A Different Kind of Light
(♫)
Twilight Sparkle awoke to warm yellow sunlight, and the rhythmic chup-chup-chup of airship rotors.
Every bone and muscle in her ached, which was unsurprising given what she’d put herself through over the last few days -and had it really only been that long?- but she refused to let that stop her. She forced herself back onto all fours and surveyed the dusty ruins of the chamber. All she cared about then were the five mares slumped over on the stone floor around her.
“Girls? Girls!” Twilight called, and quickly the five forms began to shift and stir.
“Urgh… my head!” Rainbow Dash slurred, working her jaw from side to side.
“Don’t worry, you’ve done fine so far without using it!” Pinkie Pie quipped even as she trotted over to help the pegasus back upright.
“Is… is everypony OK?” Fluttershy asked, already rooting through what little remained of her healer’s kit.
“Ah reckon so,” Applejack answered, before Rarity’s telekinesis pulled her to her hooves. “Rares, you got any idea what’s up with them funny-lookin’ necklaces?”
“They’re amazing!” the tailor exclaimed, before turning to Twilight, “Look at hers!”
“Mine?” It was only then that Twilight realized she was still wearing the golden crown that seemed to be the most recent incarnation of the Element of Magic- it was unbelievably light for such a large gem, and the mounting fit against the shape of her skull so perfectly it might as well have been custom-made for her. In fact, there was no ‘might’ about that hypothesis. She’d seen the thing reassemble itself right before her eyes. “You know, we should… probably take them off before they activate again,” she laughed, nervously, “they are an immensely powerful weapon we don’t fully understand, after all.” With some reluctance, she grasped the Element of Magic in her telekinesis and set it gently on the flagstones, where it was followed in short order by the other five.
Only then did Twilight gradually register that somepony was making odd, anguished little gasps behind her. When she turned around she saw the same curious midnight-blue alicorn from before lying in the middle a pile of shredded astral steel, and after a moment’s hesitation cautiously approached. The pony was much smaller than any depiction of Cadance or Celestia that Twilight had ever seen, and curled up in a tight ball that made her appear even smaller still. She seemed to be little more than skin and bones covered in a dry, thinning coat that came out in clumps with the faintest probing from the unicorn’s telekinesis; the feathers of her wings weren’t faring much better. Her ethereal mane and tail hung limply around her- not the confusing anti-substance of Nightmare Moon’s, but a soft teal blue sparkling with thousands of tiny multicolored stars. More experimental probing from Twilight confirmed that whatever muscle she still possessed was bunched up tightly in place. When Twilight attempted to pull open one eye to determine if she was able to respond to changes in the light, her eyelid remained clenched shut and the scholar had to cut off her telekinesis for fear of causing injury, although she did note a large amount of seemingly uncoordinated movement underneath the lid. Despite her obvious state of exertion and distress the alicorn did not seem to be sweating, nor for that matter were any tears being produced, and Twilight was suddenly unsure whether to characterize her continued noises as sobbing, dry-heaving, or some sort of unique variant of seizure. Whatever it was, it did seem to be very slowly growing less intense as she watched- Twilight hoped that was good news, and not just the final expenditures of what little life seemed to be left in the mare.
Rainbow Dash’s voice pulled Twilight from her examinations not long after. “Hey, Twilight, you hear that?”
“… Alpha Squad, move into that big hall. Canter, take Cloudy and Flash and start checking windows…”
“Hey, you’re right!” Deciding there was nothing more she could do for the alicorn at the moment, Twilight trotted over to one of the tower windows and looked outside. In the courtyard below, two-dozen-odd ponies in brilliant gold armor and a single purple, vaguely lizardlike figure were coalescing into orderly groups of three or four under the direction of a very familiar blue and white officer. Heart feeling like it would push into her throat, Twilight stuck her head out the window and yelled, “Hey! Heeey! Up here!”
The pony on the ground spun at the noise and looked up, startled. “Twily?” he asked, then vanished in a flash of magenta energy along with the nearest third of his troops. “TWILY!”
Twilight spun around and leaped towards Shining Armor as he materialized in the room behind her. She wrapped both of her forelegs around the bigger stallion’s withers, heedless of his hard metal armor or the smears it was receiving from her own muddy, sweaty, partially-singed coat. She felt Spike’s claws around her own neck a moment later, and just stayed like that for a while before realizing that she was starting to literally lean on her brother as a means of support.
“When Spike told me you’d gone into the Everfree…” the Commander muttered as she pulled away, “when he told me about Nightmare Moon and all the rest… I didn’t know if I was ever going to see you again! You idiot! You brilliant… clueless idiot!” He stamped a steel-shod hoof, then shook his head as if to clear it. “I’m just so glad you’re safe.”
“Ah’m fine, we’re fine, yer fine, everypony’s fine!” Twilight’s awareness of a world beyond the three of them suddenly returned as Applejack none-too-gently shoved away a Guard medic with a light glowing on the tip of his horn. “So quit’cher proddin’ at me an’ help somepony who actually needs it!”
Shining turned and appeared to mentally size up the five of them, his gaze scanning quickly over Twilight, the pile of discarded Elements, the five other ponies, the blue alicorn, and his own Guards. Then he pressed a forehoof against the starburst emblem on the chest piece of his armor. “And… I guess I have the five of you to thank for her safety. I think all of Equestria does, actually. If Twilight and I could have the honor of escorting all of you aboard the Dauntless, we can get you back to Ponyville and set up a proper hero’s welcome.”
Everypony went quiet for a little while after that, save for the continued, muffled sobbing of the blue alicorn on the dais. A half-dozen Guardsponies surrounded her, some with their weapons at the ready and others beginning the same basic healer’s checks Twilight had attempted to perform- the scholar recognized Forward March foremost among them.
“Uhh, sir? What about her?” the senior corpsmare asked.
“What under the sun?” a dark-green unicorn mare with a halberd continued as she trotted over. “Is that an… alicorn?”
“If I had to guess, that’s Princess Luna,” Spike answered.
Forward’s eyes narrowed. “You mean… the actual Mare In The Moon. Luna The Ungrateful. Alive, in the flesh, right here.”
Shining’s look of relief turned rapidly to indecision, then to pleading as he turned back to Twilight. “Twily, you’re the Rebellions expert, what do we… I mean, should we try to arrest her, or-”
“There’s something outside, up high!” Rarity shouted, then, cutting Shining off mid-sentence. Once again Twilight joined the others at the window. At first she couldn’t see much of anything at all, other than the bulk of the presumed Dauntless holding station high overhead, but then she too detected the white, somewhat-larger-than-pony-sized object flying in from due East at what appeared to be a very great velocity indeed. After only a few seconds, it had taken on enough definition to be easily recognizable: “Princess Celestia?!”
Everypony stood, unsure of what to do, some open-mouthed in surprise, as Equestria’s sole leader arrowed directly towards them in what was looking more and more like a barely-controlled dive. Celestia blew through the open window and made an awkward, stumbling landing, seeming for a moment as though she would pitch over entirely to one side or the other. Only when the dust cleared did Twilight get a proper look at her. The Princess’s wings were already missing half of their feathers, great swathes of her opalescent fur had been burnt black, and whenever she moved paper-thin shells of frost broke away from her form to shatter against the floor. Her golden regalia looked as though it had been simultaneously melted and pressed forward against its wearer by some unimaginable force, and both it and every square inch of front-facing flesh had been sliced and pockmarked by dozens or hundreds of tiny, hard impacts- Twilight was even reasonably certain she could see more than a few chips taken out of Celestia’s horn. Her mane and tail were both nearly limp and almost completely colorless, but her magenta eyes still shone with a brilliant, almost feverish intensity even as her legs shook alarmingly and threatened to give out underneath her. Almost immediately Shining Armor and the green unicorn Guardsmare were at her side, enclosing her heaving barrel in overlapping telekinetic fields, and her trembling quickly subsided.
She turned her head to smile at Shining, seemingly heedless of the cuts along her chin and neck that the movement caused to reopen. “T-t-t-t-hank.. You. Comm… and-er,” she said in a halting, raspy voice.
