//------------------------------//
// Celestia 
// Story: Loyalty 
// by Knight of the Raven 
//------------------------------//

Worry clawed at the edge of Celestia's mind when she entered the room. Rainbow Dash was slumped against the edge of the window, chin on her forelegs. She stared on sadly, shoulders sagged.

Celestia approached her quickly, hoping she could help her. "Are you alright?" No reaction. "Your friends are worrying about you."

A long sigh left the pegasus' lips as her shoulders sagged further and her eyes looked more forlorn.

Celestia walked to the window and lay down by Rainbow Dash's side. She glanced at what the pegasus was watching, Cloudsdale and her heart tightened slightly as she thought about Discord's concept of entertainment.

"I told them I'd look for you so that they may keep enjoying the celebration." Fear had now replaced Celestia's worry as she spoke. "Are you alright?"

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Rainbow Dash shook her head.

Celestia resisted the urge to wrap her wings around her to comfort her. "What's the matter?"

Rainbow Dash breathed deeply and sluggishly pushed herself to a sitting position. She turned her head toward her just as slowly.

"I fear I might have betrayed you," she lipped.

Celestia's suspicion grew at those words. She didn't believe Discord whenever he claimed Laughter was his favorite Element; she'd always suspected it was Loyalty. He loved mind games and psychological torture, and conflicting loyalties were sure to entertain him, more so than ever when they didn't need brainwashing to hurt their owner.

She chose to confirm her suspicions before continuing however. She pulled one foreleg from underneath herself and gently lifted Rainbow Dash with her gilded hoof until two purple eyes looked back at her, brimming with tears. 

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked softly.

More tears spilled as Rainbow Dash closed her eyes an instant. She gulped and reopened them before speaking. "Discord made me choose between Cloudsdale and Equestria..." A sob escaped her as she struggled to form her words. "I chose my home..." She sniffed. "...but I don't know how much of it was Discord and how much was me..."

Celestia felt a little part of her already tired heart break at the pegasus' words, a feeling she'd grown used to across the years. "I understand." She placed her foreleg back underneath herself, leaving Rainbow Dash's head to sag pathetically as she wiped her eyes dry. "Hard decisions are a lesson I wish no one had to learn."

Anger flared in her heart as she spoke the next words, gazing at Cloudsdale. "A lesson Discord loves to teach for his own amusement."

The faces of all those who lost their life or sanity to his games never ceased to haunt her dreams.

Celestia then chased these thoughts away; she couldn't help them anymore, but she could help the pony next to her. "I'm certain you'd have made the right choice with your free will intact, Rainbow Dash."

To her surprise, this didn't ease the pegasus' mind. Her ears flopped down onto her head as her composure slumped further and she bit her lower lip for a few moments before speaking. "I should have fought him harder. I should have chosen Equestria from the start." Her sob broke a little more of Celestia's heart. "I should ha-"

Celestia stopped her right there. "Don't blame yourself, Rainbow Dash. It's very difficult to give up what's close to your heart, even for the sake of others."

She turned her head to gaze upon the moon, discreet guest of the afternoon sky.

"It certainly was for me," she finally said.

She noticed an expression of utter shock on Rainbow Dash's face from the corner of her eye before speaking on. "Tell me, Rainbow Dash, do you know what the eternal night wished by Nightmare Moon implied?"

Rainbow Dash just blinked at her, lost. "Uh..." She scratched the back of her head with a forehoof. "Dark and cold?"

Celestia nodded. "And starvation as well, since nothing could grow."

Not even Nightmare Moon's heart, she lamented idly as silence filled the room. Memories from a millennium past surged forwards in her memory. Luna refused to lower the moon, citing ungratefulness from the inhabitants of Equestria as a reason. Celestia tried to reason her, but there was too much pain in her sister's heart, and that pain had turned to hate in a dark twist of fate.

Celestia watched her ponies soldier on despite the cold and hunger after she'd chosen to bow before her sister. She'd been so certain Luna would come back to her senses once she witnessed the suffering she inflicted.

She'd been so wrong.

"The first victim I was made aware of was a very young filly," Celestia told Rainbow Dash at last, "barely older than a foal. Named in my honor."

And dead because of her, along with all the other casualties she'd learned about after banishing Nightmare Moon. The old, the weak, the young... All counted on her.

"I could have saved her."

She could have saved them all. Celestia allowed herself to mourn this loss; her most loyal subject could see her cry.

"Instead, she starved to death, because I chose to indulge my sister even when it was painfully clear she was no more, twisted into the hateful Nightmare Moon." She turned to Rainbow Dash. "I regret having to banish my sister, but if I could change the past..."

They'd have lived.

"I'd choose Equestria over her as soon as she proved unreasonable."

Please forgive me Luna, thought Celestia as the room fell silent once again.

Rainbow Dash just looked back on Cloudsdale. Her eyes still betrayed pain, but Celestia could now see some peace in there. She lay down beside her, resting her head on the side of Celestia's foreleg. "Do these choices ever stop hurting?" she asked softly, almost a whisper.

Celestia wrapped one wing around the pegasus. "No," she stated. "But you're not alone."

Celestia's thought drifted to her sister, to her student, to the Elements of Harmony.

And neither am I, now.