Chapter Thirty - Perpendicular Perspectives - Between Enemies
“Oh no…” I sighed to myself. It was that memory.
I backed off from the window I’d just touched. The rather cheery image of a ridiculous filly Luna and me mid-tackle atop a cloud concealed the deeper secrets contained within this memory.
“What is it this time?” Cadance asked, her eyes studying the window while her face grew ever more confused.
“Oh, no way!” Dash said. Somehow I could hear her intention to use this as embarrassing blackmail material later. “Is that Princess Luna?”
“Well, yes. We were making fun of…er…”
Cadance, the pony we’d been joking about, turned her head away from the window to look at me. “Of what?”
“Nevermind,” I said. “It’ll make sense in context. Long story short: my dream, my rules. But this memory was from…the last Hearth’s Warming you and I physically spent together.”
Eyes narrowing, Cadance asked, “And how much of that disaster was Nightmare Moon responsible for?”
“Luna didn’t do anything. It was all my fault. It was an accident, but I could’ve stopped it from ever happening if I hadn’t been an idiot.” I pulled my gaze up from my hooves. “Before you watch it, I want to apologize in advance for what I had to do.”
“Twilight–”
“Just watch it,” I interrupted. “I was stupid, and that’s no excuse, but everything will make sense in context.”
Cadance hummed in annoyance, or maybe even in anger, but she did as I asked. Her hoof came up to the window. The usual second passed, then two, and the third. And then her hoof came off the window.
“I’m…I’m done.” Before my brain could catch up with what Cadance had said, she continued, “I can’t – I can’t do this anymore.” Cadance turned to face me, tears at the edges of her eyes. “I can’t watch your memories anymore, Twilight. It’s like watching a disaster unfold. How can you not see that Nightmare Moon is dragging you into the darkness?”
“Wha…” There were too many objections vying for my attention, but one came out right away. “I told you that was all my fault. Everything was my idea. You must’ve seen that.”
“And that’s what’s so horrifying!” Cadance cried. “Twilight, they were your ideas. They came out of your own thoughts. Normal ponies don’t think like that. Normal ponies don’t attack their family. When you were just a wee filly, you never would’ve thought of such things.”
Alright, alright. Calm down, Twilight. If you let your emotions get the better of you, too, you and Cadance would just start yelling at each other. You had to keep it together for her.
“Cadance, I really am sorry for what I did. If I’d been smarter, you and I never would’ve been put into that position.”
Sniffling, Cadance said, “I – I don’t – don’t even care about that. What you were planning to do to me – to us…”
That drew a wince from me, but Cadance had to know I hadn’t wanted to hurt her. The original plan, as unpleasant as it was, had been in the memory. It’d just been so much safer for me if nopony had discovered I’d left home. I couldn’t have known in advance that things would work out even if Cadance and Celestia knew I’d vanished, and maybe it wouldn’t have if I’d done it under different circumstances than the ones I’d left under.
“You understand!” Cadance’s voice cracked as she shouted.
“No, Cadance, I–”
“I know you’re not a monster,” Cadance interrupted. “I know it. You’re not like Nightmare Moon, but she’s turning you evil with smiles and kind words.”
I sighed inwardly. “Cadance, I know the difference between right and wrong. I know I’ve done things I wish I hadn’t. But I didn’t have a choice. I don’t regret them. I’ve always tried to minimize the damage, and I always will. Unlike you and Celestia, Luna and I haven’t been allowed the luxury of operating overtly.”
Cadance opened her mouth to object, but I beat her to the punch.
“I mean overtly in regards to your opponent. It didn’t matter if you leaked information to me. You two held all the cards. But if I leaked information to you, it was game over. Can we at least agree on that? From my perspective, at least?”
“It wouldn’t excuse anything.”
“It’s not like I enjoy straddling the line between good and bad. There has always just been too much at stake for me.”
“And for Nightmare Moon,” Cadance retorted.
This was completely unfair and not an argument I’d normally use, but it’d probably get through to Cadance.
I unfolded my wings. “Look where we are, Cadance. We’re in the Æthereal Realm. I’m all but an alicorn now. Even if I had no connections to Luna at all, do you think Celestia would have ever let me have this?”
Cadance took a couple seconds to react to the change in topic, but she replied, “Those are Nightmare Moon’s words, not yours.” Her eyes momentarily darted toward the window next to us.
“No, they’re not. I may not have thought much about it until recently, but I always knew the answer to that question. Honestly ask yourself, do you think Celestia would’ve let me chase my love of magic all the way here?” Sunset had been slapped down hard when she’d tried.
“Well…” Cadance hesitated, but she did agree with me in the end. “No, probably not. I mean, I don’t really know, but I guess I am only the third alicorn.”
An extended moment of silence passed as Cadance contemplated something or other.
“But Aunt Luna didn’t ascend ponies, either. Nightmare Moon wouldn’t have let you do this if she had a choice. You’re just a tool to her.”
I shook my head. “You’re wrong.”
“Twilight–”
I interrupted Cadance’s interruption. She was going to misunderstand if I didn’t explain.
“I am Luna’s tool, but I’m not just her tool. She’s my friend, and I’m hers. Whatever use she makes of me, she wants me to be better off afterward.”
“That is a horrible definition of friendship.”
“It’s not a definition; it’s a corollary.”
“It’s still horrible.”
“I admit it’s a bit cynical, but it’s accurate. I can make predictions of Luna’s – no, all my friends’ behavior with it.” I quieted the little voice telling me this was a horrible, unfair argument as I added, “And it’s historically true, too. Luna guided me all the way here. My flares are gone. I’m safe. Everypony around me is safe. And – and you’ll never have to bury me.”
Cadance paled, and her jaw worked ineffectually.
Finally, whispering into my hooves, I finished, “I don’t know where I’d be without her…” Other than not existing, but if Luna had decided all those years ago after having me made that she actually didn’t want me, I honestly had no idea what would’ve happened to me or where I’d be now.
An old question I’d asked Pupa resurfaced into my thoughts. If Luna hadn’t been there for me…
No, I didn’t even want to think about that anymore. I wasn’t as immortal now as I wanted to be, but I was pretty close.
Into this heavy silence, Dash interjected, “Uh, hey, you two. Maybe we should just move on? I mean I don’t know what you’re really talking about–”
I swatted Dash’s hoof away from my memory. I’d only shared it with Cadance because it concerned her and had Luna behaving like a proper mentor in it. It wasn’t like I was showing Cadance my entire life, just small parts of it.
“–but you’re sorry for whatever, right, Twi?”
A moment passed before I answered, “I am.” Not that I would go back and change my actions.
“And you’re not gonna do any of it again?” Dash continued.
“No, not likely. Not unless circumstances require.” I brought my gaze back up to Cadance’s. “I won’t let anypony die.”
I saw Dash nod to herself out of the corner of my eye. For whatever reason, she looked pretty proud of herself.
“Right, and Twi was raised to be a princess, and make hard decisions, and see that everything gets done no matter what, and stuff like that.”
After a brief pause, Dash added, “You know, probably. Twi is kind of tight lipped, which I guess is important for princessing, but it’s also really annoying.”
I spared just enough time to glance at Dash and roll my eyes.
“Anyway, no offense, Princess, but you kinda seem too nice for that. I mean, Alicorn of Love and all that. You’re probably not really in the right profession.”
In what was probably the most patient voice Cadance could possibly bring to bear at the moment, she said, “Rainbow Dash, I know you’re just trying to help, but–”
“Argh.” Dash’s wings rubbed furiously through her mane in frustration. “Why do I have to do this horsecrap? Look, you two love each other. Just hug or something.”
Hugs didn’t solve everything, Dash.
“Cadance,” I began, “I really am sorry for every abuse I’ve taken or thought of taking with our friendship. I never would’ve done any of it if I weren’t convinced it was important. Whatever you think of her, Luna is important to me. I couldn’t risk her freedom or her life.”
I fell to my haunches and took one of Cadance’s forehooves in two of my own.
