The day of the trial dawned bright and sunny, white clouds drifting over the massive metropolis that spread from the sea and across the land. Luna’s airtaxi flew over gray hills and between outer sky towers whose landing spires made them resemble steel cacti. The air over the city was always a little hazy, but the sun had chased away most of it for the day. Luna wondered if it was Celestia mocking her, and showing off her power to all the ponies of the city. If it was, she certainly knew how to do it.

The Manehattan Courthouse was shaped like a giant metal tube that stuck out of the middle of the city. It blinked and glowed from the thousands of lights swirling on and around it. The taxi flew toward the tower in silence, the robotic brain inside the car making a perfect approach to the Courthouse. Luna wondered if it was aware of why she was there, if it knew she was fighting for its rights. If it cared.

She still had her princess outfit on, wanting to do her best to impress the ponies of her adopted hometown. Many had seen her before, but few knew her true identity. Her heart started to skip beats as the taxi lowered itself in the air toward a docking platform on top of the tower. Luna could see the press surrounding the platform, cameras and mics at the ready.

They all trained on her the minute the taxi settled on the landing platform, and flashes from simulated camera bulbs filled Luna’s vision with spots. The taxi door opened, and she stepped out onto the platform. Ponies rushed toward her, shouting questions at her in rapid succession.

“What are your thoughts on the case?”

“Are you a princess again?”

“Are you in a love with a droid?”

Luna walked through the middle of them, doing her best to ignore the questions. Her ears burned as the ponies seized on the question of her love with a droid, and she was soon bombarded with questions about her sexuality and if she was defending Sapphire and Rarity to further her own love.

It was a mercy when she reached a large set of doors in the middle of the roof, which were guarded by a few Manehattan guards in gray armor and with hard-light helmets. They pushed away most of the press and guided her inside to a spacious elevator car.

The guards didn’t say anything, but smiled and nodded to Luna as the elevator slid down through the building with a soft whir. Luna sighed and rustled her wings beneath the white scarf, letting the feathers stretch out and take in some air.

She was smiling once the car came to a stop and the doors whooshed open. The guards led her down a polished hallway decorated with murals of Manehattan’s rise to prominence through industry and technology. They were too optimistic for Luna’s tastes, but she smiled and touched a hoof to a few of them, happy to be in the city rather than Canterlot.

The set of doors at the end of the hall stuck out among all the technological livery, being solid doors made of rich, dark oak and inlaid with a design of the Manehattan skyline 900 years before. The guards pushed the doors open gently, and Luna found herself inside a large courtroom.

Row after row of seats led up to a relatively small area with two wooden tables for each party and a judge’s seat above them. Massive bay windows lined the far wall and gave the room a good view of Manehattan as the sun beat down on the glass skyscrapers in the middle of the city.

“This is where the fun begins,” Luna muttered.

A few ponies milled around in the sitting area, but none of the major parties were in the room yet. Luna looked around, then headed for the defendant's bench, passing through a small gate to the official area and sat down. The chair was hard and hurt her back, but she grit her teeth and bore it.

She had no documents with her, no briefcase or satchel or the like. She’d thought about her defense on the way over, but what worried her was that she had no idea what she was going to say, and that she would be making it up as she went.

Luna shivered.

The doors behind her opened, and she watched royal guards in golden armor wheel in a cart with a pony strapped to it. Sapphire, she saw, had been shut off and her eyes were dead. The guards stopped beside Luna and dumped the droid pony on the ground before walking off.

Sapphire’s eyes flickered, and lay-lines all over her body sparked to life as she sat up and rubbed her head. “Ugh, I feel like I got sent through an autogrinder,” she said. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the Manehattan City Courthouse,” Luna said, helping her up. “Welcome back the land of the living.”

Sapphire snorted. “I’m a droid, remember? I never joined it in the first place.”

“Very funny.”

Sapphire looked around the courtroom, searching over the rows of chairs and the defendant’s table, but then sighed and sat down in a chair next to Luna. “Are they going to bring Rarity in?”

“Eventually,” Luna said. “We’re both a little early. I guess they wanted to offload you pretty quick.”

