A Song of Silence
Gloria Celestia,
Bringer of the Sun and Ender of the Night,
As it was with her beginning, she is now and ever shall be,
Days without end, evermore, evermore!
The voices died along with the organ echoing throughout the pillared sanctuary as a solemn silence settled over the great Canterhorn Cathedral. Rows of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies alike stood at reverent attention, awaiting the arrival of their minister of music. Ears perked up around the great hall at the careful hoof falls of their illustrious leader.
From the side doors of the sanctuary, Grand Maestro Glissando, adorned in vestments woven in gold and sunlight, strode towards the central stage with divine purpose. He glowed with the warmth of his teacher, her royal eminence, Princess Celestia, from his many years under her wing learning to bring harmony to all corners of Equestria.
“Peace to all of you, my fellow ponies. You may be seated.” A rumbling of ponies upon cushions sounded as the earth pony urged his followers to sit.
“Fellow Celestials, followers of the blessed light, I stand before you today with joyous news! Five years ago on this very day, her grace, Princess Celestia, sent me on my journey through our lands.” The stark white stallion turned to display his cutie mark, a musical bar swirling around a beautiful morning sun peeking over a hilltop.
“As you know, I was charged by her royal eminence to use my gift of music to share her message with the world of peace, love, and harmony. It is thanks to her guidance through those trials that we all can look to the future for the light of the New Dawn that is fast approaching.”
As he spoke, Glissando noticed movement among the crowd. A dark, hooded pony shuffled past ponies in the back of the cathedral towards the center aisle. He continued with his sermon, brushing a tuft of errant crimson mane from his vision to keep an eye out.
“It was by no means a simple task. The road was long and the nights were arduous. While harmony cries out in the soul of every good Equestrian, the accursed shadow of the adversary still lingers. While her body was banished, it is clear that her poisonous power still seeps through the veil from her blackened skies of night.”
He stopped to let the persistent existence of such vileness sink into the minds of his followers. The unspoken Mistress of the Moon still stared down every night from her prison, biding her time. Everypony knew it and every heart feared the evil one’s prophesied return.
“But hold fast, for their days are numbered,” Glissando offered with an assuring smile. “The nightfolk have longed for the darkness promised to them by their mistress, and soon we shall bestow it upon them!”
Glissando produced a heavy tome from his robes and held it high for all to see. The large book caught the light pouring in through the stained glass windows, reflecting the cover with its pure silver and golden baroque etchings onto the crowd. The ponies caught in the glow basked in its brilliance.
However, the hooded pony nearing the aisle shied away from the piercing light and began shuffling through the pews towards the rear doors as fast as possible. Seizing the opportunity, Glissando glared at the intruder, wordlessly commanding a pair of Celestial sentinels hovering over the balconies to apprehend the cloaked dissenter.
“After those long years of preparation, I present the fruits of my labor: The Illuminescence! Contained within these pages are anthems that define our cause of peace. We will call upon the Princess with our voices harmonizing as one to bring an end to fear, an end to evil, an end to tyranny of Luna’s night!”
The dissenter reached for the large doors, but was caught off by the pegasi sentinels’ spears barring her exit. The two surrounded the mysterious pony with weapons drawn. Glissando remained unperturbed by the disturbance, continuing to preach over the struggle, only raising his voice when the hooded figure screamed.
At once, the mare’s dirty robes were torn away, revealing her unnatural appearance. Glissando was all too familiar with such beings causing daylight disturbances. She bore the cursed form of a night-kissed pegasus; a nocturne. The guards escorted the offender to the front of the sanctuary. Whatever intentions the dark one held for intruding upon such sacred ground would not be excused.
‘This fool will serve as the New Dawn’s first example.’
Beckoning the guards to come closer, Glissando stepped from behind his lectern and thrust an accusatory hoof towards the miserable creature.
“My fellow Celestials, this sunrise marks the day we cast the shadows of their kind into the light to be purified by holy flame! Let us lift our voices as one and sing to her a humble prayer, ‘May Our Sun Shine Forever!’”
