A Tale From the Past.

Twilight and Moonjumper watched as Bastion and Moonbeam slowly walked out of sight. After the two of them were around the first corner, Twilight and Moonjumper turned back toward the group of gathered ponies. Cadence and Shining Armor were standing on either side of Celestia, and Twilight’s friends were all standing off to the other side. Spike holding Twilight’s crown for her.

Twilight heard Moonjumper sigh, off to her side. Twilight turned to look at Moonjumper.

“Are you okay, Moonjumper?” Twilight asked. Moonjumper looked over at her and forced a small smile.

“I’m fine, Twilight. I guess I’m just not looking forward to the talk we are going to have.” Moonjumper told her, shaking her head slightly. Twilight put a hoof on Moonjumper’s shoulder, letting her know that she wouldn’t be doing this alone.

“Well, I guess there is no time like the present.” Moonjumper said, holding her head up and beginning to walk toward where her sister stood.

Celestia still had a scowl on her face, obviously not liking the outcome of Moonbeam’s trial. But Twilight didn’t see the same anger that she had seen during the trial on her former mentor’s face. When Moonjumper and Twilight stopped before Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armor moved away, giving them a bit of space.

For a few seconds none of the three said anything. Celestia refused to meet either Moonjumper’s or Twilight’s eyes. Finally Moonjumper broke the tense silence.

“Sister, I know that you hold a hatred for Nightmare Moon, but even I never thought that you would attempt to do what you did today.” Moonjumper scolded, causing Celestia to flinch slightly.

“I had to, she is one of the greatest threats to Equestria, rivaled only by Discord in his reign.” Celestia asserted, trying to sound regal as she stood there. Moonjumper shook her head.

“Sister, we have seen countless monsters in our time. Ponies who have exploited others and ponies who have killed dozens, if not hundreds, of others. Nightmare Moon did threaten eternal night, but she never killed anypony.” Moonjumper said, clearly upset with her older sister’s behavior. “On top of that, she likely wouldn’t be able to do such a thing as she is now. I lost my ability to control the moon when she first tried to resurface, and the fact that she never tried to do so proves that she can not do so either.”

“But you are only in such a state because she tried to assume control of your body again!” Celestia refuted.

“That is true,” Moonjumper began. “And I will go and have a talk with her, face to face about that aspect of our history together. But even still, I was willing to give her a chance and listen to her fairly. I only agreed to sentence her to death after she had revealed a lie in her testimony.” Moonjumper explained, not backing down. Celestia scowled at the ground.

“I do not understand how you can do this, she has done nothing but deceive you since the day that she came into this world.” Celestia said, looking at Moonjumper questioningly. “Luna, you refused to listen to my warnings about her once and I nearly lost you. Why do you insist on always giving her more chances?” Celestia asked. Twilight was confused by that.

“Wait, I have a question. You both are talking about your history with Nightmare Moon as if she existed before Moonjumper was taken over by her. I thought that she only came to be after Moonjumper let her dark emotions overtake her?” Twilight asked, trying to put the pieces together in her head. Twilight saw Moonjumper’s head fall a little.

“I guess I never did tell you the full reason for Nightmare Moon’s appearance. I guess now is as good a time as any.” Moonjumper said, taking a breath to steady herself before telling the story.

“Twilight, I told you that the death of Starswirl, and the circumstances surrounding his passing gave rise to some dark emotions within me, I do not deny that. But it was not from these emotions themselves that Nightmare Moon arose, she was not just all of my hate personified.

“After Starswirl passed, I only had Celestia, but she was often busy dealing with matters of state while I mourned my lost love. In all senses of the words, I was alone and trying to deal with many… complex feelings. I wanted nothing more than to have somepony to talk to, but I could find nopony. So in my grief, I decided to resort to a filly hood passtime and imagine another pony that would keep me company.” Moonjumper explained. She looked at Twilight, who saw that Moonjumper was having trouble holding back tears thinking of that time in her life.

Twilight moved in to lean against Moonjumper and let her know that it was okay to cry if she needed to. Moonjumper nodded in thanks at the gesture before continuing with her story.

“As you may guess, the thing that I imagined eventually became Nightmare Moon. Originally she was nothing special, but eventually she seemed to take on a life of her own, even when I wouldn’t be thinking of her, I would sometimes hear her talking to me. Over time, we became friends, even though she was just a byproduct of my lonely and grief ridden mind.”

“Eventually, Celestia found time to spend with me, and I told her about what I had been doing, and of Nightmare Moon’s existence.” Moonjumper explained, before looking over at Celestia.

“When she heard about Nightmare Moon, Celestia demanded that I stop conversing with her. She thought that Nightmare Moon could be some kind of demon from Tartarus that was trying to take over my mind. I tried to assure her that I was fine, and she had only been a small fantasy to fill a void. Eventually, I started to feel better, the loss of Starswirl still weighed on me, but I was slowly moving forward.” Moonjumper told everypony.

“After a while I stopped talking with Nightmare Moon so much, thinking that I no longer needed her help to deal with my life. But you know that is not the end of things. After I started coping with Starswirl’s death, that was when ponies began to start avoiding me. You know most of the tale from there, I slowly grew more and more hateful until Nightmare Moon surfaced and Celestia was forced to banish us to the moon.”

