Chapter Four: True Colors
Cherry slowly navigated her way through the party, doing her best to keep her face concealed as she bumped between colts and mares looking for the Princess. She was about halfway through the area before stopping with still no sign of Celstia anywhere. She sighed quietly, pausing to calm herself. Her heart felt as though it were racing at a mile a minute with anticipation as the crowds of people seemed to close in tightly around almost to the point of suffocating her. After a few moments of heavy breathing she relaxed to where she could think again.
"Maybe she's out for the moment... Perhaps she had to leave on royal business or something along those lines." she muttered to herself hopefully.
"Such wishful thinking has no place here at such a critical moment." Eclipse whispered to her.
"But..." she began. "I don't want to fight her... What if I'm not strong enough? What if she has the elements of Harmony?!"
"You don't have much of a choice. How else are we going to acquire the location of the Elements? It will be difficult to force the information out of her yes, but once you posses the Elements of Harmony, Celestia will be the least of your worries."
"How am I going to do that? She might just use them against me! What if-"
"Shut up." the voice in her head interrupted. "I'll be with you to guide you in the right direction. Leave all the thinking to me, just ensure that you can follow my orders to the letter."
"B-but I- I just can't face her... I'm afraid, Eclipse..."
"Cherry," the juxtaposed voice began motherly. "You have been my student for almost two thousand years. I have taught you everything I know and some things that I never could learn. You are ready for this challenge."
"I just can't! I need more time!" Cherry whispered urgently, her panic growing quickly.
"You don't have any more time. She is to your left."
The hooded alicorn slowly turned to her left, her heart stopping at the sight of Princess Celestia, happily chatting with some guests and her sister at a table probably no more than fifty feet away. She froze in place, her mind racing as she felt her legs begin to shake from fear. She leaned against a nearby table to keep herself standing as her gaze remained locked on the Princess.
"Tia..." she whispered disdainfully to herself, desperately trying to regain her strength.
"The time for discussion is over my student." Eclipse whispered mysteriously. "Confront her, and fulfill the promise you made to yourself all those years ago. Make her pay."
"Make her pay..." she repeated strangely as if she were in a trance, shaking her head side to side. "Alright then... I'm ready. Lets go."
* * *
"I don't understand sister..." Luna asked curiously. "Wouldn't you have much preferred to have the celebrations in Canterlot?"
Celestia smiled lightly, setting her down her tea gently. "Twilight was kind enough to host the whole party herself, and I thought we could use some quality time away from the castle. Besides, I like it here. Isn't it just serene?"
"If its what you want... I would have much preferred the serenity of the gardens instead..." came an annoyed reply as Luna continued sipping from her tea. "Looks like you have another guest to speak with." she said lazily glancing up from her drink.
"Oh?" said supisedly, looking up at the shrouded figure that approached the table. Smiling brightly, she studied the figure to see if she could recognize the hidden pony. "Greetings! I hope you are finding the party well?"
The figure said nothing at first, and stood a few feet from the princess shifting uneasily in place. For a few moments, neither of the two said nothing, before a small voice escaped from beneath the shroud. "Princess... I need to ask you a question."
Celestia was puzzled by the response but maintained her smile as she tried to study the figure further.
"... Does friendship last forever?"
This is what truly stopped the alicorn in her tracks. That voice... That mysterious voice. Perhaps she had heard in passing once in Canterlot? She definitely recognized it, but it sounded different from what she could piece together from memory. It sounded more rugged, as though it hadn't been used much in recent years but still retained the slight trace of familiarity that was confusing the princess. It wasn't just the voice that confused Celestia however. What it had said also deeply confused her... Luna looked back up from her drink, apparently recognizing the voice as well.
"Wait a minute... That voice... Who are you, what are you talking about?" she finally questioned, her smile slowly fading.
The figure tilted its head down, using magic to finally reveal its face. Cherry looked back up at Celestia with light blue eyes, letting her bright red mane drape behind her. It was a few moments before Celestia was able to piece together the dusty puzzle she had long ago tossed aside to the dark corner of her mind. She stared, her mouth agape in surprise and astonishment.
