It had been nearly twenty years since Sweetie Drops had enlisted and been drafted into the EIA. The first four had been boot camp; she'd spent about two overseas some time later; and the last eight had been spent in her current post in Ponyville under her new name and background. Through all her life spent utterly devoted to her duty, there had been a few distinct points over the years when she'd come to the same realization.
Her life could be neatly partitioned into three segments, and each of them had accompanied a radical change in her environment.
Growing up as an orphan in dire circumstances necessitated a certain amount of pride- the sort of selfishness that had been very promptly run out of her after she'd joined the military. Of course, that uber-austere lifestyle of a soldier had to be sanded off to fit into her rude-mannered alternate identity, and living in a town as sleepy as Ponyville for so long had a way of mellowing a high-stakes, action-oriented mare as bored as her.
So it was that Sweetie Drops- or Bon Bon, the abused orphan-turned-operative, often found herself at a fairly strange set of whims. Almost like... sometimes there were three voices in her head.
Looking to her left, at the grieving side-profile of one Princess Luna, Bon Bon found herself having one of those moments. A creeping grimace rising over her face to see the beautiful- yet plain- royal blue Goddess lowering Herself to such worldly woe. With Her head bowed and Her back bent, She nearly seemed short enough to be mortal- though that was utter blasphemy.
There was a loud, domineering part of her that wanted her to keep her butt down, her face blank, and her mouth shut, because there was no excuse for preempting Divine Royalty. It was Sweetie Drops' opinion that she should wait it out like a good soldier.
But then, there was a dry, slightly sardonic voice in her head that persistently whined about how if she had to watch that dreary former conqueror make that pathetic face for even a second longer, then she was going to start pulling her undone mane out in clumps. It was Bon Bon's opinion that she should speak up, and end this whole stupid drama.
And... there was a very tiny, very dispassionate voice in the farthest corner of her mind that... just wanted to say buck it. Leave the Goddesses to their grieving, and their infighting, and go home. Find the minty-green mare that had captured her heart and just forget everything that had happened.
How easy life would be to follow the whims of an orphan. To benefit herself and nopony else.
No matter how she scrutinized Princess Luna for any sign of life beyond still-faced penance, there was no tell as to what she should do. She may as well have been a statue; it was difficult to tell if She was even breathing by looking at Her firm line of a mouth and Her motionless, folded-over barrel. Ugh- it was like she was still back at Canterlot with those emotionless wannabes in the Royal Guard.
She was such an enigma. Stillness of that sort was the realm of a soldier. What kind of Goddess would emulate a statue in vigil instead of presenting Herself like the Deity She was?
There was no solace nor clue to be found in the younger Sister- what a shocker- so she turned to her right.
Princess Celestia was... perfect- She was always perfect, and even Her grief was perfect. For the raw, emotional lines of Her frown bearing uncertainty and guilt, She may as well have been the epitome of mourning.
Seeing how unattainable She remained, even in repose, she knew she couldn't interrupt Her- however frustrating the feeling. But she needed to. It wasn't right to allow Her Highness to blame Herself for an eventuality that hadn't remained. But how could she possibly broach such a concept?
What to do? How to feel?
Her hoof rose to her chin to press its hard edge into her lip, the small bit of pain helping to clear the smog out of her head. The longer she stared- the more she came to Equus- the quieter the bickering voices of faith and desire became. It was a helpful sort of mnemonic, watching the Princess and thinking on Her grand station.
How unlike Her Sister She was, Her wings ruffling restlessly in minute tenses along the great span of Her back. Her mane- also rather unlike Princess Luna- seemed just as affected as She was: rolling in and over itself like folding batter rather than trailing to transparency in the breeze.
An interesting, albeit entirely otherworldly physical reaction. She remembered very well how it raged as She became angrier. Like a maelstrom.
Princess Celestia was far less composed in Her vigil than Her Sister- which... seemed more or less true to form. Despite Her tendency to veer towards action and emotion rather than patience and rationale, Princess Luna seemed altogether stoic. Princess Celestia was certainly more likely to show Her feelings- however rare the occasion.
She'd always known that Princess Celestia was subject to grief and emotion, so why did seeing it emphasized so strongly in pony make her feel so ill at ease? She wasn't a mindless zealot generically praising Her for no reason, right? To feel as though there was a common link between her and her Goddess should have been heartening, not disconcerting.
Why didn't it?
Bon Bon had just begun to isolate the discreet trail Her impossible tear had made down Her cheek when she realized, and internally groaned because she'd gotten distracted. Though making even the slightest sound seemed untoward, she let her hoof rise from her chin to her eye just so she could tiredly pull it down her face- because she deserved the pain it brought.
Bon Bon... had messed up. She could admit that- she wasn't afraid of accepting failure or repercussions. She would gladly serve any due sentence provided it was actually due, and in this circumstance, she didn't need the jury or the judge to pass judgement. She knew where she'd gone wrong.
She gave a silent sigh as her hoof fell to the bench, and fixed a forlorn stare towards the distance- about where her home was. Where... Lyra was. Spread out over their bed... head gently sunken into a pillow...
Unless she'd broken her promise to wait up, and had stayed outside to party. Her ditzy love had argued for some party time today, and she hadn't seen her at home when she'd dropped by to retrieve what she'd needed for the interrogation, but she'd otherwise promised to be there when Bon Bon came back. She'd like to say she trusted her marefriend, but...
Bon Bon's melancholic pout soured with a thought, and she straightened in her seat in a futile effort to seem taller besides the tallest mares in the world.
She couldn't think about it- she needed to not think about it. If she went down that road of what-ifs and never-evers thinking of whatever Lyra must have been doing at any one time, she'd never get anything done.
She had things to do today, and there was just no time for Equestria's progenitors to grieve over somepony who wasn't dead and probably didn't deserve it. All of their time was far too valuable to waste on somepony like Light Flow.
Weirdo dork with anger issues and a million different complexes.
So, she cleared her throat with a stern jerk of her chin. Busily and pointedly- but still respectful. Not the easiest tone to affect, but she happened to know a thing or two about intonation.
"Your Highness..." she tried, referring her full attention to the great mare beside her. Not going so far as to touch Her or even to lean closer, which may have been why she received no response besides silence. So she tried again, a little more insistently as she leaned into the table. "Princess... there's something I need to-"
An unexpected bark cut her off from reaching her point. "Sister. Silence thy adherent."
A rough, uncharacteristically fierce condemnation that she flinched to hear, and dreaded to turn to see coming from Princess Luna. Her eyes had finally reopened to the world, but only as a glare fixed firmly on the horizon as She broke Her vigil for nopony but her. How special she felt- how completely caught she was in that moment.
Though Bon Bon's disquieted leer was naturally focused on the testy Goddess impressively giving her the evil eye without even looking at her, her attention was brought back around as a hefty sigh released from her other side.
"Sweetie Drops..." Princess Celestia's eyes remained shut and Her expression persistently troubled as She spoke, so it was all the more difficult to detect the quiet note of exasperation in Her sotto voice, even as She didn't raise Her head to address her. "Please, if you would allow us this selfish moment of reflection." She blew another quiet sigh through Her nose with a low murmur, drawing Bon Bon's own breath back into her mouth to choke on. "We will discuss next steps as soon as we have both committed this tragedy to memory."
With that... heartbreaking sentiment spoken, the Goddesses fell to silence, and even the all-too suddenly aggrieved Lunar Princess once again shut Her eyes in silent reverence. Bon Bon could only grit her teeth, flicking an increasingly uncertain glance between the two of Them and wondering how, by the good grace of the Sun, she would manage to get out of this.
In situations like these- situations requiring a great deal of thought and consideration, she liked to lay out two basic plans. She could go with subtle, or brazen. Nuanced, or bludgeoning her target with a hammer. From those two simple points, she'd devised every single plan she'd ever followed- logical reasoning had never failed her.
She put a decent amount of thought into how she wanted to proceed for a few seconds. A few earnest seconds of genuine planning before she shrugged her shoulders, let the little voice that said buck it through the door, and put her next action into the hooves of her overtired mind.
Risky. But effective.
She didn't quite slam her hoof down into the table, but a few pieces of silverware definitely rattled as Bon Bon reared halfway onto the table with a snarl. "Highness, there's something very important I need to tell you now," she declared stubbornly, and all at sobering once, the two Goddesses who had lived her age in centuries opened Their eyes and turned to her.
One glowing cyan pair narrowed in expected, though still alarming irritation, and one magenta pair of once-kind eyes resoundingly... low with reprehension.
It was normal for Princess Luna to be angry with her- Princess Luna seemed angry at everything- but meeting Her Highness' reproachful gaze and finding a dangerous note of warning in their deep depths gave Bon Bon... a little pause.
Time enough for another voice. Another mare to slam her hoof into the table, and this time, the plates rattled.
"Impetuous stalwart." An insult directed at her, and she whipped around to find Princess Luna's eyes fully boring into her. It was perhaps the first time the disinterested Deity had truly focused on her, and that fully-focused stare was intent enough to feel. "Thy constant irreverence was excusable for what little time thou provided meagre amusement, but no longer is it amusing."
Even with Bon Bon reared onto the table, Princess Luna still kept a few inches over her, and how She towered over Bon Bon then: a measurable giant in form and tone. The bordering threat in Her still eyes alone was enough to set her tuned sense of danger off, and for how lowly She hissed at her, Bon Bon was distinctly reminded of a day very long past when she'd almost died on a mission.
It was the same surreal feeling of calm in the midst of the spinning world around her. Like focusing on a crossbow bolt in flight.
The feeling vanished a moment later, and all the dire alarm rushed to fill its place.
