For the Mare Who Has Everything

by Justice3442

First published 2nd of May, 2015

Every day Celestia shares light and love with all the ponies of Equestria. In turn, they share their love with her. Still, the princess senses there is something missing. Something her heart longs for.

Every day Celestia shares light and love with all the ponies of Equestria. In turn, they share their love with her. Still, the princess senses there is something missing. Something her heart longs for.

Something her responsibilities have denied her for all these years.

As luck would have it, she’s given a gift that will let her experience her deepest hearts desires and take her to a place she may never want to leave.

Ever.

Inspired by the Alan Moore story, For the Man Who Has Everything.

Chapter 1

Twilight grinned happily to herself as she watched Canterlot’s train station draw closer and closer. Though the towers of Canterlot Castle could be seen from miles away, Twilight could now see her former home city was once again brightly decorated. White banners with orange and yellow suns accompanied banners and signs that proclaimed it was Princess Celestia’s birthday. Seemingly every city arch and pair of poles sported a banner. Colorful streamers of light blues, greens, purples, and pinks were hung, wrapped, and strung everywhere, glimmering in the afternoon light much like Celestia’s mane itself did.

The train jolted slightly as the sound of metal grinding against metal was heard, accompanied by a vibrating that shook everything before the train came to a stop. The screeching of metal soon gave way to a loud hiss that filled the air.

Twilight hopped off her seat in the empty train car as her horn glowed purple. A rectangular item perfectly wrapped in teal-colored wrapping paper with a light pink bow floating down from netting above and hovered next to Twilight, surrounded by an aura the same color as the one around her horn.

Cool, fresh air entered the train as the car’s door slid open revealing a gray earth pony stallion with brown muttonchops. In addition to a pair of round spectacles, he wore a train conductors uniform and gave a little bow as Twilight’s eyes met his.

“We’ve arrived at Canterlot station, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight felt her face heat up as she walked towards the door and said a little “Thank you.” to the conductor. She picked up her pace slightly as she made her way past the gray pony, he wouldn’t notice the redness in her cheeks.

Okay… Sure I’m a princess now, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to ponies actually treating me like royalty. Twilight thought to herself as she stepped out of the train car and onto the platform, her wrapped item continuing to float alongside her.

“There’s my little sister!” she heard a feminine voice call out.

Twilight looked up as her face lit up. “Cadance!” she said excitedly as her eyes settled on the light-pink alicorn standing in front of her.

The two mares grinned wide as they galloped up to each other tapping dancing in place, covering their eyes, then tapping hooves before wiggling their flanks at eachother.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Both princess erupted into a fit of giggles as other ponies on the platform glanced with happy or baffled looks at the behavior of their royalty.

“It’s so good to see you!” Twilight said with a massive smile.

“You too Twilight!” Cadance said as she returned the grin. “I’ve been really looking forward to spending time with you and again.”

Cadance levitated her own perfectly wrapped gift, an upright rectangular item wrapped with light purple wrapping paper with a light purple bow. Much like Twilight’s item, it floated alongside her as the mares began to trot into the city, their hooves tapping lightly against Canterlot’s cobblestone roads.

Twilight chuckled as the mares trotted along, each glancing at the ponies who ran to-and-fro, continuing to add and check on the massive amount of decorations that seemed to cover the city. “I’m just glad you found an excuse to visit from the Crystal Empire.”

Cadance put on a fake flabbergasted expression. “And miss auntie’s private birthday party? No way!” She chuckled. “The three of us always have so much fun before she has to mingle with all the stuffy nobles.”

Twilight frowned slightly as she remembered wordlessly standing next to Celestia as noble pony after noble pony approached only to bow to Celestia as the ruler simply returned the gesture and welcomed them to the Grand Galloping Gala. Though everyone’s attention revolved around Celestia this day of the year, she was no less tied up with the aristocracy. Twilight’s frown soon gave way to a smile as she remembered the fun and private moments she, Celestia, and Cadance had shared together before the main festivities were held.

The brightness of the sun above was momentarily blocked out as the two passed under a massive white banner that simply bore Princess Celestia’s cutie mark.

“Gee,” Twilight said as she looked up. “Don’tcha think they’re overdoing the decorations a little?”

Cadance giggled. “Princess Luna is handling the preparations. I think she and Celestia have been taking turns trying to one-up one another regarding celebrations ever since Luna’s return.”

Twilight chuckled to herself. “Well, I can think of worse ways a sibling rivalry could unfold.”

“True,” Cadance agreed. She discreetly nodded her head upwards at a white pegasus stallion guardspony in golden armor who directed a small and colorful group of pegasai in affixing yet another banner to a set of polls. “Though I think each sister is also assigning the others most devoted erm… followers… to overseeing the decorations as well. It makes for some… unexpected scenes.”

Twilight paused. “What do you mean?”

“Just watch,” Cadance said softly as she continued to gaze upwards.

Twilight watched as group expertly synchronized tying both ends of the banner to the polls.

“Yes, perfect!” the guardspony proclaimed. He seemed to gaze longingly at Celestia’s cutie mark on the banner “Our Princess is a wondrous being. Like a magnificent mother. If only I could be so grossly incandescent!”

Cadance gave Twilight a wry grin as Twilight looked back with a slightly confused expression.

“He says that every time!” Cadance informed.

“I see…” Twilight said simply as the mares continued their walk.

Cadance giggled once more. “Watching him made waiting for the train far less boring, that’s for sure.”

Twilight’s smile returned. “Well, if we can avoid being bored for the remainder of the day, I’m sure Celestia will be happy.”

Cadance and Twilight’s hooves tapped lightly against the red carpet of Canterlot Castle as they continued to talk amongst themselves. Their pair of perfectly wrapped presents floated alongside them as they cheerfully chatted away, trotting through the big, bright and empty hallway of the massive structure.

“So what did you get her?” Cadance asked.
Twilight turned and smiled, but Cadence quickly continued before Twilight could get a word in.

“No wait, let me guess…” Cadence said with a grin. “A book.”

“Hey!” Twilight protested as she narrowed her eyes slightly as her smile turned playful. “It’s not just a book!” She scrunched her lips to the side of her face. “It’s a special book…” she said with just a hint of indignity in her tone.

Cadence chuckled to herself. “Well… Does this special book have a name?”

“Maaaaaaybe…” Twilight replied with a coy smile. “But maybe I want everypony to be surprised when I bring it out.”

Cadance rolled her eyes but also maintained her playful smile.

“So what did you get Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

Cadance smirked. “A plant.”

It was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes while smiling. “I see… Just ‘a plant’, huh?”

Cadance closed her eyes and lifted her muzzle into the air as she put on a fake snobbish look. “It’s a special plant.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Well, I’m sure Celestia will love it.”

Cadance frowned slightly. “I hope so… I mean… What do you get for the mare who has everything?”

Twilight chuckled. “I know what you mean… I think I lucked out this birthday for a change…” She frowned and her eyes went distant. “However previous birthday’s…” Twilight shook her head and exhaled. “Lots of pictures made out of glue, glitter, and macaroni…”

Cadance lifted a foreleg up just enough to elbow Twilight. “I know… I helped you make them…”

Twilight teetered to herself. “Oh yeah…” Twilight grinned. “Now that you mention it. I seem to remember both of us giving our pictures to Celestia for her Birthday.”

Cadance giggled. “Do you think she has them pinned up on a royal fridge somewhere?”

Twilight and Cadance laughed as they passed through a large golden arch, entering a massive open room with tapestry covered walls. The red carpet continued in front of them, splitting out to the left and the right at a golden eight-point star on the carpet and continuing up a flight of stairs to a raised platform.

To Cadance’s and Twilight’s great surprise, it was not Princess Celestia who stood atop the platform, but Princess Luna.

“Princess Cadance, Princess Twilight, thank you both for coming on such short notice,” Luna said in a somewhat somber tone.

“Uh… Of course, Princess Luna,” Twilight said as she gave Luna a somewhat unsure smile. “Like I’d ever miss Princess Celestia’s birthday.”

“Is… Is something the matter?” Cadance asked. “I mean… This is just a simple birthday get-together amongst us princesses before the big festivities, right?”

Luna pursed her lips slightly. “Sister has been acting a bit… peculiar today…”

Twilight and Cadance looked at each other and begin giggling to themselves.

“Well, that’s no big surprise,” Cadance said. “She always gets a bit antsy before her big birthday celebrations.”

“I know, right?” Twilight said. “I don’t think she likes being reminded of how old she is…”

Cadance smiled wide. “I always suspected she allowed these huge celebrations if only because she gets a giant cake every year.”

The two mares shared more happy laughter as Luna furrowed her brow and glared at them. She began to bellow at a supernaturally loud volume. “DO YOU NOT THINK WE WOULD NOT NOTICE IF SISTER WAS ACTING STRANGER THAN USUAL ON HER BIRTHDAY?! THOUGH WE HAD BEEN ABSENT FOR SOME TIME, WE HAVE ALSO CELEBRATED THIS SPECIAL DAY WIT HER!”

Twilight and Cadance leaned back slightly and looked up at Luna with large, somewhat frightened eyes.

“Sa… Sorry Princess Luna…” Cadance said. “We didn’t mean to suggest—”

Luna sighed, lowered her head, and shook it. She returning to a normal speaking voice. “No, it is I who should apologize… I should not have snapped at you two like that…” Luna looked up with an apologetic expression. “I am just… concerned for my sister…” Luna frowned deeply. “Her strange actions aside, something about her doesn’t feel right.

Twilight smiled warmly and began to trot up the steps, Cadance followed.

“Well, what has she done that makes you think there’s cause for concern?” Twilight asked.

Luna descended a few steps to meet Twilight halfway. “She refused to review any of the preparations for her celebration,” she said.

Cadance eyed Luna cautiously as she trotted up to the other princesses. She began to reply in a somewhat calculated sounding tone. “Well, she does seem to prefer to dwell as little on her birthday as possible… I mean, she certainly considers most the day’s festivities more a celebration for her subjects then herself…”

Luna nodded. “Yes, but she dismissed both her assistant and our royal butler with little more than a few words this morning… She even elected to skip breakfast with me…”

Twilight frowned slightly. “Maybe she’s just feeling particularly reclusive this year... ”

Luna shook her head. “I do not think so, Twilight Sparkle. While she often shows little to no interest in the celebration at large, it is rare for her to not take every opportunity to spend time with those that she cares about most on her birthdays…” she said in a slightly sad tone as her ears flopped down around her head.

Twilight and Cadance exchanged knowing smiles.

Twilight spoke up, “I’m sure Celestia is just feeling a little… grumpier about today than usual.”

Cadance nodded in agreement.

Luna sighed. “Sister did get increasingly moody on her birthdays as the years went on… Maybe you’re right…” Luna said in a tone that made it clear she was trying to convince herself as much as anything.

“Don’t worry about it,” Cadance said warmly. “Once Celestia sees the three of us, she’ll perk right up! You’ll see.”

“Hmmmm…” Luna hummed thoughtfully as she turned and began trotting back up the steps motioning with her head slightly for the other two to follow. “I do hope you are right, Princess Cadance.”

The trio made their way down another hallway then up a staircase, trotting in silence as the light jovial mood had thickened into something far denser and tense. After a lengthy, silent journey through the castle, the trio arrived at a large white door with a golden frame that bared Celestia’s golden orange-and-yellow cutie mark.

Luna raised her hoof and rapped on the massive ornate door. “Sister? The other princess have arrived. May we enter?”

The trio paused as silence was the only answer.

Twilight stared at the door in concern. In stark contrast, a massive grin spread across Cadance’s face.

“Hey auntie!” Cadance called out. “Twily and I are here to play.”

Luna turned with a look of shock as Twilight did her best to stifle a giggle.

“Sorry, Princess Luna,” Cadance said. “This is how we always greet Princess Celestia on her birthday… I think she likes remembering us as foals.”

‘Creeeeek…’

Luna and Twilight jumped slightly as the white door slowly opened.

“See!” Cadance said as she turned and walked into the room. “Nothing to worry about. She’s just playing with us.”

Twilight chuckled and trotted after Cadance. “Sounds about right.”

Luna merely pursed her lips in annoyance and followed.

The trio of princess soon found they had gone from alone in the hallway, to alone in Celestia’s welcoming room. A well-lit, spacious room full of comfortable looking chairs, but devoid of any signs of Celestia herself.

“Sister! Show yourself!” Luna said in a slightly demanding tone.

Twilight frowned. “She’s not here.”

“DO YOU THINK WE ARE BLIND, TWILIGHT SPARKLE?!”

Twilight shrunk away from Luna’s bellow, her ears flopping around her head as she took several steps away from the lunar princess.

Luna hung her head. “Sorry, Twilight Sparkle… That was… that was uncalled for. But if this is a game, I wish my sister weren’t so good at setting an atmosphere.”

Cadance mustered a giggle. “Auntie does know how to lure in ponies and go for the kill.” Cadance turned to Twilight. “Remember the Nightmare Night when she personally invited us to the castle?”

Luna’s ears perked up with interest.

“Ugh… How can I forget?” Twilight said as her expression softened and her ears perked up right again. “She managed to get just the two of us to walk halfway through an empty, dark castle by ourselves before jumping out! I can’t even remember how much candy she had to give me to get me to stop crying and swear I wouldn’t say a word to my parents.”

Cadance shook her head. “I think the pile was bigger than me by the time you finally stopped sniffling.”

Twilight smirked. “I seem to recall a certain pony screaming just as loud as me when Celestia finally showed herself.”

Cadance gave wrinkled her brow as she continued to smile at Twilight. “She had prepared red flame jets and a black and red costume complete with a realistic demon mask! Cut me some sla—”

‘Creeeek…’

The girls turned as another door opened inside the welcome room

“Celestia’s study?” Twilight uttered.

Cadance chuckled and trotted up to the open door.

“Cadance?” Twilight called out in a concerned tone.

“Don’t worry…” Cadance said in a hushed tone. “Remember the year when Celestia threw herself a reverse surprise party? That was fun and not nearly as mentally scaring as Nightmare Night.”

Twilight’s expression softened. “Oh yeah… I was pretty little still, though…” Twilight said as she followed Cadance.

“Hehe. That’s probably why auntie settled for just jumping out and shouting ‘surprise’!”

Twilight twittered as Luna scowled grumpily and trotted behind the other girls.

“Haha!” Cadance cried happily as she walked through the door. “There you are! You had…” Cadance’s eyes widened as she sniffed the air. “Wha… No…” she uttered as the gift she had so carefully carried all this way fell to the ground with the heavy sound of something shattering inside.

“Cadance!” Twilight cried as she and Luna galloped up to the stunned mare. “What…” Twilight’s eyes traced Cadances to what she was staring at. “Celestia!” Twilight cried out in alarm as she let her own present fall to the ground.

“Sister!” Luna exclaimed in a tone that echoed Twilights.

The two mares galloped past Cadance and up to Celestia. The princess stood motionless in the center of her study, standing straight with her eyes opened wide and staring far off into empty space. A yellow hue and shimmering orb surrounded her from the top of her horn down to her neck. Inside the shimmer, the yellow shifted ever so slightly like a heavy mist being blown by the light currents of Celestia’s breathing. Around her neck was a purple pouch with a pink heart shaped jewel on the front. A twisted green strap held the pouch partially closed and circled Celestia’s neck from one side to the other like a twisted vine.

“What is this?!” Twilight cried as she stared at pouch around Celestia’s neck.

“I do not know, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “But we should attempt to remove it from my sister at once.

“No argument here!” Twilight cried.

Luna’s horn began to glow a brilliant azure color as she stared intensely at the item around her sister’s neck.

“Luna stop!” Cadance quickly called out. “Don’t disrupt that field! It could be deadly for all of us.

Twilight took a few cautious steps away from the alicorn sisters and turned to Cadance with a frightened look.

With a look of reluctance, Luna turned to face Cadance, the bright glow from her horn subsiding until it returned to its regular midnight blue color.

“I… I think I know what the item is around Celestia,” Cadance said in a tentative tone.

Twilight swallowed as she stared at Cadance. Cadance’s constant upbeat attitude had vanished and the mare had the look as if she was staring at death itself.

Luna flashed Cadance a dark look. “If that item is a danger to my sister, it should be removed at once!”

“That would be bad for all four of us,” Cadance said in a serious tone.

“Cadance?” Twilight uttered. “What do you mean?”

“That’s a containment field around Celestia” Cadance said as she nodded towards the yellowish orb around Celestia’s head. “I think it’s not completely airtight just to keep Celestia from suffocating, but…” Cadance sniffed the air. “There’s a faint smell of heart’s desire pollen in the air. If pollen is collected from multiple flowers it can put a pony into a fugue like state where they dream of their hearts greatest desire.” She frowned heavily. “It’s incredible dangerous in such a great amount. The longer a pony remains in that state, the more… agitated they are when they leave and have to face reality.” Cadance swallowed heavily. “And some ponies don’t wake up at all.”

Twilight and Luna sniffed the air and gave Cadance a careful look.

“I smell nothing,” Luna said.

Twilight nodded and looked at Cadance. “How can you tell?” she asked.

Cadance turned and waggled her flank slightly, drawing attention to her heart-shaped cutie mark. “Believe me, I know heart’s desire when I smell it, and judging by the color of the air around Celestia, that pouch was full of it.”

“Then we haven’t a second to lose!” Luna declared. “We must remove this offending item from my sister before it’s too late.”

Cadance nodded. “Agreed, but we have to be careful. It won’t do Celestia any good if we all fall under its spell.” Cadance peered at the yellow hue inside the shimmering field carefully. “And it looks like there’s enough pollen in there to affect everypony in the castle if it gets out.”

“Well, what do we do?!” Twilight cried. “We can’t just leave her like this!”

Cadance pursed her lips. “Well… if we can remove the bag and jewel while leaving the containment shield intact, maybe we can destroy the pollen from the inside before it spreads. It should only be dangerous in its raw state.”

Luna nodded. “Very well. How do we proceed?”

“Er…” Cadance gave Luna a sheepish look. “I’m not certain how that jewel is making the field. We’ll need to figure that out first.”

Luna turned to give one of Celestia’s bookshelves a very agitated glare.

Cautiously, Twilight approached Celestia and eyed the shimmer carefully, her eyes wandering up to the very tip of Celestia’s horn. “No…” Twilight said in a whisper. “I don’t believe it…”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Luna said her ears perking up. “What have you found?”

“This jewel… It certainly looks like something that could cast and maintain something as simple as a containment field… but it’s inactive.”

Cadance shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense! Then how could…” Cadance’s eyes widened as realization set in. “No…” she murmured.

“The… the co-containment field,” Twilight stuttered as she stared at glowing tip of Celestia’s horn. “Celestia is maintaining that herself.”

“What?!” Luna boomed. “No that can’t be! Sister would never—”

“Wait!” Twilight called out. “Maybe Celestia put up the field to protect everypony… Maybe she somehow knew the pollen would affect others as the field the jewel created waned and instinctively used her own magic to keep the pollen from spreading.”

Luna frowned. “I suppose that’s possible… If she somehow was aware of what was going on enough to user her own magic…”

Cadance took a few steps forward. “It’s also possible she subconsciously wants the effects of the pollen to last…”

Silence once again descended upon the trio like a heavy fog.

“Hehehe. My goodness!”

This time all three princess jumped as the sound of a familiar laugh filled the air.

A radiant glowing mane of light pink, purple, green, and blue shimmered as Celestia entered the room with a smile bright enough to match her perpetually sparkling mane. “You’ve all looked like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Sister?” Luna said as she eyed the new arrival suspiciously. She motioned to the Celestia which stood motionless in the center of the room. “If this is an elaborate ruse, then I’m afraid I fail to see—”

Twilight’s face lit up. “Celestia!” she cried excitedly as she broke into a gallop straight towards her former mentor.

“TWILIGHT!” Cadance cried. “GET AWAY FROM HER! THAT’S NOT—”

‘SCHOORCHCH!’

Cadance and Luna watched in horror as a fiery green bolt of energy flickered from Celestia’s horn in into Twilight. Twilight was blown across the room, coming to a hard, fast, and loud stop with a heavy ‘thunk!’ as she crashed into Celestia’s heavy wooden desk.

“Twilight!” Cadance cried as she galloped up to the fallen mare.

Twilight moaned softly from the floor.

“Like lambs to the slaughter…” Celestia said as her voice deepened.

Luna’s horn began to glow bright azure again as she shot a look burning with rage at Twilight’s attacker. “Who are you?!”

‘Celestia’s’ lilac colored eyes suddenly glowed as bright green flames seemed to consume them, leaving emerald irises and black slits for pupils in their wake. “Just someone out to deliver well-deserved revenge.”

Celestia’s eyes fluttered open as the first rays of sunlight eked past the thick purple curtains and into her spacious bedroom. A smile slowly crept across her face as she sat up. She somehow couldn’t help but smile wider as the sun’s rays caught her pink mane which began to shimmer and change color. Soon her mane was billowing in the breezeless room, light green, blue, and purple joining the formerly dull pink hue.

A large lump under the white covers next to Celestia moaned in a deep, masculine tone as a gray foreleg shot out to claim one of the pillows Celestia had been resting on just moments ago. The hoof flicked upwards, momentarily forcing the pillow upright before it fell across from Celestia in a ‘puff’.

“Tell your sister to put the sun back down,” the lump said. “Tell her she raised it too early.”

Mirthful laughter poured from Celestia’s mouth that filled the room. “I think she’s heard that a few too many times from me as it is. Maybe you should try telling her.”

The pillow shifted revealing a square grey muzzle and single kind-looking if slightly agitated emerald eye. “She never listens to me. You’ll have better luck.”

Celestia grinned. “And you won’t have to get out of bed?”

“That too.” The green eye drifted upwards. “Also, please turn your mane off if you would.”

Celestia chuckled. “You know it just does that in the sunlight. It’s not like I have any control over it.”

The eye and muzzle retreated under the pillow once more. “Remind me to double up on the curtains.”

Celestia paused as her ears perked up, picking up the faint, but familiar sound of tiny hooves excitedly tapping against the floor outside the bedroom. “I think what’s outside is the least of your concerns when it comes to sleeping in.”

“... Tell the kids ‘auntie made a mistake and the sun isn’t supposed to be up for another ten minutes… hour…’”

“Ha!” Celestia exclaimed as the tapping of hooves grew louder. “Well you know they never listen to me!”

“... Tell them that the best birthday present they can give you is the gift of silence… Also happ—”

‘SLAM!’

The lump sighed heavily as the sound of the bedroom door flying open and colliding with the wall crushed any chance it had at remaining a lump in the bed as opposed to an adult stallion.

Celestia simply focused her smiling face towards the now open door.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!” an orange unicorn filly with red-and-yellow mane exclaimed from the very center of the open doorway.

From behind the filly, a smaller purple unicorn filly with a straight purple mane forcefully pushed her way past the orange filly. The two girls had exchanged sour looks for only a moment before the the purple filly turned to Celestia and smiled wide. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMA!”

A pair of dazzling smiles flashed out from the fillies in front of her and somehow, against all odds, Celestia felt her smile widen. She couldn’t imagine any other place she’d want to be rather than right here.

Not even for a moment.

Chapter 2

“Hah!” The orange filly cried proudly. “I told her first!”

“So?!” The purple filly responded indignantly. “You only remembered ‘cause I told you!”

The orange filly’s cheeks flushed for a split second. “That’s not true!”

“Yes it is!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

The pillow next to Celestia moved revealing a slightly haggard looking gray unicorn stallion with a slightly disheveled slicked black mane. He looked up at Celestia with a pleading look. “There’s still time to ask for silence, you know...”

“Is not times infinity!”

“Is too times infinity plus one!”

Celestia chuckled and shook her head. “Don’t worry dear Somra, I got this.”

“That’s still just ‘infinity’ you, know!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle as the ‘is not’s and ‘is too’s suddenly switched between fillies. She cleared her throat loud enough that the fillies heard.

The two went quiet but quickly stuck their tongues out at each other before turning forward.

“Sunrise Shine? Eventide? Mommy could use some help getting daddy out of bed.”

The orange fillies face lit up with the brilliance of the sun. “I’ll do it!”

“Awww…” The purple filly said in a disappointed tone.

The stallion’s green eyes shot open wide as he looked up at Celestia. “You-You’re a monster!”

Celestia responded by sticking her own tongue out at the stallion in bed next to her. “It’s my birthday! You can sleep in on your birthday.”

The curtains glowed turquoise briefly before being parted in an instant. The room was flooded with sunlight.

The gray stallion slammed his eyes shut and hissed in response as a golden glow surrounded all the pillows on the bed. They were quickly levitated to assemble a small fort around the stallions head.

“Nice work, Sunrise,” Celestia said warmly. She faked a concern look. “But I think your father has turned into a vampony and is hiding in his pillow tomb.”

Eventide giggled to herself.

“Snitch!” came the muffled response from the pillows.

“Oh no!” Sunrise cried as she leapt onto the bed at her father’s feet. “Don’t worry mom! I’ll change dad back, or he’ll die trying!”

“I don’t like this plan!” another muffled exclamation came from the pillows.

Celestia rolled out of bed and onto her hooves. She stretched to her full height and smiled as she lolled her head to the left and right and stretched her wings out a bit. “Sorry dear, but we can’t have the undead prowling about in our midst.” Celestia looked over to Sunrise whose horn began to glow turquoise once again. “Right, Sunrise?”

A mad glint could be seen in Sunrise’s eyes as she smiled wickedly. “Right!” she answered. Small points around the pony shaped lump began to glow turquoise. The points began to shift up and down the pony shaped lump erratically.

The pillow fort collapsed as the stallion suddenly jolted upright, erupting into a fit of laughter. “HeheheHahahaha! Sunrise, no!”

“Sunrise, yes!” Sunrise’s smile only widened as the points of lights followed the stallion continuing their mad dance across his body.

“Hahahaha! Stop! Hahaha! You know daddy is ticklish!”

“Oh, I knoooow…” the orange filly cooed as the glow of her horn intensified and more points of light appeared around the stallion and the shifting lumps under the covers.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

Celestia trotted up to Eventide, the fully grown alicorn mare towering over the small purple filly.

