Everything We Forget (XVI)
i
Shining Armor cast a glance behind him at the guards he’d taken with him into the apartment complex. There were two of them besides himself--a mare and stallion, both standing at attention behind him.
Seventy hours. It had been seventy hours, since the Industry had mobilized their clean-up efforts, and Shining’s own guard had begun their little revolt.
The rustling of their armour was the only sound in the hall of the apartment complex’s thirteenth floor, but the silence was promptly shattered by Shining Armor’s hoof rapping on the wooden door of the apartment before them.
More silence, for nearly a minute. Shining Armor figured he knew why, and he could see the dancing of shadows in the crack at the bottom of the door. A curious pony, undoubtedly peering with fear from the apartment door’s peephole. Shining Armor cleared his throat and spoke clearly.
“Miss Evening Flicker? I think you’d better open up. You might be in danger, and we can’t help you unless you let us.”
There was more silence. Behind him, a unicorn guardsmare piped up nervously.
“M-maybe she’s not home?”
Shining Armor gave a little shrug. “It’s possible. Shallow Step, can you go and wait over by the elevator? Come get us if you feel anypony coming up.”
“On it, sir.” The earth pony guard in question saluted, and started back down the hall where they had come. Shining turned to the remaining unicorn still with him, nodding towards the locked door before them.
“Aura Gleam, you’ve got this one?”
The unicorn guard nodded, trotting forwards with her horn already alight. “You’ve got it, boss.”
She brought her horn close to the door’s lock, frowning as she focused on finding the specific tumblers she needed to manipulate. She worked quickly, and in less than thirty seconds she let out a satisfied exhale of breath from her snout, taking a step back to give Shining room once again.
Shining grinned at her with pride. “Good work, Aura. With me, please.”
And then he turned to the door and carefully twisted the knob. The sound of a surprised ‘eep!’ and quickly scurrying hooves greeted the action, and the mare within hadn’t even a chance to hide before the door was pushed open fully.
“Please!” The earth pony mare looked at them with widened eyes. She was a mare probably in her mid-twenties, with a cutiemark of an ornate wax candle adorning her flank. The blinds of her apartment were drawn closed, and all of the lights turned low. "I already promised them I wouldn’t talk! You don’t have to take me in!”
Shining Armor shared a glance with Aura, who responded with a hopeless shrug. ‘This one’s all you’, she might as well have said.
“T-that’s… not what we’re here to do.” Shining Armor promised, stepping inside and gently closing the door behind them. “We’re here to ask some questions.”
“A-a-about my work?”
Shining nodded. “About your work. Jigs up, as they say.”
“You’re… police? With the State?”
“The Royal Guard, ma’am.” Aura Gleam said, pausing beside Shining. “Militia for hire ever since the Silent Revolution.”
“Would you take a seat?” Shining asked softly. “I promise you everything is going to be alright.”
The poor mare’s legs were wavering, and Shining was half-worried she might pass out in terror right then and there. She obeyed his politely spoken request without much protest, her shaky hooves carrying her to the chesterfield in the middle of the room, where she sat down with only a little bit of trouble. She was still breathing heavily… Shining had been expecting unrest, but not quite this level of genuine terror.
“Who is ‘they’, Miss Flicker?” Aura Gleam asked, sitting down opposite Evening Flicker after Shining did the same himself.
“T-they?”
“‘I promised them I wouldn’t talk.’” Aura Gleam quoted calmly. Shining saw her magic flaring in the corner of his eye as she drew a notepad from her saddlebag. “Sounds like you had a run-in before we showed up.”
“O-oh. W-w-well… you’re not the f-first guards to show today.” Evening Flicker confessed. Her eyes seemed trained on everything besides the two ponies in front of her, but not in the premeditated way Shining had seen liars prone to do. “I-I just swept floors. I d-d-dusted. I didn’t hurt anypony, I swear.”
Shining opened his own saddlebag wordlessly. There was a tape recorder within, which he levitated out and placed on the coffee table, activating it without any ambiguity. He’d also had copies of the photographs of the exterior of the SunTrotter facility printed out before they’d set out, and he gently set them down on the coffee table before Evening Flicker. “You swept the floors of an expensive state cover-up, Miss Evening Flicker. And right now, they’re no doubt worried just how much of it is going to get out.”
Evening Flicker squeezed her eyes shut, nodding her head many times rapidly.
“I can keep you safe. My guards, they can take care of you. But I need your help.”
Evening Flicker paused, looking up at them with widening eyes. “Why are you helping me? W-why would me being around help the Industry?”
“We don’t work for the Industry. We’re…” Shining exhaled, struggling to find the right words.
“We’ve gone rogue.” Aura Gleam cut in. “We swore an oath to serve the Princess until her death, and it’s what we intend on doing. No matter what.”
Shining chuckled at the guardsmare’s intensity. Ever since they’d investigated the facility, Shining had been watching with pride as youth and purpose rapidly flowed back into his beloved troops. “Pretty much. And besides that, I can’t sit by and let you become another dark secret swept under the state rug.”
Evening Flicker exhaled, her shoulders relaxing as the long breath left her. “Thank you. Thank you so much. T-the way they spoke to me last time, I was so certain they were going to…”
Suddenly, she froze up a little, glancing behind her at the shuttered window. “They could have seen you come in. They’re watching, y’know. If they saw you and your--”
Shining Armor shook his head. “We teleported directly into the main lobby from a block over, Miss Flicker. There’s no way they saw us come in.”
Evening Flicker let out another relieved sigh. “W-well. In that case, what can I do to help you? T-t-tea?”
Shining chuckled. “Thanks, but I had a cup of joe before we headed in. And you can start by detailing your average experience working for Flim Flam Industry’s expensive Princess Celestia imprisonment project.”
Evening Flicker nodded her head, looking down at her hooves again. Shining hadn’t exactly intended it as an insult towards the mare herself, but she looked down with an expression of shame nonetheless.
“They didn’t tell me, y’know. When I took the job. I only found out later on from some of the guards. I never would’ve, if I’d have known…” She swallowed with difficulty. “I only talked to her once in the five years I worked there. She called me by my name and said ‘t-t-thank you.’ They told us all that she was dangerous and we shouldn’t talk to her, but…”
Shining nodded. “But you never really believed that, did you?”