Bon Bon worked her jaw for defense as the Lunar Princess' dotted freckles hid in mortal fear, Her scowl peeling back in a derisive scoff as She appeared to draw a heavy breath for another string of insults before She was suddenly and completely interrupted.
"Luna, please." The exasperated tone of Her Sister had Princess Luna raise Her suffocating glare from the agent, who gratefully turned with Her to see Princess Celestia with Her own glare newly fixed over her head. "There is no need to malign Sweetie Drops so harshly. It is unbecoming."
It was a welcome reprieve to have the attention of the moment taken off of her, but Bon Bon's scant moment to relax was cut short as Princess Celestia's firm stare lowered between blinks to focus on her for a breath.
"However out of turn she may act."
It was a much gentler admonishment, though for how it weighed in the pit of her stomach it may as well have been a vile slur. Between the two Goddesses on either side of her showing their irritation on opposite ends of the spectrum, she was actually beginning to lose her nerve- which was no small thing for her.
She took a shallow swallow to wet her throat as she tried to keep her hoofing on the table steady, though she was really considering meekly falling into her seat. Tactical retreat?
Unfortunately, the blue hoof that suddenly rose to her shoulder and pressed her painfully down didn't give her much of a choice.
"We are all too tired of entertaining the verges of thy heedless zealot's offenses." Princess Luna, holding one incredibly rigid hoof to Bon Bon's shoulder, freely aired Her grievances over her head: the anger in Her eyes pronouncing itself with every spat word as Her snarl worsened. "To suffer the utter dearth of dignity thy fanatics express is not excusable for us, Celestia. Our time of mourning is all we have."
The implicit usage of pluralism struck home as a very personal 'we', and she only grew more certain of it as Princess Celestia softly gaped in snubbed affront. An affront that faded in a few seconds to a coldly felt admonition as She suddenly raised Her own hoof to Bon Bon's shoulder. It was suddenly difficult to notice through the equal points of very heavy pressure on her shoulders, but she could swear the air became just a few degrees warmer, then.
With Her taunted magenta glare shining in controlled irritation, She set Her jaw very strictly straight. "Sister," She uttered pointedly, very clearly communicating in Her tone that She was losing patience. "Do not speak that way to me, as though I do not feel this loss as well."
It was becoming a little hard to breathe, especially with the weight pressing down on her from both sides. Bon Bon was a hardy mare- an earth pony with firm control of her magic, no less- but her bones were actually beginning to ache under the... hopefully inadvertent pressure of the Goddesses' hooves. With the air growing just that little bit more arid with every second, she was hard pressed not to loll her tongue out and pant.
Though, even for how dry the atmosphere was becoming, the wide-eyed expression of closed-mouth scorn on Princess Luna's face brought to mind the instinct to shiver. A feeling that was shunted aside as the hoof on her shoulder began to press down, and Bon Bon was forced to go along with it to avoid her second injury of the day.
It... buck, that ached! Bon Bon could comfortably deadlift a couple hundred pounds without mana augmentation, and her shoulder had easily weathered the death-defying stunt she'd pulled with the rope bridge across the chasm, but the weight Princess Luna was forcing down on her was heavier than she could push against. She- she was actually stuck under the angered Deity's enraged press.
Stuck with her body half-slanted down and still aching, forced to watch as Princess Luna leaned over her crushed body: Her expression a chilling mask of quiet anger as a terrifying fire filling Her narrowed gaze.
"What a farce," She whispered spitefully: so thinly that it seemed all the more striking as Her voice gradually raised to speaking level. "If we are not to speak to you of your feelings, then spare us the pretense of pretending you actually feel for him."
Bon Bon gasped in sudden pain as the white hoof on her otherwise unaggrieved shoulder pushed down in an instant, forcing her to bow over the edge of the bench as Princess Celestia assumedly leaned overhead as well. It was actually hard to tell; all she could really see was a white smudge at the top of her vision and the packed dirt under the table that she increasingly saw as an acceptable target to heave onto.
Though she was in quite a bit of physical duress with her shoulders feeling like they were going to shatter with every second, her mind continued to constantly race as the air grew hotter and the silence flared to bitter resentment. With the grinding hooves of Divine Royalty unconcernedly using her as a platform for bickering- quite on course for mortal royalty, at least- all she could do was bite her lip and frantically search the ground below her for answers.
This couldn't happen- it just couldn't. If the Goddesses broke out into such a spirited argument now, so soon after they'd been reunited, it might just screw up Equestria's future forever. And the way the argument was going- the venom in Princess Luna's voice as She'd fixed Her Sister with a well-used death glare- it would be a very serious argument.
Serious enough to shatter the heavens for the second time?
She didn't want to believe it, and barring something truly dire, it certainly wasn't going to end in banishment- but it wouldn't be good. The bottom line was that it had to resolve, fast.
It was up to her. She needed to deconstruct, internalize, and act.
Where was the aggression coming from? Princess Luna had introduced the hostility, but Princess Celestia had diverted it onto Herself- thank Her. Still, the root of the issue was with Princess Luna: She was the one who needed to be calmed.
Why was She angry? It wasn't just because Bon Bon had been rude- it was deeper than that. She was angry because Her grief had been deprecated. She couldn't go back and stop herself from interrupting, and she really didn't think Princess Luna would accept an apology, so whatever solution she came up with had to focus on the grief rather than the slight.
Why was She grieving? Obviously... because She thought Light was dead.
Besides a passionate apology or making Her too angry to care about it, that left about one obvious solution.
There was every chance the argument would fizzle on its own and the Sisters would resolve their differences, but why chance it on unprecedented understanding when she could just remove the root cause of the argument?
Laying out the simple chain of logic that lead to her eventual conclusion didn't make it any easier, though.
Subtlety wasn't going to cut it anymore. She had to shut her eyes, brace herself, and be brazen.
This was going to raise some eyebrows.
"Light Flow isn't dead!"
It might've just been her shoulders finally going numb, but in the moments after her shout that brought the simmering silence to a crashing end, the heated air seemed to fade to a pelt-deep chill above her.
Gradually, she peeked an eye open, and it was just then that the weight on her shoulders lessened, allowing her to readily push herself up against Their hooves and throw frazzled glances between the Sisters. The both of them staring at her in... mostly confusion, but some definite shock.
The shock and confusion were more of Princess Celestia's expression, though, and even that fell away in trepidation as the end of Princess Luna's bemused frown quirked up, then fell to a frosty lour. An expression so intimately rife with antipathy that Bon Bon instinctively held her breath, and the thought crossed her mind that Her Highness might've as well.
"You lie."
It was a simple statement pushed forth by a Goddess staring down at her with every negative connotation possible, played as straight as an outright dismissal could hope to be. It effectively eliminated every pretense Bon Bon had held that this could go well, though now that she knew, she could prepare herself for the struggle.
Bon Bon felt some trepidation in meeting Princess Luna's glower, but she did anyway, keeping her expression confident and concise as she'd long since been taught. Trying to remember that the veil was best lifted now.
"I'm not," she asserted firmly, and Princess Luna's glower parted into a colder sneer. Still, before the Lunar Princess could open Her mouth and sling verbal abuse, Bon Bon quickly continued with determined pace. "I can verify it. As I was carrying him back to town through the Everfree, he resurrected."
That word and its very meaningful connotation chipped the slightest hole in the Deity's mask of contempt as Her pressed brow twitched, but she couldn't dwell on the victory- not even as a soft breath of a gasp came from respectively behind her.
She pressed on, matching Princess Luna's hard stare as best she could as she did was she was best at: giving her report. "I detained him upon my realization he was alive, and escorted him back to his home for interrogation." She leaned in, broadening her aching shoulders as her confidence swelled with the truth. "He gave me enough information that I can absolutely verify the events- and he can give the same account."
It sounded better out loud than it did in her head, though she still wished she'd built up to it. Pretense was... badly needed, and she didn't enjoy having to prove her authenticity. She supposed she might've had to either way, but saying the actual words out loud still sounded insane.
Through the agent's proud recollection, Princess Luna did not waver in the slightest from Her intense stare, nor did She in the moments after Bon Bon went silent. She had actually begun to think she should've said more when suddenly, after several moments of silence, Princess Luna spoke in an eerily calm voice, standing at extreme odds with Her severe expression.
"We shall see." With that puzzling statement quickly bringing Bon Bon's expression to confusion, Princess Luna tilted Her nose up without taking Her eye off the agent. "Celestia, sister mine, remain calm and do not fear."
The ominous feeling of danger came far too late to save her.
Her reflexes were incredible- she'd been officially reviewed as having such- but the time between Princess Luna's last word and the impossibly fast motion of Her hooves clasping onto her face with enough speed to make her jaw ache was too scant to even encompass a blink. As it was, there was only the rush of displaced air in the motion's wake, and the sudden shift in the tension.
She hardly felt the pain as her head was jerked forward, but she certainly felt the pulse of adrenaline shoot through her as her own hooves immediately came up to try to pry the Princess' grip off of her. Her choked gasp was overshadowed by a louder, more shocked gasp from behind her, though even through the immediate, reprimanding call of 'Luna!' the younger Sister did not sway from Her intense stare, nor did the elder make any motion to stop Her.
Her attempt to free herself proved fruitless as she found the Deity's hooves glued in place like steel- which should've been impossible with her massive strength. She was only able to lamely smack her hooves against the iron bars of fur and flesh in a desperate bid to free herself.
Bon Bon's mind raced- what was happening and should she fight back- for every second that Princess Luna stared deeply into her eyes- and the panic beginning to surge through her body grew as the Princess leaned closer until they were nearly muzzle to jerking muzzle. It was only then, as she was sure she could count the flaws in Her irises, that she saw the first faint trickles of blue light beginning to grow above her.
