The Name of Our Mistakes

by ObabScribbler

10. Accusation/Judgement

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10. Accusation/Judgement

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“I accept not thine explanation!” Celestia thundered.

“I wish not for thine acceptance!” Luna shouted back. “I merely explain myself out of courtesy.”

“Courtesy?” Celestia’s voice climbed to a pitch to shatter glass. “Courtesy! Where was thy courtesy when I did greet the king of all Gryphona unaided! We intended to show him that we stand unified against aggressors, Luna, yet now he considers us divided and weak within ourselves! Thy selfishness may have cost us the treaty!”

“He agreed to it, did he not? His signature adorns your precious parchment!”

“My precious …?” For a moment Celestia was so angry she couldn’t speak. “Luna, I begin to think thy mind has become addled. Not only didst thou set out into the forest for a jaunt on the very day thy presence was explicitly required within the castle walls, but thy scornful remarks and jibes at myself throughout the summit with our greatest enemy suggest thy commitment to Equestria hath become forfeit to thine own selfish whims!”

Luna became very quiet and very, very still. “Forfeit?” she all but spat. “What sayest thou, dear sister? Speak plain or else hold thy tongue withal.”

Celestia blinked, her momentum disrupted. She had expected shouting and had received exactly that the moment the Gryphonan party departed. They had been entrusted to return to their own land without the armed guard that had met them when they first crossed into Equestria. Celestia prayed the act of faith was not misplaced and she would not wake the following day to tales of some rural village that had been emptied by raiders during the night.

“Speak plain!” Luna shrieked. “Dost thou desire me to say I forfeit mine right as ruler? Dost thou desire me to abandon the throne that is mine by right and claim? The throne that I claimed when we descended to this land and made it our protectorate? Abandon it to thee? Dost thou wish to rule alone now that Equestria be established as a viable country, dear sister?”

“I … we … nay!” Celestia stammered. “Thy words be as addled as thy priorities, Luna! Whereupon speaketh I of thy abdication?”

“Thy meaning be clear, Celestia. Thy deportment and now thy words suggest thine own designs upon the two thrones of Equestria – most especially that they become only one beneath thine own rump.”

“Thou speaketh false!” Celestia protested. “I work only for the good of all – including thyself!”

“Thou speaketh false, Celestia!” Luna replied. “Honeyed words do not disguise thy true intent, nor a proud neck thy true thoughts. Well, let it be known, dear sister of mine, that I shall not relinquish my throne! Equestria be as much mine as thine – though many of its ponies think only of thee when they think of crowns and princesses.” She snarled these last words so savagely that Celestia was taken aback.

“I cannot be held accountable for the thoughts of our subjects, Luna.”

“Perhaps not, but thy actions and pretty speeches at thy court do little to engender thoughts of me as much as thee. Dost thou ever mention me when distributing thy sage advice? When solving the small riddles of the small lives of small ponies, dost thou ever think to consult with me, or render them to the Moon Court for guidance instead? I say nay, Celestia. I am far from thy thoughts, just as I now fly far from thee.”

Without bidding goodbye, Luna ran to the window and leapt out. It was a narrow window and it said much for how much weight she had lost that she fitting through it, though a few midnight blue feathers floated to the floor in her wake.

Celestia’s horn ignited with magic and she brought the feathers to her. Closing her eyes, she wondered when her censure of Luna’s dreadful behaviour with King Sanguine had turned into an airing of her own misconduct as princess.

Maybe Luna was right. Maybe she had been taking over proceedings too much. Sadly, she hadn’t even noticed, though Luna apparently had. Were these the things she thought of each night when she set out to look for the Elements of Harmony? Did she nurse her bitterness with every wingbeat and each mile travelled?

“Luna …” she murmured, but only the damaged feathers heard her.