//------------------------------//
// Epiloge (In the Hooves of an Angry Alicorn) 
// Story: Royal Affairs 
// by Voltage Drop 
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	The hinges to the freshly replaced doors to the throne room groaned as they were pulled open by two guards dressed in highly ornate ceremonial armor. In marched two guards of matching uniform stepping methodically forward in unison step, parading ahead of Twilight. She wore her regalia: a crown imitating the element of Magic, a small golden necklace similar to Celestia's hung around her neck, four golden shoes each with a six pointed purple star, and the most recent addition – two weary, bloodshot eyes. Twilight's shoulders slumped and she held her head slightly lower than usual as she wilted underneath the angry glares of hundreds of ponies, each staring her down with loathsome disdain. Every few steps she took carried her past another row of seats, another forty vengeful onlookers. 
Behind her marched another two guards, both armed with spears, and behind them walked Princess Cadence who held a pensive, tattered expression.
Twilight counted the steps in front of her. Only another thirty, only another two hundred angry ponies to face before she was left only with two in front of her. Her eyes itched terribly, stinging a sharp cry for water, but they were dry. She had already cried all the tears she had left. 
The rows of government officials, military officers, reporters, and honored citizens fell behind Twillight as she stepped in front of them all and knelt at the steps leading to the thrones of Celestia and Luna. The diarchs sat as if statues, staring down at Twilight below them. On the left, Luna, Princess of the Night, Moon, and Stars, cast a piteous expression on Twilight that was like moonbeams filtering melancholically through the rotting rafters in an abandoned building. On the right, Celestia, Princess of the Day and Sun stared impassively upon Twilight like the sun beating upon scorched rocks in a dry desert riverbed.
In unison, the two stood as they continued to look down upon Twilight and they stepped down to the small, flat riser a few steps above where Twilight knelt and hid her face. Behind her, Twilight heard a strangled sob which came from her mother – she had seen her and her father along with Shining Armor, Spike, and her five friends sitting in the first row. All but Twilight's mother had turned back to look at her as she had walked down the aisle, casting her pained, sympathetic looks. All except her father, that is, who radiated soul crushing disappointment.
“Rise,” the sisters ordered in unison, and Twilight obeyed. Standing, she looked up to the diarchs who towered authoritatively above her. The guards had moved to flank her, two on each side, once she had stopped walking and Cadence was by Twilight's side. Walking slowly in front of Twilight, Cadence turned to face her and put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, “I am so sorry,” she quietly uttered before turning and walking up the steps to stand behind the two sisters.
Celestia raised her chin as she looked down upon her, “Twilight, because of your actions, because of your abuse of power, and the threat to us and Equestria that you created, you must face the consequences of your mistakes. The public outcry against the creation of the changeling queen has reached levels even I could not have expected and it is demanded that you be thrown in prison for the catastrophe you nearly created. However,” Celestia paused, “I cannot find it in me to follow through with the demands yet I see that you are not ready to rule Equestria. You lack the maturity, you lack the self control, but further yet, you lack the integrity for us to trust you to tend to this fair nation.”
“Therefore we-” Luna hesitated as she bit back against buried reservations, “shall remove the title of Princess which has been bestowed upon you. You shall be stripped of all royal power and responsibility until the day arrives that have learned the lessons required to no longer harbor secrets against Celestia, myself, Cadence, or any others. Clarity, honesty, and integrity, like in many other instances, is of paramount importance to the leading of a nation.”
“Because of this and because the public outcry against you is so strong, your title no longer will apply – it shall be as if it was never given to you in the first place. Therefore, once you have matured and learned the lessons we had thought you already had learned, you shall be able to regain the title of Princess.”
Celestia and Luna stepped down to the base of the stairs where Twilight stood and wordlessly lifted her tiara from her head using their magic and rested it on a pillow behind them. So too, they lifted the regalia from her neck. Twilight, head held low in shame, lifted her front right leg and the shoe was removed, then the front left, back right, and back left followed in turn. Each piece of Twilight's regalia, as it was removed, was rested upon the same pillow as her tiara and when the full set was collected, Celestia and Luna lifted the pillow and sat it inside a large mahogany display box with a glass lid, but not before Celestia levitated out a small, octahedronally shaped pendant, hollowed out in the center with a spherical crystal core. Luna gave Celestia a disgusted look and while Cadence stood looking on with a pale expression. Celestia held the pendant in front of Twilight's face and fought against the rising pain in her heart, “Though you no longer carry the title of Princess, the magic of Alicornhood still flows through you and therefore you are still endowed with the power associated with the Royal Position. Until the time comes that you have proven yourself capable of handling the position, you must submit your alicorn magic.”
