The Restoration of Princess Luna
Leaves on the trees had long since turned to brown and only the most optimistic of ponies would venture to suggest that they were still in summer. Most had torn themselves away from the thought of endless summer days and were readying themselves for the Running of the Leaves. It was three months since the events of the Summer Sun Celebration and with nothing seen publicly of Princess Luna; the topic had long since been dropped from conversation. The only remaining sign that anything had changed was that the moon no longer framed the silhouette of an alicorn’s head, but it was surprising how quickly this had become accepted as the new norm.
In truth, Luna was still coming to terms with being integrated back into the Royal Household and chose to spend most of her time alone during the day, and reacquainting herself with Equestria on night time wanderings, free from the prying eyes of others.
So it was that she found herself on the edge of the Everfree Forest, regarding critically the alicorn mare who looked back up to her from the surface of a woodland pool. She looked long and hard, dissecting the newly restored princess into all her perceived faults; she had been alone for so long, so long, and now she had been accepted back into Equestrian society, the sheer numbers of ponies having left her feeling claustrophobic. For a thousand years she had been imprisoned within Nightmare Moon as she served her banishment, railing against everypony who had ever lived and cursing each one a thousand times over; especially Celestia. For her, she had reserved the most passionate hatred and concocted many and varied elaborate schemes for retribution. But now she was back, finally free of the curse of Nightmare Moon and bathing in the forgiveness of all ponykind, and all her malice had been wiped away in an instant. All thanks to Twilight Sparkle; the instrument of her release, and Celestia; who granted her absolution.
Princess Luna could not imagine how she would ever be able to repay the love shown by her two redeemers, but as an immortal she knew she would have an eternity to thank her sister; however Twilight would blossom and wither in but a few fleeting decades. She knew that their time would be short, so she wanted to reward this brave young mare as best she could in the time available to her. But somehow, she just couldn’t bring herself to face the lilac mare and she hated herself for her weakness. That was the real reason why she had flown down to Ponyville tonight; to build up her courage. She continued staring at her reflection in the pool as ripples gently washed over the surface, providing the slightest shimmering across her image.
How would she go about fostering their friendship? Twilight had shown herself to be steadfast and courageous against the terrifying wrath of Nightmare Moon’s power; she had seen it as if a spectator while her inner demon had possessed her body and recalled vividly the heart stopping moment when the lilac mare, barely more than a filly had charged her.
“You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”
How those scornful words burned across her soul her as she replayed the unequal confrontation in her mind’s eye. She knew that Nightmare Moon would have killed her; enjoyed killing her. Hot tears of shame started to build in her eyes with the painful memories and she rose slowly, making no effort to wipe them away and then with a heartfelt scream stamped her forehooves down as hard as she could into the pool, sending hundreds of tiny images of herself splashing in all directions; mocking her whichever way she turned. She may have been a princess, but she felt unworthy; unworthy of the love being given to her unquestioningly by Celestia, by Twilight and by Equestria in general.
Then the tears came, stinging her eyes and making her choke. Fresh drops to replace those she had scattered, restoring the pool; making up for what had been lost. She could not look at her image any more and turned her head away, her forelegs following her slowly, reluctantly, whilst her self-doubt and her guilt followed obediently.
The night was drawing to a close. She raised her eyes skyward, her plain light blue mane catching in a gentle breeze that heralded the dawn. She had once painted the night sky, creating beautiful pictures for herself and any other ponies who may be out and care to glance up to admire her handiwork. The stars counterpointed the gently warming sky, but they lacked the imagination. Not a bad effort from the Solar Princess, but let’s face it she had had a thousand years to develop a little more flair than this. Celestia would surely let her raise the moon and create new masterpieces amongst the stars again once her powers were restored. How she relished the possibilities. How she feared the responsibility. Would she allow herself to be pitched over the event horizon of jealousy that had caused Nightmare Moon to be created in the first place? No. Never. She swore an oath to herself on the spot that she must never let that happen again.
Her reverie was punctuated abruptly by the sound of approaching hoofsteps accompanied by the sound of gentle humming coming from along the path she was on. She wasn’t prepared to face anypony in this state; a dishevelled looking Royal Princess with tear streaks and muddy hooves was most unbecoming, so seized by an irrational terror she jumped into a nearby bush from where she could not be seen. Landing a little awkwardly, she let out a suppressed “Eeep” and settled a little uncomfortably in her hiding place. Her dark coat concealed her well in the makeshift sanctuary and she remained perfectly still as a lilac pony with saddle bags trotted happily along the path. Twilight! Although she had told herself she was ready to meet her, she always knew the chances were slim to non-existent, but now she was here, she really couldn’t face the encounter and edged herself a little further in to her refuge to make sure she would not be noticed.
