No Good Answers

by Eakin


The Other Side of the Story

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY

An hour later, just after lowering the sun for the night, Celestia strode at a measured pace down a thoroughfare in the heart of Canterlot, flanked by her sister and two guards. Luna looked over to her. “How was she, when you left her?”

Celestia thought back to the mare currently nestled in pillows and blankets up in Celestia’s quarters, remembering the conversation she’d just had with her.

“Are you sure it’s fine if I stay here tonight, Princess? I just don’t want to be alone if I wake up in the middle of the night,” said Twilight.

“Of course it’s fine. Remember all those times you fell asleep here when we’d stay up watching the stars? It will be just like that,” replied Celestia, stroking her mane.

Twilight grew quiet again, her eyes droopy as she pulled the blanket she was wrapped in a little more tightly against herself. “...was Princess Luna angry at me? Because I didn’t fight back hard enough?”

“She was just upset to see how hurt you were by this. So am I,” said Celestia.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next,” said Twilight. She grew still again. Celestia could only hope that she was finally drifting off for the first time in nearly two days. “What’s going to happen to the colt?”

Celestia froze for an instant. She had hoped to avoid raising that with Twilight for a little longer, but if she wanted to bring the question up of her own accord maybe she was ready to discuss it. “Well, that still depends on a lot of things. Can I ask what you’d want me to do, if there were no other considerations?”

Twilight squirmed uncomfortably and looked away from the Princess. “For the first couple weeks after it happened, I was really angry about it. I came up with all these elaborate revenge plans that would have seriously injured him, or even worse gotten him expelled for something else so nopony would ever have to know it was because of me. I never used any of them though, and I eventually decided I just wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened.” She let out a bitter chuckle. “Guess that didn’t really work out too well, did it?”

“And now?”

“Now? I think I just don’t want anypony else to go through something like this, and to feel good about myself again. Do you think hating him would make that easier? I could try.”

Celestia leaned down and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I don’t think hatred ever helps. Why don’t you close your eyes now? I’ll sit here for a little while longer.”

Twilight slowly shut her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Thank you, Princess. I’ll... just...”

“Asleep, finally,” said Celestia, her mind returning to the matter at hoof. “It took me a half an hour with her before she passed out. Would you do me a favor, Luna? Watch over her dreams tonight? I’m sure they’ll be troubled ones, after she just re-lived...” she glanced over to the guards, “...what we spoke of earlier.”

“Of course,” said Luna. She frowned. “How could I not have known? She must have had nightmares about it.”

“When it was recent, I’m certain she did. Perhaps not any longer. Or at least infrequently enough in the few years you’ve been back that you might easily have missed them. You cannot blame yourself.”

Luna narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I understand exactly how the blame for this should be portioned out.”

Celestia didn’t miss the edge to her sister’s voice, or the fact that her ire was rising as they grew closer to their destination. “If you cannot control yourself, perhaps I should do this alone.”

“No. I want to see this through, for Twilight’s sake. I will behave.”

The conversation drew a few glances from passers by, who just as quickly turned back to their own business. The Princesses were a moderately unusual sight in the city, but hardly unique. When the party reached the corner they needed to turn down to reach their destination, Celestia brought them to a halt. “Please wait here for our return, or for a summons,” she said to the guards. They saluted sharply and stepped against a nearby wall, waiting at attention. Luna and Celestia continued into the residential neighborhood, where shops and vendors started to give way to homes and apartments.

“You don’t want them along? To raise the intimidation factor?” asked Luna.

“I think we’re both quite capable of being intimidating on our own. Besides that isn’t the primary purpose of this visit,” said Celestia. Luna looked away. “I said, that isn’t the primary purpose of this visit. We only have half of the information about what happened. Perhaps his side of the story will change things, perhaps not.”

“Yes, yes,” said Luna waving her hoof dismissively. The two of them stopped at the small home that stood at the address they'd pulled from the guard's public records. Celestia reached out her hoof and knocked.

A moment went by before they heard movement inside the dwelling and the door was answered by a very pregnant yellow mare. When she looked up at who was standing on her stoop, her jaw dropped. "Princess Luna! Princess Celestia! Oh my!" She struggled to lower her body into a bow, but Celestia waved her gesture off.

"None of that is necessary, especially in your condition. We are both pleased to meet you. May we come inside?" she asked.

"Of course! I'm sorry it's in such a state. I wasn't expecting your visit at all!"

