Mirrors of Darkness
Princess Luna watched, with all the grace and patience that her years of practice had granted her, as the Royal Guard went through their maneuvers for both her and Celestia’s benefit. Such talents were essential for dealing with the amount of public events that the two princesses were required to attend.
Especially when they were as boring as this one was.
“Sister,” Luna began, barely moving her mouth, “in all the years I was gone, did you never consider telling them to cut the length of these things down?”
Next to her, Celestia, who was watching the proceedings with just the right amount of regality, let out a gentle snort, so soft that only Luna could hear it. “This is the cut-down version.”
Luna had been afraid of that.
Another twenty minutes passed before the assembled ponies below finally finished off with a unified salute to their rulers, which Celestia acknowledged in return. It took a further ten minutes to get everyone else off the field below, allowing the Princesses to finally take their leave.
“The cut-down version, you said?” Luna asked again, still in doubt.
Her sister giggled. “The third cut-down version, in fact. At one point, all this used to take six hours.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “And you let that go on for how long?”
Celestia didn’t answer that. “I admit, it has been a while since I last suggested they look at tightening things up. About…200 years, in fact.” Her older sister looked thoughtful then. “How time flies. I suppose I shall have to ask Shining Armor to look at revising the ceremony.”
“That would be appreciated,” Luna replied, her tone dry.
Before either of them could continue their conversation, a pony wearing the uniform of the Wonderbolts came sailing down from the sky, landing right in front of the princesses.
“Apologies for the interruption, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” the pony said, pulling off her headgear to reveal that she was none other than Spitfire, the captain of the elite flying squad. She only gave a quick bow of her head, a small sop to decorum that Luna had learned didn’t bother Celestia in the slightest. “I’m afraid it’s an urgent matter.”
“Go ahead, Captain,” Celestia replied, exchanging a glance with her sister.
“Something appears to be loose in the Everfree Forest,” Spitfire said, wiping her brow with one foreleg. “From the reports we’re getting, it’s not anything that was previously known, and it’s causing a lot of problems for the wildlife inside.”
“Has anyone seen it?” Celestia asked. “You said it was not previously known? How do you know?”
“None of our best trackers have heard of anything like it,” Spitfire replied. “We even reached out to some of the retired ones, and they were flummoxed. We know the creature is magical, and we think it may be using that magic to hide from our searches. On top of that, it hunts at night, and with it being in the Forest…well, we’re not exactly equipped for that kind of duty.”
Luna saw her older sister nod in understanding. “It is good that you have brought this to our attention, Captain.” Celestia said, before turning to Luna. “Luna, would you feel comfortable sending the Lunar Guard to handle this?”
Technically, Celestia, as the supreme monarch, didn’t have to ask her sister for the use of the Lunar Guard, but Luna very much appreciated that she did anyway.
The Lunar Guard, on paper, was the perfect force for this. They trained for night operations, they could be discreet, and they were very deadly when required. However, Luna’s extended absence had meant their ranks had dwindled to the point that they barely had the numbers to serve as her bodyguards. Sending the lot of them into the Forest simply wasn’t practical.
“With respect, Princess?” Spitfire looked especially uncomfortable now. “Might we travel someplace more private? Some things are not meant to be seen by too many eyes.”
The sisters exchanged another glance.
“Would my study be private enough?” Celestia asked.
“That would be sufficient.”
Luna felt a tingling in her hooves as she watched Spitfire pull something out of a small pouch.
“The reason I didn’t want to show this earlier is that it’s rather gruesome,” the diminutive pony said, her normally cocksure attitude muted by whatever was on her mind. She set the wrapped bundle on Celestia’s desk, unfolding it carefully. “You may want to hold your breath.”
Both rulers were made of stern stuff, but Celestia couldn’t help raising a hoof to her snout, pulling her head back as the contents of the cloth were revealed. A severed claw with a wicked and jagged looking talon extending from the tip lay on the gold fabric, with blood oozing from the torn edge, which glistened in the light coming through the window. Stranger still was the slash that crossed it at one angle, which somehow looked old and yet unhealed at the same time.
Luna’s reaction was very different from that of her sister. Her eyes narrowed to points as she stared at the digit, and her lips drew back in anger. She recognized that slash, and knew the creature from whence the claw came.
“Luna? Are you all right?”
Realizing she must have looked a fool, the alicorn shook her head, but did not raise her eyes to meet those of her sister. “My apologies – I was lost in thought for a moment.”
“Have you seen this creature before?” Celestia pressed.
Yes, and I never told you because you don’t need to see all the ugly parts of me, Luna thought. “That blood…it’s un-natural,” she said, hoping that would satisfy her sister. “Captain, when did these reports first start? Was it at the last full moon?”
