Wings of Tomorrow ~ Lament of the World

by Keeper of Jericho

25. The deceased Princess

Luna smiled kindly at the six mares assembled before her, five of whom were watching her with stunned expressions on their faces. That was to be expected, she knew, since they had no doubt believed her to be quite dead until this very moment. At the same time, she couldn’t deny that she was a bit stunned herself, only she managed to mask it much better. When Derpy Hooves had told her that there were ponies asking for an audience with her, the grand admiral had neglected to tell her who those ponies were. In order to not spoil the surprise, no doubt.

And surprised she was, that much she had to admit. She had wanted to see these six ponies ever since her return from exile, now almost two years ago. Rainbow Dash she had met the moment of her arrival here in Cantropolis, but the other Elements of Harmony had remained sadly out of her reach. Nevertheless, she had wanted to see them again, all of them, and always had during the past two years. Yet now that they stood before her, she was surprised, if not startled, due to the unexpected nature of the meeting.

It didn’t lessen her delight, however, and so she was the first to recover from the surprise. Calmly Luna walked towards her guest, the first pony she approached being the young unicorn to whom she owed her redemption and who had taught her so much. Tenderly, Luna placed her silver-shod hoof on her sister’s protégé’s shoulder.

“Twilight Sparkle, words cannot express the joy this reunion bringeth us,” the lunar Princess said sincerely, smiling down at Twilight, who looked up to her with total bewilderment on her face. Clearly the young mare was having trouble believing what her eyes were telling her, but Luna easily forgave her this. To see one return from the dead was no doubt quite unsettling, and if the looks on the faces of her friends were anything to go by, Twilight wasn’t the only mare rendered speechless. Aside from Rainbow Dash, of course, who was looking quite smug and failing spectacularly to hide it.

Luna moved her hoof away from Twilight’s shoulder and instead drew the unicorn into a warm hug, pulling Twilight tightly against her strong chest. The action managed to shake Twilight from her stupor, and she wildly shook her head a few times before looking up at her Princess with undisguised disbelief and amazement on her face.

“Princess Luna… I… You… How…?!” she stammered, but the midnight alicorn interrupted her by letting go of Twilight and placing her hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder again in order to calm her down.

“Be at ease, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “We understand that our appearance here disturbeth thee greatly, given that thee and thine believed us to be deceased for well-nigh two years.” She spoke these words not just to Twilight, but to the unicorn’s friends as well. “Please, do not be frightened, ye are not seeing an apparition. We assure all of thee that we are quite alive, and we shall explain how in but a moment, if ye would hear us. But let us give you a proper welcome first.”

Rainbow Dash noticed that her friends still looked uncomfortable, as if they had seen a ghost, despite the Princess’ warm words. She had known from the start that this meeting would come as nothing less than a shock to her friends, but as far as she was concerned, there were limits to how stunned a pony could be. Especially given the fact that they were in the presence of royalty.

In the past, Rainbow Dash never was one to pay attention to decorum, but that had changed now, since it was part of what a royal admiral was supposed to know. She still was the most lax of the entire court when it came to this, but there were limits even for her. Continuously gaping at royalty as if said royalty had slapped you with a wet fish was one such limit. It was just rude, understandable astonishment or not. Thus, she decided to try and ease the tension a bit. She hadn’t brought her friends here to stare, after all.

“You’ll have to pardon their lack of reaction, Princess” she said to Luna. “I didn’t exactly tell them whom they were going to meet. Wanted it to be a surprise and all.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

Luna released Twilight from her embrace and turned towards the royal admiral. “We understand, admiral Rainbow Dash. There is no need for thee to be alarmed, we are not offended. Verily we say, that even hadst thou told thy friends, it might not have lessened the impact of this encounter.”

“Eh, I guess that’s true, since this is kinda like seeing a ghost for them,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a shrug. She then proceeded to elbow Applejack in the ribs. “At least now you know why I insisted that everything you see in here has to remain a secret,” she told her friends with a wide grin on her face.

Her words seemed to draw her friends from their daze, and Applejack broke off her staring at her Princess to glance sideways at Rainbow Dash instead. “I guess I do, sugarcube. The Republic would be shakin’ in their boots if they knew one of them Princesses is right here, instead of six paces under, like everypony believes these days,” Applejack said.

After this, she turned her attention back to Luna. Applejack took off her hat and made a low bow before her monarch, finally having recovered enough from the shock of seeing the Princess of the Night alive to give her the respect that was rightfully her due. “I was one of those who believed that ‘till now, yer highness,” she said apologetically, her head still held low. “But I can’t say I’ve ever been more happy to be proven dead wrong than Ah’m now.”

Next to her, the rest of her friends joined her in paying her respect towards the Princess, with Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy and even Pinkie Pie all bowing deeply before Luna as well.

“I couldn’t agree with Applejack more even if I wanted to, your highness,” Rarity said, bearing a tearful smile on her face even if she kept her head respectfully bowed. “It is such a relief to see that you are safe, after all these years. We thought we had lost you, please forgive us.”

“I swear, if I had known… If there had been any sign that you had survived, I would have come to your aid, Princess,” Twilight added in a fearful whisper. She held her eyes firmly shut, bearing an expression on her face that her friends had only seen before when Twilight had thought she had failed Celestia. “I’m so sorry for doubting you…”

“We’re all super-duper sorry for thinking those nasty meanie pants of the Republic had done you in,” Pinkie Pie said, managing to somehow sound solemn and serious even while being her usual energetic self. “If I had known they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have acted so sad and down for so long! I would have come to throw you a ‘so glad you survived!’ party faster than you could say cupcake!”

“We really are sorry,” Fluttershy agreed quietly, keeping her head so low it was almost touching the floor. Her voice was so meek every pony in the room had to strain to hear her. “We should have had more faith in you! Please forgive us… If you want to, that is.”

