Chapters Celestia slowly rose up into consciousness, aware of a presence close by. With a start, she realized close by meant inside her wards and jumped up, wings spread, ready for anything. A glance around the room showed nothing but her bed and her rough furniture. Moving quickly and silently she went to the doorway and stopped mid-stride, for dead centre in her living area stood Her. Armored in a dark blue, in front of her stood a mare bigger than herself, twin swords secured by scabbards crisscrossing her back. The stars themselves shimmered in mane and tail, streaming majestically in an ethereal wind. Hair and horn were deep blue, and the wings were furled by her sides, armored edges razor sharp. And the eyes – they stared back at Celestia, deep pools of black and aquamarine hiding all from the world.
Celestia put down her hoof and tensed, for she did not know how this meeting would go. The armored mare slowly walked to her, warshoes inexplicably lightly tapping on each step. As the mare got closer she noticed that purpose had given way to a tremor and a timidness, each step becoming more and more unsure. Finally, standing a head’s width away the mare stopped and her eyes started shimmering, and she raised a hoof. Celestia braced for what was to come and was surprised when the horn lit and the warshoe came off. Celestia looked at Luna, and Luna looked back, and then Luna moved forward and hugged her sister, Celestia hugging back in turn, eyes closed.
“Celly, it’s finally you – I thought you’d gone forever!” Luna sobbed, holding her wayward sister as they both cried.
“It’s been 30 years Cel, and all I could find were rumors and mysteries, talk that Celestia had been seen battling some giant beast, or a giant white pegasus had been seen far away in the remotest wood, flitting around the clouds as the sun set. I’d follow up when I could get away and I’d sometimes find something suggesting it was you, once a feather that could only have been yours. And then these past 10 years, nothing, no tavern talk or chatter or gossip that even the Night Guard could find. I hoped you were still around, but I feared you’d met something you couldn’t handle or that you’d left equestria for good”.
Celestia glanced at Luna across from her and took a sip from her tea. Made from plants that grew wild around her home, her precious sugar doing nothing to hide the strong and bitter taste. Luna mirrored her sip, a grimace fighting a way through her expression as the liquid rolled over her taste buds.
“I know it’s probably not what you’re used to in either of the Palaces, but it’s the only thing available here. Besides, once you get used to it, it’s actually quite good”.
Luna looked dead straight at Celestia and went all serious, not believing this, and then suddenly laughed, mirth in her eyes.
“This stuff is horrible, but it’s still the best tea I’ve had for a long time. It’s been so long ..” Luna stopped and then looked again at Celestia.
“You’ve grown,” said Celestia, looking at her sister, “You’re bigger than me, filled out from .. “she said, trailing off as she realized where the conversation was going.
Luna looked back pensively, and then glanced around the hut’s combined kitchen and living room. She looked back at Celestia, and Celestia noticed a glint of steel in Luna’s eye, something all too familiar.
“I don’t know how much you know, but I’m Regent to Flurry, and Princess in my own right when Twilight or Cadance need a break. I head the Night Guard and travel a fair bit representing Equestria. Things have changed since you .. left” Luna stated, looking at Celestia, then again she broke eye contact and stared out the nearest window. Celestia noticed one of Luna’s forelegs start to tremble as she continued, “I heard your shouting and screaming into the Dreamscape, a cry of pain and suffering that lit up everything up like a sunburst. It sounded like you, Celly, but .. it was primal, and it had been so long, and I didn’t know what you could be like, after all these years” she said, glancing at her armor and weapons stacked neatly in the corner.
It was Celestia’s turn to turn away, “Luna, the way I left, the things I said .. everyone wanted me to stay, to help Twilight, to help Cadance, but .. but I’d had enough, I needed time to myself. Everywhere I was, ponies, griffins, diamond dogs, changelings, all the others, they all saw Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and it has been like that for .. for so, so long, I ..”.
Celestia stopped talking and looked at Luna, and Luna looked back at her, confusion and pain in Celestia’s eyes. Then Luna changed back into that Mare, the steel glint coming back.
“You called for me, Celestia, and I came, as I always will for you, as your sister, as your friend. This “, Luna said, waving her hoof to encompass the room, “ does not fit with what I heard. How can I help?”
--
Celestia watched as Luna picked her way through the wreckage, again armored and warshod. Her pale blue magic would occasionally shift something and she would sniff, or a spell would highlight something faint on the ground. After a while of quartering the ground outside the hut, Luna went inside and only re-emerged after an hour. She slowly walked back to Celestia, a look of grim determination on her face.
“Who are these ponies to you, Celestia?” she asked, “How far are you wanting to take this?”.