“We all knew what we were doing was wrong. But they paid us well. They… made us aware of what would happen if we ever let slip what we did.”
“Threats?” Aura tilted her head. She’d been writing intently, but stopped for the single word question. “Against your life?”
“Not explicitly. We signed contracts. We all knew the Industry was dangerous. But… my family was in debt. We were going to lose our home, our lives… and, well. They offered me a lot of money for such a simple job… what choice did I have?”
“The others.” Aura pressed on. “Your colleagues, they were all similar stories?”
Evening Flicker nodded again. “Most of them, yeah. Blackmailed ponies, ponies in debt, ex-cons. Folks given a chance to have their lives given back to them in exchange for them shutting up and working without question. We didn’t talk about who we were hiding and we knew they wouldn’t react kindly to our doing so if we did.”
“All of those cameras,” Aura said, glancing over at Shining. “The ones in the pics. Weren’t really for Princess Celly, were they?”
“Probably not entirely. Did it ever happen while you were there, Miss Flicker? Ponies going missing?”
“N-not often. But it did, yes. I sometimes thought about keeping a diary, in case I e-e-ever…” She bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut and sinking her head down towards the floor again. “But if they found out I was doing that, I definitely would've disappeared, too. I’m afraid I… I don’t remember the names of the ponies who left during my employment. I just swept and dusted.”
“I understand.” Shining gave her a small smile. “You’ve given me a lot as is, Miss Flicker, and I understand it isn’t easy. And if what you’re saying is true, there’s others like you who might be just as afraid, and rightfully so.”
“B-but you’re going to help them, yes?” She looked up at them with widened eyes. “A-and the Princess, too? You’ll help her?”
“We will. I promise.” Shining gently rose to his hooves, nodding his head firmly. “Aura, you mind sticking around here for a bit? In case Miss Flicker gets any unexpected guests?”
Aura Gleam saluted. “Of course, sir.”
“Thank you. And Evening?”
The earth pony looked up at Shining expectantly.
“The time will come… maybe sooner than later… for all of this to come out into the open. And when it does, I think it would be best if you were… public. If ponies knew about you, and what you did and saw, then it would be very difficult for the Industry to make you vanish.”
“A-are you asking me to testify?”
“I’m asking for a statement.” Shining nodded. “When the time comes. And I aim to ask the same of your colleagues, too.”
“They… might not all tell you what you want.” Evening Flicker bit her lip, before elaborating. “The guards, in particular. I… I think the Industry picked a lot of ponies that they figured might… enjoy the power, y’know?”
Shining glanced over at Aura, who glowered.
“Power trippers.” She said, baring her teeth. “Musta felt good to some of ‘em to have the right to boss Celestia around.”
“Exactly,” Evening Flicker said. “I sometimes overheard the nurses talking, when we were having our cigarettes outside the facility. I think they’d be able to tell you lots more.”
“Thank you, Evening Flicker.” Shining gave her a grateful bow of his head. “Take care of her, Aura. I’ll see the both of you soon.”
ii
In a flare of bright yellow light, Celestia was thrust from the forests outside of Ponyville and the several dozen kilometers of farmland and forest remains between the smaller community and Old Canterlot.
She gasped, the sudden change in air pressure taking her by surprise for a moment. Or perhaps it was simply the fuming vapours from New Canterlot a thousand meters below.
From above, the newer city really was beautiful. Streetcars like specks, racing about. The warm glow of neon casting the rainy fog into a haze of shifting colours. Buildings like monoliths, reaching up as if to greet the old mountain rising much further above it.
She knew it would be impossible for her to ever divide it from what the city’s sudden creation had cost. But perhaps she might find herself welcomed there nonetheless, some hypothetical day into her nearby future.
Perhaps she did have a place in progress’s forward march. It had been all that she’d ever wanted.
Her wings took her on a gentle glide around Old Canterlot, so that she could survey her old capital from above. If the buildings were ponies, they would belong in a retirement home. Old facades of her castle, still showing the same damage they had shown during Chrysalis’s invasion. No funds in the treasury to fix it, when she’d had to spend them all on hastily reassembling her long dormant militia. Towers stripped down--easier to tear them apart then fix. More efficient, too. Sacrifices of stone for the blooming city down below.
That was okay, Celestia thought. She didn’t need a regal castle anymore. She’d been more at home sleeping on the floor of a library with a pony she loved then she’d ever been in the lonely, glistening halls of the Royal Palace.
The thought made her pause, but only for a moment. An uneasy frown. A gentle, patient reminder in the back of her head, that it wasn’t what she deserved.
And then, a similarly gentle smile of her own, as her mind replayed Twilight’s own quotations back to her.
Finally, she flapped her wings in order to change direction and propel herself forwards. She crossed over the wall dividing Old Canterlot from the abrupt cliff it was built upon. The cobblestone streets webbed out beneath her, the occasional pony glancing upwards as she passed.
Her wings carried her towards the west end of Old Canterlot, where the streets grew narrower where the extra space for chariot traffic had no longer been needed. Old stone houses, built in close proximity. They were nice houses, but ones without much by way of lot-size nor diversity amongst their design. Much of her castle staff had lived here--it was one city park away from the main road leading up to the Palace, after all.
Raven Inkwell had been an exception, her duties needing her by Celestia’s side as often as possible during the working day. Now, though, it seemed that with the gradual conversion of her Palace into a storehouse, Raven had moved herself to the more populated parts of Old Canterlot.
For what it was worth, the neighborhood that Raven had been relocated to was considerably more livable than where Twilight had been forced to call home. There was nopony huddling by the warmth of a barrel fire, and only about one in every ten buildings was boarded up and abandoned. Down the street, a quick flutter of orange shot from between the tightly packed buildings, and rose higher, cawing out excitedly and spreading its wings to meet Celestia in the air.
She chuckled. “I appreciate the directions, Philly. Mum’s eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
“Quorkkkk…” The bird replied, swirling back around and starting to once again fly ahead of Celestia at a more rapid pace. Celestia chuckled.
“Easy now. You might’ve just molted a few seasons ago, but I’m no spring chicken.”
