We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge


Just Open Your Eyes

A/N: Special thanks to D48, Killabyte, Evowizard25, King Sombrony, Drgnwolf, ABitterPill, Ketvirtas, PhantomPhoenix, JaceArveduin, ZeroInfinity, New Spark, D-Bence35, and Invisible Blade for your comments last chapter! Your support means a great deal to me and it is what keeps me writing so much so quickly.

I hope you enjoy, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments below! I know I had a lot of fun making this chapter, so I hope you can at least have part of that!


Luna had been content to leave Trixie to her own work for the most part as the days of the week passed by, stopping by only occasionally for a moment to bring her student something to eat.

Trixie did not seem to seek food on her own as she trained Luna noted, although she did not bring it up with her. Was it sheepishness about taking food from the royal dining hall? Or was it a leftover from having not had a steady flow of food in the recent year? Luna did not know which, but she did know just how important nutrition could be after a bout of starvation herself.

At the beginning of their second week together, Luna returned to the field that Trixie had been working in and gradually building her magical power. Luna had promised to introduce Trixie to the administrative side of things the next week, and so she best keep her word about that.

“Trixie?”

Standing at one edge of the field with teeth clenched and a sweating brow was the student, her unicorn horn glowing the same purple as her eyes as she lifted the smallest of the boulders across the courtyard at a reasonable pace. The rock was halfway across the field, but at the sound of the voice it took up pace and crossed the entire way immediately after.

The princess smirked at the sudden bout of determination, glad that her student was taking to this so well. Trixie took a moment to breathe in deeply before addressing her teacher, her magical effort having left her winded.

Even at rest now, traces of lingering pain and exhaustion could be found on the former stage performer’s face in the moonlit night, “Oh, hello Princess. Is there anything you need?”

“No, I am just fine. How are things going?” Luna shook her head no before placing down the plate of food she had brought.

Having noticed Trixie’s preference for it, she had made sure to bring a warm loaf of buttered bread. Its simplicity and relative cheapness explained all she needed to about why her student would prefer such a meal. Even so, fresh vegetables sat beside it on the plate as well as a cup of milk sitting in the middle of the plate.

Trixie nodded her thanks before beginning her meal, quickly wolfing down the bread first despite its relative lack of nutrition before starting on the rest. After the bread was finished in mere moments she swallowed and replied, “I’m getting better.”

“Take your time and do your best,” her mentor chuckled, a double meaning in her words. The rate at which Trixie rushed through food made her seem so desperate to eat it. Perhaps she was beginning to remember what it was like to eat regularly?

After broccoli met its demise, Trixie looked back to Luna again. Something had come to mind as she practiced her levitation that she could not shake, “Can I ask a question Princess?”

Luna sat down by Trixie as her student gorged herself on the remaining food and took intermittent sips of the milk, “Go ahead.”

Trixie made sure her mouth was not full before she spoke, “Well, from all the stories I have heard about the battles here in Equestria, nopony seems to use telekinesis during them. Wouldn’t preventing somepony from moving at all be an effective way of winning?”

That brought a smile to Luna’s face. Understanding how to do a spell was one thing, like knowing how to do multiplication, but knowing how to apply it and understand when to best do so was another.

“Quite perceptive of you. Yes, it would, and as I am sure you know it is possible to move other beings with your magic,” Luna kept herself from snorting as Trixie guzzled down the last of the milk in one swig, “The issue of this is reliability and focus. It can take a great deal of effort to hold a non-living object, so having something that would struggle and act against your power would be substantially more difficult.”

An unacceptable pout formed on Trixie’s face at the mention of moving living creatures, “Twilight lifted the Ursa.”

Luna rolled her own eyes. Part of what she liked about Trixie was that she was jealous, something that Luna was all too familiar with as was Loki, but it could also pose its own problems, “Which she also put to sleep. Do not compare yourself to her in that regard. Find and focus on your own strengths.”

Trixie bit her lower lip and dropped her eyes to the empty plate before her, “But what can I do that she can not?”

Luna outstretched a hoof to touch Trixie’s forehead, also giving her a reassuring smile as she did so, “Do what you just did a moment ago. Think things through.”

Trixie’s expression lightened and she began to smile at her mentor. Taking this as proof of her encouragement working, Luna continued, “Twilight is straightforward in her magic usage and, while intelligent otherwise, not the most clever with its usage. There is more to magical power than just raw potential. That is what will make you special. That is what will make you better than she ever will be.”

Ego stroked, Trixie stood up so that she could bow to Luna, “Thank you, princess.”

Luna rose as well, craning her neck towards the direction they needed to head, “Follow me. It is about time we expanded the scope of your studies.”


