The Morning After
Celestia's blazing gaze pierced Twilight through her core. She bowed with her head hung low, not daring to lift from it's contrite position. “TWILIGT SPARKLE!” The impact of her words forced the cowering alicorn even harder to the ground.
“I'm so sorry, Celestia, I'm so sorry” she groveled. “I don't know what came over me.”
The bed and nightstand, which she stood beside Celestia, smoldered in a blistering corona roiling from her body as she stood with the full authority of the Alicorn of the Sun. Her visage, indignant yet contorted with pain, scowled down upon Twilight. “Why? Why Twilight? Why would you do this to us?”
“I'm so sorry... I 'm so sorry...” Twilight shook in woeful terror.
Celestia slammed a hoof down on the carpeted floor, cracking the floorboards underneath “Answer me! WHY? Why would you violate my inner being like you have!?!”
“I-I-I lost control – I made a mistake. This wasn't supposed to happen!”
“This was no mistake; you wielded dark magic against Luna and myself! And you forced us to-” Celestia's mask of authority cracked as her voice hitched, “What have you done to us?”
“I-It was meant to be a love spell to make you love me. I didn't mean for this. I would never mean for this... but I was too overwhelmed. I cast something else... something... something unimaginable.”
“You fail to accurately describe what happened. What you did to Luna and me was something drawn straight from Tartarus!” Celestia, mane and tail billowing a fiery orange, spat the words at Twilight, “And if this was a mistake as you claim it to be, then why did engage with it instead of correcting it the moment it was made?”
“I accidentally hit myself with the spell. I was as affected as you and Luna.”
Twilight heard Celestia pull a long, drawn breath. Instantaneously, the scorching heat and blinding light which filled the room and assaulted Twilight's senses were gone, “Twilight,” Celestia said in a completely calm and neutral intonation, “Why don't you explain what happened.”
Daring a glance up from her subordinate position, Twilight saw Celestia, face unreadable, standing above her. “Come, sit down over here,” she motioned to her tremendous lounge pillow. To anypony else, hearing the calm voice and demeanor would have been a comfort after being a transgressor in the hooves of an angry alicorn, but Twilight knew Celestia better than even Luna. This personality – this mask – that Celestia wore was the same she donned when speaking with representatives of a nation she was declaring war upon.
There was nothing Twilight could do, and there was nothing she would do. After what she had done to two of her most beloved friends, she would accept whatever judgment they would dote upon her. If willingly laying down her life would heal the bleeding wounds she had created in Celestia and Luna's hearts, then Twilight would walk mute to her judgment and even perform the execution herself if needed.
Twilight lifted herself from her prostrate position and walked to where she was ordered like a mare heading to the gallows. Celestia sat Twilight down on the cushion and walked to the glass door leading to the balcony. Back turned to Twilight, Celestia impassively stared out across Canterlot. “I trust you Twilight, so I would like it if you explained to me what happened to cause this catastrophe. Whatever you say, I shall take as the truth.”
Though the words were delivered with a faint hint of warmth, Twilight understood that there had, at this moment, been erected a mighty bulwark between herself and Celestia. The steely posture and even intonation of her voice were but one of the many personas Celestia had constructed for herself over the centuries of her life. Twilight might as well have been speaking to a painting of Celestia; at least the painting might have at the time of its creation captured her expressing a genuine emotion.
Twilight lay in guilty silence knowing that Celestia was expecting her to start speaking. But where could she start? How could she start? What could she possibly say that would explain what she had done? Looking back at the series of events which led to this unimaginable fiasco, Twilight could not piece together a coherent narrative which explained even to herself why she had committed such terrible mistakes. Whatever she might say to her, she would be forced to hope Celestia would take her words on good faith as being true even if the narrative that they wove made no sense.
But there was one thing – one single, tremendous, soul crushing thing – which she must tell Celestia lest her recounting be an unadulterated lie. If nothing else Celestia deserved to know what Twilight had been keeping from her. “Celestia,” Twilight said with trepidation, “No matter what, please don't let what I've done make you love Luna any less. She had nothing to do with any of what happened, and I've made sure she knew as little of our relationship as you know of what I'm about to tell you. This is my fault, Luna is innocent,” Twilight's extremities were cold and her heart throbbed in her throat as she continued, “Luna and I...” Speaking the words caught in Twilight's throat like glass, “we've been in a physical relationship since two months ago.”
Celestia made no sign of reacting.
This one conveyance was everything Twilight had ever dreaded and more. The urgency of the situation had made the words no more easy to speak, the rawness of her emotions made her no more numb to the words' meaning, but knowing the hot coals of betrayal she had heaped upon Celestia only worsened by a thousand fold the guilt and shame Twilight had plunged herself into. Why did I wait so long to tell her? Why was I too weak to say 'no'?
“I know I should have told you about Luna when you propositioned,” she tensely confessed, “in the very least I should have come forward about my mistake as soon as possible. Every day I delayed, the lie was a poison eating my heart away, but I was so scared of the pain it might cause you that I delayed. It was always 'just another day' so I could work my thoughts out and find a way to tell you. I never in-intended th-this...” Twilight's shaking voice trailed off.
“Twilight,” Celestia said with a slight edge to her words, “Will you clearly define this 'physical relationship' you've been having with Luna? What has it entailed?”
“It's involved... us doing 'it' together-”
“Ms. Sparkle, describe in no uncertain terms.”
Twilight gulped, “We've had sex, multiple times.”
The room became a little warmer and it was more than just Twilight's imagination.
“And has this happened since you committed yourself to me two weeks ago?” Twilight did not make a sound for the duration Celestia gave her to speak. The room became a little bit warmer and a little more brightly lit. Unbeknownst to Twilight, the glass in front of Celestia's face had begun to glow with heat. “Answer me Twilight.”
Twilight hung her head lower, “Yes, we have...”
An instant later, the glass shattered in front of Celestia's face, causing Twilight to startle. Celestia, a silent sentinel overlooking the city, did not move in the slightest even as a shard on her nose beaded up into a ball of molten glass and rolled off onto the floor. “And how did you rationalize this infidelity shown towards me? And what of that towards Luna?” Her voice was still cold as ice.
“Luna and I had been having, eh,” Twilight squirmed, “...intercourse, for a few weeks before you, made your interest in me known. Leading up to the your proposition, you had been talking of how long it had been since you had anyone you could be close to... You had been so unimaginably lonely for so long and you were reaching out to me. I wanted to be there to reciprocate because I couldn't imagine turning you away after you had opened yourself to me because I was afraid you might never open up to anyone else again...” Twilight shuddered, “I didn't want you to be lonely because I know how terrible that is... I didn't even think, I reacted on emotion and I did things I shouldn't have. After it was over, I regretted betraying both you and Luna and I nearly broke the news to you. B-but I couldn't bring myself to do it because I was so worried about how much it would hurt you. You both had opened yourselves to me in ways I never thought anyone would, and... I violated that trust at a fundamental level. I love you both so much and I didn't want you to feel the pain I would bring by telling... so I fretted and worried and a day turned into two weeks...”
“And you thought it a wise idea to break this news to us by manipulating Luna and I to bed with you together?
“No! Never!” Twilight suddenly outburst, “Tartarus take me! That was a horrible, horrible accident,” Twilight slumped her shoulders even lower, “I could never have suffered in the way you have because of the mistake but... I still feel violated... and it is killing me that I am have done this to you.”
“You are lying Twilight, spells like that are not cast by mistake. You clearly had intent to do this to Luna and I. I ask you again: why?”
Twilight cringed, “I c-can't remember clearly why I was so upset. I had finally decided to tell you two, but I only managed to work myself into a nervous fit. Then when I came along to the throne room and overheard you arguing with Luna, I convinced myself that the secret was out. I was scared and uncertain, and thinking you had found out only made it worse... I wasn't thinking straight and when I overheard the argument some more, I thought you were talking about leaving me. I couldn't imagine – I still can't imagine– a world where I don't have your and Luna's love. I was scared, angry, and confused when I cast the spell. I only meant it to be a love spell like Cadence's – I swear by my immortal soul that I'm telling the truth.” Twilight raised a hoof as a pledge and crossed her heart, “But... my anger and feelings of betrayal corrupted it and... when it struck you, its magic hit me too. I wasn't clear minded to correct the effects so we all...” Twilight's ears lay flat against her head as she cringed away from Celestia who still stared impassively out the window.
“Swearing by your soul is no small thing Twilight. For your sake, I hope you indeed are telling the truth. However, let us assume that what you say is true and keeping in mind your track record of overreacting, I still do not understand how you could possibly have made this mistake.”
“Celestia, you know me better than anyone. Would I ever hurt you on purpose?” Twilight earnestly beseeched.
“...No.” Celestia answered after a long delay, “But that does not absolve you of anything.”
“I don't expect it to. I don't expect to go unpunished,” Twilight bowed her head, “and I submit myself to your judgment.” Celestia, eternally stoic, stared wordlessly across the valley, leaving Twilight to her thoughts. After all she's given me, after everything she's done, is this how I repay her?
“I've fai-” the words clung in Twilight's knotted throat, “I've always been perfect for you, and now I've failed you in the worst way possible.”
“Yes, you have.” Celestia replied flatly as she closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. The sun, lingering at the horizon, dipped beneath the distant mountains and the world was plunged into night time. “It is three in the morning and I have failed to attend to my most basic of duties.” Finally turning to face Twilight, Celestia stared directly through her, “Equestria and the rest of the world have been directly impacted by your actions.” Twilight cringed and Celestia saw, “So now you experience first hoof the perils of leadership. One cannot let herself make a single mistake – every action must be taken with forethought, self-sacrifice, and utmost prudence in mind.” Dismissively, she shook her head. “I saw Luna had already raised the moon. Where is she?”
Twilight's tight throat strangled her words into a dull murmur, “In her chambers. I teleported her there so we could talk one on one.”
“I will not have you continue this charade with Luna. I order you to go to her and end this deception at once.” There was a slight 'pop' in Twilight's ear, “I have cast an eavesdropping spell so that you will be held accountable in telling Luna Everything. If you dare tamper with the spell or if you fail to talk with Luna, I will know. I would accompany you, but I must hold an emergency court to ease the tensions building within the government and army. If you wish to take a minute to realize the chaos you have caused, I suggest you look out the window.”
Hesitantly, Twilight rose and slowly walked to the balcony, shards of half melted glass crunching on the scorched carpet under her hooves. Outside, wrapped around the tower's airspace, was a shield suffering a brutal onslaught of spells cast by multiple battalions of war mages. The blinding light splashing off of their spells illuminated below the 101st Canterlot Elite Guard Regiment, at least fifteen-hundred soldiers in total, assembled as squads of about two-hundred and fifty in the courtyard, streets, and anywhere else they could fit. In the air above, circling like birds of prey, were three naval airship cruisers and Equestria's Constellation class flagship, The Stellar Knight.
Twilight's entire body was clammy with a thin layer of cold sweat beginning to bead across its surface. She remembered casting that shield – in fact, all three alicorns had cast it together. Between Luna and Celestia was three thousand years of combined spellcasting experience lumped upon the raw capability of the element of magic. Nothing short of hours’ worth of sustained broadside from the entire airship navy would be getting through so long as the shield was supplied power from an entire division of unicorn mages. The irony of it all was that, had they not tried to break through, the shield would have likely already depleted its initial energy and collapsed.
Twilight closed her eyes and fell to her haunches. This is all my fault... All this because of- No! Focus. I can't be so selfishly distracted when so many are so worried. I need to bring down this shield and let these poor guards know everything is okay.
This presented a dilemma. Taking the shield down would be a simple matter of activating the built in deactivation failsafe in the spell's matrix, but the collapse would be so instantaneous that the mages wouldn't have time to end their barrage of spells and end up destroying part of the castle. Twilight's solution was technically a little complex, but conceptually simple. Her horn lit and she made a few tweaks to the facilitated breakdown functionality of the spell: maintain tension along leylines of stress flow instead of disabling it, implement a bottom up termination, and add in a few theatrical elements. These changes made, Twilight initiated the facilitated breakdown of the shield.
Outside, from the mages' perspective, tremendous white cracks split outwards from the collective point of impact of their spells. Spreading like a growing spider web, the cracks split across the surface of the shield and cart sized pieces of the magical barrier flaked off and dissolved into a gentle rain of stardust. An order went out and the unicorns ceased their attack as the shield bubble, roughly seven stories in diameter, fully broke apart and dissolved and gently fell to the ground in a light flurry.
The theatrical dissolution had worked – the castle was unscathed.
“Thank you Twilight. I will take my leave now, but do not forget what I have charged you with.”
“Yes, Princess,” Twilight bowed, kneeling before her.
A gentle light, like that of a sunbeam, crossed the room and Celestia silently vanished in a sphere of golden light. Twilight, now the only occupant of the room, stood. She sighed and tried to pull a calming breath as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Stumbling forward, her hooves drug on the scorched carpet and she dully noted the singed hoofprints Celestia had made as she had walked around the room. The smell of burned fabric hung in the air.
Focusing what should have been by her standards a simple teleportation spell, Twilight's horn only glowed at the base. She couldn't complete the spell, not out of fatigue or difficulty, but rather, she could not work up the gumption to face Luna. Breaking the news to Celestia and knowing the pain inflicted upon her was bad enough even though she hidden most of the shock and anger. Confronting Luna, whose emotions she vividly displays, would be far worse, not that Celestia's quiet simmering was pleasant in any conceivable way.
Twilight needed time to recoup and gather her thoughts so she could confront Luna with a level head to help offset the raging emotions she was sure to inflict. In some ways, Twilight, tending to Luna, had it harder than Celestia who was trying to sooth a military who thought their leaders' lives to be in peril. For several minutes, Twilight tried to control her tears so she would be presentable to Luna, but she realized it to be a fruitless task and stopped. Maybe letting Luna see her rawness might help her case anyway.
“Twilight,” The Princess' voice rung in Twilight's left ear, “Have you already forgotten what you should be doing?”
“No, Princess. I was just gathering my thoughts on how to tell Luna.”
“You've had two weeks to think of something, if I am to believe the timeline you gave me. I would hope the only thing you could focus on these past weeks is figuring out how to break the news to us, and if you had not figured something out in that time, then certainly you aren't going to be struck be revelation in the next five minutes. Go to her and tell her everything.” Princess Celestia's words were enunciated without the slightest hint of emotion, but they stung Twilight as if they were dripping with venom – she could feel Princess Celestia's animosity even when she wasn't in the room.
“Yes, Princess.” Twilight stood and began charging a teleportation spell, but she still could not bring herself to complete it normally. Instead of appearing at Luna's door, Twilight let herself manifest in the castle foyer underneath the two towers the alicorns' bedchambers were located in. The walk to Luna's chambers would hopefully give her the time she needed to gather herself.
“There she is! Subdue her!” The shout of the guard captain bellowed the moment after Twilight reappeared from her teleportation, startling her and causing her to yelp. She suddenly realized she had teleported into the middle of the guards' staging area and was surrounded by over one hundred guards and fifty unicorn mages. Horns shimmering the moment the order was issued, the mages, previously standing at attention were spurred to life and threw themselves into cover while casting a spell in unison. Twilight felt her stomach lurch forward oddly and stood dumbstruck for a moment as the ranks of guards broke and began charging in her direction. Instinctually, she readied a teleportation spell which died before she could even half form it. The mages, it turned out, were anchoring space time around her. Teleportation had been removed as an option.
The guards formed a ring around Twilight as she failed to react and was struck dumb in shock, turning full circle several times to take stock that she was surrounded on all sides. “Traitor! You have brazenly attacked the Royal Sisters and disrupted the flow of day and night! What have you done to them!?!” a stern voice bellowed indignantly from outside the circle of guards. Twilight knew that voice – it belong to the guard captain that had replaced Shining Armor when he became co-ruler of the Crystal Empire. The Captain's name was Ivory Rook, and she had been one of Twilight's upper clasmares at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns before moving onto Manehatten Institute of Military and Naval Science. Until now, they had only had pleasant (although brief) interactions since Twilight had been coronated.
“Traitor? What do you mean?” Twilight would have liked a more fluent response for several reasons, but the greatest reason being that she had accidentally come off sounding antagonizing.
“That's it, Mages! Lock her down.” A translucent, purple sheen of light engulfed Twilight as the mages split themselves between casting the dimensional anchor and swapping over to another spell. A strange, terrible itching issued in Twilight's horn as she felt their spell attenuate itself to the natural characteristics of her magic and offset her energies. A fraction of her powers was being neutralized, and she could tell that in a few more moments a considerably greater portion would be denied her usage. Twilight recognized the spell the mages were casting against her; it being designed to be create destructive interference with the target's magic much like to sound waves of opposite amplitudes canceling each other out. She knew several good counterspells, but none of which she knew were designed to tackle the combined efforts of twenty-five highly trained mages. Fortunately, this spell had a significant flaw that she could take advantage of.
Twilight simply altered a few signal characteristics of her magic. One can think of it as someone switching over to a different accent: they haven't changed their voice or even the language that they speak, but their enunciation is tweaked enough that their speech has an entirely new tonality to it. It is a simple trick for one versed in the language arts, or as is Twilight's case, the art of magic. Because the interference is so tailored to the target, a change in the target's nature will severely negate the spell.
Several guards' horns flared up into bright overcharges when suddenly the load they were pushing their spells against disappeared and they overcast the spell. Twilight took this opportunity to cast a barrier to surround herself.
“What are you doing?” Twilight demanded, “Why are you attacking me?”
The ring of guards parted as Ivory Rook pushed between them, using her magic to unsheathe a pair of katanas slung over the armor on her back, “Do not play these games with me! I witnessed your attack using dark magic against our monarchs! Where are Celestia and Luna? What have you done with them?”
Withering under the accusations, Twilight stammered for a moment, “They, they're fine. Luna is in her bedchambers and Celestia is somewhere trying to smooth things out. I promise you that they are not and never have been in danger.”
“Then I demand to see them to confirm their wellbeing,”
“I don't know where Celestia is, and I highly doubt Luna would wish to be disturbed at this moment.”
“Given the severity of this situation, I think disturbing Princess Luna is acceptable,” she gave a sharp turn to look at an officer standing behind the circle of guards, “Sandy Beachhead, take your squad, go find Princess Luna in her chambers and bring her here to help settle this.”
“Yes Sir,” he saluted and cantered up the stairs with ten guards following him.
Twilight glared at Ivory Rook, “It isn't necessary to bother Princess Luna. Everything is fine.”
“It is? Then explain the attack. Explain the dark magic. Explain why the sun only set a few minutes ago.”
“It-it wasn't an attack I was...” Actually it was an attack, “I mean that wasn't dark magic either, I just...” That was the most evil spell I have ever cast. “...I just got my feelings hurt during the argument. Nothing bad happened.” Besides the fact that Twilight couldn't find a version of the truth that wouldn't condemn her, she couldn't even come up with a believable lie with her mind fighting against itself like it was. Ivory Rook, saying nothing, gave Twilight a scornful look. Real smooth Twilight, she grumbled to herself. Now they 'know' you did something.
“Disengage your shield and we shall talk further,” Ivory Rook commanded.
“Lower your weapons and I shall.” The spears and swords remained raised. “Guards, lower your weapons. That's an order.”
“You might be royalty now, but Celestia and Luna are our leaders. You have no authority over us, and further, the Nightmare Accord of 45 common era-” she was cut off.
“It gives you,” Twilight gave an air quote, “'-full autonomy and authority to exercise whatever measures deemed necessary to contain and/or neutralize a rogue alicorn seeking harm upon government, society, or environment.'”
“So it is confirmed you truly are Princess Twilight Sparkle,” she said thoughtfully, “I knew you when we were still school fillies. I would have never placed you for the type to make a power grab. Shall I call you queen now?”
“No. In fact, you can drop the title entirely and call me Twilight as you did in school. This isn't a power grab, this isn't an attack against anyone.”
“Then what is it? You have only acted suspiciously when confronted with what you were doing, but all you need to do is give a reasonable answer and we can resolve this unpleasant situation with a cup of tea.”