Philomena responded with a few squawking complaints, and Celestia rolled her eye at the mockery, grinning at her avian friend’s mischief. Philomena slowed her flying all the same--or rather, she settled on flying wide circles around Celestia while still making sure to stay in the lead. Grinning, Celestia lit her horn, and in a burst of light she vanished, only to reappear a few dozen feet ahead of the racing bird.
Philomena responded with a betrayed ‘Aurk!’, flapping her wings harder to try and close the distance. Unfortunately for the phoenix, Celestia had already begun her descent, her hooves promptly touching down on the cobblestone street in front of the address sign for 58 Epona’s Hooves Road. A quaint little bungalow house the same as all the others on the street, this one with a little garden of well-cared for sunflowers in the small area that was technically the front lawn. Philomena plopped down on Celestia’s head unceremoniously, clearly still perturbed at her owner’s trickery. Still grinning, Celestia tapped lightly on the door.
It was answered quickly by none other than Raven herself, who seemed to have been expecting her. Or perhaps she’d simply seen the oversized swan and her avian friend from one of the front windows. Either way, Raven greeted Celestia without hesitation, and instead a smile and embrace. “You actually came, Princess.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for all the cheese in Prance,” Celestia replied, “Its been awhile.”
“Day before the trial.” Raven nodded. “Quite a lot has happened since then.”
“And not a lot’s changed. I suppose that is on me.”
Raven chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “Are you kidding, Princess? You didn’t seem content on just kicking the hornet’s nest. You took a flamethrower to it.”
Still chuckling, Raven led the way into her humble bungalow. The interior was… for all intents and purposes gorgeous, albeit considerably cramped. Raven had always been a mare of minimalistic taste. Her room in the Palace had reflected that, and it had been a favourite of the maids for its exceptionally low maintenance demands. Now, though, the bungalow seemed to be an organized clutter of memorabilia from the old Palace--old banners that had hung over the court. Cracked stained-glass, framed and hung on the wall as decor. Vases and curtains and rococo style coffee-tables and chiffoniers.
“I kept as much as I could.” Raven caught Celestia’s glances. “The castle maids took some for themselves, too. It wasn’t all destroyed. You can take whatever you like, if you want.”
“Thank you, Raven, but I’m quite alright,” Celestia said. As she made her way into the living room, Philomena spread her wings and hopped off her back, flapping a little to land on Raven’s head instead and give her surrogate mother a greeting, dove-like coo. Raven smiled at the attention, her horn glowing red as she used her magic aura to stroke the back of the phoenix’s head.
“How has life been treating you in the past few months? I suppose you’ve been enjoying retirement, yes?”
Raven gave a mirthless laugh, sitting down on a loveseat while Celestia took the chesterfield to herself. “It’s dull, to be honest. I’ve been keeping up with your going-ons, and visiting with some representatives from the Industry often enough.”
“Oh yes?”
“They offer me a lot to try and help take you down. Offer some testimonies, help them stir up some dirt. Or, when they’re feeling a bit more reasonable, they want to know what settlements you might agree to in exchange for an early retirement for yourself.”
“They… are quite desperate to hold onto their power, aren’t they?”
“I think they know they can’t keep it long. And I think they know the only reason the entirety of Equestria doesn’t see them as a bunch of profit-blinded, kidnapping sociopaths, is because you’ve chosen to be patient with them.”
Celestia smiled, peering down at her hooves. “A half-truth. To be candid, part of me has simply been afraid, Raven. Afraid of failure, of rejection. Of having to see my ponies turn away from me for a second time.”
“Well, I won’t lie and say you won’t see some of that. But I do believe I can say with confidence that the majority of ponies who are, ah. Exceptions to the success of the few… see your return in a sort of positive light. The Crystal Ponies still see you as some manner of saviour. The thestrals miss the laissez-faire freedoms you granted them. That’s to say nothing of the thousands of factory workers and farmers demanding safe working environments.”
“If… if it were to come down to a vote, Raven. As it would, if I play the Industry’s game. Would… would you see me winning?”
Raven bit her lip. There was silence for a moment, during which Philomena lifted off Raven’s head and landed on the sofa behind Celestia, plucking her mane-braid curiously with her beak.
“Big question, Celestia. But the short answer, as I see it, is no. And solely because… well, I suspect you already know why.”
“The Industry themselves would be counting the votes.” Celestia sighed. “They are the State. It doesn’t matter how well or poorly I do, because it would not be reflected in the count.”
Raven gave a little shrug of her shoulders, her lip twisting into a small frown. “Nothing against you personally, Princess. But I don’t see you winning by playing their game.”
“I’m too weak to do anything else, Raven. I’m not the mare I was when I fought Discord, or Sombra, or Tirek, or…” Celestia broke off, exhaling deeply. “At the risk of turning myself into a cliche, I truly am too old for this.”
Raven shook her head. “They built their kingdom with matchsticks, Celestia. It’s all just lies and thinly painted truths. And nopony ever said you had to do any of this alone.”
“Then what? Nopony would follow me into a revolution, Raven.”
“I would,” Raven replied without hesitation. “And you know others would, too. They only stopped following you because you died.”
“I… I aim to just ask for a chance. Nothing as radical as a bloody revolution. Just a chance to help guide us out of this dark time. And if I’m not wanted, I would be too weak to do anything but stand down on my own accord, anyways.”
Celestia’s head sunk as she said the last part, and Philomena took notice enough to chirrup quietly and gently nuzzle her beak into Celestia’s ear. A trickster of a bird, Celestia thought, until she wasn’t.
“Well, if that’s your plan, I’d recommend you keep the course you’re on.” Raven replied. “Their reputation’s been unraveling every single time they’ve been called into question. Give your journalist friend the resources and attention she deserves, and that’ll speed up even more. She’s a bright mare, and ponies listen when she has things to say. They aren’t lies anymore, and everypony knows it.”
“Will you come back, Raven? As a secretary? I would like for Twilight to have the chance to learn from you.”
Raven descended her head into a polite bow, a sly smile on the aging mare’s face. “I would be honoured if you’d still have me. After all we’ve been through together, the thought of something resembling normal is better than anything I have now.”
The conversation lulled into peaceful silence, both mares content in each other’s presence for a few precious moments--moments that were promptly broken by Philomena interjecting with a loud ‘squawk!’, apparently finding the exchange insufficiently entertaining.
