"Good morning, Twilight." The sun alicorn addressed her student in her usual happy and regal voice. Twilight nodded and gave a shy smile.
"Morning, Princess Celestia." Twilight sat in the empty gold chair with a wooden inlay between Celestia and Sombra.
"A lovely morning to you as well, Princess Twilight. Sombra's deep voice pierced in the moment she and Celestia had. Celestia's smile twitched and Twilight look down and quietly gave Sombra his hello.
"Hello again, Sombra", she whispered.
Celestia coughed, signaling her time to speak.
"Anyways, we can have breakfast now that Twilight is here."
Her white horn glowed its gold color and the bright espresso wooden double doors opened at her command. Out came three unicorn maid ponies holding covered platters with their magic. One of those unicorns had two platters to which Twilight assumed was for the king and prince. Each of the maid ponies went their own direction, one platter for each occupant of the table. The platters were set perfectly on the long table and Twilight couldn't help but realize that all the serving maid ponies were different. After all the covered platters were set, the maid ponies all bowed at the same time and left in a single file line.
Everypony lifted their platters with their magic to find different types of unique and beautifully hoof-crafted foods. Twilight's eyes widened at her plate, her platter may have been too fancy for her taste. Her plate contained red, yellow and green apple sandwiches that were cored, sliced flat and garnished with a pinch cinnamon. Sandwiched by the apples, was a generous amount of peanut butter mixed with oats and chocolate chips with a chalice of chilled honey tea with a slice of lemon on the side.
Twilight quickly looked over to Celestia's plate and the look on her face seemed that this wasn't her first time eating a lovely meal as this. The sun princess' plate had a thick stack of crepes that had cream between each one of them. The stack crepes were decorated with finely cut pieces of oranges, pineapples, and mangos that were drizzled over by a sweet golden sauce and finally another chalice filled with what looked like orange juice with an orange slice on the edge of the chalice .
As everypony started eating, Celestia focused on Twilight.
"Ahem. So, Twilight, did you sleep well?" The sun princess levitated a silver fork with a big piece of the stacked crepes.
"It was okay". Twilight looked down at her plate, she couldn't look her mentor in the face and lie about the very disturbing nightmare last night.
Celestia somehow picked up on Twilight's uneasy feeling and decided to change the subject.
"So, now that we all had time to process the gravity of our situation, It's time we discuss a solution."
Celestia shoved the fork with a piece of the stacked crepes in her mouth.
"What do you suggest?" Sombra said. The king of darkness had yet to touch his plate, which was a surprise to Twilight, while Prince Choron had already started eating. Sombra's breakfast was a large piece of chocolate cake with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries baked inside of it and topped with banana slices and whipped cream and lastly, a chalice of mocha coffee. His son had a small bowl of oatmeal garnished with granola, chocolate shavings and rainbow sprinkles with a small chalice of milk.
"Well, I prefer to take the nonviolent route". Celestia sips her orange juice.
"Which is?"
The sun princess looked him in the eyes, she knew that Sombra was most likely not going to like her proposition.
"I believe you and your son should return to where ever you both came and I will have my guards find Luna."
"What then?" Sombra didn't like where this was going.
"Once she returns home, I will tell her that you visited and if she confirms of the...affair, and claims your son as hers, then I will allow her to be involved with the foal."
Choron stopped eating and stared at the sun princess.
"Excuse me?" Sombra's eyes narrowed. Allow Luna to be involved with Choron? What does that mean? Sombra's deep mind began to boil in rage, who does Celestia think she is?
"Who gave you such right?" The king of darkness gave a very nasty tone filled with rage and disgust to the sun princess, although doing so, he still avoided yelling.
Both Twilight and Choron jumped at Sombra's voice, neither of them has ever heard a pony speak with such disdain to another and Celestia obviously caught onto the stallion's change of tone.
"I am trying to settle this without letting word of this spreading to other ponies." Celestia was firm and stood her ground.
"It is not your decision as to whether or not Luna will be involved in Choron's life".
"She is my sister, I care about her safety and I do not want this situation becoming a scandal."
Twilight was speechless as both ponies argued, something Celestia said was nagging at the friendship princess and she knew what it was. Twilight felt as if she understood Sombra's anger, even she knew that her mentor's proposition was flawed.
"Tch, safety? Do you take my son as some sort of monster because of what I have done in the past?
Celestia went silent which only confirmed Sombra's suspicion.
"My son is not a reflection of myself, he chooses his own path and I will not stop him. If he chooses to rule along side my or even fight against me with your pathetic ponies, then so be it." It was as if Sombra took pride in allowing his son choose his own destiny. Celestia felt a little pain in her heart.
It was wrong to judge Choron based upon his father.
He was only a foal.
However, she knew that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Typically, a villain would teach their offspring to be like them, but in Sombra's case, that didn't seem true. Maybe having Choron changed him. Celestia sighs deeply.
"I deeply apologize for assuming that your son would harm my sister, it's just been very hard dealing with her disappearance." Sombra tried to find a hint of dishonesty within Celestia's tone of voice, but he couldn't find it, he felt how sincere she was being and took a moment to take a breather.
"All I request is that Luna becomes involved with Choron, after all, Choron is the one who wants to meet her the most, right, my son." Sombra looked at Choron, who in turn, for the first time since the trip to Canterlot, gave his father a smile.
"Yes, father." Choron's sweet voice replied as his father gave him a smile. Sombra turned back to Celestia.
"Moving on, I suggest that Princess Twilight finds the solution to our dilemma. After all, it was your choice to invite her, Celestia." Twilight jolts as all three ponies look at the at her for an answer.
"H-huh?!" Twilight glances at her mentor for approval. Celestia took a couple of moments to think about what Sombra said. She couldn't really find an issue with Twilight deciding what to do.