"Cherry?" she finally managed to slip past her shaking lip.
* * *
Twilight nudged past a few guests and glanced around looking for Celestia's table, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash in tow not far behind her. It hadn't taken long to loose Cherry amongst the crowd, despite her abnormal size and her massive dark brown cloak, and she began to grow more and more worried. Thoughts of Cherry hurting the Princess raced through her mind as her wild goose chase for the mysterious pony grew more and more frantic.
"What if she has a plan to kidnap the Princess? Or worse! She could be some sort of assassin!" the mare mind raced her anxiety growing. The waves upon waves of party guests only served to upset her even further, causing her to enter full panic mode.
"Hey Twi, I thought you organized the whole party. How can you not remember where the Princess's table is?" Rainbow asked after having caught up with Twilight.
"I KNOW I ORGANIZED THE WHOLE PARTY!" she shouted suddenly, drawing several disapproving glares from the surrounding party guests. Her face turned bright red as she calmed herself down, apologizing under her breath. As they turned away, she was able to focus on her friends who had finally caught up with her. "Its just to crowded for me to see anything, I can't even tell which direction I'm going in!"
"I don't mean to interrupt darling," Rarity interjected. "but perhaps Fluttershy knows something about Celestia's whereabouts. I mean, she was organizing the orchestra for her arrival, perhaps she decided to speak with the Princess about ideas for more musicals."
"Excellent idea! Wait... You don't know where she is, do you?"
"Well, I assumed that-"
"UGH never mind." she exlaimed annoyingly.
"Um... I'm right here." a nervous voice came from behind Rarity as Fluttershy hovered into view, holding a small glass of water in her hooves. "Is there something wrong?" she asked softly.
Quick to act, Twilight began the interrogation almost immediately. "Fluttershy thank Equestria! Have you seen the Princess anywhere?!"
"Oh.. Sorry Twilight, i've been much to busy with the birds to spend time with the Princess. You see, all that singing made their throats really really dry. I had to go fetch some sparkling water for them to drink to make them feel better."
"You know," Applejack started, stepping between the two. "RD here could always just fly up and above the party and look for her table."
Twilight paused for a moment to process the information, her face lighting up with excitement. "Applejack you're a genius!"
"Hey wait a minute, where did all this fog come from?!" the rainbow mare shouted suprisingly as she turned up to fly, screeching to halt in mid-air to stare at the sky above. The five ponies looked up to what suprised them as a thick grey fog that had seemed to set in within the last few seconds, completely shrouding everything in an impenetrable haze. Twilight looked up blankly, her eye twitching uncontrollably. "This isn't right, I must've gone over that sky at least six or seven times!"
"Somethin' fishy is going on around here." Applejack started nervously scanning around.
"It all makes sense now." Twilight began slowly, her hair suddenly frizzing up. "Fate, is conspiring against us. HAHA! Its not possible! I MEAN, ITS NOT LIKE ITS HER PARTY OR ANYTHING, WHY WOULD ANYONE KNOW WHERE SHE IS?!"
"Hey look now sugar cube, just take a deep breath and-"
"DON'T YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN." the frenzied mare interrupted loudly.
"Hey guys, what are you up to?" another voice shouted jubilantly as Pinkie Pie hopped towards the group causing Twilight to pause mid-rant.
Twilight ran over, pulling the pink pony up and against her face grinning maniacally. "Pinkie! You know where the Princess is don't you? /PLEASE/ tell me that you've seen Princess Celestia around here, ANYWHERE!" the lavender mare frantically asked, shaking Pinkie Pie violently in her arms.
"The Princess? Oh yeah, she's over there fighting with some other pony." Pinkie Pie replied nonchalantly pointing off towards a massive crowd that had seemed to have sprung out of nowhere no less than a hundred feet away.
"What?!" Twilight uttered shockingly, her hair settling back down around her face.
