Royal Canterlot Library, Canterlot
May 17th, 14:29
Princess Luna of Equestria

Luna had decided that here and now she will have to execute drastic actions as there were no other ponies that would align themselves to her cause, as the moon princess set her eyes on the Royal Canterlot Library she had thought of a venture that will allow her to achieve her cause, a very verboten course of action where Celestia must never take a hint of such action in what she was about to do.

The solar guards who stood at each respective sides on the library entrance gave their brief and practiced salute to their diarchy as she crosses the threshold acknowledging their presence with a firm nod, as soon as she enters the premise she casts a concealment spell that dull her presence to an inconspicuous state, whereupon ponies casting their gaze at Luna will more likely forget that she was there.

Once she had assessed the ponies their complete disregard for her presence, she continues to walk along with the many aisles of bookshelves that are neatly arranged throughout the Royal Canterlot Library, as the number of ponies began to shrink as Luna wanders deeper into the establishment, and once she had spotted the telltale of her goal, she halts.

Luna spies a book that has the twin symbol of the alicorn sisters embedded in its spine, a book that requires the magic of one of its respective owner to activate, as Luna’s corona shine dimly along with the book as muffled clicks and mechanical sound emanates behind the bookshelf wherein the book sat firmly.

With a very small fraction of Luna’s magic extracted from her, the bookshelf shifts slightly and a chink can be seen from the edge of the bookshelf and with one swift motion the bookshelf slides out of view, and in its place is an entrance to the restricted portion of the Royal Canterlot Library, exclusive only to the Diarchy and all they assume worthy enough to step hoof.

With a final glance at any unsuspected ponies accidentally witnessing such a confidential territory, after finding none she traverses the staircase leading down to the restricted library itself, restoring the bookshelf in its place before doing so.

The amble was not long as Luna had finally crossed the final set of doors that permits her to her destination, the cave that houses the restricted library was massive with its foundation entirely adapted to the cave itself that resembles a rough dome, the bookshelves themselves embedded tightly into the cave formation some bookshelves are even made entirely of carved stone.

While Luna reflects on her time spent here before her banishment, she can recall books being more pristine and well handled than what she was currently beholding, she can only pray that the ancient book she seeks had not suffered the same faith.

While she was discouraged with the condition of the millennia-old books fortune does favor her as she witnessed the enclosure that holds the book she had sought to obtain, the enclosure itself was aged and suffering slow rot but the insides were surely unharmed. She unlocks the ancient lock with her magic and instantly breaks from the pressure.

Luna discards the broken lock and lifts its contents and after levitating copious amounts of papers, notes, and journals her eyes catch the black coat cover of the book, smiling to herself, who would have thought, after millennia the book was practically unmoved and untouched.

Luna cracks a smile, the black book was still well conditioned and only accumulated dust as a result of its containment, she conjures pressure from the air and sweeps the black book with it, and with the thick dust clear the ornament that adorned the book becomes more prominent.

Now that she has the book she had sought, she was going to use it to bring back a soul of olden times, more specifically a soul who has already faced war and learn from it, she was to bring back the dead and with Equestria’s history surely she can call upon important figures of history that can lead and influenced ponies to defend it at its time of need.

This scheme sounds magnificent in the mind of Luna, an impractical plan overpowered by her zeal to save Equestria from an uncertain and debatable invasion from its neighbors, however, what’s done is done, and Luna was far too in to retract from her predicament, too prideful to back down.

Now that she has claimed what she had sought, Luna’s corona spark, and her entire form enveloped in a blinding light before popping out of existence and reappearing just in front of the bookshelves that she passed to enter the restricted library, tucking the black book and some notes she had gathered along with it in her saddlebag.

As she begins walking for her chambers to study the content of the books and notes, Luna could feel her vigor rise once more, she can finally have the pony to convince her sister to what Luna was attesting to her all this time, she just needs a night to examine and exercise the necessary steps to-

“Luna?”

“Pardon!?”

Luna jolts in surprise, her hoof scraping against the polished floor, stopping in front of the pony she had not expected to stumble upon especially now that she carries a forbidden book that was not supposed to be taken from its receptacle, Luna shifts her wings slightly to cover the contents of her saddlebags.

“Tia,” Luna starts in surprise followed by an uncanny smile, “what a coincidence? what brought you to our esteemed library?”

