The statue stood there in the middle of the battlefield and the chocolate-turned grass around it melted away beneath the sun that revealed it’s face above, leaving behind a large, ugly, brown patch of land in the middle of the crater. The two gazed at the statue, readying themselves for him to emerge out of it as if nothing happened, just the way he would always do it.
But Discord didn’t move. He wasn’t just coated in stone, like he had thought they would do, no, for all his crimes he had been turned into stone. Hopefully the rocks of the land wouldn’t put it against them later on, the younger princess thought. Her eyes looked at him. The great spirit of chaos was still in the midst of his mocking tune, he had probably thought to take it. Maybe he hadn’t even seen it coming.
She let her guard down and just inhaled deeply. For the first time in her life, she felt truly safe. The bright blue dyed moonmetal armor, as well as her parts of the Elements of Harmony that were embedded in it, glistened in the sun just like that wonderful starry mane of hers. She had felt powerful when they had finally understood what the elements were, but now they had defeated Discord...with Plan A. They weren’t just powerful, no...harmony had prevailed and no longer would he harm the ponies of this land. Not her or any other beast.
She looked down from the rock they stood on, gazing at the crater and the dragonequus-statue in the middle of it. Her thoughts were only broken when from behind them, a loud cheer shattered the silence that had come after the storm. The mare turned around immediately and found all the other freedom fighters along the ponies of Equestria. All who had been turned into diffferent species’, kinds of candy and whatever else, they had returned to their normal form. For the first time in hundreds of years Equestria was normal again.
There was Swift Arrow with his brown mane and red coat, yelling something incomprehensible like always. There was Baked Good, waving his giant spoon around in the air and Raincloud beside him, hovering a bit over the ground and cheering louder than any other pony. There stood Archmage Clover the Clever alongside Chancellor Smart Cookie and Commander Pansy, the leaders of the Equestrian Empire, staring in disbelief at the two young ponies who had achieved what none of them could have done and they, too, starting cheering after a few moments.
Luna did not know what to say or how to react to seeing everypony alive and well. It wasn’t just those she knew. There was an old pony, shrunk and wrinkled, she had never seen that one before but it filled her with joy to see that she had still seen the end of Discord’s reign. Then there was a family of five, a blue stallion and his green mare, their foals ranging over all the colors in-between. This was what the victory meant, they had saved all those lives.
The dark blue mare cried tears of joy at this moment, for this had been the reason why they had come here and they had made it happen. Her sister probably felt like that, too.
She turned around and looked at her.
The four-colored mane moving in a ghostly wind and a golden crown upon her head, standing taller than any other pony, she looked truly regal at this moment. Her white coat looked well in the light, like snow. Really, she looked like the perfect leader. Though Luna noticed, like always, the details. Her sister had that confident smirk on her face that told her that she hadn’t been prepared for this kind of moment herself. Her eyes were swelling with tears, too but her expression showed a bit pride at the achievement, too. Celestia had earned it, though. After all, defeating Discord in one go would go down in the history books forever.
She strode beside her sister and the cheering grew louder. Both fillies, no, they were mares now, looked at the ponies and waved at them. Then it happened, the fateful event. For a moment, Luna did not know what happened when the ponies swarmed them, but suddenly they were thrown into the air and the ponies below them yelled something. The little alicorn did not understand it at first but then it hit her.
“Princesses! Princesses! Princesses!”
The victors of the war against chaos, the first alicorns to appear in centuries and bringers of order, the day and night given form. The ponies had accepted them as saviors and now they accepted them as their sovereigns. Luna hadn’t expected that, she had expected a small thank you and then she and her sister would have been allowed to go.
She had always thought that defeating Discord had been their purpose but maybe the ponies needed guidance. She did not know. She never knew what to do under such circumstances.
“YEAH! PRINCESSES!” She suddenly heard Celestia yell at her. The mare giggled and threw her arms up to the sky, once more seeming like the child she had been back in the Everfree Castle. “I always wanted to be a princess. Loonie...” again with the nickname, “LET’S DO THIS!”
The ‘shout-while-only-using-your-normal-speech’-Spell - she really had to find a better name for it - overshadowed all the cheering but the ponies took the yes as such and the cheering somehow became even louder than it already was. Luna simply smiled. Tia was right, this might do. Maybe together they could pull it off and build a shining new era out of the ravages of the war.
As she was thrown up again, though, her gaze unwillingly fell at Discord once more, down in his crater, surrounded by chocolate-coated earth, one arm lifted to the sky and his mouth wide open as if in song. For a moment the world seemed to come to a halt and the mare was there, mid-air, looking at her life-long nemesis, the one she had sworn to defeat.
She remembered the days back in the Everfree Castle, she remembered the burning forests, she remembered the drums and the screams, the clouds of candy and ponies turning into the weirdest things and then, Discord's laughter. It was still there, in her head...And then that she realized that he wasn’t singing.
He still laughed at them.
Luna hit her head against the table, yelling in anger, before she swiped the paper away. The princess tried to calm down but the heat irritated her to no end. How could her subjects enjoy this warmth? What was so wonderful about these temperatures? She didn’t get it. Her hooves scratched across the wood of her workplace. The mare concentrated her magic to generate a bit of wind in the room.
The next moment papers flew around, against her bed, out of the window, one even smacking across her face. The princess smashed her hoof onto the table and with a shout the papers all dissolved in blue flames.
She breathed heavily, watching the table without even blinking once. It took her a moment or two before she realized what she had just done.
The princess of the night looked at her room. How many thousands of plans had she made this year? Small things, big things, lots of smart things that would’ve helped everypony. And she had just incinerated everything... Worst of all, the room wasn’t even clean. Beneath the papers had been dolls she had ripped apart in anger, food she had never touched and so much dirt. It was a good thing her sense of smell had long since left her. Anyway, didn’t they have personnel for that?
Luna remembered, she had thrown that idiot out of the window when she had dared to disturb royalty. Princess Celestia had scolded her in front of everypony then, like she was the bad guy. There were rules to the world. She was the princess of the night, she was the dark and the light both. The night belonged to her...
She was Princess. Princess Luna. That’s what Princess Celestia always said, right? The one time she acted like it and it got her scolded like a filly.
