Perhaps the Most Convincing Case in Favor of the Solar Empire

by WingsOnTheBus

I: Tipping Point

It was at the reception where Twilight decided that something was wrong: the royal sisters were missing. Her worry was knotting into panic by the time dusk began to fall--that is, the time it should have. Through the pounding bass and all of the fawning over the celebrities, nopony else seemed to notice either the absences or the sun’s dogged persistence.

She’d been wondering about Celestia.

At the wedding, the princess’s smile had been forced, and her congratulations of the element Bearers almost...rotten. Twilight had shaken it off at the time, because, well, who was she to make anything of it?

But now something was definitely off. Celestia was not one to miss her own niece’s reception, much less up and forget her duties as day-ender! Twilight would have to go inside the castle to check on the princess. And she’d need her friends--after a day like today, it would just feel wrong not to let them know. They wouldn’t believe her, though, in her ramblings about “something off about the princess,” would they? How was she supposed to handle this one?

Twilight stared at her reflection in her beat-rippled cup of punch, and almost gagged. The curls were so feminine and her face wore such a melodramatic expression that it was hard to believe it was her.

It was almost as if another pony had taken on her features and was twisting them into a stranger’s--like earlier today.

The cup fell. A glaring pool of liquid oozed over the edge of the dance floor. Curious stares did not break Twilight from her freeze.

The last time she’d been met with an imitation...the last time she couldn’t convince her friends about a princess’s strange behavior…

Twilight thought she knew what was wrong with Celestia.

Panting and hollow hoofsteps echoed back to Twilight as she cantered up the narrow spiral staircase. It was dark and hot, and she was beginning to get jumpy when she finally broke out onto the open floor of the tower.

It had been hard leaving the party inconspicuously, but eventually everypony had forgotten about the punch (which she’d passed off, just barely, as a slip) and gone back to their talking and dancing.

Twilight had decided that she’d need to eavesdrop. Alone. After all, that had been how she’d first discovered the changeling queen’s secret. Maybe the swarm hadn’t been knocked as far away as one would have thought--another form of illusion, perhaps. Who knew what sort of dark magic these creatures possessed? And now they might...she might have...Twilight’s coat crawled. But she had to be sure first, whatever it took.

All too suddenly, the doors to Celestia’s private wing loomed over Twilight. The princess was normally far too trusting to lock it, especially with the guards who usually patrolled around here. And though most of the guards were preoccupied with the party now, Twilight could no longer convince herself that that was the reason the enormous padlock was in place.

She stepped back and aimed her horn directly at the keyhole, murmured a thanks to Starswirl before her unlocking spell, and...click. The lock swung limply off its chain.

Gingerly, she nudged one of the doors inward. The hall that extended before her was too central to the tower for windows, so was only dimly lit by torches even in the unnatural daylight that carried on outside.

She steadied herself. There was no backing down now. Closing the small sliver of light that was left behind her, Twilight clung to the shadows as she crept down the hall. She passed a few closed doors before she froze--a low, heated murmur was growing from a ways down, behind the door to Celestia’s chamber, and one of the voices distinctly belonged to her.

A deep breath. She had to get closer, had to hear what was being said. Another few ponylengths, and the door was so close that the conversation solidified itself.

Celestia’s voice, cool and contained: “I need to be alone.”

“And I need to raise the moon. So we are at odds.” The other speaker was Luna, then. She sounded as if she was on the verge of tears. There was a long silence after that. Then, too quickly, Twilight heard hoofsteps coming right for the chamber door.

Her blood froze. There was no time to run, so she simply shrunk into the pool of shadows between torches, shut her eyes tight, and waited. She heard the door creak open, and the hoofsteps...walked right past her and out of the hall without stopping. She let out her breath, long and slow. From the sound of the hoofsteps, and the distance between them, that had indeed been the sun princess, but Twilight waited for Luna to exit, just to be sure.

At first, it seemed as if Luna--a last hope, someone who might listen, who might understand!--would walk right past Twilight. Twilight was about to reach out to stop her, to warn her, when Luna calmly turned to face her and leaned in close.

“My sister saw you. Meddling here was a mistake, and it would do you well not to continue, Twilight Sparkle.” She turned away.

“But Princess Luna!” The words cracked in desperation. “Don’t you--”

Luna’s stone-cold, tearful stare silenced her. She watched as the princess walked away, listened as her hoofsteps faded, and even then waited a while before carefully removing herself from the castle to find that, an hour late, dusk had fallen.

