Mistress Do Well: Reparation
by milesprower06

The Night Shining and The Slave

'I wonder when we're gonna sleep together again...'

Twilight complained to herself as she rode the midnight train up to Canterlot. First Rainbow had gone on a 24-hour journey to Mustang Springs, and now here she was, taking a late night train up to Canterlot. She had brought along a book to read, an activity that the few other ponies that sparsely populated the car had also done, either in the form of a book or a newspaper.

While they had only been apart two nights, it felt much longer than that. But they both felt that this mystery was more pressing than sleeping in the same bed.

Twilight figured that the next only possible step was the hospital. Rarity had been kept there for a year, under constant guard. She had made up her mind to go when there wasn't going to be a lot of others, and take a look at her death certificate, to see if anything seemed off about it. She had no idea what would be on it that would point them in the right direction, but it was the only thing she could think of.

The journey up the mountain was darker more than anything. It was a cloudy night, so the moonlight didn't help illuminate her view from the window seat, with nothing accompanying the motion except for the click-clack of the tracks. When she found it easier to lean up into her book, she knew that the tracks had stopped climbing, and that the conductor would be through to announce their final arrival at Canterlot.

Her ticket was checked, and less than five minutes later, the whistle blew, and the hiss of the brakes informed her that they had arrived at the platform. The total of six ponies exited the train, and went on their separate ways.

Built into the mountainside on a river, Canterlot was quite often deceiving in it's size. Only when you were there, could somepony truly behold the city's size. So many homes and shops occupied the alleyways, with a small amount of paths, hills and gardens separating the castle gates from the rest of the rather sophisticated city. Depending on the size of your bit bag, it had everything you could want or need. The city's main attraction was of course the castle. History students were often surprised that the castle was actually one of the newer extensions of Canterlot. Shortly after overthrowing Discord, Celestia and Luna ruled from their older castle in the Everfree Forest. Celestia only moved to Canterlot after Luna had been banished, their brief battle destroying much of the older castle's architecture.

As familiar as she was with the castle, and the School for Gifted Unicorns that neighbored it, Twilight was going nowhere near it. Her destination, Canterlot Hospital, was nowhere near the castle, and was closer to the center of the city.

After the brief night of excitement when Rarity had awoken, Life Line's professional life quickly returned to the nightly bore. As he worked through the 400 hallway with a mop bucket, one of the receptionists walked up to him.

"Hey Life Line, doesn't look like you're too busy, I need you to go grab something."

'No, I'm not busy at all. It's not like I have five more hallways to do after this, so I am at your beck and call.' Life Line was keen on keeping his sarcastic side in check when on the job.

"What can I do for you?" He asked, setting the mop back in the water, giving the receptionist his full, although struggling attention.

"Twilight Sparkle wants to confirm a death certificate of Rarity, the unicorn that seized up and died in 315 two months ago. If you could get that and bring it up to Reception, that'd be great. Thanks."

What made the night shift bearable was the staff he conversed with were grateful at the very least. And- wait, what?

"As in, former Princess Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yeah, so like, go and get it so she can be on her way."

Now tonight had gotten interesting. With a nod, he quickly turned and made his way to the filing area. It was a series of several rooms, each one with a different set of files. He entered the one that had copies of death certificates. He grumbled, as he was certain that this search was going to take forever, because he was going to be looking for something that wasn't there. I mean he saw Luna and her-

His eyes widened as he quickly became confused. There it was.

Rarity U. Belle

He quick checked the date and time, and he knew that something was amiss. Maybe Twilight knew something.

With certificate in hoof, he went back out to reception, where the disgraced former Princess was sitting in the waiting area.

"Twilight?" He called to get her attention. The only one in the waiting room, she got up and came up to him at the counter. He slid the certificate across to her side of the counter so she could get a good look at it. She skimmed the information, and she let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm guessing that makes as much sense to you as it did me." Life Line offered.

"What do you mean?"

Life Line gave her a quizzical look.

"I mean she didn't die that night. I was there. I saw her wake up. I saw her leave with Princess Luna the very next night."

Twilight's eyes widened, and Life Line quickly assumed he was getting his hooves into something that he probably shouldn't be.

"I'm guessing you didn't know that."

Twilight slid the certificate back to him.

"I had my suspicions. Do you know where they were headed?"

Life Line shook his head.

