The Sun Rises, The Sun Never Sets

by BRBrony9

The Past Is Another Country

"Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia!" Shining announced, bowing deeply before the figure. Twilight lowered her head instinctively, despite her restraints, but the brief glimpse she had managed left her mind reeling, overwhelmed.

It was really her!

Celestia stood taller than anypony, clad not in the bright, airy robes of purest dove-white silk that she wore in most of her official portraits, but rather in militaristic garb. Heavy leather boots, creamy cotton trousers, a dark grey tunic with gold piping and rows of glittering medals, a white sash across her ample chest, peaked cap upon her head, sword in its scabbard hanging at her side, looking for all the world like she was out on campaign somewhere. Though her outfit was less traditional than in her portraits, her figure was no less divinely proportioned, and her mane and tail glowed with their own inner light, twinkling like the stars Twilight spent so long studying, an undulating kaleidoscope of colour that would have drawn the eye away every time had they not been connected to a goddess in physical form.

"Twilight Sparkle." The Princess mentioned her name casually, and Twilight felt her heart flutter, for to be directly addressed by one so divine and perfect was like taking five joy-pills in one session, practically enough to make one's heart explode with ecstasy. "Look at your Princess," she demanded. Twilight looked up at her slowly.

"Now tell your Princess why you have forsaken her."

Twilight looked around for Shining in a brief panic, but he seemed to have disappeared, or else he was drowned out by the radiant light of the Sun. "I...I..." Twilight stumbled, searching for forgotten words, her brain blank on how to correctly address the Princess, for she had never expected to meet her in the flesh. "I have not forsaken you, Your Highness!" she managed after a pause that she hoped did not make her seem suspicious.

"You have turned your mind from the path I illuminated for you," Celestia responded.

Her voice- so rich and sonorous, just like the speech-broadcasts!

The portraits- they lied, for they struggle to capture her true beauty!

"No!" Twilight gasped. "I follow you still, Your Highness...I-i made a mistake. A mistake I did not know I was making!"

"If ignorance was sufficient excuse, then this land would have crumbled long ago," the Princess answered. "You learned of the existence of Princess Luna, a name I hope to forget, yet a name which continues to plague me, even to this day. What do you know of her?"

"Nothing!" Twilight lied, before realising it was probably a very, very bad idea to lie to the Sun, especially since she had probably been listening to her conversation with her brother from an observation room somewhere. "O-only what my bro...what, uh, your agent has told me, Your Highness. I swear I know nothing more."

"Then you do not quite know the whole truth, do you, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia took a step forward, towering over the seated, terrified mare. "Though your brother was quite right. You know enough to be condemned."

"I don't want to know any more!" Twilight cried. "I don't want to know the truth, Your Highness!"

"It is too late for that, Twilight. You already know a half-truth, and a half-truth can be as dangerous as the whole," Celestia replied, her stern gaze fixed upon her lowly, mewling subject. "I shall tell you that which you were so keen to learn."

Her horn glowed and a small, blurry, floating image appeared in front of Twilight's eyes, like a VR movie projector displaying its contents. "A long time ago, my sister and I ruled together," Celestia began. The image coalesced like a school of swirling fish into a picture of the Sun Princess. By her side, there stood a deep blue mare with a similarly ethereal mane and tail. Both were clad in the traditional robes of their office. "Sun and Moon, side by side. Luna and I overthrew Discord together. That is the truth that I keep from you all. Together, we threw down the banners of chaos, and replaced them with the banners of peace, progress, unity. I was not strong enough to defeat Discord alone, believe it or not. Your schoolbooks tell otherwise, of course, because that is how it must be today. But Luna was at my side the whole time."

The image changed to show the two sisters in battle-plate, ancient armour replete with helmets. Luna carried a spear and shield, Celestia a sword and axe, one in each hand. "A long time ago, Twilight. This was not war as you know it today. There were no nuclear weapons, no heli-jets or spaceplanes, no guns. Just sword, spear, shield and magic."

"Magic..." Twilight mumbled the word. "But..."

"But magic is controlled, limited, sanctioned by the State," Celestia nodded from behind the projected image she was showing. "Indeed it is, today. But it was not always thus. Today, there are no unicorns alive who have unfettered access to their magic. That would be dangerous. Even my soldiers, even ASU agents, must be limited. Why do you think that is, Twilight?"

"I...because...Discord's magic was so strong that you did not want anypony to pose the same threat he did?" Twilight suggested.

