The Palace of Night and Day, Canterlot, three years later

Canterlot!

The City of Marble Spires! The Home of the Sun Queen! The Eternal Citadel of Harmony!

The glorious capital of the great nation of Equestria bathed in the luminous glow of the moonlight, its gleaming white buildings and their many windows reflecting the multihued explosions of the fireworks that rocketed out into the clear night sky before letting loose their load, punctuating the air with bangs and bright lights. Below, the streets thronged with all manner of ponies and other creatures as they happily disregarded the midwinter chill to be part of the annual Winter Solstice celebration.

In each of the districts in each of the six Quarters, the sounds of giddy revelry and merrymaking blended with the beating of drums, the singing of ballads, the music of the guitars and fiddles and all manner of instruments. In Steamville, the factory hooves bellowed drunkenly as concertinas and out-of-tune pianos belted out oom-pah drinking songs. The heavy bass and kit could just be heard coming out of central plaza, over the screams of the adoring fans of whatever mediocre group was playing there. Out in Ivory Town, unicorn couples and earth nobles lay on blankets on the grass in Sir Magnus Park, as the flowing melodies of the orchestra drifted out over their heads and into their happy minds.

Oh, Twilight, Rarity wondered, staring down on the city below, Why did you bring me here?

She rested her head in her hooves, not caring for the tutted disapproval of the nobles behind her. She was at the Winter Solstice Ball, having not been home for more than a day before her old friend Twilight Sparkle had shown up at her studio in Amber Square, and dragged her along, first to the Moonraising Ceremony and then on to the reception at the palace. She had planned to have a quiet night. Watch the moon from her studio flat. Perhaps have a little drink...

I wouldn't mind quite nearly so much if she hadn't left me in the company of all these boors, she realised, raising her head. Where did she even get to?

All around the Palace ballroom, the rich and the royal ambled too and fro, eating, drinking, socialising, dancing, all in that polite, moderate manner that high society assumed outside their homes and flung to one side when they were confident nopony was watching. Even the music was moderate to the point of being boring - a string quartet played classical arrangements over in one corner, but the sound was barely audible over the chatter and step of hoof on marble.

Twilight had stood beside her throughout the ceremony, oohing and aahing with the rest of the crowd as the spectacular display of magic, complemented by fireworks and aerial displays, had unfolded, and had walked with her, chatting amiably about her year away as they made their way up the marble stairs of Canterlot's Fourth Quarter to the Palace. But they had become separated in the entrance hall as the Princesses' guests filed through to ballroom, and Rarity had not seen her since. That had been over two hours ago, and, with the desire to mingle with high society having long fallen off her agenda, but without wanting to leave without informing Twilight, she had consigned herself to a table by the bay window, doing what she had always planned to do. Watch the moon. And have a little drink... Her head sank back down slowly to rest on the glass table.

"Is everything quite alright?" a kindly voice asked from somewhere above her head.

"Yes," stated the white unicorn without looking up. "I am stuck in a room with ponies I do not wish to talk to, waiting for a friend who I do not even know if she will return or not, listening to music that I cannot hear over the din of boasting and self-promotion, and all of this after I only returned home from a year touring the country only yesterday. I am quite exhausted. So yes," she concluded, looking up finally. "Everything is quite - Princess Celestia!" she gasped, as the ruler of all Equestria chuckled down at her.

She was quite something to behold. Whereas both her coat and Rarity's were a pure white, Celestia's fur seem to glow somehow, the hair on her body gleaming in a way Rarity had never quite managed - and she had tried - to replicate for herself. Her mane rippled behind her like sunlight through water, the bizarrely flowing colours drifting lazily from her scalp until floating off into the ether at the end of her hair, which floated despite there being no breeze. Between her bright, amused eyes was a long, tapered horn quite larger and sharper than Rarity's own, and her royal regalia glinted in the ballroom's light, her ruby tiara and matching torc providing a relatively simple, if valuable, symbol of authority.