"Nonsense, you have a lovely home," said Luna. Her gaze paused on a nearby photograph. It showed the mare, not yet pregnant, smiling with a scrawny blue unicorn stallion by the side of a lake. "Is your husband home, perchance? We need to speak with him."

"Yes, he's in the study. Can I ask what this is about?"

"One of the accounts at the bank he works at. We just had a few question," said Celestia, repeating the cover story they had agreed to on the way over.

"Important enough for both of you to come by yourself, at this hour? It must be serious. I'll take you right to him," she said.

"Yes, extremely serious," said Luna. The three of them began to walk down a hallway into the house. "Tell me, how long have you known your husband? What sort of pony is he?" she asked. Celestia shot her a warning glance that the mare leading them didn't notice.

"Oh, I know that being an accountant doesn't sound very interesting, especially to your highnesses, but he's just the sweetest pony I know! I'm a teller at the same bank, well, I'm on leave right now of course, but that's how we met. He first asked me out, hmm, about three years ago. I absolutely couldn't be happier, and any week now we'll have a little filly! Do you want to see some magisound pictures?"

"Perhaps later," said Luna. "How long have you been married?"

"Around six months."

Celestia did some quick math and gave the mare a knowing grin and a wink. "Ah. One of those marriages?"

The mare blushed. "That did accelerate things a touch, but I don't regret it even a little."

"Nor should you. It sounds like you're both very blessed."

The mare nodded happily. "I certainly feel that way! But, oh, I'm sorry, here's the study." She gestured to a nearby door and pushed it open. Laid out on the floor in the middle of the room, surrounded by open ledgers and loose paper, was the stallion from the picture. Celestia was surprised at just how... ordinary he was. Not a pony she would give a second glance if she passed by him on the streets.

He looked up as they entered, and the quill he was writing with froze in midair, suspended in a field of his magic. “Wha... what?”

“Sorry for the interruption, hon, but we have company. The Princesses said they need to speak to you,” said the mare.

“With me?”

“Yes,” said Celestia, “in confidence, if you’ll excuse us?”

“Of course, Princess,” said the mare. Celestia watched her slip out the door behind them, but Luna’s eyes never left the stallion.

The door closed, and Celestia’s horn glowed. “Sister?” asked Luna. “Is the soundproofing spell in place?”

“Yes, it is,” said Celestia. She turned to the stallion. “Now, we were hoping to privately discuss some-”

“YOU RUTTING SON OF A WHORE!” screamed Luna in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Celestia turned to her sister, nearly as shocked as the stallion. “LUNA! Calm yourself! Another outburst like that and I will drag you back to the palace myself! Sir, let me apologize on my sister’s behalf for her behavior.”

You’re apologizing to him? After what Twilight Sparkle told us?”

“Twilight Sparkle?” asked the stallion as he recovered some of his bearings. “Did something happen to her?”

Celestia wasn’t sure, but she worried that her sister might be about to lunge at him right then and there. She placed a cautionary hoof gently but firmly on her back. Luna seethed for a moment, her eyes closed, then reopened them with a huff. “She told us how you raped her.”

“How I did what?

“At a party you both attended, during the time you were at the Academy. We were hoping...” at that word Celestia gave Luna a meaningful look, “...to understand what happened a little better. Do you remember the party she’s talking about?”

“When we were thirteen? Well, yes, but I still don’t understand.”

Luna had calmed herself just enough to discuss the matter rationally. “Describe what you do remember.”

The stallion furrowed his brow. He swept the documents off the floor and placed them on a nearby desk in a messy pile and sat up. “Well... I remember seeing her by the punch bowl, and one of my friends dared me to ask her to dance. I think they thought it would be funny to watch us both embarrass ourselves. I mean, she mostly kept to herself at school. But she was cute, and I’d had some beer so I decided to do it.”

“You were drinking?” asked Celestia.

“Not a lot,” said the stallion. “I wasn’t drunk, just a little bit buzzed. Maybe two or three beers in a couple hours?”

“Was it two beers, or three?” pressed Luna.

“I don’t remember!” he said as he threw an exasperated hoof into the air. “It was a long time ago. At first I thought Twilight might have had about as much, she seemed really giddy for a mare I’d heard was this really serious pony. She told me she’d only had the punch though.”

Luna and Celestia looked at one another. “Did you ever taste the punch?”

“No, I just had beer.”

Luna put a hoof up to her chin “Twilight said she felt lightheaded at the party. What if it was more than adrenaline and hormones?”

