Skyfall

by Viktor Lionheart

Regret

Skyfall

Concept and Writing by Viktor Lionheart

This is my first fanfic ever, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give me to help me improve my writing. Thank you all for your time!

Chapter 4 : Regret

Celestia commanded her limbs to move but they refused to obey. No amount of effort could tear her away from the infernal gaze of those hateful eyes.

Nightmare Moon grinned, poised elegantly at the far end of the room with only the meager light of the early morning sun framing her features. Even in the half-darkness, her eyes appeared to glow of their own pale green light as their pupils contracted tightly, searching hungrily over her prey.

“I missed you…” she whispered, the frigid loathing that coated her words hanging like icicles from her breath. Her lips barely parted as she spoke, and beneath her voice Celestia thought could hear just the faintest deadly hiss, like that of a snake poised to strike.

Finally, Celestia seemed to find the will to move. Her body automatically slid from beneath her blankets, her hooves meeting the carpet without a sound. She exhaled slowly, her lungs prematurely pinching off the stream of air in her struggle to remain calm, causing a thin, shaky note to whistle through the air as the breath passed her lips.

She loosed a nervous laugh, her lips curling into a hint of a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Dreaming…” The sound of her voice was barely audible, and yet carried a touch more confidence than her first response had. “…This is a dream, and I am going back to bed.”

Despite her words, she did not move a muscle. Whether she hadn’t been convinced by her own weakly delivered attempt at persuasion or if she simply couldn’t force herself to move any further, she remained rooted to the spot, unblinking.

Seeing that she would have to be the one to carry the conversation, the younger alicorn cantered delicately to her sister’s side. Celestia didn’t move even as she closed the distance to naught but a few inches, fixing her dazzling green eyes with her own determined glare.

She sniffed loudly, taking a long draft of the aroma of Celestia’s mane. Her eyes fluttered for a moment as she appeared to revel in its scent before she drew her muzzle to meet that of her elder sister, gazing intently into her eyes at point blank range.

“Well, aren’t we the big, grown-up girl? You weren’t so calm the last time…or so quiet. I wonder just how much you’ve really changed?”

“One warning…” Celestia’s tone was dead calm, almost bored, her confidence now returning after the initial shock. “I’ve had a long day, and I do not intend to lose any more rest on some silly apparition.”

“Always so careless with your words, sister. Or perhaps you’ve forgotten that there’s a difference between dreams and nightmares.”

Nightmare’s grin remained, unwavering at the tip of her snout. Celestia simply stared for a few moments before conceding a curt “Very funny,” regaining her confidence and turning sharply about with a haughty snort.

“Do you think that she will thank you?”

She froze, genuinely irritated this time. What she had said about having a long day was true, and she was not in any sort of mood to deal with her subconscious giving her guilt trips, not right now.

Even if she knew that it was right.

She whipped back about with the intention of telling this particularly annoying figment of her imagination off with a wave of her horn when she stopped cold, her mouth dropping silently open in surprise.

Twilight Sparkle gazed calmly back, though in her features lurked a faintly sinister edge, as though there was no mirth behind the small smile that played across her lips. The fact that her most faithful student was staring at her at eye level rather than from one or two feet below her visage did not immediately register in Celestia’s mind. At the moment her attention was too muddied by simple surprise and utter exhaustion to process that particular oddity.

“Dear Princess Celestia…” murmured Twilight, in perfect mimicry of the young mare’s voice. “…being a good friend means being able to keep a secret, but you should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend.”
The moment that it had finished speaking, the face that looked like Twilight changed, elongating and darkening until Nightmare Moon’s hungry grin greeted her once more.

Celestia’s expression did an odd spasm, so small that nearly anypony could have easily missed it had that pony not been the one who was currently staring her straight in the face. She said nothing, forcing herself not to betray her emotions, but in doing so she prevented herself from mustering the strength to turn away again.

Nightmare Moon simply pressed closer, forcing Celestia to lean back. Her words had struck a nerve, and she knew it.

“Wise words from a young mind, don’t you think?”

“Stop it.” Celestia whispered her tone suddenly dire. She scowled, her mind jumping nervously between anger and shame. Her fatigue was getting to her, she told herself. This was to be expected, but she could deal with this decision when she had the strength to do so, not now when she felt about ready to collapse.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you. You aren’t my sister. She will know when it is time for her to know, and no sooner.”

This time, Nightmare abandoned any pretense of happiness. She scowled, and the fur on the back of her neck bristled with rage.

“Selfish little brat, aren’t you? But that’s what I’ve come to expect by now. You can be so cruel, Celestia.”

“Silence!” Celestia bellowed. Had the command been uttered by anypony else, it would have sounded pretentious, but she had injected so much command and authority into that word that even an Ursa Major would likely not have hesitated to obey.

“I have not spent the last few centuries sitting on my hooves, nor have I neglected the reality of Luna’s involvement in this,” she rumbled, her voice quaking slightly despite her best efforts to maintain her confidence. “I have always done nothing but act in her best-“

“LIAR!”

Faster than she could react, an ebon blur impacted on Celestia’s jaw with a resounding crunch. Immediately, the Princess staggered, the edges of her vision sparkling with a flurry of red stars as the pain from the blow blasted her thoughts apart.

The sudden absence of her rational inner voice left a sizeable void, and that space was immediately occupied by what could only be described as panic. A flurry of individual thoughts flew at one another, colliding explosively as they all muscled to be the first to have its implications realized. In the end, perhaps out of instinct, Celestia’s mind settled into a state of numbed shock, her eyes staring blindly into the carpet.

She spat, her throat convulsing painfully as she turned slowly to face the being that had struck her. Nightmare Moon, her teeth bared in something between a smile and a grimace, stood panting over her. She was clearly exhilarated as she examined the small splash of vibrant scarlet liquid staining the tip of her still raised hoof.

“Y…Y-y-y-you’re…” Celestia stammered, all of her self- confidence and resolve instantly vanishing. The entire façade of her bravery collapsed violently about her as she pushed herself away, her hooves clumsily fumbling beneath her.

The mad cackle that boomed from mere inches before her was deafening, but even if it had been little more than a whisper on the wind, it would have torn into Celestia’s heart with the same degree of savagery as it did in that moment.

Sure, enough, a small trickle of blood dripped from just under the right side of her vision, spattering silently on the magnificent carpet below.

“…you’re real…”

Nightmare sighed, taking care to emphasize her disdain with each syllable.

“Even after all this time you’re still such a disappointment… I’d waited so many years to hear your voice, and now you don’t even have the decency to scream. “ Her grin widened grotesquely. “You will scream for me, won’t you? Just like you did on that night-“

“STOP IT!” Celestia shuddered with a mixture of fear and rage, all of her senses snapping suddenly and violently into focus. “Why, Luna…Why? I was so happy…so happy to see you again…I missed you…I cried every night for years after…after I-“

“I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!”

Once again, the fog of reddish stars clouded her vision as the second blow connected with her chest. Celestia heaved backward, all of the air being knocked from her lungs with a pathetic squeak. Nightmare didn’t bother to approach, but simply stared in utter disgust as her elder sister clawed at her throat for breath.

“You know as well as I do that you’ve never seen Luna as an equal. She’s always just been a tool to you. Even now you’re simply trying to use her to justify your own cowardice!”

Celestia stuggled just to breathe. Her hooves flailed blindly for a bit before finally finding the ground, forcing herself off of her back. With an agonized rasp, her lungs finally began to heed her commands, and she doubled over, coughing with her head between her forelegs.

