When the price of a happy ending is the dark tale that precedes it, can a princess justify taking a chance to save her subjects a generation of darkness and pain if it means losing the guarantee that everything turns out alright in the end?
Equestria is a land of rainbows and pastel-coloured ponies, where friendship is a tangible force and villians are redeemed as often as they are defeated.
It is truly a land of magic, but even more than that, it is a land of stories, from the mundane anecdote between friends to the world-spanning epic. And every story has a happy ending.
But a happy ending doesn't always mean a happy beginning, and it certainly doesn't mean a happy middle. Celestia has manipulated Equestria for over a thousand years to ensure that the dark times are as short and as painless as possible - though doing so may mean breaking every one of the tenets of harmony she preaches.
When faced with a choice between seeing Equestria fall to darkness with the promise of salvation, or fighting to stop the catastrophe by sacrificing the guarantee of a happy ending, Celestia holds the fate of her little ponies in her hooves as never before.
A behind-the-scenes look at Celestia and Luna's actions throughout Season Three.
Celestia had a lot of different smiles. Cheerful smiles when she spoke with the little ponies around her; Indulgent smiles for her subjects when they were a little more enthusiastic than the matter called for; Wide and proud smiles when they became better ponies than they had to be; Calm and thoughtful smiles when matters were quiet and contemplation was the order of the day.
Indeed, Celestia was almost never seen without a smile on her face, and sometimes even the hint of a frown could be enough to cause panic amongst the palace staff. The image of the peacefully smiling visage was almost as much a symbol of the Princess as the ethereal mane or the stylised sun on her flank.
Today, Celestia stood within the Hall of Windows, below a brand-new stained-glass masterpiece displaying a baby dragon, a crystal heart, and joyful crystal ponies. She examined every last frame of the beautiful image, her thoughts going to her most faithful student, who had bounced her way out of the room moments before, singing her childlike joy at passing her test and banishing the horror of King Sombra from the Crystal Empire.
Celestia couldn't stop smiling.
The hall was closed to most traffic, and between Celestia's preternatural awareness and the enormous (and somewhat creaky) doors at every entrance to the mystic Hall, she would know long before anypony came within sight of her. This place was a sanctuary, a bastion, one of the few places she could come to be alone without servant or guard. Her mane shimmered between her face and the nearer door, and from the position she stood it would be long before anypony could come up on her from the further portal.
She couldn't stop smiling.
Completely alone in the room, with nobody there to judge her, to worry, to think that the world was cracking at the seams, or even to ask her what was wrong...
And she couldn't stop smiling.
When all she wanted to do was scream loud enough to shatter the very tiles she stood upon, buck the window in front of her to slivers, and bring the full power of the sun to bear on this whole accursed hall, melt the whole thing to slag, and... and...
And it seemed a thousand years of compressing her frustration and anger down behind gentle smiles to keep from incinerating anypony who tested her patience had left her unable to turn down the corners of her lips even in complete and total privacy.
So she stood before the window, as she had almost constantly since the image had formed itself in the frame in a flash of magic, sketching out the wonderful happy ending to a grand and treacherous tale, half her mind spinning over plans and consequences to what had happened - and not happened - in the Crystal empire, and the other half roiling in a fiery vortex of twisting frustration and anger that would have put the sun to shame.
And she kept smiling.
Compared to the issues before her, her out-of-control self-control should have been a vanishingly low priority, but it remained there, eating away at her concentration. She pushed it down, trying to focus on the task at hand, but it wouldn't go away. Her mind spun around, constantly coming back to that irritating feeling of the smile on her face, just making her feel worse, and in turn just making her smile that much more calm and collected.
She couldn't say how long she had been standing there smiling when the door to her right opened. There were few ponies who would dare enter this hall without knocking, and only one whose presence was magically accompanied by a cool, fresh night breeze even in the middle of these stuffy halls. Her stomach clenched and her frustration mounted - this was a conversation she had not been looking forward to one bit.
Celestia turned her warmest smile onto her visitor. "Good morning, little sister. Aren't you up a little late?"
The Princess of the Night smiled not at all. Just seeing that made Celestia's smile that much brighter.
"I heard Twilight and her friends singing on the way out of the palace." Luna said flatly, her eyes narrows. "After all this, you couldn't even tell her she failed, could you?"
"Now, now, Luna." Celestia chided, smiling, her voice light and cheerful. "Twilight has saved the Crystal Empire--"
"She failed the test you set her."
"The Crystal Empire is safe and spreading love and joy throughout Equestria." Celestia smiled tranquilly.
"And it's not her picture on that window. She wasn't ready. Everything you've been putting together for her fell apart. And you're sitting here grinning at me as if everything's going perfectly."
"The matter was resolved quickly with no great time of darkness." Celestia's smile grew wider. "Cadance is going to be safe and secure, and can continue her story. I don't see that we need to worry about it furth--"
"Art thou listening to thyself, sister?" Luna flared her wings as she slipped back into her traditional Royal Canterlot Grammar, her voice booming across the hall, only the ancient wards of privacy preventing it from being heard through half the castle. "Thou knowest as well as I that this regards not Cadance. The empire's safe return is truly a wonder! But that is not why thou sent Twilight Sparkle." She gestured towards the window with a wing, her waves of indignation breaking against the alabaster fortress of Celestia's serenity.
"I think it best we look at the positive results of this adventure." Celestia gave ground with her words, unable to face Luna's accusations, but her expression did not falter. "And we do so later. I don't see that sullying her achievements with what she failed to do achieves anything right--"
"Really? I would think that would be the most important thing to discuss right now." Luna stalked up to her older sister, the difference in height leaving her horn uncomfortably close to the flawless white throat. Celestia hadn't seen Luna this angry since she had returned, and took a half-step back before she caught herself, smiling all the way.
"I don't think now is the best time to--"
"Because if you don't have a plan ready before this all falls apart--"
"I don't want to talk about it right now, Luna." She said, with a smile and a tone like a mother indulgently chiding a daughter for having too many sweets.
"--then all the work that you've put into your faithful student--"
"Stop talking, Luna." Her smile grew ever wider, her tone ever more calm.
"--will be for nothing at best, and--"
"Shut up, Luna." As blissful and peaceful as clear skies on a summer day.
"--at worst, the next--"
"SHUT UP!" There was no warning, for either sister, in truth. One second Celestia had been nearly as still as a statue, and then her mask had not so much cracked as exploded. The Royal Canterlot Voice echoed through the chamber, and the aurora borealis effect of Celestia's mane sparked up from the most peaceful expression of the sun into violent flame and flare. Her wings spread wide as Luna scrambled backwards, faced with a visage she had last seen moments before an enforced millenial sabbatical.
"Do you think I don't know what this could mean? Do you think I haven't been spending every second here trying to figure out what more I could have done to prevent it, and what I'm going to do now?" The smile was nowhere to be seen now. If a servant burst in now, they would probably not recognise Celestia at all, or at least assume the nightmare had conquered the older sister this time. Luna cringed, her own anger seared away before her sister's wrath like a shadow in the sunlight.
"Everything she... I did... I... I... thought she could do it, Luna." The flames gutted and died out as suddenly as they had roared forth, extinguished but for the blue-green afterimages floating in her sister's vision, and leaving in their place a waving mane and tail of smoke, which in turn slowly began to grow tinted into the various colours the royal mane normally displayed. She hung her head, suddenly looking much smaller, and certainly no longer smiling. "But what am I supposed to tell her? I did everything, everything short of direct magical compulsion to make sure she took the final steps alone. I had it all set up. Her friends had their own tasks. It all came together just as I saw it. She was at the final battle, and..."
"And you forgot about the dragon." Luna slowly relaxed, still a little wary of her sister's sudden outburst, but slowly moving up beside her as they both sat on the carpet, staring up at the image of the Empire's salvation.
"I forgot about Spike." Celestia echoed with a sigh, her feelings pouring out from the suddenly unmasked muzzle. "I didn't even think it was possible - a dragon on these windows? These are for pony tales!" She cried out, as if the power that marked the windows might hear her and correct its error. "When I first saw it, I thought it was some remnant of Discord playing tricks." She gave a dark chuckle. "I didn't think I could ever be so scared as I was when he was manipulating the windows. If he gained power over them... but that was just illusion. No, I was wrong on both counts. This is quite real... and I could be more terrified than that."
She stared up morosely at the image of Spike above. "I showed her the dark magic, and she used it to make her way past Sombra's hidden passages. And then I showed her how to dispel and counter it, and when the time came to banish the darkness... she relied on her friends. Just like I taught her."
She turned to Luna again. "She fought off every suggestion I gave her, as well as her own ridiculously well-honed fear of failure, to save the Empire at the cost of her own success on a test she doesn't even know the significance of." She gave a slight chuckle, although no smile accompanied it. "It sounds so ridiculous when I say it out loud. But I'm so used to that by now it just comes as second nature. But yes... Twilight failed her test. And now... now she has the dark magic sitting in the back of her horn, and not the light magic to balance it out. And someday, she's probably going to start wanting to know more..."
They sat there in depressing silence for a long, long moment, thinking about the past and the future.
"It... it doesn't have to happen that way..." Luna whispered. "It might not be that bad."
"I've been doing this job a thousand years, Luna, and I've been thinking about it since the window appeared. And you're right. It might not be that bad. If we manage things perfectly, and we have enough time, maybe we can stop it before it gets too far." She stood up suddenly, walking down the hall. Luna pulled herself quickly to her hooves, feeling very much like the younger sister again while she caught up to Celestia.
"But this feels like one of the big stories. Let me tell you how I see it. Sooner or later, Twilight will start playing with the darkness." She came to a blank window, her horn lighting up, projecting images onto the glass of Twilight, her horn and eyes ablaze with the sickly black-green light. "She'll do well at first. It'll bend to her will. She'll know it's dangerous, but she'll keep it under control. She'll use its power for good, to help those around her. Until one day, something goes wrong..."
The edges of the window started being encroached with dark crystals, and the light seemed to turn sickly where it touched the window. "Maybe she needs to use it to save one of her friends. Maybe she's just not had enough sleep. Maybe she's trying to turn the darkness in on itself and destroy it! But it goes too far. Her friends might try to stop her, or they might try to defend her - when has Twilight Sparkle ever failed at anything, after all? They would defend her to the last, perhaps even against the only chance anyone had to prevent the fall.
