“It was all poetics; you realize that, right?”
Twilight had to repress the urge to sigh as she and Celestia stepped back into her family dining room. The others were all already seated, looking up at their return with an array of expressions ranging from welcoming relief to thinly veiled concern. The smell of tea and snacks filled the air.
“What are you talking about?” she bit back, trying not to let her irritation at Midnight’s snide remark show on her face.
Midnight appeared at the other end of the table, glaring at her with obvious contempt. Her balefire glare then shifted to Celestia, and her lips peeled back to reveal her fangs. “Everything she said back there. About being afraid for you rather than of you. Tripe poeticism and nothing more.”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “You can make anything sound like a conspiracy, you know that?”
Midnight’s lips twitched up just slightly with amusement. “So sayeth she who once thought the princess would flay her alive for being five minutes late,” she mocked.
Twilight blinked, her face gradually turning red. She had completely forgotten that she had once actually thought that was possible. She looked away from Midnight, pouting at the floor. “...Dash?”
“Sup?”
“Midnight’s picking on me.”
Rainbow frowned, turning to where Twilight had been looking a second ago. “Hey! I dunno what you’re saying, but stop it and go away!” she snapped, swinging her hoof through the air ineffectually.
Midnight scoffed and turned away, vanishing through the wall without another word.
Twilight relaxed when her doppelganger disappeared before smiling back at her family, all of whom were looking on with bewildered expressions.
Night Light cleared his throat. “So… is that just how it looks?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Rainbow leaned back in her seat with a shrug. “There’s usually a lot more drama attached,” she said casually. “Lots of cuddling and whispered reassurances and stuff, and- wait, hold up! Did that actually work?!”
Twilight chuckled as Rainbow spun to face her with a look of wide-eyed confusion. She rolled her eyes and walked over to sit next to Rainbow. “Yes, it worked. This time,” she said with a smile.
Rainbow blinked in disbelief. She then shook her head and slumped back into her chair, facing the other. “Meh. Whatever.”
“Was she saying something embarrassing?” Velvet asked from the other end of the table, leaning forward curiously.
“...Just picking at some of my, er, older behaviors.”
Rainbow hummed at that, quietly sipping at the mug in her hooves.”Ya know… if making you blush is her game, then your filly years are, like, a goldmine of material.”
“Hey!” Twilight complained, turning her now irate look on her girlfriend. “Don’t get any ideas!”
“Too late,” Rainbow deflected with a coy grin. A few amused chuckles went around the table at Twilight’s expense before the pegasus in the room sobered up and focused on Celestia. “So, did ya have a good talk?”
The jovial mood quickly dimmed in light of that question. Twilight turned to Celestia, fidgeting with her tail under the table. Their conversation had taken quite some time after they separated from their embrace. Celestia had calmly asked Twilight to give her the rundown on her progress with her mental health, dealing with Midnight, and any progress she had made on opening the chest.
Twilight had told her what she could: that progress against Midnight was slow but steady. She detailed how Midnight had taken to visually appearing to Twilight of late, no doubt in a bid to try and use more direct methods to elicit powerful emotional reactions. She went on to talk about how her temper was not nearly as fiery as it had been before, how breathing exercises, meditation, and Luna’s advice and guidance had helped her slowly work through her issues.
Through it all, Celestia rarely spoke. She had occasionally stopped Twilight to ask a clarifying question, but she didn’t make any comments on the stories she was told. When all was said and done, though, Celestia had seemed pleased with the report.
That was, at least, until Twilight had spoken of the chest. She still had no idea how to open it, or where any of the keys were. She had given up on conventional research entirely. No books would have answers for her, and it wasn’t like she could safely approach the darn thing without the Tree of Harmony potentially lashing out at her.
Celestia had been less pleased by that, though she did not seem surprised—more thoughtful than anything. She had only muttered the words ‘I see,’ shortly before the two made their way back into the dining room.
In response to Rainbow’s question, Celestia merely smiled. “Our conversation was very productive, Rainbow, thank you. Twilight’s progress has been nothing short of phenomenal.”
Twilight blinked, leaning forward slightly. “Phenomenal? Don’t you think that word’s a bit… strong?” she asked, looking back on all of her little stumbles so far. How could her progress be ‘phenomenal’ when all of that was there to stain her record?
Celestia shook her head. “I do not. Though the road ahead is yet long and treacherous, the simple fact remains that you have improved enormously since Midnight first began to whisper within you. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that you couldn’t even speak of Midnight to those who did not know of her, yet here we are now.”
Beside Twilight, Rainbow grinned and thunked her on the back. “Mom’s got a point, ya know.”
