The Beginning of a Revolution
It had been over an hour since the three ponies had arrived at the court of Princess Celestia, the ruler all of them admired and supported. Nonetheless they came with intentions to force her to either accept their demands or face the consequences that would inevitably follow if she didn't.
Sunny Smile, the orange-coated mare with the yellow, spiky mane that stood the middle of the three was obviously the one in charge. In contrary to her name her expression was stern and even the royal guards kept at a healthy distance to not disturb her in any way. Beside her stood two stallions. Both were wearing red coats and it was impossible to tell them apart if they would change their places. The only thing that one could see was that both of them were unicorns.
Sunny's Patience was about to reach it's limit when the humongous doors to the throne room were finally opened. Barely noticed by Sunny six young mares walked past them. Well, five of them were walking. Even sunny couldn't ignore the fact that one of them was hopping around the others. How could she be so fast in front of the others and then in the back again?
She had no time to further think about the young mares as she approached the authoritative alicorn that was sitting in one of the two thrones while the second was empty. 'Good' Sunny thought. It would be easier to propose her demands when the one that the demands were about was absent.
The warm smile of Princess Celestia was welcoming and took away many of the fears that Sunny could have had. But one fear was too strong. Fear that had been installed into every pony by stories and nightmares alike. Fear that could not be suppressed by the one that was also part of this worrisome affair.
"I am sorry to have you wait for such a long time but it had been a while since I last saw my student and her friends and the many stories this six told me took longer than I anticipated." the mighty alicorn said in a calm tone. "But now I wish to listen to what you wanted to ask me. The guards told me that it was a matter of great importance but even they couldn't tell me what exactly it was. So please enlighten me about your problems."
Sunny cleared her throat before she began her speech. "Dear Princess, you of all ponies should know best what our worries are. We three are part of a movement that loves the sunny days that you gift us with. Therefore it is only natural that we fear the one that the stories tell us about." Sunny could see the expression in Princess Celestia's face change. The warm smile faded slowly as she continued.
"Yes, we fear Nightmare Moon. We fear that one day she would again threaten your benevolent rule and that this time, she would succeed. And rumours has it that the one called Nightmare Moon has indeed returned. Only does she not call herself Nightmare Moon anymore." The expression in Princess Celestia's face had became icy and hard. No love was apparent anymore. But Sunny continued even though sweat was dripping down her forehead. She had prepared for this a long time ago. "She now calls herself Princess Luna. Is it correct to assume that Princess Luna are one and the same?"
Princess Celestia kept quiet for a moment before she gave an icy and monotonous answer. "It is indeed correct that Princess Luna, my sister, and Nightmare Moon were one and the same at one point. But this is a matter of the past. A past long gone. I comprehend that you're worried but I can't see what you wish me to do about it except to assure you that Nightmare Moon is gone for good."
"We have reliable sources that Nightmare Moon still houses inside of Princess Luna." Sunny answered with a sly smirk. "She was seen transforming. Only small details to be honest but who can tell that this wasn't only the beginning of a bigger transformation back into Nightmare Moon?"
The princess was not shocked by the bold statement of the mare in front of her. She already knew about the smaller transformations from Princess Luna herself and she also worried about the further development that could follow if neither of the two princesses would attend to this matter carefully. What worried the princess more was the fact that somepony else knew about it. This was proof enough that their intelligence network was better than just a small sects one. This group of ponies would be a dangerous enemy if angered. And that they would not become allies as long as their demands were not met was also obvious.
The princess, her cold gaze on the mare in front of her, answered slowly and authoritative. "I am well aware of these changes. But this doesn't explain what you want from me. Explain yourself now or be gone."
Sunny shivered slightly as she looked in the now expressionless face of the princess she adored since she was young. Seeing the normally benevolent ruler angered by the suggestive statement was frightfully unexpected and Sunny could not imagine what would happen to her and her entourage if she would press further. But she had to or else all the waiting and planing would have gone to waste.
"What we want is simple. We either want Nightmare Moon imprisoned again" Sunny said and noticed Celestia's face being distorted by anger as she continued "or Princess Luna under strict surveillance in the castle, never to leave your side so that she could be banished if the need arises. We understand that you miss your sister, especially after being apart for much longer than anypony could imagine. But she is a threat to all ponykind and cannot be left unattended. You have to understand this. You alone are aware of the dark powers of Nightmare Moon."
Celestia sighed. She didn't expect to lose the joy of talking to her student in a matter of a few minutes, but the mare in front of her had achieved just that. She took a deep breath to calm herself before she answered.
"I understand that you are frightened. But you also have to understand that I cannot imprison my sister again, be it on the moon or in my own presence. She leads her own life and has other duties except those for Equestria, which she fulfils without any complaints from anyone. I am sorry but I will not follow your demands."