Bon Bon prided herself on being mostly unflappable under normal circumstances, but it had been a calendar week since she'd slept, and she was currently being grappled by the millennia-old Goddess of the Night. She was a little less proud to say she felt a primal fear in her core when she heard the voice.
The voice that did not ring in her ears, but in her head.
Let us in, and let us see.
Don't let Her in. Cogimancy was one of the most dangerous forms of magic on the planet, and consent was the key to her every thought. That was the basic warning she'd had drilled into her head during specialty training, and the moment she went back on it was the moment she lost everything that made her who she was. She could be overwritten in a flash and become an entirely new mare. The lock could be broken through time and force, but consent was still the ultimate act of subservience.
She did not have to let Her in.
That was her first thought, flashing through her skull on a wave of panic. Her second thought came a moment later.
If she were truly in danger, Princess Celestia would do something.
That thought spoke louder than the last. Maybe that was it, or maybe it was the fonder memory of the unspoken cardinal rule of the EIA.
Princess Celestia is the ultimate authority. Trust Her more than you trust yourself. Put Her judgement before yours.
It might've been the serenity of the Lunar Princess' unblinking stare. Maybe it was the wear creeping like a wave over her sagging shoulders. It might've been the off-center image of Lyra in-between the flutter of her tired eyes.
She didn't really know. She may never know why.
For whatever reason and against her every judgement telling her no, Bon Bon simply said yes.
And as a heavy presence pressed against the wall of her mind, she began to think of Light Flow.
It was a long, uncomfortable few minutes spent in physical boredom and mental exertion as she sifted through her memory of the past day. The heavy weight of Her presence- judging even in concept- lingering idly by, impassively observing the tiresome recollection as she just tried to keep her breathing steady.
Many events were easy to recall- others less so. What minutia she tried to double back on to rethink was... waved by at the behest of Princess Luna's presence- an odd, external feeling of disinterest.
If that was an odd sensation, then interest was profoundly strange by contrast. In the moment she began to recall her fever and how she'd collapsed- and she'd realized what she was thinking and tried to think of something else, the memory of Light's efforts to heal her inexplicably popped back into the forefront of her thoughts.
No matter how she tried to move along, how she pleaded with her own mind, the memory came unbidden. Her sordid secret was laid bare in her mind's eye; she realized too late that she'd ultimately failed to keep her promise of secrecy to herself, and there was little to do then but resign herself to it under the mind-delving scrutiny of the Lunar Princess. Whatever may soon come, she only had herself to blame for being careless.
There were only a few other standouts of seeming interest to Princess Luna. When Light had told her of Nightmare Moon's plan to destroy Equestria as they'd looked out over Ponyville. When Light had first called her by that stupid nickname. The... quite embarrassing moment she'd spent laying on top of him- ergh. Still weird in hindsight.
Eventually, for every detail she'd have preferred to keep secret accidentally bared, she came to the hazy moment of when she'd left the frowning face that comprised ninety-five percent of Light's emotions at his cabin, and the weight lifted soothingly away. An overwhelmingly pleasant easing of an indescribably uncomfortable feeling bordering on nagging pain, that left Bon Bon finally able to breathe as the hooves tightly holding her head fell away.
She rubbed her twinging cheek with a hoof as she let her eyes loll down, and just took a moment to thank Her that the experience was over. If that had been what Light was going through daily for two years, then she had a whole new opinion of the colt. No wonder he was crabby; that was the most invasive thing she'd ever felt. Like her every orifice was being clogged with something grimy. Her insides- even the ephemeral sensation of her mana- it all felt dirty.
She regretted not attending the EIA's optional extra classes on guarding oneself against Mind Magic. She was very obviously unprepared for the apparent eventuality, and that did not sit well with her.
...Felt like her brain had been violated. There went that cherry...
She thought, though the haze of sorting through the uncomfortable experience, to take a glance up at the mare who had subjected her to the awful feeling- though the glance left her markedly more curious of Princess Luna.
The Goddess was... different.
She seemed... for lack of a better word- stuck: mentally captured in a single moment with Her hooves still in the air in the same position they'd been on Bon Bon's face, staring at her with clouded, unfocused eyes. Her mouth gaping softly open in an unspoken word but ever so faintly mouthing something. Her magic had long since faded, her rage a forgotten secondary detail to the evident bombshell she'd been fed.
It was like... well, she didn't really know what it was like. Being physically struck was more shock and less incomprehension, while actual incomprehension shouldn't have been so shocking. She supposed the Princess must've been in shock.
Just as Bon Bon had begun to lean apprehensively back from the comatose mare in genuine fear that She was about to implode, she was further startled as She suddenly sucked in a deep breath from Her stomach to Her chest- an audibly painfully deep breath. A moment later quickly grasping Her hooves tightly to Her barrel as though She'd forgotten to breathe- if Alicorns even needed to- all the while mouthing something that she had to strain to hear.
"He's alive..!"
Frowning anxiously, Bon Bon pressed her perked ear back to her head as Princess Luna repeated Herself... and again, and again. Over and over and slowly rising in volume until She was audible, passing exactly one verse that may have been edging into shouting before She stopped.
And in a very reactive moment that Bon Bon hadn't yet come to expect from Her, Princess Luna turned.
She fully reared onto the table that groaned under Her weight with a cry- "He lives!" -as Her wings panned out in a glorious cacophony of unfolding feathers that smacked Bon Bon in the face from their proximity: the beautifully preened fans of enveloping size powerfully flapping a single time and sending most of the things on the table clattering off of it as Princess Luna seemed to ready Herself to take off in that exact moment. Her gaze ever forward, a desperate, wanting gape on Her face.
The mare, who seemed eager to stop at nothing, only stalled with one hoof already stepping into the air as there was an jarring, reprimanding shout from aside them.
"Luna!"
Bon Bon had no doubt the self-echoing shout caught Her Sister's attention- as well as the one pony all the way across town who wasn't already looking- as in the second after She whipped Her head around to set Her frantic gaze on Princess Celestia, sitting calmly in Her seat and studying Her Sister with a narrow, expectant look.
She broke the stare for a second as She raised Her teacup for an unconcerned sip, closing Her eyes and letting it drift away with a sigh, only to then calmly return the frenzied stare without a hint of animosity.
"Remember what you promised me," was all She said- all She needed to say, judging by how Princess Luna's entire body flinched. Her wings fanning up into a trembling backward pitch as the excitable Deity's gaze swerved to the square before them.
Bon Bon had been throwing sporadic glances that way for a while as well, because- well, it didn't really need to be said that everypony was staring. And it was all the more implicit that they continued to stare at the newly ascended Princess standing halfway onto the now mostly empty table with Her wings looming over all, now passing Her gaze through them and working Her jaw intermittently. Quite the scene it was, and Ponyvillians loved to gawk.
"I- But there's- I need to..!" The Lunar Princess' fitful muttering hushed to silence a few moments later as Her body anxiously tensed; Her hooves restlessly kneaded the table She stood atop as She let out what could only be described as a very low whine.
After a moment, though- while Bon Bon tried in vain to believe her eyes- the Princess seemed to begrudgingly relax, Her shoulders slumping as Her massive wings folded in two, hurried motions, thankfully not hitting Bon Bon this time. She was only glad the slight sting took some mental focus off her aching shoulders.
With an unsatisfied huff, Princess Luna found Her seat once more, and the greater population of the town pointedly returned to enjoying its celebration. The unspoken 'or else' lingering in the air around them under the frightful gaze of their otherwise benevolent ruler.
"Yes... of course, sister... we remember..." She muttered miserably as Her sullen gaze fell to the table. Rather... like a foal, She took to supporting Her cheeks on two hooves as She glared down at its wooden surface, an unrestrained pout on Her suddenly softer face.
But only for a few moments before She was already raising Her head. With an expression that was already far more emotive than any other face She'd made outside of rage, Princess Luna set a longing stare into the far distance with a hefty sigh.
Bon Bon's gaze lingered on the bipolar Deity for a few seconds more before she was drawn to Princess Celestia, still looking down into Her teacup with intense, zeroed focus. A narrowed, far-away stare darkly underlined by a growing shadow of wear, which Bon Bon could hardly blame Her for.
She held a great deal of respect for Her Highness' ability to remain calm under pressure- when not arguing with Her Sister- and so it always was that, with as much grace as She'd wielded in calming Princess Luna with just six words, She drew Herself up with a steady breath. She only took another single moment to Herself before She candidly met Bon Bon's eye, not a trace of reservation in Her suddenly steely stare.
"Agent, what did you notice during the time Light was resurrecting?" A quick question with little humor; Her Highness leapt straight into debriefing. With how still and stern Her expression was, it almost seemed as though She hadn't been surprised at all- which made it all the more impressive considering she knew She was.
Whatever Her Highness' feelings, it wasn't Sweetie Drops' place to ponder for the moment. Instinct took readily over from where it had fled away from Princess Luna's mental probe, and she quickly raised her hoof to her head.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, Highness!" It was the truth, but it still felt like she'd done something wrong as Her Highness' frown deepened. Sucking in a hasty breath, Bon Bon leapt to expound. "I was otherwise preoccupied with considering the night's events and navigating the Everfree with Light's body, and there were no immediately obvious tells!"
That seemed to shock Her Highness to the point of it actually showing as a slight gape on Her face. The unsteady show of uncertainty remained for but a moment before it faded, and She pressed another question insistently forward. "There were no signs whatsoever? He didn't seem physically affected afterwards?"
She didn't pause to let Bon Bon respond, pressing Her hoof to Her chest near Her heart as She dipped Her head in. "Did you feel anything? Was there any unexpected pain or discomfort you felt as you were carrying him back?"