They both chuckled, and Raven took it as a signal to dig out their old cribbage board from a cabinet underneath her gramophone and radio-console. The afternoon was largely unimportant, and Celestia was content.
When Celestia left Raven's, Philomena had decided to stay. Celestia was disappointed, but unsurprised. The old bird has always been fond of her late afternoon naps, and the distance to Twilight and Fluttershy would be a mighty one for the phoenix to cover.
She herself would have to make good time if she were to meet them before sundown.
Outside of Ponyville was hideous.
Celestia couldn’t believe her eyes. When last she’d flown across the wilderness between Ponyville and Canterlot, the country itself had been shrouded in darkness, and the rumblings of distant thunderclouds. Now, though, the sins of her little ponies were exposed for her to see with excruciating clarity.
Vast, immense gorges cut into the soil of the old forest. Along them, haphazardly welded piping snaked along, like pulsating, bloated veins.
The entire area had been deemed a ‘no-fly-zone’ by the Ponyville zoning committee. Celestia couldn’t have imagined why. The damage seemed strangely segmented. It was as though these great gashes in the wilderness had been jaggedly cut in order to be as efficient as possible. It hadn’t been more than a decade, and yet the entire place was almost unrecognizable in places.
The city of Ponyville itself was bordered by the Everfree forest on its South and the Whitetail woods on its North. The Whitetail Woods during Celestia’s rule had been largely interrupted. A lonely train-line had been carefully dug into the wild, tunnels dug where appropriate and the occasional bridge over a sizable river built. The entire railway had taken her construction crew decades to build... and it had been done nearly a century ago. She’d kept it maintained over the years and it had seemed to do the trick in bridging Ponyville and Canterlot for those who couldn’t fly or walk the distance.
It had seemed that all of this untapped space had made it an unfortunate candidate for much of Flim and Flam’s wrath, as far as Celestia could see. Its trees had been cleared and its rocks moved more than Celestia had remembered. There were not nearly as many of the terrifying factories she’d seen during the trainride between Old and New Canterlot, but rather the forest had seemed barren in places Celestia hadn’t remembered it being. It had been dug into for its resources themselves, at a distance far enough from the delicately carved railway route and the outskirts of Ponyville itself.
It was deceptively isolated destruction. It had been the work of the same ponies who had managed to develop an entire facility devoted to housing an insane and anxious dying alicorn in enough isolation that she hadn’t been discovered until a decade later.
It was the work of ponies more evil than Celestia felt Equestria would have believed them capable of.
But the signs were as obvious as the stars in the sky to her. Part of her felt to blame for coddling them for so long. She hadn’t spent nearly enough time planning out her retirement to have abruptly died in their minds. Yet from their perspective, that was how it had happened.
Their Princess had died overnight. In her sleep, peacefully, but it had happened.
And she had been cremated. It had been attended.
A quiet coup had occurred in her country, and they’d been largely lied to about the details.
Celestia hadn’t wanted to return to life like this. She didn’t want to frighten them into trusting her again. She hadn’t wanted to affirm the idea that her will was some sort of unshakeable testimony.
“Nightmare Moon.” She said quietly as she flew, her horn aglow as she gripped the Moon in her magic. “Would you like to fly with me?”
Silence for several seconds. Then, in a billowing purple mist, she was flying beside her.
“Good evening, Celestia.”
“Sister.” She breathed.
“You still don’t get it.” She shook her head. “I’m no more your sister than I am Luna.”
“Where is the line, Nightmare Moon? Where does she end and you begin?”
“She has ended. I just carry some of her memories. Her emotions. Her personality exists within mine, superimposed against me. Like an echo. Luna was a being of flesh and bone, and when flesh and bone ends, that’s it.”
“But yourself. You’re more a… a magical construct, yes?”
Nightmare Moon nodded. “That is essentially what I am, yes. Formless, but able to influence the world on a magical level. But, as to my relationship with your sister… she was like a troubled friend to me. We grew close, as companions. Growing more into separate beings as time went on, but still forced to be together in order to survive. Luna spent so much time in the Dreamscape near the end that reality stopped mattering to her, and I feared I’d be locked in her subconscious for eternity.”
“But you still carry her memory now, yes?” Celestia exhaled. “A friend of Luna isn’t something I’ve had the chance to talk to in a very long time.”
“You really shouldn’t.” Nightmare Moon scowled. “I’m the evil that sent Equestria down this hopeless path.”
“Even you wouldn’t have done this to my Equestria.”
She tutted. “I would’ve doomed it to a night Eternal.”
Celestia shook her head. “You wouldn’t have. You knew where to find the Sunstone when the time came. I had trusted it with you for a reason. We had crafted that artifact together, don’t you remember? Don’t think some part of me didn’t want to believe you remembered.”
“She turned on you, Celestia. She wanted to kill you, and I would’ve. To say nothing of what we would have had to do to keep our own power secured after. I need to carry this guilt if I want to find my own peace.”
Celestia looked at her, her eyes growing wide. “You... do?”
Nightmare Moon gave a single nod. “Why do you think I’ve tried to take Sparkle under my wing? She can do it, can’t she? She can take our Sun and Moon.”
Celestia nodded. “I trust that she can. I believe I have until... how long do you figure, Nightmare Moon?”
“Until she must? I predict the two of us collectively have a decade more in us.”
Celestia nodded. “Tirek?”
“Yes, and it seems Sombra just as much. We might have longer, but… I can't say for certain.”
Celestia sighed, and nodded. “I took the front lines, then. Dark magic is... unpleasant.”
“Which is why we let the mortals take the blunt end.”
Celestia scowled. “This is why I didn’t let Luna handle war procession. Exactly this.”
“We never owed them anything, Celestia. We have the right to want to protect ourselves. You were the one who always told her that.”
Celestia exhaled sharply. “When was the last time we talked like this?”
“For me? About two years. I’d asked you if you’d please take over my night-court.”
Celestia shut her eyes as she flew, nodding gently. “We’d fought then, hadn’t we?”
“Luna threw her crown at you. I think that qualifies as a fight, yes.”
“Its been a thousand years for me.” Celestia gave Nightmare Moon a sideways glance, and a small smile. “A thousand years, since I’ve talked to you like this.”
Nightmare Moon said nothing for a good while, looking down at the grotesque landscape below. “A decade isn’t long enough for you to fix this, Tia. Not at all. Think of all that Equestria lost in that time.”
