Corona Park was the largest park in Equestria. Its grounds began just outside the castle walls and extended beyond the moat a good distance to the beginning of Canterlot city. The park's width stretched from the edge of the plateau to the sheer mountain wall of Alicorn Spire. In its generous boundaries, a lake formed before narrowing to the moat and beyond to a waterfall at the edge of the plateau. The lake's surface barely reflected the pre-dawn light; the waters were still as dark glass.
The calm waters certainly didn’t reflect my mental state since leaving Celestia’s presence the night before. Picking up a rock in my hoof, I eyed the expanse of water before me and aimed the stone. As a breeze blew through my mane, I remembered my father's laugh. The pond near the home I'd shared with my parents came to my mind's eye. I'd picked up a rock much too large to skip, and dad simply laughed and waited for the inevitable splashing. After the rather spectacular failure, he's coached me through picking a proper skipping stone. Next came instructions on throwing. Following his advice, I skipped the stone across the Canterlot lake. The stone skipped merrily, disrupting the surface as it went.
The distraction didn't hold, my inner turbulence mirrored the lake's troubled surface. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t stop replaying the conversation with my aunt. Everything I said, everything I should have said, and above all else, her reaction when I failed to forgive her. Doubt plagued me. Guilt harassed me. I returned to the bench and rested my head in my hooves. My heavy eyes closed as I prayed for a break in the cycle.
Joe stood before me in the castle ballroom. He was dressed impeccably, holding one white-gloved hoof out to me. The music began as I took his hoof. He led me out, but I hardly noticed. I was too fixated on my own hoof which looked I incredibly filthy. Black grease coated not only my hoof, but spots of it covered my entire body. I tried pulling away, but Joe resisted. He pulled me closer, my filth staining his beautiful suit. Inwardly I reeled at the ruination of such finery, but my hooves stopped obeying me and instead gave themselves over to the dance.
I seemed as incapable of speech as I was powerless to stop dancing. Joe dipped me, and leaned in to kiss me. I turned my head to avoid it, but he found my lips anyway. Black marred his muzzle as he pulled away.
My gut wrenched as the scene dissolved before me. I reached out to the rapidly disappearing dream Joe, to no avail. When I stood alone, I hung my head and let the tears fall silently, shoulders shaking.
"You've been up much too long, Blueblood," Luna said, her voice as clear as the cool air.
Wiping my face, I glanced up at my aunt. The princess of the night seemed to solidify as she drew near. "I can assure you my sister is just as stubbornly refusing to sleep. Although, she does have to raise the sun soon."
I turned away, angry at myself for reasons to numerous to list. The last thing I wanted was to be reminded of my aunt's duties. "Why are you here, Luna?"
"I believe the common phrase is playing both sides?" She replied, tapping a hoof to her chin. "Not that I'd regard the emotions of two of my family members to be a game, mind you."
Barely resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I turned away fully. "Go consult with your sister. She's better at playing with ponies."
I blinked slowly and the scene before me returned to the lake in Corona Park. I thought Luna returned me to waking for a moment before I realized she stood holding a stone in her magic. The idea of a princess skipping stones on a lake amused me. "So, you know where I am?"
Luna glanced back and shrugged. "My guards are not as incompetent as you seem to think."
I snorted, but bit back my retort as she readied her swing. The stone glowed in the light of her magic and I decided to speak. "It feels better when you throw it with your hoof."
Luna looked back at me again, her eyebrow quirked. "Verily?"
I nodded numbly and picked up a better rock. Holding it out to Luna, I purposefully didn't look at her face. Hopefully, this came off more as nonchalance than offense. She released the rock she held in her magic and I felt her take the one I offered.
"Any advice on how to get the most skips?" Luna asked. I took a chance and looked at her, but her focus was on the surface of the lake.
With this all still being a dream, I figured Luna wouldn't mind a bit of contact. I adjusted her hoof and stance. She glanced at me at first, but returned her attention to the lake. "Tilt the front up a bit. Give it some spin when you toss it. It helps to stand sideways and do it. Wait," I paused, and poked the side of her ribs. Luna nearly dropped the rock as she laughed and squirmed away from my hoof.
"Nephew!" She chastised as she gave me her full attention.
I held up both hooves innocently. "You were standing too stiffly. You have to loosen up a bit to throw it just right."
Her amusement only grew. "And tickling your aunt is the best way to accomplish that?"
I shrugged. "It was my dad's trick. I guess it's the easiest way to get somepony to loosen up."
Shaking her head in disbelief, Luna kept smiling as she returned to throwing the rock. This time, she stood loosely. Letting it fly, we watched as it struck and bounced several times across the water's surface.
"I think that was eight times!" I remarked, impressed.
Luna pumped a hoof in victory. "Huzzah!"
I returned to the bench, throwing myself down carelessly. It actually hurt. Which meant... "This isn't a dream, is it?"
Luna turned back to me, her amusement undimmed. She shook her head.
She sat next to me. "I guess you're here to talk about my conversation with Celestia last night?” I said, looking away.
She threw her wing over me. “One more bad day is just par for the course. Don’t beat yourself up too much.”
"I should have..." I began, but she hushed me.
"If anything, I should have told you that I'd spoken to her about her relationship with you. She knows that she hasn't done right by you, but she doesn't know how to fix it. We're just like any other pony, Blueblood. We make mistakes."
"I've never seen you make a mistake like her." I protested.
She sighed. "Well, you weren't around over a thousand years ago. I...made a bad situation worse. She spent a millenia alone ruling over ponies, doing it all by herself all because I turned away from her. She's a strong pony, but her relationship with you is proof that she still doesn't know how to handle things with family when they go bad. She never really faced that with Cadence or Twilight, but they also weren't as closely related."
