"You are a fool, dear sister." The silky voice of the Princess of the Night slid into the bedroom between the pattering of rain against the window and the howling of wind outside, even as the princess herself coalesced out of the shadows of the storm. Celestia looked up from where she lay before the crackling fire in the hearth to meet her sister's eyes with a slight frown.

"I don't know what you mean, Luna."

"You know exactly what I mean." The shadowy figure stepped forward, towering over her sister. "A thousand years you were gone, a thousand years I was alone--again!--and for what?"

"You know full well why I did it, Luna," Celestia answered gently. "The wound needed time to heal. Equestria needed time to heal. My presence would have only worn at the scab."

"Equestria needed time to forget, you mean," her sister spat. "To forget your involvement. To forget that it was you who stole our Twilight Sparkle from us."

Anger flashed across Celestia's face, but then it was gone, quickly replaced again by her serene mask. "It was not my hoof that took her life, Luna."

"And I made them believe that. For a thousand years I manipulated the story of the Lost Princess. I told it and retold it until your sins were buried with the passage of time. Until they were ready to welcome you back with open hearts. And what do I get for a thousand years spent ruling alone in your stead? What do I get for a thousand years without the sister who I had only just been reunited with?"

"You get a healed Equestria and a healed sister, Luna. The wound in my own heart needed time too, you--"

"I got a mare who had learned nothing from her mistakes! A mare who still clings to the past. But did you tell your dear sister? No, of course not! You hid it, because you're ashamed!" Luna's voice rose as she spoke, and her wings flared outward as she towered over her sister, her mane snapping angrily as if caught by the wind outside. Celestia shook her head.

"I was going to tell you, Luna, it just hadn't come up. Really, you need to calm down. You're letting your passions get the better of you."

"I think it's your passions that we should worry about, dear sister."

"Now, Luna, that's not--"

"Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?" A new voice broke into their conversation, barely above the pounding of the rain. The princesses turned to see a young, blue-coated unicorn filly watching them from under the bangs of her tousled magenta mane. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard shouting."

Celestia's impassive expression melted immediately into a gentle smile. "Everything is fine, Evening Star. Princess Luna and I were just talking."

"Okay. Can Miss Smarty Pants and I sleep with you tonight?" The filly held up a ragged doll that she had been carrying across her back. "She's scared of the thunder."

Celestia laughed lightly and lifted a wing, and the filly trotted over and nestled snugly against her side. "Of course you can." She looked up again into her sister's eyes, which were now filled with undisguised disgust. "All wounds heal with time, Luna. And it's high time that I realized that and stopped keeping myself so distant from our little ponies." She leaned down for a moment to gently nuzzle the young unicorn at her side. "Don't you agree, my faithful student?"