Royal Rewrite - The winner wrote the history

Chapters

1 - Introducing the sisters
2.1 - A bad day to assemble
2.2 - Shack of the Forsaken
2.3 - Questioning
2.4 - The battle begins
2.5 - The battle of harmony

1 - Introducing the sisters

Author's Note

Version 2024-06-11: Added some of the changes I had planned to do for chapter 1-2. It's nothing major, just a little less cringe. Still could use better prose and check grammar, but I'll leave that for later.
Didn't plan on doing any updates this until chapter 3 and 4 was finished, but I did it anyway.

1 - Introducing the sisters

Moonlight illuminated the majestic castle within the Everfree Forest. The royal garden’s aroma hung heavy in the air, the scent of flowers, the scent of grass; clinging to the shrubberies and brierpatches that set them free. The scents refused to move, for in the magical stillness behind the castle wall, there was no wind to chase them away.

The palace and the garden was surrounded by the castle wall. Outside the big rampart, the sounds of the Everfree Forest broke the stillness of night. The forest had birds, lizards, rodents mixed in with larger animals like bears and wolves, but the blessing of the soil steered them away from the walls.

The Royal Captain, the one on duty, walked through the garden towards his goal. He saw the silhouette of a pony, stretched out in the grass on her favorite spot. He had been a guard for many years, and the situation was far from new, yet he couldn’t stop his heart from beating faster as he draw close.

The silhouette had a horn on its head, just like a unicorn. It had wings on its side, just like a pegasus. But what made it different was her mane and tail. Without as much as a single breeze, it slowly moved on its own, filled with magic, and proved to everyone that it wasn’t a pony at all, but a Goddess.

The captain moved up close before he fell down, pressed his head and barrel to the ground to kneel properly. He held himself still as he waited for her gaze to acknowledge his presence.

"Steady Pike?" she mused. Leaving out the title during night court.

"Princess Luna, our ever present royal Guardian and benevolent keeper of sanctity, It is I, Steady Pike, seeking an audience to tonight’s session."

"We know who you are," she teased him. "And we know why you’re here. Please be at ease."

"As you wish my Princess," Steady Pike answered with a lower voice, more befit the stillness of the night. He struggled to use the least formal way to address her he could muster, as per her wishes during night court.

The alicorn’s eyes were discrete and mellow at night. It was hard to believe her round eyes could form reptilian slits that both Queen and Princess wore during the daily assembly. Any traces of dark smoke escaping the edges of her eyes were now nowhere to be seen. Her entire visage, in spite of the darkness, was smaller and brighter than during the day.

Steady Pike stood up, his head now elevated above the princess. During the nightly garden sessions she wanted her subjects to do that. To act in a relaxed common manner. Something that throne room protocol wouldn’t allow.

Most night court sessions would have a couple of attendants, relaxing in the grass surrounding the princess. But not tonight. Tonight was invitation only.

The princess resumed looking at the stars. Smiling at them as if they were her friends. She ignored the Royal Captain, giving him time to relax.

"It’s a very big day today if I may say so," Steady Pike said without being asked or addressed. "A big night!! I mean night," he quickly corrected himself.

Princess Luna kept looking at the stars, doing whatever it was she was doing.

"As in nighttime, not day..." he added in a loud mumble, trying to make small talk, as was custom for these special occasions with Princess Luna and her closest were gathered.

"Well, it’s not a big night for us it isn’t," he carefully added and then his voice once more picked up speed, "I mean, it is a big night for me. It’s very big to be in your glorious presence. It’s huge! I mean it’s not big for your highness. The night that is. It’s just another night," he kept babbling, somehow struggling to find the right words.

He took a deep breath and added, "Oh boy, what a night!"

He had tried to put a cheerful tone in it but he wasn’t sure the Princess would notice.

Luna just smiled at him with a sparkle in her eyes. She often did that when Steady Pike or some other pony in their inner circle started rambling, unsure on how to behave. She would patiently wait for them to calm down and never hand out an angry reprimand or a whipping for insolence to court.

For a while he enjoyed sitting close to her, basking in her presence, until she looked at him and said: "It’s a very big night for all of us. We find it to be a most propitious night and a mark of success. For you it’s a big night to bear witness and it’s especially big for Sergeant Block, and we believe he is joining us now."

The princess never used titles when the night court was in session. Sergeant Block had made Sergeant a part of his name and that’s why she used it.

Steady Pike turned his head towards the castle. A few seconds later Sergeant Block appeared in a doorway.

For a while the Sergeant stood frozen at the gateway to the garden, as if he didn’t know what to do. He looked at Princess Luna, who cocked her head in return. She studied him with a slight simper across her face.

Sergeant Block took a brisk stride towards the Princess before he threw himself down, head and barrel pressed tightly against the grass. His strong voice, although slightly muffled by the grass, stated his business to garden.

"My Princess, my guide, my Goddess of the Night, your faithful servant is here." He took a big gulp before his voice, now less sure of himself continued, "I am hopeful that my Goddess of the Moon will bestow upon me, the Moon’s blessing of the night."

"Welcome my child!" Princess Luna answered. Somewhat more ceremonial than she had recently been with Steady Pike.

The formal tone quickly faded as she continued. "Be at ease my dear pony. I take it you want to go through with the change?"

"Yes, your highness!" Sergeant Block blurted out, with a sharp determination that years of drilling taught him. He scrambled up on his hooves and continued, "I mean, Yes, my goddess! The blessing would be the ultimate honor and-and... I, eh... I haven’t changed my mind, so... please?!"

As the sergeant stumbled over his words, Steady Pike decided to help. "I believe our most holy Princess here, wants to know if you are aware of potential problems with your wish."

"Yes Captain! Yes I do," Sergeant Block replied, before he quickly continued.

"As an earth pony my magic fills my skin and grants me strength. The blessing of wings would let it leak out and make my skin brittle and my legs decrepit. The magic inside me would be weaker making me more susceptible to poison and disease or to heat and cold. The control over things in my mouth will be reduced, and whisking up a nut and a bolt with my tongue and spit it out screwed together can be next to impossible," he said, as his voice slowed down and he looked at Princess Luna.

The sergeant wondered if that really was the answer she was looking for at a time like this. The downsides with the metamorphosis were questions and answers he had been taught many times before this ceremony. Everyone in the inner circle had discussed it at length with plenty of examples.

"Very good," was all Princess Luna had to say. "And what about any positive effects?"

"I will not be able to fly right away. Maybe never. The wings of a pony is not like the wings of a bird. They help change and focus the flow of magic to make flight possible. Hard working muscles aids in directing the flow and with hard work and training it’s possible to become as good as a pegasus but there’s no guarantee, no matter how much I work."

"Very good, my dear Sergeant Block," Princess Luna said.

She raised herself from the ground and sat back on her haunches.
"Hopefully the change will not turn out as bad as you described it, and hopefully it won’t take too long before you can leave the ground, but during a time in between, it can be quite daunting to feel weaker, without being able to fly."

"My Princess! My Goddess!" Sergeant Block said, as his voice increased in both strength and determination. "I can be patient and I don’t seek the blessing of the Moon for the ability to fly. Screw flight! If I wanted to be a frilly pegasus I would have jumped off a cliff and learnt on the way down or suffered the consequence of failure like a fragile Unicorn," Sergeant Block said, in his drill-sergeant voice.

In the moonlight it was hard to see but his face turned pale after his sudden outburst. With a completely different voice he added, "My princess, no offense, I don’t mean..."

Princess Luna’s raised hoof in a quick angle and Sergeant Block immediately fell silent. To immediately stop talking when a royal so wished was a reflex everyone in the castle had in common. They wouldn’t still be in the castle if they didn’t.

"Be at ease my dear Sergeant Block. We have talked with you many times before and know your intentions. Do not think we have forgotten all the words you’ve spoken before. We clearly remember all the times you’ve said that having eyes of the night would be fun, not frightening, and the leathery wings would be a badge of honor, not a curse."

Luna stood up and moved up to stand real close to Sergeant Block. The princess in her blue form was much smaller than the Queen but still a tiny bit taller than both Captain Steady Pike and Sergeant Block.

"You’re not a pony of fancy words but we know your heart. You are now retired from the royal guard, and plan to move with your wife to the mountain, so we will be happy to grant you the transformation you desire. It’s just that we one final time want to asseverate that you realize that there is never a need for physical change to be part of the tribe."

Princess Luna turned her head to Steady Pike and continued, "Steady Pike here, is just as much family as you are, and always will be, but your princess has decided that change is not for him, so when he in a distant future retires from the guard, he will stay a unicorn. Isn’t that so, Steady Pike?"

"That is correct my princess. For someone such as myself, who have for so many years excelled among Equestria’s Unicorns at using telekinetic magic to move objects around, losing that ability and be forced to use hooves, mouth and wings to manipulate objects could be a very frustrating experience. You’ve explained it all to me and I concede that your wisdom is far superior to my own."

"Oh Steady Pike, you’re very wise pony, and that’s why you’re my favorite captain, but as we so many times maintained, it’s not the appearance that is important. It’s what’s in your heart. The change in appearance is like a uniform. It makes it easy to see what family you belong to, but even without a uniform you can still be the most respected family member. Isn’t that so, Steady Pike?"

As Princess Luna uttered the words she moved her face next to Steady Pike’s and put her hoof on his shoulder. She had a mischievous smile as she did.

Steady Pike’s heart started racing. It always did when she put her face really close, or when she touched him. Something unthinkable during the rigid court of daytime was here in the garden at night not really that uncommon, yet he wasn’t very good at pretending it was normal.

"My princess!!" he called out, louder than he intended, before he continued in his nighttime voice. "Your highness is always right. I trust your decision now and forever."

Luna looked him in the eyes for a while, before turning back to Sergeant Block.

"Have you decided on a new name? Although it’s common for ponies after retirement to keep their name, including title, some pick up a new one. Perhaps you had something planned together with the change?"

"No, my princess, I’m afraid not. I haven’t really thought about changing name. I mean, I’ve discussed it with my wife, but we figured it could wait until we settled down in the mountain. Perhaps the community could play a part in finding a fitting name; that is, if I change it."

"Oh Sergeant, that’s very wise of you. Focus on the important decisions first, like the change, and take the small decisions later. A very good way to deal with change."

Sergeant Block blushed at the praise and mumbled something sounding like a thank you with honorifics.

Luna continued without letting the Sergeant’s attempt at verbal communication distract her, "We just wanted to know if the ritual was to be performed with a new presentation of your persona, but it’s not needed and would have been just for flavor and for your own sake. But if you have no objections, we are ready to proceed."

Sergeant Block took a deep breath before he said, "Oh boy, am I ready?! I’m ready!! As ready as I’ll ever be," he swallowed hard, "Your highness! I mean, I’m ready your highness."

Luna smiled at him as she took a few steps back. Her tail, softly flowing with the look of a fluffy dark blue cloud suddenly came alive with the astral energy moving inside-out, turning vibrant and energetic. Her tail really started to move, as did her mane.

The vague notion of a translucent light within her tail and mane turned into noticeable streaks of silver as her entire presence changed from a blue mare to a darker, and more imposing figure.

As her body was growing, her eyes turned from a bashful blue round to a deeper black vertical ellipse. Traces of magic evaporated from her body, looking like black smoke, escaping from her eyes, from mane, and her horn while her voice also changed.

Gone was the soft mellow garden voice. Back was the voice of the Royal court. It was massive, it was resolute, it commanded, "Sergeant Block!"

Princess Luna’s magic, like tendrils, engulfed the Sergeant as she spoke.

"It’s time for you to transform. It’s time for you to move forth. The power within us, will grant you the power to change. Thus we command you, Sergeant Block, to experience the metamorphosis of the night and embrace your love of the Moon, and to accept the stillness of the night into your life."

Tentacles of dark energy flowed around them both, and fully embraced Block. They kept forming all over him and, became bigger, stronger faster and soon engulfed his entire being. They lifted him off the ground.

"We welcome you to focus on the merits of your inner thoughts in the faint light of the moon, instead of how you appear in the spotlight."

Hundreds of thick dark magical vines, rushed around his body, like dark snakes chased by lightning.

"We urge the child of night to close your eyes to that you first see, and instead contemplate what you have seen. To reflect upon the many different angles of true and false inherent in everything."

Luna’s voice echoed inside the vortex of energy that encompassed her garden court.