Spike dashed over to her, slitted eyes wide. “Are… are you OK?”
“”Mfhn. Fi…. Fiiii.... I… I will be… f-f-f-fine. Soon e-nough.” Bit by bit, the frantic action of her breathing subsided, and Twilight watched in awe as a few of the shallower gashes across her muzzle began to slowly seal themselves closed. “Now… tell. Me. Please. What… of. M-m-m-m-y s-sub. Jects?”
Shining stood up a little straighter, and began to recite in a clipped and even but somehow reassuring voice, “Ponyville’s been secured, Your Grace, and the Lunar Rebels – if… that’s really what these ponies are – have all been disarmed. Supplies and a dedicated hospital ship are inbound from Canterlot as we speak to treat the most seriously wounded civilians.” He stopped and looked to Forward March, who gave a quick nod. “No fatalities.”
“Good work. You have… my personal… gra… titude. We’ll discuss… the appropriate honors…” With the Guards’ assistance, Celestia pivoted herself to face Twilight directly, “And a… sincere apology… that my faithful student… r-r-r-r…rich. Ly deserves… once everypony is accounted for. In… particular…”
The Princess closed her eyes, seeming to gather herself as color began to trickle back into her mane. She opened them again, and reached up a hoof to the ruined neckpiece of her regalia as though noticing its existence for the first time. With a quick, sharp tug the solid metal snapped off and fell to the floor, and Celestia stepped out of the Guardsponies’ telekinetic field. She strode across the chamber under her own power, still burnt and bleeding but regaining more and more of her familiar stature with each hoofstep as Guards and civilians alike backed off to let her through.
“Princess Luna!” Celestia called out, advancing on the trembling alicorn with her wings extended and her horn held high. For the first time since Twilight had examined her, the other pony’s fits seemed to abate. Luna looked up, and opened her eyes, and focused on Celestia- then she gasped in fear and her tremors redoubled. “It has been a thousand years since I have seen thee like this.”
Then, to Twilight’s surprise, the older Princess knelt in front of her sister and gently nuzzled her forehead. “It is time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, Little Sister. Willst thou accept my friendship?”
Luna’s mouth opened and her throat and tongue flexed, but only a faint whine came out. Eventually, she took a deep breath, swallowed hard on empty air, and nodded.
Celestia smiled, and wrapped her forehooves around Luna’s neck. “I missed you too, Little Sister.” Her horn sparked and flickered alarmingly for a good five seconds before lighting in a warm, soothing golden glow that, even at a few yards’ range, brought noticeable relief to Twilight’s strained muscles and aching joints. The blue alicorn’s eyes slowly drifted closed again, but now the spasmodic tension had drained completely from her frame and her breathing was slow and even.
“Wait…” Pinkie Pie muttered, “You mean all that stuff about a rebel sister of Celestia was actually real?” Twilight turned away from the scene unfolding in front of her just long enough to give the baker a particularly venomous look. “Whaaaaat?” Pinkie tilted her head to the side in a confused shrug. “I thought those crazy bat-mares’d just made the whole thing up.”
Celestia had stood again by that point, even though it seemed to take her a few more seconds to properly get her hooves under her. “Major Forward, I’m afraid now I must leave Princess Luna in your own capable hooves.”
“You… Your Grace?” the pegasus Guardsmare stammered.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed, ever so slightly. “Major, the enemy has been very effectively routed and she’s left a wounded mare behind her. I don’t think the proper course of action is that difficult to figure out.”
“Uhh, yes, Your Grace. Of course.” Forward tapped a rune on the side of her helmet with one primary feather and began muttering something about needing a litter and a dragon’s breakfast worth of chariots in the courtyard outside, as one of the lower-ranking unicorn corpsstallions unslung a canteen of water and began carefully trickling a few drops down the insensate Luna’s throat. Celestia leaned sideways against the chamber’s outer wall, eyes closed and head drooping forward; when a pair of Guards stepped up beside her and began guiding her towards the staircase, she didn’t resist. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were all moving in among the remaining troops- Twilight caught snatches of conversation that sounded like “If there’s anything at all we can do to help,” and “reckon y’all got more’n your share a’ questions ‘bout this whole stupid business”- before Shining Armor’s hoof came to rest gently on her withers. In her exhausted state, it was nearly enough to send her to the floor.
“C’mon, Twily,” he muttered, “Let’s all go home.”
(♫)
She’d anticipated nightmares, horrible ones in fact, but Twilight’s sleep had been deeper and less troubled these last few nights than any other time in the year since she’d begun her research. At first she’d credited that to nothing more than exhaustion, but now she was beginning to wonder if that fact had some more direct relationship with Nightmare Moon’s demise- or, she supposed, Luna’s restoration.
She’d anticipated being incredibly busy dealing with the fallout of the whole affair as well, but the expected deluge of reports and interrogations had also failed to materialize. There was certainly a lot to do before Ponyville would be back to normal again, to say nothing of the wider consequences that would be felt over the whole of Equestria and its neighboring nations, but the local citizenry had their own plans for how Cantrerlot could help them deal with it all, and for arguably the first time since her very early childhood Twilight Sparkle had a group of ponies around her she trusted to handle all of it without her constant oversight. That left her with an abundance of a previously extremely precious commodity- time to sit, and think, and try to set the events of the last chaotic three days into some sort of logical order of cause-and-effect.
It was mostly a solitary exercise accomplished from her improvised base-of-operations at the Golden Oaks. She also had been given a cabin -stateroom, really- aboard the royal flagship Warm Light of Dawn hovering above the outskirts of town, but with Princess Celestia personally directing so much of the reconstruction effort, the Princess and her student hadn’t had time to say much more than five or six sentences to each other since their meeting in the ruined Castle. To be perfectly honest, Twilight was thankful for that. Her brief encounter with Nightmare Moon had left quite a few questions she was obligated at some point to ask, and she still wasn’t sure she wanted to hear Celestia’s answers- if the Princess was even willing to provide them.
That didn’t mean Celestia had been avoiding Twilight, however, and when the scholar introduced herself to the guards outside of the Dawn’s conference room she was allowed in immediately.
“Princess?” She blinked, and swallowed hard. “Your sister is awake.”
Celestia looked up immediately. Just as quickly the other ponies she’d been speaking with- the Ponyville Council, along with Spike and Shining Armor- stood and began to file out, although the last two stopped abruptly when Celestia made eye contact. “Please, walk with us,” the Princess commanded as she stepped forward.
Noting Celestia’s use of the plural, Twilight followed along behind the others as they wound their way through the Dawn’s fine, wood-paneled upper corridors. Nopony seemed willing to speak.
Originally Luna had been kept in the medical bay, but almost immediately Celestia had seen that her sister was moved to an ambassadorial suite on one of the upper decks, which she’d personally refitted into as close a replica of Luna’s original bedchamber on Castle Rock as had been possible on such short notice. Not for the first time, Twilight was struck by the resemblance of its diaphanous midnight-blue tapestry and spare dark furniture to the chamber to which Nightmare Moon had brought her.
As they entered, the room’s sole other occupant tilted his beak-faced helmet in the slightest nod, and otherwise remained immobile. Steel Shank had become the de facto commander-in-chief of the Lunar Army more or less by default; no other ponies above the rank of Captain had survived their millennium-long interment. Twilight had never heard him speak at any length since he’d taken up his post beside Luna’s bed- although according to Shining Armor he’d been a little more talkative when negotiating the terms of the Lunars’ surrender- nor had she ever seen him leave that position. As near as she could tell, he simply watched the nurses and servants, ate food that was brought to him, and slept sitting up in his chair. Starswirl only knew what happened when he needed to take a piss.
The curtains were drawn, as they always were in daylight, and coming from the brightly-lit corridor outside Twilight found it difficult to see much in detail, but Luna herself looked… better, all-told. Her starry mane had been cut short, to make at least a little less obvious the portions that had fallen out completely, but already it had returned to nearly half a yard in length; the exposed edges of her wings were beginning to show a few new, dark blue primary feathers; and there was now hard keratin visible where her left front hoof had previously been a thickly-bandaged nub. Celestia’s physicians had repeatedly warned that her sister’s demise was imminent and certain, and that all that could be done was make her comfortable before the end finally came, but the elder Princess had steadfastly ignored them every time. Bewildered, they had then been forced to adjust their dire forecasts from a few hours, to sundown, to sunrise, to “sometime in the next few days”, before finally admitting that Luna was indeed likely to make a full recovery.