“I trust and love my big sister Cadance, who just wants the best for everypony.” My weak smile faded into a frown. “But you’re also Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, niece of Celestia. I couldn’t trust her not to trust Celestia, the aunt who could afford to be in her life. Trust is… I need…”
Wait… Ugh. If I could get a headache in the Æthereal Realm, I’d probably have the worst one of my life right now. It just occurred to me that Celestia was my foster, adoptive Aunt – and my adoptive aunt-in-law after Cadance married Shining – something like an estranged sister-in-law with how close I was to Luna, and my foster grandmother.
Stars, and we were probably distantly related genetically through somepony in Luna’s family, separated by a couple dozen generations. Just imagining the royal family tree was–
No, not thinking about it right now. I pulled my gaze back up from where it’d fallen and resumed the infinitely more important task before me.
But I closed my mouth just after parting my lips. There had to be a better way to phrase this for Cadance. She didn’t really have the experience to relate to what I was trying to get across.
Maybe this was one of those things I was trying to do backward again. There were two special ponies who always at least knew something about what was going on in my life, after all.
“I told Mom and Dad about my trip. And they always knew about Luna. It wouldn’t hurt them, or me, or Luna for them to know, so they always have.”
A second or two passed in silence as I waited for Cadance to ask the next obvious question. During it, I kept hoping Cadance wouldn’t think to ask about my potential long-lost sister. I held no answers there, only questions.
“And Shining?” Cadance asked exactly the question I’d wanted her to.
I shook my head. “Like you, he had a conflict of interest. He’s a royal guard. I don’t know what choice he would’ve made in the end” – but I hoped it would’ve been me – “but either way, telling him would have cost him either me or his honor, pride, loyalty, et cetera. I couldn’t do that to him, let alone the other risks involved.”
I let Cadance mull over my words for several seconds before I continued.
“And if he didn’t choose me, even if he reconsidered one second too late, I would’ve lost everything: Luna, my ascension…my magic.”
That elicited another wince from Cadance, unfortunately. I hadn’t meant my apology to make Cadance feel guilty. That sort of defeated the purpose.
“Cadance” – her gaze refocused on mine – “I’ve always known I was going to have to make up Hearth’s Warming to you, and I promise I will. I’ll spend centuries apologizing if I have to, because you’re worth it. We’re worth it.”
I bit my lip and emphatically did not add, “That is if I’m still alive after everything is said and done.”
“You can be upset with me. I’ll understand. I’d have to be crazy to hold that against you when I give Luna’s grudge a pass.” And that wasn’t even considering my own. “I just want you to see me for me. I’m not being tricked. I don’t need rehabilitating, and I don’t need to be dragged out of the ‘darkness’.”
Lastly, I added, “I just want you to be upset with me. I just want the chance to apologize to my sister, not to have her shift the blame to somepony else. Is that…” I clung onto Cadance’s hoof extra hard. “Is that too much to ask?”
It really wasn’t, right? Cadance should be upset with me personally, not Luna. Seeing somepony in a new light can be hard, and this wasn’t exactly an improvement for me, but that should make it all the easier. It was always easier to dislike somepony you loved than to love somepony you hated.
So why wasn’t Cadance saying anything? I could understand if it took her a few days to fully process it, but surely she could say something. A yes, or a no, or even an ‘I don’t know’ would be wonderful. Instead, she just kept staring at nothing, her mouth moving a tiny bit every second or so.
It wasn’t like I was asking her to forgive me. I hadn’t even asked that much of her. All I wanted was her anger, or sadness, or whatever she was feeling right now directed toward the pony who deserved it.
Cadance fell to her haunches, and her other forehoof came up to steady my own shaking ones. She wore a sad smile on her muzzle.
And she still wasn’t saying anything.
“What is it, Cadance?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Cadance replied, her voice brittle and breaking. “I think we should spend more time together, just the two of us.”
“Wha…” How had Cadance come to that conclusion? “I – I would love to, but…why?”
I could see Cadance reaching for a lie. It was written all over her face as always.
“I think we need time to get to know each other. And this time no secrets, no aunts, no responsibilities. Just us.”
“That does sound nice.” Nice enough even that I didn’t really care to try and find out what Cadance was really after with the suggestion. “Maybe we could wander the moon together. My tour guide was busy the last time I was there. Oh, or maybe we could go visit Draconia. If you wouldn’t mind if I brought Spike with. Or–”
“Anywhere would be fine. But I – I need to go.” Before I could get a word in edgewise, Cadance whispered, “I’m sorry.”
And then Cadance disappeared. She’d faded out of existence over a fraction of a second, and I’d missed most of it as I’d blinked. I nearly fell onto my face with her sudden disappearance, having lost the support her hooves had offered.
“Uh, Twi, where did she just go?”
I grunted as I got back up onto all four hooves. “Probably back to the Physical Realm. I guess. I don’t know.” Cadance could be on the Nebulous or in another galaxy for all I knew.
“Right… Well, should we get going?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. If I hadn’t already gotten through to Cadance enough to at least set her to thinking, I probably wouldn’t be able to at all. This was a pretty horrible parting of ways, but I didn’t see what more I could do without letting her cool off first.
And based on my best guess, we likely only had ten minutes or so of walking left at this point, which wasn’t much time for concluding remarks anyway. And I still hadn’t come up with anything I could really call a plan for escaping Celestia. I had more options now as an alicorn than I’d had before, but I still didn’t like my chances.
Waiting out Celestia probably wasn’t a good idea either. We could probably stay safe here in the Æthereal Realm for weeks, but by that point, there’d be no way we could leave safely. There’d be a thousand and one traps and wards waiting to snare us the moment we reappeared. If we left now, we might have a chance. There’d probably only be a dozen…
I sighed again. Then together, Dash and I began the last leg of our journey.
After I finally felt ready to, I pulled my hoof off what was probably the last of Sunset’s memories.
“Huh,” I whispered to myself. It wasn’t really all that important, but I hadn’t expected Sunset to know dark magic, too. Unlike me though, she fueled it with fear, not anger.
If the memory hadn’t already told me, it wouldn’t have been hard to guess what fear Mother used for her dark magic. She really had loved Celestia like a mother and hadn’t wanted to lose her, even when their relationship was stressed to the breaking point…
“Of course I did,” the voice of Sunset in my head told me. It wasn’t just a whisper or a feeling anymore, but a proper and distinct personality. I knew it was really just me talking to myself – I’d checked, just to make sure, and it couldn’t tell me anything about Sunset I didn’t already know – but I’d even managed to get the cadence in her voice right. “She practically raised me, you know, and I barely ever saw my own parents. We lived so far apart.”
Ignoring Mother, I turned my attention down the path of wisps. There were no more memories in sight further along, and I was fairly sure it had an appreciable incline.
“Let’s get going,” I said to Dash. “Do you remember the signals we talked about?”
Dash groaned out another, “Yes.”
“And you remember everything I told you about using your horn?”
“Oh my gosh, Twi! Yes!”
I checked myself before shouting back. With Fluttershy at stake, I knew Dash was taking this seriously. I just wanted her to be pedantic in her preparations for once. We only had one chance to make good our escape.
The rest of the climb went by quickly, and looking back, we had definitely climbed. At the peak, the wisps abruptly fell downward and the path ended. The edge wasn’t frayed, but it certainly didn’t look like a natural break either.
“So what now?” Dash asked. “Do we jump?”
I tested a hoof over the edge. Like much earlier, some wisps came out to meet it.
“Probably not,” I answered. I wished Cadance were still here; she would know what to do. Luna had only told me to follow my memories, and now I had no directions left.
“Oh my gosh!” Dash shouted all at once from behind me.
I spun around to discover a blue…swirl, for lack of a better word, the same color as Dash’s coat orbiting around her increasingly fast. And then it split into two swirls, orbiting Dash like electrons.
Before I could say anything, a lavender light of my own popped out of my chest and did the same.
“Get ready!” I shouted, unable to control my volume. “This is probably it!”
A pure white glow emanated from Dash’s chest and slowly lifted her into the air, growing brighter all the time. Moments later, the same happened for me. The feeling was not unlike being held in somepony else’s magic.
