The spark of redemption

by Audio-interneted

The Empire in Flames

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"Coming to bed dear?" Luna was sitting on the bed, alone.

"Yes Luna." A troubling and dark toned voice came from the balcony of the bedroom. He stood looking out upon the stars, gazing at their beauty.

Luna saw him standing alone, she could tell something was wrong. She walked onto the balcony and wrapped her arm around him as she sat next to him. He was still staring up at the stars, he didn't even turn to look at Luna, it was almost like he was blind, and all he could see was the stars shining from above.

"Sombra, whats wrong honey?" Luna looked at him with concern, he on the other hoof was still looking up, until Luna pulled his muzzle towards hers and he had no choice but to look at his concerned wife.

"Not a thing baby, not a fucking thing." Sombra said this in a calm and polite tone, even though he was being sort of rude.

"Hey, we talked about using the right language right? Right Sombra?" Luna put her other arm around him, and rested her head on his chest. The two just sat their, not wanting to be anywhere else but their.

"Please come to bed with me Sombra." Luna still had her head against Sombra's chest.

"Ok Luna, I will, but one more thing." Sombra pushed Luna away from her embrace.

"Um, what?"

"Come on get up, you're going to be late for the tax meeting sister!" Luna stared at him with utter confusion, she had no idea what he meant.

"Get up sister, hurry!"

"Wait, wait, what?" Luna rose from her bed still confused.

"Finally sister, you're awake." Celestia stood in front of her bed, looking at her.

"Sister! It is still day! How dare you wake me from my sleep!" Luna was angry, she hated it when ponies rushed in on her while she was sleeping.

"Oh sister, don't tell me you forgot, you have that tax meeting remember? You were going to be our representative, while I was going to Ponyville for Twilight's wedding?" Celestia was irritated, she had told Luna to get up for this tax meeting at the Crystal Empire.

Luna rubbed her eyes. "To be honest Celestia, i've had enough of weddings." Luna rose from her bed, she really didn't want to go to Twilight's wedding, she was just at River Lilly's and Brave Heart's wedding.

"I know, I am sick of them to, but this one is important because it's Twilight's wedding, so I most go."

"I understand, you are good friends of Twilight Sparkle." Luna opened her bathroom door and washed her face.

"Thank you again for doing this for me, I know you prefer to work at night, but I need you to do this just once." Celestia was about to leave her bedroom to give Luna some privacy, but she had to thank her one more time.

"It's fine, but just this once." Luna closed the bathroom door, and Celestia left her bedroom. What was starting to seem like a normal day would turn out to be a complete nightmare in every way possible.

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The meeting concerning the taxes in Equestria was the most boring meeting Luna had ever been in. This is saying a lot because Luna had been in tons of boring meetings, but this one seemed to drag on and on without giving any hope of stopping, but eventually it did. It was still the early afternoon, Luna was exhausted, she only had about three hours of rest, and she is usually asleep at this hour.

Luna immediately went to the train station with her guards. She wanted to arrive back at the castle in Equestria as fast as possible so she could go back to bed again, but only to be woken up again for her actual regular duties. Luna was so tired she almost tripped, twice. One of her guards who was walking next to her almost just decided to carry Luna to the train. She kept bumping into things, she fell, again, and she couldn't walk in a strait line.

The previous night, Celestia had told Luna to go to bed three hours earlier than usual so she could go to this tax meeting in Celestia's place while Celestia would go to Twilight's wedding. Of course Luna went to bed not three hours earlier, but three hours later than when she usually goes to bed. The effect of this? The next day she would walk like she was drunk.

It wasn't until Cadance had stepped in front of Luna and used a magical spell to make Luna not fell so tired. It worked and Luna regained all of her senses back.

"Thank you Cadance, forgive me for being so tired, i'm usually in bed at this hour."

"It's fine Luna, I had noticed that you were kind off lost during the meeting, are your sure you're ok?"

"Yes, i'm just tired, Celestia needed me to come to this meeting in her place so she could go to Twilight Sparkle's wedding." Luna and Cadance walked side by side to the train station, with four guards at their backs.

"Oh yes, yet another royal wedding, i'm sure this one wont end up like mine, even with all the changeling attacks that have happened?" The train stopped and boarding was about to begin.