“Well Eventide, while your sister returns your father to normal, looks like you get to help mommy with breakfast.”

“Yay!” Eventide cried as she smiled up at her mother and gave her a hopeful look. “Since it’s your birthday, can we have cake for breakfast!?”

Celestia’s eyes opened wide and stared off into space as a smile slowly spread across her face like chocolate frosting being spread across three layers of perfectly stacked, fluffy cakes.

“HAHAHAHA! TIA! Do not—HehehehHAHAHA— just give the children cake for—hehehehe— for breakfast!”

“Awwww,” Eventide uttered as she hung her head.

“Don’t listen to him!” Sunrise cried as she trotted on to the lap of her squirming victim. “He’s still suffering from the vampony curse!”

Eventide looked up at her mother and grinned wide. “Yeah, mommy! Daddy’s still under a curse! He doesn’t know what he’s saying!”

“Yes I— Hahahaha —Yes I do!”

Celestia chuckled. “Maybe we could settle for pancakes this morning, we’ll have plenty of cake later.”

“Hurray! Pancakes!” Eventide exclaimed. Her face lit up again. “Can we have them with whipped cream, and sprinkles, and chocolate chips even?!”

Celestia grinned. “I don’t see why not.”

“Haha! WHAT!?” Sombra cried. “Tia! HAHAHAHA! Those are not healthy breakfast options for—Hahahaha—growing foals!”

“I suppose not,” Celestia responded, she suddenly grinned wide and wicked to match the smile on her older daughter’s face. “But they’re in a stack…”

“NO! Hahahaha! Don’t say it! None of your sisters puns!”

Celestia continued. “… so I guess you can say they’re part of a balanced breakfast!”

Eventide joined her mother in round of happy laughter as Sunrise rolled her eyes and continued her magic ‘assault’.

“Hahahahaha! For the—Hehehaha— For the record, I’m not laughing at that— Hahaha— horrible joke!”

Celestia looked down at Eventide and smiled warmly once more. “Well, shall we get started before your auntie Luna arrives?”

Eventide nodded. “Mmmhmm!”

Celestia and Eventide began trotting towards the door.

“Tia! Wait! HAHAHAHAHA! Don’t leave me alone with Sunrise! HeheheHAHAHAHAHA! I love her, but I think she’s—HAHAHAHAHA!—I think she’s half demon!”

Sunrise responded with the most wicked laughter the little filly could manage. “HeheheheHahahahaaaa!”

Celestia responded by simply closing the door behind her.

“HAHAHAHAHA! Celestiaaaaaaahahahahaaaaaaaaa!”

“Chrysalis…” Cadance said in a harsh whimper as she glared at the new arrival. While her eyes attempted to force internal combustion on Twilight’s attacker, her horn glowed sky blue as a similar glow surrounded a smoldering patch of hair and feathers on Twilight herself.

The faux Celestia’s horn glowed emerald and her eyes shimmered as green flames suddenly encircled the mare. The flames shoot up high, licking the room’s ceiling as sparks shot across feathered white wings and turned them a green tinted gossamer. The flames suddenly tightened inward, seemingly burning away the white coat and turning it ebony black, leaving legs full of holes, a tall twisted horn, and a dark green mane and tail where bright, but gentle colors once flowed.

Her transformation complete, Chrysalis took this time to laugh before addressing her accuser. “Hehehehahahaha! My, my. Well at least one of you has half a brain.”

“How could I possibly forget you?!” Cadance demanded. “You imprisoned me before my wedding and almost married my Shining Armor!”

Chrysalis grinned wickedly. “Let’s not forget the time we spent together while you laid alone in a dark, empty crystal cavern.” She pursed her lips and flashed Cadence a pair of half closed, alluring eyes. “To bad you couldn’t be there. It was truly magical!”

One of Cadance’s eyes twitched involuntarily and she let out an angry growl as the glow around Twilight ceased and the sky blue aura around Cadance’s horn turned white.

“Stop!” Luna cried as she leapt between Cadance and Chrysalis. “As much as would enjoy watching you dispatch this ruffian. We simply cannot blast her.”

Cadance let out a heavy sigh. “Right… we need figure out how to remove the pouch and jewel from around Celestia.”

Twilight groaned as she raised up to her hooves. Though some of her feathers were ruffled and a patch of her lavender coat was still smudged with black, she had ceased smoldering. “Boy, do I feel stupid.”

Cadance shook her head. “It’s not your fault… Given your size you’re probably the most affected by the pollen in the air.”

Twilight frowned. “I thought you said it was only dangerous in great amounts?”

“Actually, I said it was ‘incredibly dangerous’ in great amount. Constant exposure to even small amounts can affect a pony’s judgement and start to make them a bit… overly optimistic.”

“Oh…” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Well that explains why I think I should just go over there and kick her butt!”

Luna glanced at Twilight briefly. “Well all—Ahem—‘kick her butt’ if she doesn’t cooperate.” Luna nodded solemnly as she glared at Chrysalis. “Talk or we will make you talk…” She said in a threatening tone as her horn began to glow brighter and brighter.

Chrysalis widened her eyes and puffed out her lips in a look of mock concern. “Oh my, well now that my evil plan has failed, I guess I have no choice. Simply remove that field from around Celestia and all your problems will be over.”

Cadance narrowed her eyes. “That would release the pollen into the air!”

“Oh my! Yes, tragic,” Chrysalis said as she punctuated her sentence with a chuckle. “All those poor ponies out there experiencing their greatest fantasies. Each one overflowing with love.”

Cadance frowned as she trotted over to Celestia. “She’s not helping at all!” she said to Luna.

“She’s also lying,” Twilight added as she also trotted over to Celestia and peered at the item around her neck intently. “Whatever is around Celestia is magically affixed to her.”

“I did not lie!” Chrysalis insisted. “Under the effects of Heart’s Desire pollen, all of you would cease to care about Princess Celestia, Equestria, or anything else for that matter.”

“Stop wasting our time!” Luna growled. “What is your game here!? If it was to replace my sister than it has already failed.”

Chrysalis shook her head. “That was a temporary solution at best.” Chrysalis looked at Cadance and grinned. “While taking the place of dear, sweet Cadance was child’s play,” Chrysalis’s smile dropped, “I’m afraid taking the place of Celestia would fall apart as soon as somepony needed me to move the sun.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, “well what then?”

Chrysalis grinned. “I suppose I might as well tell you. The information will only hurt you more… The magical gift Celestia is wearing did create its own temporary field, but this was just to ensure the princess took a few nice, deep breaths before the field dissipated and allowed the rest of the castle to—hehehe— share the love… But your princess somehow put up her own shield as my gift’s waned.” Chrysalis shot Celestia a longing glance. “Your princess selfishly wants to keep all that joy for herself. But really, who could blame her?” A long, forked tongue flicked out from Chrysalis’s mouth. “I considered attempting to break Celestia’s shield myself, but the love that’s pouring from her is sooooo delicious!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You wanted the pollen to spread?! But… you’d be affected by its effects too!”

Chrysalis put on a look of artificial fright and raised her hooves to her mouth as she gasped. “Oh dear! You’re right! In all the time my subjects and I collected flowers to gather enough pollen to flood the largest castle in all of Equestria, I never once thought of that! No wonder they made you a princess!”

Cadance leaned down and whispered into Twilight’s ears, “Heart’s Desire flowers only affect ponies and other equine species as far as we know.”

Twilight giggled nervously as she felt her face go hot for what seemed like the dozenth time that day. “Hehe… right. I’ll just shut up forever, now.”

Chrysalis smiled at Celestia once more. “Don’t worry, she’s quite happy where she’s at. Perfectly so in fact.” She shook her head. “You three don’t know what you're missing.” Chrysalis’s horn glowed green as her eyes focused on the orb around Celestia. “Maybe I should let all of you find out.”

With a purple glow of Twilight’s horn, a shield large enough to cover her, Cadence, and Celestia appeared.

Luna narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis. “And let you take over Canterlot? Never!”

“You silly fools… All of Equestria is ripe with the love you ponies spread so freely. Once I’m done with you, I’m going to burn this miserable city in every pony in it.” Chrysalis flashed a lustful gaze at Celestia as the alabaster alicorn continued to stand at attention. “And your dear ruler is going to help me.”

“Help you?!” Luna cried. “Do not be absurd! Though my sister is incapacitated, she’d never assist you!”

Chrysalis shook her head from side to side slowly. “You really don’t get it, do you? Being under the effects of Heart’s Desire pollen is like being wrapped in love itself. Celestia had plenty of love to give already for her subjects and those closest to her, but now—” Chrysalis inhaled deeply, momentarily causing a shimmering pink stream which flowed from Celestia into the Changeling’s mouth and nostrils to appear. “—now her love is overflowing and everlasting. I’ve never tasted something so pure… I’m more powerful than I’ve ever—”

A brilliant beam suddenly shot out from Luna’s horn and slammed into Chrysalis.

‘PHHOOOOOMMM!’

“Ahh!” Chrysalis cried in surprise as the blast fired her back into the welcoming room with a loud ‘Crash!’

“Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed. “Nice thinking! You got her!”

Luna shook her head. “I do not think so, Twilight Sparkle. At best I merely startled her.”

Twilight’s smile dropped. “You sure?” Her smile quickly returned as if it had never left. “I think that stopped her for sure!”

“Wow!” Chrysalis cried out from the welcoming room. “Rude!”

“Oooor maybe not…” Twilight added as her ears flopped down around her head and her cheeks flushed once again.

“Twilight,” Cadance began, “I need your help removing the thing around Celestia’s neck without releasing the pollen.”

“Yes, good!” Luna said as she galloped up to the open doorway, she frowned as she peered into the welcoming room. Aside from an overturned chair and coffee table, there was no sign of Chrysalis. Another door had been opened, but the main entrance remained closed. Luna glanced back into the Celestia’s study. “You two free my sister while I track down Chrysalis.” Luna’s horn glowed a dark shade of blue as chairs and furniture floated into the air and were stacked against the main entrance’s door. “We cannot allow the changeling ruler to leave nor can we risk spreading the heart’s desire pollen all over the castle. Until we can ensure everypony’s safety, this door is to remain closed.” With that, Luna galloped into the waiting room and through the open door.

Twilight removed her shield and turned to Cadance with a frown. “Are you sure I shouldn’t get help? I can easily teleport out of here and teleport in with somepony that might be able to get this off Celestia.”

Cadance cocked an eyebrow. “Do you know any pony who knows more about magic than you who's also close enough you could simply teleport to?!”

“I… Okay, good point…” Twilight sighed and raised a forehoof to the side of her head. “I’m sorry… I’m not thinking straight!”

Cadance nodded. “It’s okay… For now just trust my judgement. Right now I need you to examine this item and see if there’s a way it can be removed.”

Twilight nodded and closed her eyes. “Okay… Let me just concentrate…” Her horn began to glow dimly, then bright, and brighter still until the entire room was cast in a purple light. With a brilliant flash the glow was gone and Twilight opened eyes which glowed pure white before fading back to their normal hue. “The item around Celestia’s neck… it has a locking enchantment I’ve encountered before.”

Cadance nodded. “Alright, how do we unlock it?”

Deep creases appeared on Twilight’s forehead. “We can’t, it’s an enchantment that makes it so only the wearer could take it off themselves.”

Cadance’s eyes widened as her pupils began to drown in an amethyst colored sea. “You mean…”

Twilight nodded. “Celestia has to take off the pendant around her neck under her own volition.” As if it was feeling left out, Twilight’s muzzle wrinkled much like her forehead had. “Once it’s unattached from a pony, the pendant is designed to seek a new wearer immediately and recast its own containment field.”

Cadance sighed heavily. “Guess it was a little much to hope that Queen of the changelings herself would make this easy for us.”

Luna gritted her teeth in irritation as she looked down yet another empty, dimly lit corridor. Her journey had taken her through well furnished rooms into empty, brick hallways, and then down stairs into ancient areas created by carving rooms out of solid rock. The castle above was massive, but the catacombs and structures under the castle possible even dwarfed it in terms of sheer space.

“Hahahaha…”

Luna furrowed her brow and broke into a gallop as she heard Chrysalis’s laughter echo off rock walls ahead. The changeling queen clearly wanted to be followed as she continued to laugh and light torches creating an easy to follow trail, however Luna found herself getting increasingly agitated the longer the chase was drawn out. She soon found herself passing under a massive entryway that opened into a giant stone cavern full of…

Luna squinted her eyes. Though a few errant lamps about provided light ample enough to see the entirety of the massive space she found herself in, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Is that… Is that an ancient massive penny? … Is it… Would it be worth more than an ordinary penny?

…

…I suppose that would make cents.

Luna fought the urge to giggle to herself. No focus! She examined the cavern. The penny stood on a natural stone platform over a small shallow pool of some sort. In front of her where several flights of steps carved out of the stone that lead down to what looked like a giant study complete with a library's worth of books, an ancient globe, giant telescope, ancient flags from Equestria’s history, and a large stone statue of Starswirl the Bearded. Hmmm… the ancient laboratory of Starswirl the bearded. Queen Chrysalis couldn’t have gone much farther…

Luna began trotting down the steps to the massive study. She took a deep breath. “SHOW YOURSELF HEATHEN THAT JUSTICE MAY BE DONE UPON THEE!”

“Hahahahahaha!” Chrysalis’s sinister laugh echoed off the tone walls and ceiling. “My, my… you are a dramatic one! All because I made your poor, overworked sister the happiest pony in all of Equestria.”

“You words are hollow!” Luna cried. “Cease your hiding! Let us end this!”

Luna watched as Chrysalis stepped out from behind the giant statue of Starswirl. The midnight blue mare leapt into the air and spread her wings before hitting the ground hard enough cause a heavy, echoing ‘Thud!’, causing the books in the bookcases around her to shake.

Chrysalis grinned at Luna. “Hiding? I was merely going somewhere more private so we could talk.” Chrysalis puffed out her lips in mock display of disappointment. “Speaking of hiding, you know Shining Armor and I missed you at the wedding?” Chrysalis’s lips shot out to the far sides of her face in an icepick smile. “What’s the matter? Too busy napping to wish us well?”

Luna narrowed her eyes as her horn began to glow an intense blue. “You know I too was disappointed that I missed your appearance at Princess Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding.” She lowered her horn and pointed it at Chrysalis, it began to shimmer with a dark blue radiance. “It will be nice to finally fight you as my sister did.”

Chrysalis’s smile held as she lowered her own horn. “Well go on then.”

With that, a brilliant blue blast of energy burned through the air.

‘PHHOOOOOMMM!’

Chrysalis grinned malevolently as her own twisted horn glowed a bright green and she fired off her own fiery blast not a split second later.

‘SCHOOOORRCHCH!’

The blasts met between the two combatants as the smell of burning ozone flooded Luna’s nostrils. Both blue and green energy swirled and crackled as the resulting ball of energy shifted back and forth ever so slightly.

Luna gritted her teeth and leaned forward, the blue energy increased in both size and intensity, the energy began to slowly move closer to Chrysalis.

Chrysalis’s lips opened wider as she too leaned forward, and unleashed a torrent of her own energy. A flaming green wave overpowered Luna’s blue energy and surged into her, slamming into the lunar princess and sending her limp body far across the cavern into a wall of books contained inside a massive bookcase.

The heavy wood gave a loud ‘CRACK!’ as an ancient shelf gave way under the impact from the alicorn.

Luna’s smoldering body fell to the hard stone ground, followed by a number of large and heavy books. Luna moaned as her limbs twitched slightly and small wafts of smoke drifted up from her singed mane.

Chrysalis chuckled darkly as she fluttered up into the air. “You’ll be happy to know you did just as well as your sister.”

Luna’s eyelids shot open and she slowly rose to her hooves, books sliding off of her as her legs trembled under her own weight.

Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed and her smile fell as Luna’s horn began to glow blue once more.

“Well then,” Luna said as she pointed her horn upwards, “I suppose I will just have to do better than my sister…”

Chapter 3

“I’m still not sure that’s enough…” Celestia said as she eyeballed a platter piled high with pancakes in front of her. The muffled, and hysterical laughter of her husband and maniacal laughter of her eldest daughter drifted into the kitchen from several rooms over.

Standing on top of a chair so she could see over the counter, Eventide examined the same pile. The pile was easily larger than the filly herself. “I’m pretty sure this is enough for everypony…”

“Are you sure?” Celestia said as she raised an eyebrow towards her daughter. “Did you remember Aunt Luna is joining us for breakfast?”

“Momma!” Eventide said in a protesting tone. “Auntie always joins us for breakfast! Of course I remembered.”

Celestia frowned and looked back at the pancake pile. “Perhaps we should make a couple dozen more just to be safe.”

Eventide shook her head causing her purple mane to flutter about. “I am certain this is the optimal amount of pancakes! I even factoring in the likeliness you’ll have ‘extra birthday helpings’.”

Celestia’s turned and smiled. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to see your work on that.”

Eventide jumped off the chair and onto exquisitely carved stone tiles. “I’ll go get my notebook!” she said excitedly.

Celestia’s eyes widened and her horn turned yellow as she quickly raised Eventide into the air before the filly could scamper off to her room and return with a book of notes and likely a chart or two. “N-never mind…” Celestia said as the same yellow aura that held her daughter afloat surrounded the tray of pancakes. “I should know better than to question you when it comes to calculations.”

“Awww…” Eventide said as her mother gently placed her in a chair at a round marble table. The table was large enough for eight ponies to sit at it comfortable and was shining white. What looked to be a simple, if perfectly carved etching of a sun was on the surface, however it was currently covered by several neat settings of plates, cloth napkins, and silverware. Additionally, oodles of optional pancake toppings, various carafes filled with colorful beverages, and cups of numerous shapes and sizes had already made their way to the table as well.

Celestia placed the tray of pancakes in the center of the table’s sun and smiled. “Well, I suppose if your father is still amongst the unliving, I’ll have to aid your sis—”

“HAHAHAHA—”

‘THUD!’

Eventide grimaced slightly as Celestia smiled at the not totally unfamiliar sound of hysterical laughter being cut off by a heavy thump. No doubt her husband hitting the floor as he finally rolled out of bed under a barrage of nearly inescapable magical tickles.

“Alright! I’m cured!” Sombra’s voice called out in a somewhat pleading tone. “Just… please, no more!”

“Never mind!” Celestia said cheerfully as she took a seat next to Eventide.

The sound of a door opening was soon followed by small quick taps and larger clops, hooves hitting stone as two ponies of different sizes walked towards the kitchen and dining area.

Celestia watched as Sunrise wordlessly trotted through a doorway, her head held high with a proud smile on her face. The young filly was soon followed by a tall, gray unicorn stallion with a slightly haggard look about his face and dark circles around his eyes.

“Sombra!” Celestia said with a smile. “I see you’re back to the land of the living.” Celestia glanced briefly at the tired-looking bags under Sombra’s eyes. “Mostly…”

Sombra give Celestia a heavy, if disingenuous looking frown. “Yes, it turns out ‘tickle torture’ is the cure for vamponism.” Sombra said as his horn flashed yellow and a chair pulled out from the table.

“I shall inform the royal guards at once so they can equip themselves with the finest feather dusters.”

Sombra chuckled to himself as he took a seat opposite his wife, his would be ‘vampire slayer’ daughter sat next to him. He stared down at the massive pile of pancakes in the center of the table. “I think you two may have overdone it.”

“But daddy,” Eventide interjected, “these are special pancakes!”

Sombra tilted his head and used his magic to lift one of the doughy disks and peered underneath it as if there was something he had missed. “Why? Because they’re ‘birthday’ pancakes?” he ventured.

Eventide shook her head. “Nope! These pancakes are shaped like flying saucers!”

Sombra looked down at his pancakes, looked back towards Eventide, and then over to Celestia. “This is my life now, isn’t it?”

Celestia favored her husband with a wide grin. “Oh come now, you know you love it.”

Sombra shook his head. “Oh it has its perks, but I could do with higher standard of humor.”

Sunrise looked across the table to her sister. “Puns aren’t funny, Eventide!”

Sombra motioned to the filly sitting next to him. “See! Somepony agrees with me!”

“It’s not a pun!” Eventide replied. “It’s a visual gag!”

Sunrise narrowed her eyes slightly. “But it’s a, and I use the word very loosely, ‘joke’ that still relies on a form of wordplay! Ipso Facto it’s a pun!”

Eventide leaned forward, her expression starting to match her sisters. “While a pun is a form of word play, not all forms of wordplay are puns! Stop trying to build an argument out of a false equivalency!”

“Your sense of humor is the literal worst!” Sunrise declared. “And yes, I mean it’s literally the absolute worst possible sense of humor in the world and all possible worlds!”

“Stop using ad hominem attacks!” Eventide cried. “And I’m going to have to see conclusive data establishing my sense of humor against every other beings in all possible before I can accept your statement as documented fact!”

“… How old are our children again?” Sombra asked as he looked back and forth between the two small fillies sitting at the table.

Sunrise stared upwards as one corner of her mouth twisted upward into a silly smile. “Look at me! I’m Eventide! I think I’m soooooo… smart because I can rattle off entry level philosophical garbage!”

Eventide let out a goofy groan as she tilted her head and let her tongue loll out to one side. “I’m Sunrise Shine and I’m too lazy to support my opinions with facts or research!”

“That’s slightly better,” Sombra said with a touch of relief in his voice. His features tightened slightly. “Girls! No making faces at the table!” Sombra decreed. He turned to Celestia, “Right, honey?”

Celestia quickly pulled in her tongue and uncrossed her eyes. “Right…”

Sunrise and Eventide both tittered to themselves.

Sombra sighed. “Why did I agree to children when I already married one?”

“Ho, ho, hoooo!” Celestia raised a forehoof to her mouth. “Don’t let the guards hear you talking like that! They’ll arrest you and throw you in the dungeon on the spot!”

Sombra rolled his eyes. “Pul-leeeees! Even if they did, I’d just get a pardon from your sister. I’m sure she knows exactly what I’m talking about.”

Celestia stuck her tongue out in response.

“Of course you realize, you’re only proving my point?” Sombra said with a smirk.

Sunrise puffed out her lower lip. “Daddy, are you saying I was a mistake?”

“What? No, I…”

Eventide leaned forward and mirrored her sister’s expression. “Am I… Am I just a burden to you?”

“Eventide?! No! Of course…”

Celestia leaned her head above her children, the same pout applied to her own countenance. “Are the children the reason you and I fight at night?”

“Tia?! What…? We don’t—” Sombra let out a heavy sigh and slumped forward, his head resting on the table. “I give up…”

Sunrise’s pout quickly changed to a devilish smirk. “So you’ll submit fully to the ‘Stary Triumvirate’?

Without bothering to lift his head, Sombra scrunched his brow slightly and glanced up. “I’m fairly certain such submission happened years ago, but ‘yes’.”

Celestia grinned. “I think I know what this calls for.”

Sombra groaned.

“Family pile?!” Eventide asked excitedly.

Sombra spoke up, “You know breakfast is getting cold, ri—Ah!” Sombra was cut off as the orange filly sitting next to him jumped him, knocking him off his chair and onto his back. Celestia and Eventide quickly rounded the table and also leapt on top of Sombra, smothering him with affectionate cuddles of family love… but mostly their own bodies.

“Okay, okay!” Sombra cried from under the mass of his family as his flailed his hooves ineffectually at the largest ‘celestial’ body on top of him. “I said I surrendered! Why, am I getting attacked if I already surrendered?!”

Sunrise grinned wickedly, “Use your magic on the spots behind his knees! He hates that!”

“Sunrise! No!” Sombra cried. “I already spent a good 20 minute being tortured by you this morning!”

“NO MERCY!” Celestia cried with a mad grin on her face.

“YEAH!” the children cried in agreement.

A desperate look quickly took root in Sombra’s eye’s growing into a massive tree. “Oh please, Luna save me.”

“Oh, but it is ever so much more fun to watch.”

The four ponies on the ground collectively paused and glanced over to notice golden metal ‘shoes’ that lead up to midnight blue legs. Attached to that was Princess Luna wearing a bright golden crown and matching neck regalia as she regarded the scene in front of her with a look of amusement.

Sombra looked up with a slightly embarrassed look at Princess Luna. “Please rescue me?” he pleaded.

Celestia looked up with a devilish grin. “Or you can join the winning side and join the children in enjoying the spoils of our latest family conquest!”

Fear suddenly cascaded in Sombra’s eyes forcing his eyelids to open wide as it overflowed onto the rest of his face.

Luna let out a mirthful chuckle. “I am afraid I need my royal advisor as intact as possible if I expect him to help me run Equestria.”

Sunrise and Eventide let out disappointed “Awwwwwww”s as the fear quickly drained from Sombra’s features.

“Now fret not, children,” Luna said. “Come give your auntie a hug!”

Sunrise and Eventide quickly scampered off their father and practically threw themselves at Luna as she lowered her head and nuzzled each of them.

Smile still on her face, Celestia’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Traitor!” she said as she got onto her hooves and stood up.

Luna raised her head to look at her sister. “I beg your pardon, dear sister, but I owe your husband far too many favors to ever turn on him.”

Sombra rolled back onto his hooves and stood up. “Sorry honey, looks like your insidious plan to smother me with love has been foiled once again.”

Celestia thrust her muzzle into the air. “There’s always tomorrow!~” She sang out as she trotted back to her seat

Sombra sighed heavily and trudged back to the table. “Better enjoy my last breakfast, then.”

“Auntie Luna!” Sunrise said excitedly. “Did you bring any presents?!”

“Hey!” Eventide protested. “It’s momma’s birthday, not yours!”

Sunrise shot her sister a dirty look. “I can be excited by proxy!”

Luna chuckled once more and shook her head. “I’ll bring your mother her gifts at dinner time. Besides, I have already given your mother a gift by releasing your father from his duties for the day.”

Celestia rolled her eyes with a smirk as she floated a massive pile stack of pancakes onto her plate. “Yes, how generous of you.”

Sombra put on a faux hurt look as the rest of the group floated pancakes to their own plates. “Must you be sarcastic?”