“...” Twilight's could think of no 'reasonable explanation' as to why she had done anything these past weeks.
“So you admit to attacking the Princesses?”
Twilight's horn started itching again. “No. I only have the deepest love in my heart for the two of them. I would never want to harm them.”
“Then why the flaming aura and dark magic?”
Twilight grit her teeth, “I can't explain why I did that.”
“Then I can only assume you intend to overthrow the Princesses,” Ivory Rook leveled her katanas at Twilight, “That is if you haven't already.”
“No,” Twilight sighed, “Alright, look. On good faith, I'm going to drop my shield. But so help me if anyone tries to poke me with anything, everyone in this room is getting turned into potted plants,” Twilight furiously scratched her horn, “Starting with whoever is casting this annoying draining spell. Do you even realize how much this itches?”
“Alright,” Ivory Rook eased her aggressive stance, “I'm waiting.”
Twilight terminated the shield. “There.”
“Good. Now, will you tell us anything about what is going on?”
“I am afraid not.”
“Twilight, we spent time together years ago, and you are acting nothing like you did then. Be logical about this – view it from an objective standpoint. Several guards see a princess using exotic magic attack two other princesses in the throne room, all three disappear for the better part of a day and the sworn duties of the princesses go unattended during that time while an impenetrable shield is cast around the chambers of the princesses. Then, hours later, the princess who attacked the others, when she is finally found, is secretive and agitated when confronted. The act of hiding whatever it is you've done is only worsening your situation.”
Exhaling tensely, Twilight rubbed her brow. “Alright, look. I've made mistakes today that have, on an emotional level, hurt and disappointed the Princesses, both of whom I consider my close personal friends. The reason I am reluctant to give details is that they are private matters relating to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and it isn't my place to speak on their behalf about these things. Physically, they are as fine as they have ever been and I can guarantee you that I did not act out of malice. The Princesses were arguing about me when I walked in on them, and I became certain that they had stopped loving me because of the mistakes I've made. The spell you saw was intended to be a spell to help calm them down, but I was so torn up that I cast it incorrectly.”
“Listen to her,” the voice of Celestia called from above as her flying form slipped into the room like a stream of sunlit mercury.
“Princess Celestia,” Ivory Rook gave a shallow bow as the Princess landed next to Twilight. “May I have an assurance you are in fact the Princess?”
“It is a rainy day in Cloudsdale.”
“Your majesty.” Ivory Rook sheathed her katanas and knelt fully hearing the passphrase, “What has been happening? I saw Princess Twilight attack you.”
“The junior Princess and I have had a few heated exchanges,” Princess Celestia said softly but gave Twilight a concealed look of disdain, “but I would not count her actions as an attack.”
“Are you harmed? What of the disruption of the Sun and Moon's cycle? Canterlot and the rest of Equestria are on the brink of civil turmoil.”
“Like Princess Twilight said, her mistakes have only served to be an unimaginable disappointment for me,” Twilight was sickened by Celestia's words, “Princess Luna and myself spent the better part of the night preoccupied with the complications of Twilight’s poor decisions which garnered some privacy in their resolution. Please leave Princess Twilight be, but escort her to Luna's chambers to ensure this does not happen again.”
“Yes Princess. May I serve you any other way?”
“Gather up the guards and police who have been summoned because of this altercation and have them assembled in the courtyard in one hour so that I may address them and alleviate their fears. Tell them to be prepared to go about the city and alleviate the citizens' fears. I will have a formal address prepared for the population by sunrise tomorrow. Also, contact the head of the ministry of postage and my personal scribes. Have them brought to my writing room so we can spread word to the cities of Equestria. Assemble the Wonderbolts and have them sent to my writing room as well. They shall personally deliver my missives to the surrounding nations as quickly as possible to ease the tensions which surely have been created.”
“Yes Princess.” Ivory Rook bowed again, then turned to her officers, “Colonel, you heard the Princess. Round up everyone, guards, police, military, and have them assemble in the courtyard, STAT! Lieutenant Phalanx, take care of contacting Minister Swallowtail and the scribes. Featherfall, alert Spitfire and have her send in everyone – full time members, secondary backups, reserves. If they've passed muster and have been accepted into the Wonderbolts, then they need to be here five minutes ago. We are going to have a lot of letters to deliver.”
“Yes Sir!” each officer cried in turn and diligently began attending to their duties.
“I will take my leave now as I have much to attend to, Captain Rook. Carry on and escort Twilight to my sister's chambers.” Captain Rook saluted in response and Celestia lifted upwards and flew into the night through a pair of arching, double doors which opened by her magic.
The guards in the room had already began filing out the door as per Beachhead's instructions, leaving Twilight and Ivory Rook mostly alone.
“Your highness,” Ivory Rook addressed Twilight contritely, “I apologize for the hostility; however, I was bound by duty to act with suspicion given what I had witnessed.”
Twilight didn't really hear the words. Face burning red with embarrassment, she felt like she had just been eviscerated and was tripping over her dangling guts as she stumbled numbly in the direction of Luna's chambers. 'An unimaginable disappointment' Celestia's exact words seared in Twilight's ears. How could she ever overcome such a thing? Would she ever be able to? Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, finally able to escape now that there was only one other pony to see them. Eyes blurring, Twilight wondered to herself how Celestia was always so perfect. Nothing about the way she just acted would even suggest there was the slightest thing wrong, even while Twilight was shaking and the only thing keeping her from crying was the hundreds of ponies who undyingly looked up to her that would see her break down.
“Princess, Are you okay?” Ivory Rook asked with a fair degree of alarm.
“No,” Twilight's fractured voice uttered, “No, I'm not. You heard her... I was an 'unimaginable disappointment'. I had never let her down... and now I've done something I can never live down.”
Ivory Rook pursed her lips and adjusted her armor nervously. In silence they walked together up the lengthy spiral staircase leading to the upper levels where Luna's dominion lay, passing through a number of darkly painted hallways and small guest rooms in the lowest part of the spire before reaching top levels. They had been together in many minutes of silence before Ivory Rook risked speaking, “Princess,” she began carefully, “It may be selfish of me to ask, but I hope you are not mad at me.”
“It's Twilight, I only use the title when I absolutely have to,” Twilight replied softly, “And I'm not mad at you. It would be hypocritical of me to be mad at you because you were only doing your job and caused no harm. I on the other hoof... I cause all this chaos with my own bad decisions.”
“To be fair, this is the second time in the past year the sun and moon were up at the wrong times, and last time you were the one who fixed the problem and saved both the Princesses. Then, of course, was the whole Discord Fiasco and Nightmare Moon's disruption of day and night. That leaves you 3-1 in your favor.”
Twilight laughed sadly, “I guess you're right: this sort of thing has happened a lot recently. However, it doesn't excuse me of anything.”
“Maybe not, but you've still done a lot more good than harm. You're Equestria's hero.”
“Don't forget about my friends, they just as responsible for saving Equestria as I've ever been.”
“Maybe, but you are the one everyone thinks about when they talk about who saved them.”
Twilight sighed, “I just hope I haven't let them down too...” They reached the top of the staircase and were a floor below Luna's chambers by this point. When they reached the next spiral stairwell, Twilight, knowing the mood Luna must be in, braced herself for more unpleasant interactions but couldn't quite push a thought from her mind. “Ivory, you said earlier if the confrontation ended peacefully, we could have a cup of tea together.”
“I wasn't being literal, Pri- I mean Twilight.”
“I know. But I would still like that. I know we never really knew each other as classmates, but we should sit down sometime, one scholar to another, and talk academics.”
“I certainly could make time for that,” Ivory smiled a bit.
“Good, but it may be a long time before I have the freedom to do anything like that.”
“I'll keep the kettle on the fire for you then.”
Twilight laughed sadly again, “Sounds good.”
Halfway up the stairs, a sudden rush of cool air flowed over Twilight and Ivory as they heard the resonate echoes of Luna's voice speaking, “...to the Nocturnal Order that I and Celestia are unharmed. Have them spread the word to the naval ships encircling the castle and have our forces stand down and return to base as there is no threat.” They reached the top and stepped into the vaulted corridor. At its end, in front of Luna's door, stood Luna and the guards who had run up the stairs minutes before. Luna instantly spotted Twilight and Ivory as they stepped from the stairwell and glared daggers at Twilight, causing the guards quickly turn to see what had Luna had thrown such a nasty expression towards.
“Stand down,” Ivory Rook ordered. “Princess Celestia is okay and was not attacked by Princess Twilight who I have been ordered to escort to Princess Luna.” Several of the guards who had already begun to raise weapons relaxed and turned back to Luna.
“Leave us and attend to that which you have been given,” her agitated voice ordered.
“Yes your highness,” they bowed and quickly trotted passed Twilight and Ivory to the stairwell.
“I shall take my leave now, Princess,” Ivory said to Twilight and followed the other guards down the stairwell.
Momentarily distracted by Ivory, she turned saying, “Luna, I-” only to be cut off by the slamming of the heavy oak doors to Luna's room. As she slowly walked down the corridor to knock on the door, the air bit Twilight with a cold edge when she got to where Luna had been moments before. She shivered, but from more than the cold, and rapped lightly on the thick wood. “Luna?”
“Be gone, vile succubus! Haunt another with your temptations!”
“Luna, we need to talk.”
“Talk?” Luna scoffed, “Are you here to mock me then?”
“No! Luna, I want to ask if you are alright.”
“You ask if I am fine? Then you are here to mock me!”
“I just want to talk. Please, let me in.”
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE, I SHALL PURGE YOU IF YOU DARE SET HOOF IN THIS ROOM!” The door and rest of the building were shaken violently by the earthquake that was Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice.
“I've made mistakes, mistakes I can never ask you to forgive me of,” Twilight, tears streaming down her face, let her head thump against the door. “If you never forgive me, I understand, but please just let me talk to you.”
Momentarily, there was silence which caused Twilight to fear Luna had decided to end the conversation, the train wreck that it was. “Enter,” she eventually said, so quietly that Twilight nearly missed hearing the word.
Pressing open the door, a sharp influx of chilled air struck Twilight in the face as a visible puff of her breath disappeared into a black abyss. She stepped in, light from outside being swallowed into a black fog.
Any entrant into the Princess' chambers might have thought this impenetrable, caliginous veil to be the norm for Luna's chambers, but those familiar with the Regent of the Night would know how wrong the casual observer would be. Nighttime on with a clear sky is bright, should one know to look for the light. The moon is a source of a light much gentler than the sun, allowing the nighttime wanderer to see clearly while the stars and planets are an eternal backlight which promise to visibility even without the moon's guidance. It is a sad state of the day that few have ever seen their own shadow cast solely by the light of Venus and even fewer know such a thing possible.
The light of the moon and stars as described is represented in Luna's room by a dim yet coddling glow which typically fills the space and the minute embellishments of will-o'-the-wisp magelight which shimmers from accents engraved into Luna's enchanted furniture. Yet as Twilight's hooves crunched on the frosted carpet, it was like a thick snow cloud hung overhead rumbling with thunder and threatening to unleash the blizzard of the century. “Speak Twilight,” Luna's cerulean eyes opened and hung in the darkness as if the belonged to the Cheshire Cat, “I permit you audience because I too have once counted myself unforgivable. Dare not tread lightly, for I have little patience for you at this moment.”
Twilight bumped into several pieces of furniture before she found a chair to set herself in. She looked at Luna's eyes, which were the only visible things, and saw them piercing her to the soul, “I'm so sorry. Luna I'm so sorry.” Twilight suddenly broke down and began sobbing uncontrollably, blubbering on occasion incoherent words of apology, “I'm so sorry... I'm a terrible pony... I've hurt both of you... I don't deserve to be loved.”
Luna evaluated Twilight coolly, but not without traces of sympathy in her expression if it were possible to see her face in the darkness. Eventually, Twilight settled down enough that Luna felt she was coherent enough to begin asking questions. “Twilight, what so gripped you to force my sister and I to bed together with you in an act of abomination?” Luna's voice was not free from its own shakes which betrayed her broken state to Twilight.
Twilight hesitantly said, “It is difficult to explain... and I can't explain it without making things worse.”
“Then stab my heart now while it still bleeds because of you. I shan't stand to suffer another stab after I have begun to heal from this.”
“O-okay. This is something I should have told you weeks ago. I was so scared of the mistake I had made that I couldn't... I couldn't figure out how to tell you because I knew how much it would hurt you.”
“I am already hurt Twilight,” Luna disdained, “so you needn't fear of hurting me now.”
“This is all my fault, every last bit of it. Celestia had nothing to do with what I am about to say – she had no inclination we were in a relationship and it was wholly my fault for not telling her. Please don't be mad at her. Please don't let what I've done come between you and her.”
“Out with it Twilight!” Luna demanded, “What is it?”
Twilight sucked in a deep breath as she pushed herself past her reluctance to tell her crimes, “Luna, I've been intimate with Celestia.”
Luna's eyes opened wide with shock for the shortest of moments before scrunching into a very disapproving frown, “This is no time for another one of your humorless jokes Twilight,” she growled, “I already know what you have done with my sister because I was there with you!”
“Luna-” Twilight's voice cracked, “I wish that was the only time, but it isn't.”
Again, Luna's eyes opened wide in shock. “Twilight, are you saying that-”
“Yes! I am! I'm saying that I am a horrible creature who doesn't deserve to even breath the same air as you.” Twilight yelled in frustration.
Breaking away from Twilight, Luna cast her eyes at some unseeable point off to the side. The temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees and the darkness of the room somehow deepened to where it nearly choked Twilight with its thickness. She could see the rage seething in her eyes as Luna's breathing became labored and filled with despair. With each breath, Luna's anger formed into a colder, sharper blade of ice shredding her heart into a million bleeding pieces.
Overwhelmed with unimaginable fury, Luna howled the cruel cry of the very night. The Barn Owls' ghastly shrill, the wolves' savage music, the wraiths' tortured shriek: these, even rolled three into one, paled compared to the horrific wail of Luna's heartbroken indignation. “SHE HAS OVERSHADOWED ME AGAIN!” Luna's words thrummed in Twilight's chest like explosions. “HOW HAVE I LET HER STEAL FROM ME AGAIN!?! WRAAA-” Luna wailed again as her horn glowed with deathly black, green, and midnight purple magic before a heavy wooden table exploded with necrotic energy, the splinters roiling and fizzing out of existence after they embedded themselves in the surrounding walls and furniture.
“LUNA!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, but heard nothing other than agonizing ringing in her ears. Green tendrils of dark magic flowed from Luna's eyes as her chest violently heaved, causing Twilight to call out again and rush over to her, “LUNA!
Her eyes blinked closed as Twilight tripped through the blackened room. When they reopened, every fiber of Twilight's body tensed and she froze completely where she had been running. Two eyes, turquoise with dragon like slits for pupils, glared with otherworldly hatred at Twilight. “CONFOUND YOU SPARKLE! YOU DRIVE ME TO THE SAME HATRED TOWARDS MY SISTER THAT TURNED ME TO NIGHTMARE MOON! WHAT CRUEL GAME DO YOU PLAY WITH ME? IS THIS PART OF YOUR PLAN?” Nightmare Luna advanced on Twilight, “DID YOU INTEND THIS FROM THE BEGINING TO TURN US AGAINST EACH OTHER SO YOU COULD TAKE OUR POWER? A THOUSAND YEARS I SPENT IN EXILE, A THOUSAND YEARS MY SISTER SUFFERED ALONE.” She continued her advance, “YOU WRETCHED BEAST USED MY LOVE FOR YOU TO TURN ME AGAINST MY ONE AND ONLY SISTER AGAIN!!!”
“Luna Stop!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, but was drowned out by wrathful lightning bellowing from tears in ether forming around Luna, so she did the only thing she knew to do. Ignoring fears for her life, Twilight leaped up and hugged Luna around the shoulders. “I'm sor-”
“INSOLENT VERMIN! YOU DARE TOUCH ME!?!”
Twilight was thrown through the wall. Not just a wall, but all the walls.
Wind rushed past her unconscious form as she ragdolled wildly to the ground, making a wet sounding thud as she smashed onto a stone pavilion among hundreds of scattering guards and rolled another fifteen feet. Four hundred feet laterally and twenty stories below the hole Luna had just made using her body, Twilight lay as if dead as several guards threw themselves atop her to protect her from the hailstorm of rubble that fell behind her.
“TWILIGHT!” Luna screamed, rocketing through the exploded wall and plunging down to the courtyard. The guards protecting Twilight clamored off her as Luna, aghast at what had just happened, landed nearby. In the background, numerous guards raised their weapons towards the sky, expecting some unseen foe to come chasing after Twilight to finish the job of killing her. Luna gently reached down and shook Twilight by the shoulder where she lay on her side which was bloodied in countless places where her skin had been torn from being blasted through the walls. Luna held a hoof to her mouth gasping, “Oh Twilight, no.”
Looking at Twilight, laying on her side with a wing bent strangely under her in a way reminiscent of a crushed insect, Luna fell to her haunches. She thought herself changed from when she had turned to Nightmare Moon... She thought those times to be behind her, but Twilight, a pony she loved dearly, lay broken as a physical testament that nothing had changed. Nothing was different. The guards surrounding Luna and Twilight were but leaves in the wind to her as she sat stunned by her own actions.
“Luna!” Celestia's concerned voice yelled from above as she flew from the window of her writing chambers, “What has happened?”
She could only answer with a rueful cringe.
Landing next to Twilight, Celestia's emotionless mask broke when her eyes widened to see Twilight in such a grave condition. Her voice dripped with horror, “What have you done?”
“Sister, I-I do not know.”
Celestia knelt beside Twilight and gently swaddled her in her magic, “...She's alive,” she said after some trepidation, then cast a venomous look to Luna yet spoke in the most placid of tones, “You should be thankful you didn't have any more buildings nearby to hurtle her through.”
Wilting under the stab, Luna fell to her haunches putting a hoof to her head, “I was so overcome with rage I-” she remembered in frightful detail feeling the words she had leveled against Twilight, “Dearest Sister, is it true, that which is between you and her?”
“Not here Luna.” she said flatly, casting a slow, thoughtful glance around at the multitude of guards who stood watching in varying degrees of shock, “We must tend to Twilight, but I fear to move her.” Celestia stood once more and looked to the closest guard, “Go to the castle infirmary and tell them we have an emergency here.”
“Yes Princess,” he bowed sharply then flew off.
“Our loyal guards,” Celestia's voice echoed with a meeker embodiment of the Royal Canterlot Voice as she addressed the whole assembly surrounding them, “Princess Twilight is living and care has been sent for. These are delicate matters and so I must ask you to leave this place immediately so we may tend to her injuries.”
Some of the guards audibly acknowledged, others took a second to bow, but as a whole they all quickly began to fill back into formation as their commanding officers issued orders to form up and leave in an orderly procession.
In the few seconds it had taken Celestia to issue the order, Luna had wrapped Twilight in a triage spell and was beginning to focus on stopping the bleeding when her spell was crumbled from an outside interference. “Sister!” Luna glared up at Celestia, “What are you doing? I am trying to help her.”
“You have already nearly killed her and I do not know what is going through your mind right now.”
Luna's eyes narrowed, “What are you insinuating?”
“I am only saying that you are upset right now and might do something we both do not want to happen.”
“I am cut to the quick that you would think me still capable of such an abhorrent act! I am no longer the Nightmare I was.”
“I overheard everything you said to Twilight before doing this to her.”
“You were eavesdropping on us?” Luna scathed, “Have you no qualms with such an invasion?”
“I was eavesdropping on Twilight. She had been lying to us for two weeks, had been delaying to tell us of this duplicity, and I did not trust her. I was planning on ending the soundsharing spell once she told you of-” Celestia cut herself off, “but once you found out what she had been doing, things degraded so quickly I didn't have the chance to cancel it.”
Luna began quietly, “So, you heard me say-”
“Yes,” Celestia cut Luna off, “and it worries me.”
“Sister, it scares me too. I don't want to repeat the mistakes I have fallen to before because they have only been poison for the both of us. But condemn me to Tartarus! Twilight has given to you something I thought to only be mine and I cannot accept that.”
