“-and pray promise me you will not stray too far, sister.”

“Yes, Luna. I promise.” Celestia replied with a roll of her eyes. The rhythmic clicking of the soles of gold and silver sandals ticking away like twin metronomes along the empty corridor.

“Take heed, sister. Please do not leave my side. Not even for a moment.”

Led by the arm, Celestia rounded the corner, her younger sister’s grip fixed around her bicep, nails digging into her like the jaws of a bear trap.

“Honestly, Luna, at some point you’re going to have to learn to be more independent.” She tutted, putting a hand to the shorter sister’s head and mussing with ethereal, star-laden hair. “We’re supposed to be retiring! I won’t always be around to look after you.”

The night-princess bit her lip, her fingers clenching more tightly. “I – I am merely concerned…” She said, hesitating a moment longer.

“Forget about concern! One way or another, tonight will be a new beginning for you! For both of us!”

“You… you know well my difficulties with being around others.”

“But you were doing so much better!” A cloud fell over Celestia’s face, her expression darkening. “Ever since you started spending time with her it seems like you’re at my side more than ever.” She snarled as the pair turned a corner, finding themselves in yet another empty corridor. “Besides, I doubt being around others will be much of an issue…”

“Please, not now, sister.”

“Look around you, Luna!” She half shouted, her voice bouncing off the walls and echoing down the hallway. “Where is everybody‽ Where are the guests? Twilight? Her friends?”

“No doubt, they are already gathered inside the-“

“The throne room? Where practically every villain we’ve faced these past few years has confronted us?”

“Sister-“

“There must be dozens of rooms in this castle that would have been a better choice for the coronation, but she-“ Celestia’s lips curled to a sneer, her eyes narrow and baleful. “- she chose the throne room. Because they always choose the throne room.”

“There is no ‘they’! There is Starlight Glimmer, friend to Twilight Sparkle, your pupil and I, your sister. Will you not relinquish your ridiculous conspiracies for just one evening more?”

“She had us come through the servant’s entrance, Luna! We are arriving without escorts, with no one to announce us!”

“You loathe to be announced! In all the millennia that I have known you, you have never once bemoaned the absence of a royal escort!”

“She is sending a message-”

“That she listens! That she cares more for your feelings than for pomp and ceremony!”

“If she really cared for my feelings, she would stop pestering me with her ridiculous, transparent attempts to seize influence. She would disappear like all the other villains Twilight has vanquished, and Equiestria would be all the better for it.”

Luna looked askance a moment, and bit her lip, but strengthened her hold.

“You have been silent this last week-“

“For Twilight’s sake. She has been kind enough not to bring up Starlight’s pretentions. We both know where I stand, and I hate to upset her.”

Luna stopped and spun on her heel, laying hands on Celestia’s shoulders and staring her down. “Then you will afford, I, your sister, the same consideration.”

“Luna, look around you! I thought she would at least try, but she isn’t even hiding it! She’s going to be in there, waiting for us, ready to reveal her evil plan, and-“

“Enough! I will have your word or I will have your silence. You will keep a civil tongue this day and you will not wander.”

“Luna, I’m just looking out for you – for both of you.”

“Your word!”

“You’re my sister, and I will always try to protect you, I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Your. Word.”

Celestia sighed, her eye staring into Luna’s with a pitying sort of condescension as her sister’s grip grew tighter.

“I promise.”

Luna’s wrapped her arms around her sister and drew her close. On her toes, she rested her chin on Celestia’s shoulder and held her a moment.

“Gratitude, sister.”

From the centre of the throne room, Starlight watched as the towering slabs of pale white swung apart, the pair of princesses appearing in the growing aperture.

Princess Celestia was first to enter, as was convention.

Her right eye, unobscured by the radiant translucence of her ethereal hair took in the room, laid bare before her, a pang of annoyance coming with it. Loathe as she was to admit it, the throne room, lavishly ornamented, perhaps slightly to excess, but well within the bounds of good taste, was impressive.