Celestia shook her head as sounds of metal lightly hitting and scraping glass plates filled the room. “Oh, that wasn’t a dig at you, dear.” She turned back to her sister as Luna took a seat next to Sombra. “This gift is only because I agreed to meet some stuffy aristocrats later today.”

“Well,” Luna said in a remonstrating tone as she sat between Sombra and Eventide, “you may not have much in the way of official duties, but as a princess it’s good for you to make a few appearances every now and again.” With a dark glow of her horn, Luna poured herself a mug of coffee, brought it to her lips, and to a sip. “Besides, as it is your birthday I am certain they will shower you with exquisite gifts.”

A mischievous grin crossed Sunrise’s face as she rubbed her hooves together.

“My, my,” Celestia replied with a skyward glance, “expensive gifts. Oh however would I come across what I’m sure will be the veritable height of Equestria finery as a lowly Princess?” she said as her pupils completed a circuit around the edges of her eyes.

“But momma!” Eventide protested. “You should know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth!”

For a moment, the ‘tink’s of metal hitting plates ceased.

Sombra, Sunrise, and Celestia all gave out groans of protest as Luna favored her niece with a satisfied grin.

“Must you turn my own children against me?” Celestia said. “With puns no less…”

“Ha!” Sombra exclaimed as he pointed a forehoof at Celestia and used his magic to saw through a stack of pancakes with a knife. “That is basically double hypocrisy coming from you!”

“It’s my birthday,” Celestia insisted. “Double standards is one of the perks.”

“Ugh…” Sombra replied. “Just wait until it’s my birthday.”

Luna took a small bite of pancake into her mouth and quickly followed that up by dabbing at the sides of her lips with a cloth napkin. “Come now sister, I am sure you will find the event much more entertaining than your protests warrant.”

Celestia chomped down on large bite of syrup soaked pancakes, chewed briefly, and then swallowed. “Oh yes, because if anyone knows fun, it’s my little sister.”

Luna give her sister a small smile. “I have found plenty of contentment in my days of running Equestria, thank you very much.”

“Hehe, sure… “Celestia replied. “Day after day of talking to stuffy old nobles and moving heavenly bodies around.” She smirked. “I can’t imagine how you fit any excitement into your life.”

An emerald beam of crackling energy zoomed past Luna as she flew about the stalactites of the cave ceiling.

‘ZorrrtPooochchw!’

Energy collided with stone, sending shower of rocks in all directions

“Hold still!” Chrysalis demanded as she let loose another barrage of green energy above her. The stalactites continually blocked her line of sight to Luna. She found herself bobbing her head all around as well as running amongst Starswirl the Bearded’s assorted artifacts just in attempt to keep the Princess of the Night in view.

‘ZorrrtPooochchw! ZorrrtPooochchw! ZorrrtPooochchw!’

The tapered rock formations cracked and fell about the subterranean study as Chrysalis’s deadly beams wreaked havoc on the cave’s ceiling. Luna lamented the damage that was no doubt being done to the artifacts below, however ‘preserving historical artifacts of one of Equestria’s greatest wizards’ was prioritized under ‘surviving’ and ‘making sure all of Equestria is not sucked dry of love by the Changeling Queen and her army.’

Chrysalis grit her teeth and paused momentarily, slowly moving her jagged horn to point in front of Luna as she continued to fly above her. She let loose a particularly large beam of sizzling energy.

‘ZZZZZORTBOOOOOOOM!’

“Ah!” cried Luna as one of the larger rock formation exploded in a fury of green energy and rocks in front of her. She tumbled downward towards the upper level of Starswirl’s book collection, a three story miniature library that lined one side of the cave. Luna tucked in her wings and legs before hitting the ground, allowing herself to roll amongst the large chunks of rocks before raising back to her hooves.

“Goodness, you are stalwart,” Chrysalis said. “Now be dear and sit tight for a moment,” she said as she took to the air with a buzzing of her gossamer wings.

Luna attempted to unfurl her wings once more but grimaced as she felt shooting sharp pain on her right wing. Smoldering blue feathers fell to the ground. Well buying time or wearing her out by forcing her to waste her energy missing me isn’t likely to work anymore… Luna’s horn began to glow a brilliant hue of midnight blue. Perhaps it’s time to go on the offensive.

‘PHOOOOM!’

Luna let loose a blast of energy which fizzled with an anti-climactic hiss as Chrysalis countered with a small blast of her own. “Oh, too bad…” she said as she puffed out her lips into a fake pout. “Would you like to try again?”

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“Nope, third time's the charm?” Chrysalis taunted as she continued her lazy flight across the cave.

Luna began to eye the books next to her, her eyes lingering for an extra moment on the larger ones as she continued to fire off blasts at the approaching Changeling Queen.

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“Maybe a fourth?”

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“I’m not sure this is your game…”

A complete guide to magical Equestrian jewels? Luna shook her head. Princess Twilight would never speak to me again.

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“Oh… I might have felt that one! Try again.”

A complete guide to Equestrian pastries? SISTER would never speak to me again!

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“Hey, you are getting better! I might have to start taking the serious in a moment…”

Luna’s eyes stopped on an absolute massive tomb of a book. The Wheel and the Butterfly Saga…? What is this and how did Starswirl... Luna heard the tap of thick carapace ‘hooves’ touch the stone in front of her.

“My turn already?” Chrysalis enquired.

‘PHOOOOM!’

‘Hiss’

“Tsk, tsk…” Chrysalis said. “Now you’re barely even—”

‘THUD!’

“OW!” Chrysalis cried as she was clocked in the head with a giant book quite unexpectedly. The book bounced off its target and twisted in the air, falling open Chrysalis’s face. “What is…” With a green glow, Chrysalis lifted the book away from her face far enough to read some of it. She pulled a face and magically ‘thumbed’ through a few more pages quickly. “Who even had this much time to write this drivel?” Chrysalis closed the book and floated it out of the way to stare at Luna. “If you were going to attack me with a book, the least you could have done was…” Chrysalis trailed off as her eyes drifted upwards, noticing the massive penny now suspended upright by a midnight blue glow in the air just a bit above and in front of her.

Luna gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep the massive metal item in the air. “Penny for your thoughts?!”

Chrysalis gave Luna a disgusted look. “I can’t believe you seriously just—”

‘SLAM!’

The penny fell downwards, quickly covering a green glow as it smashed into the ground. The loud sound of the crash flowed out in all directions, flooding the cave with it’s overwhelming volume. Books fell off the stone shelves and items collapsed to the floor as the entire cave shook from the massive impact. The stone floor cracked as the penny sank slightly into the solid rock, much of the floor crumbling into small chunks and pebbles.

Luna took a moment to catch her breath, her breathing heavy as she stared at cold metal item in front of her. I… I am victorious? I actually defeated that monster while she was power drunk on my sister’s love? The corners of Luna’s lips began to pull upwards. I almost cannot believe the Changeling Queen would be so foolish as to— Luna’s lips fell back into a choppy sea of concern and worry as she noticed the cave had suddenly gone from cool, to warm, and then blistering hot in a matter of moments. Waves of heat came off the penny as the item began to glow with a reddish hue. The center began to bubble as it turned liquid.

The sound of hooves clicking on the stone floor echoed as Luna took several steps back. The heat was beginning to become unbearable. Liquid copper oozed out of the cracks in the stone, quickly cooling and hardening as the center of the penny continued to liquefy. Luna watched as the fluid even began to dribble down from the top of the metal mass, a section in front of her suddenly sagging before giving way into what seemed like a deluge of roasting hot molten metal. A large bubble of the stuff drifted forward from the penny. As the metal continued to drift downwards and cool, Luna noticed a green tint and could soon make out glowing emerald eyes with slits for irises over a demonic smile.

As the last bits of heated metal fell to the stone floor and hardened, Chrysalis dropped her spherical shield. “You didn’t really think it was going to be that easy, did you?” she asked as she cocked her head.

“You know, for a second there…” Luna paused to take a deep breath, “I believe I did.”

Twilight and Cadence cringed as the sounds of violence from the cave deep below echoed back through stone hallways and up to Celestia’s bedroom.

Cadance shook her head as if to clear it and took another look at the catatonic alicorn in front of her. A shimmering translucent orb full of yellow particles still surrounded Celestia, the mass shifting ever so slightly with Celestia’s gentle breathing.

“Okay,” Twilight said as she stared at the orb with a calculating look on her face, “so you’re probably right in that I don’t have the magical energy to overwhelm Celestia’s shield on my own…”

Cadance sighed. Twilight was usually a bastion of level headedness and logical thinking, but the trace amounts of Heart’s Desire pollen in the air had turned the smaller alicorn Princess into a bit of an overly optimistic scatterbrain.

Twilight continued. “So! All we have to do is to simultaneously apply enough magic to take out Celestia’s protective shield and a little more to destroy the pollen before it spreads through the air. Piece of cake!”

Cadance gave Twilight a solemn look. “Assuming neither of us overestimate the power needed and accidently blast auntie’s face off, or under estimate, scattering the pollen about and ending up in the same state as her after exposure, or Celestia’s subconscious responds by changing the barrier in any number of ways that also release the pollen into the air.”

Twilight frowned slightly. “Maybe I should do a few more mental calculations.”

Cadance shook her head. “No… I don’t think this will work. You’re being influenced by the pollen to the point where it’s affecting your judgement, and I don’t have the magical skill or raw power to do much on own.”

“We have to do something!” Twilight insisted. “Maybe we should help Luna!” she said with a smile. “Once we defeat Queen Chrysalis, we can solve the problem with the Heart’s Desire pollen at our leisure!”

Another explosion, much louder this time, echoed up in response.

Cadance sighed again. “Assuming Celestia remains in this state, I’m not sure if the three of us can beat Chrysalis with her feeding off Celestia’s love like this! As long as auntie is overflowing with love, Chrysalis might be near unstoppable!”

“Ugh…” Twilight groaned as she knocked on her head with a forehoof. “This is terrible, I can’t think straight at ALL! And every idea I seem to come up with seems like a good one no matter how many angles I try to look at it from.” Her eyes widened as realization hit her like a rainbow colored pegasus kicking a storm cloud. “This must be how Rainbow Dash feels all the time!”

Cadance allowed herself a small chuckle before another explosion from below brought her back to the life or death situation she was facing. She took another look at Celestia. “…Overflowing with love…” she murmured to herself. Her eyes widened. “I have an idea!”

Twilight shook her head as if coming out of a daze. “Was it for a magic powered barrier smasher with flame cannon attachment? Because I think I just figured out the schematics for one in my head.”

“Uh… No…” Cadance said. “Look, auntie’s love is palpable... as much for Chrysalis as it is to me. I should be able to use that to reach her somehow…” She frowned. “But there’s a catch. I’ll be in a state similar to Celestia’s while I attempt to contact her.” She turned towards Twilight, “You’ll have to keep both of us safe if Chrysalis… uh… gets away from Princess Luna and comes back up here to investigate.”

“Protect two catatonic ponies from a super-charged changeling queen while simultaneously making sure nopony comes in here and risks exposure to a massive dose of Heart’s Desire pollen?” Twilight smiled. “Piece of cake!” Twilight said in a chipper tone.

“… Was that sarcasm?” Cadance asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I honestly don’t think so…”

“Heh, alright,” Cadance said with a small smile. “I know you can do this, Twilight.”

“Heh, of course!” Twilight said. “Just another day of saving Equestria from complete destruction!”

“Right…” Cadance said as she turned to Celestia with a serious look on her face. “Just another boring day for Twilight Sparkle…” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Only focusing for a moment, she immediately felt as if she had just been dropped into an ocean of frigid water as Celestia’s love began to overwhelm her, almost drowning her even. Cadance kept her eyes closed shut as her breathing turned quick and shallow. She tried to calm herself. It’s alright… Breathe Cadance, breathe… You can do this… You HAVE to do this. Cadance began to slow her inhales and exhales and felt her heart’s beat slow down as she mentally stopped struggling in the vast sea of love.

Soon, everything seemed much warmer, and Cadance felt a sensation like slowly being lowered into warm, relaxing water. She let the feeling take her lower and lower, even covering her head. This time, her breathing remained calm, even as she felt herself sinking lower and lower and the world ‘above’ her grow more and more distant.

With on more gentle breath, Cadance sank low into that ocean of love and let the world around her slip away.

Chapter 4

Celestia let out a long, continuous moan as she threw her head up dramatically and trotted down a red carpet bordered by a tiled floor of large black and white squares. Celestia’s moan elected an eye roll from her sister of such effort and magnitude, Celestia was sure the planet’s axis shifted if ever so slightly. Celestia now wore a golden crown on her head with a diamond-shaped amethyst in the center and a large golden yoke with an even larger amethyst gem. She also sported a set of golden, ornate shoes on her hooves.

Much to the chagrin of her sister, Celestia began to speak in a high-pitched, nasally tone not unlike a young teenage girl who decided she’d rather complain about taking out the trash than simply get it over with. “Ugggh! The royal regalia is so HEAVY! Why do I have to wear it?!”

Luna sighed and shook her head, staring grumpily ahead.

“This crown hurts my neck, and this yoke makes my shoulders itch and the throne room is so fAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAr!” Celestia whined. “Why can’t these nobles just come to mEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE?!”

Luna looked up at Celestia with a slight miffed expression. “Because if you had it your way, you would just meet the nobles in your living room without even the barest attempts of grooming yourself while your children ran about.”

“Lies and slander!” Celestia cried, her voice returning to normal. “If I had it my way I wouldn’t meet these nobles at all!” Celestia smiled. “And if I had to interact with them, I’d make them talk to me through the closed doors of my family’s private abode while the children draw my responses in crayon and slip them under the door.”

Luna seemed to consider this. “You know, for somepony who complains—”

“Whines!” Celestia insisted. “That was clearly whining.”

Luna rolled her eyes once more. “For somepony who whines about these meetings so much, you seem to have rather firm grasp of how bureaucracy works.”

“Hehehe…” Celestia puffed out her lips and lowered her eyes until it appeared as if she was brooding. “I art Princess Luna and I lovest sitting aroundeth and talking toest to stuffy oldeth aristocrats even though I knowest it to beeth an ineffectual waste of time…eth!”

Luna let out an exasperated sigh as she stopped in front of a massive set of golden double doors. “I can see you’re in one of your moods…”

“Your FACE is in one of my moods!”

“Also, your old Equestrian is abysmal—Your FACE is abysmal!”

“YOUR FACE IS—DANGIT!” Celestia exclaimed.

Luna smiled smugly and swatted Celestia playfully across her shoulder.

Celestia put on a hurt look that was more see-through than glass as she raised a forehoof and rubbed the place her sister had just love tapped. “Why are you so meEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEan?”

Luna’s eyes rolled back into her head as she smiled slightly and lightly moved her head from side to side. “Alright, sister. Message received. I’ll go in first and get things started so you have to spend as little time talking to the upper echelons of Equestrian society as you have to before returning to your family where you’ll no doubt continue to be a horrible influence on your own children.”

Celestia’s faux pained look disappeared as she began to ‘cry’ sans tears or any serious emotion. “Sob-sob. Oh THANK you, dear sister!” Celestia cried as she threw her forearms around Luna’s neck. “YOU’RE the best birthday present I could have asked for.”

Luna smiled and gently patted Celestia’s arms as her eyes made one more circuit around her ocular cavities.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, soft and slowly at first before striking with a force that threatened to tear the castle apart.

‘rrrrrRrRrRrRrRrRrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…’

As the quaking increased, Celestia hugged on tighter to Luna, planting her back legs as firmly as she could on the shaking ground.

“Alright, Sister!” Luna said. “That’s enough theatrics for one day.”

‘…RRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUMMMMmmmmbbleeeeeeeeeeeee…’

Celestia tentatively parted from Luna as the shaking ceased. “Did… didn’t you feel that?”

Luna sighed. “You’re going to say something trite like, ‘the special bond between us sisters’ or some such, aren’t you?”

Celestia shook her head. “You… you honestly didn’t feel that earthquake?!”

Luna’s forehead sloped forward as she scrutinized Celestia. “Celestia, I already said I’d make this as short for you as possible. Birthday or not, please don’t try to press your luck to get out of this entirely.”

“I… I…” Celestia shook her head. “I’m sorry, Luna… I guess I just got a little carried away.” Celestia smiled. “Go ahead, and send somepony to fetch me once you’ve got the room warmed up.”

Luna chuckled to herself and turned towards the set of golden doors. With a glow of midnight blue magic, she opened one just wide enough for her to enter, trotted into the large throne room and closed the door behind her.

Celestia’s smile dropped slightly as she stared at the door. While she would usually use this time to prepare herself for an onslaught of stuffy nobles with their snooty ‘old money’ accents, smiles concealing hidden agendas, and flattery flung non-stop in an effort to win her and her sister’s fav—

Celestia shook her head lightly and clenched her eyelids. Focus! What was that earthquake you felt, and why was it that Luna didn’t seem to feel it? She couldn’t have been simply pranking me, could she? Celestia dwelled on this possibility and dismissed it summarily. Even at her and Luna’s age the pair were not above the odd harmless prank, and Celestia figured Luna would cook something up after that little bout in the hallway, but something that shook the very castle was quite likely beyond even her sister’s capabilities, not to mention the panic it would easily cause within the palace. So… what… Had she really just imagined it all?

Celestia suddenly winced. A dull ache suddenly struck her from deep inside her head. No… It would do her no good to dwell on this odd… occurrence. She steered her thoughts back to the unpleasant meeting she was about to undergo. Sure it would make her sister happy, and that’s all that really mattered… Well… and the assurance that she at least cared enough about Equestria to show her face to those who overvalued their position wasn’t a complete waste of time. Still…

She sighed and shook her head. She’d better prepare her smile for the pile of gaudy and likely useless gifts she’d have to open.… Seriously… Why did so many ponies imagine she needed sundials?! HER?! She controlled the sun for crying out—

“Ow…”

The ache had suddenly returned. Hehe… Silly… Her sister controlled the sun for the most part, though Celestia would occasionally give her the odd break and here there. She looked at the large golden double doors pensively. Perhaps it was a mistake to tease Luna into going in without her. The emptiness of the hallway left her alone with just her thoughts, and they were poor company at the moment.

Celestia’s horn glowed yellow as the golden door shimmered.

Perhaps she would simply—

“Hello, auntie…”

Celestia jumped slightly and turned towards the source of the voice. With a slightly quizzical smile, Celestia returned the greeting. “Oh! Hello, Princess Cadance. Sorry, I was lost in thought.” Auntie? Did she really mistake me for…? Celestia added some warmth to her smile. “Were you perhaps looking for my sister?”

Cadance shook her head. “Actually, I was looking for you.”

Celestia’s smile faltered momentarily before she bolstered it. “I see… Are you here to wish me a happy birthday?” Celestia chuckled. “I’m flattered you’d track me down for such a thing, you know you’re always welcome to simply stop by my home. I know the children would appreciate it.” Celestia’s smile widened. “They both love it when you visit.”

To Celestia’s great surprise Cadance’s expression seemed to shift. Though she still smiled with that soft, lovely smile she almost always carried, her eyes turned sad… apologetic even. In fact, it might have been the gloomiest look Celestia had ever seen…

Come to think of it, even her smile lacked the normal luster of its usual self.

Celestia gasped. “The children! Did something happen to the children?!”

“Auntie, I’m sorry…”

“Why are you calling me that?!” Celestia cried. “You’ve… you’ve only called Luna that since she adopted you… I mean-The children! Are they alright?! They… they have to be!” Oddly enough Celestia felt a quick rush of calm come over her, as if her own words were enough to placate and convince her that her children were indeed alright.

Cadance shook her head sadly. “I wish I had time to ease you into this but you need to listen! Twilight and—”

Celestia felt the throbbing pain in her head increase… No… not throbbing, but sharp and scratching… Like something trapped in the back of her mind that was desperately and starting to forcefully claw itself out of whatever it was contained in. She… She had to change the subject. “How’s Ponyville?” Celestia asked as she forced a smile onto her face. Yes, good… Celestia smirked knowingly. “Still a flurry of unexpected adventures, I take it?”

Now that was odd… Why did she say that? Aside from the odd creature wandering out of the Everfree forest, Ponyville was a sleepy town just outside Canterlot. And … wait… Why was it that Luna sent Cadance there again? It’s not like quiet little Ponyville needed a princess to watch over it…

“Ponyville is fine,” Cadance replied. “For now,” she added cryptically.

The sharp pain of tiny claws digging through the dark recesses of her mind increased. “Princess Cadance? Is… is everything alright? You’re acting very strange…”

Cadance closed her eyes, turned her face to the ground, and sighed shaking her head. “Oh, auntie… Please forgive me…”

“You’ve… you’ve done something that might upset my sister?” Celestia’s smile returned, becoming jovial even. “Do you need me to help smooth over whatever it is?” Celestia chuckled. “Luna does have a tendency to overreact.”

Celestia felt a sharp stab in her head as images of her sister… No… not her sister… Something dark in the shape of her sister… Something that took control of her sister… And forced Celestia to… to…

“Are you remembering?”

Celestia looked up. She didn’t even remember closing her eyes or looking away from Cadance, but… “Remember what?” she asked innocently. “Don’t tell me you’ve already told me whatever this issue is with you and my sister and I—”

Cadance frowned heavily. “Your children… How many do you have?”

Celestia blinked in surprise, then smiled wryly. “Cadance! Did Luna put you up to this? What a silly—”

“Please answer the question,” Cadance said sternly.

Celestia’s smile dropped off her face completely. She had never seen Cadance so serious. Cadance, who was always so carefree, yet eager to help. Cadance who spread love and light wherever she went. Cadance, her gentle little song—

The pain was back. Scratching and digging. Digging upwards and threatening to explode onto the surface of her forethoughts.

Celestia stared up at Cadance in surprise. Was she the source of the pain?! No… Cadance… She… Well, Celestia doubted Cadance had the capacity for any wrongdoing, so… a trick? Somepony posing as—

Celestia let out a pained shriek as more flashes hit. A… a wedding… a trap she was too blind to see… set by a… a dark queen that tried to… tried to… but Eventide… She… she…

Celestia looked up with a pained smile. “Oh Cadance, you know I have two little foals! Why, you even used to babysit Eventide when she was... small…” Celestia said, catching the oddity in her own words as they escaped her lips. The pain had changed… No longer was it this deep sensation intruding towards the front of her mind, but it became almost all encompassing around her head. Yet… yet it was familiar. She should have been overwhelmed… Writhing on the floor in agony but… somehow… somehow she was accustomed to this feeling… Feelings? Oh, why won’t it just leave me be?!

Cadance tilted her head and continued to cast a critical eye on Celestia. “And their father is…?”

“My husband, King Sombra…” Celestia answered curtly. Why? Why had she answered with so little emotion? As if she was imparting an unknown fact instead of something there was no way for Cadance to not know.

Cadance forehead and lips tightened in confusion. “King Sombra?!”

More images. Her sister and her fighting somepony… her… Her husband? No… not her husband. Like… like a shadow or shade of her husband. Evil, malicious… Power hungr— No. No. NO! “Er… Prince! Prince!” Celestia said hastily. “Hehe, silly—”

“How long have you two been an item?”

“Why, for centuries, of course!” Celestia smiled warmly. “I couldn’t imagine life without my dear prince by my side!”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?” Cadance asked. “You’ve been with Prince Sombra for centuries and you’ve only recently had children?”

Celestia felt the dull, familiar pain spread through her body. She closed her eyes and focused. No… She had… she had known Sombra for centuries! Hundreds and hundreds of years of pure bliss only increased by the two joys in her life! But… why? Why did she wait so long to have children of her own even if time was very little an issue? She knew children could only bring her joy! Little Eventide was such a delight, and she was growing and learning so fast! Why, one day she might even become a princ… Sunrise Shine! Oh… Celestia could never forget the day they me-the day she gave birth to Sunrise! So… so much like her, so desperate to love and be loved… so eager to prove herself. So eager that… she… she…

OH WHY DID I EVER SEND HER AWAY FROM ME?!

“Sniff… Sob…”

Celestia opened her eyes, tears were streaming from them but the soft sound of crying didn’t come from her. She looked up.

Cadance… Cadance was crying. Sniffling and sobbing. “Oh, auntie… I’m so, so sorry…”

The pain had almost taken over… Almost became a part of her… She was almost fre-NO! She couldn’t let this happen. She wouldn’t! Luna!

Celestia turned her head to the double doors, her horn glowing a brilliant yellow.

“Auntie?” Cadance asked.

Luna! Luna could help her! Luna who had stood by her side almost her entire life. Luna who could never betray—

Celestia threw open the double doors and felt her heart sink.

The throne room was filled with the heavy smell of ozone and burnt hair. The noble ponies she had dreaded meeting laid lifeless on the floor, smoke wafting up from their bodies. Bodies which were scattered about the throne room, and plastered onto every face she could see was a look of fear and agony. A look locked in place by the heavy mask of death.

In the center of it all stood her sister, but not her sister… Something in the shape of her sister but sinister, like the dark reflection of what her sister could be.

This being composed of her dear sister wrapped in pitch-blackness and envy turned and smiled. A smile devoid of warmth and kindness. A smile composed of pure malevolent will. “Hello, sister and welcome… Sorry I didn’t send any pony for you, but as you can see there was no pony left to send.”

Celestia suddenly felt the weight of her crown, the weight of her royal yolk… The golden shoes around her feet now seemed like cinderblocks keeping her rooted in place.

The smile on the dark being in front of her only widened. “I’d warmed them all up for you, dear sister,” she said in a tone laced with venom. “Of course… they’re starting to cool down now.”

Celestia closed her eyes hard and screamed. “LUUUUNAAAAAAA!”

Twilight Sparkle stood resolute and attentive, her eyes practically glued to the passageway Luna had chased Chrysalis down. The sound of fighting had stopped which most likely meant that Luna had defeated Chrysalis and that everything was going to be totally and completely fine and that there was nothing to worry about!

Yes.

Twilight was quite certain that was what the outcome was… 92%... No. 93.33% with the 3 repeating sure that’s what the outcome was.