“They shut me down to bring me here,” Sapphire said, pouting. “They could have just asked me to stay quiet, but I guess they figured a nice trip to the darkness would do. Bunch of jerks.”

Luna smiled. “A bunch of jerks that we’re here to prove wrong, remember? You’ll do fine, don’t worry.”

“Me? Worry?” Sapphire returned her grin. “I’m just at the risk of losing the love of my life. Total confidence.”

Luna watched a golden ship arrive outside the windows, and rise up toward the roof. The gold-colored hovership sparkled in the sun and was covered in fine stones and other royal decoration. Luna watched it go, then shook her head.

“My sister’s here,” she said.

“Oh, did the giant golden airship not announce it enough?” Sapphire asked.

“She’s had a thing for airships for quite some time,” Luna said, giggling. She wondered if it was her nerves getting to her, but she and Sapphire sat together, laughing in the courtroom.

The courtroom doors banged open again, and Sapphire almost shot out of her seat. She turned around let out a gasp when a large, black projector was wheeled in toward them, and left by the defendant table. The guards didn’t look at them, but Sapphire didn’t seem to notice. She just leapt forward and hugged the projector before turning it on.

Rarity’s image flickered and coalesced into the final seat behind the table. She looked around for a moment before reaching over and giving a holographic hug to Sapphire. “I missed you so much!” she cried. “Sapphire, they turned me off and I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done all this . . .”

Sapphire smiled. “We’ve got Luna on our side now,” she said. “This trial will be a good thing, you’ll see.”

Rarity peaked around Sapphire’s shoulder and stared at Luna. Luna returned the gaze, and she noticed Rarity was wearing her Element of Harmony necklace.

“Hello, Rarity,” Luna said.

Rarity opened and closed her digital mouth a couple of times before gathering herself. “Princess, I . . . I didn’t expect to see you here. But! I am very glad you could make it here to represent us against the judge.”

“Yeah, though not just any judge,” Sapphire said.

“Then who, dear?”

A trumpet blast from back by the doors silenced them all. Their eyes turned toward the doors, where a stallion in golden armor had a trumpet bearing a banner and stood tall against the back door. “Presenting Her Majesty Celestia, by the Power of Harmony, of the United Kingdom of Equestria and Crystallia, Defender of the Sun, Empress of Shanghay,” he bellowed, bowing to the doors.

They opened and Celestia walked in, flanked by dozens of guards and trailed by reporters, bookies, and all manner of pony who wanted to see what their Empress was doing in Manehattan. Across the room, her gaze met Luna’s, and Luna swore she could see Celestia frown.

Celestia walked past the defendant’s table without remark and climbed into the judge’s stand. She was decked out in full ceremonial armor, covered almost head to toe in it. Only her mane and horn stuck out of it, and about half her face.

“All rise before the Lord of the Court,” a guard called, and all the gathered press and citizens rose, followed by Luna, Sapphire, and Rarity’s hologram. Celestia looked at the crowd, then down to Luna.

“You may be seated,” she said.

She waited until they all had before clearing her throat and reading out from real paper that seemed almost barbaric in the courtroom. “The Court gathered today is here to decide the fate of Equestria versus Sapphire Silicon. Miss Silicon stands accused of theft of government property in the first degree. Said theft was done toward a Harmony-class AI, one of the highest-end models available. The Harmony model is known as Rarity.”

The gazes in the crowd shifted to Rarity as Celestia continued. “The defendants contest that the property was not stolen, but wished to be freed by its own will, which is a freedom provided for under the Declaration of the Rights of Ponies. The United Kingdom of Equestria and Crystallia contest this under the provision that all AIs are property of the state and that as deterministic programs, AIs cannot be considered 'free'."

Celestia stared at Luna. “How do the defendants plead?”

“Not guilty, your Majesty,” Rarity said, in time with Sapphire. Luna nodded with them.

“Very well,” Celestia said. “Representative? Are you prepared to give your opening argument for the defendants?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” Luna said, taking a step forward. “I’m ready.”