“I understand,” Twilight's voice resonated hollow in her chest. She closed her eyes and focused inwards. Though Twilight's horn began to glow, this was no spell or enchantment she was casting; she was looking at her innermost being and pushing a piece of it from herself. It was an excruciating experience, but not on a physical level. Imagine the emotional pain of being handed a sword and being told you must kill one of your two best friends who is standing in front of you: much the same way Twilight was feeling cut in half -split down the middle- as she tore the alicorn magic away from herself and felt it siphon into the pendant in front of her. Twilight felt her everything slip away through her horn as it was devoured by the pendant. Images of her time as Princess flickered in front of her eyes only to drain away like water circling down in a maelstrom into oblivion. Attaining Alicronhood and becoming a Princess had been the crowning achievement in her life and, despite her reservations, could not imagine life apart from what she had been. She despised the disappointment she had brought Celestia and Luna almost as much as she loathed the pain she had wrought upon them. How easy was it for her to create chaos with her magic? Certainly, she did not need to have alicorn magic for that that to happen.
Twilight knew that there was nothing she could do to bring comfort where she had brought pain, and she wished she could express her deep sorrow for causing everything that had happened. 
However, there was one way she could show just how sorry she was.
In a final act of penance, Twilight took one last feel of the half of her magic which remained. And then she let go of it as well. Her mouth gaped limply and her eyes rolled back in her skull as memories of her life flooded her consciousness.
She saw her ascension, she relived spending time with her friends, she remembered studying for a magic test, she heard the howls of Nightmare Moon being struck by the elements, she recalled the excitement the first time she saw her cutie mark.
Convulsing, Twilight collapsed to the floor in a heap. Cadence yelped while Shining Armor and Nightlight jumped to their hooves, ready to race over to Twilight. Celestia and Luna reflexively stooped to Twilight when she fell to the ground, Celestia quickly cradling Twilight's head.
Twilight's eyes opened to show that they were now gray. Celestia and Luna said something to her, but she couldn't understand them. Looking to her flank, she saw her lavender coat minus her cutie mark and suddenly felt extremely hollow like she had lost her purpose in life.
Turning her dull eyes to Celestia and Luna, Twilight quietly uttered, “I give up who I am for both of you.”


[Linebreak]



Celestia sat in her chambers contemplating the many mistakes she had made in her long, tiring life. She could still remember Luna's descent into madness as if it had only happened a day ago despite the thousand years since its happening. How many little things had she done to cause that? How many tiny affronts had Luna suffered before she died a death of a thousand paper cuts and plunged into darkness? Celestia doubted she could count how many times she had wronged Luna, but she could recall no time she had ever purposefully tried to hurt Luna. Even after the betrayal, Celestia would have never imagined taking vengeance, even if she could have while Luna was banished.
But now what of Twilight? Both of them had made mistakes, in both cases some were deliberate. Infidelity, secrets, lies – those are not things that just happen. Likewise punishment, defamation, humiliation: those are deliberate. The blame truly does go both ways.
Crossing her front legs, Celestia rested her chin on them and stared at the glass window and carpet which had melted and scorched in exposure to her fury. It had been a week since that had happened, so why hadn't she had it replaced? Perhaps it was a reminder that pain can go both ways.
Outside, the sun told it was ten in the morning but Celestia could not force herself to attend to her duties. Twilight had lain in the guest chambers resting for the past two hours since she gave up every last iota of her magic. Like anyone, Twilight was weak and frail without her magic, but somehow she was worse than average.
Celestia's heart ached badly. This was her fault. None of this would be happening if she had been rational, and damn her to Tartarus, she had made Luna an accessory to this cruelty. But this was what she wanted, wasn't it?
Her heart ached worse. Twilight had hurt her so much... so terribly, awfully, agonizingly much. Her very spirit was in agony. Celestia wondered if it was so wrong that she lashed out like she did and if it was so terrible that she made the choices she did?
Yes, it was. Where Luna had acted out of rage and lost control for the briefest of moments, Celestia had actively made the decision to hurt Twilight and take revenge for how much she had been hurt. It was petty. It was immoral. And it was eating her alive.
Tears stung her eyes as streams of hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She had gotten exactly what she had wanted. Twilight was now certainly in as much pain as she was, but now to what benefit? She was physically broken and had been seeking forgiveness ever since that terrible night... and what had she, Celestia, done? She had said there could be forgiveness while actively plotting payback. The duplicity was revolting. Celestia, having no witnesses to see her tears, cried harder.