Her strong voice moved on, without hesitation, without doubt: "We welcome you to use all of your senses to find the deeper meaning. Let the vague glow of the moon guide you to spend more time searching for intention, than staring at the action."

The effects of the magic ripped the air apart and Steady Pike could just stare in awe and veneration at the scene before him.

"I hereby ask of you Sergeant Block, to let your thoughtful mind be your guide, as one of my many children under the moon."

Almost as quickly as Luna had changed her appearance and invoked the magic, her aura faded back, to return her shape, color and eyes, to the blue pony she once was. At the same time the enchanted tendrils surrounding Sergeant Block retracted and dissipated. Leaving a huddled figure in its place.

Sergeant Block looked a bit different. His ears were a little pointier than before. His irises were differently shaped and hanging from the sides of his spine were two leathery wings.

"Congratulations!" Luna said, as she took a few steps towards him and slightly osculated his forehead with her lips. "You can no longer hide you’re one of the Mountain Tribe," she smiled.

Sergeant Block stared at his wings while he stretched them out to the sides. He moved them back and forth, up and down, not very synchronized, but there was clearly strength in them.

He kept moving his wings, but also stretching his legs, bending his knees, pushing and scratching the ground, trying to come to terms with all the changes that had happened.

"My legs..." he started. "It feels as if I have my usual strength?"

Steady Pike felt an urge to fill in. "It’s more of an endurance thing, so the losses will be noticed if you spend a day plowing a field."

Steady Pike didn’t know why he said it. The sergeant should already know that, but all the emotions from the magical experience he had to say something. Not just bottle it up.

"Steady Pike is correct," Princess Luna added. "But we believe you may wonder if you have enough magic in your wings to fly? We felt it, and we are sure that you do, but it will take time to practice, and how to exert yourself, turning that magic in to speed and not just levitation or falling slowly."

Sergeant Block stood frozen for a few seconds and just stared at Princess Luna. As he did, his lower lip started to tremble, his eyebrows quivered slightly, as did his voice, when he finally spoke, "Oh my Goddess you have no idea how happy you made me. To bestow this honor upon me so everypony will know that the Nightmare personally invited me."

Steady Pike’s face drained and became ashen. Sergeant Block suddenly realized what he had said and his expression froze.

"Night Mare??" Princess Luna asked with surprise, cocking an eyebrow.

Sergeant Block threw himself on the ground. "Your highness, a thousand apologies, I meant no disrespect. I would never claim you to be a common mare." His voice was full of panic.

"Calm yourself my dear pony. I don’t consider it disrespectful to be called a mare. Not here in the garden at night. We use garden night court formality. Remember?"

He lifted her head and looked at her. "Of course I remember, I- b-but, Captain!! Please explain." He looked at Steady Pike with pleading eyes.

"Your highness, I can explain," Steady Pike said.

"And this mare is ready to listen," Princess Luna responded.

Steady Pike’s open jaw and frozen manners hinted it probably wasn’t a good time for frivolous banter pretending to be a commoner. At least not after recently showing the power at her disposal. Perhaps Steady Pike would be more relaxed if they had first been idling and gossiping for an hour or two? It didn’t matter. Steady Pike needed a shock every now and then to keep his idolization at sane levels.

Steady Pike looked at Princess Luna as she lay down comfortably in the grass and awaited his explanation. She stretched her neck and nodded towards the grass. He noticed the sign that he may make himself comfortable and out of reflex he acknowledged the nod with a short bow, as night court manners dictated, but his mind was elsewhere and he remained standing.

"Our most glorious Queen, The Goddess Celestia, has many very, very..." he took a deep breath and continued, "very, very loyal followers."

He cast a quick glance towards Sergeant Block who had tensed up and stood with his wings stretched out as hard as he could to either side. Steady Pike didn’t know if he was stretching them on purpose or if it was the aftermath of panic.

"Those very loyal followers, tend to trigger on any form of praise or discussion that focus on Princess Luna instead of our Divine Queen Celestia. Any discussion that isn’t clear that our most amazing Queen Celestia is the ultimate Goddess, they would consider blasphemous."

Princess Luna didn’t look worried, but she did look troubled. She rested her head on top of her hooves. The Captain admired her brooding mind, filled with an eternity of thoughts. He snapped back to focus and continued.

"As our Princess know we have a several guards, and some ponies in court, who have noticed your gentle philosophical nature and we really enjoy it. We sometimes mention it to one another as encouragement. It help us move on. Especially if we have to enforce some punishment or a whipping."

Steady Pike looked at Princess Luna while she patiently waited for him to continue. Giving him all the time he needed.

"To be able to talk more openly we have come to use ‘mare of the night’ as code for our most beloved Princess Luna. When talking about the mare of the night, or nightmare when keeping it short, they don’t realize we talk about your highness, and that we may prefer Princess Luna over Queen Celestia, and thus they don’t perceive any heresy."

Steady Pike looked quizzically at Sergeant Block, as if waiting for him to add or intervene. The silence dragged on for a while but when Sergeant Block didn’t say or sign anything Steady Pike finally continued.

"We try and pretend it’s just a rendezvous and especially the guards are quick to believe we have secret nightly love affairs that we don’t want to divulge. Either because we’ve been sworn to secrecy, or because it involves mares in the settlement we don’t want exposed. Since we could be talking about one of their own, or even an officer, they don’t dare to pry into it. Especially since The Queen is adamant about respecting privacy."

"We see," Princess Luna said. She raised her head and smiled. "In fact, we are honored that the ‘mere’ mention of mine, can give you strength during hard times."

She paused with a smug smile. Wondering if they would catch up on her phrase the ‘mere mention’. She had pronounced it ambiguously, sounding like mare, to bring some common pony humor to it. She quickly realized they weren’t going to give her as much as a giggle or even a smirk, as it flew over their heads.

"Let it be known to all trusted members in our herd that the Nightmare is the mare that acts freely during the night and hides in the shadow during the day. Let the mare of the night be known to our circle as an elusive presence you can’t really specify. For reasons that can’t be explained. You can claim it’s a joke to tease the curious or your hopes and dreams for a future encounter. Whatever you decide, is up to you, for only one thing is sure: The NightMare values your heart over her orders."

"As you command, my Princess!" Steady Pike echoed immediately

"My Glorious Princess, your will shall be done," Sergeant Block quickly followed suit.

Their quick acts of obedience made Luna doubt they fully understood her, but as she looked at them she still felt kinship. They felt like the family she would rather have than the one she actually had.

* * *

Princess Luna felt it, long before anyone else could sense it. She decided to act immediately.

"Sergeant Block, how’s your wings?"

"It feels amazing," he said, moving them up and down as he tried to emphasize his words.

"Why don’t you test if you can get them to work? You have our royal permission to fly over the castle wall. Fly out into the forest, to prepare or maybe even start your journey to the mountain. Show us what you can do."

"Yes my princess," he said. Then stood still for a few seconds without doing anything. It was easy to confirm he heard her, but after being an earth pony for thirtysix years, following a command to fly wasn’t something that came natural.

He worked his muscles. The wings barely flapped in tandem with his movements. He lifted a bit off the ground and moved backwards, his wings flailing as if trying to stop him from falling instead of focusing on flying.

Eventually he calmed down and started trotting around, doing small jumps gliding back and forth along the garden stretch where Luna spent her garden sessions. He even managed to stay airborne during a turn. The big smile across his face witnessed how happy he was with his progress.

"Now fly over the wall," Luna encouraged him.

"Yes, your highness," he replied, out of reflex.

To get up in the air and glide along was easy enough, but increasing altitude was difficult. He decided to cheat by galloping to gain some speed before taking that first critical jump getting up from the ground. He had good speed, and the wall quickly closed in on him.

He didn’t mind an embarrassing face plant right into the wall; that wouldn’t hurt. It wouldn’t hurt at all. But he didn’t want to disappoint the Princess. That would be agonizing.

His speed increased, faster and faster, the wall came closer, and then he recognized a voice that filled him with terror from hoof to ear.

"PRINCESS LUNA!!" the strong Royal voice echoed from the castle over the entire garden.

It was full of anger and very different from the one that Luna used.

Luna stood prepared to usher the newborn batpony over the wall. Give it a push so to speak, but was happy to notice that her sister’s terrorizing voice had given him all the push he needed. In fact his stiff little wings looked like a hummingbird vibrating in a terrified flutter.

She mused to herself at the sight. It was impossible for a winged pony to fly far, straining itself like that, but he did get both speed and altitude, so it was very effective.

Luna’s calm visage was in stark contrast to the big white alicorn that moved towards them. The Queen had reptilian eyes, filled with flames, while light traces of astral flame lingered in her wavy tail and mane.

"Our Divine Queen and my dear sister Celestia. We are honored by your presence," Luna’s cheerful voice acknowledged her sister.

"What, and why, is going on here? Explain yourself!" The Queen wasn’t happy.

"Guarding the night. Playing with the stars. Passing time, waiting for dawn."

"Do not mock us little sister. What was that?" Celestia said. Her stern voice referred to the flying pony that without gaining altitude was now hidden by the high walls.

"Our latest experiment. We like to experiment," Luna said. Still calm, bordering to nonchalant.

Celestia looked at Captain Steady Pike as he was kneeling as hard as he could. Pressing himself so close to the ground you could think he was a wannabe mole.

"Captain! Explain what my sister hath done."

"My Divine Queen, Equestria’s Goddess and devote Guardian and Guide of all Life, I have witnessed how the Royal Princess Luna transformed a pony and made it fly away."

Celestia looked back at Luna. "Is that so? Perhaps the little sister should explain what she’s up to?"

Luna’s calm demeanor was a stark contrast as she loftily explained, "Changed his body, redirected the flow of his magic. It was an earth pony, and we actually managed to get it to fly."

"Trying to create an alicorn in our likeness? You fool! To have a mortal pony spread its aspect over three areas instead of one, will just cripple it. Starswirl The Bearded knew mortals better than anypony and could prove it."

"Oh, sister don’t fret. We remember Starswirl and what he said. We consider Starswirl a close friend." A hint of annoyance had crept into her voice.

"Mortals can’t be friends with Eternals. He was close to us. Nothing more. Not a friend. And never an equal, in spirit or in mind, in any way."

Luna had stopped smiling. She pretended not to hear while she looked up at her stars. She appeared to be counting them to make sure that none were missing. Only she had the power to move them, but it didn’t stop her from checking them.

"And what do you think the ponies will say after they learn of your experiments?"

"Oh dear sister, it’s not a problem. We know how much you value good staff, so we used a retired pony. Someone that is no longer in our service and was going to leave, and leave it did," Luna said, sounding happy as she looked in the direction where Sergeant Block had flown away.

"You bemock us?" Celestia’s voice grew stern. "Don’t. You. Dare. Ridicule us!"

Celestia’s voice, filled with anger, spat out the words while the fire in her eyes increased, as did the brightness in her mane and tail. The entire garden basked in the flickering light as Celestia’s fiery anger swelled, causing anyone in the vicinity to feel the terror she dispersed.

Captain Pike who was kneeling close to both, felt it in his spine. He had felt it many times, but it was rarely as strong as now. At this level there was usually a punishment involved, but there were no pony around to be punished. None but him.

Captain Pike now believed it wasn’t just the blessing of the soil and walls that kept animals away from the garden. Small sensitive rodents and birds would surely die from the sheer terror caused by the Queen’s aura.

Luna on the other hoof was completely unfazed by the entire ordeal and responded in kind. Her mane and tail started to energize as her voice grow stronger and deeper .

"Queen and sister -- as reiterated many times, the royals have divided responsibilities. The Queen will deal with the actions of the days, and the Princess will make sure the night is calm. Up until now we believe it was as calm as could be demanded and the Princess thus performed her duty exemplary."

The radiance of the Queen dimmed a bit as the darkness of the night from Luna pushed back while she moved up to stand right in front of Celestia, pushing her face towards her sister.

Luna’s irises were elliptical slits again and the dark smoke emanating from her eyes and mane cared not for the light from her sister. Her mane and tail flowed with a glistening black that both held pitch-black darkness and streaks of energy, looking as if they were either fleeing or quickly leaving to make chase.

Anyone who believed Luna to be meek or intimidated by her sister’s presence could easily see that this was not the case. Her voice put on a hard edge as her head tilted upwards to look her sister in the eyes, before she continued to speak.