The train ride rattled Twilight’s bones and churned her stomach. She snorted and turned over in her bunk. Who was she kidding? Her terrible suspicions (not to mention the half-removed manespray) weren’t much better for sleep.

Why was it always her burdened with this twisted, unsharable knowledge? Hay, she might take pride in her bookishness, but that was no reason for fate to play these cruel jokes. Too tired to keep her eyes open anymore, but too restless to stay still, she started crying and bit her dampening, thin pillow. Then--BUMP!--it was jerked out and her jaws slammed together. The tears ran faster.

Across the car, oblivious, Rarity wailed faintly in her sleep. Would that blissful ignorance, in the end, be her temporary blessing or permanent undoing? What if...what if they were everywhere this time? But there was nothing she could do. No one to turn to now, no one to tell, no one to back her up, not even a way to get back to Canterlot without somepony stopping her.

If this was another of Celestia’s notorious little pranks, then it was better than any friendship letter. Now Twilight knew what it was like to know you needed somepony and be...totally...alone...

Spike had been very sympathetic about the whole thing, actually, and Twilight had remembered he probably felt more alone sometimes than any other pony or dragon she knew. It was his age--if only he were older, he wouldn’t feel so left out.

She sighed, sipping her I-just-got-up-at-six-so-I-deserve-juice juice and trying to remember what track of thought had led her to the false scare she’d given herself last month after the wedding. She couldn’t believe herself sometimes--she’d lost sleep for a week over that, asking anypony and everypony on trains back from Canterlot if they’d seen anything suspicious around the princess. Most of them had been mildly annoyed in their reply that, no, they didn’t personally know the ruler of the land and therefore had no chance to analyze her behavior, and those few that had interacted with her on one errand or another said they hadn’t noticed anything wrong, only that she seemed very tired or interested in returning to her chamber. Fluttershy and Pinkie had become concerned, and of course they’d asked Spike (peacefully asleep at the moment), without her knowing, to pry into the matter.

A smirk grew on Twilight’s face as she recalled it--at the same time as a knot weighted her gut. She realized she’d never quite let go of the paranoia surrounding Celestia’s absence that night and facehoofed. All those psychology books had made her self-aware enough to know that she was just being irrationally obsessive. When your sun and moon were controlled by sentient, mortal, even imperfect beings (however much she'd convince herself otherwise of her mentor), it was only logical that their cycles wouldn’t be down to the minute every day. Luna had probably only been miffed at Twilight’s shameless invasion of her and Celestia’s privacy, and Celestia’s fatigue was surely only a natural by-product of the emotional toll a planned invasion like that took on a leader.

Still...wasn’t that the exact same sort of thing Shining Armor had tried to convince her of--had believed--about Cadence? And come to think of it--Twilight stood and squinted through the treehouse windows--wasn’t it too late in the spring for at least a little pink not to be showing on the horizon at this hour?

There was a rap on the door. Twilight jumped.

“Twilight? It’s me, Cadence!” The sincerity, the exhaustion of the tone...her mind raced. She knew the queen. This was Cadence, really her.

“We need to go. Now. It’s...it’s Celestia.”

Author's Note:

To be continued...
Yes, my headcanon is that all ponies, including the royal sisters, are mortal. Further fics will blatantly break canon to explain this.
Yes, I spell Cadance Cadence because it's how the word is spelled and I think it looks prettier that way.
I never thought I'd write Alternate Universe until I had this idea, which may get interesting. Comment with your thoughts and things!

Comments

[Tangent]

Well, I'm intrigued...

[Municipal Engines]

Something must be seriously wrong for the princesses to give Twilight the cold shoulder like that; it doesn't seem like them at all. Colour me intrigued.

[WingsOnTheBus]

4801340
4801851

Thanks! Good to know someone's interested.

[horizon]

Celestia’s voice, cool and contained: “I need to be alone.”
“And I need to raise the moon. So we are at odds.”

That, and the personal tension of Luna's warning to Twilight, are quite a nice hook. I'm not sure you've sold Twilight's need to handle this alone — wouldn't her friends be more inclined to believe her, after she punched open the changeling conspiracy? — but let's see where this goes.

[WingsOnTheBus]

4802390
Thank you!
And yes, now that you mention it, I suppose they would. It was more of just a fleeting thought to push her towards the suspicion that Chrysalis had replaced Celestia. Then she just wanted to gather some intel on her own to make sure because, well, one pony is quieter than six.