//------------------------------//
// Digging Again 
// Story: White Sun 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

With the crisis averted, everypony was able to mostly recover from the incident and start to better help each other from the debris and their wounds. The only counselor that had stayed behind frowned when he saw Shining Armor.

"Why is the Emperor of the Crystal Empire here?" he asked.

Shining snorted. "I had been searching for her."

"Why?" the elder asked with a raised brow.

"That's for me to know, and we have more important things to worry about than your pride," the unicorn hissed.

The elder looked at Twilight. "You're right. I'll have her executed at once for having brought such devastation to Equestria."

"You can't do that!" Shining rebutted angrily.

The elder was taken aback. "This kind of behavior is unbecoming of somepony in your position," he noted. A realization came to mind and a smirk occupied the corner of his face. "She's somepony you know, isn't she? Somepony personal."

"That don't matter none," Applejack interjected.

"The Element of Honesty?" the elder said. "We appreciate your contributions, but step aside."

"We don't follow your orders," Moon stated firmly. She and the other five mares stepped in front of Twilight. The unicorn was frozen, staring at the dust on her hooves. "And we can't have you punish somepony who is...clearly wounded."

Moon was met with outrage by the counselor. "Have you seen what she caused? She destroyed the castle and its walls, brought up some kind of undead god that almost destroyed the world! And I should let her go?!"

"It's your fault in the first place!" Rainbow Dash accused. "You got rid of Princess Celestia!"

The counselor was disgusted. "Did you even see what she was causing to everypony? The decades of suffering we endured while she stayed in her lofty castle?" He snorted. "No. Of course not. You just lived in the clouds."

"You--"

"Enough!" a voice bellowed.

A blue figure flew in from the broken windows and landed between the bearers and the counselor. He was shocked.

"She's alive?! You assured me that she was dead!" he yelled at the bearers.

"We maybe kinda sorta probably fibbed a little ittle teensy weensy itsy bitsy tiny winy bit?" Pinkie said with a sheepish smile.

The elder pegasus snorted and stepped up to the alicorn, looking her straight in the eyes. "If I am to be killed and my position usurped, then I will do it standing proudly."

Luna rolled her eyes. "I am not interested in the seat stolen unjustly from my sister and I." She turned around and pointed at Twilight. "I am here for her."

"What?"

The alicorn flew over to a frozen Twilight and frowned. "You have gone through a lot, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said. "It is time you retreat from all this. That you get your head into fresher air," she continued. "I am unsure myself of how to properly help you, but I can put you on the same path I myself took to become who I am today."

"You can't do that!" the counselor shouted.

Luna's muscles clenched and she spoke in the Royal Canterlot Voice. "We shall do as we please! We did not come here to usurp a throne that no longer has value! I know that there are loyalists that loathe you all for your actions, but what's done is done!" The castle stopped shaking when Luna quieted down and spoke normally. "I will see my sister's protégé taken under my wing and helped on a path to recovery."

"But...Princess," Fluttershy spoke up. She shifted nervously, unsure of how to proceed. "What if she starts accidentally summoning undead?" she asked.  

Luna became perplexed. "Accidentally?"

Shining stepped forward, wiping the sweat from his head. "Yes. I've seen it before. When under too much stress her magic surges and it seems to summon the dead and the damned to her aid." He narrowed his eyes when he looked at Spike. "The only thing that seems to calm her down is that undead dragon she summoned, and I have no clue as to why." Luna rubbed her chin and gestured the undead to approach, which it didn't. "It also only obeys Twilight." He looked down at his sister, feeling his heart tighten. "Considering the state she's in now..."

Luna thought deeply and hovered her hoof over the unicorn, intently watching the reaction of the undead dragon. She gently 'hit' Twilight, making the unicorn move slightly, prompting the dragon to rush forward, knocking away ponies in its path so it could shoulder bash Luna. The alicorn brought up a shield of magic and let herself get pushed away by the undead. Seeing that she was now away and no longer a menace, the undead looked down at Twilight, waiting for its next order.

"Such strength," Luna said promptly. "She knows how to create undead," she said. "Then I supposed I will be taking them both with me."

"I'll make my way back to the Crystal Empire with my soldiers through the tunnel that Twilight created and we'll collapse it. There's..." He shut his mouth, remembering that the counselor was there. "There's a lot of undead still there, but with their numbers so diminished, they should be easy for us to handle on our own. Otherwise whatever animated them should, hopefully, dissipate on its own." He tapped his chest armor. "I'll have a room prepared for you both in the spire," Shining added.

"That won't be necessary," Luna rejected. "We will be going back to Saddle Arabia," she explained.  

"What?! She's my sister!" Shining declared angrily. "I will not have you take her away from me again!"

Luna looked down on Shining, crushing him under her imposing presence. "You are free to visit when she is of sound enough mind," the alicorn explained. "I am not about to cut her off from the whole world. That is what caused her to end up where she is in the first place. She needs the guidance and aid of others, and staying with her own mind likely pushed her further and further into whatever 'world' she lived in." The mare's lips twitch a moment. "I would know."

The counselor, in his paranoia, spoke aloud. "I see. Saddle Arabia," he repeated quietly.