"No. Once the Princesses arrived that night, the hospital staff sort of took a back seat to everything. I wasn't allowed back in that room after she woke up. Up until then I was in there every night recording her heart rate and brain waves. All I know is that after she woke up, she had complete amnesia. She had no idea who she was or what she had done."

"So that was it? They just left?"

Life Line nodded.

"Yeah. Things went back to normal after that. I didn't think anything of it. I knew who she was and what she did, I assumed she was going to trial or something."

"Well, thanks for your help."

"Anytime."

Life Line returned the certificate to it's file folder before resuming his mopping, while Twilight galloped out of the hospital and taking to the sky, not bothering to wait for a train in the morning.

After the meeting with her sister, Ponyville's Mayor Mare, the prosecutor, and a mentally questionable Rainbow Dash, Luna had retired to the castle for a good day's sleep, knowing full well she had to be waiting in Ponyville later that night, for Rainbow's decision, where she was currently waiting outside the Mayor's office with her sister, the moon high in the sky.

"What do you think she will decide?" Princess Luna asked her sister.

"I don't know, sister. These six friends had the strongest bond I had ever seen. That bond was shattered, but perhaps she is trying to hold onto some semblance of what they once had."

"In a situation such as this, would judicial punishment do any good? For friendships this strong to have been destroyed, is that not punishment enough?" Luna asked.

"That is for her to decide."

Even with how quiet the Ponyville night was, the two royal sisters almost did not notice the approaching airborne Pegasus, as she glided down, and landed in front of them with a flutter of her wings. The two alicorns looked down at her expectantly, awaiting her answer.

"Gather them up. I want them in the library by morning."

Celestia nodded, and stepped forward.

"That isn't necessary. If you want, we can take them straight to Canterlot Courts to formally charge them."

"I'm not charging them. With anything." Rainbow said, with an air of finality.

Celestia and Luna carefully eyed Rainbow, trying their best to hide their surprise. She still had the look of instability she had in the meeting that morning.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Celestia asked.

"You wanted my decision by midnight. You have it. Now are you going to help me bring them back together or not?"

Immediately, Celestia knew what Rainbow was going to try to do. Undo the damage that had been done; try to heal the friendship. She wasn't instantly confident of her ability to do so, but all of them had surprised her in the past.

"I can have them here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Thanks. I'll be ready."

With that, Rainbow took to the night sky, flying back towards the library, quickly disappearing in the darkness.

Luna was quite surprised.

"I'm not sure I understand. She... She was so angry in the dreamscape. How can she let it go so quickly?"

"I don't think she has. Not yet at least. Maybe she has to see them all to find out if letting go of this is possible."

"I'm glad you're the one talking to Swiften." Luna said.

"What about your plan, sister? If she is willing to try and forgive them, what are you going to do?"

"Proceed according to my plan. I'm ready to move her. I am confident that if Rainbow is to succeed with her endeavor, the five of them can heal better with her out of the picture."

"I just hope you know what you're doing."

The two royal siblings took flight to Canterlot. As Celestia angled towards the castle, Luna flew towards the hospital. Upon arriving, she passed reception without question, and made her way to the intensive care unit. Stepping up to room 315, she acknowledged the guards.

"Gentlecolts, you are relieved of duty. You may return to the barracks and await further orders."

With each saluting the princess, they immediately left their posts, headed for the exits, and Luna headed inside.

She looked at the silent, sleeping unicorn, now without nearly as many wires and tubes running from her body to the machinery around the bed. Her horn lighting up briefly, a short stack of papers materialized in the air. These consisted of a forged death certificate, as well as all the paperwork for another pony. A pony, up until six hours ago, did not officially exist.

Rarity stirred under her covers, and her eyes fluttered open.

"Princess?" She greeted.

"Are you ready to go? Your new life awaits."

"Go? Go where?"

"I've got you a job and a small apartment in Manehattan. I'll be accompanying you there, making sure you get settled in."

Rarity looked to the doorway, and noticed the absence of the guards.

"Your majesty... What did I do? Those featureless ponies in my dreams haven't gone away, and their behavior hasn't changed. Up until now, those guards were always there. They never left until the next shift arrived. Why am I being guarded? Who did I hurt?"

Luna approached the bed.

"That doesn't matter anymore, my subject. What matters now is the chance and opportunity you now have. An opportunity to make a new identity for yourself, to discover who you are all over again. As soon as you like, you can get something to eat, and then we can be on our way."

