Chapters The massed crowd gasped in awe at the aerial spectacle of precision bravery that was a typical Wonderbolts show. Spitfire had retired two years ago and the new Captain; Rainbow Dash had made some changes to the choreography, increasing the number of pegasi flying at any event to nine and overseeing a recruitment drive to ensure that there were plenty of flyers available for any display.
Attracting new trainees had never been a problem for the Wonderbolts, but Rainbow was a one pony personality cult, the star who only served to enhance the team’s appeal. Indeed, a special section had been set up within the Wonderbolts Academy just to cope with the increase in applications.
Having more flyers allowed Rainbow more flexibility to invent a whole library of new moves, each one of which was meticulously practiced before being unveiled to the admiring public. Whilst she had not set about trying to overshadow her predecessor, there was no doubting the surge in popularity currently being enjoyed by the team.
Her friends had travelled to see all of her shows during her first year in charge, but now in the second season they had started to take her daring and professionalism for granted. The most important pony in her life, her marefriend had only ever attended occasionally, but Rainbow didn’t mind, she was after all the Princess of the Night and daytime displays occurred right in the middle of her sleep cycle.
They had been a steady couple for so long now that there had been much talk within the Court and beyond of a Royal Wedding. Whilst there was no shortage of love and devotion from either of them, many ponies across Equestria still held outdated views on same sex relationships, and between them, all the Royal Princesses and Rainbow had decided with heavy hearts that a wedding would not happen, at least not any time soon.
The nine pegasi climbed vertically and peeled off one at a time in perfect synchronisation to follow each other down at precise spacings and burn up at low level just in front of the crowd line to admiring applause. From her position out front, Rainbow smiled; the display was going well and the crowd was cheering enthusiastically. The nine broke into three groups at the end of the runway, three making a climbing circuit to the right, while three more performed a mirror image manoeuvre to the left, and the three remaining pegasi climbing inverted to meeting the other two groups at altitude exactly in the middle to cross and recross each other’s tails in a tightening plait before exploding into nine equally spaced roll-off–the-top moves.
Spitfire was in the crowd today witnessing the changes her protégé had made since having taken over and was naming to herself every move the synchronised pegasi were making. She held an impressed smile on her face whilst her eyes still sheltered behind her trademark sunglasses, nodding gently in approval as the show proceeded.
She had been instrumental in getting Rainbow top spot on the team, and not a day went by that she hadn’t congratulated herself on having made a good judgement call. Rainbow had earned a reputation every bit as strict as she herself had maintained over the flyers and took no truck from anypony. That was not to say that she only recognised the best performers; she would also encourage newbie flyers by introducing them to proper display flying as they neared the culmination of their training. In fact, if she wasn’t mistaken, there was one of them in the team today, a white stallion with yellow tail flying as Rainbow’s wingpony.
All nine pegasi now formed into an arrow formation and corkscrewed high in a climbing spiral, two breaking off and diving in opposite directions while the others climbed once more to be ready to dive in a flourish once the two solo flyers had completed their showpiece flypast. The two solo flyers, one trailing a rainbow tail, continued their dives while they increased speed for a high speed back to back pass just in front of the crowd line; a spectacular manoeuvre that always drew a sharp intake of breath from the crowd.
Rainbow’s lips were buffeting with the speed of the airflow as she could see her wingpony narrowing the gap to her really very fast . Just like practice, no great shakes, then it would be up to close the show with a sonic rainboom; she was always planning at least one or two steps ahead. All they had to do was follow what they had practiced during copious training sessions and it would be a piece of cake.
"Closer … closer … 90 degree roll to the left to pass back to back … WHAT THE?"
Rainbow suddenly saw to her horror that her novice wingpony had rolled too far over, and neither had time to make any further corrections! Her eyes went wide realising that nothing could save either of them now. There was no time to shout, to swear or to pray – they were going to hit …
The crowd knew the show was drawing to a close and all were looking forward to the sonic rainboom from the Wonderbolts’ ever-popular Captain, but first there were still a few more moves to go including the high speed back to back pass. Everypony had been treated to an exceptional quality of flying and looked forward with relish to the remainder of the highly polished display.
Spitfire gasped, her glasses falling off as her trained eye picked up on what Rainbow could see. She didn’t even have time to stand. One second the two blue suited pegasi were closing very fast, and the next they appeared to bounce off each other. The crowd gasped as they had already intended to do, but then it went quiet for a few brief seconds and a sickening whump sound spread over the crowd as the two performers plummeted towards the ground.