The five kneeling mares waited, tensed, for their Princess to react. None of them were certain of what to expect from the great alicorn that stood before them. They had all believed that Luna had died two years ago as Nightmare Moon, on the longest day of a thousand years. Three of them had been there to witness it, if from a safe distance on the ground. The memories of that apocalyptic battle were still fresh in their minds, and they had never found any reason to doubt what their eyes had told them.

Now, all of the sudden, Rainbow Dash had brought them here, face to face with the same Princess they had believed to be dead. The same Princess they had given up on, be it with great pain and reluctance, and none of them knew what to expect. Would Luna think they had been unfaithful? Would she be offended that they had not had more confidence in her? Would she be angry that they had not come to her aid? Even in their previous lives, the Princess of the Night had been much more temperamental than her older sister. Who knew how the shifts in time and nearly dying had affected her?

To their great surprise, however, Luna did not chastise them, shout at them or punish them. Quite the opposite in fact, for the Princess of the Moon began to laugh. Warm, heartfelt laughter that came from deep within her and made the five mares kneeling at her hooves look up from the floor to give her bewildered and confused stares.

“My dear little ponies, let yout worries be slain! Verily, there is not a single thing for which ye must ask our pardon, and even if there were, ye would find it given readily to you, for ye are most dear to us!” Luna laughed, the warm gesture making her look younger.

Her laughter broke the last remaining tension that weighed on the five mares kneeling before her. They raised their heads and stared up at their Princess, and it was as if they only now could truly see her as she was. Where the sight before had left them dumbstruck and filled with confusion and fear, it now filled them with unbridled joy and a surge of hope. Once more it flashed through their minds that Princess Luna stood before them, alive and well, but only now did they comprehend the meaning of those words. Only now did they realise that it wasn’t an illusion, a ghost or an apparition. It was real.

Princess Luna was alive.

Briefly, Twilight and her friends glanced at each other, a look of understanding passing between them all as grins formed on their faces. Then, before either Rainbow Dash or the Princess could react, they threw themselves at the alicorn and embraced her like a long lost friend, or perhaps even as a bit more, almost like a mother. It didn’t matter that such a display of affection towards a princess was more than frowned upon by decorum, Twilight and her friends gave not a bit for such things at the moment.

Neither did Luna, apparently, for though the sudden attack had startled her, she quickly recovered and smiled. The Princess was deeply touched by the young mares’ gesture, to the point where she could feel tears sting in the corners of her eyes. She mattered to these ponies, she realised. They were glad that she was alive, and they had missed her. Luna was not used to getting such affection from anyone but her sister, but she was glad for it nonetheless. Warmly, she folded her wings around them and returned the embrace.

Rainbow Dash stood apart a bit as her friends reunite with the Princess whom they had thought deceased for so long. She watched how they shamelessly embraced the ancient alicorn, and she was glad.

“We are glad to see you as well,” Luna whispered to the young ponies who embraced her and showered her with warmth, with a tearful smile on her face. “Twilight Sparkle, honest Applejack, fair Rarity, dear, dear Fluttershy…” She looked at each of them in turn as she spoke their names, before her gaze finally settled on Pinkie Pie. Luna’s smile widened. “Yes, even thou art most welcome, oh ringleader of frightened children!”

Pinkie’s friends laughed at the comment, while the mare in question blushed and cast a hurried and slightly worried glance at her Princess. “I guess I should apologise for that, right?” she said after a nervous chuckle. “It was a bit mean to do since I didn’t tell you it was all for fun and not for real but I didn’t think you would think it was for real because why would anypony be scared of their princess for real, right?”

Luna, still smiling, shook her head and held up her hoof to silence the pink pony. “Do not be alarmed, tis in the past, we spoke in jest…” she said kindly, before wrapping her left wing a bit closer around Pinkie. “We are glad to see thee again, Pinkamena Pie,” she then said, making the pink pony giggle.

The six ponies remained in their shared embrace in silence for a bit longer, content to simply enjoy the warm feelings it brought them, until Applejack spoke up.

“Yer highness, I hope you don’t mind me askin’, but how’s this possible? You bein’ here, I mean, ‘cause all of Equestria thinks you’re gone. Now I’m mighty glad to know that that ain’t true, but if you weren’t dead all this time, then where’ve you been?”

Luna looked down at the faces of the five ponies crowded around her, and she could see that each of them yearned for the answer to the same question Applejack had just asked. Gently she folded her wings to her sides, the expression on her face serious, though she was still smiling.

“We are aware that the majority of our subjects believeth us to dwell amongst them no longer, honest Applejack, but please understand that this is how we wished it to be. Tis for the best, for were news of our survival to become known, it might endanger our sister’s life,” Luna explained. “The commanders of the Royal Guard, with admiral Rainbow Dash being one of them, agreed to this course of action, and thus we have lived here in utmost secrecy the past two years, dead to all but a chosen few.”

“And it wasn’t easy to keep it that way, let me tell you,” Rainbow Dash chimed in as she sat down amidst her friends in a semicircle in front of the Princess. “I’d rather try to convince a dragon to give up its hoard than go through all that security stuff again.” She involuntarily shivered, as if reliving bad memories. “The Princess is right though, it’s for the best, at least for now. If those Nobles were to know that Princess Luna’s still alive and kicking, Princess Celestia might get in danger because of it. We weren’t going to risk that.”

Applejack thoughtfully tapped her chin with one of her hooves. “Well, I reckon that makes sense. Them Nobles would probably panic a mighty lot if they knew the royalists have an alicorn on their side, and there ain’t no telling what they’d do when they’re all scared.”

“Something reckless and drastic, no doubt,” Rarity agreed, after which she turned her attention back to her Princess. “Well, I say that does explain quite well why we didn’t hear anything about you until Rainbow Dash nearly gave us a heart attack by bringing us here, your highness.” She hesitated for a moment and frowned, as if afraid to continue.