Well... yes, but it had been because she was carrying around a lame hoof. If there had been any kind of abnormal pain to accompany his resurrection, she wouldn't have been able to tell.
She tried her best to wipe the uncertainty from her face as she swallowed, and forced out a response. "Light... exhibited the beginning stage of Black magic corruption in the discoloration of his eyes, but otherwise... no, Highness. Nothing like that."
Princess Celestia's hoof leapt to Her mouth almost instantly after her response: Her gaze growing distant between blinks as muttered breaths murmured out from around the obstruction. Her eyes flicked about the air in front of Her as if searching for the miraculous answer to the mystery, though judging by the growing air of agitation around Her, none were coming to mind.
It only took a few moments before Her Highness focused back in, and Her hoof fell to point at her as She spoke again, somewhat more urgently than before. "Was there any noticeable decay in the environment beyond the usual for the Everfree?" She swerved Her hoof from its point to tap against the table aside them, Her gaze reflecting the continued alarm in Her voice. "Did you observe any nearby animals acting oddly? Did anything perish at any time around you?"
Bon Bon felt increasingly as though she was unfit to answer any of Her Highness' questions, because she hadn't noticed anything like what She was asking. The vegetation of the Everfree already looked perpetually dead, so if anything had happened to the flora on account of Light, she hadn't noticed. She hadn't seen any animals, either, which was very common for the Everfree considering it was almost exclusively home to predators. If she'd seen any animals, she might be dead right now.
Knowing that it wasn't the answer Her Highness was looking for, she couldn't quite keep herself from adopting a slight expression of shame as she succinctly answered Her with a frown and a sigh. "No, Highness."
It was all too possible that she'd only failed to notice the signs, not that there weren't any.
For the dire look of disbelief in Her Highness' eye, however, she could be fooled into thinking otherwise. "That can't be... It's unprecedented..." came Her faint whisper as Her hoof slowly tracked up to hold against the side of Her head. Beyond that, She seemed to be lost for words as She only absently studied the air before Her.
A cold sense of unease had long since gripped her from Her Highness' line of questions, and it only grew worse to see Her so utterly confused. Her Highness always seemed to know everything, and seeing otherwise was making it a little hard to breathe right.
Bon Bon swallowed thickly through the squeezing knot of discontent lodged in her throat, letting her hoof fall from her forehead to rub under her chin. Only a moment later, a modicum of focus returned to Princess Celestia's searching gaze, and it raised in a blink to behind Bon Bon.
"Luna, a moment?" She sharply addressed Her sight-gazing Sister as Her hoof fell to the table. The called-to Princess perked and turned to catch Her Sister's eye; then, with Her attention drawn, Princess Celestia gave a short, hurried huff. "I'm sorry, sister, but our difficulties must be put aside. I urgently require your counsel on this matter."
Princess Luna frowned at that, though it was a ridiculously light frown given Her average. Even the thoughtful glimmer in Her eye as She shimmied to face Her Sister seemed more genuine- impossibly so. She could almost say She seemed to care about what Her Sister was asking.
It was like... every deeply-coded negative reaction She normally showed had just been swapped out for a less antagonistic suite of moods. At least, that was how it seemed through studying Her for the few moments it took Her to respond to Princess Celestia.
And as She did, She did so with a curious, troubled frown. "We agree, sister, that our grievances be cast aside." She placed Her hoof onto Her chest. "The blame lies with us, ill-considered it was. Thou need not consider us any further aggrieved."
As Bon Bon softly gaped at the formerly stubborn Princess admitting Her fault, said Princess raised Her hoof in a shrug. "However, we cannot provide thee with thy sought answer. In this matter, we are as unsure as thou art."
To that lukewarm response, Princess Celestia visibly fought back a grimace. "Sister, please." She stopped short with a frustrated sigh, casting Her gaze aside in a sudden fit of concern. It further narrowed as a haze of brilliantly golden mana crept up the length of Her horn, and as the rabble of the noisy crowd pressing on her ears grew muted, the world around them became shaded with a distinctly faded grey.
With the obvious Bubble of Silence erected with startling efficiency, Princess Celestia turned Her attention back to Her Sister. "This lies beyond anything I've ever learned of Black Magic." The faint echo behind Her voice as caused by the spell made the plea seem all the more striking, further impounding as She shook Her head with another frustrated sigh. "It's completely unprecedented for a pony to simply come back to life without a spell. It shouldn't be possible like this."
Princess Luna showed little signs of reacting to the cautionary spell to protect the privacy of the situation, only narrowing Her eyes as She raised Her eyebrow in dry derision. "Forgive the implication, sister," She spoke dubiously, going so far as to cross Her hooves over Her barrel. "-but thou art hardly the most fanatic proponent of the dark arts."
Her expression soured further, spitting Her next words with sudden scorn. "Of thy Black magic." With the dig she didn't understand out of the way, Her expression lightened, though remained completely doubting. "That answers confidently elude thee is no surprise."
The stark denouncement of Her Highness- now that was unprecedented- was met with little but a reserved huff, though there was no anger in Her eyes. "I am not arguing with you, Luna." She did furrow Her brow, frowning with resolve as Her voice echoed out into the bubble. "That is why I seek your insight. The ties you hold to Necromancers, especially, mean you may be the foremost living authority on the school."
Bon Bon had to take a second to blink at that, whirling around as soon as she was able to stare unabashedly at Princess Luna as She sighed. Her posture slumped as She turned to lean into the table, resting Her head on a hoof as Her eyes fell shut, the barest flash of pain crossing over Her face before it was obscured by Her drooping mane.
She was silent for a moment in the anticipatory dead quiet, before Her downcast voice finally drifted out of the drooping corner of Her mouth. "How easily thou speak of it, as though it was not why we once..."
The trailing thought went unfinished, and Bon Bon was left achingly curious as the Princess rose from the table with a sigh, keeping Her gaze on the grey blur of the crowd outside as She raised Her weary voice. "...Very well, sister, we shall do our best to provide our... most earnest counsel."
In an odd, contradictory moment, She paused in Her melancholy to grunt out a wan little laugh with a tart smile. "It may yet be the least we can do."
The silence stretched for as long as it took Princess Luna to gaze intensely into the crowd, until She straightened in an instant and promptly turned to Her Sister, Her momentary smile gone as quickly as it had come. "We know a great deal of the art, yet it remains unfathomable. We have intimately known many who practiced Necromancy, but it must be understood that very few of them were true Necromancers."
Her busy tone dipped into a deep intonation bordering on reverence as She tilted Her head up, frowning at the horizon. "Any unicorn may enter into the school and perform the spells, yet only those blessed few had true ties to the practice." She returned Her gaze to them, narrowing it as She did. "There are the rabble, and then there are destiny's chosen; they are those who truly understand Necromancy."
She paused for a moment to take a breath, then finished in a deeply sober tone. "Light Flow is one such pony."
For the entire time that Princess Luna was speaking- more passionately than She'd been even in anger- Bon Bon only felt a dull, throbbing sense of shock. At how energetic Princess Luna had become in the minutes after She'd learned Light was alive, but moreso at how casually They were discussing Black magic.
Princess Celestia was the foremost authority on many subjects of magic; She'd either learned from or outright taught most of the greatest Arcanicism revolutionaries in history. She was the head of the facility She'd established to help safeguard against Black magic. Of course She knew about Black magic. That wasn't so disconcerting.
What was currently crawling on the back of her throat was hearing Princess Luna's intimate relationship with the forbidden school. Hearing that She'd rubbed elbows with criminals by today's standards, and knowing that She was the Celestia-ascribed foremost expert on a forbidden school of magic.
It sent shivers down her back. It made her skin feel clammy. It filled her head with angry, intrusive thoughts that she couldn't help but listen to.
Not worthy of a Goddess. Not befitting. What was a Goddess if not pure?
Princess Luna was not pure.
Was she even a Goddess?
And the worst part of it all was that it wasn't even intrusive. It sat like a benign stone in the back of her mind the entire time she listened, and it didn't steal a moment of her focus as Princess Luna finished one thread with a grand air of finality before swiftly sweeping into the next one.
Bon Bon only sat and listened, taking in every movement through pure, observational instinct, thinking very little of the discussion going on.
Wondering who to pray to.
In the moment after Princess Luna named Light, She took a firm moment to stare unblinkingly towards Her Sister, as if waiting for a response. Perhaps not seeing one, She finally broke Her stare with a shake of Her head and a sigh, continuing on as She turned to the table. Her hooves dropped onto it with a defeated thunk as Her tone lowered into dismissal.
"But it is a useless distinction." She stared down at the table's edge for a moment as Her eyes continued to narrow, then shook Her head again with a growl. "Light Flow is truly unique; it is one of the reasons we sought him out. Thou hast the right of it: no Necromancer has ever done as he did without the aid of a spell."
She went silent, working Her tense jaw for a few moments as She turned her gaze to the sky, idly scrutinizing it as She began to slowly speak in a low, lilting tone. "...None who we have known." She quieted, then continued in a lonely, hollow tone. "Those who died in vain... Blight... Aching Sore... Bitter Pill... and even those who lived too long... Curtain Call... and Candlebright..."
She trailed off on the end of the list of unfamiliar names. Her eyes that had grown so distant through the recollection gradually fell to reality, and as though the sadness that had crept into Her expression were a physical malady subject to motion, She roughly shook Her head: Her glistening eyes fluttering in time with a thinning crack in Her voice.
"Without their spells and souls to save them... in the end, they all perished..."
The grieving whisper slipped past Her sullen lip with a sigh as She shut Her eyes, and without another word, Her head hung slowly forward until it met Her outstretched hoof. With the lifeless strands of Her mane fallen about Her hidden face, She went silent but for the softest shudder of breath.