Of course, this still left a 6.66% 6 repeating chance that Chrysalis somehow overpowered Luna who would still totally be fine in that case and probably would need some soup and bedrest to shake off her little tussle with the evildoer! But evil couldn’t win! Evil could never win! Still, that small percentage is why Twilight kept her eye on the entrance to the tunnels below.

Oh! Starswirl the Bearded’s study was down there! She should have told Luna to bring back up a book! No matter. She could just go down herself when—

‘rrrrrRrRrRrRrRrRrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…’

Well that was funny! Everything was shaking! What could possibly be causing… HEY! That part of the floor seemed to be glowing and… melting? What could—

‘…RRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUMMMMPHOOOOOOOOOOOM!’

The circular portion of the stone floor that had turned red and was sagging inward suddenly erupted into a geyser of jade-colored flame. Twilight stared into the flame noting a figure with a black body with peculiar holes in it and… Oh! That’s Chrysalis! Twilight thought as the flamed began to die down. Well that’s just upsetting!

Chrysalis grinned devilishly at Twilight. “Oh, hello Twilight Sparkle. I have something for you.”

HaHA! Nice try Chrysalis! But there’s no way I’ll fall for your evil trap!

With a green glow of her horn, the limp body of Princess Luna floated up out of the still smoldering hole in the floor and was dumped unceremoniously at Twilight’s hooves. Her body now sporting an alarming amount of discolored patches, burns, and also leaking a small bit of blood from around Luna’s mouth.

MORE UPSETTING! MORE UPSETTING!

Chrysalis chuckled and shook her head as if sensing Twilight’s distress. “Oh, don’t worry… She’s not dead. I want all of you alive and well so I can spend years draining the your love… little by little… drop by delicious drop.” Chrysalis laughed, a heavy laugh that bounced off the walls of the study adding even more reverberation to the queen’s voice. A laugh that was cut off abruptly as she took note of Princess Cadance who stood next to Celestia, her eyes closed. “What is she…?”

“You’ll NEVER get away with this, villain!” Twilight shouted.

Chrysalis’s jade-colored eyes drifted over to Twilight almost involuntarily. “‘Villain’?” she practically chortled out. “When did you decide being campy was the path to victory, Twilight Sparkle? I’m afraid if you’re trying to amuse me into collapsing into heap of hysterical laughter, you’ll have to try harder than that!”

“Amuse nothing!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m going to kick your flank, you evil love-sucking bug!”

Chrysalis eyes widened slightly and then narrowed into a scowl that soon turned into a knowing smile. “Ahh… You’re reacting to the trace amounts of Heart's Desire pollen in the air. Hehe… Goodness, you must feel like you can take on all of Equestria single-hoofedly if needed, but you’re still the weak little princess who—”

Twilight’s mind raced as Chrysalis’s mouth ranted. Luckily for her Chrysalis had gathered all the ponies she needed to keep safe together so she could either, ‘A’ stick close and defend them from all attacks, or ‘B’, take the fight with the bug queen elsewhere much as Luna had done.

“— needs to rely on the power of others to get anything done! Twilight Sparkle, I fear you no more than I fear —”

Twilight’s eyes darted across the room with lightning speed as she looked at Chrysalis, to the ceiling, then down at the couple meters in diameter hole Chrysalis had melted in the floor, and finally to a red couch in the room. She felt the corner of her lips spread open wide into a smile. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I can win! I feel great! I can do this!”

Chrysalis let out a heavy sigh. “— tiny kitten…” She shook her head. “And you’re not even listening…” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes as she noticed Cadance once more, still standing in a trance of some sort. Her eyes drifted to the bubble around Celestia that was keeping the Heart’s Desire pollen contained. Her horn began to crackle with green energy as she smiled maliciously. “Well Sparkles, as much fun as it would be to engage in an another epic struggle until I beat that pollen-induced optimism out of you, I’m afraid it’s time to kill this game.”

Still smiling, Twilight resolutely stood in front of Celestia and Cadance, her unwavering eyes filled with determination as she focused her attention on Chrysalis.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes as her horn began to vibrate and hum with deadly energy. There was simply no way Twilight could put up a shield or a blast that could outlast—

‘Poomff!’

In a purple flash, Twilight disappeared.

“What?” Chrysalis uttered.

‘Poomff!’

In another purple flash, Twilight reappeared, hovering directly above Chrysalis’s back as she gripped on tightly with her legs.

“What?!” Chrysalis exclaimed.

With a heavy flap of her wings and a purple glow of her horn, Twilight spun forward in place, her legs still holding on tightly to the changeling queen.

“WHA—”

‘Thwack!’

“-Oof!”

As Twilight spun both her and Chrysalis forward, Chrysalis head hit the stone floor before it was dragged across and brought back up again. As she stared up at the ceiling and tried to get her bearings, the floor came rushing back and her head once again visited the heavy stone surface with a ‘Thump!’ Before Chrysalis could process what exactly was happening her head hit the floor again.

As the floors rushed to her a fourth time, Chrysalis pulled her head towards her body and quickly put up a barrier. Rather than the painful blow of her head hitting solid stone, the barrier bounced both her and Twilight upwards… where Chrysalis was immediately smashed into the stone ceiling that cracked and broke with the force. As heavy chunks of solid rock fell to the floor, the spinning continued.

Chrysalis opted to surround her horn with pure destructive power that carved magma hot divots in the stone ceiling as Twilight continued to use her as the outermost part of this royal pony/changeling centrifuge. She tried to unfold her wings, but Twilight had them pressed to her body with her legs and sheer telekinetic force. She rose her legs to attempt to pry Twilight off but the constant spinning force and Twilight’s position prevented her from so much as getting the purple cage around her back to budge.

Fine then! Let’s see how Sparkle reacts once I start blasting EVERYTHING. EVENTUALLY, I have to hit one of the other princesses. Full of love or not, I will NOT suffer this indignation any longer! Her horn began to crackle once more with furious anger, firing off jade sparks that struck like tiny bolts of lightning in all directions. The twisted black horn once again began to vibrate and hum with the sound of impending doom. As Chrysalis prepared to fire a devastating blast off in any direction, Twilight suddenly came to a full stop, directing her telekinetic energy downwards.

“Geeettttttt dunked on!” Twilight cried as she tumbled back to the ground, crashing into and breaking a red cushioned couch with ornate wooden armrests.

Chrysalis was far less lucky. With the unexpected shift, her concentration broke and the power around her horn dissipated. Barely having time to scream out a surprised and frustrated “WHAT?!” Chrysalis head smashed into the side of the hole she had created minutes before as her body went tumbling down towards the lower levels of Starswirl’s hidden chamber, bouncing back and forth off the recently carved cylindrical stone walls. As disoriented and dazed as she was, Chrysalis extended her wings, her gossamer paddles beating fast at the air around her as she fell into the open chamber of bookshelves and artifacts she and Luna had battled amongst. She rapidly slowed as she approached the ground and extended her legs, touching the cave floor with a light tap as she stared back up at the hole. Her jade-framed slit irises stared wrathfully skyward at the hole she had created and Twilight Sparkle had just thrown her down. In an instant, her horn was blazing with green fire and her wings practically assaulted the air as she sped upwards.

Twilight Sparkle was going to PAY DEARLY!

As Chrysalis nearly reached the end of the narrow tunnel, the air in front of her suddenly exploded into searing purple light that came barreling towards her.

Author's Notes:

Exit light. Enter night.

Chapter 5

“LUUUUUUNAAAAAA!”

The dark mare in the center of the dim throne room shook her head. “There is no need to shout, I am right here.” She put on a ponderous expression for moment. “Though that name no longer seems fitting.” She grinned malevolently. “I think I prefer Nightmare Moon.”

Cadance trotted up next to Celestia, warily eying Nightmare Moon. She glanced at the stained glass windows inside the throne room, the light from which barely brought the room above a level of pitch blackness and into a realm of sinister shadows. In contrast, the hallway was still brightly lit with the light of day.

“Wha-Why?!” Celestia cried out as motioned to the bodies of dead ponies around Nightmare Moon’s hooves.

Nightmare Moon shoot Celestia a contemptible look. “Because ‘our ponies’ relish and play in the day you bring forth,” she replied, practically spitting out the words ‘our ponies’, “but shun and sleep through my beautiful nights.” Nightmare Moon smiled. “So I simply decided the nights shall be eternal.”

Celestia closed her eyes hard and began to speak in a soft tone. “No… we… we… we TALKED about this over a millennium ago…” Celestia opened her eyes. “That’s when I handed over my duties to you… Where I let you have control over the sun…”

“Oh, is that how it went?” Nightmare Moon replied with a knowing smirk. “You selflessly handed over to your sister everything she desired? Are you sure you did that instead of attempting to reason with her that the way things were was already ideal?!” Nightmare Moon’s smile fell. “Are you sure you didn’t tell her that she was being foolish? That she wasn’t ready for all the extra responsibilities?”

“I… I tried to work with you! I offered suggestions! Things we could do so ponies wouldn’t sleep through all your spectacular nights.”

“A meager few festivals and celebrations,” Nightmare Moon spat out. “Token gestures to placate me and make the problem go away. No real solutions… And after all that time you had to think and prepare for that confrontation.”

“Luna, I had no idea that was coming!”

Nightmare Moon’s knowing smile returned. “So is that what you told yourself so you could go to sleep each night? That your sister’s demands caught you completely off guard? Where you really that oblivious to the feelings of your only sister?!”

Celestia grit her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, then hung her head. “No…”

Nightmare Moon shook her head. “And yet you never addressed these issues with your own flesh and blood until it was far too late.”

Celestia opened her eyes, but kept them focused on the floor beneath her. “I’m… I’m sorry… I always hoped Luna would find her own strength… her own path…”

Nightmare Moon tut-tutted. “Too slothful to help your own sister.”

Celestia grimaced. “I had found my own purpose… I didn’t want to dictate to my sister what hers should be…”

“Do you really believe that? Or do you just tell yourself that to feel better about the actions you failed to take?”

Celestia paused. “I… I… No, I don’t actually believe that. I should have done something… Comforted my sister, worked out a way to share responsibly, asked some ponies to change their schedules entirely. Anything but sit idle until it was too late.”

“But you did none of that!” Nightmare Moon said accusingly. “So here we are…”

Celestia let out a long, sorrowful sigh. “So it would seem…”

“Celestia,” Cadance began, “this isn’t real! You must know that by now!”

Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid it is all too real…”

“No!” Cadance cried. “This… this… I think you’re fighting the illusions… Your real memories are coming back! The way you’ve been talking… the way she’s been talking… There’s no way you can’t—”

‘PtcchEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!’

A brilliant azure beam crackling with menacing purple energy slammed into Cadance and sent her sailing towards the wall on the other side of the hall.

“Cadance!” Celestia cried.

Cadance hit the wall with a hard ‘thud’ before she fell limply to the floor.

Celestia rushed up to her. “Cadance! Cadance!” Celestia cried as she nuzzled Cadance’s head. “My little gentle song!”

Cadance’s eyes slowly opened. “Oh… I really hope I don’t feel this when I leave here…” she uttered.

Celestia turned towards Nightmare Moon, her eyes blazing with anger. “Why?!”

Nightmare Moon shook her head. “She doesn’t belong here. You know that!” The energy around her horn sizzled and crackled with tiny bolts of dark purple energy before going dim once more. “I’m doing you a favor here.”

Celestia stepped directly in front of Cadance. “Leave her alone.”

Nightmare Moon sighed. “Typical Princess Celestia, waiting until she has a full blown crisis on her hooves before taking action. So what is it going to be this time?” She asked with a smirk. “Are you going to banish me again? At least until such time as you can groom someone to deal with your mess for you once more?” Nightmare Moon began to trot towards the massive open doorway of the throne room. “Or do you finally have what it takes to deal with your own problems, no matter what it might cost you?”

“I… I can’t let you continue to hurt her!” Celestia cried.

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. “What a dramatic way to avoid answering the question,” Her horn began to glow azure as the dark purple bolts of energy returned, starting small around her horn before firing off in the throne room with a hissing promise of pain. “Come up with an answer soon, or she will die.”

Cadance woozily rose to her feet. “Auntie… I’m sorry, but this is a waste of time! While you argue with this… this… apparition of your past, your real sister—”

“Can you actually die here?!” Celestia cried, cutting off Cadance abruptly.

Cadance frowned. “I don’t… I don’t know… I’m not really keen on finding out…”

“I am,” Nightmare Moon said darkly with a smile to match as she continued to step forward. The searing energy of her horn bolts began to spill out into the main hall.

Celestia narrowed her eyes in determination, trotting forward with purpose, only wincing slightly as the energy arced over her sides, adding smoldering lines of burnt fur into her alabaster coat.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’ve decided to simply let me kill you…”

Cadance swallowed. “Celestia, please don’t do anything rash… I don’t know what will happen to you or me if you die here… If that’s even possible. Again, not something I really want to find out.”

Celestia shook her head and continued forward. “I don’t think she wants to find out either.”

“So? What now?” Nightmare Moon asked, her eyes turning into narrow slits. “This stalemate is not going to do anypony any goo—”

As she nearly reached Nightmare Moon, Celestia quickly dove forward, wrapping her forelegs around the dark mare’s neck and holding on tightly.

“What are you—!”

Celestia closed her eyes and pressed her face into Nightmare Moon’s purplish black coat. “Please, come back to me, Luna…” Celestia whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes flew open.

“Please don’t make me harm you… PLEASE don’t make me send you away… Please come back to me…”

Nightmare Moon’s coat began to change color, lightening in appearance until it was a soft dark blue. “Sister…?”

Still holding tightly, Celestia smiled. “Yes, sister… It’s me… ”Celestia felt Luna’s warm forelegs wrap around her. The dull ache that had enveloped Celestia began to lift, replaced with a warm feeling of joy and contentment. “I have you… I’m not going to let you fall…” It was alright… Everything was going to be fine. Her sister was herself again. Everything would go back to the way it was before—

Cadance suddenly screamed out, “Auntie, the REAL Luna is going to DIE if you stay here!”

Celestia felt Luna’s grip on her tighten to the point it became painful and with it came a sharp pain that flooded Celestia’s psyche. Celestia’s eyes flew open as she heard the sound of crackling energy once more.

A bolt of brilliant blue energy shot out from Nightmare Moon’s horn, flickering with dark energy as it flew towards Cadance.

“NO!” Celestia cried.

With a light blow glow of her horn, Cadance put up a barrier, the energy slamming into it as purple sparks flew out in all directions. Relief on the pink princess’s face soon gave way to exertion as drops of sweat appeared on her head. Her horn glowed brightly and even whistled as energy poured out of it into the barrier around her, but the cascade of deadly energy was unrelenting. “Auntie…” she said through clenched teeth. “I can’t hold this forever!”

“Ha ha ha!” Nightmare Moon cried triumphantly. “So, don’t! It seems this will be a scientific discovery for all ponies present!”

With a mighty heave, Celestia pushed herself away from Nightmare Moon and brought a hoof down across the black mare’s face. Surprise brought the beam of energy to a stop. Before Nightmare Moon could bring her head up to look Celestia in her eyes, Celestia quickly fired a point-blank blast of yellow energy that sent Nightmare Moon flying back into the throne room where she bounced across the floor a few times, crashing to a halt in a heap of wings and legs partway up the stairs to the throne.

Cadance dropped her shield and took a couple much needed deep breaths.

Celestia’s horn began to blaze with yellow energy, humming and vibrating as bright light shot out from it in all directions. She kept her eyes focused on Nightmare Moon as the dark mare slowly got back up to her hooves.

Nightmare Moon chuckled ominously to herself. “Goodness, I have ruffled your feathers.” She smiled wryly at Celestia. “But you’re going to have to give me more than a few love taps to bring this confrontation to a close. So, what’s it going to be? Kill me? Send me back to the moon?”

Celestia clenched her eyes shut as the yellow fire from her horn shot up towards the hall’s vaulted ceiling and colored light began to pour out of the stained glass windows of the throne room. “Actually, I thought I’d split the difference,” she answered in an icy tone.

Nightmare Moon’s head whipped around to stare at the windows. “WHAT IN EQUESTRIA?!”

“Out of, actually…” Celestia said as she turned towards Cadance. “Cadance! Get down!” she cried.

“Oh, horse apples…” Cadance exclaimed as she dove to her belly, threw her arms over her head and activated a shield.

Celestia took a moment to glance down at Cadance. “Language, young—”

Nightmare Moon looked out the windows in total shock. “You CANNOT be serious!”

With a castle shattering ‘CRASH!’ the ceiling of the throne room caved in and massive chunks of solid rock crushed the throne, the fallen noble ponies, and Nightmare Moon before the largest rock of all fell through the ceiling and walls with a tremendous force that shook the castle.

Cadance lifted her forelegs and looked at the scene in front of her, her eyes wide. “It’s a good thing I know none of this is real, because that doesn’t seem physically possible,” she commented as she rose to her hooves.

The throne room was now completely cut off, or filled in this case by a massive spherical chunk of solid stone pockmarked with craters.

The magic around Celestia’s horn began to fizzle down to a dull yellow glow, then finally back to a plain white horn as the shimmers in her mane disappeared and the colors slowly faded until all that was left was pink. Her mane and tale fell limply about her as both seemed to shorten a bit in length. Her shoulders dropped as well as her head, but she kept her balance on her four hooves.

“… Auntie?” Cadance began inquisitively. “For… for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you had to go through that… Real or not, that couldn’t have been pleasant for you.”

Celestia let out a deep sigh and shook her head, her shorter, but still long pink mane cascading to one side than the other. “No, but… This is for the best. I will not find closure… real closure with my sister in this place.” She looked up towards Cadance and gave her a small smile. “Thank you for coming to find me.” Her smile dropped. “How dire is the situation?”

“Queen Chrysalis was fighting Princess Luna when I entered your er… dream… I can’t do anything while in here, but Twilight is keeping us safe.” Cadance shook her head. “But Chrysalis has been feeding off the love you're emanating while under the effects of Heart's Desire pollen… She’s even stronger than when we faced her at my wedding…”

“I see…” Celestia answered.

“Are you ready to go?”

Celestia cast a miserable expression down the hallway from which she had just walked down with her ‘sister’ a bit ago. “I cannot…”

“Cannot, or will not?”

Celestia gave Cadance a sad smile. “I’m afraid I still feel a connection to this place… A connection I must sever if I’m to leave.”

Cadance's eyes widened as she lifted her head to its full height. “I… I’m sorry…”

Celestia shook her head. “It must be done… One way or another, I have to say goodbye…”

Cadance swallowed, her pupils swaying slightly as she seemingly processed the situation. “Do you… Do you need my help?”

Celestia began trotting down the hallway. “I’m afraid this is my fate and my fate alone, my gentle little song. Go back and help the others…”

“Auntie…?” Cadance called out.

Celestia stopped and turned. “Yes, Cadance?”

Cadance’s expression was the very picture of sorrow, but somehow she still managed the gentle smile Celestia had seen countless times. It was a smile Celestia had grown to treasure over the years, something that somehow seemed to suggest everything would be alright even when things were at their worst.

“For what it’s worth… I love you,” Cadance said. “We all do… Luna… Twilight… We need you.”

The ends of Celestia’s lips curved upwards ever so slightly. “Thank you, Cadance. I love you too. All of you. I shall be along shortly.”

Cadance nodded. “See you soon, auntie.” With a blinding flash of Cadance’s horn, the mare was gone.

Celestia lowered her head and let out a heavy sigh, heavier than any she had ever let out. Still, the sigh was nothing compared to the almost overwhelming encumbrance of the royal regalia she now wore, and that still seemed insignificant to the dense burden she carried in her heart.

Raising her head, Celestia broke into a gallop down the hallway towards her family.

As Chrysalis’s vision filled with furious purple energy, she quickly put up a shimmering jade-colored shield. The solid wall of purple destruction crashed into her protective barrier at full force, filling the small vertical tunnel she was in with the deafening sounds of dual energy storming heavily. For not the first time in her life, she made a mental note to not underestimate one Twilight Sparkle.

Still, despite Twilight’s unexpectedly aggressive strategies, the Changeling Queen still had energy to spare. In contrast, Twilight’s energy couldn’t last forever, or even long if she kept this display up. All Chrysalis had to do was sit and wa—

Chrysalis’s thoughts came to a sudden halt as the crashing waves of purple energy suddenly stopped and her barrier was pierced by a glowing purple horn attached to a lavender alicorn princess that smashed said horn directly into her abdomen.

Chrysalis felt her insides heave painfully as she began heading towards the ground once more at an alarming rate, the end of a rocket magically propelled by Twilight, whose horn was currently jammed uncomfortably against her chest plates.

Chrysalis’s horn blazed with jade energy once more, as she looked up to shoot a death glare at Twilight.

‘SWAT!’

She was met with a hoof to the face for her troubles.

Again, Chrysalis made a mental note not to underestimate one Twilight—

‘Pommf!’

‘CRASH!’

—SpArKlEs LiKe TwInKlInG sTaRs ArOuNd My HeAd! Chrysalis quickly shook her head to clear the fog and dizziness from it. As soon as she was thinking straight, she put up a barrier just to be safe. As it turned out, another blast of purple energy flew out from behind her and crashed into her barrier with a burning ‘SOOOOORCH!’ Her twisted black horn pulsated with jade energy, but the shield held as she picked herself out of the small crater her impact had caused.

Twilight had clearly decided on a different strategy to engage Chrysalis from that of Princess Luna. Luna had spent the beginning of their ‘fight’ ducking and weaving out of the way of blasts before carefully attacking here and there. All, no doubt, to draw the fight out as long as possible and buy the other princesses more time. In contrast, Twilight had threw herself into the fray with reckless abandon.

Princess Luna was trying to stall. Twilight was trying to win.

A commendable attitude to be sure, but—

Chrysalis smiled as the torrent of purple energy ceased, she lowered her barrier and side-stepped as Twilight came dashing towards her once more. This time Chrysalis swatted at the purple princess and sent her sailing across the large cavern of Starswirl’s books and artifacts. Twilight let out a startled “WHAaAaAaAaAaAaAaA…” as she went skipping over the shallow pool in the cave before impacting into a solid stone wall with a satisfying ‘THWACK!’

With a devilish grin, Chrysalis let loose a bolt of jade energy.

‘ZzzzzzzzOOOOOORRRRRRRT!’

Twilight looked up not a moment too soon and gave her wings a mighty flap, sending her into the air. “Ha! Not today, Chrysalis!”

The a large chunk of the wall behind where Twilight was just standing exploded into pebbles that shot out in all directions, trailing smoldering green smoke as they fell to the ground. Chrysalis sneered and let out a few more blasts that Twilight flew around, dodging, diving, and even looping around as bolts of energy flew towards and missed to the smallest of hair’s widths. Burning rocks that glowed with jade energy flew out in all directions, but Twilight remained unscathed.

Chrysalis took aim and fired once more. This time, Twilight did a barrel roll around the blast and began returning fire.

Chrysalis took to the air as the spot she was standing on was blasted with purple energy.

“You got the touch!” Twilight cried out.

… What?

“You got the poooowaaaaaah! YEAH~!”

Twilight Sparkle is… is… SINGING?!

Twilight landed on the ground and seemingly braced herself on her hooves as she fired off not a bolt, but a solid beam of purple energy. Chrysalis quickly moved her face out of the way as she eyed the purple line of destruction worriedly. It began to carve deeply into the cave walls it touched, solid stone apparently little of a hindrance as Twilight adjusted her horn to point at Chrysalis.

“This is the end of the road, Chrysalis!” Twilight exclaimed as Chrysalis darted as fast as her wings would take her to keep her out of the path of the magic drill Twilight was trying to hit her with.

Chrysalis flew about the cavern a bit as the purple beam chased her and then banked hard, pointing herself directly at Twilight as she gave herself a telekinetic push to move with all the speed she had. As Twilight brought her magic to bear on her, Chrysalis put up a barrier while still speeding towards her target. As she barreled towards the princess, Twilight’s beam struck home. The barrier held, if just for a moment before Chrysalis could feel searing magical energy against her cheek. Just as the pain almost become intolerable, she felt her body crash into Twilight’s.

Chrysalis beat her wings against her momentum and used her magic to stop her in place, watching with a sense of satisfaction as Twilight was sent sailing and bouncing across the cave floor.

“The end of the road? Well… Perhaps for your fellow princesses,” Chrysalis said in a mocking tone, her tooth-filled smile going full demonic even as tendrils of smoke wafted up from her singed hair.

Twilight was on her hooves and shooting Chrysalis a worried expression almost immediately.

Good. Chrysalis beat swiftly at the air and flew upwards into the narrow tunnel still smiling to herself as Twilight shouted up a blood warming “NOOOOOOOOO!” Chrysalis could hear the sound of Twilight’s feathered wings paddling hard at the air and the tell-tale ‘pommf’ of her teleportation. Her expression did not change as she heard the dangerous hum of energy from Twilight’s horn reverberate off the narrow tunnel walls. Chrysalis put up another barrier around her, the jade orb keeping her safe even as a geyser of magical energy rushed at her from beneath. Amongst the heavy rumble of magic tearing against her shield and destroying rock walls, she allowed the blast to propel her up back into Celestia’s study. Out of the tunnel, Chrysalis simply flew out from the beam’s massive path and touched the ground.

Dropping her shield, Chrysalis’s already massive smile only increased as she picked out the trio of princess that were still right where she left them. Celestia standing in a catatonic state with the yellow shield bubble around her head and pouch of pollen around her neck. Cadance standing next to Celestia, apparently in a trance of her own, and Luna laying on the cold hard floor. The lunar princess moaned slightly as her legs twitched. Chrysalis’s horn began to burn with jade energy as she pointed it directly into the center mass of all three targets.

‘Pomff!’

“NO! STOP!” Twilight cried in a pleading tone.

Too late, little princess.

Chrysalis unleashed her magic from her horn, and the room filled with jade fire.

Chapter 6

For not the first time since she began galloping down the hallway, Celestia slowed to a canter to catch her breath. Had… Had it always been this far from the throne room back to her family’s quarters…? Did distance even mean anything in this faux castle that only existed in her head?

