To godzillafan1: Yes, Bright Star is Passion Breeze's ancestor. However, even more than carrying a thousand year old curse from the princess, Passion's connection to her goes even deeper than that. I'll be giving you a very juicy bit in the chapter after this one explaining that connection so just keep on reading.

To Bowenross (and anyone else who's wondering): I don't get writer's block very often but the computer i'm using isn't actually mine, which is why i'm hustling to post as many chapters as possible before someone else decides to keep it for a few days. As long as I have this computer in my possession you can expect a couple of chapters a week at least.

In response to an anonymous PM: Passion Breeze is personal OC. I don't have a picture of him other than one I drew which I won't give a link to due to my terrible artistic ability. I paint beautiful pictures with words (me and my big head) but not so much with a brush. As soon as I can I will get someone to do a decent redrawing of him that does his massive wings a bit of justice. (they're about one and a half times the size of Celestia's wings. He's the same height as Big Macintosh but he's more thin and long because he's a pegasus. He's a dull gold color and his mane and wings are a spectrum of red, orange and metallic gold. His mane reaches down to his knees and is braided down one side and his tail is braided as well. The reason for his rediculous proportions is because he has Alicorn blood in him but before anyone freaks out about Mary Su OCs, no he will never turn into an Alicorn, no he's not faster than Rainbow Dash, and no he's not long lost royalty. He's an "ordinary" pegasus with an odd talent.)

Now without further ado, back to Saving Passion

PassionBreeze

Chapter 3:

The Dark Side Of The Moon

I snapped back from the memory to find that the original crowd in the Communal district had made its way down to the south section. The amphitheatre was still the same as I remembered it, even down to the pristine statues of the princesses over the glass ceiling. Even the music shop from that night was still open with the same bench outside where I'd given Octavia her cello.

Obviously some kind of party was taking place by the amphitheatre, and I was sure it was just the thing to lighten my sour mood. A drink might be nice too…

As I stepped to the front of the crowd I came face to face with an old friend of mine. Her coat was a sky blue and her mane and tail was a wash of all the hues I could imagine. Even her cutie mark, showing a single cloud and a multicolored lightning bolt, displayed her carefree and energetic personality for all to see.

"Hey!" She shouted as I bumped into her on accident, "Why don't you watch where you're going pal!?"

Admittedly Rainbow Dash was one of the brashest mares I'd ever met in my life, even as a filly, but she was also the first to risk her life for a friend. That at least was something we both shared.

"Well, hello to you too, Rainbow Crash." I laughed as the crowd roared again. I saw now what the entire populace of Canterlot had come here to see. I also realized how arrogant my entrance may have seemed as the Wonderbolts finally stole the attention of the crowd back from my massive wings.

Rainbow's eyes lit up as she turned to look me full on. At first she'd seemed as though she'd make a scene over the name I'd called her. As she recognized me though, a wide grin split her features.

"Passion Breeze!?" Rainbow laughed, throwing her hooves around my neck. "If you were anypony else I'd have put a hoof through your teeth for that. I haven't seen you since…"

"Octavia." I interrupted, remembering the interaction happily. Before I'd moved to my home in the sky, Rainbow Dash had visited me at the palace where Celestia had taken me after my… episode. In one of her softer moments, she'd given me a kiss on the cheek before 'granting me with her respect' and telling me never to mention the meeting again.

"Octavia, that's right!" Shouted Rainbow Dash. The crowd was beginning to die down as the Wonderbolts finished their performance with Spitfire dive bombing the stage and disappearing into a trap door we couldn't see from ground level. The crowd cheered wildly before going back to their nightly routines and enjoying the glittering scenery of Canterlot. "Where have you been, Passion? Nopony from school's heard from you since that night."

I could have sworn, I heard a bit of trepidation in her voice as she pried into my life, like she had some ulterior motive for asking. With the moonstone around my neck, though, I couldn't tell. "I couldn't come near the ground after that." I sighed, looking at the cobblestones in embarrassment… something else I hadn't felt in years. "Now I have this though." I smiled, showing off the white stone. "I can't feel it anymore."

"What is it?"

"Moonstone." I laughed, though I refused to explain what it did or where it was from. I was still reconciling a life of lies…

"Well, since you're here, you should come hang with me." Rainbow laughed, brushing off my depressing story nonchalantly. "I'm going to go kick it with the Wonderbolts and I'm sure they'd love to see those wings."

I laughed for real for the first time in years as I followed Rainbow Dash around the back of the amphitheatre. She had a way of making even the darkest of situations seem lighthearted and easy. Like she could handle anything and she made you feel like you could too. It was a feeling I wasn't used to.

I took the city in for the first time since I'd landed near the fountain back in the north section of the district. The white spires rose so far to the heavens they seemed to bend over you, and yet the communal district was so huge and open, being the part of Canterlot that housed everything from simple sweet shops to five star diners, that you felt as though you could see for miles. The architecture also had a way of drawing your eyes to the sky, where billions of stars glistened brightly, painting a picture even more beautiful than the shining city.

Rainbow Dash lead me through a door in the side of the huge stage, which opened right out into the district so that any show could be viewed all the way in the back. Underneath the stage, which spanned a good two hundred yards across the south wall of the district, a giant prep room opened into the ground under the entire district.

Most of the shops in the district stored supplies in basements under the street right in front of their doors, but the prep room reached all the way back to the fountain a good four hundred yards out. Most of the communal districts floor was actually a trap door that could be pulled back to make an even bigger stage. Usually for larger celebrations like the Summer Sun Festival the floor would retract under the amphitheatre stage and allow giant shows to be put on for the crowd, who would take to the rooftops instead.

