Chapters Hanging, or The death of Loyalty
It was unseasonably cold and rainy in Canterlot. The Cloudsdale weather task force had been struggling to keep up with their schedule in the absence of their Captain. A bold flash of lightening cracked across the sky, bringing with it a roll of thunder. The rain hammered down on Canterlot Castle. The mood was sombre and gloomy on the grounds. There was to be a hanging today.
Many ponies were gathered out in the pouring rain. They surrounded the entrance to the Canterlot dungeons, waiting for the condemned to appear. Not a word was spoken amongst those present.
Under a small awning sat the Regent of the Sun along with the Elements of Harmony. They were all gathered to see justice done. Six months ago something tragic had happened. Six months ago a beloved member of the community had committed a heinous and unspeakable act. It had shocked all of Equestria.
With a tremendous crash the door to the dungeon swung open, adding its rapport to the thunder above. A ring of guard ponies marched out of the castle and up the stairs of the execution platform. Their expressions were grim as the escorted their prisoner. They were followed by another, the executioner. He was to pull the lever, and wore a hood to conceal his identity.
One of the guards, a sergeant, stepped forward to read from a scroll.
"On this day, under the authority of Princess Celestia of Equestria, we bring forth the accused, Rainbow Dash, to face judgement for multiple counts of murder in the first degree, attempted murder, arson, battery, and the criminal misuse of weather clouds."
Twilight Sparkle attempted to remain stoic under the awning. Applejack and Rarity were glaring at the Element of Loyalty, anger swimming behind their eyes. Pinkie Pie's hair had deflated, and she cried quietly with a distraught Fluttershy. Princess Celestia stared at the cobblestones beneath her hooves.
"I wish there were another way…" she mumbled quietly to herself. Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head.
Up on her platform, Rainbow Dash swayed unsteadily, already dead to the world. Once vibrant rose eyes were now dull and empty. Her coat had lost its luster, and her mane had grown long and unkempt. The guard was still addressing the crowd, droning on in accordance with proper protocol, but Dash paid no attention.
She fell into a coughing fit, her weakened lungs struggling to take in precious oxygen. It was damp and cold in the dungeons and she had been locked away for so long. Many in the crowd shifted uncomfortably as the wet hacking coughs rang through the courtyard. The Princess flinched and Fluttershy let out a sob.
Dash had collapsed on the stage. The guard reading her sentencing waited for her to quiet down so he could finish his job. She was shivering on the wet wooden deck, wheezing. The guard behind her kicked her sharply in the hind leg.
"On your feet prisoner," he growled.
Rainbow struggled to stand, managing to prop herself up on trembling forelegs. She couldn't find purchase with her back legs however, her hooves slipping on the damp wood. She collapsed again, another sharp kick, and she managed to haul herself up off the deck.
The sergeant before her returned to his scroll.
"The accused is sentenced to hang from the neck until dead. With your permission, your Highness…"
All eyes were on Celestia. She hesitated for a moment and looked at Dash. Slowly she nodded. All eyes returned to Dash.
"Have you any last words?" a guard inquired. Two of his comrades hauled Dash up so she was standing on her back legs. They slipped a noose around her neck and slapped irons on her fore hooves. Her wings were already bound.
Rainbow scanned the crowd slowly.
She could see Lyra and Bonbon huddled together in the rain, looking at her sorrowfully. Derpy Hooves was in the back of the crowd bawling her eyes out. Doctor Whooves was comforting her. The Cakes were present, standing with them was Nurse Redheart and Daisy. The mayor of Ponyville was closer to the front, and glaring daggers at Dash. Berry Punch was there, looking sober for once. The spa twins, Aloe and Lilly, were looking at everything but Dash. Fluttershy's eyes were red and puffy, she had been crying ever since Dash's sentence was announced. Pinkie wouldn't look any more, and hugged the mourning yellow Pegasus. The rest of Rainbow's 'friends' continued to stare at her. Twilight's bottom lip would tremble from time to time, but the others remained angry.
Celestia was far out of her comfort zone. She wanted dearly to be the kind and benevolent ruler that everypony looked up to. The situation had forced her hoof. The citizens of Equestria were calling for blood as far out as Manehattan. She had searched for another way, desperately wishing to avoid killing one of her ponies. The nobles in her court wouldn't stand for that. They voted unanimously for this. Celestia had nothing left to do but bite her cheek and keep a straight face. The pain gave her something to focus on. She couldn't afford to cry here.
Rainbow Dash let out a shaky breath. She had nothing to say to these ponies. She had already tried defending her case, but doing so was pointless now. Besides, nopony had bothered to visit her in prison, aside from Fluttershy and Princess Luna. The night Princess had visited Dash as often as she could, oddly enough. Rainbow had come to enjoy her company immensely.
She closed her eyes.
"Very well," the guard said. One by one they descended the stairs to the courtyard below, taking up formation at the base of the platform.
"Wait," somepony cried from the audience, "let her go, she didn't do anything. Rainbow Dash!"
Dash's eyes snapped open. She knew that voice well. It was Scootaloo.
The orange Pegasus was trying to shove her way past the guards. She was kicking and screaming as the guards pushed her back to the crowd.
"You're making a mistake," she continued, "she would never hurt us, you have to let her go!" The little filly was flapping her wings desperately, trying to reach her idol.
Dash was deeply touched that her little fan would try to rescue her.
"Wait," she called out as loudly as she could.
Everypony froze with apprehension, even the guards paused warily, allowing Scootaloo to escape their grasp. The Cutie Mark Crusader bolted forward, flying on her tiny wings straight to the condemned mare. The crowd gasped as Scootaloo tackled Rainbow Dash, ripping the noose off her and hugging her tightly. As the guards thundered up the stairs, Rainbow sank to her knees, cradling the distraught Pegasus filly.
Dash gently rubbed Scootaloo's back with a hoof, trying to calm her. Her shackles made this difficult and awkward to do, but she would be damned if she didn't try her best. The older mare looked up at the guards. They had surrounded her, weapons drawn.
"Release the filly," they demanded, "now."
Dash nodded slowly, and tried to hand over Scootaloo. The filly was having none of that though, and held on tightly.
The guards were getting impatient, and brought their weapons closer, repeating their command.
Celestia stood and stepped into the rain.
"Guards, I order you to stand down," her voice boomed. She had brought up her monarch's facade, daring the guards to disobey with her eyes.
They backed away instantly. Everypony looked between Celestia and Dash with uncertainty.
Applejack rushed to the Princesses side, "Tha hay are you thinkin' Princess? You caint let a young'un anywhere near-"
"Silence!" The Princess demanded, fixing the young Apple with a stone melting glare. She backed away meekly.
"Don't go Dash, don't l-leave me," Scootaloo buried her face into Rainbow's chest.
"You're the fastest p-pony in E-equestria, you can fly away, right? You can get away. I don't want you to d-die, I l-love you!"
Dash gently rocked her number one fan, trying to console the young orphan.
"Hey, hey, hey," she murmured quietly in Scootaloo's ear, "you shouldn't be here Scoots, it's not a good place for a filly."
She nuzzled the fillies purple mane as she spoke.
"I need you to do me a favor Scootaloo. It's really important, do you think you can do it?"
The younger of the two looked up with watery purple eyes.
"Y-yeah," she said trying to wipe her eyes with a hoof, "I-I can do it."
"Good, cause I need you to be strong, for me. Can you do that?"
"W-what do you mean Dash?"
Rainbow was grateful for the rain, it was doing a wonderful job of hiding her tears from Scootaloo.
"I'm not going to be around for much longer, but its got to be this way. Don't let it get you down squirt, you still have Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, and I know everypony in Ponyville cares about you. You don't need me. I'm a horrible influence anyway, I'm pretty much a selfish bum."
Scootaloo tried to protest Dash's words, but was shushed by the cyan mare.
"Look… I'm sorry I wasn't there for you more… but we've run out of time. I need you to keep your chin up after I'm gone. Don't let this be a raincloud over your head. Okay?"
Dash leaned forward and kissed the filly on the forehead. She was watching Dash with wide eyes.
"If… if things had been different… if I hadn't been so stupidly self centered… I would have loved to call you my sister."
Dash brought her into a final embrace, gently stroking her back.
"Oh yeah, and be sure to do something wickedly awesome to earn your cutie mark."
Scootaloo managed a weak smile at this. Rainbow was barely keeping a straight face at this point.
Dash looked up at the crowd, they were all staring at her. She made eye contact with Fluttershy.
"Please take her. Please. Take her far away from here. I don't want her to see this Fluttershy."
The Element of Kindness nodded with remorse. She floated forward wordlessly and gently pulled Scootaloo away. The young filly never took her eyes off Rainbow Dash as she was taken.
"Wherever your life takes you, just remember to keep on soaring kiddo, 'cause you're going to be the best flyer in all of Equestria someday," Dash offered as a last piece of encouragement.
She was smiling softly as she made her farewell, watching Fluttershy fly away over the horizon.
With Scootaloo gone, there was nothing left to get in the way of her execution. She sighed deeply and rose to her hind legs with some difficulty. After standing she pulled the noose back over her head and cinched it tight around her neck.
"Lets do this," she grunted.
Once again, the guards filed down the stairs and assumed their positions at the base of the platform. Only the executioner was left standing next to the ill-fated Pegasus.
Dash took a deep breath and held it, counting to ten before letting it out.
"I didn't do it," she whispered to herself. Nopony else saw her lips move, or heard what she said.
Her jaw was trembling, and she quickly ran her tongue across chapped lips.
"I didn't do it…"
She screwed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the world any longer.
"I didn't do it…"
Dash was breathing heavily, adrenaline was pumping through her body. Her entire body shook with anxiety. She was afraid.
"I didn't d-"
The trap door fell away. Gravity reared up and seized the malnourished pony, ripping her down towards the earth below. Rainbow Dash plummeted down until her rope snapped tight. Everypony thought it was over.
But something was wrong.
The fall didn't break her neck as was intended. The rope had been cut too short when it was tied.
Many ponies in the audience looked on in horror as Rainbow Dash flailed at the end of her noose. She feebly kicked her back legs and pulled at the course rope with her fore hooves. Her wings were shaking violently, desperately trying to spread out and catch the wind. It was instinctual for Pegasi to spread their wings when falling. Dash was slowly suffocating under her own weight.
"Guard, what is the meaning of this? This was supposed to be quick and painless," the Solar Princess snarled.
The sergeant snapped to attention before replying, "The rope is too short. It would be unusually cruel to stop now and subject the accused to this again, your highness."
Celestia shifted her weight back and forth nervously, before gritting her teeth and bowing her head. This is what she deserved. For allowing one of her subjects to be executed, she deserved to watch them suffer. It broke her heart to do so, but she looked back at Dash. The Pegasi's eyes were wide and pleading, focusing on nothing as she struggled against her bonds.
Her vision was fading now, her lungs fruitlessly screaming for air. She thought how nice it would be to just sleep. To make this all go away. Dash's motions slowed. She was slipping away.
"We demand that you stop this travesty at once!" somepony bellowed from the air. Everypony looked up, thankful for some distraction from the nightmare before them. They were greeted by an even greater nightmare.
The Regent of the Moon shot over the palace walls as quickly as her wings could carry her, flanked by several of her Night Guard on both sides. Her mane and tail were swirling around furiously, reflecting the emotions, and her eyes shone brightly with barely contained magic.
Luna's guards swarmed over the Royal Guard present in the courtyard, overwhelming them and pinning them to the wet cobblestones. They had to work quickly, they couldn't afford time wasted by interference from the Royal Guard. The Lunar Princess herself skidded to a halt between the crowd and the hangponys platform. Everypony could feel the righteous fury rolling off the princess as she slashed her horn through the air. A wide arcing wave of magic blasted the rope that was holding Rainbow Dash apart, along with the wooden beam supporting it.
The last thing Dash registered was Luna's face as she lifted her from the ground with magic.