Annoyance, however, quickly turned to disgust as she spied the one responsible. Starlight Glimmer stood just off from the centre of the room. She couldn’t help but scowl, seeing her dressed, as always, in plain jeans and a t-shirt, with choker was wrapped around her neck, with a silver chain and a blue gem, that looked as if it came as part of a Nightmare Night costume, unwilling to put even the barest effort to pretend.

As obvious as the trap was, she would play along. Though she had suffered more than her fair share of defeats recently, Starlight was another matter entirely. Through cunning and gimmicks, she had managed to best Twilight, but lacking even the faintest spark of divinity, she had radically overstepped in challenging her mentor.

The sun avatar’s gold-painted toes crossed the threshold and the room around her immediately began to transform.

The soft glow of late afternoon sunlight grew in intensity, pouring in through the stained glass of the windows that lined the walls. Drawn towards her, the torrent of multicolour wrapped jealously around her, lending the princess a radiant glow.

The scowl carved deeper as she caught sight of her adversary’s expression. The effect she had on mortals was well worn territory, and in other circumstances she may even have enjoyed seeing the audacious little whelp’s eyes go wide in awe.

Not now, though.

She adored her dress. It was truly some of Rarity’s finest work.

She loved the way that what crestfallen light failed to touch her immaculate, dark skin instead settled upon its golden fibres. She loved the bright yellow thread that wove patterns of sun and fire that shimmered all along its length.

But more than the dress itself, what she truly loved how she looked in it.

Though its right hem began just short of the floor and stretched the grand distance from her ankle to her hip, the right side was much less ambitious. A split along the dress left the long, smooth leg bare from the tips of her open toed sandals to the top of her supple thigh.

The sash of golden silk that wrapped around her mid-section was another highlight for her. Though it was tied as tightly as a corset she hardly felt it, and the inevitable comparisons to a certain sand-filled timepiece that it helped to invite would have been well worth any mild discomfort anyway.

Yet the touch she loved most were the twin straps that slung themselves around her neck. The wide bolts of cloth were the sole pieces of cover for her upper half, and cradled her breasts perfectly as they stretched under their weight, the darker brown of areola peeking just slightly out from beneath them.

It was the sort of outfit that she could never have worn as a ruler.

Wearing it out in her final royal appearance was to be a gift all its own. To see the scandalised faces of her soon-to-be former subjects and drink in their reactions as she passed the torch.

It was hard not to be disappointed that instead, the first to see her would be one so utterly unworthy.

Starlight fell to one knee, curls of purple and teal obscuring her face, though her eyes peeked through as long as they could. Her head went low and her arms stretched wide. Though playing a part, she did so on instinct as well. To simply be in the princess’s vicinity brought with it a strange feeling of compulsion, as if weighed upon by some ephemeral pressure.

“Welcome, Princess-“

“Starlight Glimmer!”

Without time to process, Star was swept from the ground, her eyes filled with a beaming smile and eyes to match as she was thrown into the air and caught again in a fond embrace. “Have you been well, my friend? It has been far too long!”

“Good afternoon, Princess-“ The hold only tightened, the hug turning from constricting to outright suffocating. “Luna! Just, Luna!”

“Just-Luna-I-can’t-“

“Oh, I beg your pardon.” Luna loosened her grip as the pair descended, placing Star back on the floor no worse for the wear. “Perhaps I allowed my excitement to get the better of me.”

Star took a few deep breaths, her lungs grateful to retrieve air that had been squeezed out. “Just a little.”

“These have been a trying few months of preparation, I am merely glad to see a friendly face.”

“I know, Luna, I’ve had a lot on my plate as well.”

“That much is clear! Your efforts were well spent, this room is a marvel!”

Starlight smiled up at Luna, who more than returned the favour. The pair had bonded almost upon meeting, a kinship founded first upon their shared experience as reformed villainesses, but then expanded as yet more commonalities made themselves known.

There was no one better with whom to discuss premodern literature, of which the Lunar Princess’s knowledge was near encyclopedic. When they spoke of history, she did so as if it had happened before her eyes, often because it had.

The formal and esoteric knowledge that would be impossible to find in any book, but also salacious details shared in confidence, like a tryst with a then future tyrant of the Crystal Empire.

