The next morning, Asa awoke to find her wound re-wrapped and fresh clothes off to the side. A note placed over them.
I got home late and found you asleep. I didn't want to wake you, so I fixed you wound. Rarity had some clothes for me to give you.
Just come down when you're ready, if you don't mind that is.
-Fluttershy
Carefully standing up, Asa took a look at the clothes.
The appeared to match her old dress, dark blue and going down to bright orange. It was a shirt that looked like it went to her stomach, they pants went down to her ankles.
"Hmm, such strange clothes ponies come up with these days."
Ten minutes later Asa came (a better word is stumbled) down the stairs to the living room.
"Morning Fluttershy. How does it look?" Asa asked. Then she noticed who was waiting downstairs for her.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
Last Night. After Celestia received the Letter from Twilight
"What do I tell her Luna?" Celestia asked. The letter had arrived a few minutes prior, and Celestia couldn't stop freaking out about what to write.
"Tell her the truth sister. She is not just your student any longer but a Princess just like Us. You should write the truth Tia."
"How? How can I tell my student I burned something precious to my apparent older sister?" Celestia boomed.
"The same way I could tell Twilight We did nothing to stop it all because Asa told me she knew about Nightmare Moon before she even turned to stone!" Luna yelled.
Both sisters remained quiet after this.
"How?" Celestia finally asked.
"Asa tried to explain that after she was made Queen she had a vision. About us both turning into terrible beings. All because Discord was going to destroy her when he raided the palace."
The two sisters remembered that day. Half of the servants were crushed by the falling Castle Walls. It took a while before both sister's managed to ward him off.
But Discord didn't stay quiet. More towns in Equestria met his chaotic wrath. It took another two thousand years for Celestia and Luna to turn him into stone. It was almost worth it to see him finally gone.
"And we turned evil because of it?" Celestia asked.
"We did not let her get into detail about it." Luna explained, feeling large amounts of shame.
Celestia looked at her younger sister. Wondering if Asa had looked on her in ways like this since she came back.
"Let us go speak to her personally." Came the white alicorn. "I do not think it could easily be explained by a letter."
The dark alicorn nodded. Too scared to speak in case tears came.
The two Sisters teleported to the library. Not knowing that their eldest was having that nightmare.
Arriving just outside the library, Celestia and Luna could hear what the ponies were talking about.
"When is that letter getting here?" Rainbow Dash groaned.
"Quit yer belly ackin' Sugarcube. The Princess is probably trying to tone it down so we don't get mad at her!"
The Alicorn then heard the dear Fluttershy mumble something.
"Oh of course darling! Oh and could you please give these to Asa when she wakes up in the morning?"
The Sisters shared glances. Asa was at Fluttershy's house?
Carefully looking in, they saw Fluttershy taking a stack of blue and slightly orange clothes.
They didn't move quick enough after Fluttershy opened the door.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" The butter yellow pegasus cried.
"Let them in Fluttershy." Came the reply from Twilight, still showing little to no emotion.
Trotting in slowly, the Solar and Lunar Rulers entered the library. The Bearers of Harmony giving Celestia angry glares.
"Hello Princess Celestia, what brings you to Ponyville?" Twilight asked.
Not really knowing how to reply, Celestia said what first came to mind.
"Is what Rarity said true? Is Asa staying with Fluttershy?"
Twilight nodded.
"Is it possible that I could talk to her?"
Twilight shook her head.
"Why would you want to? Want to take her back to that prison cell so you can burn something else!" Rainbow yelled.
"Rainbow Dash! She may have done wrong but she's still the Princess!" Applejack yelled at her friend.
"I wouldn't be yelling if it wasn't true! You heard what Fluttershy said, when she found Asa she was a wreck!" Rainbow exclaimed, nearly making Celestia crumble. Knowing fully well it was her fault.
"I wanted to apologize to her." Celestia said, shutting off their argument.
Then, instead of a small flicker, Twilight's body burst into flames.
"YOU WANT TO APOLOGIZE AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO HER?!?" She yelled.
"Twilight-" Celestia started.