“Still, pardon me for asking… But how in Equestria did you survive your fight against the Republic, your highness?” Rarity asked quietly. “I know for a fact that you had nearly all of the Republic’s forces going up against you, we could see the light of the battle all the way in Canterlot. I simply can’t imagine how anypony could survive such an onslaught!”

“I don’t understand it either, princess,” Twilight added quietly, almost as if she was ashamed to admit it. Her ears flattened against her skull, and she shivered as the memories of that night two years ago came flooding back. “I was there, I saw everything! When that big explosion happened… I could feel the strength of your magic fade away into nothing…” She gazed up at Luna with a nearly desperate look in her eyes. “How could you have survived that? All those spells, the cannons…”

There was a short moment of silence as the five mares looked at Luna expectantly, and the Princess met their gazes evenly, the questions of her guests not having come as a surprise to her. Quite the opposite in fact, she had expected them.

“We understand your confusion,” she said. “Answering your questions shall take some time, however, as it is quite a tale. Please listen closely, as we would prefer not to have to tell it twice, it wouldst simply take too much time.” The Princess glanced specifically at Pinkie when she speaking that last sentence, though the pink pony seemed completely oblivious to it. Luna wisely decided to continue regardless.

“The tale which we are about to relate to you shall make many things clear to you. Our survival first and foremost, but also how it is that the mare now speaking to you is your Princess instead of Nightmare Moon, even though ye did not wield the Elements of Harmony against us on that night two years ago,” Luna said. “Regardless, all six of you have played a part in our tale, though unknowingly, as admiral Rainbow Dash already knows.”

Twilight and her friends glanced briefly at Rainbow Dash, who simply nodded, her expression serious. The admiral glanced at Luna, and their gazes met. A look of understanding passed between them, and then Luna focussed her attention back on Twilight and her friends. The revelation that they had somehow aided their Princess in surviving had piqued their interest, and they were watching Luna with undisguised curiosity.

“If we are to tell you what happened the night of our return, we must first explain to you something that is directly related to it. We are speaking, of course, about the changes made to our history, and the anomalies that are the result of it,” Luna began. Once more her gaze drifted over the ponies assembled around her, to try and gauche their reaction. She looked at Twilight in particular, and noticed the unicorn had a peculiar glint in her eyes, as she always had when she was about to gain newfound knowledge.

When nopony interrupted her, for which she was grateful, Luna continued. “We are certain that all of you are aware of the fact that Equestria as it is now is not how it is supposed to be. Admiral Rainbow Dash hath told us before that she remembereth a different life in a different Equestria, and we do not doubt that this goes for the rest of you as well.” Her words were confirmed when the remaining five Elements of Harmony nodded.

“We do, Princess,” Twilight said quietly. “All of us, from the moment we became aware enough to form coherent thoughts.” She chose to hide the fact that Fluttershy had in fact come from a different timeline entirely for now. Twilight’s ears lay flat against her head. “It was so confusing, growing up like that. I remembered all of these events that I knew I had lived through, even though I hadn’t gone through them now. I didn’t understand… I still don’t understand!” She let out a low groan and rubbed her head as if in pain. “It’s so frustrating…”

“We understand, Twilight Sparkle, truly, we do,” Luna assured her sister’s student, with a warm and kind voice. “All of you have proven thyself to be very strong mares indeed, to have lived so long with such conflicting memories in thy heads. Neither do we doubt that the six of you are not the only ones to possess these dual memories.” She paused for a moment, and her expression grew more grim.

“What ye must understand, however, is that this is not an unexpected occurrence. Tis true that this is the first time in our long life that we witness this phenomenon ourselves, but we have always known that it might occur in circumstances such as these.” Luna shook her head and sighed. “Time is a fickle thing, one that we have always been instructed from the beginning not to tamper with, and for good reason. Time doth not allow its course to be changed without resistance. It shall always try to repair itself, to go back to its original state before the interference, such is its nature.”

The Princess glanced at the gathered Elements of Harmony in front of her. “These anomalies, such as your memories or places that remain unchanged, are the result of Time’s attempts to restore itself,” she explained patiently. “How it is decided who remembereth and what manages to resist the changes caused by the interference, however, we know not, and there is none in Equestria who could tell you. Time is not our domain, nor of our sister. It goeth beyond us, and even we are subject to its flow.”

“We, too, remember our lives from when time was unchanged, and we know for certain that our sister does as well. Though we do not control time and are obligated to follow its flow, as alicorns our sister and ourselves are free from its aging effects,” the great alicorn continued. “This nature is also what allowed us to remember our lives even when time changeth the days we have lived through. However, there is one aspect that puts our memories apart from those that you, and other ponies who remember, possess...”

Luna turned her head to look at Twilight, and she smiled. “Can thou guess what it is?” she asked curiously, on a tone that made it clear that she wouldn’t be mad if Twilight could not.

Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully as she pondered the question, feeling the expectant stares of her friends on her body all the while. She tried not to let those bother her. In a way, Luna’s question reminded her of Celestia. Her beloved teacher would also always ask questions, to give her a chance to figure things out herself.

Suddenly, the answer hit her, and she couldn’t believe that she hadn’t immediately thought of it, for it was so obvious. “Of course!” she exclaimed, with a wide smile on her face. She turned to look at her friends, so she could see them as she explained. “Don’t you see? What is the one difference between the Princesses and us, in the context of how we experienced the changes in Time?”

Her friends shifted nervously in their seats, but none of them answered. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? They were alive when Steel Gear went the interference happened!” she explained eagerly. “None of us were even born yet five hundred and thirty nine years ago! But Princess Celestia was, and Princess Luna was halfway through her…” Twilight trailed off and didn’t finish her sentence, looking nervously at the Princess as she did so. She didn’t know if her exile was a sore subject for the alicorn, but Twilight wasn’t keen on finding out.