"Dear sister, if you want to change who is in charge of what, we suggest that all of us meet and discuss it during the day. It is, after all, during the day that change should happen. During the night the Kingdom should rest and relax. It is what you, as Queen, have told us many times."

Celestia locked eyes with her sister. Two pair of immortal eyes, neither flinching nor yielding acted as an epicenter for the devastating scene that unfolded.

"Fine!" Celestia finally said. "We will talk more about this during the day. For now we will let you sit here and play your games, but don’t forget who is your Queen."

As Celestia turned to walk away her aura dimmed and the bright light from her presence was toned down. By the time she entered the castle it was nothing more than the faint translucent light she usually had in her mane and tail.

If the Queen’s eyes had calmed down, Steady Pike didn’t know, and the last thing he wanted to know. He preferred to stay clear of the Queen when she was in a bad mood. A wise choice that he believed had helped him advance to the rank of Captain.

____

* * *

As soon as Celestia disappeared inside, Luna’s aura quickly mellowed. She looked long and hard after Celestia. Her mind brooding on thoughts that Steady Pike couldn’t fathom.

"Dear captain, we need to apologize for our boisterous sister. The Queen intrudes most unwelcome in our garden court sessions," Luna said. She looked at him, calm and caring.

Steady Pike heard the words of disrespect and didn’t know what to say. To agree with such words was blasphemy, yet he couldn’t disagree with a royal princess. He acted as if he hadn’t heard.

"Steady Pike, we are just trying to calm you after the Queen’s blinding visage made a most annoying appearance. We guess that uplifting tittle-tattle isn’t what we do best."

Steady Pike looked carefully at Princess Luna. She patiently waited for him to get over the near-death experience after the sisters’ tempestuous encounter.

The princess just wanted him to relax. Nothing else. So he decided to speak the deepest secrets of his mind. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. He took a deep breath as he rose from kneeling to sitting. He looked her straight in the eyes, something she actively encouraged during Garden formality.

"My princess. If there ever comes a time, when I must choose. I know what my choice will be. And I will make that choice, even if it means being killed on the spot or burning in Tartarus. If you ever want me to make that choice, please just ask me, and I will instantly do it. But until I’m forced to make it, I will keep my oath and serve the queen to the best of my abilities."

Steady Pike wanted to add more, and explain his emotions, but this wasn’t about his feelings, it was about his loyalties. He hoped that Princess Luna would understand that.

Luna looked at him for a while before breaking the silence.

"Remember some years ago when your Mare of the Night told her garden court how she can see ponies’ dreams?" Luna said, in a more somber tone.

She paused for a while before she continued.

"When we said that, we meant it literally even though everypony took it figuratively. But it’s not the hopes and imaginary goals we talk about. It’s the actual dreams ponies experience in their sleep. We can close our eyes and find vivid dreams around Equestria crying out for a visit. Or we can go to sleep and get a collage of loud dreams as well as the ability to influence several at the same time."

She waited a while for the information to sink in.

"A very long time ago we used to show ourself in dreams. But my sister demanded strict order and perfect behavior from everypony. She appeared all over Equestria to explain unacceptable behavior, and punish those who transgressed. She’s always busy and she didn’t have time to ordinary visits. So the only reason for her appearance was to explain the laws and why something had to be punished."

Luna let out a sigh before she continued, "All over Equestria, they all started to fear the Queen whose public appearances not only demanded rigid protocols, but also brought castigation to ‘weed out’ unacceptable behavior. And as I was her dark sister, supporting her from the shadow, we became just as feared as our sister," Luna said. Her voice was sad.

She threw a glance at the stars before she continued: "Terrordreams, or feardreams, as they are commonly called, usually stick around and repeats itself after a pony first get haunted by one. We dissipate them to help ponies sleep, but it became easier to hide and help, without letting them know that Princess Luna of the Moon was there to aid them. From the stories our Queen found helpful in order to encourage obedience, they often feared the immortal royals from the Everfree Forest just as much as any undead steed in a terrordream."

Luna looked at Steady Pike. Her soft blue eyes and the magical sparkle hidden in their depths didn’t look like they used to. Sadness was there. He couldn’t really see it, but he could feel it. Her powerful presence wasn’t always hidden in the form of a demure blue mare and now he felt a sad presence in her eyes.

"We can chase away a headless horse, or give the dreamer the power to vanquish it, but we can’t spend hours explaining the Queen’s desire for perfection, and that not all royals are evil. Especially when facing the argument of why Princess Luna do not act. If someone has the power to do something, but doesn’t do it, many powerless ponies claim the bystander to be just as bad. And they are right."

"My princess," Steady Pike said softly. "I’ve spent a large part of my life in this castle. I know that you more than anything else in this kingdom vouch for lenience. Even when it means opposing her Majesty the Queen during the daily assembly."

"Ah, yes, the act of suggesting something ‘lenient’ instead of something harsher, and call it protection. But it’s not about what we do -- it’s about what we can do, and Luna of the Moon has the power to do so much more than we currently do."

Luna emphasized the last bit with a slight edge in her voice and looked back at the stars.

"Steady Pike, we hope you can forgive us for saying this but we will miss you after you’re gone. We spent many years in this world, and from time to time we meet someone we dearly wish could stay with us instead of growing old and leave."

Luna’s voice had lost the edge it had when she talked about her sister. Her voice was low, not royal, as she continued to talk.

"For all the magic we wield, there is nothing we royals can do about death. We are really happy for your company while you’re here, yet there is a sadness to see you grow old because it means you are leaving. You slowly walk towards the horizon and we can’t follow. Just watch as you walk further and further away, without you even noticing it."

Luna bowed down her head and closed her eyes.

Steady Pike shifted uneasily as he desperately searched for something to say but couldn’t come up with anything.

"I’m really sorry about that growing old thing. I honestly didn’t care about it before, but seeing you hurt, I really wish I could do something about it," he said. Anxiously trying to think of something better.

Luna’s faint smile appeared across her face before she raised her head to look at him.

"My dear Captain. Your loyalty will surely be remembered for a thousand years. But we didn’t mean to berate you for growing old. As we said, we are happy for the time we get together with such splendid ponies as yourself, and we have come to accept destiny as it unfolds."

She wanted to lift a hoof and ruffle his mane, as she had seen ponies do both in dreams and in the settlement outside the castle walls when they didn’t know she observed them, but it wouldn’t befit a royal princess and it could make Steady Pike uncomfortable. So Luna just smiled at him while musing over the thought, leaving Steady Pike none the wiser.

"The dilemma we face is that in a world full of ponies we love, there is only one who will always be with us, and it’s my sister. That’s the real problem. The loyalty your Princess gives to the Queen is not because she’s a good sister, but because she will never leave me."

Luna felt good about uttering the last ‘me’ as a commoner. It made her feel more like the mare she often wanted to be. But Steady Pike didn’t notice even though he clung to every word she said.

In the dreams Luna visited she was neither royal nor special and she loved the feeling of being one among many. She and the dreamer experienced the same dream and felt very much the same feelings. The main difference was that Luna knew it was just a terrordream and had the power to vanquish all the bad stuff with the flick of an ear. But the key to helping a pony wasn’t to dismiss the horror, but to teach the dreamer to overcome it, to gain immunity.

Steady Pike had silently observed Luna and after taking a deep breath he decided he should try a more positive approach to this gloomy conversation.

"Well, if there is anything I can do to help cheer up your majesty, just let me know. I may not be a terrific speaker or a practical joker, but perhaps I can be somewhat of a court jester if you need me to? When our royal highness the Queen isn’t around that is. We both know how she feels about jokers."

"Ruling a kingdom is serious business," Luna said, in parody of her sister. "No time for jokes!"

"Ask of me anything you need and I will help." Steady Pike emphasized his willingness.

"So you will support your Princess of the moon?"

"In any way I can," he said while straightening himself.

"Then please help explain this puzzling conundrum to us. The conversation we as a princess are privy to, seems to be very dry compared to the ones you have with your fellow guards. When you throw out hints about the mare in the night being a promiscuous love affair to lead suspicious minds away, what do you say?"

Captain Pike’s flustered reply came while he stared towards the ground, "O-of course your highness. What is it y-you want to know?"

"We would like to know how you express yourself when royalty isn’t present. We would like to hear what words you chose when you pretend the mare of the night is a secret love affair," Luna said, with a big sweet innocent smile across her face.

Steady Pike’s mind was racing, trying to figure out what to say. That a dreamwatcher who is way older than any other living creature he had ever faced, sans Queen Celestia, had accumulated massive amounts of experience with all kinds of dreams, and surely wasn’t as innocent as her big blue eyes would have him believe, never crossed his mind.

"Well, it can be, that the mare is indeed something special, which I underscore with a silly grin. This obviously only has to be done if we believe someone is questioning our topic or trying to find a deeper meaning to it."

"So could you show us? Pretend we are Sergeant Willow of the night court and as curious observers we have Captain Quicksmite and her ever-present sidekick Lieutenant Ladyhawke."

Luna stood up and shuffled her hooves a bit, as if that would ever help her to look like a Sergeant.

Steady Pike rose from his sitting position and stared at her. He swallowed hard as he was unable to figure out what to say.

"We do understand you need to take your time, but we also want to remind you that we all have to leave soon. Your patrol is about to end as the guards at the gate are soon to be replaced. You need to meet them, so they can relay their end-of-shift report. Soon you have work to do."

"Of course your highness. It’s just... the situation, is a bit different."

"We understand and we will help you. We can play the part of Sergeant Willow better."

Luna cleared out her throat before she recalled some feardream that started out good and then turned horribly bad. The early part could serve as inspiration.

"Captain. That Nightmare snuck into your bed. I believe she’s waiting for you," Luna said, while throwing her voice an octave deeper. Mostly for fun and not to sound like the sergeant.

"S-s-she d-did??" Stead Pike stuttered, before getting into character.

"I mean, Oh, did she? Oh great! I so look forward to hug the Nightmare," he said, with a perturbed voice while his eyes chased across the garden, looking at everything but the princess.

Luna’s eyes closed slightly as she tilted her head and studied him. She had seen her fair share of double entendre, not up front, but through her ability to observe dreams. She was hoping for Steady Pike to express to her some discreet sensual insinuation and not a proclamation of panic.

"And that will make Captain Quicksmite believe the mare of the night to be nothing but a frilly tryst you have in secret?" she asked, looking curious.

"Indeed," Steady Pike said. Then after a short sigh he added. "No, it would not. It needs undertones. That wouldn’t work at all."

Luna didn’t say anything. She knew it wouldn’t work and obviously so did Captain Pike.

"It’s a pity Sergeant Block isn’t here," Steady Pike continued as he looked towards the wall where he was last seen. "When he gets into character he will forget all his manners and he could no doubt explain this a lot better."

"Yes indeed. We fondly remember Sergeant Block and while his forthright manners may have prevented him from ever becoming an officer, his friendly honesty gained him a tribe. We suspect that with the right coaxing it wouldn’t require much before he spilled every sultry trick he knew."

"Indeed your highness. The princess should probably wait for the next chance you get to meet him and ask him to explain it," Steady Pike blurted out.

Luna just smiled at him as she sat back on her haunches, taking a long look at the Captain with a glint in her eyes. She was silent for a while, pondering to herself, before she spoke.

"As Princess of the Moon we have always considered us proponents of silent contemplation. The stillness of the night is the perfect time to give everypony the tranquility required to analyze and deduce the small truths so important for the big picture."

"Indeed it is, my princess."

Princess Luna lifted her gaze and stared straight up. She gave a theatrical sigh before she continued. "Alas, we are now bestowed with even more tasks; we are not just Princess of the Moon, we are also dubbed The Mare of the Night."

"My Princess, it’s just so we can show our devotion without fear of retaliation."

"We know, but still we find it’s a lot to take in. We used to be standing in the shadow of the Queen, focusing on the spiritual needs of our ponies, but now we have four more shoes to fill."

"My princess?" Steady Pike said, looking confused.

"As Princess of the Moon we help our subjects with their spiritual needs. As Mare of the Night we have a duty to aid our subjects with their physical needs as well."

Silence ensued as it took a while for Luna’s words to sink in but when it did Steady Pike almost swallowed his tongue.