"No." Celestia shook her head this time. "Not Discord. His magic was of an entirely different kind to ours, something we had no control over and even less understanding of. No, it was not because of him. It was because of Luna."

Another image, this time depicting Luna, but not as she had been before. She was no longer the elegant Alicorn companion of her sister, but a twisted, darkly beautiful monster, fangs bared, her colours changed, burning deeply with darkness, jet-black, her slitted pupils staring angrily out through the veil, through time, to bore into Twilight's heart. She looked more like a devilish Changeling Queen than a divine Alicorn, her robes tattered and shredded, her armour painted black to match her body.

"This is what she became," Celestia stated bluntly. "My sister, consumed by rage and jealousy. Paranoia ate away at her mind. She imagined I was plotting against her, when in fact all I was doing was reacting warily to her increasingly threatening behaviour. She became convinced beyond all doubt that I was plotting to have her killed, to seize power all for my own. All I wanted was for her to rule beside me, as we had since we overthrew Discord."

Twilight stared back at those hateful eyes. She did not see a loving sister. Now all she saw was the monster Celestia had described her as becoming, a creature worthy of being removed from history. Not some lost hero to be reclaimed from the mists of the past, but the traitor Shining had compared his own sister to.

"I thought I could correct her, heal her. Show her the truth," Celestia continued. "I was certain she would understand. We would embrace once more and continue to rule. But she turned against me. I had told myself that the one thing I would not, could not, ever tolerate, was treason. Treason against myself and my sister, and what we stood for. When Luna herself betrayed those principles, betrayed my love and betrayed Equestria...it almost broke my will, and my heart. But I knew I had no choice."

"What...what did you do, Your Highness...?" Twilight asked in a tremulous voice.

"I fought her," Celestia replied. "My armies clashed with her armies, my mages struggled with her mages. But my sister was the only one who had any hope of matching me in single combat. She was the only one with magic strong enough to defeat me, and I was the only one with magic strong enough to defeat her."

"So...you...killed her...?" Twilight whispered.

"No, Twilight," Celestia shook her head. "I banished her." The image changed to a shot of the Co-Orbital Body- the Moon. "I fought her in the ruins of the palace. Our swords, our magic and our minds all clashed at once. It was torture, to raise my blade against my own sister, until I convinced myself of the truth I now know. She was not my sister any longer."

A brief flash of the twisted, warped Luna from moments earlier reappeared before Twilight's eyes.

"She fought with her own truth filling her mind, convinced I was the one who had betrayed her, not the other way around. She cornered me, overpowered me. Her sword clattered against my shield time and time again. I could barely hold her magic at bay with my own, and I knew that she could kill me at any moment. That was when a rage gripped me. The same rage, I think, that had filled Luna when she suspected I was plotting against her. The difference was, I knew she had turned on me. There was no suspicion, only fact, for there we were, fighting like barbarians in the ruins we had once both called home. In that rage, I regained my footing, pushed her back. In that rage, I struck her down, readied my magic to destroy her completely. But at that moment, she looked at me with her own eyes once more. Not the eyes of a devil, but of a sister."

Another flash, this time showing the first image Celestia had revealed, of the two Alicorns together.

"But it was too late. She had already shown her true colours," the Princess continued. "I could not spare her...but I could not bring myself to kill her, either. Instead, torn between two choices, I howled with anger and banished her for all eternity, to live inside her Moon which she held so dear. Far dearer and closer to her bosom than she held me. Once the battle was over and the war was won, I decided that if I could not kill my sister, then I would do the next best thing, and kill her name instead."

The images vanished, the hazy magic field dissipating, showing Celestia in her true majesty once again. "All mention of my sister was to be forbidden, lest it stir up some other nascent rebellion in the future, for she still had followers, even after the war. Those who were convinced I was the one at fault. I could not ever allow her name to be used in anger against me again. Equestria would crumble beneath my feet if I did."

She took a step back. "I did not fear for my own safety, for nopony could hope to defeat me. But my sister and I had brought peace to Equestria. Peace, unity, prosperity. That all fell away after the civil war, and it took years to regain. I wanted nothing more than stability for all ponykind, and if I were left to rule over the broken remains of a kingdom torn apart by a second civil war, then I would have failed myself. I would have let my sister's betrayal be the downfall of Equestria. I could not allow that to happen. Peace at any price, Twilight Sparkle. Peace at any price."

