Princess Twilight Sparkle walked past the massive purple banners adorning the Canterlot Castle throne room, the towering vertical stained glass windows further adding to the magnitude that was contained within the chamber.
She followed the red procession rug that led up to the golden throne with a solemn gravity she only held in the gravest of situations. But just as she approached the foot of the mighty throne of Equestria, she spotted the pony of interest she’d been asked to meet with.
“Twilight Sparkle,” echoed Princess Celestia’s voice near one of the decorated glass murals off to the throne’s right. “It is good to see you once again.”
“Likewise, Princess,” she replied in a quieted tone as she approached where Celestia stood. “It gets more and more welcoming to meet with a friend as these days progress.”
Celestia nodded, her attention fixed on the vague art depicted. “Friendship shines brightest in the darkest of times, my student. And these are dark times indeed.”
Twilight sighed. “It seems like that’s the only way things have been going these past years. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra,Tirek, and now this.”
“Are you troubled, Twilight?”
“I think I am. So much has happened in such a small interval of time, it’s all getting pretty hectic. If I’m not combing clues as to where he might be, I’m doing what I can to keep some semblance of peace around Canterlot.” She grimaced. “I’m spending too much time here. I should back in my kingdom, overseeing my other responsibilities.”
“And you are,” Celestia said as she placed a gentle hoof upon her shoulder. “Never have I been more proud of how you’ve been handling yourself. But I’ll admit, it does seem that misfortune is befalling Equestria more than it has before in recent times.”
“Is that why you wanted to speak with me, Princess?”
“Yes,” Celestia said behind a pursed lip, “I…worry for my people’s safety. I worry for the well being of my sister—wherever she may be. And I worry for what is to come if we do not locate this shadowy menace and defeat them.”
“This is about Alistair, isn’t it?” Twilight said quietly.
“I don’t mean to be hurtful but I have my assumptions, Twilight. The circumstances point to his involvement, one cannot deny this. And although I’m not denoting the light I know is still present within him, for now, he is a threat us.”
Twilight weakly nodded. “I know, and I have trouble reminding myself of that some days. Even when he said those hurtful things, poured his emotions to somepony he knew he could trust, I still remember the look he had on his face. An expression between desperation and loss.” She sobbed lightly. “He looked that way the first time we met, as strangers to one another.”
“I-I apologize if I touched upon something too sensitive. I thought…”
“No…no, it’s fine. We need to discuss the reality of the situation. I can’t sit here and convince myself he’s innocent when I know more than anypony else that he is helping whoever the heck these ponies are. My feelings don’t take priority over the safety of Equestria and its citizens.”
Twilight took a deep breath and moved a few paces away from Celestia, toward another abstract glass painting. “I think there’s a correlation between Luna’s disappearance and the emergence of the Nightmare Plague. The timing was almost perfect with one another and Luna’s power of the realm of dreams only serves to confirm this.”
“The tome that was taken during the firebombing had several detailed outlines on how to trap and ensnare anypony in a number of ways. I doubt it in itself contained enough knowledge to contain the likes of your sister, but if this group is as talented as they seem, then they certainly have other arcane texts to assist them.”
“Were you able to deduce all of this, my student?”
She shrugged. “It’s my job at this point. And what I can do to make up for the actions I’ve indirectly caused. If I’d just caught on to how he was feeling back then…”
She paused and looked back to Celestia. “He is a damaged heart, Princess, a lost soul in desperate need of friendship. He is not the evil monster he’s trying to emulate. I can bring him back to the light; I just need to speak with him one more time. The investigation must continue if we are ever to locate him.”
Celestia sighed. “It has been difficult enough keeping his supposed involvement away from public knowledge. I believe what you say about his true feelings but the media would not be quick to forgive the single human of the generation causing this kind of havoc.”
“It’s not his fault.”
“That is where some ponies would disagree with you. He has endured through several troubling experiences but that does not excuse his actions. He still has a conscious and can still think for himself. In the end, he will be held accountable.”
“You make it seem like he’s already guilty.”
“And most would say he is if they knew what we’ve been hiding. We cannot cast away justice simply because one has an emotional connection to the accused. Order would not be upheld if we simply allowed the dangerous to walk among us.”
Twilight frowned. “That’s what we did with Discord.”
“Th-That was different,” the Princess stammered in reply. “He can be a useful ally to the ponies of Equestria. His mastery of magic can easily be deterred from his past fixations of chaos and shaped to accommodate the true morals of friendship and harmony.”
“You’re forgetting that he betrayed us with Tirek and withheld important information during the plunderseed incident.” She paused and looked toward Celestia skeptically. “Is this just because your sister’s in danger or is their legitimate reasoning in your hostility towards him?”
Celestia opened her mouth to reply and promptly shut it. Nervously swallowing, she hung her head shamefully.
“I would be lying to say that the stress of the situation is not getting to me. My sister’s safety means everything to me and I would not want to see any harm come to her that I could prevent. I took her for granted when we were together originally; never quite catching the subtle hints she was slowly descending into darkness.”
Celestia turned to Twilight and smiled gently. “Quite similar to the situation with you and Alistair it seems. It appears we are more similar to each other than we realized.”
Twilight returned the weak smile. “I guess you’re right, Princess. And it appears we have the same way of coping with it: a heightened sense of attachment and responsibility to those we believe we have hurt.”
“There is no shame in this. It is the right thing to due in correcting past mistakes, especially when they could have been avoided.”
Twilight merely nodded at this, but felt like belting out in confirmation at the simple statement. Never had she felt something to be truer in her entire life, especially when the guilt was present.