Listen to the beauty of the night
Written by James Vermont
Over 1000 years ago, before the reign of Celestia and Luna, before the crowning of Princess Twilight and the return of the Crystal Empire, Equestria had fallen under a dark shadow. It used to be the magical art of the ponies to raise the sun and moon themselves. The unicorn tribes would gather together to cycle the night and day, to preserve order and harmony. Until one day, a darkness fell, the smoke clouded the sky as three conquerors took Equestria for their own.
First was a unicorn of immense power, his mane was black and flowing, his horn red and his eyes burned with green fire. He began the assault on the great nation of Equestria, he used his magical amulet to magnify his powers, making him more powerful than any Unicorn to stand against him.
Second was The Changeling Queen, whoes armies devastated the defending pegasi in the air, taking control of the weather and forcing terrible rain and cold onto the ponies below. The bug like Queen watched as a terrible winter settled on the earth ponies. But their troubles were not over.
For the arrival of the third conqueror marked the end of Equestria. He was made from all creatures, a jumbled up monster of mischief. His power was unheard of, his purpose was chaos. He took control of all of Equestria, and The Changling Queen and Unicorn King became his generals.
There was resistance at first, the unicorns banded together for one final attack, but anticipating this, the monster Discord, now the Ruler of Equestria, had anticipated this, and sent King Sombre and his guards to do the unspeakable. On the eve of the Unicorns attack on Discord, the kings guards searched every home, found every Unicorn, and used Sombre's amulet to purge them of magic.
During the raid, the Earth Pony Leto was giving birth, to a young Unicorn when Sombre's guards burst into their home. Leto's oldest daughter, a white unicorn barely five years of age burst from her mother's room and fled, attempting to distract the guards. The gambit worked, and although the young Celestia lost her powers that night, her young sister Luna was born.
A hope for the future.
One who will end the nightmare.
Fifteen years later
The sun had been up for a mere five minutes before it shot downwards, zigzagging along a random path and changing it's shape with each zig and changing it's color with each zag. Finally it set and the moon rose to take it's place. The moon was in it's standard round shape this evening, maybe she was lucky today, or maybe Discord appreciated the beauty of the night just like Luna did.
The young Unicorn sat on the hill and watched the moon, admiring it's splendour. She thought it so calm and peaceful, she wondered why the other ponies slept through it, shunning such a beautiful night. Luna loved watching the moon, she would sit up all day(Which could last anywhere from five minutes to 14 hours or more) and wait for it to appear, recently she had been sleeping much less often. She wanted to see as much of the night as she could, almost as if she had been studying it.
“Up again at this time of night?” From behind her came the surprisingly regal voice of her older sister Celestia.
“It'll be day time soon anyway, besides, I can't sleep.” Luna bowed her head, her short locks of light blue mane dropped over her eyes as she pawed at the ground with a hoof. Celestia sat next to her, she was at least a head taller than her sister and put a paw around her shoulders and drew her close.
“You need to sleep Luna, it's worrying us.”
Luna shivered and Celestia tightened her protective hold, her sister remained silent.
“Luna?”
“I don't want to miss the night big sister. I want it to last forever.”
Celestia gave her sister a sad smile.
“Not all ponies can appreciate a beautiful night little Sister.”
“No. They cannot.” The two sister watched as the night sky passed by, turned a bright shade of lavender, the moon turned into a balloon and whizzed away, the sun replacing it slowly.
A voice echoed from the bottom of the hill, their mother Leto stood waiting for them. The old mare flicked her long black mane, three tired strands hung constantly in front of her eyes.
"Celestia! Luna!"
The two sisters breathed in sighs of exhaustion. They knew what their mother was calling about. Luna raised her head to look at her older sister.
"Do you think we'll ever stop moving home." Her eyes were large and pleading, Celestia wanted to lie to her, to tell her that they would find a home soon. But she knew they couldn't, staying in one place would endanger Luna, Discord could not be allowed to find her. And so Celestia dipped her head quietly, unable to answer her sister. Luna rose to her feet, she nuzzled Celestia softly, before turning and leading them down the hill to their waiting mother.