"OH MY GODDESS, NO!! What?! NO my princess!! We would NEVER expect anything like that from you. You’re my goddess of purity." He shook his head to emphasize his words.

Luna put on a confused face and looked him in the eyes.

"So, when you talk about the mare of the night, you never, ever, talked about putting weight on this sturdy back, the solid flanks, to taste our mane, or rub your barrel against our glistening fur? Imagining how it might be, to describe it better?"

"It- it’s inappropriate, it’s sacrilege," Steady Pike flustered while Luna moved close and put her face just in front of his. Close enough for him to feel her breath as it escaped her nostrils.

"Steady Pike?" Luna said carefully.

"Yes, your highness!" came his meek response, mostly out of reflex.

She leaned forth, so her lips almost touched his ears before whispering softly. "Sadly that is a reality that can never happen. We are sorry to say that immortals can never engage physically with mortals."

Princess Luna spun around in the direction of the castle while Steady Pike was frozen like a statue, reeling from the recent experience. As she turned she let her high flowing tail sweep across his nose.

She walked away and with each distinct step she took, her tail swayed equally distinct from side to side.

After she walked for a bit she turned her head and smiled mischievously, "In your dreams, Captain Pike. In your dreams."

2.1 - A bad day to assemble

The Everfree forest was considered the centre of Equestria. Inside the Everfree forest was a Castle. Inside the castle was a throne room. Inside the throne room was a Queen. Together with the Queen were several ponies. Those ponies dearly wished they were someplace else. Anywhere except in the throne room, or the castle, or even the forest. You didn’t need to ask them what they wished. The visible anger displayed by the Queen made it obvious they all shared the same wish.

Queen Celestia looked at the assembled royal guards with her burning eyes. Her anger didn’t originate from the prisoner’s attempt to escape, but from the fact the prisoner had outside help, and the only pony who could possibly have helped him, must be a guard.

That’s why the Queen was furious. It meant a servant of the court was guilty of treason. Treason within the court was the worst thing that could happen. To deceive the court, is to deceive every pony in the land.

Even worse – she couldn’t figure out who the perpetrator was. Half of all the royal guards had been gathered for a first round of questions, but they all seemed to be telling the truth, even if it could be hard to tell with ponies so nervous they barely remembered to breath.

So the Royal Court, the single most powerful entity in the Kingdom of Equestria, was tainted with treachery, but lacked the knowledge to cure itself.

Celestia’s flaming eyes glanced at the officers and soldiers gathered. It wasn’t the entire royal guard, but everyone that in any shape or form could have been involved in the prisoner’s escape.

The prisoner had been convicted of murder, and the murderer was scheduled to be executed at the scene of the crime. This punishment ensured that a most violent criminal would never, ever repeat the crime. It also served to remind those left behind that no crime went unpunished.

But the prisoner had managed to escape. The convict was fleeing through the Everfree forest when they found him but the desperate prisoner was killed during the capture. It all happened so fast – was the poor excuse from the guards.

Celestia was happy her sister wasn’t there. To figure out how the pony managed to escape was difficult, and Celestia could do well without her irresponsible sister arguing that with the prisoner dead, the final result was achieved, and royalty had better things to do than waste energy on concluded matters.

Her little sister was so clueless. She had no idea how difficult it is to maintain order and make sure that everypony in Equestria heeded the Royal wisdom. Ponies needed to follow the rules laid out, not just when she or her sister were there to watch them, but also when neither of them had been seen in that area for many years.

Total respect could only be accomplished by a massive reputation rooted deep into everypony’s memory. A memory delivered as a matter of fact on a boring scroll is quickly forgotten. A memory delivered together with massive emotions would be remembered forever. If she had to be harsh to a violent criminal in order to accomplish the perfect reminder for society, it was the price that must be paid.

Draconian measures versus a single criminal would entail that ten ponies in fear of repercussions never became criminals, and along that path followed that a hundred ponies would never have to become victims of criminals. Such wisdom wasn’t for a flower-sniffing garden pony to understand. Doing what must be done, was a burden that only the ruler could bear.

It was different in the early days, when ponies were about to go extinct. Celestia and Luna had showed themselves for the first time, to aid the ponies and to guide them. During the early centuries they could be patient and repetitive.

Generations of old ponies were replaced with young ones, who repeated the mistakes of the previous generation. Young ponies always failed to heed the warnings from the elders, believing the current situation were different, and refused to see how previous experience applied to the current generation.

Every pony was thrilled to learn something new. No pony was excited to confirm something old. It was thus in the nature of everypony to disregard old wisdom, and to explore and make ‘new’ discoveries.

Ponies in general seemed oblivious to these shortcomings. Older ponies tended to shrug it off. It was all part of growing up. But mortal ponies never had to see tragic mistakes repeated over and over again. They didn’t have to see ten mistakes per year, turn into a hundred mistakes per year, and thousand mistakes per year, as the population in Equestria increased by the century. Inflating a simple saddle-sore to a painful harrowing experience for Celestia.

They didn’t have to worry about the ripples of mistakes going back and forth across the kingdom amplifying each other; turning calm water into a treacherous sea. Turning small-scale feuds into full-fledged wars. Queen Celestia on the other side, had to worry about all of that – and she did.

Many centuries ago she had intervened in the world to rescue them, because she didn’t bear to see the few remaining ponies suffer an agonizing death. She didn’t save them so they could multiply by the thousands and have her watch a multitude of agonizing deaths.

In the old days she could repeat the do’s and don’t for every new pony born. Nowadays, ponies were spread out all over Equestria and she can’t be everywhere. Some ponies could go their entire life without meeting the queen or the princess. It’s difficult to influence someone who’s never met you. It requires a different approach than someone you face.

Luna always believed everything to be simple. Give a pony anarchy and it will eventually invent order. Teach a pony about justice, and it can tinker something that suits their community. Well, Celestia’s way of teaching may be different from what Luna had in mind, but it worked. Celestia did what had to be done, because she knew from experience that Luna’s philosophy didn’t.

Today the failure had been in the very heart of kingdom. Someone had given the prisoner special tools to help him escape. If the same problem had been in some goddess-forsaken cave dwelling outside the borders she wouldn’t care. If it had been within Equestria’s borders the ponies would be ordered to take actions to prevent it from repeating.

Now it had happened at the royal castle, the role model of Equestrian society; the beacon of light the entire kingdom was supposed to follow, and that was high treason.

She looked over the assembled ponies as they stood lined up in front of her. None were excluded unless proven innocent. It was from experience. Mistakes could happen. Even ponies with great intentions could screw up. She looked at Captain Quicksmite. She was almost a favorite of Celestia. The Queen didn’t play favorites, but if she did, it would certainly be Captain Quicksmite. She started with addressing her.

"Do you have any explanation as to how the prisoner got the tools to escape?"

"Our Divine Queen Goddess, I have not, and I’m truly sorry for my failure," Captain Quicksmite said. Her answer was quick and her voice was steady.

Quicksmite’s thoughts in the presence of the Queen always aligned with hers, but who knows what she had been thinking at the time the prisoner got his tools? Celestia’s influence waned when she wasn’t around. She knew that from experience.

The Queen turned to Captain Steady Pike, "Can you explain how the prisoner acquired the tools?"

"Our Divine Queen Goddess, I believe somepony must have helped him," the Captain said, but his voice was weak and not as adamant as that of Captain Quicksmite.

Celestia’s fiery mane caught additional flames as her already heated temper flared, "Of course he had help you imbecile. The initial investigation already concluded that."

Captain Steady Pike responded by throwing himself flat on the floor, in the traditional submissive pose of apology.

Celestia wasn’t really annoyed with Steady Pike. It was just so typical of a stallion to provide stupid answers to simple questions. In general, mares could use their words and vocabulary properly while stallions could not.

Mares were great to send out to lead a mission when creativity, imagination and improvisation were required. Stallions were amazing at following simple orders demanding focus on the goal. Tell a stallion to stare at a wall and make sure it doesn’t topple over, and the stallion would stare at the wall, no questions asked, hour after hour. A mare on the other hoof would soon find herself attaching bells to the wall and run away to do something else, convinced the bells would alert her if she were needed.

From experience Celestia suspected a mare to be the traitor. Somepony who had been thinking too much, and come up with some genius idea, that ended up going horribly wrong. Perhaps believing she could reveal the prisoner to have tools in his cell, and get rewarded for her perception? Ideas similar to that one weren’t uncommon and faked heroic deeds happened a few times every century, but without as serious repercussion as this one.

Whatever the original plan, the tools were used by the pony to perform a violent escape, and start a mad dash through the Everfree forest. What puzzled Celestia was that the pony didn’t gallop down along the road to get away, but actually went deeper, through the dense part of the forest. That’s not how a pony had ever made their escape before.

If it wasn’t for Celestia helping to pinpoint his direction he may have gotten away. Usually it would fall on the princess to play chase, as her abilities were better suited to it, but Celestia had managed to awaken her divining abilities and make good use of them. Something she rarely managed these years. The aura of a regular pony was tiny. The last centuries she had found it increasingly difficult scrying for one.

She silently looked at the assembled ponies. To shake up a gathering of possible suspects usually caused a few pieces of the puzzle to appear, or lies to unravel, but so far she had nothing. That was highly unusual.

~*~*~*~*~

2.2 - Shack of the Forsaken

Princess Luna sailed quickly through the air. Her altitude higher than any pegasus could muster. She was on her way back to the Royal Castle and keeping out of reach from regular fliers made sure her trip would be unimpeded.

The recurring diplomatic mission to the dragons was to ensure both races stayed on friendly terms. Not that the three ancient dragons who ruled would try anything. They wouldn’t dare challenge the duo who defeated the God of Chaos. But the younglings, the inexperienced ones, often sought to challenge the more powerful dragons, or tried to gain fame and reputation through battles with ponies or griffons. Often combined with fierce rhetoric about how dragons should go back to a single strong ruler, instead of a triumvirate that can’t make a decision unless they all agreed.

During her visit she had used her most impressive visage. It guaranteed that no upstart dragon would dare to challenge her. Dragons knew from experience that size didn’t matter when primal forces were at play. The God of Chaos had taught them that.

Now as she soared across the sky she was back in her humble blue shape. A form that she much preferred.

Although Luna was fast, there were several fliers in Equestria that were faster. A few pegasus and all bat ponies knew that some ponies could fly faster than Princess Luna.

Luna didn’t explain the mystery of flight to ponies. Secrets only she and her friend Starswirl figured out. It was Luna’s huge amount of magical energy that made it difficult to fly fast. If you put a pebble in a blowpipe you could send it rapidly through the air. If you put a mountain in the blowpipe – you could not.

Luna never revealed that knowledge to ponies. If she showed them the research, fearing ponies proud over their amazing speed would instead become sad, thinking they had very little to push.

The key to flight wasn’t the amount of magic you had, but your ability to divert it to push instead of being shoved. Everyone could improve their flow with physical training but not everyone was suited to become fast fliers. That knowledge she did reveal. Usually to encourage ponies less adept at flying that it wasn’t because they were weaker in any way.

Luna’s sister flew slower and slower for each century, but it wasn’t because her magic was increasing; it was simply lack of training.

Luna’s altitude had dropped and she now soared over the trees in Everfree Forest, making it possible for a pegasus scout from the royal guard to intercept and greet her. Then again, it was a big forest and she hoped they were busy elsewhere. She longed for home and to get some rest.

Luna didn’t rest on diplomatic missions to the dragons. The dragons considered it a sign of strength to stay awake when need be. So Luna showed strength and would only eat out of courtesy, no matter if she visited for a couple of days or a few weeks.

As she came closer to the royal castle she noted that there seemed to have been some rough activitities around The Shack. It was the common name for a couple of houses placed away from the settlement. The oldest house, the shack itself, was for ponies that for one reason or another had been temporarily ostracized from the settlement outside the castle walls. It was considered a punishment and would give the pony time to think about the consequences of being excluded from society.

It also contained a few buildings for visiting ponies and their entourage. There they would spend one or more nights while they waited for an audience with the Queen. It also had a sturdy prison. The prison was placed away from the settlement since a prisoner in its own way was excluded from society, but on a more serious note.

As Luna landed she noticed the door to the prison had been broken. Further inspection showed it had been broken from the inside. As she went around to inspect the area she heard a faint wheezing sound from inside the main house. She hurried inside.