The darkblue mare sighed and moved towards her bed, stepping carefully around the pieces that came from a glass she had broken in a fit of rage, and then let herself fall on the once so comfortable mattress. It felt hard, damp and drove the rage even further. So, she pulled a pillow unto her face and yelled into it. She did that, loud and long.
As she lifted the cushion from her face she said to herself, “What the hay am I getting angry for.”
The stuff she had just burned had all been rejected by her royal snootiness, the great empress Princess Celestia anyway. She had told her that she had everything under control, there was no need for those political abominations she called plans. Luna sighed, maybe she should just start a coup...
Her eyes widened, “No, no, no, no... Stop thinking like that, Luna.”
As of late these kinds of thoughts had come easily to her. It had just started one day after she had visited the remnants of the short-lived project to help her subjects. Somepony had apparently thought it would be wiser to station soldiers in the Everfree to guard the new founded villages and Princess Celestia had agreed. That pony was as incompetent as a ruler as she was a bad sister. Truly, she hadn’t even listened to Luna’s side of the story. No, child abductions in the middle of the night, that was against the law. Royalty shouldn’t break the law.
She remembered the foal beneath the bridge. A foal, not a pony that would soon have a cutie mark but a foal. The image had burned itself into her mind and Celestia had told her that it had been wrong.
Luna had shouted at her and begged and cried but in the end the foals had been sent to ‘their respectve homes’, which apparently referred to the run down buildings that the elder of Ponyville had defined as ‘appropriate’.
The dreams didn’t help. As of late she had slept badly through the days. Even when she tried to rest she would just dream of Discord, the war and the foal under the bridge. She had read books about how these things were called but she had dismissed them. The Nightmares had died out a long time ago.
Even so she was abandoned, left alone by everypony. She once had friends who would’ve helped her but they had died and their children and their children’s children, even her new friends had died. While Princess Celestia had her wonderful court, Luna had the stars and they didn’t speak, they couldn’t aid her. The filly didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore.
I, of course, the voice whispered, but Luna didn’t listen this time, she just stared at the ceiling. She had cancelled the magic, she didn’t want to see the outside, she didn’t want to see the night or the nightsky.
Everypony was probably asleep. Only one night of the year they would spend awake. The Summer Sun Celebration they called it. They didn’t stay up for the stars or the moon or the striving meteors but the light of the sun at the end of it. They thought that the sun was better than the moon nowadays. No, they always had.
Tia hadn’t, but Tia was gone now, probably forever. Luna sighed. She remembered the bold pony with the pink mane who would have faced the lord of chaos alone and probably would’ve won. She missed her.
Instead the realm had Princess Celestia. After Luna’s initiative to make the council’s word powerless in court, she and Tia had taken over the steering wheel and the land had started thriving like never before. The council now took care of the small things the ponies came for and Celestia and Luna could both do what they were meant to do.
In the beginning it had gone so well, too. Manehatten had been started to be built and they had started with the paving of the roads between the largest cities. She had even finally gotten through to Tia to check on the Flutterponies, since it had been a long time since they had last heard of them. The council had obstructed that notion, as they had obstructed to anything that could challenge the Status Quo.
Yeah, Luna remembered, for forty years it had gone wonderful, then came that one Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant.
“Princess Luna,” she had said, after she had heard the younger princess giggle at the narrators mispronounciation of the word ‘Windigo’, “We’re royalty, we do not giggle like foals.”
She had no idea what had happened but Tia’s smile vanished once more. Not because she was tired but...royalty.
Later she would tell Luna, “There are rules at court which we have to keep, we are bound to our position.” And bound her royal snootiness was.Because Luna didn’t style her hair in the latest fashions Celestia would confine her to her room. Because she didn’t move her behind the right way Princess Celestia had declined her to visit the orphanages to check on the ponies. Because she had ideas that weren’t ‘agreeable’ with the ‘nobility’ Princess Celestia refused her council.
Yes, Princess Celestia refused her council. They had grown so distant over the years.
Good old Tendertwig, the royal gardener, had laughed at that notion but at one point, when she was busy working on the old carrot patch, she told Luna: “The court rules developed kinda unexpected over the last decade. They even got rules how to sneeze right now, darn fools. The princess was against it in the beginning but bowed to it, since they wouldn’t take her seriously afterwards and it snowballed from there. You’ve got to understand, she always tries her best to adjust.”
Luna hadn’t understood, she didn’t now. She would never understand what had happened because there was no court at night. There was only the princess called Luna, the lonely princess and maybe her loyal guards.
After the council had been depowered she had thrown out most of her old guard and replaced them with ponies who cherished the night as much as she did. It hadn’t taken much to notice that the night guard now consisted of less than half the ponies the solar guard had.
Tia had been taken over by Princess Celestia, the ponies only saw the night as the time to sleep and to rest, her loyal guard were too few souls and outside there were still ponies out on the streets.
Luna looked at the pillow again, the anger rose again. I would be able to change all that, she thought, If Princess Celestia will not listen to me, then I shall make her listen. I am in possession of half the elements and with the surprise on my side, I have enough strength to take the kingdom.
Luna looked at the pillow and suddenly started to smirk. The smirk turned into a smile. That smile transformed into a giggle which then turned into laughter. It only took a few seconds for Luna to roll around the bed, tears streaming from her eyes.
She stopped her laughter immediately after a few moments. “Heavens help me,” she said in a hollow voice.
What the realm needed wasn’t a coup d’etat, especially when the two involved were sisters. Luna stood up and went over to the mirror she had broken in a fit of rage a few days ago. The shards of glass still were on the ground. Nopony had entered her room since the incident with the cleaning-pony.
Luna looked at herself in the shards. She could roughly make out that her coat had turned into an even darker shade of blue and her pupils had changed a bit. She figured it was from sleep deprivation and lack of care. With all those boiling emotions she couldn’t really do much but throw tantrums. If she didn’t, she threw ponies out of windows, or bathtubs.
Worst, she wouldn’t even feel bad about it. There was a joy in destruction nowadays and that scared her, because sometimes, in the dreams she would stand in Discords palace, before him on his mighty throne. Tia was on the ground. Not Princess Celestia but the bold filly with the pink mane, wounded and without hope, looking up to her.
