Princess Celestia walked down the halls of the royal palace of Canterlot headed for her private chambers to retire for the night. She had already lowered the sun a few hours ago to make way for her sister’s moon and her time to govern and protect Equestria. The regal alicorn maintained a calm, dignified demeanor, but how she appeared externally hardly reflected how she felt on the inside. It had only been a day since the wedding of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, and the Changeling’s invasion was still on everypony’s mind.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends had departed this morning, headed back to their homes in Ponyville. Celestia was concerned about her prized pupil’s well-being. In fact, she worried about all of her subjects’ well-being. News about the attack will surely spread all over Equestria by tomorrow. She wouldn’t be surprised if everyone from Los Pegasus to Manehatten already knew. She could already hear the cries of panic coming from her little ponies as they would certainly be worried about another possible invasion attempt by the Changelings.
Thinking back to Twilight and her friends, Celestia wondered how they would be affected by the ordeal. They had faced dangers before, but this was different. Queen Chrysalis had successfully replaced the bride and brainwashed the groom without anypony noticing!
Nopony, except Twilight. Celestia sighed at this thought. She knew something wasn’t right from the moment she saw the imposter. Why didn’t I see it? It was so obvious! Candance would never be so cold to anypony, even if she had pre-wedding jitters! The real Cadance was in good spirits and friendly during the preparations for the actual wedding, and she had just spent who knows how long trapped in the caves!
Celestia had reached the door of her bed chamber, but she didn’t enter just yet. Instead, she walked over to a window that was just at the end of the foyer. The curtains glowed with a golden aura as she used her magic to open them.
Magic…That’s another thing that I’ve should have noticed. The Changeling Queen’s magical aura was green. Cadance’s aura is blue. I’ve known her for all of her life, and I didn’t notice that my own “niece’s” magic had spontaneously changed color!? Celestia berated herself for this seemingly obvious oversight. She turned her attention to the window and looked over her kingdom. From this window, she could see Ponyville to the south. Lights could be seen glowing from the houses of the town. Somewhere down there was her faithful student.
Faithful, Celestia bitterly thought. Why couldn’t I have been as equally faithful to my most loyal subject? Sure, she does over react at times, but that doesn’t mean her concerns should be disregarded. That’s even a report she and her friends wrote to me about! At the rehearsal, I reprimanded her! She was trying to warn us, and I couldn’t even see the signs! I couldn’t see a disaster coming until it was already was upon us! Celestia’s gaze rose from the town up to the night sky. The moon glowed over the land. That wasn’t the first time I failed to see the signs before it was too late.
“Sister, why are you still awake?” a voice called from behind the white alicorn. She turned to face an indigo alicorn that had a concerned look upon her face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Luna,” Celestia calmly reassured her younger sister.
“Then why are you crying?” Celestia hadn’t noticed the tears that were streaming down her face. She quickly dried her tears.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I…I just was…” She didn’t quite know how to respond to her sister’s question. Luna stepped closer to her sister, worry clear on her face.
“It’s about yesterday, isn’t?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Yes, and about other things too,” Celestia confessed. There was no point hiding the obvious fact from Luna. “Like, what is going to happen now? How are our subjects going to respond?”
“Let’s continue this in your room,” Luna suggested. Celestia nodded in agreement and they entered the bed chamber. Once inside, Celestia laid herself down on her bed, and Luna then lay down beside her. “Alright, you were saying.”
“I fear what is going to happen next. How are our subjects going to react all across Equestria? What will they think of us, of me, now that I have failed them?” Celestia was scared, and it frightened Luna to see her in this state.
“Failed? Oh, come now. You didn’t fail anypony,” Luna tried to reassure her sister.
“How can you say that? Of course I failed them! I couldn’t see through that Changeling ruse when it was so obvious!”
“Don’t blame yourself for that! She had everypony fooled.”
“No, not everypony. She didn’t fool Twilight. Twilight knew she was a fake, and she was just going by what she remembered about her from when she was just a foal. I’ve known Cadance her whole life, Luna. Her whole life!” The tears were starting to form again in elder sister’s eyes. Luna opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of anything to say to refute what her sister said. “I even let that creature get the better of me. Normally, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against me. I was so confident that I could have easily subdue her that I ended up forgetting the fact that she had fed of Shining Armor for so long that she had become unnaturally more powerful than what she supposed to be! I ended up cocooned upside down from the ceiling and I had to delegate my responsibility to protect Equestria to six mares that I’ve already asked so much from! If I had only listened to Twilight, then this would have never have happened!”
Luna didn’t know what to do, for it was truly a rare sight to see Princess Celestia so inconsolable. “Don’t place all of the blame upon yourself. Don’t forget, I was asleep through the entire ordeal.”
“Sorry, I just had to let it all out,” Celestia said as she recollected herself. “But still, we are faced with a problem. Our subject will be terrified by the news of the attack, and they will also hear how I was defeated by the Queen. They’ll lose faith in us and in our ability to defend them. Even now, they are losing faith in us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Earlier today, I overheard a few servants say that they questioned my ability to protect our kingdom and that I couldn’t even recognize an imposter.”
“We are not failures, especially you,” reassured Luna. “The ponies of Equestria forget that we are not perfect. They cannot comprehend the weight of the responsibility that we bear; all of the hard choices we have to make, the matters that we have to attend to, and the things we have to oversee. We can only do so much, and we always do the best that we can for our kingdom.”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t change the fact that we have a problem before us. I’ve made a grave mistake and I have to do something about before more damage is done.”
“Yes, but that will have to wait until tomorrow,” Luna said as she rose from the bed and headed towards the door. “As for now, rest, my sister. As always, I will guard the night.”