“We both have only now learned of this betrayal, and it will take some time to come to grips with it. It is my solemn prayer that we will not become divided over this; however, for this to not turn us against the other in some way I fear it will take the full effort of us working together to reconcile what to do.”
“Then start now. Trust me to not harm Twilight. It is my fault that she has come to harm, and it should be through me that she should be healed.”
Celestia paused and evaluated Luna, “I am very angry with you right now, but I trust you with my life, Luna. I should hope I could do the same with Twilight's.”
“And I shall not prove your trust misplaced.”
A deep cyan sheen of magic again enveloped Twilight as Luna's horn glowed and her face fell into heavy concentration. Large gashes in Twilight's flesh were slowly pushed closed and compressed by the gentle force of Luna's magic. Thick trickles of blood continued to dribble from Twilight's wounds, but the streams slowed in the following minutes as the spell encouraged the blood to coagulate and the bleeding gashes in her body began to clot. Prompted by the pain caused by her injuries being pressed upon by the spell, Twilight murmured an incoherent phrase and squirmed.
“My dearest Twilight, it is okay.” Luna shushed her and stroked her mane. Twilight rolled her head and moaned. Sighing, Luna continued casting the triage spell and looked around, hoping to see Celestia who had left a few minutes prior to go intercept the doctors and expedite them on their arrival to help. Another couple of minutes passed and Twilight was beginning to stir some more and she eventually slurred, “Wha' happin' to me?”
“Twilight, do you hear me?” Luna anxiously asked.
Twilight didn't respond, but Luna gave one of Twilight's forehooves a good squeeze nonetheless. She stirred again and one of her eyes cracked open.
“Twilight, how are you feeling?” Luna asked leaning in. For a brief moment, there was a dim look of non-recognition on Twilight's face as her eyes scanned Luna's face, but her expression suddenly set on one of terror with her eyebrows arching and her eyes suddenly filled with a wild look to them. She screamed and almost as quickly vanished in a puff of purple magic.
Twilight couldn't quite remember why she found herself sitting in the dustiest basement of the oldest wing in the Canterlot Royal Archives; it was in a remote region that long since had been sealed off as the archives expanded and this ancient portion fell away from use. That isn't to say the section was dank or in any way unappealing: carved marble columns held a two story high metal lattice skylight made of glass which was in turn the floor of the floor above. Shelves in need of a slight dusting held dated tomes of knowledge that had long since fallen obsolete or had been proven incorrect yet were still kept for historical reasons. This had been one of her favorite hiding places when she was younger for many reasons, not the least being that she could have an entire library all to herself as the section was never visited. But this was no ordinary abandoned wing of the archives – this particular section was at one point home to some of the more classified documents and spells, thus adding another layer of intrigue which so greatly attracted Twilight. Much of this particular wing was warded with what, at the time of its creation, was some of the best anti-scrying magic intended to obscure any kind of observation from the outside, but that too had fallen obsolete and was inferior to the rest of the warding surrounding the archives. Twilight has always been a paranoid sort but was especially so when she was younger. The obscuring magic of the archives had always felt like a thick blanket wrapped around her on a dark, scary night. The blinding effect of the magic made it to where she was the only one who could teleport anywhere within the building's vicinity because she was so intimately familiar with this place that she knew where she was just by the feel of the space around her.
Now, the only thing around her was dust and crusted blood.
Horn glowing, Twilight held her left foreleg out and focused on treating it with an anesthetic spell to take away the pain. The first three trials failed because her mind was ravaged by the teeth of crippling pain, but on the forth try her leg glowed a soft blue for a moment then went completely numb meaning the spell was a success. For the next two minutes, Twilight did the same to the rest of her body so she would be able to think clearly enough to get herself out of trouble should the need arise.
Moving on from the antiseptic spell, Twilight was pretty badly jostled up and could not remember if she had already cast a healing spell on herself. Typically, casting such a spell multiple times on oneself is dangerous, but Twilight figured that it would be more dangerous if she did not cast it, so she went ahead. Her stomach and extremities began to tingle warmly and itch like fire as per the effects of the spell.
As it was, Twilight could best ascertain she had three broken legs, some having breaks in multiple places, a compound fracture in her left wing, several broken ribs, and a hairline fracture running from her eye socket to her left ear. Oh yes, and there was a bone sticking out the compound fracture in her wing. The pain was so surprisingly small that Twilight had not even realized the wing was broken so badly until she turned around and looked at it while casting numbing spells.
Were she still a unicorn, these injuries, minus the wing, would be quite serious. Technically, they were still serious, but given her alicorn physiology coupled with the fast healing of earth ponies, Twilight felt surprisingly okay and could expect to be mostly back together in about a week with the healing spell she was currently using, assuming she remembers to cast it on herself every few hours. One more thing, if she had endured as a unicorn whatever it was that had enough 'oomf' to damage her this much as an alicorn, then she most certainly would be dead and strewn in pieces right now.
Twilight turned her attention to her broken ribs and vertebrae. These would be the most dangerous to ignore because of the risk of a lung puncture or spinal damage is the bones shift, so she created a magical construct to act as a brace to hold them together and help support her weight. She pushed the construct into the ether veil where magic originates so she could fit the ethereal splint inside her body to hold the ribs in place. She did likewise and created rudimentary casts for her legs and wing. Twilight held her breath and cringed away as she used her telekinesis to set the fracture in her left wing. Everything was completely numb, as she had ensured, but the sound of the setting bone and feel of her broken wing in her magic made her sick to the point of almost throwing up.
Trying to focus on happy thoughts such as puppies and her bones being fully inside her body, Twilight tried to ignore her nausea and retrace what had happened to her. She dimly remembered a sense of dread and being thrown into a wall and, judging how badly off she was, the wall must have have called in backup.
For a long time, she simply lay on the ground and stared blankly at a spot on the ground in front of her as her ears rung loudly. Luna was angry at me. Twilight dimly remembered, but could not at that exact moment recall exactly what had been the cause of all this. The sense of dread lingered in Twilight's chest as she thought about Luna and Celestia, slowly prompting fractured glimpses into the previous few... hours? Twilight couldn't be sure how much time had passed since she heard the words of Luna that now burned in her ears, 'CONFOUND YOU SPARKLE... YOU DRIVE ME TO HATRED.'
Reaching to her throat, she rubbed the tremendous bruise which ran the full circumference of her neck. She could remember Luna yelling her, then being lifted into the air and nearly being asphyxiated by a telekinetic stranglehold around her throat, then came a brief moment of moments of heaviness as she was slung towards the wall. Twilight didn't remember impacting, but if she focused, she could remember laying on stone, looking up to Luna standing over her and in the background a gaping hole in Luna's tower.
Twilight realized Luna might be trying to kill her and dimly remembered teleporting herself to this remote wing of the archives to hide. If that was the case, it might not take Luna long to figure out where she was. She needed to run.
The anesthetic spell Twilight had used on herself was the most powerful she knew, and even then, one cast had not been enough to block out the majority of the pain in her body so she had cast it again over her individual injuries. The result was that she only had the slightest pain in her legs and wing, the downside being her entire body was almost completely numb. She could stand, but she was weak in three legs. Circumstances being dire, and figuring she had some leeway with her alicorn physiology, Twilight recast the healing spell she had just used, this time using three times the recommended energy.
A warm, almost orgasmic wave of soothing energy coursed through her body leaving behind a terrible itch that prickled like a thousand ants crawling over her body. Twilight couldn't expect the spell to do anything meaningful within the next few hours because, after all, healing magic only mends wounds quickly in fantasy novels and this was real life. However, the spell's built in pain blocking aspects would help with what she was about to do.
Things being what they were, Twilight undid about half of the numbing spell she had previously used to block the pain, letting a large brunt of her injuries' pain assault her senses. The amount of pain was surprisingly massive yet, by her will to live, somehow not crippling.
The magical splints Twilight had created also helped greatly, being like a suit of armor that kept her weight off of her broken legs. She walked a few steps to test how painful it would be, only for her knees to wobble enough that she nearly fell over. She didn't have time for wobbly knees – hundreds of guards were probably scouring the area, looking for her. Twilight realized it would likely be beneficial if they found her because they could take her to the infirmary to be treated, but Luna had just nearly ended her life and might still be angry. The guards could just as easily unknowingly deliver her to be killed.
Twilight bit her lower lip and grimaced with pain as she cantered ungracefully underneath the skylight and, with a fair bit of pain in her head, neck and back, looked up at the floor above her to draw line of sight for another teleportation spell. Even if she did know this place like the back of her hoof, teleporting without line of sight, magical or visual, is risky.
A botched the teleportation spell later, and Twilight found herself upside down six feet off the floor about forty feet away from her intended destination. A sharp yelp of pain and a half minute's worth of labored breathing later, Twilight pulled herself to her hooves and shambled into cover from where she had been exposed through the window. As it was, she had no idea if Luna was seeking to hurt her and if the guards were under orders to capture her. If she were not so hurt, she would just stroll up to one of them and ask what they were doing seeing there wouldn't be much several dozen guards would be able to do to contain her if she even half wanted to get away. But Twilight knew she at the very least had a severe concussion and, as judging by that last teleportation spell, was hit and miss concerning spellcasting. The pain distracting her did not help either.
Lurking through the shadows, she wanted to began scavenging around for a quill and parchment to send a letter to Celestia, but this wing, being unused, likely did not have a nearby stock of fresh ink and she didn't want to waste time searching for something she wouldn't find.
She, with pain, cantered to a set of double doors which were barred on her side with a thick wooden beam. Lifting it was a strain as her telekinesis spell was a little frayed around the edges from all the head impacts she had taken, but she managed to push the doors open.
The room she entered was another grandly built section of the library with arched ceilings supported by chiseled marble, but this section was properly dusted and clearly in common use. In operating hours, the tables and reading lecterns were typically stocked with quills and ink, but the supplies had been gathered up for the night and put away. She quickly came to the storage room and, for what Twilight wished was the first time in her life, she tore it open and raided its contents.
Sitting down on the floor with pen in her magic, Twilight began her desperate missive.
Celestia,
I am badly hurt. I don't remember everything, but Luna was screaming at me saying that I had driven her towards becoming Nightmare Moon and she attacked me. I was thrown and then I don't remember anything after that except waking up with her glaring down on me. I managed to escape, but I don't know if she is hunting me down.
I am in the ponymanities and social science section of the royal archives. Please, come soon.
The instant the scroll disappeared in a puff of purple magic, Twilight knew Celestia didn't receive it. Teleportation, even simple scroll sending, is a bit like throwing a knife at an insect and expecting to hit it while also sticking the knife in a piece of wood five yards beyond. If one were to imagine doing such after being shot through a wall and falling two hundred feet to the pavement below, they would understand why Twilight's attempt failed.
Discouraged, but as of yet undeterred, Twilight tried again.
Celestia
I am severely injured. I don't remember everything, but Luna was raving saying that I had driven her towards becoming Nightmare Moon. She attacked me, blowing me through the castle walls. I don't remember landing, but she was standing over me glaring down when I woke up. I escaped, but I fear she is hunting me down.
I am in the ponymanities and social science section of the royal archives. Please, help.
The message vanished, but Twilight was left with the vague impression someone was going to find a special scroll shaped prize in their cereal the next day. One last attempt, Twilight rewrote the letter and sent it on its way without bothering to roll it up. This time, it exploded into flames and fell to the floor as ashes.
Great... Just great...
So then Twilight needed to find Celestia, but that would mean taking the chance of running into Luna. Perhaps it would be best if she just lay low for a couple of hours or a day to let Luna cool down.
But what if Celestia needs to know about Luna?
In the supply room hung a janitor's saddlebags which Twilight snatched and emptied onto the floor hoping the bags had no sentimental attachment. She threw a small stack of paper into it, a few quills, and some ink to boot. If she needed to contact Celestia later, she would have the resources to try. Throwing the saddle bags onto her back which was crusted with blood, Twilight winced as the fabric rubbed against cut skin and exposed flesh, but at least they hung far low enough that her wing could slide over the strap and be supported by the bags. Now, she needed to get into a less conspicuous hiding spot without being seen, which was complicated seeing teleporting was certainly out of the question. Walking was hard enough as it was because each step was like walking on nails, but doing so silently was a fool's dream.
Teetering along, Twilight reached the doors joining into the hallway that would eventually lead her out the back door. She pushed on them only to find them locked. On a better day, she would have tried manipulating the inner mechanism with her magic, or maybe she would have sought the key. Or, on an even better day, before melting the door's lock Twilight would have simply turned the latch that was on her side of the door and not bothered with melting it in the first place. But today was not a 'better day'.
Carefully stepping around the puddle of liquidated metal, Twilight walked through the open doors and lurked down the empty hallway. Moonlight filtered through the grand arched windows which opened out upon the Canterlot Hedge Maze, and Twilight could not help but feel cold as the light splashed upon her. It was so hard to believe she was running from Luna who she loved so dearly. Even with the impending threat capture and death, Twilight's heart still had time to ache that she had driven Luna to do this.
'YOU DRIVE ME TO THE SAME HATRED TOWARDS MY SISTER THAT TURNED ME TO NIGHTMARE MOON!' Luna's words again burned fiercely in Twilght's ears, '...YOU WRETCHED BEAST USED MY LOVE FOR YOU TO TURN ME AGAINST MY ONE AND ONLY SISTER AGAIN!!!
What has she done? Twilight wondered to herself. Has she rekindled the once dead flame of hatred for Celestia in Luna's heart? What could possibly be a worse fate for either of the sisters? Twilight's steps faltered and she crouched, holding her head, shaking, and sobbing. They had reconciled and were happy. Oh help me, why are they paying for my mistakes?
Fighting the urge to cry, Twilight, realized she could not afford to waste time like this. She tried to stand up and keep walking, but not before she tried again to summon help; Celestia needed to know what was happening so she could stop Luna. Twilight pulled a piece of paper and a quill from the saddlebags and began writing.
Celestia,
I am severely injured. I have a concussion so I don't remember everything, but Luna was raving saying that I had driven her towards becoming Nightmare Moon and she attacked me, blowing me through the castle walls. I don't remember landing, but she was standing over me glaring down when I woke up. I was afraid she was going to kill me, but I escaped. I fear she is hunting me down.
I am in the royal archives heading towards the back exit. Please, come help me soon.
She sent the message on its way but was almost certain she felt the ultimate destination veer widely from its intended location. Part of her wanted to write another letter and attempt again to send it to Princess Celestia, but the other part knew she would fail.
Twilight packed the quill back into the saddlebag, grimacing as she stood and every part of her body seared with pain. Ugh, just down this next hall and I can slip into the hedge maze.
It is a well-kept secret that certain sections of the maze are mystically warded with illusion spells which mask their true nature. A pony flying above could look down and see the normal maze, while in fact she could be staring directly at one of the hidden gardens tucked away deep at the maze's core. Celestia often used these hidden pockets as retreats from the prying eyes of the public and, when Twilight was younger, would use them as outdoor classrooms for her magic lessons. Not even the guards or gardening staff knew of these locations. Centuries ago, when the maze was first commissioned, these hidden gardens were enchanted by a great earth pony wizard named Agricros the Nurturer whose powers, in legend, could grow two hundred acres of wheat overnight. The hedges in the maze are hardier than kudzu, strong as steel, and have, in over six hundred years of life, never needed to be trimmed, watered, or weeded once.
Still able to remember perfectly how to get to these locations, Twilight knew them to be the perfect hiding spots because Luna had never had the patience to find them herself. The only caveat is that to get into the maze and slip into the closest hidden garden, Twilight would have to traverse several hundred feet in the open where she could easily be spotted by Luna or the guards.
Twilight turned another corner and stumbled down another hallway fretting to herself. What was Luna going to do with her when she caught her? Twilight couldn't tear her mind away from the question because a millennium ago, Luna, besides being co-ruler of Equestria, had been head general of the then fledgling Equestrian Army. With the two alicorns who had defeated Discord ready to fight on Equestria's side should the need arise, no nation would dare challenge the nation so the Army was more for show than anything else just as the Royal Guard and airship navy are today, but Twilight still wondered what kind of experience Luna might possibly have in extorting pain from a captive.
Twilight, what are you thinking? This is Luna, she would never do that to you. Never! Stop thinking like this.
She felt worthless for letting herself think Luna would harm someone, especially her, in any way like that. Luna would never hurt anyo- A sharp pang that flashed through Twilight's head reminded her that Luna would hurt someone and that, more specifically, Luna would hurt her too.
Twilight limped down the last hallway and spied the doors exiting out into the sculpture garden where she could gain access to the hedge maze. Each step was living agony, but she closed her eyes and focused on the moments between steps that blissfully were less painful. Eventually reaching the doors despite her injuries working against her, Twilight leaned against the wall for support and tried to determine her next move. She would be sure to be spotted if she attempted to cross walking at the dreadfully slow speed she managing at the moment, but she just didn't have enough willpower to ignore the pain.
Twilight, now knowing her typically immaculate spell casting was shoddy, was reluctant to even attempt casting anything on herself, especially any kind of medicinal spells. As medicinal magic goes, it's particularly messy if cast incorrectly, causing in the following weeks any manner of tumorous growths and necrosis – to name two effects. The anesthetic spell she had used earlier might be safe to cast as it was reasonably simple in comparison to teleportation, but Twilight did not look fondly upon frying her nervous system if something went awry. Even if she had gotten lucky earlier casting it and the healing spell on herself, she had no intention of tempting fate by being reckless.
Giving it a simple test by casting it into the ground, the anesthesia spell felt like it was formed correctly. Technically all the parts of the spell fell together like they should during formation, but the components were not up to the tight standards Twilight holds her spells to. It should do though if she dialed back the effects by a bit to be safe and also so she could feel her legs enough to walk.
Testing it on the smallest amount of her body as she could manage, the spell sunk into the flesh immediately surrounding her left tibia and fibula which were broken. Okay, alright, wheh, that's a bit better. She thought in stages as the pain subsided slightly, leaving her still hurting, but able to continue on a bit longer.
Suddenly, a hoof was upon Twilight's shoulder.
She screamed, twisted around, and with a push of her telekinesis shoved the guard away and into the two others patrolling with him, placing a dome shield over them all. The pushed guard scrambled to his hooves only to bow and say something, but Twilight's ears were still deaf and ringing from the explosive force of being blown through a wall.
“I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on and I can't hear anything,” Twilight said while backing up, “Please, if Luna comes, don't tell her anything. She's trying to kill me and I'm too weak to run away.” The guards, members of the Solar Court, turned aghast at Twilight's words. “I don't know what your orders are, but please, I beg you, don't tell-” Twilight bumped her rear up against the doors and screamed, the sound of her voice distant in her own ears as she turned around and hit the thick wood with enough magic to break the lock.
The doors swung open and Twilight, scared that she had just given away her position, scampered through them and bolted into the sculpture garden. The sudden spurt of adrenaline made Twilight feel dizzy, but at the same time nearly all her pain vanished. She galloped chaotically across a small field, keeping her head as low as possible as if it would actually help hide her as she charged towards the entrance to the maze.
The taste of bile filled her mouth as she ran as fast as she could, pushing herself forward with both willpower and magic. Without really remembering having made it into the entrance of the maze, Twilight suddenly realized she was surrounded by hedges, causing her to come to a full stop and take stock of where she was.
As far as she could conclude, she was in a maze, but that was it. Brilliant, just brilliant. Twilight turned full circle trying to get her bearings, but the hedge proved as nondescript as ever. She played here often as a filly, and if she could just get a point of reference to know where she was, she could find a hidden garden – something that needed to happen soon. Twilight, quite disturbingly, felt reasonably fine at the moment, but the adrenaline would wear off in just a few minutes and she would be worse off than she had been before the mad dash to the maze.
Before picking a direction, there was a task she needed to try while her mind was so sharp.
Celestia, please help me.
I am severely injured. I have a concussion and can't remember much, but Luna was threatening that she was becoming Nightmare Moon when she attacked me, blowing me through the castle walls. I don't remember landing, but she was standing over me, glaring down and casting a spell on me when I woke up. She was going to kill me, but I escaped. I ran into some guards and I think she is hunting me down.