“Always acting in her best interest…as if your weakness wasn’t revolting enough; your stupidity is utterly astounding.”

“Luna…Luna please, don’t make me do this again…” Celestia begged between each cough, her words coming in a series of pained gasps. “I love you, little sister…I never wanted to banish you, I hated myself for it the moment I had done it! Please…we were meant to rule toge-”

“You really never learn, do you?” Nightmare snorted, pawing the ground. Her voice took on a high-pitched mocking tone. “It’s always “Luna, Luna, Luna” with you. I’m not Luna, not anymore.” She stepped closer to her elder sister, quickly closing the distance. “And do you know why?” She knelt down to whisper in Celestia’s ear. “Because Luna is dead. Luna died when her big sister failed her.”

“Stop it…” Celestia whispered, her voice now a low growl, her sister’s enormous green eyes filling her vision.

“You. Killed. Her.” Nightmare sang, her warm breath hissing in her sister’s ear. “And in doing so, you made me, big sister.”

Like a child, Celestia shook her head vigorously, squeezing her eyes shut. “Not again…not again…not again…” she whispered to herself, over and over.

“You made me what I am, not once but twice, Celestia. YOU MADE ME!!”

“I said STOP IT!”

What was left of the shaky grasp she had on her wits shattered. In a blind despair, Celestia lunged at her sister, hoping to tackle her to the ground, but her hooves met only air.

Silence. Celestia panted, a mixture of tears and semi-coagulated blood dripping from her face. Immediately upon sensing that her attack had failed, her horn sparked menacingly, every muscle in her body tensing in preparation to defend herself. She whipped about, searching in vain for the source of her torment. But there was no one there. She was completely and utterly alone.

“Where are you?! Stop playing games!! Just STOP IT!!” she sobbed, her magic upturning tables and tearing the drapes from their hangings, searching every shadow for some trace of those horrible green eyes, but to no avail. She bolted to the window, throwing wide the glass doors as she scanned the sky for any sign of her sister, squinting in the light of the morning sun as it climbed above the horizon. Not even a single solitary bird could be seen flying within the sea of cloudless violet-blue.

Even as she turned quickly about to face her bedroom once more, her heart had begun to slow somewhat. She had not fallen asleep – that much she knew – and what she had seen was most definitely not a dream, but that didn’t change the fact that her bedroom was completely empty save for a single very flustered and distressed matriarch.

“Princess!? Your Majesty, are you alright? What’s wrong!?”

The words were accompanied by a loud banging that nearly caused the Princess to magically detonate the door from whence it came before she suddenly realized whom the voice belonged to. She allowed herself to breathe and waited several seconds for her heart to leave her throat just as the banging suddenly ceased.

“Bastion, break down this door, now!”

Acting quickly, Celestia opened the door, causing the guard pony named Bastion to stumble past her in his effort to break into her chamber. Immediately, her senses were assaulted by a very loud and brash streak of furry white noise.

“Princess, you’re bleeding!” Hussar shouted, practically screaming in her face. In a single movement, the Captain dashed past his princess, raring to attack her assailant. His charge ended rather anticlimactically when he saw that she was alone.

“P-p-prince-“

“Hussar, stand down.” Her tone was stern and her speech clipped. She was in absolutely no mood to deal with Hussar right now, or anything else that wasn’t the single driving thought that boomed within her mind.

“Where is Luna? Have you seen her?” she asked to the group at large. Hussar had arrived with a tail of four pegasus guards, and she turned frantically about as she spoke, searching each face in turn for an answer.

Hussar was more than a bit confused at the complete lack of conflict that greeted him in every direction. He simply gawked at her for a moment before remembering himself, not daring to keep Celestia waiting when she was clearly in such a dire mood.

“I…well…we passed her on patrol when we heard shouting coming from your chambers.” He stammered, stiffening as if to inject more certainty into his words. “She was reading in the courtyard.”

“You’re sure?!” She rounded on him, speaking just a little too loudly, but she was far beyond the capacity to care by this point. “You’re absolutely sure that you saw her before you came to me?”

Hussar didn’t move, but simply stared directly into her eyes. His years of faithful service as the Princess’s personal attendant and advisor had gotten him past the almost instinctive urge that all guards possessed to avoid making eye contact with his superiors, though he knew even without seeing the fear in her eyes or noticing her attempt to disguise the miniscule tremor in her voice with sheer volume to know that something had disturbed her. Deeply.

“I’m certain, Milady. She was quite peaceful,” he replied, keeping his tone even so as not to alarm her further.
Celestia looked away, her eyes darting rapidly back and forth as their sight became lost in the depth of her thoughts. Hussar had never seen his Mistress this upset before, and it only took a moment of distressed agitation before he snapped into full-alert. He nodded sharply to the guards in his entourage, silently ordering them to move forward.

“Princess, we must tend to your wou-“

She ignored him, taking off at full speed as he sputtered indignantly up at her, already far below. Without a word, he and his subordinates took flight, launching almost simultaneously after her as she sped over the terrace wall and down to the courtyard below.

This didn’t make sense, she thought. As she found her eyes drawn to the walkways on either side of the courtyard’s ornate perimeter, every instinct screamed that everypony should be running around in a panic, but not a hint of chaos or destruction disturbed the quiet flow of the castle’s staff. Even Hussar had seemed abnormally ignorant, as though he somehow had not heard Nightmare Moon’s voice from within her chambers, despite the fact that he could not have been very far away.

As she passed over the gilded terrace that separated the two halves of the eastern courtyard, her eyes scanned the greenery below for several panicked minutes before they finally found a wispy trail of deep blue poking out from beneath a lone tree. Without a moment’s hesitation, she dived straight for the ground, her wings snapping to her sides as she fell like a bullet from the sky.

When she connected with the cool grass, she stumbled slightly in her earnest, charging forward until the bench upon which her younger sister sat came into full view.

“LUNA!”

The blue alicorn flinched with enough force to send her book soaring high into the branches of her tree, noisily disrupting a pair of birds that had been nesting directly above her.

“Wha…? Oh, sis, you scared-“

Before her book could even touch the ground, any words she might have uttered were lost as she suddenly found herself smothered by her elder sister’s chest. Celestia embraced her sister tighter than she ever had before, smelling her hair, praying that it was real, that her sister was really there with her. Luna spat and struggled to get the taste of fur out of her mouth, but Celestia just squeezed her tighter, murmuring softly and rapidly under her breath. The sight of Luna sitting safe and sound had been like a miracle cure for the aching hole where her heart used to be, and she had absolutely no intention of letting go of that feeling, not when she could feel Luna’s heart beating in rhythm with her own.

At the same time, Hussar and his group of guards landed soundlessly behind her. They began to rush forward, but none managed to travel more than a single step before they were stopped by a single warning hoof from their Captain. Hussar didn’t need to say anything, nor did he need to look them in the eye to command their unquestioning and immediate obedience. Perhaps they could sense it through his seasoned composure, but they got the message that this was not a moment in which they should interfere.

“Fiffter, whut va heckfa oo fooing?” Luna’s words were barely audible. “A cann breeve!”

If Luna wasn’t confused enough, Celestia laughed. Not the normal, graceful, tittering chuckle to which she was accustomed, but a full-bodied, tearful guffaw. She laughed for what felt like hours, the rapid contractions of her chest repeatedly punching her little sister in the face until she managed to wrest herself from Celestia’s grasp, panting heavily and half-certain that her elder sister had completely lost her mind.

