Life of Lyra
Chapter 42
Previous ChapterJoyce walked into the throne room to find Celestia's throne empty. The princess was standing at the huge windows and staring out at the city through the colored glass. Walking over, Joyce didn't move to sit or stand beside Celestia, but just waited for her to start the conversation.
"It's happening tonight," Celestia said.
Freezing in place, Joyce's blood ran cold at the thought of what might happen if things unfolded poorly. "I won't be choosing sides. I'll do my best for Equestria."
The words were reassuring to Celestia, who had seen so many bad ways the next two days could go. "Thank you, Joyce. That's more than I could have ever asked for. The moment she returns, her curse will break. You can then warn anypony you need to."
"Except Twilight Sparkle."
Three words hadn't shocked Celestia so much in nearly a thousand years. "How did you—?"
"You've been pouring your time into teaching her, guiding her. Is this her destiny?"
"Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know, Joyce. I feel the tugs of what might be a little stronger than most only because I've learned to look for them. She strikes me as a pony with limitless potential, but of late she's been forsaking what I believe is her true calling. If I've made the right choice, she has everything she needs to do whatever is needed of her. Otherwise… Otherwise it was destiny for her to rule instead." It was hard to say. Celestia felt terrified of such an outcome because it would mean she'd been doing something wrong. She'd dedicated her life to Equestria, and although there were some rough patches, she felt she was doing things right.
When a large, leathery wing folded over Celestia's back, she leaned sideways a little. "Thank you."
Joyce was relieved to realize her hug was being taken in the context it was being offered. She hadn't seen Celestia so deep in this mood before. "I've told you, haven't I, that every time I hear from Lyra, Sweetie, Robin, or Dream I feel a sense of immense relief? I don't fill my days with worry for my girls, but hearing from them alleviates a pressure that builds up."
Celestia let her mane cross over her face in such a way that it hid her eyes from her guards and Joyce, and then she cried. They weren't tears of pain or loss, but a simple relief of emotions that burned so hot inside her they needed to come out. The wing around her tightened, seeming to squeeze more still from her.
Around the room the Royal Guards were stoic. Not a single one of them would speak a word of what was happening, nor would they interfere with the emotional outpouring going on before them. Celestia's ruse hadn't worked—each of the stallions present could feel her tears like a knife inside them.
Joyce held on. Nothing in Equestria would cause her to release Celestia in the midst of this moment. She hugged the princess and waited for the tears to stop. When she'd cried herself out, Joyce passed Celestia a white handkerchief that one of the guards had floated over to her with magic.
Using the fabric to wipe down her cheeks, Celestia felt empty emotionally. In the minutes she'd stood there leaning on Joyce her fears were opened and laid bare to her inner eye, and she felt like she could think clearly again. One breath. Then another. "Thank you, Joyce."
"You're welcome, Celestia." Taking the handkerchief back, Joyce held it up in her free wing and felt it taken back from her. "What do you need me to do today?"
Celestia opened her mouth to tell Joyce that the usual court would be held, but then stopped. "You know, I believe some tea would be in order." Summoning her strength to stand up was hard. Every part of her felt drained and bereft of energy, but when she finally felt confident in lifting her rump from the cold floor and turning, her body responded without quibbling.
Only when they were both outside with the midday sun warming them did Celestia begin talking again. "I sent her to Ponyville this morning. She thinks it was because I don't want her to investigate Nightmare Moon, but the truth is it only made her more hungry to discover the origins. If things are timed correctly, she'll find out the true secret after my sister has returned."
Joyce poured the tea for them, knowing exactly how Celestia took hers. "Which is sundown?"
"Yes. We can fly down together once we're done with this tea." Tea, of course, could take a good amount of the day, though Celestia didn't want to put off the planning of the festivities. She hoped that all the ponies of Ponyville would be able to truly celebrate the morning.
Lifting her own cup with her magic, Celestia sipped at it and let out a delighted little wicker. "How do you make each cup taste better than the last?"