Twilight took a second to take in the praise, and a deep breath while she was at it. Slowly, her lips curled up into a warm smile, and she relaxed in her seat. “Thank you, Princess. I promise I won’t let you down.”
Celestia’s smile grew even wider. “I know you won’t. Now…”
The alicorn turned to Velvet and Night Light, her tone shifting from motherly to friendly. “Enough of that. We are here to visit, are we not?”
Velvet smiled, levitating a cup of tea for Celestia in her magic. “Of course we are!” she said cheerfully before turning to Twilight and Rainbow with a warm smile.
Twilight allowed herself to get absorbed in the dreamy, almost hypnotic monotony of just hanging out with her parents. The discussions were simple and mundane, but in spite of that, they were wondrous and enthralling. Everything from the cute dog Velvet had found the last time she went on a walk, to some sort of logistical issue at the library where Night Light worked that could have ended up costing the business thousands of bits. It was all just… simple. Basic. Normal. It was almost enough to make her forget her problems.
Almost.
Twilight was jarred out of her trance when there was a loud knock on the front door, reverberating through the entire house. Blinking, she turned to look out of the kitchen. “Huh? Who’s that?” she wondered aloud.
“Probably Rarity,” Spike observed a little too eagerly. “She must be back from her business meeting!”
Twilight frowned. “Huh? What are you talking about? Didn’t she say that was going to take her hours to do?” she asked, confused.
There was a brief, incredulous silence before Rainbow quirked a brow. “Uh… we’ve been sitting here talking for three hours.”
“We have?!” Twilight exclaimed, shooting up in her chair and looking towards the nearest clock. It was just past one in the afternoon. She slapped a hoof to her face in exasperation, recalling with a huff how Midnight’s presence had thrown off her sense of time before.
“Yup,” Spike nodded, crossing his arms and frowning toward a clock on the wall. “In fact, she’s running kinda late… like, a lot late, actually… You don’t think something happened, do you?”
“Nah,” Rainbow leaned back in her seat with a casual smirk. “Even if anything happened, she’d just whine, complain, and sass her way out of it.”
Velvet rolled her eyes at the display of ‘confidence,’ and made for the door. “I’ll get it,” she called over her shoulder in a sing-song voice.
“Do you think it went well?” Spike asked once she was gone, turning to Twilight curiously.
“Probably. Rarity’s always been a very capable mare, especially where business is concerned,” she replied, taking the chance to distract herself from her loss of time.
Velvet came trotting back into the room a minute later, followed closely by a very satisfied, if somewhat tired-looking, Rarity. She raised a hoof in greeting, her eyes lighting up. “Hello, dears! Terribly sorry for the wait.”
“Hey, Rarity!” Spike said, waving a claw in the air. “How’d it go?”
The tired look in Rarity’s eyes faded away entirely in favor of her pride. She gave off a weak cough to compose herself, then tossed her mane and puffed out her chest. “The meeting went splendidly, darling! Sapphire Shores is a very particular mare with very high standards, but I am proud to announce that she was more than satisfied with my work!”
Twilight smiled, relaxing somewhat. “That’s great to hear! Although, I’m surprised it took so long. You’re usually pretty punctual,” she pointed out, glancing at the clock again.
Rarity’s pride was replaced with that tired look from a second ago, and she heaved a heavy sigh. Now having everyone’s full attention, the unicorn dramatically hauled herself into an empty chair next to Spike and threw a foreleg over her eyes. “Oh, do not remind me. For as well as the meeting went, there were some… unexpected twists involved. Along with the stark realization that I just narrowly avoided having my entire career ruined for something that wasn’t even my fault!”
“What?!” Spike exclaimed in shock. “What do you mean?! What happened?!”
Rarity glanced back for the doorway with a grimace. “...I’d rather not go into specifics just now, but let us just say somepony performed a little act of sabotage on my work… and it was only rectified when said saboteur had a change of heart. I’m as late as I am because I had to sort through all of that, and then escort the little she-devil back to the train station...”
Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. Somepony had tried to sabotage Rarity’s work?! Who?! A business rival, perhaps? Or maybe just someone jealous of her work? A thousand ideas sprang through Twilight’s mind, and she opened her mouth to ask for clarification when she caught sight of a dawning look of realization on Celestia’s face.
The solar princess let out an exaggerated hum before nodding her head. “I see… so that’s what she had to do…”
Night Light blinked. “Uh… who?”
Celestia smiled and shook her head. “Oh, never you mind that. A minor epiphany, nothing more.”
“Sounds like we missed a whole story or something,” Rainbow remarked with a shrug. “But it all worked out, right?”
