I feel so tired, Cepheus thought. Nurses were rushing around him in a frenzy, and a frightened Starlight was dragging Candle out of the room.
Don’t go…. he whispered.
At the edge of his hearing, he could hear the strident alarm of the heart monitors. “We’re losing him!” a nurse cried out. Cepheus blinked. He looked over and saw Dusty and Candle crying and hugging each other outside the medic’s tent. Starlight stood with them, seemingly lost. Cepheus’ vision began to fade.
I just want to go to sleep… his mind echoed distantly.
He closed his eyes. The heart monitor’s alarm turned into a steady beep. He began to drift away when somepony shouted. “Clear!”
Electricity coursed through his chest, trying to reawaken his heart. The heart monitor continued its steady beep. “Clear!” she said again.
Cepheus didn’t even feel the second shock. His body jerked up with the burst of energy, but his eyes remained shut. Everything had gone numb as his brain began to shut down….
…..
…..
…..
…..
“Where am I?” he whispered in the dark abyss he had fallen into.
…..
…..
Colors began to flash in the void, indiscriminate sound filtered through the total silence, and Cepheus felt the sensation of movement.
…..
He felt a mare’s lips pressing against his, breathing life into him.
The world slowly began to come into clearer focus, the colors became more resolute, the sounds less distant, and the sensation of movement halted.
….
….
“Candle?” he called, feeling the mare’s soft lips against his again.
But he knew that it wasn’t his wife presence he felt all around him.
….
“Let there be light!” the mare declared. Suddenly, everything came into sharp focus.
Cepheus gasped, filling his lungs with air. He felt a soft carpet under his back, and he was staring up at a domed glass roof. A bright, warm light filtered through the glass, illuminating the entire room. This was no electrical light… the source of this light was far greater than anything he could imagine.
A sense of wonder overcame him. He stood up, and realized that he was in what appeared to be a throne room. He had been lying on a red carpet that led up to some steps, and at their summit, were two thrones. Cepheus looked all around him. Colorful banners of all the world’s kingdoms hung from the roof. Bright paintings depicting landscapes, ponies in armor, and other plant life he had never seen before adorned the walls. “Where am I?” he asked himself.
“Welcome to the Castle of the Two Sisters, my dear Cepheus.” a mare answered in a melodic voice.
Cepheus looked at the thrones, and saw that both were now occupied. A heavenly white mare with a flowing rainbow mane sat on one, a golden tiara upon her head, and her deep purple eyes were trained on him. “I have been waiting such a long time to meet you,” the mare whispered.
Cepheus’ eyes went wide when he realized that she was an alicorn. He looked at the other throne and saw another, equally beautiful azure mare sitting there. She had a mane that resembled a starry night sky at the height of its beauty, and a spatter of black on her flank on which the silver crescent moon was emblazoned. She was also an alicorn.
Two alicorns… two sisters.
The white mare stood up from her throne and approached him, every movement exuding a regal grace. The azure mare remained frozen like a statue, looking straight ahead. “My name is Celestia,” the mare said, curtsying before him. “You may also know me as Celestion.” She rose back up and smiled sadly at the dazed Cepheus. “I used to rule alongside my sister, Luna. Or Lunara as you may know.” she said, pointing at the other mare sitting at the other throne. “What you are seeing right now,” she said, gesturing to the space all around her. “Is a memory of what life was like a thousand years ago.”
He blinked. More ponies started to fill the room. Dayborn guards with golden armor appeared on Celestia’s side of the room. Nightborn guards with purple and black armor appeared on Luna’s. There was a balance here that was clearly absent in the modern world.
Cepheus felt disembodied. “Am I dead?” he asked her.
Celestion, or Celestia shook her head sadly. “Yes. I am so sorry.”
He hung his head in defeat. “I can’t believe this,” his own memory of Persei driving the spear into his gut flashed in his mind. “My own sister, the one I loved so dearly, killed me. I feel so betrayed.”
Celestia shook her head. “I understand that. I too was killed by my sister.”
The azure mare, Luna, began to change into somepony terrifyingly familiar. The room darkened, the bright banners and paintings were scorched, and the room became a ruin, an empty husk of what it once used to be. The transformation was completed, and Nightmare Moon now sat on her throne, while her sister’s had been destroyed.
Celestia sighed, tears wetting her eyes. “It still hurts, and that was a thousand years ago. The pain must be unbearable for you.”
“My wife…” he said, his eyes downcast. “Dusty…” tears filled his eyes. “I never got to say goodbye.”
He felt a hoof under his chin, and he looked up at Celestia. “There is still hope,” she said consolingly. “I can send you back, but I need for you to understand something first.”
Cepheus nodded.
Celestia sighed, and the wounds she had received on the day of her death resurfaced. There was a large black scorch mark on her belly from where she had been struck by Nightmare Moon’s magic. A large gash appeared on the side of her face from where she struck her. Her wings grew mangled, the bone protruding out from the membrane and feathers in a bloody mess. The final and most horrendous wound was the blood seeping out of her chest, right where her heart was. “What kind of a world is it, where innocent ponies needlessly die?” she asked him. “You and I can agree that the world isn’t as it should be.”