If Luna alone had been ruler of Equestria the changing of leadership would be a tragedy, but as Star looked past her she was reminded that her friend was the lesser member of a matched set.

“Welcome, Princess Celestia” Star said, resuming her bow.

“You may rise, Starlight.” She replied, the chill in her voice so apparent it was a wonder her breath wasn’t visible. “Luna is right, this is all quite impressive.”

“You’re too kind, Princess. I-“

“It’s a shame your own appearance wasn’t given the same consideration.”

Luna shot her sister a withering look but found it ineffective.

“Nonetheless, you really seem to have gone all out.” The elder diarch swanned past the still half-kneeling mage, her sister’s glare only intensifying. “I see balloons, and streamers, and is that cake? You know how I love cake. I can’t think of anything else that could possibly be missing from a coronation, can you?”

Celestia’s eye fell upon Star with the weight of a mountain, as if intending to will the still bowed woman lower.

“What about you, Luna?”

The paler sister turned and glowered, her eyes thin and a growl to her lips.

“Perhaps you’ve noticed that the guests of honour haven’t arrived yet?”

“Ah, yes! The guests of honour! They must be what’s missing! Thank you for pointing that out, Starlight, that would’ve driven me crazy. So, tell me, where are the guests of honour?”

“Well, you know how traffic can be, Princess Celestia.”

“I could not agree more!” Luna interjected, planting herself firmly between the pair. “My sister and I so rarely see the city first hand, but we have heard endless concerns over matters of traffic from the advisors and councils that manage-“

“Where is Twilight, Star?” Celestia reasserted.

Starlight rose to her full height, though still only half that of her interlocutor, injecting a calm to her voice, she attempted to reply. “I just said-“

“Twilight can teleport.” Celestia skewered. “As can we. But I didn’t see her, or her friends when Luna and I were sneaking our way up through the servant’s entrance like common rabble.”

“Maybe she and our friends are just running late.”

“Twilight Sparkle? Is running late? To her own coronation?”

“It could happen.” Starlight shrugged.

“It most certainly could!” Luna intruded. “Perhaps there was some sort of emergency!”

“And what of the others? Hmm? There should be hundreds gathered here today, but I’ve yet to see a single other guest or member of the staff. Surely you don’t expect Twilight to be coronated with no one around to see it?”

Luna’s expression contorted, a twist between pleading, anger, and disappointment as she flitted between her sister and her friend.

“Princess, I assure you that there is nothing that I want more than to ensure that Twilight’s coronation goes off without a hitch.” Star replied, her voice taking on a faux-sincerity that threatened to turn Celestia’s stomach. “Why don’t we all just take a seat and wait for the others to arrive?”

Luna nodded furiously, a pleading smile under glaring eyes as she motioned to the single table off to the side.

“How long do you think we’ll be ‘waiting’?” Celestia asked with another chilling sigh.

Star replied with a wry smile “Not long. Besides, we can use the extra time to talk.”

“Wonderful…”

Celestia, with an air of resignation, turned from the pair and towards table, a sashay of prismatic hair briefly revealing her bare back and luscious rump.

The mage made to give chase, but felt a hand on her shoulder, cool to the touch, firm but perfectly gentle.

“Star. I apologise for my sister’s behaviour.” Luna whispered from overhead. “She has been feeling… unwell, these last few months, and I fear she is not herself.”

Celestia, had already pulled well beyond earshot, carried away by strides that made the fullest use of the well hewn pillars upon which she stood.

“That being said…” Luna turned and stood before Starlight, for the first time since her arrival, her sister was no longer in view, and could no longer overshadow her. “I must admit that I share some of her concerns.”

As pale as the moon itself, the Lunar Princess looked as if she had never once known the sun’s rays.

Even now, as light poured in through every window, there was a dull halo that hung about her, her surroundings just a touch dimmer, even as the silver of her dress continued to sparkle, as if the light itself was drawn to her and away from her surroundings.

Her eyes were guileless teal. Star had never quite gotten used to them. To the way they seemed to look deep within her, as if peering into her mind and soul. A terrifying prospect, but she knew well that this would not be an issue.