I am in the hedge maze heading towards a hidden place. Please, come help me soon – I don't know how much longer I can last.
Twilight, pausing and taking a deep breath, focused for a long time to be extra certain she cast the teleportation spell correctly. The spell released, sent the scroll on its way via a shimmering sphere of magic, and for a split second Twilight was almost certain it reached Celestia. But there was a nagging sense that rose in her stomach saying she had missed by a tiny amount and Celestia didn't receive the scroll.
Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat and began trotting with a minor limp in her gate not from pain -she wasn't hurting too badly just yet- her her legs were just weak and shaking. A few minutes passed and each step started sending a sharp spike of pain through her, but it still wasn't bad. As Twilight continued looking for any kind of landmark, her mind began to drift. Luna had tried to kill her, she was sure of it now as her memories began to settle. She had been thrown through the wall and fell several hundred feet with Luna chasing right behind. Hitting the ground only stunned her, Twilight figured, because it only seemed like a few seconds between getting thrown and regaining her senses. Luna would have had just enough time to have landed and start to cast a spell to finish her off. Yes, that felt correct because Twilight was almost certain she could feel Luna's magic enveloping her.
Maybe the spell wasn't meant to kill her and was intended to make her unable to contact Celestia. That would explain why I can't send her any scrolls. Twilight realized.
Her gut clenched to think of the implications. Luna must have been intending on doing some nasty things for a prolonged period of time if that was the case. Twilight winced as her saddlebags gave an extra-large bounce on her back as she trotted around a corner.
Another thought concerning the messages had already occurred to Twilight. What if Celestia was rejecting the scrolls she was sending? It was inconceivable that she would do such a thing, but before a short time ago, Twilight would have never thought Luna capable of trying to kill her either.
If she was honest with herself though, it would make sense if Celestia were turning her messages away like this. Twilight feared she had hurt Celestia as much as she had been hurt when she was forced to banish Luna – Celestia may be so mad that she just doesn't want to hear from her.
Or maybe, she wants her dead as much as Luna desires the same thing.
Eyes burning, she felt like bawling. Luna was certainly trying to hurt her, and Celestia might wish her dead as well. If that were the case, then where could she hide from them? Two alicorns, two immortal demi-gods, might be seeking her demise. Twilight might be proficient with magic and destined to become a better spellcaster than Celestia – the odds of which her ascension to alicornhood has only bolstered – but could she honestly hope to compete with the combined magical knowledge of the two Sisters? Celestia alone has over a thousand years of experience, though Luna's capabilities are not to be trifled with either. Together, Twilight knew she didn't stand a chance against them.
Twilight rounded a corner and her heart jumped to see a small circular area with benches around its circumference. She knew where she was now and the nearest hidden garden was not too far away. Turning around, she doubled back and picked up a path she had passed by. She was nearly there, just a few hundred feet's worth of walking, but she needed to stay strong a few more minutes. The pain covering her whole body was quickly returning and it was becoming harder to take each step.
Just push through it a bit farther. She grit her teeth and steeled her determination to ignore the pain: she was nearly there and was not about to give in, even if her body knew she was in the home stretch and was about to give out from exhaustion. She took a path to the left which after a few steps hooked to the left, and then did so again three more times. The route that she took spiraled in on itself and Twilight found herself looking at a dead end after one last turn. If Twilight were to think about the physical geometry of the maze, she would realize that on the other side of the dead end was the path she had just been through to get to this location, but that did not stop her from putting her hoof on the hedge and push partially through.
Suddenly, the hedge rustled and parted to create an arched tunnel reveling a large, shimmering fountain surrounded by a bountiful bed of flowers. Twilight entered in.
Again, if she were to think about the physical geometry of the maze, she should realize that the garden should occupy the space she had just passed through, but such is the nature of non-Euclidean geometry and Twilight, for once, did not feel up to contemplating the finer points of extra-dimensional space.
An overwhelming sense of euphoria struck Twilight smitten as she staggered into the garden, causing her to start laughing uncontrollably. The pain, for the moment, vanished entirely and she felt a rush like she had just been injected with painkillers. Swaying back and forth as she practically dashed to the fountain, Twilight draped herself over its rim, plunged her head into the water, and drank to her heart's content.
Filled and refreshed, she rolled to the ground from the fountain and passed out.
Suddenly, Twilight was gone – teleported away. Luna blinked in astonishment then quickly lit her horn to follow the traces of Twilight's teleportation spell. She was in no condition to be on her own and the doctors would be here any minute to help. The trace turned up nothing however – there was just too much magical interference in Canterlot to even attempt picking up the faint strands of magic carried through space as Twilight pulled the destination to herself. Mayst I be yarely sarded twain my abaft. Luna cursed to herself.
Given the state Twilight was in, Luna couldn't imagine her having teleported more than a few dozen feet, so she turned her attention to a row of bushes not too far away, scouring them with her magic to see if Twilight was there. Failing to find her, Luna realized that there were few places to hide nearby and that Twilight must have managed a longer jump than she gave her credit and could be anywhere within a half mile's distance. The possibility of additional jumps only compounded the issue.
Luna heaved herself into the air and flew through the courtyard gates where a detachment of guards idled in formation in case of emergency while the main forces returned to the barracks to rest. “Quickly, Quickly!” Luna shouted towards them, “Twilight has fled using magic and could be anywhere inside the castle and surrounding area. You must help me search for her at once lest she succumb to her injuries trying to run away.”
“How far do you believe she's gotten?” a ranked officer called up to Luna.
“She could be a naught more than a hundred score feet away from this place, though she could be most anywhere within the encompassing circle. Pegesi,” she pointed to a column of winged guards, “I must have one of you send word to the other guards that she must be found at once.”
Luna turned to look back through the gates at the ground where Twilight had come to rest upon. Blood pooled in the stone pavers and flowed in streams along the crevices between the bricks where Twilight had bleed even despite the aid of the triage spell. Luna feared to think what condition she was in now as the sell was, for all intents and purposes, bandages putting pressure on the wounds. When Twilight had fled and Luna could no longer cast the spell on her, it was as if she had torn off the bandages for the bleeding to continue. She said to the guards, “Twilight is severely injured, time is imperative in finding her. Though she may not be able to move far on hoof, do not underestimate her and her craftiness with magic – she can easily outwit even the smartest of ponies.”
She turned around and flew back into the courtyard to where Twilight had impacted and stood looking at the blood which marked the spot. How grim was it that she could so easily tell where Twilight, who she loved most dearly, had impacted by looking for the spilled blood? Closing her eyes, Luna levitated several large drops of the fluid into the air in front of her and began to familiarize herself with it magical texture and residual life energy. She felt sickly holding the liquid and examining it so closely with her magic as it was a gruesome reminder that Twilight was only in this terrible condition because of her own hotheaded rage. Rolling the blood in her magic, she began casting a life tracking spell by focusing harder on the magical residue in the in it and using the droplets as a foci to channel her magic.
When Luna opened her eyes, she perceived a crimson aura roiling off the pooled blood as the droplets flickered like ethereal candles. Luna should not only just be able to see such an aura coming off Twilight, but it should be visible through walls for at least five miles away. Looking for the telling glimmers of aura cast off by Twilight, Luna closely observed all that surrounded her. Furrowing her brow, Luna carefully examined the castle behind her as she slowly lifted into the air, then she turned around to face the city.
Nothing. How is this nothing? She was five hundred feet up by then and, looking down, she could still strongly see the glowing aura surrounding the blood below. Horizon to horizon was clear of any such traces, meaning Twilight had teleported at least six miles in a split instant or had somehow devised a counter for the spell she was using. Luna was disappointed but ultimately unsurprised – such feats were typical for Twilight. As always Luna was impressed that Twilight could jump around at a blink of an eye like that; pulling off a correct teleportation without the caster spending several minutes feeling the space around her that it is considered next to impossible. Luna and Celestia don't even properly move from point to point the same way Twilight does as they, in a metaphysical sense, respectively 'ride' moonbeams and sunbeams from one destination to another. That explains the globe of brilliance which surrounds Celestia each time she 'leap-rays' as the technical term goes.
Such a brightness appeared under Luna as she circled nervously in the air as a golden beam of sunlight arched from within the castle and cast a perfectly circular ring of sunlight upon the ground which it struck, illuminating the entire courtyard in sharp light. A white pulse of light traveled across the arc in the blink of an eye and a brilliant halo of light erupted.
Celestia and three doctors laden with medical supplies were standing at the location when the light faded back into the night. For a moment, Celestia's unreadable face turned towards the puddle of blood where Twilight had been laying, then turned upward to look at Luna as she landed and said, “Twilight has fled me. She awoke, was startled, and teleported away.”
Celestia was suspicious, “When did this happen?”
“About five minutes ago.”
Face unreadable, Celestia stared at Luna who looked back at Celestia with a hurt expression, “Do you trust me so little as to judge me at every conceivable turn?”
“No, of course not. I trust you.” Celestia replied coolly, “Do you have any idea where she might have escaped to?”
“I tried casting the Hunter's Insight, but she was either too far away or too well concealed for it to work. I have ordered the royal guard to search for her while we do the same so that we may have as many eyes searching for her as possible.”
“She has most likely teleported to one of the secured sections of the royal archives; she would know that the archives are secured against scrying and would prove a good hiding spot. Doubtlessly, after what you have done, she thinks you intend to harm her.”
And so you think the same thing, Tia, Luna mentally jabbed back. No, I shan't let myself think like that. Even if I must roll over like a dog for her, I will not let myself fall into those bitter lines of thought again. Luna shook her head and lifted into the air followed by Celestia, “Are any of the archives are not secured by this magic?” she called back to her sister.
“Only the public reading rooms; all the rest are heavily obscured. It is too much for us to search out ourselves: we must have our little ponies help us.”
“As I said, I sent word about five minutes ago to the guards ordering them to search the castle and the area immediately surrounding it. It may be difficult to find enough of them together to make the delay of getting them worthwhile.”
“You see in the darkness just as well as I do during the day. Would you go try to gather as many as you can so they can come help us?” Celestia suggested.
“Of course,” Luna peeled away as they neared the archives and headed towards the barracks. Hopefully the guards were slow responding to the pegasus she sent earlier.
Though the flight was not long, Luna had enough time to fixate upon the notion that Celestia was keeping her away from Twilight. It might have been nothing, and Luna knew to drop the subject, but she acknowledged it would be nice if she could trust Celestia to be direct and say 'Twilight might not be ready to see you right now, why don't you stay back' instead of being manipulative.
Consarn it, Luna, let the subject drop.
The main barracks was an alabaster stone building built into the wall surrounding the castle, so it was a short flight of a little under a minute including the time it took Luna to stop and redirect a squad of eight guards to head to the archives. Flying in through the skyway in the roof, she immediately realized the barracks was empty minus two or three who remained behind to hold down the post.
“Princess Luna,” one said walking up to her, “What orders have you for us?”
“I believe Twilight to be hiding in the Royal Archives. Should anyone return here, give them my orders to, with all great haste, head to the archives to assist in the search for her. Time is short and we cannot afford to waste it finding her.”
“Understood,” the mare saluted as Luna flew up through the way she had just come in.
There were enough guards looking for Twilight in the area that after several minutes of concerted effort, Luna gathered up about thirty which she sent on their way to the archives, but the time it took was time she feared would work towards making Twilight's trail cold. This was especially true if she was not, in fact, holed away in the archives someplace.
Celestia had already plunged into the archives and was searching through them by the time Luna arrived back and landed at a side entrance. Several of the guards she had encountered up with were pegesi and arrived with her, spreading out to cover the outside grounds by her command as she flew down to a set of side doors, but the remaining 20 or so would be another five minutes in getting there and that time could be critical in finding Twilight. Not wasting a moment, Luna swung the doors open and flew in at a leisurely speed to give her enough time to fully scrutinize each area she passed through for Twilight. Flying through a hallway and into the historical archives Luna, not for the first time, thought of the place a labyrinth on par with the hedge maze a short distance away. Equestria, being renowned for its vast collection of knowledge, stored a copy of nearly everything known: encyclopedias, scientific papers, spells, mathematical proofs, songs, plays, and poetry to name a few generas. Each and every bit of knowledge had its own reserved section of the archives, though most subjects had multiple sections, each being devoted to cataloging all known information from each notable period of development in the subject over 1500 years of history. The point of the matter is that the archives were massive – it could be considered a district of Canterlot by itself – and Luna always felt lost in them when not led around by Twilight. Now, she was still led on by Twilight, but in the figurative sense that she was being driven against the clock to find her.
She picked up her pace and briskly flew through the hallways, entering into each room as she passed it, giving each a quick inspection. Passing through a lecture hall, classrooms, more long hallways, and then the mathematics section, Luna found no traces of Twilight and questioned if Celestia was right. Five minutes drug into fifteen and Luna began to feel an ever-increasing weight in her chest as she began to fear Twilight was someplace else. She turned down a hallway and found on her right long rows of windows facing the hedge maze. She pondered if Twilight could have tried hiding in there.
Almost as an answer to her question, Luna saw a glow from around a bend in the hallway. She approached it and recognized it to be one of Twilight's shield spells holding inside three idling guards who stood upon seeing Luna approaching. “Where has Twilight departed to? I must find her.”
One guard looked at one of his comrades, then to another before turning back to Luna, “We encountered her as she came inside from the sculpture garden. She told us she headed away from the castle with the intentions to hide back in Canterlot, and when we asked to escort her back to the infirmary instead, she locked us in this shield.”
“When was this, and what way did she go?”
“It was ten or fifteen minutes ago, and she went that way,” another guard answered, pointing down the hallway Luna had just come through.
“Consarn this!” Luna swore then tapped her lit horn to the shield, causing the barrier to burst, “Go alert the rest of the guards to focus their search in parts of Canterlot immediately surrounding the castle. Tell them to scour the area between here and there. Twilight must be found immediately.”
Luna immediately flew through the nearby doors which doubtlessly had been left open by Twilight when she stumbled into the archives. Gaining altitude, Luna scanned the path from the Archives' main entrance that cut through a grassy park on its way to the street, then slowly let her eyes run up and down the surrounding roads.
Twilight was nowhere to be seen on the surface streets, though many ponies had gathered together outside the gates leading to the castle, doubtlessly worried about the current state of affairs. The walkway to the archives connected to the road near where these concerned citizens stood, so Luna wondered if Twilight had managed to slip in with them and blend in with the crowd.
She angled her flight towards them and landed on the wall above them, “Fair ponies, why are you so concerned?” They looked up to see Luna illuminated by moonlight, and each and every one of them bowed. Flitting down, Luna landed next to the crowd of about two hundred ponies. “Friends, you needn't prostrate yourselves like this. Please, stand so I may alleviate your concerns.”
Giving each other nervous glances, several ponies dared to stand and the rest quickly followed.
“Your highness, why has it been day so deeply into the night?”
“What was that shield surrounding the castle?”
“We saw an explosion coming from your tower.”
“Where is Princess Celestia?”
Luna nodded as she paced around the edges of the group, secretly searching for Twilight if she was using some illusion to hide herself, “These are very good questions. Though I cannot answer them directly as of yet, I can say that my Sister and I are both fine and have not been in any danger, but we have been dealing with a problem that has required the fullest extent of our focus. I am sorry that I cannot give you any more details, but this matter is still ongoing and I haven't the time for a full explanation.” For good measure, Luna cast Hunter's Insight to look over the crowd. Either Twilight was using a high level stealth spell and had changed her form, or she wasn't there at all. Both seemed equally likely to Luna, but since all these ponies appeared healthy and showed no signs of injury, she had to assume the latter.
“I promise that once my sister and I have this matter resolved, we both shall address your questions in detail, but for now, know that you are safe and there is no threat you should worry about. Go home and sleep, my little ponies, and everything will be better when the sun rises tomorrow,” saying these words, Luna flapped her wings and was in the air once more.
She continued to circle above the city, flying over streets searching for Twilight. What magic was she using to obscure herself? Luna wondered. Her tracking spell had never failed before while hunting down any creatures: rabid bears and brooding basilisk were easy quarry with its guidance. Much to Luna's regret, this was the very spell she had crafted as Nightmare Moon to hunt down her sister should she have escaped during their battle; it was made to hunt other alicorns. Yet Twilight had managed to evade it all the same, something Luna contemplated sourly as she passed through another street fifteen minutes after setting out to find her in the city.
She sighed, maybe she was searching in the wrong place and should head back to the castle to continue. If nothing else, it was clear she wasn't going to find Twilight wandering around on a city street, so she circled back, quickly arriving at the castle but knowing she was no closer to finding Twilight than when she first teleported away. Landing on a rampart of the castle wall, Luna cast her eyes downward, A thousand years punishment, and what have I learned from it? I have turned upon my love and attacked her ruthlessly, now she has run away and is in danger because of me. She shivered, I have selfishly hurt Twilight, both emotionally and physically. How am I any different than I was when I turned against Celestia to smite her?
Sparkling in the light of the moon and stars, several pristine tears fell from Luna's eyes and darkened the white stone on which they landed. Like this, Luna wept for many long minutes until she felt the presence of someone land and sit next to her.
“Tia, it hurts so much.”
“I understand,” she said distantly. Luna edged next to Celestia and draped her wing over her sister.
“Luna,” Celestia tensed, then pushed her sister's wing away with her own. “I don't feel like being touched by you right now.”
“I didn't mean it that way,” Luna defended, pulling her wing away and folding it to her side. “But you are right, after what has happened-”
“I didn't find Twilight.” Celestia interrupted.
“I had assumed as much.” They both then said nothing and stared outwards at nothing in particular. After a time of silence between them, Luna hesitantly asked, “Why did she do this to us?”
“I asked her the same question, but her answer was erratic and unclear. What she said was that when she walked in on us arguing-” Celestia stopped mid-sentence, “This is no place to discuss these issues. We must go someplace private.”
“Agreed.”
The two stood and flew from where they sat, flying to the platform outside Celestia's living chambers and entered into them.
“Twilight told me she walked in on us arguing over the farce of the peacocks you arranged and misinterpreted us to be arguing about our relationships with her. She said that she became scared that we were turning our backs on her, so she lashed out with what she supposedly intended to be a love spell which was corrupted by her fear.” Celestia said coolly, walking to a wooden cabinet and levitating out a tea kettle and two matching teacups.
“Is that it?” Luna asked with an edge on her voice, “Is that the true reason she forced us to bed together? I can hardly think it is.”
Celestia using her magic siphoned a thin stream of water from a pitcher, collecting it into a ball and boiling it instantly with her magic. She then directed a laminar flow of water into her tea kettle, “Remind yourself Luna of why we just spent the last hour searching for her. Or have you forgotten the reason there is a tremendous hole in your tower?”
Luna narrowed her eyes, “That tis' a low blow, sister.”
“Is it?” Celestia replied in a flat tone, “Dearest sister, you should be thankful she is an alicorn like us. Had she been the unicorn she once was, you most certainly would have killed her. All I am saying is that you should learn some self-control.”
“Are you calling me hotheaded then? Maybe you should recall the old saying 'The sun scorches even the shadows of where it shines'.”
“That was a different time,” she dismissed.
“But the point remains. You were a far greater hothead than I when you were my age, and now even though you have had a thousand years more than I to mature, you still cannot admit your own faults though you are quick to point out the faults in others.”
“Yet I did not nearly kill someone I love,” Celestia set the tea kettle on a stand on a table and lay down on a couch nearby, “Luna, that is what worries me.”
“So you have already said. But know that it wasn't the same as when I turned to Nightmare Moon; I was overwhelmed by the moment, not brooding for years on end. Even if my actions were wrong, they were not the same as before.” Luna huffed, “You do realize how upset this has made me, don't you sister? Or are you incapable of feeling the anger and betrayal that I am?”
“I am not heartless,” Celestia glared at Luna, finally raising her voice.
“Then why do you maintain this mask of yours while I am the only one to see it? It hurts me that you hide like this.”