Twilight felt her pain. She could feel it almost palpably on her skin as Celestia spoke of her sister's betrayal. How awful it must have been.

How awful.

She found herself almost brought to tears, despite being a prisoner of the Sun and State, for Celestia's testimony had been so heartfelt and genuine that she could easily imagine herself in the same position, forced to fight her brother...the same brother who had been the one to lock her up in this chair and assault her physically and verbally over something she, for the most part, had not even done.

I hadn't, had I? I didn't really do what he claimed...

Celestia did not do what Luna claimed...

Am I Celestia, or am I Luna? Oh, dear Sun, please...let me not be Luna...

"Now perhaps you understand a little better," Celestia spoke again. "Some modicum of knowledge, that which you sought to uncover by your own endeavours. I believe you asked your brother why we still have our nuclear weaponry, also? Well, now you have the answer."

"I...I do?" Twilight blinked. "I don't understand..."

"Insurance," Celestia replied. "Even I am not convinced I could survive a nuclear blast. The same applies to my sister. I banished her for eternity, but...just in case my magic was not strong enough...there is a reason we have our nuclear weaponry in orbit and not in missile silos like we used to. Much better range, since the fuel is not depleted having to drive the missile through the atmosphere. That means a single missile can reach anywhere on the entire planet, and it also means they can get up to sufficient speed to leave orbit entirely. You see, our orbital stations can be rotated to fire away from the planet as well as toward it."

Twilight slowly nodded. "I-i see, yes..."

"I trust that they will never be used, but if they are needed..." Celestia drew her sword from its sheath, a finely balanced weapon, almost like a fencing foil, not like the broadsword she wielded in the magical imagery she had shown to Twilight, but no less lethal if used properly. "The same can be said of many things. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst, do we not?" she smiled grimly, looking down at the captive mare. "So now you know the truth. You know of my sister, of her foul deeds, her betrayal, of the war that followed. You know of her imprisonment, of the reasons why her name has vanished."

She extended the sword, bringing it almost to the tip of Twilight's snout.

"That is why I must pass this sentence. You know too much, but you already knew too much before you came to this place. Twilight Sparkle, in the name of the Glorious Sun, I sentence you to death by firing squad for the crimes of high treason and heresy."

"No...no, what...?" Twilight gasped, her voice coming in ragged, panicky breaths. "Please, you can't! Your Highness, please! I am not a traitor! I'm not a heretic! I love you! I love Equestria! Please!"

Celestia turned, sheathed her sword, and left the room, her boots clanging on the metal floor outside, the only other sound being Twilight's soft, pathetic sobs.

"Magnificent, isn't she?"

Shining Armor appeared in front of her again. "Truly divine to behold in the flesh, our Princess, our Glorious Sun."

Twilight looked up at him through a veil of stinging tears. "Didn't you hear what she said...?"

"Yes, Twilight, she sentenced you to death," Shining nodded. "A fitting punishment for treason and heresy. Only the Sun itself can issue such an order." He patted her shoulder.

Now, what would you say if I told you that Princess Celestia was dead?"

Comments

[Not Falco]

You continue to impress - a twist I considered a possibility, but one I was pleasantly surprised by all the same. Keep up the good work!

[RTStephens]

I suspected Rarity, thinking her death was a ruse to torture Twilight further. But this works too.

The way Celestia speaks comes across as though she's dead inside, that she's only going through the motions of living. She only has one function and that's to keep the system going. Just another cog in a larger machine.

But that still leaves us with Shining's last revelation. Who's really in charge?

[Mister Morden]

This story is not going to have a happy ending...

Was that REALLY Celestia? Or an illusion? Hologram? Twilight was drugged into seeing what she was told to see?

Or is Celestia just a robot?

Whatever it is, this next chapter is one I am REALLY looking forward to.

[RandomCommentor]

Calling it now, Twilight is gonna get rescued by a rebellion organization because of the knowledge she uncovered or something.

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

I pondered on how some things felt off in this world beyond the obvious, a niggling suspicion that things aren't quite what they seem. This twist, for all that I was anticipating something was still surprised by the delivery. So If Celestia is actually dead, or otherwise incapacitated, who was this? Is Shining actually there? Did he only pretend to torture Twilight?

I'll look forward to seeing what happens next.

[ConfusedSpud]

"Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia!" Shining announced, bowing deeply before the figure. Twilight lowered her head instinctively, despite her restraints, but the brief glimpse she had managed left her mind reeling, overwhelmed.

So she does exist.