A pegasus was lying on the floor. She was clutching a scroll-tube to her chest. Foam was pouring out of her mouth and her eyes where glazed and unfocused. Luna recognized her instantly. It was Lieutenant Ladyhawk and she was dying.

Luna’s power manifested itself immediately. The humble blue pony grew into a dark majestic alicorn. Powers flaming through her body focused on the lifeless figure on the floor. She tried to heal the pegasus’s body, to restore its health, struggling to maintain the fading flicker of life she felt inside the pegasus.

As Luna’s massive magic surged through the pony, the pegasus blinked her eyes and stared at her.

"Please don’t!" she croaked.

Luna wasn’t about to take orders like that from a pegasus. She kept restoring the pegasus, wondering what had happened. She lifted the body from the floor and placed it in one of the beds while she kept working. She tried to make her royal voice sound calm as she addressed the sick pegasus.

"Your Princess demands to know what happened. Your princess wants to know who did this."

The pegasus, like a sloppy ragdoll tried to present the scroll tube to Luna, but it slipped to the floor.

"Please don’t!" she repeated.

Luna couldn’t get a grip on the pegasus life. She bent down and smelt her breath. It was poison, and not just any poison. It was an extract from the forbidden Corruptionseeds. A plant that didn’t exist anywhere in the world except here in the Everfree forest.

The bottle on the floor was Lieutenant Ladyhawk’s own. Most guards had a personal water bottle. But her bottle had been filled with the most vile and disgusting poison imaginable and nothing anyone could imbue by mistake. In fact, the body responded so violently to even tiny amounts that a pony wouldn’t be able to hold it down, which was evident from the stains on her fur and the floor.

Obviously it hadn’t kept her from trying and the more she swallowed, the less magic was in the way to repel it, because that’s how the poison worked. It destroyed not only her organs, but also her magic.

Luna didn’t stop trying to save the pegasus but she knew now that it was hopeless. Unlike other poisons, this was unstoppable if enough of it was lodged inside the body. Probably Ladyhawk’s choice of poison had been because of that.

Regular poisons would first have her go unconscious, and during that time somepony may find and treat her. Especially if they whinnied in their sleep. This poison on the other hand would have her body wracked in pain until the bitter end, without a supplement to make her unconscious, which could have her regurgitate the poison in her sleep. This brutal ending to stay awake until the end, was all Ladyhawk’s decision.

Luna kept working but she feared now she was only prolonging the inevitable instead of letting the pegasus go quickly, but she didn’t want to give up. Ladyhawk could be an annoying fanatic and as Quicksmite’s faithful sidekick Luna held little love for her, but Luna didn’t dislike anypony and she absolutely refused to let anypony suffer.

Eventually Luna felt the pegasus pass away, ignoring the desperate attempts of a supposed Goddess to save her life. The remains of a praised lieutenant, that had recently uttered words, now deceased, left Luna feeling like a failure, unable to protect those in her care. Luna fought hard to hold back her tears.

She couldn’t possibly understand why a pony with such a short lifespan would make it even shorter. Luna had seen ponies die in accidents or battles throughout the centuries but an officer of the honored royal guard doing something like this to herself was incomprehensible. They were supposed to be the best of the best, in every possible aspect.

Luna floated the tube from the floor and pulled out a scroll from inside:

I’m so sorry. I’m so very very sorry.

I have betrayed my Queen, my Kingdom and the Royal guard.

I had met the prisoner before. His guts and moxie had impressed me.

He was known as a troublemaker, in conflict with the neighboring Minotaurs, but I saw it differently.

In many ways, his thoughts and deeds were inspired by our Divine Queen, but he sorely lacked her infinite knowledge and wisdom.

He tried to prevent skirmish-seeking Minotaurs from escalating the dispute. Especially one of them who had been pillaging unguarded stores to provoke his village.

He was trying to put a stop to it before it got worse, as our Most Divine Queen would have done, but he was a mere mortal and lacked her foresight. He shouldn’t have tracked the Minotaur into their territory and engaged him in deadly combat.

I felt for him. He believed that the rules that forbid both locals and militia to enforce justice outside Equestria’s borders wouldn’t apply to him, since it didn’t apply to the Minotaur.

He felt that to be executed for protecting the village was bad, but to be executed next at the border to the Minotaurs would be devastating and only encourage their aggression.

His tenacity and willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of his village touched me.

I came to love him.

I embedded the tools in his cell, even before it was decided he should be put there. I told him to wait until Princess Luna was far away and helped plan his escape through the most secluded parts of the forest.

I was wrong. What I did was wrong. And I’m so very sorry. There are no words to explain how sorry I really am, but maybe my remains can show you?

(signed) Lieutenant Ladyhawk

Luna’s magic rolled up the parchment and put it back inside the tube. Then she took the largest blanket she could find and swept it around the corpse. Floating it beside her as she continued her travel on hoof, towards the castle.

~*~*~*~*~

2.3 - Questioning

Celestia’s interrogation was interrupted as the doors to the throne room flew open. The ponies in front of her, already nervous and agitated from the questioning, trembled in their hooves at the sudden sound. Some of them turned to look but most didn’t dare to turn away from the Queen.

Luna was in full Royal appearance. Gone was the blue pony and in its place was a Goddess swirling in dark energy. Her appearance was appropriate for a court session but it was very different from how it used to be. Instead of regal, it was intense, with her powerful aura flaring across the throne room, much like how Celestia used her bright aura to fill up the hall.

Celestia noted her sister’s bad mood but couldn’t care less. She patiently waited for her sister to approach her, as she knew she would. And she waited for her sister to speak her mind, as she knew she would.

Celestia would then tell her to calm down or something to that effect, because court protocol required it. Her sister would then throw a tantrum. And while the assembled ponies would be in shock, history itself would soon forget the incident as quickly as it had all the previous.

Luna floated the bundle to the empty space between Celestia and the assembled guards. She put it on the ground and let it slip open for all to see. Gasps could be heard from the all the guards. The only one who didn’t blink an eye was the Queen. She just waited.

Princess Luna floated the scroll over to Queen Celestia whose magic unfolded it. She read it quickly.

"It would seem that Princess Luna has found the traitor," Queen Celestia declared.

Celestia looked out over the assembly as she continued, "What is troubling is how Lieutenant Ladyhawk was written off as a suspect from the investigation. Wasn’t it Captain Quicksmite who said it was impossible for Lieutenant Ladyhawk to be responsible? Did you not also personally vouch for her and assured the investigation that she was innocent?"

Captain Quicksmite had been in a catatonic state looking at the corpse since it was revealed on the floor but as the Queen’s voice addressed her she slowly came to attention, trying to process what was said.

"Yes, it was I who insisted that she’d be written out of the investigation," Captain Quicksmite said, struggling to find the words as she continued. "And my guarantee about Ladyhawk has proved to be lies to her Divine Queen Celestia."

Celestia didn’t pay much attention to Captain Quicksmite. Deceived ponies weren’t really anything new for someone who had been around for as long as she had. As soon as it was discovered, an action needed to be taken so it would never happen again. But currently she had other things on her mind.

Celestia’s main focus was on Luna. Celestia was wondering why Luna hadn’t thrown a tantrum yet. The logical explanation was that she had troubling news from the Dragons and that kept her from getting distracted by this incident.

"Princess Luna, what can you contribute to the current situation?"

The dark energy from the princess blazed in her fur as Luna’s royal voice filled the throne room. "Contribute? Contribute!? Our Queen asks what can be contributed to this horrible situation. A tragedy above all else has taken place and our Queen wants me to contribute?"

Oh boy, here it comes, Celestia thought but her stoic appearance didn’t reveal any of it.

Luna trotted up to Celestia, putting her nose close to Celestia’s ears as she quietly threatened, "Your harsh punishments continue to rip apart, not only the kingdom, but even the court itself. It must stop!"

"VOICE!" Celestia shouted back at her. "Nopony should ever have to wonder what the royals are saying. We do not whisper and susurrate leaving ponies in doubt of our thoughts. The royal will shall be done, and must never hide behind the rules of privacy."

"THEN LET THIS PRINCESS SPEAK SO EVERYONE CAN HEAR," Luna screamed, loud enough for everything inside the castle walls to hear it before she continued. "The harsh punishment from the Queen must cease immediately. We will no longer accept it. This has gone on for too long, and it’s wrong!"

"Manners!" Celestia shouted, although not as loud as Luna. "We are glad your voice is restored, but you still need manners. Do not pretend you know the intrinsic difficulties of ensuring peace in a kingdom as large as Equestria."

Celestia having Ladyhawk’s scroll floating in the air, suddenly pushed it towards Luna, "Here you can find your next assignment. It would seem that the source of all this trouble is the Minotaurs you recently brokered peace with. Perhaps our princess should ask them about the hostile behavior that caused the current situation? If it’s war they want, I can personally eradicate their little tribe from the surface of this world, but you brokered peace, did you not? You didn’t want their hostilities to be met with violence. Isn’t that so?"

Luna was shaking with anger as she grabbed the scroll with her magic. Her first thought was to destroy it as an act of contempt for her Queen’s assignment, but she reminded herself what it was. The final testament of a loyal pony who worked hard her entire life to satisfy the will of the crazy royals in Everfree forest. Her legacy deserved better than being torn to pieces in a petty squabble.

Luna turned to look at Ladyhawk’s remains. She used her magic to wrap it up in the blanket as she lifted it up to levitate the bundle by her side.

"It’s our intention to go out and give the Lieutenant a funeral. Anypony here who wishes to attend may do so."

Luna stood still and waited for the ponies to react. The lieutenant may not have been the most popular pony around, but Luna knew she had at least some close friends. If Ladyhawk had been the assistant of a less fanatic captain she surely would have had lots of friends, even if all of them would now officially disown Ladyhawk due to her being branded as a traitor.

Nopony dared to move, so Celestia decided to speak.

"We have found the traitor, and we know who caused the investigation to fail. Anyone who wishes to oversee the dispatching of the corpse is welcome to do so."

Several of the assembled guards decided to bow down and back away. It was difficult to know if they really wanted to pay their respect to Lieutenant Ladyhawk or if they just wanted to get away from the Queen, but they did move towards Luna who started to trot out of the throne room.

~*~*~*~*~

The castle and its garden was surrounded by a big wall with a single gate. The main road led through the Everfree forest but there were also smaller paths along the outside of the walls. One side had a path leading towards a settlement where all the ponies working in or at the castle lived. Since ponies weren’t allowed to share roof with the divine royals, they all had their homes in the settlement outside.

The settlement was further away along the wall, obscured by trees, and not visible from the gate. This was by order from her majesty the Queen. She didn’t like the aesthetics of a town huddling next to the castle wall.

Opposite the path to the settlement was a smaller trail leading deeper into the Everfree forest. It was mostly unused since it was quicker to exit the forest through the main road and then use roads leading around the forest. At least if you were pulling a cart or a wagon, which was the customary way to bring what you needed during travels.

The smaller path also led to a cemetery where ponies could be buried. The ponies following in Luna’s hoofsteps knew the rules regarding that cemetery. Traitors weren’t allowed to be buried there. They had to be buried or burnt someplace else. Someplace where an honest loyal pony shouldn’t have to go.

As Luna was levitating the corpse towards the official burial ground she could sense the unease in the ponies following her. This may be a good time to tell them that the harsh punishments must end and the burial of Ladyhawk marks a new era. Then again, with all the poison polluting the lieutenant’s body, it may be prudent to bury it a bit on the side.

Luna figured a bit outside the official graveyard would be fine. It was probably closer than allowed, but Luna didn’t care about that. She didn’t know how the poison worked but she considered it wise to bury the body away for the sake of future undertakers.

The ponies following in her hooves then saw something they’ve never seen before. Princess Luna using her magic to dig a hole in the ground. Luna using her magic wasn’t anything new, but for a royal goddess to dig a grave for a regular pony, was shocking.

If Luna had turned to look she could have seen the unease in their faces, but she didn’t. Even if they had said something she wouldn’t have cared. Luna didn’t really care much for protocol. Her sister nagged her about how very important it was. Not because the royals had any use for it but according to Celestia the clear rules and regulations made the life of a pony easier. Thanks to rules and protocols they wouldn’t need to worry about doing it right or fearing they made a mistake. As long as they had a protocol to follow.