"You can rest now, Rainbow Dash. You are safe."
Everything faded to black.
Imposter, or The Ponyville Massacre
Six Months Ago
Today had been such an awesome day. No weather clouds needed maintenance, the temperature was perfect, and she had just perfected an awesome new trick. Yes, Rainbow Dash was a very happy pony.
Currently, Equestria’s most awesome Pegasus was napping in a big fluffy cloud drifting somewhere past Sweet Apple Acres southern border. Dash was dreaming about joining the Wonderbolts with her stylish moves and inherent coolness.
'Welcome everypony, to the Los Pegasus air show! Now, without further ado, I present… the Wonderbolts!" As the announcer finished, the most famous flight team in all of Equestria came racing into the arena.
‘And now, for the first event of the evening, the Time Trials. The Wonderbolts will be taking all challengers in this event. If you think you’re pony enough, come on down to the starting line and take your places!’
A few dozen Pegasi flapped down to the fluffy cloud designated as the starting platform. Then, from nowhere, the illustrious Rainbow Dash ascended to the stadium. The crowd went wild when the rainbow maned pony landed between Soarin and Spitfire.
‘Dear sweet Celestia, it appears that the Rainbow Dash has taken the field. Everypony else might as well head on back to their seats, nopony stands a chance against the creator of the Sonic Rainboom!’ The announcer hollered, beside himself with joy.
The captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire, was staring at the coolest Pegasus in all the land with dreamy eyes.
‘I want to have your babies,’ She cried gleefully, ‘imagine how cool they would be!’
Soarin’s eyes had become comically large pink hearts as he too stared at dash, completely smitten.
‘No, I want to have her babies! You can’t even give her babies with your girlie stuff down there,’ he objected loudly.
‘Whoa, whoa, everypony settle down. We can decide who’s having whose babies after I win this race.’
With that Rainbow Dash assumed her place at the starting line, crouched and ready to shoot up in the air when the race began.
‘On your mark,’ the announcer said, ‘get set, Go!’
Back in the real world, Dash was still dreaming.
“I’m… so… awesome…” she murmured in her sleep. Unfortunately for the snoozing pony, when the race started in her dream she kicked off in real life, bucking her poor cloud to bits and sending her plummeting toward the ground.
Dash awoke with a shriek and flailed around gracelessly for a moment, before catching the wind under her wings and stopping her decent.
“Man, I hope nopony saw that,” she muttered, blushing in embarrassment.
She eyed the wispy remains of her cloud and groaned.
“Maybe I can salvage it?” she asked herself, still wanting to nap.
There were no other clouds close enough to her to reach conveniently, so she lazily set about repairing her demolished bed. As she was pulling bits and pieces of it back together, she paused to yawn loudly.
“Jeez, I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night. Stupid Applejack with her stupid cider.”
As the Pegasus was griping, she failed to notice a dark shape darting through the woods below her. She paused for a moment, and cocked an ear to listen. She thought she heard… buzzing?
After a few moments of silence she shrugged and went back to her cloud. It was almost done.
There it was again, she knew she heard something buzzing! Dash whipped her head around, trying to see whatever was making the noise. Again, she saw nothing and turned back to her cloud.
“Maybe it’s just a bee… a freakishly large bee… I should move my cloud.”
Two more swipes and a quick squeeze later and her impromptu bed was reassembled.
“There, a perfectly molded cumulonimbus cloud that doesn’t even want to rain. Dash, I dare say you are amazing,” She boasted to nopony in particular.
Just as she was about to hop back on her cloud and return to dream land, somepony tapped her on the shoulder.
“Huh whad-“ her sentence trailed off to nothing when she turned around to look at who wanted her attention. Rainbow Dash was gaping at a spitting image of herself hovering barely a meter away from her. The other Dash grinned back, eyeing Rainbow with malicious red eyes.
Before she could say anything more her copy smashed her fore hoof into Dash’s jaw, rocketing her through the newly reconstructed cloud and towards the field below. Normally Rainbow would be able to recover from a fall like this, even after being coldcocked, but her clone raced down after her and smashed her back hooves right into the real Dash’s forehead. She lost consciousness and crashed landed on her back.
‘Rainbow Dash’ grinned once more, and set off towards Ponyville as fast as she could fly.
Mayor Mare took a long draught of her steaming coffee. She was standing just outside of the doors of Town Hall, taking a quick break from writing an opening speech for the newly built town orphanage. Princess Celestia had funded the project personally, and chose Ponyville as the best place to put it. Technically it was already operating, but the official ceremony wasn’t for a few days yet. She sighed contentedly as her beverage warmed her insides. She loved her coffee almost as much as she loved speech writing. Who could ever ask for a better job than this?
The Mayor was jarred from her contented musings by an odd sight. Rainbow Dash was pushing a large black raincloud over the freshly constructed building. She jumped when a flash of lightening arced from one end of the cloud to the other. Mayor Mare felt panic well up inside her and ran forward, dropping her mug.
“Rainbow Dash. What in Celestia’s name do you think you’re doing! That is an orphanage, disperse those clouds at once!”
A handful of ponies stepped out of their homes to see what the commotion was about.
Rainbow Dash grinned down at the assembled ponies and the Mayor shivered at the sight. Something was seriously wrong here. The cyan Pegasus raised a back leg in the air poised to stomp on the cloud.
“What are you- No, you mustn’t there are fillies in there,” The mayor shrieked. Her outburst did nothing to stop the deranged Pegasus.
Rainbow stomped down forcefully, jarring the cloud. It made an ominous rumble before belching out a lightening bolt that split the roof of the orphanage wide open. The next thing any pony heard was the wailing of hurt and scared fillies. A few crawled from the burning building, and a orange Pegasus filly with a purple mane managed to haul herself out of a broken building.
Dash was now bouncing gleefully on the cloud, cackling while launching errant bolts of energy all across Ponyville. A few unfortunate souls were struck directly, ending their lives in a sudden flash of searing pain. Others weren’t so lucky. It hadn’t rained in weeks, and the dry thatched roofs burst into flame when struck by Dash’s lightening. The fires quickly spread, engulfing most of Ponyville in a raging firestorm.
“Save the children,” Cheerilee cried, galloping forward. Dash fluttered down casually and plowed her hoof right into the schoolteacher’s muzzle. Cheerilee’s eyes rolled back and she collapsed in the dirt.
Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie raced out into the street to stop their friend.
“Rainbow Dash, what the hell are you doing?” Twilight asked incredulously. The unicorn was horrified by the state of Ponyville. Ponies were running all over the place as their town slowly burned to the ground.
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle screamed. The young unicorn was running towards her sister with Applebloom in tow. The youngest Apple’s bow was smoldering and both fillies were covered in soot and light burns.
“Come to me girls, its not safe,” the prim fashionista told the young ones. Unfortunately, the cause of Ponyville’s woes was still present. Rainbow hopped up on her back legs and punted Sweetie Belle into the side of a building. The filly hit the wall hard and slumped to the ground, unmoving. Without missing a beat she grabbed Applebloom by the bow and flung her the opposite direction, where she tumbled to the ground in a disheveled heap.
“You… bitch,” Rarity yelled, charging the Pegasus, blinded with anger. Rainbow was ready for it, and got low to the ground. When Rarity got close enough, Dash ducked under her front legs and lifted her up by the middle. When the Pegasus was standing straight she flipped the white unicorn over and threw her onto the ground. She followed up with a quick jab to the eye.
A small blast of magic hit Rainbow in the side, spinning her around and scorching her flank. The Pegasus whipped her head around looking for the source. Of course, it was Twilight Sparkle trying to save the day.
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to stop me, little pony,” she sneered.
Twilight was trembling in fear; she didn’t know what to do. This was worse than facing Nightmare Moon, and worse than facing Discord. Rainbow Dash was a friend, somepony she knew personally and cared deeply about. Seeing her snap and go on a rampage like this was disturbing. She didn’t want to hurt Dash but she wanted to help everypony else.
‘Celestia never prepared me for this, what do I do? I don’t want anypony to be hurt,’ the lavender unicorn thought frantically. In hindsight, she should have been paying more attention to the world around her rather than her thoughts. Rainbow caught her with a vicious backhoof, knocking Twilight to the dirt. A swift kick to the side flipped the unicorn to her back and Dash was quickly straddling her.
“You. Need. To. Learn. Your. Place,” the Pegasus growled, punctuating each word with a heavy punch. Twilights face was bloodied and torn up. In a daze she spit out a tooth and let her head loll back.
Rainbow cackled and stepped off the powerless Element of Magic. Pinkie pie was crying, frozen in place. She desperately wanted to laugh the situation away; she wanted everything to be better. No fire, no blood, no death. But deep down, in the part of her that was pragmatic and level headed, she knew that the world didn’t work that way.
Dash took one menacing step towards Pinkie and she bolted, running as fast as she could away from Ponyville, towards the Everfree forest.
Dash shook with laughter as she eyed the pandemonium around her. She waltzed over to the shell of the orphanage and pulled out a slender broken board. Twirling it in her hooves experimentally, she was pleased to note that there was two long nails still embedded in the end. With a tremendous battle cry she lunged at the ponies that were still in the town, continuing her wanton bloodbath.
Ten minutes later it was done. Thirteen ponies lay dead in the streets and countless others were nursing terrible wounds. Cowering under a broken wall was Scootaloo, bearing witness to the whole event. Rainbow was spattered with gore and laughing uncontrollably as touched down where she started this rampage. She tossed the bloody board over her shoulder and surveyed her work.
‘Absolutely brilliant! Rainbow Dash will be ruined forever! Now, to find a survivor so spread the word… I hope I wasn’t too thorough…”
A whimper off to the side gained Dash’s attention. She turned to look at the source and grinned, seeing the trembling orange filly.
“Perfect.” She deliberately walked over to the collapsed wall and hauled Scootaloo out of the rubble. She picked her up with both fore hooves brought her in close. Their muzzles were almost touching.
“Remember what you saw here today, and be sure to spread the word brat.”
Scootaloo’s eyes widened to comical proportions as she realized something.
‘That’s not Rainbow Dash!’ Sure enough, under close scrutiny, the colors on this imposter were all off. The eyes were too red, akin to blood rather than the soft rose hue of her true hero. The cyan coat held no luster and looked too coarse. Her teeth were too sharp and the rainbow colors in her mane were all the wrong shade.
Scootaloo’s thoughts were racing faster than the Wonderbolts as she tried to come up with an explanation. Then she remembered the royal wedding a few months back.
‘Changeling!’
Dash dropped the frozen filly on her flank and chuckled.
“What a coward. You know, you could have at least helped your friends, instead of hiding and watching me pulverize them.”
The changeling laughed once more and took flight, casually leaving the most disastrous scene of modern history in Equestria.
Rainbow Dash came to groggily in the field. Her back ached and she tasted blood. She groaned and sat up, wincing in the process. She had a splitting headache and her jaw hurt like crazy. She looked up and it was almost dark. She didn’t remember it being so late when she went to sleep, it was only mid morning. She wasn’t so tired as to waste the whole day away like that. Furthermore, why wasn’t she on a cloud?
“What in the hell…. Oh my gosh, an imposter,” Dash bolted to her feet and took to the air after checking that her wings were unharmed. She could see a tall column of black smoke in the distance, about where Ponyville was. She could see tiny specks that were pegasi pushing rain clouds around in a frenzy trying to douse the blaze that was consuming the village.
“No, no, no, no!” She flapped harder, worried about her friends. By the time she got to Ponyville, most of the flames had been put out. She could see ponies milling about with their heads down, being aided by medics and guards from Canterlot. She touched down near the library, where she saw Her friends standing with Princess Celestia and Shining Armor.
“Guys, whats going on? What happened here?” She asked incredulously.
