Celestia stared out the window, another teardrop inching it's way down her face like so many before. "It might not have exactly been the romance of a millennia, but it hurt, Luna. Of all ponies, I think you know best what I mean. If nothing had come of it that might have been for the best and I would not be in this state, nor suffering from this dilemma..." Her voice tapered off, her consciousness wandering the distant reaches of her mind and memory, eyes open, but not looking.
At her side, Luna looked on. The princess of the night suspected she knew where this was going. If only life could be simple, she thought, there would be much less suffering. All that remained was for her Sister to spit it out, the truthful reality of the matter. Intuition and familiarity was wonderful, but if this was indeed such a difficult problem for Celestia, then it called for as much honesty as possible.
"I thought...", Celestia began, "I thought I would have the time with him to smooth all this over, but as I have said, it was not so. I cannot recall whether I ever told him, but I wanted something of him. Oh,.. I got it... I did, but he never got to see her."
"Who?" Luna asked, though it was something of a rhetorical question. She could well guess where this was going, but she would wait and see what her sister had to say.
"Her." That was all Celestia said, though her tone of voice contained a depth of mournful sadness. For a few moments, the silence enveloped the room, the sound of the air moving amplified by the emptiness.
"My daughter... Our daughter...", she quickly corrected herself as though that fact was of great meaning. A few tears coursed down her face and dripped onto the bed, adding to the dampness of the darkened half circle of bed coverings below her.
At this, Luna's demeanor changed, she looked on incredulously. Her sister had a foal? It seemed that she had guessed correctly. At last she could see what the great problem was. There had to be more to it, though, for clearly it was not common knowledge. If it had been, surely she would have heard and indeed the guards would certainly have been less nervous. The princess of the night had not seen another Alicorn, nor did she know the mare Celestia referred to. She had not seen anypony that might fit that description either. Such ancestry would not have gone unnoticed before her banishment. Luna grimaced, Celestia must have covered up this detail. For all her Sister's integrity, she often took great pains to hide her mistakes and problems either for her own benefit or that of others. The statue garden for instance. Though she loved her Sister greatly, these attempts sometimes ended poorly, sometimes worse than if the truth and/or the reality of things had simply been let be.
"She deserves to know, though it will hurt her greatly and yet she does not deserve the pain that this knowledge will bring." Celestia hung her head in anguish, "I abandoned her, forced her into the arms of my lover's family. All this I did to save myself the suffering and spare her unwanted attention. Now I am torn between hiding it so long as I may, forever if I dare and fate wills, and revealing it whatever the cost." Back and forth across the floor she paced nervously. "Now, I find myself regretting the cost, to myself, but mostly to her and those who I ought rightly be able to be close with."
"What do I do, Luna?" Celestia gazed at Luna with a pleading look in her eyes. "It is being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"I will have to think on this, sister, but when I return I would like you to tell me who she is. Are you willing to tell me?"
Celestia swallowed, and then nodded hesitantly.
Hours later, after the closing of the Night Court, Luna sat, on a cushion, observing her beautiful night sky. What was she supposed to say she wondered, Celestia had always been the decisive one driven by cold logic and reason. Now, it seemed, the tables had been turned. The dreamer and the emotional asked to be the voice of logic and reason, but then perhaps that was not the problem. She had considered the issue at some length... Personally, she was strongly in favor of informing the pony in question, it wasn't right that they shouldn't know their biological mother—especially if she happened to still be alive. Besides, the thought of family was pleasant to Luna, her sister was one of the few ponies in existence that she was comfortable being herself around and not hiding her moods and emotions. The ways Luna's mood swung would deeply unnerve the nobles, and her emotional responses might concern others much about her fitness to rule. As if they knew anything, she had more experience than they before she was banished and had probably forgotten more than they remembered.
As she sat there pondering how to present her reply, the dawn broke before her eyes and the first rays of the sun peeked over the landscape. She might as well get this over with. The princess of the night gently lifted herself off the pillow, the warm pillow she thought as the slight chill in the air cooled her previously insulated belly. She stretched out and her hooves for a moment and then rose to her full stature and left the room, glancing one last time out the window. A glorious sunrise indeed, though it brought uncertainty with it. For better or worse, she would press her view of the matter.
Some distance away, Celestia stood outside on a balcony, watching the sun rise. Normally this would have been a calming sight and a very relaxing moment. This morning however, she was nervous. "I hope Luna has her answer and she isn't going to take this opportunity to prank me.' she muttered darkly. She shouldn't think ill of her sister, but she had pulled a good one on her the other day and the princess of the night still had a thousand years of missed pranking to catch up on. If there was a quintessential prankster, it could be Luna, although Discord had her beat, but then Discord could be downright malicious.
At that very moment her thoughts were interrupted by the gentle clicking of metal shod hooves on the floor. Judging by the hour of morning, the privacy of the spot, and her standing orders to the guards to stay at their posts and keep anypony from bothering her, surely it must be her sister. With some apprehension and trepidation she turned around to meet her sister. "Good morning, Luna." Luna frowned for a moment, "The sun rises anew, and night sleeps." This caught Celestia by surprise, that was truly an old saying, though she regained her composure quickly. "You surprise me every day sister. Have you come to a decision?" The princess of the night considered her words as though much weighed on them, then she replied. "I have. Are you prepared to tell me who this pony is, then?" For a moment, Celestia hesitated, was she going to renege? Then she sighed deeply.
"Very well, her name is Twilight Sparkle."
Luna's jaw dropped, if it had fallen further it might have hit the floor. As it was, she was floored by this new information. Her mind churned, the metaphorical waves frothing and bubbling away. At last, this detail and it's implications sunk in.
"Oh.., no...", Luna breathed deeply, "Sister... you mean to tell me that you of all ponies, abandoned Twilight Sparkle?! Then you make her your student, and all this time you've never told her?" Luna sighed. "This is going to be very rough on her.", she said, a look of sadness crossing her face.
A couple of tears leaked out from behind Celestia's mask of composure. Speaking carefully, so as to stifle her emotions, she spoke. "I know." Her voice trailed off into silence.
For a moment, you could have heard a pin drop, then Luna began to speak.
"Sister,... I do believe thou hast been quite cruel to thy faithful student. Nevertheless, We must consider the consequences and possibilities. No doubt, should this come out it will cause a stir. With luck, by now the populace will be less likely to accuse you of nepotism regarding your choice of student. Still, it will not help your reputation among our subjects to find that you abandoned your child.."
The princess paused to take a breath.
"'Tia, I know it may hurt to remind yourself, but you need to tell me the rest of the story. Yes, I had guessed you were leaving things out... We may need to act quickly or make some decisions soon. Twilight Sparkle is a very curious pony and she may be seeking the truth at this very moment. To make attempts to hide this further may jeopardize it's secrecy."