After everything she had seen in the past few minutes, the warmth of her sister’s fur, the sight of Luna, just her Luna and not some grinning monster, had allowed Celestia to begin to calm down. She sighed away the last waves of laughter, wiping the tears from her eyes with one forehoof.

“Honestly, sis…” Luna panted, still struggling to catch her breath. “…if I thought you were going to attack me like some sort of madmare, I would have asked Hussar to post a few dozen guards around the courtyard benches. Unless you’ve just got some really good news, I’m going to have to stop you from ever staying out that late again.“

Celestia didn’t bother responding to her sister’s annoyed remark. She simply smiled, then coughed, trying with something less than her usual effortless dignity to recover herself and make it appear as though she hadn’t had a nervous breakdown. At this, some small part of her mind reminded her that she still had no way to account for what had happened in her bedroom, and that she wasn’t entirely sure that she felt completely in control of her faculties, but for the moment, none of that mattered. Luna was Luna, and she was safe.

It was then that she noticed that a portion of Luna’s mane was stained with blood.

“Oh my-” she gasped, immediately losing hold of every happy thought as she sprang forward, examining every inch of her sister’s body for the source of the blood. “What in Equestria happened to you? Where was Hussar?” She snorted angrily, casting a wrathful glance behind her . “He’s supposed to be protecting you!”

“Sister, what are you…!” Luna inhaled sharply as she got a good look at her sister’s face for the first time. “How did your face and get all bloody? And your hooves!”

Luna’s words didn’t register right away. It wasn’t until Celestia noticed that Luna appeared to be completely unharmed that she finally seemed to process what her sister had said.

“My...hooves?” Celestia looked down. Both of her front hooves, especially the left, were stained with blood. On closer inspection, she noticed that a torn clump of fur and what looked to be a scrap of the underlying skin was stuck not to the part of her hoof with which she had wiped her cheek, but to the bottom of the left hoof.

“How…?” She looked up to see a frightened Luna staring back at her. She faltered, and that little part of her mind that had whispered to her before suddenly seemed louder than anything else in the courtyard.

She knew how she had gotten hurt, but…Luna was right here. Then that…

The realization struck her like a hammer-blow. Perhaps Luna noticed the color draining from her face as she stared once more at the bottom of her bloodied hoof, or perhaps it was merely instinct, but she quickly trotted forward to lift
Celestia’s somewhat frazzled mane out of her eyes.

The moment that she found Luna’s pale aquamarine eyes staring directly into hers from inches away, her mind snapped jarringly back into reality. She hesitated, at war with herself as to whether she should tell her the truth or attempt to cover with something less potentially traumatizing.

“Oh…I…Well…” She faked a small laugh, desperately searching for an excuse. It sounded more than a bit absurd, even to her, but she had already made up her mind. Besides, she wanted to have some time to think about it on her own before she frightened Luna any more than she already had with her silliness.

“I was in such a hurry that I’m afraid I tripped getting out of bed. I guess it must have happened when I hit my nightstand on the way down.” Celestia replied without a hint of doubt.

It was immediately apparent that Luna was not convinced. She cocked an eyebrow, still wearing an expression of deep concern.

Celestia inhaled deeply to regain her composure.

“I’m sorry, little sister…I must have given you an awful fright.” She wiped her hooves on the grass, then wet them with her tongue to begin cleaning the mess she had made of her sibling’s mane. “I had an awful dream, and…I…I just needed to make sure you were safe. “

Sensing that his time had come, Hussar cut in with a polite clearing of his throat.

“It’s alright Hussar, stand down. This was all just a big misunderstanding.”

“Milady? If you’ll forgive my impertinence…you seem a bit out of sorts. Are you quite sure-“

“I’m fine, really, and I appreciate your concern, but there’s no cause for alarm.”

“But who were you shouting at?” He stepped forward, an element of genuine concern just barely detectable through the practiced impartiality of his tone. “And your wound-“

“-Is superficial and little else than the result of a bit of clumsy silliness on my part.” She said with a tone that was not unkind, but which clearly indicated that the matter was closed. “Just a bad dream, nothing more.”

At first, Hussar simply stared at her, his face stony and unreadable, but it only took a few silent seconds before he nodded, retreating respectfully to stand among his comrades.

Having finished cleaning her blood from Luna’s fur, Celestia sighed, shaking her head. Luna still stared at her as though Celestia had suddenly sprouted a second head, but for the moment didn’t bother to ask what in Equestria had made her sister fly off the handle like that. Instead, she and everypony else simply remained silent while Celestia collected herself.

Rising to her hooves, she inhaled sharply, and almost instantly seemed to reclaim all of the grace and poise to which her guards were accustomed. It was a show, more than anything else, and Luna was the only one who saw it fully for what it was. Celestia was not alright; something had happened, and she was simply doing her best not to allow it to discourage her charges. Despite her own confusion, she simply chose to keep her questions to herself for the time being out of respect for that sentiment.

Celestia breathed a soft chuckle, her lips parting in a gentle, if somewhat tired grin. She tossed her mane, as though attempting to distract attention away from her face.

“It looks like you were right after all, Hussar. Perhaps I have been stretching myself a bit too thin as of late. I’m terribly sorry for frightening all of you over something so silly.”

She smiled, deftly addressing her most trusted guardian without a hint of her former mood.

“Speaking of which, I could say the same for you, Hussar. I’m sorry for suggesting that you were remiss in your duties in any way. Please, get some rest, and that’s an order. Besides…” she turned back to face Luna. “I’d like some time alone with my sister.”

He didn’t move at first, eyeing the Princess with a single raised eyebrow. An entire conversation seemed to pass between the two as they stared briefly into each other’s eyes; Hussar’s long years of service had familiarized him enough with Celestia for him to be able to read her to such an extent that the ability was exceeded only by Luna herself, and so even he was not completely fooled by her show of confidence. However, he was loyal enough to know his place, and to know that he would not hesitate to serve his Mistress in any capacity when the time came that she would need him. With a blink and a nod that asked, not ordered, his lady to be mindful of her health, he bowed deeply, and each of his guards mimicked his gesture.

The team of pegasi launched soundlessly from the earth and, with a crisp aerial salute, Hussar dismissed his troops and immediately turned toward what was most certainly not the barracks, despite Celestia’s “order.” Celestia watched them go, maintaining her smile until at last the last pair of ivory wings faded from sight. Even after they were gone, she remained staring at the sky, her mind slowly drifting back to the reality of the situation and the fact that she was about to have one hay of a time explaining herself for that little display.

Luna had waited patiently until now, but she wasn’t about to put off pointing out her sister’s condition any longer for the sake of keeping up appearances.

“Celly, are you…

“I’m sorry for frightening you. I can’t imagine how awful I must look…” she chuckled weakly, still not turning to face her. Something in her tone told Luna that she was trying to avoid the subject.

“…Yes, I know, you said that…” Slowly, Luna picked herself up and trotted to her sister’s side, pausing for a moment to blow some of her now disheveled mane out of her eyes. At first, Celestia said nothing, aware of the courtyard around her with only half of her mind. The other half was off in her bedroom, playing what had happened in the past few minutes on a loop like a broken record.

