Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided

“Oh, Luna! You bore the punishment for my mistakes.”

- Journals of High Princess Celestia (Vol. 4)

Luna had been able to make her way to Harmony Tower without any incident. Perhaps her sister had assumed that she needed some time alone to organize her thoughts, and so hadn’t worried about where she might be going. Or perhaps Celestia had decided it was better off that they be separate for the moment while they mulled over everything.

Once they had become Equestria’s rulers, it hadn’t been uncommon for the two of them to be apart for a few days at a time, seeing to business in different areas of the country. But even so Luna had never felt alone, as she would only have to return to Canterlot to get any help that was needed to defuse a thorny issue. Now, though, as she came out from the Tower’s grounds and turned to head deeper into the forest, Luna knew things were different.

They had separated acrimoniously once before, after the old Orders of the Resistance had insisted that only one of them could be one of Equestria’s leaders. That time it had been Luna’s mistake to run off, and in her foolishness she had almost helped Seraph usurp the revolution and plunge the country into another war. It was only by Celestia’s quick thinking that disaster had been averted.

This time though, it seemed that her sister was the one making the grave mistake, and it would be Luna’s responsibility to rescue the situation.

The thought made her shiver even in the late autumn heat, but it also gave her purpose. For once, it was her turn to be the one of them watching out for the other.

But first she had to know what had happened upon the Hill. What had convinced Celestia that such a transparently foolish plan was the only way to save the country?

Luna well-knew why her sister had come here. Only a few minutes’ walk into the forest she could already feel the steady thrum of the magic in her mind, heightening her own powers. Celestia would have needed that magic, and even though she hadn’t come here planning to cast that spell, she could certainly have used it for that purpose.

A short way up the hill Luna came upon her first obstacle: a lazy tendril of purple fog that wound its way through the trees, barring the path ahead. She had seen Chaos Storms before, and while it was surprising that any of Discord’s magic had survived his end three hundred years ago, she knew that she could get through it. It would only require a calm head and a determined heart.

A single step into the fog and the world outside vanished. Uncharacteristically though, she did not hear the immediate whispers of doubt that she had been expecting, even though she could feel the magic running along her skin like faint brushes of hair. Was it still probing her, trying to figure out the best avenues of attack? No matter. She only needed to think about making it out the other side.

Indeed, it wasn’t very long before Luna began to see recognizable shapes forming out of the wisps of fog around her. Though they didn’t look much like the forest she had left. Instead, the clouds to her sides arranged themselves into vertical sheets like walls, slowly morphing from purple through lavender and pink until they were white stone.

One more step took her over a threshold, and Luna was suddenly back in the Senate chamber in Canterlot, in the middle of the floor, the rings of empty lecterns surrounding her. Brilliant daylight slanted through the chamber’s windows to illuminate the image of a stylized golden Sun which had been inlaid on the chamber’s floor.

It exactly matched Celestia’s new mark, and indeed looking around the room Luna saw that mark everywhere, sewn into standards hanging on the walls, even outlined in brilliant stained glass in the room’s rear window.

Before her, where there should have been the two identical thrones there was only one, tall and regal, seemingly formed from solid gold, and with that same Sun emblazoned upon its back. It was empty at the moment.

Obviously none of this was real. It was merely a trick of the Chaos Magic, and Luna had to find the way out. Yet even as she was casting about her gaze searching for that exit, she heard a voice.

“Took you long enough,” Discord’s voice said, an imperceptible titter in it as his crooked face materialized above the top of the throne. The rest of his serpentine body followed, slithering into existence as if he had merely been hiding behind the chair.

“Such a specimen you are,” he continued, reaching down and plunking himself casually onto the cushion of the seat. “Truly, I’m always surprised that of all the possible threats in this world, it was the two of you that defeated me.”

Luna was doing her best not to pay attention to the spectre. Even though what she saw looked and sounded like Equestria’s old enemy, she knew that it could only be her subconscious mind animating an avatar of her doubts. Thus, she focused on looking down the halls between the seats to where the doors to the room would normally be, but saw them all closed and locked.

Discord gave her a moment more before speaking up again. “Princess, I’m sure you understand that I am not some external force here to try influencing you. I am a part of your mind, animated by the Chaos Magic. Thus, you’re all too free to ignore me, but you do so at your own peril.”

Seeing little choice, she turned to look him in the eye. “You are only here to attempt to turn me from my purpose,” she answered, as serious as she could muster. But the draconequus-shaped illusion only laughed again.