Until a slender white hoof crept in past the edge of Bon Bon's vision, and she was suddenly reminded that the Pure Goddess was still there.
Her hoof crept through the air to make gentle contact with Her Sister's shoulder, and with its barest brush, the Lunar Princess stiffened in a tensing ripple from Her back to Her shoulders. She sucked in a throaty gasp as Her head flew from her hoof, Her mane bouncing into disarray as Her teary eyes landed on Princess Celestia, smiling so softly that Her face seemed like immaculately molded clay.
"It's okay, Lulu," She murmured- and the raw, emotional gratitude in Her voice brought a shiver running down Bon Bon's spine. The suddenly frenetic pace of Princess Luna's breath began to calm as lucidity returned to Her eyes and Her Sister continued, creeping Her hoof over to affectionately cup the shoulder She held. "You don't have to go on. I don't expect an answer you don't have."
The melancholy mare seemed to dwell on that for a few moments, Her eyes searching Her Sister's face first, then falling to consider the table as Her struggling breath continued to slow. After a few moments and as Her first steady breath came in a sigh, She hesitantly raised Her markedly drier eyes to Her Sister with a restless frown.
"We... thank thee for thy consideration..." She trailed off as Her eyes remained on Princess Celestia's face for a few moments, clouding in some moment of far-away recollection. Then She blinked, and like a gracious miracle, a small, genuine smile crept up onto Her face. "...sister mine. It means much to us."
The elder Sister's own smile grew wider at that, leaving the moment utterly noiseless between Their silence and the forced quiet of the bubble. It left Bon Bon feeling stuck and snubbed- nearly like a voyeur, and completely without a way to bridge the gap between her and the Sisters that really needed the moment of heartfelt connection.
That is, until her eye happened to drift down.
"Highness..." The warning came as instinct to the longtime surveillance agent, and she felt no shame in breaking the silence as she continued to stare intently forward while the Divine pair turned Their gazes to her curiously. Feeling Their attention, she met Princess Celestia's curious eye so she could flick hers forward with a wordless tap on the table.
She didn't have to verbalize it; Princess Celestia quickly picked up on her subtle hint with a hum and turned to see what she was looking at. The slightest breath of a sudden gasp was the confirmation that the problem was noticed, and all at once, She extracted Herself from touching Her Sister to sit straight while Her horn busily wreathed with mana. Bon Bon's head swam for a moment as her ears popped, and with the sensation of air rapidly sucking into itself, there was suddenly noise and color in the world.
Most predominantly the color purple, as one such unicorn cantered up to the table, stopping just shy of treading into the battleground of treats and finery. Her hooves and her well-trimmed fetlocks remaining carefully clean as she came as close as she could seemingly bear judging by the troubled leer on her face.
"Twilight," Princess Celestia greeted the mare warmly as she slowed to a stop, any vestige of Her concern over Light's situation hidden behind the thick layers of love and tolerance She held in Her smile. The named mare turned her nose up from where she'd been frowning down at the mess, passing her gaze from one Princess to the other as the taller of the Two addressed her fondly. "-my dear student, I'm so pleased to see you once more before I leave."
As it was the first moment in a while she'd had to herself without some kind of stress or issue to solve, Bon Bon could finally shoot a pitying look towards the smear her discarded bonbons had made just beyond the table's edge, for how little solace it brought her. Making them had been a lot of work for Princess Luna to eat one, insult her, and eventually knock them off the table. Their only true purpose had been to facilitate her approach to the Princesses, but still.
She had some pride as a baker, and seeing them discarded like actual trash kind of... stomped all over it.
It was a passing moment of regret that went as quickly as it came, leaving Bon Bon wholly alert and focused on the Princess' student. Even though Twilight's typical pensive leer lightened at Princess Celestia's address, she still seemed quite tense, her eye flicking periodically down as she responded. "Thank you, Princess, I'm always glad to see you, as well."
At Princess Celestia's somewhat chiding head tilt that spoke of some history, Twilight finally managed to keep her eyes from straying- at least, to the ground. The mare spoke with a distracted lilt. "I've just... come to tell you that I've finished double-checking my New Homeowner's Checklist, and I've already sent word to Canterlot to have the materials I've been using for my theorum on the properties of dragonfire transported here sometime... soon..."
As she spoke, instead of frowning in curiosity at the many pastries and finery discarded around her hooves, her glance instead continually veered... slightly to the right. A leer that Bon Bon had assumed was at the surprisingly attentive Princess Luna watching the mare with careful eyes, that she quickly realized fell just a little short.
The oddest straying attention that grew more pronounced with her every word until she was trailing off on a half-finished sentence, beginning to lean in as she pressed a hoof to her curious frown and her purple gaze narrowed and narrowed.
Exactly on the spot where Bon Bon was sitting and sweating.
As she met Twilight Sparkle's searching- completely leering gaze, there was a large part of her that knew there was no way. Of course Twilight couldn't see her; that was impossible. It was Princess Celestia's spell, and that meant it was impenetrable.
But then, as she shifted slightly in a minute paranoid reflex and Twilight's brow jumped, she happened to remember just who the mare somehow staring an invisible pony dead in the eye was. Even during her easy assignment in a backwater, it was still Bon Bon's job to remain informed on ponies like her, and she knew very much.
Twilight Sparkle was more than the Princess' Personal Student- a highly sought after title gifted once in generations- and she was even more than any average magical genius. Through the exhaustive amounts of aptitude tests, intelligence tests, and even the various methods designed by historic Arcanicists- some incredible ponies in their own rights- to categorize unicorns exactly like her, she'd managed to outperform literally every attempt at possibly quantifying her potential. As it stood in the intellectual world, postulating the heights of her ability was considered theoretical work.
A title-bearing Lady in Canterlot's court, commanding a considerable amount of respect in the intellectual world; a mare that had contributed more to arcanicism in the past ten years than most did in their entire lives. From registering a perfect ten on Chaff's scale at age ten to writing essays deconstructing well known principles at twelve, Twilight was known as something of an unquantifiable anomaly- the kind that came along once in a millennia, if even.
From what Bon Bon understood, there had been talks at the Council of Organized Magical Study of revamping the current method of testing mana circulation and channeling to better accommodate statistical nuances like her- an idea put into contention by Twilight herself. She had her hoof firmly on the pulse of arcanicism and a steady eye on many other sciences as well; though she was a undeniable loner, she was undeniably committed to the pure pursuit of understanding.
So, maybe it wasn't impossible that Twilight might have noticed something erroneous about the mana in the air.
Twilight was becoming more suspicious for every second her genius analyzed whatever discrepancy she'd isolated, while Bon Bon felt more and more exposed. A waterfall of thoughts pouring through her head to match the sweat on her brow, each trying desperately to weigh her towards one action or the other. Was it really so bad for Twilight to find out she was there? She was a pony in the relative know, but could she accidentally blow her cover to everypony? Judging by the spectacle at Light's cabin, Twilight loved to make a scene! This was why she didn't like academics!
She licked her lips, flicking her gaze to the right. Princess Celestia was frowning.
A cold stab of uncertainty struck her.
She didn't have time to look to her left.
"Twilight Sparkle!" came the suddenly gallant cry from the archaically inclined Princess, drawing every tense eye to Her along with the shocked-out-of-a-stupor glance of the adept magical student. The called-out mare flinching back from the sudden volume of the Lunar Princess as She spiritedly raised Her hoof in obvious, overblown greeting. "We are pleased to see thee again as well, our most admirable savior!"
The bookish mare barely had time to raise her hoof and stammer out something that might've been a greeting before a blue shimmer of mana took her limb and tugged her closer on three hooves. A discarded plate clattered away as she stumbled toward the Princess hoof-first, seeming lost for words or action as the haze of mana cut suddenly out and she tumbled chest-first into the edge of the table: barely supporting herself onto it before the overexcited Princess leapt forward to snatch her aggrieved hoof that She then shook up and down.
"We must once again extend our deepest thanks for all that thee and thine have done for us," the Princess chattered in a bright tone of voice that immediately seemed horribly wrong coming from Her. If Twilight's put-off, wildly uncertain expression was anything to go by, she was just as disconcerted to see the generally downcast Goddess so subject to emotion.
Or, she was just upset to be forced into a violent hoofshake.
Through the dual stares of bewilderment trained on Her, Princess Luna continued to very gaily shake Twilight's hoof with a cheek-splitting smile. "Without thy heroic involvement through incredible adversity, we may never have come to our senses, or to reconcile with our sister!" After thoroughly shaking the petite mare to the point of senselessness, She slowed, and only continued to smile as Her eager tone eased slightly. "It is a great debt we owe to thee, one and all."
Eventually, once her eyes stopped rolling in her head, Twilight was able to moderately collect herself. Her dizzied purple eyes crawled to stop on Princess Luna, and slowly, she gave Her a half smile. "It... was no problem, Princess Luna," she spoke slowly, then quickly dropped her eyes as her tone became a bashful murmur. "I'm just thankful that you're doing well and you're where you belong."
Princess Luna nodded at that, finally releasing the mare's tampered hoof which said mare cautiously cradled to her chest like bruised goods. "We must say, Twilight Sparkle," The Lunar Princess ventured, drawing an inquisitive tilt to the academic's head as the previously withdrawn Princess went on with a hoof laid coquettishly over Her chest. "We are familiar with thy life's works and achievements, and, daresay, they read as the storied precursor to legend."
It took Bon Bon a moment to parse the compliment, but the meaning must have been evident to Twilight judging by the immediate pink flush that shone through her fur as the Lunar Princess, perhaps in Her first show of whimsy, leaned slyly forward as Her hoof crept to Her chin to support Her daring smile.