“Hey, Celly, are you…alright?” Luna asked lamely, leaning gently against her sister’s shoulder. She reached one probing hoof forward, placing it gently upon her Celestia’s own before looking up into her face with genuine concern.
Celestia took a moment to respond. When she did, she blinked slowly, smiling down at her little sister but not quite looking directly at her, her eyes staring somewhere past her head into the dirt.

“Of course I am, Lu-

“I mean it.” Luna’s expression was suddenly serious. “You’ve been acting strange for a while now. I thought maybe you were just stressed or tired from running all over Equestria every day…” She swung around so that she and her sister were face to face, looking directly into Celestia’s eyes. “But this is the first time I’ve seen you this upset in…in a really long time. What’s wrong?”

Celestia sighed rather loudly, giving her sister’s forehead an affectionate nuzzle.

“This is what I was afraid of. I’m sorry for losing control…there’s really nothing wrong, I’m honestly just tired and I had a bit of a disturbing dream.”

“That’s not it.” Luna said flatly, shaking her head. “Something really must have gotten to you for you to act like that. If it’s a dream, that might be part of it, but dreams happen for a reason, Celly. You should know that better than anypony.”
She took a single step back, speaking in a voice not quite demanding, but nonetheless expectant.

“Something else is going on, isn’t it? Something’s really bothering you.”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. She turned away; Luna’s persistent gaze was making her uncomfortable.

“Don’t be silly, Luna. I’m just tired, that’s a-”

“Celly.”

She had not raised her voice, but the single word carried all of the shame-inducing and unspoken authority of a mother’s disapproving glare. With a reluctant jerk that caused part of her flowing mane to fall over her face, she turned back to meet Luna’s gaze. Her sister’s expression was stern, but not angry. Nopony else, not even Faithful Hussar would have dared to speak to Celestia in such a way, but Luna knew better. That sharp perception and fearless honesty was something that Celestia deeply respected about her little sister, even if she was presently finding that particular trait somewhat difficult to appreciate.

“Tell me the truth.” She said evenly.

With that, whatever was left of Celestia’s emotional reserve went spiraling down the drain. In an instant, she felt the fatigue of her ordeal fall upon her like a leaden cloak, and her smile disappeared altogether. Her shoulders sagged, and even her mane seemed to lose some of its shimmer. Breathing a heavy sigh, she stared at her little sister with world-weary eyes and a strange, sad smile that Luna couldn’t quite place.

There it was, Luna thought. There was the same look she had seen just before Celly had given her their mother’s journal. It took a moment to recognize the strange, misty glimmer she had seen in those eyes before, but once she knew, all of her pretended authority slipped easily away. It was more than a bit jarring to see her sister so suddenly deflated, especially with having just seen her run the emotional gambit from panic to insane glee, but grief was not something for which she had been prepared.

Without a word, Celestia lay upon the grass, motioning with one wing for her sister to join her at her side. Luna immediately conceded, sidling up beside her until their shoulders touched, her sister’s ivory wing extending around her body and squeezing her gently in a brief hug. When Celestia spoke, her voice was but a tiny whisper, just barely above the rustling of the grass from the cool morning breeze that rolled across the courtyard from one of its windowed balconies.

“Are you happy?” she muttered.

The question had caught Luna completely off-guard. She spent several seconds searching her sister’s face, half wondering if it had been some sort of joke. Having failed to deduce anything from her sister’s blank expression, she chuckled nervously, and almost immediately regretted the decision when Celestia did not share in her response.

“What kind of question is that?” she asked, coughing quietly in a feeble attempt to cover for her misstep.

“An important one.” Celestia turned the graceful curve of her head to face her sister, her expression serious. This time, her manner and tone had taken on a definite earnest edge, almost as though she were admonishing Luna for treating the question so lightly.

“Are you happy?” She repeated in the same unnervingly direct voice.

“I…yes?” She laughed again, out of reflex more than anything else. “Yes, Celly, of course I am. I mean, I’d be happier if I knew why my sister was having some sort of nervous breakdown and if I didn’t have to worry about her totally losing it and tackling me whenever she has a nightmare.”

Despite her best efforts, Luna’s attempts at humor didn’t seem to be working.

“…Yes, Celly, I’m happy. I’ve got you.” She whispered, giving her sister a gentle nudge in the side with her own azure wing.

For some reason, that didn’t seem to be what she wanted to hear; Celestia’s wing seemed to stiffen slightly as Luna said it. Whether she sensed that Luna was aware of her reaction or if it was unrelated, Luna wasn’t sure, but Celestia lowered her neck to the grass so that her face lay next to her sister’s head, sighing wearily.

“You’ve been sighing like that a lot lately, too.” Luna whispered, though she wasn’t sure why; at some point the scene seemed to have taken on something akin to the silent gloom of a cemetery, and she felt as though speaking any more loudly would be somehow disrespectful. Her sister’s head lay inches away, her shimmering mane fluttering softly in the breeze, flooding Luna’s nostrils with a scent not unlike the daffodils in the courtyard.

“I guess I could ask you the same question, but I think I already know the answer. You don’t usually get all mopey like this unless Hussar gets to the new recruits before you can mess with them.”

Without warning, Celestia loosed a snorting laugh, the warmth of her voice suddenly dispelling the gloomy haze that had settled upon them. The sound was a welcome one to Luna’s ears, and she smiled, glad to have finally cheered her up, if only a little. Celestia’s fondness for mischief was no secret among the more experienced of the castle staff, but (as she always adamantly insisted) her efforts were only intended to inject what she saw as a vital sense of humor into each of her subjects’ lives. A bit of harmless fun here or there was important, even if it did give the good Captain the occasional headache.

“He does have a tendency to be an incorrigible stick-in-the-mud, doesn’t he?…Bless him.”

“That’s more like it.” Luna laughed, honestly this time. “C’mon, Celly, tell me what’s going on.”

Another sigh, though far lighter than the ones that preceded it. It seemed more like a self-steeling gesture than one of defeat.

“Yes, mom.” Celestia chuckled, retracting her wing. Luna blushed slightly and opened her mouth to offer a retort, but she chose instead to simply grin, thankful in a way for the friendly jab.

For several seconds, Celestia just seemed to stare off into the distance, the gentle smile that had graced her lips slowly fading until nothing but a far-away look in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.

“It’s not fair, is it?” she breathed, the words escaping her lips in a breath that felt like it had sat at the bottom of her lungs for years.

Luna blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not fair.” Celestia repeated, her tone somewhat heavier. “It just isn’t fair, not to you, not to anypony.”
Slowly, she turned her neck so that one gleaming violet eye stared at her little sister from beneath her flowing mane.

“I…don’t think I ever told you how sorry I was, Luna.”

“Celly?” Luna’s expression had softened. That same look had returned to her sister’s eyes, and it was disturbing her all over again.

“Luna, I was wrong.” Celestia’s voice had suddenly taken on a tone of urgency as she jerked upright, leaping to her hooves and bearing anxiously down on her sister. Her head swayed this way and that as her jaw worked in silence for several seconds, her tongue trying to find the words to untangle the knot in her chest.

“I…I never should have tried to use the power of Harmony that night, but it’s so much worse than just that. I never should have treated you as I did to drive you to such a state as…as…” Her words came like a flood, and with them all of her grief, all of her guilt, all that she had held within her behind a wall of smiling silence for one thousand years past came bursting forth.