"It comes with being born in a nation of tea drinkers." It was small talk, but Joyce enjoyed leaving the heavy topics aside for now. She sipped at her own tea and gave Celestia time to talk more.
"I don't know what I'm scared of most, Joyce. If she comes back and fights to take over, I won't have the heart to—to banish her again. If she…" Celestia found the rest of her emotions, though she was able to avoid crying this time. "If she is willing to listen to reason, what will I say to her? How many ways can I say sorry?"
"You'll have the right words at the right time," Joyce said, "or you'll blurt out something and she'll laugh."
The words broke through the wall of emotional blockage and Celestia laughed. It may have been bordering on hysteria, but the laughter helped her just as much as the crying had. "Joyce, I wouldn't have survived today without you. Now, let's have a piece of teacake each and be off."
Nothing more needed to be said. Joyce was comfortable in her role as friend to a princess, and knew how to carry out all the little ceremonies that came with having tea in the garden. When the last piece of cake (Celestia had lied, she'd had two pieces) was gone, she stood up. "You won't be taking your guards?"
"They would be brave to their last to stop her, and I wouldn't have that. I made a promise to each of them, and I intend to keep it." Rising too, Celestia stretched each of her wings out to their full before tucking them back at her sides. "Let's go."
Despite the gravity of the situation, Joyce couldn't help but feel excited at getting to fly—particularly with somepony with similar aerodynamic capabilities. Unfolding and spreading her wings, she was always aware of how much more work she had to do to get airborne. To an observer it might look like she just shot into the air, but bats were never meant to take off from a standing start.
Soaring through the sky above Canterlot, catching thermal updrafts that were well cataloged and managed meant that the pair gained enough height to past the crest of the mountain between them and Ponyville. From there, they entered into a twin, stooping dive.
The air rushed faster and faster by the pair, though neither could so much as shout as the rushing wind would have stolen any words far sooner than they'd reach the other's ears.
Well before things would have become dangerous, each extended their wings and swooped out of the dive and into a stall to spend their speed as quickly as possible. From there it was a lazy spiral down to the town hall.
"Have they seen many bat ponies here?" Joyce asked.
That fact had gone overlooked in all her preparations, and Celestia almost missed her next wing-beat as she turned it over in her mind. "Do you think it will cause a problem?"
"If you summoned me a cloak, I could keep my wings hidden." The last was said just as their hooves made contact with the turf beside the circular building. A flash of golden light later and she found herself with a beautiful white cloak over her back that bore Celestia's own cutie mark on each flank. "This isn't…?"
"I couldn't think of anything else on short notice. It was made too small for me anyway, and it strengthens your word while here." Celestia also liked the contrast of Joyce's red-gray-black body hair with the pure white robe. "It suits you."
"Princess Celestia! Your Royal Highness! I was expecting a chariot. Did you really fly here yourself?" Mayor Mare was beside herself. She didn't know whether to panic, run in a circle, bow, curtsy, or try all of them at once.
Fighting to not roll her eyes at how many forms of address were being thrown at her, Celestia put on her best and most joyous smile and dipped her head the appropriate amount. "Sometimes I like to stretch my wings, and coming with a friend gave me the chance to do just that. Please, don't cause a fuss."
"Your friend?" Blinking a few times, it took Mayor a few moments to realize that there was another pony present. "Oh, please forgive me miss…?"
"Joyce Mango," Joyce said. "Joyce will be fine."
Celestia got to enjoy seeing somepony else be treated officially. "Please be as accommodating to Joyce as you would be to myself. I believe, before we go any further, that there was a promised spa treatment? I'm as eager to partake in a good relaxing afternoon as Joyce is."
This surprised Joyce. She'd expected to spend the afternoon helping Celestia with officious things. "Sp-Spa?"
"Oh yes! I'll escort you both along right away. Your royal inspector has been in town all day ensuring everything is ready. Would you like to meet with her first, or go right to the spa?" The most strange sense of difference struck Mayor when she looked at Joyce. She had to assume Joyce was a pegasus, but the line of her body was slightly different to a normal pegasus—too bulky for a start, but also she had a sense of strangeness. She put it down to meeting a stranger and ignored her gut.