Cepheus agreed silently.
“For the world to heal, it needs something only you can give….” The scenery around them began to change. “Let me show you…” she whispered, vanishing. The sky darkened, sheets of rain began to pour down, and Celestia was on the ground, her eyes wide open with terror, blood dripping from her muzzle and her broken wings. She was staring up at Nightmare Moon, who had her hoof on her chest, pinning her down. The Elements of Harmony lay shattered some distance away. Celestia groaned in pain, her horn broken, and completely helpless before her sister. Everything seemed to slow down then. Nightmare Moon reared up, lightning flashing, and slammed her hooves down on her sister’s chest with a solid crack. Celestia’s chest cavity collapsed from the blunt force, and she gave a few strangled breaths before becoming very still.
Nightmare Moon backed away from her sister’s corpse, trying to comprehend the act she had committed. A moment of silence elapsed. The rain poured down in sheets, washing the blood from Celestia’s corpse. Thunder boomed in the distance. “What have we done?” Luna whispered to herself. She looked at her bloodstained hooves. “How could we have killed our fairest sister?!” she shouted in the ruined hall.
Luna rushed to Celestia’s corpse and began to cry. “We are so sorry, sister! Please, do not leave us…” she shook her corpse to no avail. “Please!” she shook her harder, and her neck, as limp as a rag doll, sagged to the side. Luna rose up and screamed into the torrent of rain falling from above. “Noooo! Please forgive us!”
Luna continued to wail, casting off her armor, and cursing herself for killing the only pony who truly loved her.
“Once her anger, her ill-based jealousy faded…” Celestia whispered. “She realized what a terrible mistake she had made. It wasn’t hate or a lust for power… but guilt, regret, and the fear of my retribution that has turned her into the wicked Empress we know today.”
Cepheus was awed, and Celestia continued. “I need her to know that she is forgiven…” she looked up hopefully at him, the pain after seeing her sister grieving lingering in her eyes. “The Elements of Harmony will allow me to tell her so… and then maybe she can heal, but before that can happen…” picking herself up in a dignified manner, she imbued herself with the aura of command. “You, Cepehus, must first prove yourself worthy of bearing the Elements.”
Celestia cleared her throat, announcing the test he must pass before he could use the Elements of Harmony and set the world right again. “Three other ponies will come to you, begging for forgiveness. Their lives will be in your hooves, and even though justice demands that they die for their crimes, you will need to find the strength to forgive them. Once their suffering is abated, the doors to Nightmare Moon’s heart will be opened. Only then will you and I be able to redeem her.”
Cepheus nodded, and Celestia put her head against his. She took his hoof in hers. “The fate of the world rests in your hooves. Let your light pierce the darkness that has held this world captive for so long. Forgive those three ponies, end their suffering, and then you shall bear the Elements with righteous pride.” Cepheus felt himself drifting away, his head growing heavy. Cepheus was being returned, and the last thing he heard was, “I’ll be waiting….”
Cepheus’ mind went blank.
….
….
….
….
He took a shuddering breath, awakening from his slumber. He felt the white sheet that had been draped over his body, pressing in on him. He lay on what felt like a stone altar.
Cepheus struggled, slowly getting the feeling back into his limbs. His heart was beating again. How long have I been dead?
He cast off the white sheet, and stumbled down from the altar. Seeing the coffin they had made for him, frightened him. “Candle, my love…” he called softly, still getting the use of his voice back. “Dusty?” he rasped.
Searching in the small funeral parlor, Cepheus heard the tinkling of glass from the adjacent room. Somewhat startled, he crept up to the closed door. He pressed his ear against the door, but heard nothing but silence.
Cepheus turned the doorknob and peered inside. It was a small room with dusty wooden furnishings, and from the ceiling, hung a black metal chandelier with a dozen lit candles mounted on it.
The sharp stench of alcohol overcame him, and he saw a dark stallion sitting at the desk. His head was down, and several empty bottles of hard liquor lay around him. He seemed to be sleeping. “Starlight?” he whispered.
He didn’t respond. Judging by the empty bottles, it was apparent that he had tried to drink himself into oblivion.
Cepheus looked around, and saw three chests lying beside the desk. He recognized them immediately. They were the ones that Starlight had been desperate to rescue from the fire… the ones they had carried out of his smoke filled chambers.
They were all open, and inside there were dozens of black and white photographs, news articles, unsent letters, wads of money, and many other strange things.
He looked more closely, somewhat disturbed my Starlight’s obsession. Cepheus flipped over a photograph and gasped. It was of him and Persei as newborn foals. He began to shuffle through the other things. He found a dozen wanted posters with Mother’s face on it, and a photo of her in the days of her youth.
Why were these things so important to him? Cepheus thought. And why does he have them?