Celestia looked to the horizon for a bit and then turned back to Luna, “I left my throne and all my subjects, my ponies and dogs and everycreature, wanting nothing more to do with responsibility, the bent knees, and the lowered eyes. These “she said, as she encompassed the hut and the village beyond, “were first in the way of the nothingness I sought, but I grew to love them, and they me.”
Celestia turned to Luna, looking her directly in the eye. “I will stop whatever did this for good”.
Luna eyed Celestia, then nodded. “I know what attacked here, but I do not know how to find them. It’s been a long time since I’ve tracked anything myself, but as it happens, the Night Guard answer to me, and they are very good at finding things that don’t want to be found. And once found, we will stop whatever did this together”.
Celestia and Luna stood in a gully before a low ridge, beyond which stood the Ravenhawk nest, a hard day’s flight from the village. It was an enormous jumble of living and dead trees jumbled together on a small hilltop plateau, surrounded by a small cliff of jumbled rocks, hidden by arcane, feral magics, an unconscious blind spot in the eye and the senses, first only found through the absence of sound, the slight twisting of the light, the faint tremor of unseen forces.
“The force commander says they’re all there as far as she can tell. I’ll go talk to her, work out a plan of attack, ensure everything is ready when we move at late tonight and they’re not expecting anything” Luna said, and then waited for a response. Celestia continued eyeing the hilltop and then nodded slightly.
Hesitating, Luna looked at Celestia and saw the tense muscles, the flattened ears, and nuzzled her. “We will get them, and stop them from ever doing this again”. A nod from Celestia and Luna turned and left.
Luna had almost made it back to the camp when the squawking and screaming started, and she turned, scanning the air to see if maybe a Ravenhawk or two had taken flight and seen something untoward. There was a crack of thunder, and then another, and she realized with horror that the noises were coming from the nest itself. She suddenly found herself galloping towards the noise and took flight, stealth dropped for speed. She’d barely cleared the trees when a giant shaft of light speared down from the sun and impacted distantly on the hilltop from where all the noises were coming from. Blinded despite the protective spells on her chanfron, she faltered in mid-air and then crashed to the earth, the trees breaking her fall.
Luna gritted her teeth and forced her way up the slope at a gallop while her battered and bruised body complained loudly about the movement she was forcing it through. Her armor had taken most of the force of the crash and thankfully nothing was broken, but she knew she’d feel this for a while. She sighed as she realized that she’d gotten soft sitting on the Throne, and knew that in the coming weeks and months she’d have to start training again if this was the sort of work she was going to do. As she crested the ridge she first saw the burning remnants of the nest, fully exposed now that the protective wards had been utterly smashed. The light itself around the crown of the hill flickered with brightness in a rod reaching up to the heavens where the sun sat, and then she saw her sister close by, off to the side, just watching.
“I thought we had agreed that we would wait until nightfall” Luna said, moving to stand beside her sister. Celestia said nothing, staring motionless into the funeral pyre.
Luna extended her wing carefully over Celestia. “Come back with me to Canterlot. Take a while to decompress and to work things through, and then you can take over the Throne for a bit again – Twilight won’t mind at all. We’ll station a wing of Day Guard at the village and ..”
“No!” Celestia shouted, and Luna jumped back at the vehemence in her voice, “Never again.”
Luna took another step back. “I don’t understand, they’ll be safe, you’ll be safe, we’ll ..”
Celestia shook her head and turned her body to face Luna. “*We* had it all, and then we fought, and I banished you to the moon, Luna. A thousand years I sat on that Throne. A thousand years of looking up at night into your face, a thousand years of ponies being subservient whatever I was doing and wherever I was. You have no idea how lonely and painful it was Luna.” Celestia shouted at Luna, her wings flared out, “I had lovers, I had children, I had confidants and I had friends, but sooner or later they’d grow old and die. Then all that would be left would be ponies that treated me as a solution to their problems and an everlasting spear and shield to deal with their enemies.”
Celestia faltered and stopped, tears streaming down her face, seeing the Pegasus and Thestrals of the Night Guard force slowly moving into a protective fan around Luna, their weapons gripped tightly. Luna noticed this and caught the eye of a nomcon, discreetly flicking her wing to tell them to back off. Turning back she quickly stripped her wings of armor and moved to Celestia, hugging her close.
“I’ve done terrible things, Luna.” whispered Celestia, “I’ve burned invading armies. I have made so many mistakes, Luna, and I’ve been so very lonely. Then Cadance came and I started slowly grooming her for the Throne, and then you came back and Twilight saved you! We ruled and I guided her and educated her and she suddenly became an alicorn, and then before I knew it she took the Throne herself. I thought I’d finally escaped all of that and could live my life as I wanted, to fly and run free with you, but you said no, that you wanted to stay and help. We had that argument and I said things that I never should have, and all the shouting reminded me of the last time we had such an argument. I ran, lulu, I ran before one of us ended up imprisoned for another thousand years. I hid and I traveled and I found this village and I was happy! No responsibilities but those I wanted, and no wants but those I chose!”.