Thanks to her enchantments, ranks of elite Guards, and the general peace Equestria had enjoyed over the last few centuries, Princess Celestia hadn’t suffered much in the way of injury within living memory. Now Twilight was beginning to think that the older accounts of her shrugging off mortal injuries -what she’d always chocked up to tall-tales and propaganda- had in fact understated alicorn resilience.
The blue mare’s ears swiveled as they stepped closer, and her eyes slowly slid open. “T…. Tia?”
Her voice was dry and scratchy, barely above a whisper, but her speech was clear and articulate.
“Luna.” Princess Celestia ran -and that was the first time Twilight had ever seen the Princess truly run- to Luna’s bedside and wrapped her forehooves around the smaller alicorn.
Twilight was briefly worried the frail Luna might end up seriously injured as a result, and given that he had abandoned his chair and dashed towards her Steel Shank seemed to have been thinking the same thing, but Luna simply shook her head at him and returned the embrace with her one good hoof. “We were… not certain We would ever wake again, but… thou hast kept thine promise…” she rasped.
"Luna, Nightmare Moon, whatever you call yourself,” Celestia paused, blinking back tears, “You are, and have always been my sister, and I will always love you. I can think of no greater joy than having you at my side again.”
“So… when thou didst offer to share thine throne with us…”
“I meant every word. I won’t lie, you have a lot of catching-up to do, sister. But I know you’ll be able to figure it out.”
Luna’s unnaturally-thin lips quirked upward for just a moment, and then her expression became grave. “But… what of Our ponies? We shall not abandon them. If they are to stand trial for Our rebellion, We will stand alongside the-”
“They are forgiven,” said Celestia.
“… What?”
"They will be kept under watch until we’re certain they can function in modern society, but no longer. They should know that they have nothing to fear in the light." Even Steel Shank seemed surprised by that. Celestia turned and looked back at the assembled dignitaries- Twilight’s confused brain finally began to piece together that they’d been called along as witnesses, and now that the job was done Celestia had no further reason to command their presence. “Now, please, leave us be. I’d like to speak to my sister about topics… unrelated to the future of Equestria.”
The three of them filed out, suitably chastened, and not knowing what else to do Twilight led the way back to the uppermost deck.
It was busy up there, but not hectic as it had been just after the attack. Sailors and troops and Academy researchers paused more often than not in their duties to share food and conversation with Ponyville natives- it had, in fact, been Celestia’s idea to open the Dawn up for tours. Over by the railing, a stocky unicorn mare in a Navy parachute harness was showing Councilpony Cheerilee and a whole gaggle of schoolfillies how to operate one of the cannons, her physics-heavy lecture liberally seasoned with the sort of onomatopoeia Twilight was more used to seeing in comic books. "Well hey, I wouldn't mind getting a cutie mark in gunning," a vaguely familiar orange pegasus filly remarked.
"I think it's 'gunnery', but, hey, you're right!" her pink-and-white friend corrected.
"Huh. Y'all don't have your cutie marks either? Well howdy, Ah'm Apple Bloom," a third cut in.
Not far away, Fluttershy was supporting Citrine Sparks as the militiamare worked her way across the deck, her foreleg still wrapped in bandages and supported by a complicated brace. The little yellow pegasus gave her a pat on her good shoulder when she made it to the railing, and then she continued on under her own power to a quartet of shaky-looking pegasus Guardsponies that Twilight recognized from Celestia’s security detail. They let loose with a cheer when she finally made it to them, raggedy but spirited, and Fluttershy took to the air not long after to glide back in Twilight’s direction. “Oh. Hello, everypony!” she said once she was in easy speaking range.
The scholar waved a hoof at Fluttershy’s charges. “Everypony doing all right?”
“Much better, actually. Noteworthy’s already back at home, Straight Shot’s throat isn’t bothering him any more, and with some more exercise I think Citrine’ll be able to get back to the Militia in a month or two.” The pegasus’s ears flipped back. “Assuming she, well, wants to…”
Shining Armor made an odd little herr-um noise. “Well, if she does want to, I wonder if she’d consider the Royal Guard.” -or were they back to being the Day Guard now that Luna was being reinstated? Twilight had no idea who was going to sort that one out- “What she did in the Town Hall was… really brave, and with the right training I think she could do pretty well.”
Fluttershy seemed about to reply when a collective groan emanated from a pile of crates currently serving as an impromptu table-and-chair-setting for Pinkie Pie, a collection of Academy mages, and a few of the more bookish sort of Navy pony with Friendship: The Gathering cards spread out in front of them.
“I thought you said you’d never played this before!” shouted a yellow-and-blue pegasus stallion with an armillary cutie-mark.
“No, I said I hadn’t played in a while, and you just didn’t listen,” Pinkie Pie replied.
There was a lot of incomprehensible grumbling after that, followed by the pink earth mare shouting “Damn right I’m ruttin’ funny!”
Spike gave Twilight’s foreleg a tug. “Do you think we should… do something?” he whispered.
“Don’t worry, I’m good!” Pinkie Pie said in Twilight’s other ear. “I mean, have you seen the kitchen on this ship?”
“Galley, Pinkie Pie,” the unicorn corrected, “It’s called a galley on a ship.”
“Oh.” The pink mare sat down and stared at Twilight for a few seconds without blinking, head tilted far further than was probably entirely comfortable. “Why?”
“I swear, some ponies…” Rarity muttered from among a clump of Canterlot dignitaries, and jabbed a hoof in the general direction of another group of ponies that skewed much more heavily towards soldiers… and also much more heavily male.
“And there they were! Dozens of them! Hundreds!” Rainbow Dash was shouting from somewhere near the center. “With rotten flesh and viney growths, purple ichor leaking from their shattered barrels! And I fought them all!"
Meanwhile, Shining Armor had somehow gotten himself deep in conversation with Applejack. “Ah dun got no problem with ‘em,” the farmer was saying. “They’ve been mighty helpful cleanin’ up and haven’t been botherin’ none a’ the townsfolk or causin’ any trouble. Dun’ even complain when I put a squad of ‘em to work replantin’ all those saplings them Lunars trampled comin’ in.”
Her brother flashed Applejack a knowing smile. “Yeah, well, free home-cooked meals will have that sort of effect on soldiers.”
“Hey, are you feeling all right?” Fluttershy asked Rainbow Dash as the weathermare pulled away from her crowd of admirers. “I mean, with that gem and everything?”
“Oh, yeah,” Dash slipped a scrap of paper containing what appeared to be a cabin number into one of the pockets of her weather-team vest, and extracted in its place a round red stone about the size of a toy marble. “They got one of those surgical tell-oh-whatsits to come in…”
“A surgical teleportation specialist?” Twilight suggested.
“Yeah, uhh, what she said, to come in and zap it right out.”
“Now Ah was just gonna suggest prune juice…” Applejack said, “Thinkin’ ‘bout usin’ magic inside a pony just gives me the screamin’ willies.”
“Nah, I’ll take the specialist, thanks. This thing has edges.”
“Well, if you’re so tough, why didn’t you just digest it?” Spike cut in, “Ponies are weird.”
“Well, if you really want it…” suddenly, the gem was balanced atop Pinkie Pie’s upturned hoof.
Spike waved his claws in a quick warding-off gesture. “Oh, no, no thanks, I know where that thing’s been.”
A cheer went up from the far rail, as a squad of Landsknecht heavies stepped off an air chariot and onto the deck, clad ears-to-tail in bright golden armor.
“You’re really not bringing in the Wonderbolts for this?” Rainbow Dash asked, incredulous. “Nopony cares about those armored jackasses.”
Shining’s expression remained outwardly unchanged, but Twilight could hear the tension in his voice. “Chief Dash, if you keep making those sorts of racist remarks, I’m not going to be able to include you in the photo shoot.”
