Chapters The hatred was to be expected. And she felt she deserved it. As the ponies swarmed her and the guards trying to protect her she ordered them to stand down. They did not do so. She tried again with the same result. Luna was more guilt ridden because of this. The guards would loose their lives, or be left with hatred in their direction, because they had been protecting her, a monster. She teleported the guards away to a safe distance and faced the mob herself.
They came upon her swift and merciless. Two seized her by the shoulders and forelegs and a third proceeded to break nearly every bone in her body. He struck her fast, he struck her hard and he showed her no mercy. She did not cry out, she did not resist, she stayed there and took it, she deserved that much. The one striking her was a large white unicorn with a straw colored mane, and a compass rose for a cutie mark. She recalled her sister telling her about such a noble, Blueblood was his name, one of the richest and most influential nobles there were.
Luna did nothing, she just let him do as he pleased. He struck her repeatedly and he did not stop to rest for a minute. The crowd jeered him on as they watched blood come from Luna’s nose and mouth. Her ribcage had been shattered in several places, her forelegs were broken and fractured as a result of the ponies holding her doing so. After fifteen minutes of being beaten and broken they gave it a rest, Luna hung limply between the ponies holding her only half conscious. A fourth pony came up behind her and seized her horn, pulling back he forced her to look up at Blueblood. The pony behind her put painful amount of pressure on her horn, threatening to break it. Blueblood looked calmly into Luna’s eyes, he looked to the two ponies holding her and nodded.
The two then stomped down on the middle of each of her wings which hung limply by her sides, snapping the joint in two.
“Take her to the castle and lock her in a cell.” Blueblood told the two.
Luna was dragged through the streets of canterlot towards the castle. Any guards that tried to stop them were knocked unconscious by club wielding ponies at the front. When they reached the bowels of canterlot castle they threw her in the dirtiest cell there. When she hit the ground pain exploded across her entire body. She couldn’t move, her body was too broken. The cell door slammed shut and one pony who had taken a spear from a fallen guard stood by the cell to make sure she didn’t escape somehow.
Luna made no sound, and no movement. She just laid there, broken and bleeding on the floor of the cold stone cell. She soon passed into unconsciousness, not expecting to wake up.
Celestia and a single battalion of her guard began fighting their way through the hordes of ponies who had decided that Luna had not served her sentence. Celesita had been off on other business at the moment it happened, and was only now aware of what had happened. The ponies, lead by Blueblood, had lured her sister out into the street and ambushed her there. She was told that Blueblood himself had mercilessly beaten her sister, and had her wings and horn broken.
Luna was now stuck in a cell beneath the castle, that was where Celestia and a squad of her guards were headed. The rest of the battalion were at the gates holding back the ponies so that Celestia and her squad could get into the prison and free Luna. They had an emergency medic with them to treat Luna’s wounds, Celestia would use her magic to heal all the major wounds that prevented movement, she could not heal all of them however.
They came across a small group of ponies guarding the entrance to the prison, they were civilians armed with clubs and captured spears. They spotted them, they did not hesitate to attack Celestia and her squad. The soldiers formed a spearwall while Celestia launched a knockout spell that put them all in a state of unconsciousness.
They threw open the door to the dungeon and the squad went in with practiced efficiency. They quickly knocked down and pinned or killed the ponies in there. There was one pony left, the one guarding the cell that held Luna. One of the squad members launched his spear at the stallion before he could react, and pierced his heart. The stallion fell down dead. Celestia ran to the cell door and peered inside, she was horrified by the image.
Her sister was broken in all places and covered in blood. Her horn was missing and her wings and legs were in unnatural positions. Her breathing was shallow, ragged and heavy. Celestia doubted that she could even move. She opened the cell door with her magic and called the medic in.
Open Wound was his name. He was good at both causing them and patching them up, a fitting name. He inspected Luna and he looked sick. He told her that nearly every bone in her body was broken in some way. He told her that it would be best if she repaired her ribcage, sternum and her leg bones. She was told it was best if she left the wings to heal on their own as they weren’t priority at the time.
