The day court had finally finished, and Celestia finally had her vacation lined up. It was only one day, but tomorrow would be her day off, so whenever she dragged herself out of bed in the morning she could do whatever she wanted. All she wanted was to do under the mountain and visit foresight, then go above the mountain and visit Yggdrasil. She began trotting to her room keeping up a semi-quick pace in order to rush her way to bed. As she passed by a corner of a hallway she saw a seldom used door. She slowed, before stopping right in front of it. She sighed as she whispered "Oh, Lulu." She looked around the door as if worried someone would see before ducking inside. She walked down the hallway to Luna's room. It was trashed, with burn marks in the wall and a grisly outline of a bony splashed into a wall with ash and gunk. She had no clue how long she sat there, but the moon was already up and beginning to set before she left. None stayed there longer than necessary, and the servants were barred from entering. She turned and walked out, back into the rear hallway.
The empty palace hallways were a sight that would have confused a visitor to the royal Canterlot palace. The hall was furnished rather lavishly, what with the fancy chairs tables and beautiful tapestries adorning either side of the hallway. However, this particular hallway had been nearly abandoned for the last 40 years. It wasn’t that the area was out of the way, in fact is was one of the fastest ways across the castle from the observatory to the main gate. It was hooked to almost all the main castle rooms, granted when you entered from that specific hallway it was always from the rear areas that hid the walker from view, but they could still be used to get anywhere quickly and easily. If you told a resident this, they may think that explains it, it was a servant's hallway that was decorated in case of a lost foreign dignitary. But servants hadn’t used the hallway except to clean it. Even then they did so quickly while trying to leave as soon as possible. However, there was one pony who was walking through the hallway. She was trembling with each step. She still held a regal bearing, but you could tell something was amiss. As she walked by she would flap out all the candles with a small tremor of her wings. When she passed the candles she would light the candles again with a small beam of fire from her horn.
She walked down the hallway, the clip clap of her hooves echoing down the empty hallway. She only passed a window once, and the soft moonlight from outside gave a ghostlike quality to her normally flawless features. She stopped at the middle of the tapestry. It’s rich purple background showing the moon being formed by a beautiful mare in black armour. The grey highlights making the mare seem to be an embodiment of the elements of night. With a foreboding atmosphere followed by undertones of comfort and safety. The alicorn quickly blinked her eyes and pushed the tapestry up.revealing a door marked with a small sign. The sign said a vague message about a poisonous generator room. It was easily brushed aside while the alicorn opened the door to a simplistic tea room. It had a dusty looking tea set. The set itself was ivory, and in a black inlay had small scythes engraved into each individual cup. While the saucer and pot had a small mural of a ponies lifetime. Though the ending was a bit morbid and showed the two reaponies escorting the aged soul. The pony once again blinked, however this time tears weren’t stopped by such a token gesture. “Oh, Luna....”
A voice, raspy, deep, and yet soft, came from behind her. “Auntie, this isn’t your spot to come.” The pony turned around and looked at the source of the voice. A large pony, almost twice her size stood in the doorway. “You aren’t supposed to be here in my private room. We had an agreement. I only extended the invitation for weekly tea to mother. If you need me, ask when we have our centennial.”
The robed pony started to turn around, but the alicorn leaned towards him. “Please, I need help. I didn’t want her to go. I wanted to help, but I wasn’t strong enough. I had to do something! She was trying to become a dictator, and the elements tried to kill her. It took all I had to just banish her, and even that separated the elements from me, maybe permanently. Please, I just want someone to help me.” The ponies face scrunched up, her breathing started to speed up, and tears flew down her face at an unnatural rate. “Please, Stiff-”
The robed pony grew, and his hood flew back, revealing a skull. Small amounts of flesh still clung to his bone face. “THAT IS NOT A NAME FOR YOU!!!! THAT IS A NAME FOR MY MOTHER TO CALL ME, AND MY AUNT WHO HELPED MY MOTHER THROUGH THE ISSUES THAT SHE SURELY KNEW WERE HAPPENING! NOT FOR SOME FOOLISH FOAL THAT COULDN’T SEE A TORTURED SOUL THROUGH THE THIN MASK IT WORE WHEN IT LEFT THIS ROOM. IT IS A NAME FOR ONE WHO WOULD HAVE NOTICED HER SISTER HAVING TO USE HER SON AS A SHOULDER TO CRY ON, AND WOULD HAVE ATTEMPTED TO AT LEAST INTRODUCE HER TO A FRIEND!! SO CELESTIA-” The last word was spit with such venom Celestia recoiled backwards, almost knocking over the table. “YOU CAN CALL ME BY MY REAL NAME, OR YOU CAN LEAVE!” The robed figure shrinked, going to the size of Celestia. He let loose a breath, and the hood of his cloak went back over his head. His voice turned to an icy chill masked by politeness. “As an avatar under the control of the princess gods of Equestria I will humbly assist the goddess of sun and life in whatever official capacity she requests. If she requires me before the meeting of the centennial I hereby state she simply need fill the teaset with sweet tea and three ice cubes, and I shall arrive the next night.”
Celestia nodded rubbing tears out of her eyes with her wings. Then I ask your professional opinion Sti- I mean, Mortis. Discounting the events leading to her fall. Is there some way that I could have saved her?”
Mortis nodded towards a chair, which Celestia then sat in. He moved around the table and sat down in the chair opposite. “No, by the time she changed her name to Nightmare Moon it was to late. She required an intervention in the last few hundred years, when she was cut off from ponykind. When she asked everyone to call her Nightmare Moon my mother died. When she refused to see me she was beyond help, even by the most sincere of help.” Slowly Mortis moved both teacups to be filled with pots, which Celestia then poured.