"Oh yes, Celestia and Twilight have made big security plans, no changeling is going to wreck that wedding." Boarding had not yet started, so Luna and Cadance took this time to talk, they don't usually get this much time to themselves.

"Are you going to go to the wedding once you get back?"

"No, I really don't want to, not that I have anything against Twilight and Flash Sentry, but i'm really tired, and I was just at a wedding." Boarding had started.

"I see, I see. If you don't mind me asking, are you ok? You've beeb a little depressed lately, I thought you would be jumping for joy after the destruction of King Sombra." Luna growled under her breath, she cared for how she spoke about him. Sombra may have made some bad decisions, but she still had feelings for him.

"Well I have been really stressed out lately, with Brave Heart's wedding, this tax meeting, my trip to Ponyville, Twilight's wedding, and not to mention the eleven ponies Chrysalis took as hostages, who knows were, our if there still alive." Luna was about to board the train, but before she got on, she turned to Cadance one more time.

"Oh and Cadance, i've been meaning to ask you, this is kind of a personal question so lets keep it down."

"You can ask me and trust me with any information Luna, what seems to be on your mind?"

"What do you think of foals?" This question really surprised Cadance, she expected something personal, but not that personal.

"Well......uh......i'm not sure what you mean Luna? Are you asking if i'm pregnant, which i'm not." Cadance was still shocked by Luna's sudden and unexpected question.

"Well that's not what i meant really." Luna was struggling to think of the right words to say, one small mess up, and her personal life could be doomed for ever.

"Are you pregnant Luna? Are you in a relationship, or do you want to be in one, or were you in one?" Cadance cut Luna off mid sentence.

"Well, no to all of your questions, I was just wondering if you and Shining ever though of having foals." Of course Luna lied when she said 'no to all of your questions'.

"Well you were right when you said personal question, but I will be honest with you Luna, we have been talking about it, thats all I will say about that." Cadance was a bit shy about this information, and declared to keep most of her secretive wishes with Shining to herself. "In all seriousness Luna, are you pregnant?"

"Um..No, i'm not, I was just wondering." Luna elected to take that moment to start walking on the train, cutting the conversation short.

"Well you have a safe trip back to Canterlot, now I must get going to Ponyville, I promised Twilight that I would join her at the wedding after this tax meeting." Cadance stopped just infront of the entrance to the train station, but Luna and the guards kept going.

"Have a safe trip to Ponyville too Cadance, farewell." A sound came in from the distance, steam started rushing threw the view of the train station, as other traveling ponies waited for the inbound train for Canterlot to arrive.

Luna and Cadance parted ways and Luna was off to Canterlot. Not five minutes later, Cadance and Shining Armor would board another train going to Ponyville for Twilight's wedding. Luna really didn't want to go, she was sick of weddings, and just wanted some sleep.

Twilight didn't want her wedding in Canterlot, she wanted it in Ponyville, which wasn't a bad thing, but an unusual thing. Flash Sentry obviously proved to be a worthy coltfriend to Twilight, mostly because he got the desire and the guts to ask for her hoof in marriage, most stallions wouldn't have the guts to do that.

Luna had finally made it to Canterlot, and quickly went for her bedroom, she was as tired as she has ever been. That spell Cadance had put on her had worn off, and she was back to her drunken like state. When she made it to her bedroom she simply closed the blinds, made sure no light was coming from anywhere, made sure no pony would walk in on her this time, then she simply jumped in bed and fell into the land of dreams.

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"How is she?"

"Not good, the effects are getting worse."

"Can you hear me? Celestia can you hear me? What's your name? Were are we?" The solar guard starting asking random questions to see if Celestia had any consciousness.

"No response?" A white unicorn with a purple mane snuck up behind them.

"Sorry miss Rarity, but it seems princess Celestia has been hit with a mind sweeping spell." The solar guard turned and stared at Rarity. Standing next to Rarity was Rainbow Dash, Pinkie pie, and Fluttershy. The rest of the town was out looking for Twilight.

"Still no signs of Twilight, Flash, or the others?" Rainbow asked concerned for her friends safety.

"No, there gone, they just vanished, and we have no clue has to how, or who did this." A third Solar guard appeared. Of the missing are; Twilight, Flash Sentry, Applejack, and even spike. The wedding decorations were still up, everypony was still wearing dresses, and the cake had not yet been cut, this wedding was truly a disappointment to all.