Celestia shook her head. “She didn’t say she felt drugged, just excited.”

“What if she couldn’t tell the difference? At thirteen? It’s possible, isn’t it?”

“Um...” the colt said, “...I asked her to dance, and a few minutes into it she did collide with another pony and fell over.”

“Impaired coordination!” proclaimed Luna.

“Luna, have you ever seen Twilight trying to dance?” asked Celestia. She allowed a small twitch to pull at the corner of her mouth as she recalled the single time she had tried to teach that particular skill to her young student. The lesson had been as ineffective as it was hysterical. “I can easily see her colliding with somepony else even with a perfectly clear head.”

Luna thought about this. “Could we find out? Ask the archmagi to craft a spell that would pull a sample of the liquid into the present for investigation? Surely a small sample could be collected without endangering the progression of events.”

“Not without bombarding it with so much energy that the results of the testing would be at best uninformative and at worst misleading,” said Celestia. “Such magics are not as helpful in these sorts of matters as one might hope.”

Luna sighed. “Very well, continue your account.”

“After she fell I helped her back up. She said she was okay. We ended up really close against one another, and I went in for the kiss. She seemed to be fine with it, so I went for broke and asked her if she wanted to go back to the bedroom with me, and she nodded.”

“You didn’t specifically ask her if she wanted to have sex?” asked Luna.

“Well, no, I remember I was trying to be all suave about it,” he said.

“Twilight’s telling of it suggested that she understood what he meant. She said she didn’t change her mind until after they went into the bedroom but before anything started,” said Celestia.

Luna glared at her. “Whose side are you on?”

“None of them, Luna. And if you continue to insist that this is a question of ‘sides’ then you have no business being involved at all.”

“She changed her mind after we went into the bedroom?” asked the stallion, returning the Princesses’ attention to his story. “She didn’t say anything. I picked her up in my magic and laid her down on her back. I was... I thought it was romantic, that’s all. Then I got onto the bed with her. I climbed on top of her... she said she’d changed her mind?”

“Yes. She said she tried to push you away. Can you describe what she was doing before you started the actual...” Luna waved a hoof in the air, dancing around the word.”

“The sex,” said Celestia in a flat tone. “Honestly, Luna, we’re all grown stallions and mares here.”

“Um...” the stallion frowned and tried to recall. “Well... I guess she did push on me a little. Not very hard, though, I thought she was just trying to adjust where I was on her. And she was wriggling a bit, but I thought she was just getting comfortable since she stopped after a minute or so. It didn’t feel like she was... so you’re saying she was...” the stallion went pale. “I swear I didn’t know. If she’d said anything, anything at all, I would have stopped. She moaned a bit too, but I thought that was how it was supposed to sound.”

“You were certain she was happy with what was happening?” asked Celestia.

“It was my first time. I wasn’t certain of anything, but I didn’t think I was hurting her.”

“You could have asked,” said Luna. “All it would have taken was you asking if she was enjoying herself, but you didn’t care enough to do so. As it is, under the law, it sounds a great deal like what you did was rape. Especially with what came afterwards.”

“What came...” the stallion’s face fell even further as the realization dawned. “Oh, that. I... I make no excuse for that. I was frustrated, embarrassed, and a stupidly impulsive colt. When I thought she was laughing at me I didn’t think. I just lashed out and slapped her. I think I yelled something at her too, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what.”

“Twilight can. She remembers it in excruciating detail,” said Celestia.

 “I knew right away that I had screwed up, badly. She started crying, and I apologized and tried to get her to talk to me, but she wouldn’t. So a few minutes later I just... left. I got away from the party as quickly as I could.”

“You left her alone and hurt? You didn’t tell anypony what had happened?” asked Luna.

The colt shook his head. “I saw her in the hallway the next day, but we didn’t have any classes together and we just sort of avoided each other. I was terrified for the next two weeks that I’d be called into the principal’s office and suspended or expelled, even when I thought all I had done was hit her.” When he looked up and saw Luna’s eyes narrowing he waved his hooves in front of him. “I don’t mean that hitting her wasn’t awful! I just mean I didn’t know she felt like I’d raped her. I thought she had decided she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

“You honestly believed that she was just going to forget it, and that she didn’t think it was important?” asked Celestia.