Trixie found herself with a dropped jaw just for a second when Luna lit a light in her workroom. It was not one of astoundment at seeing great and powerful artifacts and objects, or even interesting and profound artwork.

It was the complete and utter mess that was the room. Stacks of paper littered the room in seemingly random positions and order, with no true sense able to be made of them by sight alone.

Luna could not reprimand her student for how her expression betrayed her, for even Luna realized it was an issue. One of many reasons she needed somepony to help her out, “This is my office. As you can see, it does not get much use, nor is it very well kept.”

“Can somepony not just clean it?” Trixie questioned, not sure why a Princess would have such a disorganized mess of a room to work in. Dust was littered on the sparse furniture to be found, as well as the few traces of floor to be discovered.

The princess gave a sheepish grin to her student, “I prefer leaving things where I know they are, even if nopony else can understand the layout,” she trotted carefully over to the main desk of the large and completely cluttered room, making sure with each step not to knock over a pile of papers, “This being said, it is important you and I get on the same page, so some cleaning is in order.”

Once at her desk, Luna cast a spell she picked up from Loki to bring a broom hidden underneath some paper to life. This being done, she also levitated all of the paper into the air and cast another spell from Loki on it all. Within moments the papers swirled around the air in a display that completely stunned Trixie.

After a few moments had passed the broom had furiously swept away any traces of dust from the room, and the papers themselves had organized into nice piles based on their primary content.

With a glance at Trixie’s impressed face, Luna found herself pleased to have do so, “What, you don’t think I cleaned my own things did you?”

Trixie picked up a piece of paper wordlessly with her magic so that she could check it and the one underneath it. Both were reports about monster attacks, but what was noticeable was that they were in chronological order based on when the attacks took place.

As Trixie began to ruffle through some papers to test the power of the spell Luna spoke, “You will learn this trick in time. It is quite the timesaver when you do not want anypony snooping around in your documents.”

Also noticed by Trixie was how the stack of papers she was nearby were all about monster attacks in Equestria, with each stack of papers having to do with a different severity of attack. Some of the stacks contained papers stamped for having been resolved, while others were stamped about being fake or false reports.

Luna took a seat at her desk and looked over the papers that littered it, those being the ones that her sorting spell decided were most important, “Now, Celestia is the more paperwork savvy and experienced one as much more of it is required for her time of day. My duties require more brawn, such as when I relocated the Ursas near Ponyville so no further disturbances would arise.”

Not having the patience to handle so much paper at the moment, Luna rose from her seat and gestured for Trixie to take it instead.

“Despite this, there are quite a lot of things even I am supposed to handle. I will be teaching you how to go through these documents and do so in a way that accurately represents me.”

“Represents you?” Trixie questioned as she moved around the desk to take the seat, doing so hesitantly because of the act itself feeling sacrilegious. Taking the Princess of Night’s own seat? A week before Trixie would have been grateful to take seat next to a campfire in the Everfree Forest.

Despite Trixie being on her teacher’s tall seat now, she was still only Luna’s height given their regular difference in size. This allowed Luna to look into Trixie’s eyes at an equal level as she explained what she meant with her words.

“What things to give my signature to, what to deny,” she turned to the pile of papers with a small laugh, “what monster handling requests to handle, which reported bouts of nightmares to take note of. These kinds of things. I have not the time to handle them all, nor Equestria the funds to pay for every little pony who stupidly loses everything they own in the Everfree Forest to a roaming dragon.”

Having lost everything herself in a circumstance not of her own doing, Trixie wished she had known there were ways to get paid back for the damage. But what was done was done, and so she simply nodded, “Understood.”

“You will begin each day, or afternoon if you prefer your schedule to match my own, taking care of the business here. It will not always be this busy, and is only an issue after any major crisis,” “After finishing here you will continue your magical studies. The days and weeks I may be gone you will be left a schedule to keep to, as well as tomes to study for my return.”

“Will I be handling any of the monster attacks while you’re gone?”

“Not yet. There will be plenty of time for that.”

Despite despising it, Luna began the part of the lesson about how everything worked. She only hoped Trixie could retain it all so she would not have to repeat the information ever again, not caring much for this whole administrative piece to her job.

Either way, it would be a long, long night for the princess. But one worth it if she had to do this duty less often.


After setting Trixie up with everything she needed to begin her paperwork experience, Luna set off to go to her own room so that she could dreamwalk. There ought to be quite a few ponies who were left traumatized after the second Changeling invasion in Canterlot of recent history, so there was work she could catch up on while also helping her own public image.

