The Return - Chapter 1
The return of the Goddess of the Moon carried with it very little fanfare. There was nopony around to notice the Moon shine just a little bit brighter as it reached its zenith, or the faint cerulean glow that began to radiate from the old, broken castle in the woods.
The glow increased in intensity, and began to form a faint shape that grew more defined each moment. After several seconds, the shape sharpened into a small, featureless pony. The pony quickly grew in size, a horn spiraling up from its head and wings emerging from its back. A mane and tail formed, and the cobalt glow that composed the shape resolved into darker purple fur, while the mane and tail faded into a lighter shade of blue.
Its work done, the glow shattered into a cloud of glowing shards that flickered for a moment before winking out of existence. The now fully formed sleeping pony drifted down to rest on the cobblestones below.
At exactly midnight of the final day of the thousandth year since her banishment, Princess Luna had returned.
A sharp gasp could be heard as Luna breathed for the first time in just slightly over one thousand years. The spell that sealed her on the moon had kept her alive, but had provided no such luxuries as breathable air, or protection from that bitter cold. The only reason she remained sane at all was the deep comatose state she spent most of her imprisonment in. Her deep gasps petered out to slower, more controlled breaths, though she still remained pressed against the stones of the floor as her brain reacclimated to all of the pure sensation that was now so alien to her.
After what could have been seconds or hours, the rushing of her mind began to slow, and resolve into coherent thought. A single teal eye cracked open, wincing as the unfamiliar and surprisingly harsh sunlight drove itself into her head like a lance. She forced open the other eye, relaxing as they eventually adjusted to the bright light of the day.
A shaky leg reached out, and pushed against the cobblestones. Luna gritted her teeth as she fought against how heavy she felt compared to her time on the moon. Diminished as it was, her divine strength prevailed, and she fought her way to her hooves. Now standing, able to see and breathe and feel for the first time in one thousand years, the realization hit her like a speeding train. Luna was free! The sheer relief forced her back down to the ground, and she began to weep.
After several moments, the tears subsided, and Luna began to examine her surroundings, taking in the ruined state of the castle, from the gaping holes in the walls and roof, to the obviously neglected furniture and decorations. Such was the state of the decor that much was only recognizable because of her familiarity with the building.
"Our keep... but why would Tia allow it to remain in such disrepair?"
Millenia-old instinct controlled her as she wandered the barely recognizable castle, navigating it perfectly despite how different it looked. She started as one particularly large hole clicked into place with a thousand-year-old memory. An image of a beam as dark as night pushing away a white shape flashed through her mind. Tears threatened to spill again, but she steeled herself, and continued on.
Her hooves unconsciously guided her to an enormous set of doors, though their grandness was diminished by one door barely hanging off its hinges, threatening to fall at any moment. Luna carefully nudged open the more intact door, barely suppressing a gasp, despite having already known exactly what would be behind the door: The throne room of the castle. The room was huge, displaying a level of opulence that, though diminished, had not been lost to time completely.
A rotten red carpet ran the length of the room, between the three enormous pillars that lined each side of the hall. Though empty, the bronze sconces on the pillars remained pristine, aside from the dust they had collected. Along the walls of the room shone the stained glass windows that had depicted Luna and Celestia's history, as well as the acts of the great heroes of her time. Many were broken, but several remained intact, and the sun shone through them as beautifully as it always had, perhaps even brighter than Luna remembered. A long, wide scorch mark lined the middle of the room, with the greatest impression in the very center. Having taken in the room, Luna turned her attention to the part of the space she least wanted to remember, but couldn't bear not to see; the thrones.
Set upon a raised dais were the two thrones. The leftmost throne was gold and shone with a radiance that seemed like more than what the sun could reflect off of it. The spectacle was somewhat diminished by the large dent in the throne, as if something heavy had been dropped upon it. The rightmost throne was made of a dark metal, and appeared to suck the very light from the air. Luna's eyes widened as she took in the sight, and memories began to flood her mind.
"Oh Tia... where are you?" she whispered into the silence of the castle.
The ruins had no answer for her, and the remembrance of that night one thousand years ago swept her away.
It was raining. Blasts of lightning split the sky, roaring peals of thunder following soon after. One such blast illuminated a pair of alicorns, high in the sky. One with dark, black fur and a mane like the infinite expanse of space. The other had shining, white fur and a multi-colored mane that shimmered with radiance. The whiteness of her fur made the blood that stained it all the more apparent. They were locked in a desperate grapple, each trying to subdue the other. One pony had a face that was locked in an expression of perfect rage. Her eyes were cold, and her mouth was set in a snarl that would have sent any lesser being running in fear. The other had an expression of desperation and sadness. Her eyes were filled with tears, and her mouth issued constant but ignored pleas for peace. She was losing. With a mighty kick, the darker pony tossed her opponent several meters back, and without even a moment of hesitation, unleashed a torrent of energy from her horn. The terrible darkness hurtled towards the white alicorn, only to be halted by a shining, golden shield. Unphased, the dark alicorn simply poured more energy into her attack, and the shield began to wither, then crack.
