Undergoing revision for content and quality.
The Rise of Everfree
“Two years. Two long, lonely years, and most of Equestria still sees us as the dreaded Nightmare Moon. Meanwhile our sister gets all the praise, all the attention, all the LOVE! She sends us to the MOON, and becomes the beloved ruler, all while letting us be the evil monster in the night.” The thoughts of the Lunar Princess, dressed in the Lunar Regalia, ran rampant as she paced through the now empty halls of the Canterlot Castle. It was nearly midnight, and she had given up on waiting for any visitors to her open court. The occasional night guard passed by her. Their wings, manes, and tales were magically bewitched to mimic bat wings, coats dyed gray, and were all clad in saddle armor the color of the night sky. They all gave her a wide berth, knowing that she might lash out at them in her current state, however.
Between no pony coming to see her in court and her own thoughts, Luna was worn out, despite the fact that it wasn’t even two in the morning yet. Knowing full well that she’d end up waking earlier than she would want to, the princess of the night went to her chambers to cry herself to sleep.
4:00 P.M., “Uhhh!!! It’s too early to be awake!” Luna whined to herself, “The sun isn’t even set to go down for another three hours! Okay then, what to do until we need to raise the moon then? We could go for a walk through the royal garden maze! No, everypony will simply flee in terror from us… We could go see our friends! Oh, wait; we don’t have any friends…”
“It’s all Celly’s fault!” she ranted to nopony in particular, “She did this to us! It’s her fault we’re hated… Why would she do this to us? No, no wallowing! That’s it; we’ll go watch the last hour of Celly’s court! Maybe we can learn something… We might even be able to convince a few ponies to visit our court tonight.” Now with a plan, Luna proceeded to don the lunar regalia, first clasping the obsidian necklace with a moon emblazoned upon and followed by the matching lunar crown. Lastly, she stepped into the four royal blue horseshoes to finish the royal ensemble. Fully dressed, she proceeded to her sister’s court being held in the royal throne room.
Luna arrived at the court of the Solar Princess, only to see a line of ponies out of the castle doors. “Only an hour left, and there are Still this many ponies waiting to see the beloved sister. Why don’t We have ponies waiting for us like this!?!” The few ponies who noticed her immediately shied away; soon, a few even ran away. “You dare to run from your princess! Fine then! We have no need to sully ourselves with such an, indignant, display!” and with those words, Luna used her powerful control of all things nightly to make herself all but invisible in the shadows along the edges of the throne room. “I knew something like that would happen… I hope this is worth it.”
With the perceived threat gone, the courtiers to Celestia returned to their orderly wait; some with trepidation, many with barely contained glee at their kindly ruler taking the time to listen to their problems. One by one, they stepped up to the powerful visage of the Solar Princess. She dealt with everypony fairly, never raising her voice, nor speaking down to them. “Is that all she does? She’s just nice to them? Well we can do that, can’t we? They’re all so jovial around her… They love her, yet run from us… But why are they so quite near the front? Obviously they respect her too. I bet they would have the funniest expression if we just appeared behind Celly!! Ha, that is what we shall do, and then the fun will be doubled! Celly always liked a good practical joke!
Slowly, being sure to stay in the shadows as much as possible, Luna snuck around the throne room until she was directly behind her sister, pressed against the wall. And then she noticed their faces. The three courtiers currently presenting their argument, they were completely stone-faced. They stared straight at Celestia, unblinking, unknowing. Luna’s mouth dropped in shock, “I know that kind of magic exists, but surely, Celly of all ponies wouldn’t use it, would she? No, of course not. These three surely must be rather simple, yes, that’s all it is! See, the ones behind them are perfectly fine; we’ll just sit here and watch for moment. That will put all our fears at ease.”
The next set of courtiers, a mare and stallion dressed in clothes of the highest quality signaling their status as part of the governing caste of aristocrats, stepped forward with bright, gleaming smiles. Smiles that were replaced with the blank expression worn by the previous group the moment they looked into the eyes of their ruler. “No, no, it can’t be. She would never do something so, horrid. It must be a trick of the light, yes, that’s all it is. Our sister is kind and caring about her subjects. Sure, she can be cruel sometimes, like sending us to the moon, but she would never do this! Just a few more, then we’ll see!!”
Again and again, it happened. Everypony who looked up at their ruler of the Sun was overcome with the same blank expression. Luna came back every day, even staying up a few times to see the start of Celestia’s open court, and every time she saw the same expression on their face. There was no denying it any longer, and Luna knew it. Princess Celestia, her sister, the Solar Sister and most beloved ruler of all Equestria, was brainwashing her subjects.
“Well, brainwashing isn’t quite the right way for us to think of it,” Luna thought to herself, “Celly is making everypony who comes to see her feel happy after they leave, no matter what they said, or what happened, all they will remember is that Celestia made all their problems go away, whether she actually did anything or not doesn’t matter. No wonder everypony loves her. She’s using magic that we came up with as Nightmare Moon to cement her rule. Magic that she said was wrong and that there would never be a reason to use.”