My eyes slammed shut as Dash’s light intensified to a blinding level. I could only assume the same happened to me as well when the light fighting its way through my eyelids doubled in intensity.
A steady crackle of raw power built up until I felt myself being torn apart again, exactly as I had when I’d first come to the Æthereal Realm.
This was it! This was it! Oh my gosh!
The next thing I knew, my wings felt heavier, and I was being assaulted by some new sense. I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet, and I still couldn’t feel my horn and magic properly. They were there, but…different.
But the new sense, I didn’t know how to describe it. There was a whole lot of whatever it was I was sensing around me, and three somethings in particular stuck out to me. Two were close by, both blazingly…bright, I supposed was the word, although one was far brighter than the other and sent another weird feeling through…itself? Or me? What?
But there was another, far smaller, but still appreciable ‘light’ rather far from me, and it was surrounded by seven smaller sources.
And now that I’d had a little time to adjust, I could tell there were another seven whatevers near me. Six were together, vaguely in a circle, and a seventh one was just beside the really, really, really bright one. It didn’t hurt the way staring at, say, the sun would, but if I knew how, I’d want to wince away from–
My eyes snapped open, as did that other, new sense that I had. And when I connected what I saw with my normal sight and where that overwhelming source of whatever was, I knew what was going on, even as I panicked. I could sense magic passively.
The elements were tucked away on the bridge; those were the six dim magical sources I’d noticed before. Dash must’ve been the other intense source. She’d been moved to her bedroom. Probably. It was the right area. I didn’t care right now.
In front of me sat Celestia at the table I’d intended to bring up to the bridge. Chamomile was nearby without the sweater she’d had on earlier, and she was pouring a cup of tea placed in front of a vacant cushion.
I could feel a cold sweat building all over me, and my knees shook as I took stock of my situation.
Celestia opened her mouth, and her magic swirled in my magic sense, reaching out to some unknown purpose.
I readied myself as best as I could, summoning my own magic. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
“Argh!” I shrieked. Celestia hadn’t done anything, but a familiar pain wracked my head. I fell to my knees, unable to keep my balance.
I turned my magic sight onto myself, and I let out a weak gasp at what I saw. My magic was burning away and trying to regenerate, both at an insane pace. And I was pulling in magic from ill-defined sources around me somehow, but that was being singed away, too.
Chamomile’s magic spread out through her wings and launched out all around them, rushing closer to me. But it stopped soon after, and I heard her hooves fall back to the floor.
After both my whimpering stopped and my magic stabilized, I finally heard Celestia speak.
“I am terribly sorry, Twilight Sparkle, but we need have one of two long overdue conversations. The antidote is in Dame Chamomile’s delicious tea, but you will need to drink several cups for it to be effective.”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught Chamomile mouthing, “It’s true,” to me.
“You force fed me unicorn bane?” My voice came out hoarse and barely above a whisper.
A sip of tea separated my question from Celestia’s response. “Again, my apologies. I teleported it into your stomach upon your return. It was the only way I could be sure you would not slip out of my hooves before we had a chance to speak. I know it is quite rude to show up to a parley–”
I rose my head up just to let it slam back down into the ground. I’d left the parley illusion up, forgotten about it, and hadn’t told Chrysalis about it.
“–with ill intent, but I suspect you can at least understand the necessity. Knowing you, you forgot about your request as you ascended.”
Chamomile mouthed an apology to me this time. How much information exactly had Celestia already extracted from her?
My legs didn’t exactly take to the task well, but I rose to my hooves.
“You don’t know me,” I grunted. It wasn’t as hard to talk as before, but Luna had been right, even if she’d understated it, and Sunset’s memories couldn’t have prepared me: unicorn bane was unpleasant.
“Perhaps not as well as I should, but perhaps more than you know.”
Oh, horseapples. How much of my life had Celestia spied on? How much did she know? Obviously she hadn’t known enough to stop me from ascending, but…I didn’t even know anymore. I might be in an even worse situation than I’d thought.
“At any rate, we have plenty of time to get to know one another now, do we not?” Celestia continued. Her hoof extended toward the empty cushion in front of me. “Would you care to take a seat?”
Hesitantly, I said, “I guess.” It wasn’t like I gained anything from standing on weak legs. And if there really were an antidote in the tea, I absolutely needed it. I didn’t want to wait out this poison; I didn’t even know if my dragon magic would help flush it out of me.
I wobbled forward, prompting Celestia to ask, “Would you like assistance?”
“No,” I snapped. Celestia could’ve just put me on the cushion to begin with. These stupid little games to emphasize how in trouble I was weren’t needed. I wasn’t an idiot.
As I sat down, or rather collapsed down, I finally noticed the elephant in the room, so to speak.
“Why on Equus did you bring that with?” I asked, my head pointed toward an oversized bronze statue of Luna in her youth.
Celestia quietly set her teacup down before she turned to face the statue. I could tell she was using earth pony magic to move the cup with her hooves. It felt distinctly different from unicorn magic. More…mechanical than flowing?
Maybe that wasn’t the right way to say it. More rigid? That was closer to the mark, but still not perfect.
“I recovered this from Mona.” Celestia finally answered, a faraway look in her eyes. “That it survived all this time was a surprise to say the least. I wonder how much else I can recover.”
I fumbled with my now considerably larger wings to pick up the teacup in front of me. I’d never exactly developed Dash’s or Fluttershy’s level of dexterity with them, but I should be able to manage this. I’d have tried using grip magic myself, but I figured even earth pony magic would set off another poison attack.
However, apparently, I was wrong, since Celestia said, “You should try using your hooves. Unicorn bane is aptly named. It does little to limit other types of magic, although you would be unwise to use pegasus magic or changeling magic.”
As skeptical as I was of the advice, I didn’t see much of a point in lying about this. Mother told me I was being stupid, too, so I went ahead and tried.
My hoof came into contact with the cup, and I reached out to it the way I’d been taught. My hoof tingled, and the cup wasn’t exactly steady, but they came up together. I managed to down the entire contents before I set the cup back down.
“Well, I must admit I’m impressed,” Celestia said.
And I didn’t care. I cut off my glare before it could really get going.
“What were you expecting from the Alicorn of Magic?” I grumbled. At the same time I motioned for Chamomile to refill my teacup, and Sunset said, “I told you I could do it, Sunbutt.”
“A fair point. I imagine you will have far less trouble than Cadance.” Celestia chuckled before adding, “My sister wasn’t exactly a natural flier herself. She flew too low over a forest one time, and a tree spontaneously came to life and tried to grab her. Instead of just flying up, she plummeted straight into the ground. Heh. I had to pull her out of–”
“Shut up!” I screamed. How dare she speak about Luna like that! “I don’t want to hear this from you, you sororicidal mule!”
Celestia’s expression inverted, and her voice boomed and reverberated about the room in the way only one-hundred story tall adult, male dragons should be able to speak. “Twilight Sparkle, I never tried to kill Lulu!”
I wished I could return the favor, but without magic, I could only manage a regular scream. “Yes. You. Did! Saying ‘purify’ doesn’t make it any less murder!”
Did – did Celestia just snarl at me? What? I’d almost thought that was physically impossible for her.
“I think,” Celestia began, each word slowly and carefully chosen, “we both need to calm down.”
My eyes narrowed, and somewhere in the background of my thoughts, Sunset warned me to be careful before I set myself and everything around me on fire, although without flares to trigger the effect, I doubted I’d ever do that again.
That aside, did Celestia honestly think she could convince me she was anything less than an attempted murderess?
“Please, sit down,” Celestia added. “I would rather not end this conversation here.”
I complied with a huff, regular dragonfire bursting out of my nose with my snort. As much as I didn’t want to listen to Celestia, I didn’t want to fight her even more, especially while poisoned. But poisoned or not, simply put, I’d lose. Again. I hadn’t even had a chance to fight back after returning to the Nebulous before I’d gotten knocked out.
Taking a deep breath first, I reached out with a hoof and fiddled with my teacup. I put a little too much force into my – I shivered at the strange sensations coursing through me – grip and cracked the cup. It wasn’t leaking, so I wasn’t going to say or do anything about it.
“Fine,” I mumbled into my tea.