“I am not hiding, Luna. I am simply keeping a level head because we have an entire world that will be asking questions about what has been happening here. As it is, we do not have the luxury for a heart to heart right now, and I know if I were to actually sit down and talk with you about what I am experiencing, then we both would be in no shape to confront the questions we are going to be asked in the coming hours. As it is, I am already behind schedule preparing a statement to make to the Guard. Now, too, I must explain to them why you attacked Twilight, as at least three hundred of them saw you slam her through the tower wall.”
“Keeping emotions bottled up only makes them worse, I shall add that I am very experienced in this matter. But if you are so obsessive over a story to feed the world, tell them we were attacked by the changlings again, this time the queen impersonated Twilight. Say I mistakenly attacked the real Twilight thinking she was the imposter while you dealt with the real one in your tower.”
Celestia, hearing the proposed story, closed her eyes and exhaled contemplatively, “That is not a half bad idea, but I do not like how it undermines our ability to discern between what is real and what is a changlings' illusion. Letting our enemies know that we would let a second princess be impersonated could prove problematic, but we have few other options.” She inhaled deeply through her nose and let the air out again while sipping a cup of tea, “As for my emotions, I will have you know I am quite capable of keeping control of them for whatever short duration that I must to ensure the wellbeing of Equestria.”
“There is a difference between beating them back and controlling them. I might worry you with my outburst, and rightfully so, but you worry me with your emotionless mask. Where is the real Celestia? I feel I am talking to a puppet she is controlling.”
“Luna, that is enough,” Celestia glared poisonously at her, “If you want me to show emotion, then fine, I’ll drop the curtain for you. I am angrier at Twilight because of her mistakes than I have ever been at anyone else in my life. If she were my enemy, then I could handle her unfaithfulness, but she is my dearest friend aside from you, and that plunges a knife deep into my chest. If you want to know why I am being cold, then know it is because every time I look at you, I am driven to rage knowing Twilight and you were intimate. She hid that, even when she and I were intimate. Then I am reminded of the violation of the sanctity of our sisterhood-” voice rising in irritation, she cut herself off and resumed coolly, “As it is, I need distance from you, Luna, because I cannot stand the sight of you or Twilight.”
“This does not settle well with me either – my skin creeps. Thinking of the things which happened drives my thoughts to turmoil and makes me feel sick, and her betrayal cuts me to the very core. If you think it is easy to be overshadowed by you once again, then do not fool yourself.”
“I neither had intention or knowledge that I was; this was Twilight's fault.”
“And much the same you said to me during my descent into Nightmare Moon. Did you ever say to me 'Luna, I spite you' or 'Look dear sister, they love me not you'?” Luna huffed, “Before, it was the splendor and warmth of your days which I mistakenly thought stole love from me. Now, it is the comfort and warmth of your love which have taken Twilight from me.”
“Twilight's own decisions were the cause of this.”
“So was it Equestria's fault for loving your Sun and slumbering when my skies were displayed?” she jabbed at Celestia.
Celestia furrowed her brow and rubbed her temples, “We have had this discussion many times, and need we have it again? The ponies of Equestria love the night as much as the day, especially now. What of your dreamwalks and guidance? I have heard many ponies speak from the heart of how your wisdom has changed their lives.”
“Nay sister,” Luna replied softly, “I wasn't denying this, but rather I was making a comparison between Equestria and Twilight. Or do you think I have forgotten my lessons from Nightmare Moon?”
“I would never insult you by thinking you hadn't changed for the better since the time of your fall.”
Luna slowly stood from where she had reclined on a sofa, then turned towards a bay window overlooking Canterlot bathed in nighttime, “The point I make is that a pony's love cannot be shared like a kingdom's, and as I have learned, I shall always be second to you-”
“Luna, you aren't-” Celestia interrupted only to be talked over by Luna.
“Let me Finish!” Luna spat with an edge, turning back to glare at Celestia, “This is important and I had been meaning to tell you this for some time now but had not found a way to bring it up. Now, as I was saying,” her voice turned contemplative as she turned her eyes across the city again, “I am at peace with being second to you. You may insist we are co-rulers of Equestria, and that gesture means much to me, but I know you shall always be 'Queen' and I your council. In times of old, the struggle to match your splendor, respect, and power consumed me, but now it is clear. In the natural order, the Moon and Stars are equal yet submissive to the Sun, and I have found peace in that.”
Celestia, with surprise in her eyes, could find nothing to say in response.
“I know what you think, Tia. But, though it burns my heart, I want to do this.” As tears rolled down Luna's cheek, she smirked and laughed sadly, “It tis' in my nature. Recall that when we first found the elements, Generosity, Loyalty, and Kindness bound themselves to me and I became their bearer. Ask yourself, 'are these not the elements of a follower?'
“When I became Nightmare Moon, I then embodied the most abhorrent corruption of the elements: Greed, Treachery, and Cruelty. Are those traits not that of a dictator? And I showed those to poor Twilight when I lashed out against her, and I am reminded that I was not 'fixed' when I was stripped of my dark powers. It will take a long time for me to ever become whole again, so now, I seek to regain who I once was I will take the first step in that direction.”
She paused and sighed again, speaking in a wistful tone, “But I cannot give up Twilight. Before she consented to relations with you, she was mine and I hers. If she wishes to stay with me, please, I ask from the bottom of my heart, do not get in the way. Likewise, I accept that if she chooses you over me, I shall yield in your favor.” A faint, melancholy smile found itself on Luna's face and she exhaled sadly through, “Perchance, with time, I shall seek out a stallion and do things right this next time. A long courtship, chastity until after the honeymoon, foals. By the skies above - it will be a relief to not be subject to this vice I have been tampering with!” She again became serious in expression and tone, “I know I must weigh heavy on you saying these things while you already have the burden of the kingdom pressing on you, so I shall take my leave in search of Twilight and let you be.”
Before Celestia formed the words to speak, Luna softly glowed with moonlight and disappeared on the rays of moonbeams.
“Enter,” Celestia answered the knocking at her door and turned to face the pony entering, “Ivory Rook, how are things cityside? I hope the citizens are not too greatly at unrest because of tonight's happenings.”
“For better or worse many are becoming accustomed to these kinds of disruptions. They are stressed, but life continues as normal for the vast majority of them.”
“I am glad to hear. Now, what have you come for?”
“I wish to know the truth of what is going on.”
“Come again?”
“You explained to me and the other ranking governmental members the matters concerning yesterday's changeling infiltration, your majesty. However, I cannot believe the provisions set by Prince Shining Armor and myself against such an occurrence have proven so inadequate.”
“This was no ordinary changeling, Captain Rook. This was an Arch-Queen, mother to the queen who attacked during the wedding of Princess Cadence and then Prince Shining Armor.”
“Your Majesty, I do not want to undermine your authority and shall defer to your will, but by your own words I was led to believe this was an internal matter caused by Princess Twilight's actions, whatever they may be.”
“You were mistaken, now stop pressing the matter.”
“If that is your order, then I shall. But I want to express that I press it only because there are fractures forming between within divisions of the Guard. Those who witnessed Princess Luna attacking Princess Twilight are certain that there is a power struggle taking place and are adamantly expressing their loyalty to you and Twilight while the Night Guard has unanimously vowed to assist Princess Luna should she rise up against you. Then many others, including those who witnessed Twilight's attack upon you and your sister, insist Twilight has gone rogue and are ready to stop her with whatever force necessary because we had spent the better part of the night under that impression as we tried to break through the shield surrounding the upper levels of the castle." Ivory Rook took a slow breath, "Whatever is going on, I shall defend your statement of the changeling. However, I need clarity to ease the rising tensions between the guards before they take sides and a civil war breaks out.”
Celestia studiously evaluated Ivory Rook, “And if what I say is a lie, then how would you knowing the truth help ease tensions? Would you tell them and undermine what I have said?”
“No, I would not. What I need is clarity – details! Even if they are fake. If what you give me is a fabrication to prevent the Royal Guard from turning against itself, then I take that lie as any truth so long as it preserves your power. Things are becoming critical such that my officers had had to break up several fights prior to my coming here.”
“Then things are becoming serious. We mustn't waste any time in alleviating this pressure. I shall go find Luna. In the mean time, please awaken any sleeping guards, find those who are idle, and assemble them on the grounds outside the castle within thirty minutes so Luna and I together may put down this dangerous issue.”
“Thank you, Princess.” Ivory Rook bowed, “I shall make the preparations at once.”
Princess Celestia turned back to her writing desk, picked up her fountain pen, and wrote a message on a piece of paper.
Please meet me in the castle's main hallway as soon as possible. The Royal Guard is suspecting a division between we three Princesses and are in the early stages of forming ranks in preparation for a revolution. We need to confer with each other at once.
The scroll was sent away and within seconds, Luna, face wrought with concern, was standing in the center of the room, “I am here. What are the details of this revolution?”
Celestia stood to address her, “In short, several guards including the Captain saw Twilight attack us, so the better part of the night had them believing that Twilight was attempting to dethrone us. Then, when several hundred guards witnessed you knock her through the castle walls, some began to wonder if you were the one trying to take the throne. Naturally, even with the explanation I have given them, many are starting to take sides in preparation for when, as some expect, one of us rises up against the other.”
Luna's face flushed with fear, “No, Celestia, It can't be! This is how things were a thousand years ago and I shan't have it happen again! We must address this at once, but we should think through this completely.”
“I fear we haven't much time.”
“Nay, look behind you.”
“Why Luna? What do you-” Celestia turned and saw herself still sitting at her writing desk staring blankly at nothing while her secretaries, horns glowing with magic, were frozen in time.
“Is this a dream? I haven't the time for sleep.”
“No, it is not a dream. I felt a glimmer of one of Twilight's dreams a half hour ago and have been searching for her in the dreamscape but she drifted away before I could catch her. Since then, I've been pushing myself deeper into the planes of shared consciousness to the point I am beginning to tread in the world of the waking. If she were awake, I could find her, but as it is it seems Twilight is neither dreaming nor waking. In this state, we are effectively frozen in time – see how slowly your scribes are moving. I found the slowed pace useful to contemplate my emotions for what I experience as a two hours time is only thirty minutes of real time. It is difficult to maintain, but the strain is applied over real time, meaning we have some time to talk about things we need to talk about.”
“This is useful, but I cannot rationalize fretting over our such things while the lives of ponies hang in the balance.”
“As I said, we have a lot of time when, without my intervention, it would be considerably less time. This is something we need to talk about and we finally have the time to do it.”
“We should in the very least address what we are to say to the guards ease their tensions before we turn our minds to personal matters.”
Luna sighed, “To this, I can only agree. Let us find a story to tell.”
Over the course of the next hour they created, debated, and critiqued various different ideas concerning how they were to ease the guards down from their worries. In the end, they decided to be direct and show they as sisters were united. They would stand side by side, each speaking her own turn explaining that no princess was seeking harm upon the other, yet Celestia insisted that they create a cover story. Twilight in her zeal for learning had in her possession a number of changeling drones so she might study their shapeshifting magic. This would have been done without Celestia or Luna's knowledge, thereby allowing the sisters to hold to the alibi given erlier to Captain Rook and other high ranking officials. One of Twilight's experiments broke loose, took her form, and started causing chaos. This would also give Celestia leeway in her having said Twilight to be an 'unimaginable disappointment' because, after all, abducting without permission a creature as devious and hazardous as a changeling without approval Celestia's could be very problematic for the kingdom's wellbeing.
Of course, bringing the fear of changelings into the population would be no light thing. For months ponies will be suspicious, fearing everypony else could be a changeling in disguise, but the fear will pass and be less detrimental than the kingdom learning of the scandal between its leaders. After all, distastes are passing and shall be forgotten in a year's time, but sex... Sex is forever.
Luna, in contrast to Celestia, advocated a more direct approach in which Twilight was not so terribly smeared. They would say, in general terms, what had happened: Twilight had acted in was unbefitting her station and had brought pain to the them, though they would further say the matters were personal and not to be aired in public. It was direct and simple, but Celestia rightly objected it would make it hard to explain their failure to set the sun and raise the moon, along with the shield, and the throwing of Twilight through the walls.
Together, they argued about what the right response to give would be but ultimately only became angry with the other while thinking of no other possible solutions. Celestia insisted her story would make the better explanation to defuse the situation while Luna refused to throw Twilight under the proverbial carriage and run over her and the two were becoming quite polarized on the matter before, time running short, Luna finally budged to work with Celestia's idea because she was being so unyielding.
Begrudgingly, Luna bit back on her reservations and the two hammered out what they would say.
“So then, we are in agreement Celestia?” Luna said with an edge to her voice.
“Yes, I believe all our arrangements are made. It is time we saw to them.”
Luna protested, “I still cannot accept what we are doing, it is not right and I feel you are concocting some scheme against Twilight."
"I am not," Celestia defended."And I am hurt that you could even think that."
"We are putting much undue blame on her. I have been terribly hurt by what she has done," Luna bristled and became visibly angered, "and I am still livid with her for causing us three to bed together! yet I fear you are handling it worse than I. We agreed to stop avoiding this subject, and for your own good we need to talk about what happened."
"I said it would be best if we tended to business of the state before personal business and made no such agreements.” She then scowled, “Besides, you are the one who is handling this worse than I. For the time being, I have set the matter aside so I might not make mistakes in leading Equestria."
"I can tell when you are lying, Tia." Luna glared at her, "Do not try to fool me."
" I am not," she flatly returned. "Besides, I cannot imagine what we could possibly say that would make anything better.”
“It is a weight crushing me, as it must be for you – speaking my mind will help settle my worries because I do, after all, have many unanswered questions. As for you, I think it would do your descision making good for you to realize that you are indeed angry with her."
"I do realize that I am angry with her," Celestia said. "That is how I can set the feelings aside to rule, though you make it very difficult to put these things behind me by constantly reminding me of them. I wish for you to be silent on this matter." Though the sentence was said softly at first, Celestia's voice took an accusing tone to it as she let a bit of her annoyance slip through.
"No, I shant! There are too many questions. Why are you doing this to Twilight? Have things changed between us because we've been intimate." The last three words made both of them feel cold.
“Of course not!" Celestia said, a bit flustered, "It wasn't our choice, this doesn't change things, do not be absurd.”
“That is what I hoped you thought – I don't want things to be different, whether it be us being more distant from each other or otherwise. But that begs the question of how should we feel about the intimacy. I am embarrassed and mortified that you know me physically, and I knew you likewise... That is a thing two sisters should never experience-”
“That is ENOUGH, we shall talk of this no more!” Celestia barked.
Luna was desperate,“It isn't easy for me to bear these things to you, but they lay heavy on my heart. If we will not speak of them now, then when will we?”
“Never.” The simplicity of Celestia's words were enough to send Luna into shock, “This never happened. We are to forget of its occurrence and move on as if nothing happened.
“What?” Luna's jaw hung open in a way unbefitting to a Princess, “Tia, this is too severe a trauma to forget. You may be able to push this behind you, but this will eat me alive until we settle the matter.”
“There is nothing we can settle,” Celestia frowned,. “Talking about it will only make matters worse; therefore, what has happened shall be spoken of no more. It. Never. Happened.”
“How can you forget!?! The images and sensations are engraved into my every waking thought! As much as I wish I could, I cannot choose not to experience them. They haunt me. Their implications haunt me. How are we supposed to act towards each other having engaged physically like we have? What actions should we take to ensure our relationship as sisters is not affected by this incest?”
“ENOUGH!” Celestia bared her teeth and slammed her hoof down on the floor, “All your questions are answered by me saying We Shall Speak Of This No More!”
Luna pleaded, “But surely sometime we-”
“No-” Celestia growled over Luna,
“Why are you being-”
“-More!” A wisp of smoke rolled from Celestia's mane before.
Luna stopped talking and reluctantly met Celestia's fiery eyes in the following seconds of silence. Eventually, the tenseness was broken when Celestia took a long, calming breath and returned to her neutral demeanor, “I grow tired of this conversation. Meet me in the Grand Hallway in ten minutes so we may address the Royal Guard.” Her horn glowed and Luna was suddenly back in her bedchambers sitting on her haunches in a meditative position. She blinked, disoriented for a moment, then realized Celestia had pulled them both out of the higher planes of the waking mind. Sister, why will you not speak with me? I need your comfort. Looking out a window, Luna could see the city below and could not suppress a surge of nagging anger directed towards her sister and a searing hatred towards Twilight for having betrayed her.
Body falling cold as she recalled the grim pleasure she had reaped as she threw Twilight against the wall with her magic, Luna forced herself to let go of the dark feelings as she again mentally eviscerated herself for falling prey to her passions. I am Nightmare Moon no longer. I will not make the mistakes she would make in my place. I am Luna, guardian of the night and dreams, keeper of the Moon, former bearer of kindness, generosity, and loyalty, and I will not let my virtues be corrupted again.
Shaking her head and rubbing her brow, Luna walked out onto the skypad outside her room to clear her thoughts.
Meanwhile, not far away from Canterlot, a fourth alicorn furiously beat her weary wings in a desperate attempt to reach Canterlot and check in on her three fellow rulers. What little she knew of their well being came from what she had seen first hoof: the failure of the Sun to set on time, multiple unanswered letters asking both the Princesses of their condition, and the fact that Twilight had serious news that she was going to break to Celestia and Luna. Most worryingly, though, was a few hours ago she had received a frantic letter from Twilight containing only the words 'Cadence, Help' and signed by Twilight. Her mind raced to determine what might have happened, but she was no Twilight when it came to wild speculation. Without specifics to support her worries, Cadence rarely could bother herself with conjectured possibilities. That is not to say she felt fine; with the disruption to night and day and the many other things, she suffered a general sense of dread concerning the others' well being, but she had no interest in running scenarios through her mind.
Canterlot Mountain hung five miles in the distance and was a welcomed sight to her after having spent the last five hours flying non-stop from the Crystal Empire. Her wings were exhausted and, having telekinetically boosted her speed most of the flight, her magic was severely strained. She was not an athlete – that was Shining Armor's thing – so she feared she lacked the willpower to make this last leg without stopping. But she took each mile one at a time and, much to her relief, arrived promptly at the castle.
Even from a distance as she approached, Cadence could tell something serious was happening because at least two hundred guards were assembled in block formations in the courtyard, all facing the railed balcony leading to the Grand Hallway. Three banners at that location, one with Luna's seal on the left, one with Celestia's seal on the right, and a composite of the two in the center told her that Celestia and Luna were, for all appearances, preparing to address these guards. Cadence noted that they, upon giving the presentation, would be standing at the top of the short staircase all ponies, nobles and everyday citizens, use to enter the castle. It was a small detail, but Celestia's decisions were exacting and the location of where she and her sister will be standing was a purposeful attempt to make the two sisters approachable to their subjects. This suggested bad news or perhaps or a fall from grace, but most likely was relating to the belated cycle of day and night.
Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Cadence decided it would be best to enter through the back and look for the three of them by checking the hallway leading to the balcony where the speech was about to take place. She nearly missed seeing the gaping hole in Luna's tower, but her eyes fell upon it as she angled herself towards the back of the castle.
What has happened? she worried to herself.
She landed on a rampart and entered through a door leading into the castle. Her wings ached as she folded them to her sides and scurried down a spiral staircase which opened into a smaller hallway branching off of the main hallway she hoped to find Celestia and Luna in.
A creeping dread chilled her heart and worked its way through her chest where it settled as tightness in her lungs. She could feel the brokenheartedness of the three Princesses and gagged on the visceral animosity radiating off of Luna and Celestia. As far as she could tell, they both were above her both in separate parts of the castle and Twilight was some distance away behind the castle, but that was the extent of her insight.
Working off of the 'bad vibes' she was getting, Cadence entered the main foyer and walked up the stairs to the split stairwell where Celestia typically greets the guests during events like the Grand Galloping Gala. She continued up and into the basilica above which branched off into hallways housing governmental offices. During this time of early morning, this room should be bustling with ponies working their jobs, petitioning agencies, and signing up for a time slot to speak with the Princesses, but the room was lifeless, something eerily compounded by its extreme vastness. Something bad must have happened, Cadence decided.