Along with the photographs, he leafed through a thousand unfinished apology letters. The words were all scratched out before reaching completion. He saw torn envelopes which used to contain money, a worn leather journal with the words “Property of Glass” written on the cover, a few strips of bloody cloth that came from a nurse’s uniform. Then, his eyes were drawn to a news article with the heading: “Nightmare Moon’s Commander Disappears in Wake of Canterlot Central Hospital Massacre.”
All these things were an insight to Starlight’s mysterious past. Starlight was a troubled pony even by Lunaran standards and recently had become much more so. Perhaps his personal belongings could offer a clue to what exactly was bothering him.
“Cepheus?” somepony softly called for him.
Cepheus looked up and saw that Starlight had awoken. Immediately upon seeing him, tears welled up in Starlight’s eyes. “I’m so sorry, Cepheus. I never got to tell you how much you meant to me.”
“You’ve been troubled lately,” Cepheus said, and Starlight winced. He decided to pry further. “You were at the hospital massacre, weren’t you?”
Starlight sniffed. “I wish I could have told you this while you were still alive, even if it meant losing you as my friend.”
“What?” Cepheus asked.
“I’m him…” Starlight said. “I am the one who ordered the hospital massacre.”
He had been expecting this. Cepheus nodded. “I figured that much. Yes, it was terrible what happened, but you aren’t to blame. Your Mirror Syndrome made you copy the wicked behaviors of the ponies around you.” Cepheus drew closer to Starlight, and looked into his eyes. “But you’ve changed. You have redeemed yourself over and over. You have done so many good things… why do you still torture yourself over this?”
Starlight’s ears drooped and he shook his head. “You don’t understand, Cepheus. I am a terrible pony. The damage I have done is far beyond atonement, especially for what I did to you.”
Cepheus blinked. “Why me in particular? There were thousands of other foals there—“
“I’m the one,” Starlight cut him off, too ashamed to look at him. “I am the one who struck down your father.” Cepheus’ jaw dropped, and Starlight took a shuddering breath. “Not only did I deprive the noblest stallion I know of his father, I…” he hesitated, mustering the courage to look Cepheus in the eyes. Tears were running down his face, the truth that had agonized him for so long was finally about to be revealed. “I hunted down your mother as she fled the carnage of the hospital. I captured her, and after beating her senseless… I raped her.”
The last three words hung in the air. This was the stallion who destroyed Mother’s life, Cepheus thought. He was the one who caused her immeasurable suffering… day and night she had wept, his face lurking in her every nightmare.
Cepheus was stunned beyond belief.
Starlight swallowed. “I saw that she was proud. I knew that she was stronger than I was for protecting her foals like that. So, I… I wanted to break her.” He turned his head away again. “Right afterwards, Ultra Violet, another mother whose foal I had killed, caused an explosion at the station where I was. I had been going inside to get the blade I was going to kill you and your sister with. I remembered how badly I had wanted to gut you two foals, especially in front of your mother. As I told you before, I liked killing foals… but then everything changed in the blast.” Starlight shuddered, and exhaled. “I received brain damage, and it somehow alleviated my Mirror Syndrome. I became aware of all that I had done that day and before that, and I fled to the forests at the very fringes of civilization. I took refuge there, and I created the Lunaran Knights group, hoping one day that I could make amends for all that I have done.”
Cepheus grabbed the desk and tossed it to the side, the papers scattering and the bottles shattering. He rammed into Starlight, seizing his neck and slamming him against the wall. Starlight gasped for breath, and begged. “I am so sorry, Cepheus.” He choked loudly, and his lips were turning blue. “I have been in agony for so many years because of this, and now…” Cepheus tightened his grip around his neck. “I am finally getting what I deserve… please, forgive me.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a crate with a tarp over it. The gems of the Elements of Harmony were glowing softly underneath.
Celestia’s voice echoed in his head, “Three ponies will come to you seeking forgiveness… and even though justice demands that they die, you will need to find the strength to forgive them.”
Starlight’s body had gone limp, and with great difficulty, Cepheus swallowed his anger. He released his grip on his neck.
Starlight collapsed onto the ground, sucking in mouthfuls of air. The bat-pony was coughing and spluttering on the ground, and Cepheus picked up a bottle of liquor, and sat down next to him. Cepheus drew Starlight close and wrapped him in a rough embrace, and whispered in his ear. “You are forgiven.”
Starlight had grown very still with surprise, but he melted in his embrace. He wrapped his hooves around him and began to cry, but this time they were tears of joy. “Thank you, Cepheus. Thank you so much….”
Cepheus held the stallion as he cried. "The pony who did all those awful things, no longer exists..." Starlight nodded. After a few hours of them murmuring to each other about life, he fell asleep.
Cepheus had finished half the bottle, and his head was swimming. Looking at the bat-pony who had fallen asleep against his barrel, he felt his heart soar. He had made the right choice. Starlight for the first time looked at peace, maybe even happy. “You are indeed a changed stallion,” he said to Starlight, gently brushing his mane. “You deserved this forgiveness, and hopefully, the other two ponies I have to forgive, deserve it as much as you did.”