"Oh my, what do we do!" Fluttershy was as scared as she has ever been.

"There is only one thing to do, we must contact Princess Cadance and Prince Shinning Armor, we need to worn them of the danger. If this threat is targeting the Royalty, they need to be warned." A solar guard tried his best to come up with the most logical plan.

"My sources imply that Cadance and Shining armor are on their way here."

"Then when must hurry, it will be harder to protect them in a train, in the mean time, we will take Celestia to Luna, she will know what to do. I want you all to stay inside and lock the windows and doors, only come out if there is an emergency, if this is a threat, its a big threat." Rarity, Futtleshy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie pie noded in approval and informed all the other ponies. Just twenty minutes later, Ponyville was a ghost town.

"We need to hurry, we must find a way to counteract this spell." The Solar guards stood there next to Celestia, who was cluelessly laying on the floor, holding her head.

The solar guards rushed to Celestia's chariot and dashed for Canterlot, in the meantime a runner was sent with a letter to inform princess Cadance of the situation. Twenty seven minutes later, the arrived at Canterlot.

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Luna had just awoken, it was six in the afternoon and the sun was still up, she felt much better with four hours of sleep, and was ready for a hard night of work. After she was done getting ready, she went for breakfast with Celestia, but noticed that the entire castle was quiet. It was only six o'clock, but it was dead silent. Also to Luna's surprise, when she finally got to the dinning hall, celestia was not their. Luna walked further into the dinning hall. The table was empty, their were no guards, and no maids in sight.

"Oh thats right, I forgot." Luna had just remembered that Celestia was at Twilight's wedding (of course she was still unaware of the strange situation that had happened in Ponyville). She sat down were she usually sits for breakfast which was the sign to the maids Luna wanted her coffee and muffin, her usually meal to start the night. Two maids appeared out of the left doorway with a cart. On the cart was an assortment of pastries and fruit. They all looked and smelled delicious to Luna but she only picked out two for her breakfast, then the maids brought her coffee.

It wasn't until Luna took the third sip of her coffee when a huge crash came out of nowhere, it was like the Enola Gay dropped a second atomic bomb, but this time on Canterlot. Luna's coffee spilt all over her.

"Oh my! What on this good earth was that?! Here your highness, let me clean you off." One of the maids rushed to get a towel. The hot coffee was starting irritate Luna's skin, but she was more concerned about were the hell that big crash came from. Not ten seconds later there was a second, then a third, and then a fourth. Luna then rose from her table and rushed outside onto a balcony to look and see what it was. Celestia was not their, and Luna really hoped that Celestia had nothing to do with the big explosions.

Luna looked outside in shock. Just out north, in the distance, was a huge smoke cloud. It was far away, but the fire and smoke cloud was so big even a blind pony could suspect it. Every pony in Canterlot looked in terror, the had no idea what was causing those fires, or what was on fire. Luna on the other hoof, knew exactly what was on fire.

"Your highness! We must get to your safety bunker! Please, we don't have much time!" A entire squad of solar guards came from behind Luna, their duty was to protect the princess at all cost, but Luna didn't want to hide, she wanted to know more.

"Sorry but I can't, I want all of you to tell the citizens to shelter down in their homes, no pony comes out for any reason!" Luna was clear and final in her command.

"Yes, of course your highness." They Guards bowed in respect and got going.

"Oh, and bring me captain Brave Heart, I require his presence."

"Ummm, your highness, captain Heart has not returned from his honey moon."

"Oh crap, I forgot, he got married, then bring me Captain Royal shield."

"Yes your highness." The rest of the guards left. Ten minutes later, Captain Shield arrived, Luna was still standing on the balcony.

"Captain Shield, I need your help. Captain Brave Heart is on his Honey moon." Captain Shield bowed in respect, and then rose.

"Your highness, what is happening?"

"The Crystal Empire burns in flames, what is causing it, I do not know, but this is it." Luna thought of what could possibly of happened since she was last there, but the Crystal Empire was covered in smoke.

"What is it your highness?"

"The great battle of our time." Luna stared at the huge flames coming from the Crystal Empire, she knew this would end in a bloody battle.

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