Twilight emerged from the kitchen to find her friends gone and two of her brother staring each other down; it took her a moment, based on the less-prominent-than-normal scarring and which one Cadance was standing beside, to differentiate between Shining and Broken. The former’s visible eye was hard, not angry but certainly a good deal more serious than she was used to from him, while the latter’s held a surprisingly calm determination. Both flicked their ears in exactly the same fashion upon her appearance in the main room, but otherwise she went apparently unnoticed between the two.
“You know you aren’t going to be allowed to do that.” Shining said, seemingly continuing a conversation that had started before Twilight’s entrance. Broken scoffed, and when he spoke it was in the near-Shining voice he usually reserved for public appearances.
“I didn’t expect to be. But I warned Twilight about this, you can ask her.” The scarred stallion tilted his head towards Cadance, shifting his eye to the alicorn. “I’m not going to stalk you or anything. But he’s dragging me back to Canterlot anyway, and I just- I need to be able to see you. To make sure that you, the both of you, are okay.”
Cadance watched him for a moment before a small nod. “I don’t have a problem with the occasional meeting, Broken. Provided you keep on your best behaviour.”
Broken Shield let out a relieved sigh, though it was quickly followed by a smirk at his younger doppelgänger. Shining snorted in response, quickly glancing at his wife.
“He doesn’t know what ‘best behaviour’ means, does he?” The unscarred stallion asked. Cadance shook her head, and Shining’s mouth curved into an even more wicked smirk than the one that was slipping off Broken’s face. “Oh, well then…”
“Don’t get cocky, Polished Closet. Compared to what Dawn put me through, I’m pretty sure I can handle whatever requirements define ‘best behaviour’ to you.”
“Fair enough.” Shining shrugged. “Not like you’ve had any problems following rules since you’ve gotten here, after all.”
“Well if you’d given me a good reason to follow them before now-“
“Okay, colts, settle down, you’re both very pretty…” Cadance rolled her eyes as the stallions, mirroring each other, flicked their eyes to her in confusion. She sent her gaze past them, finally acknowledging the mare still standing in front of the kitchen door. “Hello, Twilight. Feel better?”
“Er, yeah. Seems I just needed some tea. And a nap, apparently.” The purple unicorn rolled her neck, working out the stiffness that had set in from her time drooling on the table. Her gaze went to Shining. “I’m assuming everything went well with the changelings, then?”
Shining nodded as Broken stiffened, though a quiet word from Cadance seemed to calm the latter stallion. “We managed to find and contain the hive. There’s probably a few drones that were out and didn’t come running back when they sensed the attack, but we know we got the main body of them. Luckily enough, they hadn’t captured too many ponies: Pipsqueak’s father was one of the five that were there, and it seems that he and three of the others were the only ones in Ponyville that had been replaced.”
“What about the fifth?”
“The fifth pony was the brown stallion that Broken Shield and I observed in the street, Miss Twilight.” Pip’s voice intoned from behind her.
“That’s correct. He’s already told us where he’s from, so the Princess detached a few guards to capture the changeling imitating him.” Shining’s gaze shifted to a spot behind her, a small scowl playing across his features. “As for you-“
“I did not interfere in your operation, Shining Armor, except to provide preliminary reconnaissance and removal of sentries. In doing so, I hoped to make your assault on the hive easier and safer than it would have otherwise been.”
Shining nodded, but his frown deepened. “I get that you were trying to help, Pip, but I told you not to for a reason. You don’t, or at least you didn’t, have experience with changelings nor how to deal with them. Which was rather obvious given that you apparently thought that you could kill them by breaking their necks.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she turned to put her gaze on Pip, who’d cocked his head and furrowed his brow at Shining’s statement.
“Only for the first one.” The earth pony said, almost petulantly. “The rest were simply standard procedure for equine-form opponents. And the damage was severe enough to cause them to expire, even if they remained alive for a short time; I would not have left them had it not been so.”