Now it was Luna’s turn to roll her eyes. “Do not fret, Twilight Sparkle. Tis not an offense to mention the truth, not even if it concerneth the fall from grace of thy Princess, and the exile we were subjected to because of it,” she said kindly. The Princess lifted Twilight’s chin up with the tip of her wing so their eyes met. Luna smiled, a gesture which Twilight returned after a few hesitant seconds.

“In any case, Twilight Sparkle is correct,” Luna continued once she had folded her wing back against her side. “We and our sister are immortal and because of this experienced the changes in time differently than our beloved subjects.” She paused for a moment to see if they were still following her. “Ye were born with immediate access to all of the memories of your former lives, since the change happened long before ye came into this world. For our sister and ourselves, this is of course not the case.”

“Instead, we believe that we gain the memories of our former life day by day. Every day in this altered flow of time, we gain the memories of how that day wouldst have been had time not been tampered with. Were Celestia here, we are certain she wouldst confirm this.” She paused again, then added: “Tis more complicated for us than that, however, for when the course of history was altered, we were still sealed inside the moon, and at the time darkness and evil still clouded our hearts.”

Each of the mares listening to her story, except for Rainbow Dash who had already heard the tale before, could not prevent themselves from gasping. It hadn’t escaped their notice that Luna’s tone had grown more sombre and her voice more strained as she spoke about her exile. In fact, it was the first time any of them heard the Princess speaking about the time when she was sealed inside the moon.

“Thousand years we were locked away, but truthfully, it was neither long or short to us. The Elements of Harmony had sealed us away inside the moon in a form of stasis, and only rarely were we ever truly awake and aware of ourselves,” Luna continued, albeit with difficulty. Her tone was unbearably sorrowful. “It was as if we were sleeping, and we dreamed dreams of darkness and night eternal. Time was a thing lost to us, for every day was the same as the one before it. Thus, when history’s course changed, it barely affected us, if at all.”

The lunar Princess bowed her head and sighed. Speaking about her thousand year long absence had brought memories to the surface of things she would rather not remember. It made her think about her sister, and how Celestia had not been there to greet her when she had returned in this timeline. Though she didn’t say it out loud, Luna missed her sister terribly.

She shook her head. Now was not the time to dwell on her past mistakes, Luna scolded herself. She had questions to answer. She saw her audience looking at her with both questioning and worried expressions, and smiled to let them know she was fine.

“We tell thee all this both because we know that you have been wondering about the nature of your memories yourselves, but also because these dual memories were vital to our survival two years ago,” Luna said after she had recomposed herself. “Two years ago, on the longest day of a thousand years, the stars aligned and released the seal which kept us bound. We awoke as if from deep slumber and returned to Equestria with all haste, holding vengeance in our heart, for we were still that dreaded creature of darkness, Nightmare Moon.”

The Princess visibly winced when she spoke that name, but carried on nonetheless. “We returned expecting to find a peaceful land, filled with sun-loving ponies grown helpless, lazy and fat under our sister’s peaceful rule.” Luna smiled bitterly. “What we found instead was a land torn by civil war and our sister deposed and imprisoned. To say we were surprised would be an understatement, and we, even as Nightmare Moon, figured that the cause of this could not be natural. We felt that it was off… wrong somehow.”

“Because of your double memories?” Twilight asked quietly.

Luna shook her head. “Nay, Twilight Sparkle. Tis odd, but at the time of our return, though we should slowly have been gaining our memories of our previous life back as time passed on, we did not possess them. We should have gained the memory of our arrival in the town hall of Ponyville during the Summer Sun Celebration upon our return, but we did not,” she explained.

Applejack rubbed the back of her head under her hat. “Pardon me, yer highness, but how can you be sayin’ that you didn’t get yer memories back one by one now, when just a moment ago you were saying the opposite?”

“Allow us to explain. When we said that we gain our memories back day by day, we did not speak untrue. This doth happen to this very day, even now, as we sit here speaking. But when we returned from exile, we were still wholly Nightmare Moon,” Luna replied, while her face gained a sad and thoughtful expression.

“Tis strange,” the Princess whispered softly. “Nightmare Moon was but what we named ourselves after we let jealousy and envy cloud our mind, feeding the darkness in our heart. We never thought of us as two separate beings.” Luna hesitated for a moment and frowned. “But after our return in this time, we have been harbouring some doubts about that. We still do not believe that Nightmare Moon was truly an entity of her own, but perhaps the darkness that we had used to empower and transform ourselves, gained some form of sentience during the long years of our exile…”

“Why do you say that, Princess?” Twilight asked curiously. Though she was worried about these revelations, at the same time she was almost literally hanging on Luna’s lips. Never before, in either of her lives, had she learned this much about Nightmare Moon, and the many mysteries that surrounded the wicked mare of darkness.

This was not very surprising, as there was no book that could tell her more. The only pony who could offer any insight in the dark alicorn was Princess Luna herself, and Twilight had always been too afraid to ask. She wouldn’t dare broach the subject herself with the Princess, and was very grateful that she hadn’t needed to now either.

“Because, Twilight Sparkle, it was Nightmare Moon’s doing that we did not gain our memories upon our return,” Luna replied, causing the young unicorn in question to gasp, her eyes widening in shock.

Luna turned her head to look at Applejack. “When we said that we and our sister both, as alicorns, regain our memories day by day as we live through them, we did not speak false, honest Applejack,” she explained. “However, for us, this process was being interfered with when we returned. Shadows clouded our mind and heart, preventing us from remembering. We can only assume this was the Nightmare’s doing, for what reason could we have to tamper with our own mind?”

“But what reason could the… ah, Nightmare, have to interfere with the memories of the pony it is a part of, your highness?” Rarity wondered aloud.