“Ah yes, your glorious purpose. Tell me, what exactly is that again?” he cackled, momentarily adorned in an odd green and gold outfit with a horned helmet.

With the snap of a talon he pulled a book out of thin air, its cover bearing the crescent moon of her own cutie mark, and with two dark blue wings sprouting from its spine. Leafing through it, he grinned. “Honestly I think that you would benefit from a chance to work that out, because I’m seeing a lot of mixed signals in here.”

“I shall venture to the Hill, and when I get there I shall determine what evil has caused Celestia to embark upon this foolish endeavour of hers,” she replied evenly, already tired at this encounter.

“Sure,” he nodded along. “That part is simple enough. But what then?”

Hesitant, Luna took a deep breath. This was the part that she hadn’t fully thought through yet. “I shall destroy that evil, and all will be well.”

There was silence between them for several seconds, before Discord broke it with a hearty guffaw. With tears in his eyes he doubled over and laughed for a solid minute. “My,” he said back eventually, “I don’t even know where I’m supposed to begin with that. Did nopony ever tell you the problem with making assumptions?”

She let him carry on for a second more. “Are you quite finished?”

“No, I’m not finished!” he returned, suddenly annoyed. “I haven’t even started. Let’s take the big one head-on, shall we? What will you do if this ‘evil’ that has supposedly taken root in your sister’s mind is nothing at all? What if this was all her intention from the start? Then what’s your plan, Your Highness?”

Shaking her head, Luna stepped back. It was indeed a legitimate possibility, but not one she was willing to consider. “That’s not possible. She knows better than that.”

Unconvinced, Discord sat back in the throne, still looking amused. “Does she? Neither one of you is perfect, no matter how much either of you might believe you are. You both make mistakes.”

“Sometimes, yes,” Luna agreed despite how wrong it felt. “But not like this. We’ve disagreed in the past. But there are some lines that simply cannot be crossed, and she knows this as well as I.”

“But you are so very different,” he continued, a pair of reading glasses appearing on his nose as he continued to peruse the pages of the book. “You focus on the little ponies and she focuses on the big picture. Isn’t that right?”

“Perhaps,” she admitted. “Yet still all of this is beyond the pale.”

Frowning, he shut the book with a firm clap. “Is that so? I think that you should think long and hard about that statement.” With another snap, an image appeared between them: the cold empty eyes of Swift, lying dead at her hooves. The image of all of them, at the wall and spread through the fields. The blood, the carnage, the despair.

Discord’s eyes were pale disks seen through the image. “What would you do to prevent all of this from happening ever again?” he asked, his voice echoing throughout the void.

Indeed Luna found that she couldn’t answer right away. Thirty-seven had been the number that day, each and every one gone, never to return. Their numbers added to a tally stretching back centuries, doomed to carry forward. How many more would die in the next crisis?

Yet, Celestia was preventing all of that. Wasn’t she?

How many lives would be altered by her spell? How many more would lose the freedom to choose how to lead their life because her magic said that the country needed more soldiers, or more lawyers, or more lumberjacks or accountants?

She shook her head slowly. “No,” she said, trying to push down her doubts. “Even if they had to die again, it would be worth it to prevent this.”

“Ah,” he crooned, raising a talon as if to punctuate a point. “So apparently death is a price worth paying.”

There was a silence for a moment, as Luna thought about what she had just said. Then she turned back to him with a scowl. “Agh! You are leading me in circles! If there is something that you are trying to tell me then say it!”

“I AM YOU!” Discord roared back at her, suddenly flying out of his seat and up into the lofty ceiling of the room. The painting of the Chaos Storm above him seemed to come to life, crackling with lightning as it had when he had been alive. “I know nothing that you do not! What I am trying to tell you is a conclusion that you should have reached hours ago! Will you admit it to yourself? What will you do if Celestia is not willing to relent?”

Luna could not hold his gaze, in spite of the fire in her heart that wanted to scream in defiance with all of the air in her lungs. She knew what he meant, but she refused to accept it. She had known Celestia her whole life, and the two of them had always been there for each other. This could not be the end. No matter what transpired.

Instead she shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back the tears welling there.

“I am finished with this,” she said, far less forcefully than she had started.

“Sorry, I’m afraid you don’t get to say no here,” he replied with a click.

In answer, the roof of the chamber above them irised open with a crackle of thunder, revealing real storm clouds above. The floor tiles upon which Luna stood suddenly launched skyward, building into a pillar of rapidly rising stone that carried her up through the open roof to join Discord amongst the clouds.