“Most of the ones that we found were still struggling, Pip. Leaves a sour taste in a guard’s mouth, having to deal with something suffering like that.”
“I apologize, Shining Armor. In the future, I shall try to kill them more efficiently.”
“Or,” Twilight said after several seconds of silence, “maybe you can stay here and let the guards deal with things so that you don’t have to do any killing or anything?”
“…that is also a possible course of action.”
“One that we’d greatly appreciate, thank you.” Shining brought his hoof to his eyes, rubbing them for a few moments before putting them on Broken. “I need to go make sure that everything’s wrapped up with the local guards. You have ten minutes.”
“Ooh, so strict.” Broken replied, rolling his eye. Shining’s glare narrowed. The two stared each other down until Cadance stepped in the middle of them and, with an eye roll of her own, started tugging her husband to the doorway. Broken sighed as soon as they were out the door. “I swear to Faust that I was never that much of a stubborn prick. Sure, he acts all relaxed, but as soon as anything comes up related to you or Cadance…”
Twilight couldn’t help but grin. “You know, given the difference between our timelines, you’re probably worse.”
“Oh, roadapples. Maybe I was more ‘extreme’ in my lack of stubbornness. Ever think of that?”
“Lack of- You’ve been constantly pushing boundaries and trying to find loopholes in your oaths to the Princess. You’ve been massively resistant to everything that wasn’t, and most things that were, direct orders from the Princess. You’ve been relentlessly fighting against Dawn and everything she’s done in every manner available to you for upwards of eight years, for the primary purpose of trying to protect your daughter, then avenge her, and then both, pre-emptively. And you think that you’re less stubborn than Shining?”
“…in my defense, I would assume that any proper parent would do that last one.” Broken’s voice was somewhat subdued, and Twilight sighed and nodded after a few moment’s thought. There was an awkward silence for several seconds before Twilight spoke again, her smile reappearing with a wry bent.
“So you’re once more abandoning your favourite niece?” she asked, one eyebrow raised. Broken snorted.
“Even if I wasn’t opting to, Celestia would be bringing me back anyways. Apparently she considers changeling drones to be alive, which means my oath should have shut me down when I took out the one imitating Pipsqueak’s father, but since it didn’t that must mean that there’s another loophole she needs to fix and so on and so forth…” The scarred stallion rolled his eye again. “It might actually be good for me, though, going up there willingly. Being able to see Cadance and discuss… certain things… with the Princesses could help me crush some of the little voices echoing around up here.” He tapped the side of his head, giving a mix of a smile and a grimace.
“What do you mean ‘certain things’? Celestia said she was planning to reveal something she’s kept hidden since her ascension…”
“Something she’s kept hidden- no, no. I don’t know anything about anything like that. I meant just… things.” He waggled his hoof vaguely in the air in front of him. Twilight decided to let the topic drop.
“Well, Celestia’s bringing me up in a few days as well, so I could probably stop by and check in on you. If you want, of course.”
“Hey, there’s a thought.” Broken gained a grin. “We could go out on the town, maybe visit Mom and Dad – ‘Hey there, I’m your son from ten-or-so years in the future! I’ve been trying to kill Twilight for the last couple months and in the meantime have been pretending to be her crazy maternal uncle! Who wants a hug?’ Gah, that’d be an awkward supper conversation…”
A small laugh escaped Twilight. “I don’t think you’d be allowed to do that.”
“True enough.” Broken nodded, standing and stretching. “I’d better get outside before Shining decides ten minutes was too long. See you soon enough, Sparky.”
Some odd feeling struck Twilight in the back of the head as Broken reached the door, and she found herself speaking before she knew what words to say. “Wait!”
“Hmm?”
“I had a question. A-about Dawn.” Broken’s eye hardened slightly, but he gave her a slight nod. “You’ve mentioned that she claimed to regret having to kill Celestia and… and everypony else, right? Do you think that she actually hadn’t wanted to? That, that something might’ve happened to her to make her do those things?”