"The corruption passes on. All of them fall under its sway. And once it has all six of them, Sombra's dark power has nothing to stop it from the Elements themselves." In a flash of light, the image expands, showing the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, all with eyes of green and smoking black, all wearing their Elements - but where the centrepoint gems of the elements were once cleanly cut and brilliantly colourful they were now twisted and overgrown black crystal set in tarnished and stained metal, only superficially resembling their original shapes.
"Their shadow covers Equestria, washing over and enslaving city by city. Canterlot would likely be amongst the first to fall, the capital being a staging point from which to spread the dark malaise. I would likely be imprisoned, my power twisted to turn the power of the sun to shine with shadow instead of light. Maybe the same with you and the moon. Not exactly eternal night, but close enough." She half-smirked at Luna, the image in the window changing again to show Equestria beneath a black sun, cities and wilderness alike twisted crystalline wrecks.
"So. Do you think that would make an interesting enough story for the window so far?"
Luna was speechless, staring at the wasteland projected on the glass. Even her own decent into the Nightmare had not been such a horrific tale. "You... this isn't how it... there has to be a happy ending! You told me that's how it works!"
"Oh, of course! There's always a happy ending. The Crystal empire stands strong against the darkness - they've fought it before, and with Cadance and Shining Armour to protect the city at its full potential they can hold it off indefinately." In the image, a single spire in the north suddenly shone with iridescent light, a beacon in the endless darkness. "Spike will be there too, if that's anything to go by." She flicked a wing at the window they had stood in front of earlier.
"Together, the three of them will fight against the shadow, and the mare who used to be their sister, their mother, and their favourite foal. If they're lucky, they'll find a way to cleanse her. If not, they'll seal the elements away for another story, a thousand years down the track. The darkness is cleansed by the power of love, and the crystals which make it up will become the foundations of an expanded Crystal Empire."
The circle expanded and flashed outwards, showing the whole of Equestria shining in glorious crystal hues under a bright sun, more brilliant and beautiful than ever. In comparison, Celestia's words grew ever more bitter.
"Cadance will fulfill her destiny, becoming the new Empress of Crystal Equestria, and a new age of prosperity reigns. And maybe she'll take control of the windows, too, and good riddance. Happy endings for everyone!" The image vanished with a snap along with the glow from Celestia's horn. She stood there, legs locked and breathing heavily, still staring at the frame, now displaying nothing but blue sky and a couple of errant pegasi in the distance.
Luna stared wild-eyed, back and forth between her sister and where the image had stood. She realised she was shaking. Celestia had just flippantly described her student destroying the nation she had ruled for over a millenium, with all the finality of prophecy.
Before she could find words, Celestia sighed again.
"...Admittedly, that's probably the worst case scenario. We might be able to bring it down. But I don't know how far. Hopefully we have time."
"But... can't you just... teach her the light..." Luna muttered, already knowing the answer before she said it.
"Break the story..." Celestia muttered to herself. "Break the windows. I've been thinking about it, Luna."
The younger sister stared. "You have? I mean... you..."
"I know. I know." Celestia looked down the Hall one more time, a very thoughtful look on her face as she repeated what she had been taught when she first took over this role.
"This world is a world of stories. Stories of magic, of wonder, of heroes - and of hardship, corruption and villians. Without a time of struggle there can be no happy ending." Luna mouthed along with her sister, knowing these words all too well, passed down from keeper to keeper.
"This hall shows the great stories that shape our ponies. We are given our power as guides, to help them in their stories and minimise their suffering. We get glimpses of the script, and even the power to guide it in places, but we play the parts required for us and let the story run its course... and in return, we get the guarantee of a happy ending for every tale."
The hall was, in truth, much larger than it looked, and far larger than the space between the entrances should allow. In fact, not a living soul bar Celestia and Luna could truly walk the length of the hall - for unless it was brought to their attention, those without knowledge of the tales would walk past only the windows for the history they knew. The hall was as long as it needed to be for anyone who walked it. Magic of this calibre cared nothing for simple rules of consistency. This was the sort of magic that built the foundations of worlds.
There were corridors off the sides that the casual visitor would simply never notice, and they held smaller windows, progressions of smaller destinies that slipped between the cracks of the larger world-shaking events of the main hall. And every one, no matter how large or small, no matter how dark it grew, would result in success and happiness in the end. Thousands, tens of thousands of years of tales, great and small, and every one with a happy ending.
"And with this responsibility and gift, we are given one right - if we so choose, we can break character. We can break the story. We can bring our full might to bear on the problem. With our experience, and our power, we can likely defeat any villian, resolve any problem." Celestia sniffed slightly as she remembered her own mentor giving her this speech, before her tone hardened.
"But once done, this cannot be undone. There is no guarantee of a happy ending for that tale or any other thereafter. Destiny will be set loose. Anything that happens thereafter is the result of nothing more than our own actions."
She paused a long time, then, and Luna finished the warning for her. "And remember that it is all Equestria which faces the consequences of this change. We have a responsibility for all the ponies, and all the tales. We do have the right to make that choice, but it must never be made lightly."
"I won't make it lightly." Luna wasn't sure whether Celestia spoke to her, herself, or the memory of her mentor. "But I'm considering it. I... I don't want to lose her like that, Luna. And I don't want to put those three through... through the same thing I had to go through. I don't want to have a fight between siblings again... not even second-hand."
It wasn't until Luna heard the drop hit the floor that she realised that her sister was crying. Her stance was still strong, her face still seemed carved out of marble, but the tears welled at her eyes slowly and unstoppably. She moved in close, sitting beside Celestia again and awkwardly wrapping a large blue-black wing up and over her back.
"You know I'll support you. No matter what decision you make. I'm back now, and I'll stand by you. If you want to break the stories... I'll stand by that."
Celestia slowly turned to face her sister, the tears welling faster now. She opened her mouth to speak twice before she found her voice, then turned away slowly.
"I can't do it, Luna. I can't break it. How can I? When I... when you fell. I knew it was coming. I could have stepped out. I could have stopped you! But I stood by and watched you become the Nightmare.
"A thousand years! A thousand years of suffering to wait for a happy ending. And I let it happen. I left you there a thousand years and kept the stories going, filled the windows. After that... after doing that to my own sister... how can I justify throwing it all away for a few ponies I've known less than two decades? What kind of sister am I to even consider that?" The dam was broken now, and Celestia was crying openly, moving from sitting to lying sprawled flat on the floor.
It still hurt Luna, a little, to hear that fact. Celestia had told her about it shortly after she had returned, along with the purpose of the hall and its wardens, allowing her to join their number now that her part in the stories was done. Celestia had apologised for weeks, and even now it was still somewhat disconcerting, but Luna had long since forgiven her once she understood the rules. But now to hear it being used so...
"Celestia. Sister. Listen to me." She lay beside the sun monarch, pressing their sides together and nuzzling gently into her neck. "You must not use me as an excuse for anything. What is past is past. I said I will support you, regardless of your choice, and I meant every word. You have a thousand more years of experience since you made that choice. Use that to make your decision - not any obligation you feel from your actions when you were still new to the role. Please."
Celestia said nothing, weeping softly, but shortly afterwards spread her own wing out, hugging her little sister close while she cried herself out.
Neither knew how long they had been lying there before the older sister stopped sobbing and shaking. Luna moved forward slowly, trying to determine if she had fallen asleep, but a sudden shift proved that was not the case, as the white wing was gently disentangled from her own.
Celestia pulled herself back up slowly, stretching out all her limbs and composing herself, a quick flash of magic clearing the tear-tracks from her fur and leaving her once again the pristine monarch, for all she avoided looking at her sister as she did so. Luna emulated her shortly afterwards, standing and working the cricks out of her legs. Lying on the tile floor was not the most comfortable way to spend time, for all that she would do it again for her sister without hesitation.
"Thank you, little sister. I... I will take your words into account. I have a lot of decisions ahead of me, it seems."
"We have a lot of decisions ahead of us." Luna corrected. "You're not in this alone anymore."
"I...Thank you." Celestia repeated. The words were few, but the emotion behind them said more than any speech could have.
Together they walked out of the hall, leaving the room of magic, tales and destinies behind for the comparatively mundane halls of gilt and marble of their palace. Once again servants, nobles and guards alike bowed to them as they passed. Celestia's smile was back, now, and not even Luna could say whether it was more or less genuine than the one she wore when they had started their conversation.
Together they walked to a balcony to look over Equestria, their eyes moving over rolling hills and vibrant forests, blue skies and cloud cities, and a train winding its way down the cliffside towards the little town of Ponyville below.
Luna looked up at her sister, wondering what was reflected in her sister's rose-coloured eyes - whether she actually saw the beauty of the landscape, or the nightmare future of dark crystals she had described - or a gigantic game-board of intertwining threads of destiny to be played and tweaked, the natural beauty stripped away behind her duty to it.
And in truth, she wasn't sure which would be worse.
As the train vanished into the tunnel, carrying home her sister's most loyal student - and possibly unwittingly the centrepoint of the greatest calamity Equestria had faced in millenia, she focused her magic briefly, summoning the latest heavily warded tome the royal sisters had used to plot out possibilities and destinies. "Come on, sister. We have work to do."
"I can't apologise enough, your highness." The middle-aged unicorn prostrated herself before her sovereign, deep in the vaults. "But the piece in question is gone from the vaults entirely. Five years ago, in fact."
"Do you know what happened?" Celestia asked with a soft smile, her voice calm and gentle. The vault keeper winced, speaking reluctantly.
"It seems that there was a request to access a piece from Vault G, but it was poorly written, and then copied incorrectly, and the equivalent piece was taken from Vault C instead. The original request came with approval from security - not high enough for Vault C, but I... I must have signed off on it, assuming it would never have reached me if it had not been correct. I take full responsibility for the error." She winced, ready to accept whatever royal punishment was imminent.
Celestia's smile grew, a little indulgently. "Please, Dusty. You have served the palace for decades now, and nobody could say that keeping these vaults in order is an easy task. I understand that mistakes happen. And you'll know what to look out for next time, won't you?"
"Of course, your highness!" Dusty Ledger bowed, a relieved smile on her face that she was not bound for the dungeon for losing a precious artefact from the palace vaults, and that none of her staff were in trouble either. Her half-panicked exuberance reminded Celestia of her most faithful student, which made her smile all the wider.
"Do you know who made the original request?"