Luna no longer ate dinner or breakfast with her sister, which had been the only time they would converse, or generally see each other at all. She instead took all of her meals in private. Afraid that Celestia might learn what knowledge Luna had gained about the power of the elder sister. This went on unabated for a few months before the Solar Princess began to worry about her sister. Luna had a hard time making friends after the Nightmare Moon incident, and there was always the fear of a relapse, however slight it might be. She had to be confronted about her change in composure recently. Celestia decided tonight would be the night. She had no problem with staying up into the night; after all, she did fulfill the roles both the Solar and Lunar Princess’ for a thousand years.
Luna spent most of her time in her room these days, researching and trying to come up with anything she could do about her sisters’ gross abuse of power. The more she thought about it though, the more obvious it was; there was nothing she could do without ostracizing her sister, or accidentally convincing the masses that she was Nightmare Moon again. It had been nearly a month since that fateful afternoon when everything changed, and Luna was no closer to a solution. With the dark thoughts of her sister still pacing around Luna’s head, didn’t think twice about opening the door to her room when someone outside knocked. “Perfect timing, we were just beginning to hunger and it is almost time for lunch.”
“Place our tray anywhere that is free on our bed.” She stated to the pony that walked in, still engrossed in her work.
“I am not one of your servants dear Lulu. But how are you tonight?”
“Ce-celest-tia, wh-why are you awake s-so late?!?”
“I’m worried about you Lulu, I know you’ve had trouble making friends, and you’ve been so shut in recently, I wanted to make sure that you were okay and didn’t need anything,” Celestia gave her trademark smile, a smile that exuded compassion and honest concern, “and, I feel like you’ve been avoiding me.”
Suddenly emboldened by her sisters claims and her need to fend them off, Luna began to fight back, “You know we hate being called Lulu, Celly,” Luna stated, while making sure not to look her sister in the eyes. She didn’t know if her magic was strong enough to work on its creator, but she didn’t want to find out, “and we haven’t been avoiding you, we have simply been busy. Now, if you are quite done wasting our valuable time, there is work to be done!” And with that, Luna trotted out as quickly as she could without losing her dignified composure. Celestia simply stared at the spot that her sister had recently occupied, absolutely sure that something was ahoof now.
“That was close. She can’t know what we know; she might send us back to the moon! Okay, calm down. We just need to get away, and then everything will be fine. I doubt she could use our own magic on us, but it’s not worth the risk. But where to go? We would stick out in any town, but to be completely alone would be no different than our exile to the moon. That’s it, the old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters! We can fix it to be habitable for normal ponies again. But no pony will go there with it being in the middle of the Everfree Forest… I doubt even Celly could clean that mess in a day… That was one of our worse experiments… We’ll clean it then. We’ll have to clean it little by little, but it will be worth it. First we’ll set a few basic wards to keep all of the ravenous creatures away from the castle proper to house our guard. Then we can start the cleansing properly. Everypony will be so happy that we removed that blight that they’ll all forget the whole Nightmare Moon incident!”
Finally at the room that served as her office, Luna approached the two members of the night guard stationed at either side of the door, “You! We require the immediate presence of the Captain of our guard. Go find him and tell him to meet us in our quarter’s post haste!”
“Yes your majesty!” the left one stated as he galloped towards the guard barracks.
“And you! Let no pony through this door save for your captain. Especially not Celestia, or I will make sure that you are assigned to the worst post I can fathom.”
“Yes your majesty!”
“Good,” Luna proceeded through the door and sat on the rather large pillow that served as her chair to wait. Luckily, she only had to wait for a few minutes, as the captain of her guard was a pegasus, he was extremely fast, even if he lacked the imposing build of Celestia’s earth guard captain, there is something unsettling about your captain being able to appear almost anywhere without ever being seen. Underneath his armor his cutie mark was a silver and black, winged shield crossed by two swords. Even if it was unseen at the moment, Luna made a point of knowing everything she could about her guard. “Darkwind, we’re glad to see that you’re as punctual as ever.”
“Of course milady,” the captain spoke softly, blending almost perfectly into the shadows as he addressed his princess, “May inquire as to the severity of this meeting?”
“You could, or we could just tell you. We are leaving. Taking a, vacation, you might say.”
“And this required my immediate attention, why, if I may be so bold as to ask?”
“Well, you obviously are bold enough, and because we plan to, vacation, in the old castle located in the Everfree forest. And more importantly, we plan to cleanse the forest at the same time. We will be gone for a long stretch of time and will be relocating the entire night guard to the castle as well.”
“Milady, you do know that your old castle is in a state of disrepair and is not safe?”
“Of course I know that! Now to the exact reason we called you here. I need you to assemble a team of the best of the guard, for we will be leaving tomorrow morning. I also require you to find the best architect in Canterlot, for they will accompany us to the castle.”