“Self-preservation, we suspect, fair Rarity, as the rest of our tale shall make clear,” Luna answered. The Princess took a deep breath before continuing. “When we returned, though our memories were kept from us, nevertheless it became quickly apparent that something was off. Even though we were still wholly Nightmare Moon at the time, that didn’t change the fact that we were an alicorn still. When the world cries out in torment, tis the gift of our sister and us to hear it.”

“Hear it we did, but we laughed, for we were wicked still. Our subjects had deposed the one pony who couldst stop us, so we thought, and imprisoned her. They had even been foolish enough to tamper with Time itself! It seemed to us as if they had given themselves and their land to us on a silver platter.” Luna sighed and shook her head. She looked at her captivated audience with sadness in her eyes. “Ye know what happened then. The Republic sent forth their entire military might and we met them directly in combat.”

“We scoffed at them and laughed. Arrogantly we believed that no mere mortal, no matter how numerous and no matter their arms, could best us. Modesty was never a quality we were in possession of as Nightmare Moon, and it very nearly proved to be our undoing.” The alicorn’s face was grim and dark as she spoke.

“We fought hard, but our skills were dulled during the eons spent in stasis, and our opponent had the element of surprise. We had expected to face a reluctant Celestia, or perhaps some frightened royal guards,” she continued. “Instead we were faced with an armada full of battle-hardened ponies, their commanders wielding power the likes of which we hath never before seen amidst mortal kind.”

“Magicite,” Twilight guessed, and Luna nodded.

“We had no knowledge of this marvellous crystal and its mysterious abilities, so the usage of it by the Republican commanders caught us off guard,” the Princess explained. “We bid thee to make no mistake, however, for though the magicite granted our foes great power that allowed them to turn the tides against us, had we been our true self and at full strength, it would not have sufficed to lay us low.”

Luna sighed and bowed her head. “But we digress, for that was not how things were.” She looked up slowly, her sad gaze drifting over the ponies gathered around her, until it finally settled on Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie. “Ye were there. Ye were witness to what occurred, witnessed our fall…”

The three mares in questioned nodded slowly, but found they could not utter so much as a single word, for a big, painful lump had formed in their throat. The memories of that night played out again before their eyes, as if someone had taken them back through time to that very moment again, when the end of the world had seemed upon them.

“I saw how their spells struck true; so many that they lit up the sky… And then, that explosion, and I… I thought…” Twilight whispered hoarsely, and it hurt to speak. Her eyes stood wide but distant, and silent tears ran down her cheeks. She was glad when she felt Luna place her wing on her shoulder.

“Thou art forgiven for thinking so, Twilight Sparkle, for truly it was what we believed in that moment as well,” the Princess whispered, and in her eyes glistened tears as well.

Twilight looked up in the tear-filled eyes of her Princess, until she could not contain herself any longer. She lunged forth and wrapped her legs around Luna to firmly hug the Princess, and wept. Her friends soon came over as well, to comfort both her and their Princess with warm embraces of their own. The comforting, meaningful gestures brought a tearful smile to Luna’s lips, and she gently wrapped her wings around them.

When she saw how Twilight’s grief as well as her own had moved all of Twilight’s friends to tears also, Luna couldn’t help but laugh gently through her tears. “Thou should not weep,” she said kindly. “We survived, and it is wholly thanks to all of thee, my friends.”

Luna closed her eyes and thought back to that moment, which she saw as one of the most wonderful and most dreadful of her life at the same time. Because of this, she did not see how the young mares around her were looking at her in confusion, puzzled by her words. Thus unaware, she continued her tale, but her voice had changed somehow. It was as if she was reliving the moment once more, instead of simply relating it to them.

“When our defences failed and we were struck by the magic of thousands of unicorns all at once, for a moment we truly believed our end had come. Our body was disintegrating under the assault and the essence of our magic was fading. ‘T was then, in the very moment of our agony, that something most wondrous happened.” Luna’s eyes opened, but her gaze was still distant, looking at something only she could see. She smiled, while at the same time there were tears running down her cheeks.

“As life faded away from us, so did the strength of the evil we had allowed to enter our heart. Its hold on us slackened and the haze of shadows that clouded our memories was lifted from our mind.” Luna closed her eyes again and her smile widened. “We remembered. In the moment when death was upon us, it all came back to us at long last. We remembered our sister and her kindness, her forgiveness and her love for us.”

The Princess paused for a moment to gaze upon Twilight and the others, who were hanging on her every word, their eyes wide with astonishment. “We remembered you, how you unleashed the powers of Harmony upon us, taking away our dark powers to give us a second chance.” Luna was now looking directly at Twilight as she spoke.

“We remembered thee, Twilight Sparkle, and even some of thy deeds that had not yet come to pass. We remembered thy kindness and friendship, and how thou aided us in regaining our subjects’ trust,” she said. “We remembered the love of our subjects, and how they were glad to have us and welcomed us back, despite our dark deeds.”

“Remembering the life that should have been ours set our heart aflame with newfound strength. We refused to let the chance to reclaim that life pass us by. We refused to let the evil in our hearts, brought there by our own jealousy and envy, to take us with it to our demise.” Luna smiled at the ponies that she still held within her wings. “The memory of you and your kindness gave us the strength we needed to save ourselves.”

“Our mind was clear again and our heart pure. In that moment, when our demise loomed near, our memories gave us the strength to banish the darkness in our own heart, and we were Nightmare Moon no longer. Luna we were once more, but we were not yet safe,” she continued, her voice now steady and kind. “We might have regained who we truly were then, but our body was still caught in a storm of fiery magic, with life fading rapidly from it.”

“But we did not give up. We called upon our last reserves of strength and used it to invoke an ancient, primal form of magic known to none but our sister and us, for to wield it is our birthright and ours alone.” Luna’s words earned her a frown and a puzzled look from Twilight, but if the Princess was at all aware of it, she chose to ignore it.