"Oh yeah, it some big argument about something, I really didn't pay much attention, I was too busy trying some of the cakes!" she finished, plopping a cupcake she pulled from seemingly nowhere into her mouth.
Twilight pushed passed the Pink pony and rushed off towards the crowd she had pointed to, dashing far ahead of her friends before they even realized what was going on. It wasn't long before she came up to the large crowd Pinkie Pie spoke of, surrounding where she guessed the princess was located. Begrudgingly, she shoved her way in past the guests and into the center, where she caught sight of Celestia fighting against... Another white alicorn? It was Cherry! But... Something wasn't right. She looked... Different. Well, she looked exactly the same, but something seemed off about her, her stance or something. The look about her definitely caused an alarm to trigger in the lavender mare's mind as she watched the two stand off. Something big was about to happen, and she may have just been caught right in the middle of it.
Cherry glanced back towards the crowd inconspicuously, looking for a particular unicorn, quickly able to pick Twilight out of the crowd staring at her and Celestia with wide eyes. "Right on schedule." she thought to herself, turning back to Celestia, who stood no more than ten feet away. She smirked to herself. It had been relatively easy to get the jump on her old friend, especially since she was so shocked to see her after so long. It was almost to easy to cast the first spell and gain the upper hand. The guards were easy enough toss aside, and Luna ducked out before most of the action began; Tia however, was a different story. Even after the tussle they had, she looked as though she didn't even have a scratch on her. Just as powerful as she was all those years ago, but not beyond any expectations.
"Hrmp, you're much more powerful than I expected Tia." she said, flicking dust from her wings.
As expected, Celestia retained her stern demeanor, showing no emotion as she spoke back. "Cherry. I don't know what you're doing, but it stops. Here and now."
"Of course it does." Cherry began sarcastically. "Anyway, as much as i'd love to continue butting heads with you, I have more important things to do. Finding the Elements of Harmony for instance."
"How do you know about the Elements?" asked nervously, breaking down the first wall that hid her emotions.
"Do you take me for a foal?" Cherry said taken aback at the Princess's doubt. "I would not charge headfirst into battle without first studying my opponent's advantages thoroughly. Yes, I know about the Elements of Harmony, and I also happen to know that you are in possession of them."
"So you think I'm just going to tell you where they are? If so then you are sadly mistaken my old friend."
Cherry smiled darkly, returning her gaze back to Twilight with her scarlet eyes. "Oh, I believe you're going to tell me /exactly/ where they are, Tia." her horn igniting with a dark blue aura.
Twilight suddenly felt a wave of numbness rush over her body as she was surrounded by the magical field, only able to utter a startled yelp as she was lifted out of the crowd and flung next to Cherry. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. When she tried to squirm out of the barrier, her arms and legs just wouldn't respond. She was able to look around however, and flashed her teacher a fearful look.
"Now Tia, I know how precious this... Student of yours is to you," Cherry began, glancing maliciously at her new prisoner. "so I'm going to give you two very simple options. Either you give me the location of the Elements of Harmony, or I send your apprentice away for a very long time." she stated slowly as her horn began to glow with a light blue energy.
For the first time anyone could remeber, a look of uncertainty crossed the princess's face. She shifted nervously in place as she glanced quickly between her student and Cherry.
"You know, your little apprentice reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age, give or take a thousand years. Friendly, open-minded... Gifted. Isn't it so painfully obvious Tia?" Cherry started abruptly, pausing to let her words sink deep. "The question now, is will you treat her the same way you treated me?"
Celestia said nothing, but it was clear the words had impacted, as her face took on a fearful glaze.
"Lets face it, you don't care anything for her! I seriously doubt that you care about anyone here!" she continued, her words chilling the air around them.
"... Cherry," Celstia began but interrupted again by the other alicorn.