Twilight had risen early and had decided to take a brisk walk to pick wild mushrooms in the dawn not expecting to see anypony. Her life had been a little hectic and she wanted little more than to take time to reorganise her library again, but Spike viewed mornings with suspicion and so she resigned herself to not having her assistant on hoof for a good hour or so yet. She would cook breakfast for them both this morning and what better than to treat them with mushrooms freshly picked from the fields in the fresh dew of the dawn? She trotted happily past the bushes oblivious of their current visitor whose fear of discovery was already giving way to self-loathing for not having taken the golden opportunity to present herself to Twilight.
Once satisfied that the coast was clear, she extricated herself and considered taking off to fly back to Canterlot, but a wide gnarled old tree caught her eye. It appeared that the hollowed out trunk had been converted into a home and looked a bit like the Golden Oak library, but a whole lot more scary, and it caught her imagination. Surely a brief peek wouldn’t hurt, especially as it was still early and so she reasoned that the occupant was unlikely to be awake yet. She walked carefully towards this unusual dwelling, totally absorbed by what she saw, and so she was taken completely by surprise by an accented voice off to one side.
“A morning caller to the Everfree;
It’s Princess Luna come to visit me.”
Luna stood transfixed to the spot; she had been called by name, so there was no point trying to pretend she wasn’t there. She cursed her luck that everypony seemed to be up so early this morning, and she had been caught looking most unregal. The pony who greeted her looked most unusual, with her grey and white striped coat and matching mane stuck rigidly up. In fact Luna would have been hard pushed to have described her as a pony as she looked so unusual, but the presence of a cutie mark on her flank confirmed that she indeed was.
“I sense you’re sad and feeling blue,
Come in with me and share a brew.”
She wanted to run, to fly, anything to escape, but here was somepony who at least seemed ready to accept her regardless of how she looked and appeared to be genuinely friendly. She could hardly refuse and awkwardly offered her thanks. If Zecora had seen Luna taking her extreme avoiding action when Twilight had come into view, she did not show it; a mercy for which Luna felt indebted.
As Luna entered the hut she paused in mid step taking in the strange interior, with a large cauldron as centrepiece in the middle of a roughly circular room, coloured bottles hanging from the ceiling whilst others waited patiently on shelves in strategically placed alcoves. The effect of suddenly seeing the strange contents of this quirky hut and its décor did little to put Luna at her ease, and she was inevitably drawn to consider what may be lurking within the cauldron. Zecora picked up on her reticence and spoke another rhyme to put her at her ease:
“Do not fret my alicorn friend;
There’s nothing in there that will offend.”
Luna plucked up the courage to complement her hostess on the few items that she recognised and soon found her inquisitive nature getting the better of her as she started to view her surroundings more with interest than trepidation. Zecora prepared two mugs of tea, the steam of their sweet aroma spiralling upwards to fight with the dominant fragrance of herbs pervading the exotic zebra’s home.
Coming more to her ease, Luna took the mug she had been offered in her magic and enquired the nature of the drink she had been given.
“It’s a pick-me-up I offer to you;
A few sips and you’ll be as good as new.”
Intrigued by the unfamiliar infusion, Luna took a tentative sip that immediately exploded a taste sensation in her mouth and shot through her body causing her to shudder involuntarily.
“Goodness!” she gasped in shock as a radiating warmth crept outwards from her core.
“This is a certainly a potent tonic to get you going.”
“It’s a remedy from my homeland;
A drop or two will make you feel grand.”
Feeling her resistance dropping, Luna began to open up to her new friend. It turned out that Zecora had come from the very far away country of Marezambique and her unusual tendency to speak in rhyming couplets was part of her herd’s oral tradition. Her appearance and her ways were so radically different from the other inhabitants of Ponyville that they would run and hide whenever she came to town. Consequently, she had only a cursory understanding of current events in Equestria, what she had learned coming from newspapers that she picked up on her occasional visits to Ponyville.
“I recognised you on your caper
From your picture in the newspaper.”
Luna then told her new friend the truth about her transition to Nightmare Moon and her subsequent banishment, which was not quite as how it had been portrayed in the popular press with its penchant for embellishing, if not completely rewriting the salient facts. She spoke about her return and plunging Equestria into nighttime eternal and how she had tried to sabotage the Mane Six in their quest to retrieve the Elements of Harmony, culminating in the showdown with Twilight Sparkle and her release from Nightmare Moon. The zebra remained impassive throughout, pausing only to refresh their mugs. Only when Luna’s tale was finally told did she rub her chin with her forehoof.