"It must be said that thy genius is extraordinary, perhaps the most we have ever seen," She drawled, Her eyes drawing to a sultry lid. "Tell us, if thou please, whether thou think of thyself so highly as we do?"
This was just mean.
Twilight's jaw worked in seeming consternation, sputtering small noises of rebuttal as her head jittered from side to side and she retreated a step backward. "That's- I- I think that's a bit overstated!" she finally half-yelled with great effort, though her volume might've stemmed from her folded-back ears. The poor mare seemed very much like Berry Punch had earlier: about ready to bolt from the Princess playing games.
As Princess Luna hummed a devious closed-mouth laugh, however, the mare appeared to stop in place. Her frantic eyes falling still a moment before she shut them, gently lowering her chin as her hoof rose to her shaking chest.
She took a deep breath in with her chin pressed down, letting it out in a single, smooth stream: staying in that pose for a few scant moments- while Bon Bon peered sideways to find Princess Luna's laughing smile turned startlingly down. There was no more humor in Her lidded eyes, nor amusement in the hard edges of Her face.
She choked back a nervous swallow at the frigid-faced Goddess, turning back to Twilight with a silent prayer that the mare not disappoint.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in the silence, Twilight raised her head and opened her eyes in a synchronous motion, seeming at once resolved. "It is true that I've been gifted with many natural talents, aptitudes and advantages, perhaps even more than I deserve," she spoke firmly, a far cry from her nervous stammering of moments ago.
Her eyes narrowed as she raised her chin, while her voice further firmed into certainty. "-but I don't think anything I've accomplished is impossible for anypony else, so long as they possess the necessary drive and determination."
It was a commendable answer, though Bon Bon was thrown off the sentiment as something shifted in the tension of the air, the temperature around them seeming to plummet. Princess Luna continued to stilly stare the stern-faced mare down in a reclined pose until She suddenly straightened, placing Her hooves over each other on the table as Her eyes narrowed further, and Her chin raised up.
"...What of the circumstances of one's birth, or their status throughout life?" The sudden question came in the unexpected tightening of the Lunar Princess' voice, as She stared down at the smaller mare with a frighteningly rigid air. "Can equality be achieved through action in a world constantly seeking to rob it from its creatures?"
Bon Bon, hopelessly jeering as she tried to conceive of the implications of the question, had to finally shake some interestingly intrusive thoughts away as Twilight drew attention back to herself. The mare drawing in a short, composed breath with a slow blink, seeming to bounce gently on her hooves as she returned Princess Luna's piercing stare with an equally proud air of utter confidence.
"I would argue," she stated slowly, with a gradual bob of her head, "-that... as success is judged by its completion rather than its conception, the only regarded merit should be the result, and thus the variable difficulty of the individual to accomplish their goal is ultimately negligible."
In the wake of the steadily-given speech, Bon Bon had to stare at the shrewd mare in wordless thought for a long moment, as Princess Luna did the same. Perhaps thinking just the same as she was that their perception of Twilight Sparkle may have been subject to change. For an undeniably simple assertion that held so much clarity under deeper scrutiny to be given so readily, with apparent ease, was...
...well, she sort of understood how Twilight had come to accomplish so much, to circumvent a question at a moment's notice like that. Bon Bon liked to think of herself as well-read and witty, but it did not often occur to her to specially mold a response to a question rather than just answering.
She might've been stuck up and hard to understand, but maybe she was as incisive as her reputation.
For another long, few moments after Twilight finished speaking and Bon Bon had stopped trying to decide whether the answer was at all merited, Princess Luna only continued to stare critically at Twilight. Something calculating twinkling behind Her narrowed eyes, that finally faded in a blink to reserved finality.
"...A very narrow view," She echoed out, though as Twilight processed that with a start and a bemused blink, Princess Luna's frigid stare softened to something approaching genuine care. "We should like to speak to thee again, Twilight Sparkle. Consider our ear bent."
Twilight blinked at that, going so far as to seem outwardly confused as Princess Luna turned away in casual disinterest, having found something on the horizon to capture Her ever-wandering interest. The intelligent mare seeming much less so as she worked her jaw for words that didn't come, until she finally managed to shake the confusion off long enough to turn from the enigmatic Princess.
Sometimes, it was best to just leave something alone. Twilight seemed to understand that.
Her eye flicked to the ground as she shuffled to her left- and to Bon Bon- until she was fully regarding Princess Celestia, who had stayed as silent as a ghost throughout her encounter with Her Sister. Truthfully, it had been a while since even Bon Bon had let her eye stray to the somehow innocuous Solar Princess- though not for nothing. It was hardly every day when one of the greater minds of the century clashed with a Deity not heard for ten.
Whatever the case, it was probably a bad sign for her to not to have remained markedly cognizant of the center of her faith.
She'd punish herself later. Or something. Feh.
There was little to Her Highness' expression but a shining note of love as She gazed upon Twilight- and there was certainly an amount of reciprocation in Her student's gaze, but it was mostly a hesitant reservation underscored by a wiggly frown. "Well... Princess, I think I really should be... going, now," she spoke haltingly, taking very evident peeks to her right between every word. Whether she was looking at Bon Bon or Princess Luna was up in the air, but the table to to the right of Princess Celestia was undeniably troubling for her.
It didn't seem to trouble Princess Celestia, who only tilted Her head humorously. "Of course, Twilight, I'm sure you have much to do to." Her smile widened further as She extended Her hoof forward and turned it in the air, waiting for a moment as Twilight eyed the appendage, hesitantly meeting Her gaze again as she crept her hoof out to lay against the larger mare's frog. "I hope to hear from you soon about your new study of friendship and Harmony. You know I'll always make time to see you."
Bon Bon's inspection of their embrace took a strange turn as the two seemed to halt, the next few moments spent in gradual silence as they only gazed into each other's eyes. What seemed like... a wordless exchange passing between them in the gradual slanting of Princess Celestia's eyes and the quiet swallow Twilight took.
Something conveyed in meaning alone.
But then, as all silences did, the inexplicable quiet between the Goddess and Her pupil ended as the larger mare let out a whispered breath. "Twilight..." She murmured, Her smile creeping down at its ends as the named mare perked. Princess Celestia seemed to mull on Her words for a moment, speaking again on what sounded like a whim. "-could I ask... a favor..?"
The unsteady murmur drew a curious frown from the smaller mare, while Bon Bon only found it odd that the Goddess was having difficulty asking for something. "Anything, Princess," Twilight quickly replied, leaning in on her concerned tone. The action drew a smile from the Princess, softly opening Her mouth to respond a moment later, and...
...closing it again. Her frown once again curling into a dismissive smile as she shook Her head with a huff. "Oh... nevermind me," She whispered out with a gentle laugh. A benign note of wistfulness sparkling in Her humored eye as She withdrew Her hoof, leaving Twilight's resting on air- and wanting for the contact as her hoof crept an inch after it. "I feel silly for even thinking of it. Foolish, even."
Princess Celestia sat tall in Her seat once more, seeming to all the world returned to the kindly smiling, serene figure She often was. "It was nothing, Twilight. Don't pay this old mare and her whims any mind." She nodded forward, flicking Her eye up. "You've had a long night, my faithful student. Get some rest, and do give Spike my best regards."
The soft, albeit strenuous speech left Twilight gently gaping, seeming torn with indecision as her hoof hovered nervously in the air between them. She closed her mouth in a grimace as she looked away, then opened it as she met Her Highness' eyes again. Still, nothing came out besides a sigh, and Twilight resignedly let her hoof down.
"...Alright." Her downcast tone and expression of total frustration made it clear that it really wasn't alright, but she didn't pursue the dropped thread any further. With a last glance cast to Princess Luna who had returned to intensely observing her, as well as a suspicious squint to where Bon Bon was sitting, Twilight turned from the table, though not without a final call over her shoulder. "I'll...write to you once Spike and I have settled in."
With Princess Celestia returning a kind smile to her, Twilight gradually tore her gaze off the serene Goddess and began a brisk trot away. Three sets of eyes and likely many more watching her egress, and though she couldn't speak for anypony else, Bon Bon was thinking most of the quiet moment only a minute past.
The tender moment they'd spent just watching each other. How desperate Twilight had seemed, and how... frustrated Princess Celestia was. She was sure that's what it was. A deep wanting for something She hadn't deemed fit to vocalize.
Twilight Sparkle and the Pure Goddess...
Maybe the rumors about them were true.
Though, of course, it wasn't proper to fantasize.
Bon Bon's attention was solely focused on Princess Celestia and the quiet expression of melancholy She wore, so she was slightly shocked to hear Princess Luna's raise Her voice from aside her. "Adherent."
She turned, balking as she found Princess Luna staring at her out of the corner of Her eye. The ever-stoic Goddess seeming to have lost Her earlier energy, returned to sitting straight with Her hooves crossed sternly over Her chest as She spoke in a refined murmur. "Consider our earlier theatrics an apology for how we have treated you, and for our intrusion into thy mind."
Bon Bon blinked. Had... Princess Luna been acting? Well- sure She had seemed rather excessively pleased to see Twilight, but it hadn't crossed her mind that the emotion had been facetious. Logically, but not empirically; Princess Luna had expressed Herself so genuinely that it hadn't at all seemed as though it was fake.
Impressive. She was probably better at acting than Bon Bon was.
That... sort of irked her.
It wasn't an emotion that she showed in her uneasy smile, nor one she planned on voicing anytime soon. "Erm... thank you... Princess," she grated out through her teeth- maybe she was worse at acting than Princess Luna...
She supposed she was grateful that She'd drawn Twilight's attention away from her, if only for a while. It might've saved her from a security breach and a tight situation, as well as having to clue Twilight into some need to know affairs. All in all, something she'd really rather not have to deal with.