Sunny looked left, then right. Both stallions looked back and nodded before they prepared a spell. "Princess, I am sorry to tell you this but you will regret what you just said. We wanted to cooperate with you as long as you would follow this one request we had. Now we have to take the matter in our own hooves."
She raised her left hoof and slammed it back on the ground. A single moment later a bright light lit and the three had vanished in thin air. Princess Celestia was the only one that could see what exactly happened. The three of them had left a sign before they had left through teleportation magic. But she wasn't able to see what sign they left because the teleportation magic had summoned a strange cloud that blocked her view. She raised her wings and flapped them once with enough force to gust the cloud away.
The symbol that was burned into the marble ground, a feat that only magic could achieve. It was a sun wrapped around a moon. Inside the moon was a square with three lines vertically from one side to another. A simple picture of a cage but it showed the intentions of the group that had just left perfectly. They wanted to imprison Princess Luna again. To do this they would need the elements of harmony. But Twilight wouldn't just help anyone to imprison her sister again. Not as long as there isn't any reason to.
Engulfed with the princesses magic a scroll, a feather and a small ink pot began to float in front of her. The feather put itself into the pot and began to scribble something on the floating scroll. Celestia barely noticed it's movement as she was staring outside towards the darkening sky where the sun began to sink below the horizon and the moon raise to take it's place. About five minutes later the feather and the ink pot floated back on the table while the scroll rolled itself up. The scroll neared the table and received the royal seal before it floated towards the nearest guard.
"Take it to my sister's room and throw it into the blue fire over the stone goblet. And hurry, it is an important message that needs to reach my sister as soon as somehow possible. In the meanwhile, I will enter the library and I do not want to be disturbed. You may only let somepony through if they have an answer from my sister. Understood?" the princess commanded with a stern yet warm voice.
"UNDERSTOOD" was the unison answer of the present guards as they saluted pridefully towards the princess, eager to fulfil their duties. The guard with the message left as soon as he had regained his posture from saluting. Another one ran back to the barracks to inform the guard officer which set two guards to watch over the library doors as long as the princess was inside. The remaining guards returned to their posts.
While Princess Celestia was researching in the library, her sister was watching over the daily business of Plenaris. She was about to sign a contract when the pregnant priestess of Westbrucke, Moonprayer, entered her office and brought her a scroll. Princess Luna curiously looked at the seal with which the scroll was closed up. It was the royal seal.
Preparations Need to be Made
Princess Luna looked worriedly down on the scroll she had just received. The seal was without doubt the royal seal that, beside herself, only her sister Celestia is allowed to use. The scroll began to float in front of the Princess. Luna noticed that the seal itself had still a bit of warmth left. She carefully broke it in the middle, with the intention to cause as little damage to it as possible.
The scroll unfolded itself and revealed the message that Princess Celestia had written for her sister. Luna read it through once and shook her head. Than she read it a second and third time to ensure herself that she didn't misunderstand anything her sister wrote:
"Dear Sister, you are in great danger
A small group of three ponies came today with outrages demands. They wanted to imprison you again! They are afraid that you turn back to Nightmare Moon. But we both now know that this is rather unlikely.
But what is much more worrisome is the fact that they apparently know about the minor transformations as well. That could only mean one of two things.
First of all some of the palace's personnel could be part of their movement. This is rather likely seeing that some of the palace's servants react frightened in your presence. And not all secrets can be kept forever with so many ponies around.
Second is that their network reaches further out than any other that is known to us. They might have sent ponies to the north where you were seen transforming.
Either way, they know many things and they might as well be aware that the Elements of Harmony are necessary to imprison you again. I don't think that Twilight Sparkle would use them against you as long as you aren't obviously against me. I will make sure that this won't happen.
I don't think you need to worry too much as long as you are in Plenaris, but remain careful in Equestria and around anypony that is not from Plenaris. They might be against you and they might want to hurt you.
Your Sister Celestia"
Still sitting on the cushion Luna always sat on when she was working for the daily businesses of Plenaris she let the scroll float on the small table in front of her. Her mind was wandering of towards her sister. Luna was well aware that this message was not only supposed to warn her. It was supposed to hide the fact that her sister Celestia was endangered as well. If three ponies could simply vanish and leave the castle they might also be able to appear in the castle.
That she was supposed to behave herself was clear to Princess Luna, not only because she was endangered of being imprisoned again. It would take quite some time to redeem herself of the name of her dark side and this would not work if she would openly use the dark powers she had been granted with. That her dark side tried to resurface was no help at all.