“I promise you, Luna. Everything is going to go to plan.” Those perfect, trusting eyes. “Twilight’s coronation will be everything she deserves. You trust me, don’t you?”

“I do trust you.” She affirmed, her voice turning just slightly dreamy while returning to her full, magnificent height. “There is not a doubt in my mind that you were the correct choice for this task.”

Star couldn’t help but be captivated by the sight, if only for a moment. Though she had spent far more time in Luna’s company, that did little to dampen the impact of her presence.

If Celestia was perfection in excess, then Luna was perfection in balance. The awe-inspiring proportions of the former were muted on the latter, though far from absent. There was an effortless athleticism about her, toned and faintly muscular, but still with curves to spare.

She had been less enthusiastic upon seeing her outfit than her older sister.

She liked the fingerless elbow gloves but would have traded them in a heartbeat for a neckline that didn’t plunge past her navel. Though the silver fabric that gave way to deep blues like the night sky were appealing, there was precious little of it to be had. Two long trails barely wider than her thumb went from her shoulders and met just slightly above waist before parting ways again at her sides, leaving her to envy her sister who was made to contend with only one split rather than two.

The thought of saying something had crossed her mind, but the sensibilities of modern fashion remained well beyond her understanding. She knew as well that every aspect of the process had gone through Starlight, and that if this is what she was expected to wear, that that was good enough for her.

“I had hoped that she could be remain civil this day, but please do not think ill of her… I wish I could say more, but you must understand it is not her fault…”

Star suppressed a devious smirk and put a hand to Luna’s back, running a consoling palm along taught, alabaster skin.

“I’m sure she just wants what’s best for Twilight. We both do.”

“I have tried to convince her as much, but I have been unable…”

“Don’t trouble yourself, Luna. Everything will work out for the best.”

The oppressive silence of the throne room settled upon the trio the moment they sat down. Broken sporadically by the scraping of metal upon porcelain, or porcelain upon marble, only to regenerate the moment that motion ceased again.

Celestia, content to wallow in the awkwardness, sat to one side, her eye on her plate, her fork carving a wedge of cake before sliding beneath it and carrying to her lips.

Luna, on the other hand, looked apprehensively from one end to the other, catching glimpses of Star’s easy smile and Celestia’s increasingly naked hostility as her toes tapped silently beneath the table at an ever quickening pace.

“Could you pass the eclairs?”

“Certainly!” Luna gushed, half leaping across the table to reach the platter. “The eclairs are delicious, are they not? Star has done a wonderful job on them.”

“I’m sure someone did, but I doubt that it was Star.”

Luna wined as the tray slid towards her sister who extracted a pastry and waved the rest away.

“Princess Celestia is right, Luna. Everything you see here was baked by Pinkie Pie.”

Celestia gave a mocking smirk in Luna’s direction, while the latter bit her lip. “That may be so, but the choice of serving dishes and silverware to complement them is inspired, surely that was your doing, Star.”

Starlight traced a finger along the edge of her plate. Feeling the delicately inlaid designs that wrapped around it. The complexity of the patterns told the tale, a gift from one of the eastern lands, returned to Equestria as treasures from the first explorers to set foot so far beyond the nations borders.

“Thank you, Luna. I thought you might-“

“Anyone can buy a fancy looking dish, Luna.”

Luna scowled in her sister’s direction.

“Actually, this is far from simple, bargain tableware. I spent days searching through the royal vault for something worthy of the occasion, and-“

Star was interrupted by the sound of metal clattering to the floor. Celestia’s fingers, which had a held a fork a moment earlier were now empty, her normally half lidded eye fully open, her lips still half parted, as if waiting for the fork to return.

“You broke into the royal vault‽”

Star chuckled. “I didn’t break in, Twilight was kind enough to let me inside before she left.”

“She left it open for you‽”

“Sister!” Luna hissed.

“I explicitly told her-“

“Shen mentioned as much. But when I told her how important it was to me she decided she could make an exception, as long as it remained our little secret…” Starlight looked across the table, bemused. “Oops.”

The fork came to life under a golden aura, briefly taking on a searing orange glow, bathed in an intense heat that sanitized it down to the atom. “How could she be so irresponsible…” Celestia murmured to herself.