And as Celestia reached the end of the path she turned and watched the sun, it's warmth providing them with all the energy they would need for the day, in a way it was more beautiful to her than the moon was to Luna. Not that she would dare say it in front of the younger Unicorn. She closed her eyes for a few moments, letting it's heat touch her coat. For those few moments she was back at home with her parents, her father yet to disappear, her magic still at her hooves, harmony maintained in the world.
"one day little sister" She whispered to herself. "One day we will have a home."
She blinked away the tears and trotted down to join her mother and sister.
Luna
The market rang with the sounds of ponies going about their daily business. The day had been going on for hours now and the air was growing hot and stuffy. Luna kept her head up high, stretching her neck, as she passed the stalls of the market town, glad she could keep her head up at last. It seems they had moved into the Changeling Queen's territory, and they were less concerned about the Unicorns as Sombre's guards were. Back south she had to avoid being seen just so that they wouldn't harass her. Not that she understood why, as far as everyone knew there were no more Unicorns with magic aside from Sombre's guards, but, they were there nonetheless. Here, it was far better to be a Unicorn than a Pegasus. The Changelings controlled the skies and flight was forbidden and punishable by a very painful death.
She moved slowly along the paths, her saddlebags were weighed down with all kinds of fruits and vegetables and she didn't want to go back to their camp just yet. She was enjoying the freedom of being alone. Solitude was, preferable to secrecy. All her life they had been on the run, hopping from one town to the next, searching for a Unicorn who could, or was even willing to teach her. If Luna could have her choice she would prefer to simply live a normal happy life. She felt guilty about it, but the fact was that she didn't truly care about the rest of Equestria. Surely there were other Unicorns with magic, why couldn't they give up their lives and let her live her own. But no, she had a “duty to serve Equestria” as her mother always told her and if she ever brought it up with Celestia, her older sister would furiously remind her that she had lost her own powers in order to protect Luna's. She rolled her eyes at the thought, she was grateful, apparently. But her powers were so weak, without any formal training she could do little more than lift up rocks and objects.
“As if I'm going to save a nation with sticks and stones.” Luna remarked despondently.
Her ears twitched and perked up, there was a sound. A commotion on the other end of the market, oh she had to see this. Galloping as fast as her saddlebags would allow her, Luna made her way to the source of the shouting. A crowd had gathered around one of the stalls, Luna had visited that stall not an hour ago to buy apples and now it appeared that somepony had stolen from it. And as Luna got her head through the crowd to see who was in the centre she realised it wasn't just somepony, it was a Pegasus. A Pegasus whose wings were not strapped down to their bodies like the others.
Luna noticed four things, firstly, next to the Pegasus was a saddlebag filled with all kinds of food that had clearly not been paid for, the second thing was that said Pegasus, whose wings were not strapped down but still had a broken wing, could not fly away and the third and fourth things were the two Changelings that were approaching it, hissing in their slimy voices.
“Well well, looky at this here.” The one on the right hissed. “We've found a flier”
“Not much of a flier” remarked it's companion on the left. “Broken wing”
The two shared a laugh at it's misfortune.
“But broken wing or not, those wings ain't strapped. And that's against the rules”
The laughter had stopped now and the entire market from one end to the other had gone deathly quiet.
“And we are big on rules here. So, you're going to sit there like a good Pegasus and we're going to kill you”
The Changeling's grinned and, a horn extended through it's scarly forehead, creaking and cracking as it broke the skin. It glowed with a deep green light and Luna did the only sane thing she could think of.
She tackled it to the ground.
The blast from the Changeling's horn struck a nearby building, opening up a hole in its side and spilling out it's contents onto the street below. With that, the entire market erupted into a stampede of terror and even a bit of looting. Luna moved quickly, pulling the Pegasus to his feet and galloping off away from the Changelings. She turned her head and saw him tearing down after her. She couldn't fault him at that and so she turned her head back to face in front of her and made a dash out of the market.
* * * * *
Leto
“Mom it's getting late. Luna should have been back by now”
Celestia had been pacing for nearly an hour. Around and around the fireplace of their small camp and, when she got bored of the one direction she turned around and continued in the other direction. Celestia was still young, but she was tall for her age and much more mature that Leto thought possible. Even at the age of five, when Luna was born, the young Celestia had taken it upon herself to distract the guards to save her sister's powers. Leto smiled at the memory. The white Unicorn had always been so protective of her little sister that she forgot just how much freedom the child had lost in their attempt to hide her.