“The Republic believeth that on the night of the longest day of a thousand years, we perished as Nightmare Moon at the hooves of their military. Tis not wholly a lie, for part of us did indeed perish that night,” she explained quietly. “In the chaos of the magical storm, our spirit departed from our body and fled to somewhere safe. The pony the Republic believeth died that night, was naught but a soulless body bearing the form of Nightmare Moon, holding within it all of our envy and jealousy, along with our malice and hate, and the power we drew from them.”

A long silence fell, during which Twilight and all of her friends, except for Rainbow Dash, gaped at their Princess in awe and disbelief. They were rendered completely speechless by Luna’s tale, for in fact each of them had a hard time wrapping their minds around it. None of them, however, had as much difficulty to understand it as Twilight did. She could not place the Princess’ story within any magical theory she remembered studying in her previous life, and this bothered her greatly.

“That… that just can’t be true…” Twilight stammered, having finally found her voice again. She was still shamelessly gawking at the Princess, her jaw somewhere on the floor and her eyes as wide as dinner plates. A strand of hair sprang up from her carefully brushed mane. “I… I never heard of any magic that could separate body and soul, let alone split the spirit in multiple pieces!”

“Does this surprise thee, Twilight Sparkle? Did we not say that this form of magic is both ancient and primal, known only to us and our sister? Tis not strange that thou lacks any knowledge of it, for there exist nary a source from which thou could have studied it,” Luna answered, smiling kindly at the unicorn. “Our sister’s protégé thou might be, but she wouldst not have spoken of this even with one she trusts as much as thou. Were it not that it was needed for the tale of our survival, we wouldst not have spoken of it either.”

“But why?” Twilight insisted, looking hopelessly lost. “Why would you keep an entire branch of magic a secret from all of ponykind, especially one that sounds like it could give us so much insight in our very existence!”

Luna looked upon her sister’s student with pity, and placed her wing on Twilight’s shoulder in an effort to bring some comfort to the distraught unicorn. “Listen closely, Twilight Sparkle, and take our words to heart, we beg of thee,” she said, her voice gentle but pleading. “There art some things within the spheres of the world that art not meant to be known or used by everypony. This is one such thing.”

When she saw that her words did nothing to better Twilight’s mood, Luna let out a deep sigh. Using her wing, she pulled the unicorn a bit nearer to her, leaning in so her mouth was right next to Twilight’s ear.

“Even if thou were to study it, the magic we speak of would be beyond even thy skills, for it cannot be harnessed by mortal kind. Tis a privilege beholden for only our sister and us, for our kind,” Luna whispered in Twilight’s ear, causing the unicorn to gasp, her eyes widening in shock yet again.

The Princess backed away from Twilight, and once more gave her a pleading look. “We beg of thee, let it rest and pursue it not. Be content with knowing that it allowed us to defy our demise and return to be the Princess thou so kindly befriended on Nightmare Night.”

Twilight stared into the blue eyes of her Princess, which were like still pools of unfathomable depths and it seemed to Twilight as if she was staring straight into Luna’s soul. She could see the wisdom of the ages that lay there, caught a glimpse of the alicorn’s dreams and of her incredible power. Then, suddenly, Luna narrowed her eyes slightly and her gaze intensified. For a brief moment, Twilight was suddenly aware of something more, something she could not place, but whatever it was threatened to overwhelm her entirely.

She almost panicked, but then the feeling was gone, as suddenly as it had come. Twilight could not supress a shiver and she was more shaken by the experience than she dared to admit. Luna had allowed her to catch a glimpse of something about her, something no pony knew of or understood, but Twilight knew, somehow, that it was not malicious in nature. She saw Luna smile kindly at her and Twilight managed to give a hesitant nod in return.

“I… I’m sorry,” she whispered apologetically. “I won’t press if you don’t want to tell us.” Twilight’s lips formed a wry smile and she chuckled lightly. “Even if it means I’ll be eaten from the inside out by my curiosity before the night is over.”

Hearing this, Luna let out a hearty laugh, shattering the tension that had fallen in the room during the exchange between herself and Twilight. “We should hope not, for it wouldst grieve us greatly, as well as thy friends,” she replied warmly. “We care for thee, after all.” She smiled armly at Twilight, who responded in kind.

Around them, their friends breathed a sigh of relief. They did not know what Luna had whispered to Twilight, but they had seen the flash of panic on the unicorn’s face and it had worried them. Even Rainbow Dash was not sure what had happened between her friend and her Princess, but she was glad that it seemed to be in the past now.

“Pardon me for asking, your highness, but may I ask what happened next?” Rarity spoke up careful, tactfully bringing everypony’s attention back to Luna’s story. “You mentioned that you, ah, separated yourself from your body and fled from the battle. Though this seems quite unbelievable, to say the least, I wouldn’t dare to be as rude as to accuse you of lying. Still, I cannot imagine that the story ends there?”

“Especially since, if it did, that would mean we wouldn’t be sitting here with you now because you wouldn’t have a body!” Pinkie chimed in cheerfully. Then suddenly she rubbed her chin with one of her hooves, a thoughtful frown on her face. “Unless it is possible to talk to souls when they’re not in their body. Oh, oh, would that mean I could talk to my granny? That would be neat! She’s the only one who can decide if I should go with chimi cherry or cherry changa!”

For a moment nothing could be heard but the chirping of crickets as all occupants of the room stared at Pinkie, utterly baffled. Then Luna shook her head and wisely decided not to question it. Hesitatingly, she turned her attention to Rarity.

“What maketh that which we did so unbelievable, fair Rarity? Tis no different from what thou accomplished with thy friends, when thou unleashed the powers of Harmony upon us with thy friends. only our method was more… forceful, shall we say,” Luna explained calmly. “We admit, however, that using the Elements of Harmony wouldst have been far more preferable to using the ancient magic and pure, brute force. Not in the least because the former did not require us to be very nearly deceased.”