I pulled away. Standing again, I turned to face her. "I go from hating her, to feeling like I'm the one in the wrong. I love her, but I can't forgive her yet either. I don't have that problem with you."
"You don't know what I did." She said simply.
I shrugged. "You became Nightmare Moon and wouldn't lower the sun. I assume you also fought Celestia."
"I inflicted nightmares on ponies who disagreed with me." She said, her voice full of pain. I stood, rooted to the ground, my jaw slack. "Terrible nightmares. Made them face their worst fears. If they failed to pay respect to my night, I made them fear it. Celestia didn't want to believe I could do that. It took until the nightmares finally consumed me for her to see what I'd become."
I blinked. Closing my mouth, I realized just how much power Luna wielded. "Have you...ever given anypony a nightmare since?"
She shook her head. "Only myself. Twilight helped me see the error in doing so, before you start on me for it," she said as I drew breath to do just that. Instead, I exhaled. Stepping close, I wrapped my hooves around her and pulled her close.
"I guess we've both made some pretty big mistakes." The thought soured my mood, but I had to face it. "What kind of pony would I be if I expected forgiveness but couldn't give it in return?"
"A normal one," Luna remarked as I let her go. She stood and we walked towards the castle.
"Good thing I'm not normal." I said, bumping her playfully as we walked.
***
"You, me, this," Joe said simply as I walked in the door. He set a small booklet on the counter between us. It was gold and blue and it had lettering across the front in silver.
"'Canterlot.'" I read the title after turning it around to get a better look. "Don't know if you're aware, but we're already here."
"No," Joe said as he flipped the book open to one of the colored tabs. "We're here. In the Sol Market District."
The district lay out before us. "Oh. I think I saw something like this once."
Joe snorted. "You used to work for the castle cartographer. I'd hope that you would have seen this many times before."
I shrugged and inspected the layout of the district. "Never realized it, but this district has eight roads radiating out from the center. They're pretty wavy. No wonder I got lost so easily."
"I think they designed it after..." Joe began.
We said it together. "Celestia's cutie mark." He looked at me, but my eyes remained on the map.
Joe must have marked it when he put the colored tabs in. Pony Joe's Donuts was marked with a gold dot. There were several other places marked. "What's all this?"
Joe tapped them out as he spoke. "The Canterlot Courier Center. The Prench Quarter, home to some of the best restaurants in the city." I rolled my eyes at that. "And the best ice cream shop in Canterlot."
"What about here?" I asked, pointing at a pink dot.
Joe frowned and blew at it. "Sprinkle. I might have plotted these out with a donut nearby."
I laughed, Joe joined me. "Fair enough. What about the rest of these tabs?"
Flipping through the book, Joe named off a few places. "The Canterlot National Museum in Prominence district. The Canterlot Zoo in Basking. The mines in the Core District..."
"Why does this seem familiar?" I asked myself out loud.
Joe continued without answering my question. "The ice-rink in Nightfall."
"Stop." I ordered.
He looked up from the book.
The Zoo, the museum, the Prench Quarter, an ice cream shop, the mines, the best restaurants, the skating rink. Add in the fact that we stood in a bakery and... "The day I got my cutie mark."
Joe sighed. "I'd hoped you wouldn't notice." He set the map of the city down.
"I think it's a very sweet idea, Joe. But I don't think it'll spark any memories." I said, patting his forehoof.
"How about just one place?" Joe asked, turning his hoof over to hold mine.
I shrugged. "I don't see how one place could possibly..."
"Macha Method's home in Lower Cliffside." He blurted out.
I widened my eyes. "She's still alive?"
Joe let go of my hoof and ran his hoof in a circle on the counter. "I might have told her we were coming."
"Joe!" I shouted, before catching myself.
His eyes widened, and he lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried to keep it a secret from you."
I shook my head. Even though I wasn't explaining myself well, I had to go see Macha. "Let's go. Now!"
His head tilted in confusion. "But..." I grabbed him in my magic, levitated him over the counter and set him down next to me.
"Now."
One of the eight spindly roads of Sol lead directly to Lower Cliffside, on the edge of Canterlot Plateau. The demographics skewed mostly pegasus, but with a few of the other races who appreciated the view. Lower Cliffside was one of the relatively newer districts known as The Rays. The Rays were added to Canterlot as the city expanded to cover the plateau. All of this I learned on the cab ride to Macha's home from Joe. To be fair, the Royal Cartographer likely had tried to teach me these things, but I wasn't a great student then.
As we exited the cab, I took in the view. This had to seem like staring down on the rest of the world. My own quarters in the Castle didn't have a view like this, although there were plenty of rooms overlooking the edge. Some even dangling precariously over it.
"How did you find her?" I asked as we exited the cab.
Floating some bits to the driver, Joe thanked him and turned to me. "I might have made a delivery here a few times. Not many, mind you, it took a long time to realize I'd heard her name before you'd mentioned it. And longer to remember where I'd heard it."
I tilted my head. "Really?"
Joe's eyes narrowed. He let out a little huff and shrugged. "I make a lot of deliveries." He said, defensively.
I tried not to smile, but failed. Joe noticed this and gave me a little push. "Just go knock on her door already, and bother her instead of me."
We walked up the stone walkway of a charming little cottage. The front yard garden looked well-tended. Joe motioned for me to knock. With a deep breath, I stepped up and lifted the knocker in my magic, rapping it against the door three times. I didn't know how this would go, or even if she'd remember me, but it helped that Joe was with me.