Author's Note
My family took a trip up to Amish Country recently to pick up a new dog, and while I was sitting on a bench, I noticed two lone swings sitting across from me. That image was burned into my brain, and while trying to figure out a story to write of it, I remembered Luna’s Swing.
Then, as I was coming back home from my grandparents’ that same day, I noticed that the moon was also a striking image, an orange half-moon imposed on an empty sky, that was reasonably large.
Then, this story fell into place. As always, constructive criticism is allowed and encouraged, and I hope you enjoy.
The Castle Swing
“Come on, Luna! It’s Our turn now!”
On the outskirts of Canterlot Castle, there stood a swing. A swing not particularly grandiose, but a swing which was well used nonetheless.
A young, white unicorn pranced around the swing, in which her sister was currently sitting. Her pink mane flew in the wind, as she turned to her sister again to drive the point home.
“Luna, you’ve had that swing for far too long, give it to Us!”
The dark blue unicorn currently sitting in the swing gave a sigh, as she clambered down from the swing. “Fine, Celestia, thou can have the swing.”
“No fair, you’re better at all the fancy talk stuff our parents tell us to uphold,” Celestia groaned, as she got on the swing.
“We simply listen, Celestia.”
Celestia started swinging on the swing. “What do you think’s gonna happen to us in the future, Luna?” she asked. “Will we be rulers over the unicorns like our parents are?”
“Well, we’ll never amount to anything unless we listen to Starswirl, We don’t think,” Luna said, sitting quietly next to the swing and watching Celestia swing on it.
“We guess so,” Celestia replied.
The two traded off the swing until sunset. When the sky started to change color, the two went back into the castle. The swing was left behind, standing valiantly in the night.
“I can’t believe it, Luna, we’ve raised the moon,” Celestia said. Upon taking over for their parents, Celestia and Luna had come to start doing the day-night cycles, and had been rewarded with tokens of their own. They were given wings by Starswirl, and he had designed a specialized spell for the occasion. This was that they might become representatives for the recently-formed Equestria, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, all in one pony.
“Excuse thou, dear sister, but We raised the moon.,” Luna pointed out. “Thou hast raised the sun.”
“Luna, you know what I meant, we rule Equestria together.”
“That is true, but we each do our own thing. Thou hast the sun, We have the moon.”
“Whatever you say, Luna,” Celestia responded. “You know, you don’t have to use the fancy talk anymore. Ponies are evolving, and that includes evolving their speech.” The two alicorns sat in front of the swing, watching the sun go down.
“Ponies art moving too quickly for Us,” Luna responded. “We would like to continue using ‘fancy talk’, as thou hast put it. Thou hast no authority over all We choose to do.”
“And that involves speech?”
“Yes, that involves speech.”
Celestia and Luna sat in silence for a little while. Soon, Celestia spoke, “I feel like since we’ve taken over, we’ve gotten less and less time together. Our different schedules, courts, and guards really only means that we can meet at the time between night and day.” While she was speaking, Celestia’s mane stopped waving in the nonexistent breeze.
Luna’s started, which meant that she was now controlling the moon.
“Anyways, Luna, I’m going to check a few things with some court stragglers and go to bed. I hope you enjoy the nighttime,” Celestia said, getting up and flying back to the castle at a leisurely pace.
“Thou art sleeping,” Luna hissed to herself, seething, “Just like every other pony that lives in Canterlot.”
Luna walked away from the swing, and left it standing there valiantly in the night.
“We’re tired of this!”
Celestia flew away from Luna, who was currently blasting her with beam after beam of magic. “We take down Discord, Tirek, and this is how you repay Us!?”
“Luna, listen! We can talk this out—“
Luna wasn’t listening, her jealousy had overtaken her. She had been raising nothing but the moon for far too long, and she never felt like she was getting any respect for it.”
“Easy for thou to say when everypony loves and adores thou! Nopony loves and adores Us! How does it feel to be the popular sister?”
Celestia continued dodging bullets. The castle grounds had been torn asunder, as a result of the many fights they’d had since Luna snapped.
“Listen Luna! I’m no more popular than you!”
Luna absolutely seethed at the thought. Bold-faced lies, that’s what she heard. Luna drove Celestia down towards a small portion of the castle walls still left.
Luna swung her head back and launched a massive magic spell at Celestia, who was now cornered against the wall.
As the beam approached Celestia, Celestia whined in desperation.
“Send her away! Send her away until she learns her lesson! A thousand years!”
She fired at Luna.
In a blink of an eye, Luna was gone. She had disappeared.
However, her likeness had been burned into the moon, and Celestia knew exactly what she’d done. She didn’t particularly like it.
Celestia collapsed against the castle wall and looked up at the Mare on the Moon.
“Luna, what have I done?”
Celestia cried against the wall, her servants coming, expressing their concern.
“What happened?”
That was what all of them said, in some capacity.
Celestia had no response. All she could think was, Why have I done this?
“I... just leave me alone, I’ll get to rebuilding the castle. Soon.”
Celestia surveyed the ruins of the castle, walls had crumbled, ceilings had caved, but off in the distance, the old rusty swing stood valiantly in the night.
“Come on, Luna, it’s our turn now.”
On the outskirts of Canterlot Castle, there stood a swing. A swing not particularly grandiose, but a swing well-used nonetheless.
A white alicorn sat beside this swing, her multicolored mane flowing in the wind.
It had been a while.
It had been a while since Celestia sent Luna to the moon in a fit of desperation. Now, she just sat next to the swing they spent so much time at, and talked to the moon as if Luna heard her.
“When you get back, what do you think will happen to us? Do you think we’ll rule together, like we used to? Will we relive the memories we made here?”
Celestia didn’t know why she bothered to try, knowing she wouldn’t get an answer.
She lightly pushed the swing, rusty from disuse, and sighed.
“It’s our turn to rule again. It’s our turn to make memories here... like we used to.
“Luna, I can’t wait until you get back.”
She flew off to the castle to catch some stragglers from day court and set up night court.
All that was left was the swing, standing valiantly in the night.