Maybe… maybe she was subconsciously extending the length of the trip… Or… No, wait… this was already her subconscious… Wasn’t it?

“They’ll DIE if you stay here…” a feminine voice called out.

Celestia felt a shiver run through her entire body. The voice wasn’t Cadance or her own, nor even Luna’s or her dark counterpart’s, but another mare’s. A voice that had burnt herself onto her mind. A voice she could never forget.

“They’ll ALL die…”

She closed her eyes and focused, mentally (sub-mentally?) mapping out the directions to her family’s and her quarters. She broke into a gallop once more. After a quick dash down a hall and a gallop up a couple flights of stairs, she was there. She stared at the bright white door with her cutie mark painted right in the center. She felt the weight of her regalia become all the heavier. Her hooves felt like lead as she stared at the door and her horn ached with fatigue as her heart sank.

Could she… could she really go through with this? Could she say goodbye to her beloved family? Could she sever the mental ties that kept her anchored to this place?

Would she…

Would she really have to kil—

“They’ll die! EVERYPONY will die!”

Celestia’s ears flopped down around her head and she magically held them hard against her head as she clenched her eyes shut. “ALRIGHT ALREADY!” she shouted up at the voice.

The clock was ticking, possibly ticking away the lives of her sister… her adopted niece…

… Twilight…

Celestia took a deep breath, buried her feelings deep inside her, and pushed open the door.

“MOMMA!”

Her feelings came crashing back in a tidal wave. A small, lavender tidal wave that dove at one of her forelegs and wrapped its own forelegs around it.

During her rather long lifetime, Celestia had collected an assortment of tragic memories. Friends she had watched grow from foal into old age before they were taken away into the realm of death gently. Friends who has also gone to the realm of death slowly, but slowly and messily. Even friends that had been ripped away from her suddenly and unexpectedly.

She had been forced to banish her sister for an entire millennium… She once had an argument with her adoptive daughter that ended when said daughter left through a magic portal… She watched her love sacrifice himself to evil forces before she was sucked out of that dimension and rendered unable to help or do anything.

She thought she knew tragedy. Had felt true sorrow… had already experienced the worst life could possibly throw at her.

“I missed you, momma!”

She was wrong. So very, very wrong.

Sunrise Shine lowered a book she was reading to shoot an unamused look at Eventide from one of the family’s comfortable-looking padded chairs. “Seriously Eventide, she was barely gone at all!”

Eventide turned towards Sunrise and gave her a sour look. “SO! I still missed her.”

“Dear...?”

Celestia looked up into the eyes of her Prince Sombra. Beautiful green eyes, like a gentle field, so full of love… so full of understanding.

“Is everything okay?” Sombra asked, concern written across his face. He squinted slightly. “What happened to your mane? Don’t tell me meeting the nobles was that bad.”

Celestia shook her head. “Worse than you’ll ever know…”

Sombra chuckled. “Oh, I doubt that…”

Celestia winced. Was… Was that comment just the innocent quip of her beloved? Or… or a projection of her thoughts regarding her husband’s counterpart’s feeling from his own sacrifice…? Or perhaps a projection of from herself now that she had accepted the falseness of this reality…

“Momma? Are you alright?”

…as undeniably heavenly it was.

Celestia looked down at Eventide, who still had her forelegs wrapped around her leg. Eventide stared up with wide, inquisitive eyes of deep amethyst.

“Yeah… you’re just standing there looking super sad…” Sunrise said. She shook her head. “It’s kinda creepy.”

“Darling?” Sombra said, his smile dropping. “What’s wrong? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this way.”

Celestia took another look at her husband, then at her daughter Sunrise, and then down at her daughter Eventide. She closed her eyes as she fought back a flood of tears.

Was this her fate? Was this really her weight to bear? To find happiness… true happiness after so long and to have to give it up?! To… to destroy it? Was her fate as ruler really so miserable that she’d had no choice but to bring to an end what had brought her the most joy in her life?

Had she not earned this?

After centuries of saving Equestria from threats, running planetary bodies across the sky, and also government both day and night, couldn’t she have this? She had even established one of the planet’s largest and most successful kingdoms. Wasn’t she allowed a reward?

Celestia felt the warmth of her husband wrapping a foreleg around her shoulders and pressing his body against hers. The feeling of comfort he gave seemed to wash over her much like she had felt when Nightmare Moon transformed back to Luna temporarily. She hoped the feeling would stay this time.

Maybe… maybe she didn’t have to leave… Cadance and Twilight had dealt with Chrysalis before. Why couldn’t they do it again? And this time Luna was there, so—

“You really think you can do it?”

Celestia bolted out of her thoughts and opened her eyes. Eventide was frozen in place, the little unicorn’s legs still wrapped around her foreleg. She turned her head to face Sombra, and he was also stationary with eyes full of concern and love directed at her as his foreleg remained wrapped around her shoulders. She looked towards Sunrise.

Sunrise stared back, her book laid on its side next to her. She was still, but her chest raised and fell slightly. She was not frozen like the others.

“… Sunrise?”

Sunrise spoke, “You really think you can stay here forever?” She nodded her head towards Eventide. “She’ll die, you know… Out there… And then Eventide will just be a sad reminder of the mare you chose not to save.”

Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise. “My… my little shimmering sunshine! What has—”

“No!” Sunrise exclaimed. “Do not call me that! I’m not her… I’m just who you hoped she would be.” Sunrise smiled knowingly and shook her head. “Your precocious, naughty little daughter who gets into trouble, but would never disappoint you. Who will always love you no matter what.”

Celestia felt warm hot tears on her face and closed her eyes tightly to clear the liquid away from her vision. When she opened them, Sunrise was no longer a little foal, but a young mare with a cutie mark of horizontally set curved red and yellow teardrops that formed a circle in the center of red and yellow shining sunrays. The mare looked at her with eyes full of anger.

“Oh, Sunrise… Sunset… I was never disappointed in you,” Celestia said as she shook her head.

“THEN WHY DID YOU SEND ME AWAY?!” Sunset screamed angrily.

Celestia flinched at the sudden outburst of anger. Not that she wasn’t somewhat used to this. She had never known a pony could get so angry… Could just be so upset at everything and anything. Could make her feel so mad in return… but even though she had felt pain and anger the likes of which she had never experienced because of the little orphan foal she made her personal student… no… that she had made her daughter… She had no regrets… No regrets, save one…

“You weren’t … You weren’t supposed to go far…” Celestia answered sadly. “You weren’t supposed to go to that other place so far out of my reach.”

“But I DID! And you did nothing!” Sunset cried accusingly. She leveled a forehoof at Celestia. “You could have gone after me! You could have tried contacting me! You knew I took the journal! You knew I took it, and yet never once did you write in it! WHY?!”

Celestia took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. She had been preparing for this moment for years… Still… it felt like all the preparation… all the time in the universe wouldn’t have been enough. “I… I had responsibilities… to Equestria… to my people…”

“OH! So those are more important than the foal you took in as your own daughter?”

Celestia answered immediately, “Yes.”

Sunset stomped her hoof down. “SO YOU LOVE EQUESTRIA AND YOUR PEOPLE MORE THAN YOU EVER LOVED ME?!”

Celestia hesitated this time. “… No,” she replied, her voice breaking.

Sunset’s turquoise eyes blazed with rage. “So why didn’t you do anything?!”

Celestia looked down at the floor, no longer able to meet the accusatory gaze of her daughter. “Because I’m… I’m a coward…” she answered simply.

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” Sunset screamed. “Now I’ll ask you again, WHY DIDN’T YOU DO ANYTHING?!”

With great effort, Celestia forced words out of her mouth. Each one trickling out only a little louder than a whisper. “Because… because…” Celestia felt something warm and wet dribble down her cheek, past her muzzle, and onto her nose. She watched as the tear dripped off her nose and hit the ground quietly. She continued to speak in a whisper quiet tone. “Because I thought if you could leave me like that, that maybe you didn’t love me… that maybe I had completely failed at the most important thing to me in my very long life… and…and if that was true… If I wrote you back and you told me that you never wanted to see me again… I knew… I knew it would break me… And that I would never be whole again.” Celestia kept her eyes fixed on the floor as she waited for a response.

“…”

Celestia looked up. “My little shimmering sunshine?”

Sunset was smiling back at her. She shook her head from side to side, causing her mane to shift back and forth with it. “I told you. I’m not her. You know that.”

Celestia clenched down on her teeth. “Fine… but… but… please… tell me you still love me… I know I sent you away, but that was a mistake! I’m… I’m so sorry I didn’t reach out to you! No! I’m sorry I didn’t run into that mirror right after you. I should have… should have…”

“No.”

“… No?”

Sunset shook her head. “I won’t tell you that I still love you.”

Celestia felt a sharp pain in her heart, a deep piercing pain that hurt her more than anything had before. “But… but…”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I am not her.”

Celestia felt the pain in her heart ease, replaced with an all too familiar sense of dread and despair that soon wrapped around her and held her tight as if it was clothing.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you the absolution that you seek. I can only give you this…” Sunset’s horn glowed brightly, and in a flash she was a foal again devoid of cutie mark.

“Sun… Sunset?”

The foal gave Celestia a quizzical look. “Ugh… What? Don’t tell me you’re giving me another nickname…” She shook her head and raised her book back in front of her face with magic, opening it. “Little shimmering sunshine’ is bad enough as it is,” she muttered.

Now unfrozen, Sombra chuckled. “Maybe she’s just lonely because you haven’t joined in the family hug.”

“Yeah, Sunrise!” Eventide with a smile. “Momma still has another leg you can hug!”

Sunrise rolled her eyes. “Pass…”

With a gentle green glow, Sunrise soon found herself airborne. “Wha— Hey! Wait!” She cried as she dropped her book onto the chair before she was floated over towards her family. She began to fail her legs uselessly as if reaching back for the chair. “Abuse! Abuse! I’ll scream for the guards!”

Sombra chuckled. “Do you really think they’ll take your side over your mother’s and mine?”

Despite the almost overwhelming feeling of sadness Celestia felt, she couldn’t help but smile even a little bit.

“See! This is why monarchies are inherently a flawed system!” Sunrise quipped as her father deposited her next to her sister. She stared up at her father with a grumpy expression. “No representation of the little people when the oligarchy are involved.”

Sombra rolled eyes. “So… you’re proposing what, exactly?”

Sunrise smiled. “A democracy where ponies are free to elect any ruler who they see fit!”

“Oh?” Sombra replied. “And who did you have in mind to run for this elective rulership?”

Sunrise’s smile widened. “Me, of course!” she said, motioning to herself with a forehoof. “How could I lose? I mean… look at me!”

Still smiling, Sombra shook his head. “I think you’ll have to work out one or two policies or something before running. Just ‘being adorable’ is probably not enough.”

“I have some pretty strong opinions on chores and sleeping in that I’m sure will go over well with my constituents.”

Eventide looked over and stuck out her tongue. “I’m not going to vote for you!”

“Of course you won’t!” Sunrise said with a wry grin. “You’re going to be under the required age for voting.”

“What?! No fair!” Eventide protested. “How old is that going to be?”

Sunrise shrugged. “Depends on how old you are when we start elections…”

“Wait… you’re setting the limit specifically based on me?!” Eventide cried indignantly. “See! This is exactly why I wouldn’t vote for you anyways!”

Sunrise nodded. “And anyone who thinks that way must be too young to understand the importance of the issues to vote properly.”

Eventide narrowed her eyes. “That’s just confirmation bias!”

Sombra chimed in. “I’m guessing I’m going to disagree on your position on ‘chores’, but what about ‘sleeping’ in?”

“Illegal, I’m going to create jobs by hiring ponies to blare trumpets and horns as loud as they can as soon as the sun rises.”

Sombra’s brow slid forward and he pursed his lips into a look of deep resentment. “Yeah, I’m never voting for you ever.”

Sunrise raised her brows. “Hey, if you wanted to sleep in, you shouldn’t have named me ‘Sunrise Shine.’”

Sombra’s eyes drifted upwards as he thought about this. “Yeah, okay… between your mother and your name, I really am the author of my own misfortune here.”

Sunrise looked up at her mother. “So how about it? Would you vote for—Wha!” Once again, Sunrise found herself unexpectedly airborne as she was raised up to Celestia’s face where a foreleg was wrapped around her, her cheek pressed against Celestia’s as the alicorn nuzzled the foal like she’d never get the chance to do it again.

“Hey! Not fair!” Eventide cried. “She’s getting super hugs!”

Sunrise spoke up. “I agree with the assessment that this is unfair!” she cried out.

Sombra chuckled. “Me too.”

“Oh, girls…” Celestia uttered sadly as she floated Sunrise back to the ground. “I wish I had been a better mother to you both.”

Every other pony in the room seemed to be taken aback slightly as they stared at Celestia.

“What are you even talking about?” Sunrise exclaimed. “You’re like… a perfect mom!”

Eventide nodded her head in agreement.

Sunrise frowned. “But you’re not allowed to tell anyone I said that or even repeat that ever again.”

Celestia shook her head. “No… I could have done better… Should have done better…”

Sunrise looked upwards as Celestia with a slightly worried expression.

Celestia looked downwards at Sunrise, leaned her head down and nuzzled the filly gently. “My little shimmering sunshine… When I first met you, you had little more than a roof over your head…” She looked deeply into the deep pools of turquoise that made up Sunrise’s eyes. Bright eyes that beamed with pride, but never quite lost the sad, lonely look of a pony afraid to disappoint and be abandoned. “You had plenty of food and were in no fear of dying… but I could see what you were missing… What you wanted most of all was love.” Celestia smiled sadly. “I tried to fill the void left by those that were never there to love you. I made sure you knew every day that you were loved and that you were somepony special, but I didn’t know when to stop. I ended up showing you so much love you thought Equestria itself owed you its adoration. As if you needn’t work for such a thing and that it should simply be handed to you like everything else since you met me.” Celestia clenched her eyes tightly and inhaled sharply. She opened her eyes and continued, “And when you were at your worst… I let my anger get the better of me and dismissed you rather than try to help you… As if the fault of what had happened was yours and yours alone. For that… I am truly and desperately sorry.”

Sunrise looked up at her mother in confusion. “Mom… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean… Is this about the time I broke that pitcher and blamed Eventide? ‘Cause this feels a bit extreme for putting me in timeout for a few minutes…”

Eventide looked visibly more shaken as she clutched Celestia’s leg tightly. “Momma… you’re scaring me…”

Celestia turned and nuzzled Eventide. “Oh my precious little sparkles… You didn’t need love from me, you already had it… and I was so afraid to make the same mistakes with you that I simple left you to your studies. Days and nights of you alone with your head in a book… No friends save your brother and foalsitter… I neglected you for too long… Perhaps not to a cruel degree, but enough that I know I could have guided you to the correct path so much sooner if I only wasn’t afraid of repeating my mistakes… For that… I am sorry.”

Celestia brought her head up and looked out a window. The sky was bright and blue and the sun shone brightly. “I need to go back… for both your sakes… You both still need me… everypony still needs me…” She looked down at her two fillies, nuzzling them both in turn. “I will never forget you two as long as I live… and I daresay that will be a long… long time…”

Eventide began to cry, softly baring her face in her mother’s alabaster coat. “Mamma…”

Sunrise’s lips drifted upwards ever so slightly and she gave a look of pride. This time not for herself, but for her mother.

Celestia quickly looked away from the fillies and at her husband. “Sombra…”

Sombra raised a forehoof to Celestia’s lips. “Shhh… You needn’t say anything.” Sombra said as a purple waft of energy began to emanate from the sides of his eyes. His gentle green irises began to turn brown, and then shifted to a blood red as the whites of his eyes began to glow with sinister jade energy.

Despite the odd change in her husband’s eyes, Celestia could still see the same warmth and love that had been present since she had met him. All those centuries ago…

“I know you’ll make the hard decision,” Sombra said. He shook his head. “Maybe it will be the right one, maybe it won’t be…” Sombra gave Celestia a forlorn smile. There was sadness in his eyes, but Celestia could see there was pride for her as well. “But you’ll get there in time… like you always do.”

“Oh my dear, sweet, loving Sombra…” Celestia said as tears streamed from her eyes. She took one of Sombra’s forehooves in her own hoof and brought it up to her face to nuzzle it lovingly. “I cannot even begin to tell you how sick and tired I am of making the hard decisions.”

Sombra nodded solemnly, then closed his eyes, and leaned forward. He placed his lips against Celestia’s.

Tears streaming down her eyes, Celestia returned the kiss. It was full of passion, understanding, and even loneliness. It was a kiss that Celestia wished she had experience more of, a kiss as good as the best he had ever given her… but she knew that here it would never get any better than this.

Celestia broke the kiss and looked down at her children once more. Eventide smiled up at her with big glassy amethyst eyes. So eager to learn, to absorb, and to prove. “I love you, mommy.”

Her features stepped in sorrow at this point, Celestia smiled back. “I love you, too… but… You know that…” She turned towards Sunrise Shine. Sunrise was smiling as well, but it was a knowing smile. Celestia closed her eyes hard. “I love you, Sunrise.”

Sunrise said nothing.

Celestia looked up, opened her eyes, and once again turned towards the window where the Sun hung brightly, sharing its warmth and love with everything it touched. Celestia horn glowed with a bright yellow as her pink mane and tail began to shimmer. The sun began to shift in the sky, at first appearing as if it was lowering, but then quickly looking more like it was growing. Slowly, Celestia’s sparkling mane began to grow a bit as it lifted into the air. The pink was quickly joined by a shimmering blue color, then a pale green, and a light shade of blue.

The sun was now closer, much closer.

Tears poured from her eyes as Celestia felt things grow warmer, then hot, uncomfortably so, and then sweltering. Soon the room around her caught fire and there was a scream. Celestia looked over her children and her husband. They had collapsed around her. They did not move nor make a sound, seemingly having passed out from the heat. They even looked peaceful as the flames licked at their bodies and danced around them, yet the screaming persisted.

Celestia’s tears evaporated into steam as she realized it was her who was screaming.

And then her world turned to ash and was no more.

“NOOOOOOO!” Twilight screamed, helpless to stop the outpouring blaze of jade magic that shot forth from Chrysalis’s horn and burned everything it touched.

Chrysalis laughed maniacally. True, this was not really what she wanted. Celestia’s love courtesy of the Heart’s Desire pollen was making her strong and losing the energy and the pollen would be such a waste. She had also made quite a few plans for the other princesses, Cadance specifically. But whatever was going on needed to stop before preverbal tables were turned. At least she could enjoy Princess Twilight’s delicious screams. Which reminded her, she’d have to move fast and purge that purple princess who spewed putrid platitudes about evil and heroics without the constant love from… from…

Chrysalis sighed as she realized she was still receiving a generous helping of love from one tall, white princess… She stopped her magic blast and was greeted by the sight of Cadance standing resolutely in front of Celestia and Luna. The lunar princess was slowly getting to her hooves as Princess Cadance’s horn glowed with a bright light blue aura that matched the color of a bubble of magical energy which surrounded all three princesses.

Oh well… Guess Plan ‘A’ was still a go.

Twilight’s face lit up. “Oh, yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes! Now your reign of terror comes to an end, evil vill—”

Twilight was cut off by a jade glow that pressed down on her neck and windpipe before said magic aura lifted her off the ground, slammed her entire body the nearest wall three times and flung her towards the hole in the middle of the floor were here limp body silently fell. It made such satisfying sounds as it bounced off one carved wall then the next.

Cadance’s eyes flew open wide and she gasped.

“You… monster!” Luna exclaimed with an equally shocked expression.

Okay, opportunity to slowly drain Twilight of love possibly lost or not, worth it!

Chrysalis’s vexed expression suddenly exploded into a devilish smile. “I’m sorry… Were you under the impression that my plan was anything besides capturing you all, feeding on your love until you’re nothing but withered husks, or failing that, killing you? I mean… I thought that would have been clear by now.” She shook her head. “Still, I must applaud your resilience Princess Luna. When I fought your sister, she went down with a single blow. You’ve taken quite the beating and are back on your hooves.”

Luna shot Chrysalis a determined look. “As long as there is still air in my lungs, I will fight you with every fiber of my—”

Beating her wings hard, Chrysalis shot forward. She lowered her horn, blazing with jade energy, and thrust it through the shield, which began to burn away as the green flames consumed it. “Wanna bet?”

Luna’s horn began to glow with brilliant midnight blue energy, but Chrysalis simply swatted at the princess, knocking her barely standing body into the burning shield. Luna shrieked with pain as she rebounded, her coat smoldering as Chrysalis struck again. This time Luna sailed across the room and hit the wall with a ‘Thud!’ Her body slumped to the ground and did not stir.

Chrysalis smiled. “Good, so that just leaves…”

Chrysalis’s vision was suddenly filled with bright blue energy.

‘Ptchoooo!’

Cadance swallowed, huffing and puffing as she tried to grab the reins on her ragged breathing.

Meanwhile, Chrysalis, who was still standing in front of her despite the small wafts of smoke coming off her face blinked her eyes as if they were adjusted to the light and turned to face Cadance. “Wow… Dealing with you is going to be even easier than I thought.”

Cadance took a few more shallow breaths followed by a deep on. “Oh, I think-huff- you’ll find me much more capable-puff- then you give me credit for.”

Chrysalis let out a dark chuckle and shook her head. “I doubt that. You’re no seasoned warrior unlike the princesses still here and at least Twilight had an absurd amount of magical energy and cleverness going for her.” Chrysalis puffed out her lower lip into a mocking pout. She began to trot in a circle around Cadance and the comatose Celestia. “Poor Princess Mi Amore Cadenza… Princess of Love, but almost useless in a fight without her husband around to protect her like a knight in… Well, you get the point.”

Cadance craned her head, keeping her eyes focused on Chrysalis. She took another deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “You’re… you’re right… Fine… cocoon me or whatever you planned to do… You win… there’s no point in fighting anymore.”

Chrysalis stopped her circling, stopping just a bit to Celestia’s side. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, then glanced at Celestia before glancing back at Cadance. “Oh… So that’s your game! Distract me so… so…” Chrysalis turned and eyed Celestia warily.

Cadance quickly lowered her horn as it began glowing immediately. A black leg was brought across her face with a ‘SWAT!’ that sent her reeling towards the ground.

“Nice try,” Chrysalis said. “But don’t take me for a fool. I know your weaknesses but cowardice is not one of them.” Chrysalis lowered her head as she looked down accusingly at Cadance.

Cadance grit her teeth and fired back an expression determination.

“You’re stalling…” Chrysalis’s horn glowed jade once more as an aura pushed Cadance onto her side. The princess uttered a choking gasp as Chrysalis placed a forehoof on her neck and turned back to Celestia.

“But why…?” Chrysalis said as she once again cast an expectant gaze at Celestia. “What were you…” Chrysalis’s lips twisted upward like thorny vines forming a smile as realization sunk in. “Oh! OH! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!” She shook her head.

Cadance swatted at Chrysalis’s leg ineffectively as she tried to gasp for air.

“You tried to reach in and pull Celestia out from her trance! I suppose I owe you an apology of sorts.” Chrysalis leaned down to smile at Cadance. “You’re not completely useless it would seem,” she purred out. She looked up and turned to stare at Celestia once more. “Still, seems it was a futile effort.” She shook her head. “Such heroic nonsense to think you could get Celestia out of what she longs for deep in her heart. Also, I daresay given your current state you used up quite a lot of energy in the attempt.” Chrysalis’s malevolent smile grew. “Such a futile waste that makes my victory all the sweeter!”

Cadance horn glowed a bright blue that surrounded the leg on her neck, the leg drifted upwards long enough for Cadance to gulp down some air before Chrysalis pressed it back down.

“Goodness… You would not believe how hard it is at the moment not to just press down and end your life right here…”

Cadance desperately gasped for air and began frantically swatting at the hole-filled pitch black leg as it began to glow with green power.

Chrysalis tut-tutted and shook her head. “Just a little more pressure—”

Cadance gaged as Chrysalis pressed down ever so slightly.

“—and I dare say I could pop your head clear off your body.” She shook her head slightly. “But what a waste of love that would be… No, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza… You shall live…” Chrysalis’s smile grew wider. “Live to see me collect your husband once more…” She looked up with a wistful expression. “Perhaps I’ll be so merciful as to cocoon you next to each other… Years and years of both your overflowing love feeding my people as you two helplessly watch the other waste away.” Chrysalis threw back her head and laughed. “Oh… perfect… I think I’ll arrange your cocoons into a heart above my throne… a twisted black and green monument to-HAAACHK!”

Chrysalis’s eyes fired open wide at the choking cough she had just uttered. Her vision began to blur as she felt more coughs well up inside her very core and rise up through her neck and out her mouth. “HACHK-COUGH-COUGH-HACHKKK… What… what is this?!”

With a wide swing of her foreleg, Cadance batted Chrysalis’s leg off her neck and took a deep breath.

‘Pomff!’

Oh, and Twilight is apparently still alive. Lovely… Chrysalis attempted to focus her eyes on the pink blur directly below her and fired a quick blast into it. Cadance made a satisfying shriek of pain before her body flew away and hit a wall or a burnt piece of furniture with an even more satisfying ‘thump!’

“Cadance!” Twilight called out. “Oh, you’ll pay for that Chrysalis!”

Great… That obnoxious and overconfident whelp Twilight is STILL well enough to spout heroics… Ugh… Maybe I should have saved my energy… I don’t see what could have—

A yellow glow caught Chrysalis’s attention. She looked up just in time to see the glow turn into a fiery orange sunstone color before a blast was fired off directly at her.

Oh… Chrysalis thought. On impulse she attempted to put up a shield but simply felt a wave of nausea run through her body as she tried before the burning energy slammed into her, sending her skidding across the cold stone floor.

Ho… HOW?! HOW COULD THIS BE HAPPENING!? EVEN IF CELESTIA AWOKE HER LOVE SHOULD STILL BE— As Chrysalis’s thoughts turned towards Celestia’s love she felt the noxious feeling crash into her… Chrysalis gritted her teeth as realization set in. Celestia was no longer overflowing with love. She was now a fountain of pure hate and Chrysalis had been sucking down the poison without noticing for the last several seconds.