Luna laughed wryly and shook her head. “Nevertheless, thou art correct, our tale is not yet wholly told.” She paused for a moment to make sure she had their attention, and continued once she confirmed she had. “After we had severed our ties to both our body and the tainted, corrupted part of our spirit, we used the magical explosion to make ourselves scarce. Our consciousness, now without a body, sought refuge in the ruins of our old castle in the Everfree Forest.”

“There we rested and drew upon the wild magic which floweth through the ancient forest to regain our strength. We used the time while we recovered to ponder our next step. Now that the Elements of Harmony had once again cured us of our madness…” Multiple mouths opened to protest, but Luna held up her hoof to silence them before they could do so. “No, do not deny it. Were it not for you and the kindness ye showed us upon our return the first time, we wouldst not have been able to find the strength to save ourselves in this time. Tis thanks to ye and ye only that we now sittest here to tell our tale.”

Reluctantly the six mares accepted the credit, even though they felt it was not theirs, not this time at least. But they did not wish to argue or speak against their Princess and let the matter drop as a result. In a way, however, they had to admit that it was somewhat flattering to know that Luna thought so highly of them and cared so much about them that the mere memory of them had allowed her to save herself.

Satisfied with their acceptance, Luna continued. “As we rested in the Everfree Forest, our spirit became most troubled. Equestria, nay, the very world was not as it ought to be. The existence of our dual memories were all the evidence we needed to conclude that one of our greatest fears had come to pass. Somepony had done that which should not be done, tampering with Time and changing history itself because of it.” She shook her head and sighed. “For the first time since our return, we were truly afraid.”

“Oh, we feared not for ourselves,” she said hurriedly, upon seeing the looks her audience was giving her. “Nay, our immediate concern went out to our sister. What had happened to her? She had not been present during the battle in which our evil died; her whereabouts were not known to us. The consequences of tampering with time could be dire, this much we knew. There was no telling what the interference had done to her.”

“These doubts gnawed at our heart, figuratively of course, since we were devoid of one at that moment. There was little we could do until we had regained our strength, however. Tearing oneself from his or her body and cutting loose a piece of thy very soul is an exhausting undertaking, to put it mildly.” With a wry smile, she added: “We highly recommend you not to try it at home, or ever. Tis not very pleasant and wouldst not end well.”

Fluttershy and her friends chuckled quietly at the Princess’ jest, and Luna merrily laughed with them. Once the laughter had died out, she picked up her story where she had left off.

“Knowing that there was naught we could do until our strength returned to us, we reluctantly committed ourselves to the task of resting and recovering. Even with the raw magic we drew from the Everfree Forest, it took us seventy nine days before we could call upon the ancient magic once again, with which we rejuvenated ourselves and our body.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest again, but she quickly remembered her previous exchange with her ruler concerning this matter, and she wisely closed her mouth again and remained silent. Her friends did not question it either, though they were just as confused and baffled as Twilight was, perhaps even more so.

Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were simple, common ponies, and there was nothing wrong with that. They were well educated and not dumb by any means, but none of them had any expertise on the field of magic beyond the magic that was innate to their kind. They weren’t unicorns, and the deeper, complex workings and secrets of it simply eluded them.

Even for Rarity and Rainbow Dash, both knowledgeable on the field of magic due to being a unicorn or wielding magicite, the Princess’ words went completely over their heads. In an effort to understand and clear their confusion, they simply accepted Luna’s words as truth, for they saw no reason for the Princess to lie either. Thus, if Luna had somehow torn her soul from her body, cast of her evil side and then reformed her body through some unknown means, they could accept that, simply chalking it up to that one word known as ‘magic’.

“By rejuvenating ourselves, we regained our body, though it was small and frail, not quite unlike the form we wore after ye unleashed the Elements of Harmony and banished the evil within us,” Luna continued. “During the days of our recovery, our thoughts had drifted often to our sister, but also to thou, Twilight Sparkle, and thy friends, our saviours. Since we could not locate our sister, we figured that any of you would be the most reliable source of information.”

“Sadly, this was easier said than done. When we left the Everfree Forest, wearing the disguise of a common pegasus, it was to find Ponyville a changed town. Though we had expected this to a certain extent, we were nevertheless caught off guard by the immense increase of its populace,” Luna said. “Finding six mares in a town of a couple of hundred ponies is a small feat. The same cannot be said when the populace numbers in the thousands. It did not help our cause that there were many Republican soldiers present.”

“Yeah, I remember that they stationed more of them guards ‘till nine months after yer return, princess,” Applejack replied as she dug in her memory. “Ponyville took a mighty good beating from that big explosion in which we though you died, so they sent a lot of folk from Canterlot to help in the repairs and to keep an eye out fer any sign of you still bein’ around.”

“We did notice that there seemed to be a lot of construction going on,” Luna commented, before giving Applejack an apologetic look. “We pray that thou were not inconvenienced too much by the aftermath of our battle, honest Applejack.”

“Don’t ya worry none about that, Princess,” the farmer replied good-naturedly. “Sure, we had to clean up the orchard and replant quite a bit of trees, but it wasn’t anything the Apple family couldn’t handle. Especially when we had friends to lend us a helping hoof.” She gave Twilight and Pinkie an appreciate glance when she said that last sentence.

“We were glad to be of assistance, Applejack, you know that,” Twilight said with a smile.

“I do, and it makes me mighty glad to have such good friends,” Applejack answered, before turning back to Luna. “So, what happened next, Princess? Did you try to get into Ponyville? I figure that won’t have been easy, what with there bein’ a guard on every street corner and all.”

“Indeed, it wouldst not have been. But in all fairness, nay, we did not attempt it, though we greatly desired to. However, we were not willing to take the risk of becoming involved in another battle with the Republic, so soon after the previous one from which we had not yet recovered fully still,” Luna replied. “We wandered the roads leading to it for a while and spoke to any who happened to pass us by, hearing them out subtly to gain information while trying to avoid raising any suspicion.”