"Guards" Luna called out and waited only a short amount of time before two armoured stallions entered the room, ready to battle and with confusion shining through on their faces. "Don't worry, there is no threat." Luna said and could see how the tension fell off the two stallions. "I need you to prepare some defences around each city. Raise the guards on duty and if necessary build some towers. We might face some terrible times if what my sister has told me with her letter is true."
The two guards nodded slowly and went outside. Luna could hear them whisper and she could not suppress the smirk on her face, only distort it to a terrible antic. If somepony would have seen her they would have shivered in fear if not screamed. Luna's teeth had become sharp. It was her anger showing through. The anger towards those infidels that dared to threaten her sister.
"We need to prepare more than defences" a whisper in Luna's head told her. "If there are really ponies threatening our sister, we need to attack. With all of our power. We need to show them that what they feared really has returned."
"No", Luna thought back. "If we do this, they will only gather more supporters and not only I will be banished, but also my sister would face consequences far worse than death. What we need to do at the moment is wait and prepare. Rushing anything will only make things worse."
"True, but if we wait to long than our enemy will have grown too strong for us to defeat."
"We are not alone. If we can convince the Elements of Harmony to stand alongside us we might even succeed in resolving this problem without any shed blood. But we need to at least ensure that they don't stand against us. If they do, then our enemy has the strongest weapon known to ponykind in it's hooves. And this paired with their goals would be disastrous. We need to prevent this from happening. Even if they won't stand on my side, they should stand on my sister's."
"And what makes you so sure about that? What makes you so sure that the Elements of Harmony won't be turned against you and your sister?"
"Because Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, is the student of my sister and adores her as nopony in the last millennia has done. Or have you forgotten of this already?"
"I haven't. But this is no guarantee. It is a hope that might be wrong as it might be true. Do not forget this."
"I won't" she assured her other side.
After that, Luna remained quiet and thought about the situation that she and her sister were in. She didn't notice the young priestess entering and speaking to her. Only at the waving motion of Moonprayer's hoof in front of her face would she notice that her own student had tried to get her attention.
"I am sorry princess but I noticed the guards hurrying towards the scribe offices and I got worried." the young mare told the still slightly confused princess in front of her. "Are there any problems I should be worried about?"
The princess looked at the priestess and was about to send her away without informing her. The significance of the letter not only for her but for Plenaris itself let her change her mind. "There is indeed a problem. It seems that my sister was threatened." The princess waited for the moment the gasp of the young priestess lasted. "And it was mainly about me being to powerful after just being freed from the evil inside. Which, as we both know, is not entirely true. They want me to be either under strict surveillance of my sister or banished again. Else they would rebel against the throne."
It was apparent that Moonprayer was shocked but she tried to remain calm and simply nodded before she answered. "And how did your sister reply? I don't think that she would simply banish you again."
The warm smile that appeared on Luna's face due to Moonprayer's estimation of Celestia's reaction surprised Moonprayer a little. So did the sorrow in Luna's voice. "No, she decided to neither banish me nor to imprison me within our own castle. She has decided that I could remain here." A sigh escaped Luna's lips before she continued. "And I think that would be the wisest course of action. Remain calm and try not to provoke any aggression from the Equestrian inhabitants. And keeping my full power hidden from those that fear I could lose control over them again."
Moonprayer looked on the ground. She herself was afraid to lose the princess again even though the loss she feared was of a different kind. As far as she was concerned the darkness inside her liege and mentor was not something that could raise as it likes. It has to be triggered by strong, negative feelings. Something like envy or solitude or anger. The anger of somepony important being threatened, for example. Moonprayer raised her head again. "Is there any way I can help you or your sister?"
Again Luna smiled and she had already tilted her head to the left when she stopped the motion as she was thinking. "Maybe you could help my sister. But that would mean that you had to leave Westbrucke and your husband behind for some time and that I cannot support. You are needed here not only as a wife but also as a leader. And you are pregnant. You would want your husband to see his son or daughter as soon as possible, wouldn't you?"
Moonprayer simply nodded. She was not capable of answering as she sobbed and a tear ran down her cheek. Princess Luna stood up and embraced the crying pony as she was thinking of a way for Moonprayer to support her in any way. None wanted to come to her mind. "Go home my student and rest for a bit. Many tasks will come that will need your full concentration, I am certain of it. But for now you may rest. I will approach you if I required your assistance."
And as Moonprayer left the office of her mentor a trio of shady, hooded ponies was galloping through the dark alleys of Canterlot. Their way lead them to a small, wooden door hidden behind a curtain that was torn and seemed to hang there since the beginning of the Princesses rule. Inside was a room bigger than it would seem on the outside and with a symbol burned in it's ground. The symbol was a cage inside the moon. The moon itself was engulfed by the sun.