Luna heard him and smiled widely, her eyes bright and open. "Yes, Saddle Arabia, counselor. Being a special guest of their lands, any attempt on my life would not be seen well by his majesty the Lugalik." She focused on the stallion glaring at her. "I'm certain that any potential repercussions could be resolved fairly easily between the still mighty Equestria and the trading center of the world," she taunted. Her face immediately flushed of color. "Oh, but, your army still hasn't recovered from the changeling war has it?" she realized.

"Insulting me with--"

"And I'm the only thing standing between Saddle Arabia invading Equestria for its resources and territory. Hmmm." She looked at the stallion with false despair.

His body trembled in rage as he realized there was no way around her threats and threw his wings into the air in defeat. "Fine. You win," he said calmly. "Well played, Princess Luna. We will make no moves against you whether you're in Equestria or not."

Luna smirked. "Thank you, counselor." She picked Twilight and Spike up in her magic and made to take to the skies under Shining's worried expression when the counselor, with his back turned, spoke up.

"If it's any consolation, I was of the mind to simply banish Celestia." He huffed. "Her death was an unnecessary loss."

"Of course it was," Luna stated firmly. "Everything is always unnecessary in hindsight when it happens and we see the consequences of our actions." There was a moment of silence as the mare took to the air with her charge. "And it is no consolation. You still participated," she said firmly.  

Luna flew back through the broken windows and disappeared out of sight of the survivors. While flying through the air, the alicorn looked down at Twilight, melancholy filling her. If she couldn't help Twilight, then she might end up becoming like her, or worse. Even if she felt something clinging to the mare's very soul, Luna couldn't count out the chance that she falls to her despair and tries to destroy Equestria for it.

"Oh, Twilight. Had I known this is what you would have done..." the alicorn lamented.

She gazed upon Twilight and Spike's medallions that somehow survived the Elements of Harmony and felt her skin crawl at their existence. It was like reality itself was shifting and warping around them, and she didn't know what that meant. While she would have adored to rip them off and toss them into the sea, she didn't want to gamble on the effect these things could have on the ocean life itself.

"How did you make these, I wonder?" Luna thought aloud. "This isn't something even somepony like you could accomplish." She felt her curiosity growing. "What exactly did you find on your quest to bring my sister back?"

Twilight remained immobile, having passed out from the stress. Luna looked forward and opened a portal to her home underground and started her plans. It would take a very, very long time for Twilight to recuperate, if Luna was successful in her endeavors, and she would have to keep a close eye on her. The mare of the moon worried that her sister's protégé would commit a horrid act upon herself that could never be undone. For anypony else, that would be an exhausting task, but Luna was an alicorn. Spells came naturally to them. So would one that told her what Twilight was up to.

The unicorn was placed in the alicorn's bed while Luna waited on the side and Spike stood overhead, looking down at its master as it always did. Unfortunately, Twilight did not move for days, remaining unconscious. Luna did her best to try and peer into Twilight's mind, but unfortunately, she never found anything. Being unconscious didn't mean that one's bodily functions ceased, and so the alicorn had to utilize her magic to clean everything almost instantly.

"Ugh. It's like being a mother," Luna joked to herself.

"Celestia?" Twilight groaned. She immediately sat upright and started looking around in a frantic panic. "Celestia!"

Luna stared at the mare, baffled. "A joke woke her up?" She shook her head and stood up to grab Twilight's head and force her to focus on the alicorn's. "My sister is gone, Twilight."

"No! I still--"

"She's gone!" Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. "You might feel pain but she was my own blood, Twilight. I'm also in mourning and have been since I came back."

Twilight's eyes shook as she tried to assess what was being told to her. "No..."

"Yes, Twilight," Luna insisted.

The unicorn clenched her eyes shut and teeth tightly and started yelling at the alicorn. "That can't be true! I spent so long working on everything to bring her back! It should have worked perfectly!" She glared at Luna. "What would you even know about spending years studying and per--"

"-Fecting my craft?" Luna finished. She lowered her head to Twilight and looked her straight in the eyes with wide, furious eyes. "Yes. What would I know about working for decades on something I love and to have everypony ignore it in favor of something else? To see all my hard work going down the drain and my frustrations increasing ever more! It's quite the mystery!" she finished through clenched teeth. "No, Twilight Sparkle. What is that like?!"

The mare shrunk away under the anger of the alicorn and felt immense guilt starting to crawl itself up, making her feel even worse. Twilight looked at her emaciated hooves and felt her tear ducts swell, but they were dry. Even the dust was gone. "Why am I here?" she asked Luna. "Why didn't you just let them execute me?"

"That isn't how I operate, Twilight Sparkle," Luna stated firmly. "I will not allow the last bit of my sister's history be wiped clean from Equestrian minds."

Hearing that last line made the unicorn immediately look at Luna, as though it was something she never expected to hear. "Wh-what?"

"You're the last pony who was close to my sister. You knew her better than anypony else in this time." Luna smiled warmly. "Why would I allow those memories to be tarnished and destroyed?"

Luna's warm smile hurt Twilight, making her heart ache, and even though she was dehydrated, the mare immediately covered her face with her hooves, trying to hide her sorrows from the princess who was quick to jump onto her bed and delicately wrap her wings around Twilight. "It will be alright, Twilight," Luna reassured. "We'll get through this," she said as tears streaked down her own face. "And we'll be all the better for it."