“Yes.” Twilight blinked at Broken’s blunt affirmation. “It’s called going insane. I have little doubt that some part of you still existed in her, on some level, and that that part was utterly disgusted at what you, what she, had done.” He raised a hoof, rubbing his eye. “But that part wasn’t in control, so it doesn’t really matter whether it existed. Dawn existed, Dawn was in control, and Dawn did everything willingly, so Dawn had to die. I’m willing to bet that that remaining part of you felt the same way.”
“So there was no chance that that little part of me was influencing Dawn, even on a small level, to feel bad about what she’d done? No chance it could have regained control, even temporarily?”
Broken and Pip glanced at each other simultaneously. Twilight didn’t miss the small flit of shock – of panic - across both of their features.
“I can’t say that there was.” Broken said quietly, after a moment of silence. Twilight nodded, her throat oddly swollen. The scarred stallion gave her another nod before stepping out the door.
“If you’ll just wait in here, ma’am? Princess Celestia should arrive within the hour.”
Twilight nodded at the guardspony, stepping into one of the many meeting rooms in Canterlot Castle. Her eyes quickly fell upon the one incongruity between it and its siblings around the castle – that of the several stacks of books that occupied the table in the middle of the room – before she started towards one of the chairs that surrounded said table. She restrained herself from picking up one of the tomes and occupying herself with its contents; Celestia wouldn’t have had them placed in that particular room unless they were (at least a part of) what she wanted to discuss with Twilight, so obviously the unicorn should wait for the Princess’ arrival to look at them. Of course, this left little for Twilight to occupy herself with other than her own thoughts.
Over the last few days, such situations hadn’t been particularly welcome.
They’re hiding something. The little voice in the back of her head piped up once more. It had started shortly after Broken’s exit, and had gained a few decibels every time Pip had excused himself on some task or another. She couldn’t fault him for his growing independence, but she found herself wishing slightly against it, and mildly regretting her own previous encouragements of it, if only because his presence tended to shut up the paranoid moron occupying my hindbrain.
Right. I’m the moron. Being the one trying to keep us alive here. You know as well as I do that they’re all hiding something. Broken and Pip and Celestia and-
Of course I know that! We’re the same pony, for Faust’s sake, you couldn’t know that if I didn’t! But I can understand Broken wanting to keep secrets, even now. Same with Pip, though I doubt that he even knows he’s keeping them. And Celestia’s brought us up here specifically to reveal what she’s been hiding. You’ve just been coming up with conspiracy theories!
If we’re the same pony and we know the same things, then you saw what they did just as well as I did. Broken and Pip are colluding. Why else would they both get scared – Pip! Scared! – about the same thing? Looking at each other like they did? Not to mention how quickly they’ve gotten so friendly with one another-
They haven’t gotten friendly, they’ve just stopped threatening and trying to kill one another. Which makes sense, now that Broken knows that Pip’s just a foal and Pip knows that the Princesses weren’t the ones that killed his parents. Broken can’t hate foals and Pip has no reason to hate Broken now, that’s all. Twilight rolled her eyes as the other voice scoffed. As for that glance – I’m pretty sure that neither of them had considered that possibility regarding Dawn. They were probably just checking with one another to make sure that the other hadn’t actually seen something like what I’d brought up.
Or Pip started to get a lot more open to Broken’s ideas on what needs to happen to stop Dawn from rising here after you shifted his anger over his parents’ deaths from Luna to Dawn, and the two have been secretly working together to push you away from any chance of her coming out since then, and you bringing up that possibility – that you think you might be able to keep some control when Dawn’s around, or even regain it – set off their warning bells and now they’re working out the best way to kill you to stop you from possibly letting Dawn out.
Okay, two things. One, how could they be, together, working out the best way to kill us, when Broken’s under round-the-clock surveillance and Pip’s never been away from us for more than a few hours at a time? Two, why would them pushing us away from Dawn be a bad thing?