"I AM SORRY PRINCESS BUT YOU SHOULD FEEL LUCKY I LET YOU INSIDE THE LIBRARY! WHAT YOU DID WAS UNFORGIVABLE! DID YOU EVEN SEE THE HUGE WOUND ON HER LEG! SHE WAS BLEEDING AND YOU DID NOTHING TO HELP HER!" Celestia knew this much was true, she assumed the wound was some trick to gain pity.
And if she remembered, Celestia would've given Asa all the help she needed.
"I know." Celestia began. "But after Asa left I remembered everything. It broke my heart. Parts of me still can't believe I did it and that I saint even deserve an apology from any of you. But I would like Asa to decide that. She doesn't even have to be in the same room as me just as long as I know if Asa has at least gave us a chance."
The still burning Twilight slowly came out, her coat slightly burnt.
"Only if Asa forgives you will I forgive you." Twilight said simply.
During the walk to Fluttershy's cottage, the Princesses tried to think of ways to apologize to Asa. How to word the apology. What to apologize for. How long to make the apology. What to do when Asa reacts badly. What to do if Asa welcomes them with open arms, which both sisters knew was the dumbest option.
It was all quiet until the small white Bunny that lived with Fluttershy came running up.
"Angel Bunny? What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked. The Bunny began making all these crazy gestures and poses.
When his performance ended, Fluttershy gasped.
"Asa!" Fluttershy whispered/cried as she flew off on the direction of her cottage.
Neither Celestia nor Luna knew what the bunny had said but they got the message.
Asa was in trouble.
Flying to the small cottage, the Alicorns found Fluttershy in tge guest bedroom tending to a sleeping Asa.
"She was asleep when I got in. Her wound soaked thru the bandage I had given her so i had to give her another. Poor dear must've had a nightmare and the stress caused an increased heart rate. But that's just a guess..." The butter yellow pegasus explained.
"I'll leave her a note telling her about it and the clothes. Umm...it would be a better idea to ask her in the morning. I don't want Asa to have to hurt herself because she finds you two here. No offense Your Majesties!" The pegasus cried while slowly flying out of the room.
The two Sisters waited downstairs practically the whole night until the sounds of life came from upstairs.
Asa stared at her sisters, they looked tired. From what she heard they both raise the sun and moon but the eclipse was probably making the difficult.
Her other thought was what they were doing there. How did they know she was at Fluttershy's cottage? What were they going to do now?
Memories of her nightmare filled her head.
"What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be in Canterlot?" Even though Asa was angry at them...
Fear and protective instincts were higher on her emotion scale.
"We were." Celestia started. "But we received a letter from Twilight. She asked what happened and I couldn't find the words."
"So you came here to tell her in pony, and Luna came because she had some other weight to get off her shoulders?" The Dark Alicorn nodded. “Haven’t you done enough to me Celestia?”
It occurred to both Alicorns this was the the first use of her actual name by Asa since she returned.
Knowing that it would end badly, Celestia walked up to Asa.
“After you left, ponies began panicking over the eclipse. They can still be raised and set it just has to be done together now. I fell asleep after trying to calm everypony, the dreams were of you when I was just a filly.”
The change in Asa was almost immediate, instead of her the anger deep in her eyes there was a spark of hope. Hope that Celly remembered.
“When I remembered, I felt awful for what I had done.” The Solar Diarach apologized.
“We felt worse. We-err- I witnessed the whole thing and did nothing, even though I knew how much the painting meant to you.” Luna apologized. Asa smiled, joy lighting up her eyes.
“It wasn’t so much the painting, just what it symbolized.” Celestia and Luna stared at Asa, confused. “It showed that even though the three of us fought, we put aside our differences for a while so we could make a painting. Mom took the time out of her schedule to spend a whole day with us. Dad did the same thing which was even rarer than when Mom did it. The ears, they showed that even though The Royal Family was about as strong as an earth pony we still loved having fun.
“And burning it...made me realize that you both were gone. You were Royal Alicorns.
Princesses of the Day and Night, not two little fillies waiting for their sister to come home. I can forgive you for that.” Asa finished.
Celestia and Luna ran to Asa, holding her in a big hug.
“I can’t however, forgive you for not helping me fix my ankle. But other than that the slates are clean.” All three sisters laughed, they had missed this.
What they didn’t notice, was the eclipse ending. Both beings inside the celestial shapes happy to see their daughters back together
THE END...?