. When interrogating a few caribou officers, they only replied with an answer of ‘They must have wanted it’, which was stereotypical of their kind, and earned them a swift trip to the Blanking Device to be switched, which was one of the many function it could perform. Now that the Crystal Heart had been destroyed, a necessary task to get rid of the caribou’s influence, it was impossible to figure out exactly how it worked, and why some ponies were immune to its effects.
This opened the door for all sorts of speculations, including whether the caribou were right, and that those affected by it actually wanted Equestria to be how the caribou envisioned it, if even subconsciously. It was the position Sunset Shimmer attacked issues from when she was in the Committee, but no one else approved of that manner of thinking, as it seemed counterproductive to look at every citizen as a potential enemy, particularly the stallions, who had been so vulnerable to the caribou’s schemes.
“There are times when I think about all the things my former self did,” Celestia continued, “I wonder what led to me accepting that collar. I want to believe that there was some reason behind it. Sometimes I think that it had to be something like Dainn threatening your safety if I didn’t comply, but having heard what you’ve gone through, I can’t see myself being so naive to believe that he’d uphold a deal for your safety.”
Luna had to admit, she couldn’t think of why Celestia would have submitted either. Both of the alicorn sisters had started out as defiant to their captors, but at some point Celestia had swapped her black collar for a red one. If not for the knowledge of how the Crystal Heart had been altered, then Luna might have had stronger doubts about her sibling caving to the constant sex and torture.
“I just wish that I knew what was going through my mind at that time,” said Celestia, “So I could know without a doubt if I had betrayed my people or not.”
“Sister…” Luna said, thinking back to when she and Shining Armor had arranged for the removal of all memories of the Fall from the other three alicorns, “As I’ve told you before, by the time the caribou were overthrown, you had become a Purple Collar. If it were any indication, you were too far gone to have any coherent thoughts.”
If she had any belief that Celestia had succumbed to the caribou’s treatment, it would have been during the period that she had become a Purple Collar. Her sister succumbing to degradation and lust, that was an impossible thing for Luna to fathom, but Celestia’s mind breaking because she was in a year-long struggle against their mind control, understanding the suffering her ponies were going through as her body did whatever Dainn commanded of it, that was something the moon princess could believe.
“I can understand your need to take responsibility for your actions,” Luna said, “And you’ve done so by stepping down and letting others rule in your stead, not to mention all the work you do to help the Committee. It just pains me to see how much responsibility you are taking on, as I don’t think you were at fault at all.”
“You are too kind, Luna,” Celestia said, “But we have to look at this objectively. Every time something like this comes up, I think back to what Sunset Shimmer said, about how there was something dark being seeded in our kingdom that I wasn’t aware of… And then I think about how you became Nightmare Moon so long ago.”
“You aren’t suggesting that my descent into darkness is similar to Sunset’s explanation as to how the caribou’s mind control worked, are you?”
“If she is correct,” Celestia said, needing to say what bothered her, “And the Heart preyed on dark thoughts and urges that ponies kept hidden from the public, then another attack like this could be just as devastating as before. It would be a weakness that puts us all in danger, but seeing how black collars could resist that kind of power, it's apparently not one that can’t be overcome.”
Luna didn’t want to humor any of the ideas Sunset Shimmer had presented, as she and the other Committee members had, for the most part, always believed them to be flawed and manipulative, using the faults of others, something no creature was without, as a reason to assert more control over them than was needed. The only member who had ever faltered on this outright refusal of the unicorn mare’s beliefs was Flash Sentry, who had sided with her temporarily before seeing how far the mare wanted to go with her ideas.
“Sister, we can’t allow fear of another invasion like the caribou to guide us into being tyrants of their level.” Luna objected, “What Sunset proposed was unacceptable, as it practically judged every stallion, no… every pony in the kingdom as a potential threat. A leader who sees their citizens only as enemies to be subdued is no different from the villains we have repelled to keep Equestria free.”
“Yes,” Celestia conceded, “We can’t allow ourselves to become authoritarian dictators, but I also can’t allow our subjects to suffer because we can only be reactive to those who wish to do us harm. I loathe to say this, but the fact that we haven’t been attacked again by now might only be luck.”