Celestia did exactly that. She healed Luna’s shattered ribs and sternum as well as fixed the joints in her legs. Open Wound made splints for Luna’s wings. From there they took her to a chariot that would carry Luna, Celestia and a team of medical specialists. It was large, not gilded and fancy, but large as to allow for large amounts of ponies to ride in the back. The ones ready to pull the carriage were the fastest and strongest fliers they had that could pull a chariot such as that through the air. There were eight of them. They loaded into the carriage and they took off away from canterlot. This was just the beginning of a long and vicious conflict.
Luna woke up with less pain than she remembered. She opened her eyes slowly to find her wings being bandaged and her other wounds tended by doctors. She felt the motion through the air and guessed that they were in a medical air carriage. She gazed around the room with her eyes and found her sister as well as a squad of soldiers with her in the room. There were three doctors total, one was bandaging her wing, a second was tending to her deep injuries such as slash and puncture wounds, the third was examining her broken horn.
“Princess, she’s regaining consciousness.” The third called.
Luna looked weakly up to see her sister approaching her. The first doctor finished his work and moved aside so that Celestia could see her sister. She sat down next to Luna and attempted a weak smile. Luna did the same thing.
“Luna, I’m so sorry things turned out this way.”
“Don’t apologize Celestia.” Luna told her. “It was a long time coming. I expected such a thing to happen. I’m just surprised it wasn’t worse.”
“I don’t know what to do Luna.” Celestia told her, “You can’t stay here or they will just do the same thing again. The nation is in anarchy and Blueblood has gathered together the majority of the population against me for bringing you back to canterlot. The rebels have already taken half the nation including most of the major trade ports.”
“Give me to them Celestia, let them kill me. If it means peace than don’t hesitate.”
“What!? No! Luna I wont turn you over to them. And even if I did, it wouldn’t mean peace, Blueblood will continue to fight me for the throne. And if I give you to them they will use you as leverage. I will not make you a hostage.”
“Celestia listen.” Luna pleaded quietly. “They want me and only me. Once you turn me over to them they will stop. They will kill me, but that is the price for peace.”
“No it isn’t. Blueblood’s greed knows no bounds. If he want’s something badly enough he will do almost anything to get it. I’m not exaggerating.”
Luna did not answer she knew that she wouldn’t win this argument and she didn’t care to try. “Then what do you plan on doing?”
“I don’t know.” Celestia said dismayed.
Luna thought for a minute. “You need to unite this nation. Stop Blueblood and his conquest and bring these ponies together. As for me, well, I can’t stay here, you said that yourself, so I must return to exile.”
“No! I wont let you go through that torture again.”
“What else can I do, squat in the Everfree?”
“No, but there is something else.” Then she called out to the fliers pulling the carriage. “Take us to the Everfree forest. In the north central region is a ruin, land there.”
They obeyed. They changed their direction and flew southwest.
“What are you thinking?” Luna asked.
“That you will need an old companion.”
Not much later they landed and the door to the carriage opened to reveal a stone courtyard with crumbling walls overgrown with vines. There wasn’t much to the courtyard, it was just ancient stone bricks that were cracked and worn with age covered in dust, spiderwebs and moss. Luna walked behind her sister, that being possible thanks to her leg and torso fractures being healed magically.
Celestia lead her down stone halls and staircases that she remembered well. She knew where they were going. The sisters approached a heavy ebony door and entered. Inside was their personal armory, or was rather. Luna’s old weapons were there, as was her set of leather armor.
“Grab what you may need. I suspect your spear will be useful at some point.”