Leto liked to think that both of her daughters took after her, but Celestia was as far away from her as Discord was from sane. Leto knew that Luna would not have returned on time from her foray into the market and had they been in Sombre's territory she would have made the trip herself, but Luna was safe enough here. And she needed to live, even if only for a little while.
“Come sit with me child.” She called out to her eldest. Enough about Luna. She had two children to look after, and this one needed her the most right now.
Celestia moved, grudgingly to her mother's side and lay herself down beside her, staring into the embers.
“Tell me a story mom.”
The request took Leto by surprise, but she smiled and relented. Celestia had not asked for a story since she was very young. Leta placed a hoof around her daughter's shoulders and drew her closer, motherly love guiding her movements.
“Your favourite story was about the Elements of Harmony.”
Celestia smiled at the memory. Even now the story was told over and over by other ponies, desperate for hope that the natural order would be restored.
Leto wet her lips and began.
-Luna-
Luna hit the floor, hard. The ground was dry and there were roots and rocks embedded in its surface. She felt them scrape away the flesh on her shoulder as she slid back with vicious force. The pain was instant, causing her to cry out, tears filling her eyes. She curled herself into a ball, looking up at the approaching changelings. They were growling, drawing closer, their horns burning with a sickly green glow. The lead changeling, the one whom she had hurt, had finally managed to stand up. He still couldn’t open his left eye, but his right eye was doing a fantastic job of glaring at her.
Luna winced at the sight. She hadn’t been ready for this, she didn’t want to get hurt again. She felt another wave of tears coming on her. But this time they were interrupted.
-Two days earlier-
“Run!” Luna screamed over her shoulder and she shoved her way through the crowds. It wasn’t hard, for her to get through. Her short size meant she could get right below pony’s legs and beneath shop carts. Her companion however, had a tougher time. He was tall and strong and his long legs would have been able to keep up with her easily. But he had to push through the bustling ponies and every time he did, he let out a grunt as his broken wing pushed against the crowds. Luna stopped and turned her head. There was no way in hell that Pegasus would make it through the crowds in time, she could already see the changelings taking off and darting towards them with all hast, and she doubted they were on their way to do anything but kill. Luna rose up to her hind legs briefly, the lack of balance nearly sending her tumbling, as she waved her forehooves in the air, trying to encourage te wounded Pegasus.
“Come on! I’m over here!” She yelled. She sat herself down, this wasn’t working, he didn’t need encouragement to escape from death.
Stupid Luna. Come on.
She waved her hooves in the air again, this time yelling at the crowd.
“Move! Let him through!” Still nothing.
Above them the changelings were taking aim, they were going to hit him and probably kill every single pony in the crowd. Luna gasped and began screaming for the ponies to move, some caught the message when her shouts alerted them to the skybound threat. They began to run, this way and that as the changlings opened fire with their magic. Chunks of wall and rock exploded as the changelings began shooting anything they saw moving. Luna was too busy to notice this though. She had darted straight to the Pegasus as he stumbled to the ground. She tried catching him, but his weight was just too much, she was pulled down too. He breathed in deeply as they tried to pull themselves up.
“Kid….” He said. His voice oddly comforting despite it’s apparent harsh texture. He was doing his best to comfort the young unicorn. “Thanks but… You need to go… They’ll hurt you.” He looked her in the eye, genuine concern highlighting his gaze. Luna shook her head and gripped him tightly, wrapping her arms around his neck in an embrace. She looked up at the changelings, who, now that the other ponies had escaped or been killed, were aiming their sights on them. Luna lowered her gaze, her eyes watering at the devastation. These ponies were all dead, killed brutally by these things… And it was all her fault.
“no…” Luna sobbed quietly. The tear drops slipping silently down her muzzle. Her entire body felt… sore. She felt her teeth aching horribly as if they were being changed completely. She felt her eyes narrow and the world faded slightly making everything seem darker.