"I should know. You treated me the exact same way. In fact, if it hadn't been for me, you and your sister would still be at the orphanage wasting away as I did for years after you left. But no, then you became the almighty Princess! No more time for your best friend anymore oh no." she continued her voice chilling the air around them. "You came to see your true colors. You didn't need 'friends' anymore. You and your precious Kingdom were all you needed, so you thought you could just shove me aside by banishing me away! You come off so high and mighty with your speeches about the importance of friendship when you know nothing of the subject! You're nothing but a fraud! The same scared little mare that I protected each and every day for years at that orphanage!"
Twilight's ear rose upon hearing this, suddenly more intrigued with the words of this new alicorn. Cherry saw this, and looked between Celestia and her apprentice, a look of mocking astonishment growing on her face.
"You never told her?" she began slowly, looking back as tears began to form in Celestia's eyes. "You didn't! Oh this changes everything!"
Celestia felt tears flow down her cheeks. "C-Cherry," she stammered pleadingly. "P-please stop-"
The second alicorn smirked slyly to herself as her words hit their mark. Not giving Celestia a chance to response, she continued. "I might not even need to send your apprentice away after all. I could just share with your loyal subjects the little story you've neglected to share with everypony here and you would be equally as crushed!"
That was the final straw. She shuddered as a string snapped somewhere in her mind and combination of sadness and white hot anger began to build up to the point where she could hold it in no longer. "SHUT UP!" she finally screamed, feeling the dam that contained emotions burst. Anger flowed throughout her body as she panted, tears dripping to the ground. Through the smoke of her outburst, she felt hate rise up amongst the ruins of her mind. The malice was powerful, nearly taking over her systems as she began shaking uncontrollably. Meanwhile, Cherry just couldn't stop laughing at the mess she had created.
"Oh, I knew this wouldn't take long!" she managed to break out through her frenzy of giggling. "I knew you just couldn't bare to have one of your closest secrets ripped from the depths and shown to everypony here!" she paused, taking a deep breath to calm herself to the point where she could speak clearly once again. "But I grow tired of this. You have a decision to make, remember?"
The Princess clenched her jaw together in a grimace before glaring at the crowd. Their faces were locked in fear and complete shock. Was this truly the face of their beloved princess? Was this angered, teary-eyed mare really their leader that they trusted so eagerly? Even Twilight's friends who had arrived a bit after her student shared the same look of astonishment at Celestia's behavior. Realizing this, she exhaled loudly attempting to control her new emotions. It was difficult to suppress the anger, especially as she stared into the eyes of her frightened apprentice hovering weakly next to her former friend smugly waiting for her to choose. She knew she couldn't win this battle, and exhaled loudly lowering her head slowly in defeat. "They're in the Catacombs..." she murmured softly.
"Oh? I didn't quite catch that Tia, you'll have to speak up!" Cherry responded mockingly.
"The Catacombs!" Celestia retorted feeling anger begin to rise up again in the bowels of her stomach.
"No need to be so curt Tia. Lets be honest, what other choice did you have?" continued the second alicorn in her previous tone, smirking as she stepped towards the princess. As she stepped past Celestia, Cherry let Twilight down softly next to her mentor as held her head low in shame. "I mean, you couldn't have let everyone here your terrible dark secret now could you? Of course, who's to say they won't hear it in due time..." the alicorn added chuckling to herself.
"Cherry..." the goddess muttered softly. "...I'm sorry."
Cherry froze in place for a moment, as though she hadn't been expecting this. "Its too late for that Tia." the red haired alicorn said, shaking her head. "Now as much as i'd love to stay here and berate you Tia." she began abruptly changing the subject. "I have some Elements to find, so I bid you farewell!"
With that, she leapt high up into the air and sped off away from the party, leaving everypony staring open mouthed at their defeated princess. The fog that had earlier shrouded the entire party slowly departed along-side the other alicorn as Celestia collapsed to the ground, sobbing quietly to herself.
Eclipse manipulated her host's face into a light smirk as she flew her away from the party. Everything had worked out almost exactly how she had pictured it would all those years ago, right down to the smallest detail. She was even able to keep those six mares from causing any problems with her pandemonium and fog spells. Not that they were any wiser of it.