“It’s longer than I thought I would ever have.”
“It’s nothing, compared to the lifetimes we’ve seen come and go.”
“And it’s an eternity, when one became resigned to their fate as a battery in a birdcage for some infernal device.”
Nightmare Moon’s grim expression gradually turned to a bittersweet smile. “What would you tell her, Celestia? If she were here, now. If you had the chance.”
Celestia fell silent. The two flew on over the dead forest as Celestia thought, and Nightmare Moon patiently waited.
It seemed like a trick question, to Celestia. What would she say? What wouldn’t she say? What wouldn’t she give, just for the chance to say a single word to her sister one last time? To see her smile or frown or laugh or cry. To look into her younger sister’s face with her own ancient, tired eye… the face that even her own memory had begun to dull and fade like a photograph left out in the sun for too long.
“I’d tell her that every night that passes without her feels colder than the last.”
Nightmare Moon closed her eyes, chuckling. "Empty words I'm sure would have made everything peachy keen. Until next time, Celly."
As abruptly as she had appeared, Nightmare Moon had vanished by time Celestia looked in her direction.
Celestia's horn lit, and soon enough, so did she.
iii
As the sun set, Celestia reintroduced herself to Twilight and Fluttershy by abruptly thudding down onto the ground in front of them.
Fluttershy had been intently marking their samples down into a notebook with a ballpoint pen, but she jumped to her hooves with a little ‘eep!’ when the soft vibration of the alicorn’s landing hooves echoed nearby. Twilight was musing over a few photo-negatives, holding them to the dying light in her telekinesis.
“Oh dear. I apologize.” Celestia frowned. “For both my abrupt return, and my delay in doing so.”
“It’s quite alright, your Majesty,” Fluttershy said, already collecting herself and jotting down the last number into her notepad, closing it and carefully nudging it back into her saddlebags with her snout. “We were just finishing up anyway.”
“I hope I haven’t kept you from your duties back at the university, Professor Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy waved a hoof. “Oh, ah… nopony ever comes to my after-class office hours. I… I would’ve been spending my evening lounging in a beanbag with my marefriend, watching nature documentaries.”
Celestia chuckled. “Fair enough. I can still get you back in time for that if you’d like.”
Fluttershy pursed her lips, as though tempted by the prospect. “I can run the samples first thing in the morning, and drop a line when I’ve got the results. If… if you don’t mind me doing that without you.”
“You’re the professional, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “I’m happy leaving it in your capable hooves.”
Fluttershy blushed and gave a grateful bow of her head. “I’ll keep them safe and keep you in the loop. And I’ll have the academic office fax you over a few copies of my own publications on the region for you to reference.”
“Facts over… what?” Celestia frowned, her voice low. It was a question whispered at Twilight more than Fluttershy, but Fluttershy caught it with ease and responded in her own whisper of a voice.
“I’ll just send you a telegram so you can pick it up yourself.” She smiled. “I’m sure that would be just as quick with your magic.”
Celestia bowed her head gratefully. “Speaking of. I’m prepared to send you back to your greenhouse if you would like, Professor Fluttershy. I would hate to take up any more of your time unduly.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’m ready. Whenever you’re willing, Princess.”
Celestia’s horn lit, the pegasus becoming a little more yellow for a moment before vanishing with a little ‘pop’. Celestia exhaled when she finished, and Twilight saw her hooves waver a little bit.
“Y-you okay, Celly?”
“Fine. A little exerted. I have performed more teleportations than I perhaps should have.”
“Well then maybe that should be your last for the evening.” Twilight gave the princess a sideways glance. And then, she stepped a little closer as the two once again focused on their surroundings. Celestia’s horn was still lit as the sun was cast downwards, but it was a magic that seemed far more effortless to the solar princess.
“Depressing, isn’t it?” Celestia sighed, wrapping a wing around Twilight as a chill breeze crept over the clearcut plain. “No matter our success… I will always miss flying over these woods.”
“Trees can grow again, Celestia.”
Celestia opened her mouth with a reply, but closed it just as quickly. “Yes. Yes, I suppose they can.”
“How was your visit?”
“It was… inspirational,” Celestia said. Wordlessly, she began to lead them back towards where the treeline had begun to crossfade into consecrated dirt and mud. “I visited Raven. You recall her, yes?”
Twilight nodded. “How is she?”
“No longer hopelessly resigned. She had always worked best with a defined purpose or goal, and I feel she’s a mare who’s regained one now.”
“That seems to be going around.” Twilight nuzzled her head into Celestia’s wing. “Happy to hear it, Celestia.”
“How about you? How did things go?”
“Productive. And… as depressing as this part of it was, the actual forest is… it’s beautiful, Celestia. I didn’t know so many things could live so close together and all have their own place.”
“She’s a wonderful mare, isn’t she? The professor.”
Twilight nodded her head a few times. “I didn’t think ponies like her could even exist anymore without having their souls squeezed out of them.”
“I do believe you would be quite surprised by just how common they are.”
They continued on in silence, as the trees began to slowly creep back upwards the deeper they trod into the tattered remains of the Whitetail Woods. Celestia had taken them alongside the ghost of a riverbed--one likely connected to the same still-living stream where they had taken their samples--and she peered down at it as they walked with a sort of pensive melancholy.
Someplace above, a squirrel chattered out an alarm to the silent forest. A crow called in the distance, as if by reply. Together, their hooves trudged through the hallowed ruins of an ecosystem.
“It will be well past midnight by time we make it back to Old Canterlot,” Celestia said, peering up at the fading purple sky. “W-would you… would you like to rest here, instead?”
“In the forest, you mean?” Twilight smiled. It was a forest struggling for its future, certainly. But it was more than Twilight had ever seen before. There was still a chance it would be more than she might ever see again. It was as Celestia said… a day might come where there were no more groves of trees for them to walk through, and when that happened, this would be a moment her mind would always bade her return to.
If it were a moment that might be so eternal, Twilight wanted it to matter.
“I’d love that.”
They found a flat area in a grove of trees, not far from the dead river, and within earshot of another still trickling someplace unseen. Celestia set down with a mighty exhale on a bed of moss and flowers, crushing both under her weight but closing her eyes in bliss. Twilight sat down a bit more gently, but stayed close enough that Celestia’s wing was able to find her once again and pull them together.