That shut her up right quick.
“You told me there wouldn’t be any cameras,” Fluttershy whispered.
Rarity rapped a hoof against Applejack’s shoulder. “And you told me you would wear something nice!”
“Ah am wearin’… Ah’ mean, Ah even brought mah fancy hat!”
That seemed to mollify the tailor at least a little bit. “Oh, good, the one you’re wearing now is looking a mite disheveled…”
The farmer’s ears flattened back against her skull. “This is mah fancy hat!”
“Ah. Um… say no more, darling!”
Spike shook his head. “Please!”
“Photo shoot?” Pinkie Pie asked, “I was kind of hoping for the Proceedings of the Royal Academy myself. They keep sending me these really passive-aggressive rejection letters no matter how clearly I explain the Material Plane’s harmonic simultaneous four-day time cube…”
She trailed off and the lot of them slid into an easy, companionable silence. The Sun was just beginning to touch the mountainous horizon now, and the first lamps were flickering into activity in the windows of the village below. The Army repair crews must’ve decided that their work for the day was done, as the only sounds that filtered up to the Dawn’s level now were voices, birdcalls, and the occasional pop and crackle of somepony’s last few skyrockets. There had been talk early on of a do-over for the whole of the Summer Sun Celebration, but it had seemed… insensitive, somehow, with Princess Luna herself stubbornly clawing her way back to consciousness just a few cabins over and a Rebel battalion camped under guard in the fields below.
“Do you… really think Celestia’s gonna get those Lunars off the hook?” Spike finally asked. “I mean, you all heard what she said, right? But how does she actually… do that?”
Twilight had to admit that the dragon had a point. The power structure of Equestria was a lot more centralized than, say, Saddle Arabia’s, but it was still first and foremost a nation of laws and procedures. Princess Celestia couldn’t just declare a pony exempt from criminal prosecution any more than she could order a pony arrested without charge, and in their brief time in modern Equestria the Lunars had accumulated quite a list of offenses. The truly outrageous ones- the forcible infliction of psychotropic spells, the disruption of vital civil services up to and including the motion of the Sun, and most of the outright assaults- were the direct work of Nightmare Moon and her revenants, it was true, but the Lunar soldiers had still willingly assisted her in unlawfully detaining and generally terrorizing some two thousand Equestrian citizens.
“Well, there was an amnesty, wasn’t there?” Fluttershy suggested.
“I think that only applies to what they did during the Rebellions a thousand years ago,” said Shining Armor, “It isn’t like if your name was written on the thing you were free to commit whatever crimes you wanted for the whole rest of your life… I hope?”
“But Luna wasn’t… herself when she did what she did,” said Rarity.
“And she’s not being accused of anything for precisely that reason,” the dragon continued, “But the soldiers who followed Nightmare Moon’s orders weren’t under any kind of control.”
“But they do predate Equestrian law as we know it,” said Twilight, “and they had a lot of bad information on what they were going into, and I’m sure some of them didn’t understand, and… none of that would excuse what they did, but it’d all need to be addressed, at least, at a trial. And there’s two hundred of them to try! By the time we got through half of them, the other half’d’ve died of old age. There’s going to have to be… expediencies made, and if we’re being expedient we can really only be expedient on the side of the defendants. I think Celestia can convince the courts of that.”
Shining Armor nodded and made a little hmmm noise.
“I’m not sure if I’m okay with that, actually,” said Spike, “Even before Nightmare Moon, uhh, happened, well… we mapped a lot of graveyards all over Equestria that Princess Luna helped fill.”
“Spike,” Twilight knelt down to look him in the eye, “If redemption was only ever made available to ponies who’d never done anything wrong, it wouldn’t exactly count for very much, now would it?”
“Well said, Twilight Sparkle!” said Princess Celestia, and the young scholar jumped a little in place. She’d thought Celestia was still down in the ambassadorial quarters.
The others, perhaps anticipating the private topics such a conversation would likely delve into, quietly stepped away. Celestia lowered herself onto her haunches in a single fluid movement, which still left her a little bit taller than Twilight leaning against the railing with her forehooves up on top of it.
The alicorn didn’t say anything for a good long while.
Twilight made a few false starts, swallowed hard, and finally managed to ask “So… how’s Luna?”
“She fell asleep mid-sentence, I’m afraid,” a hint of mirth crept into Celestia’s voice. “For once the doctors and I agree that’s to be expected of a pony in her situation, and we anticipate she’ll wake more and more in the days ahead. Soon enough she’ll be strong enough to start physical exercises, and walk again, and eventually… back to normal.”
“That’s good to hear. As you can imagine, I have a lot of questions I’d like to ask her when she has a little more stamina.”
Celestia’s violet eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, and the waves of color in her prismatic mane became infinitesimally more turbulent.
“No, no, not like that!” Twilight quickly amended, and laughed nervously, and then continued more softly. “I mean… I feel like I’ve read so much about Luna from so many different sources that I almost know her, but it’s not the same as talking to the real, live pony.”
(♫)
The faint suggestions of turmoil in Celestia’s omnipresent aura stilled. Instead she seemed to lose something ineffable and vitally important. The colors of her mane suddenly seemed faded and worn, even though they remained visually the same as they always had. “No, it’s not the same. You translated journals and dug up trenches. You don’t remember the smell of sweat and smoke and so, so much newly-dug earth. You never looked at your subjects’ hollowed-out faces and… and hollowed-out souls.” The fading influence itself faded away, replaced by the brittle brightness of costume jewelry. “Perhaps that’s for the best.”
Celestia shifted, and seemed about to get up, and Twilight realized with a bit of panic that if she didn’t get an answer out of the alicorn now about what she’d unearthed, there was a very real possibility nopony ever would.
“Princess,” the scholar began, “when I fought Nightmare Moon in the Everfree, after I drew her away from my friends and before they got back with the Elements, she… talked to me. She said you were behind the prophecy that predicted her arrival. At the time I thought she was just trying to get inside my head, but, really, it’s only if she was telling the truth that a lot of the things you did this year make any sense.”
“Go on?” Celestia’s voice betrayed nothing but idle curiosity. Twilight concluded that even an alicorn couldn’t possibly dispose of her on the deck of a crowded airship without ponies asking uncomfortable questions, and then was surprised that she was even considering the possibility.
She continued. “You asked me to create a mathematical model of the spell that would return Nightmare Moon, but lost interest when it became clear that all it needed was an arrival time. That’s because you already knew her arrival time, from the prophecy, and with that the model was enough to predict a location, and a mana drain so high that Nightmare Moon would be in no condition to fight after her transition. And that statue containing the prophecy had a modern stealth spell operating on it, and a preservation spell matching your thaumic signature. I… I think you even let me come to Ponyville right before the Celebration, right before Nightmare Moon would arrive, because you thought I’d be less likely to interfere with your preparations here than in Canterlot. You might have even figured the Cairns and so on would keep me busy, and keep me from discovering what was really going on.”
“That’s all very cleverly deduced, my faithful student. In fact, almost all of it’s correct.” Celestia’s horn glowed a warm gold, and despite the sun still being a good ways off from truly setting the smooth white disc of the Moon rose into visibility over the mountains. Twilight wondered if she’d ever get used to the Mare pattern’s disappearance. “But I sense a ‘but’ coming.”
“I found some… documents under the Golden Oaks… the library in town, I mean. A journal by a pony who would later be recorded as one of your less significant early ministers, who described how you… supported the Council of Five Hundred in the Rebellions. Against the Day Guard, which wasn’t even your idea at all.” Twilight saw Celestia’s eyes widen the tiniest fraction at that statement, but kept going. “What I don’t understand is, you apparently went to incredible lengths to hide anypony and anything that could’ve revealed those actions, what… really happened with Luna, and the Rebellion, and all the rest, because there’s not a shred of evidence in the official literature. But you left that journal, and the prophecy itself for that matter, out here instead of destroying them or burying them somewhere in secure deep storage behind modern locks. Why send me here, and not off to the old Black-Talon Library in Griffonstone or some other superficially promising site without anything like this left? Why let me talk to Luna?”