While deciding on her way whether to appear in the dreams and nightmares as Nightmare Moon or her original form, she bumped into a pony who similarly had something on their mind. Luna looked down to see Twilight rubbing her head from the collision.

After a moment of being dazed, Twilight mumbled an apology before continuing on her way. Even though it was way past when Twilight should be awake, or rather because of it and her continued odd behavior, Luna called after her.

“Twilight, are you okay?”

Twilight turned around to face Luna, mumbling another apology before dropping her tired eyes to the ground. Luna frowned as she realized she may have run into one pony with nightmares before even getting to her bed.

Luna narrowed her eyes at Twilight, “No lying. I have had about as many of those as I care to see for the century.”

The new princess took a breath in when she realized she wasn’t getting off the hook, “Kind of.”

Still displeased to see the physical reminder of Twilight’s ascension, Luna snorted at the purple mare’s flying appendages, “Wings that annoying to have now?” Twilight made no comment, so Luna continued, “I have a feeling this isn’t about being a Princess now.”

“No, not really…I’m grateful for everything Celestia has given me, but I can’t help but feel that I do not deserve...” Twilight took in a small breath before letting it out in a prolonged sigh. Luna could tell something was really wrong, and could see that Twilight’s own exhaustion was preventing her from masking it.

Luna swallowed her own pride to begin her retort to Twilight’s attitude, “If anypony were to become a Princess, I would say it should be you Twilight. National heroine and a former wielder of the elements of harmony, which are now sadly defunct,” she approached Twilight and brought a hoof to her shoulder firmly, “But that does not mean that we need you. We may, in time, but at this moment you are just a unicorn who so happens to have wings.”

Tired Twilight sluggishly rose a brow, confused as to what Luna might be saying, “What do you mean?”

Luna sighed and shook her head at her sister’s pupil. Her first friend of a sort, one who had been given power that Luna did not approve of despite their connection, “There is no throne for you to sit upon, no time of day for you to rule over, and nothing you can contribute now that you could not have already as a regular Unicorn. Your title is for show, and even then with how disrespectful our population can be in certain regions even that carries little weight.”

The elder princess brought her hoof down to Twilight’s wing and gave it a brief touch, “So don’t let this little formality give you any pause.”

Having understood Luna’s point and also having had her ego trampled on a bit, Twilight had no more resistance in her to give. She sighed again before confessing what was troubling her mind so greatly.

“I killed someone.”

The phrasing, someone rather than somepony, suggested that it was not one of their own who died but rather another race. And Luna knew just who that could refer to, “During the Changeling invasion?”

Twilight nodded solemnly, “I missed with my magic and hit a Changeling instead…”

Any sympathy Luna could feel for the mare vanished, her voice growing aggravated even as she tried to reign it in, “One ounce of blood on your hooves and you feel as if you are not worthy. That’s the issue you’re having.”

Luna leaned in to Twilight, invading her personal space and bringing their faces only an inch apart. Twilight recoiled from this, although Luna kept them at that distance and advanced on the stumbling mare as she backed up groggily, “Tell me Twilight, what do you think it is that I do during the night?”

“Help ponies sleep and move the moon?” Twilight responded with a swallow of air, nervous about the close up treatment she was being subjected to.

The space invader rolled her eyes, “Oh how adorable. I do guide ponies through their sleep, but I can vanquish just about every nightmare that comes up in a small fraction of the night. I do much less diplomatic work than Celestia you must know, which still leaves the rest of the night.”

Twilight tripped and her flank landed on the carpet of the hallway, leading Luna to stop advancing and only stand over her, “The threats you and your companions face are the leftovers of what I do not manage to stop. It is quite the fun task facing down the horrors of the Everfree Forest.”

Luna brought a hoof to Twilight’s chin so she could lift it, her own expression softening, “You think blood makes you unfit to be a princess? I would claim the contrary. You spilt the blood of an enemy who wished to conquer and devour your nation. You fought bravely and make sure that did not happen, even taking on the Changeling Queen herself in combat. Stop being so naïve. Blood and politics have long been intertwined. Even Celestia would say the same.”

Luna relinquished her touch and shook her head at the younger princess, “The title given to you may be for show, but you can not let your insecurities ruin your life about it. One day you may actually be in charge of something, but until then you need to leave such thoughts behind you and act your part. Do not make a mockery of our now shared title.”

With her sister’s pupil still a bit shocked Luna turned to leave, having said the feelings and thoughts that she had not been able to get off her chest since Twilight’s ascension was first brought up to her.

“Goodnight Twilight. I expect you to not be brooding over nothing the next time I see you. And if you really must, have a backbone about it. The only thing worse would be to appear weak,” she snorted as she remembered the pitiful attitude the young mare had been displaying over such a trivial matter, “Save the brooding for when something is truly wrong.”

