“Nnnng...” Celestia hesitantly opened her soft magenta eyes, still not wanting to face anymore challenges that the day had to offer. Looking past the flowing mane that was in her field of vision, she quickly noted that the Sun was already down.
Instantly, the solar princess bolted up, completely aware that only three other besides herself could actually move the Sun. Looking at the clock that her assistant insisted was needed, she noticed that it was around six in the morning.
‘I nearly over slept!’ Celestia jumped up and started to panic as she made her way out of bed when she heard her door opening, the sound startling her and making her lose her balance.
“Who-oa!” She landed on the floor with a thud, her rounded rear sticking in the air as she tried to reorient herself.
“Tia?” A familiar female voice rang through the room, concern laced in it as the sound of hooves quickly followed. “Are you alright, Sister?”
Celestia grumbled under her breath as she righted herself, looking to the pony who had so easily scared her. “Luna?” She asked, rubbing her head with a hoof as she tried to assess the damage of her head and pride.
Luna raised an eyebrow and gave Celestia a small smirk. “I see the fall hasn’t prevented you from recognizing your sister.” She teased as she trotted up to her older sister to give her a warm hug.
Celestia snorted, more amused than annoyed at the little quip. “Good morning to you too, Lu-lu.” She replied, embracing the hug with one of her own, a wing wrapping around the younger alicorn.
Taking this moment, Luna looked up into her sister’s eyes. “How are you from... You know.” She motioned to the bed, trying to get Celestia to understand what she meant.
Sighing, Celestia slowly broke of the hug as she glanced back, her head hanging in shame. “I’m better, but...” She glanced from the floor to Luna. “I can’t keep thinking that she might just come back. I know that isn’t how things work, but I...” She sighed again, though this time she gave Luna a smirk. “I need to act more like you, Luna. Perhaps then I can stop longing for a fantasy that may never happen.”
Luna gave her an empathetic look but then, as if remembering something, let it drop. “Alright, Sister. If that is truly what you think... I suppose it would be for the best.” She replied, her tone saddened slightly.
She gazed out the window as if contemplating something, and let out a breath of her own, knowing she would need to get this over with sooner or later. “I fear I have a some troublesome news for you, Sister.” She finally said after a few seconds of silence.
Looking at Celestia, the moon princess took note of the worried look on her sister’s face and mentally cringed. This would be tough on her for sure.
~~~~~
“Chryssie? Why are we doing this again?” Tia asked, a tuft of her pink mane threatening to cover her large magenta eyes as she gazed at her older sister.
Chrysalis looked down at her younger sister, away from the fridge that held all of the food. “Have you seen how big Mommy has gotten? It can’t be healthy for her, especially if she’s going to have another foal soon.” She replied, tossing the spicy cheese out.
Tia gave her sister a look of awe. She was always so smart, though she was sure they shouldn’t be doing this. “But, Mommy likes that stuff.” She retorted, pointing a hoof at the small jar of sour pickles.
Chrysalis smiled at her sister, laughing at how naive she was. “Mommy only says she likes things so we will eat them. It’s how all parents are.” She replied, obviously knowing more about grown-ups than her adorable little sister.
Tia’s eyes widened at the revelation. “She wouldn’t lie to us, would she?” She hoped not. Mommy was always so kind to them and said that lying was bad.
“Girls? What are you doing in here?” A female voice called out. The two young siblings turned to the door to see a rather large Alicorn waddle in, small pants being heard from the mare as she got to the fridge.
Celestia smiled widely, hopping around. “We’re helping you, Mommy!” She replied enthusiastically, her pink mane bouncing around as she jumped up and down. “Isn’t that great?”
Their mother couldn’t help but smile in amusement at their antics. “As happy I am that you want to help, I doubt throwing out all of our food will do much.” She scolded lightly. Her kind sea blue eyes gleaming as she gazed at her children. She was so very proud of her children. Even at such a young age, they were trying their very best to help others.
“But we don’t want you to get fat, Mommy.” Chrysalis pointed out, their mother’s white fur covered stomach already looking bigger than it had a moment ago.
Giving her daughter a mock look of indignation, she faked a gasp. “I’m not getting fat, am I? Though, I suppose having this kind of surprise in store for my children would make me need to make a few sacrifices.” She replied, a slight smile appearing on her face. “Though, that does force me to ask another question.”
Chrysalis and Tia glanced at each other then back at their mother, watching as her flowing light brown mane tinted itself with yellow and red hues. The latter of the fillies speaking up after only a second of impatient waiting. “What question, Mommy?”