“I think there is more to it than that,” said Luna, “Chrysalis is currently in our custody, Discord has vanished completely, and any hidden threats we had prior to the Fall might have been affected by the caribou in ways we’ve yet to learn about. We also have allied nations helping us at every turn, and if something were to happen, they would hopefully be more active in preventing it from becoming another large-scale problem, since they know now it could spread to them.”
“It also might just be an unfortunate truth that in the state Equestria is in, we aren’t worth the effort of taking over.” Celestia added, giving a more negative perspective as to why no external forces had tried to seize the opportunity to claim the weakened pony nation. “And don’t forget… A group of unidentified creatures did steal the Blanking Device while it was being transported to a new location. That alone shows that we have something to worry about.”
“The point is that we have never allowed something or some creature to put Equestria in danger before. Not even when that danger was ourselves. While Sunset’s methods are drowned in attractive words and points that are difficult to argue, I don’t believe her means would justify the ends.”
“And yet she has quite the following,” Celestia said, “Her support group has many members, and it is growing daily. While she still seems confrontational with the Committee, and they have a habit of causing disruptions across Equestria, they have been overall harmless. The worst thing they’ve done was cause that riot here that one time.”
“She might have become a source of motivation, but her disruptions are the last thing we need right now,” Luna replied, “I can give her credit for reaching ponies in ways our own efforts had not, but the division she creates between her cause and our restoration movement only delays our goals.”
“Do you think we could reason with her?” Celestia asked, “So that we could join our efforts, and do more for Equestria together than we would do alone?”
“If only that were possible, but I can’t shake the feeling that she is motivated by more than just a want to help ponies.” Luna answered.
“Then I’ll have to defer to your opinions on the matter,” Celestia said, “You are the head of the Committee, and I’m no longer Princess, so you are the authority here.”
That statement from her sister wasn’t as reassuring as Luna would have wanted, as it came off as less an agreement with her stance on the matter, and more a submission to the authority the former matriarch had granted to her. She didn’t expect the white alicorn to agree with her on every subject, but when it came to Celestia’s former student, the princess of the night didn’t believe Sunset could be allowed to do as she pleased.
Luna could see that Celestia was at least being complacent though, and had to accept that as enough for now. “Then if we are done with this conversation, would you please come back inside and go to sleep?”
“Yes,” said Celestia, “And I’m sorry for making you worry.”
The two sisters returned to Celestia’s room, not through the front door, but by taking flight and going to the balcony of Celestia’s bed chambers, their two figures dancing among the stars in the light of the moon for a brief moment. Once Celestia touched down, Luna turned around to return to her own room in the same fashion.
“Please try to get some rest,” Luna said, giving some final sentiments before she made her leave, “And allow the rest of us to bear some of the burden you’ve been shouldering.”
“I will.” Celestia said, entering her room.
With that said, Luna flew off, ready to go to sleep herself.
Celestia closed her curtains as she made her way to bed. She was legitimately pleased to have her sister care about her emotional wellbeing, enough to hunt her down in the middle of the night. However, all the concern in Equestria couldn’t keep her from having second thoughts about how she had led her kingdom, where she might have gone wrong, and the unforeseen consequences those mistakes might have had.
When she had become the sole mover of both the sun and the moon, she had never wanted any pony to be consumed by jealousy as her sister had been ever again. So she shifted the ideals of her kingdom to be one that exemplified each pony’s inherent talents, and urged them to follow the destiny those talents would lead them to, believing that by celebrating each pony’s unique gifts, it would eliminate any more situations where a pony would feel underappreciated.
Now, a thousand of years later, she had more issues than the kind of destructive jealousy Nightmare Moon had displayed, as ponies became unsatisfied with just being praised for doing their best. Today wasn’t the first time a pony was put before the Committee, and it was discovered they sided with the caribou because they wished to not just be good at what they did, but desired to be the best of their field, held in higher esteem than all others. It was just the first time one brought up that they had tried their best, and what they got in return was not what they believed they deserved.