Celestia was stern right before discovering her sister in front of the entrance to the restricted section of the library, fearing the worst when the wards emplaced were subtly disturbed for Celestia to notice clearly, when she did she came fast and had reflected the same surprise Luna was wearing on her face.

“Have you entered-” Celestia walked up to her sister eyeing the bookshelf and the saddlebag her sister was making an effort to hide from her, “-the restricted library, my dear sister?”

“O-of course, I had recollected my n-notes and journal from the long past, dear sister!” Luna fumble on her words, growing more nervous as Celestia’s eyes shift from the bookshelf to her saddlebag. “What brought you here, Tia?”

“Lulu,” Celestia huffed in exasperation, “I came here to seek answers from a possible intruder to our exclusive chambers, afraid of the possible theft of ancient artifacts and stored knowledge from long ago.”

“However, I am relieved to find you.” Celestia exhaled in relief, tilting her head slightly as she gathered her thoughts. “Do mind to warn me next time, Lulu.”

“Of course, Tia, pardon my impudence”

Celestia nuzzles her sister and the gesture was graciously returned, a serene expression claiming Celestia’s face as she retracts visibly softening to discover that no dangerous ancient artifacts were going to tamper, stolen, or worst used for nefarious means.

“Don’t think of yourself lowly, Luna.” Celestia standing beside her sister's motions for her to follow. “Come, I may have missed you while scolding the nobles of their senseless troubles.”

Luna giggled at her sister’s rather childish humor, side by side they walked together, easing her wings to tuck the black book and notes more firmly and hidden subtly from view.

“Of course, you never tire from their languish inducing babbles.” Luna scoffs earning a chuckle from Celestia.

“My, might you want to take turns in teasing them?” Celestia offers humoredly, earning a disappointing smile from Luna.

“Forgive me sister, but I still have a case to present to you regarding your proposition.” Luna promptly replied as Celestia was remembering their argument a few days ago.

While this did disappoint both sisters, with Luna being so close to having her way and Celestia wanting more of her sister's time, it was a rather distancing experience for both sisters as well, but as luck would have it Celestia yielded to her sister's errands.

“Very well,” Celestia spoke rather sternly but the subtle smile she wore was evident of her love for her sister despite her shortcomings, “be on your way, dear sister, I shall await your case.”

"Of course, Tia, I shan't permit you to wait long."

─────────────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───────────────

Luna's Chamber, Canterlot
May 19th, 14:53
Princess Luna of Equestria

The time was now, after examining and theorizing the contents of the book of harmonic necromancy, reevaluating its possible flaws and benefits worth discarding and keeping respectively, notes were stacked and piled neatly around her study table as a product of a whole day of ceaseless effort to bring about the coming of her hero.

She cannot afford a mistake, Luna is well aware of the dangers of conducting a necromancy spell to both ends, the risk of insanity, magical decay, shorten lifespan, and instant death upon casting, hence Luna’s intense study to avoid such outcomes rereading the notes she had brought along with the harmonic necromancy book for any hints of errors and miscalculations that she had used as a cross-reference.

With a final proofread with the spell she had taken longer to polish and refine than she cares to admit, Twilight Sparkle would have been proud of Luna if she witnessed the ample papers loitering about her chamber.

Luna breathes, preparing herself physically and mentally, even with the near-perfect refinement of the spell, the spell itself was entirely dependent on the skill, magical capacity and projection, and the willpower of the caster. These essential traits are within Luna’s capability but she worries for the soul she will be reviving more so than her own.

She has never done necromancy to bring back the dead but souls alone? A long time ago, she had to, in order to console grieving ponies in their dreams after constant wars that lead to many of them orphaned, widowed, and mentally broken. The more she dwells on these thoughts the more she realizes that wars were indeed costly, but she will not doubt her cause, she was not to instigate a new war but instead help prevent it. That’s why she was doing this.

Now, she must make haste, her time to replace her sister in the night court was upcoming in the near hour, she must no longer delay her efforts, her objective is now closer than she was before, and it shall now begin.

The corona of Luna's horn emerges as she levitates the book and the few final notes to her side, she can only carry out the harmonic revival of the dead once, to summon a pony from the dead to once more lead the ponies in the modern age, Luna had to contain her growing enthusiasm to avoid losing focus.

Using the book and notes as a reference, she recreates the summoning circle that was first needed to start the summoning, using a mixture of bone dust, grounded magical crystal, and pounded limestone to create special chalk that will be used to draw the magical circle, and the intricate pattern of the summoning circle is itself unique.