The Wonderbolts had set up shop for the weekend right under the amphitheatre, so they were right there unwinding when we walked in. Spitfire herself walked right up to Rainbow Dash and the two started chatting like old friends. As a young colt, I'd always wanted to see the underside of the district, but had never gotten the chance. Since I probably wouldn't get another one, I decided to take a stroll through the prep room instead of just hanging around.

Props from different seasonal celebrations, like nightmare night or hearth's warming eve, were stored in the huge, cavern like space. The prep room was sort of like a maze, making it easy to get lost in my own thoughts as I walked along in between giant scarecrows and mountains of red and green holiday lights.

Being on the ground again was an odd but welcome feeling. Solid earth just didn't feel the same as clouds and it didn't move on its own. The knowledge that this gift of peace in my own head was only possible because of that monstrous mare only brought that same spitting rage to the fore of my thoughts. I stopped before a large mirror, probably for some sort of trick or illusion, and glared at the white stone resting below my throat. I cursed the princess as I studied it… she'd brought me too much pain to ask my forgiveness.

Without thinking I reared back and slammed my hooves into the mirror, shattering it so that the pieces fell to the floor, throwing reflections of holiday lights around the small pocket of open space in the prep room. White light flared up behind me as the last bits of glass clinked against the ground. At first I thought it was just another reflection, but then I saw the shadow of a true goddess standing behind me.

"So that monster that cursed us…" I breathed, gritting my teeth in near uncontrollable fury. "She was your own flesh and blood."

"I didn't keep such an important secret from you willingly."

"But you kept it nonetheless…"

"There are many faults a ruler must accept in herself in order to rule justly, Passion Breeze." Celestia whispered, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "The betrayal of one's own blood is one of them…"

I sighed as I learned yet another of Nightmare Moon's treacheries. Not just betraying the princess of Equestria, but now I knew the two to be sisters as well.

Celestia sighed as she peered at herself in a shard of glass. Her eyes were watery and she seemed uneasy on her own hooves. "You must think that I mean to say Luna committed some sort of treason against me." She sighed… "Unfortunately it's the other way around."

My breath caught in my throat. I knew it was petty and begrudging, but I couldn't bear the thought of Luna not being the antagonist in any altercation she might be a part of. Chalk it up to my upbringing that there was no good in Nightmare Moon in my mind, and there never would be.

"I was foolish and young at the time." The princess continued, this time turning to walk ahead of me and not bothering to wait for me to follow. "I thought there could be no wrong in my kingdom, but I was naïve, and committed the worst crime of all…"

I struggled to keep up with Celestia as she strode further into the maze of decorations and props. I myself was quite large by any normal stallion's standards, but the princess towered over everypony, her long legs giving her a near unmatchable pace.

"I turned my back on Luna." She continued. "I let myself be blinded by my own false glory. I left her to suffer in the shadows as I basked in the praise of our subjects. Luna would always be my first priority, but as I lost sight of what truly mattered to me, she began to hate what I was becoming."

"You mean to tell me that attempting to enslave a kingdom through fear and destroy the hearts of its people is justifiable?" I laughed, a cynical tone creeping into my voice. "If you truly believe that you disserved what she put you through, then I won't try to tell you otherwise, but you aren't the only one she hurt."

"You are so lost, young one." Celestia whispered, a tear falling to the floor as she hid her face in her hair. I didn't need my powers to feel her pain. Somehow she truly believed that my agony until now was her own fault. "Luna was once the most compassionate mare I'd ever known. She would go out of her way to bring joy and peace to her subjects. She took such great care and strife to paint the night in thousands of jewels every evening. She positioned everything just right so that anypony who might walk out their door would look up and bask in their own private heaven."

Celestia stopped as we reached the pipes underneath the fountain at the far end of the communal district. Water sprayed from small spaces between the junctions in the plumbing, creating a mist that glistened against the princess' white coat. The image would be beautiful and surreal were it not for our present topic of conversation

"After a while though, the ponies ceased to walk out their doors at night. Instead they bathed themselves in the warmth of the sun and cast Luna off much as I had. We'd all betrayed her, and that betrayal made her the vile creature you've grown to hate so vehemently." Celestia smiled and looked back to me, staring me in the eyes as if trying to convey some life altering message. "She sounded just like you before the end. Cursing us all for putting her through such pain…"

"You're trying to tell me that your sister and I are one and the same, right?" I laughed. "Well, it's not true princess. She tried to enslave the ones who had betrayed her… I simply walked away from the mare who cursed me." I turned to walk back the way I'd come, but as I did so, Celestia said something that tore my heart.

"Is it so different the way you turned your back on her? Would it not feel the same?"

I know this chapter is a bit short, but I thought that was a good place to stop, not to mention some juicy drama in the next chapter. I hope I did as well with this chapter as I did the last two because I felt like I spent quite a bit of time focusing on Celestia's complicated monologue. Then again, when does Celestia ever have a two sided conversation with anypony? I hope you enjoyed that heart felt confession that you all already knew about. Loving the reviews so far. godzillafan1, i'm glad you have such an interest in Passion Breeze. I try to make his character a little more... mysterious, i guess. Due to living a life without much social interaction he has a hard time interacting with others unless he can feel their emotions outright. I plan for him to grow as a character throughout the story but right now we're in the process of breaking down a few rough layers in his personality. To put it simply, he naturally distrusts other ponies.

Well, once again, please review and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

PassionBreeze