“Luna, I’m sorry…sorry that I banished you, sorry that you had to go through all of those years alone. I’m so…”

Luna shot to her hooves, her eyes frantically darting all over her sister’s anguished face in alarm. The suddenness of everything her sister was saying was coming too fast for her to process. She was absolutely stunned as she saw the tears begin to flow. She had known that her sister felt guilty about what had happened, but she had no idea why Celestia was suddenly so distraught over something that they hadn’t really talked about for almost two years.

“It isn’t fair…” Celestia repeated “…that you had to go through all of that because of me. That you had to feel such hate and loneliness and rage because I failed to ease your pain. “ Her shoulders shuddered as fat, hot tears rolled down her muzzle.” “I…I failed you. I failed Equestria that day in depriving it of one of its rulers. I fai-”

Celestia fell silent as the last bit of air was suddenly squeezed from her lungs. Her little sister wrapped her in a crushing embrace, silencing her sorrowful confession in mid-thought. She simply sat there, unable to move or speak as the tears still came, running down her neck to splash onto Luna’s face. A blissful eternity passed in silence between them, and in that moment, just for that moment, some part of Celestia felt truly happy. Without hesitation, without fully comprehending what her sister was going through or what had caused it, Luna was fully and utterly prepared to be there to share in her pain. They needed no words to communicate it, only the rhythm of their hearts as they beat in earnest against one another, reaching out through the meaningless and intangible walls of unfeeling flesh to be together in spite of everything else.

Together…the thought floated unbidden across her thoughts, leaving a faint yet inescapable pang in its wake.

She had no idea of how much time passed before she was jarred to attention by a sharp pain on the right side of her face. Luna had slapped her, though not hard enough to leave a bruise. As she stared at her elder sister with that same motherly glare, her voice was nonetheless kind, albeit with a hint of caring chagrin.

“First things first, don’t you ever hide something like this from me or anypony again.” Luna whispered. “How can I help you, not just as a princess, but as your sister, if you never talk about what’s bothering you?” She sidled nearer to her sister until she was close enough to touch Celestia’s slippered hoof, smiling gently. “I had no idea you were beating yourself up so much about this. Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

Celestia simply stared, still somewhat stunned that she had been struck. She could say nothing, and ultimately resorted to looking away in shame.

“Sorry…I didn’t mean to hit you so hard…” said Luna, reaching out a hoof to caress the spot where she had made contact. “I just…please, Celly, don’t keep me in the dark about stuff like this, okay? Where did all of this come from, anyway? The last time we talked about it…”

“…Was a long time ago, I know, but I’ve never really said it. Celestia nodded to herself, regaining her voice. She swallowed to clear her throat, still not meeting Luna’s gaze. “I don’t know if I ever made it clear to you just how I much I regretted what I did…”

“Celly…Is that what your dream was about?”

To Luna, Celestia seemed strangely distant again for a moment, but it was quickly gone.

“Yes…I dreamt about that night,” she lied. “I was so upset when I woke up…I just had to see you and make sure you were safe.”

Luna paused before responding. As well as she knew her sister, there were rare times that she couldn’t quite read what she was thinking. This seemed to occur somewhat more frequently since she had returned from her banishment, she thought, and perhaps even more so over the past few weeks, but the most that she had ever been able to glean from her sister at those times was that she was “fine” or “just tired.” At the moment, that same frustratingly distant tug at the edge of her thoughts told her that there was something that Celestia wasn’t telling her.

Her train of thought didn’t last for long though, before being broken by Celestia’s nervous laughter.

“What a mess…heh…I’m supposed to be the big sister, not you…I ‘m such an idiot.”
Luna frowned, scowling playfully.

“Well whining about it isn’t going to help. Besides, the great thing about being a big sister is that you’ve always got your little sis to rely on.”

No response. That same, strangely sad smile flickered across Celestia’s lips for an instant before she looked away again, her expression blank.

Once again, Luna found herself silently kicking herself for her poorly placed attempt at lightening the mood. The young Princess was at a frustrating loss for words, and it was making her feel more than a bit uncomfortable. She hated to see her sister so upset, but what she hated even more was that she knew that somehow, she just wasn’t able to find the words that Celestia needed to hear.

“Hey, come on, Celestia, I didn’t mean it. I mean, if you’re really that upset, I could be the big sis for a whi-“

“I don’t have any right.” Celestia spat, her tone suddenly much angrier than was appropriate.
Luna paused for a moment, her plans disrupted by her sister’s violent and inexplicable change in mood.

“I…Celly?”

“What sort of Princess has a complete emotional hissy fit because of some silly nightmare?” Celestia laughed, but the sound was not at all natural. The laughter was that of one at the end of their rope, humorless and hollow.

“And even worse, what kind of hypocrite am I to ask so much of you?”

Luna was taken aback by her sister’s words as Celestia stared into her eyes. But she knew that that anger wasn’t directed specifically at her, nor was Celestia looking directly at her but at the grass behind her head.

“What right do I have when I lack even the strength to ask for your forgiveness?”

“My…forgiveness?” Luna stammered. Depsite herself, Luna was beginning to get the impression that she had completely misgauged here sister’s mood, and it rendered her rational mind unable to do little more than dumbly repeat whatever thought had just crossed her awareness.

“None, Luna. That’s the answer, that’s always been the answer. I have no right to rely on you for anything.”
With a stomp of her hoof, the air seemed to freeze around them, and not a sound save for the chittering of a cloud of birds that had been disturbed by Celestia’s angered gesture broke the heavy silence. Neither pony spoke, nor could Celestia meet her sister’s wandering gaze as it searched her face. She just stood there, panting and staring into the ground as though she wished it would disappear.

Luna simply stared. Some part of herself couldn’t help but be hurt by her sister’s words despite the fact that she knew that that had not been her intent. But she ignored it almost instantly, taking the brief pause in her sister’s rant to collect herself and reassess the situation.

She chose not to speak until she was absolutely sure that she could convey with words what her heart knew to be true. Without a word, she trotted to Celestia’s side and place her head just beneath her sister’s chin, extending one blue-feathered wing to rest upon Celestia’s back. Though her sister did not reciprocate the gesture, neither did she pull away, and so Luna began to whisper as she closed her eyes, willing each and every word to take hold.

“I haven’t forgotten what you told me two years ago, nor do I think I will ever forget, even if you have…” she murmured, leaning gently on her sister’s shoulder. “Weren’t you the one who kept telling me that I needed to stop asking you for forgiveness and forgive myself? And let’s make something clear. Nightmare Moon…”

Luna paused. That name still caused her stomach to turn at the memory of what she had become, if only for a short time.

“Nightmare Moon was a creation of my own jealousy. I wanted the night to last forever because I thought that maybe then everypony would learn to appreciate it as much as the day; maybe then I could have the same love and respect as you. But I was wrong. I already had all of that. It was my fault for being jealous and for allowing myself to use my magic in such a way. I was the one who made a mistake, Celly. You just did what you had to do, and honestly, I’m glad that you did.”
“W-what?” Celestia sputtered, jerking away to gawk at her little sister in surprise.

Luna did not budge from her position, keeping her tone steady. She fully meant every word.
“If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have stayed being someone I hate.”

“But…But I failed. I tried to use the power of Harmony to help you yet I couldn‘t. I-I lost control, and you suffered for it.” Celestia stammered like a young foal. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and so out of reflex she found herself stubbornly trying to justify her own guilt.

“If you hadn’t tried, I never would have forgiven you.” Luna said matter-of-factly.

“But…a thousand years…I cost you one th-“

Luna snorted angrily, stomping the ground, her features fixed in a look of disgust.