“Pegamedics!” shouted Spitfire, her reactions already having given her a head start over any other pony. Her authoritative voice reached a solitary pegasus medical orderly who was ringside, jerking him into life and he responded immediately by launching himself towards the two falling bodies. He would not be able to catch both, so he went for the star of the show, the one with the rainbow mane and tail, just intercepting her before she hit the ground. A hundred yards away there was the most horrible sound of splintering bone and snapping cartilage as the yellow tailed pegasus hit the ground hard and bounced, legs, wings and head flailing before hitting the ground again and coming to rest in a crumpled heap like a discarded ragdoll. Mercifully, nopony heard his last few seconds over the screams of the crowd.
In her bedchamber at Canterlot, a nocturnal blue alicorn awoke with a start.
***
“She’s coming round” said a disembodied voice that bounced around inside her head.
“Rainbow” whispered a familiar voice “It’s me, Lulu. You’re OK.”
She experienced a number of these brief waking episodes, before parts of her memory began to return. Sometimes there were different voices, but all carried the same tenderness and concern. The longer she stayed awake, the more she began to feel the needles and pipes in her body, feeding her, keeping her alive.
Each of her visitors brought something different; Twilight would read to her, Rarity would gossip, Pinkie would tell her jokes, but most of all her marefriend’s words exuded a love that reached out and cuddled her inside her prison of plaster casts and pipes. Some other ponies came by too, but she couldn’t work out who they were or where they fitted in; they were familiar but distant.
Piece at a time, her life started to come together; comments, observations, memories; each one acting as a nucleus around which the larger perspective of her life started to pull together. Along with her newly awakened self-discovery she also started to feel frustrated, cooped up, when what she really wanted to do was fly. She had remembered that she enjoyed it and was good at it, so was itching to try her wings out again, but any requests and pleas along these lines were met with an embarrassed silence.
Before long, Rainbow had regained a good memory of all aspects of her life except for her final display; a subject that all her visitors skirted around. It struck her as odd that since she had been Captain of the Wonderbolts why nopony had been complementing her on her flying.
One long awaited day, she was told that the casts would be coming off and she would be able to get up. This was such a small step, but for her it was a giant leap after which it would surely only be a brief matter of time before she would be flying again. Sure, she would probably be a bit slow to start with, but she would be performing sonic rainbooms again in no time.
Princess Luna, a regular visitor at her marefriend’s bedside, arrived early, trying hard to suppress the obvious tension she felt. Once a team of hospital staff was assembled, they all rallied round to cut Rainbow from her cast while Luna looked on apprehensively. She had rehearsed this moment many times, but when it came it was still shocking and she put a hoof to her mouth to cover the involuntary gasp.
Rainbow leaned upright relishing the delight of being released from the servitude of lying down. In celebratory mood she flexed the muscles that extended her wings and immediately overbalanced, caught by a medical orderly before she fell.
She stared in disbelief at what must have been a cruel prank. She wiggled the other wing; that was fine, but what had happened to the other one?
Rainbow Dash had been inconsolable since her release from hospital and didn’t want to see anypony. She was an active pegasus for whom flying had always been as essential as food or water, and some adjustment would be needed now that wasn’t possible. As a result, she was resentful, irascible and downright rude.
Slowly, patiently and over many months, the Princess of the Night set about wearing down her marefriend’s outer hostility. She used her special privilege of dream walking to check up on her discretely and learn any particular likes she could exploit in the waking world. There had been precious few positive thoughts; mostly she had been dogged by nightmares surrounding her own insecurity and Luna had found a very scared filly trying to come to grips with what her future role would be. However, there was one beacon of hope and only one she had managed to discover that could come anywhere close to never being able to fly again, but she knew she could only broach it when the time was right.
“Rainbow Dash” she coaxed “You are just as special to me now as ever you were before. I hope I am still special to you too?”
For a moment, Rainbow forgot about her worries and then the moment stretched out a little longer, and longer again as the two of them found gratification with each other that both had missed for so long. Relaxing in the afterglow, Luna ran a forehoof gently over her marefriend’s tummy:
“You did what , Luna?” asked Celestia thinking she hadn’t heard correctly.
Celestia could see the desperation in her sister’s eyes and also knew the state that Rainbow was in. She also realised that Luna was the only one who could lift her out of depression and restore her self-belief. Clearly Luna would never have embarked on this course if she thought there could be any other way, so she must assume that this really was her marefriend’s last hope. In fact Rainbow was not just Luna’s partner, but by default, Celestia’s own sister-in-law. Who was she to deny her without at least trying?
