I know it's been a long time since I've talked to you, but I just had to let you know that I still remember you. Luna you need not worry that I have forgotten you, every memory is fresh in my mind because you absence has allowed me to see things a new light. Your distress has not been lost to me, even though I may have been too late to see it.

I was the worst sister a pony could ask for. As fillies I often 'suggested' that you lived out the awful tales that I told, where the paragon of false purity defeats every immature caricature that my mind could spawn. Maybe I was just being the bossy older sister and maybe, just maybe, you didn't mind. I can't say I'm proud of that. We grew so much over the years, and I lied and lied telling you that I'd always be by your side but soon after we found the tribes I was quick to desert you, and why? So like a hunger-mad scavenger desperate for everything the fillyhood you loved deprived me of, I would be able to claw away enough power and treasure it like a miser does gold simply to ensure that we wouldn't have to take the throne by force and that the little ponies trusted me enough to follow us back into the light.

You, who bloomed in darkness, were neglected by the only family you had left because that silly sister of yours decided to focus all her energy on what she would proclaim a renaissance. Your voice was lost and I merely ushered them into new prejudices that has taken a thousand years to even begin to correct. How could I guide them into the light when I forgot that shed by the moon and stars? I let them forget you so much, and when you were spoken of it was with cruel words that found new ways to demonize you. You, Luna, who couldn't have left me out of your nature but should have deserted my side long ago.

You were always quiet, yet you could hear the worst plights in silence. I who spoke so highly of crowns, but the regalia I forced on you were nothing but glorified chains.Luna, you didn't even bother to hide that you weren't happy but even after all these years I still can't grasp every bit of your plight. You were honest as always, you were loyal when you should have betrayed me. I want to hear you laugh again.

Nothing is as you left it. They love your stars now Luna, how much have we discovered about them? Entire fields of science have been founded to study the little lights that you cared for. Poets have tried to capture you moon in vain. It was only after your 'disappearance' that they took notice.

I let you become darkness. Can you still see light?

Ponies stopped hating each other so. The hearts and the minds of the mortals have been revived. Talent and individuality are truly praised now. Nopony will call you demon or witch. So much has been learned and I believe that we may be on our way to rediscovering every lost art, if only you were here to see it. All this wonder was at the cost of you, my little star. As you hang up there in the sky are you still yourself? Do you resent me as I do? Will you hurt me as I could not hurt you? You are still Luna, aren't you? How awful it was down here, having to learn to love for a thousand years while even as a filly you could fall in love with something that had received nothing but poison from everypony else.

I let you see that venom and just look what happened.

Luna, this name is like sand on my tongue. I only remember, but I never see. Am I even worthy to say your name after all I've done? Will the name I dare not speak, this powerful name lost to so many, fit the face of a mare who could stand before me should the long-dead fortune teller's words prove to be true?

These marks are water. They aren't.

Can I really trust the words that were spoken so long ago? Will you really come back to me on this night? Will Twilight bridge the gap between us? She's so inquisitive, but she can't retain half the curiosity you did. I have faith in her, for I have not laid eyes on you for the longest time and all I will see is my greatest failure and everything that should have been. Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student will see you with the light of a Spark I once held somewhere in me, if I deserved an Element at all. Even after all these years I can't bear to do anything with them anymore. They are not dead, but long ago the power they promised died to me.

I hope to work on everything we should have fixed from the start of all this. I want to mend every miscommunication with the brave young mare who has been through so much. Will you let me pretend to be the strong one so I might hold you in my hooves as you were and tell you that everything is going to be alright? Can we break the barriers between us? In what feels like another life, as some of my ponies who know not what gods like you or I do say, I would have torn each barrier down with fire and fury. I'd have crossed every border between us if I were brave and strong like you, my little star. That fire is long gone, lingering somewhere in me that even I'm not sure I know how to reach anymore. I am so calm now, please try to remember Tia, from before the tribes. Those mistakes will never go away, but I promise that I am not the stern monarch you remember, even if I still bring light I wonder if there is any within me.

My little star, will you allow me one last lie? It is on this sheet of paper peppered with tears and creases as my throat feels like it's swelling that I write of another one of my sins. For a thousand years I have lied to each and every to creature to ever ask in order to make them feel safe. I told them with smooth falsehoods that it was I who raised your moon. You need not tell me but I can feel that with strings of magic it was you who puppeted the moon across the sky each night, you who made sure all was not the tales of fire from our youngest days that are but distant whispers to these ponies. I merely added a little light to keep you from stumbling along.

As the light of your moon shows, the fortune teller who whispered such a prophecy to me so long ago was not telling cryptic heresy or offering a hollow consolation. I see the stars align as I run out of paper. You are not lost. You can't be lost. The strings you throw out have anchored onto stars that you have pulled closer and closer with each year and though their positions may change and you will have so many things to learn because even now I find myself mumbling an empty prayer to the gods we are of for Equestria, for luck, for Twilight Sparkle, for my little ponies, and of course for you. I pray for everypony but me.

Even if you know not where it is, the shining capital city of Canterlot and its castle will be a dead give away of my location which is why there are no guards about. My quill is slipping and my heart is racing and the tears won't stop, as the condition of this letter will prove, I know I'm running out of time. I just want to let you know that no matter what, I love you.

Yours truly,

Celes-