The sun continued to set, and the air grew colder. Celestia’s horn lit, and the familiar crown that was the Sunstone materialized on top of Twilight’s head.
“Thank you,” Twilight said. “But I want this moment to last a little longer, if that’s okay with you.”
“Twilight.” Celestia glanced over, a warm smile on her face. “If this moment were my last, it would be more than I could ever dream for.”
iv
“I think these are my favourite so far.” Nightmare Moon pointed with a wing at the skies.
Twilight nodded. “I’m, ah. Not used to seeing these many. Old Canterlot is in a bit of a bad place for that.”
“That infernal city below, yes?”
“New Canterlot.” Twilight exhaled sharply, and nodded again. “Light pollution basically works the exact same way that crap does.”
“The smoke. They’re burning what?”
“Coal, mostly. It’s the cheapest thing to mine, so it’s what Flim Flam Industry use.”
Nightmare Moon shook her head sadly, bringing a hoof to the bridge of her snout. “Why, sister? Why did it get this bad? You let go of the reins for twelve years…”
“Hey. She was abducted.” Twilight narrowed her eyes, turning her head to glare over at Nightmare.
“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense. As though they could possibly contain an alicorn of her power in their primitive mortal dwellings.”
Twilight shook her head, lighting a cigarette and settling down next to Nightmare Moon. “She doesn’t talk about what it was like. So, I don’t really want to assume what it was like for her.”
Nightmare nodded. “She has nightmares about it often, yes?”
“And she insists she’s fine. That she doesn’t need any help with them.”
“And she’s afraid to ask me, yes?” Nightmare Moon exhaled, looking back up at the stars. “Probably assumes I don’t have her best interests in mind?”
“To be fair, I don’t entirely know if she’s wrong in thinking so.”
“You hurt me, Twilight. And here I thought we were friends.”
Twilight gave a little chuckle. “Anyways. I want to help her with it, cause it seems to, ah. Be eating at her a little.”
“You’re a librarian, yes?” Nightmare Moon said. “Have you any books about Dreamwalking?”
“Not a single one. I have a mention of one in the index of a book on Arcane Studies In The Post-Crystal Empire Colonies, but no actual book to match the source reference.”
“Figures. Luna was pretty thorough during her little tantrum.” Nightmare Moon shook her head. “I know where we can find some. That is, if you’re interested.”
“In… in studying dream-magic?” Twilight blinked, and her eyes grew wider. “B-books on studying dream-magic? They exist?”
“Not exactly. But some still study the art. Luna had her own little cults she liked to hang around with to keep the fires burning in her little arcane traditions.”
“Nightmare Moon, you’d be asking me to learn a form of magic that most mages agree has been extinct for the greater part of six generations.”
“Six…” Nightmare Moon shook her head. “No, that can’t be right.”
“If you know who we can talk to. But I’m not guaranteeing you we’d actually find anyone. Equestria is a very different place now. And after Celestia’s guards fall, even more of the Canterlot archives were destroyed. Why do you think I live alone in an enchanted library? I am the ponies keeping the lights on for your sisters’ little arcane traditions.”
Nightmare Moon was silent for a good while. Twilight took it as a cue to fall silent herself… she hadn’t exactly noticed that she’d raised her voice, and even so she’d gotten relatively used to doing so around Nightmare Moon without the imposing alicorn caring too deeply.
Eventually, when Nightmare Moon did speak again, it was at a far lower register. It was almost a whisper, and Twilight had to tilt her ears a little to entirely catch it.
“I’d wanted revenge on her, Twilight. I hadn’t wanted to destroy everything that she’d built.”
“And you didn’t. B-but…”
“But why? Why does she not take it back?”
“I’m quite certain it’s cause she’s dying, Nightmare,” Twilight replied. “I mean, wouldn’t YOU be a little afraid to put your entire life on the line based entirely on your trust of me?”
“That… isn’t what I’m doing?”
Twilight jumped. She couldn’t help it, and it evidently looked comical enough to Nightmare Moon to warrant an un-regal snorting laugh, and it was one Celestia echoed in her own hushed way as she settled down next to Twilight. It was its own rather un-regal affair in itself, less like a monarch resting, and more like a tired old dog collapsing onto the living room rug after a long walk.
“H-how long have you been listening?”
“Long enough to hear some awfully presumptuous blasphemy about me from the both of you.”
“So we’re wrong then, Celly. You do want to tell somepony about the dreams you’ve been having.”
“Well, I certainly am a little conflicted about the idea of you teaching my student how to efficiently snoop into the private affairs of those she cares deeply about.”
“I offered nothing of the sort.” Nightmare Moon brought a hoof to her chest, giving Celestia a sarcastically offended look. “But so long as your mind is on the subject, what are your thoughts?”
“About her learning some of Luna’s old traditions. I like the idea.”
“And about me potentially using them to help you with your trauma?” Twilight, who had until then been still blushing profusely and hiding with her gaze in the dirt, perked up and responded shortly.
“T-that too, I am… of the mind that I would appreciate.” Celestia nodded slowly. Her left wing settled around Twilight, her right extended out to catch the cool spring breeze.
Nightmare Moon made a gawking expression, shaking her head. “Gods, you two are horrid. Always the cradlerobber, Celly.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” This time it was Celestia’s turn to blush a little, and her wing-hug around Twilight grew a little stronger and more possessive.
“Uh huh, well. Visit the Hollow Shades, then. I’m quite certain a few tribes of thestrals have means of serving as efficient dream-magic conduits.” Nightmare Moon rose to her hooves, giving her wings a little shake. “Now, I suppose I should leave you two to gush in your collective melodrama.”
“You’re welcome to spill some of your own, Nightmare Moon.” Twilight replied, grinning.
Nightmare Moon tilted her head upwards at the sky. “Not if the spin of Luna’s constellations are to be trusted.”
Celestia nodded. “The reason I awoke to you two chatterbboxes is because it’s time for you to raise the Sun, Twilight.”
“W-wait…” Twilight rose to her hooves, too. “But I can’t… I never…”
“And I don’t expect you to on your first try. It is no small feat.” Celestia responded patiently. “But if you do not try, you will never know.”