Following the pattern drawn on the book and the correction, Luna had modified on her notes it spans a good circle with a diameter of 5 meters, slight sparks trailing the chalk as it continues to scrape the polished floor.

As Luna finishes the line art of the summoning circle she dwells on the thought of encountering souls in the afterlife, to garner their attention long enough to hold their interest of abandoning the peaceful and paradise that is the afterlife, persuade them with words of affection, to give them a brief moment of their lives to aid her in her cause.

Not all plans go along well with reality however and Luna was bracing herself mentally for a multitude amount of rejection from long passed souls, this would never be easy but she only needs one pony, one soul, one life to bring back from the dead.

With the summoning circle done moving on to the next step, the summoning itself, before that however Luna embedded the wards all across the surfaces of her chamber, in order to help contain the magical backlash that could leak out through the spell casting.

With that precaution well and done, she begins to now begins to tune he magic to the writings on the summoning circle, her corona shines brighter and her eyes glow dimly as the magic of both Luna and the magical crystal-induced summoning circle synergized and producing rays of white light that emits from the line art of the summoning circle.

Luna’s focus trails on the notes and her magic automatically translate it to the summoning circle and the latter’s white light growing brighter while emanating a harmonic tune that help Luna in focusing on her spell casting, and a final push of harmonic runes that was formed through constructs of magic levitating to embed itself to the floor in its place in the summoning circle.

Spellcasting in general was mostly done with no modicum of speech, hence the laborious breathing Luna was expressing. The moon princess lowers her head and connects the tip of her horn to the edge of the summoning circle and the corona bursts into rainbow strips that washes the polished floor.

With a final mental application, Luna’s senses winked out, replaced with a darken and void that nulls most of her stimulus save only for her thoughts and a vague sense of a multitude of presence, the very souls that Luna had hoped to approach.

And so, she does.

“Heroes of Equestria, I call upon thee, aid us in the coming of Equestria’s plight!” Luna bellowed into the nothingness.

The many presences that reside within the void, within the misleading paradise, took notice of her own animate presence shouting upon the souls filled the void, calling for a hero.

The many presences that reside within the void, within the misleading paradise, took notice of her own animate presence shouting upon the souls filled the void, calling for a hero. Luna felt the many gazes from the souls around her all of who seem to be curious, skeptical, and indifferent respectively.

For a while, only stares from the souls were what she receives in response to her calling then they abruptly moved on and wander aimlessly in the void, their false paradise, it unnerved Luna every time she can hear the many joyous voices of the dead, the many sounds of laughter, the joyous chatter, cries of pain, sharp gasps, shrieks of horrors, and the cheers of victory at the same time in a sea of voices that did not overlap each other curiously instead they are their own voices and are discernable from each other.

Luna was discouraged from their deliberate neglect of her presence, but she needed to bring one pony back from the dead, she had to. She once again asks more desperately with the same outcome as before, stares at her and completely ignore her thereafter, with not a single soul to be slightly even interested she had even resorted to using the Royal Canterlot Voice in attempt to reach out further but nothing had changed, other than the many more souls that ignored her.

“Please, Equestria is in need of a hero! You may relive your days of glory! We need you again!” Luna spoke her voice slightly wavering.

Luna’s cry was once again ignored, this continued rejection had dejected the moon princess, she would not allow herself to return empty-handed, cringing with the thought of her sister being disappointed with her, and the failure of her regal role as not only a princess but as well as the protector of the ponies and creatures of Equestria. Her pride and duty would not allow her to withdraw now or ever for that matter.

Before resorting to a final drastic solution to her current hurdle she witnesses a soul from a distance, a very young but promising soul, moseying itself towards her presence. Luna’s presence brightens as a result of this newfound development and so she patiently stays in place, no longer focusing on the souls around her but only on this curious and rather newly lamented soul.

Luna felt a wave of praise from her as she appraises this lone soul, a very young soul full of promise from its once experienced life and had just perished from the world not long ago, the moon princess struggles to hold her enthusiasm for having caught the attention of such a proud and talented soul, in the art of war as well it seems.

“I call upon you, young soul. Equestria needs a new hero, a hero that will aid us in the battles to come.” Luna spoke in a soft and encouraging tone. “Come, lone one.”