Rarity nodded with a warm smile. “Yes, quite. No hard feelings are to be had, I assure you. I’ll tell you all the details another time. But for now…” She leaned forward in her seat, a certain, mischievous glint in her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, there is something I absolutely must show you!”
Rainbow tilted her head. “Er… What? I mean, can it wait? It’s about time for lunch.” she pointed out curiously.
Rarity lifted a hoof with her smirk growing. “Ah, but that is just it! We are going to lunch! In fact…”
Twilight blinked in surprise as Rarity turned her attention to Celestia with a wide, eager grin. The alicorn tilted her head and raised a brow, clearly interested in where this was going.
“Princess Celestia, while I would never dream of imposing on you, would it be possible for you to accompany us as well?”
Celestia blinked. “...Oh? It must be quite the restaurant if you are asking me to accompany you,” she noted with a hum.
Rarity hesitated, a slight, strained squeak coming from the back of her throat. “Well… in a manner of speaking, yes…”
“What’s so special about it?” Twilight asked, trying to do the math in her head. She knew about basically all of the restaurants in Canterlot, even if she had only eaten at a small number of them.
“If I told you that, it would ruin the surprise!” Rarity countered with a toss of her mane. She then turned to Twilight and lowered her voice to something gentle, and considerate. “And that aside… it has been a very long time since you were here, Twilight. In Canterlot. And you only have so much time you may spend here this month. Why not take the chance to experience everything you can before we return?”
That gave Twilight pause as she was suddenly reminded of the limitations on her visits Luna had imposed on her. A small seed of bitterness crept into her chest, but she was quick to ignore it.
“She shouldn’t have imposed any,” Midnight snarled.
Twilight ignored her.
A moment passed before Celestia gave a sad smile. “As much as I wish I could, I fear I do not have the time for such an outing. I have put my royal duties back in the castle on hold for long enough as it is. Plus, things tend to become noisy wheresoever I go.”
Rarity looked down, her face twisting up with a grimace. “...Ah,” she began, trying to find the words.
“You think stuff gets noisy with you?” Rainbow asked with a quirked brow. “But not us? Mom, have you been paying attention to the last few years? Things tend to explode when we’re around.”
“I feel that is rather not the point, darling!”
Twilight rolled her eyes at the back and forth before returning her attention to Celestia. “So… you won’t be coming with us?” she asked quietly.
Celestia shook her head again. “I’m afraid not, no. I should be heading back to the castle at this point regardless,” she said before approaching Twilight and leaning down to offer her an affectionate nuzzle. “But remember; I will always be happy to make time for you in private. If you have need of me, you know where to find me. And rest assured, We shall be seeing each other again before you return to Ponyville. I promise.”
Rainbow lifted a hoof to that as if in a toast. “I’ll hold you to that, mom.”
“What about us?” Night Light asked curiously. “Are we invited?”
An awkward cringe came across Rarity’s face. “O-oh… well, you see, the thing is…”
Velvet nudged Night Light with a bump of her hips, flashing Rarity a nod and understanding smile. “It’s fine, we understand. I know we can be a little much at times.”
Night gave her a skeptical frown. “We?”
“Yes, honey, we,” she stressed, a silent threat hidden somewhere in her saccharine voice. She kept her eyes locked firmly on Rarity. “You all go on ahead. We’ll be here.”
“Very well, then,” Rarity gave the parents a courteous bow, then turned back to Rainbow, Spike, and Twilight. The glint from earlier had returned to her eyes. “Just follow me, dears.”
The first stretch of the walk from the house was made in relative silence, at least from Twilight’s end. She walked beside Rainbow, following after Rarity, who was currently deeply engrossed in some conversation with Spike. Twilight hadn’t really been paying attention to the finer details of their conversation.
The streets of Canterlot were far livelier now than they had been earlier, as more ponies got up and went about their day, most no doubt on their way to lunch. In spite of the rush, it managed to be peaceful. Mundane.
Except for the odd looks that were routinely thrown their way. Twilight did her best to ignore them, reminding herself that Rainbow was in their group. “It’s only natural for ponies to look when a princess and savior of Equestria just goes strolling by,” Twilight thought. “Especially without an armed escort.”
“Because she isn’t the one in need of guarding,” Midnight whispered bitterly from the back of Twilight’s mind, causing her to stumble slightly. She looked off to one side and spotted Midnight’s apparition on Rainbow’s other side, her cold glare affixed forward. “You are.”
Twilight had to resist the urge to scowl, looking directly ahead. “Are you still on about that?” she demanded.
“I always will be,” Midnight snapped, her eyes darting at Twilight and narrowing with disdain. “You let yourself be swayed by Celestia’s poetics, but I will not. Do not forget, Rainbow Dash herself was assigned to watch you during your ‘probation.’ You’re always being watched. You’re always being supervised because none of them trust you.”