“Thank you milady, for giving me as much time as possible to accomplish these tasks. However, may I ask why this sudden move?”
“No, you may not, now leave us Darkwind, and do as we have said. We need to rest if we are to make such a trip during the day.”
“Yes milady, as you command.” Darkwind left Luna’s chambers, allowing her to finally relax.
“It will probably be better just to sleep here for the night.”
9:00 A.M., “This is much too early to be awake, but sadly, necessary for our plan. First things first, get dressed, and see how the preparations got along.” Slowly, very slowly, Luna got out of her makeshift bed and put all of the Lunar Regalia in their proper place. “Guards! How are the preparations coming?”
“I could ask you the same thing sister,” Celestia asked, her voice dripping with feigned sincerity as she strolled into her sisters room, “what is this I hear about you leaving? And taking a rather large detachment of your guard as well?”
“Ce-ce-celly, we’re taking a small vacation, t-t-to the old castle. L-l-like you said, we’ve been stressed, and th-the old castle will help our nerves.”
“I said no such thing, dear Lulu, I said you were avoiding me. *sigh* Please, if you need help, just tell me. I didn’t want to send you to the moon last time, and if it’s starting again… Please, just let me help you,”
“Ce-ce-celestia! Y-y-you w-w-wouldn’t! We just need a vacation, p-please s-s-sister.”
“I’m not going to send you back, but think about what I said Lulu, I missed you all those years, and I still do. I would never want to do that again, but I will if I have to.” And with that, Celestia left Luna alone to her thoughts.
“She’s not sending us to the moon… She’s not sending us to the moon!! Okay, back to what we were doing. We have to be careful now. We must leave immediately!”
“Guards! How are the preparations coming; and why did you let our sister in here?”
“Your entourage is ready to leave when you are your majesty, and as for the solar princess, I don’t know your majesty, she just went in, and we couldn’t stop her. We’re sorry your majesty.”
“We know the power our sister has, so we will not punish you, this time. Where are they assembled?”
“The front gate, your majesty.”
Luna met her entourage consisting of the greatest Canterlot architect and eight of the finest night guards, and began their journey to the Everfree Forest. “What is your name, and why are you not fleeing in fear from us like everyone else?”
“Y-your m-majesty, I am L-lord Finial Hemmingsworth th-the Third,” he spoke rather quietly, his coat was light blue, even lighter than a robin’s egg, and his mane and tail were only a few shades darker, while his cutie mark was a stylized arch connecting two columns with a blue streak throughout. He wore a white collared shirt and blue tie with a brown day jacket to complete his ensemble , “And a-as for wh-why I am not, *gulp*, ru-running away, mi-milady, I would ne-never run away from one of my g-glorious rulers.”
“Yes you would, we have seen it often enough. Let us guess, our guards told you who you would be escorting you, and then threatened or some sort of obscene show of force to keep you here.” The way the guards nervously shifted answered her question perfectly. “Now, we will not hurt you, and neither shall our guard. We simply require your help to fix our image in the eyes of Equestria. We are assuming that your special talent involves architecture?”
Visibly more relaxed now that at least some of the threat was gone Finial answered, “I am the best pony in Equestria at both designing and creating structures of Canterlot quality, y-your majesty.”
“Ahh, very good, that will be extremely useful when fixing our old castle. Parts of it are rather, grand.”
“W-w-wait! Your guards were s-s-serious about going to the Everfree f-forest to fix y-your castle!?! I thought that that was j-just a c-cover or something, why d-do you n-need the old c-castle f-fixed?
“Yes, they were serious. And as for why, you will learn the answer to that question when and if we deem it necessary.”
“Y-yes, your majesty.”
The rest of the trip passed in an awkward silence, with no one willing to break it in fear of angering their princess. It was obvious that she was cranky from too little sleep, and it probably didn’t help that all of their traveling was done under the sun. Luna would’ve had no problem traveling to the Everfree forest at night, but the sun above made her feel drained, a feeling she did not like one bit. She knew that it was only the heat that made her feel like that, but she couldn’t shake the thought that Celestia was purposefully doing it, even though that would be impossible. Hour after hour, the journey never seemed to end. “Why didn’t we make this trip by carriage, that would have been much easier, and we might already be there,” Luna thought to herself. The cobblestone walkway eventually ran out and became the dirt paths that were abundant near the small township of Ponyville. So close the site where she first came back as Nightmare Moon, Luna couldn’t help but stop and stand in thought.
“These citizens will probably treat us no different than the courtiers back home. Why do they all fear us? It would probably behoove us to simply go around to reach the entrance to Everfree… No! We are still a princess, and we shall not skulk around like a common criminal. Besides, we are exhausted and the sooner we get our old castle, the sooner we can rest and resume our normal schedule.”
“Milady?” one of the guards questioned, “Is everything all right? Would you like to circumvent Ponyville, your majesty?”