The soul itself was hesitant but indeed curious to her presence, she would occasionally encourage it when she witnesses it slightly retreating only to be reassured that it was more than a simple encouraging tone that will keep its attention to her presence, brightening her presence even further to form a beacon for this lone soul, driving the rest of the souls near her away and slightly parting themselves for the moseying soul to reach her.

It had taken a long time for it to get to Luna for her to properly reach out but it was now in front of her, it visibly recoils from her presence possibly overwhelmed by her but shows no sign of familiarity with her, a creature who does not know her? A rarity in this time for sure but nonetheless she will take this soul.

Luna’s corona envelopes the whole of the summoning circle in a blanket of magic, gently grabbing the soul, and with its consent, transferred from the realm of the dead to the living, its takes the form of a wisp appearing in a snap underneath the blanket of magic enveloping the summoning circle.

As the wisp of the soul rising so did the blanket of magic, as it levitates it slowly took the form of a pony and judging from the developing bump on each side it was a pegasus, after many twists and turns what it had finalized its form as a transparent pegasus, its soul caged gently and comfortably in its chest.

Luna inhales laboriously before nodding to herself, a final beam of magic from her horn making contact with the transparent pony as a wave of magic gives it its fur, tail, mane, and wings, accompanied by its color palette. This newly reborn pegasus has a fur of full white snow, tail, and mane of golden blonde, and a relatively healthy and sturdy build as common among pegasus.

Luna was instantly reminded by Celestia’s distant nephew, young Prince Blueblood, but snaps back to reality when she witnesses the young pegasus’s sudden descent to the ground as her magic cuts off after finishing the summoning magic, she gasps sharply.

Luna hastily leaped underneath the falling pegasus in an attempt to negate the pegasus’s limped body from harshly making contact with her polished chamber floor, her magic had suffered a brief backlash as it cooldowns from the summoning hence her physical attempt. It was surprising how fast her magic did recover and as she was laying flat on the marble floor underneath the limped pegasus her corona sparks and the pegasus was lifted just a few hoofs above Luna’s withers.

Exhaling a prolonged relief, Luna recomposes herself and levitate the young limped pegasus to her side, witnessing the half-opened lid of her eyes and presenting bright azure eyes reflected by the setting sun on her open balcony, the young pegasus mumbled incoherently before proceeding to close her eyes peacefully and… snore loudly.

This rather abrupt sound caught Luna off guard before she chuckled lightly, now that she has what she seeks, she must not brief this young pegasus in the affairs of Equestria and its possible conflict with its neighboring kingdoms and states.

Luna began to spin scenarios that would come up by the next few hours, moons, weeks, maybe even months to how she was supposed to pitch her idea to this pegasus in convincing her sister, Luna is well aware that the pegasus in her grasp was of the military from the short memories that flooded into her and to the pony, although it was an amalgamated mess that the only coherent thoughts and memories she had gathered were merely spoken words, orders, commands, and complicated lingos that she had also heard the military staff emit from time to time towards their subordinate officers.

It was also surprising that the young pegasus was indeed young, if she was uttering commands frequently she must hold a high rank, possibly an officer or higher, to be able to conduct such orders and commands. Praises and commendations were also not lost to Luna as she had also praised some officers and commanders in their brief and inconsequential skirmish with the Ponies of Stalliongrad, so she was justified in assuming that the young pegasus was talented and accomplished in her duty.

But to whom this pony served was what Luna was mostly concerned with, surely not Equestria for there had been no large external conflict that its inhabitants had to participate, due to the young pegasus’s accomplishment and experience of which are fairly recent she had to have been outside the continent of Equus itself.

Her long train of thoughts was shortly cut off as Luna felt her sister’s presence beckoning her to her chambers, she sent back an answer immediately through her magic as she placed the young pegasus on her own bed, feeling a great but burdened sense of accomplishment for the recent events.

With one last sigh she gently releases the young pegasus from her magical hold, she was about to fly towards her sister's balcony but she once again looked over her towards the sleeping pony on her bed, the same thoughts resumed briefly before she has shaken her head clear, she was going to do this, there is no more going back.

“For Tia, my friends, and Equestria.” She spoke to no one before unraveling her wings and took off.

Author's Note

I already have an image of how Azure Destiny (Maynard Mineheart) look like:

This is a General Portrait made by MrScroup, God bless this man, from the Equestria at War mod for Hearts of Iron 4

I do want to create my own of Azure Destiny's portrait with a similar look as this art with my own touches that I want for the pony, probably minor changes as she fits most of the touches I planned for her look.