"Of course, your highness!" Her horn flashed, documents and ledgers flashing past before her eyes with a speed born of both long practice and special talent, finally settling on a single piece. "One... Lord Grand Expedition. The piece he requested to access was one that he owned, that he had stored in the vault for safe-keeping. Strange - I would have expected he would notice that what he received was not his own piece?"
Celestia nodded, recognising the name. "Lord Expedition was a minor lord fond of grand and unique trinkets. Although don't let his name fool you - he was far more inclined to sponsor groups to go delving for them in his name than get his own hooves dirty." Celestia winked at Dusty, who giggled at the image. "But a fire consumed his mansion... indeed, it would be about five years ago now. A vast collection of priceless treasure and art was lost along with him. It seems this item was among them." Celestia sighed, showing level of disappointment one might expect from a mare who had seen someone drop a stack of the fine china kept aside for visiting guests.
It lasted only seconds, but then she smiled reassuringly again as Dusty's ears drooped, hearing that her mistake had led to the destruction of the princess's treasure. "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he would have returned it if he had the chance, shall we?"
"O-of course, princess." Dusty nodded. "And... I'm sorry again, your highness. I promise you, I'll make sure this never happens again."
"Just keep doing your best, Dusty. I'm proud of the work you do here." She started moving towards the exit, as the vault keeper resorted the receipts she had been looking through and returned them to their proper places in the record. The mechanisms in the great doors unlocked in an aura of soft yellow magic, followed by the massive frames splitting open outwards just wide enough for the Princess to exit.
"Your highness..." Celestia paused, looking back at Dusty. "I know it's not my place, but if it's not private, what was the item that was lost? There really wasn't much information on it, just that it was a jewellery box... not if anything was inside?"
Celestia smiled. "Just an old heirloom, an amulet, that was given to me quite a few centuries ago. I remembered it earlier this week and thought I might show it off to the delegates from Saddle Arabia while they were here. It really isn't that important - just rusting away in the vaults, really. I told you - don't worry about it."
"Alright... goodbye, princess." Dusty Ledger bowed one last time as the doors to the vault closed again.
Celestia walked away through the palace corridors to return to her royal duties and guests, smiling all the way.
~-~-~-~
That evening, Celestia calmly strode into the Hall of Windows, seeing Luna already there waiting, three tomes lying open around her as she looked into the windows. The door shut behind her, sealing the two of them in with impregnable privacy.
"How did things go with the delegates?" Luna asked, not even turning to greet her sister as she scribed carefully in one book, simultaneously crossing out a couple of lines in another.
"Well. Very well! They were most interested in increasing trade with us, and we already have the infrastructure starting construction in Trottingham. We should see increased travel and familiarity between Saddle Arabia and Equestria within the year."
"Do you think they'll be able to handle an evacuation of the city like we planned?"
The pause before Celestia answered was just a little too long, but when she spoke it was with full confidence. "If they are not too stubborn. I think the next mayor of the city can be convinced to see it as a strong option."
"Rig some elections for Trottingham, gotcha." Another tome floated forward, Luna marking another note in their elaborate scheming. "So, are you going to bring it up, or just sit there grinning about a successful tea party with the neighbours?"
"I don't know what you--"
"Strangely-shaped clouds and no traffic out of Ponyville for days. A taste of dark magic on the breeze even the nobles could feel. If Shining Armour wasn't up north with Cadance, I would've had to lock him in the dungeon for a week to keep him mobilising the whole guard and storming the place. The whole thing stopped the day before you passed through." Luna sighed. "You've got to stop doing this, sister. I'm not one of your subjects. I can't help you if you keep trying to sugar-coat everything."
"I... I know." With clearly visible effort, Celestia's smile slowly slipped again. "I'm just not used to... talking about it with anyone."
"Forget it. Ponyville. What happened?"
"The Alicorn Amulet." Celestia walked down the hall a way, Luna leaving her books behind to follow, and stopping before the first of a trio of small windows, showing a white pony rearing up, with wings composed of strips of scarlet energy spread wide, and horn shining the same bright red. "Nine hundred years ago, a prestigious unicorn family had a pegasus foal. Seeing this as a fatal weakness, and wishing that their child could wield true magic, they pooled their power and sought to create an amulet which could store the power of a unicorn, allowing another to use the power in their stead.
"It started as a gesture of goodwill - however misguided it might have been - but soon the family realised that the amulet could store more than simply unicorn magic. What had been created as a gift for the son soon became a weapon for the father, as he learnt to siphon magic from others around him and wield it, improving his own unicorn magic and taking on the magic of pegasi and earth ponies as well."
The second window showed the same pony, his horn and wings now far larger than they should be on his body, each spectral feather touching down on a different pony in a pose of defeat, clearly drawing red streams of power away from each.
"It became an artifact attuned to possession and greed, and as part of that power, none but the wielder could remove it from his neck. Many attempted to defeat him or at least seperate him from the source of his powers, but none ever succeeded, and his power grew with every foe he defeated." Celestia moved to the next window of the three.
"Eventually there came a day where his son stood against him, and was drained of power in turn before his father truly saw who opposed him. It was then he came to see his folly twofold - that not only had his greed for power come to hurt his own family, but his son had stood strong against him without unicorn magic, with only his pride and his wings, a far better example of the family than his father ever was.
The final window showed the white pony embracing a pegasus, and the amulet lying discarded on the ground. "He tore the amulet from his neck, never to use it again. But the power of those who had fallen under his brief reign remained within the piece, and remained seething in the amulet. He had originally attuned it to his own family line, and in the hoof of any other wielder it was a shadow of its former self - no longer able to drain the powers of those around it, but very capable of significantly improving the power of any pony who wore it, and sometimes even allowing them access to the other races' abilities - at the cost of corruption, as the stolen essences drive the user mad."
Luna turned from the window to her sister. "How did Twilight Sparkle come across this accursed artefact?"
"I had it held for safe keeping in one of my personal vaults, under cover of every bit of security the palace offers, alongside a hundred treasures of personal value to myself and none other - anonymity can often protect things to a level that no amount of magic or stone can hope to achieve."
Celestia glared across the hall. "But it's never enough. No matter what protection we try, the coincidences add up, mistakes are made, and things make their way out to star in new stories. I can't even be angry at the staff who let it out - if the stories demand the cursed charm gets out, then get out it will, somehow. Sometimes I think about locking all the cursed artifacts I know of in one place and burying them under a thousand tonnes of rock and enough magical traps to melt a mountain, but that just means they'll all get found at once when everything I've done somehow fails, and I'll have a new crater to deal with." She sighed. "At least I know what happened to Lord Expedition's house now...
"Twilight never used the amulet herself - unless she has become far better at mastering her emotions than I could imagine, she could not hide that from me. But she didn't tell me about it - I would never have known if I couldn't recognise the feel of its magic in the air - and she certainly didn't give it back to me - so she has it hidden away, and she knows where it is, now. And with her knowledge and power, and the stories behind her, she could likely wield the amulet to its full potential. Indeed, now I think of it, I would not be surprised to find I traced back her family tree, that the Sparkle house was once that very noble house."
The two of them looked back to the second window of the triptych, considering the implications of this new information as they added this new power to the potential villian they prepared for.
"It's forever one step forward and two steps back." Luna whispered, despair in her voice. "First the mirror pool... I thought the ability to create doppelgangers to spread her darkness would be bad enough, but this as well... is it always like this, sister?"
"No. This is one of the darkest stories I've ever seen. I've... maybe I've been too good at this for too long, Luna." She sighed. "I've manipulated events so stories that should have caused months or years of problems were resolved in days. Without my efforts, Discord's reign would have lasted years while Twilight regained her confidence in another land. He was entombed in stone again within days. Sombra would have conquered the crystal empire, leading to a time of darkness and despair over Equestria before love shone through again - but he never truly gained a foothold." Celestia spoke without pride in her accomplishments, simply stating fact.
"I haven't had an Equestria-wide disaster last longer than a week in over three hundred years. But this... I think this is too big, Luna. Maybe it's been building up from all the cases I've minimised the damage from... I can't cover this up. Every time I try, it just gets worse."
The despair in Celestia's voice was painful to listen to. Luna watched as her jaw clenched. "And to stop it... all I have to do is go to Twilight, and teach her a simple spell to banish darkness."
"That's not all, and you know it, sister..."
"I know! I know. But it's hanging there, always taunting me. Just tell her what she faces, what she has to do to stop it, and stop a tragedy... but without knowing the cost, I..."
"How was she? Did you see any hints that she might be experimenting yet?" Luna cut in, trying to change the subject before she had to see her sister cry again.
"...No. She was... fine." Celestia stared blankly through another of the stained glass windows, not seeing the artwork emblazoned on it. "She hasn't started yet. But she's... she's pulling away from me, Luna. I don't even know if she realises she's doing it yet. Did you know she hasn't sent me a single friendship report since the wedding?"
Luna winced. "Not one?"
"Not one. I told her she only needed to send them when it was necessary, but I think she's too caught up in things to remember it at all. I... part of me says I'm just being paranoid. That she's just growing up, becoming more independent. But... how much of it is really her, and how much is what the stories are preparing her to be?"
"That's a very dangerous thought to have, Celestia. You can't think that. Twilight Sparkle is your student, whatever happens."
"Mmmm. Yes, my student." Celestia sighed. "My student who I send alone time and time again to fight monsters far beyond her power. I've shown her so little honesty, treated her so unkindly, shown no loyalty, been generous only with impossible tasks and shared laughter only through a mask. What right do I have to expect any report on friendship from her?"
"Just because you can't tell her the truth doesn't make everything worthless, sister. The values aren't any less important simply because they came from one who cannot practice them."
Celestia would not be consoled, winding herself up further. "So I'm above the magic of friendship. It doesn't apply to me? After all I've told her about friendship, I throw her to the darkness. And even if she makes it out again, what can she hope to have happen? Her struggles are complete, and now she can become like me, and pull the strings of nations! And I'll have to explain it all, of course. How can I look her in the eyes and tell her that I knew that Cadence was trapped in that pit all along... her brother being brainwashed... and that she was heading down the path to darkness... and I sat here and waited for other ponies to fix it? And then tell her to do the same thing?"
"You did it for me." Luna whispered. Celestia jerked back as if stung.
"I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
Luna cut her off with a sharp gesture. "Don't. You're not in any state to do this right now. Go to rest, big sister. The darkness will not come tonight."