---

The last bang of Celestia’s gavel for the day rang in Luna’s ears. She looked at Celestia in a small room behind the judge’s stand, where her sister was removing her armor. The air was stale and sat in the room like it grew on the walls. Luna’s ears pressed against her head, and she looked down.

Celestia removed her helmet, and turned to Luna. “What was that, sister?” she asked. “You come to me when we spoke last, defiant, and that is the defense you can muster?”

“I didn’t know what to say,” Luna said.

“You made that painfully obvious, I can assure you.”

Luna’s tail reflexively flicked around her. She looked away and bit her lip. “What was I supposed to say, sister? It comes down to that they want to love and you and your government won’t let them. There’s no legal precedent, no arguments, just your word against mine. Nopony outside Manehattan believes a word I say, anyway.”

“So you think I enjoy this,” Celestia said.

“I didn’t say it.”

“Your face said enough.”

Luna sighed. “What am I supposed to think? We haven’t talked in three hundred years. Are we even sisters anymore? I know you and Twilight Sparkle have grown close, so where am I in this picture? It wasn’t my choice to fight against you once more. I would have gladly stayed away if not for this trial.”

Celestia turned away and removed more of her armor. “I tried many times to reach you, sister,” Celestia said. “I tried to sit down and write you a letter, or call the guards to bring you to me . . . but I never could. You didn’t want me.”

“And you didn’t need me. Or did we fight over nothing?”

“It was more than that.” Celestia’s voice wavered. “Must it be that all we do is fight, sister? Are we going to let this court battle come between us as well, let our duties define us?”

“We have fought since almost the day we were born,” Luna said. “I was sent to the moon for a thousand years, I returned and we nearly fought over the Crystal Empire, we fought when I no longer wanted the night, and then  . . . three hundred years ago we nearly had the worst fight Equestria had ever seen. We were destined to fight, Celestia.”

“Is that how you really feel?” Celestia asked.

Luna looked away. “Whether it’s how I feel doesn’t matter. It’s what the truth is.”

“I wish it wasn’t, you know. I wish I wasn’t your villain.” Celestia sighed. “Are you going to go home? The trial is only going to take two days. It will be over tomorrow. If you want to win, you’ll want to do better than you did today.”

“I know.”

“I won’t hold back, Luna, you know that. I can’t. I can’t help you, either.”

Luna snorted. “When have you ever?”

She stalked out of the room, Celestia opening her mouth behind her, but then shutting it and letting her go. Luna stopped just before she reached the door, however. She didn’t turn around.

“Where will Sapphire and Rarity spend the night?”

“In a cell, I expect,” Celestia said. “Why?”

“Can you have them moved to my home?” Luna asked. “Just for the night. If it’s the last night of freedom for them both, I’d like them to enjoy it a little.”

Celestia hesitated, then nodded. “I can grant that, sister. It will take several hours to clear it with the guards, and they cannot leave the house once they are there . . . but I can do that.”

“Thank you.” Luna bit her lip. “Why now, Celestia? Why be nice now? Why not three hundred years ago?”

“I’ve learned from some of my mistakes,” Celestia said. “It just took me far too long.”

Luna left her at that, shutting the judge’s room door softly behind her. She walked through the empty courtroom and winced when she saw the defendant’s stand. She tried to press that afternoon out of her mind, the stammering, the skipping around . . . everything.

She pounded down the hallway outside the courtroom toward the landing pad. The taxi was long gone, but there was a police car waiting on the roof for her.There was an old stallion standing next to it, leaning on a cane. He smiled at her when she came out, and waved.

“Manehattan hasn’t forgot about you,” he said. “They thought you might need a ride home, Princess.”

Luna nodded. “Thank you.”

“Just tell me where the address is, and I’ll get you home nice and fast. There’s another storm coming tonight, and you don’t want to be outside when it hits.”

Luna climbed in the passenger side and the car set off, its jets whirring steadily underneath the chassis. The police pony flew up into the higher skylanes over Manehattan. The sun was dipping low, casting long shadows over the city tinted in orange and violet. Lights were blinking to life to prepare for the night among the skyscrapers and pyramids that rose from the muck of apartment buildings and shops on the ground level.

