//------------------------------// // Canterlot Tower // Story: Afraid of the Light // by BiniBean //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty: Twilight Sparkle found herself lying on the marble floor, she groaned as she began to move slowly. Her eyes were blurry as she blinked, each blink causing them to refocus a little more. She looked around to see the rest of her friends all lying around her as well, each in their own state of confusion as Twilight shook her head to focus her thoughts. After-effects of massive teleportation was certainly a feeling Twilight hated. Her mind slowly began to remember what had happened. Luna. Luna told them a story she could barely believe before she forced them into a teleport spell before Twilight could make her point. "Not everypony can be saved, Twilight Sparkle. Not everypony wants to be." The last words Luna spoke rang in her mind as she looked around the large hallway to her crumpled friends regaining consciousness. "Ugh, my head..." Rainbow Dash complained as she flexed her wings and pushed herself up, quickly using a hoof to balance her own head as a massive headache was certainly hitting her full force. "Is, ugh, everypony alright?" Applejack piped up as she flinched from each movement she took to brace herself up, using a nearby pillar to help. "Maybe." Rarity mumbled as she quickly used her magic to adjust her slightly messy mane. "N-No..." Fluttershy whimpered as she tried to gather the courage to find a reason to uncurl herself from the floor. "Um, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash called out as Twilight stabilized herself into a standing position and raised her hoof to point behind her with a scared expression. The expressions of her friends turned from confusion to a mixture of horror and a realization of something at whatever they had focused their attention on. Twilight's ear flicked as she heard the sound of magic powering up behind her, followed by a click of a lock unlocking. She spun around to stare at the other end of the hall where a giant protected door stood, a door that healed the powerful elements of Harmony. Elements that she and her friends were the only ones that could wield, but this was certainly a scenario she did not want to use them in. Luna was at the door, pulling back from the lock that kept it close as she had poured her magic into it seconds before. The lock opened the large double doors, revealing the box containing the elements. Rarity couldn't even find the words to speak about the beauty of the elements once again as they all knew why the Princess needed their help. She didn't plan on trying to save her sister. She planned on banishment. Twilight used to be very cynical. Friendship meant nothing other than mindless conversation with ponies who wanted to feel some sort of connection to each other. A connection Twilight didn't need or want in her mind as the study of magic and proving she was worthy of being the Princess of the Sun's student was her main goal. She had Spike, her brother, her parents and Princess Celestia herself. That was all she thought she ever needed. Of course, she met her friends, freed Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon's influence and overall became a better pony she would have liked to think but during that whole journey, where her life was changing at incredible speeds, she had a constant. She could write to Princess Celestia. Princess Celestia was her friend, one of her first friends of very few in Canterlot even, she was practically her second mother and now...She stood in a burning Canterlot, her mentor fallen to the same evil her sister did as her sister immediately rose to banish her after one fight. Maybe one failed conversation. This was madness. Luna hadn't listened to her in the Library, she cut her off quite frankly. This was not the solution. The elements were only to be used in emergencies. Unredeemable emergencies such as the Lord of Chaos where his very nature was against the natural order of the world. She refused to accept that the pony who helped raise a nation, the pony who was truly good, the pony who had witnessed more than even Princess Luna would fall to such a dark trick. Princess Luna acted as if her sister was already dead, that the monster was all that remained. Twilight's purple eyes watched as Luna unlatched the box, opening it wide to allow the five necklaces and a crown to be revealed before she floated them into place. Spike looked back at her with worry, she could sense he was having the same issues as she was. They couldn't see the Princess of the Sun doing this. She looked to her friends as the elements snapped in place. All of them were in their own stage of denial, rightfully so. Luna was practically ordering them to perform an execution since they all knew that there was no way they would see the Princess in their lifetime ever again. Not even their ancestors until ten times over would have the chance to if they followed through with the banishment. Twilight felt the crown as it settled on her head, the last piece to a deadly weapon she had never wanted to use less in the few years she had even known of its existence. It never felt heavy. It never felt more wrong. "I know what you are thinking." Princess Luna stated, raising her head high as the high-status pony she was. "You may not understand this decision now, you will not for many years I suspect but please, please trust me that for the sake of the country, I ask you push your personal feelings aside and look at this logically." "Absolutely not!" A voice Twilight did not expect shouted out. She turned slightly to see Rarity in rage as she yanked the necklace off with her blue magic and held it into the air. "We...I...This is barbaric!" "I agree!" Rainbow Dash jumped in, and with a flap of her wings, she was in the air to join the growing protest. "This isn't like the villains from before! We know Princess Celestia! Twilight is her student! Why don't we get a chance to at least try to speak with her!" Fluttershy, still too scared to say a word, nodded in agreement. Pinkie Pie jumped closer to the front of the group without her usual joyful grin. "We can't just abandon the Princess! She is our friend!" The party pony added. "We ain't doin' this." Applejack added. Twilight smiled as her friends united together. She had a higher chance of winning this now with her friends' support. She smiled confidently and spun back to face Luna, not scared of the consequences as she had her friends with her in support as she removed the element of magic from her head. "I agree. The decision is made. We will not banish the Princess. We should at least try to make a change. See if any of our words get