"I... no, we need to--"
"To bed, sister, and no further thoughts on this. I will come beat it out of your dreams if I need to. Please, for me, if none other."
Yet reluctant, Celestia paused as if struggling, but Luna's expression brooked no argument. Finally, she acquiesced.
"So be it. I will be dealing with the delegates in the next few days, but once that is finished we will start in earnest."
"Even the sun can shine on reason on occasion." Luna teased, but pushed Celestia gently towards the exit with her wing. Taking the hint, Celestia moved.
At the doorway, she opened the door and glanced out briefly. Fortunately, there was nobody in the corridor at this time of night, the guard patrol not in this particular stretch. As soon as she was outside the wards of the hall with the door closed behind her, she teleported directly to her room in a flash of sunlight with nopony the wiser.
She suspected if she had had to start smiling again even for a moment, she would never have been able to sleep that night.
Observing the way the younger princess walked could drive unprepared minds mad. If taken alone, it seemed she simply cantered forward like a traveller on a road - but that road somehow wound a path that no map or compass could follow, paying no mind to Cartesian directions or sensible three-dimensional space, using metaphors as landmarks and sympathy as guides.
Four steps forward took her from a peaceful winter forest that stretched on in all directions as far as the eye could see to a maze of treacherous ice with no entrance or end. She turned a corner in the maze and wandered through the dark and narrow alleys of Manehattan in the height of summer.
Spreading her wings, she took to the air and flew through a window high on the building (many times larger than any window one could find in such buildings in Manehattan) and paused briefly to observe a pair of young lovers snuggled up close in the farmhouse she passed through, before flitting on as unnoticed as a shadow.
The next doorway took her into the ruins of an old stone keep, leading her to prance along a hoof-wide crumbling ledge high above a massive hall (as easily as one might wander down a wide stone highway) while a figure below could be seen bounding across the stone floor with amazing agility, dodging arrows and spears that shot out of wall and floor with every hoof that touched a tile, all the while staying just ahead of a horde of flesh-eating scarabs.
A darkened alcove led into a sensually-lit palace apartment where a mare Luna recognised as a servant in the castle reclined on an enormous bed weighted down with royal regalia, waited on hand and foot by stallions and mares of white coat and noble crest - and parodies of maid uniforms that were scandalous on the mares, and barely sized up to fit the stallions. The servant-turned-duchess observed the princess as she passed, and gestured imperiously as if she was to join the fleet of servants; Luna laughed gaily and strode past, leaving the young mare and her harem affronted and confused as she opened the door of the apartment and walked through.
And though the door she came out of on the other side was identical to the one she had walked in through, looking back through it showed only the form of a noble stallion sprawled without dignity in slumber, in the pre-dawn darkness. She recognised him from amongst the servant's collection, and with a mischievous twist of her horn tugged back a thread to the dream she had just stepped out of and tossed it over him like a fishing line, letting it draw him into his place in the dream.
He tossed slightly on the bed as he settled into this new imagining. A little cruel, perhaps, but entertaining, and there was little love nor respect lost between herself and the noble class. She would have to tell her sister to keep an eye out to see if she caught... what was his name? Blueblood? ...blushing every time he passed by a maid.
The door behind her closed, and suddenly had been closed and locked since its owner had returned home at the beginning of the night. Luna strode forward in more sensible and stable space now, moving through palace corridors ever upwards towards the Hall where her sister would either already be waiting for her, or join her soon enough.
Celestia was indeed already awake and in the hall, and glanced up briefly at Luna's entry. Luna was ironically cheered immensely at the serious and dark look on her sister's face - she hated having to break her sister out of her gently smiling mindset nearly every time they started talking.
The feeling of relief lasted only briefly, though, as she moved towards her sister and glanced at the books around her. Luna certainly had little of her sister's compulsion towards calm diplomacy in the face of all concerns, and soon matched the serious visage.
"I thought we agreed that we would take this day off from planning, sister? Even a thousand-year-old monarch needs to take a break occasionally to keep her mind fresh." She teased gently, though an iron undercurrent in her tone showed she meant the words exactly.
Celestia closed her eyes and snapped the book in front of her closed, shaking her head. "I wasn't working on Twilight." she said simply.
Luna raised an eyebrow, moving towards her sister and glancing at the book she had been working on. Indeed, it was not one of their many tomes of interweaving plots, though it had the same wards marking it as on the protected books that were used for matters of the Hall and its stories.
Celestia spoke again before she could inquire further. "How was your night? I assume you were going dreaming again?"
"Of course!" Luna smiled widely, fluttering her wings gently. "So many interesting dreams! I tell you, Celestia, if I could have done this before the Nightmare, I would never have worried about ponies sleeping through the night. Their dreams are amazing - sometimes I worry if enough ponies slept through the day I might stay there entirely." She winked at her sister.
Celestia pushed the various books around her aside with a sweep of her horn, making room for Luna. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
Luna laughed as she settled in beside the white form. "Words are poor tools to pin down a dream, sister, for myself as much as any dreamer. I fear trying to explain it would bring both of us little but confusion."
She paused, then nodded, willing to try - if only to have a discussion with her sister that didn't revolve around depression and gloom. "Mostly the dreams I've been watching out for have been the fillies and colts. Adult dreams are mostly... well, I will hardly say stable, but they can mostly handle themselves with minimal influence. But the young ones...
"You know of the... Cutie Mark Crusaders, I believe they call themselves? Some of them sisters to the Elements?"
Celestia nodded. "They've been the subject of a few friendship reports I can think of."
"Well, I'd already been taking a bit of interest in the youth of Ponyville since the Nightmare Night incident. Their little crusade has a lot of potential, I think. Their dedication to the journey of finding their talents is impressive, if their dreams are anything to go by.
"But I think they don't even realise they've dedicated themselves more to supporting each other, and their crusading, than actually succeeding. I've seen them find their talents in their dreams countless times, but never once in any of them did one get their mark without the other two also.
"And now it's begun to spread beyond Ponyville - they've recruited a mare from Manehattan, and it's spreading. I think once they actually get their marks their crusade is going to become something bigger rather than stopping - probably helping others along the same path they walked... although hopefully with a little less risk to life and limb." Luna smiled, turning to see her sister looking at her with a gentle smile.
Celestia was good, that much was for sure. Every part of her expression and body language was warm and welcoming, as if proudly sharing a private bonding moment with her sister. All of Luna's natural instinct told her to snuggle up to the figure before her, and enjoy the peaceful moment with her, because that was all Celestia wanted in the world.
Luna really, really hated it when her sister smiled like that.
Her face fell as she went back over what she'd been saying. "I'm sorry. There's probably not going to be time for that to happen, is there?"
"We haven't had any more disastrous reports in the past few weeks." Celestia mused. "I've been keeping Twilight busy for the most part. I sent her an assignment on a dozen of the most involved non-magical tomes I could find - though, knowing her, she'll probably try and get it done in a weekend." She laughed softly. "I can keep a few distractions coming. I think we have a little time yet."
"A little time isn't long enough for what I described."
"It's long enough for it to begin. With your guidance, the crusaders could become a rebellion within the darkness of Equestria. It could explain the delay in their cutie marks - their destiny is waiting for its nemesis in the darkness."
Luna's eyes narrowed further. When Celestia started smiling, she tried to guide the topic away from what was on her mind almost without fail - so if the impending disaster wasn't what was distracting her...
"What is it, sister?" Patience and diplomacy were never Luna's chosen weapons over the direct assault. Celestia opened her mouth for another answer, then reconsidered, the smile slipping off her face again as she composed herself.
"...You're building new stories."
"Well... I guess I am, or I could be?"
"You're drawn to the fillies and colts whose destinies are still undecided, ones who I haven't already guided and have a handle on. You're setting the stage for new stories. And you're having fun doing it."
"...Should I not, with the bleak future ahead?" Luna probed, trying to determine where her sister was taking this conversation.
Celestia sighed, shaking her head at the misunderstanding. "I've been considering breaking the story again, Luna."
"You've been considering that since the Crystal Empire..."
"But you've only just started working with them! You're having fun, Luna. I've had over a thousand years to... to solve problems, to make heroes, to bring joy and happy endings... It might be wearing on me a little now, but I remember what it was like at the beginning. And you're just getting into your stride, and here I am ready to throw it all away-- ow!"
Celestia rubbed her side where Luna had given her a sharp kick to the ribs, giving her sister a hurt and confused look. Luna's expression in turn was thoroughly unimpressed.
"The first time we discussed this, I told you not to use me as an excuse for anything. And I meant it, sister! Not just our history, but now as well. No amount of building heroic tales is worth you feeling like I'm holding you back. I have other hobbies! And just because it's not powered by the stories doesn't mean that they can't build something powerful and lasting!"
"I... you're right." Celestia nodded slowly. "I honestly hadn't even thought of that, even after spending most of this morning trying to figure out what might happen..."
Luna tilted her head back to the book her sister had been writing in when she had first entered. "Is that what you were working on earlier?"
Celestia nodded, pulling it back in front of them with a glowing horn. "I've been trying to figure out what will happen if we break the system. How far down does it go? If we break it, will the stories really stop and we won't have any more villians, or does it just mean we can fight in them? How far down do they go? You were talking about the Crusaders earlier - well, what is a cutie mark but a happy ending at the end of a struggle? If I do this, will it mean that ponies no longer get cutie marks? Or at least aren't guaranteed to?
"It truly is ridiculous that we have no idea really how it works, or even how it began - who made the rules? Has it been in place since our world began? Why is it here?"
A gold-shod hoof gestured at the hall. "Half the stories here don't even really make sense anymore, and I think there's more that are simply as beyond our comprehension as most of these are to our little ponies, and because we can't understand them, we can't find the windows. What's the point? Is there someone, somewhere who, who collects these stories? Is this a game to them? Are they even still out there?
"I sometimes think that for all that we're 'outside the stories', as it were, we're still completely meshed up in this. And part of me wonders if I do this - if I break the system - if it won't actually break everything, but just... push it up a level. We go back into the stories, the hall moves elsewhere again, and someone else takes over - and then we're fighting in the stories again and it all keeps going."
"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Luna tilted her head. "I mean, you'd be able to stop the catastrophe and we'd be able to keep the happy endings."
"That's if the rules don't change. Who knows, maybe the stories on the next level up don't always have happy endings. But even if they do... then with you and I fighting for the happy endings, the stories would have to become that much darker to challenge our light. Either that, or we'd lose a good bit of our power to compensate, of course..."
