... Of Two Evils

by Ponycletian

4

It was dark in the Night Princess’ chambers, but not so dark as to make navigation impossible. The first room he came to was clearly meant to be a study, with bookshelves lining the walls, a large, ornately crafted desk, and a large fireplace from which a soft crackling was emanating. What drew his attention though, were a pair of cushions sitting comfortably in front of said fireplace. The cushions appeared to be the only seating arrangements present, and yet he could not readily detect Princess Luna. As he prepared to move on to the next chamber, a small rustling noise drew his attention. Perched demurely upon one of the cushions was a tiny blue filly.

She made a sound that Concord could only characterize as a squeak as he rounded upon her. He doubted that she had really expected it to be him, and he tried to imagine exactly what she would be feeling right about now. She was clearly smaller than she had been before, having apparently been reduced to the stature of a young filly. Assuming that her physical appearance had changed due to some diminution in her magical powers, then she was likely weaker than she had been in nearly 2000 years. So, given that she was physically weak and magically diminished, she was probably terrified by the return of a pony whose life she had personally helped to ruin and whose magic dwarfed hers even at her strongest.

Realizing this, Concord relaxed, and in a mild tone of voice said apologetically, “I am sorry i’m late, Luna, how are you?” As he spoke, he walked over to the cushion next to her, and looked from it to her expectantly, silently asking permission to sit.

Luna looked at him, eyes wide with shock, and slowly nodded. Clearly, Concord thought, she was expecting some kind of retribution or hostility. Concord was aware of the importance of returning to the gardens promptly, but also felt that it would be unspeakably rude to simply ignore the feelings of the filly before him. In an effort to get her to relax, he settled into the large cushion and said, “I was delighted to hear from the gardeners, it wasn’t addressed to me personally of course, of your return to the castle. Please don’t tell Celestia, but without you around, the castle was dreadfully boring.” Smiling slightly he said in a jovial, joking tone, “If living under my rule was even half so boring as being forced to watch Celestia’s, then I think i just might be able to understand why you did what you did.”

Luna’s cushion had clearly been meant for a pony of roughly Celestia’s size, and as such was already threatening to engulf the little Princess. At Concord’s words however, she seemed to shrink down further into the oversized cushion. Concord just waited patiently for Luna to respond, but after a minute of awkward silence, he leaned over and nuzzled her lightly. He could feel her trembling as he did so, and immediately regretted having come here personally. It would have been better to send a letter, to let her come if and when she was ready rather than forcing her to face me like this. He pulled his head back and said quietly, “Luna, are you alright?”

Luna said carefully, “Concord, do you remember what happened, what we... I did?” Her unnaturally high, filly-ish voice, quivered slightly as she finished. Concord simply nodded, causing her to flinch, but when he did nothing further she continued, “and you aren’t angry?”

Concord sighed as he said, “no, i’m not angry.” He smiled ruefully as he said, “Celestia may not believe me, since to anypony who hasn’t been through that kind of punishment, it only seems natural.” He paused for a moment, and saw Luna nodding a little, “but there can be no justice for an act like that, it is simply too monstrous, so all that one can do is move on. You and Celestia didn’t, couldn’t, really know what the Elements would do, so while that doesn’t make it right, I know that you weren’t being malicious. If it makes you feel any better, I was sad that you had to experience such a punishment as well, nopony i’ve ever seen deserves it.”

“Thank you, Concord, it does make me feel better, but what about Celestia, does she know you are back?” Luna asked, voice steady now.

“Yes, she knows. In fact, she is probably waiting for me down in the gardens with the Elements of Harmony and their bearers. It has taken me slightly longer than I expected to see you.”

Little Luna was shocked into momentary silence once more, eyes wide in horror. “Does she mean to imprison you again, how did the element bearers get here so quickly, why are you here if you know she is after you?” Luna was audibly concerned, but despite her seriousness, Concord couldn’t help but feel content. His mood only brightened when he saw Luna struggling to get out of the filly sized hole in the alicorn sized pillow.

Allowing his amusement to show, he used his magic to pluck Luna from her plush prison, and placed her gently on the floor beside him. She was not amused by his nonchalant behavior and said angrily, “Concord, this is not funny, you need to do something if you don’t want to end up as a statue again. Celestia probably won’t listen to me since she is still concerned about Nightmare Moon not being completely gone. And I could have gotten out of that cushion on my own, I was nearly to the edge!”

Luna smiled sheepishly as she realized what she said, and any remaining tension broke as Concord smiled at the blushing and embarrassed filly.

Smiling, he said, “I am sure you would have made it eventually, my dear. If there is one thing about you of which I am certain, it is that you are capable of overcoming any cushion should you so choose. And, so far as Celestia is concerned, I am not too terribly worried. Even after all this time, I am not entirely without leverage. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that the element bearers will want to imprison me, since they, unlike Celestia and yourself, have no reasons to really fear or mistrust me. I expect that I will be fine.”

Luna, serious once more, said, “I wouldn’t be so sure Concord. Celestia ordered those guards stationed as soon as we returned. Whatever you may believe, even after all these years, she thought of you and Discord as a pressing threat.”

“Then I will just have to prove her wrong. But before I go back to meet Celly dearest, I would like to make a deal with you.”

Luna said cautiously, “what is it?”