“N-no, we were just remembering the last few times we were here… Such horrid memories; well not the end of the last Nightmare Night, that ended better than we had hoped.” Now thinking to herself once again, “Maybe this won’t be too bad; they all seemed to like us when we left the last time. And most of them have never been near Celly, so she couldn’t have gotten to them all yet, could she? No, positive thoughts, we are on the verge of true freedom from her shadow; everything will be fine.”
With her mind made up, Luna began to walk through Ponyville’s main thoroughfare. At first no one noticed the Lunar Princess. The first person to see that Luna was in their humble town was none other tha-
“Hey, Author! Stop typing for a second! I’m trying to greet the princess here, duh! Anyways, hi there Luna how have you been? Ooh ooh ooh, you know what this means!?! I get to throw a ‘Welcome Back to Ponyville Princess Luna Party!!! Yay! Now I have to hurry and make cakes and donuts and cupcakes, ooh, maybe Dashie can help me with those, oh and punch, shoot, almost forgot, I have to pick up more hot sauce. How funny it that! Haha! That reminds me Princess why are you here?”
Mouth agape, Luna had no idea what had just happened. It took a few minutes of Luna simply standing there while Pinkie waited expectantly for an answer for her to comprehend Pinkie’s monologue, “Who is this ‘Author’ you spoke of?”
“Oh, him? He’s just the guy writing this story. Hi Author!!” She began waving to the sky, her gaze fixed on something no one else could see.
“What, Story?”
“Well the story that we’re all in right now of course! Silly.”
“So, you’re telling us that everything we’re doing is just, a story?”
“Am I the only one who knows all this stuff…? See, we’re all actually characters in this story, and we just do whatever he ~~wrights~~, hey, turn on your spell check, writes, except for me of course! I probably just messed him up though. Sorry Mr. Author!! This was supposed to be only a little anecdote, but then I took over and decided to explain it all to you. Sorry again Author, I’ll get everything back on track now!! So, Princess, why are you here?”
Mouth agape, Luna had no idea what had just happened. It took a few minutes of Luna simply standing there while Pinkie waited expectantly for an answer, again, for her to comprehend Pinkie’s second monologue, “We have no idea what you just said… Did any of you?” Luna asked her guard and Finial, all of whom shook their head, “Skipping all of that then, we are only passing through Ponyville on our way to the old Royal Castle in the Everfree forest, I’m sure you remember it.”
“Well of course I remember it, that’s where we saved you from Nightmare Moon, silly filly. Why would you want to go back to that old place though?”
“It is our intent to fix the Royal Castle to its former glory and clean the Everfree forest of all the negative magic that resides there. That is why we have brought Finial here with us,” Luna stated while gesticulating to Finial with a flourish.
“It is a pleasure to meet you my dear Pinkie, my name is-“ Finial began to say with a bow to Pinkie.
“Hi there, it’s nice to meet you too Sir Lord Finial Hemmingsworth the Third!!!” Pinkie cut in, pulling out a large tuba from nowhere in particular, “*gasp* so you’ll be staying in the Royal Castle until it’s done!?! That means I have to throw an even bigger party now!!!”
“How did you know my name?” Finial asked, his face contorted into look of supreme surprise, “I didn’t even tell the Princess of my first title… And what party?!?”
“Well, as for your name, I don’t know, I just knew it!!! You wouldn’t understand it, but your name is kind of an inside joke to the Author, and I just had to make him smile again. Ooh ooh ooh, and the party!!! Now it’s a ‘Welcome Back to Ponyville Princess Luna and Thank You for Bringing a New Pony to Town and for Cleaning the Everfree Forest’ party!!! We’ll have it at the Royal Castle once you make it safe enough for everyone to get there!!! Ooooh, that should give me plenty of time to make it the MOST AWESOMEST PARTIEST PARTY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!” And with that, Pinkie started bouncing off, literally bouncing off, with her tuba, playing impossibly high runs from some piece of music unknown to anypony but her. “Oh, Princess!!! You should probably visit Twilight before you leave, seeing as how Mr. Author wanted you to meet her first!!!” and then continued on her way, leaving everypony else completely baffled.
“Guards, Finial, we should hurry through town before she decides to come back.” Luna spoke to her entourage in quick whispers, so as to not alert Pinkie.
“But, milady, will you take her advice?” asked one of the guardsponies.
“We cannot see any reason to; we have no business with Twilight, no matter what Pinkie said.”
“Yes, milady.”
“Hello Princess, what brings you to town?” Twilight asked, walking towards Luna from the direction Pinkie had bounced off to.
“We just want to get through town, why didn’t we take that guards advice?” Luna asked herself, with a slightly exasperated sob. After taking a few moments to compose herself, Luna finally addressed the purple unicorn, “We are only passing through Ponyville at the moment, Twilight. We believe that a vacation of sorts was in order, and we decided that the best place would be our old castle. And how did you know that we were here anyways?”