Applejack was tending to Applebloom who had a broken leg, and Rarity and Sweetie Belle were crying together in the dirt. Twilight was holding a bag of ice to the side of her face; one of her eyes was swollen shut. Shining Armor whirled around immediately, and placed himself between Dash and the others. He shot a flare of magic into the air and in moments, all the guards in the town had rushed to his side, surrounding Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow Dash, I am placing you under arrest for murder and the destruction of Ponyville. Please come quietly,” He said loudly, all business.
“What! You can’t be serious, I just got here!” She said, eyes darting from face to face in confusion. Celestia frowned at her and Applejack bristled.
“Thas a damn lie an you know it. You’re a monster, an everypony knows it, so jus do us a favor and shut up!” She yelled.
“Wha-whats wrong with everypony? I’ve been out cold in a field all day. I didn’t do anything!”
It was Twilights turn to glare at dash.
“Rainbow you’re just making this worse. Everypony saw you do this. You did this to me, to Rarity,” she gestured to the scuffed up unicorn, who’s eye was also swollen shut, “and everypony else! I don’t know what got into you, but you’ve got to be pretty stupid if you think you can just float back her and act like you have no idea what’s going on. You killed fillies, Rainbow. Orphaned fillies. So I suggest that you do what my brother says. Unlike us, the Royal Guard isn’t defenseless. They don’t care if they have to hurt you to bring you in.”
Rainbow’s jaw was hanging open at the end of Twilight’s tirade. She was unsettled; the guards were closing in on her slowly, prepared for her to make a move. Dash felt the familiar sensation of adrenaline screaming through her veins. Her instincts were begging her to fly away, to avoid the fight and live another day.
“This can’t be happening, there’s no way, and this is just a bad dream. This has to be a bad dream. Princess, I’m the Element of Loyalty, I wouldn’t ever do this, and you have to believe me!”
Before the princess could respond, the guards lunged forward and grabbed her, attempting to pin her wings to her body.
“No, no, get off of me, let me go!” Dash began thrashing, and managed to break free of the guards. She flapped madly, trying to get away. Applejack pulled a rope out of her Stetson and lassoed Rainbow’s bag legs. She kicked madly, trying to get out of the rope.
“Archers ready,” Shining Armor commanded. Six unicorn guards levitated their bows and pulled them taught. They had Rainbow Dash in their sights and were waiting for the next command.
“Let me go, I’m innocent. Somepony help me,” Dash was screaming. Nopony below moved. Most were watching the scene unfold with satisfaction. The guard and their Princess would protect them and they felt safe now.
Dash managed to throw Applejack’s rope off and quickly ascended.
“Fire!”
Rainbow Dash cried out as six arrows found their mark in her wings and back. She hit the ground hard for the second time that day. She desperately tried to crawl away but somepony standing on her tail stopped her. She looked over her shoulder, past the grotesque sight of arrows embedded in her back and straight into Shining Armor’s eyes. They held no remorse as he raised his hoof and stomped on her face, once again sending her into unconsciousness.
Visitor, or The Gentle Night
“Why… why, why, why, why,” Dash cried softly, “Why me, I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t understand… it was an imposter.”
She had woken up in a prison cell a few hours ago. Somepony had taken the time to remove the arrows from her back and bandage the wounds. Numbly, she traced the linen bandage around her middle with a hoof. If she twisted her head around she could see where blood had seeped through the linen and dried over her wounds. This was all so surreal to her. She was slumped in the corner, staring out of the small window of her cell. It was raining outside, she noted this and frowned.
Rainbow Dash had intimate knowledge of the weather patterns for Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and Ponyville, so this information was more helpful than most would think. The only place scheduled for rain this week was Canterlot, and that wasn’t until the upcoming Tuesday she thought.
‘I’ve been out for at least three days, ” she thought sadly.
Her hooves ached from pounding on the door to her cell, and her throat burned from screaming for help from anypony. They hadn’t even bothered to post a guard by her cell door. They must not think her capable of escaping.
From what she could see through the small slot on the door, her cell was the only one in this corridor anyway. Why would they be worried? She was just a wounded and distraught Pegasus, it wasn’t like she could magic herself out like a unicorn.
With some difficulty Dash levered herself up off the cold stone floor and stiffly walked to her tiny window. If the bars hadn’t been there it would have been just big enough for her to stick her head through. If she stood on her back hooves she could just see out of her new home. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. Far, far below she could see a hilly plain dotted with a few rocks. If she craned her neck and looked up, Dash could make out a large natural rock shelf, and what looked like the edge of the ancient Canterlot foundation.
‘So I’m on the cliff face under Canterlot. I didn’t even know this was here… ’
Sighing deeply, she turned and plopped down on her haunches, wincing as her wounds burned. Come to think of it, her jaw was a little sore as well, probably from being stomped by Shining Armor.
‘Shining Armor… Twilight… Ponyville… What happened? Why me… Why don’t they believe me? I feel so lost… '
The boastful, proud, and unshakable Rainbow Dash buried her face in her hooves and cried.
Princess Celestia sat in her personal study, a room she rarely used. Even her beloved protégé did not know if it. None knew it existed; when they passed it’s location in the castle they saw smooth stone where the door was. Celestia had used some of her most powerful arcane spells to enchant the room and keep it private. She had spent much time in here shortly after the banishment of Nightmare Moon.
There was a thick layer of dust blanketing the room, owing to its disuse for the past few centuries. Old edicts and Royal Decree’s lay half finished and scattered about her polished mahogany desk. An ancient campaign map hung next to a single bookshelf, its ink nearly faded to nothing.
The Princess was lost in thought, sipping some of her best wine, and gazing at a large portrait. Her study had a gloomy feel to it, matching her mood. Light flickered feebly from a single lit candle on the corner of her desk.
The portrait was wider than her considerably sized desk, and hung directly above it. It featured her beloved sister, lying in a field during a full moon, surrounded by blooming moonflower vines. Her fore hooves were crossed as she gazed up at an awe-inspiring blanket of stars with a soft smile.
The entire painting had been made with only shades of blue, and was widely considered to be Lionardo da Vinci’s greatest work. It was simply titled Selene, and had hung in the halls of Canterlot for many years. Art aficionados and court ponies alike had speculated wildly about the reason Luna was smiling in the portrait, much to the amusement of the Lunar Princess.
“That had to have been.... at least eighteen hundred years ago,” the Princess mused to herself.
After Nightmare Night, Celestia had moved the painting here, so she could mourn in private. She had hoped never to return to this room again, though she found herself wandering here earlier in the day and did not fight the urge to be secluded.
Rainbow Dash. That name was echoing in the halls of Canterlot. The nobles had gone up in arms against the cyan mare after learning of her rampage. Celestia was instantly suspicious of the motives of these ponies. They were so removed from the rest of Equestria by status and wealth, so why should they care? Celestia thought she had an explanation, and she found it worrying.
The nobility was always looking for a ways to look good in the eyes of the taxpayers, and they wanted to bring Rainbow Dash to justice so they could be regarded as the “Protectors of the Common Pony”.
The Princess of the Sun scoffed at this.
“Protectors, like hell…” she muttered disdainfully. She hoped she was wrong, but if the nobility tried to scapegoat Rainbow Dash just to better their image…
There was something horribly wrong with this situation, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. What puzzled her was the very fact that Rainbow Dash could even bring herself to hurt somepony like she had. It made no sense. She had no motive, there were no reports of strange behavior, she hadn’t been skipping work or going off on her own frequently. She was perfectly healthy when she was brought in, if you didn’t count the arrow wounds.
Celestia had personally checked Dash for any form of magic, be it a curse or hex or potion, and nothing came up. It was very troubling. Slowly, a picture was forming in her head. Unrest amongst the lower classes, possibly conspiring nobles, and now the most loyal pony in all of Equestria had essentially massacred a town.
“No… it couldn’t be,” she said slowly, as something dawned on her.
“What couldn’t be?” somepony asked behind her. The voice startled Celestia, and she leapt to her hooves and spun around, illuminating the dim study with a powerful surge of magic.
“Who dares- Luna? How did you know this room was here?” She asked with surprise in her voice.
Luna smiled sweetly at her elder sister, and moved in to nuzzle her.
“We always know where you are Tia. You are our sister after all,” Luna whispered conspiratorially into Celestia’s flowing mane. The Sun Princess relaxed and hugged the most important pony in her life.
“That doesn’t explain how you got past my wards,” she said, attempting to sound airy and carefree.
“We were always more talented in the arcane arts dear sister. You should know this.” Luna stuck her tongue out at Celestia playfully before becoming serious. She could see that her sister was troubled.
“Now tell us what is bothering you Tia. We want to help you, we want to be involved again,” she pleaded hopefully.
“Or are you so enamored with our beauty that you would rather sit in a dark room and stare at a picture of us all afternoon? You know, we could commission a new portrait, one with more flank perhaps?” Luna struck a ridiculous pose, something she had to have stolen off the cover of a dirty magazine.
Celestia struggled to keep a straight face, but could not hold it. She burst into peals of laughter and had to sit back down lest she fall over. Luna gladly joined the laughter, happy that she cheered up her sister somewhat. After a minute of uncontrolled laughing, Celestia wiped a tear from her eye and stood, once more hugging her sister.
“I am so happy that you are with me once more dear sister. Come, let us leave this place of bad memories behind. We can speak more comfortably in my chambers.” Luna nodded and trotted after her sister, leaving the depressing study behind.
As they walked the halls, Celestia shared a smile with her sister, and decided to withhold her alarming thoughts. Her sister didn’t need to be worried about anything now that she had returned.
Dash had curled up in a ball in the corner of her cell. She realized there was no way for her to eat while unconscious, so she had gone without a good meal for almost four days now. She winced as a cramp rolled through her guts. She felt like she was going to be sick, and her mouth and throat were painfully dry. Rainbow groaned and muttered to herself.
“Somepony please feed me.”
She was answered by the loud clip-clop of guard shoes on stone.
“Princess, I must protest, this is a very dangerous pony. I cannot let you enter unaccompanied,” somepony said.
“And we are telling you, for the third time no less, that we do not wish for your presence. This is a very delicate matter. Now be gone from this place.” The stomp of a hoof and the jingling of keys accompanied the final command.
Dash’s ears perked up and she stared at the door.
‘Are they going to let me out, ’ she thought hopefully. The door shrieked as it swung on rusty hinges, allowing her visitor in.
Her savior was... Princess Luna? The princess let herself in, and kicked the door shut behind her.
‘No they aren’t going to let me out… ’ Her ears drooped and she laid her head down. Luna looked at the depressed pony with concern. A moment of silence passed before Luna sat down awkwardly in the small cell. Her eyes darted around, trying to think of something to ‘break the ice’ as ponies these days called it. After a moment of thinking the princess had an ah-ha moment.
“Um… we brought you some food and water Rainbow Dash. We didn’t know if you had been feed recently, and… well we thought it would be nice-“ As she was fumbling on her words she levitated a small pitcher of water and a bowl of apples out of seemingly nowhere.
Rainbow’s eyes widened and she lunged forward, snatching the pitcher out of the air and bringing it to her lips. She drank greedily, spilling water down her front as she guzzled as much as she could. She next attacked the apples, grabbing one and ripping large chunk off with her teeth. She chewed messily and gulped the fruit down.
Luna was so startled by the sudden movement that she nearly fell over.
“Good heavens, when were you last fed,” she asked incredulously.
Rainbow said something around a mouth full of apple, but to Luna it sounded like “shore hay vertigo”
“We… we don’t quite understand,” she said as she watched the Pegasus devour apples at a lightening pace.
After the last apple was gone, Dash took a moment to wipe off her muzzle and catch her breath.
“I said four days ago. Uh, thanks for the food… your highness.” Dash said, embarrassed by eating like that in front of a Princess.
Luna’s jaw hit the floor.
“Four days ago? This is unacceptable,” Luna shouted. She took a better look around the room. Dash didn’t even have a rag to sleep on.
