Observations and Preservations

by Tolerance

Zero-Four

Luna's sudden disappearance from the castle was certain to cause a fair amount of distress to her older sister. Even that pain was incomparable to the confusion the Sun Princess felt when her sister returned, only with Twilight in tow and surrounded by several royal guards. Though Celestia could certainly make an educated guess as to what was going on, she decided that she should use a more reserved demeanor as a way to address the situation.

"Luna. Twilight. Would either of you care to explain what exactly is going on here?" Celestia questioned the new arrivals in a manner that carefully concealed her unease. A mask that had taken her centuries to fully master.

Luna dismissed all of the guards from the throne room before addressing her elder. "Sister, we've come to reveal to you the identity of the culprit responsible for the recent theft."

"Actually," Twilight interjected, "If you don't mind Luna, I think I should be the one to tell her."

When Celestia allowed Twilight's request to receive mentoring from her sister, she was genuinely happy for her. Luna has never had many friends. It took quite a while for her to open up, even after she had been released from the Night Mare. Then, after the incident involving Starswirl several years ago, Luna had again began easing out of her shell. She even formed a friendship with Twilight, going so far as to ask her student for some assistance with a few of the more mild-mannered pranks that she had started to grow fond of. Seeing them both act as forced and formal as they were acting here was almost enough to break her heart, and she was afraid that she was not going to like anything about what was about to happen next.

"Very well, Twilight." Luna said, stepping off to the side.

"Well Princess, I think that it would be best if I apologized first. For the past several years, I've been keeping things from you. Some of them I shared with Luna, but there are a great many things that I've kept to myself. I held onto Starswirl's journal when he left. I originally intended to copy down his life story to be published as some sort of history lesson, but all of that changed when a coded message was found hidden away inside the journal's binding. Luna knew of the code and she even showed it to you, which admittingly was something she did against my will. You might remember her asking you about a set of dates that were found among the remains of Starswirl's lab several years ago."

"I do remember my sister asking me if I recalled a series of dates from the early Classical Era, and if I knew of their association to Starswirl. If I remember correctly, I said that he had disappeared many years before any of those dates had occurred."

"I relayed as much back to you, Twilight." Luna chimed in.

"But what you don't know is, that shortly thereafter, I found out that the numbers had nothing to do with time at all. Every set of numbers pointed towards a specific word, hidden within the journal. When everything was transcribed, I was left with was a series of instructions. A spell that required some unique items in order to be able to cast it. One of the items happened to be a powerful artifact that would most likely have been moved to a highly secret and secure location.” Twilight turned to face Luna, “And as much as I now value your mentoring and friendship, Luna, I originally tried to become your student in order to learn the location of such a place."

"How could you try a-" Luna started, visibly distressed by such a revelation.

"SILENCE!" Celestia left no room for argument. She too was dismayed that her former student had attempted to use her sister in such a way. Her anger only held in check by the sight of tears rolling down sides of Twilight's face. "I believe you still have some more to add, Twilight?"

"I've spent the last few years hiding my intentions from the both of you, but I had a goal. It wasn't until only recently, that I managed to learn the location of the vault as well as what security surround it. I even tried to use my credentials to get past the guards. When that failed I put them to sleep and I-I used one of your spells, Luna, to erase their memory of me. Normally I would never even think of resorting to such a thing, but I needed the crystal to perform the spell, and I was finally close to seeing the spell through to completion. You have to believe that I've always regretted not telling anypony about this, and it eats me up inside knowing how I've treated you, Luna, but I still feel it had to be done."

"So that's it then?" Celestia chided. It took all of her willpower to keep the anger out of her voice, something she hasn't had to do in a very long time. "After all of your preparation, all of your betrayal, what brings you to confess these actions now? Surely, after all of your preparation, Luna arriving to question you about the theft wouldn't be enough to cause you to stop your descent down such a dark path. Why the sudden change of heart, Twilight?"

Twilight was openly sobbing now, visibly distraught after realizing what she had just lost. "B-because of what I learned f-from the spell." She wiped her eyes with her forehoof and regained some semblance of composure before continuing. "I didn't know it when I started, the instructions were kind of vague, but the spell formed a link to someplace outside of our world. Using it, I managed to reconnect with Starswirl. He'd managed to survive jumping into the rift! My excitement of such a discovery was short lived. He soon revealed to me that our entire world was in danger of being destroyed, and as much as neither of you are going to like dealing with this, I'm going to need help from both of you if I'm going to try and stop it."

The room filled with a cold silence. Even light from the midday sun seemed to drain from the room.

Celestia pulled her hardened gaze away from her former pupil and looked towards her sister. Luna looked to be completely devastated. Her shock from what Twilight had admitted was probably enough to destroy what little she had gained since her return from banishment. Celestia shook her head, as much for herself as for the unicorn still looking upon her. It wasn't the first time that poor Luna had been betrayed, and Celestia could only look on, unable to do anything about it. Well, almost nothing.

"Twilight, I am very disappointed in your behavior. Has all the time that you've spent around us, around me, truly been wasted? Do you believe us to be truly untrustworthy?"

"Well, no. Not exactly." Twilight replied, trying her best to take up as little space as possible before the beratement of her former mentor.

"Then why, Twilight Sparkle, do you insist on pushing us away?"

"I-I don't know!" Twilight was beginning to break down again. "M-maybe it's because you let Starswirl feel abandoned by you when he probably needed you the most. Maybe it's because, one day, you might just do the same thing to me! That's what we are to you anyway! Isn't it? Just some tools to be thrown away when we're not as useful anymore!

Celestia got up off of the thrown and approached Twilight Sparkle. "I'm sorry that you've ever had to feel that way, Twilight, but I'm afraid that we are as incapable of understanding your feelings as you about understanding ours." She caressed the unicorn with her wings, "Sometimes I envy your mortality. Never having to witness the countless deaths of those you've considered friends and family. One tries their best to not grow distant, to keep their head about them even though they know that, someday, everything that they've ever loved will pass before them in a blink of an eye. It wounds me that you feel as though you were being used, and I don't know how much you'll believe this now, but we both care deeply about you."

After a few moments Celestia broke the embrace. "But betraying our trust was probably one of the worst things you could have possibly done, Twilight. As much as I would like to set aside time to let you dwell on the thought of what you've done to us while I go and comfort my sister, you mentioned something about a danger to our world?"

Twilight straightened up once more. "Right. Starswirl told me that you would know how to get to something he called the 'Null Tether'..."

Comments

[Cursed Quill]

"SILENCE!" Celestia left no room for argument.

Weird that she's cuttin' Luna off angrily when Luna's not the guilty party.

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there is a great many things

are