“Oh, well, Pinkie told me I should talk to you and told me where to find you, then said something about some guy named ‘Mr. Author’ and bounced off playing Fate of the Gods on her tuba, though I don’t think she was playing the correct part… Anyways, why would you want to go back to your old castle, if you don’t mind me asking, princess?” Twilight asked, quickly averting her gaze after realizing that she was asking the Lunar Princess to reveal information of a possibly personal nature.
“We can’t stand to not be doing something while away,” Luna replied with a smile, “so we are planning to clean the Everfree forest at the same time, and as such, we must have the castle fixed to house ourselves and guard while we work.” Now thinking to herself once again, “They’re not running from us! They are simply speaking to us like normal ponies. We should have come here more often!”
“That makes sense. You’ll probably want to be on your way then. It’s still pretty far to the castle, and I’m sure that you will be wanting to get there tonight.”
“Yes, we do. Our guard and guest need their rest tonight, so they can begin work tomorrow.”
“Okay then, I still have errands to run myself. Bye princess!” Twilight stated as she began to walk off towards the Carousel Boutique.
“Now if there are no further delays, we must be on our way. At this rate, we will have to raise the moon from the middle of the Everfree forest.” And with that Luna trotted the rest of the way to the edge of the Everfree forest. “Finial, we would like you to stay near us. Guards, form up, three on either side, two in the back! We shall lead and cast wards as we travel.”
Soon, they were far enough into the forest that no one would dare follow; Luna relaxed and prepared for the next order of business. It was nearly time to raise the moon, and that would increase Luna’s magical prowess, but also wake most of the sleeping creatures that surrounded them.
“Guards! Spread out and secure the path around us! Finial! Stay near us, we are casting a few more wards along the path near us to discourage any, unwelcome visitors, from sneaking up on us while we raise the moon. We should be done in just a few moments, and then we can continue, we’re sure that you must be ready to rest for the night.”
“Yes your majesty, will I begin my work tomorrow?”
“Yes, yes you will. We will wake you before we go to sleep for the day and detail what needs to be done. And do your best to ignore any noise you hear during your nights, we will be cleansing the forest at night, so as to be at our full strength.”
“Yes your majesty.”
A few moments passed in silence as the sun dipped below the horizon and was replaced by the moon and accompanying stars of the night. “Let us make the moon especially beautiful tonight, to mark our first night of true freedom in over a thousand years.” As the moon rose over the treetops, it became obvious that it was full tonight, just as planned, but that it had gained a beautiful silver-blue tint that made everything in the forest glisten as if it were suddenly coated in liquid silver. The nine stallions stood quietly admiring the work of their Lunar Princess, none of them having ever seen her work her magic to create such beauty, and assuming it was all of a much darker persuasion. Most stunning of all was the effect that it had on Luna herself; her necklace and crown seemed to absorb every ounce of light that struck them, giving the appearance of an eternal abyss, but one that didn’t elicit fear, but instead awe that it was contained by their ruler, and Luna’s horseshoes became the same color as the moon just rising over the treetops. Most stunning of all was the moon upon the royal necklace; it glowed and glowed and glowed, seeming to rival even the stars far up above and those beginning to appear in her mane and tail, all while giving her coat the most stunning silver tint.
“There, now that we are done raising the moon, we may continue on our way,” then Luna noticed that all of her guard and Finial were staring at her, completely slack-jawed, “How dare any of you think of such thoughts of your princess without our permission! This is most unheard of!” Luna spoke as she fumed at every one of the stallions surrounding her.
Finally, one of the guardsponies gained enough bodily control to close his mouth and answer Luna’s rant, “Milady, we are having no such thoughts about you, we are all simply stunned by the magnificence of your beauty and magical power. We all believed that your magic was dark and deadly, we had no idea that you could command such beauty to exist, especially in a place as forlorn as this accursed forest, your majesty.”
“I know right!!! Wasn’t that just awesome everypony!?!” questioned Pinkie from directly behind princess Luna. She was sitting in a lawn chair wearing a pair of sunglasses with dark blue lenses and eating a bag of popcorn.
“P-pinkie?!? Why did you follow us in here? How did you follow us?!? SOMEPONY TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON!!!”
“Weelllllll,” Pinkie started with a roll of her eyes, “After I bounced off playing my favorite song, I went over to friends house, see, he lives in Canterlot, but he always says he prefers the atmosphere here in Ponyville, so I was going to spend the night at the house he keeps here with him. So, we were about to have a little bit a fun, play few games, maybe do some other thi-“
“Pinkie! Get on with the story!”
“Oh, sorry. Hehehe… Anyways, I remembered that I forgot to ask when your castle would be rebuilt so that I could plan your party, so I ran all around town looking for you! First I ran into Fluttershy, but she said that she hadn’t seen you and didn’t even know that you would be in town and then she ran to her cottage, so the I went over to Rarity’s but she just yelled at me, something about some huge order by a guy named ‘Tom’ or something! Then I ran into Dashie, but she hadn’t seen you either! Then I remembered that I told Twilight that you were in town and she said that you had already left to go into the forest!”