Their mother laughed lightly, her voice giving her children a smile at the comforting sound. Turning to Chrysalis, she spoke up.
“My Queen, we have urgent news!”
~~~~
Chrysalis’ emerald green eyes shot open at the sudden call, waking her from the reoccurring dream. She sighed to herself. She had been having the exact same dream for a while now and couldn’t figure out why. Why was she being haunted by her past? Was that what was even happening? As crazy as it seemed, she couldn’t keep herself from believing she was closer to the truth than she wanted to.
A small cough dragged the Changeling Queen from her thoughts, bringing her once more to reality. With a quick look around the room, Chrysalis deduced that she was currently sitting on her throne, in the dark no less. With an irritated click of her tongue, she lit her horn and brought the entire room to light.
In a flash, the room was showered with light, revealing the huge room. The walls were black, their surface all but unmarked as they appeared as mirrors that seemed to soak in most of the light the enchanted emeralds gave, granting the entire room a soft green glow. All across the room were several support pillars made out of jet black marble. Each pillar containing multiple large emeralds which vaguely illuminated a venomous green, giving even more of a mysterious fybe to the court chambers. The floor tiles were of a similar color as the walls, though only around the Queen’s throne were they embedded with small empathy crystals. These glowing stones changed colors depending on the most dominant emotion in the room. Currently orange-yellow, telling the small drone that his queen was quite annoyed to be disturbed by a mere drone.
“What is it?” She asked, her voice showing that she did not like the rude wake up call.
The Changeling bowed to his Queen and spoke up, trying to ignore the irritation in her voice. “My Queen, we have some news you might want to hear. it’s about the Sun Princess.”
Chrysalis’ eyes widened, forcing the empathy crystals to shift to teal, but she quickly reigned in her emotions. She was a queen and as such must never show any sign of weakness. “What news do you have of her?” She asked, her curiosity still showing through, making the gems shift slowly to a more purple tone.
The Drone cleared his throat, slightly confused about the news he had to give. “The spies you requested at the outposts reported that she denied a search and destroy group against us and also reported that a messenger was sent to contact us about a week ago, though noling has been able to find out where this pony is.”
Chrysalis looked at the Changeling in surprise. Having been taken back by the news, the gems around her surged back to teal. She frowned as she looking at the ground in thought. What was Celestia trying to do? Surely, her sister must hate her, right? The Changeling Queen was quite certain that nopony could still love her after what she had done.
She just couldn’t believe what was going through Celestia’s mind. After all she had done... Chrysalis blinked back to reality and gave the Drone a hard gaze. “I want you to find that messenger. He or she is to remain unharmed if you find them as such. Do not disappoint me.”
The Changeling bowed again. “Yes, my Queen.” He responded, quickly going about his orders. Watching the Changeling leave, Chrysalis drifted back to the past. Her mind was once again, weary from events that were out of her control. In times such as these...
What was a regretful Queen to do?
~~~~
Celestia frowned as she fought a desperate battle against her mind to keep her emotions in check. This couldn’t be true, could it? “Are you certain, Luna?” She asked, looking at her sister with dying hope. She couldn’t believe what she had heard. Why would anypony do that? While it’s true that the past repeats itself, she still thought she had more time.
Luna only nodded her head, her own mind trying to find some way to fix this before things could escalate any further. “Sister... What are we going to do? We can’t just let them get away with this. Bl-” She was stopped from finishing the sentence by Celestia’s hoof.
“Do not worry, Luna. I can handle this. It’s not the first time something like this has happened. Though, I believe it’s about time to answer some questions that we haven’t been asked in over a thousand years.”
Luna gave Celestia a look of shock. “Celestia, you don’t mean...”
“I do, Sister. It’s time we told them.” Celestia sighed as she sat on her bed, her head hanging down in defeat. “I had hoped to have at least gotten everything settled before digging through the graves of our past. I did not think our hooves would have been forced to do so early.”
Luna too, lowered her head, the stars in her mane dimming for a second before brightening once more as she remembered something. “Sister, while I was looking through the dreamscape... I found something.”
Celestia blinked as she looked up at Luna, straight into her teal eyes. “What do you mean? What did you find?” She hoped it wasn’t even more bad news. Bad news was the last thing she wanted to hear right now. Not with what was going on right now.
Luna shifted her eyes away from Celestia’s before looking back again. “I think I found...”