Rarity realised her mouth was hanging open. To be so brazen to anypony in attendance tonight was quite unlike her, but to have insulted the ball that the Princess had thrown in her sister's honour to her face - well. She awaited Celestia's response with a look of growing horror.

"I know exactly how you feel," whispered the Princess. "Come on. Shall we take a stroll?" If anything, Rarity's bewildered gawping intensified as she watched the Princess stride towards the entrance hall. Glancing out at the rest of the room, she looked on the rich and powerful Canterlot elite and realised she was being offered an escape route. Getting to her hooves, she trotted after the Princess as fast as she could without breaking into a run.

Celestia had been waiting for her in the entryway. Once Rarity caught up, she set off again, making for the doors to the front of the Palace. The portal stood wide open, flanked by gold-armoured guards on either side, who saluted the Princess as she strode through, making for the gardens.

"Ah, your highness," Rarity blustered, "I really hope it isn't a problem, my, um, being here, that is. I-"

Celestia, still walking forwards, looked back to give her a curious stare. "Why on earth would it be a problem, dear?"

"Well, I was never invited, as such. I came with Twilight, but she never-"

Celestia smiled. "If Twilight Sparkle asked you here tonight Rarity, then you are as welcome as if I had penned an invitation to you myself. Please, relax. I suppose it's what you've been trying to do all evening after all."

Rarity halted her tirade and stopped still on the path. She took a deep breath, let it out calmly, and then caught up with the Princess once more.

"I'm sorry, Princess," she admitted, "I'm just - I'm terribly tired right now, I only got back to Canterlot yesterday evening and I was hoping for a quiet night in. I wasn't expecting Twilight to hear I got back quite so soon - and she was most enthusiastic to see me.""

"I understand," said Celestia with a knowing smile. "She was much the same under my tutelage. You've had quite the year, haven't you?"

"I should say!" Rarity agreed enthusiastically, "I never imagined I'd be... Well, Sweetie Belle is the performer in the family, not me. But it just sort of... Happened, you know?"

Celestia nodded. "It was very good of you to step in. I hear you were quite the showstopper," she noted. "I was sorry that I couldn't find time to come and see the show myself. The Mare of the Eastern Front is a spectacular book, very moving... I... Well, I remember the Eastern War, Rarity, I remember how cruel it was... The book was very accurate, very well written. I have a copy myself..."

"Well," Rarity went on, "Lucinda Limelight has made an amazing recovery after the accident, and, well, I was quite ready to move on. Curtain Call told me I didn't have to go, that I had done a stunning performance, but I didn't want to linger on in the place of the pony who rightfully deserved to be there."

"How gracious of you."

Around the far side of the Palace, the gardens stretched out to the border with Earth Quarter, spilling down the sides of Mount Canter to the level of the city below. The topiary and statue gardens were situated at the bottom, while flower displays were arranged on the hillside. At the top, on the west side of the palace, were the formal and animal gardens outside the ballroom. But the Princess and Rarity had arrived at an entirely different part of the gardens, Celestia's own favourite area. They stood at the edges of the royal arboretum.

"Have you ever been here before, Rarity?" she asked. Rarity shook her head, the curls of her indigo mane bouncing about. "Hm," Celestia mused. "I think we should have a look around, don't you?" Without waiting for a response, she began to walk towards the shadow of the trees, and once again Rarity found herself trailing in her wake.

"Twilight was very glad when you came to Canterlot with her, Rarity," the Princess went on. "I was worried that she was going to slip back into her old anti-social habits when she came back to study for her PhD. It really was a good thing that you were there to keep her mindful of the values of strong friendship."

"Oh, Princess," Rarity confessed, "if anything it's a good job she was here for me. I mean, I may have... Had a little breakdown shortly after I moved." She looked up at the Princess guiltily, only to meet her ever-present smile once more.

"I know, dear," Celestia revealed. "Twilight told me after she came back from talking to you about it."

"She did?" Rarity gasped, affronted. "But she promised she wouldn't tell anypony!"