She was headed to the wide double doors at the other end of the basilica which would lead to Celestia and Luna's towers, but while she was only halfway there, the doors glowed with magic and Celestia stepped through levitating several pieces of parchment in her magic and writing on two of them at the same time.
“Celestia, what is going on?” Cadence asked, quickly flying the rest of the distance to Celestia and landing beside her.
Celestia, without breaking stride, only took a moment to glance away from her work to look at Cadence, “Twilight has made some serious mistakes and, indirectly, the Royal Guard is starting to take sides thinking there is a power struggle transpiring between Twilight, Luna, and myself.”
“What? Why would they think-”
“Cadence,” Celestia interrupted, “I am sorry, but at this moment I haven't the time to explain. If you want your questions answered, come with me and wait until after Luna and I try to ease tensions in the Royal Guard.”
“You said that they were worried about... Power struggles? But I only saw two hundred outside the castle when I came in, where are the rest?”
“They are searching the city for Twilight.”
“What?”
“She is badly hurt. If you want to help, go search in the hedge maze in the hidden places. I think she may be hiding there and I have sent guards to look for her, but I cannot explain to them where those places are nor do I have time to search them myself. I am sorry, but I must finish this speech and can't answer any more questions.”
Cadence's eyebrows shot up in alarm, “She's hurt. What do you mean? Emotionally, physically? What is going on?”
“She's physically hurt. Ask Luna when once we have finished addressing the guards' fears; she'll be better able to explain why she threw her through her tower's walls. Now, I must finish outlining my thoughts.”
Cadence stopped walking and stood in place dumbfounded. Threw her through the tower's walls? THAT was the hole I saw? Clearly Twilight had told them about her unfaithfulness, but something more, something far bigger had happened. But Twilight being thrown through the wall like that... No, surely she had heard wrong.
“What?” Cadence asked, running back up alongside Celestia as she turned down the staircase Cadence had just come up through.
“I don't have time to explain. Let Luna and I finish our speech and then we will have time to fill you in on the details. I will not debate this with you, now be silent.”
Celestia's demeanor was so dry that Cadence was all but certain she was fighting against a tremendous upset; it was rare for her to ever be this brash with anyone, let alone with her. She was Celestia's niece, after all, and they were very close.
They walked side by side in silence, Celestia absorbed in her papers and Cadence following along like a worried child. Entering through the Grand Hallway and standing a short distance away from the doors, Cadence tried to ignore the knots in her stomach.
“I have prepared my thoughts Sister,” Luna called, flying down from a balcony above having just entered through a skyway carrying behind her a small stack of papers. Landing next to her sister, Luna held the stack towards Celestia and said in a voice edged with annoyance, “Here is what I have prepared. Is your speech ready as well?”
“Yes, it is,” Celestia crossed out several lines and wrote one more, then exchanged what she was working on with Luna's speech. Cadence might as well have not been there, as she was not even acknowledged by either of them as they both read through each other's speeches, “I think your third, fifth and sixth sentences should be spoken following to my first, second, and third.” Celestia commented, after some time.
“I agree, and I think my second paragraph, minus the last two sentences, should be used in place of your second paragraph.”
“Yes.”
They both put quill to parchment and began writing. Similar actions continued as they began working their speeches together in exclusion of Cadence who sat nearby without gaining the least indication as to what was going on. Over the course of the next ten minutes, their individual speeches merged into one speech they both would give and they both, for proof checking, read their own parts aloud.
“While we are not fully ready to discuss the full situation, we both want to express that there is no ill will between Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, and myself. The upset which has temporarily affected the cycle of day and night was caused by a rogue changeling agent who attempted to infiltrate our ranks masquerading as Princess Twilight, and it does not represent any hostilities which have existed between us. Late yesterday, as some of you are aware, Luna and I were attacked by what appeared to be Princess Twilight, but in fact was a changeling queen who attempted to brainwash us.”
Luna picked up, “The queen's spell proved partially effective, but she underestimated our willpower, and she underestimated our strength as Alicorn Princesses.”
What? Cadence wondered to herself, They were brainwashed? The reason Queen Crysalis locked me away and brainwashed Shining Armor was because her magic didn't work on me. How were they, of all ponies, brainwashed?
Luna continued, “We fought against the mind magic and quickly overcame it, but were not in a position to take arms against the queen, nor could we tend to our stellar duties because, by doing so, we would let the queen know of our immunity.”
“Unfortunately, the changeling was aware she had overplayed her hoof when she realized there were witnesses to the attack and therefore she erected a protective field around Luna and myself to ward off the guards while she sought out additional food in the city so she might strengthen herself when she eventually would be challenged by the guards.”
“We could not follow her through the shield she had created, which by that time was being re-enforced with the energy being poured into it by the mages of the Royal Guard, so we were trapped. Meanwhile, Twilight, who had been more adversely affected by the mind magic managed to overcome the spell. Once she was freed, she immediately found her way to my sister and I.”
“With her deep knowledge and natural talent, she easily bypassed the shield and confirmed that she was the real Twilight. From there, we decided she and I would ambush the changeling when she returned.”
“Meanwhile, I, being the Princess of the Night and having deep familiarity with the art of stealth, tracked the changeling to ensure she caused no harm to the citizens of Canterlot. When I found her, she was beginning the act of feeding and I wasted no time in disrupting the act by attacking the queen. As she fled, I corralled her back to the castle where she fled into the safety of her shield. Twilight let me through, and with the changeling facing three alicrons, she was quickly dispatched.”
“Which brings us to the crux of this issue. After the attack on Canterlot during Princess Cadence's and Shining Armor's wedding, there was heightened concern about future infiltration of changelings, so we rounded up a number of straggling drones and began studying how they shapeshift and feed.”
“Twilight was elected chief researcher of the project and oversaw several other scientists and wizards who were studying the nature of changeling magic. Within a few short weeks, we had developed the countermeasures that we had been seeking, the project was shut down, and the changelings were neutralized humanely, or so we thought.”
“Twilight, unbeknownst to anyone including ourselves, kept one drone alive and continued researching. At first, she was looking into further countermeasures to stop their magic and illusions, but eventually, she posed the question of 'What makes a queen a queen?' Her goal was to find a way to transform all changeling queens into sterile drones and thereby end the danger they pose, but after several months of failure, she realized she needed a queen to study and successfully found a way to turn a drone into a queen. She took every precaution to ensure her experiment was contained, but the raw power of a changeling queen was a wildcard she was not expecting and the queen broke loose.
“After these events transpired, I learned of Twilight's careless studies and was driven to rage knowing she endangered Equestria. Blinded with fury, I hurtled her through the tower's walls.” Luna stopped and addressed Celestia, “Sister, this is going to destroy her. We can't do this – it isn't fair!”
“We have no choice unless you have any other ideas,” she pointed to the doors, “Within the next five minutes, we have to say something, and we have to say it in unity, else things will only become worse.”
Cadence was stoically shaking her head, “I'm with Luna on this. I have no idea what is going on here, but I can tell you right now that you are shoving all the blame for something onto Twilight. This isn't right and you are going to ruin all credibility she has.”
“This will be less destructive to her than telling the truth.” Celestia flatly said.
“The truth which is what exactly?” Cadence tried to drag out an answer.
“It is between Twilight, Luna, and me, so therefore does not concern you.”
“She and I have been intimate and that did not stop her from being intimate with Celestia,” Luna said to Cadence, spitefully glaring at her sister.
“Luna!” Celestia returned a poisonous look.
“I already knew about the affairs, she came to me yesterday needing help breaking the news to you both. Frankly, I had been expecting something to happen today, but there is more going on here than just that, isn't there?”
Luna looked to Celestia and asked “You pretend to know a bit as to why she did it. Would you do the honors?”
“I told you we are not speaking about it ever again. This is something that remains between us and Cadence does not need to know.”
“Know what? 'It' what is 'it'?” Cadence's eyes darted back and forth between the two, “Will you please explain something? Anything?”
Celestia pressed towards the door, “We don't have the time right now. What we have prepared will be far more merciful to Twilight than the truth.”
“That is not True, Celestia!” Luna shouted, moving in front of her sister and blocking her path, “You were once the bearer of honesty, friendship, and laughter, but now you are a liar and are being friend who is worse than any enemy. At least you still have the element of laughter working in your favor, because what you are doing right now is a joke! A Farce, that is what this all is!”
“We have to tell them something.”
“Then tell them the truth.”
“And you don't think that will destroy her reputation as well?” Celestia snapped back, “At least with this, she will have some dignity left over!”
Luna conceded, “You aren't going to yield on this, are you?”
“It is out of the question.”
“By tartarus's fires, damn you.” Luna mumbled under her breath, then indignantly glared at Celestia, “Very well. Fine, I submit, if only because the health of Equestria is at stake. Let us go condemn Twilight to save our own dignity.”
“That isn't what we are doing.”
“Then what is it?”
“We are protecting her.” Willing to take no more of this banter, Celestia composed herself, “Are you ready?”
“Yes, I am.” Luna replied through grit teeth.
“Good.” Celestia pushed open the doors and stepped out with Luna at her side. Before them stood three hundred guards at attention, clearly bristling with nervous energy. Striding forward, the two sisters carried before them one piece of on which their speech was written – they were to read from it together to convey there were no hostilities between them.
Reaching the edge of the balcony, Celestia cleared her throat and cast a mild amplification spell. “While we are not fully ready to discuss the full situation, we both want to express that there is no ill will between Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, and myself...” And so, supported by Luna, Celestia committed the deed.
Cadence, who listened from the other side of the doors, could not bear to hear Twilight ruined so heartlessly by Celestia and Luna, so she turned and briskly flew away.
“Twilight!” The sound of her name cut across the void between the realm of sleeping and the waking world. “Twilight!” her name was called again, slicing the strands of sleep which were raveling around her mind.
Her entire body was well past being sore, throbbing dully with pain and feeling quite swollen. She stirred and tried to move a leg, only for needles of pain to jab through it and the rest of her body. Nope, she thought to herself as she bit down against the pain and felt the stiffness in her joints.
Without opening her eyes, she tested her spellcasting with a numbing spell thrown harmlessly against the ground where it struck the stone nearby and dissipated. She judged it to have been cast correctly, and with her mind feeling less sluggish than before she had passed out, she figured more complex spells would be alright to cast too. Without a moment's hesitation, she cast an anti-inflammatory spell on herself and it spread over her like a cold blanket soothing some of the throbbing pain.
“Twilight? Are you here?” the voice called.
With her cracked ribs and vertebra, Twilight knew calling out in reply would be tremendously painful so she didn't, instead, she opted to use her magic. Pulling the quill, ink, and a piece of parchment from her saddlebags, Twilight scribbled,
Cadence,
I can hear you. I am in the fountain garden. Come help.
Wrapping it in her magic, it was teleported away and reached its target, if for no other reason than immediate proximity of the destination.
Assured Cadence would be there soon, Twilight closed her eyes and meticulously began casting the healing spell she had used the night before and cast it on herself after making sure she had formed it properly. Her body began to itch fiercely as the spell took hold of her flesh and began to slowly bolster her natural healing response while dulling the pain. It was just enough that Twilight could lift her head as she heard the hedge shape itself into a tunnel and see Cadence. “Oh Twilight!” she exclaimed and ran to her injured friend the moment she saw her. “You look terrible.
“I'm sure Shining thinks the same thing about you in the morning before you've gotten the chance to freshen up.”
“Chaplin Cuirass, Trenchdigger, I've found her!” Cadence called over her shoulder to two guards who were standing in the hedge tunnel with bewildered looks, “Come at once!”
“Of course!” the unicorn quickly snapped to attention, galloping through the tunnel to Twilight. He was draped with a white cloak with a broad red cross dyed on the back signifying he was a member of one of the Bonmender division of combat medics. Twilight closed her eyes as his horn glowed and she felt him probing her injuries with his magic, “Princess, have you been casting healing spells on yourself?” he asked with a concerned voice.
“Yes,” Twilight began weakly. “It is a derivative of Nedleprick's thesis of Somatic Mending composed in 984... I'll be up front and say I've used it too much, but I was in a desperate situation.”
“You may be right about having used it too much, but I cannot tell at this moment. When was the last time you cast it on yourself?”
“Just a few minutes ago, and it was coupled a general anti-inflammatory spell. Before then, I had used it three times over the course of an hour... I think. I overcharged it once to help with the pain.”
Chaplin Cuirass gave Twilight a grave look, “I don't want to risk casting a spell to treat your wounds until what you cast has worn off, so that means I can only use physical means of addressing your injuries. I want to get you back to the infirmary at once so I can do that,” he turned to Trenchdigger, an earth pony guard who was carrying a folded up hammock stretcher, “Get ready to move her.”
“Wait!” Twilight's frantic voice called, “What about Luna? Is she still trying to kill me?”
“Trying to kill you?” Cadence was incredulous.
“Yes. She was... I mean, I think so. She threw me through a wall she was-she was chasing me.”
“Chasing you? When? Was she trying to hurt you? I thought they have no idea where you are, at least.”
“She attacked me when I... when I told her about what we discussed, and I am afraid she is still looking to hurt me.”
Cadence looked over to Chaplin Curiass, “Please take her to the infirmary and make sure she is taken care of. I must go speak with Luna and Celestia.” It had taken her a half hour's worth of checking the maze to find where Twilight was, so when she flew back into the castle, Celestia and Luna had moved into the throne room to address the governmental officials' concerns and hopefully send them back to their daily business. Momentarily halted by sight of the gaping hole burned in the double doors, Cadence flew directly to the sisters, landed in front of them and faced the line of supplicants waiting to speak. “Citizens, the other Princesses and I must speak in private. Please step outside and wait a few minutes for us to discuss something..” They did not look pleased, but they complied with Cadence's order.
“What is the meaning of this?” Luna asked with a bit of agitation as Cadence warded the room with her soundproofing spell.
She looked Luna directly in the eye, “Twilight says you tried to kill her and is afraid of you.”
“You found her?” Luna asked,
“Where is she?” Celestia echoed.
“I will not answer until you tell me what happened last night. Luna, like I said, Twilight says you tried to kill her. Is that true?”
“No! I intended no such thing,” Luna protested. “It was a fit of anger that drove me to hurt her, and I regretted doing it the moment it happened!” Cadence gave her a long evaluating stare.
“I might be able to believe you. Given how angry I am at both of you right now, I could imagine doing some things I might regret.” Cadence turned to Celestia and addressed her, “You have always been prideful – that's one of the dirty little secrets about you I've picked up on, but what you have done is lowdown and aweful. You just trampled Twilight under hoof and ruined her reputation, yet you escape the embarrassment. I don't even know the full details of what happened, but I know a lie when I see one. She is a scapegoat because you did not want to face the shame of having your relationship with her revealed.”
“Calm yourself Cadence. Hot tempers and passion driven actions are what got us here in the first place,” Celestia soothed, “What we said in the speech was the best option of a terrible set of choices and I was protecting her as best I could.”
“Protecting? She will be ousted by the scientific community for this violation of ethics; the papers she has written will be removed from circulation, her research will be discredited, and she will be excommunicated from academia.”
Celestia's expression hardened and she warningly replied, “Do not presume I do not know this. But I ask you to consider this question: what of the other alternative? Do you not think the humiliation would be worse than the what she currently faces?”
“For a period, yes, the consequences would be worse had you admitted the truth, but eventually they would have faded verses the permanent scar slighted against her. Sexual misconduct is one thing, but imprisoning thinking, sapient beings for years so that they might be experimented upon – that is not only unethical but is outright evil! She will never escape the stigma you have set against her.”
“You are mistaken,” Celestia calmly replied, “You have not lived as long as I and you have not seen the fall of members of the government like I have. The shortest path to the public's hatred is through promiscuous behavior. A politician might be corrupt, embezzle money, waste public funds, but nothing hangs over her worse than an affair. If it were to become known that she, a mare, was intimate with us, two mares ourselves, the outrage would destroy her, and perhaps all of us along with her.”
“And you forget who I am, Aunt. I may be younger and less experienced than you, but daily, I council ponies on mistakes of the heart and I am familiar with the ruination it brings. What of scientific misconduct? We all know of Doctor Vile Glass and Arch-Mage Ether Bloom. The former tested poison on his patients claiming he was giving them medicine, while the latter secretly dabbled in necromancy. Though they lived centuries ago, their names are still synonymous with treachery and dark studies.”
“You are correct – you are younger than I and have less experience. That is not a bad thing, but you haven't had the chance to understand the larger picture. Both of those you mentioned died during their dark acts. The doctor fell on a syringe filled with his own poison, and I personally walked in on the undead, mutilated corpse of the former Arch-Mage after one of his experiments finally backfired and he failed to appear for duties for a few days. Twilight, though, has her whole life ahead of her and has more than an excellent chance to redeem herself.”
Cadence's ears were flattened back on her head as she frowned at Celestia, “But the part I take issue with is that you said she carried out the research on her own accord, meaning it was her misconduct that supposedly caused this mess with the changeling queen. Yet, you could have mitigated the harm brought upon her by saying you ordered her to undertake the research for the good of Equestria, and she only complied reluctantly.”
“Equestria does not need to lose any more faith in its leaders, as even now it will be difficult to reign in the nobles and officials' fears surrounding this queen and another invasion.”
“It would have made little difference had you tried a little harder to save Twilight's reputation, but you're angry with her – I can tell – and you want her to pay a price for what she's done.”
“Cadence,” Celestia lowered her tone, “I am hurt, not angry. It brings me only-”
“You've thrown her under a cart and trampled over her in order to save your own reputation,” Cadence brashly interrupted. “You can't be oblivious to that fact.”
“I agree Celestia,” Luna grimly added, “This doesn't feel right.”
“I stand by the decision as being the right choice for Equestria,” Celestia bristled momentarily, then softened, “Now please Cadence, I have been worrying about Twilight since sister's tantrum. I want to see her at once.”
“Not until you tell me what happened last night,” Cadence looked from one to the other, prodding them to open up about the events.
Celestia calmly began, “Twilight confronted me about her illegitimacy, then told Luna as well. We three exchanged some heated words and time escaped us as we dealt with the personal problems.”
A disapproving look on her face, Luna said “That's not-” only to be cut off.
“That is what happened,” Celestia firmly stated.
“That's not what? What happened Luna?”
Indecision, worry, anger: these emotions flickered across Luna's face, “Twilight-”
“Luna!” Celestia glared scornfully at her sister, “Remember what I said.”
“I have not forgotten,” she returned the glare then quite fiercely responded to Cadence, “Twilight violated us on every imaginable level.”
“What?” Cadence took a step back from Luna's outburst, “Is this about the unfaithfulness or is it something else.”
“This is a personal matter, Cadence, and I ask that you stop prying. Luna, I ask that you please respect my wishes and say nothing more.”
“I will not drop this matter. Luna, what specifically do you mean 'violated'?”
“Celestia and I were discussing something when Twilight barged into the the throne room, fire rolling off her, and hit us with an aphrodisiac spell, hence we three bedded together and did unspeakable things with one another!”
Cadence, dumbfounded, took another step back from the wilting intensity of Luna's explosive anger. “I don't think I heard right, what did you just say?”
“I said,” Luna's voice was suddenly downcast, “Twilight coerced Celestia and I to become intimate.”
“As in-” Cadence cut herself short, not believing what she had just heard.
“Yes, as in Exactly what you think.” Luna snipped back, “Twilight, our best friend, has hurt us in a way deeper than any way we had conceived possible.”
Cadence fell to her haunches and exhaled an exasperated breath while running a hoof through her hair, “Whew, okay... okay, I know this seems really bad, but just give me a minute to wrap my head around this...” A few seconds passed and she regained some composure, “Why did she do it?”
“I haven't the slightest inkling,” Luna aggressively pointed a hoof at Celestia who had stepped away and was clearly trying to shove her mortification back behind her constructed appearance. “Ask her. She claims to know but hasn't told me yet.”
“This is a question best left for Twilight,” Celestia corrected, turning back to them and blushing intensely despite her attempts to force her feelings back. “She attempted to explain it to me, but we both were not in the condition to receive or give any kind of explanation of that nature.”