The façade of bored indifference and thinly veiled contempt had slipped, if only for a moment, already beginning to replace itself upon her royal visage.

“Please don’t blame her, Princess Celestia. It’s my fault, really. I let slip how important it was to me and… I guess I underestimated how much she values my opinion.”

“You must have tricked her-“

There was a thud under the table, accompanied by the sound of rattling cutlery as Luna’s foot made contact with Celestia’s shin.

“Sister! It is fine.”

“Oh, of course it’s fine. It’s only been several millennia. It only holds some of the oldest and most important treasures in all the world, why wouldn’t I want some random mortal rutting about inside as if it was her own private storeroom?”

“Sister! That is quite enough-”

“Luna, it’s alright.” Starlight said, pushing her plate aside and tenting her fingers. “I think it’s probably well past time that we addressed the elephant in the room anyway.”

“And what would that be?”

“That you don’t like me, Princess Celestia. That you have never liked me. That from the day I arrived, you haven’t trusted me, or accepted me the way the others have, and that you have no intention to either.”

“Twilight and my sister always said that you were perceptive.” Celestia replied, pushing her own plate aside as well.

“Just one of the many qualities that have endeared me to them, I suppose.” She smarmed with a wink. “Whether or not you trust me, the soon-to-be sole ruler of the realm does.”

“Despite my warnings.” Celestia hissed.

“Yes, I am well aware of your ‘warnings’. Twilight tells me that you are the sole reason why I will be unable to act as her advisor when she takes the throne, despite her best efforts to convince you.”

“And this ‘party’ was supposed to convince me otherwise? An empty room? You, dressed in rags to greet us? You may have fooled everyone else, but I know what you are, Starlight Glimmer.”

“What I am, is Twilight’s closest friend. I have done everything to make her coronation a success, and I will dedicate my life to ensuring her reign surpasses yours in every way imaginable.”

“You. Will. Not.” The princess spat. “No matter how much she thinks that she trusts you, she will always trust me more. You’ve known her barely three years, I have known her since she was a child, raised her like my own daughter, and you will never be allowed within 100 meters of real power as long as she listens to me.”

Emotion came to Celestia sparingly, the furor already receding behind the carefully maintained façade of royal stoicism, but it was still there.

Star was certain she had felt the temperature in the room rise, if only a few degrees, and though she had imagined this moment more times than she could remember, she still felt the faintest pangs of fear as she stared down her opposite, the sight of Luna’s panic-stricken face visible from the corner of her eye, but overshadowed by Celestia’s own, pitiless and pink-hewed, unwaveringly trained upon her.

“Everyone else has accepted me, Princes Celestia. They have all welcomed me as their friend, but not you. Don’t you care at all for how hard this is on them? On your own sister? On Twilight?”

“It is not nearly as hard on them as it will be when you inevitably betray them.”

Starlight’s voice turned utterly frigid. “I would never betray Twilight.”

“Touch a nerve, did I?” Star’s fist clenched, her eyes narrowed. “I suppose that’s a fair reaction. Even for someone as manipulative and hollow as you, the fear of being found out must be unbearable.”

“Princess, I want you to think very carefully on this.” She replied tempering her voice to a measured calm. “There’s no more time to waste. This might be our last chance to make amends. Are you sure that this is the way you feel?”

“In the millennia that I have ruled this land, I have never been more sure of anything.”

Starlight took a deep breath, looking once more to Luna, who immediately avoided her gaze, then back to Celestia who’s eye had never left hers.

“Then I suppose I may as well tell you that no one else is coming. Not the guests, not my friends, not Twilight, no one. Not today anyway.”

“What?” Luna asked, her voice turning as colourless as her skin.

“I’m shocked.” Celestia added with dripping sarcasm.

“Do you mean that you forgot to invite them?” Luna asked. “That you made a mistake?”

“Unfortunately, not. What I mean is-“

“What she means is that she never planned for them to come at all, Luna.”

Luna’s head whipped back to her sister in a shower of diaphanous hair.