As the first note sounded from the organ of his masterpiece, his thoughts drifted back to his sovereign of the sun and the day his destiny was realized.
“But Princess, I don’t understand. Why do you wish for me to leave?” Glissando looked up to meet the eyes of his teacher, Princess Celestia. She led the stallion as they climbed up the spiraling staircase of her mountaintop tower, the Summit Spire.
“I still have much to learn from you, majesty. Far, far too much.”
“Glissando, my faithful student, there is always more, but experience cannot be taught,” she replied with a measured smile as they reached the door to the castle’s turret. Celestia gently pushed against the aged mahogany, letting the crisp mountain air flow into her dwelling for only a moment before overpowering the chill with her innate warmth.
Celestia stopped at the door, looking expectantly at her student. Glissando tarried for a moment, wondering why she was waiting.
“My princess?”
Chuckling at his confusion, the princess stepped aside and motioned for him to step through the door, extending a rare invitation to witness her move the governing celestial bodies. Glissando balked at the very notion of stepping into such a private place. Before he could respectfully decline, the princess extended her wing and led him through.
Snowdrifts swirled just beyond the low walls. The sight made him shiver despite the summery warmth in the air from the princess’ magical glow. Snowflakes and ice crystals evaporated all around in a perfect sphere, sublimating from the ancient spells Celestia channeled into her horn. The thin mountain air paradoxically burned with a frozen warmth, a flavor that could only be described as magical.
“Come, Glissando, I want to show you something.”
Guided by her wing, Glissando stepped to the edge of the stone wall. He barely poked his head out to see, worrying that he might slip and fall from the tower. His fears were soon chased away by the majesty of the sight.
Looking to the south, the entirety of Equestria spread as far as the eye could see. The late hour bathed the land in vivid twilight, casting brilliant colors and long shadows. Below them, they could see Glissando’s home, Canterhorn Village, surrounding the great marble cathedral his ancestors had built in Celestia’s honor. Beyond Canterhorn, tiny pony settlements dotted the plains and meadows of Equestria, far away from forests, mountain ranges, and badlands waiting to be tamed.
“This is the rest of the world, Glissando. It was my teacher long before you were born and it still manages to surprise me today.” Celestia stole a quick glance to admire his awestruck gape. Seeing her student’s wordless wonder brought new life to the sight she often took for granted. She made a mental note to share its beauty with others more often.
“It’s massive. Daunting even.” Glissando gulped down a lump caught in his throat. “Where would you have me go?”
“Out there.” Celestia answered without pointing to anywhere in specific. She pressed the tip of her hoof to Glissando’s lips, silencing his hasty objection. “Life is waiting for you to live it and it needs you just as much as you need it. The lessons it teaches will provide answers that beg for questions you’ve never thought to ask.”
“That sounds confusing… and impossible.” Celestia simply nodded in reply, perplexing her student even more.
Sensing the time, she gently guided the sun with her magic, letting its familiar glow dip below the horizon. The princess then turned to grab for the moon. Unlike the sun, it struggled against her polarized magic, just as it always did, and fought her horn even after two centuries worth of sunsets. She pulled at the obstinate orb, trying not to let her struggle break through her mask.
It took a few more moments to make it cooperate, but soon, she could see the familiar familial imprint peek into the view. It never failed to remind her why she always chose to make these daily moments private affairs.
“The Mare in the Moon,” Glissando muttered coldly while watching his mentor’s moonrise.
As she pressed the immense weight onto its nightly path, she took note of the ponies in the streets below her tower. They fled into their homes every night without fail. Shutters slammed and candlelight flickered into existence to chase away the shadows. The royal guards would always stand at attention, keeping their eyes fixated upon the moon with their weapons readied as if the nightmare would begin again at any moment.
“It feels like an eternity ago she and I ruled together. Now, even with my presence and assurances, another divide threatens to undo what we strived so hard to protect.” Glissando didn’t voice an answer, but nodded in understanding.