Chrysalis closed her eyes and with a dull green glow of her horn that that suddenly seemed to burn ember, Chrysalis winced painfully as she severed the connection between her and Celestia.

The sickly feeling of her body weakening ceased, but she no longer felt strong… in fact, she felt quite the opposite.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried excitedly. “You’re back!”

Chrysalis felt the heavy vibrations of approaching hooves. Celestia who normally walked around with such poise and grace was practically smashing her hooves into the floor as she approached, and with Chrysalis’s head on the ground, each step sounded and felt like the mighty boom of a thunderclap from an approaching storm.

‘BOOM!’

Chrysalis attempted to force her eyes back open but her lids now weighed heavily on her face.

‘BOOM!’

“Uh, Celestia?” Twilight called out. “Could you help me with Cadance and Luna? They’re both still breathing but…”

‘BOOM!’

Open… Damnit, OPEN! Chrysalis breathed deeply and focused. Little by little, she could start to see cracks of light as her eyelids finally cooperated…

‘BOOM!’

…too late, as the storm was already there.

Chrysalis managed to get one lid open, if only just a crack. Something towering and white…Celestia no doubt… stood above her. Something round and yellow… likely the pouch of Heart’s Desire pollen still contained in small orb-like barrier, was floating alongside that towering white thing… Chrysalis forced open her other eye. Yes… it was Celestia and that was the pouch in its barrier, but neither the barrier or nor pouch were around Celestia.

Which was a shame, really. Judging by the angry look on Celestia’s face, she could use a little joy at the moment.

Chrysalis tried to raise her lips at that last thought, but her mouth muscles failed to cooperate.

And then she felt a sharp blow to her abdomen as Celestia kicked into her with her full force.

‘THWACK!’

Chrysalis eyes shut again as she felt fluids involuntarily eject themselves from her mouth as everything in her midsection shifted away from the heavy blow, and before she even realized she was airborne she felt herself crash into something solid with a resounding ‘THUMP!’ Her body slid to the ground with yet another painful blow.

Twilight, of course, spoke up. “Take that, evildoer!”

If she ever heard Twilight Sparkle speak like that again, it would be too soon.

‘BOOM!’

A cold feeling of dread washed over her as Chrysalis realized she might very well get her wish.

‘BOOM!’

The storm was coming again.

‘BOOM!’

And Chrysalis doubted it was done with her.

‘BOOM!’

With what seemed like monumental effort, Chrysalis opened her eyes once more and stared what could very well be her death in the face. Celestia was staring back down at her. If Chrysalis hoped to catch a glimmer of mercy somewhere in Celestia’s eyes, that hope quickly died when she searched them and found nothing but contempt for the reflection she caught in the lavender prisms staring down at her.

The reflection being herself.

“Do you know what I’ve lost?!” Celestia yelled out. “Do you have any idea what it’s LIKE?! No… How could you?! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, YOU UNLOVING WRETCHED CREATURE?! How dare you?! HOW DARE YOU?! Over a thousand years… OVER A MILLENNIUM SPENT CLAWING FOR TINY BITS OF HAPPINESS THAT COMES SO EASILY TO MY SUBJECTS! CENTURIES LETTING IT ALL GO BECAUSE I HAD RESPONSIBILITIES!”

“Celestia?!” Twilight called out in concern. “It’s alright now… You’re free… I’m sure we can talk about—”

With yet another heavy ‘THWACK’, Chrysalis was kicked across the room.

Once again hitting a wall and falling to the floor, Chrysalis tried working her muscles, her magic, anything that could help her here. All she managed was a pained expression which she directed at the alicorn that had been her meal ticket mere minutes prior. Chrysalis had considered the possibility that Celestia might break free of her paradise-like mental prison, but she didn’t anticipate her love turning into hate and poisoning her.

‘BOOM!’

Celestia continued to approach the changeling queen with a murderous glint in her eye.

Chrysalis thought she’d be stronger if this happened…

‘BOOM!’

“Celestia!” Twilight said, practically pleading this time. “Stop! You beat her! We won!”

… She thought she’d at least be in a position to mock Celestia for her loss…

‘BOOM!’

Celestia continued onward, either ignoring or deaf to the pleas of her fellow princess. Her horn began to glow brighter and brighter, changing from yellow to sunstone orange. Heat began to pour from the alicorn in great, big stifling waves.

…Chrysalis thought this moment would at least be amusing, if anything…

“CELESTIA!” Twilight screamed.

Celestia’s horn grew in brightness until it was blinding. Twilight and Chrysalis closed and shielded their eyes with their forelegs. Almost as soon as the overwhelming brightness had come, it passed, but the heat remained and light still imitated from Celestia’s direction.

‘BOOM!’

Chrysalis slowly lowered her forearm and opened her eyes, but immediately wished she hadn’t. Who or what stood in front of her resembled Celestia in shape only. Her wings where ebony black with what looked to be cracks of pitch black darkness in them. Her skin was similarly ebony save for cracks of bright orange and red, like lava peaking up around pure obsidian. Her hair that usually looked like a shimmering sunrise borealis was just flames billowing out around her, looking much like the sky itself had caught fire. Celestia’s lower legs and hooves now appeared to be made of semi-solid molten rock as flames fired out from them which licked at the ground and turned the stone floor around them red.

Celestia, or what had become of her, stared down at Chrysalis with slit-like black pupils surrounded by fiery yellow irises sitting atop a lava flow of red.

Chrysalis didn’t find any of this amusing. She didn’t find it amusing at all.

Author's Notes:

[source]

I fashioned a prison that you couldn't leave without sacrificing your heart's desire. It must have been like tearing off your own arm.

--Mongul, For the Man Who Has Everything

Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Hey its alright my life has never been a bed of roses
This way's better for me I don't care to live the life I've chosen
--Bed of Roses, Mindless Self Indulgence

(Yes, this was originally on the bottom of last chapter. I decided to swap this out with a quote from the Justice League ep that inspired this).

Her thoughts and senses coming back to her like a fiery eruption, Celestia found herself back in the real world. Furthermore, as if she had traveled via a method of fire and explosion, she felt disoriented, hurt, and perhaps even incomplete as if something had been burned away on her trip back… the trouble was Celestia couldn’t exactly identify what had been damaged on her trip back.

Still, some things had clearly survived the trip; the dull, familiar ache that had been fleetingly replaced, or perhaps masked, by joy and contentment was with her. Despite its familiarity, the ache seemed all the stronger now that Celestia had briefly been spared this burden. Additionally a fresh feeling of loss quickly intermingled with the existing pain, like a torch being thrown onto a fuel-soaked pile of straw. The duel feelings burned inside Celestia, threatening to consume her whole and leave her a burnt husk of the mare she was.

As dire as this situation felt inside her… Celestia knew other things needed her attention right now… if only she could straighten her head long enough to remember what exactly… She pushed past the burning pain to get her bearings. She was standing, her eyes were closed, and she had begun subconsciously using her magic some time ago…

Celestia opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred by small particles of yellow pollen and beyond that, a barrier of her own design. A barrier built to keep the pollen away from other ponies or perhaps in to keep the pollen in and her false reward intact for as long as possible… She neither could remember nor did she practically care which one was the truth.

Still, the pollen lingered in the air, taunting Celestia with treasures and a happiness that she wasn’t allowed. Her horn glowed yellow and she moved the barrier with the pouch away from her head. The strings of the pouch wrapped around her neck tighter, briefly cutting off airflow to her body before she applied a little more magical strength and removed the offending item for her personage.

The feeling was uncomfortable to say the least, but it hardly compared to the near-unbearable pain loss was currently inflicting on her, still raging uncontrolled in her mind and even throughout her body. She decided to hold the pouch, still encased in her floating barrier, next to her.

While the pollen and the barrier removed, her vision had not yet cleared…. It was blurry and unfocused as if her head was still lost in a haze, she caught something of roughly pony shape, if closer to her size and… black.

Celestia narrowed her eyes, her vision focusing in an instant onto Queen Chrysalis. The fresh pain inside her she felt seemed to only increase in burning intensity. An intensity she focused into her horn, her magic glowing yellow briefly before turning a fiery orange that she let fly.

The brilliant beam of energy blazed through the air before hitting its mark. Celestia noted the pain ebbed ever so slightly as she watched Chrysalis skid across the floor.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried excitedly. “You’re back!”

Celetia trudged forward, letting each step fall heavily onto the stone floor as she approached Chrysalis.

Twilight… Twilight is alive… Through the pain Celestia could somehow feel a sense of relief about this new piece of information. However this came as only a momentary distraction from the task at hoof. She looked down at Chrysalis.

The Queen of the Changelings had opened her eyes and was seemingly looking up as best she could at Celestia. As she caught Chrysalis’s gaze, she felt the pain flare up into a towering inferno that felt as if it would burn her from the inside out.

Twilight being alive was certainly good, but that fact alone was hardly enough to spare the Changeling Queen her retribution.

Celestia pulled back one of her forelegs and let it fly, and fly it did.

‘THWACK!’

Celestia’s forehoof connected solidly into Chrysalis’s center mass and sent her sailing into a wall with a ‘THUMP!’

The flames of pain died down momentarily before flaring back in excruciating intensity.

“Take that evildoer!” Twilight exclaimed.

‘Evildoer?’ Celestia again walked towards Chrysalis at a slow deliberate pace. Twilight’s phrase was a bit odd for her to say the least… Still, it was far from the most important matter at the moment.

The pain… the pain felt like it was still burning, but also choking her… almost as if it was consuming all the breathable air inside Celestia and filling her with toxic pitch-black smoke.… Celestia wanted it out of her… Needed it out!

With another heavy step of her hoof, Celestia reached her foe. The one who had given her that word forged of happiness and lies. Of things she longed for… Of things she could never have. Celestia felt the roiling pressure build up in her to such a degree she thought she might explode. Perhaps… perhaps if she expressed herself in a method outside of violence, she’d finally start to feel better.

“Do you know what I’ve lost?!” Celestia yelled out. “Do you have any idea what it’s LIKE?! No… How could you?! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, YOU UNLOVING WRETCHED CREATURE?! How dare you?! HOW DARE YOU?! Over a thousand years… OVER A MILLENNIUM SPENT CLAWING FOR TINY BITS OF HAPPINESS THAT COMES SO EASILY TO MY SUBJECTS! CENTURIES LETTING IT ALL GO BECAUSE I HAD RESPONSIBILITIES!”

Again, the pain seemed to fade ever so slightly and ever so temporarily before it again besieged Celesta like a wildfire that continued to burn out of control.

“Celestia?!” Twilight called out in concern. “It’s alright now… You’re free…”

‘Free’? Celestia somehow felt even angrier than she already did at the mere suggestion. Her ‘freedom’ was practically insufferable to the prison she had been in. Oh, my dear Twilight Sparkle… if there weren’t someTHING else here more deserving of my ire…

“I’m sure we can talk about—”

‘THWACK!’

Twilight was cut off by Celestia kicking Chrysalis across the room again. The pain again receded for a short time, but it wasn’t enough. Celestia turned again, her eyes homing in on Chrysalis. Blasting her had only worked so well and kicking her was likewise insufficient. Expressing herself certainly wasn’t the cure to what ailed Celestia. Would simply terminating Chrysalis make the pain go away…?

… Unlikely. As fresh as this burning pain was, it was feeding off of something familiar, a dull ache Celestia had been carrying with her for ever so long. A burden she had shouldered and slowly allowed to increase over her long lifespan…

The fire insider her raged, and despite the fact that she’d have expected it to burn away at her ache, somehow that only seemed to increase as if the fire only created a thick, smoldering tar on top of the weight already up on her back and shoulders… Perhaps it was time to simply release her burden. To finally let go of whatever this encumbrance was that she had fooled herself into thinking was worth the effort to carry around with her for so much of her life.

Maybe… maybe if she couldn’t be free in that other world… she could at least be somewhat free here…

At once Celestia felt the pain subside, replaced instead with a warmth that wrapped around her, comforted her even. It began to feel as if she herself was the sun, emanating a warmth and light from her very core. But unlike the sun who shared this love with all regardless of their behavior or if they had earned the right to bask in the light, Celestia had control. She could decide who was worthy and who deserved to be banished from the light. She could pick out those who had earned the right to enjoy her love, and banish or destroy all those who were not.

Celestia looked down at Chrysalis in contempt. The shapeshifting queen did not deserve to feel this warmth.

With a color like burning embers, Celestia’s horn glowed. Chrysalis winced as the same glow constricted around her abdomen, lifting her off the ground.

“Celestia! What…?” Twilight said in a perplexed tone.

“No…” a female voice uttered quietly.

“Sister!” another female voice called out.

Cadance and Luna’s voices had joined Twilight. They were both alive and… awestruck? Had Celestia identified their tone correctly? No matter. Alive or not, Chrysalis still needed to pay for her crimes.

With another ember glow of Celestia’s horn, she grabbed hold of Chrysalis’s left foreleg and held it out. With a simple thought, she adjusted the grip of her magic 90 degrees.

‘SNAP!’

Chrysalis let out a howl of pain as Celestia released the now broken leg, letting it dangle limply as a green ichor seeped through the cracks in Chrysalis’s exoskeleton.

Celestia heard a collection of gasps from the other three mares in the room. Odd… she was expecting cheers if anything… Again, no matter. Chrysalis’s presence and the fact that she was still conscious, let alone breathing, still warranted her full attention.

With another ember glow, an aura surrounded Chrysalis’s right back leg.

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open wide as the burning pressure was applied elsewhere on her body. “No more, Princess Celestia! Grant me mercy, I beg of you!”

Celestia felt her eyelids tighten. “You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?” Celestia’s voice sounded strange even to her. It sounded deeper, but with an extra, whisper-quiet tone that seemed like it could quickly change to a scream… Like a smoldering fire contained in a closed room, just waiting for a fresh breath of air so it could flare up once more.

Again, not really something worth her concern given the present situation.

Celestia gave the magic on Chrysalis’s leg a quick twist, and with another ‘SNAP!’ and scream of agony, the amount of working legs Chrysalis possessed dropped to two.

Celestia shook her head. “I thought you were made of sterner stuff.”

“Sister, no!” Luna cried.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. Now that was a response she certainly wasn’t expecting. She looked Chrysalis up and down as she momentarily considered breaking her other legs. Though, given the Changeling Queen’s current state, it was unlikely she would be going to be able to do much in the way of moving. She unceremoniously dropped her to the hard stone floor which elected a squelch of pain from Chrysalis.

Celestia turned to shoot a glare at her sister. Luna, Cadance, and Twilight had gathered round one another and stared at Celestia with awestruck expressions… Or perhaps it was terror, or both. Well… one or the other or any combination would do.

Celestia took in a deep breath from her nose and let it out, her exhale leaving her nostrils in the form of black wafts of smoke. “Yes, dear sister?” she said in an irritated tone. “Is something the matter?”

“Sister… Celestia!” Luna called out in a panicked, pleading tone. “What… What’s happened to you?!”

Celestia felt her face tick in irritation. This was hardly the time for a heart-to-heart, but perhaps she could spare some time to put things into perspective for Luna. “I was shown true happiness only to have to burn it away so that I could save you, Twilight, and Cadance, and my—” Celestia gritted her teeth and closed her eyes “—‘subjects’,” she said, practically spitting out the final word like one might spit out a bit of food they discovered was rotten. “THAT is what happened to me.” She turned back towards Chrysalis, a fiery glow, appearing on the fallen changeling’s unbroken back leg as she did. “Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…”

Chrysalis looked down at her leg in despair and closed her eyes hard in anticipation of what was likely to come next.

“Princess Celestia, please stop!” Twilight cried. “I understand you’re angry but you can’t just torture Chrysalis!”

Celestia paused and turned as the glow around Chrysalis’s leg abated, electing a relieved sigh from Chrysalis.

“I’m sorry,” Celestia said without turning, “but what gave you the impression I was just going to torture Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis grimaced hard.

“Auntie, please!” Cadance said as she took a step forward. “Let us help you.”

Celestia turned and narrowed her eyes at Cadance. “I don’t need any help.” She pursed her lips slightly. “However, if you all want a turn with Chrysalis, I suppose I could leave her intact enough for that,” she said as her slit like eyes made a rotation around the edges of her ocular cavities.

The other three mares all exchanged worried, panic-sewn glances. Chrysalis shuddered as she did her best to pull herself into a ball.

“Celestia, I’m begging you. Listen to reason!” Luna cried. “I know right now it feels as if you can have anything you want… that you can do anything you want, but you have to stop now before it’s too late!”

Celestia’s face tighten into a vexed scowl as she turned to face Luna fully. “Luna, I’ve created the world’s largest and most powerful empire.” She narrowed her eyes. “For the most part, by myself.”

Luna lowered her head as her expression turned sheepish if ever so slightly.

“I can do whatever I want!” Celestia said. Her voice began to shift in both volume and an odd sort of intensity, as if changing from something akin to a large brushfire to a full-blown wildfire in the course of a sentence. “Now would you kindly stop distracting me with this insipidity so I can get on doling out PUNISHMENT to this CRIMINAL OF EQUESTRIA?!”

Twilight looked at Celestia in astonishment. “Celestia… Do you… Do you even realize that you’ve changed?!”

Luna winced. “I’m afraid she likely has, Twilight.”

Celestia turned and tilted her head slightly as if she was suddenly scrutinizing her former student. “Yes Twilight, I did feel the difference. I did feel my transformation as I shed that burden that has been weighing me down for centuries. I feel…” Celestia paused as her fiery hair and tail continued to lick at the air around her and her body filled the room with a stifling heat. “…at peace. Free, even almost as free as I did…” Celestia trailed off, pausing long enough to lift a back leg, extend it, and let it fall onto Chrysalis. Chrysalis let out a soft moan of pain as Celestia pressed her hoof against Chrysalis’s midsection. She continued, “Almost as free as I did in that world of my desires. It’s as if this was who I was meant to be all along.”

Twilight and Cadance cringed.

Cadance began to speak, leaning towards Luna, “Is that what—”

“Yes,” Luna answered.

Twilight craned her neck past Cadance. “So right now she thinks—”

“Yes,” Luna answered once more.

Twilight and Cadance exchanged panicky glances.

Cadance leaned towards Luna once more, “Well, can she be—”

“Reasoned with?” Luna suggested. “I do not know,” she answered. “She wasn’t able to reason with me over a millennium ago, but perhaps there was some purpose beyond what I had up until now thought was a foolhardy and tragic transformation all those years ago.”

Cadance and Twilight exchanged glances once more before looking towards Luna. “What’s that?” they asked in unison.

“I at least know quite well what has happened to my sister… maybe… just maybe I can use that experience to get through to her.” She shook her head. “I’m certainly in no condition to combat her at the moment.”

Celestia parted her lips, revealing stone gray teeth that she pressed hard against each other. Red hot cracks, like molten lava poking out from the ground, formed inside her mouth before she closed it with a sizzling hiss. “Are we finally done with this vexing conversation?” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re testing my patience to the limit, though I would still find it displeasurable to punish you for such transgressions. I highly suggest you do not push me further.”

Luna stepped forward and shook her head. “Nay, sister. I’m afraid I must parlay with you.”

Celestia dropped her eyelids lower. “Another time,” she growled out.

“No, Celestia!” Luna said raising her voice. “NOW!”

“ANOTHER TIME!” Celestia shouted, the flames from her mane and tale firing out around her. Chrysalis let out a distressed shriek and curled up tighter as the fire momentarily washed over her.

Luna took a few more steps forward and continued unflinchingly. “I wish to discuss that fateful day where you were forced to banish me.”

Celestia’s ears perked up and her eyes widened. She trotted forward a few steps and allowed her flamethrower like tail to whip over Chrysalis briefly electing a muffled cry of pain from the Changeling Queen.

“Your timing is appalling, Sister,” Celestia said, the blazing flames in her voice receding somewhat. “But this is a topic I feel we still have much to talk about. Very well… we shall talk.”

Twilight and Cadance let out the breaths neither realized they held.

Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She slowly opened her eyes to stare directly into the black slits amidst the red pits that were currently her sister’s eyes. “Yes… let us begin…”

Chapter 8

Cadance frowned heavily as she watched Luna take a few more steps closer to Celestia, or more specifically, the pony that seemed to be composed of molten rock behind barely cooled stone which was a geyser of flames. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked Luna in a hushed tone.

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “I mean… I’m still pretty sure I’m under the effects of Heart’s Desire pollen because I keep thinking about how great it’s going to be when this is all over and we can finally celebrate Celestia’s birthday! But then I keep actually looking at Celestia and remembering that she seems to be on fire all the time and is maybe going to kill Chrysalis and then do who knows what!”

Luna sighed heavily and turned. “If I’ve gotten this far, that means Celestia is at least willing to talk. That’s certainly more than what could have been said about me when I transformed.”

Celestia let out an impatient sigh, a large plume of smoke exiting her mouth on the exhale. “Are you three done? I was under the impression Luna and I would be having a discussion, not that you’d all waste my time while this villain thinks of what she can use to escape that I haven’t broken yet.” Celestia turned and gave Chrysalis a scrutinizing look. “Perhaps I should inflict a few more injuries just to be certain she stays in place.”

Chrysalis said nothing, instead opting to remain curled up into the slightly smoldering black ball of sickness and pain she already found herself in.

“Cadance and Twilight can watch the prisoner, sister,” Luna said. “There is no need to harm Chrysalis any further at the moment.”

Celestia tilted her head slightly as she looked over Chrysalis. “While it is perhaps true I do not need to harm Chrysalis further, I can give a few compelling reasons as to why I should at least singe her fur—

“Sister!” Luna again said with some force. “I insist that you leave the prisoner be for now so that we may have a frank discussion.”

Celestia looked up and turned to Luna, apparently making it a point to show she was rolling her eyes before trotting towards the lunar princess. “Very well,” Celestia said in a slightly bored tone as she walked towards Luna.

Luna turned and nodded towards Twilight and Cadance. The two mares trotted carefully over to Chrysalis while wearily eyeing Celestia, almost as if they were now involved in some sort of ransom exchange and Celestia might change her mind or spring a trap at any moment.

Celestia’s eyes burned with a quite literal intensity as she focused her vision on her sister. “We are quite overdue for this talk, wouldn’t you agree?”

Luna met Celestia’s gaze and nodded. “Yes, and I am sorry for that. As you can imagine this is… difficult for me to talk about. I regret everything that happened the day I transformed.”

Celestia nodded. “You have expressed this and I have forgiven you. Please tell me you’ve interrupted my important work for more than a pointless rehash of an existing conversation.”

Luna paused for a moment. “I… I wonder…”

Celestia let out another smoke filled sigh as if she was already losing patience with the dialogue. “Wonder what?” she asked in an irritable tone.

Luna gave Celestia an almost wistful look. “I wonder… over a thousand years ago… Was my transformation to serve a greater purpose? Could it be that I was meant to have that experience so that I could now help you?”

Celestia’s mane briefly exploded in intensity as she smashed a hoof against the ground hard enough to put cracks into the stone floor before the floor itself began to warp from the heat she was emanating. She began to speak in a tone like steam hissing from a pipe that’s built up too much pressure, “If you believe what happened was helpful to me, then you and I have more to talk about than I imagined!”

Luna shook her head. “Nay sister. What happened that day was a tragedy. What I did was inexcusable and what I forced you to do was every bit as tragic for me as I am certain it was for you, if not moreso.”

Celestia paused. The flames about her seemed to die down slightly into something of a controlled blaze.

Luna continued, “I do not know what it was like to have to use the Elements of Harmony on me, but I harbor no illusions that it was an enjoyable experience for you in any shape or form.” Luna forehead tightened. “In fact, I am certain it broke your heart and still does to this day.” Luna expression turned sorrowful. “Because my heart breaks every time I think about it… and I dare say I think about it quite often.”

Silence.

For a moment the two mares said nothing. Only staring at each other. Luna at Celestia with an apologetic, even repentant look on her face as Celestia continued to gaze back with a fiery intensity.

Finally, Celestia spoke. “You were not completely to blame in the events that unfolded… I too, have regrets regarding my actions, or rather inactions that undoubtedly allowed what happened to transpire.”

Luna’s expression seemed to lift, if slightly. “Oh Celestia, you could not have stopped what happened that day.”

Celestia shook her head. “On the contrary. I’m quite certain I could have if I were more resolute… bolder…” Celestia let out a sad sigh. “Less cowardly…”

Cadance’s eyes opened wide. “I think… I think Luna is actually getting through to her!”

“That’s awesome!” Twilight said cheerfully as she looked over Chrysalis. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have like… an entire book on changeling anatomy would you? I’m not certain, but Chrysalis might be oozing to death.”

Chrysalis let out a hacking cough as she laid a small pool of her own thick dark green ‘blood’. “Your concern is heart-melting in the worst possible way.”

Cadance looked up towards Celestia. “Oh, I doubt that.”

Chrysalis’s lips pulled back into a heavy frown. “Point taken… What I was getting at is that you two should focus a bit more on your dear sun princess.”

Twilight looked at Celestia. “Well, that does seem to be the biggest problem on hoof at the moment.”

Cadance leaned down closer to Chrysalis and gave the Changeling queen a smile devoid of amusement. “True, but it also sounds like a way to get our attention away from someone who just tried to take over all of Equestria and is probably thinking of how she can escape.”

“Hey, yeah!” Twilight cried indignantly as she turned to glare at Chrysalis.

Still frowning, Chrysalis broke eye contact with Twilight and Cadance and looked down at the floor. “Perhaps… but attempting to escape does not seem like a great solution at the moment.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What makes you say that?”

Chrysalis sighed. “Because even if I was able to get out of Celestia’s field of vision before she reduced me to ashes, there’s a fair chance she’s currently willing to immolate the entire castle if she thought I’d die in the ensuing fire.”

Cadance and Twilight’s eyes widened as they turned to stare at each other in concern.

“Celestia wouldn’t do that!” Twilight insisted. She slowly turned her head to gaze upon the creature of burning fire that stood in the middle of the room. “Would she?”

Cadance shook her head. “I really don’t know what she’s capable of at the moment…”

Chrysalis sighed. “Princess Luna probably wouldn’t be capable of deciding Equestria should be shrowded in eternal night or attempting to kill her sister, but well… We all know how that went.”