through to her somehow. She is a good pony, if she is as you say, there must be a chance of redemption. No matter how small we have to find it!" Luna's expression, as Twilight feared, did not change. It fell somehow further into whatever black hole her emotions were being consumed in. Princess Luna was a private pony. As a mortal, from what she could remember she had friends. A good amount of friends. She remembered her mortal days much more than Celestia mostly because she held onto them when she was alone as an alicorn. Looking for any hope, any remembrance of the life she once had that was good. Before the politics, the fighting and the lying began. The downside of this was remembering how she lost all her friends. She became an alicorn, and her mortal friends grew jealous and hateful, turning their backs as they felt she should have given them something for all the time they spent with her. A group turned to three, three turned to two, two turned to one, the one being the last good friend she had until time took them all away. Leaving her alone with a sister who she felt was growing to plan against her to win the sky. She told her friends things, she told her best friend things about her life. After her last friend died she shared her life with Celestia, it was difficult and only grew harder to do as the years went on and the mistrust grew between the both of them. By the time Nightmare Moon came into existence, they couldn't even stand in the same room. Luna had grown to keep her life so private that no pony but herself knew most of the details of her daily life. She didn't even risk writing them down in a journal entry to vent at the paranoia they would be found. When she returned to Equestria, she tried to share once again with her sister. It went mostly well, but her sister had turned into...well...somepony else. Somepony who kept secrets just as much as she did. Which is why, she did not want to reveal the conversation she had with Daybreaker or most importantly, Celestia herself in the void of the spell. She wasn't sure she wanted to burden Twilight and her friends with the emotional fallout of a broken Princess. She wasn't sure she wanted the country to know her sister was a fraud in a sense. Granted, they already knew why Luna became Nightmare Moon but that was ancient history. A tale that was so common that no pony would question it, everypony could see how such a legend could take place. But there was something about her sister's current fall from grace that wasn't so straightforward. She didn't even know how to explain it in a way they would understand, she barely understood it herself other than, her sister was far too damaged to be reasoned with anymore. This was more than just a simple rivalry over the sky. Twilight just gave her speech. Another rousing argument about needing to make Celestia come to her senses with the very lessons she taught Twilight and the rest of the country about friendship. Twilight tried to do this before in the Library and Luna cut her off with a good reason and some words she hoped would stick with her. Twilight Sparkle was in denial, Twilight and the rest of her friends including the baby dragon gave Luna sad scared big eyes before Twilight's rear leg were desperate to find a way to end it without a major national disaster. She gave a deep sigh as she reached another conclusion she did not want to do. They needed the information she had to follow her orders. "I do not want to do this to my sister. I love my sister very much. Unfortunately, as I said before, not everypony can be saved, Twilight Sparkle. Not everypony wants to be." Luna snapped as she struggled to hold back the growing tears. Trying to keep her voice steady as she continued. "I used an ancient spell against Daybreaker to speak to Celestia herself since I know from experience there will always be a part of her inside the monster. I spoke to my sister, to what was left of her. Celestia...Celestia gave up fighting. She told me she was tired, all she wanted to do was sleep because being an alicorn is a curse. An immortal curse. Its not just outliving everypony you meet or even befriend, it's the corruption of the system around it. I did not see it in my youth, but my sister did, she saw it and tried to fight it until it broke her. She became what they wanted even if it destroyed every last part of who she was before we became alicorns to the point she no longer knew who she was." Luna pointed to the city outside, to the balls of fire that rained down to destroy wildlife and homes. To the mind-controlled guards who were forcing citizens into the street to witness their lives falling apart with no clue as to why. To the lower class and upper-class ponies who for once were united as some tried to rush out of the city or towards the castle for help, only to be knocked down by opposing forces. "That monster, Daybreaker, is destroying this city because I dared to try to speak to my sister which resulted in no change to...anything good. My sister isn't even fighting her. My sister doesn't want to and frankly, based on what she described to me I do not blame her, but I don't want citizens or anypony dead. I don't want the normal cycle of day to never return again. I don't want the planet thrown into havoc because of alicorns losing their minds. I do not want to banish my sister. I repeat, I LOVE my sister, but my sister no longer loves Equestria and so, we must do this for the sake of Equestria." Twilight and the others soon had tears rolling down their cheeks, Pinkie's mane deflated, Rainbow Dash lowered herself to the ground and Twilight looked to stare at the element of magic crown still being held in her magic. "B-But...If we banish her..." Twilight looked up to Luna as the fear of losing her teacher, her mentor, her second mother and her friend came rolling into her mind as she thought of the aftermath. "W-We will never see her again. Never speak to her again." "The elements work in ways we may never understand, Twilight Sparkle. We can only be hopeful that either they are used and my sister returns to her normal way or..." Luna's voice drifted off as she did not want to say the alternative. "I will allow you to try to speak some sense to Daybreaker. I will give you that luxury. You...were her most faithful student after all." Twilight nodded in silence as she accepted defeat. Her friends followed her actions as they put the elements back onto their necks or on their head in Twilight's case. There was a deep tense silence as the group moved to walk towards the double doors leading further into Canterlot Castle. Luna couldn't help but feel she failed her sister. Much like how Celestia felt she failed Luna many generations ago.