//------------------------------// // Cracks in masks // Story: Land of Friendship and Magic // by Archmage Ansrit //------------------------------// (Throne Room, Today) "What?" Luna whispered, dumbfounded. "After the last problem with a Hydra, I decided to put a stop to Typhon myself." It was clear that Celestia was keeping herself from looking away, and drew a shuddering breath. "Using all of the knowledge from the reports and personal experiences, I prepared an ambush that would sidestep his sensing ability. Had it failed, he simply would have avoided me; if I succeeded, I would be ready to hit him with a concussive spell. I was startled while charging the spell." Luna made no movements, staring at Celestia like she didn't recognize her. Hurricane-force winds threatened to destroy everything around the glade, but he, wounded as he was, both emotionally and physically, nonetheless contained it. Beyond the wall of blue that carved a circle into the earth, only a moderate wind could be felt. Lightning roared through the sky, and every drop of water in the clouds was sent plummeting to the ground. The eye of the storm was still. He turned to her. Blood leaked from his mouth, and stains of it on his face. The tears cleared a line on his cheeks. He was cradling a pony, a blue and pink pegasus with three whistles as a cutie mark. The pony didn't move, no matter how much he tried to wake the pony in his arms. His bloodied arms must have lost their once-prodigious strength; the pony simply slid off and fell to the ground. Then her mind caught up with her sight. The princess's eyes widened in shock, and her breath caught in her throat. Five minutes ago, Celestia wanted nothing more than see Typhon driven before her, kneeling, defeated. She had gotten her wish. His eyes were those of a crushed spirit, a defeated man. Oh she had gotten her wish. "I wanted him kneeling before me. Never would I have expected for it to happen because of such a deadly mistake." "What?!" Seven voices rang out simultaneously, making the sun princess grit her teeth in shame. She held tightly to her composure all the same. "Thou hath said- We-!" Luna felt a whirlwind of emotions, preventing her from speaking coherently. The decades after Discord's fall had been trying, ponies needed stability, which they had found in the princesses, particularly the confident older sister and her force of personality. But this... "I... I needed to hold the country together. Wind Whistler was a figure of importance in politics, to the point of knowing what to offer us to drink; I... I couldn't allow anypony to know the truth." Celestia was visibly struggling to remain upright and dignified, her calmness eroding quickly. "I used to believe I had to be perfect, incapable of doing wrong... that everything had to be for 'the greater good'." With a grimace, she turned away. "Typhon himself told me how mistaken I was." She let out a hissing sigh; her self-possession wasn't going to hold much longer. 'A perfect ruler that cannot make mistakes cannot exist, cannot be allowed to exist - unless he or she is actually perfect and cannot make mistakes, that is, but we both know that's not the case. A ruler must be able to own up to their own mistakes, or they will start piling up until they crush the fool. Example: You have me inside this magic bubble, which would be a nice way to bypass most kinds of resistance, but calling this plan "flawless" is stupid when you are making so many assumptions; want to see what else my ring can do? Two words: Falcon. Punch.' The memories were what had made her hesitate when he returned. "He told me that there comes a point where a line is crossed, and you have to ponder and ask whether the so-called 'greater good' is worth it." 'For the what?! Are you even listening to yourself? The greater good is fine and dandy, but you're doing it wrong; if the greater good doesn't return something to you, you're doing it wrong. Oh, and that pegasus is nowhere near stealthy enough for me not to notice he's trying to box me in; Solid Snake, he ain't.' "There is a point where the answer would be 'no', will be 'no', there always is; the 'greater good' wasn't worth any sacrifice, that... that my demeanor would alienate and hurt everypony around me." Luna's eyes widened. "Including my sister." With that, she turned again to face Luna, who looked slightly hurt. "He warned me. He told me that I would drive you away, and you would lash out; it may have taken nearly five hundred years, but it happened. He told me that I would come to regret my choices, that I would do something unnecessarily drastic; if I did not listen then, then I would learn the truth of his words the hard way." She took a single step towards Luna, who flinched. She flinched. Luna flinched. Away from her. It hurt. It hurt, a lot. Luna, though she did not know it, was Celestia's greatest source of strength for the better part of the past thousand years. It was Luna; Luna made her endure the difficulties of her long, long life, and the thought of seeing her little sister again encouraged her and gave her the motivation to keep raising the sun and the moon - if only to count down to the date of her release. Celestia didn't resist any more. She allowed her legs to give out from under her and her wings to sag. "What happened?" Twilight asked. She was scared and confused, that much was obvious, and Celestia recalled the way she behaved around her. Typhon had been right, dear goodness had he been right. Celestia hated how Twilight always danced on eggshells. 'I think not; all you're earning is distance and fear. You'll get sick of it sooner or later, mark my words. Cute fence, by the way; want to see my latest trick? Sonic boom!' She drew breath again, the remains of her shaky composure still holding enough to prevent breaking down. "I did not want anypony thinking I could make mistakes, so I hid them, or the Blue family took them as theirs. Over time... I stopped noticing them altogether; nopony can avoid mistakes forever, but I stopped learning from mine." At this, Luna gave small, tentative step forward. It gave Celestia the drive to continue. "I thought I was moving forward, but I never noticed any of the ponies trampled underhoof; so convinced of my righteousness..." So much time spent lamenting the 'necessity' of Luna's banishment, of crying out to the moon about being left without any other choices... only to discover that she had blinded herself to them. "I'm - I'm- I..." The shards of her mask fell, making her eyes wet with tears. "I don't- I didn't..." Why? Why was it so difficult? She just had to say it! All she had to do was take a deep breath, look at Luna in the eye, and tell her. "I'm sorry."