“Don’t forget, about me, Pinkie dear,” an obviously winded stallion of average build with long hair that spiked downwards said as he entered the clearing from the direction of Ponyville. His hair was two-toned, OD green on brown, he wore a blue vest over his grass green coat and had a cutie mark of a martini glass with two olives on the side, and ice-blue eyes that were nearly impossible to look away from, “I followed, you, the entire, time. Whew, I don’t, see how, you can, move so, quickly. Not to, mention, you took, my glasses.” And with that, a green aura surrounded the glasses that rested on Pinkie, returning them to their proper place on the mysterious pony’s muzzle, “thank you, very much.”
“Hehe, sorry there Shake, I forgot I had them on, hehe.” Pinkie nervously began scuffing her feet on the dirt path. “Ooh ooh ooh, have you met the Princess yet!?! Isn’t she so awesome!?!”
“No, I have not yet had the honor, Pinkie. Your majesty, and may I say how much of an honor it is to finally meet you. You are even more radiant than I expected,” He said with a deep bow to Luna, “I did come to see you a few weeks ago, but your guards said that you had stopped having an open court.”
“Y-you came, to see us? But, why?” Luna couldn’t for the life of her think of any reason somepony would visit her, “No pony would have any need of us, and his cutie mark, he must be some kind of drunk or something…”
“Ooh ooh, ITALICS!!!! I know what that means!!! Luna’s thinking!!! Yay, Hey, Mr. Author!!! What do I win!?! Huh, huh!?!
“H-how did you know that we were thinking?”
“I saw the italics, you silly filly.”
“Pinkie!! Stop your randomness this moment,” Shaken was glaring at Pinkie, though no pony except the two of them knew it because of his sunglasses, “I was speaking to the princess of Equestria, thank you very much.” Once again facing Luna and bowing even deeper than last time, except now with a sly grin on his face, “I am so very sorry for my good friend Pinkie’s outburst. My name is Shaken Notstirred, and I went to your court to inquire whether or not you would have wanted to come to a party that I had hosted. You see, it was late at night, and I felt that you would have enjoyed it much more so than your sister, your majesty.”
“You, wanted to invite us, to a party?”
“Quite milady-“
“Please, call us Luna”
Again with the ever so slight grin, “Luna, I have a entire network of friends that absolutely adore you, however, most of them are so busy that, any free time they have is spent at my, rather enjoyable, parties. They tend to leave with all of their problems, er, forgotten. Seeing as many ponies are still afraid of you, and all of my guests would have wanted to meet you, I found that it would have been a, perfect fit.”
“Who was at this party of yours Mr. Notstirred?”
“Please, if you allow me to call you Luna, you must call me Shaken, and if you were any pony else, I would say that is need to know information, seeing as, how should I put this, how loose?, some ponies get at my parties, but seeing as you’re my princess, everything is need to know to you! Probably the most well know ponies there were the Wonderbolts, bu-“
“Wait! You had a party with the Wonderbolts and didn’t invite Dashie?!?” Pinkie was staring dumbfounded at Shaken, “What is wrong with you?!?”
“My dear Pinkie, I did invite your friend Rainbow Dash, I simply assumed she didn’t want to come, since I never got a reply. Although, Ditzy might have lost the letter… she never was quite the same after our first party together... Now, Luna, it is becoming rather late, and it seems like your friend over there might be nodding off. We do not want to waste anymore of your valuable time, so if you would be so kind as to send us a letter or some other form of communication at Sugar Cube Corner a few days before your castle is to be finished, we will be sure to have your party ready, and I will make sure to invite all of my friends that would like to meet you. If that isn’t a problem of course?”
Without waiting for an answer Shaken began leading Pinkie back towards Ponyville.
“Milady, what just happened?” asked one of the guards.
“We’re not quite sure, but we think that we just met somepony who likes us, and they are helping to throw us a party.”
With that, Luna led her small entourage, after waking Finial, through the Everfree forest, setting wards along the path as they went until they finally arrived at the ruins of the ancient castle of the royal sisters.
“Finial, you should get as much rest as you can, for tomorrow your work begins. We will make sure that everything you need to know is explained in the morning.”
“Thank you, milady.”
And with that, all the members of Luna’s traveling party fell asleep amongst the ruins as she stood guard for the night. “Everything will be fine. The night guard should all be able to reposition here fairly quickly, and it should only take a few weeks for us to clean the Everfree forest. Then that party that Pinkie and that stallion, what was his name?, Shaken, are planning for us… We still can’t believe that there are ponies that want to meet us, but what did he mean when he said everypony forgot all of their problems? It seems we shall just have to wait and see. At least we can get back on schedule now. How anyone can stand to be up all day is beyond us.” As Luna thought about her day, she walked around the entirety of the castle grounds, placing powerful wards to prevent any of the native creatures, or plants for that matter to encroach upon the castle grounds; if even half of the stories were true, the flora was just as dangerous. “We’re sure of it! Everything will turn out fine. Now we just need to think of some reason to stay here so Celly won’t try to make us come back.”