"Of course it was going to work." she thought to herself. "You've been planing this confrontation between those two since the day they first met... Complete genius if I do say so myself."
She was almost giddy with excitement when suddenly she felt Cherry's thoughts begin to stir in the depths of her mind. Cursing to herself, Eclipse cleared her thoughts and eased her host back into control of her body, making quite sure that Cherry wouldn't immidiately begin to topple from the air from the shock of being out of her body.
"Wha- Where am I? Where's Tia?" Cherry groggily started, stopping in mid-air as her eyes returned to their normal bluish hue, a sign that Eclipse had lifted her control.
"You just finished with Celestia remember?" Eclipse whispered inconspicuously. We need to get the Elements of Harmony from the Royal Catacombs."
"W-wait a minute... Was all that... Was all that real? How could I have said such terrible things to her? I mean... I thats how I felt but I never could have said those things to her..."
"It was how you felt wasn't it?"
"I-Its just..."
"Need I remind you of what she did to you? The whole reason you undertook this arduous quest in the first place?"
She shuddered, brief images passing though her mind of that faithful day. "... No." she murmured softly.
"Never forget your duty my student. Let us finish this, once and for all."
"Yes... Once and for all." Cherry muttered monotonously as she picked up her speed towards Canterlot, her thoughts drifting from the events at the party to finding the Elements.
If Eclipse still had a face, it would be grinning with anticipation. Almost two thousand years of plotting, scheming, and lying were now coming directly into place right before her. It was only a matter of time before her ultimate plan was finally completed. When Cherry did find the Elements of Harmony, her true plan would commence, and then things could get truly interesting.
* * *
It had been a few awkward moments after Cherry's departure before anypony could stand to say anything. All eyes were locked on the Princess, who remained still, her head hung low and her face hidden behind her hair. Applejack eventually managed to gather her strength and address the crowd.
"Alright everypony... Shows over, lets give the Princess some space now...." she addressed uneasily looking around to ensure her message was clear.
It was, and it didn't take long for the guests to clear out with little encouragement. After the remants of the guests left, Twilight and the remainder of her friends gathered with Celestia and Luna amongst the turned over tables and torn fabric that served as a reminder of what had once been a joyous occasion. It took a few minutes for the Princess to calm herself, but she still had an empty look about her eyes as though part of her had been ripped out.
"... Princess, are you going to be alright?" Twilight finally uttered nervously, unsure of how to react.
There was no response for the longest time, but eventually Celestia took a long heavy breath and turned to her student. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that Twilight..."
"Erm... Its fine Princess, but I'm more concerned about you right now, are you sure you're going to be alright? I mean, I've never seen you so angry..."
".. Spur of the moment I suppose."
"That didn't sound very much like a spur of the moment kind of thing to me. Those words she was sayin' were rotten to the core." Applejack added.
"Yeah, and what were you so afraid of her telling us? Did something happen between you two?" Rainbow questioned.
Celestia sighed as she was barraged by questions with answers she would rather keep buried. "At one point... She was my friend. The closest friend I have ever come to know and love..."
"If you two were so close, then why does she hate you so much now?"
The princess paused darkly, looking off in the distance as if deep in thought, before finally speaking up. "I think I should tell you all the story she spoke of... A story of a friend who was betrayed by another. This is... Long overdue I believe, and I think that it's best that you heard this from me." As she finished, the mane six crowded around the alicorn to listen to the strange and mysterious tale of two friends that seemed as old as Celestia herself.
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(Authors note): Hello once again, precious investors and readers alike, Golden Hoof here with another couple of comments directly from the author. Phew, what a chapter. After a complete rewrite, several revisions, and a mental breakdown, its finally here! Try not to judge it to hard alright? I had to fire two different writing teams to get this thing out, so i've done my part. Now its up to you to do yours. Read and enjoy (Or hate depending on your preferences) and I also would like to apologize for any glaring errors I failed to catch on my fifth time around. I may be editing this chapter some more in the coming days, so stay tuned. Golden Hoof we're done here.