Because they’ve been keeping quiet about it. We’d be happy to know that they were working together on something, right? Twilight nodded, somewhat suspiciously. Right. And I, at least, would be grateful to them if they were working out ways to keep Dawn from rising. But why wouldn’t they tell us if they were doing so? What one method of keeping us from turning into Dawn would we be opposed to, thus necessitating their secrecy?
Killing us, of course. But this is assuming that they’ve started actively working together to keep Dawn from rising. For which we have no actual evidence and only the thinnest straws of circumstantial.
Exactly. Exactly. Which means that they must be working together for some other reason.
No it doesn’t. More likely than not they’re not working together at all-
Or they could have been working together before they even got here.
Twilight blinked twice at the errant thought before being overcome with laughter.
Oh come on, is it really that hard to believe? It’d explain why Broken never killed us, why he never killed Pip, how he actually managed to get to Pet-
All of which already have reasonable and sane explanations!
Do you really think that they couldn’t be lying? Broken might not even know about it, or he’s under so many oaths that he’s basically trapped in his own body-
No, no, stop. This is- the only reason you’re bringing this up is because I overthink things. We don’t have any reason to think that any of this is actually going on.
Yes we do, we have plenty of reasons, just because you refuse to actually see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist-
Then give them to me! Twilight swept her hoof out, muttering a curse as she accidentally hit one of the book stacks; it tottered for a few seconds before several of the tomes slid off the top, the rest of the stack apparently content to stay on the table. The unicorn grabbed the ones that fell, ensuring that they hadn’t been damaged before putting her eyes on the covers to see if there was any specific order to them.
It took her several seconds to recognize what the titles actually said.
Rebels OF Equeftria: Lunar Rebellions 0-50 ANM
Rebels OF Equeftria: Celeftia’s Solitary Rule 50-100 ANM Vol I
Rebels OF Equeftria: Celeftia’s Solitary Rule 50-100 ANM Vol II
The other voice had gone silent. Slowly, Twilight pulled one of the books forward, opening the cover and planting her eyes on the first page.
It took a long time for her to finish reading.
Twilight couldn’t see.
That wasn’t exactly accurate; she could see, her vision was actually quite good for someone who spent as much time as she did cooped up reading, but at this particular moment she was as good as blind for the red haze in her eyes. She nonetheless kept a strong stride down the castle’s halls, her mental map keeping her on her intended path to the throne room. The guards outside of the room where she was to meet Celestia had tried to stop her from leaving (or had tried to delay her, or had tried to ask what was wrong – she hadn’t been able to give them enough attention to determine their intentions beyond the fact that they were in her way) and were likely still attempting to extricate themselves from the chandelier she’d pulled out of the ceiling and slammed into the floor around them. Everypony else in the castle seemed capable of reading her mood, and every one of their blurry shadows had moved out of her way rather than remaining in it.
She still carried the books that had fallen from the table, a ‘bag’ of magic keeping them held to her back. The writing had been similar to most of the nonfiction she’d read – clinical, detached, arguably objective (accounting for the pro-Celestia bent that all early Equestrian histories had). There was a common format, spread over two to three pages, for each incident covered: Location, date, parties involved, pre-incident history of the area, sequence of events during the incident, post-incident occurrences, casualty rates.
That last point was a particular problem, given that Equestria had officially never had a violent rebellion. And that a number of the incidents she’d just read about were already covered during her studies, where it was always noted that Celestia had listened to the angered citizenry and worked with them to obtain a peaceful solution.
Twilight didn’t see how ‘Fifty-six dead, smote with the righteous fury of the sun’ was a peaceful solution.
She wasn’t quite sure what made her angrier – that Celestia had killed ponies, hundreds of ponies, or that the Princess of the Sun had lied about doing so. Lied to everypony. Lied to her.