The next morning Finial and the guards awoke to the first rays of the new day as Luna slowly lowered the moon, causing her mane and tail to fall back to her coat and regain their light blue color. “We will rest now,” Luna said to the still slightly drowsy stallions, “Guards, you are to station yourselves at the perimeter of the castle; we would prefer if there were not any unannounced guests while we sleep. Finial, your first duty is to clean the castle of any fallen stone and any other debris that has accumulated over the last thousand years. Two guards of your choice will accompany you and provide assistance. Once that is done, you will make the castle befitting of our glory.”
“Yes, milady, is there anything specific that you would like?”
“No, simply make it glorious. Though, something blue would be nice.”
“Of course, your majesty. Might you acquire sapphires for me to use then? And diamonds as well, I have an idea that I am sure you will appreciate.”
“Of course, Finial. We never did ask you, what exactly is your special talent?”
“Transmorphic architecture, milady. I excel at converting simple materials and designs into those of much higher quality. As long as I can picture it, it will exist. The only true difficulty I have is when I am working with gems. I cannot create them, I require the actual gems that I would like to use, and I can then mold them into the finished product.”
“So that is why you require the gems, we are anxious to see what you have in store for us. Now, we must retire for the day,” Luna said while stifling a yawn. The princess of the night then walked off towards one of the less decrepit rooms and promptly fell asleep.
A mere hour before the sun was scheduled to set Luna awoke in her need to prepare for the night. She first sent one of the fastest of the four Pegasus guards back to Canterlot with a missive for Darkwind; the timetable for the guards to be repositioned to the Royal Pony Sisters Castle. All of the Earth Ponies and unicorns were to be garrisoned at the new castle in two weeks, with the Pegasi to be completely relocated by the next week. Thirty guard members of each race were also required to be relocated by the next night. The next order of business was to order supplies for Finial to finish the castle and the guard’s barracks. “In a mere three weeks all of our guard will be here with us. And tomorrow we will have ninety members to help clear the forest. We will cleanse the other side of the bridge tonight and then tomorrow it will be cleared of trees, and we should probably have the bridge repaired as well…”
“Before we go to sleep in the morning, we must tell Finial to fix the bridge first thing. How will we use the guard? Fifteen groups will follow me, two Pegasi and a Unicorn in each. That should work. The Pegasi will track where we go and relay that to the Unicorns as they set up wards matching my own. We can fly ahead of them and set markers for them to reach every night; we will ward the markers, providing a safe place to rest. The rest of the Unicorns and the Earth Ponies will begin building their barracks. They will have to be rather large now that we think of it. They will be housing not only the entire guard, but their families as well. Well, at least being royalty has its privileges; we can get most of the building material rather cheap, especially if what Finial said about his self was true.”
And so it passed, every night Luna would awake, raise the moon, and set off into the forest to make the nights warding grid. She would then fly overhead looking for any trouble that her guards ran into. The occasional manticore attack was the worst that happened, and they were easily repelled by the powerful magic of the Princess of the Night. Luckily, the poison joke that was abundant throughout the Everfree Forest cringed away from the wards. Everyday more of the royal night guard and their families would appear at the small town of wood that sat outside of the castle grounds along with shipments of sapphires and diamonds, for Finial was indeed telling the truth about his ability and would convert the wooden structures into beautiful works of stone every afternoon before he lay down for the night.
Everything was proceeding smoothly, so smoothly, in fact, that the entire forest was cleansed of its dark magic in only two weeks. Now that the weather above matched the rest of Equestria, the Pegasus guards began to build their own barracks far up above, abandoning their terrestrial homes in preference of the clouds beneath their hooves. With only a few more days of work, according to Finial, left on the Royal Castle, Luna sent a letter to Sugar Cube Corner stating the near completion of the castle.
Less than a week later, everything was complete, from the domiciles of the Earth Ponies and Unicorns, shaded from above by the floating city created by the Pegasus guards, to the Royal Castle itself. And what a glorious sight it was. Upon the ground laid a veritable city, each and every building unique. The walls of each were made of black and white marble that wrapped around itself in the most fanciful manner, all the while being speckled throughout with flecks of pure silver matching that of Luna’s cutie mark. The roofs were covered in terra cotta tiles the color of the night sky and that shimmered in the light, seeming to twinkle like the stars. Up above the Pegasus homes stood regal and imposing, looking down over all of the Everfree forest. The pure white clouds that they were created from were in stark contrast from their surroundings. The buildings were all low to the large cloud they were placed on with three large towers looking over the city as well as descending through the cloud itself to provide cover for the ponies down below. Then there was the crown jewel itself, the castle that so much love and care was put into. The front gate stood more than four ponies tall and seemed to be made of sapphire, laced with black marble and with white diamonds inset. On both sides and completely enclosing the castle grounds was a wall of equal height and splendor, made out of solid black marble. The castle proper towered over the surrounding wall, seeming to be made purely out of the night sky itself. Deep blues and rich purples coalesced around each other with diamonds strewn throughout. Guards paced behind the ramparts of the wall and along the castle parapets. And admiring all of this majesty was Luna herself, looking out the window of the tallest tower on the castle which would serve as her bedroom, rivaling even the cloud city in height. Directly below the window was a silver inset of a crescent moon that shined in such a manner that it could even be seen from the distant Canterlot.