“You raise the Moon with ease now, Twilight.” Nightmare Moon managed a small smile. It was a little uncertain… as though the alicorn herself wasn’t sure she was quite certain she was doing it correctly. “More than I think Luna would have hoped for from a mortal mage like you. I can see why Celestia chose you as her student.”
“Every single day, she gives me new reasons to be thankful for meeting her.” Celestia responded with a warm smile.
“Ack. The sappiness could kill a mare.” Nightmare Moon’s nose scrunched a little, and she shook her head. “Until next time, Sparkle and Sister.”
In a haze of purple mist, the darker alicorn was gone. Celestia gave a little laugh, though it tapered into a more somber smile on the old mare’s face.
“I missed her, Twilight. In a thousand years, I never would’ve thought I’d have heard her talking to me like this again. None of the taunts, none of the curses. You did a wonderful thing in trusting her where I couldn’t.”
“It isn’t exactly hard to distrust a mare who took out your eye in a fit of rage.” Twilight pointed out, pulling her saddlebag closer and fishing out the Sunstone from within. “Are you sure I’m ready for this, Celestia?”
“Since the moment I escaped.”
Twilight smiled, and her horn began to glow. She cast out into the inky, starless section of the horizon, and Celestia’s horn lit, too.
Gently, she levitated her and Twilight off the ground by less than an inch and shifted them a little so that they were facing towards the eastern sky. She felt for the sun herself as she set them down, finding it where she’d always found it, right next to Hydra completing her pilgrimage across the starwheel.
And with both of their magic gently guiding it into the cool Equestrian sky, the morning shone with a particularly bittersweet reddish hue.
v
Shining Armor nursed the styrofoam cup of coffee hovering in his telekinesis, giving it a little sip.
It was drizzling, and he held an umbrella in his telekinesis, too, held just high enough that him and the earth pony guard standing next to him were kept relatively dry.
“Our contact was sposed to be here fifteen minutes ago,” the guard grumbled, sipping his own coffee and glancing around. The public park they were waiting in was one of the newer ones in New Canterlot, built within walking distance of New Canterlot General Hospital and the mainline streetcar terminal. Normally a busy affair, but it was the middle of the day, and had been raining since the night before.
One hundred and ninety five hours.
Shining had slept maybe thirty of them. Celestia had been free for more than eight days now, but still, silence.
“...starting to wonder if she’s even going to sh--it.” The guard stopped, and Shining saw him tense from the corner of his eyes. “Somepony’s coming.”
The earth ponies under his guard were privy to subterranean vibration, and Shallow Step had a particularly trained hoof. Shining turned around, and saw that a hooded, raincoat-clad pony was making their way towards them.
“Armor,” she said simply, and Shining nodded. Much of her facial features were obscured by her hood, but Shining could see enough of her facial structure to tell she was a mare and an earth pony.
“Mhm. Miss Ember Blossom, I presume.”
“There were some ponies scoping out my place. I had to take the back alleys here. That’s why I’m late.”
Shining nodded. “I’m just grateful you got the message to begin with. It’s not easy being discrete through a wiretapped phone.”
“This place isn’t private. You’re a unicorn, you can teleport. I give the address, you get us there, no questions. Then, and only then, I talk. Got it?”
Shining shared a glance with Shallow Step, who grimaced and spoke first. “Ma’am, I can assure you that--”
“These are my conditions. The information I have is worth whatever risk you run in trusting me.”
Shining sighed, and sipped his coffee. “I’m listening.”
“Additionally, if you don’t have a safehouse ready for me before we’re done talking, I’m reporting you to the police immediately. I have a family, who I cannot put in danger by my helping you.”
“A cabin is being prepared in the Everfree.” Shining nodded. “Running water, electricity, and two of my guards are already stationed there and ready.”
“Good. Then you teleport me there afterwards. The address is 182 Red Plume Road. Our destination is on the tenth floor, in the third room down the hall. Is that enough detail for a teleport?”
“Co-ordinates would work better.”
“Is it or is it not enough detail for a teleport?” The mare’s voice was quiet but impatient, though her body language suggested tenseness and fear more than annoyance.
“I’ll do my best, Miss Blossom.” Shining sighed, and his horn lit to life. He leaned a little closer to the guard, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Shallow, brace yourself. We don’t know what might be waiting for us.”
Shallow nodded. Shining’s horn grew a bit brighter, and he closed his eyes to focus on his destination. Teleporting via street address was difficult, moreso when one was only partially familiar with the destination in question. Shining had done enough P.I. work in New Canterlot to know his way around, but he was still a little wary about his teleportation skills all the same. Nonetheless, he hadn’t much of a choice in the matter, and so in a flare of blue light, the three ponies were taken from the rainy public park, only to be flung into the dry, air conditioned air of a small office, unlit and quiet.
In front of them was a window, slanted sharply downwards, so that the torrents of pouring rain were a waterfall lit pink by the neon-light of a billboard across the street.
“My husband’s office.” The mare said. “He’s out of town with my daughter right now, so we have this space.”
Exhaling, the mare lifted the hood off of her head, unclasping her raincoat and tossing it unceremoniously onto the office desk. Her eyes were bloodshot, with heavy bags beneath them, but she gave the two guards a weary smile. “I apologize for all the distrust. I’ve had an eventful few days.”
Shining nodded. “I believe that’s true of most of us, as of late.”
“She hasn’t been found yet, has she?” Ember Blossom shook her head. “I hope she’s alright. Her health was… rough, last they had me check on her. I hate to think what so much exertion must be doing to her.”
“You were her primary caretaker, then?”
“No, that was Raven. The older mare. Her old secretary. I was just the physician on call when her health dropped below average.”
“Which was often?”
“S-sorry, u-uh…” Shallow Step cleared his throat, raising a hoof. “J-just gonna start up the tape recorder, so we have Miss Blossom’s statements on record.”
Ember Blossom gave Shallow a little nod, and patiently repeated herself as soon as the guardstallion had pressed the record button on the reel-to-reel tape-recorder. “My name is Ember Blossom, and I was the physician in charge of Princess Celestia’s physical health during the last five years of her captivity.”
Shining gave her a grateful smile. Her clarity and confident tone would work wonders when they inevitably had use of the tapes Shallow was making. “You were saying you were on call, when her condition dropped below average. Was that often?”