“Guard, come here post haste,” she bellowed, easily slipping into the Royal Voice. It made the entire cell shake, and the door vibrated on its hinges. Rainbow flinched at the sudden loudness. Soon enough, the guard she had berated earlier had galloped down the corridor and burst through the door with his sword drawn.
“What is the meaning of this,” the Luna snapped, ”These living conditions are wholly unacceptable!”
The magic behind Luna’s Voice was incredible. It was actually pushing the dumbfounded guard backward, and he was doing his best to stand in place. Dash was completely amazed that the Princess had become so vocal about this.
After Luna had laid into the guard for a good five minutes she sent him running off with a list of things to do. Luna huffed and paced back and forth in her cell.
“Of all the foolish things…” she snorted and turned back to Rainbow. Apparently it was her turn to be slack jawed.
“Um… was that too much,” Luna asked uncertainly.
“That was awesome,” Rainbow Dash shouted, hopping up off the ground excitedly. She paused and frowned for a moment, before sitting down and eyeing the Princess warily.
“But why would you do that for me when nopony else believes I’m innocent?”
“Because we- I believe you are innocent Rainbow Dash,” Luna said, looking dash in the eye.
“Really,” Dash asked. This was too good to be true. A Princess was on her side? What was the catch?
Luna nodded, “we have to go raise the moon now Rainbow Dash, but we will be back later to ensure that all my demands were met.” With that the princess of the night turned and walked out of the cell. Before it closed, she poked her head back in the doorway.
“Oh, and we shall bring you more food as well. Would that please you?”
“I uh… yeah. Thanks Princess…” the Pegasus said.
“It is my pleasure Rainbow Dash.”
“Princess Luna,” Rainbow said tentatively, “You can just call me Dash. If you want to I guess.”
“Hmm, we can do that if you call us Luna.” The night Princess smiled and left before Dash could respond.
True to her word, Princess Luna had returned later in the evening, after Dash had her bed and the moon was high in the sky.
“I, uh, wanted to thank you for the, uh, bed and the food and stuff Princess,” Dash said quietly.
The Princess turned from where she was gazing out the window and shot Dash a look. The Pegasus was puzzled for a moment before realizing what she said.
“I mean Luna,” she amended sheepishly. Luna smiled sweetly at the cyan pony.
“As we said before it was our pleasure to do so.”
A comfortable moment of silence passed before Dash spoke again.
“Why,” she asked quietly. Fluttershy would have been proud of her volume.
“We are sorry?” Luna said, she hadn’t quite heard what Dash had mumbled.
Rainbow glared and spoke louder this time, standing up and looking Luna in the eyes.
“Why are you helping me when nopony else will? Why do you think I’m innocent? What’s in it for you to be the only one on my side?” she snapped.
Luna turned back to the moon, her moon, and was silent.
Dash was growing impatient. “Well,” she shouted, “answer me!”
Luna took a deep breath of the crisp night air before closing her eyes.
“We are helping, because we believe you are innocent. It is how you would say, ‘a gut feeling’. we have read all of the letters you have sent to my sister, as well as the ones you are mentioned in and we do not think you capable of such a thoughtless and cruel act. It defies logic. We know how you must feel, but paranoia is unnecessary and we wish to reassure you. It seems that Everypony is against you, and you want them to hear you out so badly, but they wont give you the chance. We were there once.”
Luna opened her eyes. They were glassy, as if she were gazing at some far off memory. The Princess of the Night let out a shaky breath as she clamped down on old emotions.
“Jeez, I-I didn’t know. I’m sorry that I yelled at you. It’s just that I have no idea what’s going to happen to me and everypony is mad at me for something I didn’t do. I mean look at me, I’m I jail here and its really bothering me Luna. I just don’t know what to do.”
She bit her lip and hung her head. ‘Come on Dash, you’re tougher than that, don’t cry in front of the princess. ’
Luna moved to Rainbow’s side and carefully laid a wing over the back of the young Pegasus.
“Why don’t you start by telling us your side of the story? You would be surprised how helpful it can be when somepony just listens.”
Dash looked up into Luna’s large eyes.
‘Wow, they’re the same color as my coat, ’ she thought quietly.
Dash let out a loud yawn and leaned into Luna’s side. The Princess was surprisingly warm. After a moment she was ready to speak.
“Well… It all started when I left my house in the morning. I had some super sweet tricks that I wanted to practice…”
Bonds, or The Renewed Flame
Five months ago.
Princess Luna had been visiting Rainbow Dash every night for a month now. Sometimes only to say hello, but more often than not the Princess ended up staying in the small cell until Dash had drifted off. Luna often had Dash on her mind as she wandered Canterlot Castle or gazed at the stars. The cyan Pegasus was intriguing.
She had been very blatantly disavowed by most of her friends, yet Dash continued holding out for them. She hoped they would come to see her, even if it was just to say hello, or ask for her alibi. It saddened Luna to see Rainbow tear herself up over her friends. It reminded Luna of her, just one short century after inheriting her responsibility over the moon.
For this reason, Luna tried to stay close to Dash. She heard the rumors and the opinions whispered through the mountain city. She knew what the nobles wanted, and honestly it stressed her greatly. She was grateful that Celestia was stalling their deliberations and exploring every possible solution. If millennia spent on the throne thought you anything, it was how to pander to the upper class.
Once again, her thoughts strayed to Rainbow Dash. The young mare was much more muted than she remembered from past encounters. There was a sort of sad aura dominating the air around her. Sure, her spunk and prideful attitude would still shine through the gloom of the situation, but it took more and more effort to get it to show as time wore on. Regardless of her mood or outlook on life, the Princess had come to love spending time with her. Rainbow proved to be a surprisingly good listener, and Luna loved that the most. She could tell Dash anything, and the Pegasus would contemplate it for a moment before giving her an honest opinion.
As she said on the matter, “I don’t like to pull my punches with this kinda stuff.”
‘So this is why Celestia keeps Twilight Sparkle around. It is very gratifying to have a bond like this with another pony.’
The Princess grimaced as a thought crossed her mind.
‘Oh, we wish we did not have the confliction of immortality. We don’t want to outlive our friends…’
She shook the thought from her head, sending her sparkling mane floating about haphazardly. Those thoughts wouldn’t do now; she knew she had to stay optimistic about making friends. Fretting about the distant future would not do anypony any good.
She glanced at an ornate grandfather clock as she passed it.
“Oh my, it’s almost time to raise the moon. Where did the day go,” she said to nopony in particular.
With that she gracefully lifted off and flew towards Celestia’s balcony where she and her dear sister typically performed their most important duties. After Luna’s redemption, they liked to raise and lower their respective charges in tandem. There was something meaningful about doing it that way. However, when she was halfway there she slowed to a hover and thought for a moment. A thought crossed her mind and she smiled.
“Why not, we are a Princess after all. We’re sure she will understand.” With that Luna did an about face and flew away from Celestia’s tower.
“Wow. That was so… cool ,” Dash uttered as Luna slowly fluttered back to the floor, supported by her magic. The journey was only a few inches, yet she nearly fell once she touched down. Realizing that Rainbow’s cell would be far to small to raise the moon with her normal routine, Luna snatched a golden cord off of some velvet drapes and used it to bind her wings to her body. Normally, she would spread her wings to stabilize herself. She was just glad that she didn’t fall flat on her flank when it was all over.
“You really believe so,” the Princess questioned, panting slightly. Over a thousand years of inactivity, one tended to loose their edge with anything. This was even more so for something as intense as moving the moon across the sky. She had been raising the moon by herself for roughly a year and a half now, yet it still taxed her stamina greatly.
“Yeah! I had no idea that what you do was so… so… ugh, what’s the word, I’m so bad at this kinda thing,” she facehooved in frustration.
“Um, did you mean bright,” Luna pondered.
“No, no, well yes, but no. I was gonna say intense, but that’s not quite right. Well, actually it was pretty intense… oh jeez, can we just say it was awesome? That works I think,” Dash said, tired of fumbling on her words. She might like to read some books, but that didn’t make her an egghead. Vocabulary was not her strong suit.
“I’m just really thankful that you showed it to me Luna.”
The Princess could not help but giggle while Dash struggled with her words. She thought that it was an endearing trait that fit with Rainbow’s personality perfectly. She was stubborn, brash, and self-confidant to a fault. She could easily imagine Dash as a filly in school, snoring her way through Equish class, dreaming of the wild blue yonder.
“We were happy to do so for you Dash. After all, from what we understand, friends do things like this for each other, am I right? Are we friends,” the beautiful indigo princess inquired anxiously.
“What are you talking about, of course we’re friends. You’re the only pony who has even visited me since I’ve been in prison. I would have gone totally nutso in here if you weren’t around!”
Dash threw her forelegs up in the air for emphasis and made a funny face. The two shared a good laugh before settling down, Dash in her bed and Luna lying on the stone next to it. They spoke quietly about trivial things until Dash drifted off to sleep. When Luna heard the mare's breathing even out, she gently pulled the thin blanket up around the pony’s shoulders. Content, the Princess quietly dissolved into a deep blue mist and floated out of the cell through the window, so as not to disturb her friend.
Four months ago.
Dash had officially gone stir crazy. She hated her crummy little cell with a passion. Recently, Dash had resorted to doing wing ups and flying in place just to stay occupied. She was dreading the amount of work she was going to have to catch up on. Sometimes you just had to work to be the best flyer in Equestria.
Luna had brought her a few books of course, but she had read through them twice already. Truly, the life of a prisoner was a dull one. Currently, she was lying on her bed counting the cracks on the ceiling. Huffing, she flipped herself over and stared at the wall.
Dash was sick of this. She had been sick of this for a long time now.
“Stupid Twilight,” she growled as she rose and punched her bed, “stupid Applejack, stupid Rarity.”
She brought her hooves down harder on the defenseless mattress.
“Stupid Mayor, stupid Ponyville, stupid Celestia,” she was yelling now, pounding the bed into submission.
“Damnit,” she shrieked, “Let. Me. Out! ”
Dash threw herself as hard as she could against the door, desperate to be free. Again and again she smashed her shoulder into the steadfast oak, screaming in a rage. Eventually she lost steam and collapsed in a heap at the foot of the door.
This was how Luna found Dash, slumped against the door with tear tracks in the soft fur on her face.
“Oh Luna, finally , you have to let me out. Please, please, please, let me out, I’m going crazy in here. I need to stretch my wings, to fly, I promise I wont run off,” She cried, hugging the surprised princess tightly.
Luna couldn’t meet Dash’s eyes, “we are sorry Dash, we cannot let you out. We want to, but we have not the power to do so.”
Dash gaped at Luna for a moment before finding her words once more.
“What do you mean you can’t let me out? You’re a Princess for Celestia’s sake! You even have the keys to the cell, who the hell would question you? Come on Luna, I’m begging you…”
She trailed off as she looked at Luna. The Alicorn would not meet her gaze, and was slowly dragging her hoof in a circle on the floor.
“Since Nightmare Night… we have had no authority over anything. Nopony trusts us; they fear we will become Nightmare Moon once more if we are given power. My sister has just recently allowed us to raise the moon on our own. We are truly sorry Dash, but if we let you out of your cell, Celestia will have a riot on her hooves. She’s been working herself ragged lately, and we don’t want to burden her more.”
There was a pregnant pause after Luna’s explanation.
“So… I’m just a burden, is that it? Your precious immortal sisters’ stress level is more important than my sanity? What ever happened to ‘I believe you’re innocent’, huh? I thought you were my friend,” Rainbow snapped, letting months of pent up anger pour out.
“We – of course we’re friends Dash, you are the only friend that we have, we care about you deeply, you must believe us! Its just that we can't hurt Celestia again, not after the horrible things we did in the past.”
Luna was prancing nervously from hoof to hoof; she had been immensely unnerved by the situation. The Princess was terrified of losing the greatest companion she had ever had the pleasure of knowing.