The jolt of rage at that last thought – at only that last thought - stopped Twilight in her tracks. She took a few breaths, forcing the haze in her eyes to the edges of her vision as she forced herself to think things through. Blind fury wasn’t going to do anypony any good; she was going to confront Celestia about this, about everything she’d just learned, but she wasn’t going to let herself lose control. Her anger should be for the ponies who’d lost their lives and for everypony who’d been lied to about their fates, not just for her own feelings of hurt and betrayal at her mentor’s deception. Twilight could feel her wrath temper as she pulled herself away from the brink of brash action, forming what felt like a steely determination as she decided on how to move forwards.
By the time she reached the throne room, she’d gotten herself almost entirely under control. Her mouth was flat, her brows lightly knitted, enough to indicate displeasure but not to imply utter rage. Her steps were loose and solid, rather than stiff and shaking. Her tail was controlled and smooth, not flicking and frayed. She looked to those who might be watching her, such as the guards barring the door with their spears, as if she simply had some mildly unpleasant business to discuss with the Princess.
The guards were thus rather surprised when she bent their spears in half and blasted the doors open, walking into the room with a single word.
“CELESTIA!” Twilight’s voice echoed around the wide chamber. The Princess flicked her eyes to the unicorn from her position on the throne; her sister, standing on the lower dais of the gilded platform, turned to face Twilight with a much more open surprise. The younger turned back to the older as Twilight approached, and for a few moments the two exchanged words too quietly for the mortal mare to hear. Their conversation had finished by the time Twilight reached the base of the throne, and Luna gave the unicorn a glance of concern, and for some reason fear, before fading into the shadows.
“Hello, Twilight.” Celestia said as the doors to the room slammed shut. Her voice was utterly calm and collected, her face betraying no emotion beyond a small curiousity. Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I do apologize if I was late for our meeting; Luna had some ‘last minute’ concerns about what I wished to discuss that unfortunately stretched for far longer than I’d expected them to.”
“Oh, did she?” Twilight’s voice was tight, the forced restraint clear. One of Celestia’s ears flicked. “And what, exactly, was she worried about? That I might find these a little more enlightening than you expected?” Twilight pulled the books from behind her back, laying them out on the platform between herself and Celestia. The alicorn’s brows raised perceptibly, one corner of her mouth pulling the smallest amount back.
“I could have sworn that I told the guards to bring those in after I’d arrived. How did… no, it doesn’t matter.” Celestia shook her head, lifting the tomes and reading each’s title. “How many did you read?”
“Just those three. I guessed by the titles that the other fifty were much the same.”
“Your guess was correct. Though many of them essentially cover the same events, differing only in their subtitles.” She put her eyes back on Twilight as she laid the books back down. “I assume that you’re… confused, about what you’ve read.”
Twilight could feel a burning around the edges of her eyes, the solid red ring around her vision beginning to fade back into the centre. “That might be a good word to describe it. Princess. ” She couldn’t stop the acid in her voice from coating the title. Celestia seemed to flinch, and Twilight felt the oddest thrill at the visible vulnerability. “I’m confused, as to why these books differ so much from the histories that I grew up reading. Confused at the fact that they say that ponies died in some incidents that I rather distinctly remember you claiming were calmly resolved. Confused at their claim that you, that YOU, killed howevermany of your own little ponies for, for protests and complaints and things that you encourage today! Yes, Princess, I’m rather FUCKING confused about this!”
Twilight took in a few heavy breaths, her vision starting to swim as Celestia stood and stepped down to the floor in front of her. The alicorn wore a stoic visage as her wings unfolded and wrapped around Twilight’s back, pulling the unicorn into a gentle, but unyielding, embrace.
“Those ponies didn’t deserve to die.” Twilight had started to move, to push the larger mare away, but froze as she heard the alicorn’s words. Her gaze shot to Celestia’s face, to the tears working their way down from the alicorn’s eyes. “Luna’s nights had not gone unnoticed by all. There were many ponies, so very many, who loved them and appreciated them almost as much as I. But the Nightmare blinded my sister to them, just as it blinded her to my love for her.