She had thought she had gained the upper hoof in this exchange, but all she had done was heartlessly destroy Twilight. It would be years before she recovered from this, if ever. Luna was pissed, rightfully so, that she had been reeled into ruining Twilight and had reconsidered her choice. If she didn't fear splitting the diarchy, she would have already come forward with the true story and absolved Twilight of her punishment. Cadence earlier had been threatening to terminate communications until Celestia treated Twilight justly, though thankfully she was levelheaded enough to not drag the Crystal Empire's politics into this mess because the silence would only be on a personal level.
Not that any of that mattered anymore. During the week long span between Twilight casting the lust spell and the dishonoring ceremony, the gears of public inquisition were turning. Questions were asked, stories unearthed, journalists raked up mud. At the very time Twilight was being stripped of her Princesshood, the truth was circulating after having been discovered in the days prior.
Laying on the couch in front of Celestia where she rested her head, was the day's newspaper, and the three Princesses were the front page headline.
There, for all to see on the front page, was a hazy picture of them, Luna, Twilight, and herself, tussling together in the bed. 	


Royal Scandal
During day the sun never set, three Princesses had an affair


We all were frightened by when a large shield suddenly surrounded the Canterlot Towers and the sun never set that. We all rightfully assumed it was another threat to Equestria. Nightmare Moon, Discord, the out of control Everfree Forest: each of these threats was a disruption to the established order of day and night, and each time we were on the precipice of disaster. This time, our leaders claim the threat was a queen of changelings unleashed by our youngest Princess, but countless sources have confirmed this is a cover story for something far worse.
All this began when the cutter ship Wayward Winds arrived from port about thirty miles away. It is the newest vessel in the Air Navy and is equipped with an advanced telescopic camera. The Sun had failed to set for about an hour by the point it arrived as it had taken the ship that long to be crewed and unmoored because it had been in for some maintenance and the regulars were on shore leave at the time. By this point, the Royal Guard had called in their mage reserves and were already attempting to break through the shield which had formed around the towers. Several members of the air division had already tied to look through the shield into the tower using binoculars, telescopes, and other peering devices but their sight was obscured either by the shield, the tower itself, of the glare coming off the sun.
The Wayward Winds is equipped with a high powered telescopic magical bore camera capable of looking to the horizon and picking a pony out from the surrounding terrain once the plates are developed, so the ship was moved into position and a series of images were taken. The photographic plates then sent to be developed in the navy's chemical labs. The process took over fifteen hours for this particular type of plate, so they were placed 'on the back burner' and forgotten about until the time came to see the image. Needless to say, this particular chemist was shocked by what he saw but nonetheless was compelled to show the images to his superiors who then later ordered the prints redeveloped to ensure against tampering. When the images came out the same, the plates were destroyed along with many of the developed images, but not before one copy of each had been smuggled out and delivered to us by the a chemist who has requested his/her name be withheld. The image shown in the headline is one of the only we were able to show, as all others were deemed to graphic for viewing and have been destroyed out of the respect we still have for our leaders.
That said the images are, unfortunately real and they tell a real story which we take little pleasure in detailing, yet as honest journalists, we must bring this information forward. But where does this story begin? Well, from what we can ascertain, for the past few weeks quite a stormy affair has been brewing between Princess Luna and Princess Twilight as several members of the janitorial staff and maintenance crews have reported the two princesses spending much time together behind locked doors. As one staff member put it, “You walk past the door and you hear... well, you know what you hear. And I know I am not mistaken because others hear it too and they know what those sounds are. I've been married for twenty years, so I know what those sounds are. One day, I came home and heard those sounds coming from my daughter's room, and I proceeded to beat the living tar out of the colt that was in there being 'cozy' with her.” We want to point out at this time that this is not what the reporter was looking for in the interview, she had been asking questions about the changeling queen and if anyone had seen it, but the interview quickly took a turn for this subject when the staff said there were absolutely no signs of the queen and the journalist asked 'has anything out of the ordinary been happening these past weeks?'.
But the story does not end there, the same staff member went on to say, “About two weeks ago, I heard those sounds coming from Princess Celestia's chambers as well. You know, you don't really want to hear those things and you pretend that you don't, but when someone else hears it, you can't ignore what is going on. The two Princesses are wonderful leaders and I couldn't ask for more as a citizen, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But there isn't any doubt in this case.”