Celestia’s smile settled somewhere between knowing and wistful. “So you found Clip’s journal, did you? I don’t know if he’d be glad to finally know where it ended up, or furious that somepony’d dared read it. I for one always suspected the haulers he’d sent had just left it in Ponyville, perhaps because they simply couldn’t find his hideaway, but he refused to let me scry for it. Private information, he said.”
That was about the last response Twilight had expected. “Wait, wait, no, why would he tell you-” she stammered.
“It would be much easier, for a number of reasons, if I… showed you the information you’re missing.” Celestia closed her eyes, and lit her horn, and sketched complicated symbols on the deck with her hoof and in the air with the tips of her wings, and muttered foreign-sounding syllables, and a small yellow bubble began to coalesce just in front of the base of her horn.
Twilight recognized the spell. The orb it was producing was a condensed memory- a complete record of a pony’s sensory experiences over a certain period of time, precipitated and stabilized for somepony else to relive. The memories were incredibly detailed and impossible to alter or forge, but the spell only worked on a willing subject and even then very rarely. Twilight, like many high-level mages, had experimented with casting it on herself more than a few times in graduate school, but had managed to produce only a brief flash of some inconsequential part of her foalhood on her very first attempt and never gotten it to work again.
Celestia finished the incantation, and the orb floated freely between them, its glow already beginning to dissipate. Twilight stared into it and let it seem to expand until it filled the whole of her vision…
And then she was striding down a corridor in the Canterlot Day Court. She didn’t recognize the furniture, and while she recognized the architecture it seemed off for a good few seconds before she realized she was looking at it from twice her usual height.
Celestia’s elegant frame felt incredibly strong, her vision and hearing fantastically sharp, and she could smell the stone dust left over from the Court Hall’s recent construction in the seams between the segments of the marble floor. The first thing Twilight thought to do was go and explore, but she was merely a passenger inside the Princess’s head now. Attempting to turn around or even look in a different direction would only result in a scrawny purple unicorn stumbling around and making a fool of herself a thousand years in the future.
Celestia was headed for a plain wooden door at the end of the hallway, and while the alicorn’s thoughts weren’t accessible to Twilight the quick pace she set and the rapid pounding in her chest gave the scholar a fairly good idea of her trepidation as she drew ever-closer to it. Nonetheless, draw closer she did, and eased it open with a gold-shod hoof.
There was an office on the other side- a cramped little one with a single wooden desk of the sort a clerk might use, and judging by the way Celestia’s gaze now scanned over its neat stacks of parchment and blandly comfortable furniture the Princess had never seen inside of it before. The torches inside were lit, and the solitary window on the wall opposite the door revealed a dark, starry sky.
There were guards in gold armor waiting just behind the door, however, and they startled at Celestia’s presence, and one swung a fauchard down an inch from her muzzle. Beyond them, a group of ponies in cloth uniforms and ministers’ sashes continued talking with each other, nearly oblivious.
“… if we had the troops available, I would,” a light blue earth stallion with a dark blue mane and a neatly trimmed beard was saying in a rough baritone. “but Trot was, if we are being honest, never that economically important. If by letting this… ‘Emperor’ Incitatus fellow secede peacefully we can guarantee free passage back to Equestria-proper for the ponies who opposed him, then I’m willing to make that sacrifice. Maybe in a few decades they’ll realize what a mistake they made, and come back just as peacefully… assuming something doesn’t attack them first, since I’m not sure how Incitatus plans to defend his… country without the Equestrian Army garrison…” The stallion finally seemed to notice Celestia and the guards, and sighed and rolled his eyes. “I suppose you might as well give us the room. I’ll come and get you when this is done.”
Celestia stood aside to let the others file out, leaving just the stallion and his guards. It was only then that Twilight noticed the pronounced dip in his upper back and the faint, thin old scar that traced across the sheaf of papers on his left flank- this, at long last, was the notorious Paper Clip. He was younger than she’d expected, perhaps thirty or forty, and although of impressively large stature far more pudgy than fit. Just like his comrades he wore a black cloth ministerial sash, although his seemed devoid of any rank whatsoever.
He gave a curt nod and the polearm in front of Celestia’s face was removed. “Well?” he asked, yellow eyes narrowing.
Twilight could feel Celestia’s mouth open, but the Princess seemed unable to immediately form words. The stallion sitting at the desk across from her circled his hooves in a quick little ‘go on’ motion.
Then Celestia’s golden sabatons became visible in front of her as she sank into a deep, long bow. Twilight was surprised by that, and then surprised that she was surprised. Celestia bowed to her staff and subjects all the time in her era, but here it seemed somehow incongruous. “We are… no… I’m sorry.”
That got his attention. “You’re… sorry?”
Twilight couldn’t feel what Celestia was feeling, but she could see the tears clouding her borrowed eyes more than well enough. “I’m sorry I hauled you up in front of that ridiculous Council hearing when I should’ve been giving you my blessing to take whatever measures were necessary to safeguard the livelihood of the common pony. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to organize the Day Guard myself, I’m sorry I wasn’t fighting alongside them from the very beginning, I’m… sorry I let those Councilors live as long as they did!”
Paper Clip pulled in a big barrelfull of air and then let it out slowly, his eyes sliding momentarily half-closed. “Well, the thing is you’re… not really mine to forgive.” He plucked another scroll from the basket beside him and smoothed it out with his hooves. “Head back to Everfree and dig up some of the ponies we had to leave behind in the Fall… the ponies who never made it far enough to see the Fall. Maybe they’ll forgive you.”
Celestia stood up, then, and made a few steps towards the desk. “I’m not… asking for forgiveness, because I know there can be none. I suppose I’m just stating a fact. I did wrong by my subjects, and I… need your help to make sure that never happens again. I owe So-” Twilight felt a word taking shape in Celestia’s throat, but it never materialized. “I owe everypony that much, at the very least.”
“You want me, General Secretary of the Equestrian Provisional Government, to help you,” Paper Clip asked, incredulous.
“I need you to help me.”
“Was that an order, Princess?”
“I want you to have me… what’s the term, read in on how you make decisions. And…” Celestia’s gold-shod hooves shifted minutely beneath her, “I’m… I’m not going to sign any more of your decrees until you do!”
The pony behind the desk leaned forward, his plain, chubby features suddenly taking on a predatory appearance that suited him surprisingly well. “Was that a threat?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“You think you can threaten me?” Very suddenly, he smiled, and nodded. “Didn’t know you had it in you!” He waved a hoof, and the guards returned to their posts. Even with Celestia’s senses, Twilight hadn’t even been aware they’d come up behind her and brandished their weapons. “I want you to understand one thing, though. This won’t be like it was under the Council. Power means responsibility now, and if you don’t do right by the ponies of Equestria, you’ll have to face up to the consequences.”
Celestia’s head tipped downward, although she didn’t make a full bow this time. With the aid of his chair, Paper Clip ended up more or less on her level. “I’d expect nothing less. I know you don’t trust me right now. I wouldn’t trust me either. I know I have a lot to learn and a lot to prove, and that’s going to take time, but… if you’ll teach me…”
The minister scratched at his short little beard. “You make a surprisingly compact and well-reasoned argument. Guards!” he shouted, quite suddenly, “Arrest this highly-intelligent changeling and find out what happened to the real Celestia!”
There was a long, uncomfortable moment where Twilight felt Celestia’s entire frame tense- although in preparation for doing what, the scholar had no idea. Then Paper Clip chuckled, briefly, and then Celestia laughed and after that the guards laughed as well.
(♫)
The minister motioned to one of the ratty little cushions that surrounded his desk, and Celestia sat down without a word. “I think we can make this work in a way that’s helpful not just to the both of us, but to Equestria as a whole. But I need you to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“All the work we’ve done has your signature on it. I’d like to keep it that way, and I don’t want your sudden turn of good sense to extend to telling anypony what was really going on. The majority of Equestria… just isn’t ready yet to accept the Lunars, or a lot of their ideas, and I don’t know if we ever will be. There’d only be more bloodshed if the public knew.”