Spitfire looked surprised by the questions. “About three weeks ago, Your Majesty, so…yes, that sounds about right. We didn’t look into it immediately, because it’s prime timberwolf season, but whatever this is has been killing timberwolves as well.”
“I see.” And so my nightmares return to haunt me once more. She continued to stare at the claw, her face twisting between fear and hatred. “Thank you again, Captain. I will see to this issue personally.”
Now Celestia was certain that her sister was withholding something, but chose not to pursue it in that moment. She would, later.
“I…” Spitfire began, before casting a sideways glance at Celestia. The elder pony closed her eyes and nodded, ever so subtly. It didn’t particularly matter; she could have set off a firecracker and not broken Luna’s concentration in that moment.
“Understood, Princess,” Spitfire finally responded. “I’ll leave these maps that our scouts have made up. The locations where evidence of the creature turned up are marked with an X.” She traced a hoof over one section. “And this circle here is where we found the claw.”
Luna nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
“Dismissed, Captain,” Celestia ordered, and nopony could have been more relieved to be dismissed than Spitfire was in that moment.
As soon as the door closed, Celestia turned to her sister.
“We need to talk.”
Slowly, Luna nodded. “About some things, yes. But there are things that even you don’t need to know, Tia. And this is one of them.”
“Sister, you do not have to go alone and do this,” Celestia said, as she watched Luna review several maps of the Forest that Spitfire had provided. “You’ve only been back a short while, and you haven’t regained your full strength yet.”
Hearing her sister’s real concern for her wellbeing filled Luna with the kind of joy she was still re-learning how to feel, and it brought a smile to the normally serious alicorn’s face, even if only briefly.
“Tia,” Luna began, using the familiar name, “when you send challenges to your student Twilight – when you sent her and her friends to defeat…the other me…” and here Luna winced “did you not do it out of a desire to test them?”
After a moments’ hesitation, Celestia nodded.
“Then consider this my test,” Luna replied. “I will take two guards with me, just in case, but this is a creature of my domain,” she reminded her sister. “It falls to me to ensure the night is safe for everypony. And this is an old foe I have faced before.”
“And you don’t intend to tell me about it.”
Luna’s eyes glazed over, briefly. “I told one other pony about it, solely that there would be a record. His reaction was enough to cure me of ever wanting to share the experience again.”
Sensing that this was going to go nowhere, Celestia acquiesced. “Then be careful, and I shall look forward to your successful return.”
As if to reassure herself as much as her sister, Luna chuckled. “I’ll be back before you know it. Otherwise I might miss a ‘very important’ ceremony where I stand there looking regal while staving off boredom, and we both know that can’t happen.”
Left unspoken was the fact that the kind of tests given to Twilight were as much about demonstrating skill to the mentor as they were meant to instill confidence in the one being tested.
And that confidence was something Luna sorely needed. A thousand years locked away was a long time for anypony.
“Your Majesty, please, allow us to go with you.”
Luna faced the two members of the Lunar Guard that she had brought with her – the two she trusted most, and gave them a rare smile.
“Your Princess will be just fine in the Forest,” she reassured them, though her own confidence was waning. “Besides, it is the prerogative of a monarch to get to have a little fun once in a while.”
It wasn’t, actually, but Celestia had quietly advised the guards to do as Luna ordered.
“And if you aren’t ‘just fine’, Your Majesty?” Swift Flame’s eyes were unyielding, even in the face of a glare from Luna, and she mentally bumped her appraisal of him up a few points.
“If I run into difficulties, I will send a single burst of light toward the moon,” she promised. “That will be the signal to come flying. Unless I send that, stay away from the forest. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Princess,” they both replied, looking distinctly unhappy about it.
She’d had them bring her high up over the Forest, which had allowed her to get her bearings. The trouble with being gone for a thousand years was that you kept expecting things to be in one place, only to find that they’d gone and moved on you. Even something as big as a forest changed in that length of time.
With a flap of her wings, she left the chariot, and settled into a dive toward the Forest.
“Here for some late reading, Princess?” Split Sunset had the guard shift that night over the Library of Magic, a normally boring duty, but one he performed with the same vigilance as if he were guarding Celestia herself. And now she was here!
“Something like that,” Celestia replied, sounding distracted. “Split Sunset, right?”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” He felt a rush of pride that the Princess knew his name, especially since he was a relatively new member of the Guard.
“I’m going to be in here for a while, and I forgot to bring any sort of refreshments. Would you mind terribly going down to the kitchen to have them prepare a tray of tea and cake?"
For reasons he couldn't put his hoof on, Split Sunset felt very uneasy about those orders, but he couldn’t exactly tell the Princess no, could he? “Certainly, Princess,” he replied, slowly trotting away as Celestia disappeared inside the library.
