Chapter Fourteen: The Truth
Celestia stood in her dark room, standing in front of her mirror. She used her magic to brush through her flowing mane to make it seem like she was perfect and put together as the nation expected.
She paused as her magenta eyes narrowed, scanning the image of herself before her. The picture began to morph as the duplicate's eyes changed to seem like a solar eclipse with a toothy sharp smile growing. A smile she knew for a fact she wasn't making.
Then a flare of fire came beside her, breaking her concentration on the image, yet it persisted as Philomena came to shape in the flames from flapping her wings to hover behind her.
"Don't start with me, Philomena. I don't want to hear it."
Philomena was angry, angry and losing hope for the sun Princess. They were both connected to the sun in a way. The immortal bird knew the sun wasn't angry anymore because Celestia was losing the battle she fought for so long. She gave up trying to reason with fire and was allowing it to consume her.
Celestia was a strong pony, at least, Philomena thought she was but the recent events made her question such an idea. She tried to bring her concerns to Luna since Celestia refused to discuss any matter that actually affected her with her sister whom she was supposed to trust. It failed.
Philomena could read ponish as well as any pony due to the time you have as an immortal bird. Breaks of learning of course were given with life and the whole turning into ash to be reborn every few years. Writing was another issue because she might be able to read it but writing was much more complicated and her talons were not built for such a task.
Luna couldn't understand her. Philomena was left alone with the information she had. Celestia was falling further and would most likely not listen to the arguments she had been making for years and flapping away her concerns because Celestia was quite good at avoiding personal issues until they blew up in her face. So, as she did many times before, made her argument.
Tell Luna what's happening. You are not well.
She chirped this argument, and Celestia's hardened scowl turned into a furious expression that she was even implying Celestia needed help.
"No, my friend." She snapped in aggression. "I need rest. I crave rest. I have been fighting for too long. Frankly, I am too tired to continue. Is it so wrong to want rest? What exactly am I even fighting for anymore?"
Philomena stated the obvious. Equestia's happy future. Celestia scoffed.
"How do we know the sun won't make Equestria happy? Doesn't matter anyway. I already made my choice." Celestia took a deep sigh and mournfully looked down at her hooves, bare of the usual royal shoes she wore. "I wonder...Is this what Luna felt like? When Nightmare Moon began to control her heart."
Philomena was scared, so very scared of her own friend. She squawked in rage at Celestia. Celestia was just giving up. Allowing herself with full knowledge to fall into evil. Celestia let out a bitter laugh before raising her tired head to stare at her broken self in the mirror. She couldn't even muster a fake smile to fake all those ponies she lied to for so many lifetimes.
"That's exactly what I am doing, Philomena. I don't think I will have the strength to force the sun to sleep again by the end of the day."
It was a perfectly ordinary day in Equestria. Not a single thing had gone wrong or was planned to go wrong for Twilight Sparkle. She would know. She planned out her whole week. The next week was filled with some catching up on important books she found at the local market.
As Twilight Sparkle, the faithful student to Princess Celestia moved through the Golden Oaks Library, she gave a passing glance at the clock. It was noon. She smiled at the thought of the many hours to come of research she could accomplish as she moved to sit in front of her desk in her room at the top level of the Library. Surrounded by books. Barely noticing that Spike was on her bed, frowning at the newspaper that came earlier.
"Twilight?"
"Hm?" Twilight replied, not breaking eye contact with the book she began to hold in her magic.
"Did you read the morning paper?"
Twilight's ears perked up. Usually, she would if she wasn't swamped with research. Unfortunately, she was much too focused on her new books this morning to frankly bother with the gossip of Ponyville and the rest of the country so she simply passed on it today. Spike never usually asked if she did, so the fact he was even asking the question with a frown on his face made her a little concerned.
"Ah, no, Spike. Anything interesting I should know?"