"Oh. I guess most of our power does come from being the wardens of this place, doesn't it?" Luna looked away, suddenly realising that she might lose her beloved newfound ability to dream-walk. Her conviction momentarily shaken, she was silent until Celestia continued.
"I don't know if I can justify doing it without knowing the consequences, but I'm too wrapped up in it all to understand what the consequences are. It could mean no more world-ending struggles, or it could mean they'll be just that much harder to stop. The world will be changed forever... but I don't know how, so all I can do is think of every way it might happen and make my plans accordingly..."
"It's like trying to examine the lid of a box while you're locked inside it." Luna nodded. "We might be able to sense the walls from inside, but we can't see what the system looks like from the outside while we're still inside it, that makes sense."
"Mmmm... makes sense..." Celestia echoed with a mumble, her expression unreadable.
"One way or another, sister, you're not going to be able to commit to both paths. For all the experience and power, we're still only two mares, and there's a lot of planning that needs to be done to make the best of either situation. You're going to need to make a decision soon, or you won't have done all you can to help your little ponies through the times ahead."
Celestia reeled back slightly, stung harder by the rebuke than she had been by her sister's hoof in her side earlier. Then, after a long moment, she closed her eyes and smiled.
"Thank you, sister. I think I needed that." She looked down the corridor of windows. "And I think you've given me something else I need, too."
"Really? You've come to a decision?"
"Not yet. But I think I have some options that might help me decide."
"Oh?"
"It's nearly time for the sunrise. I need to go take care of that. You should get some sleep, sister." Celestia evaded, a slight mischievous smile on her muzzle. Luna pouted, trying to determine how genuine the expression was, but either way found herself in no mood to break her sister's smile at this time.
"...Alright. But promise me you'll tell me when you make a decision?"
"Of course! I wouldn't do something like that without talking it over with you first." Celestia nuzzled her sister lovingly. "Now, let's go."
The two of them walked out of the Hall and into the palace, walking to the observatory from which they would raise and lower the heavenly bodies - hardly necessary, but tradition and style had its place.
As they walked, no longer speaking of the matters of the hall with servants and guards surrounding them, Luna wondered that she found it easy to match her sister's expression. She didn't know whether she was still cheerful from her dream-walking earlier, or if she had a strange feeling of optimism about the future from Celestia's words - or if she was beginning to learn the trick of smiling when torn inside. It worried her a little that she couldn't tell the difference...
Neither was anyone else in the throne room, as few of them as there were. The room was dark and foreboding, the torches lining the walls giving off a seemingly thin and wan light as if ashamed to be seen in the darkness. Only slight reflections on marble edges or where carpet became tile truly gave shape to the room.
Luna on her throne was a sight to behold. She sat still as a statue, her eyes closed - though none in that room imagined for a second that she was not wide awake and fully aware of everything that transpired within it. The silver regalia around her neck seemed to shine like a crescent moon - all the more so because the rest of her form was somehow even darker than the room around it, a black hole surrounded by a halo of drifting starscape.
While Celestia's mane held the soft colours of the northern lights, it still seemed to have some resemblance to natural hair in the way it flowed and spun, even if it seemed to flow more like it was underwater and billow out in winds that no mortal could feel against their coat. The stripes of colour, flowing in vaguely parallel lines, at least gave the illusion of stripes in a natural mane.
Luna's mane, however, held no such illusion, appearing even in direct sunlight as a wavering portal, a hole in existence straight into the night sky that darkened the air around it. Some whispered, when they thought neither sister within earshot, that should any be entangled in those ethereal tresses, they would find themselves lost and trapped in a realm of eternal night that the Nightmare had sought to bring to Equestria.
After being back for some time now, there were few who held to such beliefs - at least out loud - but the trembling officials in this room could be forgiven for thinking it. It was difficult to tell where her mane ended and the darkness around her began, an expression of her power reaching out and bringing a true sense of night-time to the place, complete with chill night breeze - as if the court was being held outside under the stars, and the moon itself had descended to the throne to reign at midnight.
This was all the more terrifying for the fact that the sun was clearly visible shining in the blue, cloud-speckled sky through the upper windows, approaching noon.
Normally, the cancellation of the day court for 'important business' - not too unusual a situation for the princess, whose duties political and deific often took her attention from the day-to-day rule - would result in a comparatively quiet but productive day inside the court, with nobles and officials making deals and sharing information with each other wherever prudent, and marking royal appointments for the future when not.
Now, only a few guards and the most dedicated of ministers dared remain within the hall. Luna's bat-winged guards turned away any who dared approach her, stoic and unyielding as their gold-clad counterparts, marred near-imperceptibly by lack of sleep and their own slight confusion at the situation. Occasionally the doors had opened and closed as a new pony moved to enter the room, froze at the slight of the tableau of darkness and its avatar across the room, and beat a hasty retreat.
Though there was no indication that the latest opening of the door was any different, everypony in the room jumped as Luna's eyes snapped open, the blue-white glow of moonlight shining out from them upon the intruder. To the herald's considerable credit, she barely flinched at the sudden attention, bowing deeply.
"Princess Luna, your sister has returned to the palace. She will arrive here shortly." Her voice did not waver, and her body language was well controlled, but for a slight twitch of the eye that was masked by the darkness. Luna nodded slowly, dismissing her with a barely noticeable twitch of the muzzle. The young herald bowed again and left the room, quite unaware that she had gained the respect and attention of several high-ranking ponies in the room for her cool-headedness in the face of darkness, and would likely gain considerable prestige in the castle - assuming that the status quo was not to be shortly annihilated by a war between alicorns.
For long minutes that felt like hours, none dared move, fearful of being the first to draw that cold gaze upon themselves now the princess's eyes had opened. The next sound and movement in the room was the great doors opening to admit Celestia herself.
For the rest of their days, those who were present at the scene (and dared speak of it) would say that it was akin to watching the sunrise across Equestria compressed into a room. As the door opened and Celestia walked in, the darkness simply retreated away from her, as dawn eats away the night, darkness turning to twilight and bringing the outside sunlight back to the walls and floor. Once Celestia stood fully in the room, the chamber was held half in light and half in darkness, the two princesses locking gazes.
Of course, by the time this equilibrium had been reached, the Day Guard at Celestia's side had leapt before her, wings stretched wide, ready to leap to attack or interpose themself between their goddess and any threat. Luna's night guard wasted no time leaping in to mirror those poses, and for a long frozen moment it seemed the Nightmare War was about to be re-enacted in the throne room. The only movement was the flowing manes of the princesses.
Luna scowled, and Celestia smiled.
"This is a little melodramatic, is it not, little sister?" Celestia broke the tableau suddenly with a teasing admonishment and a chuckle, tossing her mane back - with no effect on the actual mane, but breaking the staring match. "Is it not past your bedtime?"
Luna's eyes bulged, expressions of shock, outrage, confusion and fear flashing across her muzzle in turn before all crowding in together. "Have you lost your--" She began the shout at full Royal Canterlot volume before cutting herself off with a strangled yelp, glancing around at the wide-eyed ponies around her. Taking a long, barely controlled breath in and out through clenched teeth, she mastered her expression and turned the full disdain of her glare upon Celestia. "We need to talk, sister. EveryponyOUT."
The civilians scrambled for the doors almost before they had consciously registered the instruction, and shortly the room was empty but for the princesses and their guards, who remained a mirrored line of defence between the sisters. Once again the scene froze, and once again Celestia was the one to break it, taking a step forward, her wings spread to gently brush against those of her guards, causing them to jump slightly, glancing back at her while still trying to keep an eye on their counterparts.
"That's enough. Don't worry." She said, turning the full force of her signature comforting smile upon them. Although reluctant, the two slowly untensed, comforted by their ruler's confidence and serene expression. "Go. Nopony is in any danger here."
Luna's eyes narrowed slightly again, and the guards hesitated further, but soon bowed and left the room, never taking their eyes off Luna and hovering at the doorway, unwilling to leave entirely. Luna's own guards glanced back at her, and with a grimace she gestured sharply with her horn, and soon enough the bat-winged ponies followed suit, taking a wide path around Celestia and matching glares with the day guard, finally leaving the sisters alone in the room as the doors closed and sealed behind them.
Silence held for a long moment once again, as Luna's scowl crashed against the impenetrable calm stare of her sister - though the expression was a little different to her usual, there was a sparkle in the eyes there behind the smile she wasn't used to seeing.
Given the situation, Luna considered this nothing short of utterly terrifying.
Once again, the elder sister broke the silence. "So, is there a reason that we will be spending the next few weeks convincing Canterlot that Nightmare Moon's return is not immine--"
"Discord." Luna seethed, though yet with an edge of fear in her eyes. "Has he taken your mind, then?"
Celestia was completely taken aback. "What? No! No, oh no, not at all. You know that we are beyond such power n--"
"THEN HAVE YOU TAKEN LEAVE OF YOUR SENSES?!" Luna roared, the sheer power of her voice scattering what little furniture had not already been toppled by fleeing ponies. "Have you taken refuge in madness and sought to unleash its avatar in turn? Become so frustrated with the concept of not winning that you seek to wipe the slate clean? Tossing the board on the floor will not change the outcome of this game, Celestia! What on earth were you thinking, letting Discord loose again? AndSTOP SMILING AT ME!"
Celestia raised a hoof to her mouth, utterly failing to hide a giggle at her sister's antics. Luna's face fell, along with her wings and haunches, dropping to a sitting position. The last of the magical darkness faded out of the room as she stared, the fight draining from her. "By the sun and moon... you truly have snapped."
"No, nothing like that, little sister. I am quite sound." Celestia smiled widely, leaning forward as if to whisper conspiratorially from the far side of a grand hall. "I'm just cheating."
"Cheating." Luna repeated flatly, her expression falling further. "Given the choice between an impending apocalypse requiring a tangle of insanely complicated plans to merely minimise the damage, or removing the promise of happy conclusions to our stories, you consider voluntarily unleashing the living embodiment of chaos and most dangerous foe we ever faced in our lives... cheating. Perhaps I have missed something in the past thousand years, but as I understand it, when most ponies cheat, they do it to benefit their purpose, not ruin it entirely!"
"Ah-ah, you just have to think outside the box, little sister. Certainly, there is an element of risk, but there are a few things you have not considered."