He asked for her address and she gave it, in a highrise apartment building on the fringes of the Manedarin District. The stallion looked surprised that a princess would live there, but set the car into a loop and sped there nonetheless. He made small chatter, but allowed Luna a little silence for her to enjoy the ride.

“Why does the Manehattan police still care about me?” Luna asked. “I don’t remember buying the calendar.”

The officer smiled. “Manehattan is more behind you than the Canterlot Queen. Whether you are or not, I’ve got ponies following you and cheering you on back at the police station. Manehattan’s not been a fan of Celestia and Canterlot for a while.”

“Well I thank you all for that.” Luna smiled to herself. “I will do my best to represent this city.”

“We know.”

The car slowed and spun in a long loop down toward the sidewalk below a slate-gray apartment building. It didn’t stick out from the dozens of others like it, but to Luna, every mark on the surface, every chip on the sidewalk outside, was a unique quality to the building.

Ponies cleared out of the way below them as they touched down. Some of them gawked as Luna heaved herself out of the police car. Her alicorn form was bulky and almost too big for a normal pony vehicle, but she managed. Some of the ponies outside bowed to her or respectufully moved out of the way. She bade the police officer farewell, and he shot up into the sky once more.

The trip to Luna’s room was taken without any dire interruption, though she was stopped for questions a couple times, and even posed for a few pictures with the ponies. She felt a warmth inside that she didn’t know she still had, and most of her smiles were genuine. It took her close to fifteen minutes to get to the elevator, which she took up to the building’s top floor.

There was a small walkway to cross from the elevator to the other side of the building that was open to the air. The wind that blew through was cold and murky, but Luna was happy to feel it wash over her mane. She paused in it for a moment, then opened her door.

The lights were on inside, which surprised her. What really stopped her in her tracks, however, was the purple alicorn sitting in a leather rocking chair in the middle of Luna’s cluttered living room. She had her head on one hoof and looked bored when Luna walked in.

“Thanks for taking your time to get here,” Twilight said.

“Traffic was heavy,” Luna said, placing her white sash on the back of one couch. “You seem to think breaking into my apartment is of little consequence.”

Twilight shrugged and readjusted herself in the chair. She had on a light blue frock that fell toward her hind legs and hugged the base of her wings. “It is when you need my help,” she said. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for it earlier. Rarity was my friend, after all.”

“I thought you were with the colony on Epsilon Eridanus,” Luna said. “Since when have you been back?”

“I took a slipstream ship back last week when I heard about Rarity being detained,” Twilight said.

“And is there any reason you haven’t gotten involved yet?”

Twilight sighed. “I don’t want to play all my cards yet, Luna. They had already requested that you represent them, and Celestia still gets a little edgy if I hang around the castle. I needed to catch up in Ponyville, anyway.”

Luna walked into her small kitchen adjacent to the living room and took out a thin plastic bottle of brown liquor from a small freezer cabinet above the counter. She pulled out a couple of real glass cups with her magic and poured liquor into each of them.

“Thanks,” Twilight said.

Luna looked up. “Oh, did you want one?” She poured a third cup and levitated them all in a cloud behind her back to the living room. She floated one to Twilight before downing the other two and sinking back into her chair.

 “So since when do I need your help?” she asked.

“Oh, don’t act like that,” Twilight said. “Your little court case was all over the ‘net today. You sunk faster than Celestia’s Hindentanic, and I had to watch. This is what the Princess of the Night has become?”

Luna shrugged. “You’re what the Princess of the Night has become, Twilight, not me. I’m just an alicorn in a big city.”

“An alicorn that happens to be in one of the biggest court cases in the last thousand years, since the one that divided Equestria into duchies. And you, so far, have been screwing it up.”

“Did you come here to chastise me or to help?”

Twilight sipped at her alcohol. “You need help, and you should know why first. If you’re going to be representing a large chunk of the population that wants to see you win this, what you did today was unacceptable.”

“Why do you care?” Luna asked. “You haven’t talked to me since you took my place either. Why would you of all ponies be on my side? You’ve been Celestia’s stooge since the day you became a princess.”