Luna did as her sister asked. She grabbed her hoof length hooded cloak, a fur sleeping bag, a large dirk, a waterskin, and her spear. Her spear was a masterpiece of weapon making to say the least. It’s blade looked like a spearmint leaf, including the slight serrations on the edge. The weapon had a crescent moon crossguard just beneath the blade, giving it a trident like appearance.the shaft itself was the same piece as the blade and crossguard, one long rod of tempered steel that had the blade and guard shaped from it. The spear was stout, a lot more so than most spears, only reaching Celestia’s eye level. It was a very strong weapon.
Her dirk was no less of a masterpiece. It was made of tempered and thick steel, the blade had a Coltic (Celtic) knotwork design along the blade. The blade was serrated on one edge about halfway from the hilt to the tip. It was a very thick blade that was sharpened to the point it could shear a stone in two with ease. Another very strong weapon.
Luna put on the cloak after belting on her dirk and waterskin, she left the hood down and hugged her sister.
“Where will you go?” Celestia asked.
“I was going to go to the Coltic Isles. Try to hide there for a century or two, before returning here after things have calmed down.”
“A century? Luna, is that really necessary? I know you need to disappear for a while but not for that long.”
“Yes I do ‘Tia.” Luna said breaking away from the hug. “These ponies won’t forget what Ive done. Their children and even grandchildren will not forget nor forgive. I will need to lay low for quite a while before things will start to die down.”
“I’m going to miss you sister.” Celestia said hugging her sister again.
“I’m going to miss you too ‘Tia.”
So Luna left the castle into the everfree without the guards present knowing where she went, the less they knew the safer they would be. She could only hope they died in combat. She didn’t want them to be tortured for information they did not have. She zipped through the forest toward the east coast, hoping to find a way to the Isles of the Coltic tribes, and peace.
Luna entered the port city of Baltimare two days after she left the castle. She had filed the shattered nub that was once her horn down to a flat nub low enough to be hidden by her mane, so that she wouldn’t be noticed. She had also stored her spear in a subdementional pocket, as to avoid notice.
She approached the docs without being seen in the dark night, and found the import office. She picked the lock to the building and entered silently. She krept through the deserted building cautiously, until she found the recent arrivals and departures office. She opened the door and closed it behind her when she slipped in. She approached the desk in the middle of the room and began searching the drawers until she found the exporting schedule. She looked at departures that were departing for Coltica directly or the surrounding countries of Prance, Poneland and Bitannia and only at the ones that were leaving that night or the night after. There was only one heading straight for Coltica that night, and it was leaving in two hours. It would not take long to get there and wouldn’t be too hard to stow away in.
She heard hoofsteps outside the room. They were slow and lazy but there, and approaching the room. Luna shoved the files back where they came from and ducked under the desk a split second before the door opened to admit the pony. Luna drew her dirk so that, should she be discovered, she wouldn’t have to waste time drawing it and could just dispatch of the pony. The pony sat at the desk and yawned before moving some documents around and writing on some, comparing, checking, double checking. For one so tired he did not skip any steps, this was a disciplined pony.
It seemed to be about half an hour before the pony finally left. Luna counted to twenty before leaving her hiding place. She quietly creeped out of the room and out of the building without being caught, and sighed when she was finally out. She began to move swiftly and silently through the docs until she found the ship she was looking for. The Sheildbreaker was its name, a small mercenary cargo ship that carried goods that were not detailed in the records, presumably government business because of it having been listed. Any illegal goods would have been shipped secretly aboard a public goods ship.
She jumped aboard and checked the deck for anyone coming by to check for trespassers and stowaways. Luna saw none so she went belowdecks careful to check for anyone. Being a single deck ship the boat only had sleeping quarters and storage below the main deck. She began to crawl through storage and soon found a place among furs to hide. She pulled down her hood and laid down in the crate and closed it behind her. With nothing better to do but wait she decided to sleep.
Luna was jolted awake by someone grabbing her. Before she could react in any way she was thrown to the bottom of the ships hull. She spun her head around to see a large tan coated stallion with a black mane and tail leap at her. Before she could do anything she was pinned beneath him. Luna’s ears folded back against her head in fear, if she had her dirk or her spear in hoof she would be able to fight this stallion but now that he had her pinned and her spear was still in the crate with the furs, she was helpless.
