//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Letters to Canterlot // Story: Favorable Alignment // by Ice Star //------------------------------// Dearest Twilight, I write to you with terrible news that has left me on the verge of panic. Luna, my dearest sister, has vanished. I haven't seen her since the events at the Pantheon one month ago. The events there had been very dire indeed and I believe that they caused her emotional distress, since there were many bad memories that would have been brought up. I thought she excused herself from the anxiety she must have felt and taken a quiet retreat somewhere to clear her mind. Shockingly, this does not appear to be so. I have allowed my sister a month to herself to go wherever she needs to to feel better again and then return. Luna is not to be found in any of her usual spots in Canterlot and I know she is unlikely to be in the Everfree Forest because of what seeing that wreckage must do to her. No other locations within fifty miles of Canterlot have turned up any information, Discord was able to find out nothing. We cannot locate her because there is no way to teleport to wherever she may be unless that location is known, visible, has the coordinates given to us, or has been visited by either Discord or myself. Such is the folly of teleportation. Please try to keep what is discussed in these letter from reaching the public. There cannot be any panic over Luna's sudden disappearance. She must have just gone farther away than I expected and a larger amount of territory just needs to be search. The moon is still raised and lowered each night so she is safe, that much is clear, yet none of this is what really worries me. Luna is a very brash and troubled young mare and I dread to know what she could do to herself after she told me of the horrid thing that borders too close to magic life for my taste: the Tantabus. What she did with this puppet-entity is much worse. Twilight, Luna is an extremely unstable pony and with some of the topics discussed at the Pantheon she is bound to be worse off than before. I had debated even allowing her there in the first place as well as leaving her to have alone. She won't be thinking clearly and is most likely alone somewhere and very distraught and until more information is found there is nothing I can do to locate her and return her safely to Canterlot. She's too isolated for her own good and has no knowledge of how to cope with the grief she must be going through. Luna needs to be more open to socialization. Since she's returned there has been little effort to make any friends like you have and I do not believe she can remain alone like this for much longer. It isn't healthy. She isn't healthy and I should never have let her have so much time to herself when she should have been taking a cue from you and following your example and talking to ponies as much as possible. They can help her heal and there's dozens of ponies out there that could be friends with her. I trust my sister in many things, but not when it comes to her mental health. At least, not any more. She hasn't had a single friend like you do. We were alone for a long time in our foalhood which led to her feeling like close contacts weren't necessary and she never befriended anypony and constantly told herself that she didn't want to. I'm afraid she even believes this to be true when she's bound to be a horribly lonely, yet still remains adamant in not talking to others. While our youth did not allow much room for her to have friends, there is no longer an excuse for her to have none now. I'm not a substitute for a friend, I'm her family and if I had been less passive about her making friends she wouldn't be where she is now. All her life, Luna has not had a single friend or even a close acquaintance to share her time with. Hardly anypony knows anything outside about her outside of you, Discord, Cadance, and myself. She lacks the hallmarks of a healthy life: no friends, little close contacts outside of family, and little social experience in almost every field that isn't anything tied to being a princess, such as diplomacy. I would like your voice on this matter, and your insight as the Princess of Friendship would be invaluable in finding my sister and helping her recover. Sincerely, H.R.H. Princess Celestia ... Dear Princess Celestia, I nearly choked on my morning pancakes when reading this. Luna's gone?! While I don't doubt you, I would like to inquire if you've truly searched everywhere. Bringing Discord into this was a really good idea though. I'm sure he'll be able to find out something - even if it isn't what we're looking for, we both know that Discord will find something. I'll start searching through recent papers and any travel records I can first before I consider checking any local areas because those will be the easiest to look around. It's still so hard to believe anypony would vanish like that without telling anypony, but I believe that what you say of Luna is true: nothing you described there is healthy. She might turn out like Moondancer was going to if I hadn't helped out. We made up and became great friends. I even saw her in Canterlot this weekend for a studying party and it was great fun, but that's off topic. Luna must have serious problems if she's never had a single friend and is depressed as she is. After the Tantabus incident I looked into anything I could about depression since there wasn't a doubt in my mind that Luna had it. It's so sad, and even a bit scary to look at what I read and know that some ponies are like this. I always knew it was true but I never knew anypony that was so depressed they'd hurt themselves like Luna does. I didn't know anypony who was depressed until I met Moondancer and Starlight Glimmer. You wrote that Luna hasn't had any hallmarks of youth. I don't know how old she is, but I'd guess around seventeen or twenty, maybe? Somewhere like that. I have t ask, has Luna ever had a special somepony? I don't see anything here that mentions that, and I still remember the date that you helped get Luna on board with to help cheer me up after that really silly fight that Rarity and I had. Luna was so quiet throughout the entire thing. I couldn't tell if she was happy or not and then she just snapped and ran away. Was there something behind it? Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle P.S. Rarity and I made up, at long last. Again! I'm so happy! ... Dearest Twilight, Has Luna ever had a special somepony? No, she never has. You know that I've had special someponies in my past, but Luna never has. When she was a teenager Starswirl hardly ever took us on trips out of the valley. I guessed that Luna wasn't telling me something early on, even in that awful period of my life when I hardly paid her any heed. She never liked to go to court for any occasion. She grew her mane, which I had always cut short, to a length that was only considered long for a stallion and dressed androgynously and took on the role of a warrior in a way that earned her more than a few stares. Even when we overthrew the tyrant, King Sombra and were forced to banish Discord she never talked about being interested in any stallion. She never even looked at any. No secret paramour, no lover under the balcony. Nothing. She was always alone, in every way possible. She had nopony to listen to her like you and I have. No friends, no anypony. I feel so horrible for not noticing before. Ponies like her were never hated in the Tribal Era, but they weren't regarded with the same kindness ponies are treated with now. They couldn't have legitimate heirs, which is what everypony wanted back then, so they were shunned to some degree. When I took the Equestrian throne, I wanted to change that and I worked hard to so ponies like Luna could be themselves without fear or hate. They were very backwards times, Twilight, as I'm sure you've learned in your research. It breaks my heart now to know how Luna must have felt with nopony to support her. She hardly ever talked to anypony then, even me. When we became princesses, she tried to talk again, only to stop talking all together after a while, especially about romance. She never once in her life talked about romance. When we were little fillies, before the prejudiced era of the tribes, Luna dodged the question of what, as a very naive me had put it, 'her prince' would be like. Even now she doesn't answer whatever questions I try to ask in the most delicate and underhoofed ways. Does she still think the world is like how it was then? Everywhere she goes there are signs of it being otherwise, which only makes me worry more about her. I wish that is not so. I just wish she'd open up to those that care about her. Equestria was founded on principles of friendship, which ponies like you, Cadance, and myself work to spread above all else. But she has no friends and I fret over how empty her life must feel with only herself. How is my sister to spread friendship, which is a branch on the tree of Equestrian beliefs, if she remains like this? Ponies that are like this... nothing good can come of them. None of their decisions are socially optimal. None of them are correct. Sincerely, H.R.H. Princess Celestia ... Dear Princess Celestia, That really must have been so awful for her! No wonder she's so withdrawn - she's just afraid to love anypony! I can't imagine what it must have been like for Rarity and I if we were ever in a place like that. I'm not like Luna, but it still would have been hard to know that ponies would shun me just for loving Rarity. Oh, did I forget to mention that Rarity and I are back together again? We really need to stop having such meaningless fights. We aren't a silly couple from one of my mom's over-the-top and cheesy romance novels that she kept packed away in the attic where she thought that I wouldn't be able to detect the Old Book Smell. Okay, maybe we are like that, but just a little. I've looked over a ton of records, but haven't been able to find anything that looks like Luna leaving or arriving anywhere. I'm going to go look around the local areas now, with Rarity. We think the castle in the Everfree Forest would be the best place to look. She has these cute little helmets for gem hunting too that we'll both be wearing as we look around. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle ... Princess, you didn't tell me that there's another set of ruins beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters... Princess, you didn't tell me that this castle was destroyed... Princess, you didn't explain that there used to be so much...so much of everything else, a world with more gods like yourself and Luna... she wasn't there... Why didn't you tell me this?! Who are they?! Is this real? Where'd they all go? Is this related to what's been happening? How do you hide something like this for that long? I don't understand! Why weren't you and Luna on there? Where did you come from? This isn't making any sense! Rarity nearly had a heart attack when she saw this! Where did Luna go?! -Twilight Sparkle ... Dear Twilight, Luna is searching for the ponies that she believes are her parents. Her family. They aren't her family, I'm her family. That must be what she's doing. But when did she leave? Where is she going? We weren't born yet, thus Luna and I aren't there. Check all the travel records again, if you please. I'm sorry to hear about what almost happened to Rarity. Is she feeling any better? You don't want to understand, Twilight Sparkle. None of us do. None except her. Sincerely, Celestia ... THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER! ARE YOU TWO EVEN SISTERS?! -TS ... FINE. I'M CHECKING THE RECORDS. I'M CHECKING EVERYTHING. I CAN'T SLEEP. I DON'T UNDERSTAND. I'M SCARED. -TS ... THERE'S NOTHING OKAY? STILL NOTHING. RARITY KEEPS SAYING THAT. I KEEP LOOKING. THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING. SPIKE'S WORRIED AND I'M SO FRUSTRATED. I DON'T KNOW WHY I YELLED AT RAINBOW BUT I DID. -TS ... i finally got some sleep. i stopped hearing the ringing in my ears: ring ring ring ring i'm going to look again. and again. it's okay. there's something. -ts ... what are you hiding? -ts ... why won't you respond? what's all this about any more? -ts ... Princess. I quit. I quit looking. There's nothing. -Twilight Sparkle ... Celestia, One of your airships is missing. There's nothing in the records that mention it being taken by anypony or where. I was passing through to say that there's no sign of her in Vanhoover, but I did locate a nice bakery. The donuts are certainly something word worthy. Afraid I didn't bring any back though. Oops. Was the Sky Scraper given any missions lately? -D ... Dearest Twilight, I'm sorry for causing you such distress, Luna's instability and now her disappearing... these are hard topics for me because this is the pony that matters the most to me and now she's gone. Again. I don't want this to be happening again, but it is. I can't deny it because Luna isn't here, and that's left such a hole, re-opening the wound from the first time. I don't know why I didn't respond, this past week I've been so busy. Whether she likes it or not, Luna is a vital part of Canterlot. Of Equestria. Discord wrote to me of a missing airship, but I don't believe it's connected to Luna since she is able to go where she wishes, unburdened with common transportation. I'm afraid few would believe Luna if she told them her plans, and if they did I have faith in my ponies that they would recognize her distress and send word to me. She is traveling alone, but where to? I haven't the faintest idea where she might go. Perhaps to investigate some old ruins or to some distant and closed nation. I'll have messengers readied right away and a investigation pending for the airship. I think it will be a good experience for some recruits to get experience in searches by trying to recover this stolen property. It'll be as easy as checking names of a list since it was most likely some noble's fresh-out-of-college youth showing off to their friends or somepony with military connections attempting to 'borrow' what belongs to the Crown. I just want Luna back, no matter what it takes, and when I do get her back she must cast off this irrational grief and make some friends. She will be opening up to ponies after she is pulled from this awful solitary trip of hers. Sincerely, H.R.H. Princess Celestia