"I'm supposed to just go with you into this new life you've made for me? You haven't even told me my own name."

Luna paused a moment, looking at the death certificate for Rarity, as well as the birth certificate and other necessary paperwork for the new pony.

"Your name is Charity."

As she was still a novice at flying, it took Twilight considerably longer than the train ride to return to Ponyville. But it was still worth not getting a room for the night and waiting until morning. It was four o'clock when she got back to the library. She landed as quietly as she could on the balcony, and opened the door with a creak,which was loud enough to wake the normally heavy-sleeping pegasus in her bed.

"Didn't wait for the train?" Rainbow asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.

"This was faster."

"So what did you find out?"

Twilight sat on her bed next to Rainbow.

"She's alive. An orderly showed me the death certificate. Nearly everything had been signed by Princess Luna, dated for the same night you came back and had that nightmare. But he claims he saw Luna and Rarity leave the night after she woke up from the coma."

"Did he say where?"

Twilight shook her head.

"He didn't know. They left with minimal interaction with the staff."

Rainbow let out a sigh.

"So where does that leave us?"

Twilight turned to her with a look of disappointment.

"With the growing belief that she's out there somewhere, but no way to prove it, and no way to find out where Luna took her."

Rainbow's mind started to entice her to more sleep, as she had seen Twilight off just four hours earlier. She slipped underneath the covers, snuggling into Twilight, for once, having the cooler head.

"We'll figure something out."

With that, she wrapped her arms around her marefriend, and let the dreamscape take her once more.

She found herself in the basement again, already at the bottom of the stairs. The setting was the same. The broken Rainbow sat in the cage on the left, and Noctilucent sat on the right. Rainbow stepped forward, in the middle.

"So what do you guys want?"

"This is about figuring out what you want." Noctilucent told her.

"I don't... I don't know what I want." Rainbow admitted.

"Yes you do," the Rainbow in the cage finally said, turning to her, stepping closer to the bars. "It's about a choice you have to make."

"And you have to make sure it's the right one." Noctilucent finished.

Rainbow took a closer look at the two occupants of her dream, and her concern grew when she noticed little details that were off. Broken Rainbow's cutie mark was entirely gray-scale, and Noctilucent's candle no longer had a flame.

"Hey, what happened to your cutie marks?" she asked.

"There you go again, asking questions to the ponies in your own head." Noctilucent chastised.

"So what choice am I supposed to make?" Rainbow asked.

"The right choice. Tracking down that bitch that got a Get Out Of Jail Free card." Broken Rainbow said, her front hooves on the bars.

"She doesn't even know who she is anymore, or what she did."

"Yes, my mistake. That absolutely vindicates what she did to you."

"The legal statutory limit passed, there's nothing I can do."

Broken Rainbow leered at her.

"Not all punishment is behind bars."

Noctilucent stepped forward.

"Rainbow, you can forgive her just like you forgave the others. The past is in the past. Let it go."

"Bold words, coming from a non-entity," the slave Rainbow sneered.

"Bolder words, coming from a sex slave in a cage." Noctilucent shot right back without a moment's hesitation.

"You forgave the others because you were all victims of her. All she's gotten is a few hits on the head and a free hospital room for a year. Now Luna's given her a second chance that she did nothing to earn. Twilight gave her what was coming to her. Now you need your revenge."

"How would I even go about finding her? If she doesn't remember what she did to me, it's useless!"

"You know what to do. Deep down, you know how to solve this. You just need to find it, and then do it."

"Revenge will solve nothing, Rainbow, and you know that." Noctilucent advised.

"It solves everything!"

Rainbow stepped back, her wings flaring.

"Shut up shut up! Both of you just shut up!!!"

"Rainbow, wake up!"

Rainbow Dash bolted up in bed with a gasp, shivering.

Before Twilight could comfort her marefriend over another nightmare, something caught her eye, and she gasped. Rainbow looked over to her, and saw she was staring down at her flank. She too looked down. Her eyes widened and throat tightened at what she saw.

Her cutie mark had changed.

What had always been a white cumulus cloud with a curved rainbow lightning bolt was now a darker thunderhead, with rain partially obscuring the rainbow.

"Wh-what???" Rainbow said fearfully. She looked up at Twilight with frightened, tear-filled eyes.

"What's happening to me?"