“Sister, I have been idle too long. I can no longer countenance your mistrust, no matter your mental state. It is to my great shame that I have sat here while you have slandered my friend, but I will do so no longer. However Starlight has erred is immaterial. We will resolve it together and-“

“There’s no mistake, Luna. Celestia is right. It was intentional.”

Luna looked to her with confusion plain on her face. “Why would you-“

“Because she’s evil, Luna.” Celestia said, exasperated. “She has always been evil, and she has brought us here because she thinks that she can trap us, or trick us, or some other nonsense, all so that she can take power for herself.”

Luna looked at her with wide eyes that brought with them a pang of unmistakable guilt. “That is not true, sister.”

“Not entirely, anyway.” Star interrupted. “I’m not ‘evil’, and I have no intention of ‘seizing power’. It’s complicated.”

“You see, Luna‽”

The younger sister turned back to Starlight, confusion slowly vanishing as the full weight of betrayal settled upon her.

“Then- then you lied to me?”

“Only when necessary.” Star replied, careful to keep her tone even.

“You lied to everyone?...”

“You’ll understand soon enough, Luna.”

“I’ll understand?” Luna asked, her voice falling to a whisper, her eyes turning dull, almost empty. “I’ll understand that you lied to me?”

Starlight looked on as those same eyes began to darken. “I’ll understand that you used me?” Her voice went deeper, beginning to fill the room.

“Luna, I-“

“Silence, whelp!” The words emanated from every corner. They filled the air and vibrated through to Star’s bones, a horrible, booming sound that felt as if it could knock her from her chair.

“You have trifled with one beyond your ken!”

Celestia sat in place while Luna took a stand. There was little she could do to calm her, and she had little desire to do so regardless. Instead she watched as the midnight blue of her hair began to shift, turning ever darker until the stars that dotted it were swallowed whole, and the deep blues were replaced entirely by the suffocating black of deep space.

A chill tinged the air, her breath turning to whisps of white from between her lips. Her face, so pretty and caring had donned a mask that was fierce and hateful, her irises becoming thin and stretching upward into slits, fangs barring themselves like daggers of pure white, and nails extending like talons, ready to rend whatever came within their reach.

“A star like you has no place in my heavens.”

Darkness had begun to encroach all around them, the omnipresent light that had poured in from every window in every colour began to dim, turning grey and then retreating back into the outside. Starlight’s own shadow had begun to expand beneath her, a pool of pitch black that was soon joined by the shadows of every object around her, all drawn towards Luna, wrapping herself in it before spreading out along the air, plunging the entirety of their surroundings into nothingness.

Soon the trio were alone in a bleak, infinite expanse. Celestia looked on, waiting for Starlight to conjure something, anything, to mount some sort of pitiful effort towards self preservation. Twilight had spoken at length of her magical prowess. It was almost a disappointment not to see it in action, even if it would prove to be pointless.

“I will cast thee out.” The void growled from all sides.

Celestia’s own vision was beginning to fade. The ethereal hair and pale skin were wreathed by an ashen halo that itself threatened to enclose upon them until nothing remained. The dark, eyes flooded with sorrow existed as demonic yellow pinpricks, against the vast nothingness, angry, but beneath that, desolate and despondent.

As the last slivers of light vanished from view, Celestia was left in cold, dead silence, awaiting the moment when the world around her would return, and the last ‘challenge’ of her reign would be at an end.

Author's Note

To my Canadian readers I would like to say HAPPY CANADA DAY!

More generally, I don't like to complain, so I won't dwell on why everything has taken so long except to say that I'm gonna try to hustle through to the end on this and some other projects. I tend to struggle to push through the last kilometer, so I'm once again gonna try to commit to speeding up production.

Sorry that this chapter isn't particularly lewd, I generally try to include some lewd stuff in every chapter, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Really wishing I had fully planned this out at first from the start, but then it never would've gotten done.... so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Pornographeur’s Pointlessly Pedantic Prose
Celestia and (especially) Luna’s descriptions are (very) loosely inspired by Kurtz’s two waifus in Heart of Darkness, a classic I finally got around to finishing a few months ago. Not that you need me to tell you, but it's pretty excellent.