Luna didn’t care for any code of behavior during her nightly court and wished the day would adopt the same policy. Let different ponies greet royals in a different way if they like. Celestia’s notion that ponies that did it differently would start worrying that they did something wrong or worse than the other was ridiculous.

~*~*~*~*~

Back in the throne room the commotion after Princess Luna’s revelation had settled and the Queen had taken charge of the situation. She had given out instructions. Guards had been dispatched to uphold different duties or to spread the word of what happened. Celestia made sure that every citizen who wanted to know what was going on had a full transcript of the Queen’s interpretation. After all the tasks were arranged, she looked at the miserable pony in the throne-room.

"Captain Quicksmite, can you tell us what the appropriate punishment is for your crimes against the crown?"

Captain Quicksmite took a deep breath before she answered, "For a royal officer deceiving her Divine Majesty, with fatal outcome, the punishment is execution."

"You are correct, but the fatality was self-inflicted and not a result of deceit. However, as a Royal Captain you hold one of the most influential positions in the land, and with additional mandate comes additional responsibility, and stricter punishment when failing to stick to what you know, and not what you believe. In accordance to our laws you should be punished and ostracized from the court, but in this case we believe our Royal Guard can learn from the experience. By our authority as Queen and ruler of Equestria, I hereby sentence you to hobble, but you will not be discharged from the guard. In fact, you will remain a captain, so everyone can see the aftermath of your mistake and learn from it."

Barely a voice, a hoarse whisper, Captain Quicksmite spoke. "Yes your Highness, may your divine will be done."

"You’re still a captain, so go ahead and make sure the order is carried out. We give you the choice of leg. Dismissed!"

Captain Quicksmite was shaking in her hooves as she performed a formal bow and backed away. She slowly rose and looked around, still reeling from shock and acting in slow motion. She selected a guard known to wield the axe with good proficiency, and commanded her to follow. Again, with a voice barely more than a whisper.

Celestia looked on as the jolted Captain stumbled away so destitute of the powerful authority she usually wielded. It was a pity really. Celestia would never play favorites. All ponies in her Kingdom were equally valuable and any punishment of a single failed pony only served to guide the rest.

That Quicksmite was allowed to remain a captain wasn’t because she was a favorite. It was because she was good at explaining to others the correct way of how to be loyal and how to serve the crown. Yes, that’s it. That was the reason she was still a captain. Not because the Queen valued her more than the others.

~*~*~*~*~

2.4 - The battle begins

The funeral was short. Usually they lasted a bit longer. But usually they didn’t have a ceremony at all when a traitor was buried. The speeches of farewell had been short mumbles. Perhaps they wanted to hide the fact they missed a traitor. Perhaps some would rather be angry at the corpse, but something they wouldn’t dare with Luna leading by example. Perhaps some of them were still in denial.

Luna decided to keep her royal appearance up to honor the fallen. Black fur and radiant eyes bathing the ceremony in her aura of the night. According to Luna, Lieutenant Ladyhawk wasn’t a traitor. She was just put in an impossible situation. Caught between her duties acting as a sledgehammer, and her passion acting as the anvil; and the poor officer’s future in the middle.

The lieutenant had tried to solve the situation but failed. She had failed because she wasn’t allowed to voice her concern, to question, and to suggest changes. If Luna had been around to follow-up on the conflict, it surely could have been resolved differently?

Luna turned back towards the castle. Hearing sounds from the settlement she decided to make a detour. She never visited the settlement unannounced but she often used her magic stealth to gander a peek.

Her sister would balk at such deceitful behavior if she knew about it, but Luna considered it permissible. She considered it her duty to verify how well ponies’ dreams about the settlement matched the reality. How things appeared in dreams could vary quite a bit from actual life, and she just had to know.

Celestia’s protocol demanded that the inhabitants should receive ‘fair warning’ before any visit from the royals, even if it was just to say hello. The ponies living there should never have to worry about being subjected to some surprise evaluation.

Luna noticed some noise and hustle coming from the village. Had her visit been announced it would probably been entirely different, but then again, Luna figured ponies should be able to go about their lives without having to turn everything upside-down just because a royal princess is passing by. They may as well get used to the idea that a princess can walk around without a ceremonial greeting must take place.

One of the guards in tow since the funeral suddenly rushed past Luna, throwing herself flat on the ground on the side, kneeling towards the princess.

"Your most esteemed royal Princess!" she called out.

For a second Luna figured she should just keep walking. She looked at the guard, who didn’t look back.

"Speak your mind, Guard Silverbow."

"May your highness forgive us, but we have no knowledge of a royal visit. If our divine princess would let me run ahead and inform the village about your visit, everyone could take some time to greet you properly."

"No, that will not be necessary. We do not require the formalities of an official visit. We will just walk by and have a look," Luna replied as she walked past the kneeling guard.

The guards following Luna followed in unsettling silence without daring to voice any opinion.

As Luna entered the densely packed houses along the road, she saw ponies focusing their attention towards the center of the village. Those close to her looked shocked over the surprise visit. The odd thing was that they looked shocked while they were looking at the center of the village and kept that look on their face as they turned to see Princess Luna. The shock they felt didn’t prevent them from falling down and kneeling as she came, but it felt strange. As Luna got in line of sight of the small center square she understood why.

Writhing in pain was Captain Quicksmite; her right hind leg had been cut off with an axe. Another pony with a bandage in his mouth was pulling hard, to make the dressing of the wound tight. There were better ways to deal with such wounds, but traitors weren’t privy to the best medical care.

Luna didn’t keep walking. She looked at Captain Quicksmite from a distance. Most ponies in Luna’s vicinity had fallen to the ground and were kneeling instead of going about their usual business. Luna had seen enough. Her mane and tail gathering energy as the smoke around her eyes intensified.

Captain Quicksmite had been fiercely loyal to Queen Celestia, and obviously also held princess Luna in divine regard. Within the span of an hour, Quicksmite’s best friend and life-long support had been buried while Quicksmite herself had got her leg chopped off and was branded as a traitor.

Luna tried to keep calm but it was difficult, so very very difficult. She did a quick turn and was about to gallop towards the castle before she decided to go airborne and fly over the wall, ignoring the rules that everypony, including royals, should always leave and enter by the gate, for all to see and everyone to know. That rule, as so many others, felt like a mockery right now. Never before had she hated the rules and the protocols more than she did right now.

The door to the throne room was blown open by the force from Luna’s magic.

Celestia recognized it as her sister’s temper tantrum. The only question on Celestia’s mind was why it came now and not earlier. Celestia kept her calm. With the deception dealt with the fire in her eyes and her aura was a bit mellower then it had been during the interrogation.

"Celestia!" Luna called out as she moved up towards her sister.

"Princess Luna, behave yourself. This is the royal throne room and not a Dragon hall."

Luna’s angry hoofsteps caused cracks to appear in the marble floor as she moved up the hall towards her sister. Queen Celestia on the other hoof had retired to sitting on her throne and didn’t even bother to stand up.

Luna’s angry voice drummed as hard as her hooves, "CELESTIA! What in Equestria is WRONG with you?? How can your mind be so flawed that you seek to judge and punish everything that moves, no matter if it moves with you or against you??"

"DON’T you start that tone with us. If you have a valid complaint, then bring it together with your manners and we shall listen, but until then you can go sit in your garden."

"STOP!" Luna screamed. The power she radiated rustled curtains, shelves, and furniture in the hall, "We are tired of this behavior and demand immediate change to your tyrannical rule."

Celestia’s anger suddenly showed in both eyes and energized mane as she clenched her teeth. "We have had a very hectic day and are in no mood for your ill-tempered conniption." Celestia’s voice switched to address the soldiers present. "Guards! Show the princess out. We do no longer require her presence in the throne room."

The rules for how to show someone out was clear. Move up and follow the target to the door. If they didn’t move, sign for them to do so. If they still didn’t move. Stand real close with a mean look on the face, weapons raised and ready for combat.

All that training was however for naught as they felt themselves raised from the ground and quickly levitated towards the door. Luna’s magic had gotten them before they had a chance to react, and even though their limbs and wings were flailing wildly, and the unicorns tried to free themselves with magic, it didn’t help as Luna had them in a firm neutralizing grip.

The display angered Celestia. She wasn’t agitated by the fact that the guards were thrown out. Even if it was a rare event and not something you saw every century, it could happen when Luna got her rage on.

What annoyed Celestia most was that Luna did what she herself could not. She couldn’t hoist a pony like that. Celestia could throw her power at a pony and it would make a bone breaking sound as the pony hit the wall, but she couldn’t carefully lift and displace it.

Celestia found that the magic in ponies made them slippery; especially if they struggled. It wasn’t because Celestia lacked power. It was just that pulling a splinter was easier using tweezers than a crowbar. She was annoyed by Luna’s display nonetheless.

Celestia stood up and walked down the stairs leading up to the throne on its dais. Her eyes, mane and tail clearly showing the fire within.

"You anger me sister. You shouldn’t provoke my fury. Our ties will only give you so much leniency before I grow weary of your shenanigans." Celestia bit off the words in a very uncharacteristic way. Her voice was loud and clear, but the royal authority was replaced with royal wrath.

"NO! It’s time for change, right here, right now. The princess of the night will now guide Equestria according to the philosophy of the Moon."

Luna walked up towards Celestia, and now her power really started to flow. Her mane was as voluminous as her body and her tail was lashing out as a big shark of darkness, holding unfathomable energy that anyone could readily assume but very few were capable to see.

Celestia responded in kind. Astral fire rising from the halo of her tail and mane intensified to become actual flames ready to burn anything it touched.

Luna was almost all the way to Celestia when magical lightning struck from all sides. Celestia’s method of engulfing an opponent in massive amounts of energy left only immortals alive.

This time however, her attack failed. Somehow her sister had evaded it. Standing just a tad bit on the side to the epicenter with an evil grin on her face. Luna’s appearance had kept changing and now she had long sharp teeth to go with every other sharp feature of her appearance. None of them ever had fangs as a part of the royal appearance. Sharp teeth were a hostile statement of aggression.

With Luna’s homicidal visage confirmed, Celestia didn’t wait. Luna must be knocked out fast before she caused any damage. She would not give her time to evade another barrage of energy. Celestia let her powers go and energy shot at Luna from every side, in a massive onslaught.

Except Luna wasn’t there.

Once again it looked like she was in the middle of it, but she had shifted a bit to the side, basking in the glorious light but not in the pain.

Celestia didn’t have time to mix frustration into her anger as Luna’s dark bolt hit her straight on. It felt like bones cracked and fur singed, but it was just pain. Pain and... her fur actually smoked and singed as she was forcibly crushed down into the stairs leading up to the throne.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. The marble wasn’t as soft as your hooves may lead you believe, when your body was slammed into it, back first.

Celestia screamed in pain and anger before she directed a flare of her own against her sister. Sending her beam head-on towards Luna who had become airborne with a magical force field acting as a shield to protect her. Celestia’s fiery flares broke against Luna’s magical shield as harmless firework.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, TRAITOR!" Celestia yelled.

"Weak words, from a weak Queen," her sister said in a soft, sinister tone. No longer yelling like before but still amplified to be heard above the roaring sounds of blasts breaking up floors and tearing down walls.

Head on their beams collided. Celestia let her anger drive her focus, pushing harder than ever before. Luna pushed back, and Celestia couldn’t overcome it. Something was wrong. Luna can’t possibly be that strong.

Suddenly Luna was gone. Stepping through a portal with a speed that would make a red unicorn green with envy. A split second later a bone-cracking sound was heard inside Celestia’s head as Luna’s hooves caused a bone-cracking sound – against her head.

Celestia reeled from the shock as she fell forward. Her sister laughed at the pathetic display.

"Weak! So weak! Pushing the sun a bit each morning, giving it some speed, and then sitting on her royal ass. Makes for a very weak Queen." The mocking words from Luna echoed in Celestia’s ears, together with the ringing from the trauma to her head.

If she had known Luna could teleport like that she would have presumed it was because Luna had lost a lot of power. But her head on energy charge that Celestia couldn’t penetrate proved that Luna contained just as much power as she ever had, maybe more. Luna had then lifted all that power in a blink of an eye, and moved it behind her. Something that she herself was unable to do. A massive feat that only the God of Chaos excelled at.

Celestia formed a new shield around her. Covering all areas this time. So teleporting behind her wasn’t possible.