“That’s the way it looked. And frankly it’s what I wanted to believe. But I swear, I’ve never done anything like that ever again. I buckled down and studied, I don’t drink besides a goblet of wine or so on special occasions, and I never, ever struck anypony in anger after that night. Are you...” the stallion’s voice quivered, “...are you going to arrest me? Please, I know it was a mistake, but it was honestly just that. I’m starting a family, and I’m trying my hardest to be a good pony.”

Celestia looked askance at Luna, who screwed up her nose, but then sighed. “No. We are not going to take any legal action against you, or do anything to sully your good name. But the harm and pain Twilight suffered due to your actions will be on your conscience. Who you tell about this and what you tell them is entirely up to you.”

“Does she want me to apologize?” he asked.

“For the time being we would ask that you not try to contact her,” said Celestia. “However, if she requests it at some point in the future, would you be willing to speak with her? In a private setting mediated by a neutral third party, certainly not her friends, family, or either of us.”

“I’d be open to that, sure,” said the stallion. “For what it’s worth, you can tell her I am sorry. If there’s anything I can do to make it better, or anything I can do at all, just tell me. I don’t... I don’t want to live with the idea that I never tried to make up for this somehow. I don’t have a lot of bits, with the foal on the way-”

“One cannot purchase atonement,” said Luna. “It is something that you will need to work at every day, and something that not everypony is capable of of attaining."

"Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far," said Celestia, "I think even the most egregious sins can be forgiven eventually. Wouldn't you agree, Luna? That everypony deserves a chance to fix the mistakes they made long ago?"

Luna's nose twitched in irritation and she huffed. She looked away from Celestia's pointed gaze, taking a moment to close her eyes. Then, as she came to a decision, she opened them again. "My sister tells me you graduated in the eightieth percentile of your class?"

"Huh?" said the stallion, confused by the apparant shift in topic. "Yeah, I got pretty decent grades. Why?"

"So it's fair to say that you are quite adept in the magical arts?"

"What's your point, Luna?" asked Celestia.

Luna ignored her for the time being, her attention fixed on the stallion. "You say you want to find relief for your guilt. How badly? Badly enough to do a thankless, exhausting task when you could be resting comfortably with your wife and future foal?"

The stallion thought carefully about the question. "Well, if I feel this guilty, how restful would it really be?"

For the first time since meeting with Twilight earlier, Luna genuinely smiled. "That is an excellent answer. If you choose, please accept an invitation to the palace tomorrow evening and ask to see me. I will make sure you are admitted to my study."

He trembled. "Why? Wh-what are you going to do to me?"

"Not do, teach. I think you are an excellent candidate to learn the art of dream walking," she said. "It is a difficult and unpleasant technique. You enter the darkest fantasies of a sleeping pony, and brave their greatest doubts and fears to bring them peace. Usually, they do not even remember your assistance when they wake."

"How often would you want me to? Is this like a community service thing?"

"It is not. After I spend the week or so teaching you how to do it, you need never use the magic again if you decide not to. All I am doing is offering you a new tool. What is to be built with it is up to you."

"You'd do that for me?" asked the amazed stallion.

"We both would," said Celestia. "I would rather see the lives of my subjects rebuilt and improved then tear any more of them down. If my sister wants to extend this offer, I am entirely in favor of it. But let me be as clear as I can, this is not an obligation or something we want you to feel you need to do lest you face other consequences."

The stallion gave them a sad little smile. "No consequences? I have to tell my wife that her husband... or maybe just the father of her child, after this... that I'm a rapist."

"We told Twilight that what happened that night does not define who she is or what she might yet become. The same is true for you," said Celestia. "Ultimately that is between you and your wife. Now, I believe we've done what we came here to do, and we really should be getting back to the palace."

The stallion scurried over to open the door for them. "I'll walk you out," he offered, and the three returned back down the hallway they'd entered through. As they passed by the kitchen, the stallion's wife tried to surreptitiously glance over at them from the sink where she was washing some dishes.

Celestia stopped at the front door. “I’m glad we could begin to resolve this tonight. Do note though, if these sort of... irregularities... crop up again, the outcome will be very different. Am I understood?”

The stallion gulped. “Yes, Princess, perfectly. They won’t. Ever.”

“Until we meet again, then,” said Luna. The Princesses stepped out into the night.

As the door closed behind them, the last words they heard were the mare’s. “What was that about?” she asked, but any reply was cut off by the door closing.

“So now what?” asked Luna.

Celestia stared up at Canterlot palace. In one of its spires slept a very important pony with a very uncertain and difficult future ahead of her. “Now we get ready. Tomorrow the truly difficult part begins.”