//------------------------------//
// 3 
// Story: ... Of Two Evils 
// by Ponycletian 
//------------------------------//

	Concord alighted lightly upon the balcony, but as soon as he could no longer be seen from the ground, he vanished, re-appearing in front of a large set of intricately designed double doors. He noted that the the surface of the doors had been decorated so as to imitate the night sky, with the full Moon featured prominently, but being little concerned with such aesthetic qualities, turned to face one of the clearly startled guards. In a clipped, officious tone, he demanded, “do either of you have the authority to convey a message to the Princess?”

Neither guard responded immediately, so Concord repeated his question more deliberately, “I said, do either of you have the authority to convey a message to the Princess?” Not satisfied by their response, or lack thereof, he singled out the guard to his right and said, “you are to inform Princess Luna that Lord Concord requests a meeting at her earliest convenience.”

The guard, snapped out of his stupor by having received a direct command, turned and passed through the doors which promptly closed behind him. Concord had doubted that his plan would be effective, for all it would have taken was either of the guards realizing that, as far as they knew, he had no authority to be making demands. Even though he did, legally, possess the authority to give them orders, his status as King-Regent never having been officially rescinded, there was absolutely no way that these guards could have known that. Even as their ignorance served him, he bristled at the idea that royal guards would obey a pony who appeared out of nowhere and started issuing orders. Having wings and a horn surely contributed to their decision to obey him, but it was still a serious security concern.

Concord used the time spent waiting to reflect upon what had happened thus far. Overall, he felt that everything was going as planned, but if he had learned anything from his imprisonment, it was that such vague feelings were not to be trusted. Perhaps if he had subjected his relationship with Luna and Celestia to greater scrutiny, then he wouldn’t have become a statue to begin with. It had been emotions that had doomed him before, he would not allow them to do so again.

Determined therefore to scrutinize everything that had happened so far for any potential pitfalls or errors, he thought back to his escape. How he had escaped was irrelevant at this time so he considered the guards. The guards had been stationed there to ensure that should Discord or myself escape, there would be some notice. By incapacitating both sets of guards, I ensured that somepony would learn of my escape. No harm came to the guards, so neither Celestia, nor the guards themselves, have any reason for lasting anger. It was one of the most passive approaches to gaining Celestia’s attention.

Satisfied with the way that the situation with the guards had played out, he moved on to his conversation with Celestia, prior to the arrival of the element bearers. Celestia is the main obstacle to my freedom. If she is to be swayed in the slightest, then I must play this just right. She has definite expectations of how I am going to behave, so the trick is to modify my behavior just enough to make it acceptable to her, without making her worry that it is all just an act. When I revealed myself, I was arrogant, haughty, dismissive, as she would have expected. She expected me to gloat, so I did, after a fashion. Then I surprised her by being honest when she asked why she should trust me and saying she shouldn’t. What is most important is that I not seem unreasonable. I followed this by letting her see my impatience, something I would never have done before my imprisonment. Too many changes too abruptly, however, and she would doubt my sincerity, so I had to play to her expectations once more. While making my proposal, I insulted her trustworthiness, I acted bitter and resentful, as if I still held a grudge. I had to be emotionally manipulative, without being cruel, and if her reaction was any indication, it worked perfectly, since she showed guilt rather than indignation at my statements.

Pleased that he had so far managed, in his own estimation, to act as Celestia, or anypony for that matter, would have expected a pony who was just released from a 1500 year long prison sentence to act, he considered the actual negotiation. Celestia had been adamant that I was not to use magic on the element bearers, but I did not think that she actually expected me to agree. Allowing myself to show impatience again should have reinforced my image of being a different pony, at least in some ways, while my promptly ignoring her should have reassured her, as much as being ignored can reassure anypony, that I was not acting. 

His thoughts about Twilight Sparkle and the other element bearers were brief and almost dismissive. The way to win them over is the easiest since they have no preconceived notions of how I should act. So long as I remain courteous, calm, and reasonable around them, I have no doubt that they will wish to let me go. After all, it isn’t very ‘friendly’ to imprison somepony as a statue for order knows how long when said pony has done nothing wrong. 

It had been nearly 10 minutes, and the guard hadn’t yet returned. Concord, feeling genuine impatience, but refusing to show it, wondered what exactly was taking so long. It isn’t like I have all night, you know, he thought bitterly. But since he was unwilling to further violate any of the Castle’s rules for fear of giving Celestia any more ammunition, he turned his thoughts to where exactly he and Luna stood with relation to one another.

During his reign, Luna had been the only pony that he would have considered a friend. She had been willing to trust him from the start, and did not hesitate to support his elevation to regent. Celestia on the other hoof, never trusted him because she feared, not without reason, that once in power, he would never relinquish it, and that she would have been responsible for dooming her little ponies to an eternity under his rule. Celestia had done what she had to to win the war against Discord, and nothing more. Luna had done that, but since she did not view him as a necessary evil, they had gotten along far better than he and Celestia had. He believed that the real reason Celestia disliked him was because, even though their parent’s, his by adoption, had left the newly created Kingdom of Equestria to Luna and herself, the first threat they faced after becoming rulers was one that forced them to hand him all the power. Concord believed that Celestia resented this necessity, and wanted both him and Discord out of the way so that it could never happen again.