"Do not patronise me while you tear down everyth--"
"Perhaps we should take this somewhere more private if you're going to insist on shouting? You've scared the staff enough already today." Celestia's quiet, calm voice somehow cut clear over the top of the Royal Canterlot Voice effortlessly. Luna gave a snarl far more suited to a carnivorous beast than a pony, but concentrated her magic and vanished from the room in a flash of blue-black energy, followed seconds later by her sister.
It was hours before anypony dared check if the throne room was safe to re-enter.
~-~-~-~
"The first thing you should recall, Luna, is that Discord's power and modus operandi is as opposed to Sombra's darkness as the elements are to either." Celestia strode cheerfully through the Hall of Windows, trailing a blue-coated whirlwind of barely suppressed rage in her wake. "The darkness brings oppression, conformity and slavery, which Discord would find as offensive as it was boring. Neither could thrive in the other's presence."
"And neither can we thrive in either! If you seek to escalate this to a war between villians, Celestia, it will not become any easier for the ponies caught in the middle."
"But if Discord willingly fought with us, against the shadow?"
Luna burst out laughing, though it was tinged far more with desperate worry than any actual humour. "And what possible reason could you have to believe that the personification of disharmony would ally itself with the very ponies who sealed it away in stone not once, but twice?"
"Simple. I made a story out of it."
"You made a-- wait, you what?" Luna turned to Celestia, who suddenly wasn't smiling anymore, looking at her sister with intense seriousness.
"I took Discord to Ponyville, and tasked Twilight and her friends to reform him."
"W-what? You call that a story? No preparation? No foreshadowing? Just... take the greatest monster we've ever known and... let him out, and tell them 'don't let him come back until he's on our side'?"
"Somewhat brilliant, don't you think?" Celestia smiled again.
"If you're trying to convince me that you are not insane, you are going about it quite poorly!"
"Don't you see, Luna? Discord is a creature of stories. Chaos, like Harmony, is not an elemental - hah, poor choice of words, sorry - a physical force of nature like air or water or the sun or moon - it is a conceptual thing, of understanding and metaphor. Something can only fail to make sense if there is a sense for it to rebel against. Discord's chaotic power is nothing but a story element, his power granted to him by the tales in which he appears." She built up to a crescendo, triumphant.
"If Discord is the villian in a story that spreads across Equestria, his power reflects that, twisting the very world around him into his image, nigh-unstoppable control over reality. But if he's tied down to a little tale of redemption, a personal tale of overcoming hardship and loneliness..."
"His power is limited, and if the story doesn't spin out of control, you can draw out a happy ending... which means Discord is reformed?" Luna eyed her sister warily. "You will forgive me, but it sounds far too easy. Have you done this before?"
"Nope! I only had the idea recently. But I've been thinking it over since, and I have to say... I truly believe it will work."
"But you could use this to... to conquer every villian, destroy every cursed item, wipe the land clean of threats within a year!"
"No." Celestia sobered again. "It won't work on Twilight, for starters - she's already tangled in her own story for now, and trying to resolve it through another story won't work. Same with the other things already enmeshed with that tale. And besides, the Hall gets cranky if you try to use the same solution to too many problems. It always gets harder, every time - new complications. Have to keep the stories fresh and interesting."
She looked up at the window showing Discord's defeat at the hooves of Twilight and her friends. "But if ever there was a foe I would bet upon being vulnerable to this tactic, it would be Discord. And to be honest, whatever path we choose - to keep or break the stories - having Discord break loose again without warning could mean disaster. He would be vastly weakened without the stories to support him, but the Elements would suffer similarly."
"And - considering, as you said, that Sombra's magic and Discord's are opposed - have you considered that this very action might be what triggers Twilight to turn to that dark magic to protect herself and her friends?"
Celestia turned away sharply, the words hitting home. "...Of course I have."
"Then what could--"
"I've done everything I could to keep the stories separate. As you said - no foreshadowing, no preparation, no warning, not even to you. This matter with Discord is as self-contained as I can possibly make it. And when it succeeds..."
"Even if... I cannot even imagine Discord being a friend to us, Celestia. But even if he was, he will not be kind to our plans. He will be a piece we cannot control. He'll get caught up in other stories, he'll make life hell for the palace staff..."
"Perhaps, perhaps. But I've got a few little tricks up my sleeve yet, Luna." She grinned. "And besides... perhaps the best way to keep Discord out of the stories is to bring him outside them altogether."
"...You... you can't mean..."
"You don't think Discord would make a good guide for the Hall? He's an expert manipulator, fantastic at thinking outside the box... and regardless of whether he is reformed or no, the happy ending rule is inviolate - I think he could do some amazing things here."
Luna was completely lost for words - or more accurately, had a thousand things she wanted to say all trying to get out at once, leaving her gaping stupidly at her sister for almost a full minute. Celestia even let her smile be replaced by concern at the sight of her sister struggling to breathe before it was done.
"Are you... alright, Luna?"
"You're insane!" Luna gasped. "It's really the only explanation! You're planning to let somepony who tried to twist the world into their insane image have control over the destinies of--"
This time, Celestia didn't even need to speak to cut off her sister's ranting. She just slowly turned her head to stare at the window to one side of Discord's fall, showing a wondrous stylised image of six ponies, the Elements of Harmony, and the fall of Nightmare Moon...
"Even Discord might get a happy ending. For himself, not just us. A way to use his powers and be accepted, work with us. I know it's hard to imagine, but... much stranger things have happened under these windows."
"Not to our benefit." Luna grumbled. "I still think this is a horrible idea. But does it mean that you've made your decision, then? You're going to keep the stories going?"
"Not yet. That's part of the reason I'm doing this." Celestia sighed. "If anyone would have the ability to look into this and see the shape of it from directions we can't, it would be Discord. I'm not sure that we could trust anything he said, but... it would be a start, at least. Even a lie or a riddle would be more to go on than we currently have."
"...Alright, you have a good point there." Luna admitted her own curiosity was considerable, although certainly not enough to even entertain the thought of what her sister had done. "But never, ever do anything like this without warning me again."
"Agreed, sister. Now, you had best get to bed. I've got a long day of convincing everypony that they don't need to worry about Nightmare Moon's return, most likely closely followed by several weeks convincing everypony that they don't need to worry about Discord's return."
"I'm not apologising for that."
"That is most likely fair, although I'll expect you to do your part later. Now off you go. I'll let you know as soon as I know what's going on with Discord."
"If he doesn't turn my moon into cheese before then." Luna muttered, moving towards the entrance to the hall, hoping she could at least get at least half a solid day of sleep before Discord started re-sculpting reality out from under them.
She paused at the doorway as something occurred to her, turning back to look at her sister, who was staring up at Discord's window once again with her expression as unreadable as usual.
"Celestia..." The elder turned slightly to acknowledge the younger. "Do you really think Discord would let you break the stories? After all, you said yourself - he gets his power from the stories themselves. And if you gave him the power to manipulate them, he would likely not give it up easily."
"Perhaps, perhaps - but on the other hand... Do you think Discord would really pass up the chance to be a part of permanently breaking one of the fundamental foundations of magic?"
Luna suppressed a shiver, and turned away without another word, closing the door behind her and returning to her chambers in a burst of blue-black light. Even in this state, Celestia was hard to argue with, but the doubts she had been feeling were still burning strong after that conversation. She wasn't prepared enough to win a debate with her sister, but it seemed that action might need to be taken to reign her in if she considered this an acceptable tactic.
In her mind's eye, worlds fell apart, and Discord smiled.
Her lips pulled back widely into a rictus grin, her eyes narrowing, as she leaned forward, her mane flowing out around her and towards the ponies before her. The expression was truly as distant from any form of calm, serene expression as it was from the wicked grin of exultation she intended; instead, it simply looked like an exceptionally awkward grimace.
Awkward was indeed the feeling it produced, as her audience stared with confused wide eyes, backing away slowly, truly having no idea how to deal with the strange sight before them.
Concerned, she redoubled her attempt at the smile, moving forward to greet them. The ponies around her shied away, averting their eyes - not out of fear, but simply not wanting to look at the grotesque mask on the muzzle of one they knew they should respect.
Finally Celestia could take it no more. "What is wrong, my little ponies?" She asked, turning back and forth, wings held wide in triumph. "Why do you hide your faces? This is a glorious time of celebration! Come, come!" She coaxed them, but none dared stare upon the Princess for more than a second, though several glanced back and forth between her and the statue behind her, as making a disbelieving comparison.
"Somepony, please speak to me! What concerns you? The night is yet young!"
As her perplexed frustration at the ponies before her grew, she noticed a tide of nudges and whispering making its way through the crowd, finally culminating in the young purple mare being pushed forward from the crowd, dressed in extravagant wizardly garb and hat, ringed with bells and with a false beard dangling below.
She watched closely as Twilight Sparkle moved towards Celestia, holding forth a collected bag of candy, still averting her eyes. The young wizard looked like she was about to say something, but instead bit her lip, not trusting her words right now.
But Celestia was thrilled. "Very good! Thank you ever so much, Ponyville! Let us all continue with the festivities - for this Nightmare Night, your town shall be the home of Celestia, Princess of the Night!"
She reared up again, the black blotch marked with a crescent moon on her flank standing out starkly against her otherwise pristine gleaming white fur, the starscape of her mane causing a blotch of floating blue and black that simply clashed horribly with the rest of her form, less a contrast and more like someone had simply struck some sort of nebulous tentacled slime on her head.
It had to be said, she looked a lot more imposing in the statue that stood behind her, in all its monochromatic glory.
So cheered was she from the present that she did not see the ripple of cringes spread through the crowd as they realised that the offering had not, as the legends suggested, satisfied the strange princess and encouraged her to move on but instead had much the opposite effect. The ponies of Ponyville steeled themselves for a night of incredible awkwardness as they entertained the eccentric, incomprehensible Celestia, Princess of the Night, and her gargoyle grins.
"CUT!"
~-~-~-~
"Cut, cut! This one barely counts." Discord turned up his snout at the window, sniffing over a monacle and snapping a clapboard together repeatedly.
Celestia gave an affronted glare at the parody of herself and its horrific smile, which was quickly fading from the small window to be replaced with the static final image of Ponyville's celebration of Luna's return. Only a thousand years' experience kept her from laughing out loud at the absurdity of it, in truth, but that experience served her well this day as she turned to her companion.