"I suppose that is fair. Are you comfortable with this, Twilight?"
"As long as it's okay...." Twilight looked down at her half-eaten plate for a moment, she then looks up after coming up with an answer.
"I think everypony should stay here until Luna comes back on her own." It's not like Luna was kidnapped and was held, prisoner. Right?
Sombra smiles.
Silence.
"On her own?" Celestia asked curiously, it didn't sound like a bad idea, but what if Luna was in trouble and needed help.
"Yes, it's not like Luna will be missing forever, maybe she left to have some alone time." Sombra and Celestia did consider that fact, it does make sense.
"How long has Luna been missing", Twilight continues.
"About a month. Do you believe Luna will come back, Twilight?"
"Of course, Princess. We just need to have faith that Luna will come."
At that moment, Celestia felt a strong wave of hope and confidence fill her heart. The white alicorn always knew she was overprotective over her sister, after all, when they were fillies, Luna used to get herself in a good amount of trouble and was quite air-headed. One time, Luna and Celestia were making homemade cookies and after taking the batch out of the oven, the cookies tasted like rusted iron. The young fillies found then out that Luna had accidentally added three tablespoons of baking powder instead of three teaspoons.
The sun princess smiled at the memory. She then grabbed her chalice of orange juice with her magic and chugged it down all at once. Then all of a sudden Celestia's silver forked moved quickly from her breakfast to her mouth and had eaten the rest of her stacked crepes and stood up from her chair.
"Okay! This castle needs to be cleaned from top to bottom. My baby sister is coming home!" Celestia announced. There was a burning fire in her eyes. She took off running through the double doors while ordering maid ponies and servants to start cleaning the castle.
"Well, you certainly have given Celestia hope," Sombra commented. Twilight simply blushed.
"Heh, I guess."
"So now we just wait for Princess Luna?"
"That's the plan. I'm sure Luna would be happy to see you both again."
"Hmm..." Sombra's eyes drifted to space, it looked as if he was spacing out again. What'll happen when Luna comes back? How will she react? How will she explain herself for not meeting her son? The only way to find out is to wait.
All of a sudden, Prince Choron stepped toward Princess Twilight and lifted his head to look deep into her eyes. Twilight looked back down at him with a hint of nervousness, throughout the time seeing him, Choron was always hidden behind his father and avoided any type of contact with her and Celestia. Seeing him stand in front of her at his own will was a bit odd. However, at the same time, for being the son of Sombra, he was still really cute and had his father's features.
"Princess Twilight?" There's that sweet voice again, it even brought Sombra back to earth.
"Yes?"
"Is Mother a good pony, just as Father said?"
Twilight instinctively giggled.
"Of course, she is, and you're very lucky to have her as a mother. I could go on and on about all the times she's helped other ponies " The little prince gave Twilight a smile, although Sombra was confused about the "lucky to have her as a mother" part, but he didn't want to press Twilight about that since what she said did make Choron smile.
"Thank you, Princess." The little prince bowed and walked back to his father where he gets a pat on the head. Twilight's heart fluttered, all of her previous fears and worries just disappeared.
"Well, Princess, My son and I will be in our rooms to prepare." Sombra and Choron walked to the double doors and left the dining room.
Twilight sat back in her chair to finish off the rest of her breakfast, she looked at the grandfather clock to find out the time to be about 11:30. She still had enough time to finish then brush her teeth.
Out of nowhere, Twilight heard little hoof steps, only to catch Choron who ran back into the dining room alone. He ran toward the table and levitated his unfinished bowl of oatmeal and ran back out of the room.
Twilight let out another giggle, when Sombra first came back to Canterlot, Twilight didn't know what to think, she thought that he came back to take over Canterlot. But now, it seemed like Twilight found out more about the king of darkness outside of being that one villain who tried to take over Canterlot. Twilight ate another apple sandwich as she thought about how Sombra now seemed no different than any other father who loves his son, and only now has Twilight realized that most of her fear of him has disappeared. Though obviously, he was still very scary when angry, but in a good way, if that made sense. Twilight smiled as she remembered that book about extreme emergencies she brought that was still in her bag. Maybe she and Celestia were just a little paranoid.
Things were beginning to look up.
In a dark cave, a pony woke up from a nap, she rubbed her eyes to remove the rest of the sleepiness from her eyes. The pony then stood up and stretched every limb she could including her wings. She began to walk to the cave entrance and peered outside, the sun was beginning to set and the sky above began to darken. The pony walked completely out of the cave and spread out her wings.
With one flap of both wings, she ascended to the skies and made her way to the nearest cliff top. She stood at the edge of the cliff and waited for the sun to leave the skies completely. Then the pony illuminated the dark night with the blue glow of her horn and out came the moon in it's pure and white glory. The moon slowly raised to the sky along with the pony who controlled it until the moon reached the center of the sky. The stars started randomly appearing in the sky giving off small sparkles that never compared to the stars in the ponies blue mane. Silently, the pony descended back to the rough stone of the cliff and sat down on the edge to bask in the night sky.
On top of Canterlot Castle, Celestia watched as the sky was filled with the moon and stars. She sat on top of the tallest roof of the castle to get the closest seat to the sky, it was always a sight to see even if Luna wasn't there to enjoy it with her sister. Just like when Luna was banished to the moon and how Celestia had to take her place, even though Celestia could raise and set the moon, she never could make the sky as beautiful as her sister did every single night. A tear fell out of the princess' eyes as the memories of Nightmare Moon invaded her mind. Instead of wiping the tear off, she just allowed it to fall down her face and drip on the roof. At that given moment, Celestia didn't even care about her problems or even the one she was going through anymore. She didn't care if Luna had an affair with Sombra or had his child. She just wanted her baby sister to come home.