“Who are you?” He demanded, his heavy Coltic accent clear in his voice.
“I-I’m Moonlight, please don’t hurt me, I’m just trying to get away from them.” Luna stuttered fearfully.
A stupid name but the only one she could come up with in the heat of the moment, she couldn’t risk them knowing about who she really was and being turned in for it.
“Get away from who?”
“Them, the rebels. They tried to take me away for Celestia knows why and I ran.”
“What rebels?”
Luna looked at him as though surprised. “Haven’t you heard, most of the country’s citizens have turned against Celestia and are now fighting her and the loyalists. I was a loyalist generals sister and the rebels came for me. The country is in anarchy and I’m just trying to get away from the rebels. Please don’t hurt me, throw me off the ship if you have to just please, give me a chance to survive.”
“That will be up to the captain.”
Luna was removed of her cloak, dirk and waterskin and her hooves were locked behind her with iron shackles. Two stallions dragged her between them abovedecks and to the helm. The Coltic ponies held her by the shoulders roughly, much like how the equestrians did when Blueblood had beaten her and her horn was broken off. And in front of her stood who she assumed to be the captain. He was a very big stallion, they all were, he was a Pegasus stallion with a wingspan that was one and a half times wide as he was long. He was sea green of coat and dark blue of mane and tail. He wore a green plaid kilt like all of them did with a dirk at his belt, like all of them did. She wasn’t surprised due to the fact that nearly every stallion in the Coltic Isles had a dirk on their person ninty nine percent of the time. Walking through the woods? They have a dirk. In town? They have a dirk. At home? They have a dirk. At the market? They have a dirk. Making kids with their wife? There’s a dirk in the room and in reach. Sleeping? Dirk under the pillow with their hoof on the hilt. You will never catch a Coltic stallion without a dirk on their person or within reach.
Luna stared up at the frightening stallion with fear. This would be one hell of a voyage.
Luna looked up at the massive captain in fear. If she weren’t box tied and surrounded by Coltic warriors then she might have stood a chance. But she was box tied, surrounded by Coltic warriors and her horn was gone, so no, she knew she was screwed. The captain approached her with a glare, he looked at the two holding her and asked them “Who is this and how did she get on my ship?!”
“She says her name is Moonlight. She also says she was trying to get away from some rebels in equestria.” The one who had caught her replied.
The captain thought for a second, “Then the rumors are true. I’ll have to report that when we return to Coltica. All the same, you are a stowaway, on my ship, and we don’t take kindly to such things.”
“P-Please sir, I-I only wanted to get away from them. Please, don’t hurt me, I-I wont be any trouble.” Luna pleaded, getting desperate.
“You have come board my ship.” The captain began, “you have hidden amongst our cargo in hopes of getting across the ocean without getting caught as to do gods know what. And you expect me to just ignore these things?”
“N-no s-sir, I had hoped th-that you would show mercy. Please, s-sir, I just want to be safe.” Luna begged.
“Throw her in one of the pens.” He said.
So Luna was dragged to an animal pen and tied to one of the posts there. There was no livestock in there but it wasn’t entirely uncrowded either. It was a small space with two troughs, one for water and the other food, and a small fence around it. Luna was bound to it uncomfortably tightly, so much so that moving hurt, and she was left there. She wouldn’t hold it against them, they were following sound orders from a just captain, how could she blame them. She did her best to get comfortable and closed her eyes to sleep.
Luna was kicked in the side roughly, and she sat up groaning. She saw one of the stallions who had caught her standing over her with a bowl of food and a cup of water. He undid her bindings to allow her to eat and stood at the opposite side of the pen to wait for her to finish. Luna ate the bowl of gruel without complaint and drank the water down and set them down. Once this was done the stallion approached her and she allowed him to bind her to one of the fence posts roughly, she winced when he pulled the ropes tight but did not make a sound.