"So fragile!" Luna’s dark voice gloated. "So weak and fragile, hiding in a globe, even though the moon – not the sun – is the master of shield magic."

Celestia panted in between gasps, trying to figure out what to do. The taunts didn’t bother her, but her desperation did. At first she was furious with her sister but she was holding back as to not hurt her too badly. Now she felt perplexed, confused, maybe even fear. Whatever she tried, Luna one-upped her.

Luna in a shimmering sphere of her own had walked up to be real close to Celestia. No longer keeping a healthy blast-range.

"Celestia! For your crimes against ponies, I hereby sentence you as a traitor," Luna’s voice called out filled with rage.

Celestia carefully balanced her shield, waiting for an opening in her sister’s defense or a slip-up of some sort.

It didn’t happen.

Luna didn’t lower her shield before she sent her next blast. Her face contorted with her dark energy smoking from eyes, nostrils and even mouth. The accumulation of power was immense and greater than Luna had shown during battles with Dragonkind, Eternals or even the God of Chaos. It warned Celestia that the upcoming attack was beyond anything Celestia had previously witnessed. Ever!

The blast crushed itself out of Luna’s own shield, penetrated right through Celestia’s barrier as if it didn’t exist, and continued to crush Celestia’s right hind-leg in one extreme blow.

Celestia screamed out in pain and fear. Her drawn out agonizing shriek filled up not just the throne-room but also the entire castle. Her body was an intricate part of herself and having a piece of it crushed like that was inexplicable and nothing she could imagine happen.

"I SENTENCE YOU TO HOBBLE!" Luna’s mad voice roared.

Celestia brought up another shield, faintly flickering and not as steady as the one before, but any shield is better than no shield. It must be!

Luna just stared at her.

"Sister, you’re feeble, frail and pathetic. You may have a heart of stone and a mind of fire, but your faded power is even weaker than I expected. You call that a shield?" Luna was calm but angry.

Celestia frantically tried to reinforce her barrier, while Luna made a big show of drawing a glowing circle in the air. The circle of energy, as a wheel on a cart, started to spin faster and faster, while moving closer to Celestia. As it approached Celestia’s shield it was sawing right through it as if it didn’t exist. Splitting her barrier in tiny pieces while the sawing circle was undisturbed.

"SO WEAK! I don’t even know why you try. We both know the moon lends a better shield and in the old days your different barriers may have been impressive, but this is pathetic."

"SISTER, STOP THIS!" Celestia screamed as she stood up on three hooves, trying to figure out some way to turn the tables. "What have gotten into you? Did the dragons corrupt you with some new magic? Did someone else corrupt you? How can you rebel against your Queen?"

The assault came blindingly fast. Celestia didn’t have a chance to notice Luna gathering energy. It slammed into her and sent her sailing, crashing against the wall further behind. The wall cracked almost as easily as her leg previously had done.

"YOU DARE ASK THAT QUESTION?!" Luna screamed after releasing her blast, "Asking US that question after what YOU did to Captain Quicksmite? After the pain YOUR rules caused lieutenant Ladyhawk? After the multitude of feardreams ponies suffered under YOUR reign because of YOU!?"

Luna lifted from the debris among the floor and was now hovering in the air above Celestia. Wings spread out for balance. Celestia felt a knot in her stomach and a queasy feeling that would almost make her forget the pain in her head, her body and her leg.

She didn’t dare say anything. Perhaps Luna would kill her. But probably not. If she wanted to kill her she would be working on destroying her already. She didn’t know what Luna planned but realized there was nothing she could do to stop her.

"It’s time for Equestria to experience a shift in power. For so many years, it has been you ruling, and your rules. Now it’s our turn."

Luna floated down to stand on the ground, right in front of Luna. Close enough for them to touch each other. The energy darting back and forth over Luna’s skin, some form of shield, showed Celestia that Luna still had her guard up. Something Celestia no longer had.

"The sun will soon go down and as you always said, the day is the time for change, for action, to do things," Luna said in a harsh voice, but still calmer than any tone she had previously used during this entire incident.

"Nighttime is soon upon us. Time to rest. Time to think, to contemplate and enlighten our minds instead of our coat. You will need this time to think."

Luna scrutinized Celestia who looked like a crumbled piece of paper someone tossed next to the wall.

"Tomorrow morning, it is time for change. Tomorrow morning we will announce that Queen Luna is the new ruler of the Kingdom. The time of the Moon will be marked by the wisdom of the night. Queen Luna will explain the rules of her night court, and those rules will be followed also during the day. Queen Luna will explain the meditative philosophy of the night, and those deep thoughts should guide our actions also during the day. We will no longer act, because we feel a need to act, but only if we absolutely must."

Luna looked at Celestia, no longer looking regal where she covered in dirt and dust even lacked power to make her eyes burn. They had more of a petty glow than regal fire. The iris even looked less elliptical than usual and the proud astral fire that usually adorned her mane and tail was almost gone. Leaving it flowing without brightness.

"So tomorrow morning, prepare to gather all our subjects, and we shall declare: THE NIGHT SHALL LAST FOREVER!" Luna’s final declaration echoed all over the castle and its surrounding.

After her utterance she quickly turned around and took to the air. A large gaping fresh hole in the wall behind the throne served as an exit for the princess. Celestia saw her sister fly away and left Celestia wondering what Luna planned to do.

Celestia stood uneasily on three legs trying to come up with a plan that would work in her current condition. The leg of a goddess could take some time to heal. That it had been shattered quickly was no indication of how fast it could change. At least not to the better.

She needed to find a way to resist this omnipotent Luna that commanded vast amounts of power. She couldn’t think of any being in existence that could rival what she had seen in the throne room. Well, except the God of Chaos – maybe. But they had locked him up together and it would require both of them, and a lot of time, to undo that.

Luna had insisted on so many layers of protection when he was locked up it felt ridiculous. Perhaps Luna already at that time wanted to suppress the most powerful foe she could anticipate. Had she planned her traitorous action for so long, and just biding her time until her attuned moon somehow bestowed massive power to her, while the power of the sun seemed to have faded.

Celestia didn’t know the answers but she wasn’t Queen and ultimate protector of Equestria because she gave up easily. She knew what she had to do, and she was determined to do it.

* * * A night goes by * * *

~*~*~*~*~

2.5 - The battle of harmony

Luna observed the sun slowly rising in the horizon. She could help gain access to the sky by lowering the moon, but figured the slow ascension was Celestia’s attempt to buy time. Perhaps Celestia didn’t want it to rise at all but if so, she could have pushed it back. It looked to Luna that it was only yesterday’s speed that gave it momentum. In that case it would be a long day. A little bit longer than yesterday. Then Luna would grab the moon, push it hard, and restore speed to the celestial bodies.

Luna flew up in the air and set course for the Royal Castle. She was wondering if Celestia was stupid enough to assemble some troops to meet her. Perhaps thinking they would distract her enough for some assassination attempt by Celestia herself.

No, Celestia would never be that stupid Luna concluded. As a queen she was thickheaded, belligerent and refused to reason, but it wasn’t because she was stupid; it was because she was consistent and presuming she stayed consistent until the bitter end her sister would never put regular ponies in danger; which is odd. Celestia would punish them left and right for ‘educational’ value but never purposely put any pony in serious danger.

Luna approached the castle in full regalia, which besides her royal shape also included a helmet and some other apparel. She decided that this was a good time to follow protocol. She would land outside the castle walls and walk through the gate. If Celestia conceded peacefully, Luna following the royal code of conduct would help ordinary ponies to come to terms with the transition.

There were no guards guarding the gate. Well, so much for protocol. As Luna walked up to the castle she couldn’t spot a single pony. Maybe she could close her eyes and search among dreams, or if she was lucky some nearby pony with a really strong daydream could pinpoint its location.

Then again, the important thing right now was Celestia, so Luna kept her focus on the one target that really mattered. She couldn’t travel among dreams while locked in a high-level barrier, and deep in foreign dreams without such protection she was nothing but a flipped turtle. Hard on the outside, but vulnerable to anyone knowing their weakness.

Luna entered the throne-room, prepared for anything and everything. It was close to empty.

In the middle of the throne-room, sitting on her haunches on the floor, was Celestia. Her mane was energized and her eyes ablaze but it wasn’t battle-levels. Just focused.

Celestia wasn’t wearing armor but that was to be expected. Armor was nice when swarmed by javelins, beaks and claws. Preventing scratches and annoying attrition, but it was no protection for the levels of energy that Luna or an ancient dragon commanded. Celestia stared aimlessly at the wall as Luna let the doors slide fully open.

Luna looked around, scanning the area. The big gaping hole in the wall behind the throne was still there. Some other crushed sections were left untouched, as was all the rubble and detritus. The broken stairs surrounding the throne on its dais had the same debris as when she had flown out. Only the floor in between the throne and the main entrance had been fixed and swept.

"Greetings sister," Celestia called out from her sitting position.

Luna looked around, trying to figure out an endgame to this setting. Leaving the throne empty indicated Celestia would agree to the demands, but why was everypony gone? That was an indication she was up to something.

Celestia said while making a small show of standing up on three legs, before she spoke.

"What is my sister waiting for? Do you need ponies to announce your presence? Do you want them to blow trumpets and sing your glory?"

"We have come to take charge of the Kingdom," Luna declared. She still wondered what she was missing. For good measure she had her discreet shield going. Black streaks of energy moving zigzag across her fur, darting around like black lightning. It wasn’t as blatantly obvious as a big globe or a field in the front.

Luna wondered why Celestia had sent the guards away and how far away? Was the settlement empty too or were they hiding but she had failed to sense them. Why hadn’t they cleaned up the mess and left the throne room so dirty. Or perhaps they’ve started to clean the floor before Celestia interrupted them. Perhaps it was a message. But if it was, did Celestia or the ponies in court send it.

"And the little sister wanted this to be done in a celebratory manner? Wanted everyone to witness your glorious ascension? To praise your valor and wisdom?" Celestia said in a mocking tone.

Luna moved further inside the throne room and came closer to where Celestia was standing. She noted that Celestia had barely begun to regenerate her leg and it still had multiple fractures. If she had spent the entire night healing it, she should have healed the bones by now, even if the leg was weak and next to useless compared to the others it would look mostly fine to the average pony. Was the lack of healing because Celestia wasn’t as powerful as she used to be or was she too distraught to do it. Maybe she tried to make Luna feel bad for the damage she caused.

There were so many questions Luna wanted to ponder in this very moment. So many question marks in the current situation that would be perfect to think about in the stillness of the night, but she couldn’t wait, she had to act.

Celestia tensed up as Luna slowly approached her. She formed some kind of shield. A new one Luna didn’t recognize. It looked like a drooping tent with a peak above Celestia’s head and sloppy canvas stretching out to a couple of imaginary pins in the marble floor.

Luna’s expertise in shield-magic could easily reveal it wouldn’t provide any real protection, but considering how yesterday turned out, Celestia in her magical ignorance probably figured this new experiment would surprise Luna and therefore work better.

"Celestia!" Luna called out while slowly moving closer. "Have you decided on the fate of Equestria and its future?"

"We’ve been giving it a lot of thought," Celestia replied before falling silent.

Luna kept walking closer to Celestia. As she was close enough to step on her shield, Celestia recoiled, taking a step backwards. Luna stopped in her track over the odd sight of Celestia looking afraid.

When Luna stopped moving a flicker of anger flashed across Celestia’s eyes. Then she looked afraid again. It was odd. After all this time Luna had come to know her sister very well. The quick show of irritation and anger was something that Celestia tried to hide. The fear she didn’t mind displaying. She even exaggerated it. Celestia looked afraid on purpose while concealing her anger.

"Celestia, where are the guards?"

"We couldn’t guarantee their safety. So we saw fit they would keep away from here."

Luna looked at Celestia. As usual, her sister spoke the truth. She wouldn’t be able to lie to her anyway. Neither of them could lie to the other without the other one knowing. That didn’t mean Luna would know the full truth if Celestia decided to leave something out.

Did Celestia really think that Luna would continue yesterday’s battle without discussion. Or did Celestia have plans to destroy the entire castle and Luna with a nova. That would be stupid. Celestia had seen Luna’s skill in teleportation and considering the time it would take for current Celestia to build a nova, Luna didn’t need to teleport. She could trot leisurely away from here and be in safe distance before Celestia was done. Or judging from yesterday’s display of power she could stand in the middle of it protected by an appropriate sphere. But what if Celestia awakened her old powers during the night and if so, did she believe that her ancient power was enough to match the current Luna?