“I don’t know if you have realized the extent of the damage, but I can feel that your connection to the Moon has been completely severed.” Luna looked crestfallen at these words, but Concord, not wishing to frighten or sadden her, continued, “but I could repair that connection tonight, with your permission of course.”

Luna’s face rose with enthusiasm before she remembered that this deal would probably require something of her, and given what Concord was offering, she didn’t think it would be small.

Concord, recognizing her wary look, said, “you needn’t fear, my request isn’t something huge or dangerous. I merely want information. I would like for you to tell me why, when Celestia used the Elements against you the first time, you were banished to the Moon, rather than having Nightmare Moon purged like this time. Now let me explain my reasoning. Clearly, the Elements of Harmony function differently under different circumstances. For both Discord and myself, when wielded by the two of you, they turned us to stone. When it was only Celestia using them, Nightmare Moon only got banished. More recently, when those six ponies in the gardens used them on Nightmare Moon, she was destroyed, and you returned without your connection to the Moon. What I want to know is what caused the discrepancy between their first encounter with Nightmare Moon and this last time. If they work by enacting some kind of punishment decided upon by the bearers, than besides saying that Celestia is incredibly unimaginative for using the same punishment each time, it could also mean that in the hooves of these other ponies, that I may not be turned to stone at all. Maybe it was only Celestia’s desire to be rid of Discord and myself that led to us being made statues.”

Concord’s voice had become increasingly hopeful as he explained, despite the uncertain look on Luna’s face. Slowly, hesitantly, she said, “Concord, that is an interesting theory, but I don’t think it works that way. I don’t know if Celestia would like me telling you what happened, and besides, I don’t actually know, for sure, why things happened the way they did.” Luna’s voice just trailed off, and for a moment, neither spoke.

“Anything is better than what I know now, which is nothing, since once you were gone, no one bothered to speak to me and the gardens weren’t exactly an ideal location for discussions of such important events. However, I can understand your not wanting to undermine Celestia, since whatever the outcome, you will have to continue to interact with her. Better that you be on good terms.”

Luna looked at her hooves uncomfortably for several seconds before Concord continued, “no matter. Would you mind accompanying me to your balcony, it would be best to do this in the moonlight.”

Luna looked over at the grey alicorn and said, “what would be best to do in the moonlight?”

“Why, restoring your connection to your namesake, of course. You can’t exactly be the Princess of the Moon without controlling the Moon now can you.”

Luna stammered as she said, “b- b- but yo- you said that I needed to answer your question for you to do that.”

Concord laughed happily as he said, “it is important, my little Princess, to pay close attention to what one such as myself says. I said that I wanted to make a deal, and that was entirely true, I wanted the information and hoped that my offer to help would convince you to accept. However, your refusal of my desired deal did nothing to prevent me from helping you, free of charge. Consider it a gift for all those hours, for had it not been for you, I might not have stayed sane long enough to devise a way to pass the time.”

Luna was grinning eagerly as she cantered past Concord, who followed after at a leisurely pace, through her bedroom, and out onto her balcony. She spun around to face him and said, “is there anything that I need to do, is it going to be any different than last time?”

Concord said, “no, you just need to lie down. Wouldn’t want you to fall over.”

Luna did so, so Concord began the spell. It didn’t take long, considering what was being done. It wasn’t particularly flashy either, the only indication that anything was happening being the slightly brighter glow of Concord’s magic. When he had finished his task, he said quietly, “I am going to head back to the gardens now, when you are ready, you are welcome to join us. I would appreciate it, if for no other reason than to keep Celestia honest.”

Luna, head spinning from the sudden rush of power, could only offer a wobbly nod in response, so she didn’t see Concord walk to the edge of the balcony and take off.

Concord, airborne now, looked below him for the group of ponies he was to meet. He was slightly surprised to see that Celestia was just returning, and wondered what she had done that had taken her so long. Deciding to spiral down, rather than simply swoop in and possibly startle them, he began his descent. He could see Celestia distributing the Elements of Harmony amongst the six ponies.
______________________________________________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle was watching with mild unease as the grey speck that was Concord spiraled towards the ground. Celestia, noticing her expression and following Twilight’s gaze, said reassuringly, “don’t worry, my faithful student, for with the Elements of Harmony and the power of friendship, there is nothing that you can’t overcome. He is powerful and crafty, but he is not invincible.” With those words, Celestia levitated the tiara that represented the Element of Magic onto Twilight Sparkle’s head. As if to emphasize what Celestia had said, the figure of Concord, who had been descending slowly, suddenly started to gain speed, his spiral turning into a dive as he fell faster and faster. Nopony, not even Celestia, expected what came next.

Concord hit the ground.

Author's Note:

So, to continue from where I absentmindedly ended my earlier note, the second thing I hope to accomplish is world domination. But failing that, it is my intention to take this introduction and split it into two major parts. Part one will be a description of what *Message Redacted* creation will mostly, I suspect, fall into part 2.

Part 2 will be Twilight's inquiries into *Message Redacted* came from, but more on that later. More than that, I don't particularly feel like revealing at this present time.

I can neither confirm nor deny that I intend to do any more or any less than what has been mentioned in either this or the preceding chapter's author's note.

Comments

[maker7999]

Where is the rest. I need it now.

[Ponycletian]

2038120

The rest is resting, it needs its beauty sleep.