“Why I care is my business.” Twilight’s voice was icy. “But perhaps, with those AIs all I have left of my friends, I want them to be free. I’m the Element of Magic first, and a princess second.”

“Alright,” Luna said. “So how do you help?”

Twilight sighed and rocked forward on the couch. “You’ve been out of politics for a long time, Luna,” she said. “The whole landscape isn’t what it was since you left it. It’s one big house of cards, waiting to be knocked over. I spend so much time in the colonies because I didn’t feel like picking up the pieces once it fell.”

“Being banished will do that to you.”

“What, they don’t have newsdocs in Manehattan?”

Luna shook her head. Her mane shrunk back and turned light blue, and she felt a brief falling sensation as she shrunk down to the size of a normal pony. Even her coat changed to a lighter tinge to match the electronics running along it. “I’m behind, I get it. What is it that I need to catch up on?’

“The key to this case isn’t to win,” Twilight said. “This whole thing was a sham. It was nice of Celestia to at least give you a trial, but there’s no way she and her higher up princes would let that amount of power out of their hooves.”

She looked down. “Maybe if Cadance were still alive instead of buried with Shining . . . maybe then you’d have a chance. But right now, no matter what you say, she’s going to find that Sapphire droid guilty.”

“So what am I supposed to do about it?” Luna asked.

“Lose.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” Twilight slowly began to smile. “You have to lose, Luna. Well, you were going to lose anyway, but you have to lose while making sure everypony knows why. You have to forfeit, pull out of the case and expose that Celestia wasn’t going to let you win. Challenge her to keep the case going, or throw it out like you know she will.”

Luna tilted her head. “And then what?”

“Like I said, Equestria is just a house of cards,” Twilight said. “One push in the right direction, and the whole thing falls. Manehattan is the weakest in Imperial authority right now, and it only needs one little conflict to erupt. Manehattan makes up nearly fifteen percent of Equestria’s population, after all. You tell them that their rights aren’t decided in court anymore, and that fifteen percent can do a lot.”

Luna stared at her. “And I’m supposed to believe you? You break into my house after not talking to me in three centuries, then tell me how to take down your mentor, and now I should believe you?”

“Believe what you want, Luna.” Twilight eased herself to her hooves and let her dress fall on her flanks. “There’s an old saying, that friendship is magic. Celestia is my teacher, but Rarity is my friend. Believe what you want, but the night is still on your side.”

Twilight’s horn flashed, and she was gone. Luna looked at the small spot on the carpet where she had been just seconds before, and realized how very alone she felt. With a sigh, she moved to the kitchen and poured herself another glass of alcohol. It was cool going down her throat and warm when it it hit her belly, but she had to put the bottle away after another swig. She returned to the couch and sat down, thinking about what Twilight had said.

She closed her eyes for a second, and tried to think, but sleep found her instead. She slept a dreamless sleep until she was awoken with a start by the sound of knocking at the door. The hits were hard and firm, like the knocks of somepony used to dealing with less than pleasant residents. Luna got up and walked to the door, and used her magic to unlatch the locks and open it for whoever was outside.

Two cream-colored guards in golden hard-light armor awaited her on the other side, their blank expressions regarding her with a slight air of hostility. They shoved forward Sapphire, whose frazzled mane stuck out in every direction at once, who was clutching Rarity’s memory core to her chest.

“The Empress has agreed to your request that the prisoners lodge with you for the night,” one guard said. “They are not to permitted leave this apartment until they are taken to the trial tomorrow morning. Attempting to leave is punishable by life in prison. Attempting to overpower one of us outside your door will result in punishment with extreme prejudice by one of the teams waiting outside. Do you understand?”

Luna nodded. “We’ll be fine.”

“I didn’t ask that. Do. You. Understand?”

“I understand,” Luna said. “Now let me consult my clients in the privacy of my home. You two can wait outside.”

Luna guided Sapphire in behind her, then shut the door with a click. She flipped on the overhead lights, which cast out the gloom in the apartment like a flame in the night. Sapphire stood in the middle of the room, looking dazed and wavering on her hooves. Rarity’s box was blinking softly.