A mare’s cry rose from the streets, startling Celestia and almost causing her to drop the moon. Peering down below, she spotted two guards surrounding a lone pony. The guards ripped her garb away, revealing her tuft ears and a pair of terrified slitted eyes reflecting the glint of their spearheads. If not for the weight of the moon still fighting her, she would teleport to stop their assault at once.
“Glissando,” she struggled to say as she wrestled the moon into place. “Do you notice anything wrong this evening?”
The princess could only watch, unable to do anything as the guard ran his spear through her leathery wing as she gave a shrill cry of pain.
“Only what comes with the night.”
Feeling the moon acquiesce to its course through the night sky, Celestia quickly channeled the remainder of her magic and knocked the spears away, distracting the guards and giving the poor nocturne a chance to escape. Celestia wished she had gotten a better look at the nocturne’s face before she scuttled away into the dark. It would be hard to find anypony willing to heal her wing.
“Ponies too often fear what they shouldn’t and shun those in need the most. But once you step beyond these walls, I know you can help them overcome their darkness. All life is a precious gift, my faithful student, no matter their race, creed, or tribe, and I need you to remind them of that.”
Glissando shuddered, looking back and forth between his mentor and the rest of Equestria. “But, your highness, I just write songs! What good is sheet music going to do in all of that ‘out there?’”
“You are an artist after my own heart, Glissando. You are as compassionate as you are gifted, more than any musician I have ever known. Your songs awaken hardened hearts to harmony. Such a beautiful gift must not be locked away. Those who fear the night need your music to bring everypony together. Do you understand, Glissando?”
Words did little to assure the young composer. He pulled out his baton from behind his ear, flicking the flexible tip to see if it could somehow be used in self-defense.
Celestia bent down and draped a wing over the composer, pulling him close to her barrel. Her embrace was tender, warm, and filled with the love and hope she wished to spread throughout Equestria. She had never held him so close before, but the foreign display of kindness wasn’t lost on Glissando. He hadn’t noticed his ear was pressed against her body until she began to hum.
It was a beautiful and ancient melody he had never heard before. A primal magic breathed through the measures as the tune reverberated through their bodies. The composer relaxed, finding the vibrations from her tender voice soothing like a mother singing a foal to sleep.
It was as if Celestia had given light a tangible form. Something unknown and dead within was given new life as her loving warmth swept over him. Her sun was an enveloping blanket that could chase away all darkness. All too soon though, the song reached its end and Celestial pulled away, leaving Glissando trembling in place and pining for more.
“The world is a magnificent and terrible place. With your talents, we could reawaken the spirit of harmony that resides within everypony. Please, help me bring this light to all of Equestria.”
Glissando breathed deeply, blinking back tears he hadn’t known were threatening to fall. He shook away his trepidation and nodded, understanding fully what they were meant to do.
“I swear upon my return, Princess Celestia, this pure light will shine upon all of Equestria!”
The Celestial sentinels and Glissando dragged the nocturne to the illuminated stage. Her struggling protests were drowned out by the booming choir of ponies proclaiming the coming of the New Dawn. Morning sunbeams pierced through the windows, illuminating a large, ceremonial timepiece, the Celestial Dial, in oppressive oranges, reds, and gold. The quivering nocturne mare kept her focus on the ground as she begged to be released.
The cursed one’s fur was matted and smelled of mud and filth. She bore a drab coat of subdued gray, an unnaturally dim color for a proper pony to bear. The mare had tried to hide her leathery wings tucked closely to her side, but their distorted, bat-like form was impossible for her rags to hide from the revealing glow of the sun. Her shame was apparent with her shallow breath and trembling hooves. It was only natural that sackcloth could not withstand the purity of morning light.
The nocturne was a painful reminder that the world was a majestic and terrible place. To spread Celestia’s hope and harmony, the light must justly bring the encroaching darkness to heel.
As the first movement of the anthem ceased, he held a hoof up to quiet the congregation. He turned around, with righteous fury burning in his eyes to address his fellow Celestials. “Behold, one of the cursed night-kissed who plague our lands with the darkness in their hearts. In place of harmony, they breed discord. Every step taken by these dark ones brings us closer to the eternal night. These malcontents seek to eclipse the warmth of the sun!”