Another staffer on duty the day the sun failed to adds onto this story, “I've worked all around the castle and recently have had the honor of servicing the upper towers. I was with [name redacted] the day she heard the sounds coming from the Princess' room, but I told her she must be mistaken. Then I heard them too. We both blushed and quickly got out of there. Then, on the day it all happened, I was dusting the leisure chambers next to the Princess's personal bedroom and living area when suddenly in come all three of them. I was astonished to say the least and I bowed before them. All three of them were acting very strangely and were saying things which I don't want to repeat here. Anyway, they rounded me and the other staff up and sent us all downstairs. On my way down, I heard a magical humming and the hair on the back of my neck stood up, so I turned around and saw this massive shield blocking the hallway just feet behind me.”

The newspaper goes on to detail more eye witness testimonies and the writers start making conclusions about what was happening while expounding that the whole changeling queen story was a lie to cover whatever was going on here.
In large, there was much speculation, but Celestia noted that a disturbing amount of it was correct. Subsequent articles and editorials made points about incest, inappropriate teacher-student relationships, speculation about Luna having corrupted society with ancient and immoral beliefs. But the most scathing of all the speculation were the three articles blasting Celestia and Luna for revoking Twilight's Princesship even though they were attempting to appease the tens of thousands of angry protesters raising Tartarus across Equestria. The theories postulated by these articles didn't end until they each suggested the anti-coronation was some kind of cover up.
Celestia knew full and well that they opinion writers were correct – she was not trying to appease anyone other than herself. Wiping her eyes with her foreleg, she smeared black mascara all over her pristine white fur. Knowing full well her face must be covered with smears, Celestia could not bring herself to care. She had been petty enough recently; caring about her looks when things were as grim as they were was so shallow.
Standing, Celestia wrapped her magic around the newspaper and carried it with her as she shuffled listlessly to the doors leading to the hallway outside. Opening them, no fewer than twelve ponies, some nobles, some governors, the rest journalists, all turned from Kibitz and simultaneously hounded Celestia with questions.
“Silence!” she ordered, and only on repeating it a second time did they all stop talking, “I am emotionally unfit at this moment to answer the questions in a way that you deserve, so until I have regained my composure, I shall only say that while the speculation in this,” she waved the newspaper in front of them, “is largely incorrect, the every testimony is true.”
The journalists and nobles, unlike the governors who knew better, immediately began yelling their questions over eachother.
“That is all I am saying for now.” Celestia quietly ordered, then turned to Kibitz as they continued to yell their questions, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” she nodded towards the newspaper.
“Of course, your majesty,” he bowed and Celestia silently thanked him for his undying respect.
“Please escort these supplicants out. I have personal matters I must tend to.”
“At once,” he bowed again and began corralling the news-hungry journalists.
Down a floor, Celestia entered into the guest chambers where Twilight lay unconscious. Her parents, Cadence and Shining Armor, along with her five friends and spike all were crowded in the room with Twilight Velvet and Cadence at Twilight's bedside. Every member of Twilight's family, including Cadence, gave Celestia a dark look which she knew she more than deserved. Ignoring it, she walked to Cadence and gave her the newspaper saying quite simply, “You need to read this.”
She did, and as Celestia sat down next to the bed and put her hoof on Twilight's, she heard Cadence gasp and looked back to see her covering her mouth. In a few minutes, she was going to have to explain to Twilight's parents, brother, and friends the questionable things that they had been doing as well as rationalize the false story she had given. For the first time in centuries, Celestia felt like a little filly who was in trouble and had to give an account of herself to her parents. The cold, nerve racking feeling was one she had not missed.
Looking back to Twilight, Celestia stared blankly at the pendant which now hung around Twilight's neck and glowed a gentle lavender in color. It contained all her magic. Every. Last. Bit. She had completely drained herself, and Celestia knew well enough why she had done it. Remorse, pure and simple remorse. Though Twilight had done wrong and hurt Celestia terribly, Celestia now knew she had hurt Twilight worse.
She had never fully stopped crying, but suddenly a new wave of tears began welling up from within as a surge of emotion overcame her. Lacking the willpower and too tired to fight the urge, Celestia sobbed aloud and openly cried in front of other ponies for the first time in over five hundred years.
Twilight was asleep, her body was fighting the ravages of magic depletion which would leave her weakened until she took back some of what she had given. In the end, Twilight would awaken in a day from her comatose state, but until then, that did not stop Celestia from hugging her and crying loudly, “I'm so sorry, Twilight. I'm so sorry.”