In the dreams she always spoke with such anguish, “Help me...Loonie.”
She lifted her hooves, Discord started laughing and then she hit the broken and hurt Tia. Just once and just in the moment Tia opened her mouth to scream, the princess would wake up, crying and scared. Nopony ever came to comfort her.
Luna had tried to figure out a way to stop all of this. The bad dreams and Princess Celestia, the ponies without home and the rules of the court. She had come to but one conclusion. She needed to fix only one thing and from there everything would be fine again. She couldn’t return to the days at the Everfree Castle, buildings snow ponies and pranking the caretakers. She knew that but that had been the time both of them had been happy. She needed to talk get through to Tia. Tia would understand, she could make Princess Celestia go away and fix all the bad things. Bold Tia with her confident smirk and her mane always full of mud and dirt and branches. Yes, she could save everythng.
Then Luna stood before the door of her room and pondered for one more moment, asking herself wether she should wear her crown. Princess Celestia hardly ever allowed her to walk about without it. That thought was enough to swoon her. If she wanted to talk to Princess Celestia she’d wear a crown but this beef she had with Tia and she would don nothing but the truth for this occasion.
The night outside was dark and cloudy. Luna hadn’t scheduled any rainclouds but of course Princess Celestia had changed the schedule. “It shouldn’t rain on the Summer Sun Celebration,” she had told Luna when she had marched into court midday after she had found out her plans had been messed with.
At least she had finally gotten to use the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’ on Commander Windspike. That foal had thought to joke about her. Hurricane and Pansy would have never done that. It had felt good, somehow. She had been half-asleep and angry as the warden of Tartarus and when she had turned up the volume the dear Commander had immediately lost his wit and had run out of the throne room. For a moment then, Tia had come back.
This night, too. She’d jump up and down on her sister’s bed if need be. She’d get her to listen. She had to.
One of her guards got her out of her thoughts. The grey coated mare named Snowflower, she had wondrous white hair and her eyes reminded Luna of a batpony.
“Lady Luna,” the armored mare greeted. Luna had begged them to stop calling her princess, with all the stuff she had to put up with that title left a really bad taste in her mouth but since they still felt the need to give her some form of a proper title every guard now called her ‘Lady’.
“Snowflower, had I not ordered you to see that our citizens sleep well tonight?” the princess asked curiously. She used most of her nightguard to protect the realm. She never had needed a personal guard and she didn’t want one either. Discords ‘Dastardly Damagers’, still hung about her and she always felt that guards should serve the realm and not it’s rulers.
“Well, your sis’ insisted that we protect you. She said she didn’t want you to leave and go steal children,” Snowflower said half-joking. Luna’s look let her smile disappear, “She probably meant that they’re done cleaning the streets up and you didn’t need to-”
“If I’d steal children,” Luna asked, looking to the grounds, her voice hollow again, “would you really stop me?”
She had thought that Snowflower would need a moment but the pegasus instead gave her an answer she hadn’t expected: “You’ve done so much for the realm and I have never seen another pony give up as much as you for Equestria. My lady, I vowed to serve you and I shall keep these vows and oaths of mine without regret for whatever you do, it would serve the realm.”
I could do it. They’re loyal to me. One order and then I could save the realm, the voice whispered in her head but Luna just smiled a smile of dignity.
“Thank you, Snowflower. I hope you are right in your conviction,” she said before turning to the colorful corridors of Canterlot. They were the last good thing about this place, really. Whenever she found the respite of a lone night she could just walk down the palace for hours.
For example, when she went down from her tower she came down to a long floor, one one side were windows from which one could see the entirety of the royal garden. The stone statues stood there, each one with a history of it’s own. Some were funny, some sad, some inspiring and some even terrifying. She knew all of them, of course. The maze could be seen, too. She remembered it to be Tendertwig’s greatest achievement. In the middle there was a well and on the inside was the true story of the ‘stealing of children’ Luna had committed.
She missed sweet Tendertwig.
As she walked past the first window, where she saw all that, her gaze went over to the other side. A pony of earth brown and grass green looked her in the eyes, a bright grin with crooked teeth and an incredibly silly felt hat adorned with feathers from every bird in the Everfree Forest. The princess stopped before the picture and looked at it. Tendertwig never had cared much for her teeth but she had been honest about it, too. When the artist had wanted to give her white teeth on the picture, she had told him off. She had been honest like that even towards those who proclaimed themselves ‘nobility’ somepony had then wanted her head and found himself down on the street of Canterlot with a letter saying ‘Thanks for the good work’ and all his lands and titles gone.
Nowadays Princess Celestia ruled so she wasn’t sure whether the outcome would be the same. Luna moved on.
She stopped in front of every picture on the long walk, the way she had done it the first time she had walked down here the first time. There were pictures of important ponies, like Chancellor Puddinghead, the self-named ‘greatest thinker of all time’. Luna had never known her but from what she had heard from Smart Cookie, Puddinghead certainly had been a pony of ideas. The other founders of Equestria were on the same picture, each having a hoof on Puddingheads shoulder, like true friends. Hurricane had been a hard pony throughout her life but the life in Equestria had taught her laughing, on the picture she looked like a kindly old lady. Platinum stared right into Luna. The unicorn princesses were of the same lineage as the princesses she had heard.
“Are you supporting me, or my sister, Platinum?” she asked but of course, the fabulous painting of the pony didn’t answer, so Luna moved on.
The next picture that triggered a memory was when she halted before the picture of a fierce looking griffon. He had black headfeathers with grey tips on the edges, where his orange and black striped fur was. His golden eyes looked so brave and daring. Luna couldn’t help but smile a bit. Gerald von Windzipfel had been the first ambassador sent by the griffons, he had come in their times of need and during the beginning of...well, the dreams.
He had always been like that, just as he was depicted in the picture, posing and looking brave, while in truth he had been a true noble. He hadn’t thought himself above anypony and had shared his meals gladly with the strangers. It had been his notion to open a united Flight School.
She needed to be brave now, too.
After the long corridor there came the castle. Painted in gold and rose and white, with floors of red and ceilings colored in the changing colors of the sky it was truly a place she could feel proud to call her home. The spires she walked past had golden vines emblazoned on them, while stories were painted on the floor of another hallway. The whole thing was a marvel to look at.