"Offended that one of your little twists ended up turning out better for me than it did for the original destiny?"
"Better? Surely you jest. Even your precious student - or Luna's, in this case, I suppose - could not bear to look you in the muzzle. At least Luna got honest fear and respect! You could never pull off the Nightmare style." Discord framed her with his fingers, and she could see her own reflection in his eyes between them, dressed in the silver-black armour of Nightmare Moon - again, clashing entirely with her own colour scheme and looking far more ridiculous than intimidating.
"Well then, I apologise that Luna and I have not been on many adventures in the past thousand years. She has been indisposed, and I have been spending more time guiding than adventuring myself. So I'm afraid all you'll manage is to see us trade embarrassments." Celestia smiled politely.
"A trade in embarrassments! Now there is a standard I could get behind, or at least get my behind on." Discord grinned, twisting in on himself and switching his mismatched director's outfit for a green coat and fine-rimmed glasses, spinning a coin into the air with a flick of his tail, catching it with his back hoof and handing it to Celestia as he balanced on his antlers. "For every mortifying event, payment provided! What chance would the bit have?"
"A most unstable economy, unsurprisingly enough." Celestia examined the coin, which - as Discord had implied - had an engraved print of his backside on the heads side, which seemed to follow the viewer as the coin was tilted back and forth. "And should we ever need to mint more, all we need do is invite the Elements to another Canterlot gathering. Though I shudder to ask how the coins might be produced?"
Discord tapped his finger with his chin. "I had some ideas along those lines, but upon further consideration it might get a bit repetitive if the process of minting the coins leads to the creation of more coins..."
"And what fun would there be if, upon coming up to a stall and finding one did not have sufficient funds, oh, how embarrassing! And then suddenly, the funds are produced? Too simple." Celestia teased.
"Alas! Economics requires too much planning." He swooned dramatically, falling back further and further until he had flipped over and around his own body, when suddenly a blue aura surrounded him and twisted his movement a little further and up, then pulling, leaving his serpentine body in a solid knot.
The two of them turned - Discord with some difficulty - to see Luna standing there, with a smile somewhere between forced and smug as she looked at the twisted draconequus. He smiled back winningly.
"Lady Luna! Such a pleasure to see you here. Tell me, have you ever considered the effects of getting knots in an ethereal mane? I'm certainly willing to share." He tugged at his own body with his claws, trying to extract his body from the knot, while one of his hind legs pulled out a pipe, tucking it into his mouth and blowing out a stream of shimmering bubbles.
"Oh, are you having trouble there? A knot of chaos would be a most difficult thing to undo, certainly - though I seem to remember reading a famous fable of a earth pony who earned a lordship by completing a such a challenge, separating a fiercely complicated knot that no unicorn could solve? Perhaps I could take a nugget of his sharp problem-solving intellect to assist you?" Luna's smile did not reach her eyes as she walked forward.
"Perhaps knots are not the best thing for your mane, then. Have you considered using your sister's shampoo? It might give you a different outlook on life, if you could see through the pastel." He turned his muzzle to his tangled form, sticking the pipe between the layers of fur and blew hard. The knot suddenly expanded, leaving his body in a loop between Celestia and Luna, the centre of which held a shimmering layer of bubble.
From Luna's side, it did nothing but distort the air slightly, but as Discord's head craned down beside Celestia on the far side, they both burst out laughing as the image showed Luna crowned with her sister's pastel mane and emblazoned with the matching bright yellow sun on her flank. Their laughter redoubled as Luna faltered, confusedly glancing at herself to try and determine what Discord had done, then stepped forward again, opening her mouth to demand an explanation.
Discord was, as ever, too quick for her, reaching out a claw to shush her, causing her to shrink back from his touch. "Now now, none of that today. I can tell when I'm not wanted, and I think I'll find some more entertaining chaos in Ponyville today. You two have fun, and please don't get too boring without me!"
He turned back to the bubble in the hoop of his body, blowing hard, and with an eye-melting twist of space the bubble blew out and expanded, his body flattening out into its surface like a reflection. The image gave a final wave as the bubble blew forward, popping against Luna's horn, leaving no trace the serpentine chaos lord had ever been there.
Luna shook her head hard, reaching a wing forward to wipe off her horn with a look of disgust on her face, which only made Celestia chuckle harder. The younger sister shot a glare at the elder.
"If I had imagined that I would come back from the moon to see you sharing a laugh with Discord..." A look of consternation came across her face. "Normally I would end such a thought with 'I would say Discord was on the loose again', which is admittedly entirely suitable but does not seem to have the right punch."
"He has his moments, when he can be convinced to work for our benefit. And what we were doing involved imagery only, no ponies were hurt. Although our collective pride may have taken a blow."
"But I gather from his statement that the plan you put together for Twilight is going ahead?"
"Discord was more than willing to put together the story with me - although I will admit he may have made it a little more extreme than I would have liked. And..." She sighed.
"And?"
"I'm so close to never having to lie to Twilight again. But it's still so easy, to tell her about 'Starswirl's secret unfinished masterpiece'." Celestia's wings provided the air quotes. "And knowing she'd jump at the chance. After this story is complete and the coronation is over, I'll teach her that solar spell... and then I'm never lying to that mare again, if I can help it. I'm so sick of it, Luna!"
"So that's it, then? There's no turning back now, the stories are going to be broken?"
"...Not yet. It's stretched - I've walked the edge for a while now, trying to wrap up as many little happy endings as I can. But magic like this protects itself. There's always a way out, and it will always let us know it if we need it - although it may get more and more unpalatable as you get closer to your goal. To do so now... is not worth considering. That story would be dark indeed." She gave a look of distinct distaste.
Luna nodded slowly and thoughtfully. "That much, I know. Though, of course, the light would always shine at the end."
"Eventually, of course. Though it might take a thousand years."
"A very specific and personal example, sister. But that was not what I was referring to - your choice is made, and you will not turn back." It wasn't a question.
Celestia didn't turn, her eyes focused not on the window they faced but some middle-distance behind it. For a long moment she seemed to have not heard Luna, before finally turning, and smiling.
"I've... I've been thinking. Too much, probably. About what it would mean to do this, but also... why I'm doing it.
"I wish I could say I want to save Twilight, Shining, Cadance, and Spike - and I do, don't get me wrong. None of them should have to go through what the stories have in store for them, not them or their friends, or their sisters, or their town, or anyone in Equestria. But I've done worse, and let worse happen, and I know that in the end, it'll all turn out alright. It's not enough.
"So I looked deeper, and maybe I'm doing it for Equestria. I thought, maybe it's time we all grew up, grew out of these little children's fairy tales with their happy endings, out into maturity. That I should consider that our little ponies are ready for a world where there are no guarantees, without the world itself sheltering them every step of the way. Can they really, truly grow up if their hooves are being held every step of the way?
"Then I looked deeper, and began to get angry. Are they even really living their own lives? Or are they just being characters in the stories, every pony just a piece of coloured glass making up something larger? Do they even have any free will, or are the stories living them? What is it even worth, when every happy ending is coming not because of any choices they made, or acts they undertook, but because the story said so? Is Twilight Sparkle even a real pony, with real thoughts and dreams and friendships, or is she a story given form, a reflection of a stained glass window acting out a pre-ordained tale, with the only choices in her life being the ones I made as I guided her along her path?
"And what about the others? How about the background ponies, the ones who never make it into the windows? Are they more free? Less? Do they have a purpose beyond being the setting, the observer, the sounding board, the interaction with the main characters? If the windows and the stories don't have a direct hold on their lives, does that make them free and real - or barely more alive than the houses they live in? Do they just exist for their own little stories when they need to, and then just act as the victims of the large one, the reason to fight for the real heroes?"
Despite her words, she remained calm, the smile still on her face, as if she was discussing the quality of today's tea and biscuits rather than the potential futility of life. Luna moved closer to her, worry shining in her eyes.
"Sister... you don't have to keep smiling. You said you were sick of lying. Please, if you're hurting, show it."
Celestia shook her head, smiling softly as if to deny something, though Luna could not say what, and continued without answering. "But I've been doing this long enough to know that I was just trying to distract myself from the truth. I should have known it when I was talking before about the whole system moving up, as if somebody else would take over the job and we'd be able to live in the stories again.
"I can say it's because I want to protect the ponies I love, because I think they should have a chance to carve their own way in the world instead of being puppeteered by the stories, but in the end, I'm just tired of this, Luna. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to lie to Twilight Sparkle, I don't want to guide the ponies I love against horrors, I don't want to be a god.
"For a thousand years I did this, Luna. I watched and waited, I pulled strings and whispered words, watched as the ponies around me brought down villians and monsters, and saw them all get their happy endings. All of them, sometimes just one at a time, other times all of Equestria at once. And I waited, Luna, I waited a thousand years... a thousand years, and I told myself it would all be worth the wait, as soon as you came back and we could be together again, we'd be happy. The tale would be over, and I'd get my happy ending. I could stop smiling because everyone expected me to smile, and actually have someone I could really, truly smile and share with.
"Me and my little sister, together, we could face anything. We could make the world a utopia, stop every problem before it starts, or at least support each other through the darkness where it happened. And I was so happy when you came back. When I could bring you in, explain everything, when we could be really, truly princesses together, Celestia and Luna..."
Luna opened her mouth to speak again, but Celestia overruled her with a sad smile. "The truth, Luna. I'm tired of lying, and I've lied to you, even when I don't want to, and worse, when I don't need to. As long as this hall exists, I have to lie, whether by word or gesture or expression, and it's all I know how to do. I can't turn it off. I can't... I can't be the sister you deserve, and I can't open myself up to let you be the sister I need.
"But right now, right here, I won't lie to you, and I'm sorry. It's not enough, Luna. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. I've watched thousands of ponies, I've seen their happy endings, I know what they look like and you're back and it's wonderful, but this isn't a happy ending. This is just more of the same, and the big stories are coming hard and fast - you, Discord, Changelings, Sombra, Twilight - one after another, and they'll just keep happening, and even though you're here sometimes it feels like I'm more alone than ever. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm outside the stories. I don't get a happy ending.
"And when I realised that, I thought - I should feel horrible. That's the reason I made the choice I did. Not saving my friends, not changing the world, but simple selfishness and jealousy. I'm changing the very nature of Equestria because I have the power and the desire to do so.