“Then you came across the bodies and couldn’t fix it, and the only pony who might be able to help you was the same pony who you screamed at and then fled, the same pony who left you for a thousand years, who then helped you and asked for you to return to the last place you wanted to be” breathed Luna, Celestia nodding in agreement.
Luna stood silent for a moment, then gripped Celestia harder. “I’m sorry, Celly, I didn’t realize. If I’d talked to you more when I was jealous of the attention you were getting, paid more attention .. “, Luna paused, then continued, “I can’t wind back the clock, and I will never know what you went through when I was away. But I’m here now, and things are changing. Twilight is talking about making the nobles more accountable, about having some sort of council or delegates for the ponies and the others to solve their problems. I think she hates the Throne as much as you do, and with the guidance you gave her and the help she’s getting from Cadance and Spike and me and the others, she’s going to make it work Celly. It’ll take time, but it won’t be forever, and we’ll be free.”
Luna stopped talking and looked up at Celestia, and saw her just silently looking ahead.
Cc Her Royal Highness Princess Twilight and Consort, Cc Her Royal Highness Princess Cadance, Cc The Dragon Spike
To Her Royal Highness Princess Luna, As requested, a wing of Long Range Weather Patrol and a detachment of Night Guard thestrals were sent to the coordinates given. They observed a hilltop melted to the ground and a strange brightness extending from the hilltop up into the air, extending up many wingspans.
The area was observed for a week and the brightness seems to be fading slightly with time, becoming patchier and more intangible. The thestrals reported no unusual creatures in the area, and commented that things were strangely quiet, as if the very jungle was afraid.
Your loyal subject, Wind Commander Sapphire Star Featherstone Weather Patrol Division
She found a new life outside the village, far beyond civilization. They were hesitant at first, for she was starting to become a myth to all equestrians, a legend, a bedtime story that had passed it's prime. They were cautious, afraid of her Power, not sure what this meant for them and their land. She, in turn, made sure to meddle little in their affairs, to be a ray of sunshine that would appear without notice, would stay for a while and then disappear for a day, a week, a month. She was happy, and they became happy for her appearances, happy for her kind words and loving nature, this white Alicorn of happiness. And she went away one time to touch the sky, to twirl and dance in the air where no one was watching, returning a week later, ready to smile and laugh and spoil.
The first stop was a small hut on the outskirts, unusually quiet, unusually dark, the door ajar, uncommon for this family of four at this time of day. She was a little mystified but not concerned, for the savage beasts knew that sunlight would burn should she be angered. It was the smell of blood that first kindled her concern, and then the remains of the mare just inside the door, nothing left but hair and bone that bought forth the anger. The debris and destruction hindered her for a little, but not long, and then she found the rest, all too late.
She flew to the village proper, and found them all hiding, barricaded and armed as best they could, trembling at shadows. She strengthened defenses and advised on how to patrol in numbers and to leave nopony alone, and then she left, for she had vengeance to deliver. She sought for a week, quartering the dark forest and the steep hills and the wide, rapid river, but she was a warrior, not a hunter, and there was much ground to cover, her quarry eluding her. At last, she stopped, and she pondered, and then she slept. And in her sleep she called for the dark horse, the terror in the night, the blade in the shadow, the Nightmare.
The next day there was nothing, and so she flew up and found a spot in the sky, a cloud to use as a platform, and lay there for the rest of the day, looking out onto the land beneath her, hoping against hope that her call had been heard. Nightfall came, and she descended, and she slept. Her calls again thundered out into the darkness of the dreamscape, a scream of mindless fury and angst, roiling the fabric of the realm in hope that she would be heard, heard and heeded and answered.
To Her Royal Highness Princess Luna, Commander Night Guard
Your Highness,
As requested, three Night Guard thestrals of retirement age and good standing were approached with your special request, all agreeing to take up the mission. They left a month after you returned from your absence as per your instructions, and made their way to the village at the coordinates given. Using the cover story of retiring Night Guard looking for somewhere to settle down outside of the cities, they have started integrating themselves into the life of the villagers. A week after they arrived, they were surprised when Her Royal Highness Celestia abruptly appeared without notice. She stayed the night and morning, entertaining the foals and helping with some minor tasks around the village before taking wing east into the jungle.
Winter Star (ranking thestral) said that HRH Celestia noticed herself and the other thestrals straight away but paid no notice to them. No attempt was made to approach as requested.
Your Highness, Winter Star reports that your sister looks happy.
Your loyal subject, Group Captain Cloud Sweeper Featherstone Night Guard Division