Then finally she opened a side-door which lead to the greatest hall in all of Equestria. A giant room with place enough to fit in thousands of ponies. The windows were made of stained glass and a giant red carpet with golden edges laid on the floor. Truth be told, if Equestria had anything grand, it was this hall.
And outside ponies froze in the cold of winter.
Luna scoffed. She hated this place so much. If she would rule, she’d change it. She would make everything right. She shook her head again, the voice really got to her. She had to be quick, before she lost her mind completely.
She moved past the giant columns that held the ceiling and unto the red carpet. She had to get across and through the other door. Her sister surely slept. She looked towards the front gate, noticing that there were no guards. The pony princess frowned, adjusting the patrols was one thing butif she had the gall to throw her guards out...No, even Princess Celestia wouldn’t do that.
The spark was still there. As long as it remained everything could be saved.
Halfway through she heard something from the other side and halted immediately. Turning her head she found Princess Celestia sitting on the throne, looking down on the blue pony.
“Princess Luna,” she called in the royal Canterlot Voice. Her mane was done in one of those extremely elaborate hairdos and a golden crown adorned her head. Luna could spot that and all the other golden pieces of jewellery from across the room. Still, she moved towards her sister.
Celestia wore a fine dress, rose colored with puffed sleeves and a whole lot of laces, it’s edges embellished with sapphires, smaragds and rubies, Luna figured it to be one of her sister’s simple one’s. Still, laces had never suited the tomboyish Tia.
She felt the anger rising by the time she reached the steps of the throne. Princess Celestia wasn’t just looking down on her from her throne, no, she was looking down from whatever elevated moral position she felt herself on. Was it too late to talk to Tia?
“You’re not asleep,” Luna said flatly.
“And you left your room, without your crown and smelling like a peasant,” Celestia threw back.
Luna raised an eyebrow, “That supposed to be an insult?”
Celestia looked sternly at her, “This is the throne room, it’s in the palace.” Luna rolled her eyes, exactly knowing where this was going and so it did, as Celestia continued: “We are the royalty and nobility expects us to behave as examples to them by-”
“insulting the ponies that grow the food for our table?” Luna interrupted sarcastically, the anger rising, “If so, then I have an even better idea. How about you call upon every pony in the country and call them bad names in front of the entire court. These ponies here would certainly love you for it.”
Now it was upon Celestia to rise up in anger, “They are our nobility!” she shouted. Luna looked grim at her sister. Tia had always been quick to anger.
“Nobility? What nobility?” Luna asked, “When I handed my plans to rebuild Ol’ Pegasus to the ‘Grand Baron Lord Marshall’ or however he calls himself now he simply laughed and threw them away!” she shouted, using the full capacity of the royal voice, the ground shook beneath her feet and in the gardens, birds started chirping. She had probably awoken the entire castle.
Compose yourself, Luna, she told herself, inhaling deeply. Even Celesita looked taken aback, although she regained her posture.
“Ponies build cities during the day,” she then said, “they sleep at night. You should just tend to the stars.”
The sisters looked at each other for a moment. Luna’s eyes widened, her mouth threw itself open but no words came out. What had her sister just said? What had the sweet Celestia just said?
“Y-you,” Luna started. The anger was rising.
“You heard me, Princess Luna,” Don’t call me Princess, “You may go to your room now.”
Celestia stood up and moved down the stairs, with that graceful royal canterlot stride and walked past Luna, “Good Night.”
The blue princess stared into the nothingness. Was everything lost? Had she just lost her last chance? What had happened with Celestia? Why wouldn’t she listen. Sweet Tia, the little bold tomcolt with the pink mane, always in the mud, always on the front. She needed to get through to her.
She’s lost, fallen to her own court. Only I can save Equestria now.
“TIA!” she yelled and turned towards her sister who was meters away now, “Did you forget why we’re doing this? We became the princesses of this realm to help the ponies build a working world for themselves. We always worked together. When you were at you lowest I covered for you, but I still heeded your wishes when you spoke to me. I still listened to you. When that council lied to you, I tried to fix it, in both our names. I didn’t steal those foals back then. There was a foal beneath a bridge, broken and abandoned, with snow covering it’s coat.
“Celestia, this realm... Equestria is rotten to the core, these nobleponies here in Canterlot rule only for their own benefit, you’ve got to see that. The true nobility always lied with ponies themselves, and not their blood or inheritance and true harmony can only be achieved by those who work towards it. You’ve got to stop listening to them and start listening to me. Tia, please.”
Celestia didn’t look back, for a second she flinched, though. For that one second, Luna believed her Tia was back, everything would be fixed, the voice would vanish, everything would be fine.
“Do not slander my court. You think you’re smart, you think you’re kind but you’re neither. You lie, you cheat and you break everypony that comes close to me,” Celestia said, stone cold, “If you have nothing but filth and lies and stink, then leave my Equestria.”
My Equestria.
Celestia left Luna alone in the throne room and the blue mare sat down on the edge of the throne, breaking down in tears.
She turned mad and sooner rather than later everypony will pay the price, I have got to stop this. I need to fix this. If Tia is not coming back, then I have to do this on my own.
The voice didn’t sound sad, Luna didn’t feel sad, she felt the anger boiling.
She breathed in and looked at the ground before her. The carpet was red. A bad color. Luna needed to do something, she didn’t know what would happen next. She needed to act fast, since this would soon go completely out of control. She knew she could still save Equestria.
Luna stood up, knowing how ragged and weak she must’ve looked but she didn’t care. There was a fire burning inside of her and she just knew she could do it. She strode past the decors, past the garden, past the pictures, ignoring all, until she met with Snowflower before the staircase.
“Milady,” the grey pony said, looking worried as she saw Luna approach, “What happened?”
“It’s all worse than I expected. Is the Nightguard loyal to me as you are?” she asked.
“I-I think so...Why?” Luna saw the look on the pony’s face and now she noticed how different it looked from the one of a warrior during Discord’s reign.
“Snowflower, I think the members of the court are manipulating my sister. It could just be years of whispering in her ears or even foul magic,” she confessed, the guards expression turning from unwitting to outright shocked, “I need you, Snowflower to tell my guards and I will send letters to lords whom I trust. We need to be ready by the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“For what, Luna?”
