The Twilight of the Crystal Heart

by WanderingPony

Chapter 6: The Best Lack All Conviction

Princess Celestia was not a night pony, but she walked through the halls as dusk fell and Luna pulled her Sun from the sky to set the Moon in it's place. She'd actually been walking, almost non-stop for over a day straight, ever since she'd gotten back from the trial to watch her little ponies taken back to their dungeon home, bent and crushed under the weight of what she'd finally spat out in front of everyone who'd mattered.

I am a bad pony. I hurt you! If it wasn't for me, maybe you wouldn't have ended up puppets on a mad goddess's strings and used to destroy an entire city! Blame me! Curse me! Just...just stop hurting everyone else when I did it!

Yet, the expected torrent of abuse had yet to pour down on her head, officially. She could -feel- the stares of dozens of ponies judging her every time she passed a window, or poked her nose out to get a glimpse of the outside. Her ears picked up the sounds of angry ponies fighting from time to time- even in the castle grounds - but if she got so much as an ear in sight of the ponies, they inevitably stopped...and just stared.

Celestia hadn't slept for over two days, and it showed. Her mane did not wave so much as it occasionally twitched, tangled in the black netting that she'd worn and since ignored as it gathered knots of dulled hair in the mess. Her tail had become a broom that carried bits of debris and a half-sucked lollipop. The rest was beginning to take on a distinctly ripe odor.

I went along with Twilight's plans because I trusted her. Loved her, the little filly that had grown to a mare I could see Luna in, all over again...before everything thing went wrong. Before I nearly killed HER, too. Now, Luna surely detests me as well.

Celestia's horn scraped against an un-noticed wall as she simply forgot to pay attention, staring at the haggard alicorn that accused her in a well-polished slab of marble flooring. The bloodshot eyes mocked her, then became timid pools of guilt that wavered at the sight. A few tears rolled down to the stone to deform the image, and the spell broke.

Pulling away from the corner she'd walked into, the Princess resumed dragging her feet down yet another castle corridor. Blindly, she felt her flank bounce off another pony. Had she knocked down some servant trying to help? What if she'd hurt them? Sunset-in-summer, her eyes met the next of her victims. Dusky blue, with the night sky drifting across her face.

"Sister?", Luna said as she rubbed her nose against Celestia's slightly drippy one. "I....I do think it is time thou didst cease this maundering pace and visit the dungeons. T'would be right for you to go there."

Finally, somepony has the heart to condemn me to my place!

Celestia nodded, almost imperceptible, but enough. The two Princesses made the long walk down stairs and hallways alone, each seemingly swept clean of lesser ponies as if by magic.

Nopony wants to see me, anyway. This way, nopony will EVER see me again, and Luna will rule them. I will rule the mice and the bare stone walls, where there is no sky to mock me. Deep below, where I should be buried for all time so I can't hurt anyone I've ever loved.

The only sounds were alicorn hooves plodding against stone and the occasional *crack* of the sweet in her tail as it dragged like a sugary ball-and-chain off a tuft of tail. Finally, the two came to a large locked door, which Luna easily opened with a flick of her horn. Wordlessly, she beckoned, and silently, Celestia entered, staring at the thick layer of hay on the cell floor. The last of her dim spirits flickered and barely past the door, she ground to a halt.

Two delicate yellow wings hugged her neck and their owner sniffled a bit.

"Princess? You ain't lookin' too good. Don't tell me you slept none since we last saw each other, did you?", twanged a familiar voice.

"Well, it's clear she hasn't touched a brush- good grace, is that a jawbreaker in your tail? Heavens!"

*crunch* "Nope! Cinnamon-swirly Lots-O-Licks lolly. They're really good if you take like six at once and..."

"Pinkie! You so did NOT JUST EAT CELESTIA'S TAIL FOR A LOLLIPOP. Eeew!"

"Trixie does not think Pinkie lets anything get in her way after this long without sugar."

"Hey! Five second rule!" "Trixie also thinks that Princess Celestia has had that there longer than five seconds." "She's only been IN here for five seconds! Oh, thanks for sneaking that in, prison food is HORRIBLE."