“You know what, forget it. It’s obvious that I don’t mean anything to you. You should go Princess,” Dash said unemotionally. She clambered into her bed and rolled away from the Princess, facing the wall.
“Dash, we- I… I don’t know what…” Luna stuttered. She felt a knot growing in the pit of her stomach. She was driving away her only friend.
“Go! ” Dash screeched deafeningly. She hadn’t moved from her position on the cot, but the consequences were evident. Luna staggered back as if struck, eyes threatening to brim over. Without another word, Luna turned and trudged out of the cell and away from Rainbow Dash with her head held low.
“Yes Luna, I am quite busy actually. Perhaps you could return in a few…”
Luna looked devastated; her bottom lip would suck in occasionally as she suppressed a sob. Thick tears were running down her cheeks and falling into her mane. The opalescent representation of the cosmos drug on the floor, listlessly.
“L-Luna, whatever is wrong? Come to me; are you hurt, did somepony say something to you? What happened?”
Celestia immediately went into big sister mode and began doting on Luna. She dropped her work and gently maneuvered Luna onto luxurious bed. Once her sister was settled, Celestia pulled her close and covered her with a wing.
“Now tell me what happened Luna, I’m here for you,” she cooed softly. Luna, for her part, pressed her face into her sister’s neck and let the dam break. She sobbed hard for a good five minutes and slowly tapered off, uttering a quiet hiccup every so often. Celestia just let it happen, knowing Luna needed to get this out of her system. She gently rocked the indigo princess and hummed as their mother once did.
“Do you feel better Luna?”
She shook her head.
“Do you want to talk?”
Again, she went to shake her head but paused and performed something half way between a nod and a headshake. Celestia raised an eyebrow gracefully.
“What?”
“I do, but I don’t,” she choked out, surprisingly speaking in the first-pony.
After a short pause, Celestia began prodding for information.
“Is this about you?”
Luna shook her head, keeping her face buried in Celestia’s neck.
“So somepony else then?”
She nodded this time.
“Did somepony hurt you,” Celestia asked. Her words came out with a sharp edge that she didn’t intend. Nopony was going to act against her beloved sister and get away with it.
Luna heard her sister’s tone and shook her head frantically.
“Okay, okay, it’s alright. I won’t do anything if you don’t want me to.”
Luna nodded slowly. Celestia continued rocking her.
“So somepony said something to you?”
Another nod. Good, she was making progress.
“Was it related to Nightmare Moon?”
She could feel Luna frown as she shook her head this time.
“It wasn’t? But it was something hurtful or cruel, wasn’t it?”
Luna began to nod but stopped. Nearly a minute had passed before she shook her head slowly.
“I’m getting mixed signals here. What do you mean?”
Luna took a deep breath and looked up at Celestia.
“I… I made a friend Tia, and I was so happy, but I- I just ruined everything. Its all my fault!”
‘Oh… this is going to be... delicate…’
“You said that this pony said something hurtful? That doesn’t sound very friendly to me.”
“B-but I upset her in the first place. I didn’t mean to, everything was great, but I said the wrong thing and it crushed her.”
“Luna, why don’t you start from the beginning, how did this all start?”
“W-well,” she sniffled, “I went to visit her this morning and she asked if she could fly around the palace. I didn’t want to cause trouble for you so I said n-no and it just crushed her-“ Celestia cut off Luna’s babbling for clarification
“Wait, she lives in the palace,” she asked slowly. Celestia hadn’t heard of any new arrivals, and certainly none of the court ponies were friendly with anypony. Who could she be talking about? Then it dawned on her.
‘Oh shit…’
“Luna… are you talking about Rainbow Dash,” Celestia asked slowly.
“Yes,” she said miserably.
‘So that’s where you’ve been going at night. I should have known.’
“Luna, honey, I’m glad that you’re making friends, but do you think Rainbow Dash was a… wise choice?”
Celestia selected her words prudently, not wanting to dismay her sister any further.
“What, what do you mean Tia,” Luna had calmed down significantly since she had entered. Still, Celestia chose to tread lightly on this matter. It was evident that Luna was psychologically scarred from her time on the moon. If Celestia had been banished for a millennia she doubted she would have been any better off. Dealing with Luna’s emotions was akin to negotiating a hostage situation. You had to say just the right thing at just the right time and know when and what to give and take. If you were too heavy hoofed with her she was likely to blow up on you.
‘If only everypony knew how fragile “Nightmare Moon” really was,’ she thought ruefully.
“Well, as I am sure you are aware, Rainbow Dash is accused of a rather… terrible crime. As such, the nobles are discussing what to do about it. Yes, it’s strange, I know, but they are alarmingly united on this. If they all decide on one thing I will not be able to overrule them. Rainbow Dash may be spending the remainder of her years in that cell… or worse. Please understand Luna, I just don’t want you to be hurt if her sentence is… less than ideal,” Celestia lectured.
“B-but, they wouldn’t… they wouldn’t k-kill her, would they?”
“I hope not, and I’m doing all that I can to prevent it, but it’s suddenly become an uphill battle. If they do eventually choose death, then it falls on my authority to carry the sentence out. Believe me, I don’t want to kill one of my ponies.
Luna let out a quiet sob and hung her head low.
“There there Luna, I’m sure it will all work out in the end,” Luna chose not to respond.
“Would you like to stay with me tonight? My bed is more than large enough for the both of us.”
Luna nodded mutely. With a wave of her horn Celestia extinguished the lights and pulled her silk sheets up around them both. She took extra care to tuck Luna in and ensure she was comfortable. Before long the Princess of the Night fell into a fitful slumber. Celestia, not tired herself played with Luna’s starry mane idly, noting how it melded with her own iridescent locks.
“I love you more than you know dear sister,” she leant down and gently kissed Luna on the cheek, “Sleep well.”
Luna awoke alone the next morning, with the sun already half way to its apex. She sat up and yawned, looking around the room with bleary eyes. She noticed she had slept in her silver regalia and shrugged it all off onto the bedside, wincing as she massaged a knot in her shoulder.
There was a small silver platter with a simple breakfast laid out on Celestia’s desk, along with a note from the Solar Princess.
“Luna,” it read, “Hope you are feeling better. Sorry to leave you, but I had to go start the ‘Daily Doldrums’. You know how it is. Eat up and take the day off to relax, but don’t go thinking that you can shirk your duties with the moon little missy. Love Celestia.”
Luna chuckled when she saw that her sister had finished the note with a goofy little smiley face. That was so like Celestia. She knew just what to do to cheer Luna up. Luna quickly ate her breakfast and exited her sisters chambers.
She walked in silence, pondering her relationship with Rainbow Dash.
‘Oh we don’t want to lose her. We liker her so much… If they think that they can harm a hair on her head-‘
Her eyes flashed dangerously and her disheveled mane flared up as if caught by the wind. Startled, she had to shake herself out of her own power surge.
‘No, no, that behavior wont do, remember where it got you last time.’
‘If she says she is innocent, then she is innocent, we trust her completely. But if she didn’t do it, then who did? Was it a unicorn? No, modern illusion spells are not powerful enough to remain intact through the carnage, and they cant make a unicorn actually fly. So it was a Pegasus then. But what are the odds of somepony perfectly matching Dash’s appearance? It’s plausible, more so than a Unicorn culprit. We will have to check the National Cutie Mark Registry later for any that look like Dash’s. What about a shape shifter? But no species we know of can perform that feat… wait, Changelings! Why didn’t we think of it before, you are so dense sometimes Luna. But how could we prove it was a Changeling? We would have to find one first and that is no easy task.’
Luna looked up from her internal monologue and realized that she was standing at the entrance to the dungeons. Just a few twisting staircases and murky corridors separated her from her favorite Pegasus.
“No, not now, she is not going anywhere. Iron Wing, Blackhorn, reveal yourselves to me at once,” she commanded, stamping a hoof for emphasis.
Immediately, a black Pegasus with dragon like wings swooped down from the rafters, landing noiselessly on the thick red carpet in the hall. From the minute gaps between the great stones in the wall, thick black oil oozed out. It pooled next to Iron Wing and slowly piled up, eventually taking the form of a pony. With an otherworldly ripple the dark muck became a tall black Unicorn. The two Lunar Guards bowed in unison.
“Your highness,” they greeted.
“You may rise. Now, come. We have much work for you both. We have decided to reinvest ourselves in the affairs of this land.”
The Princess trotted between the two brothers, heading for her tower. The two wordlessly followed a single body length behind and cantering to keep pace with their Mistress. They would never say so, but the two guards were pleased to see their Princess moving with such determination again.
Resurgence, or A Lunar Segue
Luna rubbed her eyes tiredly. She had been pouring over maps, legislation, and abridged history tomes for the last few days in an attempt to be better acquainted with modern Equestria.
Currently, she was in the library section designated “Reference” by a large polished plaque. Luna rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, she had been reading and taking down notes for close to five hours now. Soon enough it would be time to lower the moon.
“Luna,” somepony whispered. The sound came seemingly came from everywhere at once.
The Princess lifted her head in confusion and cocked an ear to the side. Who would be seeking her out at this time? Furthermore, who even knew she was here? After a few moments of silence Luna returned to her books. She frowned at the text; it appeared blurry, as though she were looking through frosted glass. Luna shook her head and rubbed her eyes once more. When she looked again the books were just as they were moments before. Writing it off as fatigue, she began to clean up the little alcove she had claimed as her own. As she was piling up the various scrolls and books she intended to keep she heard the voice again.
“Luna,” somepony hissed. It was somewhat louder this time yet still faint enough that Luna barely heard it over the rustling of her saddlebag. The speakers voice sounded ragged, more like a death rattle than somepony calling out. Now Luna was perturbed. She stood tall and strode out into the large pathway between the bookshelves and looked around.
“Whom calls to us, show yourself immediately,” She commanded loudly. Nopony responded. The library was still. Luna huffed and illuminated her horn.
“If you think to hide from us then you are sorely mistaken,” she muttered before firing off a life-detecting spell. It was a simple incantation, functioning like sonar and using the life force of any given pony as a marker. An invisible bubble rapidly expanded from the tip of the Alicorn’s horn, racing forth and bouncing off all of the solid surfaces in the library.
“How can that be…” the hair on the back of her neck stood up straight as she pinged the room once more. According to her spell she was alone. She had an instinctual feeling that something was behind her and whirled to face it. There was nothing there however. She was isolated in the vast library.
“Okay Luna, you need rest and maybe a good meal. Yes its high time to get out of the library,” She said to herself. Luna trotted back to her alcove to grab her books, her silver slippers clacking harshly on the rough stone floor. She had collected all of her books in her saddlebag and was trotting past the front desk when she heard it again.
“Luna,” the voice gasped, blasting through the silent library with a gale force wind. Ancient manuscripts were sent flying across the great chamber and the chandeliers that illuminated the library were blown out one row at a time.
Luna panicked and galloped as fast as she could from the disembodied voice. It still followed her, hissing her name and promising damnation. In a fit of desperation she focused her horn and tried teleport herself. When she felt the magic wash over her body and the familiar disjointed sensation associated with teleportation, Luna screwed her eyes shut.
Everything was quiet. No whispers, no vibrations, not even the wind could be heard through the castle walls. Luna cracked an eye open fearfully. She had successfully teleported into her private chambers. After giving her room a brief once over she lurched to her bathroom on shaky legs. Her carpet was singed from magical overflow, but nothing else appeared damaged. Luna let out a shuddering breath and turned on the cold tap, splashing her face with water.
Resting her front hooves on the sink she hung her head and watched the water swirl down the drain. She was coming down from an adrenaline high larger than any she had experienced in a long time. Snatching a towel off the rack next to the sink, Luna dried her face off and looked in the mirror.
She was standing face to face with Nightmare Moon. She looked gaunt and feral and was breathing heavily with a loud rattle. Her angry eyes were bloodshot and the pupils narrowed to hair thin slits. Rancid saliva dripped from her cracked yellowed fangs and splattered on the other side of the mirror. Her ears were tattered and bloody and her once gleaming helm was tarnished with large crack running down the middle. She looked a shambling wreck of her former glory, yet was all the more horrifying.