Before going to bed, Celestia went to a desk in her room and looked at a flier that she had placed there earlier. It was a flier for ‘Mares for a Better Equestria’, for some upcoming event that was going to take place in a few days. It didn’t look like one of the normal meetings, as it was going to take place in Las Pegasus. The entire city was shut down at the moment save for the hotels it had, which were utilized to house many mares who were awaiting their new homes to be built, but it appeared that Sunset Shimmer had gotten access to one of the empty resorts to host one of her seminars. With that much room, Sunset could potentially have all of the members of her group under one roof, so whatever she was planning was gonna be big.
Celestia, for the most part, didn’t care what Sunset was doing with her group, so long as what she was doing was supporting those seeking help. Celestia had wanted Sunset to help fix Equestria’s current state, and it looked like she was in her own way.
“If only she could have done so as part of the Committee,” Celestia said to herself.
Sunset was a gifted and talented mare, a fact that no one could deny. In many ways, she was as good a student as Twilight had been, perhaps better in some regards, but the unicorn’s faults came in how she believed those with power should use it, those ideals being what forced Celestia to dismiss her as her student, which in turn had made the mare leave Canterlot and go into hiding. Her disappearance was something the princess had seen as another mistake to add to her list of personal failures.
After hearing how Sunset ran a successful rebellion group against the caribou though, Celestia had thought that Sunset’s time away from her had helped her mature, as it displayed her abilities as a leader, as well as her capability to care for and protect others. It felt like a vast improvement until she started making some unsavory suggestions on what to do with Red Collars and stallions who had sides with the caribou - suggestions that would have made Celestia think that she was the one who stole the Blanking Device, had she not been present in Canterlot that day to help bail the members of her group that ended up causing a riot that day. Not that Sunset or any other creature could operate the machine, as it ran on a combination of pony and caribou magic, which was drained from the device in order to transport it safely. With all the caribou stags under diligent watch, whoever did take the device would find that it was little more than a heavy hunk of metal, as it was now.
Celestia had to admit that her former pupil’s issue came down to her inability to work well with others. In the past, Sunset was much like the Red Collar from earlier, and felt she deserved more - the difference being that Sunset didn’t think her destiny was what was holding her back, but that others were holding her back from her destiny. Now, it felt like the mare thought she knew better than everyone else, and didn’t have time to play politics with the other members of the Committee. The worst thing about it all, she might have had a point.
The other members of the Committee were all important figures, ponies who had proven themselves during the Fall in one form or another, but it was hard to compare them to Sunset. The unicorn struggled everyday to make sure those she commanded wouldn’t become victim to Dainn and his ilk, and while each member had gone through their own trials, none of them had so openly and successfully opposed the caribou. Braeburn came close, but he had to pretend to be compliant with the rule of the deer to keep his loved ones safe.
“There has to be some common ground we can reach,” Celestia said, picking up the flier as she went to her bed, knowing that if she didn’t appear in the realm of dreams soon, Luna would be coming back to her room to check on her, “Some way we can work together, for the good of all Equestria.”
It was wishful thinking, but with her kingdom and citizens suffering, Celestia needed to look to alternative ways to bring back the peace and prosperity she had maintained for centuries prior. It wasn’t that Sunset didn’t have good ideas, as her support group itself was one of them. Perhaps what she needed was somepony to filter those ideas, listen to everything she thought would help out, and then present the good suggestions to the Committee to be reviewed.
Putting faith into her former student, Celestia resolved to attend the upcoming meeting in Las Pegasus, knowing that Sunset would have to be there, hoping that she would allow her former mentor an audience. Then, if Sunset liked the idea of helping guide Equestria from the shadows, the two of them could figure out some constructive ways to attack this deep seeded darkness the unicorn believed dwelled in the hearts of ponies.
“I have to at least try,” Celestia said, assuming that the worst that could happen was that Sunset turned her away. With all her thoughts sorted and her plan set, the alicorn of the sun closed her eyes and went to meet Luna in her dreams to bid her one final ‘good night’ before her sister allowed herself to rest as well.