Having found her voice, Twilight indignantly called after Luna, “Like when a coltfriend tries taking over Canterlot?”

Luna turned to Twilight with a smirk, not at all put off by her words but rather impressed by her gutsiness, “A nice improvement on your attitude, although you will have to do better than that. After all, ‘tries’ would imply he only attempted, not succeeded,” she pointed a hoof to Twilight’s heart, “Keep that feeling though. The next time somepony disrespects you, bring it back. You’ll need it to survive the political life one day.”

Twilight rose her brow again, confused about Luna’s mention of ‘one day’, “What could possibly change that would make me take on more responsibilities? Celestia already confirmed to me that I won’t be outliving anypony, so I won’t be able to replace either of you.”

The elder princess returned to leaving, keeping a smirk on her face as she departed down the hallway, “You are correct in that assumption about age. But age is not the only thing that can distract from duties, and I assume Celestia has you as a backup in case anything develops.”

With that, she ended the conversation by leaving the area and leaving Twilight on the floor with the younger mare’s thoughts racing about everything she had been told.

Did Luna really resent her so much now because of her ascension? And if so, why?


After dreamwalking for a short while, Luna decided to return to see how Trixie was faring with all the paperwork. She had given her enough knowledge and guidance to know what she was supposed to do with it all, but she knew firsthand how aggravating it could be, especially without any help.

It was for this reason that Luna was not at all surprised or angry that the first thing that Trixie did when she returned to see her was complain.

“Why are half of these requests from the Crystal Empire?” Trixie groaned as Luna walked through her office door, stifling a small giggle as she did so.

A talk she had had with Celestia had granted Luna the knowledge she needed to answer that question, although she still could not understand why the military force under Shining Armor could not tend to these things on their own.

“They will be holding the Equestrian Games or whatever they are called. They do not want snow monsters, shadow beings, and the like terrorizing the event or land in the time leading up to it.”

The mention of the event took any negativity right out of Trixie, whose expression of exasperation was replaced with one of excitement, “I can’t wait to see it! They always have very interesting magical competitions, where only the highest level of Unicorns compete.”

That caught Luna’s interest. Depending on what details her pupil could reveal to her about this thing, plans may have to be arranged regarding it, “I have not attended one before. What happens at the events?”

Trixie sat back in her new seat as she tried to recall what she could about the games, “Well, they have competitions that use varying skills and strength to accomplish, and ponies from each city and town are allowed to compete. It’s really huge, like the largest show of every four years!”

“Is that so?” Luna could not believe her luck, “Tell me more about the magical competitions you mentioned.”

A small dose of bitterness entered Trixie’s voice, “It mostly has students from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, although sometimes an interesting challenger appears from somewhere else.”

That did little to deter Luna’s interest, her mind already having hatched a scheme for the events, “Compared to Twilight Sparkle, how skilled and talented are these ponies? In your opinion.”

“They are powerful, but not as strong as her. They are more practiced and refined though, since they spend a great deal of time solely preparing for the events.”

And with that, Luna’s mind was completely set, “And when is this all?”

“Later this year.”

Luna smiled in a smug manner at her student, one small detail having popped up in her mind’s scheme, “I take it Alicorns can not compete.”

Trixie scoffed, realizing that Luna was thinking about how Twilight could likely not be a participant now, “That would be ridiculous and unfair to all the other ponies who are competing.”

“Wonderful. You will win this competition in whatever capacity you can. As many magical events as you can enter and securely win,” Luna proclaimed, completely sure in her ability to make Trixie entire levels above those she would be competing with. After all, they were secondhand students of her sister, so what could they hope to compare to her own personally trained student?

“I will have to apply to join the Canterlot team. I can’t just compete.”

Despite having a prestigious position, Trixie did not wish to use that as a way to get a spot. Furthermore she was not even confident enough in herself that she could reliably compete with and beat the best of the entire nation, and failing would only humiliate her public image further.

Realizing what Trixie’s scowl might be about, Luna thought about the time table they were working with for this, “When are the trials for this team?”

“A couple months from now,” Trixie replied through a drawn out yawn, the early hours of the day catching up to her.

Luna approached her student and patted her head affectionately, “You will have the skills you will need to overcome any regular pony by then.”

Observing how dreary Trixie’s eyes were and how tired even she was getting, Luna removed her hoof and nodded to the door, “It is getting very early in the morning. I recommend you get your sleep, my promising student.”

“Thank you princess.”