“Luna,” the demon roared, lunging towards the petrified Princess. Nightmare Moon slammed into the mirror. It exploded outward, sending splinters of crystal flying at lethal speed.
Luna wailed in agony as the shards of the mirror imbedded themselves in her face, shredding her delicate features and destroying her eyes. As Luna flung herself away from the sink, a particularly large fragment of the mirror buried itself in her throat. Luna collapsed on the cold tile floor, thrashing and screaming silently. Nightmare Moon cackled with glee, her malevolent visage reflected in each individual shard of glass.
Blackhorn was concerned. He had just left the Royal Library and the only sign that his Mistress had ever been there was her saddlebag, lying forlorn on the floor a few dozen meters from the Library entrance.
Interrogating the assistant librarian only got him obvious information. She stepped out for a restroom break and returned after the Princess had disappeared. The old mare had just assumed the Princess had finished her work and left.
In the old days, the entirety of the Lunar Guard would have scoured Canterlot from top to bottom until their sovereign was found. Unfortunately, this was impossible now. The Princesses banishment had left the Guard with nopony to defend, and slowly they died off during peacetime. Nopony wanted to join the “tainted” night guard to defend a mad Princess who was no longer on the planet, so recruitment dropped sharply.
So it fell to Blackhorn to find his Mistress. Iron Wing was off attempting to solve the recruitment problem and nopony else could be trusted with such an important task. Blackhorn scrutinized the large and ornate corridor from the position of Luna’s saddlebag. Nothing looked out of place, which worried the guard even more. Ever so carefully the Unicorn redirected the flow of magic through his body. Splitting a thin filament of his natural energy off its intended route and directed it towards his eyes.
Doing this always ran the risk of permanent damage, but with the proper discipline and skill Unicorns could greatly enhance individual senses in this manner. The corridor suddenly became much brighter, forcing Blackhorn to squint. There, he finally saw something!
An ethereal afterimage of Princess Luna raced through the closed library door, galloping without making a sound. When the phantom was a few paces past the saddlebags on the floor her horn flashed and she was no more. Where she last stood hovered a magical tear in reality, indicative of teleportation. It was closing rapidly, yet Blackhorn could vaguely make out the furnishing of Princess Luna’s personal chambers.
Releasing the magic from his eyes, the stallion wasted no time and performed his own teleportation spell.
Everything hurt, especially her throat. Luna gurgled feebly as she blindly felt for the door. She needed to get away but it was so hard to move. Her body was involuntarily writhing as though her mind had been severed from it.
Nightmare Moon hadn’t ceased her deranged laughter and she so desperately wanted her to be gone. She was descending into the depths of madness once more. It had to end. Luna desperately reached for the glass imbedded in her neck. It only needed to move a short distance forward and it would all be over.
She wouldn’t have to suffer any more. Vaguely she heard somepony shouting, but she didn’t know who or what it was about.
“Lie still,” whoever was shouting felt close, but sounded so far away.
Then she felt it. Something hard and smooth at the base of her skull, followed by the sensation of being submerged in freezing water. Luna gasped and inhaled deeply as the world came rushing back to her. She could see once more.
The Princess was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. She felt terribly nauseous as she tenderly felt around her face with a hoof. No glass shards were there. She shifted uncomfortably, somepony heavy was standing on her shoulders, pinning her to the tile. She struggled to look up, and saw the concerned Blackhorn looming over her.
He moved off of her quickly and moved to help her up.
“Your highness, are you well?”
Luna wasn’t paying attention to him however. She was staring at the unbroken mirror fearfully. This could only mean one thing. Nightmare Moon still existed. And she was growing stronger.
“Blackhorn, we need you to do something of the utmost importance,” she said. She supposed she had been screaming for an extended period. Her words came out as barely a whisper.
The dutiful stallion supported his drained Mistress and leaned in to hear her words.
“You must go to Ponyville tonight. Seek out Twilight Sparkle and bring her here at once. Speak to nopony and remain undetected. Do not even inform Twilight of why she is being summoned, she need only know that it is urgent.”
The exhausted Luna struggled to rise.
“G-go, now Blackhorn. This is a dire situation.”
“Your highness I must protest leaving you in this state. Were my brother here I would acquiesce but I should not leave you unattended your Majesty. We both know the significance of these waking terrors,” the stallion explained out in his gravely voice.
Luna tried to fix him with an imperious glare but was too drained to make it look menacing. She sighed and decided to meet him in the middle.
“Help us to our bed then,” she demanded. Luna was not in the mood for the overly dedicated guard routine right now. Any other day and she would have found it charming, flattering even.
Blackhorn gently helped Luna maneuver to her large circular bed where she fell in a heap.
“In the silver chest on the bookshelf rests a small copper flask. Fetch it for us please,” she gestured half-heartedly to the far wall.
“May I inquire as to what it is,” said Blackhorn.
“A magical stopgap, intended for emergencies. It is also a compromise so you will actually leave us and do as we say.”
This time she managed to pull off her glare. Blackhorn did as she commanded without hesitation, opening the chest and levitating the desired object across the room to Luna. She carefully unscrewed the cap from the small flask and downed the contents. When the flask was empty she grimaced ant tossed it to the side. The elixir was bitter to the extreme.
Blackhorn’s eyes widened, he could actually feel Luna’s magical aura expanding and growing denser.
“This is only temporary, when the effects fade we shall be weaker than we were before. But we still need to raise the moon and keep Nightmare at bay. She wont catch me unawares again in the same night. Now go, we haven’t much time!”
Blackhorn saluted disappeared in a flash of magic. He was stalking toward the Ponyville library by the time the moon was visible, right on schedule. No pony would be the wiser to the ticking time bomb in his Mistress’ mind.
Twilight Sparkle yawned as she clambered into her bed. She had gotten carried away in her reading once more and had stayed up far past her self-imposed bedtime.
After blowing out the candle on her bedside Twilight settled in to bed and tried to sleep. She could hear spike snoring in his little basket and a gentle wind blowing through the high branches of the living library.
The Element of Magic closed her eyes and thought of sheep jumping a fence. Unfortunately for her, she accidentally imagined them all with minute defects. This inflamed her obsessive-compulsive nature and kept her awake. She groaned in frustration and got out of bed.
Perhaps a quick snack would help her get to sleep. She didn’t want to use a sleeping spell because she tended to over do it every time and sleep through the whole day.
As Twilight quietly raided her pantry, she failed to notice the thick black ooze working its way through her house. It approached from behind and split into many tendrils, snakes ready to pounce on unsuspecting pray. She didn’t even know it, but she was completely surrounded.
“Ah ha, finally, something light to ea-“ twilight was cut off when a black pseudopod shot forward and wrapped around her muzzle, clamping her mouth shut and muffling her words. In a matter of seconds, twilight was thoroughly immobilized by the dark slime. She struggled fruitlessly as a large blob rose to eyelevel with her. It rippled, as if acted upon by a strong magnetic force and a Unicorn’s head came into being.
Twilight screamed, though it sounded like a whimper to Blackhorn.
“Silence,” he growled, “Princess Luna summons you.”
Twilight paused in her struggle and shot the strange Unicorn-blob-thing a confused look.
Instead of explaining, Blackhorn oozed around Twilight, swallowing her as a boa constrictor might devour its victem. Blackhorn effortlessly teleported himself, and Twilight by association, back to Canterlot.
Spike toddled in to the kitchen sleepily.
“Twilight, is that you in here,” the baby dragon yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, “Uh… Twilight?”
Luna looked awful. She was slumped against the marble balustrade on her balcony, shivering and sweating profusely. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since she had raised the moon, a textbook symptom of magical depletion.
After Twilight had been magically tossed into the room by the terminally serious Night Guard, she decided her irritation could wait.
She rushed to the Princess’ side, “Oh my goodness, are you alright Princess Luna? You look exhausted.”
“No, no we are not alright. We will be honest with you Twilight Sparkle. We brought you here because we desperately need your help. It is Nightmare Moon that has us in this state.”
Recoiled and gasped, “Nightmare Moon? I thought the elements destroyed her.”
“It would seem that the demon has eluded demise, but just barely. We have always existed as one being, myself and her , and even now she drains my strength. She hopes to reverse our roles, to escape from my mind and trap me. This can never be allowed to pass. So I ask of you Twilight Sparkle, what do you know of the arcane arts?”
Twilight gulped nervously. She dearly hoped that what Luna asked of her was not totally over her horn.
Luna was sitting in the center of a large and elaborate chalk circle, drawn courtesy of Blackhorn and Twilight. She wearily looked at Twilight, swaying with fatigue.
“You could have gotten anypony else to help you, why not my brother, or any of the guard ponies, or Celestia, your Alicorn big sister? You know, the ruler of all of Equestria,” Twilight was babbling nervously. She had never dabbled in anything this… dark before. Dark, that was really the only way to describe it. Some of the processes described in the books she had open were just ghastly. Luna was seated in the center of a large and elaborate chalk circle. She was swaying from fatigue as she checked Twilights work.
With help from Blackhorn and careful instruction from the beleaguered Princess, Twilight had gotten everything right. The lavender pony eyed one of the magical focal points warily. Honestly, she looked like she was about to be sick. Luna followed her gaze down and realized why Twilight looked ill.
A neat little square of Pegasus wing bones surrounding an Earth Ponies heart that had been stabbed by a severed Unicorn horn. Well… these were dire times. Luna was just glad she had the sense to preserve her ingredients with magic so many centuries ago.
“Twilight Sparkle, we have the utmost confidence in your abilities. If all goes well, then we shall explain everything to you. If not… well, we have a failsafe in place so there won’t be anything to worry about. Do you two know your positions?”
Blackhorn nodded and nudged Twilight to the proper place. He assumed his own position and they began at Luna’s signal.
There was no warm up and no warning before the large enchantment circle activated with a tremendous flash of light. It was as though somepony flipped a switch. The room was shaking and the worst noise Twilight had ever heard was blasting its way through her eardrums. It sounded like somepony had ripped open the gates of Tartarus and its occupants were begging for help. The lavender Unicorn snapped her eyes shut and kept them closed.
Twilight grit her teeth and leaned back, trying to resist the strong magical pull. She hoped Luna knew what she was doing; she really didn’t feel like dying of magical depletion tonight.
After what felt like hours of exertion, Twilight plopped down on her haunches.
‘I probably look just like Princess Luna did when I got here, ugh, I feel sick…’
Twilight’s horn was throbbing as though somepony had been trying to pull it off of her skull. She looked over at Blackhorn, and he hardly looked any better.
“Did it work,” he ground out, rubbing his eyes.
“I haven’t looked… oh no. No, no, no, no, no this- I don’t- I- I have to get Celestia,”
Blackhorn shouted after her to explain but she was already gone. Growling in frustration, the gruff Unicorn blinked the spots out of his vision. He had kept his eyes open as long as he could so he could watch his Mistress. Now that he could see her he wished he had gone blind.
Gone were the delicate chalk circles and grisly reagents of a bygone magical discipline. Luna remained seated in her original position. The most beautiful mare in all of Equestria- no, the world, was perfectly motionless. She was the only mare that Blackhorn would kill for, die for, and the only reason he cared to live. And seeing her like this was devistating.
She looked so small and fragile. Her shimmering mane and tail had receded and were replaced by the soft blue locks she wore as a filly. He could sense no magical presence from her either. It was as if she were just a void in the world, a place where life just chose not to exist. It was terrifying, and spurred the zealous guard to rise, despite his fatigue.
Luna’s horn had been blasted off her head, leaving a jagged stump in its place. It must have exploded, as there were little bits and pieces of it scattered across the room. Her mouth was frozen open in a perpetual scream of agony or terror, he couldn’t decide which was more painful to think of. But the worst of it was her eyes.