“No. No, please!” the mare pleaded as she looked to the congregation. Where they had smiled so warmly before, the anthem hardened their hearts towards the lone nocturne. Her wings spread instinctively in fear, revealing an old wound in the mare’s wing. She looked ready to flee, but several strong pegasi flared their wings in response, ensuring she wouldn’t make it far.
“Will we let her ilk destroy what our princess struggled so hard to create?” Glissando added, circling to the other side of the nocturne.
“No,” the gathering answered.
“Will we allow their hatred to bring about the nightmare again?”
“No!”
“Then raise your voices in harmony, my friends! Tell these creatures of their fate the only way their kind understands!”
The organ struck again, blowing the nocturne to her haunches as a choir of angry voices rose as one against her. The mare stared blankly as vitriol spewed from the masses in song. It was as if they were carried by a trance, a hypnosis cast by Glissando’s terrifying music. The light somehow intensified with the ponies shouting their merciless hatred of her and all creatures that stirred after sunset.
She was not welcome, not wanted, not trusted, and unworthy of mercy.
She turned to see Glissando standing proudly at the foot of the holy sundial, joining the ponies along as their fervor traipsed the line between choir and cult. He bellowed along with the deeper notes, notably spitting out the name “Luna, the Malevolent Nightmare.”
“You can stop this, please! Glissando!” the mare cried from the floor, a mistake she would regret as Glissando thundered towards her. She yelped as the maddened maestro pulled her by her dilapidated tricolored tail towards the dais. A sacred place blazing in the morning sun never looked so black. Her hooves scraped across the crimson carpet as she desperately tried to free herself from the powerful earth pony’s clutches.
Cracking her body like a whip, Glissando slammed the nocturne mare’s withers against the slanted side of the dial’s triangle. He pressed a foreleg down on her bruised barrel, crushing the air out of her lungs. Opening her slitted magenta eyes reflected depictions of Princess Celestia formed in stained glass around an ornate sculpture of the sun looming overhead. Each scene showed the princess leaning down to listen to her ponies, but from this angle, each Celestia seemed to bear down upon the nocturne with horns ready to impale the poor mare.
“This morning marks the end of you, your cursed race, and all who dwell in the night,” Glissando yelled over the Celestial hosts behind him calling for genocide. “With the nocturnals gone, there will be no need to suffer the damnable darkness any longer!”
“Eternal day?” The battered nocturne trembled in sheer panic. Glissando firmed his hoof and pushed harder, pushing what little air she had left in her lungs out.
“Wha… what of balance?” she breathlessly whispered in agony.
“What balance is needed when nothing good comes from the night?”
Reaching a hoof towards the nearby sentinel, he drew a beautiful knife from the guard’s scabbard and held it aloft as if trying to catch the sun’s power within its blade. His mad gaze stared two hundred thousand miles away, mesmerized by the light of his goddess’ sun as the crescendo of his own music.
“No, you can’t do this! Glissan—” Her pleas were swallowed by the monstrous roar of ponies calling for the death of night. Heeding his own call to worship, Glissando turned the blade to the defenseless nocturne. The blade sparked alive with a brilliant light as the organ’s final chords of ‘May Our Sun Shine Forever’ sounded a death knell.
“BEHOLD THE LIGHT OF CELESTIA!”
A sunburst exploded from the dias as a grey cloud crossed in front of the sun, dimming the entire sanctuary. In the silence, there was a low hum of magic being cast from an alabaster horn. The illusion had collapsed and in place of music were the shrieks of terrified onlookers.
His five year journey had come full circle with Glissando’s hoof shimmering in a familiar golden aura. The passionate love he had channeled to stab the lowly nocturne was replaced with hollow horror as he clambered away from the darkened dial.
In place of the dirty nocturne, strewn upon the Celestial Dias and bleeding from a shallow wound she had barely managed to deflect from her throat, lay her royal eminence, Princess Celestia.