"Well, she came to the Castle in a rather sorry state. I think she was rather upset for you," Celestia explained kindly. "I had to find out what was wrong to make sure she was alright. I mean, I was her mentor. I still am, I suppose."

They crossed into the fringes of the arboretum. The artificial forest consisted of specimens imported from all over the world and replanted in the Castle grounds. Sustained outside of their natural habitats and in the deep Winter by magic, mighty redwoods and ancient oak trees stood next to mahoganies, baobabs, and leafy palms, their many varied leaves rustling gently in the night breeze.

"It was a rather embarrassing circumstance," Rarity admitted. "I've certainly gotten over it since then. But I had only been in the city for a week before I realised just how snobbish the landed elite could truly be - and after a lifetime of, admittedly, aspiring to be like them, it was, well-" She faltered a little "-Crushing."

"You'd spent time around them before, of course? I remember Twilight's seventeenth..."

"Ah, yes, haha," Rarity tittered at the mortifying memories. "Well, that proved to me that there are some diamonds in the rough, of course, but-"

"-But you weren't too bothered to dig for them?" the Princess offered.

"Well, I suppose so, yes." Rarity found that quite fitted what she was thinking. "After so long living in Ponyville and imagining what Canterlot life would be like, it... Didn't really match my expectations." She frowned. "Having stayed in the Palace and acquainted myself with that charming Mr. Fancy Pants last time meant I didn't quite get the real city experience. And, of course, this time I was still upset about Rainbow's disappearance, but I trust you and Twilight when you say she's OK. But I digress - last time I was in Canterlot..."

Celestia listened to Rarity's monologue with growing amusement. After letting her talk for some time as they strolled, she sat down on the grass beneath a giant old tree, motioning for Rarity to join her. The unicorn looked up in wonderment at the great plant, the likes of which she had never seen - like many of the trees in the arboretum, it was not native to Equestria, of that she was sure, but unlike the palm on the edge of the grove it did not look out of place.

"I remember Twilight telling me all your woes," Celestia said. "When I came into the ballroom tonight and saw you on your own, I thought to myself, 'Celestia, you have to get her out of there'. I'm afraid I had to give priority to my other guests, unfortunately. Purely out of courtesy."

"I understand," Rarity agreed.

"Quite. I don't think the Prime Minister would be happy if I didn't congratulate him on his successful defense of the party leadership in order to go strolling with a mare nobody knew." She looked up at the sky, where the full moon hung in the clear, mid-Winter sky. Her expression turned philosophical for a moment as she gazed at the orb, thinking about times gone by, but her musings were interrupted by a sudden chattering of teeth.

"P-p-p-princess C-c-c-celestia," Rarity stammered, "is it m-m-me, or d-did it j-j-just get c-c-c-colder?"

"I'm sorry, little one," the Princess replied guiltily. "No, it didn't. I was using my magic to keep you warm after we left the Palace. It is the Winter Solstice tonight, after all - it was bound to be rather chilly. I'm afraid I must have let my concentration slip for a moment."

"Thank you," Rarity said gratefully, as the bitter cold that had seeped into her skin so quickly evaporated once more. "I wasn't aware you were doing it," she admitted. "I've never met anypony who can cast magic so subtly."

"Ah," said Celestia with a conspiratorial wink. "Comes with the job."

Silence fell between them, and Rarity's gaze wandered. The transported woodland around them was a beautiful sight. Illuminated during the dark Winter's night by lanterns hanging on little stands every few feet, she could see above them the spear-shaped leaves of the ancient tree they sat at fluttering in the cold breeze which she herself did not feel.

"It's very refreshing to see green leaves in the dead of Winter," she observed.

"Yes," agreed Celestia, "I have them kept that way by the gardeners. Earth pony magic can do remarkable things when it goes against the flow of nature - although, some may say that nature itself is even more remarkable."

"I suppose that's why I had the arboretum built," the Princess pondered. "Whilst we ponies may influence the world with our magic and our actions, what we really do is help along an old design. I revel in seeing the world as how it is meant to be, not how it is, even if only from my doorstep."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Rarity, confused.