“Our Coup D’Etat.”
She had called her ‘little Loonie’ because she always had been so small and when they’d prank the caretakers at the Everfree Castle. Her plans were way too elaborate to be practicable and too crazy to actually work.
Everytime Celestia closed her eyes she still saw the snows of their first winter and the little blue filly jumping right into it, sinking into a hole, jumping out again, sinking into another hole. She remembered the sky that would change it’s color at random. It hadn’t known day or night for such a long time, but only purple and yellow and sometimes cyan. She remembered the runes on the gate, keeping the ever-changing roots of the forest around them away. She remembered the faces of their caretakers, those kindly ponies. In her first memories they had been so young.
There had been Pegasus. Black coat, white mane, grey eyes, always looking at her with a grimness that scared Luna but only encouraged the elder alicorn to try to prank him.
There had been Unicorn. White coat, black mane, white eyes, always sitting in a chair and trying out magic. The blind pony had loved to hang out with Luna and had taught her the value of history.
Celestia had always preferred the last, Earth. She remembered him to have a coat of grey, a black-and-white striped mane and eyes the color of her own mane.
“The ground is the most important thing,” he had told her, “without it, neither pegasus nor unicorn would live.”
She remembered Luna as she had seen her the last time. It had been in the middle of the night and Celestia had been so anxious about the celebration to come that she couldn’t sleep. When Luna had first come in she had thought to make a friendly chat.
Only, Luna took offense in anything she said these days, interpreting everything anypony said or did as and attack against her. As of late Celestia noticed the plans she had made for her personal life all backfiring, even though she only had the best intentions. She had thought Luna would like it to have less work, to see how her older sister could take care of things but she only seemed to dislike Celestia more. Everypony spoke about how it was the younger ones who wanted to impress their elders but with Luna she always felt the need to impress her.
Celestia had seen her sister, rings beneath her eyes, the coat had darkened, probably from the dirt in her room, that once beautiful mane had stopped moving in whatever ethereal wind always made it move and the once graceful trot she had always possessed had degenerated into some kind of scurrying around. The way Luna had eyed to her from down below, she probably hadn’t even seen how Celestia had gestured her to sit beside her on the royal cushions.
The whole talk had been a mess. Afterwards the first thing Celestia had done was tear that darn dress off, since it had neither comforted her nor gotten a laugh out of her sister. After she had thrown herself on the bed Celestia looked at the garment on the floor. She thought that pink mess of a dress ugly but nowadays she liked dressing herself ugly. Court got boring pretty easily and the ponies had devised the nicest games. They’d outshine each other with the ridiculousness of their dresses and manestyles just to get a laugh out of each other. Well, they had in the beginning at least. Nowadays on Celestia seemed to care about the original purpose. Nowadays ponies applauded one’s tower of a hairstyle.
Court had gotten worse, Celestia knew that and halfway through she had become dependant on them. Not on the ponies themselves but their ancestry. She still saw the ponies she had laughed with and seen grow old and die, not their children and children’s children.
Luna’s words had struck Celestia and even though she hadn’t seen her sister all week now, she had most certainly kept a close eye on her nobility and went down to the towns for the first time since 40 years.
Everything had changed around her and everything was still changing. It always escaped Celestia until the moment the change was already over. Last time she had left a grey, boring castle she had come back to Luna covered in paint and the castle turned into some kind of artwork. It had been the best day of the century for Celestia and the last time she had seen Loonie again.
That princess had planned to paint the castle like that for roughly forty years, every line, everything her household members should do, everything and in the end it had been so elaborate that Celestia wondered why she hadn’t seen it coming.
Just thinking about it made Celestia both smile and a bit sad. It was whenever she was alone with her thoughts she’d always find herself wishing both her and her sister back to the Everfree Castle. She had enjoyed those times of freedom and laughter so much, even if it had been for only a short time. They had just gotten their cutie marks by the time the seals broke and they had to go to war against Discord.
She always put on a smile of confidence but Celestia remembered that she had always been glad to have Luna besides her. Back then, though, she had protected her sister most of the time. Now Celestia would remember when Luna would take part of her shifts even eighty years back. She had never expected to be repayed, she had always been generous like that.
Generous and honest, she was an embodiment of harmony afterall.
The alicorn did not know what to believe anymore. She sighed, all this thinking was giving her a headache. Well, she had ended her days with headaches over the last hundred years so it wasn’t that much of a difference. In fact, Celestia had gotten used to walking around with a head the size of a watermelon.
Especially now that she realized that the court had been lying to her. She had only noticed hints of it, since she hadn’t been able to really leave the nobility to itself. Unlike Luna she couldn’t waltz around and look at the castle and the town for what they were. Yet it was always there, keeping information about Equestria to themselves, offing their rivals when she didn’t look and letting those they had sworn to protect suffer to enrich themselves.
Harmony had long left Canterlot and from Luna’s perspective, she had grown decadent, too. That was probably it, she didn’t see the games, she just saw the suffering that was caused by her sister being so immaturely engaged in a game that wasn’t one.
Celestia hovered the tiara onto her head, thinking how it didn’t suit her. Luna had the right of it. She was no princess. She just had been born an alicorn, nothing more.
Still, there was a small chance for her to fix everything. When this night ended, so would come the Summer Sun Celebration. Originally it should’ve rained throughout the night, but Celestia had re-issued a clear sky until the sun had risen after the complaints her sister had given. She had wanted to see the night sky, too. Luna had hidden away, writing letters, probably to friends who were closer to her nowadays than her own sister. Celestia felt bad about that but she also didn’t feel like possessing enough courage to face Luna just like that. Instead she had come up with an ingenious plan.
After the Summer Sun Celebration, she and Luna would leave the kingdom and spend time in the Everfree Forest. Just for a week or two, trying to get to know each other again, occasionally visiting the nearest towns, getting a picture of the realm and figuring new plans out. Getting to know their subjects would be another priority. She wanted to do it right and if Luna’d get better, too, everything would turn out right.
Celestia looked at herself in the mirror, not knowing what she wanted to see. She only knew what she saw now and what she would see tomorrow and the confidence reappeared.
Everything would be fine and the sun would soon rise. She took the tiara off and rang the bell to call for her hoofmaidens.