Celestia took that as her cue to speak. “Thank you. Twilight Sparkle, as well read as you are, there are things that you do not know, things that you could not know.”
Said the pony responsible for censoring most of those things. I was so close to saying that to her face, but I just buried my muzzle in more tea instead. Even in this situation, Chamomile’s best was delicious, and the antidote was apparently tasteless.
“When I defeated Discord with my sister, Luna” – Celestia put the oddest emphasis on those last three words – “we also restored much of the world to its rightful state. However, the Elements of Harmony are neither omnipotent nor omniscient; much of Discord’s fouler magics remained in the world.”
Oh no. Was she seriously going to try this on me? Cadance, sure, but me?
“Luna and I tried our best to eliminate them, but always there was one we missed, one we overlooked. Possessions were not uncom–”
“Oh, don’t even try!” I checked my voice before I started off another shouting match and decided to pretend Cadance hadn’t already given me this talk. “That is the lamest excuse you could’ve possibly come up with. What, was it some nightmarish moon spirit nopony had ever heard of before that just so happened to infect Luna, hence the name Nightmare Moon?”
Did Celestia understand just how utterly ridiculous that sounded? Something ‘possessing’ an alicorn, even a young alicorn, was the stupidest, most transparent lie I’d ever heard, disregarding all the other objections I’d brought up with Cadance.
“‘Oops, I spilled a glass of milk.’
“‘Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. You were just possessed.’
“‘Oh good. I wouldn’t want to take responsibility for my own actions when I make mistakes.’
“‘I’m glad you feel that way, because I’ve always wanted you out of my way. And since you’re an evil spirit, who cares what happens to you.’”
Finished with my little skit, I looked back at–
Oh my gosh! I was halfway to my hooves before I stifled my instinctive desire to flee. Celestia’s smoldering glare pierced right through conscious thought and reason to strike directly at my sense of self-preservation.
“Twilight Sparkle–”
The room darkened as Celestia spoke. No, the sun darkened. Once upon a time that would have terrified me, but now it – no, it still terrified me. I could feel my legs shaking beneath me. I didn’t know how many more cups of tea I needed to drink, but I needed my magic right now.
“–you have never watched your sister fall into darkness. You have never felt that magnitude of loss. To lose the one constant in your life, it is a pain nopony should ever have to bear.”
Celestia’s magic slapped my hoof away from my teacup. Under her gaze, I shrunk down into my cushion with a helpless mewl.
“My dear little Lulu might appreciate a good fight more than she should, she might throw small tantrums, but she would never say the things she did to me that night one-thousand years ago. She would never have been so careless with the lives of the ponies around us. She would never have that crazed look in her eye, a look so far gone it gave me goosebumps.”
“Yes she would,” I whispered, just barely finding my voice again. I just barely managed to raise my head from the ground, letting me sit up with a little pride.
And that was enough. That little act of defiance gave me the warm feeling I needed to find my courage again. In a growing crescendo, I continued, “Luna was miserable. She was hurting. And she broke for a short while. I’ve been to Luminance, and unlike some ponies, I was invited. I’ve seen the madness you’re talking about. It was all her. Don’t you dare” – my teacup shattered beneath my hoof as I slammed the table – “try to say her problems weren’t real.”
The two of us held each other’s gaze for an unknowable amount of time, perhaps for all eternity. But…I was getting wet, and my cushion was growing soggy, which broke my concentration. I scooted my cushion awkwardly away from where my tea was spilling over the edge of the table.
The mood was horribly broken, but surely that was for the best. Both of our tempers were getting a little out of control again. I didn’t want to be a smear against the wall or a mindless, brainwashed puppet under Celestia’s magic.
Chamomile bravely stepped between the two of us to clean up and provide me with another cup. Granted, being off to the side wouldn’t leave her much safer if we came to blows, but it would at least help keep Celestia’s eye off her.
I managed a stiff, “Thank you,” simply taking the cup with telekinesis this time. It was a grating experience, my teacup was shaking, and I could feel a sharply growing pain in my forehead again, but my magic was working at least.
For a time, Celestia and I drank in silence. Her thoughts were as impenetrable as ever, even if her emotions had been coaxed into the open for once. Literally every part of Sunset within me was screaming that I was missing something important, that Celestia wasn’t telling me something, but Celestia was just trying to rationalize her actions as usual.
However, even that part of my mind locked up when Celestia actually sighed, and I could have sworn I saw a smirk pulling at her lips, like she’d won somehow.
“I would like to make a deal with you,” Celestia began, “an exchange of favors. Agreed in advanced with full knowledge of what each would entail, without trick or guile. Do you think you could trust me enough to be open to such things?”
I wanted to say no, but all of Sunset was screaming at me again. “Sunbutt keeps her serious promises!” And…a favor could be very useful. Could I trust Sunset’s trust in Celestia? I – I supposed Celestia hadn’t ever actually broken an explicit promise, at least not so far as I knew…
“Maybe,” I said. I felt the small cut I’d bitten into my lip heal nearly instantly, although the taste of blood on my tongue remained. “What do you want?”
“I need answers to a few questions, fully and in detail, regardless of whatever you must do to obtain them or what knowing them may or may not do to you.”
“In other words,” I began, fairly confident my guess was right, “you need somepony to talk to Luna for you. Otherwise you would simply take what you needed as you did with Pupa, right?”
Without hesitation, Celestia replied, “With all of Equestria at stake, yes, I would. I have unfortunately never quite grasped my sister’s gift for less intrusive interrogation myself, and even she has had trouble with changelings. It is extraordinarily difficult to know what they are truly up to, as I believe they have just proved today.”
Great. So Celestia hadn’t been fooled by the geases at all. Or else she’d pried the information out of Chrysalis or Chamomile. I couldn’t say I’d be surprised if so.
Either way, Celestia knew I cared enough about everypony here to protect them, and that meant she knew she had blackmail material if she lied about how long the geases had been placed. And she had a number of potential willing hostages. Everypony had agreed to come on this trip of their own free will, but no sane mare would trust the word of somepony who had placed a mind controlling spell on them in a hostile confrontation with the ever popular Princess Celestia.
Why the buck not? Life was too easy right now, what with Celestia trying to bargain for information.
“Do you have a list?” I asked, proud at how level my voice came out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia had prepared one or several while waiting for me to return from the Æthereal Realm.
Celestia nodded. “Dame Chamomile, the third one, if you would.”
Ugh. I didn’t know what was worst, that Celestia knew Chamomile was my knight, that I was jealous somepony else was giving her orders, or that I was already thinking of her as my knight. They were all pretty bad. Chamomile didn’t belong to me.
“Here you are, Princess,” Chamomile said to me, not Celestia, a lengthy scroll held out with a hoof. So much for a few questions.
“Thanks.” I took the scroll with telekinesis, not trusting myself not to rip it to shreds in the unrolling process otherwise. It was worth the headache if it got Celestia off my ship even a second sooner.
I first took a preparatory breath. There was no telling what information Celestia was going to demand from me, but whatever came up, I couldn’t react to any of it. That could be the trap in and of itself.
Alright. I unrolled the scroll.
And I read, and read, and read. If I wrote full and complete answers to these questions, I’d be giving Celestia a novel. That said, most of them were…reasonably benign, if perhaps offensive, but I had to work hard not to pale at some of the questions. If I hadn’t already known their answers… I suppressed a shiver at the last instant.
I had a feeling saying, ‘I’m not comfortable answering some of these,’ wasn’t such a good idea either. I’d be all but admitting I knew the answer. And with a lot of those questions, I might as well have given the answer away for free. Simply being uncomfortable with answering, say, ‘Who killed Sunset Shimmer?’ gave Celestia free information.
As if I had little interest in the document, I tossed it onto the table just in front of me, still partially unrolled.
“Some of those questions were redundant or are invalidated by negative answers to related questions,” I commented.
And Cadance already knew the answers to a lot of them. I couldn’t even try to delay action on this exchange of favors because of that, or most of my bargaining power would vanish.
“Forgive me if that bothers you,” Celestia said with something that was almost a frown. “I remember Cadance once mentioned you had a strange mental tic with lists.”