"Oh," Celestia mumbled awkwardly. She swallowed. "I... I think that would be a story better told by Twilight Sparkle."

"What story?" asked the dressmaker-turned-actress. "Princess, I'm afraid I simply don't understand what you're trying to tell me."

I didn't mean to tell you, Celestia berated herself. That's part of the problem.

"I think," she said, trying to extricate herself from the metaphorical hole she was digging, "that we should go back to the Palace and try and find Twilight. I suppose you're owed an explanation. I mean - well, Twilight's recent work has had... Quite a few impacts on your life recently."

"If you mean you and her sending away some of my best friends on secret business, then yes, I suppose you're right. At least Rainbow Dash gave us a warning that she was going to leave, but I was rather annoyed when I heard Spike and Shining Armor were going last year as well." Rarity grumped, indignant at the Princess' reluctance to speak. "But then again, who am I to argue with the Sun Queen?"

Celestia gave her an odd look, only serving to confuse Rarity more. "The Sun Queen?" asked the Princess. "Do you - I mean, is that what you think of me?"

"Is what what I think of you?" asked Rarity, her voice becoming increasingly frustrated. "It's just a nickname, Princess. I - I'm sorry, your highness," she said, as she remembered once again who she was talking to. "I forgot myself."

"Oh, no!" Celestia hastily replied, "don't be! I find it incredibly frustrating when ponies always treat me as the Eternal Princess Celestia and I can't just have a normal conversation."

"Really?"

"Oh yes!" insisted the Princess, nodding. "It's why I came out here in the first place! Of all the scrapers and bowers in all Equestria, the nobles are by far the most insistent."

"But that is what you are, though, isn't it?" asked Rarity. "I really - I mean, you can't blame them. I mean, you've always ruled Equestria, haven't you? I - I'm sorry, but I have to wonder what you did before Equestria was founded."

"I wasn't born when Equestria was founded," admitted Celestia, sighing. She glanced to her right to see Rarity's astounded expression. "You see, that's what everypony seems to think. That I've always been here, raising the sun, and dear Luna has always controlled the moon. Twilight used to think that too. So much so, in fact, that her PhD was in studying alicorn magic - that is, the magic of my race - I had to tell her the truth before she found it out herself, so she would know that I trusted her with it." Rarity's face was still the picture of astonishment.

"And... Well, what is the truth then?"

"Like I said, I think this would be a story better told by Twilight Sparkle."

"Oh," begged Rarity, "but it's your story, Princess. It would be so much more interesting to hear it from you."

"I - I think that - very well, Rarity, I will tell you some of the more important parts," Celestia reluctantly agreed. "However, I warn you now that I may not last especially long in this."

"Whatever do you mean?"

There was silence once more for a moment, before the Princess spoke again. "This tree," she said slowly, gazing up at the fluttering leaves above them, "is a manaleaf tree. The last in the world. It is older than me. It is older than Equestria itself. It grew naturally, not with Earth pony guidance, not with Unicorn magic, and with rain that came independently of the pegasus folk. Once upon a time, all these things came naturally to the world, as did everything. The great fires beneath the earth burned unchecked. Magic was wild and untamed. And the sun and the moon moved across the sky quite by themselves.

"When my grandfather, King Steelmane, found this place, he established a fortress here as a strategic hold. He didn't know that it would go on to become the crown Palace. He also didn't know I would still be here so long after he found it.

"I used to come out here when I was very young, when I had finished my magic lessons for the day with my mother, or on long weekend days when my sister visited from the capital, I would sit out under this very tree and read a book, or talk to Luna about how she had been getting on with grandfather."

"It was under this very tree that I sat and watched as the sun and the moon stopped moving. There was twilight for... At least a month. Maybe more. Under this tree, me and my sister decided that we had had enough, and we commanded the sun to set and the moon to rise with our magic. We hardly expected it to work. We had no idea what it working meant for us. But as time went by, it became clear. The universe wanted us to keep doing what we did that day. It gave us the power to do our job, and refused to let us go. All things used to happen independently of ponykind - the weather, the growth of trees, the changing of the seasons - but, well... Times changed.