They were always the most pleasant company. Their joking and gossiping made the whole ordeal so much easier. She liked each and everyone of them. Dusty had a certain innocence about her and Winter Garden had a wonderful sense of humour. Mistflower loved messing with the princesses’ hair, while Smoothie always had an idea for a good dress. Today, though, Celestia didn’t want a beautiful dress or a mane to put them all into the shadows. She wanted something Luna could hardly hate her for.
For nostalgia’s sake she went with her old armor, the one she had worn in the days of Discord’s rebellion. A golden armor embedded with the gems of loyalty, honesty and laughter. She had always felt herself closest to those elements back in the days. Nowadays? She didn’t even want to answer.
She kept her mane as it was but at least took the royal tiara. The ponies might be put off if she wouldn’t wear it. Still, her royal highness found herself looking very regal in the end. Also, she felt it in every fiber of her being, the sun would soon have to rise.
She and Luna kept everything around the world turning, even as one of them slept, their magic still kept the whole apparatus going. Lucky for them, only dawn and dusk required attention. She had never understood why, but the magic always needed to be at it’s strongest during those times.
The Summer Sun Celebration was probably THE greatest of all sunrises. In Celestia’s opinion, she had never managed to pull off something like Luna did during the winter solstice. Last year, there had been a thousand stars dancing as the moon reached out to it’s peak.
Her sister had all the stars of the night and she only had the sun. Sometimes it felt unfair. She had never quite understood why the ponies liked the days more than the nights but someday she would surely find out.
She trodded out of her room, only to be greeted by Lord Commander of the Solar Guard, Glory Seeker, who had donned the most fabulous looking barding Celestia had ever seen. The steel was painted in all the colors of the rainbow and the surcoat was made of the finest silk money could buy, presenting the royal colors of day and night with Celestia embroided on one side, with rubies for her eyes and an outline of smaragds, while her sister had eyes of smaragds and an outline made of sapphires. He had painted his normally plain turquoise mane with three additional colors, white and dark red and indigo and his moustache was twirled and styled.
Fabulous was really the only word to describe him. The shield was of the same color as his coat, a pale yellow and on it was his cutie mark, the picture of the most fabulous hat in all of Equestria, a magnificent purple thing with a broad brim and three huge feathers, probably from peacocks. Celestia would always lose herself looking at it.
Even his spear was something to behold. The shaft was made of silver and the tale how Brave Letter delivered the dragon treaty across the lands was etched onto it. The Blade was fine steel with a golden version of the equestrian sigil on it.
His deep blue eyes settled on his princess and he nodded in her direction: “You look completely stunning, your Grace,” he said with that warm tone in his voice.
“Thank you Glory, you seem to have gone all out, yourself,” she noticed.
“Everypony’s trying so hard again and considering that the night guard will attend, I simply had to make myself outdo their captain,” he said. Celestia smiled to that. The nightguard wouldn’t play that game, she knew. Their captain was a simple pony who misliked the sun. Celestia didn’t remember her name, but that she had often snuck into the palace and that Luna would teach her the names of all the constellations in the sky.
Her own captain was in it because he could play dress-up.
Somehow Celestia heard Luna’s words again in the back of her head. Glory Seeker was easy on the eye and the way he went over the top with everything he did amused Celestia to no end, but that wasn’t the purpose of the Lord Commander was it?
Maybe she should just hire a captain, some brave knight in shining armor to defend the Equestria. Hopefully someday she’d find such a hero.
Today, she had Glory.
“Well,” she said, “try to get along with her.”
Glory chuckled to that, “Do not worry, unlike that commoner I know how to act at court.”
The commander of Luna’s guard was called Nightlight and was actually the daughter of one of the orphans from eighty years ago. She was deeply devoted to Luna and unlike her own captain, capable of more than looking good. Celestia found it somewhat amusing that Luna’s guard was probably far more capable than the solar guard while only looking half so good.
Celestia tried her best for the realm but the royal guard really seemed to reflect what the princesses had become. Not that that was a problem. Luna had always been superior to Celestia in anything that didn’t involve physically doing something herself. She could still outdo any pegasus, earth pony or unicorn in her sleep, just not as good as Celestia, but the sheer brilliance of the younger alicorn had always baffled her elder sister.
Celestia’s guard, now that she reflected, had been chosen by three ponies:
Glory Seeker, who had only cared about their looks.
Clinging Coins, who had only cared about only getting the cheap ones.
And herself, who had amused herself, who had mastered the art of sleeping with open eyes by then.
The Nightguard, though? They had been chosen by Luna herself. Ponies who loved the night as much as she did and would rather live in the light of the stars than the shadows the light of the sun cast.
Today, she’d see how it would work out.
She trotted across the room, her Lord Commander besides her and his best (looking) guards to all their sides, with Bold Storm, her ward and royal bannermare, walking before them. The sun would rise soon and the royal procession formed behind them as they marched through the castle.
By the time Celestia had reached the gardens there were fifty followers. The entire royal court was on her side of the garden, as well as the entire solar guard. Frankly, there were more guards than other ponies.
Everypony was dressed up especially well for today, though. She spotted Golden Heart with a dress that would Discord make weep of joy. There was the green mare, a pony whose name Celestia didn’t recognize, with vines and flowers in her dark green mane and boots that resembled roots, covering the brown stockings of her legs, while the bright green coat was hidden well beneath a dress that resembled a bush. Her grass green eyes stared at the princess. Celestia also nodded in greeting as she spotted Clinging Coins, who had donned a silver armor himself, probably because he still held a grudge that Luna had told him ‘No’ for his tourney idea.
There were many more, forming her side of the royal procession. The other side, Luna’s, would come from the other side of the garden and from the Gate of Harmony, the main gate in Canterlot, they would march towards the golden arch that had been erected for this occasion in the middle of the town of Canterlot.
So it happened, as Celestia moved towards the gate, all the royalty of Canterlot gathered behind her. The ponies would normally gather in equal amount behind her and her sister, maybe the townponies were waiting at the plaza already. She didn’t waste much time thinking about it and instead moved onwards, now also finding the Solar Marching Band heralding her coming. Celestia frowned. Under normal circumstances she would have approved but now she felt just bad about it.