I didn’t like the way Celestia had said that. It’d sounded like there was some deeper meaning behind it.
“There’s always a deeper meaning with Sunbutt,” Mother commented.
Still, it wasn’t like Celestia was wrong, at least when I was eight. Not that I wasn’t impressed she’d remembered that for so long. She must’ve gotten that piece of information from back when she was still considering making me her apprentice.
“Honestly,” Celestia continued, “I didn’t compose that scroll to leave you unbalanced. For completeness, I added everything that might need to be addressed, and personally, I merely would wish for time to recover between bad news and the details of it.”
For lack of any better words, I said, “That’s fair.”
“So then” – Celestia’s eyes met mine and held them there – “what would you want in exchange for this information?”
Well, what I wanted was obvious. “Stay away from me and mine in every possible conceivable meaning of those two words at all times, maintaining at least a distance of one AU.”
“I fear I would have to move the sun and moon a little too close to Equus to accept that deal.”
I raised an eyebrow. Was Celestia trying to inject humor into this situation?
Celestia mirrored my action almost perfectly, although it seemed she was a bit out of practice at moving her eyebrows separately.
“Unless perhaps you did not plan to return to Equestria?”
I wasn’t sure – it was far too subtle to be certain – but it sounded like hope and dread were both vying for control of Celestia’s voice.
“Of course I’m going to return,” I grumbled. I wanted to go home. “How about this, then? Promise not to mess with anypony’s mind ever, by your actions or through another’s.”
Celestia shook her head. “I could not possibly agree to that without having those answers first, as much as I wish I could.”
Yeah, right. You couldn’t possibly agree because you could never reach your goal if you did.
“Fine. Leave us in peace until after the Summer Sun Celebration is over.” Luna would be free by then, and all we really needed to win was peace until that moment. “And tell me what you plan to do once you have your answers. I won’t settle for anything less than that.” It was times like this that I wished Luna had forced me to go to Ponyville’s market to learn how to haggle.
After a moment’s deliberation, Celestia said, “Provided you leave me and mine in peace as well; you make a prompt effort to discover these answers; and after I have those answers, I have a chance to speak with your mentor directly before the summer solstice. If you can do that, then we have a deal.”
I fought off the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes, I’ll honor the spirit of your words if you honor the spirit of mine: no moving the solstice, no moving the Summer Sun Celebration, no shortening it, no interfering with Luna’s return, none of that.”
“You have my word,” Celestia said with a nod. “I left instructions for the flame sending spell with Dame Chamomile, as well as directions on how to reach both my flame and Cadance’s. If you cannot manage it yourself, Spike should prove able. Or you may always visit Canterlot Castle to speak to me in person.”
Yeah, like that was going to happen.
A tiny little smile snuck onto Celestia’s lips. “I must admit how impressed I am with your son’s growth and character since custody was returned to you. Given your circumstances, you have proven yourself a far better mother than I could have imagined possible.”
That compliment wasn’t exactly free of thorns, but it was still nice to hear. At least I was getting some respect for my accomplishments. And maybe Celestia’s words had stroked those little parts I got from Sunset, parts which would always want her praise.
“Thank you, Sunbutt.”
A moment passed in which Celestia and I were silent. Chamomile was silent, too, of course, but her silence was more of the jaw hanging open, I couldn’t believe you just said that variety.
And then it hit me that I’d just said something I probably really shouldn’t have. Celestia would’ve found out who I’d once been from Cadance or from a letter from me, of course, but I would’ve been long gone at either of those two points, not still in the same room with her.
“Sunset?” Celestia whispered.
I turned away from Celestia’s eyes before they had a chance to draw me in. Something about them felt like they were looking at more than just the normal visible spectrum. And even turned away, I could still feel them on me.
Magic swirled and danced inside Celestia to some unknown end. All I knew was it wasn’t forming a spell, at least not one from any type of magic I recognized.
“I’m – I’m not Sunset. I’m her…daughter.”
Celestia didn’t say a word, but she did stand up.
“Just go,” I said, my voice accidentally amplified by my magic. The sound of hooves came to an immediate halt. “If you want any of your answers, if you think your word is worth anything, then leave.”
Leaving me in peace most certainly included not inflicting emotional distress on me, too. It wasn’t exactly what we’d meant when we’d made our agreement, but it was certainly in the spirit of it.
I waited and waited and waited, and when nothing happened, I finally looked back up. Celestia was gone. I hadn’t even felt her use any magic. Had I really been that out of it? No, I was the Alicorn of Magic now; there should be no way I could miss a teleport.
Whatever. I lost interest in the problem. Unless she’d found a way to hide her magic from me somehow, Celestia was gone, and that was more than enough for the moment.
And for once, my brain and my body were in complete agreement. I collapsed onto the table with a thud, and soon after, I slipped and fell to the floor. But before I landed, Chamomile caught me in her hooves. She deposited me back on my cushion, and I whispered a quick thank you. I couldn’t give in to any kind of fatigue yet, mental, physical, or emotional. I still had things to do.
“Where are the elements?” I asked. Even as I remembered that I already knew, an extended hoof guided me to where they were tucked away.
It was actually a little hard for me to believe my brain was still working enough to worry about this kind of stuff. The elements were useless to Celestia now, so she had no reason not to use them to track me.
Granted she’d probably legitimately forgotten about them at the end, since she hadn’t hidden them away. I would’ve looked for and would’ve found them no matter where she put them anyway, but still, if I were her, I’d have given it a shot.
I teleported the elements outside the ship and casually flung them away. They were out of sight before I could even blink. That got me to smile at least. Being an alicorn was going to be fun.
As I set up all of the spells I’d need to scrub my teleport signature out of existence after we left, I turned to my temporary doctor.
“Hey, Chamomile?”
“Yes, Princess?” she asked, snapping to attention with an almost infectious energy. I’d lost pretty much everything that was keeping me going.
“Can you make sure Dash doesn’t try to use any magic until I wake up? I don’t want her blowing up the ship or giving away our position.”
“Your will be done. Do you require anything else?”
Nodding, I said, “More tea. My head is still on fire right now.”
Chamomile held out the entire pot for me, and I took it without complaint. Before I began the process of downing it all, I asked, “What happened while I was gone?”
“Honestly, not much. The sun princess was rather polite.”
I swallowed an extra large gulp. “No surprise there. It’s kind of her shtick.” I’d actually gotten to see her yelling and angry. I kind of wondered how many ponies besides Luna could lay claim to that rare event.
“Yes, I could tell. She showed up about ten minutes after you left.”
Ha! I deserved an award for a pretty accurate guess on her travel time.
“When she first arrived, she didn’t so much dish out divine retribution as gentle slaps on the hoof, if even that. But she did remove the geases you placed on everypony, and then…”
“Yes?” I asked, although through the teapot, it came out more like, “Hmpgh?”
Chamomile picked up a book from the table and deposited it in front of me. The ship’s log really wasn’t something I’d wanted Celestia to get her hooves on, but here it was.
Hesitantly, I asked. “How much of it did she read?”
“All of it.”
I choked on my tea, descending into a coughing fit. “How?” I squeaked. I swore, if Luna had been holding out on me with a speed reading spell…
“I think she skimmed it for the most part. I couldn’t tell you what pages she read in detail.”
Ah. There must’ve been keywords Celestia had been looking for. That made sense.
After I nodded, Chamomile continued, “Once she’d finished with the log, she asked me for quill, ink, and parchment for those scrolls of questions. I still have the other three, if you want to see them.”
“Later,” I sighed. I didn’t have the energy for any actual thinking right now.
I downed the last of the tea and rose to my hooves. After testing some basic teleporting and finding the dull throb in my head bearable, I set about my next to last task for today.
More magic channeled through my horn than ever before, almost more than I’d ever dreamed possible, and I was barely even trying. There were no flares, no restraints, no worries. There was only more and more magic as it flowed in from nowhere all around me. I’d dare say I was even brighter in my magic sense than Celestia had been when she’d knocked me out.