“These good ponies could not answer all of our questions, but their words were very valuable to us nonetheless. Thus we learned of the Republic, the civil war, our sister’s fate and that we, or rather, Nightmare Moon, were thought to be slain during the battle,” the Princess continued. “Though it was not our intent to fake our own death during the battle, we saw no reason to disprove it. Until we knew more of the situation, we could not decide upon any course of action yet. We thought it could very well work in our favour to ‘play dead’, as they say.” She looked at Twilight and her friends and added hastily: “Though we do apologise for the grief this decision caused you.”

The five mares exchanged knowing looks, then turned their attention back to the Princess and smiled. “It’s okay, Princess, we understand,” Twilight said kindly.

“We’re simply happy to know that you are safe and to have you returned to us, your majesty,” Rarity added.

“What did you do after that, though? If you don’t mind me asking…” Fluttershy asked quietly, rubbing her front hooves together shyly.

“We cannot imagine ever minding any request of thee, dear Fluttershy,” Luna answered, giving the timid pegasus a warm, kind smile, which made her blush and hide behind her mane. “We tried to gather any word of thy whereabouts and those of thy friends, but there was little the ponies on the road could tell us without us invoking suspicion. However, we were told one thing that proved to be particularly valuable.”

“We learned that Rainbow Dash had left the Republic to join the Royal Guard and fight for my sister’s freedom. We remembered the name as belonging to the Element of Loyalty and suddenly our course seemed clear to us,” she continued. “We left the lands surrounding Ponyville behind us and travelled east, through the Everfree Forest until we crossed the borders of the Royal Kingdom of Equestria. From there we went in search of Rainbow Dash, one of the mares to whom we owed our redemption, hoping that the changes in time had not affected her to the point where she no longer knew us.”

“She appeared out of the blue one night in my office,” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “That startled me so much I nearly brought down half of the palace.” She smirked at the midnight alicorn. “I still say you did that just to pull a prank on me, Princess. You could have just used the door, or knocked on the window or something.”

“Nonsense, Rainbow Dash, it was vital we remained unseen,” Luna insisted, though in her eyes there was a twinkle of mischief. She smiled and turned back to the others. “We have remained here ever since. It was agreed that it was best if we continued to fake our demise, for our sister’s sake first and foremost, but also, alas, as there was little we could contribute to the war even if it would not endanger our sister’s safety.”

“Why do you say that, Princess?” Twilight asked, frowning. “I mean, even as Nightmare Moon, it took the entire Republican army to defeat you. Wouldn’t that make you a great asset for the Royal Guard? It would probably be a great boost to the royalists’ morale if they knew that they had one of their Princesses backing them, given how the Republic outnumbers us.”

Luna’s face fell and she shook her head. A sorrowful sigh escaped her lips. “While there is some merit of truth to thy words, Twilight Sparkle, thou dost not see the whole picture. Thou knowest me, considers me a friend even, perhaps. However, thou and thy friends are an exception,” she said mournfully.

“Before time changed, we were welcomed back by our subjects because what transpired in Ponyville the night of the Summer Sun Celebration was not widely known,” Luna explained. “Few knew that we had truly been Nightmare Moon, and our sister vouched for us to convince those who did that we had truly been cured by the Elements of Harmony.”

“But in this time, there’s not a single pony out there who doesn’t know of Nightmare Moon’s fight with the Republic. The shockwave of the final explosion could be felt all the way on the other side of Equestria,” Rainbow Dash added.

“Tis true. The Mare in the Moon is no longer a myth,” Luna agreed. “And because the Elements of Harmony were not directly used to cure us now, there are few who would be convinced were we to say that we are Nightmare Moon no longer, not even here, where the ponies are loyal to their Princesses.”

The Princess’ ears flattened against her skull. “If we were to announce our return now, without our sister to vouch for us, the ponies of Equestria would only see it as the return of Nightmare Moon, come to usurp the throne and bring night eternal.”

“I’m afraid she’s right,” Rainbow Dash whispered quietly, confirming Luna’s words.

“But then why haven’t you freed Princess Celestia yourself yet, your majesty?” Rarity wondered aloud. “I am most certain that somepony with your power and skill would be capable of achieving this.”

“We are not as certain of this as thou art, fair Rarity,” Luna replied solemnly. “Certainly, our powers are vast, but were we to call upon them to assault Canterlot and free our sister by force, the collateral damage and number of casualties would be absurdly high. It would only strengthen ponies’ belief that Nightmare Moon hath returned.”

“Not to mention that it is our duty to free Princess Celestia,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice sounding surprisingly serious. “If Princess Luna were to free her, or if the Princess somehow escaped by herself, ponies would only see it as confirmation of the Nobles’ lies that she’s an oppressive tyrant. It has to be us who free her, to show the Princess first of all that we want her back.”

“It’s also the only way to apologise for the crime of overthrowing her in the first place,” she added. “It may have been the first Nobles’ Court who overthrew and imprisoned her in the first place, but common ponies stood by and let it happen. This is our mess, our mistake, and we can’t have Princess Luna or Princess Celestia fix the mess we put them in.”

“I hope it will be enough for Princess Celestia, after all those centuries…” Twilight whispered fearfully. The images of the nightmare she had gotten the night after the parade flashed back through her mind, and she could not suppress a shiver.

“We understand thy fears, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna whispered quietly, her eyes downcast. “But we are certain that our sister, even now, still holds love for ponykind.”

“She’s been unjustly imprisoned and abused for centuries. How can there still be any love for us left in her after that? How can you be so sure of that?” Twilight asked insistently.

“The answer to thy question is quite simple, dearest friend,” Celestia’s sister answered. “Canterlot hath not been reduced to naught but ash yet.”