“Though none but I had seen her transformation, everypony in Equestria saw our battle. We sundered the skies and tore the earth apart, and it was only as a final, desperate measure, to protect our little ponies from any more harm than we had already inflicted upon them, that I sealed her away. In my grief at her loss, I became dead to the world around me; I shut myself in my chambers, deaf to the calls and questions from even my oldest and most loyal of servants, spending weeks wallowing in my agony at the hole that had been torn in my heart.
“But while I sat and grieved, our ponies were left without knowledge or direction. None knew about the evil that had taken hold of Luna, only that their Princesses had warred with one another, and that my sister had been forced away from this world, into apparent oblivion. Those who favoured the day were able to accept this, reasoning that, whatever had occurred, I would not have destroyed my sister without just cause. But those who favoured the night were left confused and terrified, unable to accept that their favoured Princess could deserve such a fate. From their fear and lack of understanding, a panicked thought took root: That I had grown jealous over those who loved my sister’s nights more than my days, and that I had destroyed her in order to become the sole object of our subjects’ attentions.
“This panic grew to disquiet, then to protests for answers, demands for an explanation that I was unable to provide. The guardsponies, for lack of my direction, sought to maintain calm and normalcy; they suppressed the protests firmly, violently, which only served to convince those loyal to Luna that I desired their extermination. The protests grew to riot and revolt, and across Equestria those who favoured the night fought and overthrew the ponies I had appointed to govern them. It was only as Equestria began to tear itself apart that I regained my awareness of the world around me. One morning I simply awoke, emerged from my chambers, and asked the first servant I came across what had occurred in my absence.
“It did not occur to me that I was the only one to know what had transpired, that I had left our ponies without any explanation for my apparent sororicide, that the ponies who were rebelling were simply scared and ignorant and trying to protect themselves. All I knew was that they had risen up in violence, attacked my ponies, accused me of the very crime that Luna had committed. I still grieved the loss of my sister, still felt the emptiness of her absence, but as I learned of all that had transpired I found my grief morphing to wrath and felt the hole in my heart fill with hatred. Those weeks of isolation had allowed me to exhaust my sorrow at my sister’s betrayal; the rebels gave me a target upon which to vent my rage.
“I exterminated them. Imprisoned those who repented and murdered those who didn’t. In a matter of months I had regained control of all of Equestria, and for two hundred years, until my rage was fully extinguished and my mind once more became clear, I continued to smite any who rose against me.”
Celestia’s wings withdrew from around Twilight, and the alicorn stepped back, putting her eyes to the floor. The unicorn barely noticed that the red ring around her vision had vanished as she stared unblinking at her mentor.
“So… so you killed all of those ponies…”
“Because I was throwing a tantrum.” Celestia sighed. “I am very, very ashamed of what I did, Twilight Sparkle. One I realized the evils I had committed, I nearly fell into despair once more; I wished my actions to be forgotten, so that my little ponies would obey me out of respect and love rather than fear. I had every library in Equestria purged of documents like these, the record-keepers sworn to secrecy, allowing only single copies to survive so that I myself might never forget my mistakes.” The Princess lifted the books from behind her, giving them another long glance before setting them down beside her. “It has taken me eight hundred years to realize that hiding these crimes is just as shameful as committing them. I had these histories, the true histories, restored, so that I might give my little ponies a chance to judge me for all of my actions, rather than only those I allow them to.” Her eyes met Twilight’s, allowing the unicorn to see the tired resignation within them. “I can understand if you despise me for this deception, Twilight.”
“No, no, Princess, I… I just…” Twilight spoke more on instinct than intelligence, trying to find some way to mollify her mentor. “I mean, I’m definitely still angry about this, and horrified, and shocked, and, and all those other things, but I… I think I can understand it. You weren’t thinking straight, you were thrown into an utterly horrible situation while you were still very emotionally unstable, and you’re obviously repentant and disgusted at yourself and-” Twilight cut off, rubbing her hoof firmly into her temple and trying to reform her scrambled thoughts into cohesion.. “Faust, Princess, I don’t despise you. You did something horribly, evilly wrong, but you’re clearly trying to make up for it, a-and you’ve done so much good for Equestria, protected us and saved so many lives that… this is all just a lot to take in.” She let out a breath. “I can see why you’d want to keep it hidden.”