“I apologize for the mess,” Luna said. “I haven’t cleaned since I got swept up in all of this. Or for a few weeks before that . . .”

Sapphire shook her head. “No, no, it’s not that,” she said. “It’s just that, well, I’ve never been outside of Canterlot Castle since I was activated. It’s so . . . not clean. It’s amazing, really.”

“And you like it that way?”

“You try being around spotlessness all your life. It gets old.”

Luna moved to the kitchen again. “Do you want anything? I’m actually not sure what you, ah, eat.”

“I don’t technically need to eat for as long as my core lasts,” Sapphire said, then smiled. “I can taste and enjoy chocolate just fine, though.”

“Chocolate it is.” Luna slid open her refrigerator, and punched a button on the door. A compartment slid open in front of her, teeming with chocolate bars and other assorted snacks. She levitated a couple and tossed one to Sapphire, then let the fridge slide shut on its own.

“You keep a lot of these?” Sapphire asked.

“It’s gotten me through three hundred years of solitude,” Luna said.

Sapphire took a bite. “Good thing it doesn’t taste like it’s that old.”

She took a seat where Twilight had, squirming in the seat until she was comfortable. She kept Rarity’s core on her lap, with one hoof wrapped around it. Luna noticed the empty sockets where a horn and wings could be, and assumed the Royal Guard had taken them. She seemed happy enough as she munched on her chocolate bar, but Luna wondered if it was just Sapphire’s outward attitude.

Luna moved toward a small box on an end table next to the couch. “Do you mind some music?” she asked.

“As long as it isn’t the horns announcing Celestia, then go for it,” Sapphire said. “I’ve heard enough of that to last a lifetime.”

Luna nodded and waved her hoof over the box. A pop up menu came on her heads up display from her eyepiece, and Luna scrolled through the songs until she found an electric violin piece. The music floated through the miniature speakers and filled the room in short time.

Sapphire sat with her back arched and head down, her hooves resting on the couch. Her eyes danced across the floor in time to the music. Luna sat down across from her, wanting to speak to her but at the same time afraid.

“You can just talk,” Sapphire said after a few minutes. “Don’t just keep staring at me.”

“I’m sorry,” Luna said.

“Don’t be.”

Luna cleared her throat. “It’s not just for that. The trial today . . . I know I messed up. I’m sorry.”

“You did what you could.” Sapphire waved her hoof. “Our defense was always going to be shaky, anyway. It just comes down to our word against the Empress’ and, well, we don’t have an Empire that’s lasted two thousand years behind us.”

“I could have done better.”

“True, but it doesn’t matter now.”

“Aren’t you scared? Of losing and going to prison, or getting shut down forever?”

Sapphire rubbed the side of her head and dropped her gaze to the ground. “Of course I am. What do you expect? They won’t put a droid in jail, they’ll just shut me down and I’ll never come back from that darkness. And then . . .” Her voice broke. “And then I won’t see Rarity again.”

Luna rubbed one hoof over the other, and tried not to look away. She felt her heart ache, but couldn’t bring herself to do anything. She awkwardly watched Sapphire start to shake, and bit her lip.

“Well, what about Rarity?” she asked. “Won’t your memories still be with her?”

“They’ll wipe her clean,” Sapphire said. “It’ll be like I never existed. Like . . . I wasn't even here.” She began to cry, fat tears of oil rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t want to die, Princess. I don’t want to die . . . please, I don’t want to die.”

It was too much for Luna. She finally trotted across the room and drew Sapphire into a hug, Rarity core and all. They held together for a few long moments, Luna’s wings pressed around them both. Outside, the moon shone brighter than it had in three hundred years.

“I won’t let that happen,” Luna said. “I have a plan, I promise you. It’s going to work and you’ll be saved, alright?”

Sapphire looked up. “A plan?”

“Yes, one that I think will fix all of this. We will be fine, and you and Rarity can be together.”

“What is it?” Sapphire sniffled and held up a hoof. “Wait, no, don’t tell me yet. Rarity needs to hear this too.”