He and Luna had actually been friends, or so he had thought. During his 500 year reign, he never once slept, never took a day off, never relinquished absolute control over every working aspect of what had started as a small princedom, grown into a sizeable kingdom, and was finally acknowledged by all as an immense empire. He didn’t even eat at meals, instead nourishing himself magically as he worked. The only distraction he allowed himself was a one hour break with Princess Luna from 11:30 P.M. to 12:30 A.M. during which time they would discuss anything that was going on. She would tell him stories and observations from all around the empire, tell him her opinions on what was going on diplomatically, or politically, or even just talk about what had happened that day. Most of their conversations ended up being policy oriented anyway, but they were the only times where Concord could speak without everypony in the empire listening.

To say that he had trusted her would be an understatement, for he had actually been informed, by his personal adjutant no less, that Luna and Celestia had been acting in what he considered to be an unusual way. His response to this concern, delivered by a respected and trusted aid, had been to laugh at the poor pony. For the Emperor to laugh during open court was unheard of, certainly not having happened in living memory, but to be the object of such a rebuke was enough to permanently disgrace anypony. Concord had apologized to the disbelieving pony, the Emperor apologizing was also almost unheard of, and since that pony reported directly to Concord, the event had no serious impact on his career, at least not so long as the empire stood. And, thanks to Concord’s faith in his sisters, that would not be for long.

It had been less than a week since that incident in court when he had received a letter from Luna requesting that Celestia be allowed to accompany her to their regular meeting. Still arrogantly believing that they, or Luna at least, considered him as close a friend as he considered her to be, no thought of treachery ever crossed his mind. So it happened that when he arrived for their meeting, he found both sisters prepared and waiting with the Elements of Harmony, and before he could settle on any response, he found himself encased in stone, where he would stay for the next 1497 years, 7 months, 8 days, 23 hours, and 51 minutes.

Had this been the end of their relationship, Concord would have had no problems determining exactly where they stood, but it was not. During the years following his imprisonment, Luna had continued with their nightly meeting, only with him being a non-participatory attendee. She had apologized profusely for what they had done, saying that Celestia had pointed out that after so many years in power, after so much effort spent building an empire, that he was unlikely to give it all up just because they had beat Discord with the Elements. Celestia had also reasoned, or so Luna claimed, that had Concord learned of the existence of a power greater than his own, something capable of defeating him, then he would likely spare no effort in either destroying them or rendering them inoperable. She figured that this would involve, as a first step, killing or otherwise disposing of the element bearers, i.e. them.

Concord had found this reasoning to be sound, since at no point during his reign had he ever allowed even the slightest hint of rebellion or independence. Any such movement was quashed quickly and ruthlessly as soon as it was detected, so Luna and Celestia had cause for concern. Concord could say in his defence however, that, he had been elevated to the regency to fight Discord, which is what the proclamation elevating him had said. He only had a legal justification to rule so long as the war with Discord was ongoing, but the moment it ended, he was obligated to abdicate and return control to the rightful rulers, Luna and Celestia.

The entire conflict boiled down to a matter of trust. If Luna and Celestia trusted Concord to step down after the defeat of Discord, as he was legally obligated to do, then all they needed to do was take the Elements and beat Discord. In that scenario, Discord was gone, Concord stepped down, Luna and Celestia returned to power, and the oppressive empire of Concord’s devising would be dismantled to allow the ponies to live freer, happier lives. If however, Concord had refused to step down, then the outcome was vastly different, and not for the better. As they saw it, they couldn’t defeat Discord without deciding how to handle Concord because if Concord had learned of Discord’s defeat at somepony else’s whooves, then the existence of something more powerful than himself must necessarily be discovered as well. They were unwilling to risk Concord learning of the Elements of Harmony, killing their present bearers to prevent their use, and continuing his reign unopposed, and therefore decided that he must go as well. 

Concord’s views had been comparatively simple. He would abdicate when Discord was defeated because that was what he was legally obligated to do. It was the lawful choice, and even though the transition from his empire to their monarchy might have been difficult, he would still have been there to ensure an orderly transition, only in a subordinate position.

So for the 500 years between his fall and her transformation into Nightmare Moon, she had spent at least an hour each night talking to him, informing him of the state of the kingdom, of what was going on in their lives, and just generally voicing her thoughts. It had saddened him to realize that the reason why she was talking to a statue of a pony whose life she had destroyed through a terrible betrayal for hours each night was that she literally had nopony else to talk to. Even during the years immediately following his betrayal, when the wound was freshest, he couldn’t help but realize the toll that it was taking upon what had been his only friend. As victimized as he felt, he realized that his fall had impacted other ponies than himself as much if not more. He was a statue, incapable of movement, unable to influence the world, free of responsibilities, and utterly ignored by the turmoils of the world, while Luna was at the center of a maelstrom, partially of her own devising, and was being visibly torn apart by the experience. By the time of her final transformation into Nightmare Moon centuries later, he had long thought of her as more of a victim than he himself was, and any anger he felt had long since died away.

The doors finally opened again as the guard returned. He said, tonelessly, “the Princess bade me inquire, which star was made on the first anniversary of Discord’s defeat?”

“Polaris, the North Star.”

The guard nodded to his compatriot, and they each opened one of the doors to allow Concord entry.
Concord entered quickly, and as the doors swung shut behind him he realized that, despite his reminiscing, he didn’t actually answer the question of how he should behave towards Princess Luna. I think that it is best that I just say that what is in the past is done, that I forgive her for her decision to imprison me, and that I hope that she can forgive me my trespasses as well. Having made up his mind, he set off quickly, both eager to see Princess Luna again, but mindful also that the longer it took for him to return to the courtyard, the longer Celestia would have to prepare and to turn the element bearers against him.