"After my coronation as Diarch of Equestria, alongside my sister, we had a portrait painted stood in the shade of this tree. It currently hangs in the Weaver Street Art Gallery. Me and my husband took our wedding vows here..." Rarity gasped at this revelation. "And... And after..."

Her voice choked a little as her story went on. "I came out here after mother died," she continued. "After my... After my husband, and my... All of them... After they passed away," she sniffed as tears began to run down her cheeks. "And... And every night I could, after Luna... After Luna... Left..."

She paused, trying to compose herself, but she couldn't pull it together. Sobs began to rack her ancient body as she slumped, her wings spreading against the ground. "I would come out here, every night I could, and talk to her," she cried, "under this very tree. I would talk to the moon, and sometimes I thought I heard it speak back. But it was probably just my mind, cracking after so long. So many y-years..."

Rarity didn't know what to say. There had been a part of her, a quiet part of her mind, that had thought Celestia had always existed. That she had always done what she did, raising the sun, and, when occasion called for it, the moon as well. She had assumed that the Princess was, to some extent, some kind of deity, a goddess in Equine form, but now Princess Celestia had admitted that she had had a mother and a normal birth and a grandfather and even a husband - she had been married, goodness knew how many thousands of years ago - she suddenly realised that Celestia, despite her initial reluctance, had been aching to tell this story all along.

"Oh, your highness, I - oh, you poor dear," she managed to say, not sure how one should behave when confronted with a crying, ancient, god-like being. She settled for laying a hoof on the Princess' shoulder. "It must be so hard, all this time with only your sister... Still with you. And not even her, at times. Oh, Princess, I'm sorry," Rarity consoled her, "but... Be strong, dear. You've done a wonderful job for so, so, long now, I don't even know how long...

"Ah -" she said, raising a hoof as the Princess made to reply, "a lady never reveals her age." She smiled. "But take pride in what you've done, dear. I'm sure wherever your loved ones are, they're smiling on you now."

Celestia sniffed. "Maybe..." she said, wiping her foreleg across her eyes. "Maybe..." She turned her gaze once more to the leaves of the ancient tree. "And maybe, one day, when my task here is done, I shall join them once more. I always take hope in that." She smiled at Rarity, with the sadness of thousands of years in her glistening eyes. "Because otherwise there is only despair."

She sat up. "I haven't told many ponies my tale," she admitted. "I didn't know if it was right of me. But... Well, Twilight knows. And I told... I told your friend Rainbow Dash before she left..." Rarity had to bite her tongue at the mention of Rainbow. She missed her brash old friend dearly, and only a select few knew where she had gone, herself not included. But this was Celestia's moment, not Rainbow's.

"I don't tell many ponies because I think they might think I long for death," she said, morbidly. "I do believe in life after death, Rarity, magic has shown me truths about the soul and the world that very few others have seen. And, if the myths are to be believed, the Fair Lands beyond the Dread Gate are kind to all who find them. I hope to see them one day..."

Silence fell once more. The stars twinkled in the indigo-blue sky above them as Rarity gazed at the moon, the satellite that she had watched Celestia's sister Princess Luna raise, in front of the whole city, only a few hours ago. She smiled as she remembered that fateful day, eleven years ago now, when she and Twilight Sparkle and her friends from Ponyville had saved Luna from the darkness that had consumed her. Only now did she realise how much that must have meant to Princess Celestia.

Finally, Celestia stood, ruffling her wings and wiping her eyes. She seemed to have finally recovered herself. "Come along, Rarity. We should go and find Twilight Sparkle... Or should I say, Dr. Sparkle. She may be wondering where you got to, although, if she is where I suspect she is, she probably won't have given it too much thought - although that's not a slight on you, of course, she just... Well, we'll see." She smiled down at Rarity, who stood at only half her own height. "Thank you for listening to an old nag's ramblings," she said.