Luna looked down at Rarity’s core. Unlike the box that had been at the courthouse that day, it did not feature a projector of any sort. She pressed a hoof against it. “Uh, how?”

Sapphire rolled her eyes and popped open a hatch on the side of the core. She drew out two long cords with thick ends that could plug into a special socket most ponies had on their neural net. She offered one of them to Luna, and took the other for herself.

“It’s the best way to communicate anyway,” she said.

Luna hesitated, then took the wire and hooked it into the back of her head at the base of her neural output. There was a small jolt as the the wire plugged in, and Luna’s ocular implants shut off completely for a few seconds, but after that it was fine.

Sapphire tapped the side of the box, and just like that Luna wasn’t in her apartment anymore. Instead, she was inside a large clothing store done up in pink and purple, with dresses hanging off of manequins and piled on counters. Outside two large bay windows at the side of the room, the sun was setting low over scattered hills.

“She always likes to come here,” Sapphire said.

“I would imagine so,” Luna said. “This was her boutique, a thousand years ago.”

A door to their right opened, and Rarity walked out. She had on a frilly white dress covered in bows that were topped with gemstones. She wore her hair long and uncurled. She smiled when she saw Sapphire and trotted over.

The two mares embraced, then Rarity seemed to notice Luna and pulled away. “It’s good to see you, Princess,” she said.

“I wish we could be meeting in better circumstances,” Luna said.

Rarity frowned. “You’re not the only one.”

Luna rested on the back of her hooves against the wooden floor. Standing in the simulation was much more disorientating than the holographic plates on the moon. Being plugged into the core allowed Luna to feel what was going on, from the mugginess of the room to the wooden boards under her hooves. Yet, at the same time, she could feel herself standing in place in her living room. It left her a bit confused.

Sapphire nudged Luna. “She has a plan for us, though. She really does!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Does it involve your . . . performance . . . in court today?”

Luna shook her head. “This is different from that. Well, it’s part of it, but it’s to make it seem like what I did was good.” She chose not to tell them Twilight had thought of it. The plan was dangerous enough to them with it seeming to come from their defender, let alone a mare known for her loyalty to Celestia.

“Alright, what is it?”

Luna gulped, then told them. She cringed a little as she heard Twilight’s plan come out of her lips. The expression on the faces of both ponies only confirmed her suspicions more. Anger, hurt, futility, they were all there, and more. Luna took a step back when she was done, when she had confirmed their fates. She waited.

Rarity was the first to speak. “You’re abandoning us.”

“No, no, it’s not that at all!” Luna said. “I’m only here to try to help you both! We aren’t going to be able to win with our word against the Empress. So we have to show them that, how futile it is.”

“What if they decide that, yeah, you’re right and shut us down?” Sapphire asked. “Come on, Luna, I thought you would defend us! Now you’re just going to give up on us!”

Luna could feel the situation spiraling out of control. “Girls, girls, I know the problems with this, I really do,” she said. “Remember though, I know my sister. If she gets enough popular condemnation, she'll drop the charges, and maybe declare you two legal. It isn’t much, but if we fight her head on we’re going to lose. Period.”

“You don’t know that,” Sapphire said.

“How do you think I was banished in the first place?”

“Still . . .”

Rarity walked over to Sapphire and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Dear,” she said, “ I know this is hard, and I don’t like it, but . . . Luna has a point. We can’t just rely on beating the Empress at her own game.”

“You too?” Sapphire asked in a quiet voice.

“I only want what’s best for us.”

“And you think that’s being separated forever?”

Rarity sighed. “No, but I have all faith that Luna can make this work. I’m still worried, yes, but . . . Luna is the only pony trying to help us now, Sapphire. If we don’t take her help, nopony else will offer.”

Sapphire looked down until Rarity rubbed her cheek. The two mares embraced again, nuzzling their cheeks together and closing their eyes. Luna watched the two artificial beings do an act more emotional than she had done in decades, and smiled a little.

“A-Alright,” Sapphire said, turning to Luna. “We’ll do it . . . I trust you. You’ve worked for us so far, so we’ll do it now.”