“And this led to you hurting her?” Cadence looked to Luna.
“Yes, she came into my room after the monstrous event had passed. I threatened her, but she was intent on giving an explanation, but she told me that before she could explain what had happened, she must first tell me something.”
“And that was the secret about Celestia?”
Luna glumly nodded in confirmation, “I was overtaken with anger and envy. In those moments, I felt the same passionate hatred and betrayal that created Nightmare Moon, and... I lashed out without intending to. I thank the stars that Twilight is still alive, but knowing that I hurt her like this... it causes shame to devour me from the inside out.”
“I would hope so. Twilight is in very bad shape.”
“Please, then. I- We must see her. I want to tell her I didn't mean the hate filled things I said to her – I need to tell her that had I only been more tempered, I would have realized I didn't want to hurt her. I can't bear the weight of this crushing down upon me any longer!”
Sighing and still sitting on her haunches, Cadence shook her head in resignation, “Okay, but I want to talk to her first about some things and I shall ask that you both wait outside while I hear her side. This has been very... complicated... and if I know her at all, then I know she will be as torn up about this as you have been. Fifteen or twenty minutes– if nothing else so I might calm her down.”
“We will follow you and wait.” Celestia assured, “But I want to talk with her as soon as possible.”
“Okay.”
The three Princesses exited the throne room and made their way towards the castle's infirmary after telling the supplicants that Twilight had been found and they needed to speak with her.
When Cadence arrived at the infirmary, she left Luna and Celestia sitting in an adjacent waiting room and entered in. Stepping in past a nurse's desk, she asked the stallion behind it to take her to Twilight, and she was led through a series of white marble hallways ending in an intensive care room where Twilight was surrounded by two doctors, each cleaning and dressing her wounds.
Cadence stood back and watched as Twilight's face twitched in pain each time an ointment drenched cotton swab was gently patted onto the scratches and tears in her skin, and she couldn't help but feel a certain maternal worrying for her well-being. Worrying a bit too much about this, Cadence forced herself to remember Twilight wasn't the little filly she had helped raise; she was a capable, strong adult whose alicorn magic, in a few decades, will have grown strong enough that she could survive much worse than this.
Letting the doctors do their work uninterrupted, Cadence stood in the doorway of the care unit. At one point, Twilight opened her eyes and saw her standing there. She smiled at Cadence, who returned the gesture and stepped towards the bed.
“Doctors, is it okay for me to talk with Twilight?”
“I'm sorry, but now isn't a good time, Princess,” one answered. “We are getting her cleaned up in preparation for a few scans – she has multiple fractures, some of which need to be set properly before they heal incorrectly.”
“I understand. Twilight, there are some things I want to talk with you about when we get the chance.”
Twilight laughed glumly, “Okay. I won't be going anywhere.”
“How long will it be until I can talk with her?” Cadence asked the doctor who had spoken before.
“If the matter is not pressing, I ask that you give us about three or four hours to treat her.”
“I'll be back then Twilight, will you be okay?”
“Yeah,” she simply replied. “Will Celestia and Luna come too?”
“They are just outside the ward waiting to talk with you, but given what you've been through I wanted to talk to you first. They are worried about you. Both of them.”
“What about Luna?”
“She told me she didn't want to hurt you even though she succumbed to a moment of passion. I believe her, but that makes me no less angry with her.”
“I can... understand her mistake...” Twilight looked away from Cadence, “I've hurt them in such a terrible way... and it was all because of a mistake. A stupid mistake.” Tears started forming in Twilight's eyes as looked away from Cadence.
“Are you sure you are okay Twilight?”
“Yeah,” her voice wavered. “I'll be alright, but I want to talk with Luna and Celestia so I can tell them how sorry I am. I can't express the depth of how sorry I am.”
“If you want, I'll tell them that when I see them in just a few minutes.”
“That would help,” she sniffled, “thanks.”
“Alright, well, I'll be waiting in the room nearby so I'll be available the instant I can talk to you.”
“Thank you, Cadence.”
Turning, Cadence walked out the door and returned to the room she had left Celestia and Luna in. Sitting at far ends of the room, there was a palpable animosity between them suggestive of an argument Cadence had missed. They both stood when Cadence entered.
“How is she?” Celestia asked with a leading edge of worry in her voice.
“Beaten up pretty badly, but otherwise fine physically.”
“Thank the Stars!” Luna exclaimed, “Can we speak with her now?”
Cadence shook her head, “The doctors wanted to have several hours to get her wounds dressed and deal with her broken bones. They said we could go ahead and speak with her, but that would delay their treatment, and I don't want to put Twilight through that unnecessarily.”
Luna was disappointed while Celestia was stoic, “I think,” the latter of the two began, “that this is in fact best. This will give us time to settle worries and fears in our subjects and let us have some more time to enter into the conversation with cool emotions. Do you agree Luna?”
She sighed, “I canst wait a few more hours, but for my heart's sake, I must apologize soon lest the burden on my heart crush me. Cadence, please inform we may speak with her once she is ready to receive us.”
“I will.”
“I am grateful, Cadence.”
“There is one more thing, and it concerns you too Celestia.”
“Yes?”
“And what is that?”
“Twilight was heartbroken by her mistakes when she came for advice yesterday and she deeply regrets having made them. When I talked with her, she told me how unimaginably sorry she is for everything, and I believe every word she told me.” Cadence gave them both a pleading look, “I know what she has done is terrible, but when you deal with her, don't let yourselves forget that she is sorrowful and repentant.”
Luna and Celestia stoically nodded their heads replying in turn, “I shan't,” and “I will remember.”
“Unless you need me to help with settling matters in the government, I want to stay here and be ready the moment I can talk to Twilight. I want to spend just a few minutes in private speaking with her, then I will come fetch you both as quickly as possible.”
“I would have suggested something similar,” Celestia replied then looked to Luna. “It is time we returned to the court to continue speaking with petitioners.”
“Yes, begrudgingly, I must agree if there is nothing else we may do while we await time to speak with Twilight. Cadence, please be sure to come to us at once when Twilight is ready to see us.”
“I will.”
“Thank you,” Luna turned and left with Celestia alongside her, leaving Cadence alone. Feeling overwhelmed by the situation at hoof, she exhaled wearily and slumped down upon one of the plush couches in the room, taking a moment to let her mind unwind as she closed her eyes. Surrounding her were soft accommodations, rich tapestries, and extravagantly comfortable furniture. This was a room reserved specifically for the Princesses and those close to them, whether they be family, friends, or advisers.
In the twenty-eight years of her life Cadence could only recall being in this room two, maybe three times, each being when a high ranking governmental official was on his or her deathbed withering away from old age; this was the first time that she had been in there for a reason like this. Princesses, as a rule, don't get hurt. Period. They are surrounded by multiple layers of protection, are quite capable of defending themselves in the off chance they are threatened, and, quite frankly, are quite difficult to hurt in the first place.
Cadence could specifically remember being quite violently abducted into the caverns underneath Canterlot Castle by Queen Chrysalis and the only notable effect was her hair got messed up. Sure, being left down there for several weeks without food or water left her pretty weak by the end of it all, but the point is Princesses don't get hurt – ever.
Yawning, she reflected on the many conversations she was to hold in the future. The thought of them left her feeling over her head. How was she supposed to prepare any meaningful advice in the short time she had and not knowing exactly what went through Twilight's head to cause her to hit Celestia and Luna with the 'aphrodisiac spell'. Well, maybe she did have a bit more knowledge in that regard.
Twilight, when she was younger, had on multiple occasions heard classmates talking about her and assumed they were spreading gossip about her. In some cases, that my have been true, but Twilight had once became certain that the entire class was going to start making fun of her when it was found out that she had Smartypants. As a preemptive measure, she used some magic to make every foal in the classroom like her.
Another instance, when she was thirteen, she came home with a load of books and quickly ran upstairs while Cadence was foalsitting. She had thought little of it at the time, but when she heard Twilight crying upstairs, she realized something was going on. An quick investigation and a warm heart to heart shared between them revealed Twilight had wanted to be asked out to the fall formal by a certain bespectacled colt she had a crush on and had been creepily stalking for the past few months. The problem was, he didn't really even know she existed other than the fact that she won every single academic excellence honor awarded by the school, so naturally he asked someone else to go to the dance. Unfortunately, Twilight just so happened to be doing reconnaissance on the colt at the time he asked another filly out, devastating Twilight. That was the day she had come home, run upstairs with her books, and started crying.
When Cadence came upstairs to ask what was going on, she even showed her the notes she had been taking which included encyclopedia level detail on every single action the stallion had made through the day including the time, place, and consistency of bowl movements. To this, Cadence said love isn't “being a terrifyingly creepy stalker” and explained that she should be more forward with the colt and talk to him some more.
Twilight the next day was in fact more direct in approaching him and cast a want-it-need-it spell on herself to attract him. However, in the end, she wound up with every single colt and most of the fillies asking her to the dance.
Things like this happened several more times, but perhaps the most disturbing of all was the incident in Ponyville where she turned the whole town against itself over Smartypants. That was another long discussion they had about being responsible with that type of magic.
By its nature, alluring Celestia and Luna like she did was a common occurrence for Twilight, though this was a whole new level she had escalated things to. If this time was anything like the last time, which Cadence was certain that it was, then Twilight heard a few things either out of context or blown out of proportion by her frazzled demeanor, thus putting more more stress on top of the incredible amount of stress that had been weighing on her. She overreacted, and then you have this whole situation.
In truth, maybe this had been a long time coming. Could Cadence trace back the warning signs back to the want-it-need-it spell in Ponyville, or was this something far older? Twilight had always had trouble managing stress and getting overwhelmed: the most recent example being the two simultaneous relationships. It was just too stressful for Twilight to break the news to Celestia and Luna, so she continually put off doing it until it was far too late.
Cadence had thought she had done a good job teaching Twilight how to deal with curbing her anxiety, she had thought she, along with Twilight's parents, had explained to her why the wanton use of mind magic was bad. Maybe there was something they could have done that would have better explained to Twilight why using love spells like that was bad...
But, Cadence wondered to herself, Maybe I set a bad example using my magic? Twilight was just a little filly when she first saw me cast a love spell. Cadence shook her head, No, Twilight is smart. Even if she didn't understand the right conditions to cast a love spell, she understands them now, and she has understood the right reasons for a long time.
Still, it was worrying to her that Twilight as an impressionable child might have picked up some bad habits because of her not explaining well enough the reasons when and when not to use love magic.
As Cadence thought upon these things, she felt her head droop and caught herself falling asleep several times. It was six in the morning then, and she had been flying to Canterlot at breakneck speed since a few hours after the sun failed to set. Having time to sit down and think made her realize how physically and emotionally exhausted she was.
Ready for a short rest, Cadence let herself doze off. When she awoke, the clock on the wall read 9:33 – she had been asleep for three and a half hours. Quickly, she stood and walked back to the ICU where Twilight had been.
The air was heavy with pungent alchemical remedies and ointments. This was the wing of the infirmary reserved especially for the Princesses, so therefore were stocked with rare and powerful healing potions and other treatments, meaning anything used by the doctors in this room would be the smelliest and most potent potions known to ponykind. Twilight wasn't in the room, but two nurses caught sight of Cadence as she walked in and approached her. “Your highness,” one spoke up, “Princess Twilight has been moved to her own room. The doctors are still working on her, but they instructed me to tell you that they are mostly done treating her and Twillight is ready to speak with you.”
“Thank you,” Cadence replied, “Can you please tell me where she is?”
The other nurse nodded, “Yes, right this way.”
“Okay.”
Cadence followed him a short distance down the hallway and into a well decorated room with colorfully embroidered curtains hung over a sunny window.
“Cadence, hi.” Twilight called with a sad tone.
“Hi Twilight. How are you feeling?”
“Physically, a lot better. I'm surprised by how quickly I heal. I mean, I knew alicorns healed quickly, but a lot of the smaller scratches on me have already started to close up entirely.”
“That's good to hear. How are you doing, you know, otherwise?”
Twilight's attitude instantly deflated, “I eh, I mean its...” she struggled to find words, then turned to the doctor in the room, “Doctor, we need some privacy, can you please leave us and close the door?”
“Yes Princess.”
“One last time, it's Twilight,” she corrected with a hint of annoyance in her tone.
“Eh,” the doctor squirmed slightly, “yes, Twilight.”
Waiting several moments for the doctor to walk out, Twilight groaned as the door clicked closed, “Cadence, I feel terrible. I can't believe what I've done.”
“What exactly happened? Celestia and Luna never have explained to me.”
Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, “I messed up. I made the biggest mistake in my life and it affected the two ponies I love most.” Her voice dripped with resignation, “I'm so worthless, they'll never forgive me.”
“No, don't say that,” Cadence put her hoof on Twilight's hoof, “They are angry, and they're hurt. It will take a long time for all this to heal, but I can't fathom that they won't forgive you. This is Celestia we're talking about, she loves you as much as she loves Luna and she forgave Luna for her mistakes as Nightmare Moon. I can only assume Luna loves you as much as she love Celestia; however, I know for a fact how heartbroken she is because she hurt you. She hasn't said it in so many words, but I think she is afraid you will not forgive her for throwing you through the tower.”
“For what it's worth, I deserve worse than what she did to me.” Twilight morosely said.
Cadence gave Twilight a pained expression that, after a bit, softened, “Maybe you did deserve a bit of this, but I wouldn't recommend it as a normal type of punishment.”
Twilight smiled and gave a sad chuckle, “If this were more commonplace, I think we might run out of walls.”
Cadence smiled as well, “I suppose so.”
They, pensively smiling at eachother, exchanged a few not quite so sad moments before Twilight blinked and looked away, “Cadence, can you please go get Celestia and Luna. I want to try apologizing again, even though I know it won't make things much better. I don't know what else to do, but I think it will be a start.”
“In just a minute, but, I think we need to talk about something first.”
Twilight knew the tone Cadence's voice just took and she cringed knowing the long 'powwow' that was coming, “Talk about what?”
“Twilight, do you remember that colt named Pencil Pusher you liked so much?”
“Yes.”
“And you remember our conversation about the want-it-need-spell?”
“Yes...”
“Luna says you cast an aphrodisiac spell on her and Celestia, is that true?”
Twilight, ashamed of herself blushed and rolled so her back was towards Cadence. Very quietly, she could hear Twilight's voice squeak “Yes...” Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room had been sucked out.
Cadence closed her eyes and chewed on her next words, rolling them over her tongue time and time again so she would say them just right and hurt Twilight as little as possible, “Twilight, I thought you had promised never to use this sort of magic ever again. After the last time you did this, you had an entire town rioting in the streets over Smartypants, and as a price, you lost her. When we talked that situation over, you said you learned your lesson, but it seems as if you haven't at all.”
Twilight sniffled, “I didn't mean for this to happen.”
“But it happened anyway.”
Laying on her side, Twilight said nothing. Cadence put a hoof on her shoulder, “You're a Princess now, you don't have the luxury of letting yourself lose control anymore.”
Suddenly, Twilight sat up in bed and gave Cadence a hurt, piercing look, “Do you think it's that simple? Do you think I think to myself 'I think I should lose control about right now'?”
“You know I understand this is a real problem for you, but I want to underscore this fact because the entire world has been upset because of the day spilling over into the night.”
“I know, and that's what scares me. Cadence, whenever these things happen, I feel like I am doing the most perfectly logical thing; I don't feel like I am losing control. When I cast the want-it-need-it spell in Ponyville, that was just the end of it all. The entire day, I edged closer and closer towards insanity for no good reason! And it isn't the only time in the last two years where I've gone crazy like that. Out of the blue, one day while I was in my library, a version of myself from the future appeared.”
“A version of you from the future?” Cadence asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Ask spike or any of my other friends about it. It really happened; I swear.”
“Okay...” Cadence said tentatively
“This 'future me' came warning me of a tremendous disaster that was going to happen in a week's time but she didn't have the chance to tell me everything, so I started freaking out and ended up trying to observe every tiny little detail happening in Ponyville so I could do something about the disaster. Any of my friends would tell you that I was an absolute wreck by the end of the week when the disaster was supposed to happen. At the end of it all, I snuck into the Starswirl wing of the Royal Archives, stole a time spell, and went back in time just to tell myself that absolutely nothing bad was gong to happen, but didn't get the chance to tell it to 'past me' thereby setting 'past me' into a frantic search to stop a disaster that wasn't going to happen in the first place.” Twilight shuddered, “Looking back, I can see just how crazy I was acting, and it scares me, Cadence. It scares me that I can't realize when I start losing control. I have all this power, and I could-” Twilight gulped, “I could really hurt someone when I lose control.”
“Be calm, Twilight,” Cadence said in a soothing voice. “Don't let your imagination and worries run away with you. Just think of here and now; focus on the moment.”
“R-Right,” Twilight nervously stammered, closed her eyes, and took a series of deep breaths. “I'm letting myself get worried again, aren't I?”
“Just a little bit.”
“Sorry...” Twilight frowned rubbed her forehead. “I was about to do it again.”
“It's okay.”
“No, it isn't. I can't escape this problem despite trying my best to do so. It makes me feel like something intangible is wrapping around my neck and strangling me, and it only strangles me worse the faster I run.”
“Twilight, calm down, it isn't that bad.”
“Oh gosh, I'm doing it right now thinking about how I don't want to do it,” Twilight's tone was becoming desperate, “I'm trying, but I just can't.”
“Twilight,” Cadence said with a fair bit of alarm seeping into her voice,
“just stop thinking about it.”
“Okay,” she closed her eyes, exhaled firmly, then then inhaled through her nose. “I have this,” she exhaled again, inhaling more slowly this time. “Easy,” She repeated the cycle a dozen more times when suddenly her face scrunched up, “Ugh! I can't! I just can't tear my mind away from it!”
“Keep trying and tell yourself not to get flustered. Remember that a lot of what we feel is shaped by what we think.”
Twilight tried to take this advice to heart, but it felt dubious, “I don't know if it will work.”
“We've talked about this before, tell yourself it will work. Make yourself believe it, no matter what you think.”
“Alright.”
Twilight exhaled and inhaled meditatively then repeated while keeping in mind what Cadence had told her just now as well as in times passed. This isn't a problem, just imagine the stress as a liquid and pour it into a jar. Seal it, put it in a wooden box, and push it away. You feel better now. Everything is okay. Over the next few minutes with further coaxing from Cadence, Twilight's anxiety receded enough to be bearable, and she told Cadence she was ready to talk with Luna and Celestia.
“Okay Twilight, I'll go get them.” Cadence said. She left and just a few minutes later, Celestia and Luna came through the door to the room.
“Twilight! I am so glad you are well!” Luna exclaimed upon entering the room.
“Hi Lu-” Twilight was scooped up into a crushing bear hug, “Ack!” She struggled for a few moments until she was released, holding a hoof to her chest and taking several pained breaths. “Sweet mercy don't do that, I've got broken bones.”
“Oh Twilight, I am so sorry, I never meant to do this to you.” Luna mourned but then turned sour, “You betrayed me so deeply, you have violated me so fully that I was driven to do this.”
Twilight sighed, “I deserved this, you know. I deserved worse. But I don't deserve your love,” she looked at both Luna and Celestia, “I don't deserve love from either of you. I'm hopeless.”
“You are partially correct, in that regard,” Celestia condescended, “But do not discount the possibility of forgiveness, though I stress it to be a very long road to that point. There are many things which you first must set right with me before I can put your mistakes behind me.”
“Aye, after my actions as Nightmare Moon and...” Luna pointed solemnly at Twilight's injuries, “after having done this this to you, it would be hypocritical of me to not concede the same point.” Her face hardened and a vengeful fire flickered behind her eyes, “You have stabbed my heart and I am too enraged with you to absolve you of this any time soon, BUT,” she softened again, “it is my past and my mistakes that permit me to be in the same room as you at this time. And even if I am furious with you, I was still worried sick about you while you were missing and it does my heart good to see you are safe now.”
“I guess,” Twilight hesitated, “I mean, I know I owe you an explanation, and I wish the one I have to give you was better. I wish the reason this happened wasn't so, stupid.”