Luna returned to her marefriend with an unexpected spring in her step and opened the door into their bedchamber. It was a warm evening and her opening the door caused a slight draught to rustle the curtains that framed the balcony. Rainbow looked up upon her return before the shimmering curtains briefly caught her eye. While her natural instinct was still wishing to be outside flying in the fading evening light, for once she didn’t whine about her frustration but returned her gaze quickly to the blue alicorn.
Rainbow pricked her ears up, tilting her head slightly to one side.
Luna tried to probe Rainbow’s interest in stallions, but it soon emerged that for all her bravado, she had only ever viewed them as rivals to be bettered in physical contest. Luna’s heart sank; Rainbow had never even had an actual coltfriend. The blue alicorn was little better equipped either, not having had a physical relationship with a stallion since before being banished to the moon a thousand years ago. She would have to go back to her sister empty hooved.
Celestia meanwhile was pouring whatever spare time she could create into finding a possible solution to the problem and had called upon both Princess Cadence and Twilight Sparkle for their contributions with love magic and arcane research respectively, allocating them a week before they should meet up and discuss options. Both were keen to help, but neither seemed overly positive about finding the kind of answer that the Sun Princess wanted to hear.
Once the week had passed, the four Princesses of Equestria met up as arranged. Celestia sat at the head of the table looking regal; to her side Luna was morose, while Cadence made a pretence of looking cheerful and Twilight wore an artificially happy smile. The Sun Princess started by outlining the risks not only to Rainbow and Luna if they couldn’t find a way to deliver the couple of a foal, but also the longer term implications for the dark realm if Luna was unable to perform her duties.
Celestia nominated Cadence to start the discussion by sharing what she could. She prepared to speak by flicking her mane back with a forehoof and smiling sweetly:
Luna propped her elbows on the table and rested her face on her forehooves.
Twilight hadn’t lost her nervous expression, but chipped in as she had been cued:
Luna allowed her face to slide forward and closed her forehooves over her head.
“It’s down to me then” said Celestia “I really wish that one of you had been able to find something that could help, but am not surprised you couldn’t.”
Luna raised her head up, her puffy red eyes actually starting to show a flicker of hope as her sister continued.
“Apparently, the stallions of this previous culture succumbed to an unknown disease and their civilisation was threatened with extinction within a generation, so the greatest minds of the time appear to have come up with a solution. There are many problems with this, one of the most pressing being that we don’t know the risks . They were desperate, so would have taken any risks as being acceptable. Secondly, we don’t know what the long term effects may be because the book ends at this point and I have not been able to find another volume. Thirdly, we don’t know if their race died out anyway.”
All ponies around the table wore concerned expressions at this news.
“I will lay my cards out” Celestia continued “I believe this could be very risky and have strong reservations about experimenting with Luna because there are too many unknowns and consider that too much could go wrong. However, on the other hoof, I would be remiss if I did not at least share this discovery with you and propose you decide whether we should try it or not. I propose we all have a vote and we must agree to be bound by the group decision with no recrimination against anypony.”
“I believe in love” answered Cadence “Luna and Rainbow are unhappy and this is already affecting Luna’s work with no prospect of improvement in sight. It’s a very difficult call, but on balance I believe they should try.”
“It’s way too risky” chipped in Twilight “I can’t condone it. Unproven science has got to be tested and evaluated in trials before we consider using it on ponies. Definitely no.”
“Luna?” asked Celestia.
“Oh great” said Celestia “Two ‘for’ and one ‘against’. I have the casting vote; if I abstain, we go ahead and if I disapprove we reach a stalemate.”
Celestia raised her head and surreptitiously wiped her eyes, but was betrayed by the puddles left behind on the table. She turned to her sister who along with the others was waiting for her decision.
Author's Note
Caution: This chapter contains distressing scenes.
3 The New Moon
The blue alicorn prepared herself for the spell about to be cast. She felt apprehensive, a little scared, but certain she was doing the right thing. She knew what the theory said should happen and so did Rainbow; their final goodbye being a very tearful event, but both agreeing it would be for the best. It had been decided that Rainbow should not be anywhere near the spell working, just in case; and to help enforce that decision, guards had been posted.
Celestia prepared herself. The room was ready. Cadence and Twilight were on hand to help out. The words and actions to be followed were written out and were secured on the stone dais.
She approached her sister who lay in the centre of the circle before her, hooves tucked neatly underneath her.
Celestia withdrew, the die cast. She began the incantation and performed the requisite actions devised by beings from a long dead civilisation, providing offerings to the ethereal realm for their participation and the power within the circle began to build. Yellow light crackled from her horn and was joined by a blue stream of magic from one side and a magenta stream from the other as Cadence and Twilight joined in, focusing hard.