“Well, sort of.” Ember Blossom made a so-so motion with a hoof. “They kept redefining what her ‘average’ was. If her state of health was a five when I met her, it was a one or two by time she escaped. I cannot think of a better term than ‘decay’ to describe what happened to her during those final few years.”
“Can you elaborate on that at all?”
“Sure. It was an effect that was comparable to individuals suffering from crystallized psoriasis--a previously unresearched skin-disease brought about by dark magic injuries sustained during the Crystal War.”
“Celestia was a sufferer?”
“I said it was comparable, but not that she was a sufferer. We had difficulty explaining what was happening to Celestia. She claimed it would only be healed via direct exposure to sunlight, which was something that she wasn’t granted during her captivity.”
“Was there a reason given as to why?”
“To her? No. To me, yes, because I pressed on the matter incessantly,” Ember Blossom said. “It was because they were worried she would use the opportunity to escape. Which, as we now know, was not entirely unfounded.”
“Why did you press so hard on the matter?”
Ember Blossom shrugged. “On the off chance that it might indeed save her failing health. I was in charge of her physical health, after all.”
“Why were you, specifically, hired?”
Ember Blossom grit her teeth, looking away and not immediately answering. Shining saw her glance at the tape-recorder in Shallow Step’s hooves, and then back at Shining.
Shallow Step hit the stop button on the tape recorder, and Ember Blossom breathed out a sigh of relief. “Because I was fifteen-thousand bits in debt, six months pregnant, and had just gotten fired from a nursing position.”
“In a word, desperate.” Shallow Step said gruffly. Ember Blossom’s head sunk, her gaze going distant. Shallow glanced over at Shining, and then, in a nervous voice, “I’m unpausing the tape recorder now...”
The clicking of the ‘record’ button broke the silence.
“Desperation,” Ember Blossom said immediately. “I was in a poor position, it was a tempting offer.”
“Similar to another colleague of yours I spoke to. She mentioned that such was more or less the norm.”
Ember Blossom rose an eyebrow. “Did she mention the guards? That’s why you tracked me down, isn’t it? Who better to testify than the prisoner’s physician.”
“She did mention the guards, yes. Can you share anything there?”
“Yes, I can, ” Ember Blossom said, her eyes locking with Shining’s. “I’ll begin by saying not all the injuries I saw were a result of Celestia’s state of health. There were bruises, too. This was immediately after Celestia had attempted to escape the facility, and the guard force had been tightened significantly.”
“You said bruises. Suggesting…?”
“I’m not suggesting anything. Celestia told it to me herself. She had lashed out at the guards in her attempt to escape. As soon as they regained the upperhoof on her, they lashed right back at her.”
Shallow Step bristled. “Damned children with nightsticks, that’s what those Industry mooks are.”
“Easy, Shallow…” Shining glanced over.
“No, he’s well within his right,” Ember said, shaking her head. “They were unqualified and untrained and they enjoyed their jobs far more than the rest of us. We were all quite relieved when they began phasing out the guards again.”
“Why did that happen? What changed?”
“They discovered it would be cheaper to sedate her using pharmaceutical methods. We only stopped those when her health began to grow even more dire during the last three or four years of her imprisonment. By then we assumed she would be too weak to get too far anyways.”
Shining gave a grim nod. “You’ve been very helpful, Ember Blossom.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Ember replied. “I have… much to atone for, through my association with them.”
Shining glanced over at Shallow, who was in the process of removing the tape from the recording device and tucking it away into his saddlebag. Breathing out a long sigh, Shining gave Ember a single nod.
“I assure you the feeling is more mutual than I feel comfortable admitting.”
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Haha update go brrr
Like a palimpsest.
You have committed a heinous crime against writing!
"It's" is a contraction of "it is". Possessive form is "its".
10343672
Damn it, don't tell the fuzz or they'll saw off my fingers
First to say Aura Gleam a cute!
thisponydoesnotexist.net/v1/w2x-redo/jpgs/seed73303.jpg
static1.e621.net/data/bf/2b/bf2b8b78d49f6aaba49ca630017743d0.gif
Luna would approve of such methods.
How many chapters long will this story be?
10343998
Between 18 and 22, depending on how long they end up being.
Edit for 2021: So that was a fucking lie.
Either she will, or the janitor needs a hell of a raise.
10344465
This is actually incorrect. The gaits of horses, in order of speed, are Walk->Trot->Canter->Gallop
https://www.speedofanimals.com/animals/horse
Just caught up on the latest two chapters. They're very good.
Thank you for another new chapter!
This story makes me think of The Father of Death. Hopefully soon we will get to see the rebellion Light up the Night.
I've been keeping a cwose eye on this stowy. I can't wait to see mowe of it fwom u, Nowwis.
10365134
I'm gonna stab you in the fucking throat
I really like this chapter, I really hope Tia will be alright by the end. Ive grown fond of her and twilight.
Great story and another good chapter.
This story always gives me that edge-of-the-seat feeling even though it's not action oriented. I just want everything work out alright for these ponies and the opposition is so massive. I hope they get their happy ending.
Great chapter, thank you for updating! :D
10393013
I often worry about how well I've handled the pacing of my stories, so this is a relief to hear.
As always, thank you for reading.
10365136
i stiw wuv u
pink light. shining armors magical aura signature is bubblegum pink, or fuschia like twilights.
Awww, I really appreciate Philomena being here :)
Also man, Shinings investigation gets more and more interesting!
Wondering what happened to Flim and Flam, even if it is something mundane as what has been presented so far (by that I mean I've passing away and the other basically retired and isolated)
This is a great description of Celestia.
and you aren't, luna? ya sure about that?
it's hilariously hypocritical for nightmare moon to say somepony else is too melodramatic
Reminds me of a FB post I saw recently from a history group I follow about a mansion built in Pennsylvania called Lynnewood hall. In it's heyday it was nicknamed the American Versailles for good reasons. These days it is a dusty tomb, with little hope of ever being refurbished due to the insane cost of such an endeavor not to mention upkeep.
11453912
I've always been very fascinated (as you can likely no doubt guess) by the concept of urban decay. Buildings too expensive to repair and too dangeous to demolish, lying in ruin and slowly being overtaken by nature...
From a cultural standpoint, it can provide a nice, melancholy window into the past.