“Do I have to hit you again?”

Luna didn’t raise a hoof, but her expression told Celestia that she wouldn’t hesitate to fulfill the threat.

“Honestly, if you weren’t being an idiot before, you certainly are now.”

Silence. They stood apart, and yet the emptiness between them may as well have not existed. Their minds were one, their eyes silently conveying the ebb and flow of their emotions clearly evident to one another as they allowed the silence to speak for them, saying what words never could. Then, in exactly the wrong manner Luna had intended to handle the situation, she laughed.

She couldn’t help it, even as Celestia goggled at her as though she had just suggested that they turn the entirety of Canterlot into a massive pile of swiss cheese, Luna simply laughed all the harder. It wasn’t long before Celestia looked downright put out, scowling as though she were about to scream and opening her mouth to do so an instant before bursting into her own fit of laughter despite herself. She didn’t even understand why they were laughing, but that didn’t matter. Perhaps it was just instinct, but it suddenly made perfect sense to laugh, as though reacting in any other way would have been completely absurd.

“Y-you…should have s-seen your face!” Luna gasped in between bouts. “I don’t think I’ve seen you look that indignant since Prince Blueblood called the palace “tawdry and quaint!”” she mimicked the Prince’s voice perfectly, right down to the pompous accent.

“Well what would you expect?” puffed Celestia, catching on in an instant. “From one of the Baltimare Bluebloods? One can hardly expect a woman to appreciate such fine tastes!”

The words had barely left her mouth before they were both consumed by another riotous giggle fit. The conversation that had taken place moments before had been all but dissolved by their shared mirth. None of that mattered, not the tears or the guilt; only the fact that they were sisters remained. They reveled in the feeling for a while, welcoming the change of pace for as long it could endure before at last, the final titterings of mirthful joy faded to nothing and the silence greeted them once more.

It was not tense, this time, nor was it heavy in any way. The quietude that descended welcomed them like an old friend, and it was welcome in return. For a time, it was all they needed as they warmly embraced.
In that silence, a thought occurred to Luna. She considered her sister carefully before speaking.

“Can I show you something?”

“What?”

“Here, follow me.” With a flash of blue light and a sound like a wave dying on the shore, Luna transformed herself into a sparkling cloud of azure mist. She flew high into the air, where she waited, hovering, for her sister to follow. Celestia hesitated for a moment, then changed as well, into a sphere of amber light. The two rose high above the courtyard of the castle, and higher still, Celestia tailing close behind her younger sister’s cloud. Up she rose with her elder sister chasing her all the way, above the clouds, higher and higher, until the castle was but a tiny speck on the world below. Still higher they rose, until finally, Luna stopped, returning to her original form. With a pop that seemed to dissolve instantly in the endless blackness around them, Celestia followed suit.

Far below, in a fluid mosaic of green and blue, spun the vast land of Equestria. Luna looked at her sister, her expression blank.

“What is pain?” She asked simply, without any trace of emotion in her tone. It was an honest question, asked directly and without hesitation.

Celestia’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?” Her voice seemed disproportionately loud in the silence of their altitude.

“Pain is frightening. Pain is painful. Pain is inevitable. But above all…” Luna paused to allow the familiarity of the words to sink in.

In perfect unsion, the sisters spoke the words of their mother as they had been written in her journal so long ago.

“Pain means that you’re alive.”

Celestia smiled, gazing in awe at her little sister. Not so little, anymore, she thought.

Luna continued. “When we feel pain, or acknowledge the risk of feeling pain for whatever reason, we are presented with an opportunity. Should we choose to take it, that pain can be molded into something beautiful. Should we choose to ignore it, we doom ourselves to dwell forever in regret, though perhaps in a different form than what would be risked otherwise. Love is beautiful because it exists despite the pain that is inherent in it, yet also because to truly love, be it another being or a particular cause, is to say that one is willing to endure that inevitable pain for another. All of the sacrifices, all of the failures, all of the tears we shed, when endured for the sake of a noble, if temporary, victory, become turned upon themselves and instead enliven the joy of that victory a thousand times over. Likewise, if one looks upon their pain, their failures as just that and nothing more, they will know nothing of joy until their last wasted breath.”

As she finished her speech, she paused for a moment, allowing the last of her words to fill the emptiness. Neither sister reacted immediately, as each was too busy reflected upon what those words meant for each of them. Though they did not share it openly, the thought crossed both of their minds that it seemed rather fitting that the globe below did not intrude upon the silence, as though it, too had been affected by the memory of an ancient pain and was finally grateful to have someone with whom it could share it.

“You’re quite a quick read.” Celestia murmured, immersed in a sea of nostalgia at the sound of her mother’s words.

“And you’re quite forgetful, so it seems.” Luna shot back playfully.

Luna turned away, gazing down at their home, their kingdom. “Mother's view may sound a bit...fatalistic, but I believe that the principal of what she what saying is worth thinking about. Mistakes are a part of life. I knew it before - it’s what I learned when I finally began to forgive myself for my mistake. But I think mother captured the meaning of that fact far better than I ever could. Neither of us is perfect, but that should never mean that we cannot learn from our failures.”

She drifted closer to her elder sister, her body making not a hint of sound as it slid effortlessly through the vacuum. They did not require their wings to stay aloft; here, a bubble of pulsing magic separated them from the icy nothingness and the gravity of their world.

“We both made mistakes on that night, though until today I think I only understood what that had cost me, never what it had meant for you.”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably. Despite herself, she found her gaze wandering through the darkness until at last it rested upon the silver arc of the moon, half obscured by the planet’s shadow. She could see its craggy surface so clearly here, each and every pockmark and crater like a great ugly blister burning across its pale skin.

As if sensing her thoughts, Luna swept around so that her head obscured Celestia’ view. With a gentle nudge of her hoof and a faint pop as the fields of their magic collided, Luna gently redirected Celestia’s gaze to the planet below.

“Look at this world, Celly, at how beautiful it is. No matter what happened in the past, there are millions of ponies down there who love us, and whom we love in return. You said it yourself, every time I had a nightmare about that night, every time I came to you for comfort, you forgave me because you loved me.” She drifted closer to Celestia, close enough to whisper into her ear. “And if we can repay their love by keeping this world safe, then what happened back then doesn’t matter.”

No longer did the walls of their magic isolate them from one another. Luna floated through the endless night with her sister by her side, basking in her warmth as she rested her head across Celestia’s shoulder’s.

“Please, big sister. I’ve already forgiven you. I did the moment that Twilight and her friends released me from the shell of darkness in which I had bound myself. Now you just have to forgive yourself. Think of them” She gestured to the world below. “They need you. Isn’t it a blessing that we can help to protect their happiness? Their future? What would it all mean if you simply gave up on the faith they’ve placed in you? That I‘ve placed in you?”

Celestia smiled the tiniest of smiles, thinking of the many young colts and fillies far below - the heralds of the days to come. She was blessed, it was true, to have had such a wonderful sister, so wise and compassionate despite her troubled past.

“Luna…thank you. I think I’ll be able to rest much more easily from now on.”

Luna beamed, smiling from ear to ear. She did not respond save for offering an affectionate nudge, and leaned against her as they watched the world silently turn. She had said all that needed speaking; the peaceful silence of Equestria below spoke for the rest of her sentiments as it spun ever onward, never turning back.