“That should buy me fifteen minutes,” Celestia muttered, after the sound of hooves dropped off. She moved quickly to the Star Swirl the Bearded section, stopping at a shelf which bore the twelve-volume annotated set A History of Early Equestria. Luna had said that she'd told one other pony about this monster, and the list of ponies she would have told was exceedingly short. Star Swirl was at the top of that short list.
With a small burst of magic, a hidden compartment on the underside of the shelf opened up, revealing a well-worn journal, bound with string. It contained Star Swirl’s unused notes from the Early Equestria project, which he’d told her constituted a never-to-be-released thirteenth volume. Something, she reckoned, she should have read long ago.
Opening the book gently, for it was older than the castle that surrounded it, she checked the index before turning to the section on monsters.
“What are you hiding, Luna?” she whispered, beginning her search.
Luna was being watched. Of that much, she was certain.
It hadn’t taken her long to find fresh evidence of the monster she dared not name. As wasteful as ever, it had slain a variety of creatures and left them in its wake. Distasteful as it was, Luna had taken time to make sure all the creatures were dead, and had ended the suffering of those who were not. They were creatures of the night, and therefore her responsibility.
Getting my hooves dirty is nothing new, she’d thought. And better me than Tia.
Now, she carefully continued through the trees, all her senses heightened to try and anticipate where the attack might come from.
That it was going to attack her was also a certainty. As soon as she’d seen the scratch on the severed claw, she’d known it was a message. An invitation, if you will. For Luna had been the one to put that scratch there, the sole creature to ever wound the monster that was as old as the world itself.
If there was one thing she understood, it was the hunger for revenge after being locked away for more than a millennia.
She felt the hairs in her mane stiffen and raise, a response to the sheer hatred being directed her way. She could understand that, too.
And then there was no time to think at all.
Many mysteries abound in this world and others, Celestia read, but none have ever filled me with such fear as the Katreth, a creature I hope nopony ever has to face again. My colleagues would censure me for describing it as the very embodiment of evil, and yet I remain confident that there is no more accurate description.
Whether this monster was created with intent or formed by chance, I know not. I only know that if it were not for Princess Luna, Equestria itself may very well have fallen overnight. And even she was only able to drive it back from whence it came.
Alicorns have little to fear, and Luna’s bravery and might is known to all. But it was fear that I saw in her eyes the night she returned from facing such evil, fear such as I have never seen. How it did not shatter her will is beyond my understanding, and speaks to either the depth of her character, or the love she holds for her sister.
For that was the one thing Luna was insistent on; that Celestia not be told of this creature. I suppose by committing this to parchment, it is possible that one day she will read this, and I beg Luna’s pardon for breaking her confidence in this manner – that is, if she ever returns.
How does one defeat such evil, you might ask? I asked this of Luna, and her halting response both humbled and terrified me to my core.
“The one thing the Katreth cannot stand…is a mirror.”
A mirror? Celestia felt her heart skip a beat. “Luna.”
With a mighty crash, Celestia burst through the stained-glass window, taking flight immediately for the Everfree Forest. She was already clear of the castle walls when the first shouts from the guards could be heard, but they had no chance of catching up with her fast enough to matter.
Her sister may have faced such evil alone once, but she would not do so again. Not if Celestia had anything to say about it. Thinking of the danger Luna was in, she pumped her wings harder, speeding onward.
Judging from the bolts of magic visible in the night sky, she might already be too late.
Luna was flying as she hadn’t flown before, being chased by the embodiment of Tartarus itself.
A thousand years of peace meant that all the ponies in Equestria had taken to thinking of their rulers as peaceful, docile creatures, an image that Celestia and Cadance in particular worked to maintain.
If those ponies could see Luna now, they would never again be so foolish as to think of alicorns as docile. She positively blazed with power, firing blast after blast from her horn as her wings beat with such ferocity that the very trees shook to their roots with her passing. If she hadn’t been so terrified, she might have even enjoyed this feeling, but there was no room in her mind for such trivial things as enjoyment at the moment.
Twisting her body, she shot up and backward, the Katreth’s momentium forcing it to continue past her. Putting all her might into her magic, her horn began to glow with the fury of a dying star, building and building until she let the blast loose.
The Katreth screamed as the inferno engulfed it, but as the darkness reclaimed its place, she immediately saw the creature was unharmed…and somehow even angrier.
It was as before. Magic alone would not be enough to carry the day – or night, as it were. She returned to her flight, knowing what terrible option remained to her.