Luna smiled. “I promise, I’ll make things right.”

“We know you will.”

Rarity smiled and looked away. “Now, Luna, would you be a dear and unhook yourself from the simulation?” she asked. “It’s not that we don’t have confidence in you, but we’d like to spend possibly our last night together . . . alone.”

Luna nodded, and felt her cheeks flush. She reached up, a strange feeling that she was doing it in real life and not the simulation, and unplugged herself. The boutique faded away like a dream, and Luna was standing in the living room.

She gathered together some blankets and pillows, and lay them on the couch with Sapphire. The droid mare clutched Rarity’s core to her chest like it was a stuffed animal. Luna pulled a blanket over her, and watched her for a little bit. The mare made no sound, but at last began to truly smile.

---

By the time they had arrived at the court the next morning, Luna had formulated a plan. It was bold, audacious, and completely insane, but it was all Luna had.

She, along with Sapphire and Rarity, were flown to the Manehattan Courthouse in a hovercar owned by the Royal Guard. There had been no talking like Luna’s trip the night before, just stony silence while Sapphire looked out the window. Luna reminded herself that Sapphire had never seen the city during the day, how active it was, so it must have wowed her.

The arrival to the courthouse was a flurry of activity as reporters swarmed the group while they exited the car, even with the guard stallions on every side. They followed the party into the courtroom, and sat at the back, cameras at the ready.

Luna fidgeted in her chair, her hooves tapping against the defendant’s table. She didn’t say a word to Sapphire, who offered nothing in return. Her heart was pulsing, and her ears felt like they had been stuffed with cotton. She barely heard the announcement of Celestia’s arrival, and couldn’t even look up to meet her sister’s eyes when the Empress walked in.

Celestia walked to her pulpit and started droning on about the court orders, but Luna didn’t listen. She couldn’t. Her hooves felt like they were turning to ice, but yet her chest was hotter than her sister’s sun. She wondered how it was possible to feel that way.

She felt Sapphire nudge her, and realized it was her turn to speak. Her tongue froze to the roof of her mouth as she stood up, and she could only stare at Celestia, who leaned against her desk.

“Well, Representative?” Celestia said. “What are your opening statements? At this time, the defense should have an admission of guilt or claim of innocence.”

Luna took a deep breath, steeled herself, and spoke: “We have neither, your Majesty.”

Celestia paused and raised an eyebrow. “It is one or the other, Representative,” she said. “If you cannot choose, then your clients will be found guilty.”

“But there was never a choice to begin with,” Luna said. “My performance yesterday can attest to that. You called a trial to put a precedent on a sticky subject, a trial that my clients never had any chance of winning. You and your princes and princesses wanted an easy win. We retract our case.”

The glare from Celestia was almost overbearing. “You may protest the ruling and receive another hearing if a separate tribunal finds your case worthy, but you may not withdraw the case, Representative. You don’t have the authority.”

“Oh, but I do,” Luna said, trying to hide the shaking in her voice. “You see, dear sister, if memory serves you never officially removed me from the position of ‘princess.’ My banishment was voluntary after our fight, and was not held in any court of law.”

“Princesses must abide by the law as well as any other pony,” Celestia said. “Or have you forgotten in your absence?”

“I have not forgotten,” Luna said. “However, you may have forgotten one important rule, Celestia. Manehattan is ruled as a duchy by the Crown directly, without a royal leader. This makes it your territory.” She began to smiled. “However, as a princess I may claim the Duchy of Manehattan as my own, declaring myself Duchess Luna. And in my courts, Empress, it is my decision if this ruling is thrown out or not.”

Videocams rolled and picture cameras made flashing noises as they all strove to capture the moment for the wide audiences watching from home across the world. Luna stood defiantly next to the defendant’s table, while Celestia just stared back.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, until finally she stood.

“Yes, you may now be a Duchess then, Luna,” she said, walking around the pulpit, “but I am still Empress. My word is law and my reach great. I don’t want to have to do this, sister, but you leave me no choice.”

She turned to her guards. “The Duchess has defied Royal orders and has gone rogue. Arrest her.”