Luna looked at the sword held aloft in her magical aura. The blade was folded steel, pristine and deadly sharp, with a blue tint dotted with stars along the back of the blade. It had silver filigree laid into the handle, and it was expertly balanced, with the tang almost the the same width as the blade.
She turned her gaze to the valley below the mountain she had chosen; a dense forest expanded from it for several miles, where the first signs of civilization would be found. This remote corner of Equestria, covered by a heavy blanket of grey clouds, is where she had chosen to wield her new sword.
Taking a deep breath, she raised the blade over her head, the deadly edge facing the valley below, and made the first official swing of this new weapon, producing a soft tune as she sliced the air.
Almost immediately, the blade snapped from its handle and clattered to the ground.
With a grunt of frustration, the princess threw the now useless weapon into a pile of equally broken blades and pulled another pristine sword from a nearby crate to try again.
“Your highness, may I offer some advice?” Quillon asked as he watched another of his masterworks shatter by the princess’ swing. He was the only one Luna allowed to know of her ‘sword practice’, being the stallion that had forged a thousand blades for her to test.
The fact that he had made exactly a thousand bothered Luna, even if she denied it.
“What would that advice be, Quillon?” Luna retorted before swinging a new sword, shattering the handle in her magical grip.
The old stallion brushed his large white mustache as he debated the best way to word his suggestion. “Well, first I would need to ask, what intention do you have?” the royal swordsmith asked, his prench accent still present despite decades of living in Canterlot.
“We already told thou, we’re in need of a sword,” Luna answered bitterly. She had asked for her warhammer to be returned, but her sister insisted that such weapons were now considered barbaric, so she had to master a more ‘appropriate’ weapon. It was one of many things her thousand years on the moon had taken away from her.
Luna tried to swing another sword, but this one shattered as soon as she grabbed it.
“Yes, I can see zat, but what is your intention wiz it?” Quillon asked before quickly moving to the side, sidestepping a piece of broken blade that flew past him.
“What else would we want a sword for? To protect our kingdom. Our citizens. Our sister and the ones who saved me from...” Luna’s next sword survived the initial swing, but it vibrated so much that the blade started cracking, becoming useless.
“Yes, zose are good intentions, your highness,” Quillon said, brushing his mustache after sitting a bit further away from the princess. “But the real question I’m asking is: zat do you intend to cut wiz it?”
Luna paused for a second, just before her next swing. “We only intend to hurt our enemies.” She swung the sword, and the blade got dislodged from the guard, flying into the valley below.
“And who are zose enemies?” Quillon inquired.
“Whoever threatens us,” was Luna’s dry response.
The old stallion let out an old hum, mulling over his thoughts before speaking again. “Like ze Yaks?”
Luna stopped again, her mind going back to the old Galas she hosted in the castle, where she would share entire barrels of mead with the Yak ambassadors. “No, they’re just… they want to be left alone...” Luna took another sword, but didn’t swing it immediately, her mind was busy with other things. “How did thou let this happen, Tia? Was thy grief for us too much to keep our alliances? How much has our betrayal ruined the kingdom?”
Luna swung the sword, but she went too far and hit the stone floor, damaging the edge.
Quillon let out another soft hum. “Zen ze griffons, perhaps? Zey’ve never been ze most trustworzy folk.”
“Their kingdom is a ruin, We don’t believe it’s in their interest to attack us,” Luna answered, picking up another sword. “Never trustworthy, but not deserving of hunger and illness. Has Tia even attempted to aid them? Will our return let her change things for the better?” Luna’s next sword swing looked more like her throwing the weapon into the valley.
She picked up another sword.
Quillon brushed his mustache, looking up at the cloud-covered sky. “Do you feel zreatened by the minotaurs?”
“No,” Luna answered before swinging the sword, making it break again.
“ze dragons?”
“No.”
Swing. Break.
“ze zebras?”
“No.”
Swing. Break.
“Ze donkeys?”
“No!”
Break.
“Zen who is your enemy?”
As Luna picked up another sword, she saw it.