“Then…” a gold-shot hoof pressed against the fur just below Celestia’s neckpiece. This was the first time since the memory had begun that the princess had bothered to look at her own chest, and Twilight was surprised to discover that the torc appeared nearly identical to its modern version. “By the light of the Unconquered Sun, I do so swear.”
“Good.” Paper Clip seemed to have decided he’d had enough with the scroll in front of him, and rolled it up again and tossed it in another basket. “Come morning I’ll summon the others and brief them about this. They follow my lead on a lot of issues, but ultimately we make decisions by consensus.” His expression turned grave. “I’ll speak on your behalf, but they still may not be willing to accept you.”
“Then I ask only that they give me a reason why I’m not worthy of their secrets,” said Celestia, “so that I can someday, hopefully, do better.”
Paper Clip’s smile returned. “With an attitude like that… I think you’ll do fine. Now go on, get out of my office.” His tone was sharp, but there was a newfound warmth behind it. “Got work to do.”
Celestia stood, and turned to leave, but then stopped in front of the solitary window. The Moon outside shone across a Canterlot Castle district that Twilight found eerily familiar despite currently being made more of scaffolding than stone- the Halls of the Day Court, the Guard academy at Hurricane's Green, and some of the earliest buildings of the Royal Academy of Magic were already starting to take on recognizable shapes in its soft white light. “Do you think she’s… really up there?” the Princess asked.
“How in Tartarus would I know?”
Silence fell. Woodpeckers called to one another around the mountain spring that would centuries from now become the reflecting pool of the Prince Saturnine Memorial.
“I’ve been hiring diviners,” Celestia finally said. “To try to find out more about what happened.”
“Not out of civic funds, I hope!”
“No, no, then you would’ve found out about it and stopped me.”
“That’s… surprisingly clever of you.”
“They’re making good progress, I think. It’s hard to say, everything about… all of it… is so strange. I still can’t get answers to the simplest questions, at least not ones that make any sense, but… every day, our methods improve.”
“You, uhh… you keep at that.” There was a brief pause when Celestia’s head turned back to the pony at the desk, and her ears turned back against her skull. “No, no, I’m serious!” he amended, “Wish I’d thought of the idea myself. I you ever need any… any resources, or information, or something, don’t hesitate to talk to me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Celestia turned away from the moon and back towards the door, and blinked quickly a few times, and Twilight expected to see more tears but there were none. “Good night, Mister Secretary.”
“Good night… Your Grace.”
Celestia strode out of the office with her head held high, and the vision started to fade out and blur around the edges, and Twilight Sparkle was back in the body of a scrawny purple unicorn again.
“I… think I’m starting to see,” she said, “You weren’t trying to protect yourself, you… and Paper Clip… you were trying to protect the Lunars, at least at first. That’s why you never told anypony about the Cairns, and kept up the fiction that you were the only one responsible for the reunification of Equestria.”
Off in the big field to the East, the indigo-clad figures of the over two-hundred-strong Lunar survivors were falling into formation. They had been permitted to keep their armor and personal effects, and had not been fitted with any restraints, and they marched out in good order with their heads held high to board the troopships that would take them to a temporary holding facility at Fillydelphia Harbor. Even from this altitude Twilight could hear their voices raised in a strange, wistful sort of half-harmony utterly unlike how they had sounded during the siege of the Town Hall.
The times we live in now have changed, honor is long gone
And now that good and evil are shades of gray a cruel impasse is drawn
For all the good we have created it doesn’t make us right,
“But those of us who hide in darkness seek a different kind of light,” the scholar finished, then gasped slightly as she realized she wasn’t the only one who had spoken. Princess Celestia smiled at the surprised look she must’ve spotted on Twilight’s face, but then her levity faded away.
“That’s how it started, at least, but over the centuries… when everypony else who remembered was dead, and the ponies who came after them taught that lie in our schools, carved it into our statues and wrote it into our novels, I… suppose it just became more comfortable than the truth. I told myself so many times that next year, when things were calmer, I’d assemble a tribunal and testify to all of it, but there was always a whisper campaign that didn’t need fanning, or an unpopular law that needed to pass, and almost before I knew it my time had nearly run out.”
Twilight leaned against the railing and thought about that for a while. She’d been expecting some grand conspiracy, but to hear the Princess tell it first-hoof the whole thing seemed so incredibly… mortal.
“I found copies of the prophecy, didn’t I?” the scholar finally asked. “Ones that you didn’t know about. One of the diviners you worked with must’ve been a Lunar sympathizer, or known a Lunar sympathizer, and the text got smuggled out of Canterlot and hidden in that statue. Then the Lunar fled to Griffonia, or maybe one of General Gul’s spies got involved, or really any number of things could have happened so that by the beginning of the Seventh Century a Griffish translation of the thing was left somewhere for Mist Watcher to find.”
Celestia nodded. “It’s ironic, I suppose. I must’ve visited that statue a dozen times to renew the spell on it, and never once did I consider that what was inside that compartment was anything more dangerous than a supply cache. I knew there was one of those in Ponyville, and that Paper Clip had taken it over, but I always supposed the statue was the entrance and there was nothing… incriminating left inside. When I sent you here I did hope you’d find it, though, and publish something so you didn’t think your work was completely wasted.”
The Dawn was being allowed to drift essentially without power, its captain more or less content to keep it in the general area of Ponyville. From her position on the port rail Twilight could see the orderly rows of Sweet Apple Acres and, beyond that, the glow of high-powered crystal lamps surrounding the open Cairn. There was to be a proper excavation conducted by the Royal Academy, and two of the department’s most respected archeologists were currently jockeying for her approval to oversee it. Both were currently accusing the other of altering the letter they’d jointly published in last month’s Epigraphical Review to call Twilight’s analysis of the Luna Bay fragment ‘alarmist pseudohistory’; she had already decided she would be much better off with a member of the junior faculty in charge.
Once that work was completed, the bodies inside the Cairn would be transferred to Canterlot and reinterred in one of the military cemeteries there- after all, the structure wasn’t a tomb and had never been intended as such. How much of the local Rich dynasty’s fortune could then be confiscated as the proceeds of a robbery that may have cost up to thirty-six ponies their lives would be up to the courts.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” Twilight finally asked Celestia.
“Once my sister had been… subdued, I planned to negotiate with her and together we would coordinate a more peaceful return, and then a gradual disclosure. I never anticipated… anything like this. Paper Clip never did figure out that her soldiers were merely hibernating, or that what came back from the Moon would…" Celestia paused, and shuddered ever so slightly, "not be my sister. I ask only that you don’t confuse my ignorance of the threat Equestria faced for a lack of concern… although, ultimately, that’s hardly better. If it hadn’t been for your actions, Twilight Sparkle, Luna and quite a lot of other ponies wouldn’t be here right now.”
Twilight shook her head. “Paper Clip and his cabal lived in an era where psychology, physiology, necromancy and astrolimnology were all barely scientific disciplines. There’s no way they could have identified-”
“You’re completely right, of course. But I’m leading Equestria now, and I have no excuse to repeat their mistakes any more than I had excuse to follow that ridiculous Council.” She tapped a hoof once against the deckplates, producing a loud ringing sound that Twilight suspected was more magical than material. “That ends today.”
For a little while, nothing happened. They were passing over the outer sections of the Everfree now, pitch-dark even though the sun still hadn’t quite set. It was a fine, clear evening, and with a moderately-strong spyglass Twilight would probably still have been able to just about make out the crumbling spires of the Castle of the Two Sisters. The theories that the Fall of Everfree had somehow been the work of the Lunar rebels, or of the Elements themselves -theories that had dominated academia for the entire time Twilight Sparkle had been alive- were looking decidedly untenable now; Spike said there were already pamphlets circulating in the more superstitious parts of society reviving the older claims of direct punishment by this god or that. Twilight had her doubts about those, of course, but she didn’t exactly have a ready explanation at hoof either. She wasn’t worried. They could come back to the Castle in good time, now that they knew how to find the way to it, armed with better equipment and a clearer perspective, and plumb its secrets with no need to hide in its shadows.