Twilight took a deep breath, glaring down at the ground. She closed her eyes, imagining Celestia’s smiling face and trying to take comfort in it.
Twilight could feel Midnight bristling. “You place far too much trust in her honeyed words and her disarming smile. Your judgment is clouded by your fond memories of her. You’ve always worshipped her. But sooner or later you’re going to have to realize that Princess Celestia is a liar.”
“Would she have ever been able to use the Elements of Harmony if that were true?!” Twilight asked, focusing forward again. “One of them is honesty, in case you forgot!”
“Who’s to say that Honesty was even hers to command?” Midnight bit back. “We do not know how the Elements delegated their power to the sisters. Luna seems a more likely candidate in my eyes. For all of her poor judgment and uncontrolled emotions, she is at least upfront more often than not.”
Twilight hesitated for a moment before giving her answer. “W-well, we know she used the Elements to banish Nightmare Moon, and they only work when all six are operating together.”
Midnight scoffed. “And? In case you forgot your own predicament, those who have Fallen can not wield the Elements of Harmony. They granted Celestia their power just long enough to conveniently tuck away the greatest symptom of her neglect and abuse, and then fell silent until you came along.”
That made Twilight go silent. She looked down at the ground, her ears drooping. The image of the Tree of Harmony flickered through her mind, as did the memory of its glowing tendrils pulling the literal life out of her…
“Twi?” Rainbow asked in a whisper, bumping her gently from the side. “What’s wrong?”
“...It’s Midnight,” Twilight whispered in response.
In a heartbeat, Rainbow’s wing wrapped over her shoulders and pulled her close. The pegasus gave her an affectionate nuzzle, and some of the ice in Twilight’s veins began to melt. “What did she say?”
“...She just… reminded me why she’s even around,” she muttered, burying her own face into Dash’s shoulder and taking a deep breath, savoring the other mare’s scent.
There was a moment of quiet before Midnight cackled. “Oh, touched a nerve did I?” she asked tauntingly. “Very well. Go on. Hide. Cower behind your broken shield. I’ll be here whenever you’re done being afraid of the truth.”
With that, Twilight felt Midnight withdrawing back into her mind. Lifting her head, she was both relieved and unnerved to see that the apparition had also faded.
She took a deep breath, still somewhat unsteady. “...Sh-she’s gone,” she whispered, smiling at Rainbow. “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” Rainbow replied. Her eyes darted around for a second before she snuck in and planted a very quick kiss on Twilight’s cheek. When she pulled back, her eyes hardened and focused directly ahead as if she were hoping nopony saw that.
A few more minutes passed before, finally, Rarity led the group around a corner and onto a wide thoroughfare. She led the group down another block or so before spinning around and bringing the group to a halt. “Alright then, you three! Here we are~!” she sang, swinging a hoof dramatically to the left at one of the many businesses that lined the road. Twilight followed her eyes, and her jaw fell open.
The building was only a single story, with tall, plain windows set into the front wall. Through the windows, Twilight could see the typical workings of a middle-class restaurant. They looked to be having a pretty busy day, too, given the number of cheerfully eating ponies she could see inside. Even so, it wasn’t particularly remarkable.
And yet Twilight remembered it anyway.
“Woah! Isn’t this the place where we met Rarity?!” Rainbow exclaimed, her wings flaring open in surprise.
Twilight swallowed. “Or, well, where we sat down to talk after we met…”
Rarity grinned triumphantly. “Yes, it is! I happened upon it when I was heading down to the train station after the incident I mentioned earlier! I recalled the day I met you two, and I was immediately taken by a feeling of nostalgia! And then I thought that it would be delightful if we were to come here for lunch. I’ve never eaten here, so it will be a fun new experience on top of fond reminiscing on simpler times!”
A second passed before Rainbow’s look of surprise melted into a flat frown. “Didn’t you basically assault my mane here, too?”
Rarity flushed and backed away somewhat. “A-an impulse of my youth!” she deflected.
Twilight grinned herself and lifted a hoof. “Oh, and you sent me into a Flash, so that was fun.”
Rarity backed away even further, covering her face with a hoof. “Ooooh… This is what I get for trying to be nice to you lot… what was I thinking?!” she demanded of herself in exasperation, though Twilight could still hear the smile in her voice.
A few amused chuckles went around the group before Twilight started for the door. Lunch did sound good right about now, and some fond remembrance might be just what she needed. “Well, come on, then. I haven’t eaten here either. We just kinda appropriated it for our chat way back then.”
With that, the group stepped into the establishment, the door closing behind them.