"It's a beautiful monument, is it not?" a gentle voice sang out across the courtyard. Luna jumped, quickly wiped any sign of her tears away and turned to the intruder. A pink alicorn approached the ground from her flight.
"Ah! Cadance! I thought you'd gone to the library with the others!" Luna blinked.
"Well, I was, but I didn't feel right leaving you all alone out there in the gardens." Cadance explained as she fluttered down from the sky and landed beside the night princess. "When I found you weren't there, I decided to come find you... Why are you all alone out here?" she questioned.
"We... I like our time alone, it serves us- er, me well for meditation." Luna explained.
"I see... then why were you crying?" Cadance's concern was evident.
"We weren't crying, young Cadance. We merely had something in our eye." Luna flourished her words proudly, and flicked her hair as to imply that she was by far above the act of crying. But her response was met with a raised eyebrow.
"So... why were you crying?" the younger alicorn pressed. With a heavy sigh, Luna deflated, and drooped her wings.
"The truth is, we haven't talked with anypony in a great many years so openly. If we... I... tell you, would you promise to keep it a secret for me?" Luna scratched at the ground, refusing to look Cadance in the eye.
"Of course, Luna. I promise you." Cadance replied, and sat beside her lunar relative.
"Pinkie Pie promise?" Luna insisted. Cadance smiled, crossed her heart and recited the pinkie promise oath from memory. Luna smiled, clearly satisfied and convinced.
"Okay... we are out here tonight, because this statue breaks our... my... heart." Luna explained. Cadance's shocked expression led her to explain further. "This statue was intended to commemorate a wonderful time for young Twilight, to celebrate her joining the ranks as a princess of Equestria... But to me, it is a celebration of what will be her pain. It feels wrong."
"Luna, do you not think Twilight will make a fair ruler?" the concern on Cadance's face leaked heavily into her speech.
"You misunderstand, dear niece. I am more than certain that Twilight will make a fine ruler. My concerns with it lay... elsewhere." Luna chanced a glance up, gauging Cadance's expression.
"How do you mean?" the pink alicorn's stare intensified. Luna sighed and looked away.
"Cadance, you know of my time as Nightmare Moon... You know of my banishment, my imprisonment on the moon, and you therefore know of my shame. But tell me, what do you really know of my sister?" Luna asked.
"Auntie Celestia?" Cadance said warmly, but toned herself down as Luna winced at the fondness of her sister's name. "Well, it was under her instruction and tutelage that I ever became an alicorn. Same goes for Twilight. Celestia gave me the life I live now... After my parents died, well, she gave me a home and a purpose. If you're looking for ill things to say of her, I have none to give you."
"That is the problem, dear Cadance. Nopony is left alive, aside from Discord perhaps, who knows Celestia as I do. Nopony who would dare speak a disparaging word of her. Nopony knows the truth of the pony underneath that smile, good or bad." Luna frowned.
"But she's forgiven you, hasn't she? After everything that happened between you, she's accepted you with love?" Cadance ventured.
"Of course. But it is not she who has done all the forgiving, Cadance. But she is the one who has yet to offer an apology. The situation surrounding my decision to take on my visage of Nightmare Moon is much deeper that either of us have spoken of. Someday, I hope she'll come to face the wrongs she committed as I have had to do since my return, and to profess sincerely to me that she means it when she says she is sorry." Luna squinted up to the setting sun, heavy thoughts flashing across her eyes.
"No offense Luna, so please forgive me my forwardness, but it seems to me that you were primarily the one doing wrong, seeing as you forced the night upon the day. From what I've seen, Celestia has been nothing but kind to you since your return." Cadance defended her mentor.
"I did far worse than that. I was deserving of my sentence by the end. That much is certain... I have no doubts that my sister has kindness in her, but could you believe me if I told you that she was not always as such?" Cadance furrowed her brow, an obvious conflict taking place in her mind.
"Luna, I'll admit that it's hard for me to imagine. As long as I've ever known her, she's never been anything less than kind to anypony... But as you said earlier, I have not known her all through her life. So I suppose I'd have to take you at your word on it." Cadance conceded. "And I don't think you'd lie to me. I have a knack for telling when somepony has ill things at heart, and I don't sense anything insincere from you." Luna smiled at this, the first genuine smile in a long time.
"Thank you Cadance. I think I actually needed to hear that." Luna sniffed, a few tears had welled up again.
"But Luna, I still don't understand. Why does this statue make you sad? What does it have to do with Celestia?" Cadance motioned towards the monument looming above them. They both turned their gazes up and marveled the pristine stones that glittered fabulously in the evening light.
"It goes back to before my banishment. Back then, my sister was much more... how do I say... controlling, if you will." Luna's smile faded and her ears flattened back. "She did some very terrible things to me, Cadance. Some wounds never really heal, I suppose. I won't say too much more on that, because she's clearly no longer that pony, and jading your opinion of her is not my intention. But her need for control and attention led her to making some very rash decisions back then, and it cost us both greatly." she continued.
"She was hot-headed, and selfish. But perhaps worst of all, she had and has a silver tongue, so to speak. She has a way with words that ponies just seem to trust. And she knows this. She was so manipulative back then, and she had strings attached into everything, like the world was a puppet and she the puppeteer." Luna turned her back to the statue. "I spent a long time observing my sister before my banishment, and was appalled at this realization. The reason it connects to this statue now is that I can see that still, more than 1000 years later, she has her influence over the lives of others." Cadance raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"Luna, you make it sound as though you think she's controlling ponies' lives... I must ask, and please don't be mad, but are you sure this isn't based on remnant feelings toward the problems you had with your sister all those years ago?" the princess of love's trepidation of the concept Luna presented was very evident.
"Cadance. A part of me will always love my sister. Never doubt that fact. But she has many secrets well hidden from others, she keeps her personal failings from you and Twilight above all else." said Luna sternly. "Do you truly think she does not have her threads in others' lives?" Luna asked.
"Think about it Cadance. Who has been in complete power for the last millennia and beyond? Celestia has. Who is it that has opened nearly every school, educational facility, orphanage, hospital and program for gifted ponies in modern Equestria? Celestia did. Which pony is it that made a point so seek out and cozy up to specific ponies to put in high places of Nobility or otherwise, including your place as 'ruler' of the Crystal Empire? It was Celestia. Have you not noticed that whenever something happens of importance in Equestria or the surrounding Kingdoms, Celestia is involved?"
"That doesn't mean her intentions are ill." Cadance frowned.
"Certainly not. I never said her intentions were ill, but now tell me who put the effort into both yours and Twilight's lives to allow your transcendence into alicornhood?" the moon princess stared almost coldly at the younger alicorn.
"Well, Celestia did. But is that a bad thing?" Cadance shrunk back.
"Not necessarily. Clearly both you and Twilight were a good choice for the positions given you, the Universe would not have accepted your ascendance were you not. But I fear her intentions have been subconsciously muddied all this time. She believes that everything she does, she does only for the betterment of Equestria. But I submit that many things that she does are for the betterment of herself." Luna sighed, and gently placed a hoof on Cadance's shoulder.
"You are clearly befitting of the role of Princess, but has talked with you of the weight it bears?" Luna asked.