"Have you changed your mind?" Celestia called out, "Come to the realization that you were stupid and now seek to undo the damage you’ve done?"

Luna stood still. Wondering about that, before she answered, "No, we have not changed our mind. Queen Luna is to be announced, either with or without your help."

"As you are my sister, we will show you leniency. You may step up and kneel for forgiveness, and we will grant it."

Luna instantly recognized the lie and her face revealed that she didn’t buy it. Celestia realized the old-fashioned Luna was still there, reading her like a book and for a brief moment Celestia let her mask slip, revealing a flicker of rage she was working so hard to conceal.

"At least, I wish I could..." Celestia added carefully. "But the ponies in the Kingdom must know we can’t tolerate such behavior. We need to lead by example. Subordinate behavior can’t be tolerated amongst the masses between commander and second in command, and therefore it can’t be tolerated between queen and princess."

Luna looked carefully at Celestia. Her sister’s words didn’t reveal what she was thinking. That was unusual. Luna had predicted a lot of ‘education’ from her sister. So far Celestia hadn’t said a single word about what ponies expected from a queen and why Luna couldn’t fill that role.

An argument like that is what Luna had spent the night anticipating and preparing for. Luna had also spent a lot of time preparing for arguments from regular ponies, which would be fiercely loyal to Queen Celestia and demand that Luna stopped her transgressions. Even if Celestia wouldn’t actively set them up to do it, Luna had suspected it would happen unless Celestia actively prevented it. So again she wondered why Celestia had sent everyone away.

"Luna, Luna, Luna... We can sense the hesitation within you. Your failure to understand the situation is why you can never be queen. A queen needs to be strong and act. A queen can’t force her subjects to waste time in endless deliberations. Constant arguing and disagreement erodes the mental health of everypony and in the end they will react violently at first sign of an incoming conflict-filled discussion."

Luna looked at Celestia. She told the truth. Well, it was the truth according to Celestia anyway, but she was hiding something. Luna knew that Celestia was hiding something because in her last exclamation she had dropped her fear. Then as if she had realized she forgot about it, she put some of it back on, before she figured it was useless and dropped it again.

Now Luna faced a Celestia who wasn’t filled with fear. Perhaps it was because Luna wasn’t as violent as she was yesterday, but didn’t Celestia fear losing her position as a Queen, or had the loss of leadership become secondary after she had the night to think about it. Luna wished she had time to mull it over in the stillness of the night.

"Luna?" Celestia said in a somewhat quieter voice.

Luna looked at Celestia, waiting for her to continue.

"If you were just half the mare Captain Quicksmite is, we would be so proud of you. Now you are but a quarter, and Quicksmite is three quarters," Celestia taunted her.

The haughty manner she suddenly displayed shocked Luna. The memory of poor Quicksmite crippled by an axe with the entire settlement to stare at her caused Luna to lose her mind.

"YOU FOUL CREATURE!" Luna yelled, while gathering a black ball above her head.

Celestia immediately hunkered down.

Luna leaped forth and raised her front hooves high in the air. Preparing her dark globe to crash down on the former Queen in front of her.

But that was not to be.

As she had stepped further into Celestia’s shield it roared awake. Not the shield, but the corners.

Luna brought her ball down on Celestia who screamed out but kept pressing herself to the ground, weaving her shield frantically.

Now the massive energy of Celestia’s shield couldn’t be ignored and Luna decided to deal with it. As she did, she noticed it wasn’t a shield at all. It was a trap.

Luna quickly brought up an external barrier in addition to the one over her skin, but the trap’s energy was already all over the place and ignored most of her protection.

She decided to teleport out, but the interference from the trap disrupted her magic. She tried to move, but her muscles felt like glue. The disruptive parts of the trap prevented her from moving. Locking her in place.

Celestia’s rage was clearly visible on her face. She focused entirely on her manifestation and ignored the pain from the severe lacerations one her back.

"Don’t!" Luna shouted. "Think" she added. "You can" she pushed out. "ESCAPE!"

Luna’s outer barrier was useless, and she shifted focus to her innermost barrier. Again she tried to mount an attack against her sister. Sending something her way to harm her. Once again she was bombarded by both pain and interference from all sides. Making it impossible to strike down Celestia.

"So you’re fighting? We should have known," Luna called out. Working her barrier magic while trying to dodge, duck, sidestep and pull through to escape the trap.

Celestia’s had a grave expression on her face. She totally ignored Luna and was entirely focused on her trap.

"Celestia! Is this the Queen you aim to be? The Queen of traps and deceit?" Luna mocked her.

Celestia ignored it and was now staring right up in the peak of her imaginary tent. The peak started to move closer to Luna. Increasing the power that bombarded Luna as the energy engulfed her.

Luna realized she needed to figure out this power. It wasn’t the regular magic she and her sister wielded. It was something else.

The peak was now directly above Luna and she was bathed inside what looked like a five-sided pyramid. A pentagon pyramid trapping her in place.

Luna struggled for all that she was worth but for naught. The attack was unlike anything she’d ever experienced, with one exception, some of the magic wielded by the God of Chaos could sneak through shields in the same manner.

Luna saw her skin crack and blister. It was just flesh she told herself. She felt the pain and it made her scream. It was just pain she told herself. She kept getting her magic disrupted, no matter what she tried. Now that was a problem.

Luna had lots of power. She could go on for a long time. But she would eventually run out. She must get out of this before that happened or she would be terminated. It took time to kill a goddess so at first she believed she had time. But then she realized it was running out fast. This energy was unlike anything she had ever seen.

Then it struck her. She had seen something similar to this energy. She knew what it was. She had been part in wielding it a long time ago. It was the elements of Harmony, the source of magic in this world had been forced against its very nature to unite against her. To accomplish that, one of the elements had been destroyed; the emotional bond of unconditional love tying the elements together had been annihilated, so that Celestia could dominate the remaining ones.

"CELESTIA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!" Luna screamed. Her voice shrill from the massive pain.

Celestia focused so hard she was biting her lip, and it trickled with blood in return. Celestia ignored Luna’s words. She either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.

"YOU BROKE THEIR BOND AND CORRUPTED THE ELEMENTS!" Luna added.

Her accusation was ignored. Celestia kept working to keep the bombardment of her sister going. Luna was much too dangerous for her to drop the attack for even a fraction of a second. The different flows of power focused through the stones of Harmony caused them to burst with power.

The five elements had been hidden under the repaired marble floor but the power flowing had caused them to break out and rise up. The stones were now hovering above the floor, combining their energy in a massive attack.

Luna desperately looked around; hoping for something she could use to her advantage. Maybe some loyal guard of the night court that could be persuaded to help her by ripping away one of the elements.

She tried again to focus her magic and to shift it outside the trap. She wouldn’t be able to get enough out to harm Celestia, so she had to think about something else. Luna aimed for the roof.

A trickle of energy hit the roof, causing some fresco to fall down but nothing else. Luna was hoping for the roof to fall in. Interfering with the connections between the elements. But that was not to be.

She kept fighting. She wasn’t Luna of The Moon for no reason. Her barriers were the best and she just needed to focus.

Her body had started bleeding all over. She was wracked in huge amounts of pain. Her sister kept chanting her corruption over the essence of Harmony. Didn’t Celestia understand what she was doing to the elements. Was her sister really that ignorant?

Luna felt a bone inside her snap. The pain all over the body was so extreme it didn’t really make a difference. It did however alert her that her concentration was lacking. She had failed to shield herself for a tiny bit and it had cost her.

Then again, as she looked at herself, she didn’t successfully protect herself. Her body was being eaten alive. The corrupted elements didn’t follow regular rules and reason. The elements or harmony was all about balance. They had to be invoked with a compromise. They had preserved that balance long ago when they’ve had enough of the God of Chaos.

She and her sister had been on each side of the scale, and oddly enough, the God of Chaos with the power of Discord was an opposite twin to Harmony and acted like a third lever on the scale, no matter if he wanted it or not.

Now Celestia somehow had bent and forced Harmony to be ruled by a single mind and go against its very core existence of balance between many. How she accomplished that, Luna wasn’t sure, but she could sense that Harmony was being forever destroyed, or at least dying. Just as she was.

Luna felt desperate. This world’s fundamental power was channeled against her and it was impossible to resist. She could do nothing. And she didn’t have long to live. She would die. Her sister would rule on. And there would be nopony to stop her reign of terror. Nopony to preach leniency to the fanatic Goddess of order.

And worst of all, the entire world would be dying as the corrupted Harmony would fail to infuse this world’s beings with the foundation needed for survival, and it would slowly wither and fade. Similar to how a forest is created by water and the lack of water will turn it into a desert.

Celestia looked at her sister. Forcing the magical elements to do her bidding hurt her more than anypony could imagine. A part of the energy she channeled against her sister also hit her and it felt like her blood clogged to icicles as it was rushing back and forth in her body, slicing her from the inside.

A sudden cough had her spit out large chunks of blood. Perhaps the damage it did to her body wasn’t restricted to pain? Celestia felt more and more damage inside her body accumulate while her sister was trashing inside the trap she had built. Her sister, bathing in the full brunt of the onslaught, still had her shields up, and they still prevented the attack from destroying her.

Frustration gripped Celestia in her agony, as she yelled out, "WHY... WON’T... YOU... DIE?!?"

Luna only vaguely heard Celestia’s speak. She had tried everything but couldn’t get away. She knew she would soon run out. All her energy was going for full, and when it finally went extinct, she would crash down instantly. There would be no graceful end. The onslaught was too massive. She wouldn’t fade away. She would disintegrate.

As she felt death get closer, she realized she hadn’t really tried everything. She tried everything in this world. But there are more things to this world, than what’s in it.

She wasn’t the pony who relied on praying, pleading, or worshipping, but it was the kind of thoughts she needed to invoke the next step. To die, wasn’t for an immortal to do. But she had seen enough of death to know about transitions.

She decided to let the hooves go first, and they did. The corrupted Harmony ate them like a tasty biscuit. It hurt a lot. It kept eating itself up her body. She tried to look at her sister. She looked grave, even pained, as she fought vigorously keeping her trap working.

After Luna sacrificed her legs, she decided to make the leap, hoping it would work.

Celestia noticed an implosion inside her trap. A split second later massive amounts of energy fled the trap with a speed that would make a sonic boom look like frozen in time.

The trap collapsed upon itself as there was no longer anything in it.

Celestia felt the backlash of the energy hit her like a sledgehammer. It smashed her to the floor and she passed out.

* * * Some time goes by * * *

The Aftermath

When Celestia woke up the sun had already set. During the morning she had been busy with the elements of Harmony so she hadn’t pushed it to give it some speed. She also wanted to conserve all her strength for the encounter with Luna. So it was going to be a long night. Slightly longer than usual.

She had a gruesome headache. An odd thing for an immortal to have. Her back brought her agony. Not that strange considering the flesh was torn asunder and her spine was visible. Yet that pain wasn’t as intense as her head.

She noticed she had been coughing up blood while unconscious but the dull ache inside of her didn’t feel too bad. Just like her leg it may look bad but her divine power had no problem keeping her body together. As long as she lay still it was tolerable. Only if she moved, it really hurt.

She looked around and saw the elements of Harmony, or rather the stones serving as a gateway to that power. They had lost most their color and looked like common rocks with an uncommon shape, spread out in a wide circle.

She was going to pick them up but as her telekinesis grabbed the first one a static jolt spread through her horn and surged throughout her body, disrupting the very core of her magic that was keeping her wounded body together.

Celestia suppressed a scream and grimaced in pain as she instantly let go of the stone. She spent some time to catch her breath. After a while her crippled body crawled closer to study the scattered elements. She could barely nudge one of them with her hoof but she couldn’t touch them with magic. Even touching them with the hoof seemed to alienate them as would poking a hornet’s nest. Trying to pick them up with her mouth would be devastating. At least with her current migraine.

She decided to sit back and focus on healing while she waited for dawn. She needed to make sure the sun got back to speed or ponies all over the world would start to worry. She could raise the signal at the shack that it was safe to return. A scout should eventually see it and notify the rest. Then again, she really needed to heal her body in order to be presentable so she decided it could wait for a day or two.

~*~*~*~*~