"Thank you for sharing them with me," Rarity replied, smiling back in turn. "I really think that - Eek!"

Suddenly, in a burst of technicolour flame, a scroll materialised in front of Celestia's muzzle and fell to the ground. Rarity fell back, startled, and the Princess' jaw dropped open.

"I recognise that magic," she whispered. "She's alive."

"Who is?" asked Rarity, pulling herself to her hooves, as Celestia tore open the letter with magic and began to read, eyes flicking back and forth across the page at an incredible rate. "Princess, who is it from?"

"By the sun," Celestia moaned. "The Fair Lands... I... Oh, all my days..."

"Celestia," Rarity shook her, forgetting all formalities. The Princess had just trusted her with some of her deepest secrets and now she was determined not to see her upset again. "Who's alive? What's that about the Fair Lands?"

"It's Rainbow Dash," Celestia whispered, holding the letter to her chest in a hoof, staring blankly ahead as she processed the correspondence. "I mean, I knew she was alive, I just hadn't heard from her... It's been two years since she last wrote... Now, we really must find Twilight," she stated, and set off at a gallop towards the Palace, and Rarity dashed as fast as she could to keep up, shedding her ball shoes to help her run.

"Princess!" Rarity gasped. "Wait!" Celestia slowed a little. Her long legs and ageless physique meant she could easily outpace Rarity, but as she idled for a moment by the Castle wall she was clearly impatient. Once they remet, they set off again at a pace Rarity could match, ignoring the protests of the guards and the shrieks of the startled ball-going nobles as they dashed through the entrance hall and up the staircase, making for the Palace's east wing. Celestia slowed a little as she entered a corridor, and began to talk rapidly.

"Rarity, listen very carefully and do not interrupt, for what I am about to say is incredibly important. Three and a half years ago, I sent Rainbow Dash away to search for something, something integral to the world itself. I sent her to search for the origin point of the Elements of Harmony, after Twilight realised that their magic was decaying."

"Decaying? Wha-"

"Hush!" Celestia insisted as they rounded a corner. The mixed red and blue hangings of the castle gave way to just blues now. "I sent Rainbow to search for their origins so that she could look for a way to repair them. I told her to go on hoof, because on the ground the magic of the Element she carried with her would mingle with the natural magic of the ground and the creatures that dwell there. That way, she would be harder for our enemies to track her down."

"Your enemies-"

"Quiet!" Celestia barked, as they embarked upon a spiral staircase, winding its long way upwards through the Palace. "It took her a long time to make the trip. Her and her two bodyguards took a year to reach Port Bridle when they could have flown there in less than I day, because I insisted they stay on the ground and avoid conventional transport. After they tried to fly away from the Great Fire of Pitsburgh, a unicorn sorcerer blasted them out of the sky. They were very lucky to escape from that alive."

Rarity gasped. "So then... Did she find the source?" This time, Celestia did not silence her. They came to a stop, bursting through a pair of double doors onto a balcony, which wound round to another set of double doors in the tower they had just ran up. This time, Rarity felt the full force of the cold and wind as she realised Celestia's magic was no longer protecting her.

"No, Rarity, she did not. According to this letter, she has found something else. Another source of magic that has broken down. She does not know what it is, but from her description, I think I can guess at what it might be." She raised a hoof to knock on the door to her sister's chambers. Inside, Rarity could hear the laughter of three ponies, all female.

"I only hope you will forgive me, Rarity, for what must happen now." She paused, and then, with great deliberation, rapped thrice on the door with her golden slipper. "For if I am right, then Rainbow Dash has found the only passage to the Fair Lands. The Dread Gate itself. If I am right..." Her voice trailed off and she swallowed deeply.

"Rainbow Dash has found the only way to the Realm of the Dead, and it is closed."

Rarity could only stare in shock as the doors to the Night Princess' chambers swung open to reveal an appalling scene within.