A magical vortex materialised from the air and then wrapped around Luna, building stronger and enveloping her, growing brighter. Suddenly, they all heard Luna scream from within the whirling maelstrom of light. Twilight faltered and looked at Celestia who was still pouring her magic in and realised that she couldn’t stop now, no matter what.
After a few heart-rending screams, Luna was quiet and the power slowly began to dissipate, the demand on the three alicorns outside the circle diminishing as the work was done. They all stood dazed, watching as the last of the magical essence dissipated and Luna finally reappeared from the eerie display.
She didn’t move.
Celestia broke the silence.
Luna twitched and opened her eyes, then one of her hooves moved as she made to rise, albeit a little groggily.
The blue alicorn tried to put weight on her legs again and this time managed to rise, Celestia and Cadence each side to give support. As Cadence moved away to give some space, Twilight looked and gasped:every inch a stallion from where I’m standing.”
Luna blushed, but suddenly found herself or more properly himself centre of attention.
They walked back to Luna’s chambers together, Celestia and Cadence continuing to flank her so as not to draw attention to her recently acquired appendage. Rainbow welcomed them in and kissed her marefriend, so grateful to see her again. Their escorting duties concluded, the three Princesses retired to leave the two committed partners together to get used to the recent difference that would very shortly herald a change in their relationship.
Once the shock had worn off, Rainbow and Luna got into the swing of their new partnership and both were evidently much happier than they had been for a very long time. Luna had to withdraw from public life lest other mares noticed the inescapable difference and started to demand the right to this complex and unproven spell, but she continued diligently protecting Equestria during the realm of night and did not neglect her dream walking responsibilities either.
After a few months of blissful togetherness Luna began to find it a little more difficult to get up for her evening duties and her joints ached much more than she ever remembered. Rainbow teased her that it was due to how much they had been exercising their newly aroused passions, and her marefriend accepted the explanation with a cheeky grin.
The Royal Physician had been paying regular visits to Rainbow and finally confirmed that she was pregnant. All those to whom the news was circulated were overjoyed for the couple, but the Princesses were all plagued at some level by concerns about possible side effects; if not now, then perhaps later on.
Rainbow had assumed a glow that only expectant mothers have and was less worried about her disability now as she focused more on the well-being of their foal. She was looking forward to life again with such enthusiasm that could not have been imagined in the aftermath of the accident. Luna had become even more attentive than ever she had been before and the two of them would lay together in spare moments admiring Rainbow’s swelling body and the little movements inside her. Sometimes Luna would trace shapes gently over Rainbow’s tummy with her hoof and they would both giggle like fillies when the foal nudged or kicked back.
The days rolled by in a happy unbroken sequence, but Luna was starting to find that her eyesight was not as crisp as it had once been and unwelcome patches were appearing on her coat. She put it down to not getting enough sleep, but at the next visit from the Physician, Rainbow raised the question.
Rainbow snuggled up to her as the Physician dismissed himself not particularly wanting to anger the Princess further – even if he was right.
The forthcoming months saw Luna deteriorate even faster until she could no longer deny the truth, but while she was undeniably aging, a far bigger question was whether the spell had robbed her of her immortality. This was not pleasant to contemplate, for either she would die or she would remain conscious as her body shrivelled and collapsed around her. Of the two, death was by far the kinder alternative. Only one thing was certain - time was running out to understand her condition and develop a solution to reshape her destiny.
In response, Celestia ordered historians to redouble their efforts to translate more of the ancient tome to see if there was any arcane knowledge that could help. She also arranged for Twilight to head a trawl through all the hidden vaults in the library, desperate to find some text that might offer a solution. They worked tirelessly, but each day, the answer was the same.
Rainbow was stressed trying to comfort Luna, but she was losing the battle as night by night she saw how her marefriend was weakening. The formerly active and alert alicorn, so full of the joys of living was becoming an empty husk, only her love keeping her going, and the strong desire to see her foal.
Her eyes had grown misty whilst her coat was scrawny and she had such difficulty getting out of bed and moving around. Rainbow continued to love her dearly and looked after her as best she could, reading her ‘Daring Do’ stories until she knew them off by heart and helping to feed her when her frail trembling got too bad.
One evening when it was time for Luna to rise, Rainbow went to her and gave her a gentle nuzzle and was shocked to the core. She rushed out of their bedchamber and shouted for the Royal Physician; the guards responding immediately. As an afterthought she called for Celestia too, fearing the worst. Then, she doubled over in pain as she felt something unexpected and very unpleasant within her tummy.
The Physician arrived first and found Rainbow on the floor struggling for breath and immediately set to work, believing her to be the reason for his call. She was clearly in some distress, so quickly gave her a shot to calm her, lest something happen to her foal and monitored her as her agitation subsided and she drifted out of consciousness, then gave her a thorough check over.