Seconds before it would have shattered, the white alicorn allowed the spell to collapse, and dove downwards, out of the way of the devastating beam. Radiant bolts of energy flew towards the dark alicorn, though their desperate aim was far from the mark. They served a purpose, however, as the dark alicorn ceased her attack to dodge the counter.
Capitalizing on the distraction, the white alicorn flew in close to her opponent with yet another desperate plea. "LUNA, PLEASE! STOP!"
The dark alicorn, somehow, snarled even deeper, and coolly replied, "Luna is dead."
With yet another kick, the white alicorn was thrown downwards into a freefall. Stunned, she was unable to react as a roiling ball of energy, black as midnight, flew towards her. Raw agony flowed through her as the attack hit, the hostile magic dancing over her nerves. It was almost a relief when she connected with a stone roof, blowing right through it, but stopping the attack. She briefly wondered if her landing had hurt anypony, but that line of thought was interrupted as shards of ice began to fall through the hole in the ceiling, more than a few slicing into her flesh and staining her coat with crimson.
With a flap of her powerful wings, she flew further into the castle, out of the rain of ice. Now granted a moment of respite, she cast a spell to seal the worst of her wounds while she mentally flipped through dozens of plans, outcomes, and consequences. After a moment, for she only had a few to spare, she settled on a course of action. Tears continued to flow down her face, but her mouth was now set in a thin line of determination. She opened her massive wings once again, and flew off into the castle.
Above, the dark alicorn cackled triumphantly. Her mane and tail, which should have been soaked by the downpour, billowed around her like dark clouds filled with stars. Malice flowed off of her in waves, and her sheer presence was so magnificent that gales of pure darkness blew around her. Her opponent was weak, and she was stronger than ever. No longer bothering with magical energy, she simply began ripping chunks from the castle in search of her prey.
"Where are you...?" The words were quietly cooed, but could somehow be heard perfectly above the storm.
A roof here, a wall there, and the occasional cry cut short as she collapsed a room where somepony was hiding from the Nightmare that was raging outside. Right as she tore the roof off the hall before the throne room, she caught a flash of celestine tail slipping in between the massive doors.
"FOUND YOU!"
With a gleeful cackle, she dropped into the hole she had created... only to be caught by surprise as a white blur tackled her from behind. She floundered for a moment before grappling her attacker and using all of her powerful limbs to throw the white alicorn into the throne room, directly into the shining golden throne. Above the resounding clang, a sharp crack could be heard, and the white alicorn slumped as something important inside of her broke. As she struggled to her hooves, her opponent roared out a taunt.
"ILLUSIONS, SISTER? I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE A COWARD."
Ignoring the goad, the white alicorn unleashed a blaze of golden energy, catching her dark counterpart by surprise. The cascade of radiant power struck true, and the dark alicorn was shunted backwards. Her surprise was quickly replaced by cruel humor as she realized that, though the stream of energy was pushing her back, she felt no pain from it.
"EVEN NOW, YOU REFUSE TO TRULY FIGHT!"
The dark alicorn built her power for a moment, then unleashed a deluge of her own energy, dark as night, and filled with countless tiny stars, each twinkling with malice. The pillars of magic met with a crackle of power, their clash surging with boundless energy. With the flow of gold no longer obscuring her vision, she once again beheld the white alicorn, who had tears streaming down her face as she shouted words that went unheard. The dark alicorn let loose another cackle, and pushed harder. "YES! YES!", she screeched, "CRY, BEG, GROVEL, IT WILL NOT SAVE YOU!" The dark lance of energy pushed the golden torrent back further and further. Then, almost unconsciously, she spotted something: five tiny gems, floating in a circle around her enemy's attack.
One erupted with light, and a stream of yellow energy connected with the golden beam. The dark alicorn raised an eyebrow as the attack grew fractionally stronger. Two more burst, and a blue and orange stream join the first. The dark alicorn's grin wavered as the point where the pillars of energy met stopped moving towards the white alicorn. Two more streams, a deep purple and a bright pink, added themselves to the mix. The white alicorn's river of magic, now a veritable rainbow, began to push the meeting point of the struggle closer and closer to the dark alicorn, whose face morphed once again into a deep snarl as she realized she was beginning to lose this battle. With a grunt, she pushed everything she had into her attack.
The sheer scale of magical energies in the room would have been devastating to any other living thing. The area around the throne room shone bright as day, banishing the dark rainclouds in the area. Now visible, but unseen by anypony, the sun hung directly overhead, completely eclipsed by the moon. Gales of wind picked up loose bricks, hurling them into whatever was unfortunate enough to be in the way. Several of the windows had shattered, the shards flying away like so many knives. Sparks of raw, unfiltered magical energy flew like shooting stars into the forest around the castle, infusing themselves into the trees and the ground. A tiny mote of the darkest energy struck the back of an unlucky servant as he tried to quietly flee the castle. The unfortunate pony was dead before he hit the ground, fur and skin scorched away where the spark had struck him.