The alicorn blinked, but quickly smiled and nodded. “I am glad to hear of your understanding, my dear student. I can only hope that the rest of my little ponies share your willingness to at least… accept… what I’ve done.”
Twilight gave a weak grin. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll have too much to worry about. After all, you’re still our Princess.” Celestia threw a wing around the smaller mare, and this time Twilight returned the hug.
She’s still lying.
Twilight nearly jumped at the sudden return of the other voice. What in Faust’s name are you-
She’s still LYING, you idiot! She said that she wanted to reveal something that she’s kept hidden since her ascension! How could she have hidden this since her ascension if it happened after?!
Twilight took a breath to cover up the jolt of anxiety in her stomach. Slowly, she leaned back from the embrace, waiting until Celestia lifted her head to look at her.
“Is something wrong, Twi-“
“What else is there?” The unicorn asked. She felt the alicorn stiffen. “You told me that you had been hiding something since you ascended, but this… this was long after that. You’re still hiding something.” A block of ice fell down Twilight’s back. “Faust, please tell me it’s not another-“
“No!” The word was quick and sharp, cutting off Twilight’s words. Celestia looked almost angry as she said it, but quickly regained control of herself. “No, Twilight, I swear to you that it’s nothing like what we’ve just discussed. I am just- after what has already been revealed I am not sure if it would be right to burden you with another secret of mine so soon. I was hoping that you might return to Ponyville, come fully to terms with what I’ve already spoken of, and then-“
“Not a chance, Princess.” Twilight shook her head. “Just knowing that there’s something else is going to eat me up inside. I’m a big filly, I can deal with it. I promise.” She gave Celestia a confident smile. The Princess looked lost in thought for nearly a minute before sighing and smiling back.
“Very well, my faithful student. I shall trust your judgement.”
Celestia’s horn glowed, and the two were very suddenly outside, standing on a wide balcony a great height above Canterlot proper. Twilight looked around, becoming mildly surprised at how late in the day it was.
“What can you see from here, Twilight?”
The unicorn turned to the alicorn, finding the immortal staring at the sun as it touched the horizon. Twilight had to turn from the great light after only moments, but Celestia kept her gaze locked onto it, as if expecting it to suddenly disappear.
“I can see a lot of things, Princess.” Twilight replied awkwardly. “Canterlot. The Everfree Forest. Ponyville. A number of farms and villages.”
“Anything else?”
“Er, the sky? The clouds – there’s a few that look like leftovers from a cloud city move. The ocean’s almost visible, I might be able to see it if the sun wasn’t there.”
“That’s what I was asking about, Twilight. You can see the sun, correct?”
“Well, yeah, I mean-“
“You can see the sun moving?”
Something seemed to snap in the back of Twilight’s mind. She ignored it, however, giving her mentor a somewhat befuddled glance.
“Of course I can, Princess. The same as it does every day.”
Celestia nodded, as if Twilight’s response had solved some long-unanswered question. “Good, my faithful student.” She took a few breaths, as if to calm herself before taking some drastic measure. “Now I want you to tell me how much magic I’m using right now.”
Twilight felt out before she could even think about it, and responded just as quickly. “None, Princess.” Her brows furrowed. “I’m not sure what you’re tryi-“
No magic. Sun moving, no magic. SUN MOVING NO MAGIC
Twilight whipped her head around, watching as the sun slowly edged its way down below the horizon. She turned just as quickly back to Celestia, to the absence of magic around the alicorn. She put her eyes back again, but froze when a hoof caught her shoulder, leaving her vision locked on the sun as it kept moving, moving without magic, why is it moving it can’t move without
“I’m sorry, Twilight.” The Princess of the Sun spoke.
Twilight felt the world shatter around her.