There was none.
She was cold.
Celestia looked on horrified.
Her sister, her dear little sister. If only she had known how her life would be cut short, she would never have banished her to the moon and she would never have cast that spell …
Equestria went into mourning. Whilst Luna had always been somewhat in the shadow of her elder and more outgoing sister, everypony felt they had lost something special. Some went public about Luna’s good works while others held precious memories of being helped in their dreams. The outpouring of love and loss for their Princess even took Celestia by surprise as she struggled to come to terms with the tragedy.
She found herself going to places where they used to meet to talk, to laugh or to just hang out. Each place was full of memories; the happy and the sad being equally hard to face, but each time she hoped that she would see her sister there, waiting for her.
Come the day of the funeral, everypony across Equestria stopped what they were doing to show their respects, whether they were in Canterlot, The Crystal Empire or even in the Badlands. Protocol dictated that the service had to be a State occasion, richly attended by dignitaries from all corners of the land. Celestia and Rainbow led the mourners, Rainbow wearing a carefully designed dress to hide her bulge so as to avoid fuelling unnecessary gossip and maintain the appropriate dignity to the proceedings. Celestia held herself with regal aplomb and took the heat away from Rainbow who found she was on the verge of passing out on more than one occasion.
Rainbow’s friends were all there too, especially Twilight who knew more than most what had happened and why. She hated herself for going ahead with the spell and expected that even Cadence was now thinking similar thoughts, but she, like Celestia was maintaining a composed face regardless of what she may have been feeling inside.
The hardest part was the eulogies; so many ponies speaking with such eloquence about what Luna meant to them. Rainbow and Celestia sat together and when the widowed pegasus could take it no more, she looked up at Celestia whom she could see was allowing rivulets of tears to run down her muzzle but staying respectfully still. She was now so broken up inside that didn’t care who saw; she just leaned over and buried her face into Celestia’s neck and sobbed, feeling a reassuring forehoof holding her gently, just like Luna would.
All those who met Rainbow offered their support all saying “If there’s anything I can do …” Some truly meant it too. However, to Rainbow it was all a blur, a necessary circus show at the end of which there would be no Luna to go back to, to cuddle or to love.
She struggled on throughout the rigours of the day and was glad when she could finally drop the façade she had worn for the public and just cry without anypony watching and judging her. She held a newly found respect for Celestia, the only pony on Equestria who would miss Luna more than she did, yet had maintained her composure through the torture of the day.
The next morning Rainbow didn’t show for breakfast. When it was lunchtime, Celestia began to get worried and went along to her sister’s bedchamber to check up on her sister-in-law. She knocked and went in, her eyes opening wide with horror at what she saw. She raised her forehoof to her mouth to suppress a gasp.
There were congealing puddles of liquid on the floor and across carpets, along with strewn remnants that she recognised as afterbirth. Sat up in bed was Rainbow Dash cradling her foal.
“Say hello to your Auntie Celly” said Rainbow turning the lifeless head towards the Sun Princess.
Rainbow’s mind had gone.
Celestia could see it.
She stayed with her sister-in-law and her dead niece for the afternoon, unable to tear herself away from Rainbow’s delusional neediness. The younger mare spoke at length about how much she loved Luna and how well she would look after their foal in her honour; every unachievable promise being like a dagger plunged into Celestia’s heart. There was no doubting Rainbow’s sincerity, but her grip on reality had been severed, never to be remade until she reunited with Luna once again.
Finally, Celestia’s Private Secretary found them around teatime, having searched everywhere when the Sun Princess had not arrived to chair a scheduled meeting. The Physician was summoned, but when he arrived Rainbow wouldn’t let him near her or the dead foal. Eventually they had to resort to subterfuge and Celestia distracted Rainbow while the Physician approached from behind and gave her a sedative shot.
She felt the needle and knew she had been tricked. She stared at Celestia accusingly and screamed:
Three lives had now been lost because of the spell.
Celestia, now numb to the tumult of loss and the grief in her life, left Rainbow in professional hooves and set off with purposeful stride for the library. She knew what she had to do. She burst into the library without observing the usual decorum, and all those within whom she had entrusted with translating the ancient text looked up, startled. She summoned them all together and once assembled, addressed them as one for her shortest but most heartfelt speech ever:
As the researchers, historians and academics all looked at each other in surprise, stunned by the sudden change in orders, Celestia turned and left with no further words of explanation. She walked away beginning to contemplate the weighty prospect of facing eternity alone, and how long it would take before she could forgive herself for what she had done.