The unicorn stood over her glaring into her face the entire time. She never met his gaze, her best bet was to be as obedient and insignificant as possible. So he left her in ropes that were even tighter than when he arrived, and she said nothing. She just laid back down to sleep.
However she did not actually get to sleep when she felt her bonds loosen. She opened her eyes and looked around, she saw another stallion, this one a Pegasus, loosening her bonds. When he finished they weren’t so loose that she could get out of them herself, but not so tight that they hurt. He stood up and looked down at her, smiling gently he turned to leave.
“Th-thank you.” Luna stuttered.
He didn’t respond, he just left the pen. She wondered why he did that, why did he loose her bonds? She had no idea, she was however grateful. So she just slept.
The next time she woke up the Pegasus stallion came in with a small loaf of bread and an apple. He left it with her and undid her bonds so that she could eat. She ate and he returned, he redid the ropes and left her there again. Though he wasn’t cruel or even mean about doing it, he was actually rather gentle. This continued for about a month, with him coming in to give her her daily meal and often talking with her. She awnsered his questions and he awnsered hers, Luna grew rather fond of him. And while they talked he always made sure to undo her bindings when he came in, he even managed to get away with leaving her bindings undone every once in a while. It was one such day that the ship was waylaid by pirates.
No these aren’t the pirates with eyepatches and hooks for hands, these were just criminals at sea who chose to attack this particular cargo ship. Luna managed to get belowdecks and find her spear and dirk. She picked up her spear and took it back abovedecks to go and fight. She found that the captain was in a bit of trouble and decided to help out, she attacked the pirates and fought them off as best she could, which was pretty well. She managed to kill two of them and injure another before the rest of the crew managed to push the pirates back.
The rest of the voyage was relatively uneventful, save for a few. Luna had been granted freedom on the ships decks and her weapons were returned to her. She and the Pegasus stallion, Skinner was his name, grew closer over this time. The crew didn’t go straight to Coltica, they moved all across the ocean exchanging goods. So Luna spent about three years with the crew when the captain, incidentally Skinner’s father, had a ‘talk’ with them. They had to bring aboard a lot of cargo and so the captain said that the sleeping space would be a lot smaller. He told Luna and Skinner, separately, that they would have to be sleeping belowdecks. They both went belowdecks at the same time and confusion arose, until they noticed the captain standing there.
“What on earth is going on?” Skinner demanded.
“Oh come on son.” the captain said. “Do you really think me a fool? I’ve known what’s been going on for a while.”
Luna felt terror grip her heart, still she tried to play dumb. “What do you mean captain?”
“I know that you two have been seein each other. And dont play dumb with me, it doesn’t work.”
“Then why did you tell us that we’d be sleeping belowdecks?” Luna asked. “There’s only enough room for one pony.”
“Two.”
Luna’s ears folded against her head and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, Skinner wasn’t much better. “You don’t mean...”
“Father, I’ve told you several times already...”
“I know you have, yet it looks like you’ve already made that decision.” He then turned to leave. “Have fun you two.”
Luna stood there stunned. “What did he mean by that?”
“He’s been trying to get me married for years now, he seems to think your the mare.”
“Is that why you’ve been, y’know...”
“Meeting up with you, yes. I wanted to see if it was possible, but neither do I want my father getting himself involved. I hadn’t planned to tell you for some time. I didn’t know how you’d take it.”
Luna responded by kissing him. He was surprised, but didn’t do anything about it, except eventually kiss back of course. When she pulled away.
“I would be happy to.” She whispered. “But I’m not sure how exactly it works.”
“Its rather simple actually. There is no ceremony or anything like that. The couple just join then their married.” He said.
“By join you mean...”
“Yes.” He said nervously.
Luna responded turning around, bending over and giving him access to her most intimate parts. She looked back at him blushing and embarrassed. “Then what are you waiting for? Mount me.”