Honestly, I didn’t even know where it was all coming from. It wasn’t my magic…unless I had so much now it couldn’t all fit in a Twilight Sparkle sized package. That was a crazy thought.
A hoof touched my shoulder, and Chamomile’s voice accompanied it. “Are you all right?”
Ah. I was laughing at nothing, wasn’t I? I hadn’t even noticed. That had to have been creepy.
All the magic I’d stored and shaped into a teleport, I released at once. The stars around us all moved in an instant, some moving very little and others making great leaps across the sky.
I really should have teleported us a few more times and changed our velocity randomly before arriving at the coordinates Luna had written to go to after ascending, but just one teleport was already asking a lot from me. We’d be safe enough. Celestia had left. We’d be safe at least until after I’d given Celestia her answers.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, finally answering Chamomile’s question, yet wobbling on my hooves.
But I couldn’t collapse yet. I had one last thing I wanted to do.
This was probably a little too complicated of a spell to do safely when I was this tired, but I wasn’t mortal anymore. If I messed up too badly, my body would just fix the damage done.
Huh. Was any alchemy permanent on me anymore? Was I going to look like Sunset when I woke up?
No, probably not. I still looked like me. I’d think regeneration would work faster than that like it had when I’d drawn blood from my lip, even for detail work like changing my appearance. And Cadance could cut her mane short and dye it if she wished, and she still molted normally.
If none of that counted as damage that needed to be regenerated, then what constituted ‘damage’ was probably flexible enough to let me change my genetic makeup to viable alternatives.
Besides, I was just going to change the pigments of my current mane and tail. It wouldn’t let me produce new hair with the same color, but as a temporary solution, it’d do. Later, I’d find two ponies with the colors to copy into my genes properly.
Magic washed over my mane and tail from the roots to the tips.
I didn’t have the energy or balance left to look at my tail, so I put together a scrying spell.
Ugh. With my usual pink and purple stripes replaced with red and yellow, I looked like Dash.
Whatever. I could fine tune the colors to better blend into my dark blue hair later. I was done with today.
“Oh, and Chamomile,” I continued, the last of my work done, “I really need a bed.”
I passed out.
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Hm. So she changed her stripes to reflect on Sunset? Neat little homage to her... "mother" I suppose. Not much else to say, aside from the fact that Twilight is still guzzling the Kool-aid. Very good chapter though.
That was great! It's so satisfying to finally see a confrontation between Twilight and Celestia.
Pretty thoughtful of Twilight to change her hair colors in memory of Sunset, too.
Things be getting good.
Don't you dare stop writing.
You know, I'm surprised that Twilight's never brought up the fact that Celestia chose to suppress her magic- her talent, her identity, her life- when she could have taught her instead. I think if she mentioned that even once, Celestia would have some serious explaining to do
Well at least Celestia is going to be deposed soon.
Good to see that arc finally come to a close.
A pleasant surprise! And a lovely read as I've come to expect. Thank you.
I honestly have no clue who I should be rooting for at this point.
I can't tell which side is right, both have good points, and if both sides are hiding parts of the truth they are doing it too well for me to figure out who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, or if there even IS a good guy and bad guy.
WELL DONE writer.
6198913 Twilight is going to be so very broken when the kool-aid runs out...
I love how she goes on about how it was all her choice when she now knows not only how she was born, but that she was basically groomed from a very young age to be loyal to Luna...
Nightmare better hope Twilight never stops drinking the kool-aid...
This story updating always makes my day.
6198977
Seconded. Especially now that we've seen just how much influence a Cutie Mark has over a ponies life. Cutting that off / suppressing it, was worse than the death sentence. So yeah, serious explaining to do.
This statement by Twilight in regards to Celestia's attitude towards Luna's state of mind when she was banished MAKES this story. By blaming a "possessing spirit" or "Discord's foul magic" it absolves both Luna and more importantly, Celestia of any responsibility for what happened.
My sister didn't snap due to years of my emotional neglect... she was just possessed.
6199084
Good and bad? Light and dark? White and black? Friend, just like real life this story is full of different variations of gray. You are completely right though, that's part of what makes the story so damn engaging.
It's here, it's here, the update's here!
"After a brief pause, Dash added, “You know, probably. Twi is kind of tight lipped, which I guess is important for princessing, but it’s also really annoying.”"
Hah!
"Look, you two love each other. Just hug or something."
And again. :)
Rainbow Dash, thy name is subtle tact.
Ah. Oh dear. She... wasn't mouthing to herself there, was she?
Well, better say this now before things get exciting: that was a rather interesting conversation. Hopefully it significantly increased the probability of things ending well.
Right, now, I suggest you two near-alicorns make for the exit. Expeditiously.
...And they're not thinking of it. Oh dear.
Ooh, the Sunset-voice is interesting.
Hm. I'm a bit confused by just what is what in the magic sense, but then, Twilight seems to be too.
And then we both get distracted and file it under "investigate further when mortal peril less immediate".
Ah. Yes. The great big glowing sign would probably impair the effectiveness of the "dump the Elements and run" plan.
"Why on Equus did you bring that with?"
"with you"?
Ah. Statuary. That makes sense.
And nice detail with the dragonfire. :)
Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier due to the distraction, but I'm wondering whether the magic sense is an alicorn thing or an Alicorn of Magic thing. More likely the latter, I think, but I don't have information information to be very confident about that.
Oh, and the draining magic without even trying to, too.
And now I'm wondering what the people down on the planet thought when the sun suddenly darkened for no readily apparent reason. Well, or it could just be an alteration of the light headed towards the Nebulous and not an alteration of all the sunlight being emitted.
...Oh. I get it. I was wondering why Celestia was talking about moving the sun and moon closer to Equus... and then I realized that she was talking about changing the size of an AU. :D
Nice loophole, if a wee bit tricky for most ponies to exploit. :)
Yeah... Wondering how Celestia's going to respond to the "Sunbutt" thing...
Hm. Interesting, if short... Of course, there will likely be much more reaction later. And once Celestia debriefs Cadance...
Sigh... and so the chapter ends... It did not disappoint me, though. :)
Next time, Luna, and the other people on the ship! I am very much looking forward to it! :D
6199084
"WELL DONE writer."
Indeed. :)
6199289
Aye, I don't think I'd even been considering that angle previously.
6199084
When gods fight, it doesn't matter who is right. Only who is left.
It would be interesting to see Luna and Twilight take all the 'faithful' to the moon city and set up a new kingdom. That wouldn't fix all the things Celestia has to answer for but it would allow the sisters to 'agree to disagree' and move on.
Truly the only innocent alicorn in this whole mess is Candance (Dash doesn't count, yet...
) She's been manipulated, lied to, and memory wiped. Actually, of the three, Luna is probably the only one who didn't mess with Cadance. At least not directly.
All I know is this won't end well.
6199289
It's kind of funny when you think about it, but it almost seems like Twilight should be the one who would want Luna to have been possessed. What shows greater character for her mentor? That she, an immortal goddess with millennia to mature, was willing to subject the world to the horrors and hardships of eternal night because of petty envy towards her sister and a demand for mortal ponies a fraction her age to pay attention to her? Or that she was taken over by an evil entity that made her do it?
That. Was. Intense.
Ohmigod, more more more more more!!!!! I really can't wait until the confrontation between Celestia and Luna now!
I've bitched and complained about this story a few times but I've kept reading. I don't know if there's something wrong with me or something right with you, but I've kept going with this story. Any complains I've voiced aside, I actually am enjoying this...
) Big Mac: 
So have a machination-free (Canon princess in his dreams!
They Have Finally Left Namek.
Ugh, I really dislike that she explains it like that. I know she is being vague on purpose, but that is just going to give Celestia the wrong idea.
6199381
We might think of it as petty envy, but this is a "placing straws till they break the camel's back" scenario.
How many times did Luna ask her sister if she could do something special so their subjects could appreciate her, only to be denied each and every time? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands of times?
Luna was the invisible 2nd monarch. Ponies didn't see her during the day, and they slept when she was performing her duties. Would it have been bad for Luna to get a "day of night" holiday/celebration once a year? Celestia is fully adored/worshiped/appreciated/etc. 365 days a year. Celestia couldn't let her have even one day? Celestia's response was to pretty much say "silly Luna, you don't need that" with the subtext of "suck it up and be a good little princess of the night and stop making waves."