But as she came up through the roof the sky around Luna cleared, and beyond the clouds she could see Equestria, spread out in its verdant brilliance, as if she were looking down from Canterlot’s mountain top.

It was with this view she saw the land was not dry and brown, but instead green and bright, as it should always be. Canterlot spread out before her, a shining jewel of white stone and coloured tiles. On the horizon Manehattan sprawled across its rivers in a confused mass of stone and metal, the great rush of its commerce a constant thunder in Luna’s ears. The countryside all around was a patchwork of fields and pastures, heavy with grain or filled with orchards of ripe fruit. Birds sang in the treetops and the rivers spread tinkling streams of crystal-clear water. And the ponies that filled the scene were happy, going about their work with smiles on their faces.

The view lifted Luna’s heart. It was Equestria as it should be, as it deserved to be. It was everything that she had spent three hundred years working toward.

“It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it?” Discord whispered in her ear, floating just behind her back. “Much better than it was before.”

Suddenly before her eyes the scene morphed, warping into a memory that Luna recognized instantly. The sky was darkened to a murky brown, the cities and towns below replaced by ruins. The vegetation all dried up, the orchards barren, the fields all gone. The storm clouds swirled around Canterlot’s peak again, purple and menacing, with silent lightning flickering between them.

This was Discord’s world, and his magic was all around them, infecting every part of the landscape. Rivers of the rainbow hues of Chaos Magic ran through the sky and along the flickers of the lightning. Motes of his magic were in the air everywhere, clustered around the broken ruins where the ponies still dwelt, poisoning the water, darkening the skies, tainting the soils. And finally, deep in the southern forest and rising over the whole scene was the great tower of Chaos Magic that held the Sun and Moon in his sway.

It was a sickening sight, but also a relieving one. Yes, this was how Equestria had looked before, when Celestia and Luna had been able to see the magic with the power of the Elements. But it was gone now. And soon enough the drought would be over and the idyllic first vision would return.

She looked over at Discord curiously. “Yes, I remember all of this. Your point?”

A wicked grin on his crooked face, he gestured out over the scene once more. “Look again. See what Equestria shall become.”

This time what Luna saw seemed like a hybrid of the two. The country was back to its green and gold beauty, the cities were once again intact and bustling, and the ponies out and about were once again happy and carefree. Yet the magic was still there too, all around them in the sky and over the ground. And then Luna realized what it was that she was being shown.

As before, the magic clustered around each of the ponies as they carried on with their days. But it wasn’t the rainbow hues of Discord’s magic. Instead it was predominantly yellow-gold, with a little bit of soft blue and a little bit of midnight-black. Celestia’s magic was everywhere, touching every pony in the country, directing the action of everything according to her wishes.

“No,” Luna breathed, unable to tear her eyes from the scene even as her heart welled up into her throat. “No, no, no…”

Discord snapped his talon, and everything went black.

She awoke, lying flat on the hillside, the peace of the forest around her once more. Looking back, Luna saw nothing, save for trees growing close together and maybe just a little patch of something white down below. Up ahead, through a gap in the foliage, the hilltop beckoned.

Propping herself up onto her front knees, Luna took a moment for a few deep breaths. The vision she had seen in the storm refused to leave her. It had not been truly a vision of the future, simply a nightmare conjured up by her own subconscious mind. But it was a possibility, and if it was what the future held, then it needed to be stopped.

So she had to stand up and keep going. Luna dreaded the answers that she was about to get, and still didn’t know exactly what she would do with them. She still hoped that Celestia had merely been twisted by a dark purpose, and her actions thus could all be explained. But she needed to know for sure.

There was a light breeze stirring in the trees when Luna emerged into the clearing at the top of the hill. From this peak, she could see out to most of the forest, including the slender spike of purple that was Harmony Tower to the north, and the overgrown ruins of the Citadel to the west. All around the trees were brightly lit in oranges, yellows, and reds, as the seasons continued to change and fall sped on into what normally would have been winter. The wind caught in her mane and beat it back across her neck, strands blowing into her eyes, and the Sun’s warm light illuminated a small patch of open ground here at the top of the hill. The only strange thing was that the grass around the hilltop was blackened as if it had been burned in a fire, but nowhere else was there ash or dust to indicate the recent burn.

And then there was the magic, a primordial thunder in her mind now, a deep beat that echoed and resonated through her bones, almost jarring her teeth in their places, seeming to shake the ground upon which she walked.

But now, here, everything was peaceful. The forest was serene all around. Parched, perhaps, still very much brown and dry despite the rain slowly coming down in Equestria. The wind was blowing a little harder, but there was still no sign of anypony except her.