Celestia said nothing, staring blankly down at her kingdom, the faint nagging threads of guilt still tugging persistently away even through this moment of bliss. Though her sister did not notice, Celestia’s jaw worked silently back and forth, as though trying to decide whether it should, or even could form the terrible truth that screamed within her mind. The infinite blackness of space suddenly seemed suffocating to her, and she could not help but shiver slightly as she wrapped one wing tightly around her little sister’s body. Luna welcomed the gesture, pressing into her sister’s side, a happy sigh escaping her lips as she felt Celestia’s warmth surround her.

Celetia still smiled, but somehow the expression had taken on a note of unspeakable sadness, and for the moment, Celestia was thankful that Luna could not see her face.

“Luna…” she thought. “Luna, thank you. Thank you…but, there are some things you simply cannot understand. I can’t tell you what is coming…it would only make what I…what we will have to do even harder. Soon, I may have to leave you all alone again, all because I wasn’t able to save them. I wasn’t able to stop the evil I feel stirring once more, after so many years…”

She shivered again, and Luna responded by placing her own wing over Celestia’s front, apparently thinking she was cold. Celestia’s thoughts suddenly seemed to skip a beat at Luna’s touch; half of her was thankful for her sister’s ignorance, and yet the other half positively shuddered with the urge to spill everything in one heady rush, as though she would surely burst if she remained silent. But remain silent she did, and though it did not utter a sound to betray her, Equestria stared into her heart like an enormous, probing eye.

Though speaking with her sister had calmed her, it had also confirmed her deepest fears. She sighed, quietly hoping that her thoughts could not be heard in the deafening silence around them as they shouted away inside her head.

“What will it mean, indeed?“ she whispered, inhaling the scent of Luna’s mane. “What will it mean…”
=====================================================================================

As the last amber shards of lingering sunlight retreated beneath the horizon and the first chorus of nocturnal insects began their song, the tiered belltowers rang their familiar lilting tune to herald the onset of evening in the city of Canterlot. As the lamps were lit throughout the city and the thrum of life slowed slightly in its unending rhythm, the castle seemed somehow separated on its perch on the mountainside, illuminated only by the torches on its walls and the gently glowing beacon atop the arcane library’s single tower. Elsewhere in the castle, torches were extinguished, Luna lay herself to sleep with her mother’s journal lying open on the nightstand beside her bed, and tired murmurs echoed in the empty halls as the night guard relieved the day shift of duty.

Celestia lay once more in her bed, having just awakened from a deep, if fitful, sleep that had been far too long in waiting, anticipating the ritual preparation she would soon undergo for the Celebration in Manehatten. It was never something that she particularly enjoyed; not a trace of doubt existed in her mind that the majority of her day would be spent pandering to brown-nosers and reporters alike, and recent events had left her in no mood to deal with that ordeal. She touched the wound on her cheek with a single hoof, her mind tingling with the last misty traces of a dream she could not remember, but which had nonetheless left her distinctly restless. Or perhaps it was just her nerves, whispered a tiny voice in the corner of her mind, though the rest of her didn’t seem to find it particularly convincing. She would have to cover the wound so as not to alarm her citizens, she thought, releasing a sigh that shook slightly in the silence of her bedroom.

Celestia sat upright, tossing her blankets aside. She knew she could not lay there any longer, nor could she exactly muster the strength to get out of bed. Instead, she stared into the eyes of the only other being in the room. She had sensed it for a while now, but out of sheer strength of will she had forced herself not to acknowledge its presence, and thankfully it had done the same. Nothing was going to stop it now, however, and it knew it as it glared murderously from the shadows.

“You were so close there. She practically begged you to spill the beans, and yet when it really mattered, you just couldn’t bring yourself to trust her. You know she’ll hate you for this, don’t you?” Nightmare Moon hissed.

“You’re not real. I don’t have to listen to anything you say.” Celestia replied in a monotone.

“Not real eh? Then how do you explain this?” The black mare reached for the now scabbed wound on Celestia’s left cheek, but her hoof was swatted away before she could touch her. Nightmare merely chuckled at her sister’s reaction, causing Celestia to flinch slightly, despite herself.

“This…“ Celestia began, gingerly touching the scab with one hoof. “…I did this to myself because I thought I deserved it. I let you taint the memory of Luna that I held so dear during her banishment.” She glared at the thing before her, the thing that pretended to be her sister. “You died when Luna came back to me. You’re not real” she repeated evenly.

Nightmare scowled for a moment, but the expression quickly dissolved once more into a hungry grin. She seemed to regard Celestia with intense curiosity, as though attempting to gauge her reaction before whispering in a low voice, her tone deathly serious.

“Funny you should say that, about me being dead. It seems to me that a lot of ponies you get involved with tend to end up that way.”

Suddenly, the figure of Nightmare Moon twisted and warped. With a faint gurgling sound that reminded Celestia of something slimy and not remotely pleasant to look at, it shrank to the form of a young pony with a blonde mane and white fur. She had no cutie mark.

“You promised…” The child’s voice trembled. “You said you’d come back for me…for my friends.”
Celestia stared down at the tiny foal’s emaciated figure, her eyes dead and cold. A lump solidified in her throat, and she suddenly found herself fighting the urge to vomit.

“Where’s mommy?” The child asked, her voice more insistent this time. “Where’s my mommy? You said I could see mommy! Where is she?!”

“Go…away…” Celestia struggled with each syllable, glaring in horror at the filly as it advanced on her. “You’re dead. You‘ve been dead for over a thousand years.”

“I want mommy! MOMMY, MOMMY, where are you?! I WANT MY MOMMY!!” The filly was crying now, stamping on the carpet with its tiny hooves with such force that Celestia was sure that the bones in the child’s skinny legs would shatter at any moment.

“Shut up.” Celestia growled. “Just shut up.”

“WHERE’S MY MOMMY?! YOU PROMISED I COULD SEE HER WHERE IS SHE?!”

“SHE’S DEAD! THEY’RE ALL DEAD!” Celestia screamed into the weeping child’s face, her nostrils flaring wildly, tears flowing from eyes wide with grief. “YOU’LL NEVER GET TO SEE HER AGAIN BECAUSE I WATCHED HER DIE!”

The filly dissolved with the same sickening burp, elongating into the form of a tall yellow alicorn with a black mane. The mare immediately lunged forward and continued to advance, nearly causing Celestia to fall out of her bed in alarm.
“And yet you did nothing to stop it. How dare you lie to a child like that. You promise her the world and then leave her to die alone in the dust. Is that how you plan to leave my Luna? Is she so worthless to you?”

“Don‘t you dare…” With an enormous effort, she tore her gaze away, fighting to keep her voice from breaking and to tell herself that it wasn’t real, but the sight of the apparition alone was already almost too much for her to bear. “I couldn’t…you know there was nothing I could do…” Celestia sobbed.

“Coward! How long are you going to hide behind your excuses?! Have ten centuries of shame not been enough for you?” Her tone dripped with disgust, falling from her lips like a string of heinous slurs.

“I’m warning you…” Celestia hissed, still not meeting the alicorn’s eyes. “Back off. Now.”

“Or what?!” The yellow alicorn sneered. “You really are just a disappointment. If only you had died instead of me, maybe Luna wouldn’t have to suffer any mo-”

She stopped, unable to speak, as Celestia had lunged forward, piercing her throat with her horn. No blood issued from the gaping wound. Instead, the alicorn simply gawked in silence for several seconds before the color faded from her brilliant yellow eyes and her body evaporated soundlessly on the spot.

