Alicorn Origins: Legends of Disharmony

by lunabrony

05 - Soft Words and Hard Truths

Present Day

This wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare. Vividly reliving a moment that she hadn't been present for, and a moment that Celestia never talked about. Luna didn't remember breaking into tears while helping to channel Celestia's memories, but when she regained herself, tears were falling from her face like a broken faucet. It was even worse for her, knowing that she had slept through the attack on Canterlot last year. Never gotten to say goodbye the first time. But was it really an attack, or an excuse for a reunion? A hostile takeover, intended to regain the throne that had originally belonged to Aurora? Or what was left of her, if anything. Wordlessly, Luna bolted down the hallway, away from her sister.

Several hours passed. The memory lingered in Luna's mind, as real as if she had experienced it yesterday. Though the memory no longer felt like her own. It had happened to some other pony, her sister, and she had seen it happen through her eyes of the mare who shouldered most of the work of ruling Canterlot. The sun was nearing its twilight position, and the irony of this was not lost on Luna. No officials had sent for her so it was likely that her sister was letting her have an evening to herself. Sleep wouldn't take her this day. The only one that came and went was Pip, her servant, bringing the food. This time it was another old time dish, little round potato dumplings covered with a rich sauce. One of the many peasant dishes that had become popular ages ago during the return of day and night after Discord's defeat. He retreated to a nook of the room, where he would stand silently for a while and read in case she had any sudden requests of the kitchen, and then he'd teleport away, able to be back instantly in case she wanted him.

Luna had cried off and on ever since retiring to her room. Pip was the only one allowed to see it. Her other guards had been sent home for the day, and she hadn't returned a single one of Celestia's summons, most of which were simple requests to join her for dinner. Her tears were a mixture of relief and fear. Celestia had years to come to terms with the knowledge of the fate of their mother, Luna had learned later on, after Discord had been defeated. When she'd been older. Pip was one of her two personal assistants, the other of which was still on vacation. She had not told either of them what had happened, it was not their business. She did, however, gesture to her personal couch.

"Lie down, Pip. You don't always have to stand." She said quietly.

He looked happily surprised, though he carried himself with dignified grace that seemed unusual on considering he was barely out of being a colt. Carefully he climbed onto the couch and lied down on his belly. "Thank you princess." Subtle body cues indicated that he was bursting with questions, and was fighting himself from exploding into a shrieking fan pony who was asked for a car ride with her idol. Though to most ponies he looked like a contented young unicorn colt on a sofa next to the princess.

Luna was not in the mood for questions, and though she treated her servants kindly, she was still royalty, and did not have to answer questions if she chose not to. Instead, she retired to her bed, the door to her private chambers closing. She knew she would have to leave eventually, but winter was coming and the days were getting shorter.

"Pip?" She asked, her voice flat. "Why do you pursue this line of work? Is it not demeaning?"

Though a part of him was bursting with questions, he kept that part in tight control. Subtle cues were always unavoidable. Ambitious plans, fatal attractions, small lies, unsaid strifes. On the whole his inner enthusiasm was fairly innocent. "Is the princess asking for this servants life story, or would she rather have a short answer?"

"I want to know why you want to work for me." She said.

"Because it makes me happy to serve another pony, and there are no other pony I would serve than you." He said, apparently deciding that she wanted the short answer. Which wasn't far off.

Luna seemed satisfied, but cautioned. "That is an admirable response, however, do not let your desire to please others inhibit your own happiness." She said. "I want you to do something for me, Pip. Something very important."

"Anything you ask," he said calmly, and though he was young and his inner being was a little hysterical, she knew he was telling the truth. Anything. If she had asked him to sneak in to Celestia's bedroom and throw a bucket of red paint across her, he'd do it.

"When you leave the castle and go home today, I want you to hug your parents and tell them you love them. If you can't, then call them. Will you do that for me?" She asked.

His smile faded. "I would love to, your highness, but I can't fulfill that request. I never knew my parents."

The alicorn's smile faded. He had never told her that before. "Then who in Equestria takes care of you when you leave here?" She sounded shocked.

"I... never leave this castle your highness." His head cowering a little from her shock. Looking ashamed and suddenly unsure of himself.

Luna looked stunned. "You're saying you've been lying to us, Pip?" She asked. "Whenever you go home for the evening, where are you going?" She sounded slightly angry, but more concerned than anything else.

"No, your highness, I'm in the employ of the castle, though I don't handle my own bits yet, and I've been bequeathed a small humble bedding. I get food with the other servants. And... this castle is not my first time as a servant, I merely went here after my mistress... passed on." He rapidly and carefully explained, looking nervous and anxious, his composure no longer under as strict control as it had been previously.

Overwhelmed by compassion, she summoned him into her Chambers, and gestured to her personal bed, which was adorned with jewels and imported silk sheets and gryffin feather mattresses. "You sleep here tonight." She insisted. "I will sleep on the floor in your place." She said. "I will hear no arguments."

He looked in two minds about it, climbing in and looking very much out of place in her gigantic and royal bed, giving her a nervous smile. Not sure whether he should be liking it, or feeling uncomfortable, so of course he felt both. And since she had ordered it, of course he gave no argument. The sun was coming down. Luna could see the outline of Celestia through the tall shaded windows. The princess of the day was standing on the highest platform, calling down the sun with her horn.

"You sleep here. I imagine my sister wants words with me. I have been ignoring her." She left him there, and made her way down the hallway to the tower where Celestia controlled the sun. She hoped she wasn't angry.

It was just a tall tower, mostly decked out in magical symbols and art. Mostly for show, and probably never something she had requested built for any particular reason. From time to time artisans and other ponies would join forces to honour Luna or Celestia with one thing or another. Some architect had probably thought Celestia needed to be up tall to use her powers. A kind mistake. A beautiful tower. A long walk up a spiraling stairway. Luna had the strength of several earth ponies, but that didn't make it any easier, the steps were steep and seemingly never ending. But the stairs weren't the worst part. The worst part was the ache in her heart she felt as she climbed them, for the stairway reminded her of a lost love, somepony she had known long ago. The architecture had been subtly deceiving, from inside it hadn't seemed very tall, but now she knew that it was clearly the tallest tower in the castle. Celestia was standing on the flat top of it. She smirked

"We had an elevator installed, why didn't you use that one?" A joke, and a weak one at that.

Luna gave a half smile, and quipped right back. "If I used the elevator all the time instead of the stairs, then I'd be fat like a certain somepony who doesn't know how to say no to cake." Anypony else who said that would earn a stint in the dungeon, she had certain rights only a sister could get away with. "Your sunset looks beautiful today."

"It's the sun that's beautiful, I just stoke its own magic to go down, no more." She said with the sagely smile that graced her a lot these days. Before the banishment war, she had been more conflicted, this older Celestia had only grown more graceful. And Celestia was right, Luna's humble task was only to encourage nature to take its course. The moon had existed long before she did, and it was possible that one day she wouldn't be around, yet the moon would still rise and fall with the help of some other pony.

"I'm sorry to have sprung such a bad memory on you last morning. And... I know what you might have been thinking, but there are no changelings now that will answer to the name Aurora. None."

Lunas smile faded instantly, and her posture stiffened. "I don't want to talk about that." She said firmly and quickly. "It's over, it's done, I refuse to speak of it. You did what you could, nopony could ask differently of you. But you gave me your story, it is time I give you mine."

Comments

[Neko Majin C]

I found this one mistake in an otherwise great chapter: 05 - Soft Words and Hard Truths:

She knew she would have to leave eventually, but winter was coming and the days were getting longer.

In the context of the paragraph, I think you may have meant "Spring was coming." KBO.