“no” She said again, this time her tears seemed to burn up before they hit the ground. The floor was actually getting warmer, the air itself seemed hotter. Luna barely noticed it at this point though, she simply gripped the Pegasus even tighter, the aching sensation filling up her entire body as the air radiated heat.
“NOOOO!” She had only opened her mouth slightly and yet her voice echoed loudly and powerfully. There was something angry to this voice, something… powerful.
-Celestia-
She had heard it, her mother had heard it. The entire fucking village had heard it. Celestia sat over her sister’s unconscious form in their campsite, her head resting on her flanks as she listened, eyes closed, to the conversation her mother was having with Ragged, the Pegasus they had found with Luna’s body.
“Ow…”
“Don’t squirm… This is hard enough as it is…”
“My bandages were fine before ja’know.”
“Don’t kid yourself young man. Hang on… did you set this wing yourself?”
There was a tense, embarrassed pause.
“Uhm… yeah?”
A sad sigh.
“I’m sorry but it wasn’t set right… I’m going to have to break it again”
“Oh no… you stay away from OWWWW!”
After that Celestia’s mind faded away. She wrapped her hooves around her sister’s body tightly. Luna didn’t seem hurt at all. In fact she seemed fine, when they found her she was unconscious in a massive hole, surrounded by dead Changelings and ponies. They had brought her back to their camp to discuss their next move. And that whole time, Celestia had been crying. She had left Luna out there on her own, she had let her go into the marketplace without protection and without a friendly face. Celestia cursed herself for making such a stupid mistake. She found herself stroking her sister’s muzzle, her fur was so soft, something Celestia had always been jealous of. She felt Luna’s mouth twitch, was that a smile coming on?
Celestia continued stroking her sister’s muzzle, glad she could at least make her feel safe after everything that’s happen.
-Leto-
She had sat them all down in a circle once Luna was up. Leto was tired, her eyes etched with worry and fright from the days events. Of course those emotions had been swimming within her for some time. But with the events of today…
“Luna dear” She began… then paused. She had gone over this conversation so many times in her head, every single day she had practiced a thousand variations of this sentence and yet… none of those seemed appropriate for what was happening now.
“I don’t remember” Luna said, cutting Leto off before she could continue with her train of thought. “I remember…. Ragged telling me to run, the Changelings attacking and… those…” Luna said nothing more, she closed her mouth and lay her head down on her sister’s shoulder. She was exhausted, her body and mind refusing to work properly. Her body still felt hot and her head was clearly taking a bath in a volcano.
Luckily for her, Ragged was able to step in.
“It’s hard to explain. She seemed different… she sounded different and then she… shouted. I know it’s weird but she…” He turned his head to Luna, then to Celestia and then to Leto, as if he’d had this question on his mind and was only now realizing the implications of what the answer would be. “Can she do magic?”
Leto paused, realizing there was no way she could convince him otherwise.
“Yes. She can. It’s a long to story but we were able to spare Luna from the purge. She still has the ability to cast her spells. Although… she’s never learnt anything beyond the most basic techniques. What we saw was…” She gulped.
Celestia had had enough of this conversation by now. She could feel Luna trying her best to stay awake through this as they continued to talk. She opened her mouth to speak but before she could Ragged beat her to it.
“Look, no offense but I think the lil blue Princess needs her rest.” He said, smiling affectionately. Luna, in her exhausted state, managed to muster a smile back. Celestia watched the exchange with interest. The older stallion rose up and nodded his head towards Leto.
“Ma’am. I owe you a debt today, for fixing my wing and feeding me. And I owe an even bigger debt to your youngest daughter. If you’ll have me, I’ll help keep an eye on them. I’m a pretty good fighter if I do say so myself, and once my wing’s healed up, you may find use for a Pegasus.”
With that little speech done, Ragged waited for Leto’s response. She was taken aback, this entire evening had completely derailed her thoughts. She waved her hoof and shook her head, moving to attend to Luna.
“Ok. But you take first watch. We need to leave this place tomorrow morning and I don’t want any surprises.”
-Two days later-
-Ragged-
Dammit. That lil Blue Princess was a lil blue Pain in the flanks. They had made great time in traveling away from the village, with Ragged pulling the wagon, Luna was able to rest comfortably in the back, something which aided in her recovery quite happily.