With the offending knife still wrapped in her magic, she drew herself from the floor. Her ever-flowing ethereal mane sparked to life briefly, but fell limply to her side. The princess opened her eyes revealing nocturne slits which slowly sifted into normal pupils as the last of her glamour was dispelled. Her horn’s light dimmed and the knife dropped to the floor, resounding with a loud clang as it bounced off the bloodied sundial behind her.
“Leave,” she uttered barely above a whisper from her injured lungs.
“But, your majesty!” one of the sentinels countered while stepping towards the injured princess.
Celestia crashed her hooves upon the stage, splitting the marble and shattering every stained glass mockery in the cathedral. The sunlight immolated the offending cloud with a glorious flash, exposing the entire congregation to the unfiltered, searing intensity of her fiery wrath.
"LEAVE!"
Ponies fled the blinding ire of their princess’ royal Canterlot voice. Ponies stumbled over themselves as they scrambled towards any exit they could find. Their blinded eyes cried for moisture as their shadows still lingered behind them burned into the cushions and walls.
Princess Celestia looked down upon her trembling student. He clutched his little songbook, the metallic cover melting from the heat. It was a small miracle the pages weren’t already scorched to cinders. She descended upon Glissando’s quivering form with a tempest of emotions raging with desires for retribution. Instead, she caught the lump in her throat and knelt down next to him. She said nothing, but the inferno behind her glare demanded an explanation.
“I-I do not understand,” he quavered, looking into the eyes of his immortal sun.
“I know,” Celestia replied calmly, waiting for him to continue.
A painful frown crossed Celestia’s face as Glissando looked upon her pitifully. He was confused, like a foal who couldn’t grasp the finality of death and still asked when his mother was coming home. His journey was meant to spread the joy, but all he had done was succumb to the fears plaguing the ponies across Equestria. He bowed deeply, letting his forehead touch the floor along with his muzzle as he presented the results of his travels.
“This was my gift to you, your grace.” The new titles Glissando used hadn’t been lost on the princess as she found his reverence increasingly disturbing. With a tepid hoof, she pulled the tome closer to her, opening the pages to see the fruits of his labor. The foreword was all she needed to read to know its contents.
“Dedicated to our Royal Goddess of the Sun, Bringer of Day and Slayer of Night, Princess Celestia.”
She ripped the page out of its bindings and flared her magic. The offending words fell upon the ground in a pile of ash and she shoved the book back towards its author.
“How dare you, Glissando.” Celestia controlled her volume, hoping to keep her internal turmoil in check. “Your poisonous words would have all Equestria lie in wait to murder my beloved sister upon her return!”
Glissando shook his head, not to defend himself but in disbelief. “You cannot be serious! She would seek to strike us all down and curse us all like the rest of her thrice damned nocturnes!”
“Her descent into madness was my fault as much as it was hers. I did nothing to stop the darkness until it was far too late.”
“No, your eminence! Please!” Glissando reached out a hoof towards Celestia. It shook violently with his overwhelming panic as he pleaded his case to his goddess. “Luna is nothing more than a monster biding her time to devour all that is good in the world! I beg you, purge the unrighteousness of her and her kind with your loving light!”
Celestia’s heart broke. Listening to his music, she thought they had seen the same thing: injustice being wreaked upon nocturnal creatures. She wanted to cry, heavens, she wanted to scream in agonizing anger to correct poor Glissando for his misplaced reverence and believing the lies spread about the innocent nocturnes. However, the stallion’s misguided devotion had hardened his heart against the ones in need of the harmony in his music the most.
Nightmare Moon may have been banished to the moon, but even her memory held a fearsome power that corrupted her ponies even after all the years.
“No… I will not allow you to taint her name further for generations with such bitter hatred! You demand a purge of the unrighteous? I would sooner reduce this infernal cathedral to cinders before I yield to your damnable musings!”
Celestia closed her eyes as Glissando wailed in defeat, clutching the molten book despite the burns on his body. He mourned the loss of the New Dawn, with an uncertain sunset always looming in the future.
With the Celestial movement disbanded and outlawed, Celestia emptied the town surrounding the cathedral for good measure. She hoped distancing her ponies from their place of false worship would help, but such scars would take years to heal if they ever could.