The procession approached the gate and so did Luna. Celestia raised an eyebrow, Luna was wearing her old armor, too. And the contrast made her coat appear almost black, that looked really weird. Luna’s procession really was much smaller, only a few noble-ponies followed her along the guard.
She spotted Hearthfire, the Lord of Mines; Butter Bread, the current chief-astrologer of Canterlot; and Sunny Skies.
The red-maned pony with the rose coat walked a bit behind her princess, aided by a guard she named Snowflower and Stark Silence, the stoic watchpony, as they called him. Sunny was blind and two of her hooves were missing, one in the front and one in the back, so she was bound by a wheelchair, another of Luna’s wondrous ideas. Sunny also was an orphan from back then and another dagger thrust in Celestia’s heart.
Still, she would fix everything soon enough. The court, her past wrongs, everything.
Loonie, she thought, I’m coming.
They met in front of the roads and Celestia, in front of all the ponies tried to look as regal as possible and in the courtly manner, adressed her sister, “Princess Luna.”
Everytime she said that Luna would twitch and look at her with what could only be called hatred. Not this tim, though. Luna smiled back and replied surehooved: “Princess Celestia.” It sounded almost condescending so Celestia figured from Luna’s perspective their relationship had reached a greater deep than after their first battle against Discord.
As they stood besides each other she leaned in on her sister and whispered: “When the ceremony’s done, I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Yeah...me, too,” came the answer. It surprised Celestia but she smiled at her sister, maybe this would be easier than she had originally thought.
So the two princesses marched forwards, towards the town. On the stairs the princess listened to the chatter behind her.
“You haven’t even dressed properly. Oh Nightlight, your nightguard will never reach the greatness of us solar guards,” she heard Glory Seeker remark. A frown came unto her face but luckily, Nightlight was a mare enough to not jump at the remark. “It must be so hard on your ponies, since this is one of the rare nights you ugly things have to be seen.”
For a moment, Celestia really thought about stopping but instead she would wait until after the celebration. She didn’t want to ruin the moment for everypony. She also needed a new Lord Commander as it seemed.
Canterlot itself normally wasn’t a busy town and even during a festival like this, only the respective townsfolk gathered around. Not this year, though. The stars shone down on the plaza and the town was lit with lanterns and torches. Ponies stood everywhere in the streets and she even saw some looking down from the windows. Celestia had tried to get a good glimpse at her little ponies over the last week but this was the first time she saw them.
She remembered that in the beginning, Luna had done so much for the entirety of the realm and everypony who knew the work she did loved her for it. She didn’t care about much that was happening outside her room and whenever she had met her sister at dusk she had only asked one question: “How are our new subjects faring?”
She never had been content with the workings of everything, had always tried to find new ways to help Equestria grow. Celestia had never had any chance to do actual big work, instead she listened to the minor complaints of the subjects and fixed the small things. Soon enough, though, she had become the face of the nation and even though it was Luna who issued the building of cities and organized everything, Celestia had always felt that the ponies loved her less than the elder one.
Luna never cared, it was only one question.
Always one question.
“How are our subjects faring?“
Celestia only saw what came to court and there had been rules about it, somewhere down the line even the smallest pony needed to be made part of the scheming and playing if they went to court and suddenly, the face of the realm lost sight of it. Now she stood before the arch and saw the realm.
The ‘common’ ponies looked ragged and hungry. While in Court everypony was bound by the dress coat, here she could clearly see that most ponies weren’t even able to afford a hat. Even the houses were ragged and downed. It had never looked like this before, or...didn’t she just want to see it? She saw one mare with a brown coat with remnants of a blonde main, somepony else had chewed most of it off as it seemed. She looked into the empty eyes of that pony, there was a spark of hope, as if the rising sun and the coming morrow would change something, anything.
Celestia gazed into those eyes and in the back of her head, she heard stone cracking. The sound of laughter.
“Oh Celestia, you always get so serious when we’re doing this.”
She felt it all around her. She heard her nobility talking badly about the subjects, her trusted friends, she saw how angry Luna looked at her, as if this was Celestia’s fault, she noticed how everypony looked at her with the same eyes like hundreds of years ago. She felt it, the armor weighing, the Elements of Harmony pulsing. She felt the other thing, too. The seeds of discord.
Celestia took a deep breath, before she turned towards Glory Seeker, who was now trying to push some fillies away who wanted to touch his armor.
“Lord Commander,” she heard Luna say, “I want you to move my sisters guards away, the townsfolk seem eager to take a closer look at how my sister and I bring down the night and raise the moon.” She used that wording specifically, maybe in hopes that it would please her sister.
Glory looked shocked, “but you’re royalty, princess. The rules-”
“Of court were made by me and some friends after drinking enough cider to give us a royal headache at the next dawn. Please, do as she commands,” said Celestia, giving Luna a smile.
Begrudingly he commanded his men and the nobility to make enough space so everypony could see the princesses. Celestia quietly hoped that this would help the mood but the way the ponies looked at them, nothing had changed. They weren’t happy, they looked like they were starving, like they were sick.
The last big problem in the realm Celestia remembered had been the great plague. Back then, the whole of Equestria had worked to fix it. Food shouldn’t, couldn’t be a problem. There was a reason the court was always fun and games. It was because Equestria was fine, yet, the more she looked at these ponies, the more she doubted. Luna would’ve told her about something like this....
Then it hit her. Luna had tried to tell it, but Celestia had proven herself to be both inept and blind. The younger sibling strolled before the ponies at that moment, even Celestia looked puzzled.
Luna leaned in on her sister, Celestia noted that she seemed taller, “All day you and your court prance about while before you the realm rots,” the younger princes said, spite in her voice.
There wasn’t anger, “If my subjects would starve, why wouldn’t they tell me about it. Whatever is going on here, I will fix it, Princess Luna.”
Luna sighed, then strolled towards the ponies, “The light of day won’t help them. They don’t need you or your court.”
Celestia only saw the eyes on them, hundreds, maybe thousands and everypony was listening to the Luna’s voice. Everypony knew she was right, that was what Celestia saw in that moment anyways. She looked Luna in the eyes.
“I’m-” she wanted to say sorry but at that moment Luna flushed.