Slowly but steadily, blood was seeping out of Luna’s eyes, creating a macabre illusion of tears. The world came crashing down around Blackhorn. For the first time since his colthood Blackhorn wept.
“I killed you,” he gasped, stricken with grief, “I killed the only pony I’ve ever loved…”
He bowed his head and grit his teeth.
“Why the hell did I let you do this, why,” he shouted in her face, hoping she would admonish him for raising his voice to her. Nothing happened.
“Oh Goddess no…”
Duel, or Full Moon Rising
Dash grimaced as she spat out the window. She had developed an irritatingly persistent cough that randomly sent her into minor fits. It wasn’t bad but it was seriously starting to bother her, the coughing had interrupted several of her power naps by now. It started just a few days after her falling out with Princess Luna.
Once again Rainbow replayed the scene in her head.
“How can I be such an ass?” she groaned to herself. In truth, she felt horrible for yelling at Luna. The Princess didn’t deserve that at all.
“The only pony who ever cared to visit, and you had to go and fuck it up by making her cry. Way to go Dash, you’re a Grade-A jerk. Gilda would be proud of you.” She said to herself spitefully.
Dash stood on her hind legs unsteadily and peered out the window. It was dark and the moon was high in the sky already. Normally dash would have been asleep by now, but she had no sense of a schedule for the past four months. Now Dash just slept whenever and ate whenever the guards threw her something or Luna visited.
The cyan mare heaved a raspy sigh, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and rested her head against the iron bars in the window.
“Luna, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I yelled. I miss you already… You’ve only been gone for three days and I miss you. I think I understand why you can’t let me out. I just- it’s been so long since I’ve flown… girls gotta stretch her wings… You should know cause you’re a Pegasus-Unicorn…thing. What’s the right word for that, it’s Alicorn, right? Jeez, look at me Luna; I’m standing here talking to thin air like you were there!”
Dash threw her forelegs up over her head for emphasis before remembering that she wasn’t actually talking to anypony. She raised her head and looked at the night sky. The moon looked unusually small and dim tonight.
“You know, I guess in a way I have been talking to you. Like, through the moon or something. I dunno, do you think that’s weird?” she asked.
She huffed and plopped down on her bed for the umpteenth time.
“That’s probably pretty weird…”
It was quiet, cold, and so very silent. Luna hadn’t been in an environment like this for a few years now. She opened her eyes to see where she could possibly be. Then everything came rushing back to her.
She was on the surface of the moon, but why?
It all felt so real, the thickly dusted surface, the rocky and barren landscape, even the burning of vacuum in her lungs. Being an immortal Luna was able to survive on the moon for a millennium without oxygen. She found it relatively easy to suppress the ache deep within her chest. The first time wasn’t so easy.
“Oh, so I see that Little Luna is finally awake. I’m glad, I was getting tired of waiting.”
Luna’s pupils dilated rapidly and she felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through her body. Had she failed? Was demon that haunted her for centuries still alive? She turned slowly, disbelief evident on he face.
“You were expecting somepony else?” Nightmare Moon asked in all her malevolent glory. She stood tall and would have had a majestic air about her had she not looked so like a rotting corpse. However, something peculiar was happening; as the dark Alicorn stood above Luna, her flesh and tattered skin was slowly knitting itself back together. She was healing.
“What… what is this? You should be dead, why are we on the moon?” Luna tried to rise but when she did she was stricken with dizziness and toppled into the dust.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Oh, you mean the great academic Luna is stumped? Unheard of, it must be a ploy,” Nightmare said in a patronizing tone.
“Speak plainly devil! I have not the patience for thine conniving ways!” Luna snapped, rising successfully from the ground.
“Ooh, still feisty I see, I love it when you talk old Equish to me,” Nightmare Moon purred, stalking closer to Luna.
The princess of the night swayed on her hooves as her darker half approached. The dizzy feeling from earlier was returning.
“Answer me!” Luna growled. She was beginning to see spots.
“Fine, fine, you always were a killjoy Little Luna,” Nightmare drawled arrogantly, “You aren’t nearly powerful enough to destroy me whelp, that’s why I’m still here of course. As for where we are… well you should be able to tell me that quite easily”
With that Nightmare brought up a hoof and rapped it sharply on Luna’s forehead.
The Princess was always was quick on the uptake and gasped at the implications.
“It’s quite ironic, isn’t it?” Nightmare gestured with her wings.
“You’ve been freed from your banishment for nearly three years, and yet you never left the moon. How… delightfully tragic.”
Nightmare Moon was standing so close to Luna that she could count the cracks in the demonic mares yellowed fangs.
“Y-you're using my presence to heal your wounds, aren’t you? To undo the damage that the Elements of Harmony wrought upon you.” Luna asked with trepidation.
“My I’m so glad your pretty little brain hasn’t gone to mush under Celestia’s tyranny. Yes, yes I am Little Luna. At this very moment I’m stealing the life away from you and all I had to do was spook you into performing a mind walking ritual. Even with my diminished influence I’m surprised that I was able to persuade you into altering the properties of your little magic circle.”
Luna watched motes of light escaping her body and filtering into Nightmare Moon’s cadaverous flesh. Her fangs were growing sharper and began to shed their sallow tinge while the rotten skin of her face pulled taut and began to grow a new coat of midnight black fur.
She so wanted to give in to the malignant presence before her, Nightmare Moon hadn’t even made an argument and Luna could feel the desire to bow to her will growing within her. Her eyelids were drooping as she began to loose sensation in her legs and wings.
“Yes, yes, give in to me Little Luna. You always were a pathetic little whelp.” Nightmare Moon waltzed around Luna slowly, wrapping the princess in her shimmering mane. She leaned in close and nuzzled Luna’s cheek, a viper toying with its prey.
“I would say that this is poetic justice, you feeding me your power so I can escape from the hell that is your mind.” Nightmare lowered her head and drew her tongue along the princess’ jugular, delighting in the rapid tempo of her pulse. She felt oh so giddy, like a young filly on her birthday. The thought of picking apart her warden piece by minute piece sent such an exhilarating shiver down her spine, and now she was actually doing it.
“You know,” she murmured while nipping at Luna’s jaw with her razor mouth, ”I think I’ll pay your Pegasus friend a special visit. After I have a nice long chat with our sister of course.”
Something deep within Luna roared with fury at what Nightmare Moon was saying. It was though a swift wind had blown the fog from her mind, her senses came rushing back to life. She shook her head and stared down Nightmare Moon, blood dripping from her jaw line.
“Thou shalt not harm my fair sister demon, and thou shalt never speak of Rainbow Dash again!” Luna shouted, reaching out with what magic she had left and reversing the flow of energy between her and her darker half.
“Impossible, How are you doing that?” Nightmare moon gasped, quickly backing away.
“Thou should know wretch, thou taught me an eon ago. Lesson One: Emotion is Power,” Luna grunted while pulling as much of her life back as she could.
Nightmare Moon snarled in defiance and poured more effort into draining her host.
“You insolent foal, you think that you can just use my gifts against me? Don’t make me laugh!”
Nightmare buckled down and pulled back, but by the time she reaffirmed her hold on Luna’s magic the princess had collected enough to go on the offensive. Luna fired a bolt of magic at her opponent point blank, sending her tumbling backwards.
As the dust lazily settled down, Nightmare righted herself and glared death at Luna. Several teeth had been broken out of her mouth on the right side, and her cheek was shredded.
“You… I’m going to make you pay for that.” Nightmare focused on the residual magic in her wound and absorbed it, hissing in pain as new teeth sprung out of her jaw as though they were spring loaded. Luna’s eyes widened as she witnessed this.
“Now, let me be the first to welcome you to Oblivion,” Nightmare roared as she lunged at Luna
“Twilight Sparkle, whatever is the matter?”
The young Element had shouldered her way through the large doors of the dessert kitchen where Princess Celestia was currently fetching an evening snack. Celestia’s faithful student fell gracelessly at her hooves as though she were ancient Neighdippides* himself, come to deliver his message.
“Luna… Nightmare Moon… dark magic… help!” Twilight gasped. She looked as though she had been racing all over the castle looking for her.
To Celestia it felt like the world came screeching to a halt.
“Please, please tell me that this is a cruel joke. Twilight, tell me that this was a bad attempt at humor.” The solar princess whispered, staring down at Twilight with wide eyes.
The mare in question was trembling from exertion and had recently been crying, that much was obvious. She could smell the adrenaline and fear clinging to Twilight, it contrasted sharply with the sweet aroma of the cake she was about to dine on.
‘You know Twilight is telling the truth; your sister has always been unstable. There’s no hope of saving her, unless of course… you banish her to the moon again,’ the little voice in the back of Celestia’s mind hissed.
Celestia responded by aggressively suppressing her doubts. She was brought back to reality by Twilight sparkle tugging on her leg, saying something in a suppliant manner.
“W-what?”
“I said we need your help! Luna is comatose and her guard is probably freaking out and I don’t know what to do because I’ve never dealt with this kind of magic before, I’ve only read about it and-“ Twilight had caught her breath and began to ramble faster than Celestia thought possible.
There was no time for that though, if what Twilight claimed was true. In a flash of radiant golden light the two were teleported away from the kitchens, leaving a lonely slice of cake behind.
“Damn you, why won’t you lie down and die!” Nightmare Moon bellowed, infuriated by Luna’s tenacity.
The lunar landscape was drastically different than it had been for the last thousand years. Deep furrows had been gouged in the surface of the moon by the sheer power of the two Alicorns. They had quickly learned directly harming each other with magic was not effective and so had resorted creating impromptu missiles from their barren surroundings.
Luna was panting with her head low, warily watching her nemesis through one eye. She had a rather nasty cut on her forehead that bled into her left eye, blinding it. The rest of her body was battered and bruised, she had a painfully split hoof wall†, and she was certain that she had a few cracked ribs.
The Princess took solace in the fact that Nightmare Moon wasn’t fairing any better than herself. She had managed to get a few solid hits in on the dark mare with flying boulders and her own hooves. She had paid for getting too close though, Nightmare Moon was nothing if not a ferociously determined fighter.
“I won’t die… because I have ponies… I love and care about in the real world.” She felt so worn down from the fighting. It was a shame that one couldn’t control what happened within their mind like some of the more popular fantasy books claimed.
“And what about me,” Nightmare raged at Luna, “I did everything for you.I was the only one who supported you in your time of need. I devoted my existence to bettering yours. Damn it all, I loved you !” There was a lonely tear in Nightmare’s eye that would never be allowed to fall. She screwed her eyes shut and shook her head violently to quash her moment of weakness.
“The second Celestia punished us you threw me aside like so much trash! ‘Oh I’m so sorry sister, please forgive me, I want to come home!’ You disgust me you traitorous bitch,” She spat on the ground and glared at Luna with all the anger she could muster.
“I disgust you? Tell me, who was the one that tried to kill everypony in Equestria by refusing to lower the moon? You lost control and became power hungry!” Luna screamed back. She stomped a hoof for emphasis, sending magical energy into the ground. She ripped several small moon rocks out of the ground and spun them in a tight ring around her body.
“That was naught but an act of coercion that you conceived of. What’s the point of killing off all the ponies who should be worshiping the ground beneath your hooves?” Nightmare Moon responded to Luna’s preparations by sending a magical surge through the ground between them, shattering a swath of the lunar surface and hurling chunks of stone into the air.
“It was only a theory, we weren’t supposed to actually do it, and when you did you took it far beyond the original plan!” Luna shouted in frustration.
“Things change Little Luna,” Nightmare sneered, “the new replace the old, the strong devour the weak, and powerful come out on top in the end.”
With that Nightmare Moon hurled an ocean of stone at Luna, hoping to catch her and grind her to a pulp.
Luna was prepared for this and launched herself off the ground with a powerful flap of her wings. She quickly rose above the undulating sea of stones and began launching her projectiles towards Nightmare Moon at excessive velocities.