Meanwhile, she returned to her castle upon Summit Spire with her student and desperately tried to dispel his delusions, but to no avail. Glissando drifted from day to day, a passionless husk resembling more of a gelded stallion than her brilliant musical student.
Two weeks later, she had retired to her chambers early, raising the moon almost an hour early in hopes of escaping reality with her dreams that much faster. There were no burdens of rule or responsibilities to anypony, just the memory of who her sister once was waiting for her in the dreamscape. All would be right in her mind so long as she never realized she was asleep or the events of the last centuries invaded her slumber. It was the latter which made Celestia miss her beloved sibling the most.
She had nearly cast a sleeping spell over herself in desperation when a ward was tripped. Casting a scrying spell to determine which alarm had been triggered, she balked, sensing the remnants of the Canterhorn Cathedral. Fearing the straggling remnants of the Celestials were planning a revival, she quickly flew down her tower as fast as her wings would carry her towards the disturbance.
Shadows danced in the candlelight as the princess followed her ward’s trail through the halls. After wandering the paths, Celestia found herself at the large heavy doors to the chapel. She hadn’t seen a need to arrest a single member of the wayward church after banning the worship of her, but if they pressed her hooves, she feared what drastic course she would have to take to quell their unwarranted fanaticism.
Breathing deeply, she braced herself to meet the cult’s members face-to-face and imprison them if necessary. She wrapped the doors in golden light and thrust the doors open, but no amount of preparation could ready her for what waited within.
In front of the glow of the mare of the moon, a pony-shaped scar was draped across the lunar face. A gruesome pendulum tied to the highest banister in the cathedral drifted back and forth like a tattered curtain in the wind.
Grand Maestro Glissando drifted back and forth on the gentle currents, a noose tightly gripping his broken neck.
Celestia forced her hooves to walk her down the aisle. Despite the broken glass and cracked marble, she kept her eyes locked onto Glissando. In the long shadow under his lifeless form, she wished now more than ever for the powers of the goddess he had believed her to be.
She cut the rope with her magic and lowered his body gently to her side. The metallic scent of fresh blood wafted from his hooves covered in shards of stained glass. His limp head lolled around having been ripped from the spine, offering her the bitter solace that his death was swift enough to spare him any further suffering.
With measured breath, she wrapped Glissando in her warm embrace and placed his ear close to her barrel as she had all those years ago. She hummed the same ancient tune she had used to inspire good faith in her student, but had ultimately led to his death. Her tears flowed freely and silently down her cheeks as she continued to hum behind her broken sobs.
The moon moved on through the night sky with the mare etched on its lunar face keeping watch of the two ponies huddled together. Celestia held onto Glissando until the only warmth was the heat from her feathers cradling his chilling body. She released him from her grasp and gently lowered him to the floor, careful not to let his head droop to the ground.
Princess Celestia was no stranger to death. Living hundreds lifetimes, the pain of losing someone precious never dulled, she could always reflect on the decades they shared together. It was only when a life was stolen before its time that she struggled to stay strong. With only the moon as her witness, she mourned openly, cursing her failures.
Had she truly been an all-powerful goddess, she could keep her ponies safe from all wickedness like they hoped she would, but she knew such almighty power would be wasted on her. If she were a better pony, she wouldn’t have failed her beloved student.
And if she were a better pony, she wouldn’t be so ready to abuse what power she possessed.
May all mortal flesh be silent,
Worry not for whom you dread;
Conjure not a single vision,
Slumber peacefully instead,
Song woven in spell, shall vanquish,
And bring this terror to an end.
She levitated Glissando’s body to the broken sundial, positioning his body in a far more dignified position for the place he held in her heart. Tearing down one of the Celestial banners, she tucked the composer in for his eternal slumber.
Harmony forgive my trespass,
Weakness I can no longer bear,
For my ponies resent my sister
In her place remains a Nightmare
They now wait in fear, and hatred
Her demise they plan and prepare.