Celestia shuddered with each breath, suddenly exhausted from the sheer force of will that her maneuver had demanded. “My mother…my mother would never wish such a thing…” she hissed, her eyes scanning the darkness for any other shadow that might dare to leap forward to challenge her. But the room was silent; not a trace of movement disturbed the suddenly oppressive stillness of her surroundings.

In the sudden absence of sound, her mother’s…no, Luna’s words echoed in her mind. “What would it all mean if you simply gave up on the faith they’ve placed in you? That I‘ve placed in you? If we can repay their love by keeping this world safe, then what happened back then doesn’t matter.”

With a mental slap to knock her still shuddering emotional state back into line, Celestia marched to her balcony; she had had enough. She knew that if the worst should happen, what she must eventually do could not be changed, but she would be damned if she let it hurt Luna any more than it had to.

The night air hit her like a blast of icy water as her magic threw open the glass doors the separated her balcony from the bedroom proper. Despite the fact that it was the middle of Summer, the castle’s location caused it to be almost constantly exposed to high-velocity winds on the mountain’s Eastern side, which was ideal for pegasi deployment and maneuvering , though somewhat less so for stargazing. But such frivolous pursuits could not be farther from her mind at the moment. She shivered slightly, thankful at least to have something to brace her for what she was about to do.

Silently, she lifted off from her balcony in a single beat of her wings, gliding on the breeze until Luna’s window came into view. She alighted on the railing of Luna’s balcony, using her magic to open the glass doors. Luna was fast asleep, one wing stretched unceremoniously over the top of her blankets, and as the night air rolled into her bedroom it sent her azure feathers a flutter, causing her to shiver slightly. Celestia stared for a moment before reminding herself to close the window, swallowing hard as she stepped down from her perch and walked around the foot of her little sister’s bed.

Sandwiched between two luxuriously fluffed pillows of deepest violet, a tuft of blue mane stuck out in front of Luna’s peacefully sleeping face, fluttering slightly with the gentle rise and fall of her chest. It seemed a sin to wake her when she seemed so peaceful, especially with such news as this. But Celestia’s resolve was set. She knew that if she did not act now, she would likely be unable to muster the strength to do it again.

She bent down to nuzzle her sister awake, when yet another familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Let her sleep, little one.” It was a male voice this time, deep and with a certain delicacy of tone that seemed somehow detached from whatever it happened to be saying. She flinched upon the sound’s sudden intrusion before identifying it, her expression hardening as her gaze rose to meet the speaker’s pale, ice-blue eyes.

“You were going to tell her what you’re planning, correct?” It was not a question. The speaker’s face clearly stated that he fully knew what she had intended to do. “I can see it in your eyes, Celestia. Even after all of this time, you cannot lie to me.”

Celestia ground her teeth, focusing on keeping her voice down despite her anger.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone.”

The owner of the voice seemed somewhat taken aback. “You know I can’t do that, not now. We both know you may only get one chance to save her. To save everypony.”

She rolled her eyes, fixing the voice’s owner with a indignant glare. “Oh, so we’ve had a change of heart now, have we?”

He was completely unfazed by her accusation, speaking slowly and evenly. “If she knows about your decision, she will only fight it. Do you want our sacrifice to be in vain?”

“I refuse to keep her in the dark any longer…” she hissed. “…she deserves to know. I can’t do this to her, not again…”

“…mm…da…d…” It was Luna; she had begun to toss about in her sleep. The topmost pillow fell from her face as her brow darted up and down in a spastic jig, one hoof reaching outward as though searching for something.

“Shhh-shhh-shhh” Without hesitation, the grey, pale-maned alicorn to whom Celestia had been speaking cooed in Luna’s ear. “It’s alright, honey…go back to sleep.” Slowly, and as gently as a mother hen setting upon her eggs, he placed a loving kiss on her forehead. As his muzzle came close to Luna’s fur, it seemed to shimmer slightly, dissolving before it could actually make contact. Nonetheless, the moment that he would have touched her, Luna calmed, her breathing slowed, and she was peaceful once more.

“Bless her. She may not remember what I look like, but she still knows my voice…“ he smiled, staring affectionately down at the young Princess’s slumbering form.

Celestia was speechless. She could only stare in shock as the alicorn’s shimmering presence turned slowly to face her as it drifted over Luna’s bed and began to advance.

“You…you…no. S-s-stop it.” She stammered, stumbling over herself as she backpedaled toward the door. “This isn’t real. You‘re just another hallucination.”

“Did you think I had forgotten? That I haven’t watched over you all of these years?” The alicorn whispered, his hooves propelling him forward without ever making contact with the floor. It was eerie, the manner in which her moved without making any sound or visible effort, completely unlike the visions before.

“You’ve grown so old in my absence…and so wise…” he smiled, his face cracking with an intricate network of fine
wrinkles.

“S…Stay back”. “You can’t be real. You died. I saw you die.”

“Yes, Celly, I died. For you - both of you - so very long ago. But now, at long last, I can finally help you both, at least to some degree.” He stopped, inches from Celestia’s face. Slowly, He lifted a single hoof toward his daughter.

“Please…no more…why won’t you just go away…” Celestia did not try to deflect her father’s hoof. She couldn’t even cry anymore; she was simply too exhausted to do anything but allow the shimmering appendage to creep closer.

For an unreachable, timeless moment, her father’s hoof hovered before Celestia’s bowed head, before finally, gently, descending to caress her cheek. The hoof did not make contact, passing instead through the flesh, unable to touch it directly. But it didn’t need to; immediately, without understanding how or why, she knew that this was real. What was left of Celestia’s emotional reserve exploded in a dizzying cacophony of joy, nostalgia, confusion, and sorrow at the her father‘s half-touch.

“You…you’re really here…you’re really…”

“Yes, Celestia, it’s me. I’m here.”

Celestia simply slumped against the wall, her will utterly spent. She tried again and again to direct the fragments of her scattered consciousness into a coherent thought, to ask the obvious question than screamed in the drained void of her mind, yet was unreachable by her tongue. All she could manage was a few feeble squeaks. A single, final tear trickled down her muzzle as she looked up into the face of her father, glowing with a radiance rivalling the most glorious of sunsets. The two gazed at each other, and boundless time evaporated about them. Celestia was a child once more, remembering the feeling of her father’s heartbeat next to her head as she drifted down to sleep. She wished the moment could last forever, but in an instant she was back in Luna’s bedroom, staring at the ghost of the alicorn before her with the sickening weight of grim significance growing rapidly in her mind. As if he knew what Celestia had realized, her father’s own expression grew dark.

“You know what this means then? You know how I must have come to be here?” he whispered, swallowing hard.

Celestia nodded, mustering the strength to speak the words she had known would one day come. The words that meant that everything she loved would now hang in the balance. The words that spelled the end of Equestria as she knew it.

“He’s here.”

Comments

[Glassed]

Philosophical? I'm liking this
And let's see who "He" is... I have assumptions, but I'm awaiting the revelation.
-Glassed

[Viktor Lionheart]

468911
I was a little leery about that, yeah; I wasn't sure how the existentialism in this chapter would fly over, but I'm glad to hear it's appreciated!

[Shadow Sweetheart]

Awesome to see this story again. I lost it a little while back. I got a bit smothered in other stories. Now that it's here though, I look forward to refreshing my memory and catching up on what I've missed