True to form, Trixie dropped dead asleep in the seat and her face crashed onto the desk and on one of the papers she had been mulling over.

Luna chuckled to herself as she figured she would have to bring her student to bed again. Trixie was proving to be quite the dedicated pupil, to the point she was working herself into the ground. Luna would make sure to keep track of her dear student’s health, because having her grow ill would only set them back.

And, Luna realized, something felt good about taking care of the younger mare. With her telekinesis Luna picked Trixie up and placed her on her own black coated back.

The Princess of Night was quite curious what Loki would think of Trixie.


Frigga was surprised upon entering his room to find her son not sitting in his bed or at his reading table, but rather at his desk. His face was intensely focused on the architecture plans set before him, many books concerning ancient arcane knowledge at his side and floating in the air with their pages open.

Despite his intense focus on the project before him, Loki could tell when his mother entered and as such greeted her with a small turn of the head, “Mother.”

“How are you, Loki?” Frigga questioned as she set down a plate of food on his reading table, knowing that without specific prodding he might forget or forego a meal.

She had taken to bringing him them out of her own fear that any food not from her might be poisoned, given that not all in Asgard were so happy to have him back. Loki, for his part, could also not leave to get any on his own given his confinement to his room.

Loki only sighed in response, turning back to his work with an annoyed expression. He was not particularly fond of the life he was living at the moment, nor was he happy about how his adoptive father was not even addressing the issue with him personally.

Able to read him and his thoughts well after all the years she had been his mother, Frigga knew what was bringing him distress. She used her magic to bring a chair from the reading table over to his side and then took seat in it. Now beside him, she took his sickly pale hand in her own.

“You must know that even though your father has forgiven you for what you have done on Midgard, he and many others still remember what you tried to do here before then,” Frigga explained.

It had been a hard day for her when she witnessed her sons fight to the death, only for one to then attempt suicide by falling into the rift of space beneath Asgard. It was a day Frigga wished to never remember for the grief it wrought in her, although now it was nipping back at her with how Loki was back to her and facing the consequences of it.

Loki did not turn to face her, instead staring intensely down at the paper before him, “I killed Laufey. I destroyed any threat the Frost Giants once posed. And for this I am looked down upon?”

Frigga frowned as she moved her hand to rub his upper arm, “You tried having your own brother killed.”

“Even he has forgiven me, and you must admit I was doing us all a favor by preventing him from being king. Had he been made king then he would have led us into a bloody, fruitless war.”

“The reason does not change the act, Loki.”

“And what am I supposed to do? I had tried giving up on my hatred and anger, but of course something had to drag me back down. What do you want from me?”

His mother brought her hand back down to his so she could give it a warm squeeze, all the while speaking in a motherly tone, “I only want my son back, and I have just that. But the others want something more. They want you to earn back their trust, and that begins with the project you have been working on. I hear the Bifrost has greatly improved since your expertise has been brought to its reconstruction.”

“It will be finished in the coming weeks,” Loki replied tersely, doing his best to keep his anger from his voice. Despite this his fist clenched and the skin on it grew even whiter.

Frigga turned from him to his desk, where his attention continued to rest. On it, off to the corner, was a familiar pendant that brought a smile to the mother’s face. A memento.

Knowing that having the Bifrost up and running would mean Loki could see his significant other again, Frigga jokingly questioned him about the pendant, “Are you expecting a visitor?”

“It would surprise me if the talking horse did not return,” Loki replied in a monotone, trying not to reveal the relief he felt at how much closer to Luna his work was bringing him.

Interested by his wording about ‘the talking horse’, Frigga chuckled, “Did she have the opportunity to meet the non speaking kind?”

“I do not believe so. I doubt she will be very pleased by the difference in intelligence between their like species.”

Sensing that Loki was not in a very talkative mood, Frigga stood up to leave, “Well, when you see her, make sure to send her my way. I am most interested in studying her dark malady so that it may be cured.”

He nodded to her but gave no further response, his thoughts all wrapped up in the work before him. Frigga admired the way he was working towards seeing the foreign princess again, as even though this would also help his reputation among Asgard it was notably not the reason he was doing it.

“I will see you later, Loki. Please do your best to not dwell on what is wrong and instead focus on what is not.”

As his mother left, Loki’s eyes fell to the indigo pendant on his desk. The moon in the center of it brought him solace that even his mother could not.

His hand reached for the pendant and Loki soon found the object in his palm, his eyes looking down to it pensively. There was someone else out there who knew what he felt. Someone else who was facing the scorn of their public eye, and who was doing what they could to make amends.

As the door shut behind Frigga, Loki whispered to himself in as much a faint voice as he could manage.

“Please forgive me.”