She slowly grabbed one of the teacups and took a sip. She almost flinched at how sweet it was. She forgot how sweet Mortis drank his tea. “So,what would you suggest I do now? You knew her best, and I can’t find anypony else who would stand to look at me that knew the full story.”
Mort calmly took a sip. The sound of bone grinding came from his mouth and he silently added two more sugar cubes to his cup. “Well, while I know not if Nova knew of the situation, I know that Yggdrasil knew and was trying to help your sister's...dilemma. With that, I believe I shall resume my duties. I have much to do and I have no more pressing appointments at this time. Remember. If you need me officially, you know what to do.” As he sunk through the floor the hidden message was clear. Non-professionally, Celestia was dead to him. She sat there for a moment, before casting a ten second cleaning spell and walking out of the door, careful to put everything back the way Luna liked it.
The sky was clear, in mourning Celestia had wiped the entire night sky out, leaving only the moon to fill the night sky. Some ponies had claimed it was terrifying, however Celestia said it wasn’t as terrifying as what she had to do to her sister, which had shut them up fairly effectively. However on this particular night there was one dot, and that dot was Celestia, flying up Canterlot mountain to reach Yggdrasil’s favourite spot. She shot over the mountain top to a small permanent cloud home right above the mountain. There was a little garden dog setup in the front lawn and a sign that said welcome. All in all a friendly little house. Celestia softly landed on the door and knocked, in a manner far to embarrassed to be a mother visiting her daughter. A cheerful voice hummed its way to the door. The door opened up and a small gray alicorn jumped out. “Hello mom, want a snack?” Celestia opened her muzzle to respond and was immediately cut off. “Of course you do, plus we’ve got to talk anyways, so get in here.” As Celestia skirted in she saw for a half of a second a robed figure slide into the shadows, but as quickly as she saw it, it was gone.
The cloud house was quaint, with few furnishings, but enough bright colours to blind a lesser pony. Celestia moved towards her daughter who was trotting towards the kitchen. “Oh, Iggy. It’s been far to long.” Iggy briefly faltered before changing course to go to the couch.
Iggy sat down and patted the corner with her hoof, beckoning Celestia nearer. “Mother dearest, it has indeed been to long. Last I saw you was...” Iggy put up her hoof and started counting. “forty two years ago, I believe there was what grandmother used to call a familial spat.”
Celestia nodded. “Please tell me you know what I was going to ask already so I need not explain it again. Living through it once was enough, and I am loathe to do it again.”
Iggy levitated two trays of food out to the living room, and passed one to her mother. “Of course I do mom. And you wanted to know if I could bring her back.” Celestia nodded. Iggy smiled. “Already done” Celestia’s face lit up. But Iggy frowned and the smile diminished. “However, the spell I had to use had it’s little quirks. It won’t purify her, and will bring her back on the thousandth year anniversary of her banishment. That was the best I could do.”
Celestia nodded. “Thank you so much my daughter. I cannot express my thanks that you have done this for me, I will simply re-bind the elements to myself and purify her without a large battle this time, fixing all I have done.”
Iggy’s head sunk. “I’m afraid I have worse news mother, the elements are no longer yours to bind, in your use of them against one of their bearers a failsafe has appeared. It appears that they each have an average pony as the bearer, except for magic, which as you may have noticed, has disappeared.” Celestia’s face scrunched up as she attempted not to cry in front of her daughter. “Fear not mother, I talked to foresight today, and he said that a new bearer for the elements would appear when the time is right.”
Celestia nodded. “Thank you so much, I love you Iggy. Have you seen Nova anywhere? I need to break the news to our youngest.”
Iggy looked around at everything that wasn’t Celestia, “Welllllllllllll, did you notice anything about the night sky, like, maybe a star you couldn’t move?” Celestia shook her head, half in honesty, and half in fear. Iggy rambled on. “there’s a chance that since her mom is now banished to the moon that hothead decided to turn herself into a more cosmic form to talk to her mom. and that she refuses to return until she’s sure her mom is back for good.”
Celestia kept shaking her head. “Not little hothead, she just got her official job. I saw her not to long ago trotting around the garden chasing butterflies. Ju-just last century I taught her levitation. I-i-i-i....” Celestia’s dam finally broke, and tears began falling freely. “I never wanted any of this to happen, I got so caught up in my job that I forgot about my own family!!!!”
She collapsed on the floor, and Iggy put a hoof around her, trying to comfort her. They lay there a while, Daughter holding mother together, hoping the best for what’s to come. Eventually Celestia got herself together. “Thank you Iggy, I needed to talk.” She gently pushed away the embrace of hooves and wings that just a moment ago concealed all the hurt from the outside world. Her features had smoothed into their normal regal elegance. I think I’ll be able to move on, in a way.” She turned to her daughter once more. “I think, I’d enjoy those snacks now. If the offer still stands.
Iggy nodded “Of course, I have some biscuits and drinks set up in the dining room, Foresight said he might even crawl out of his basement in order to come and enjoy a real dinner instead of eating his premade meals he keeps trying to sell.
Celestia smiled. “I do hope so, for the one in charge of the future he does seem to have a bad track record whenever he tries to start any business enterprise.”
A voice piped up from the doorway. “Yeah, but he does still manage to know exactly when to show up.” Celestia turned and saw her son. She almost tackled him into a hug. And while he complained about his mother's love, deep inside her soul, Celestia knew she would be okay, and unbeknownst to everyone, a small star popped into existence beside the moon, and flared up as if signalling, an eternal testament to a family's love.