All of a sudden, a shadow crossed in front of the Sun, and Luna turned. Descending on leathery wings that seemed to fill the sky was a great dragon, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere, as she hadn’t heard it approach.

The massive beast was covered in shiny green scales from a narrow, sharply pointed head down a sinuous body and finally to a long, whip-like tail. As it came in to land on the hilltop its wings extended to gather in the wind, and for a moment Luna wondered if she was about to be crushed. But then in an instant it had settled down, and the creature sat facing her. Its face was only about thirty feet away, and the rest of its body curled around the circumference of the clearing so that the tip of its tail wound up resting across its front shoulders.

Luna wasn’t quite sure whether she ought to run, but supposed it was a little late for that now that the dragon had encircled her with its own body. She could try to fly perhaps, but the beasts could be nimble in the air, too. At least this one didn’t look quite agitated at the moment, though she was clearly in its domain. On top of what had happened further down the hillside this was certainly another unexpected turn. A part of her wondered how it was that Celestia had dealt with this creature, and why she hadn’t mentioned it.

But then, quite surprisingly, the dragon spoke. “Do not be alarmed, my friend,” it said, its voice a flowing harmony of many tones, a deep rumble of energy lined with a warble of metallic vibration. “I have come to you to speak, not to threaten. You understand, correct?”

Luna nodded hesitantly. “Who are you?” she asked, ready to flee if needed. “You do not have the look of the dragons that I have seen before.”

It was true, the few dragons that she and Celestia had dealt with as rulers were usually even larger than this one, with bulkier frames more akin to lizards with wings than the thinner and more serpent-like form that this one had.

The dragon’s nostrils flared, thin wisps of smoke emerging from either one. “Is that so? Well, all things do change. Even a race as ancient as we dragons take on different forms as the circumstances of the world require. But you may know me as Skullhum.”

That name… Skullhum. Luna was sure that she had heard it before, but it took a moment to register. It had been three hundred years ago, when she and Celestia had first come to the Citadel here in the forest.

“Skullhum, as in Skullhum the Far Seer?” The memories were coming back to her. Skullhum, upon whose lair the Citadel of Everfree had been built. Skullhum, whose ancient prophecy had almost plunged Equestria into another war as soon as Discord had been defeated.

He nodded slowly. “One and the same. You are familiar then?”

“Absolutely. Though I am puzzled as to how you could possibly still be alive.”

Skullhum’s lair had been long-abandoned even when she had been a filly. While it was known dragons could live for centuries, if Skullum was still alive, then that meant that he was likely several thousand years old. Even dragons didn’t live that long.

The scales around his mouth pulled back into something approaching a grin. “We dragons have a magic of our own, older even than yours. I have watched over this forest for centuries, ever since I first came to live here all that time ago.”

Things were starting to make sense. “So the magic of this place, it’s yours then?”

Skullhum nodded again.

“Interesting.” The scholars of Everfree had always theorized that the power of the hill was old dragon magic, and now Luna had confirmation. But it got her no closer to the answers that she was looking for. Still, if Skullhum had been watching the forest for centuries, he surely would have noticed when Celestia had come around.

“Begging your pardon, but I’ve come looking for the answers to some questions, and I think that you could be that help, or at least I hope so. Several days ago, my sister visited this hill. She’s a white alicorn, a little taller than me, with a regal bearing?”

The dragon’s face lit up with recognition instantly. “Yes, Celestia, right?”

“Yes. You spoke with her?”

Skullhum was silent for a moment, as the lids of his great eyes slowly came down and the breeze rustled the leaves of the forest all around. “I’m afraid that I was only aware of her passing,” he answered, “and we did not get the chance to meet. Instead, upon this hill she found something far more dangerous.”

“Solaris,” Luna whispered. The name meant little to her; Celestia was the historian, she preferred to focus on the future. But of the two figures her sister had supposedly met along her journey, she couldn’t imagine that Star Swirl had been the dangerous one.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know exactly who he is, aside from once being a Unicorn King, and thus probably long dead.”

That last realization struck her just as she was saying it. There were so many things she still didn’t know about what had happened to Celestia, but hopefully Skullhum would know the answers. “Please, I’m here to try to help her. Something awful happened to her when she came to this hill, and it must have been Solaris’s doing! Please tell me everything that you can.”