A soft little cough from Celestia informed Twilight that she’d been woolgathering again, and the scholar turned around to encounter a pair of stocky Royal Guards carrying a golden metal box about half Twilight’s size, between a pair of poles clipped to their armor like a stretcher. They nodded at Celestia in perfect synchrony, knelt until the box was resting on the deck, unfastened it from their armor, and stepped aside. The Princess fiddled with the complicated-looking lock on the front of it for a few seconds, and with a great deal of clicking gearwork and fizzling enchantments the top detached and levered open on perfectly oiled hinges.
It looked to be the single most physically and magically reinforced object Twilight Sparkle had ever seen, and was plastered with warnings describing any number of downright grisly things it could do to ponies not duly authorized to interact with it, so she was initially leery of even approaching it. After a few seconds, though, Celestia nodded, and motioned with one hoof, and the scholar stepped forward and looked inside. The case was filled with paper- blueprints and ledgers and dozens upon dozens of thin black-leather journals, and when Twilight added the light of her horn to the rapidly-fading sun she realized she recognized a great deal of the mouthwriting.
“You asked why I didn’t lock away the history of the Lunar Rebellions somewhere deep under Canterlot, behind modern walls with modern locks, Twilight?” said Celestia, “In fact I did exactly that. This is everything our… cabal, as you put it, managed not to misplace. I want you to analyze it, annotate it, summarize it, and then present it to Equestria at large.”
Twilight had to restrain herself from physically reeling backward. “But… Your Grace… this can’t… you can’t seriously…”
“I am entirely serious, Twilight. Equestria deserves the truth, and I want you to help me tell it. I can’t explain everything, simply because a thousand years of information can’t fit in one mare’s lifetime, and there are questions I don’t have the answers to and answers that aren’t mine to give. But if you ask me anything, if it’s in my power I will give you an honest and complete explanation.”
The troopships had raised their gangplanks and begun gaining altitude; now they set off with a whir of propellers to ferry the Lunar survivors to Fillydelphia Harbor and from there… who knew? Twilight watched as they crossed in front of where Canterlot perched on the mountainside, the better part of a hundred kilometers to the North, the sunset painting its marble spires with molten iron. Far beyond that out of sight, Twilight knew, were the weatherworks of Cloudsdale and the oat-mills of Chicoltgo and the steelyards of Bayjing, and a dozen other cities that fueled the industrial might of Equestria. She'd spent her entire life in a bustling empire of rail and alchemical flame that was the envy of the Known World, and only now did it dawn on Twilight Sparkle that save for the actions of a very few ponies a very long time ago, the intervening thousand years might have been spent very, very differently.
A gold-shod hoof tapped her gently on the shoulder. “Well?”
Twilight swallowed hard and looked back to the pony who had, for better or worse, seen all of it take shape. “What are the Elements of Harmony?”
“I really don’t know. Ponies just… found them, buried, one day, during work on an expansion of the original Council Hall, and brought them to my sister and me. I know that they’re immensely powerful, and extremely dangerous, and that a single pony can indeed use all six at once, but that way courts calamity. When I used them against Lu- against Nightmare Moon, deep down I suppose I… was frustrated, and tired, and this war of hers had been going on far too long, and I… just wanted her gone, back to wherever she'd come from. And so the Elements fulfilled that request as best they could.” The alicorn blinked back tears that shone with a prismatic brilliance all their own. “After that I could never get them to operate again, and when Paper Clip said they’d been left behind in Everfree I figured it was best just to forget about them. Until you used them, I thought they would never work without Luna. Now it seems the problem lay with me and not the artifacts… which is also something I should have realized a long time ago.”
“What eventually happened to Paper Clip?”
“He and I worked together for… maybe twenty years in Canterlot. Then he stepped down, and spent another eighteen teaching engineering at the Miner’s Guild back in Frankpferd. Then he… well, died, peacefully, in his sleep, an obscure civil servant history never bothered with. He wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
The glow of the setting Sun finally disappeared completely from the sky over the mountains, leaving only the pale blue-gray light of the unblemished Moon and millions of tiny, iridescent stars. Nestled in the shadows and surrounded by mountains, the lights of Ponyville reminded Twilight of a bowl full of fireflies, or perhaps gems set in an arched ceiling of heavy black stone.
“Celestia, do you know… anything at all about Nightmare Moon?”
“You know exactly as much about her as I do, Twilight. Possibly more. Maybe you’ll find some answers in the other old Lunar sites-Sol Invictus knows you’re quite adept at discovering things I’ve repeatedly missed- or with that mathematical model of yours now that it’s finally completed. You are free to use whatever materials and methods you see fit in that study, save any tests that might possibly harm my sister.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Something else was puzzling Twilight now. Something usually was, these days, and she didn’t expect that to change any time soon, but this wasn’t as concrete as a flawed spell model. She was awake, alive, clean and well-fed. A year or more of work had finally been vindicated in the most spectacular fashion imaginable, and her detractors had been silenced- Tartarus, some of her detractors were currently falling over each other to try to become her subordinates. She had been given the opportunity to literally rewrite the history books on perhaps Equestria’s most important era. She’d saved all of Equestria from eternal darkness, literal and figurative, and in the process given some two-hundred-odd souls -Princess Luna by no means the least among them- a chance to step out from Nightmare Moon’s shadow. And yet…
“Why so glum, my faithful student?” Princess Celestia asked, as though she was reading Twilight’s thoughts. “Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?”
“That’s just it. I’ve been… thinking,” Twilight stammered in reply.
The alicorn’s mouth turned up at the corners. “Well that’s always an ominous sign!”
“Everything we have on the Lunar Rebellions, and Paper Clip, and the Council, and everything else I’m charged with annotating, is either in that box or buried somewhere around Ponyville, isn’t it?”
“Yes…”
“And with my new security clearance, I can work on analyzing it basically anywhere there’s a firelink to the Canterlot Library and a space to keep my notes, right?”
“I suppose so.”
“And if we’re going to make any headway on determining what exactly this ‘Nightmare’ entity actually is or where it came from, and how it relates to the Elements of Harmony, and what actually happened during the fall of Everfree, we’re going to need a long-term research and exploration presence near the Lunar ruins in and around Ponyville…”
“That’s a very reasonable assumption.”
“… and somepony’s going to have to oversee that operation and make sure it doesn’t endanger or inconvenience the townsponies…”
“Indeed.”
“… and this whole project has, from the very beginning, been my idea…”
“Well, yes. I can take some credit, but not for the parts that succeeded.”
“And, in case we ever do need to use them again, it makes sense to have all six ponies demonstrated to be capable of using the Elements of Harmony close at hoof…”
“A fair assessment.”
“… and that library I’ve been living out of doesn’t really have anypony currently using the loft inside it…”
“Mmmhmm?”
“Do you think it’d be possible for me to… stay here? In Ponyville? Long-term, I mean.”
“I think I could arrange something like that. Spike, take a message…”
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10255541
Point EXTREMELY well taken. And, now, on to your final chapter.
Wonderfully done epilogue chapter. LOVE all the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future story set-up in all the right places. I ESPECIALLY loved Twi's new friends getting to meet Shiny MONTHS sooner than in canon, the bits of dialogue between not just Twilight and Celestia (including the explanation concerning Celly's behavior, Celly admitting MOST of the stuff Nightmare Moon/Luna told Twilight was true [but NOT ALL OF IT] and the stuff about the Council) but also Twilight's new friends, the future Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Twilight and Spike (i.e. Twilight's points concerning redemption; which is probably one of the reasons Twi has a habit of being so forgiving in all except the most absolutely extreme circumstances later on). I also really liked the logical modification for Twilight's extended stay in Ponyville.
VERY definitely going to be looking forward to more of this series.
I thought this was amazing. However, I'm still a little curious about the conditions created by the council that lead to the rebellion and how luna initially became the leader of the rebellion.
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I'd imagine Twilight is pretty curious about that too right now! Perhaps we will discover more as her research into the question progresses...
I see what you did there.
Are you going to make a series after this?
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I have every intention of doing so! I don't know quite what it will look like, since I'd like for there to be more of an arc planned out ahead of time than a show written in individual seasons could have, and will probably be condensing episodes, moving episodes around, and adding wholly original content, but it;s definitely going to happen!