Sister, forgive me, Luna thought. As she’d told Star Swirl all those years ago, the Katreth’s one weakness was a mirror…evil reflected back at it by a pony capable of showing enough darkness to drive the beast back where it came.
The Princess of the Night knew something of darkness.
“Luna!” Celestia’s cry echoed over the snarls of the Katreth, and the Princess of the Sun soared into view, her eyes ablaze with the intensity of the noon-day sun. Even Luna, who knew her sister better than anypony who had ever lived, took a moment – a brief moment, to be sure, but a moment nonetheless – to marvel at the sight before her.
“Sister, turn back!” Luna cried in response. “This is my fight, and mine alone!” Don’t be like me, don’t come down to my level, she thought, tears forming in her eyes as she tried to distract the monster.
“Luna, you don’t have to do this alone!” Celestia’s voice was so sure, so confident, that even Luna, filled with insecurity and doubt as she was, felt hope blossom within.
The Katreth screamed, shooting out a bout of flame at Celestia, who effortlessly blocked it with a shield spell, her eyes not leaving those of her sister.
“You’re not the only one who knows the darkness!” she shouted, as the cries of the monster grew louder. “Trust me, Luna!”
Can’t do anything alone. She shouldn’t have to do this. Always stuck in her shadow. My hooves are the dirty ones, so hers can remain clean. Always going to be second best.
Old fears, old hurts…and Luna had grown past them. She only needed to admit it.
“Tia! On three?”
Dire as the situation was, Celestia couldn’t help smiling. “On your count, sister,” she called back, launching several more blasts to try and slow the Katreth’s advance.
I hope she can still see me as her sister after this, Luna thought.
Most ponies had a dark side, though it was generally quite tame. Alicorns, especially ones who had lived as long as the sisters had? They were another matter. Luna dug deep within herself, tapping into enormous stores of malice, of anger, of jealousy, of rage…and of hate. Pure, unbridled hate, hate that would suffocate all that it touched if it could.
She channeled all this and more, the very air around her beginning to warp and darken. Anypony who would have dared look at her would have felt their eyes begin to burn from the mere sight.
What Luna didn’t see, couldn’t see, was that Celestia was doing the same thing. She may not have been Princess of the Night, but the sun knew a thing or two about casting shadows.
And Celestia had her own demons.
But Luna didn’t need to see that to feel it, and she marveled at what her sister had become…and felt responsible for it as well.
Faced with the unstoppable onslaught from the Rulers of Equestria, the Katreth was unable to even scream as its very body was torn apart in the maelstrom.
For Luna, her hate that Celestia had needed to dirty herself in such a fashion only amplified the intensity of her power.
For Celestia, her hate that her sister had felt the need to carry such a burden herself served as its own potent multiplier.
Such hate, driven as it was by love, was too much for even world-ending demons to withstand.
With a final blast and flash that would be seen across Equestria, the Katreth vanished, never to return.
As the night returned, the pale moonlight revealed both alicorns still hovered in the air, wings gently flapping just enough to ensure they held altitude.
“Luna.”
Luna couldn’t look. If she looked, she knew what would be on her sister’s face: fear and disappointment.
“Luna.”
She looked anyway.
Luna wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Far from fear or disappointment, she saw only compassion and love, and it bathed her in a warmth that even the sun couldn’t match.
Celestia carefully approached her sister, coming up to brush her nose against Luna’s. “I seem to recall saying something about sharing burdens?”
“You did,” Luna replied, wincing at the rebuke she felt was coming.
“I must confess I haven’t done a very good job of that myself,” Celestia admitted. “I think we both have a long series of conversations coming when this is all over.”
“Over?” Luna asked, confused. “Isn’t it over now?”
Before Celestia could reply, voices appeared on the edge of their hearing. Both sisters turned to see a wave of very frustrated Royal and Lunar Guards flying toward them. Shining Armor led them, and it didn’t take an expert to read the expression on his face.
“I may have, er, flown the coop?” Celestia offered. “Really, a monarch is entitled to have some fun every now and then, right?”
Luna didn’t even try to stop herself from laughing. It simply felt too good not to. Soon, Celestia joined in, and the two sisters knew that whatever came next, they would handle it together.
The End
Author's Note
I wanted to do a story looking at Celestia and Luna not solely as ponies, but something more akin to Gandalf or Saruman from The Lord of the Rings; ancient beings given power to help those that stand in need, only intervening when necessary. The Katreth likewise was intended as something of a Balrog stand-in, an ancient evil that was beyond the ability of Twilight and her friends to fight.
Beyond that framework, I wanted to dig a little more into the two sisters, both Luna's lingering issues from her banishment and time before that, and Celestia's own struggles that she deals with.
Hopefully you enjoyed this one, and with luck, it won't be the last thing I submit.