Celestia was sitting in Luna’s personal chambers. She had been for days, numbly staring at her comatose sister from the same spot next to the bed. Her eyes were bloodshot and had heavy bags beneath them. She was so concerned for the safety of her sister that she had canceled Day Court for an entire week.
Five days. Luna had been like this for five days now. After giving both Twilight and Commander Blackhorn a thorough reaming for enabling her sister to do this and a subsequent apology, Celestia had gingerly levitated Luna into her bed and had kept watch over her ever since.
Celestia was highly distraught. What would she do without Luna? She had been able to manage the thousand years of Luna’s banishment because she knew her sister was alive at the very least. Now it was looking like she wouldn’t ever wake from what the royal physician had officially termed a coma.
All of the doctors and mages who had been summoned to examine Luna had no inkling about her condition. To them she perfectly was healthy save for some minor hemorrhaging of the tissue around her eyes and possible retinal damage from the extreme brightness of her ritual. Other than what was physically evident they could offer no insight to Luna’s condition.
The mages were even more confused than the doctors. When Luna’s horn was blasted off there was a massive discharge of energy that even now permeated the entirety of Luna’s chambers. Due to the small population of Alicorns through the ages, information on Alicorn magic was sadly lacking.
This is what the mages were able to tell Celestia three things after a brief study:
Her magic was far denser and stored under greater compression than that of a common Unicorn.
There was no magical activity within Luna that they could detect.
Luna had made what was looking to be a fatal error when she created her ritual circle, though there was no way to verify this as the circle no longer existed.
Celestia was already aware of the first point and Commander Blackhorn had grimly confirmed the second point before the mages were even summoned to verify it. The third point just raised more questions and a frustrating lack of answers. According to Blackhorn and Twilight, both highly skilled mages in their own rights, her sister had used surgical precision in the preparation of her circle and triple checked it. Luna’s magical specialty lay with the arcane, so it was suspicious that she had erred so seriously.
Additionally, it was nothing short of a miracle that both Twilight Sparkle and Commander Blackhorn survived the magical discharge. Against their protests she had the two Unicorns removed to a separate chamber to be examined by the medical staff. Nopony had been exposed to such a massive amount of magic so suddenly and survived, and Celestia wanted to ensure that they were healthy. Eventually they were cleared and returned to Luna’s chamber. After comforting Celestia for a short while, Twilight had departed to the library to search for anything that could help Luna.
Her eyes drifted to the stump of a horn left on her sister’s head. If Luna were ever to awaken then she would be permanently handicapped. Celestia wasn’t even sure if she could continue to move the moon across the sky. She would be devastated to learn that she could no longer perform her duties.
“I can’t lose you Luna, not forever… Please wake up sister,” Celestia whispered, stroking Luna’s cheek gently, “I love you.”
One Princess gently kissed the other on the forehead before turning to leave. Celestia could not ignore her duties any more, lest the nobles run rampant with Equestria.
The door to the restroom swung open and Blackhorn trudged out, dragging his hooves with his head hung low. Celestia could see that water was dripping from his lips and his forelock was drenched. She had ordered him to get up and drink something moments earlier. It was remarkable that he was able to go five days without water; any other pony would have been dead or hospitalized.
The unicorn was massive, rivaling Shining Armor’s legendary stature, and yet he looked so insignificant and weak in his current state. In her two hundreds Celestia would have been fawning over this beautiful wounded stallion, but she had learned restraint over her tremendous lifespan.
She had sat and shed tears with the Commander for nearly a week, knowing and sharing in his grief. Blackhorn normally operated as the personification of detached efficiency and kept a tight lid on his emotions, never letting anything distract him from his job. Luna was his passion in life; every waking moment was devoted to the Princess of the Moon.
Even before Luna’s return Blackhorn had never taken a day off, and never taken a sick day. The same went for his brother, Iron Wing. The two spent years of their lives guarding an empty tower instead of chasing mares and living it up like some of Celestia’s guards did on down time. It was alarming to see one so resolute and dedicated broken down like this.
Celestia gently touched a hoof to Blackhorn’s rippling shoulder, concerned for his health.
“Blackhorn… will you be alright,” she asked softly.
She felt more than heard his response.
“Don’t ask me,” he rumbled, “ask her.”
A moment of silence passed between the two as Celestia looked back to her sister.
“You should come with me, you haven’t eaten in days. You’ll collapse if you continue like this.”
“No.” His tone was final, harsh, and loud. Celestia quailed at the suddenness of his answer.
“I… I understand. I will have something brought to you.
With that Celestia slowly left her sister behind, filling the silence of the palace with the hollow clack of her slipper clad hooves.
Luna screamed in agony as she was knocked out of the air. One of Nightmare Moon’s boulders had scored a lucky hit, crushing her left wing. She slowly bounced to a stop on the surface of the moon as a sobbing wreck. She felt bile rise in her throat as she looked at the gory mess that had once been a limb.
She had been careless and stopped tracking the giant moon rocks that Nightmare was hurling after she dodged them. Nightmare had noticed this and capitalized on it, wrenching a sizable rock back towards her after it passed Luna.
“So what will you do now that you can’t float away like a coward Little Luna?
Luna forced herself to block out the searing pain as she stared down Nightmare Moon through her tears.
“I’m not going to quit.” She said defiantly, rising to challenge her adversary.
“When you learn you idiot. You. Can. Not. Win.” Nightmare focused on her frustration and raised more stones to strike down the bold princess.
Two days had passed since Celestia had to return to her duties and the Commander had yet to leave Luna’s bedside.
Blackhorn had his chin resting upon the bed with his muzzle mere inches from his Ladies hoof when he thought he felt something. It was a sensation that would be difficult to explain to a non-Unicorn, like feeling white noise instead of hearing it.
For the first time in days Blackhorn felt a glimmer of hope. Tentatively he looked up at his Mistress’ face and saw her muzzle twitch ever so slightly.
Focusing his eyes, Blackhorn could see the ebb and flow of energy moving throughout the Princess’ body once more. It was faint but it was there, and that meant progress. There was still a high level of magical residue throughout the room, so accurately discerning the level of activity within the Alicorn was out of the question. Regardless it was there, clearly focused around the remains of her horn and her heart.
Blackhorn immediately rose and trotted over to ring the call bell. In short order a lilac earth pony mare appeared.
“What do you require Commander?” She had a compassionate expression and a pleasantly soft voice.
“Fetch one of the doctors, have him sent here immediately. Also send word to Princess Celestia that Princess Luna’s condition may have improved.”
The mare bowed respectfully turned to leave.
“Wait, see if Twilight Sparkle remains in the castle. If she does then send her here post haste,” the Commander added as an afterthought.
“I will see to it at once Commander.”
Blackhorn immediately turned back to the indigo pony, watching her as though she might suddenly disappear.
“Now wait just a moment Duke Featherlock, why don’t you explain exactly what you mean by ‘a formal redistribution of the Regency powers of Princess Luna in absentia .” Celestia asked of the old grey Pegasus before her. She was thoroughly fatigued and running short on patience.
The nobility had arrived at Canterlot Castle en masse for Day Court, something that hadn’t occurred in centuries. In a gross display of arrogance, they had marched into Celestia’s throne room and ejected all of the common petitioners that had come with more legitimate concerns.
Their reasoning was that they had urgent business with the Princess that was far more pressing than the “insubstantial concerns of the common rabble”.
“Well, in the terms of the common laypony ,” Duke Featherlock elaborated haughtily, “We do believe that your co-ruler has officially become an invalid , and is thus incapable of tending to her sovereign duties. It would be in your best interest to remove from her the burden of such authority and consolidate it amongst the Nobles, sooner rather than later. Measures can be put in place in the event that Nightmare Moon returns upon learning of her abdication.”
He spoke of Luna as though she were a disease, a tumescent growth to be cut away. It was despicable, and Featherlock’s associates nodded self-assuredly while Celestia’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Catching herself she snapped her mouth shut in an attempt to maintain her appearance before these sharks.
She ground her teeth together as her anger rose. Celestia was known for an even temperament and a benevolent attitude, but she was rapidly loosing her composure. True, nopony alive could recount Celestia showing even the slightest annoyance in any situation, but there was a reason that Equestria had lasted as long as it had with only a token military force. The other nations, and the Griffons in particular, still remembered what it meant to cross the Princess of the Sun.
Celestia rose from her throne and stalked down the red carpet towards the nobles below. Avarice and indolence amongst their ranks was something she could deal with in her sleep. Threats to her family however, were an entirely different matter.
“You would do well to remember who you are speaking to, Duke Featherlock, and that Princess Luna is both your better and my equal. Her station is far above yours, and you will speak of her respectfully.”
The temperature in the throne room was slowly climbing as Celestia’s eyes flashed dangerously. Featherlock’s wings twitched nervously as he backpedaled. He was unprepared for any form of rebuttal. Celestia left smoldering black hoof prints in the red carpet as she advanced; the edges of her gilded slippers began to glow with radiant energy.
“And if I ever hear any of you mention Nightmare Moon again, the consequences will be-“
Celestia’s threat was cut off by the sharp rapport of an explosion. A rumbling tremor followed the sound of the blast and was felt through the entire castle.
Rainbow Dash was startled awake by the vibrating tremor that worked its way through the ancient stone walls of Canterlot. She sat up slowly and moved to the door. Peering through the slot on her cell door revealed nothing to Dash, and nopony answered when she called out.
Frustrated, Dash turned around leaned against the door, slowly sinking down on her haunches. Her throat was irritated from shouting and she did her best to suppress a sickly wet cough.
"Ugh, seriously, fuck everything right now..."
The Nobles were looking around wildly, chattering amongst themselves. They were clearly unnerved concerned for their safety.
Without delay the Royal Guard swept down from the rafters and thundered in through hidden doors behind the dual thrones. Captain Shining Armor appeared at Celestia’s side with a crisp pop and a flash of red light.
“Your Highness, has there been any disturbance here,” Armor asked dutifully, carefully eying the hoof prints the carpet, “Have you been threatened?”
“No Captain, nothing of the sort. Do you know where the explosion occurred?” Celestia asked hurriedly. She knew that she could handle herself in the event that somepony attacked the castle, but as far as she knew Twilight hadn’t left Canterlot yet. There was also Luna and Cadance to worry about, and of course all of the ponies in the city proper.
“No Princess, we do not. I have already sent a squad through the castle to search for its origin however.”
“Lock down the castle grounds immediately, nopony enters or leaves without my permission, and send out more search parties. I want to know what just happened, and I want to know yesterday Captain.”
“Yes ma’am!” Armor saluted and turned to give his subordinates their orders.
Celestia turned to leave the throne room, she wanted to find Twilight before anything else happened but Shining Armor stopped her before she could move five paces.
“Princess… I, uh, I have an idea as to what happened. You need to see this,” he said carefully.
Celestia felt her stomach clench as she turned to look at the Captain of her guard. He was standing off to the side of the room, looking through one of many stained glass windows. Everypony in the room stopped what they were doing as they saw what Shining Armor saw. All eyes moved to Celestia as she stared out the window. Slowly, as if in a dream, Celestia moved to stand at Shining Armor’s side to get a better look.
“Go investigate, now,” the Captain hissed at squad of Pegasi, “Find out if the Princess is safe!”
“No… it can’t be…” Celestia whispered. It was now clear where the explosion had originated. The top half of Luna’s tower had been blasted clean off, and the remainder sagged on its foundation dangerously, threatening to collapse at any moment.
“I’m sorry Princess,” Armor said. The Princess didn’t hear him though. The thought that her beloved sister was dead hurt Celestia more than any physical wound could.
* Ponification of Pheidippides, ancient Greek courier who ran 26 miles between Marathon and Athens to report the Greek victory over Persia only to die promptly after delivering the message.
† link for those confused or interested. Yay equine physiology.