So why was she having to fake her smile?
Princess Luna narrowed Her stare on Bon Bon for a few anxious moments before She raised Her gaze to Princess Celestia, allowing Bon Bon to take a relieved breath and stop biting her cheek. "Sister, it was thy intent to ask for Twilight's aid on our Black magic conundrum."
She'd barely begun to relax from the intense Deity's weighty stare when the statement landed, and Bon Bon once again bit her cheek in a gasp: a sleep-deprived instinct that she muffled with a hoof, jerking around to stare in shock at the stolid Solar Princess. Not reacting in the slightest to Her Sister's borderline accusation as She continued to smile wistfully out into the crowd, not seeming at all concerned at the...
...somewhat rational notion. Hm. Maybe she'd overreacted. It would explain why Princess Celestia was seemingly underreacting.
Feeling a little embarrassed at the breach of conduct, Bon Bon dropped her hoof to her lap as Princess Celestia softly shook Her head without dropping Her smile. "...It was a very silly whim of mine," She murmured, giving off a sound not totally unalike a scoff. "For all her talent, Twilight... would not be any help in this matter."
Princess Luna's stare did not waver in its accusation, though neither did Her expression grow any more resentful. "She is unversed in Black magic."
At that, Princess Celestia could only sigh: oddly melancholic for the wry smile She kept. "I have... not gone to great lengths to hide my distaste for the dark arts." Her quiet, close to bashful murmur was yet accompanied by the smile she still wore, making it all the more ill-fitting as She sighed forlornly. "I trust Twilight, enough to allow her the opportunity to learn about Black magic if that were what she truly wished."
Her gaze tilted up, her smile becoming almost puzzled. "Yet... despite her fervor for learning, she's never shown the slightest interest." She opened Her mouth, then closed it with a wan chuckle. "I suppose," She added after a moment in which Her gaze fell to the table. "-she may fear the connotations such a request would bear."
Princess Luna kept Her ever-critical gaze on Her ever-smiling Sister for another few moments- thinking just as much as Bon Bon was- until She bobbed Her head once. "Forgive us if we speak out of turn, sister mine," She said, sliding Her staring gaze out to the plaza as Her Sister gave a hum. "-but we find ourselves concerned of thy prized student."
Her Highness had bravely kept Her smile throughout what little they had discussed, but as the uneasy thought was fully broached, Her loving smile slipped sadly, corner by corner, to a knowing, tired expression. "Yes... I'm well aware of what you mean, sister," She murmured, dropping Her gaze low as Her tone sagged.
Watching Her Sister's downcast reaction, Princess Luna gave a quiet, unconcerned huff as She turned again to the crowd. "For all her intelligent appearances, we only needed but one response to understand her ways." Her frown crept lower, nearly edging into a glare to match the dire edge of foreboding in Her tone. "She is like to kill herself in her desperate attempts to prove her worth to the world. Her desire for approval is fanatical."
As Princess Celestia gave a hefty sigh, the Lunar Princess dropped Her gaze in a blink to the table, upon which She spun Her hoof in a slow circle. "Time shall only tell how Magic develops..." Her dark mutter encompassed a single turn of Her hoof, stopping as the circle came full circle, and She leaned back to cast a glance to Her Sister. "Is it truly wise to allow her to remain here in Ponyville under her own discretion?"
It was a long, quiet moment of contemplation for Princess Celestia. For the moments after Her Sister's question, and even after The Lunar Princess leaned back into the table seemingly unconcerned with the question She Herself had asked, Princess Celestia remained quiet. Staring out after wherever Twilight had left, Her eyes narrowing at something Bon Bon couldn't see.
"...I have pursued the education of a brilliant mind in the wrong ways many times before, Luna," was Her eventual response, given quietly in a raw murmur of cloudy regret. With it, She raised Her closing gaze to the sky, Her next whisper coming as a throaty warble. "I do not wish to retread my failures in Twilight. She deserves better."
Bon Bon's hoof was already over her heart, but to hear the emotional pledge spoken aloud came very near to breaking it. She truly felt it: a weak flutter in the skip of her heartbeat under her frog that only grew more evident as she took in every darkened line of true feeling Her Highness held. A thousand lifetimes of memory reflected in the bare parting of Her lips, well-tread in uncountable recollections of tragedies far past remembering.
At a time like this... there was one particular verse of a Dusk era canticle written in the revised Hymns of the Heavens that came to mind. One of the few that truly stuck with her from her memory of the worn and faded copy a determined little orphan had staggered into Canterlot with.
'The Sun above, where none shall fly. Of pegasi and birds on high, yet ever higher lies She.'
She was utterly unattainable. Even in Her basest moments of emotion, She remained so ancient.
Though her eyes were only for Her Highness, the Heavens' newest member sounded from relatively behind her, causing her to turn her head only enough to swivel her ear towards the voice. "...Take heart, sister."
The unexpectedly gratifying tone from the mare who never seemed to show it had Bon Bon turn the rest of the way, along with Princess Celestia in her peripheral. They both found Princess Luna staring their direction, a soft, wistful smile under Her gaze slanted low with care. "The past is behind us, as are its regrets."
Her hoof crept out to touch upon Her Sister's shoulder, drawing Her eye to it first, then to the mare across from Her as Her frown curled into a small smile: the younger Sister continuing in an ever-warming tone as Her extended hoof was covered by its white twin. "Though we cannot forget what has taken place, we can still live our lives after, and allow what we have learned to carry us into tomorrow."
The poignant speech had Bon Bon staring in bemusement at the moody Princess, though she shook it off to watch as Princess Celestia's seemed to give a gentle start. Her smile widening as She shifted the hoof She held over Her Sister's on Her shoulder. "Then... have you given more thought to what I asked you?"
It was a seeming non sequitur, though for how Princess Luna's smile slowly slipped down in a nearly resigned manner, it seemed She had expected the question. Her eyes kept low for a moment, nearly on Bon Bon- though certainly not looking at her- while She did little but take a deep breath, Her glowing cyan stare hiding in the bare motions of recurrent blinks.
"We... are warming to the idea." Her much smaller voice wavered in its simplicity, then raised entirely as did Her eyes. "As what little time passes, we find our heart lighter than it had seemed in its first, resounding guilt." She gave a few slow blinks with a small nod as Her glimmering gaze lowered again. "In truth... we believe..."
She went silent as Bon Bon held her breath, then all at once, turned Her gaze back to Her Sister. "Though we do not feel altogether worthy of the honor, there may be much we can yet accomplish." Her suddenly firm voice smoothed to a point as Her free hoof rose to lay across Her chest in a rigid salute, while She straightened to Her full, towering height. "For all that we mourn, our duty holds true. We cannot ignore those who call for us."
She took a single, stern breath, then proudly set Her jaw. "We remain Equestria's Princess."
There was only a moment in-between; little but a single spare second of thought to linger on, for the depths of passion that had shone through in the few words of resolve shared by the Deity who had... until then, seemed not to care for Equestria nor her citizens.
Yet in Her unbelievable reverie, She had proved Bon Bon wrong.
Princess Luna had a heart. A proud, strong heart that ached for the land She'd built.
And that was respectable.
The beginning of a burgeoning, begrudging admiration for the Goddess, whom she really still didn't like, barely had time to take hold before she was being shifted. Unexpectedly, from behind her came an emotional whisper- "Oh, Luna..." -serving as her only warning before a weight was bearing down on her back.
Well, less bearing down and more being shunted aside.
Her hooves were taken off the table and she fell, head over rear with her head taking the brunt, backwards to the ground with a squawk of indignation as Princess Celestia swept towards Her Sister to wrap Her entirely in a very touching hug. Much of the scene was hidden from view by Her Highness' massive size and otherwise obscuring miasma of a mane, so she was really only imagining it was very touching, but of course it was.
She just... wished she wasn't taking it in from the ground.
Gradually- though the ground was surprisingly comfortable- she levered herself into a sitting position on her hooves, and voiced her disgruntled thoughts with a huff. "Um- Highness?" She left the 'are you forgetting someone' purely implicit, because she was only annoyed and not angry at her patron.
She had a great observer's view as Princess Celestia's head rose like a rock in the sea from the middle of Her constantly weaving fog of a mane, and swiveled around to send her a curious, then shocked glance. "Oh!" was Her only exclamation before Her head bobbed back into Her mane, then the entire cloud that She was moved stolidly across the bench.
The space she'd once occupied was now open- though she could hardly tear her eyes off what little she could see of Princess Luna's red cheeks- but before she could make to regain her seat, Princess Celestia's hoof roved from Her side to surreptitiously lay across it. "My deepest apologies. Why don't you come around the table, agent?"
Bon Bon blinked up at the Goddess' back and the solitary white spire that rose from the undulating waterfall of colors that was Her profile. Her horn and what little she could see of the massive cloak of Her wings didn't give much indication as to what face She wore or Her intentions, so in the end, there was little else to think about.
She gave a quiet grunt as she pushed herself the rest of the way onto her legs, stretching back as she fell onto all fours. Finding herself standing once more with slightly sleepy limbs, she tried to catch either Princess' eye, to no avail. Princess Luna had Her head on Her hoof and wasn't looking anywhere near her- perhaps pointedly- and she couldn't see much of Princess Celestia past Her mane.
With a feeling like she'd somehow messed up, Bon Bon worked her shoulders in a circle with a short breath, then began to walk back around the table. Passing Her Highness first then the corner quickly after as she fought the fuzziness in her legs, rounding the other side and balking for a split-second at the mess strewn about in front of it. She quickly shook the sight off and carefully began to pick her way through the disaster that had been made of the offerings, finally arriving to stand calmly before the sole gaze of Her Highness.