“I have something in a jar right here
That will make your worries disappear.
A bead of moonstone tied in your mane
And a potion to make you right as rain.”
“Wait” said Luna “Are you sure about this? I mean, I don’t want to put you to any trouble…”
“Please Princess there is no need to fuss,
This will be a secret just between us.”
As Luna watched, Zecora took small pinches of ingredients from a selection of the bottles and jars from alcoves and shelves around the room and mixed them together with pestle and mortar. When she was happy that the ingredients were mixed, she produced a red silk hoofkerchief and unfurled it diagonally on an empty table, placing the bowl at the centre. Next she set an unlit candle on either side and then went to a small cabinet with tiny drawers, withdrawing an opalescent white stone that she placed in front of the bowl.
As Luna watched captivated, Zecora lit some incense and then the two candles before settling into a meditative trance in front of the makeshift altar. After a time she began muttering some words in her native tongue, then approached the altar and placed the small white stone into the bowl before retreating to continue her incantations. Finally she rose again and picked the little stone from the bowl.
“Your charm is done with a spell arcane,
Now I need to tie it in your mane.”
With this, Zecora chose a few strands of mane and threaded it on so it was secured in place.
“Now you will feel your mojo return
And help you reach the goal you yearn.”
With the moonstone attached, Zecora turned to the bowl on the altar and added some hot water, offering it to Luna to complete the spell. Luna held it unquestioningly and began to sip the enchanted mixture. She expected it to be foul, but instead it was quite a palatable infusion that she tasted, and quickly drank it all down.
Luna thanked the zebra graciously and emerged from the curious hut, blinking in the full light of day. It was time to return to Canterlot before her absence caused concern, but before she took to flight, she allowed herself to walk with newly found authority back to the path from whence she had arrived and strode purposefully, even regally. She reached the path and continued a short way to the bush where she had hidden earlier and allowed herself a little smile; what a silly foal she had been!
Ahead she spied two ponies walking slowly in her direction; one a mint green unicorn and the other a white earth pony with purple and pink mane. She no longer felt the urge to hide but continued her path, not breaking her stride and when she approached offered the couple a bright “good morning”. They replied absent mindedly, too wrapped up in each other to pay much attention, but then the unicorn looked up and said to her marefriend “Wasn’t that Princess Luna?”
The earth pony looked around and saw the crescent moon cutie mark walking away from them and stared open mouthed before replying, “You know Lyra, you may well be right. She sure looks at peace with herself.”
The unicorn turned to speak with the Princess, but all she saw was the receding shape of a pastel blue alicorn flying back towards Canterlot.
“You know”, said the unicorn “I can’t see her turning back to Nightmare Moon any time soon.”
Luna landed on the balcony of the Royal Palace and was greeted by Princess Celestia, who even if she was worried by her sister’s late return betrayed nothing of the concern in her voice.
“Are you well sister?” the white alicorn enquired.
“Yes sister” said the younger alicorn with so much authority in her voice that her sister was taken by surprise. “I have enjoyed an invigorating exploration around the Everfree Forest and feel most refreshed.”
“I see” responded Celestia.
“In fact sister, I feel ready to resume my role as the Princess of the Night”
“I am pleased to hear you are so… so much like your old self once more, but do you truly feel able to carry out your duties again?”
“Yes sister, I do” she replied firmly.
When that evening came, there was a surge of magical energy over Canterlot and the stunned silence around the Royal Palace was broken by something unheard for over a thousand years – the Royal Canterlot Voice. Princess Celestia, now tired from having discharged part of the magic she had held for a thousand years was ready to turn in. Her sister Luna, now fully restored as Princess Luna, not just in title but also in power had grown physically with the return of her magic. Not only that but her coat had turned a deeper hue and her beautiful star spangled mane and tail had been restored, resplendent with a thousand ethereal moonstones.
Celestia wondered how her sister would adjust to receiving her magic back after so long; they had after all last been together at the time of Starswirl the Bearded, and a lot had changed since then.
“Good night dear sister” said a tired but happy Celestia “I hope you enjoy painting the night sky.”
“SLEEPEST THOU WELL SISTER” boomed Luna “FEAR NOT, WE SHALL PROTECT THE REALM DURING THE DARK HOURS”.
Celestia turned and a smile crossed her face. “We’re going to have to do something about that voice” she thought to herself.