“WHAT?” The voice rang across the plaza, “I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU ARE!”
Princess Celestia then saw how her sisters wings spread. The light blue armor laid against a black cloak and snakelike eyes looked at Celestia.
“ONLY I MATTER! THEY ONLY NEED ME!” the younger princess bellowed and her horn lit up.
Before the blast hit her, Celestia could only ask one question, “Loonie?”
And seconds later chaos was around her, Lunas guard started attacking her own followers and all around her, Celestia heard the ponies screaming and running. All while she was lying on the ground, her chest cooked black from her sisters magic. The pain burned through every fiber and every muscle of her, still she tried to gather her strength and tried to lift herself up. She only managed the head, looking at Luna, who calmly trotted towards her, a smug smile across her face.
The black mare looked around, “My kingdom shall be one of nighttime eternal, never again shall your precious sun rise, Celestia.” Celestia heard it, all the spite and all the hatred had been given it’s own voice, not Luna’s but another’s. She grunted, as she tried to move, tried to stand up.
She needed to stop this madness. The black alicorn chuckled at her efforts and lean in close.
“Don’t try too hard, “she whispered in Celestia’s ear, “all that strength is wasted anyhow. I’m far more powerful than you can imagine, especially since I took already one half of the elements.”
Celestia looked at the other mare, “Who are you? What have you done with Luna?”
The other mare looked up, “You’re captain is pinned down by mine, who’s gonna win that one? Want to take a guess?” she asked with a calm voice, before gazing upon Celestia again, “Not feeling in the mood for a bet, are we?”
Now Celestia felt angry, rising unsteady on her hooves.
“I ASKED, WHO ARE YOU?”
In the distance flames roared up and a war was raged, the alicorns stood there, one battered and bruised, the other with a triumphant smile on her face.
“I am the one who will bring peace beneath the light of the stars. I will bring joy to everypony when they wake,” the black one said, “and fear when they sleep.”
Celestia grinded her teeth, the mare smiled, “I guess my name would be...Moon.”
The horn lit up again, but this time Celestia was quick enough to put a barrier around herself on which the blast perished.
“As to what I’ve done with your sister...become her would be an appropriate spin of words. I needed a body, else I would have perished and I could help her with her ambitions. Do not worry she wanted-” The smile perished and from one moment to another the mare fell on her knees, screaming.
Celestia looked down on her, before the eyes met once more. This time, though she heard Luna’s voice, “Sis-, I never- You need to- She’s a Nightmare!” she managed to get out before she screamed out in pain.
Celestia looked at Nightmare Moon, who rose up again. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew...this was her own fault and she had to fix the situation. She roared up and stormed towards the other alicorn, her horn glowing brightly. She wanted to use the opening that moment had created, maybe she could banish that ‘Nightmare’-thingie. It didn’t happen like that, though, moments before, with a flap of her wings, Nightmare Moon lifted herself into the air and brought some distance between her and Celestia, enough to charge up a spell of her own. So as Celestia jumped into the heights, two spells clashed. They created a shockwave powerful enough to send everypony in the vicinity flying.
Celestia was up in the air somewhat beneath the enemy in her sister’s body. They looked at each other, but while Celestia was still hurting from the first blast, Moon seemed only to have finished warming up. The princess of the sun knew this was going badly. Still, Luna was inside that thing. She had to free her, but how? Immediately after she had posed herself that question silently, a smile formed on her face and she hurled herself towards the mare.
“I have waited for so long, I have survive until now and I won’t fail here. The night shall rise and so will we once more and a new age of dreams will come!” Nightmare Moon yelled and aimed for a dive towards Celestia. The princess saw the black mare coming, her wings spread far, a black patch across a white screen.
Oh, Loonie, I always envied you. You have all the stars of the night and the bright moon while all I have is one sun, she had thought. Right before that dazzling moon she unleashed the elements of harmony and in the last moment, she saw a sudden resonance, the elements on Luna’s armor lighting up, too. For one moment she dared to hope, one moment.
The screams of defiance came and went, there was an explosion in the middle of the sky and Celestia knew she was hit by another blast, a last one, in the last second. and crashed into the ground again.
She woke up beneath the rising sun, in the middle of Canterlot and the first things she saw were the rocks of the elements by her side and the face of her sister on the moon.
The snow had covered the Everfree Castle in the greatest white, Tia found. She and Luna both had spent the entire day throwing snowballs and building snowponies. They had dug tunnels and build houses and castles. They had thrown themselves of the roof only to land in the soft white stuff that was snow.
Now, tired and all, they looked at the bright magenta sky, a big ball hovering above them, a black nothingness that couldn’t be touched by the taint of chaos. Unicorn called it the ‘moon’. Tia and Luna spend many times here on the highest tower, just looking as it strode across the sky aimlessly, searching for the stars and the sun, which had vanished a long, long time ago. Tia had originally thought it a bit boring, but Luna had made her see it.
“It must be so sad,” the little blue pony had once said, “it’s the last of it’s kind, all alone up there in the sky.”
Tia hadn’t said anything back then, she didn’t say anything now. They just looked at it, as it made a slight curve towards the west. It looked utterly lost.
“One day you’ll show which way that one has to go, huh?” Tia asked her sister. The smaller pony nodded.
“Yes, I’ll need to get the stars to help me, too, though.”
Tia had heard about that, too, from Pegasus. Her eyes were fixed on the moon, “I can’t imagine how that must look. When our powers manifest you get the stars, the moon, all bright lights shining against a dark sky. All I get is one big ball of light. I doubt anypony will ever find any enjoyment in my day as in your night.”
Luna giggled, probably feeling proud of herself. She was young still and loved to be praised.
“I’d give it to you, though,” Loonie said after a few moments of silence, “I’d rather give it all to just be up there, on the moon and just watch the years pass. Just imagine how small everything would look from up there. It’s probably the best thing ever.”
Celestia did not answer. Instead, she looked as the big black ball in the sky made another turn, searching for something that it would someday find with the help of a little blue filly. Maybe they’d actually both get to see it. She wanted to see from up there, too, with the eyes of the moon. Even if not, though, there were still many more adventures to be had down here.
Tia smiled, “Earth is making waffles, I saw, wanna steal some?”
~How Sisters Collide~
The End