The black coat. The sharp fangs. Those slitted sapphire eyes.
Luna swung the sword with full intent, and the soft tune was replaced with a rolling thunder as the magic coating the blade shot out in a small half-moon shape that expanded as it moved forward before crashing into the valley below, destroying numerous trees as it cut deeply into the earth, leaving a small canyon like a fresh wound.
Luna slowly lifted the blade, checking it for any damage.
It was still pristine. It had survived. She finally had a sword.
Then the blade exploded, sending shards of sharp metal towards her face.
“Your highness! Are you okay?!” Quillon shouted, quickly running up to the injured princess.
“We’re okay.” Luna used her magic to carefully pull out the pieces of shrapnel from her face. They had luckily missed her eyes. “We thank thou for thy concern.”
Luna went to pick up another sword and try again, but Quillon placed one of his hooves on top of it. “Would you please first hear my advice, your highness?”
The princess stared at the old stallion in the eyes, her dream magic allowing her a glance of his intentions. If he was worried, she would’ve pushed him away. If he was trying to prevent her from testing the swords, she would’ve sent him back to Canterlot. But neither of these things were being reflected in his eyes.
For a moment, Luna was reminded of her old instructor.
“Very well,” she said, releasing her magical hold on the sword. “What is this advice thou speak of?”
Quillon straightened himself, his old body letting out a few low pops. “During all my years as a swordsmiz, every sword I’ve made has eizer been hung as decoration, or wielded by some rich kid wanting to play knight. It was the same with my fazer, and his fazer before him, and so on.” Luna saw no shame or complaint in that statement. “But at ze end of zat long line of fazers, were masterblacksmizs that made all kinds of weapons for all kinds of purposes. Lances for war, heavy blades for executions, even warhammers for princesses.” A small smile appeared on Luna's face. “And zose master blacksmizs had a saying zat applied to all of zose weapons, and zey passed it down the generations, to me.”
“Which was?”
“Half of a weapon's purpose is in the hooves of the blacksmiz, the other half, is in the hooves of the wielder.” Quillon looked at the swords in the crate, each tinted with the same starry night blue. “I made zese swords for you. One sword for each year you spent in banishment.”
“So it was on purpose,” Luna said with a small twitch of her eye.
“I wanted to experience a fraction of ze time you spent zere, to at least guess how you counted each year till you were freed.” Quillon picked up one of the swords in his magic. “Zat was ze only way I could be certain ze next zousand would be correctly made for you.” He then offered the sword to the princess. “Zey’re all your swords, but if you want zem to be used to protect zose you care for, you must add ze ozer half.”
Luna took the sword in her magic, looking at the weapon once more.
Folded steel, pristine and sharp, starsky tint, silver filigree on the handle. It was the exact same sword as the first and all she had tested.
She closed her eyes, thinking back to Quillon’s question; What was she cutting? Who was her enemy?
It wasn’t the Yaks. She longed to have their company once again. Neither were the griffons. She wanted to aid them so they may prosper once more. She didn’t hold a grudge with any particular creature, even the wild beasts were better tamed than put down.
So why would she swing her sword against them?
Things had changed in a thousand years. Her way of doing things had become the old way of doing things. Equestria lacked enemies to fight against.
But Luna had one enemy.
The princess opened her eyes, and saw the image of the nightmare once more in front of her.
There was her enemy, but she couldn’t cut it with a sword, no matter how hard she tried.
Luna looked up at the cloud sky, closed her eyes once more, took a deep breath, raised her sword, and swung down.
The sword seemed to sing with a more serene tune this time.
Opening her yes, Luna saw the nightmare still standing there, mocking her.
Then a ray of sunlight made it vanish.
Luna looked up, and witnessed the clouds that had been covering the sky parting away, cut perfectly in half by her sword, letting the sun shine over the entire mountain valley.
“Do you like your new sword, your highness?” Quillon asked, offering her a sheath that matched the sword perfectly.
Luna looked at the sword one more time. “We do.” Then she sheathed it with a smile. “It will look great on our bedroom wall.”