“That is what everypony thought at least, but it was not quite true. Eventually, when the isolation from everypony but Celestia became too much, Nightmare Moon took advantage of the situation. She managed to pull me from my body, and give herself control. She threatened Celestia and everypony in Equestria.” Moonjumper said, finishing her story.

Celestia looked angry as she heard Moonjumper’s retelling of the events. Twilight thought she looked almost manic.

“That story only serves to strengthen the argument that we should not trust anything that Nightmare Moon has to say. She was willing to betray you to try and fulfil her evil agenda, who is to say that she isn’t doing the same thing here?” Celestia asked, her anger starting to boil over once again. Moonjumper just shook her head.

“I know how it sounds, sister. But I think everypony but you felt something different in the mare that we put on trial today. She did not try and manipulate the situation in any way, she just told her story. She didn’t even try to escape when she was sentenced to death. That, to me, proves that she feels remorse for the actions she had committed in the past.” Moonjumper countered, her eyes steely as she looked toward her older sister. Celestia did not back down however.

“And what will happen if it turns out that she has lied to us today?” Celestia asked, “She could be waiting for us to lower our guard so that when her full power returns she could launch an attack.”

At this, Cadence stepped forward to intervene.

“I don’t think she would do that.” Cadence said, her voice calm. Moonjumper and Celestia looked at her.

“You remember during the trial, when I said that I felt something in Nightmare Moon?” She asked, both Celestia and Moonjumper nodded at this. “Well, it wasn’t just what aunty Luna was talking about. I felt love inside her, love that increased when she saw that guard, Bastion come to her aid.” Cadence explained. Twilight looked at Cadence, shocked.

“That makes sense, she flat out refused to give us his name despite her own life being on the line. If she really wanted to launch a surprise attack later, she would do anything to make sure that she could do that, but she didn’t.” Twilight said, looking over at Celestia, who didn’t meet her eye. Twilight shook her head slightly.

“I don’t know what we can do to convince her.” Twilight thought, hoping that Moonjumper would have an idea.

“I have to admit, I am running low on ideas myself. Celestia always was a bit stubborn.” Moonjumper thought back. Suddenly, Twilight heard another voice.

“Twilight, I think I have an idea that could set Celestia’s mind at ease.” The familiar voice of Moonbeam said.

“Sure, Moonbeam, go ahead with your suggestion.” Twilight said.

“We could give Celestia a mirror that has a scrying spell on it, one that you put on so that she does not have to worry about me potentially meddling with it. She could even stop by when Bastion and I meet with Moonjumper to make sure I am not doing anything.” Moonbeam suggested. Twilight took a moment to ask Moonjumper what she thought of the plan.

“Hmm. It is a start at least. We might as well suggest it. Celestia is hard to sway, but this should help to put her mind at ease.” Moonjumper said, Twilight nodded as well. She looked back toward Celestia.

“Celestia, Moonbeam just gave a suggestion for something of a peace offering between the two of you.” Twilight began. Celestia looked skeptical, but did not say anything.

“Moonbeam suggests that we give you a mirror that I place a scrying spell on so that you can monitor her at any time. She also invited you to sit in on the meetings that Moonjumper has ordered Bastion and her to attend daily. Would that be acceptable?” Twilight asked, hoping that Celestia would agree to the compromise.

Celestia considered this. Twilight, Moonjumper, and everypony else waiting with bated breath. Finally Celesia nodded to herself.

“Alright, since all of you are complacent with letting a potentially dangerous pony walk the streets, I will agree just so that when she does reveal her true agenda, I will know immediately.” Celestia said, ruffling her wings.

“Well, that is about as much as we can ask for.” Moonjumper said, exasperated.

“I will take my leave now, I will be back tomorrow to sit in on the first of the meetings that you will have with ‘Moonbeam’.” Celestia said, sarcasm clear in her voice when she said Moonbeam’s name. “Now, will somepony please remove this magic restraint from my horn?”

Twilight’s horn glowed, and the ring slid gently off of Celestia’s horn. Celestia nodded a quick thanks and then turned toward Shining Armor.

“Gather the guards, we are going back to Canterlot.” Celestia said. Shining Armor saluted and quickly went to work delegating tasks to the few guards that were there for the trial. A few moments later, Shining and the other guards went off in different directions, going to gather up the guards that had been patrolling the Everfree forest and those that had come the previous day. Celestia turned back toward Moonjumper and Twilight at this point.

“I am putting my trust in you two. I will not believe anything that ‘Moonbeam’, as she insits on calling herself, has to say until I see undeniable proof.” Celestia said, her tone more gentle now as she looked at the two of them. “And for your sakes, I hope that I am not right about her, I don’t want anything to happen to the two of you.” Celestia said.

“Don’t worry sister. I am willing to give her a chance, but I know that I should not put blind faith in her.” Moonjumper said. Celestia nodded.

“I will see you two tomorrow then.” Celestia said, walking down the street to where her chariot was being readied.

Author's Notes:

I hope that this chapter being a bit shorter is not too much of a disappointment. I also hope that this manages to flow well from the last chapter.

On the Bright side(?) I think at this point, we only have two more chapters until we get to the end of this story. I might be wrong about that, but I think I am reaching the end of what I want to cover in this specific story. I will keep thinking about that, as I don't really have a plan written up anywhere.

Anyway, please tell me what you thought about this chapter. I want this to end decently, as this would be the first story that I have actually written to completion. Even the one I wrote for NaNoWriMo this year is not technically done.