Twilight grimaced.

Cadance gave Chrysalis a scrutinizing look. “How exactly do you know that?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Please, my race and I have been trying to feed off you ponies for over a millennia. I know things that would make most ponies disgustingly bright hair stand straight on end.” She continued, “I do not know how much of Princess Celestia is in that fiery manifestation.” Chrysalis looked down at her broken limbs. “But I daresay she’s currently lacking in ‘mercy’ and ‘compassion’ at the moment.”

“Maybe we can change her back!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly. “I mean… the elements are gone, but there’s always rainbow power!”

Cadance tilted her head and her lips pulled upwards ever so slightly. “Do you think that’ll work?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes! I mean… We’ve only used it once against Tirek and I’m not entirely sure how to call upon the power when needed, but I’m sure my friends and I will work it out!”

The left side of Cadance’s lips pulled up into an unsure, sideways grin. “I take it you’re still feeling pretty good right now, Twilight?”

“Of course!” Twilight replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Chrysalis shook her head. “We’re all going to die here.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and stared at Chrysalis. “Well that’s not thinking very positive!”

Chrysalis pursed her mouth for a second. “I’m positive we’re all going to die here.”

In the middle of the magic and fire-blasted room, Luna and Celestia continued their strangely civil and rather unheated conversation.

“Celestia,” Luna said, “My transformation was more than physical. I felt… powerful... boundlessly so… Almost as if limitations of strength and even behavior didn’t exist anymore. I felt I could have everything I ever wanted. What is more, I felt this change was for the better. That my change simply reflected my new strength and freedom… As if I had become something… more.”

“You were mistaken,” Celestia said bluntly. She shook her head. “All you became was a mad tyrant who selfishly and openly coveted the throne.”

Luna nodded. “Yes, that is true. What I felt at the time was just a lie… But I could not see that… Could not even consider the idea that anything was so wrong… You see… At the time it all just felt so… so right.” Luna hung her head. “That is why I was beyond your reason… beyond your pleas for me to stop...” Luna’s eyes became slightly glassy. “In my mind, my body… almost in my very soul… What I was doing… Simply taking what I wanted even if it meant inflicting violence or death. It never occurred to me anything I was doing was immoral or wrong in any sense.” Luna blinked her eyes as moisture built up at the bottom of them and she sniffed heavily. “I was willing to do anything to achieve my desires. Even if that meant killing the mare I cared most about… still care about more than myself…” Luna looked up with a pleading look this time. “Celestia, I was blinded by my envy to the point where I had forgotten just how much your love means to me… I was blinded so much I forgot my own love.”

Celestia stood silently for a moment, a contemplative look on her face. It was as if she was considering Luna’s words, or rather what the appropriate response would be in this situation. Finally, she once again looked up at Luna and spoke, “Thank you, Luna. I am glad we had this talk.”

The other mares held their breaths once again. All eyes locked on Celestia as everyone else wondered what came next.

They didn’t have to wait long.

Celestia turned towards Chrysalis, her anger and glare returning in an instant. “Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s an enemy of Equestria that’s been given all too long a reprieve.”

Fear gripped Chrysalis’s features once more as Twilight and Cadance swallowed and looked at each other, both their expressions practically screaming ‘What do we do?!’

“Sister, wait!” Luna called out.

Celestia stopped and looked over her shoulder to shoot Luna another impatient look.

“I did not simply tell you all that to clear the air between us…”

“Oh? Then what were you hoping for?” Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly. “If it’s an outpouring of feelings from me, I’m afraid I’ve rather hit my limit on that for a while.”

Luna shook her head. “That was not my intention. I rather hope you would think about what I said and then consider your recent transformation.”

Celestia paused momentarily and put on a thoughtful expression. Suddenly, she turned her head and whipped her fiery mane about before turning herself to face Luna once more. “No…” she said intensely, though not in the tone of one denying a request but of one meeting a wordless accusation with a response.

“Sister, I implore you!” Luna said. “Search your feelings! Deep down you must know you are not in your right state.”

Even more fire than before began to pour forth from Celestia’s mane and tail as she glared at Luna with blazing intensity. “Do NOT compare your horrible transformation to what has happened to me! Luna… I’ve felt trapped for so long! Now I am free of my burdens and what’s more I am more glorious and beautiful than ev—” Celestia stopped speaking abruptly and clenched down on her teeth and tremor of realization seemingly making its way past the smoke and fire and into her core.

The other mares gazed at Celestia hopefully.

Celestia clenched her eyes shut hard then opened them again. “I see now why you picked now to discuss this with me.”

Luna breathed a sigh of relief. “Perhaps you will be able to listen to reason where I could not.”

Celestia nodded. “Perhaps…” Celestia turned to face Chrysalis, her eyes blazing with rage. “But before we talk further, I simply cannot allow the Changeling Queen to live.”

Twilight and Cadance froze in place with slightly panic-stricken looks about them.

Chrysalis began to look at the other mares in the room with an imploring look, as if begging to be saved.

“STOP!” Luna yelled out. “Celestia, I won’t allow this.”

Celestia immediately turned around, focusing her rage-filled gaze at Luna. “You won’t ‘allow’ it?! YOU WON’T ALLOW IT?!” Celestia roared. “LUNA, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SHE’S DONE TO ME?!”

Luna took a few resolute steps forward. “No sister... I would not even presume I fully understand it.” Luna looked over Celestia sadly. “But I’m sure whatever it was hurt you greatly.”

Celestia sneered, “Well, if you understand that, then you should know it would be wise to stay out of my way!”

Luna nodded. “It would be wise, but I’m afraid I must still stop you, even if I must do so by force.”

“Why?!” Celestia said as flames licked out from her clenched teeth.

Luna gave Celestia a solemn look. “Because you’re going to have to live with your choice every day from now until your life is at an end, and I know that burden.” Luna closed her eyes shut tightly then opened them again. “There is not an entity I know of living or dead I would wish this burden on.”

“Forgive me sister, but this is lunacy!”

Luna gave Celestia the slightest of smiles before the gravity of the situation once again weighed her expression down into a deep, concerned frown.

Celestia continued, motioning to Chrysalis who all but cowered behind Cadance and Twilight, “That thing was going to cocoon every pony in Equestria and have her ilk feed off us until we were no more. Please do not tell me you think she is deserving of life!”

“What I think she deserves is currently irrelevant,” Luna said. “Under different circumstances perhaps we could discuss appropriate punishment for Queen Chrysalis’s crime, but you are not in your right mind, sister.” Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. “I will not stand idly by and allow you to pass murderous judgement while you are like this.” She once again laid resolute eyes on her sister. “I also fear that if you start with Chrysalis you will not stop.”

Celestia flashed a dark smirk. “I have been considering wiping out the Queen's entire accursed race.”

Luna lowered her head and pointed her horn squarely at Celestia. “And that is why I will do whatever is necessary to stop you.”

Celestia narrowed her eyelids until her pitch black iris surrounded by the glowing orange ember of her eyes could barely be seen. She turned to look at Cadance and Twilight. “And do you two share my sister’s viewpoint?”

Twilight nodded her head up and down rapidly and without hesitation.

Cadance nodded slower, but still in agreement with the other two princesses.

Chrysalis look of fear remained as her eyes continued to dart over all the ponies in the room.

Celestia let out a long exasperated sigh and then turned to look at Luna again with slightly tired expression. “You’d really stop me by force if necessary to keep me from executing this enemy of Equestria?”

Luna nodded.

Celestia returned the nod. “I believe you.” With that, Celestia let fly a flaming ball of energy from her horn. Luna’s eyes went wide as she quickly put up a barrier of shimmering stars that blocked the blast. Hundreds of tiny shimmering stars flew out in all directions as the flames likewise exploded on impact with the magical shield. No sooner had Luna blocked the fireball than Celestia was almost upon her, charging forward with her head down and glowing red horn leveled directly at the lunar princess.

Luna braced herself and maneuvered her own horn to redirect the point of Celestia’s away from her face or body. Although the move spared Luna from being speared, Celestia still smashed her own forehead against Luna's with the force of an angry storm and the sound of a thunderous ‘CRACK!’

Luna grunted and winced at the sudden pain in her head and the aches of the rest of her body as she did her best to remain upright and match her sister’s brute strength. All the while, the heat around her had become almost intolerable.

Despite all this, Luna heard a hissing dark chuckle from Celestia, a sound much like steam escaping from a pressure valve. “Luna, stop this now and I may overlook this foolish behavior. You’re in no condition to throw down with me at the moment.”

“I will not yield!” Luna cried as her horn glowed with a deep midnight blue and pushed with all her might against Celestia. “I can’t let you do this! I won’t let you do this!”

Celestia’s horn began to glow brighter before the air around it began to spark and ignite. “You’re at your limit, my dear sister. You must have fought hard and bravely against Chrysalis if you are in this state.” Celestia pushed her molten hooves against the ground hard as the energy from her horn flared up until flames shot up to lap at the air above it. “You should be commended, but you cannot possibly stop me now.”

Luna let out a strained moan as her back knees began to wobble and point outwards. A heavy sweat appeared on her brow as she clamped down on her teeth and did her best to match her sister’s strength and energy.

Celestia continued in an oddly casual tone, “Cadance lacks the pure magical strength to stop me. In fact that only pony here that could possibly even harm me is—”

A purple bolt of energy sailed through the air and crashed right into Celestia’s side. The fiery black alicorn was sent sailing across the room and into a stone wall with a heavy ‘THUD!’

“Twilight Sparkle!” Luna cried out in concern as she exhaustedly fell to the floor and looked towards the source of the bolt.

Twilight was by Luna’s side immediately. She lowered her head as her horn glowed a brilliant purple. A similarly colored aura wrapped around one of Luna’s forelegs and Twilight lifted it up and over her neck. “Don’t worry!” Twilight said. “Cadance and I have a plan! All we need to do is—”

“TWILIGHT!” Cadance cried. “ABOVE YOU!”

Twilight instinctively put up a spherical shimmering barrier of purple energy around herself and Luna as she looked up. Not a moment later, Celestia’s lava-like hooves smashed into the barrier much like four blazing hot meteorites. Twilight and Luna’s eyes shot open as the barrier cracked then shattered, and Celestia’s burning hot hooves fell towards them.

With a few swift hits from her forehooves, Celestia knocked Luna back to the ground. As Twilight’s horn began to glow once more with magical energy, Celestia placed her forelegs on the floor then reared her hind legs back before kicking Twilight with enough force to send the princess shooting through the air. A split second before Twilight would hit a stone wall of the room their was a brief glow of her horn and a ‘pommf’.

Celestia grit her ashen, stone-like teeth and perked up her ears.

‘Pommf.’

Behind!

Celestia did a quick 180 just as a purple ray of magical energy was fired at her. With fiery glow of her horn she met the blast with a blazing outpouring of her own. The two blasts raged against each other like two massive waterfalls of pure destruction as the already stifling hot room became a rose to a near-unbearable swelter.

With some degree of surprise, Celestia watched as Twilight flew onwards, her horn practically screaming in a high-pitched wail as she continued to blast with all her might. Twilight banked to her left as she headed in for a landing next to Celestia, her blast suddenly changing to an orb of protective energy that began to wane immediately as the flames of Celestia’s own magic burned it away.

Still, it was enough time for Twilight to hit the ground, lean her weight back , the propel herself forward with all her strength into Celestia’s side. With Twilight’s nubby horn thrusted into Celestia’s side, Twilight beat her wings hard adding as much momentum as she could and momentarily knocked Celestia off her hooves before bringing the fiery princess down onto her side.

“Snap out of it!” Twilight cried at the fallen alicorn in front of her. “Celestia, this isn’t you! I don’t want to fight you! I don’t want to hurt you!”

With eyes filled with fire and rage, Celestia flicked her large, flamethrower-like mane in Twilight’s direction. Twilight’s eyes widened and she clamped down on her teeth as she put up another barrier. As soon as the shimmering energy barrier was in place, Celestia’s molten rock-like forehooves crashed down upon it, putting spider web like cracks into it as the pointed black tip of Celestia’s horn was thrust directly between Twilight’s eyes.

Twilight ducked as her shield shattered and fell down in pieces into nothing.

With an aggravated yell, Celestia simply nodded her head quickly, her glowing red horn thwacking against the top of Twilight’s head.

Twilight’s vision blurred from the rough strike if just momentarily, but before she could pour enough magic energy into her horn to fight back, teleport, or anything, Celestia struck under Twilight’s jaw with the right knee on her foreleg with a hard ‘crack!’

“You won’t hurt me!” Celestia cried. As she raised her foreleg above Twilight and struck Twilight’s horn, jerking her head away to the left as her entire body twisted to follow the blow. “You can’t hurt me!” she added.

As Twilight hit the ground, Celestia reared onto her back legs and raised booth forehooves directly above the fallen alicorn’s head.

“YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HER, AUNTIE!” Cadance screamed.

Celestia’s eyes shot open wide as her hooves came down, each one hitting directly to the side of Twilight’s face and smashing through the heavy stone floor.

Cadance screamed again, as loud as her, usually gentle voice would allow. “You’re going to destroy your family AGAIN!”

Celestia clamped her eyes shut as a pained look came across her face. She opened them again and looked down at the smaller alicorn between her feet. Her faithful student. Almost… Almost like a daughter to her. Twilight Sparkle who she… who she lov—

With a frustrated scream and a yellow glow of her horn, Celestia floated Twilight into the air and threw her like a rag doll across the room. Twilight smacked hard into a stone wall, bounced off of it, and fell to the ground.

“Twilight!” Cadance cried as she rushed over in a panic, her eyes going over Twilight’s injuries including the two black patches of fur where Celestia’s back kick had connected.

Twilight woozily got back on her hooves and shook her head doing her best to look at Cadance despite the fact that Twilight’s head refused to stay in place and her legs were barely cooperating in keeping her upright. “Okay, plan ‘B’!” Twilight said doggedly. “Do we have one?”

Cadance turned to fearfully gaze at Celestia, who looked to be a towering inferno of volcanic rage.

Cadance felt her heart catch in her chest. Celestia had certainly spared Twilight a moment ago, but would that continue? And even if Celestia couldn’t bring herself to kill anypony in the room, how far was she still willing to go? At the very least she seemed more than willing to harm the ponies here and probably wouldn’t stop with her cavalcade of violence until nopony was physically able to oppose her will.

Celestia practically smashed her hooves against the floor as she marched over. The march was cut quite short as a small blast of midnight blue energy which caught Celestia in the side of her face. Little more than dazed, Celestia turned towards Luna and fired a look that almost seemed like it could melt ponies from a glance. There was little doubt in the minds of the room’s occupants that that possibility wasn’t far off.

Cadance quickly closed her eyes as she directed her attention at Celestia. Her horn glowed light blue momentarily before the corners of her mouth lifted ever so slightly. She opened her eyes and looked at Twilight. “I have an idea, but I need you to trust me.”

Twilight looked at Cadance in confusion. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

Cadance looked at where Chrysalis still laid and then back at Twilight. “Because I doubt you’re going to like it…” Cadance began trotting back to Chrysalis and motioned for Twilight to follow.

“Please…” Luna uttered as Celestia slowly marched towards her. “Stop this!” The strength in Luna’s voice was gone. Where’s before she had sounded like she was calmly reasoning or even coldly making promises she felt she could deliver, she now sounded like she was pleading, begging even. “I know you… I grew up with you. You are not the cold monster of fire of death I see before me. You could never bring yourself to kill Twilight and Cadance. You… you… Care for all ponies, almost all things with an almost unassailable love.”

Celestia glowered down at her sister. “Yes. It is an outlook that I personally sacrificed a great deal for over these long centuries. Today, I was shown just exactly what I had given up.” Celestia shook her head. “I am no longer certain that this sacrifice was worth it.” Celestia’s mane and tail blazed dangerously behind her once more. “I am sorry, Luna… But perhaps the pony you knew truly is gone.”

“NO!” Luna shouted. “I know you can change! Please! You don’t have to do this!” Tears began to stream from Luna’s eyes. “Stop this! Stop now before it’s too late. If you don’t stop now, who knows what havoc you will reap on your own ponies!”

“I’ve spent too long concerning myself with such trivial matters, Luna,” Celestia answered coldly. “I won’t be burdened by such things any longer.”

Luna grit her teeth as tears continued to flow down her cheeks. “Do not… Do not speak that way. You are my sister, and you care for your subjects as if they were your own children!”

Celestia flinched and for a brief moment, Luna had thought she had gotten through to her sister.

Celestia’s expressionless eyes turned to hate and her black horn began to glow a fiery orange. “What do you know about the love for one’s children?!”

Tears began to stream from Luna’s eyes. “Please sister… do not make the same mistake I did…”

Celestia loomed over like a fiery executioner ready to strike. Despite the anger written across her face and blazing across her body she turned away slightly, and gazed off into the room. “I will not kill you, dear sister.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank—” She frowned “—Celestia, I guess…”

Celestia turned towards Luna and gave her a contemptible look. “However, you are in dire need of perspective.”

Before anypony could react, Celestia floated over the yellow orb containing the pouch of Heart’s Desire pollen and englobed her sister’s head in it. Luna let out a startled gasp as pouch strings reached out to wrap themselves around her neck. Before the princess could react to this change in situation her eyes rolled back into her head and her eyelids shut as she went limp.

“NOW TWILIGHT!” Cadance cried as she put up a thick wall of shimmering blue energy in front of her.

Twilight gulped as her horn glowed purple as she placed a forehoof on Chrysalis.

“What?!” Celestia exclaimed as she turned towards Cadance and Twilight. “NO!” Celestia let loose a titanic plasmatic blast from her horn that slammed into Cadance’s shield and began to destroy floors, furniture, and walls alike. A moment later, Twilight teleported away with Chrysalis just as the spot both had occupied became a liquid mass of melted stone.

Celestia ceased firing. The last sliver of Cadance’s shield burned away. Cadance’s eyes were wide and filled with self-concern as the tips of her mane and tail smoldered lightly, but she was still alive and standing on a small outcropping of floor where behind her was now open air leading down into an open drop to the caves below and out into the beautiful sky above Canterlot. A sky that was soon filled multicolored pegasus guards in golden armor.

“Celestia? What… What happened?!” An orange guard with a blue plume at the front of the group of flying ponies exclaimed as respectfully as he could. “I know you gave all your guards explicit instructions not to investigate no matter what we heard from your quarters but—”

Cadance stared at the lead pegasus guard with a panicked look on her face. “Flash! Get out of here!”

“Do as she says, guards!” Celestia said. “Leave US! I will discuss this treasonous act with my niece personally.”

Flash Sentry pointed at the pony made of stone and fire. “Princess Cadance… What… What is that… thing?!”

Celestia turned to glare at the pegasus guard with fiery eyes that suggested he might soon meet a rather hot and unpleasant end.

Cadance cringed and stared at the guard. “Princess Celestia has given you an order, Flash!” Cadance cried hastily as she pointed towards Celesta. “I highly suggest you follow it.”

Flash already frazzled expression was almost completely swallowed by terror as he looked at Celestia. He swallowed. “Yes… yes ma’am,” he said. He turned to the other pegasi guards. “You heard the, erm, princesses! Let’s move out!” With that, Flash flew away from the exposed room of the castle, the other pegasus guards following him in tight formation despite the looks of panic they flashed at the scene in front of them.

Celestia turned to shot yet another deadly glower in Cadance’s direction. “That stunt you and Twilight pulled was a mistake. I don’t know why you two have chosen to follow in my sister’s madness, but I will have my revenge against Chrysalis. Do not think you have the power to stop me.”

Cadance trotted up to Celestia. “I don’t. I won’t fight you auntie.”

Celestia’s enraged expression made some room for perplexity to join it. “Then what was your aim? Do you think I would spare you if you refused to engage me in combat?”

“I don’t know…” Cadance said. “But… I still sense love in you… Just a tiny bit, but it’s there. It was risky but... But I did not think you would kill Luna. I’m really hoping you won’t kill me either.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes again. “Even if both of you are family, the thought had occurred to me.”

Cadance gave Celestia a pensive look. “You… You really have it in you to destroy your family twice in one day?”

Celestia’s horn suddenly flared with blazing energy again, and for a moment Cadance feared that the answer to her question was ‘yes’ and Celestia would simply demonstrate that in lieu of an answer.

Suddenly, the fiery of Celetia’s horn stopped as she clenched her eyes shut. Something… There was something inside her that wouldn’t let her simply burn away this burden in front of her… Something preventing her from quickly and effortlessly ending a pony which was just an obstacle to the revenge Celestia knew she so rightly deserved. Her family is gone, but she did still have one here. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d lose that too if she continued on this fiery path she had set herself on.

Celestia opened her eyes. “I suppose I don’t quite have that resolve, but this changes nothing of my feelings on Chrysalis or others who would impede my quest for justice. If you don’t intend to fight me to prevent that, then what was your plan?”

Cadance smiled slightly and lowered her head next to Luna and closed her eyes. “It is this.”

Celestia sighed and shook her head. “That again… Denying Luna her heart’s desire and having her talk to me again will not stop me, child. Nothing can stop my revenge on the one who has wronged me and at this point I don’t think you, Twilight, or even my sister will be spared all consequences for meddling.”

Luna’s eyes suddenly flew open and she coughed and sputtered as a blue orb of energy englobed itself around the pouch before it was once again forcibly removed from its wearer.

“Sis-Sister?!” Luna cried as her eyes flew open.

“Shhhhh…” Cadance hushed softly. “Rest now, everything is fine. It’s going to be okay.”

Luna’s weary eyelids drifted downward and her chest began to gently rise and fall as if slept peacefully.

Celestia gave her adopted niece a quizzical look. “Don’t tell me you want the visions for yourself.”

Cadance smiled and shook her head. “No auntie, I already have everything my heart desires. A loving husband, a wonderful family, ponies to take care of.” Cadance’s smile grew wider. “I could not ask for anything else.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, so sure are you?” With a fiery glow of her horn the orb around the pouch turned a sunstone orange as it was forcibly thrust at Cadance. “Perhaps we should find out.”

Cadance let out a startled gasp as the pouch found a new target to wrap its strings around. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Celestia.

Celestia stared back expectantly.

The yellow particles of pollen drifted in and out of Cadance’s nose as she breathed gently and after a few seconds, she let out a sigh of relief.

Celestia’s eyes flew open in disbelief. “I… I thought you were bluffing!”

Cadance grinned. “So was I…” With a light-blue glow of her horn, she shielded the pouch and removed it from her neck. As if in protest, the draw strings reached out for her, but grew limp as Cadance floated the pouch further away. She looked at Celestia. “Do you want to go back?” she asked, nodding to the pouch.

If Celestia looked surprised before, she was certainly shocked now. “Go… go back?”

Cadance nodded. “Yes. You’ll have to leave Chrysalis’s treatment to the three of us, but…” Cadance smirked. “You won’t really care or remember.” Cadance gave Celestia a serious look. “I think you’ll have to change back or at least find a form with a bit less… fire for the pollen to work without being destroyed but…” Cadance glanced up at the orb holding the pouch. “That life is there if you want it.”

Celestia frowned heavily. “But… But it’d be a lie…”

“Well, if that matters to you…” Cadance said, trailing off. “But you’re the only pony who gets a say in this. If anypony has earned a reward for what you’ve done for ponykind, it’s you. I won’t stand in your way if this is what you really want. I’m sure Luna and Twilight will understand.”

Celestia went quiet as she silently mulled over this proposition. “The sun… My duties…” Celestia inhaled and then exhaled, the act creating far less smoke than it had just a bit prior. “My… my subjects... I’d be abandoning all of them.”

Cadence smiled lovingly at Celestia. That same, heartwarming smile that somehow always made Celestia feel as if everything was going to be fine. “I’m sure between three princesses we can work the sun, and I’m positive we can take care of Equestria while you rest.”

Celestia thought about this further. “I… I can give you my powers… or give them to Twilight or Luna…”

“If that is what you wish,” Cadance said simply.

Celestia’s eyes widened and clarity suddenly hit her like sunshine breaking through the clouds. Her ebony-black skin began to turn ashen and the fiery burning light of her mane began to fade slightly. “No, it is not…”

Cadence nodded. “Very well, I’m sure the three of us can manage with our own power.”

Celestia raised a gray hoof. The fire around it had subsided. “No my niece, that is not what I meant.”

Cadence watched as Celestia’s ashen coat turned white and her flaming mane gave way to shimmering colors once more.

Celestia continued. “I meant that I feel I should continue to watch over my little ponies…” Celestia smiled weakly. “At least until such time I feel somepony more appropriate should take my place.”

Cadance smiled widely as she leaned forward and wrapped her forelegs around Celestia. “Alright auntie, it’s good to have you back.”

Celestia let out a sorrowful sigh and then smiled as she returned the hug. “It is for the best, my gentle little song. At least this way Chrysalis won’t have a victory, pyrrhic or otherwise.”

Cadance leaned her head back looked up at the orb containing the pouch that still floated about a yard away from the two mares. “Then what of the pollen?”

With a final ember glow of Celestia’s horn, the pouch inside the light blue orb suddenly caught flame and was reduced to ashes.

“Goodbye…” Celestia whispered.

Cadance took a deep breath and then let it out as she broke her embrace with Celestia. She smiled once more and shook her head. “You’re amazing auntie. To think you’d willingly give up your heart’s desire for Equestria.” Cadance beamed. “You really are the right pony watch over us all.”

Celestia shook her head. “You, Twilight, and Luna are the amazing ones. You managed to bring me back.” Celestia’s expression turned thoughtful for a second. “Speaking of Twilight, where did she—”

‘Pommf!’

With a purple flash Twilight was once again in the room, or what was left of it. “Cadance! I know the plan was for me to leave with Chrysalis and then find my friends, but the castle exploded and then Flash found me and he said—” Twilight’s lavender eyes went wide as they fell upon Celestia. “Celestia! You’re back!”

Celestia smiled wide as she rushed towards Twilight and wrapped her forelegs and wings around her. “Yes, Twilight. I am sorry to have worried you so.”