Twilight scoffed to herself as she opened the book and Spike looked back down to the paper. There was never truly anything interesting that she NEEDED to know. She read it for the sake of reading most time. Spike cleared his throat.
"Princess Celestia, Saint or Faker?"
Twilight stopped reading. She slowly let go of the book she was holding, allowing it to thud onto her desk as silence fell across the Library. She slowly turned in her chair to face Spike with an expression of pure confusion.
"I...I...Pardon?"
Spike didn't look so sure either. He turned it around to show her the headline "Princess Celestia, Saint or Faker?" from the Ponyville Gazette as the main headline with an image of Celestia from an event a few weeks ago, frowning when she thought she wasn't being watched.
"Aren't you concerned about this, Twilight? Now the news is noticing it. It's not just us!"
There it was. A topic Spike and Twilight couldn't agree on for weeks.
A matter of weeks before Princess Celestia sent Twilight and Spike to Ponyville, the Princess seemed on edge. Snapping at guards sometimes, even personally reprimanding her brother when the drills weren't going perfectly. Twilight was struggling to understand how a pony who was perfect could become so snappish and impatient as of recently. But, looking back, it was when the Summer Sun Celebration was coming. It was reasonable she would be on edge. Spike was more concerned about Celestia's seemingly more harsh treatment as of late than Twilight was.
She even rose the sun late one morning, nearly giving Twilight a heart attack.
She told Spike it was from the celebration. He would counter that point with what happened during the Gala. They heard all sorts of stories from ponies as they passed around the room of how Princess Celestia was seemingly losing her patience a lot as of late. She wasn't as kind-hearted and forgiving as she was before Luna returned. That whatever was affecting her was getting worse.
Apparently, she yelled at several Nobels. The frequency at which she would lose her temper was increasing. She began to reject more meetings. Hideaway in her study for most of the time with the curtain drawn up. She barely visited her own school anymore. A school she loved dearly and used to drop by once a day.
When Twilight stood next to her at the Gala, she sensed something was off. The Princess seemed to have been trying to hold something back. Her smile was forced. Her compliments seemed fake. She didn't even seem to enjoy discussing that latest magical discovery with Twilight.
Twilight wanted to believe she was seeing things. She must have been. She had to have been. This was not like the Princess Celestia she knew. She was stressed, that was all it was. Her friends, not just Spike, came to her after the Gala. Asking if she saw that something was off with the Alicorn.
She was stressed is what Twilight told them.
Of course, in the back of her mind, she knew better. She had been getting worse. It has been more than a year now since the change began to be...noticeable. But, Twilight shook her head to get out of her mind. She was being ridiculous. Overthinking was quite a bad habit.
"It's the News, Spike. They will make a drama out of anything. That doesn't prove there is a problem." Twilight reasoned with a reassuring smile. "They are just making a big deal out of nothing."
"B-But Twilight. There are examples!" Spike desperately speed-read the article for examples. "From the guards, the servants, even ponies on the street that spoke to her during the events! Are you not concerned about the Princess?"
"Of course I am!" Twilight snapped before her ears fell back and she gave Spike a guilty look. "I am worried about her. I am not blind, I know she has been acting...off. But, there isn't anything we can do. We are not in Canterlot anymore. She has Princess Luna now. If anypony can talk her out of whatever issue is going on, it's her."
"I hope you're right, Twilight." Spike mumbled. Twilight slowly moved from her desk to sit beside her assistant with a comforting hoof on his shoulder.
"Me too, Spike."
Spike began to flip through the newspaper again, reading up on the local ads as Twilight slipped away from her spot and began a journey back to her desk. They fell into a silence, a silence caused by an unspoken issue that hadn't been resolved. Twilight knew Spike didn't believe her words of reassurance, frankly, she was struggling to believe them too.
Her mind drifted to the elements of harmony, locked away in Canterlot Tower, the security she felt at knowing that if anything went wrong in Equestria, she and her friends could tackle any problem.