It was like a whirlwind. Joyce found herself and Celestia led off around the edge of town to the Ponyville Spa where a pair of ponies insisted they would take the best of care of them. That's when she realized they'd want her to disrobe.
"Mayor Mare, you've been such a wonderful help already. I'll send for you the moment we're finished." Celestia had planned for this, though at the time she hadn't expected to feel as good about relaxing as she did now.
"Oh! Of course. I'll just—Of course, Your Highness." Bowing again, Mayor Mare retreated from the spa and left Celestia and Joyce to the tender mercies of Lotus and Aloe.
Only when they were alone with the two spa ponies did Celestia carefully grip the robe and lift it up to reveal Joyce. "I organized this mostly for you, Joyce. I thought I'd be too wound-up to enjoy any time here."
Joyce tried her best to ignore the twin gasps of surprise from Aloe and Lotus. "You shouldn't have, but I'm not going to say no when my boss gives me an afternoon off to spend with my friend."
Aloe elbowed her sister and got another elbow back. She needed it. She'd never seen a pony like Joyce Mango before, but the familiarity with which Joyce and Celestia conversed was a quick reminder as to how important Joyce was. "Would Miss Joyce enjoy a wing massage? You'll have to forgive us for our inexperience, but we haven't met a pony quite like you."
"You're probably going to start meeting more soon. Just down the line away from Canterlot, a new embassy has opened that's full of bat ponies like myself. The secret to massaging my wings is to treat my wings like the arms and hands of a minotaur." Joyce had had enough experience helping Celestia with visiting dignitaries that she could explain a good likeness for bat wings. "And I'm married, so mrs is just fine."
"Minotaur hands?" Aloe watched as Joyce spread out a wing and could immediately see what she meant. "Oh goodness, you do have hands in there. Each bone and tendon… Yes. I can work with this."
Joyce was soon melting on the massage table as Aloe worked on her wings and body. Beside her, Celestia shared a similar fate at Lotus' hooves. The pair managed to remain silent all through the massage and neither was immediately aware when it was over.
"Come now, ladies, your bath is ready." Lotus Blossom gestured to the door, smiling at how distracted her customers looked. When each groaned and rolled off the tables and to their hooves, she was satisfied that she wouldn't have to carry one or the other… or both.
Feeling more relaxed than she had in her life, Joyce found herself passively following Lotus to another room where they were both shown the steaming bath.
Celestia, who was far more used to the walk-in baths of her castle, ambled down the steps and into the sultry water. With the weight of her body easing into the displaced water, she let out a sigh of bliss.
"It can't be that good…" Joyce said as she walked down into the water. Immediately the heat started to suffuse her body and warm her up her muscles again. "Oh my goodness, it is that good." Splaying her wings out to let the water warm her more, she closed her eyes and just floated for a few moments.
All through their massage and bathing, Celestia couldn't help but turn over the eventual events of the day. "You know I wouldn't bring you if I expected you'd be in danger."
"I was assured by a colleague that I wouldn't be slowed down by my pregnancy until the day I was due. I think he was grossly misinformed about the pressure of foals on bladders. I don't fear N—" Joyce jerked herself up short. "I don't fear her. I hope you have nothing to fear from her too."
"There are ways in which I could have come at this, Joyce. Had I left Equestria without a sun for a few days, or even just left it at dusk, I could have faced her with my full strength." Fluffing her wings a little like a duck, Celestia splashed water into her wings and coat. "Sometimes destiny and fate need a little nudge, but I don't believe this is my fight. I could no sooner raise magic against my—her—than I could anypony in Equestria."
"That wasn't something you foresaw, was it?" Joyce asked, her emphasis made plain that the question was not just leading, but that she already believed it.