[I don't fully remember the exact bits used in this story, & I'm possibly pulling from other sources]
In direct regards to your response, I think it's FAR more interesting if it's all Luna and it shows more character.
If Luna is possessed, that's the end of that story bit right there.
Why did Luna snap? She was possessed.
Why did she want/do all those horrible things? She was possessed.
Why did Celestia have to banish her to the moon? She was possessed.
Luna being possessed is a Deus Ex Machina used to absolve her and Celestia of any responsibility for their actions which has the added effect of shutting down their character development
If it's all Luna, it's both more interesting and shows more character.
This is a mare pushed to the breaking point over an unspecified amount of time at which point she explodes into a fit of rage and makes a bunch of over the top threats in the heat of the moment, getting herself banished to the moon for 1,000 years or so. [again I don't remember exactly what transpired in this particular story, I am quite possibly getting things wrong, I'd probably have to read if from the beginning with no side trips to other fics to get things straight]
But If I remember correctly, in conversations with Twilight Luna has stated that she holds no ill will towards her subjects, will not in fact bring about eternal night as she realizes that will kill everyone, and just wants to punish Celestia for banishing her when she flipped out.
Realizing she flipped out and went on a bit of a rage bender then coming to terms with that shows far more character than "she's possessed"
I loved it! The tension through the whole conversation was very well written.
6199470
Perhaps, as you said, that's on purpose.
6199518
I agree, I'm just saying that Twilight preferring the idea that Luna went insane on her own instead of taking the chance to absolve her mentor of any wrong-doing is interesting.
As for the cause; I'm not sure if it's ever been truly shown why Luna had gone insane. The way you portray it, Celestia was a total bitch and Equestrians a bunch of ass-hats, but we've only gotten Twilight's second hand perspective of the events leading to Luna's banishment, and Twilight's knowledge came from Luna herself, so it's obviously biased.
I'd like to think the sisters are equally at fault save for the fact that Luna was the one that took it too far in the end.
For lack of better glee... Yay! And I must approve of Celestia's' use of bane, talk about cold blooded.
6199084
Personally I think, except Cadence and Dash, alicorns vary on several levels of despicable ( "lies, murders and mind /soul rapes are needed to get what I want? no biggie ")
6199381 might be confusing this story's cannon for another's but I think in this one Luna says she didn't want eternal night. That that was a misconception and she would lower the moon when Celestia agreed on a more equal diarchy. But like I said I read alot and that might have been another stories events.
Also kind of wanted Twilight to make Celestia realize that if she zapped Nightmare moon with the elements that she would be doing the same thing Nightmare's people did to Sunset to make Twilight. Like "I'm not Sunset anymore I'm the end result of what you want to do to your sister."
Well, there are some excellent parallels between the younger alicorns and the older here.
If Twilight tells Celestia who killed Sunset Shimmer, Luna's only other long-term ally may have his death-warrant signed.
Not quite sure, but I don't think this is the correct word.
So alicorns have all magic? Dragon magic was mentioned earlier.
Shit is getting scary, Celestia knows but it seems that the best option was the one came about. Least the best reasonable option. Twi now has Sunset highlights to remember her Mother, which is touching in a way. There is so much fucked up stuff, seeing it all get resolved is going to be a doozy.
6199888
Should be "overtly" probably.
And anyway, to this Celestia: Forsworn. Accursed by your name breaker of oaths and of parleys. Before you could call yourself a mare that had to make difficult decisions. But by violating a truce you make yourself worthy of only a sharp blade and a shallow grave. Luna, Nightmare Moon, you made me care not if they are separated beings or which takes over, just so long it isn't you.
I had been waiting for that moment for sooo long!
I did cringe a little when Twilight referred to herself as Sunset's daughter, as she came to call it that after having the entire picture, and thinking about i - anyone else whom hears that description of their relationship is gonna assume it's in the traditional sense. I guess taking leaps and using semi-related words for things is something she's done before though.
This seems to be turning out Ok, so far, in trying to avoid a catastrophic end.
Celestia, suprisingly more so than Cadence, seems to be willing to consider at least that it could be Luna.
Hmm, i really want to see what these questions are, but assuming that deal was honest, Celestia seems to be trying to steer away from a war.
And she requested to talk to Luna. Now if only both of them could have tried that a thousand years ago
Sadly, its probably not gonna be that easy, but if luna and celestia were only willing to try and honestly talk it out, they would likely avoid the potentially disastrous course events may otherwise take.
This is perhaps a stupid question, but what does Twilight look like now as an alicorn? Some of the lines at the end imply she's gained some of Sunset's traits, but there was never a clear description.
Twilight's conversation with Celestia was very interesting, though like some other readers, I'm surprised the 'why didn't you teach me' thing never came up.
Well... So here's what I gleaned off of this:
Celestia still is delusional about her fault in it all (It's all her fault). Luna, unless Nightmare entities exist in this universe, is completely in the right to be absolutely pissed off, possessed or not. Cadance is simply confused about her opinions after being fed a bazillion lies all her life. Twilight is darn right still livid about Celestia's machinations and manipulations. And Dash? She's simply this:
Can't blame her for how confused she is with all of this cryptic bullshit going down!
Can anyone SparkNote the entire plot at this point? I'm at a loss of WTF?! just happened!
6199664
For the citizens I think of Luna as being out of sight out of mind. They don't know so they don't care.
I hope Celestia is just willfully ignorant. Same end result as if she was a total bitch, but without the intended malice.
I wonder if this version of Celestia will ever admit to her mistakes and own up to them? She's basically tried to turn ponies into weapons to fight her sister for her, she's willingly ruined entire lives in the name of "the greater good™" (how many mass-murdering dictators have used that as their excuse?), and instead of trying to correct her problems she keeps escalating the confrontation with every single move she makes.
Don't get me wrong, it's clear NMM is warping Twilight... but that never would have happened if this Celestia had acted like canon Celestia and done the right thing for both Equestria AND Twilight, instead of saying "screw it, I'm tired, just slap a restrictor on her and call it a day".
So I sincerely hope someone calls her out before the end. This Celestia NEEDS to be called out, needs to be forced to see that all her ministrations, all her manipulations are the ultimate cause of the problems she faces. This doesn't exonerate or excuse this Twilight or NMM's actions, but it would be nice to see that heartless b*tch taken down a peg.
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6199518
The problem with "Luna was really possessed by the Nightmare" bit, and the reason for Twilight NOT believing/wanting to believe that, is that if it really is Luna whom Twilight has been working for, then Twilight has some legitimacy to her case. "Yes my boss went way off the deep end before, but after nearly a millennium to calm down she is better now. However in her defense Sunbutt, you were a complete bitch as well, ignoring the pain and stress Luna was under." If Luna was possessed, then odds are she still is, which means Twilight has been working for the Nightmare this entire time. Which also means Twilight has been working AGAINST the real Princess Luna, and the best Twilight can claim in her own defense is "I was being lied to by the Nightmare." And at first the only reason Twilight agreed to work with her mentor is because 'Luna' promised to teach her magic. In essence, if Luna was really possessed then Twilight outright disregarded nearly a millennium of teaching (Nightmare Moon is a monster) and willfully chose to serve an abomination because she was mad as Celestia and wanted personal power. (And the unicorn magic of a Flare is one hell of a lot of power) This would make Twilight no better morally then King Sombra himself. So I can see why Twilight NEEDS to believe that Luna was never possessed, because the alternative makes Twilight into a monster.
Edit: Personally, I believe Luna really did just go crazy due to neglect & stress. Because it says more about Luna's character that she realizes "Yeah I went nuts" and has found the strength to make herself better. Also because it makes what Sunbutt wanted to use the Elements for no better than what Luna used Sunset Shimmer for, and I just love stories that make you ask "Wait which one was supposed to be the monster again?"
6199289 This!
Celestia is so far in denial about her own fuckups that she makes up ridiculous excuses. At least Twilight is aware that the things she did were wrong and feels bad that she was forced to do them.