And now, they were barely a day away from the seaside town of Woodtop. A village that had been built into the trees of a massive forest. A forest which was, according to rumor, free of Changelings.
And of course, Luna had chosen that exact point, to go exploring again.
He could hear the commotion clearly through the forest as he galloped at full speed to find his new charge.
Leto and Celestia had gone to refill their waterskins and he was to watch Luna. And of course the instant he had turned his back she had gone exploring. And now there was terrified yelling which could only mean…
-Luna-
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” The young filly yelled. Her horn sparking pathetically at the three changelings. They were approaching her slowly, savoring every moment of this for their own sick fantasies. Luna hated them so much right now… She remembered what changelings were willing, and happy to do. And she hated them for it. But apparently it wasn’t hate that was causing her magic to spark like it did before. Luna reached inside herself, searching desperately for the spark that would allow her to use her powers.
Come on come on please… Please help me… help me…. I don’t want them to hurt me…
There it was… fear. It was fear that Luna had felt. And fear that sparked her magic. She felt her horn heat up, the magic tingling around it, but no heat in her body, no tooth aches and the world was just as bright as before so…
The first changing lept towards her, he was obviously the leader and he had first go at her. He was also the first to hit the floor that day. And he did hit, hard. Luna’s spell had struck him in the face, spending him reeling back through the air and into the dust. The other two changelings stared in shock, their faces betraying their sudden lack of confidence. Unfortunately it wasn’t just sudden, but brief. They shook their heads and growled, one of them sending a blast of magic in her direction. It struck her in the chest, sending her through the air, she felt her internal organs slowly shutting down one by one. She tried to reach inside herself again, to find that magic. Turn herself back on.
She managed it, but barely in time. She felt her eyes closing and her life slipping just as her heart began pumping again, the sudden intake of blood and oxygen causing her to gasp and cough.
Luna hit the floor, hard. The ground was dry and there were roots and rocks embedded in its surface. She felt them scrape away the flesh on her shoulder as she slid back with vicious force. The pain was instant, causing her to cry out, tears filling her eyes. She curled herself into a ball, looking up at the approaching changelings. They were growling, drawing closer, their horns burning with a sickly green glow. The lead changeling, the one whom she had hurt, had finally managed to stand up. He still couldn’t open his left eye, but his right eye was doing a fantastic job of glaring at her.
Luna winced at the sight. She hadn’t been ready for this, she didn’t want to get hurt again. She felt another wave of tears coming on her. But this time they were interrupted.
-Ragged-
He slammed into the first changeling as hard as he could, his full weight and momentum colliding with the creature’s head and driving it into the ground. Ragged held it their for a moment before raising a hoof and slamming it down on the changeling’s temple, backing it up with all the strength he had to muster. He felt, and heard, a slight crack as the changeling jerked, tensed and relaxed. He raised his head and turned to look at the two others. They had turned to face him now.
“well. I guess that’s the element of surprise used up.”
He grimaced and charged forward at the second Changeling, he managed to reach it, swatting it’s raised hoof away with one of his own and punching it in the eye with his other hoof. The lack of front hooves on the ground however, causing him to loose his balance. He fell to the ground, dragging the changeling with him as he did. It scrambled on top of him and began charging up it’s horn. Ragged growled and jerked his head forward, slamming his forehead into it’s mouth, breaking several teeth from their sockets. The Changeling reared it’s head back and began to open it’s mouth to scream but Ragged grabbed it’s face with his hands and held it’s mouth closed, trying to get it to swallow it’s own broken teeth or choke it to death, either way he was killing this thing. He rolled over so that he was on top and began headbutting it repeatedly. He felt his own skull hurting more and more and he was sure by the end of this he would be concussed. But he wasn’t in nearly as bad shape as his foe. He could already feel hit’s skull giving way.
Crack… crack… CRACK!
He felt everything sink in with a satisfying squish as the changeling’s head seemed to cave in on itself. He raised his head triumphantly and was almost about to howl out a victory yell when he noted the silence that filled the air. He paused and looked to his right. Luna was lying on her side, breathing heavily, blood all over her horn and the body of the dead changeling lying next to her. Her eyes were wide with horror, both at what she and done and what she had watched him do.