The alicorn couldn't help herself and snort-chortled at the sheer absurdity, sending golden bits of dried grass chasing each other across the stone. She shook a bit, gently de-latching the Flutterhug in progress and nuzzled the pegasus as she brought her head above her shoulders for...she couldn't remember.

Standing around her with looks of concern, affection and even a bit of disgust (at Pinkie, who was still crunching the used sweet in her mouth along with a bit of pink hair that was most certainly NOT hers) were the same six ponies she had seen slinking back to their cells the day before.

"What...how...you...you're not mad at me? You don't HATE me? After all that I did....after Twilight...buh....but..."

"We were scared and we didn't know what happened, and you stood up for us all.", Fluttershy started.

"You told all them big-hoof ponies to their face what happened, no matter what the law said about you having to keep your mouth shut. Even if it meant telling yer own sister she nearly got kilt instead of a thousand years on the moon.", Applejack added. "Ain't nopony here who's going to look funny at a mare who steps to the line, and I'll whup Blueblood."

"I know all about what feeling like a scandal in Canterlot is like, Princess. And you tried to take it all and save US.", Rarity continued. "And if part of the cost was looking like THIS, I may only have a few buckets of water to work with, but I will undo every knot in that mane before you can say "Official Stylist To Royalty.".

Pinkie spat out what was left of Celestia's masticated tail-strands. "And we know it was whatever nasty-icky ghostie was in the Elements that did all those bad things with us, not some Discord-y Evil Pinkie and Friends. There's only one thing to do! We make it better. NO ghostie makes so many ponies hurt and sad around ME and gets away with it!".

"Would a Wonderbolt-in-training let her Princess down in a time of need? NOT. Besides, you're...Twilight's first best friend. If it hadn't been for you, none of us would of been friends, or had all the incredibly awesome stuff that led to...OK, this isn't so awesome. But we -need- to be awesome. For everypony else. For Twilight. For YOU.", and Rainbow Dash walked a curve of a straight line to put a hoof against Celestia's leg. The shaky pegasus unbalanced on three legs and tipped over...

Trixie steadied the wobbly pegasus before she could hit the hay. "Trixie is all too familiar with the sting of well-deserved shame. She will NOT let Princess Celestia drag her tail in the dirt when there is only one way to take away the pain."

"You eat your pinecones and you hit the road, you admit what's wrong and you do it right again and again, until it's better and you're the magnificent pony that Princess Celestia has always been, once more."

Celestia gaped at the showpony as the weight of Canterlot Castle seemed to fall from her wings and dissolved. Trixie, looking out for anyone but herself? For THESE ponies?

"Trixie has seen you admit to more wrong than she thought anypony could get into, but....you did it for Trixie, who doesn't deserve it. And even more so, you did it for Trixie's friends. And your sister, who loves you even more than anyone Trixie could know, and you banished HER to the moon. We can do no less, the show MUST go on."

"It's been the most terrible week of my life, but everypony here...", Fluttershy drew a line that crossed the room "...they had a terrible time, too. And when Luna put us all in the same cell together instead of apart, we talked. And we hugged a lot. And we cried a lot. We found something here in this scary dungeon, and everypony who lost it when the terrible things happened needs it back. We're going to give it back to them."

"Hope. You need hope. YOU need hope, Princess. Hope, and love, and ponies that when everything is terrible, they remind you that you can always get to a better place again if you don't trade hope for it. Twilight Sparkle never gave up hope."

"We won't."

The dam broke, and the Princess and her companions would talk. And hug. And cry. A lot. All night. But when Luna returned after raising the Sun once again, she peeked into the unguarded, unlocked door. Like a mother hen with chicks, six ponies slept under Celestia's widespread wings, and the dank stone had been made warm as the morning light as the alicorn's head lay upon it. For her, the thin flocking of hay had become the softest pillow in the land. Peace and slumber smoothed away the bitter lines that had begun to etch themselves in Celestia's face, replaced with the smile that comes from a wistful dream.

They had raised the Sun all on their own, in the darkest of places. And with that, Luna closed the door and bleary-eyed, went to bed.