Princess Luna was... She might've been ignoring her on purpose. That was fine; if the Goddess wanted to act like a foal just a minute after She'd genuinely inspired her, then that was up to the discretion of the unknowable Divine. Who was she to question such a great mind?
Meeting Princess Celestia's somewhat apologetic gaze instead, Bon Bon allowed her stoic frown to gain an edge of confusion. "Has the debriefing concluded, Highness?" She flicked a slight glance down to the long streak of a carrot cake next to her hoof, trying to keep her voice from wavering into irreverence. "I believe there's still more about Light we could discuss."
Though Princess Celestia held an air of emphatic joy around Her in that moment, her question brought Her smile down for the faintest second, and the vaguest flash of disquiet. "Is it dire?"
Bon Bon gaped softly for a moment, regaining her wits and shaking her head a moment later. "N- No, Highness, I don't... believe so."
There... wasn't anything she'd wanted to bring up, was there? Right now, that couldn't wait for a written report? Anything immediate?
...Nothing was coming to mind. Her mind was fairly tired, to be fair, but no, there really didn't seem to be anything immediately concerning to remember. Otherwise, she'd remember it. She was better than otherwise.
She hoped.
In the moment that Her Highness had seemingly given her to think, and as she remained silent, Her serene smile once again returned to full force. "Then you have performed your duties exhaustively, my most loyal agent." The growing warmth under the scrutiny of Her smile was short lived as She once again frowned, and Her tone lowered. "However..."
The trailing word was only left in the air for a moment as Her Highness took a short breath, then straightened. Bon Bon's eye drew up as Her horn lit, and with as little circumstance as the time before, the world around them greyed and an oppressive quiet descended upon them.
With their privacy assured, Princess Celestia cleared Her throat. "Much has changed, and your duties will have to follow accordingly." Her stern brow jumped as Her head lowered to a tilt. "At this point, I can only assume that Light has regained his full self and, thus, his complete memory."
It was an easy statement, and with the given lull, Bon Bon opened her mouth to respond in the affirmative. However, Princess Luna with Her eye still on the horizon beat her to it. "Yes, sister, thou hath the right of it."
Princess Celestia turned Her eye just enough to capture Her Sister, who continued to speak in a resoundingly bored drone. "During the time after we regained full control of him, we freed him from every shackle that once bound him." She sighed melodramatically: an overly melancholic sound. "So long as his... death has not changed that, it should yet remain true."
Bon Bon shut her mouth with a clack at the most competent affirmation possible, while Princess Celestia gave a single, curt nod. "Thank you, Lulu," She murmured- the quietest note of fondness shining through Her business-like acumen, before She turned Her attention back to Bon Bon. "Then Light is undoubtedly aware of the actions we took, and that he is under surveillance."
In the lull, Bon Bon swallowed against the knot that rose in her throat. "...Yes, Highness," she responded quietly. She gave a cough to try to mask the note of weakness in her voice, and raised it again to agent-standard firmness. "He affirmed it to me directly, and I made no attempt to hide his circumstances or to make any pretense of secrecy."
At that, Princess Celestia rose slightly on a sigh through Her nose, and gave a short nod. "Then... we are in a delicate situation," She murmured as Her gaze fell to the table. She studied its surface for a moment as Her eyes narrowed, then blinked to smooth the expression to certainty as She met Bon Bon's gaze again. "I must amend my previous orders. We cannot continue as we were, and, as it stands, I see multiple options before us."
To make a point, She slid Her right hoof out to rest its back against the table. "We may attempt to do as we did before, and take that which lies in his memory that would compromise our agency." Her jaw firmed with Her brow. "In that way, we may prevent the possibility of his becoming a threat entirely."
The steady drone of the factual option brought a cold shiver straight down the middle of Bon Bon's back, and she made no attempt to hide her uncertainty. Unexpectedly, to match her own reaction, Princess Luna whirled a sharp glare to Princess Celestia as She spoke: the smaller Goddess baring a sudden displeasure in a vengeful snarl that shone with bright reciprocation in Her glowing eyes.
"Sister." The one-word rebuttal that ripped from the terse grit of Princess Luna's teeth dripped with unrestrained warning. The sheer turn of emotion for the typically calm Goddess had Bon Bon shivering for a whole other reason, as the very air seemed to cool in time with the flaring temper of the Deity.
All the while, Princess Celestia did not turn from Her ultimatum. Through the spectacle of Princess Luna creeping towards the verge of fury, Her upturned hoof holding Light's potential future in its crook did not waver. Rather, it was soon joined by its twin, which matched it upon the table with as little emotion as the first motion had.
Yet, as She laid the second alternative on the table, Princess Celestia's iron-clad mask finally broke in a tight grimace. "There is little I would abhor more than to tread that path again."
The reserved appeal lightened Her Sister's lour in a surprised blink, and even Her own expression softened slightly as She gently shook Her second hoof. "It is this second option I would rather pursue, for any good that may yet be done after all that has already transpired."
As Princess Luna leaned back to Her own seat, a lessened glare of intrepid curiosity on Her face, and as Bon Bon let out a painful breath she'd held unconsciously, Princess Celestia raised Her hoof over the option She'd laid first. Letting the alternative tower over the past, as a small, daring smile rose over Her grim countenance.
"We do as what once was done, and take a bet against the future."
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"Agent, I understand you have reservations, but know that I have given much thought to this decision."
One hoof in front of the other, the faint sounds of whooping and laughing trailing on the wind as it quieted on its path past her. The day's dusk still ahead, yet the air carried that nostalgic scent of rest. Almost comforting if not for the week she'd had.
Could something this severe be properly considered at all? For the danger they faced, was this truly all that wise?
A laugh, a smile. Unconcerned expressions held on a mask of empathy.
"No, I don't believe it is all that wise. But sometimes, wisdom simply must be let rest."
The trod dirt underhoof first changed colors, then grew silent as it packed tightly together. A less gratifying noise, yet all the more resigned.
What did that even mean? Why should any action be taken outside of wisdom? What purpose did ignorance serve?
The tilt of Her head: so chiding, so knowing. So withholding as to be nearly sly.
"Kindness is often blind, agent. I have lived lifetimes in the defiance of ignorance, and I have found it to be tiring."
Even then, Her words brought a small, huffing smile to her dragging face, passing its first reflection in a window upon many. So enigmatic- so nonsensical that it was just funny. Maybe even more so thinking of her reaction at the time.
She still didn't understand. Why did they have to be kind? Why now, and not earlier? Why to him?
Her first frown in a while. A considering expression. A low, contrite thing.
"I cannot explain it. I have the words to do so, and I may even muster the emotion, but It would not be right to lie."
Then She smiled beatifically again, as though She had never frowned.
"Perhaps I have simply gone mad."
There were many other things. Orders and rescindments and new, confusing commandments that flew in the face of what had come before, as though the past were well and truly dead and all that had been established going along with it. In the eyes of the Pure Goddess, the only thing that remained was the future.
And, she mused, as she veered onto a grey, graveled path, the last thing She had impressed before they parted.
"Go home, agent. Go to she whom you love, and leave the day behind you. Make love in the dead of night, and return to life in the light unburdened of that which you know. Leave what I have asked in the past, and take this new creed on my promise that it holds meaning."
As She smiled fondly, looking towards something in the horizon that only She could see, She spoke in a reverent murmur. Nearly close to absent, yet so startlingly present that every word could only be Her most genuine thought.
"Do what you feel you must. As much or as little as you find right; follow where your heart leads. Stay or waver as you please; concern yourself of my affairs however you wish. Write me a report if it so prompts you, or cease all contact with the agency if that is what you desire."
Then She had dropped Her eye to meet hers. Staring deeply into her being, and finding nothing wanting.
"I have seen how my hooves bring ruin and pain, and in this matter, I would keep them out of it."
And Her smile widened.
"Light Flow is at your discretion, my most loyal agent. I trust you to uphold the future before him."
As Bon Bon held the handle of the door to her home, she found she could do little but stare at her shaking hoof. The hoof she'd stared at the entire way home after Her Highness had dismissed her. For the five minutes she'd taken to hide as the Notice-Me-Not spell had worn off, and as she'd pulled herself out of the loneliest bush she could find.
She'd only stared at that soggy, bruised limb that had only half a day prior brought her to the brink of death.
The absent proof that she was not loyal. She was not pious. She was not just nor possessing of honor. She did not, now or ever, have the right to arbitrate the fate of anypony.
Yet she did, and she had for a very long time. She had never once hesitated.
For the first time in a long time, Bon Bon wondered whether the Sun would welcome her into heaven at the end of her life.
And then she opened the door.
The scents of home welcomed her. Dust and lingering stains.
She called out, echoing in the quiet space. "Lyra?"
A shadow grew in the hallway across the room, past the stairs that the paranoid government agent constantly made sure made no noise, and the single worn-down dresser that Lyra had brought from the communal home she'd lived in before they met.
Her first thought- whether the world was at peace after the long night- was forgotten in a rapt murmur as green fur and shining yellow eyes over dark bags crept from the hall.
Her second worry- that of her animosity towards Princess Luna- seemed long past as her love breathed out a quiet sigh. A soft, blissful noise of body-shaking relief.
Every doubt about her faith fled as she heard her voice. "I waited for you."
With her first step, and with every hoof forward, the picture of Light's mutilated corpse was driven from her mind.
Everything else about Light went as her hoof brushed against soft, minty fur- and her sweet love gave the softest breath of a laugh. Reciprocating in the same moment as their hooves cradled each other's napes, while her every concern about the future eased away.
When their lips met, there remained but three thoughts in her mind.
That ignorance was indeed more than the absence of wisdom.
Kindness was often blind.
As was love.