His shoulders drooped as he closed his eyes again, the apparent smile disappearing from his face. Skullhum pulled himself forward with his claws, his long body curling around the clearing, until his face was only about a dozen feet away, and Luna could feel the heat of his breath, and smell the scent of ash and burning sulfur from the depths of his lungs.

“I am very sorry,” he said, the words sounding soft and gentle in his melodious voice. “I wish that I could have done something, but by the time that I became aware of her presence, she and Solaris had already met. He is a powerful sorcerer, such that even I could not interfere with his wishes without serious risk. I could only listen in on their conversation from a safe place before she left.”

“Yes, okay,” Luna said, her hopes rising. This was starting to make sense. “She came here, needing help with her plans, and Solaris gave her that help, but in the process twisted her intentions into something evil.” She looked up into Skullhum’s eyes expectantly. “Right?”

Skullhum let out a sigh, the air rasping along the inside of his throat and coming out flecked with sparks. “Not entirely,” he said, a look of regret forming. “That Solaris gave her aid, yes. But her intentions were her own, and he did not interfere with them. That I know for sure.”

“What?” Luna clenched her eyes shut again, shaking her head to dispel the fear. “That’s impossible!” she shouted, emotion tightening her voice into a shrill shriek. “YOU’RE LYING!”

Raising a claw, the dragon worked his digits into a complex gesture, and slowly an image formed between them, materializing out of pitch-black magic. Luna recognized the same clearing where she now stood, in the dark of night. Celestia was standing there, her horn shining with silver light.

“I know that I need your power,” Celestia was saying. “Without my help, my nation will wither and die, or tear itself apart as I look on. I have devised a spell to prevent that, now and for evermore. But to cast it, I need power, more than I can get anywhere else. I need your strength, Your Majesty.”

“Celestia! NO!” It was finally too much for Luna to take. Her knees gave way and she fell to the ground, streams of tears running from her eyes. “What have you done?” she whispered weakly. “How?”

It all came back to her now. Celestia had set the country on a course that was to be even worse than what Discord had done. It would be bright and beautiful on the surface, but underneath it would all be a horror, a vast mechanism where the gears were individual lives, ordered to create a functioning society. Equestria would be peaceful and ponies would be happy, but only due to ignorance of the freedom they’d be denied.

Skullhum’s voice came to her, seemingly drifting in from far away. “I apologize for having to tell you this. But it is the truth.”

It was. She couldn’t deny it any longer. Action needed to be taken. Equestria needed to be saved.

Slowly, Luna lifted her head up and opened her eyes. Skullhum was still there, looking contrite and sympathetic. “Thank you,” she said to him. Her heart ached inside her, and urged her not to say the next sentence. But she had to.

“I know what I must do now.”

Skullhum nodded, but then frowned. “If you are to challenge her, then I am afraid that you will fail. With Solaris’s magic added to her own, even you will not be able to overpower her.”

Luna didn’t like to think about it, but he was right. “But you have magic. Would you stand by my side in this?”

His great eyes came slowly down once more as he thought. Then they opened as he fixed her with a keen glare. “Are you willing to do what you know may be necessary?”

Luna’s breath came in a shaky burst of emotion. “No,” she replied honestly. “I doubt that anypony could ever be willing to do it.”

In three hundred years, the two of them had always been there for each other. Now, all of a sudden, she had to say her good-byes. Luna took another deep breath, then brought a hard stare up to meet Skullhum’s. Her heart still said no, but her head had to disagree.

She blinked away the last of her tears. “But if this is the price that must be paid, then it must be.”

“Then come,” he said with a slight nod. “Take hold of my claw, and together we shall do it.”

Luna reached out to grasp Skullhum’s claw, but the moment that they touched her world went dark.

There was a flash upon the hilltop, not of bright light but instead of swiftly billowing darkness, thick waves of inky smoke quickly enveloping the forms of Princess Luna and Skullhum. The smoke grew as a sphere of dark purple, blotting out the Sun and leaving an ebony darkness behind. It grew with the force of a torrential wind, the whole of the forest bent over by the gusting air, leaves and branches picked up and broken free. As the nova of darkness passed, however, those same trees were left still and silent, hanging in a suddenly cool evening with no Sun overhead, and no stars even to provide illumination. There was only the silver light of an enormous full Moon, hanging in the sky over the top of the hill.

As the storm passed on and the woods once again fell into quiet, a shape arose upon the hilltop, once again a dark alicorn, but not the same as the one that had come originally. Her coat was now an extremely dark purple, the same colour as the infinite sky overhead, her narrow eyes the same silver as the bright Moon. And in them shone a malice that had lain dormant for centuries.