She sighed, “I had teleported to the Crystal Empire to talk with Cadence to get my head straight. I knew I needed to tell both of you about... about everything I have been hiding, and looking back, I just needed someone to tell me what I already knew I needed to do. I came back and had finally resolved to tell you both, and I was stressed, I mean, really stressed. My mind was swarming and I was terrified both of you would hate me. I just couldn't get the thought of losing both of you out of my head.
“I needed to calm myself down and I needed some time to figure out what to say to you, so I wandered around the castle a bit just trying to think. Then, I came to the thrown room and... you were arguing. My heart sank; I just knew you had found out about... everything, and I just didn't know what to do. I was distraught, thinking the worst had happened as I listened to the argument, and as I listened in, I thought you were both saying our relationship wasn't what I thought it was. Luna, when you said 'It was just a fitful fling of fun,' with an end in mind, I thought you were talking about us, that you were saying-”
“Twilight!” Luna yelled in a hurt tone, “How could you think something like that? Would you seriously believe I would treat our relationship as some game?!?”
“I don't know why I would think that!” Twilight forcefully spread her forelegs to her sides gesturing at how furiously antagonized she was by herself, “When I'm so upset, it's like I have a pair of tinted glasses on which corrupt everything I experience; I just go crazy! This is a problem I have fought with my entire life, and I feel like I am losing the battle. What hurts even worse is that, Celestia, I at the time had convinced myself that you had raised and manipulated me with the end goal of me being in a physical relationship with you. When you were arguing, Luna said she knew what she had been planning since I was a filly, then you came around and replied saying you had 'set those events in motion knowing that when they came to fruition, I would be an adult and capable of handling them.' I was so messed up I somehow interpreted that out of context, and it made me feel hurt and betrayed... I thought neither of you loved me, and I just wanted to be loved. So... I walked in and...” Twilight's eyes took a pleading look as they filled with tears, “I swear, I only meant for it to be a love spell. That was all, please believe me! But I was so scared, hurt, and angry, the spell came out wro-,” she shuddered at the thought, “it came out wrong.”
“And what would this 'love spell' have done if it had worked as you intended?” Luna asked with suspicion.
“It would cause infatuation, sickly sweet, platonic, puppy-love infatuation and it would have worn off in less than a day.”
Luna was quite flat in her response, “I see.”
“Please believe me, I'm telling the truth.”
“I believe you, but what I am angry with is that you would think I manipulated you since you were a little filly? Do you really think I am capable of such a disgusting action?” Celestia accused. “Our relationship is based upon mutual understanding and respect, yet you
“No,” Twilight adamantly defended, “You've seen me when I start to crack – thinking clearly is a problem for me. I don't say this to shift blame away from myself. No, I take full responsibility for everything, but I say this to emphasize that I know you would never do something like that to me, even if I was too blind at the moment to realize how wrong I was.”
“I am glad that, at least now, you realize that.”
“Yes, I too am glad. And-” Luna bowed her head, “I myself can understand making the wrong decision when influenced by emotion. Though I am still angry at you and still do not understand how you could have done any of this to me, I do not hate you.”
Celestia nodded stoically, agreeing with Luna, “We still love you, Twilight.”
Twilight's eyes had been bleary until Celestia uttered those words. Suddenly, the deluge she had been holding back broke forth from her and she started crying, “I love you both too.” Leaning from bed, she wrapped her forelegs around Luna who stood closest to the bed. Celestia, standing back from the bed and too far away to reach, declined Twilight's offer when she extended her hug and gestured for Celestia to come closer.
“Twilight,” Celestia, cold and distant, said, “Understand that things have changed in these past few hours. I still consider you my friend, but my faith in you has been shaken to its roots.”
The words gnawed a hollow pit in Twilight's stomach. Pulling Luna closer to her for one last second, she let go and returned to sitting on her haunches on the bed, plucking out a tissue from a box on the nightstand and levitating it over to her. She dabbed her eyes with it, “I know things have changed... and it's so unfair to the both of you to suffer because I made this mistake. I wish you both could be happy while I would be the only one who pays the price for this, but...” she trailed off. “Things can't go back to the way they were. That's why I have to do what I'm about to...”
“What are you talking about?” Luna asked.
“It's the best of three impossible choices, and I want to make it with both of your consent.” Twilight steadied herself, “You both mean so much to me that I can't measure how much I love both of you. I can't choose either of you over the other, and even if I were able to, it would be completely unfair to who I didn't choose. I have already driven a wedge between you, and I don't want to cause a bigger rift between you. The type of physical, intimate love which existed between us can't exist anymore because I would have to choose one of you over the other – and that is if one of you would even have me after what I've done.”
“That is a big 'if', Twilight, after what you have done.” Celesta informed.
“I know it is, but I am talking hypothetically if someday, somehow I ever earn your and Luna's trust again, I don't want to risk being a point of contention between you two. I've studied history; I've seen how a love triangle can turn siblings against each other and divide nations. I love you too much to destroy the bond between you, and that is one of the reasons I feel so immensely terrible. I've hurt that bond.”
“If you are suggesting chastity towards us both, I suggest you clear yourself of such thoughts until calmer minds prevail on all sides,” Luna said. “This is no time for any of us to be making an emotionally heavy decision.”
“Luna is right,” Celestia affirmed, “This decision has lasting consequences and should not be made without deeply considering the implications of what the choice will do. That said, there are some things we must tell you.”
“Oh?” Twilight suddenly sounded worried.
“You see, Twilight,” Celestia began coolly, “your actions have had ramifications that have spread across the world, but more pressingly, the Royal Guard has been put into an uncomfortable situation because of what you have done. As you know, Captain Ivory Rook saw you cast the spell against us, so she therefore rallied the royal guard to fight against you believing you had gone rogue. Yet, when you were thrown through the tower walls, a large number of the guards witnessed the event and came to believe that Luna was the rogue Princess. From there, things degraded. Many of the night guard began to take up arms to be ready to take sides with Luna should she rebel against Equestria. Meanwhile, word of this began to spread through the Solar Guard and they were preparing to side with you and me to engage with the dissenters. Three distinct contingents had begun to emerge, and tension was building between them before Luna and I managed to defuse the situation by explaining what had happened.”
“You told them what happened,” Twilight said with alarm, “They know that-”
“We have a cover story,” Celestia interrupted. “However, it has some implications regarding you.”
Twilight relaxed, but was still nervous, “Implications?”
“Yes,” Celestia's horn glowed and a piece of parchment appeared in front of her. Thoughtfully eyeing it for several moments, Celestia drew a slow, steadying breath and levitated it over to Twilight. “This was the speech we gave which explained what had happened. In it, we explained that after the changeling attack, we had ordered research to be done upon several captured drones and that you had been put in charge. Eventually, the research ran its course and was ended, but you continued experiments without our knowledge or authorization. As we have told the public, one of the experiments broke loose, knocked you unconscious after taking your form, and attacked us.”
Twilight was skimming the speech as Celestia spoke. As she delved into the parts detailing the secret confinement of the changeling and the experimentation upon it, her hoof rose to her mouth as she fell into deeper levels of disbelief, “I- I am...”
“Painted a villain?” Cadence scoffed, “Because that is what I believe they have done.”
“No! I mean-” She cut herself off and looked pleadingly into Celestia and Luna's eyes, “Why would you do this to me?”
“Because, we are most certainly Not coming forward to the public with the true story, but I feel that it is appropriate that you still feel the sting of your actions.”
Luna turned a concerned eye to Celestia, “Sister, why did I not hear this reasoning from you before I agreed to become entangled in this mire with you? I thought you said there was no other way.”
Pulling Luna aside so that they stood backs to Twilight, Celestia quietly said, “I did, but this point works in retrospect and I believe it to be a fitting punishment for her actions.”
“These matters should be handled internally, between the three of us,” Luna hissed.
“If this had not spilled over into the political world, I would agree. However, the entire nation has suffered because of this and if Twilight is to be a good ruler, she must learn that there is no disconnect between her private live and her life as a Princess.”
“This is unnecessarily cruel.”
“Not making this a lesson would be more cruel. There is nothing we can do to change what has happened, but is it so wrong to make the best of terrible circumstances? Heavens know we both needed guidance when we were her age and making the same mistakes.”
“This is not guidance, it is revenge.”
“Do you think I take pleasure in doing this? For the entirety of Twilight's life, she has made mistakes like this and I have overlooked them and protected her from the repercussions. Once, she enthralled an entire town using a desire spell which had them fighting in the streets over a doll. Once it was over, I had thought she had learned her lesson and did not press the matter, but it is now painfully clear to me that she has failed. She must learn that her actions have consequences.”
“I know she has made smaller mistakes like this in the past, but I take issue in the act of doling punishment because it seems you again are treating Twilight as your student. If I may be so blunt, I do not consider it appropriate for you, someone who has been as much a teacher as a mother to Twilight, to have even engaged with her sexually.”
Behind Celestia's placid features blazed a vehement fire and her voice was no longer muffled as she curtly ordered, “Step outside with me Luna, I wish to set you straight on this.” Turning around, she said more softly to Twilight, “We shall be back shortly.” Luna, angered, followed Celestia out of the room and into an adjacent hallway that Celestia sealed with a soundproofing spell. “Cadence, if you could please leave us: these are personal matters.”
“This is something I had been meaning to confront you about, actually,” Cadence jabbed. “As much as I take issue with mares having sex with mares, the bigger issue confronting me is what Luna just pointed out. You were a teacher to her for most of her life and I have seen how much you have influenced her over the years and I cannot get past the notion that you helped raise her as much as I did. There was a time when, as a little filly, she went through a phase where she started calling you mom. Twilight Velvet and I had a hard time getting her to stop because she thought so highly of you.”
“Cadence, this is not a conversation I am going to have.”
“Stay,” Luna said to Cadence.
“Oh don't worry, I am not going anywhere until I've said what I want.”
“Cadence, please. This is personal and I don't want to talk about it with you.”
“I am sorry, but I am Twilight's friend too, and since you have decided to leave her out of this conversation, I think I need to be here to take her side.”
Celestia sighed and massaged a temple, “Cadence, nobody here is against Twilight and I never had amorous feelings towards her until after she was an alicorn like us and was no longer under my tutelage.”
“Even then, that doesn't change your relationship before that point.”
“I understand your reservations, I had them at one point and still question the choices from time to time, but Twilight and I had a very long conversation about where we were in relation to each other, and we reached the conclusion that we both wanted the closeness. This is a point she had reached on her own, without me 'manipulating' her like you imply.”
“Twilight seems to disagree,” Luna scowled. “She made it quite clear she realized you had been manipulating her from foalhood and 'culturing' her with a sexual relationship as the final end. It is the only explanation as to why she so willingly abandoned me in your favor; you had been preparing her for yourself her entire life.”
Celestia raised her voice and stamped a hoof on the ground, “You are wrong! Luna, Cadence, you cut me to the quick by accusing me of such debauchery! I would indeed be sick and twisted if I raised Twilight for this end in mind, but by all that is good within me I did not sculpt her to my whims like you said.”
“Luna was the only one who accused you of manipulating Twilight since foalhood, I only make the point that you have abused the power you have over her.” Cadence scowled, “Twilight practically worships you, so of course she would open herself to you when you propositioned to have sex. But ask yourself, how healthy do you think it is for Twilight? She will always see herself as the lesser member of the relationship because, in her eyes, no matter what you do, you will always be perfect.”
“She is not the lesser member of the relationship,” Celestia retorted smoothly.
“Twilight sees remembers her mistakes and struggles to find self worth, especially as a Princess. Two months ago, we exchanged a series of letters which started with her asking me for some tips on how she could be a good princess and ended with me trying to encourage her after she became convinced she couldn't live up to your expectations. When I asked her what ideal she holds herself up to, she said that ideal was you and that she couldn't possibly be anywhere near that perfect.”
“She never mentioned anything of that sort to me.”
“Because you are the last one she would ever show a perceived fault to. In that conversation, she told me that there was nothing more satisfying than being perfect for you,” Cadence turned aside to Luna, “For your sake, I just want to point out this letter was written before you two would have been together.” Her attention returned to Celestia, “But she said being around you is incredibly stressful for her at the same time because she is always afraid she might make misspeak or make a mistake. Ultimately, my point is that intimacy between you and Twilight would still be a leader-subservient form, just as it always has been. Though this is common in many relationships and is often healthy, in this case it would be present in exceedingly unhealthy amounts.”
“You make good points,” Celestia conceded, “But it all is speculation with no basis in facts. Twilight showed no signs of this since she was coronated and she has been comfortable around me her whole life.”
Cadence raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, “And she also had managed to hide that she and Luna had been having intercourse for the past few weeks. Twilight can actually be a good liar on rare occasions.”
“I cannot let myself believe I could be that blind to her. One thing, no matter its size, I can understand missing, but many things like you suggest is beyond plausibility.”
“You have missed the small things before, Sister,” Luna said in a low voice. “The fault is my own, but things might have turned out differently if you had better sensed the dark spiral I was plunging into.”
“Then I concede, this is speculation with a factual basis, but it is speculation all the same.”
“So, even if you don't agree, you see where Luna and I are coming from?” Cadence asked.
“I must admit to that, but I maintain that I would never have manipulated Twilight towards a goal, nor offered to share myself with her unless I was absolutely certain she was able to handle it.”
“I am absolutely certain you would not have done anything you thought would hurt Twilight, but look at this from my viewpoint. Even if Twilight is a Princess now, you are still her teacher, she is your student. That leaves Twilight very open to you while you remain in a very safe position of authority.”
“Again, we discussed this at length and I made it abundantly clear we are equals in the relationship.”
“You may say that, but it simply isn't true. You are centuries older than her and have had the experience of several suitors while Twilight is only twenty and, quite frankly, has always been stunted in the social side of romance. I hold the same concerns about you, Luna, though at least you are not a maternal or teacher figure in Twilight's life. But Celestia, you are left in a very comfortable position over her due to your experience in these matters. Further, for anyone to punish anyone else, that signifies authority of one over the other. Just minutes ago you explicitly said that you were punishing Twilight for her actions, and it worries me that you would do that.”
“I take issue with your decision to punish her too,” Luna interjected. “To be lovers is to be equal, yet you are clearly have dominion over her by doling out this punishment.”
“I am trying to teach her a lesson.” Celestia said in a hard tone.
“You remind me that of words you spoke earlier, 'Heavens know we both needed guidance when we were her age.' Do you remember those words Sister? Cadence is right, you still think yourself her teacher.”
Celestia scowled and raised her voice again, “I do not think of myself like that, but you both still make your case against me! Why will you not take my word in this matter!?!”
“I do believe you, Celestia,” Cadence pleaded, “but your actions are on the brink of hurting Twilight. If you follow through with them, I am afraid you risk permanently making her think of herself as subservient to you and further risk damaging your friendship with her.”
“Our friendship has already been damaged.” Celestia sighed.
“Then please, don't damage it any farther.”
“This statement cannot be retracted – we have already given our story and telling anything different would harm us more than it would do good for anyone.”
“Believe me,” Cadence said in a knowing voice, “This is the sort of thing that gets out. The few years I have been the Princess of Love has taught me that even ponies you can trust to keep state secrets can't hold their mouths shut when it comes to scandals. I will wager a hundred bits that within a week, some maid or janitor is going to leak the real story, and the repercussions are not going to be pretty.”
Wincing as a memory came to mind, Celestia said, “I was fully conscious during the spell Twilight cast upon me. Though I wish to tear my eyes from my skull as the memories haunt me, I can clearly remember clearing the staff from the floor in the tower we were in and casting multiple layers of obscuring spells to prevent us from being disturbed. No one other than us actually knows what has happened.”
“And I truly hope that is the case.” Cadence sighed, “To learn that their leaders, being two mares, had been having an affair with Twilight, a mare herself, and then for that to turn into what it has become... it would be disastrous.”
Luna nodded, “This all would be bad enough if Twilight were male, though I fear things may have reached a saturation point.”
“That may be,” Cadence replied, “But it does raise a question. Both of you have always been so prim and proper with your courtships, you most of all Celestia. The marriage of you and Prince Gallant Spirit was so perfect that it is the single most legendary wedding in all of Equestrian history. Luna, your moon through the ages has always been a symbol of the love between a mare and her husband because it is in the sky during the time of day their deep love is most affectionately and intimately displayed. The moon is also seen as a symbol of chastity because it is hidden during the day when ponies interact the most with ponies that are not their spouses, symbolizing that deep love is to be guarded and only shown to those joined in marriage. I guess the question I have for both of you is: why are things suddenly so different?”
The two sisters were taken back by Cadence's question and briefly looked to each other, seeing it the other was going to answer. Luna gave a faint smile then turned, “You see, dear Cadence,” she began wistfully, “As for myself, the answer I have is fear.”
“Fear?”
“There aren't enough male alicorns,” Luna chuckled, then became serious, “But yes, fear is the reason. Tell me Cadence, do you fear the future after Shining Armor has died of old age yet you live on?”
Cadence closed her eyes in thought, “I think I understand what you mean. There is no fear of outliving Twilight.”
Luna stoically nodded, “Yes, Cadence. I will ad that I am on the other side of losing my husband than you are of losing yours. As it was, I married him when I was one hundred and fifteen years old, and we lived together as Princess and Prince for a long time, yet he like all others died while I remained immortal. Though I would not give up the that time with him for anything, the fear of loss has prevented me from seeking another lover. Twilight and I had been close friends ever since she reached out to me on Nightmare Night years ago. After she became an alicorn, we grew closer and I began feeling pangs of desire that were not befitting for one mare to feel towards another. I pushed them away. Then, one morning as we talked together, I suddenly had the emotional revelation that Twilight and I could spend an eternity together. I had known this ever since her ascension – that had been one of the primary draws I felt towards her – but suddenly, I felt it emotionally and I wanted us to be together. Between then and the next time I saw Twilight, she was the only thing I could think about. I know that for a mare to feel like this towards another is not right, but I purposefully overlooked that fact thinking she would never reciprocate when I finally made my feelings known. However, she surprised me when she did not shun me, and so we carried on while I ignored the part of me that said something was not right.”
“I understand and, in many ways, I can't blame you. Mind you, not that I would want to do that myself.”
Luna shrugged faintly, “I myself never thought I was doing what was right, I just thought there was no harm in pleasurable time spent with Twilight.” She looked to Celestia and was saddened, “Though, by the looks of things, that was not the case.”
After several seconds of silence, Celestia added, “Luna eloquently encapsulated many of my own reasons in what she just said. I have little I could add.”
Giving them goth a small, morose smile, Cadence reached out and hugged both of them around the neck. “Aunt Celestia, Aunt Luna, I love you both. Don't ever forget that. I know I have been saying some things that were very hard to put up with, and I appreciate that you would listen to what I was saying and then open up to me by responding. I know you both are a very private mares and keep to yourselves about these things, so I really appreciate that you would talk with me about these things.” Letting go, Cadence set her hooves back on the floor and took a step back, meekly saying, “I hope I haven't been too hard to deal with. I'll leave you both alone now so you can talk.”
“For the time being, I think we have said most everything to be said about this matter. I want to go back and check in on Twilight. We left her at a bad time,” Luna stated.
Celestia agreed, “Yes, everything to be said has been.” Dismissing her silencing spell, Celestia turned to the door and followed Luna and Cadence through. Twilight sat up in bed clutching the speech transcript she had been given by Celestia and was reading. Her tears fell upon the paper as her eyes skimmed the lines of words.
Sobbing, Twilight blew her nose on a tissue held by her magic and she pulled three more from the box. “I-m sorry,” her voice cracked, “I'm overreacting again.”
“It's okay Twilight. Everything is going to be alright.” The words had nearly left Cadence's mouth before Celestia had said them herself. Walking to the bed, Celestia knelt beside it, reached over, and gently caressed Twilight's hair uttering softly, “You're not overreacting.”
Twilight threw herself around Celestia's shoulders, wailing, “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.”
Hugging back, Celestia smiled sadly and gently replied, “Everything is going to be okay.”