Twilight let out a joyous squeal followed by a squelch of pain.

Celestia’s eyes went wide as she gently lowered Twilight to the ground. “Twilight dear, are you alright?”

“Fine!” Twilight said with a happy smile and strained tone. “Though I think I broke a few ribs sometime during all the fighting. Also I have a couple burns and I don’t think I should move my neck a whole lot for a little while.”

Celestia’s cheeks burned red as she gave Twilight the mother of all apologetic looks. “I’m truly sorry for the harm I have caused you… For what it’s worth I think I’m quite bruised,” she said as she stretched a wing out stiffly.

Twilight shook her head slightly, winced, then gave Celestia a sheepish smile. “It’s fine, just so long as you’re back.”

Celestia nodded. “So what of Chrysalis?”

“Oh!” Twilight said as her ears shot straight up. “Well, you see… Chrysalis looked like she was dying so I quickly brought her to castle’s aid station where I told a nurse pony on staff to take care of her and then I left to find my friends, but then then Flash found me and—”

Celestia’s eyes shot open wide. “You left… You left the Changeling Queen attended by a single nurse?!”

Twilight nodded. “Right! But she... Er… I mean… Wow do I feel stupid right now!”

Cadance tentatively approached Celestia. “It’s not her fault auntie… I didn’t really have time to figure out what to do with Chrysalis while you were changed… I just told Twilight to get her out of here and then get her friends in case I couldn’t get through to you.”

Celestia looked at Cadance and then Twilight, the two mares looking back up at her with expressions not unlike two little fillies who had broken something and were now fearful of repercussions. Celestia sighed and shook her head. “Perhaps it’s for the best… Even now, I’m not sure what I would do if I saw Chrysalis again. But she will likely steer clear of ponies for a while. I think I made it quite clear things will turn sour for her if she tries to make a move on us again.”

Twilight and Cadance let out sighs of relief.

“Okay, so what now?” Cadance asked.

Celestia looked back towards her snoozing sister then took a long, hard look at the massive hole where part of her quarters once existed. “I suppose I best address everypony and assure them that everything is alright. No doubt all the guards are on high alert.”

Cadance looked at Celestia with a small look of surprise and concern. “So… So soon? Auntie, you just went through a harrowing experience! You’re really going to address everypony?!”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, Cadance. I must.” She looked outside with a slightly sad expression. “Even on my birthday, I’m still a princess.”

Author's Notes:

Just one more chapter and this should be about wrapped up..

Thanks for making it this far.

Chapter 9

A mixture of orange and purple light bathed Celestia as she sat on her haunches and looked out her balcony, a fixture of the castle that had luckily been far, far away from the area that had been destroyed in the fights with Chrysalis or during her own outpouring of power. Her horn glowed dully as far off in the distance the sun fell behind cloud cover, a ritual that Celestia had repeated so often it came almost as instinctive as breathing. Soon the sunlight would be blocked fully and her sister would raise the moon in a ritual that was no longer Celestia’s. Usually Celestia would wholly celebrate this fact, but the idea that she’d soon run out of things to occupy her time felt like a looming shadow that was slowly reaching to swallow her whole. Even the usual tiresome ‘celebrations’ with nobles and slew of expensive, but ultimately not particular useful gifts was a welcome distraction from pretty much everything else that had transpired today.

Celestia felt a sudden pain in her heart as memories of a time that never happened washed over her. With a heavy sigh as she clenched her eyelids down hard, Celestia attempted to steer her thoughts onto literally anything else. She began by reminding herself how lucky it was that nopony was killed in the destruction she caused. Likewise, only the nurse pony that Twilight had hastily left to care for Chrysalis was directly affected by the Changeling Queen, said pony having some or her love drained. Though, the damage was slight as it seemed Chrysalis was keen on putting some distance between herself and Canterlot. Cadance also was quick to restore any lost love.

Shining Armor was, of course, summoned to ensure any changelings present would be evicted quite forcefully, but it was likely such actions would do little more than assure ponies what Celestia already knew. Chrysalis and any of her ilk that may have assisted her in this plot were long gone. Perhaps Chrysalis was planning her next attack, or her revenge, or maybe… just maybe the queen felt she was ‘square’ after the physical and mental trauma she had inflicted despite her own considerable injuries. Either way, Celestia quite doubted she had seen the last of Chrysalis, even if she felt it would be quite a while before she even heard from the Queen or her hive again.

It was… good… that Celestia didn’t have the burden of murder on her conscious, even if it would be an entity so easy to justify as Chrysalis. Good… though it was still something of a burden that the Changeling Queen roamed free. Oh well, Chrysalis was perhaps even older than Celestia herself and had already spent many of her days attempting to conquer pony kind time and time again with mixed results. Though, this return to status quo was not at all satisfying, it at least didn’t leave Celestia with any pains of self-doubt over if she had done the right thing. And it was quite doubtful she would have simply stopped with the elimination of Chrysalis.

Celestia sighed as she remembered the words her sister had said to her. She once again reminded herself she had dodged a preverbal arrow, or rather that she had somehow BECOME the proverbial arrow and thankfully only managed to inflect healable injuries on those she cared about as she thrashed around and her loved ones returned her to her quiver…

Celestia frowned. It was a good things metaphors and similes weren’t really things she needed to master as part of her duties. She focused her vision out again.

The sun was now almost completely lowered, and soon the little part of Celestia’s attention focused on the last of her duties would be done for the day. Celestia did not look forward to simply being alone with her thoughts.

She felt tired… No… not tired… Fatigued. Fatigued to such a degree that let her know that very few days in her long life truly compared to what she had gone through today. The… vision… That dream… That world inside her… No matter what simple label she gave it thoughts of the joy she held there and thoughts of her family remained. The thoughts would not leave as if it was a simple dream she had woken up from… No matter how many times she told herself that her memories of that ‘place’ where faulty, or false, she couldn’t shake them. To her, it had been as real as the balcony she now sat on. At least the ponies in her dreams were not complete fakes… Though the life that had been constructed there was not real, all the ponies there directly or somewhat indirectly represented real ponies that still lived…

…Ponies she still loved.

Once again, Celestia felt the full weight of her responsibilities, her regrets, and the absence of the perfect joy and contentment that world had given her. The last item on the list made the first two burdens feel fresh and new despite the fact that most such things she had learned to carry with her with relative ease over the centuries.

It was going to be a long night and the days and nights that followed would likely feel long as well.

“Auntie?”

Thankfully Celestia didn’t have to face them alone.

Celestia turned and smiled as Cadance stood in the castle doorway. “Yes, Cadance?”

Cadance smiled warmly and, for a brief moment, Celestia felt her emotional and mental weights abate… but it was only a moment.

“Can I talk to you for a little bit,” Cadance asked tentatively, “or would you rather be alone?”

Celestia shook her head. “Actually, I was rather hoping some pony would seek me out and keep me company.”

Cadance smiled once more and nodded.

Celestia continued, “In fact, I was hoping to talk to you in private.”

“Of course, auntie!” Cadance said. “What did you want to talk about?”

Celestia stared directly into Cadance’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said in a serious tone. “I’m sorry about that other place… And…” Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry, but it might be some time before I fully express how grateful I am that you…that you got me to see that world as false so I might get out to—” Celestia put on a chagrined expression and cleared her throat “–defeat Chrysalis… but…” Celestia trailed off and stared upwards, as if searching the darkened sky for words that could help her properly convey her feelings.

“There’s a hole in your heart, auntie” Cadance said.

Celestia’s eyes widened and she lowered her head to stare at Cadance once more. “I… I beg your pardon?”

It was Cadance’s turn to speak in a serious tone. She took a few steps forwards, placed a forehoof on Celestia’s chest, then looked down where her hoof was resting. “Ever since we met, I could tell there was a hole in your heart… Sometimes it grows larger and every so often, something wonderful happens and it closes a bit… But it’s always there. Cadance looked up into Celestia’s eyes. “When I went into your world to find you, the hole was gone… but when you came back, the hole had returned… bigger than it had ever been before…” Cadance closed her eyes. “It was as if every emotional wound that had ever been inflicted on you suddenly reopened all at once.”

Celestia felt the pressure of tears build up behind her eyes as she stared down at Cadance. Again she felt fatigued, but somehow looking down at her niece she found the strength to remain upright.

Cadance continued, “I don’t need to tell you I had my reasons, but I went down into your world and did all that I could to pull you out of it.” She opened her eyes. “Auntie, I can’t say I understand fully what it is that you gave up, but I know it pains you like possibly nothing ever has before… Regardless of why I did it, I’m partially responsible for that.” Cadance smiled weakly. “You don’t have to be grateful for that. I’ll settle for not being hated.”

“Oooh…” Celestia tearfully leaned forward and took Cadance into her forelegs and wings. “I could never hate you, my gentle little song… You helped bring me back twice today… But I’m still sorry…”

Cadance giggled and nuzzled Celestia. “It’s fine, you’ve apologized like crazy for all the threats and injuries you almost inflicted.”

“No… Not for that,” Celestia clarified. She leaned back from Cadance slightly. “I mean… YES. I am sorry for that but… In my dream world…” Celestia sighed. “As you know in my dream world you were Luna’s adopted niece, not my own… and I feel you deserve an apology for that. I don’t want you to think that means I don’t love or appreciate you, Cadance.”

Cadance just smiled and shook her head. “Your family was there to fill the hole in your heart.”

Celestia winced slightly as she felt Cadance’s words struck a hard cord of truth within her.

“If anything, I guess I’m relieved that I’m not a cause for regret in your life.” Cadance shook her head again. “There’s a hole in your heart, Auntie… But I guess I’m actually glad you never tried to fill it with me…”

“No, but…” Celestia paused and stared up into her eyelids briefly before she thought of Twilight and sighed. “No, but I did try to fill it.”

“Speaking of that…” Cadance began tentatively.

Celestia swallowed, she doubted she was going to enjoy what came next. “Yes, my gentle little song?” she asked in an uncertain voice.

Cadance slowly and cautiously even let go of her embrace and parted from Celestia. “Maybe… I shouldn’t say this… At least… not so soon after—”

Celestia raised a forehoof. “Please say what is on your mind, Cadance.” Celestia sighed sadly but still smiled. “What’s one more weight to bear?”

Cadance gave Celestia a sideways look. “It’s not a new weight auntie… I know it’s not nearly as old some of the sadness you carry with you… but…”

“It’s quite alright, Cadance. I’m sure whatever it is we can discuss it together.”

Cadance straitened her head and focused her lilac eyes squarely on Celestia’s similarly colored eyes. “I think given everything that’s happened you should finally reach out to Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia felt her entire body go rigid and her heart start to thump rapidly in her chest. Her statement about being able to discuss this was in error… Quite in error.

Cadance pursed her lips into a small frown. “Auntie?”

“Is it okay to interrupt?!”

Celestia plastered on a wide grin and turned. “Of course Twilight, Luna! Please join us.”

Internally Celestia recoiled as she felt judgemental eyes start to bore a hole in the back of her head courtesy of Cadance. It was a look Celestia didn’t even need to turn to confirm it was there and a look that never failed to make her feel just a little bit guilty about whatever she had done or didn’t do. Cadance almost never used that look, but when she did it meant Cadance was inevitably right about something and Celestia knew it.

Still, despite all that had happened today or maybe because of such events, these was one thing she just wasn’t ready to face just yet, and besides… Twilight and Luna looked to be an absolute mess! Certainly she needed to make amends with them and set things right now before she considered tackling a sticking issue of her past… right?

Her sides bandaged and a brace around her neck, Twilight tried to canter over to Celestia, but only managed a discordant trot that made it look like the princess was doing her best to move despite being a few steps away from unconsciousness. Still, she made her way up to Celestia and nuzzled a leg gently as Celestia lowered her head and returned the nuzzle.

Luna looked even worse. Her sides were likewise bandaged and she sported a wrap around the top of her head that allowed her ears and horn to poke out. Myriads of assorted bandages covered her limbs as she walked with a limp over to Celestia, keeping her weight off her left back leg as much as possible.

Celestia looked down at the small princess at her legs then up to her sister. “I’m glad you two came up to see me, but shouldn’t you both get some rest? For perhaps… a week at least?”

Luna looked at Celestia in bemusement “I could ask you the same thing.”

Celestia returned the look with a sad smile. “Honestly, I think keeping myself busy is what’s helping the most.”

Luna limped past Celestia and towards the edge of the balcony. “Yes, that does sound to be your way,” she said with a wry smile. Her horn began to glow a dull, deep blue as she stared out into the darkened sky.

Twilight backed up slightly and glanced up as best she could with the brace around her neck. “Don’t worry, I’ll get some rest soon.” Twilight let out a heavy sigh. “With the Heart’s Desire pollen making me push myself as hard as I could, I think I overworked every muscle in my body.” Twilight’s horn glowed purple for a moment, shot out a few errant sparks, and went dull again. “As well as my magic.”

Cadance wordlessly trotted up to Twilight and sat close to her, allowing Twilight to lean her body against hers.

Celestia gave all three princess present apologetic looks in turn. “Once again, I’m truly sorry for any grief or injury I caused.” She shook her head. “I dare not think what would have happened if all three of you weren’t there to pull me back.”

Luna turned and chuckled. “You have apologized enough for one day, sister. We’re not here for you to tell us how sorry you are again.”

Celestia smiled. “Well, if you’re here to keep me company, I appreciate the thought, but maybe you all really should rest.”

Luna shook her head as her horn continued to glow and the moon began to rise lazily in the distance. “I have my duties to attend to.” Luna glanced at the moon. “Or at least the one. Forgive me if I am a tad lax on my other duties for the next few days.”

Celestia let out a mirthful chuckle. “But of course.”

Twilight gave Celestia a tired smile. “Also, we didn’t get to have our ‘princesses only celebration’ today.”

Celestia smiled in surprise. “Oh, is that what this is about. I guess in the mayhem of today I did miss my favorite part about my birthday. Spending it with my family.”

Cadance gave Celestia a warm smile as Luna looked over her shoulder to give a small smile and nod to Celestia. Twilight was positively beaming despite the tired look in her eyes and the fact she was having to lean against Cadance to stay upright.

Cadance spoke up, “Shame your presents were destroyed in the fight auntie.”

Twilight grinned widely as Luna’s horn glowed a bit brighter. Surrounded by a midnight blue glow, Twilight’s gift in teal wrapping paper with a pink ribbon floated in from the castle door, though the wrapping paper was clearly blackened in places and the ribbon barely recognizable after much of it had been scorched, torn, or otherwise obliterated. It clung to the gift by the barest of threads. Cadance’s gift followed, the rectangular gift box was also barely recognizable. The light purple wrapping paper had turned mostly black-and-brown and the box itself had clearly seen better days.

Despite the shape of the two packages, Cadance looked at them in disbelief. “No… They couldn’t have possibly survived! Most of Celestia’s quarters were either blasted by magic or set on fire or both at least once!”

Luna shook her head. “That is what I thought, but Princess Twilight...” Luna smiled. “Perhaps it is better if she explains it herself.”

Twilight grinned. “Well, while I was figuring out my plan to fight Chrysalis I realized that the presents were still around and would likely get destroyed-er- further. So when I had Chrysalis on the ropes I quickly teleported them into a closet.” Twilight frowned. “Though, even the closet door was barely standing after all the fighting… it’s pretty much just a burnt cinder barely attached to the wall by half-melted hinges now.”

Cadance shifted her disbelieving look to Twilight, “You took time to move presents in the middle of a life or death fight?”

Twilight gave Cadance a sheepish grin. “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time… but just about every idea I had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, so…”

Celestia’s face blossomed into a huge grin. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m happy your gifts will not go to waste.”

Cadance giggled nervously. “Don’t get too excited. Given the condition of that box, I seriously doubt there’s much of my gift left.”

Celestia laughed happily as she took both gifts in a yellow glow. “Well, it’s the thought that counts…” With a soft smile, the aura around Cadance’s gift shifted slightly and the wrapping paper fell away or practically disintegrated into ashes, revealing a slightly less singed but still battered box with a now ill fitting, once-rectangular lid that was all likely white before being exposed to some rather serious heat. Removing the lid revealed a very dry looking semi-translucent sunflower in a small, utterly crushed pot.

Cadance looked up at her gift. “It’s a new species of sunflower that only grows within the borders of the Crystal Empire. It’s named the ‘Crystal Sunrise.’”

Celestia’s eyes went wide as she stared at the flower and she felt her heart begin to beat faster within her chest. She closed her eyes hard as images of a small orange filly filled her head and tears began to sprint to her eyes. “It’s… It’s beautiful…” she murmured.

Twilight and Cadance stared up at Celestia in concern then looked at each other, their expressions mirroring that neither seemed to know what they should do or respond given this display of barely contained emotion.

Luna turned and glanced at Celestia blankly. “I am afraid my present is far less material than those two. I was going to agree to take over some of your duties for the next couple days… The gift still stands, but I would appreciate it if you waited until after most my bones have mended to collect.”

Celestia suddenly let out a short, happy laugh. “Oh, that would be most welcome, Luna. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of that.”

Twilight and Cadance exchanged relieved smiles seeing that Celestia’s temperament had quickly changed.

Celestia looked at the flower again, smile still on her face. She turned towards Cadance. “Thank you, Cadance. Perhaps you can bring me live specimen next time you return to Canterlot.”

Cadance grinned and nodded. “Of course, auntie!”

Twilight grinned widely and giddily shifted her weight from one side to the other despite the obvious fatigue of her body.

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “This must be some book.”

Twilight gave Cadance a sour look. “Spoilers!” she hissed out.

Celestia let out a mirthful chuckle a she returned the flower to its box and gently lowered it to the ground as she slowly raised and lowered Twilight’s gift as if magically feeling the weight of the item. “Sorry, Twilight but you are a tad predictable when it comes to gift giving.”

Much to Celestia’s surprise Twilight grinned cheerily. “Oh, but this is a very special book.”

Celestia paused and glanced at Twilight’s gift curiously. With a slight purse of her lips, she removed the tattered and burned ribbon and wrapping paper then lifted the singed box top. Peering inside, Celestia’s eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat.

Cadance looked up at Celestia curiously as Luna peered behind her again and took note of her sister’s reaction. Twilight’s grin only grew wider as Celestia pulled out a leather bound book with golden plates stamped on the corners of the cover and a pair of golden profiles of horned individual on the center.

Luna’s eyes also went wide, “Is that…”

Celestia nodded. “It’s our journal from when we first moved into the Castle of Two sisters,” she said as she opened the book to a random page, her lips parting and their ends raising as her eyes traversed the words within.

Twilight’s cheeks turned slightly pinkish. “I hope it’s okay that I read it.”

Both Luna and Celestia let out slightly embarrassed laughs.

“That’s fine,” Celestia said. “Though, I doubt you gleamed much sagely wisdom from this particular tome.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Luna interjected with a wry grin as she limped over. “She has her own castle now, a hidden doorway or a dozen certainly wouldn’t hurt.”

Twilight smiled sleepily at Luna.

Celestia closed the book, and gentle placed it back in its box as she lowered that to the ground. She looked at Twilight. “Thank you Twilight, this is a most welcome gift.” She leaned down and took Twilight and Cadance into a feathery embrace. Leaning her head next to Twilight’s, she whispered, “But perhaps now would be a good time to get some sleep.”

Cadance glanced at Luna then back at Celestia. “Good idea,” she said with a smile. “I’ll get Twilight to her quarters.”

Luna favored Cadance with a small smile. “How kind of you.”

“Of course!” Cadance replied. “Twilight fought very hard today and my little sister here can barely stand up.”

Twilight shot Cadance a bleary-eyed irritated look and attempted to shift her weight so she was no longer leaning on Cadance, but quickly found out her body was going to help her very little in this regard. Instead she decided to let out a yawn. “Maybe I should get some sleep,” She said sleepily. “Goodnight Princess Luna, Goodnight Princess Celestia.”

“Good night, Eventide, I lo…” Celestia’s eyes suddenly shot open wide as she stopped herself. Cadance and Luna turned to look at Celestia in concern.

Her eyes now barely open, Twilight seemingly took no notice of the reply from Celestia.

Cadance let an unsure smile slip onto her face. “Goodnight Princess Luna. Goodnight auntie.”

Celestia smiled reassuringly at Cadance. “Goodnight, my gentle little song.”

Luna couldn’t help but grin, “Sweet dreams, Princess Twilight Saprkle, Princess Cadance.”

Cadane let out a titter as she wrapped a wing around Twilight. The two mares trotted back into the castle.

Luna glanced at her sister. “Perhaps you should get some rest as well.”

Celestia shook her head. “Later…” She gave Luna a small, hopeful smile. “I was rather hoping I could keep you company for a bit.”

Luna smiled. “I would enjoy that.” She motioned with her head towards the edge of the balcony and began trotting that direction. Celestia followed and soon both mares were staring out into the night sky as the full moon slowly raised over the mountains in the distance and stars twinkled amidst the dark blue canvas of the sky.

For a while, neither sister said anything. Both simple stared out into the peaceful night.

Celestia opted to break the silence, “So… If it’s not too painful to talk about… What was your heart’s desire?”

Luna grimaced slightly. “Well… I didn’t experience it for very long, but…”

Celestia’s ears perked up in interest. “Yes?”

“… I was ruler of Equestria… Loved and adored by ponies everywhere” Luna said sheepishly. “Somewhat in your stead…”

Celestia simply nodded. “And did you happen to be er… in that state long enough to know what I was doing?”

Luna nodded. “I had banished you to the sun a millennium ago.”

“WHAT?!”

Luna let out a short burst of laughter. “Sorry! I couldn’t resist… No… You were content to raise a family.”

Against all odds, Celestia’s eyes widened further. “… Oh…” she said in an oddly sobering tone.

Luna tilted her head slightly. “Was that not an accurate guess of what would make you happy?”

Celestia shook her head. “On the contrary… My heart’s desire was remarkably similar to your own.”

Luna pursed her lips and dropped her eyelids slightly. “How similar?”

Celestia clenched her teeth slightly. “Basically exactly the same with you ruling and me spending time with my family.”

“… Oh…” Luna said, echoing her sister’s tone from before.

Again, the sisters turned to stare at the rising moon. Neither one speaking.

This time, Luna broke the silence. “So… What do we do? Do we…?”

Celestia shook her head. “If it were that simple, I would happily hand over my crown and duties to you but…” Celestia sighed. “I think this would take some careful thought and planning to do without causing a slight panic amongst the ponies. Plus my family was not entirely made up…” Celestia frowned. “I still have demons of my past I have yet to face, or one's fate has conspired to keep me from.” Celestia stared upwards. “I could not simply stop being ruler of Eqestria and settle down at this time.”

Luna stood motionless for a bit, then nodded. “Perhaps an option for the future, then.”

Celestia slowly lowered her head to look at Luna once more. “Perhaps.”

The pair returned to staring out into the sky and after another bout of silence, Luna spoke, “Sister… I am… sorry…”

Celestia turned looked at her sister quizzically. “About… about your heart’s desire?”

Luna shook her head. “No… That I was not able to reach you when you were… Well, you know…”

Celestia’s eyes once again opened widely. “Luna… You… You… Okay, maybe I wasn’t ready right that second to come back to my senses but…” Celestia smiled. “But your words and your love at least let me see that something was very, very off about me…”

Luna gave Celestia a half smile. “Well, I am glad for that. Still…” She shook her head. “Although I am elated to have you back, I do wish I could have pulled you back from that nightmare of fire you became.”

Celestia paused for a moment and stared at the moon before turning to Luna and gently placing a forehoof under her chin.

Luna said nothing, but looked into her sister’s intent eyes.

Celestia began to speak, “Do not think for a moment your presence or your words were wasted on me. If it weren’t for your past experience or your reminder that I had somepony who cared deeply about me and the pony I am… truthfully am, I could have easily destroyed Cadance or Twilight and done any number of things to my beloved ponies.” Celestia smiled. “Luna, today your actions saved the lives of possibly everypony in Equestria. For all the regrets I harbor at not acting sooner over a millennium ago, I’m overjoyed that my sister was able to help bring me back. I could not ask for a better pony to rule by my side or help protect Equestria. I hope you know that not a single day goes by that the thought that you’re once again here brings joy to my life.”

Luna’s dark turquoise eyes suddenly turned glassy as she continued to look at Celestia. She suddenly threw herself at Celestia, wrapping both forelegs and wings around her.

Although momentarily surprised, Celestia soon returned the hug, likewise wrapping forelegs and wings around her younger sister.

At first, neither sister made a sound, both content to hold the other. After a short time, both broke down into tears and gentle cries that filled the night.

After a somewhat lengthy emotional display, Luna slowly parted slightly from Celestia, looking up at her with tear filled eyes but a smile on her face nonetheless. “Thank you…” Luna murmured. “Thank you for finally bringing meaning to my transformation oh so long ago.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “I… I… Well, I don’t think I can quite take credit for that,” Celestia smiled, “but I’m happy there is a silver lining to all this.”

Still smiling, Luna nodded. “Good.” She glanced at the moon, her horn glowing slightly as continued to slowly climb the night’s sky. “Well, perhaps it is finally time you get some well-deserved rest.”

Celestia glanced again at the moon. “Later… Seeing the moon bright and empty always makes me feel better…”

Luna smirked.

Celestia shifted her position to face forward but kept her body pressed against her sister's and her left wing wrapped around Luna. “Forgive me Luna, but I lost a family tonight. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to spend this time reminding myself of the family I still have.”

Luna said nothing, but leaned closer into her sister's embrace as the two sat and stared out at the twinkling stars and the slowly rising, bright white moon.

And the two sisters stayed like that until the dawn.

The End.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading everyone.

Sorry to... disappoint?... those that thought I might end this by suggesting the "end" was just the vision of either Luna or Cadance. I did expect a few to suggest that's maybe how it'd end as soon as Celestia started passing the pollen around.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did. Those hoping to finally see a reunion of Celestia and Sunset should check out Sunset Shimmer is MAD about Everything! Quite a different tone from this story here, but Celestia and Sunset have already had some pretty dramatic moments and that's not going away right away.

Again! Thank you all for reading. See ya around!