She looked to the moon still shining near the horizon. She combed its surface for power, siphoning its latent magic in hopes of leaning on both it and her sealed sister for strength. Strangely, the orb gave little resistance and moved across the sky, hastening it to its resting place beyond the sight of Equestria.
Moon and stars I beg for your mercy,
Heed my solemn anthem’s cry,
Obscure all their thoughts of vengeance,
Replace them with silencing lies,
Seal these mem'ries of, our betrayal,
Luna’s fate alone shall I bear.
Once the moon had fallen out of sight, she flared her wings and called upon the daystar’s power residing within her. Bringing an early morning to the land, her mane ignited into coronal flares, boiling the very air and melting everything around her as she prepared to carry out Glissando’s plea in her own way.
Now my Sun upon the horizon,
Answer me with light of the day,
All consuming pyre of heaven,
Burn this curs-ed place away,
Purge this mountain of, its temples,
Dusts of time forget its decay!
If any had been awake, they would have witnessed the brightest sunrise to ever spark across the world. A pillar of pure white rained down upon the mountain top, engulfing the summit in searing light and blazing fire. There was no longer a Canterhorn Cathedral or even Summit Spire.
Celestia’s Starlight melted the mountainside and the crystal caverns within, annihilating any trace of anything ever living on its peak. The tons of marble, shale, and granite settled into a pool of molten slag that would become the foundation that Canterlot rests upon today. With the exception of a single missing book, all records and memories of Princess Luna were purged.
Thus, the Age of Silence began and ended with a song.
“I now see why you were so vehement in your opposition to fair Octavia and Steeplechase, dear sister,” Luna remarked as Celestia awoke from her sleep. The moon princess shuffled uncomfortably back and forth on her hooves trying her best to shake off the lingering pain of her sister’s memories. “Perhaps it is as you said and such tribulations are best left buried in the past.”
“I am not so sure, Lulu.” Celestia winced from the sun’s morning light as she stirred from her nightmarish memories. Her wandering hooves found a fresh cup of coffee: a stark departure from her usual, but its bitterness was a warm and welcome comfort after such a restless sleep. “I asked you to dreamwalk with me because I needed to show you what I had done to our ponies all those centuries ago. Another terrible mistake.”
“You protected them from nightmares where I could not.”
“By silencing an entire generation and gutting their memories for my own benefit!” Celestia cried, gazing into her sister’s eyes with an eight hundred year old pain. “The dreamscape has never permitted me to walk it since, and for good reason. What Nightmare Moon did was reprehensible, but my actions were truly unforgivable.”
The two sat still, the silence lingering for longer than was comfortable while Luna contemplated the tale. Celestia’s grip tightened around her coffee mug, the pressure cracking the ceramic like the weak mask she struggled to wear now.
“Why have you told me this? To relieve your guilty consciousness? For me to condemn you for lying for eight centuries?”
“Luna, I would never…”
It would’ve been so easy to deflect the invasive question. Her years playing politics with Canterlot’s gentry made repelling uncomfortable questions with a placate or misdirection almost automatic. She could have, but she wouldn't allow herself the freedom. Restraint had become too cumbersome.
Still, she couldn't give an answer that she didn't know herself. Both yes and no were wrong and explanations would never reach an answer. Just as before, she would fall back on silence and wait for her sister to give up and leave her alone with her shame.
However, instead of anger, Celestia was met with a gentle hoof stroking her withers. She turned to Luna and saw her sister smiling with painful empathy, having known a millennium of silent penitence herself.
“‘We were meant to rule together,’” Luna quoted, emulating her sister’s kindness when she returned from disgrace. “Thank you for letting me share in this burden.”
Despite her larger size, Celestia crept to Luna’s side desperately desiring to be close to her sister after revisiting old, permanent scars. Resting her head low, she allowed Luna to drape a warm wing over her sunny withers like Celestia had done so many times for so many other ponies in the past.
The mask’s floodgates broke anew when Luna decided to hum Mrs. Melody’s newest melody, The Heavens Will Shine Forever.
“You’re not playing fair, Lulu,” the elder sister whined between sobbed breaths.
“I know,” the younger replied as she continued to hum one of her new favorite songs.