"But I don't feel bad about it, Luna. I don't think I've felt this light and happy in centuries. For the first time since I lost you, I feel like I'm actually going to make a difference. I'm going to get my happy ending, Luna, even if the stories aren't there to support it. And it feels magnificent." She spread out and stretched her wings luxuriously, as if making the confession had removed a further physical load from them.
After a long moment, the wings re-settled at her side. She turned to her sister once again, trying to gauge her reaction, but Luna's expression was as impassive and unreadable as Celestia's own gentle smile.
"Knowing that, do you still stand by my decision, as you said you would?" Celestia asked, and though her tone was light, even she could not keep a slight note of worry from her voice.
Luna blinked, looking caught for a moment, before refocusing on her sister and nodding firmly. "I will. We can stop the darkness of the current story, and it won't bring the other stories down on us... at least if Discord hasn't been actively sabotaging us... We don't know everything that will happen, but we'll make our way through. And I'll stand... by your side, and by all of Equestria."
"The world will be a less magical place once this is done..." Celestia sighed. "But perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing. I wonder if Twilight will hate me..."
"She won't."
"And even if she does, we'll work it out."
"Mmm." Luna turned, gazing down the long hall of stories.
With the timing that comes only from narrative, a flash of magic echoed through the hall, a blast of harmonious energy amplified by the hall's own sensitive magic, and a blank window began clouding over, the colours and lines beginning to form a new image, centred around a purple mare.
"The last story this hall will record." Celestia mused, watching the slowly developing image.
"Go on. You'd better go wrap it up." Luna nudged her sister, with the same sad smile Celestia had been giving her for most of her speech. "She's waiting for you."
Celestia laughed, heading towards the window. "You know what? I think I feel a song coming on. I haven't had the urge to sing anything since the night I lost you to the moon. I hope I remember how." She chuckled to herself, singing a few notes with perfect tone.
Without looking back once at her sister, Celestia stepped into the fluctuating window, spreading her wings in the starry space between spaces beyond where mind and magic held greater power than mere reality, and moved towards the purple-coloured patch rapidly coalescing into the shape of a familiar mare, towards freedom, and her long-delayed happy ending.
From the end of her muzzle, to the tips of her hooves, to the very depths of her soul...
Author's note: Please note, this particular chapter was not in the original plan for this piece. It's effectively an optional or alternate ending, which got into my head after reading some of the comments on the piece. It's still perfectly valid, though it changes things around significantly.
So if you don't like it, pretend it never happened. :) /lack of conviction
Luna smiled, as the colourful trail of Celestia's tail blended into the window, leaving shadows in their wake.
So... that's what it feels like...
Her smile cracked within seconds of Celestia's departure. It was all she could do to keep her feathers from shaking. Though she still had far more experience than any mortal pony, she had nowhere near as much as her sister, and Luna was certain it was only the distraction of the impending meeting with Twilight that had kept Celestia from seeing right through her.
Well, if one were sufficiently paranoid, perhaps the magic of the hall might have helped.
Luna felt more than sufficiently paranoid right now.
"I... I guess I'm going to have to get used to that, then." She said to herself, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.
"Get used to what, then?" She nearly leapt out of her skin as the voice came from right next to her ear. She turned frantically, spotting the flash of brown but it always spun with her, until finally she growled, conjured a mirror from the air, and glared at Discord - whose head was poking through her mane as if it truly were a portal into space.
But even with this gross violation of her space by one such as he, she couldn't keep up her annoyance, and just sighed. "Lying. Lying to people I care about, about the things that matter most to them, right to their face. Breaking promises and betraying the elements. Just like my sister. And directly to my sister."
"Aha, so you've decided to go along with the plan, then?" In the mirror, Discord slithered out of her mane and through the reflective frame, leaving them together in the room again as he leant on his front paws with a smug grin. "I knew you'd see things my way."
"Oh, as if you weren't listening to everything she just said." Luna snarled again, but quickly slumped, looking utterly defeated. "Seeing you laughing with her was one thing... but to imagine I might be conspiring with you against Celestia..."
"It's hardly against Celestia if it's being done for her own benefit." Discord said, with a grin wider than his own muzzle. "What she wants most out of this is a happy ending. A thousand years of giving everyone else those endings, you don't think it's fair she gets one as well?"
Luna glared, taking a threatening step towards the Draconequus. "And what do you get out of this? Why are you so eager to see her happy? I'm still far from trusting you."
"What do I get? I get to play with Equestria!" He spun around, taking in the hall around him in a grand gesture. "And I'll get to play with her as well, naturally. Don't you worry a hair on your little he-- well, a star on your little head anyway, little Luna. I've learnt my lesson. Friendship and magic and harmony, woo!" He waved an excessively tiny flag with the symbols of the elements emblazoned on it. "I don't have to be the villain to have fun here. And after all, I'll have you to keep me in line, won't I?"
Luna groaned at the thought, covering her eyes with her wings as images of the centuries to come impressed themselves on her mind. She uncovered them quickly, however, when the next words out of Discord's mouth didn't have his usual mocking levity, but sounded quite serious.
"But we can both agree that the best thing we can do - for your sister and Equestria and ourselves alike - is to go with our plan, isn't it?"
The look of distaste on Luna's face was exquisite, as she desperately sought any other option, any reason to not go along with what Discord suggested. She truly had wanted to stand behind her sister, when she believed she was doing this to save Twilight, and Equestria.
Discord's plan had been tempting from the beginning, of course - the trickster spirit always knew what buttons to press, though at first she had rejected him outright. And she had promised her sister she would stand by her decision, that she would do what Celestia wanted...
But in the end... this really was what Celestia wanted, wasn't it?
She sighed.
"Let's do it, then."
~-~-~-~
The windows, the hall, the stories were a powerful magic, and they protected themselves, as Celestia had mentioned. There was always a way out, right up to the last moment. Sometimes, the way out got unpleasant, as a way to discourage the guide from ever moving down that path again.
A millenia and change previous, Celestia had come close to breaking the stories to save Luna, but had backed out at the last minute, and the result had been a thousand years without her sister. Perhaps that could have been significantly lessened if she had stuck to her guns from the beginning. Luna didn't know what the way out that Celestia had seen for this moment was, but she feared it would be worse still.
But the hall offered another way out - just, not offered it to Celestia. Indeed, for Celestia, it was more of a way in.
Luna and Discord stood before the window Celestia had disappeared into, and focused their power. The magic they cast was a fiercely complicated yet instinctive work, fuelled by their own powers but guided and shaped by the hall itself.
Luna's strength lay in dreams, in metaphor and prophecy, connection and desire, and here in the hall that power was at its strongest. And Celestia had just stepped into the window to greet her student - physically walked into the representation of the stories. The metaphor there was a strong and obvious one, easy to utilise.
Discord's strength lay in change, taking the properties of one thing and giving it to another, or changing something small and letting the difference cascade out. Within the stories his power lay mainly with changes to the physical, stretching to the mental and emotional if desired; but from here he had a grip on destiny itself - and while he could fling it around without care for the details leaving devastation in its wake - as Ponyville had seen - he had more than enough ability to do so more completely as well.
And Celestia wanted nothing more than to leave the hall behind, and see her happy ending.
If she had not desired it - or indeed, if she had even been aware of the plan at all - it almost certainly would not have worked, for the powers of the hall would normally only work on those within the stories, not those who wielded the hall's power itself. But with all the three of them together, the same goal in mind even if their paths were different...
It was a little too convenient, Luna thought. It all came together so perfectly, the pieces falling into place. Perhaps we're not as far outside the stories as we thought.
Perhaps this is how the stories truly protect themselves.
She realised she never did find out what happened to Celestia's own mentor. Maybe this is how all of the hall's inhabitants ended their wardship of the windows.
For a second she was tempted to break off, to stop the change out of spite, but only a second. Her sister had waited a thousand years for her happy ending, and now she could have it, one way or another.
As the spell came together, she met Discord's eyes, nodded, and pushed the magic forth.
The window solidified. In Ponyville, miles away, two Alicorn princesses materialised back into the world proper, one having gained a great deal, the other...
She let out a breath, looking at the image before her of Twilight, wings spread wide. A destiny rewritten, with no trace on the window to suggest the other destiny that had been overwritten beside it.
"How will it work?" She breathed, looking at Discord. He shrugged, looking uncharacteristically sober.
"No idea. My guess is, she probably won't remember most of it. Just enough to justify her decisions throughout the centuries. Prophecies she came across to thwart, patterns she recognises from experience. The hall, the pressure, the worry... she won't remember them."
Luna looked up again at the window, sadly. "Thank you."
"I could have left hints and dribbles that would have driven her insane, of course, but it wouldn't have worked if we didn't have her best interests in mind." He grinned.
"Happy endings." Luna nodded.
"Besides, tormenting her will be so much more fun if she's at her best."
"Just... give her a little while, alright? Prank me if you have to, but leave her alone for a bit." Luna whispered. "Just... I want to see her happy for a while. Really, properly happy, not just putting on a smile, for once."
"Oh, you know she'll never really be happy unless she's got a problem to fix. And I'll be more than happy in turn to oblige!" Discord laughed. "But I suppose I can go on a short holiday. This place is going to be getting ridiculously regimented with the coronation coming up. Bo-ring! I assume you can hold the fort?"
Luna nodded vaguely, still staring up at the window. Discord rolled his eyes at the lack of response, sighed, and clicked his fingers, vanishing.
Luna just stood there, still staring up at the window, the magic of the hall still strong, but even now she could feel the difference without her sister being tied to it. She knew it was only the beginning of a long road she had stepped on - without Celestia's support outside the stories, and with her strength within them, the tales to come would likely be far more worrying yet - though her sacrifice had ironically left her in the perfect position to nullify the tale of crystal darkness with Twilight.
But right now, she stood alone in the hall, tears trailing down her muzzle, thinking only of how she had cut herself off from her sister. After everything that had happened, she was actually the strong one, now. She had what she had fought for, so long ago - perhaps not the respect and love, exactly, but the power and focus that Celestia had achieved before her, that had been central to her jealousy and downfall.
She'd taken the power of her sister, and now sat alone where her sister had undoubtably done so a thousand times before, knowing she couldn't share it again with her sister - not without ruining everything she'd just done. The symmetry was just another suggestion that even the hall's keepers were still enmeshed in the stories.
But similarly, Celestia had finally gotten what she had fought for, for so long. Only time would tell if she'd made the right choice in the long run, but for now at least...