"No it wasn't. It was fact, for one night I ruled with an iron hoof and I've regretted it for a thousand years. Peaceful rule is only attained by ruling peacefully. We have two hours until nightfall. I'd like to meet her at our old castle."
"The Castle of the Two Sisters?"
"Correct. You've been studying for this?"
"I wouldn't have come without preparation. I'm a doctor, I prepare for everything." Joyce rolled her shoulders and stepped a little from the water. The weight of her pregnancy pulled on her with the renewed strength of a waterlogged coat.
Lotus was quickly by Joyce's side. Towels—warmed by their own steam boiler—quickly extracted the moisture from her coat while a quick pat down took care of Joyce's wings. She could tell the pair were censoring their words, and though she prided herself on never exposing details a client had revealed to her, she could also understand that the ruler of Equestria might not want everything said outside of the exclusive company of her advisor.
As they climbed out and were dried, Celestia kept her words to herself about the night ahead. Even when walking out of the spa with just an hour and a half until sundown, she couldn't think of what to say.
In silence, they walked together into the Everfree Forest, taking old trails and paths—even having to fly over a gorge together—until they reached the castle.
"Look up, Joyce."
Turning her head skyward, Joyce watched as twilight began, but what was more important was the stars—they ringed the moon.
The world around them went silent as those stars flashed in intensity, and then the equine head on the moon vanished.
"Welcome home, sister," Celestia said. "I'm sorry."
"You think sorry will save you?!" Nightmare Moon stalked around Celestia. "You think anything you could say would make up for a thousand years on the moon?!" Fury boiled up inside and Nightmare Moon reveled in it. She stoked the fire of her anger simply by looking at Celestia, but something else caught her eye. "Joyce…"
"Forgive me if I don't curtsy, Your Highness." Joyce stepped forward without hesitation and reached out with her wings to hug Nightmare Moon. "And forgive my familiarity, but I think you deserve this."
The surprise of the hug disarmed Nightmare Moon's anger for several moments. She'd spent too long talking long hours with Joyce for it to feel bad, and before she knew it she lifted her own midnight wings and pulled Joyce into an embrace. "Thank you."
Smiling and squeezing for all she was worth, Joyce could hear the sound of hoofsteps approaching. Breaking from the hug, she turned and spread her wings to defend Nightmare Moon. "Who goes there?"
"You remember me, Joyce? You saved my life with the magic she gave you, and I've saved others." Sharp Fang wore the night like a cloak of darkness—something she shared with the other two bat ponies. Stepping closer, she made no attempt to defend herself. "We came, Your Highness."
"We had to come. Your magic called us." Phil ruffled his wings but made no move to action. "And I fucking hate that. You give us an order again and I'll come with a warband. Got it?"
The fire of anger boiling off Phil sang to Nightmare Moon and caused her to laugh gaily. "I honestly didn't mean to. This was simply my magic returning to me and nothing more. I'll teach you how to resist it."
"What of me, Sister?" Celestia's voice plunged those around her into silence. "I won't fight you."
"I should strike you down here and now, Sister, but I made a promise to somepony we both call friend. I have plans for this night. I will reveal myself to the ponies of…"
"Ponyville," Joyce said.
"… to the ponies of Ponyville, thank you Joyce, and I will challenge them to find the best and most furious. Oh yes, I know I'll need a small army to take Canterlot, so I'll raise one, but first I need to know who is the strongest, most cunning, and I will reward them with a seat beside my throne." Looking at Joyce, Nightmare Moon winced at the worry in her eyes. "I will avoid harming anypony."
"Good. Start with your sister. I'll ensure she doesn't escape while you carry out your game." Joyce couldn't believe that she'd say such a thing or that Nightmare Moon would break into laughter at the command.
"You are too smart by half, Joyce Mango. Very well, you will be my sister's keeper. I trust she won't try to get away from you and/or harm you in the process." Nightmare Moon rounded on the three other bat ponies. "Keep them company if you wish. You are free to leave—you have my word."
"And when will we expect you back?" Phil asked.
"Just before the dawn that never comes."