10377712
What would you suggest to make this more clear?
for a first time fimfic writer, this shit is the most real, logical, and detailed story that I have ever read
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Technically not my first fanfic. Just my first fanfic to ever get finished.
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does not matter to me
Reviewed!
HOW does such a great story have 33 likes? Frigging criminal.
A review to your story has been posted in the My Little Reviews & Feedback Group. I hope you find it helpful.
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Probably because I have zero idea how to properly categorize or tag things on this site and so nobody has ever seen it.
You can has review!
Oh, every second of this was brilliant and this story is criminally unerappreciated. The worldbuilding is top notch, characters feel real and fleshed out, and yet its still recognizably the same FiM we all love.
Bravo.
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Awww, thanks! I'm currently about a third to halfway through Feeling Pinkie Keen Extended Cut and plan to just keep on going. I hope you enjoyed that as much as you enjoyed this. In particular, I think we'll be seeing progressively more of the Shadowbolts and other Night Guard as "ECeason 1" goes on.
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Oh, I've got episodes planned out all the way to Season 5.
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...I'm interested in reading these.
Well, this was an interesting Extended Cut take
Fantastic retelling, excellent job! I enjoyed the expansion of the history of Equestria as well as the more in-depth character interactions and actually giving the Mane Six all actual different physical attributes.
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Glad you liked it! I get why (some things just can't fit into 22 minutes), but it always kind of bothered me a little to see glimpses of this whole world with history and culture and so forth in the show, and not see it explored beyond what is immediately relevant to the episode.
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I fully understand what you mean. It's especially clear as the series went on that whatever mystery the world beheld was pulled back and felt lacking as a result, but that's why fanfiction exists!
How many stories are going to be in this series?
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I currently have 10 extended episodes planned for Season 1, plus one original side story and one canon-based side story. Beyond that, I haven't determined exact episodes, but in the hazy mists of the future I hope to someday have gone through all nine seasons.
I must say this has been a remarkably enjoyable read, I'll check out the other too when I find the time
Outstanding work from start to finish. I've seen more than a few spins on the series premiere, but never one that simultaneously stays so close to the source material and rewrites it with so little regard for the stations of canon. I'm glad I finally read it, and I'll be sure to check out the sequels. Thank you for it.
11016102
Most ponies probably have that same reaction in-U when they first hear him speak.
Sans wings, the upper-right designs in this chart was my original inspiration for his design here. The lower half is also, IMHO, a much better representation of an older Spike than the one we got in Season 9...
In a sense, it looks like Twilight will get to write that exposé she talked about in "Publish or Perish" after all. Nice touch.
I'm also intrigued by your decision to leave the Elements' true nature shrouded in mystery. Either you've simply postponed the full explanation of their powers to a later event (Discord, perhaps?), or it will become a Hard Reset-type situation wherein there's more to their machinations than what meets the canonical eye. Whatever happens, I look forward to seeing where you go with that development. All in all, this was a fun take on the pilot, and I'll be sure to read this series' later installments (be they already published or still works-in-progress) down the line.
Have a thumbs up (and my apologies for constantly ringing your notification bell over the past few hours)!
:)
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Aww, how cute, you think you'll get an explanation of the Elements as early as Discord.
Regardless, comments are my single favorite thing to get for a story; I hope you'll find the later entries in the series similarly thought-provoking.
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Eh, can't fault myself for guessing. Given that Discord's plan involved corrupting the Mane Six into the polar opposites of the Elements they embodied, Celestia's letter-spam seemed like a fairly reasonable time for Twilight to put two and two together.
Regardless of how wrong I am, I look forward to seeing what the right answer is (and everything that happens in-between).
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See the next chapter for just how right Pinkie is about the importance of bards.
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I think that's selling Celestia a bit short, there were elements of Celestia playing the long game, more in the comics than in the show. We're extrapolating off of extant character traits.
I really enjoyed this story, and am looking forward to working my way through the rest available - it's not possible to cram a deep and involved world behind a 22 minute episodic kids animated tv show, but that's what fan fiction like this story are there for!
Also, time-cube, loved it, surely there's no dimension it doesn't exist in?
11220113
Glad to see new people are still finding our stories. Hope you enjoy the rest.
Twilight: "It's not like I like Ponyville or anything, Baka!"
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First depends on the cannon whether it’s 100 years. But second your right, but you can redefine that as an act of loyalty by Celestial to Equestra. Though I guess loyalty and generosity are almost indistinguishable
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Wow, that's reaching Thriller levels of stank.
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You hit that nail on the head.
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You say that like any prophecy, anywhere, ever, hasn't been written by Satan's own personal contract lawyer with the express intention of screwing over everyone who reads it or is tangentially involved in it...
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Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story. The Lunar soldiers are no different.
Finished. Overall, I had a good time with this. I really like the backstory and some of the Lunar characters that you introduced. Some of the tweaks to the main cast were also interesting.
Where I really started to struggle continuing was, funnily enough, when the actual plot was going on. The lead up was great but the adventure to get to the castle was getting long in the tooth. Some of the "trials" for the ponies were stretching out and I just wanted to get it over with. The use of the Elements was also a bit baffling.
Then, when Celestia showed Twilight her memories, I got interested again. Paper Clip is one of those unsung heroes that Equestria owes more to than it can ever repay. He's fascinating and I'm hoping more is shown of him in the upcoming stories.
That's all I got. Till next time!
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Interestingly, how close I should hold to the original plot of the episodes seems to be one of the most polarizing things people comment on for these stories. Some people think I diverge way too much, others too little.
Looking back, I think that while all the trials worked as things that could happen, Rainbow Dash's was the only one that really jumped out to me as something particularly fitting with how Nightmare Moon operates, and the only one that was a serious reflection on her character. The others, I will freely admit to often having to "reach" a little to make them relevant to both the characters' personalities, and the values the Elements are supposed to reflect.
While I never made a conscious decision to move away from the Elements as a plot point in later stories, I very much did do that because they are so difficult to make work in an EC context. So I'm curious to see what you'll think moving forward.
It took me a second, but I THINK this is referring to the monetary value of the equipment in question?
Huh... That is a less dramatically appropriate, but much more realistic way for this meeting to take place I guess?
IUnderstoodThatReference.jpg
So... she ISN'T going to be grilling her for a new historical perspective from her centuries/millennia of life? This really IS an alternate universe.
I feel it relevant at this point to note that in integrating the Faith I hold to be Fact with the fiction I find enjoyable I arrived at the fanon that The Elements were the closest equivalent in how God interacted with ponies to our own world's Ark of the Covenant. Except instead of the high priest being allowed and required to approach it once a year* they are "touch and use as necessary"... and a certain fallen angel with a proclivity for sadistic humor managed to move them without consequences at one point.
*He had a rope tied around his ankle, which, while not required by divine mandate (or at least not directly) was at the least a reasonable precaution in case God took issue with that high priest or, perhaps, that year's preparations since both anyone else entering the Holy of Holies and leaving a dead body in there defiling it would be out of the question.
So in their case mortals and/or an immortal provided the face-melting* (or equivalents) themselves... sensible regardless of fanon.
*I can not recall if The Bible specifies the mode of death, but if it did I am almost entirely certain face-melting was not the cause of death... not that I consider Steven Spielberg's rendition flawed in that regard. They DID open it rather than merely touch it, and that could reasonable merit some additional theatrics to their executions.
...I shall leave the last two comments on the theory they provide insight for the author into the mind of one (probably atypical) reader, and may be generally entertaining.
...and nothing says the box can't be reused for the purpose I suggested.
So they were rulers before Discord? Not an unusual fanon...
Very humble of her.
I have greatly enjoyed this story and I am going to read the other four as well. I noticed a few references to the Elder Scrolls in here and I'm a bit surprised nobody commented on them. Sun's Height was the first since that is also a month there.
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Hey, welcome aboard! There're a total of seven stories in the EC-verse, five with the Admiral and two with me. And yes, we grabbed from all over the place, TES included. Nice catch.