“Everything is done, and everything is beautiful. We should declare this land to be ruled over by us only, create a land safe from our sister and her, horrid magical control. But it needs a name now. We always hated this part… Ah, it’s so simple! A name has already been provided to us, we shall name it Everfree, after all, it is located in the Everfree forest. And best of all, tomorrow night there will be a party, and everypony there will be wanting to meet us! Nothing can spoil our mood tonight!”
As if on cue, Celestia flew into the Luna’s bedroom from the window opposite where Luna stood, watching her subjects. Taking care to not allow her golden horseshoes to clop on the dark floor, Celestia made her way to stand directly behind Luna. “Lulu, my sister, it seems that you have been very busy the last few weeks, I thought that this was supposed to be a vacation?” Celestia asked, her voice conveying genuine concern for her sister.
Luna immediately flew into the air at the voice of the one she feared most coalescing directly behind her. Her heart was attempting to beat its way out of her chest as she slowly landed in front of Celestia, taking care to avoid looking her sister in the eye. “C-Celly?!? Wh-What are you d-doing here?”
“My my sister, you act like I just caught you doing something you shouldn’t be.” With a slight sigh the Solar Princess continued while placing a hoof on Luna’s shoulder, “Lulu, this has gone on long enough, please come home. Abandon whatever this project of yours is, no good can come of it.”
“We, we can’t come home sister. We are staying here.”
“Luna, please don’t do this, I beg you. Though not many remember it, I have not forgotten how the Canterlot Castle was built, and I don’t want this to turn out the same way. I can’t live another thousand years without my sister by my side.” Celestia moved her hoof from Luna’s shoulder and placed it underneath the muzzle of her sister. Slowly, Luna felt her face being lifted to look at her sisters. “Please, Lulu…” her voice cracked on her sister’s name, and Luna couldn’t fight it any longer.
Knowing that there was nothing else to do, Luna accepted her fate and started to lift her muzzle to face her sister. “Celly sounds so sad; could she truly feel this way? Or is this just a ruse to make us forgive her for everything. We have no choice now, I must see.” Their muzzles were mere inches from each other, and Luna still averted her gaze for as long as she could. Luna looked into the eyes of the Solar Sister and…
Her heart nearly broke in two. Nightmare Moons magic couldn’t affect Luna, but most astounding of all was Celestia’s eyes. Still as strong and beautiful as always, but now spilling tears; Celestia was crying. “Sister, don’t cry, please don’t.” Luna used a hoof to wipe away her sister’s tears and then nuzzled her. “We love you Celly, I love you. We are not going to repeat a thousand years ago, we promise. We simply need time apart.”
“But why Lulu? Why are you going to leave me again, and so soon after I got you back?”
“We’re not leaving you, Celly. Just look outside. In the two years that we have been back, we have accomplished nothing. But in less than a month on our own, we’ve created a whole new city, and cleaned up the Everfree Forest as well! Think of everything we could do if we were to work for Equestria apart from each other?”
Celestia had to agree that her sister had a point. In a few short weeks a city had sprung up in the most inhospitable part of Equestria, not only that, but a city that could rival Canterlot in splendor. Luna definitely was the better of the two sisters when it came to having beautiful architecture created. “Maybe you’re right, Lulu,” she spoke, attempting to end the small rivulets of tears flowing off of her muzzle and onto the once pristine floor, “We can get more done this way. Just promise me one thing, sister.”
“What is it?”
“Promise me that this is you doing all of this, and not, her. Please, I just need to hear it.”
“I promise Celly, it is, me, who is doing all of this. You should get back to Canterlot now; it is nearly time for you to lower the Sun, and us to raise the moon.”
“Yes, you are right, I must leave at once.” Celestia then nuzzled her sister once more and gracefully stepped out of the window to return to Canterlot.
“Celly has never cried in front of us before, never… Maybe she really is just looking out for us. But that still doesn’t excuse her use of our old magic. Perhaps we should just stay here and help rule Equestria. We could wait and speak to our sister about it some other time, maybe in a century or two, after we’ve settled into our new position. It’s not like she’s hurting anypony anyways. Yes, that is what we shall do! Now to raise the moon and rest for the party tomorrow night.”