Hmm. Luna is so far in the wrong it makes my head spin. Twilight is rather ridiculously devoted to her. (She reminds me of one of those Zealot Cultists) However it appears Celestia is not completely in the right.
My prediction of past events is something like this. Luna goes more the a little bonkers (Currently Ill bet on not possessed) doing some quite evil things and lashes out against Celestia because she has hit her limit. Luna probably hid this from her sister or Celestia didn't notice/thought it was something minor. Celestia thus sees this as coming from no where and not wanting to believe it is her sister thinks Luna is possessed cue elements of harmony banishment.
Now because both sisters still haven't talked out there problems to each other each of them have been building up power blocks and doing some rather...unpleasant things to put it mildly in the name of ends justify the means.
I find it rather ironic still that Twilight's main concern is Celestia desire to "brainwash" Luna when that is exactly what Luna did to Sunset Shimmer/Twilight. And Luna's actions given how....dark they are will only reinforce to Celestia that this MUST be a possession because her sweet kind sister wouldn't do such things. Ironically I think both sisters are oblivious to the others flaws. Luna sees Celestia as next to All-knowing thus thinks there is no way Celestia could have missed what was happening. And Celestia brushes Luna's flaws under the rug saying "My dear little Lulu might appreciate a good fight more than she should, she might throw small tantrums" and the like.
Hopefully Rainbow Dash.... oh dear I have all sudden realized most of the hope for a Good ending relies on Rainbow....will see what is happening and manage to convince Twilight and Cadence to help her force Celestia and Luna into talking.
Celestia's restraint greatly appeals to me. Given that Twilight is effectively admitting to collaborating with an enemy of state my reaction would have been to chuck her in a dungeon somewhere at least until the issue with Luna was resolved. Luna's actions especially with regards to Sunset I find among the most appalling I have ever seen her take in any story. If she committed similar actions in the past during her "fall" I can completely understand Celestia's logic jump to "This isn't my sister"
Celestia is unfit to rule. She's juggling with the lives of a nation and refuses to see the truth in front of her because she doesn't like it. Also, breaking parley is unforgivable. How can anyone ever trust her to negotiate again? She has failed as a ruler and a sister, on multiple occasions.
6200491 She looks like herself post-ascension in canon, except that at the very end of the chapter she dyed the streaks in her mane the same colors as Sunset's mane.
6200938
This may be a bit to simplistic. Even if luna was corrupted or possesed in some form, it really depends on what exactly the details are. NMM dosent act at all like an embodiment of absolute evil. So even if something happend, it is not so easy to dismiss her right to exist like this. If its an inserted outside intellect that could be removed etc. its one thing, (or if the original luna still exists in any form of active state) but if its just like what cadence believed, that she was warped by some artifact... assuming shes not a complete monster, would anyone really have the right to kill the pony she is now to bring back some other pony? Twilight brings that up to cadence, and even gets her to agree at this point.
If NMM and Luna are two different beings, and the real luna could be recovered, the correct answer is still not to murder NMM, but rather to calm down and take the time to find a way to pry them apart carefully to salvage both.
And even assuming an invading nightmare, saying Twilight is as bad as sombra is way to much. Twilight was not just after power, it was her special talent that was being supressed (which is really bad for a pony). She also didnt want to take over the world or anything, she just wanted to learn magic for magics sake, because she enjoyed it. Desire for immortality, ok, thats ambitious, but hardly malignant. And any argument that tries to lambast her for dismissing warnings (not that theres more than childhood ghost stories in circulation) can easily turn into chiding her for not keeping with prejudice.
Above all that, she was eight, and just had her lifes hopes shattered (and essentially ordered to be crippled) by a being everyone looks up to as absolute good. She was incredibly emotinally vulnerable (and a child). At which point Nightmare could easily get a hoof in the door. And then she was raised by her over the next ten years. Something like that isnt overcome easily, and even if all that kindness etc. was completly fake, i would not only not blame twilight for that having happend, but not even for not overcoming it easily or quickly, even if someone handed her definite proof for this (which noone has, or for that manner any "proof" beyond "your beloved mentor must be evil because a thousand years ago she threw a tantrum once and something vaguely existed that could maybe warp minds")
This last chapter was just awesome, love your use 'or more like the lack of' absolutisms, good is really in the eye of the beholder as they say and both sides have done both good and evil and I totally have no idea whats going to happen and I love it, keep up the great work
It's probably not rational. it's probably not reasonable. but i don't think i've ever hated Celesta as much as i have your incarnation of her right now. and all i can think of is that that is amazing writing.
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To what in particular do you refer? The unicorn bane thing?
6201029
"Celestia's restraint greatly appeals to me. Given that Twilight is effectively admitting to collaborating with an enemy of state my reaction would have been to chuck her in a dungeon somewhere at least until the issue with Luna was resolved."
Well, consider: Celestia has now lost the Elements, and she's gained a tiny bit, far too little to trust but much more than she had before, of hope that maybe she doesn't have to fight Nightmare Moon/Luna after all.
a: That hope depends on Twilight. If there's any chance of saving Equus without a battle, it can only be achieved by using Twilight. And if that chance doesn't exist, having Twilight try and pursue it might make Twilight see the truth of Celestia's position and turn her. Holding Twilight as a hostage would keep Twilight loyal to Nightmare Moon, would only work if Nightmare Moon really did care about Twilight, and brings up point b below.
b: Even if Celestia eliminated Twilight, gained the loyalty of Rainbow (...Hm. Who she doesn't seem to have made an effort to communicate with yet... interesting...), and was able to use Cadance as planned, she's not certain to beat Nightmare Moon, and she's definitely not certain to beat Nightmare Moon without lots of collateral damage. Taking Twilight from her would at least be taking a valuable tool from her, which, while it would weaken her a bit, would also make her rather more upset with Celestia. At worst, Nightmare Moon really does care about Twilight and would be a lot more upset. That means likely greater harm to Celestia herself at the least.
If Celestia had caught Twilight before the Elements were neutralized, even if Twilight had somehow become an alicorn without using the Elements, this might have gone very differently.
6202465 Ayup. I have rather... severe feelings about violation of truces and parleys like this. She just lured someone under the flag of truce before proceeding to poison her and use the position of power she was in at that moment to downright blackmail her with quite some "If you don't agree to my terms you are not walking out of this." possibly implied.
Please....
Please Sir, I want some more.
6201144 You have several points, all of which are incredibly valid. Congratulations on being an intelligent, well adjusted person. The problem is that the Majority is NOT intelligent or well adjusted. They are simple minded, prone to panic & major overreaction, and generally ignorant. They wont see Nightmare as having the right to exist, merely "This is the monster that possessed Princess Luna and tried to kill Princess Celestia, therefor it must be destroyed.". They wont see Twilight as a damaged child who had recently had her hopes and dreams shattered by a ruler who simply couldn't find the time for her, rather "She was dangerous Flare and Princess Celestia wisely chose to put an end to that danger by suppressing Twilight's magic. She clearly lusted for power, and she has used Dark Magic, so she too must be destroyed/removed because she is a threat. Sombra was bad enough, now this one is a full fledged alicorn!" Remember that as a rule ponies in general do NOT question Celestia. So the idea that trying to suppress Twilight's magic rather than teach the filly to control it will seem CORRECT to your average pony. After all if Celestia did it she must have a reason for it. Perhaps she saw the darkness in the child and knew it would be best to try and cut her off from magic entirely. While I do agree with your points entirely, the fact remains that Mr. and Mrs. Average Pony will NOT see things like that. Which is a tragedy in and of itself.
Did... Did Celestia leave a bronze statue of Luna on the ship? Why did she bring a bronze statue on the ship? I sense Celestia mischief with that thing
6199084 Team Moon have more edgy/cool colors, so I am rooting for them.
Oh and Team Sun did the unforgivable act of denying a pony her special talent. Doesn't matter if Celestia's intentions where "good" that is still the most evil thing to do. She antaganized Twilight from start. Had she been more honest from the begining then I guess Twilight's situation would probably have been radically different.