Inside the throne room, the battle raged on. The two alicorns appeared to be at an impasse, the deadly, crackling blaze of magical energy having stopped in the middle of the room. The dark alicorn had once again adopted her cruel grin, for she could see her opponent beginning to tire, while she herself could keep this up for several more minutes at least. Though, something nagged at the back of her mind. Her opponent continued to make unheard pleas, but her expression... it wasn't one of fear.
With all five gems shining brightly, a sixth gem appeared above the rest. A magenta six point star. Slowly, it floated down to join the rest, and like them, exploded with light. As it did, the rainbow grew immeasurably more powerful. The dark alicorn's eyes shrunk to pinpricks as the attack quickly advanced through her ray of night, brushing it aside like tissue paper. The rainbow reached her, and she felt herself become undone. As her very essence unraveled, the throne room was eerily silent in comparison to the tumultuous raging of the energies that had been there moments before, with only the soft chiming of the rainbow to fill the silence.
At last, something clicked. Something she should have known through deep familiarity alone, but was too full of hate to see. Her sister's expression had never been one of fear. It had been an expression of deep sadness and loss.
And now, with nothing but the chimes of the rainbow to fill the room, she could finally hear what Celestia had been saying, more tears than ever falling from her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Luna..."
And a mere moment later, the only thing Nightmare Moon could see was a vast, gray expanse, and she could hear nothing at all.
Author's Note
First real attempt writing fanfiction.
What I really wanted was to write out how Luna's banishment went down (clearly, since it's most of the chapter), but I kinda want to fit it into something bigger.
More to come. Hopefully.
Big thanks to Drago_dagger for ideas and proofreads.
The Settlement - Chapter 2
For the second time that day, Luna gasped and began to hyperventilate as she snapped back to the present. She whipped her gaze around the room, seeing its current, abandoned state in between flashes of visions of her memories. The visions offered a terrible clarity that had escaped her at the time. She saw the beautiful stained-glass windows shattering, each shard distinct. She saw the titanic beams of magic crash into each other, oceans of impossible magnitude trying to overwhelm each other. She saw Celestia's broken form struggling to pull up every last drop of magic she had within her, then reaching deeper to pull up something more, something that couldn't be replenished, just to hold back the Nightmare for even a moment longer.
The sense of disconnect, of lost time, and of the crimes she had committed threatened to drive Luna mad. Even so, a princess and goddess in her own right, is not so easily lost to her own mind, even as weak as she was. With a metaphorical heave of effort, she focused her mind, and the flow of memories and visions ceased. Despite this, a faint feeling of unsteadiness remained within her, a permanent stain of anguish.
Her faculties returned to her, Luna rose onto her hooves, having unknowingly fallen to the ground at some point during her flashbacks. Though feelings of loss, panic, and guilt remained within her, Luna's mind had sharpened, pushing her to consider her next course of action.
"The castle town... Surely there is somepony who can tell me what became of my sister."
Looking around the ancient, dilapidated castle, she winced as a block of stone crashed to the ground in an adjacent room.
"Then again, perhaps not."
Resolving to try anyway, she spread her wings, no less majestic from their time in banishment, and took off, aiming for a suitably large hole in the ceiling... only to drop back to the ground a second later. Luna frowned, looking back and giving her wings a few experimental flaps. They were undamaged, and her feathers were aligned, but both her magical and physical strength were still greatly diminished. With an annoyed snort, Luna turned and began her trek out of the castle on hoof.
Along her journey, a hallway leading off to the side caught her eye - a very, very familiar hallway indeed. This particular route led to what was once her personal tower and her quarters. A glimmer of happier memories sparked to life inside of her. Her personal observatory, her pride and joy, for she had designed and built it with her own hooves. Her extensive stamp collection, a rather hidden hobby of hers. And, perhaps her favorite item, an exceedingly beautiful painting of the cosmos by an artist who had been forgotten to time, long, long ago. Luna had privately thought that painting was the only piece of art that appropriately captured the beauty of the stars.
A small grin gracing her muzzle for the first time in more than a millennia, she entered the hallway and began to climb the stairs beyond. The grin transformed into a confused frown as she began to feel a distinct breeze, and then into a disappointed grimace as she reached the top of the staircase.
"Oh..." With a sigh, Luna beheld what remained of her tower.
It was as if a giant had slapped away the upper half of the structure, leaving only an abruptly ending staircase. Clearly, the building had not survived the trials of time... but the damage looked unnatural. As if it hadn't collapsed over time but actually had in fact been pushed over by some enormous force.
Looking down, Luna could see a line of crushed stone leading away from the tower, but every other recognizable feature had been lost to time. Overwhelmingly disappointed and filled with the sharp sadness that comes with losing something important, Luna turned and began to trot down the stairs. Halfway down, a detail that had been shoved to the back of her mind finally clicked into place at the front of her attention. Scrambling back up to the open end of the tower, Luna gazed around in wonder. The sparse woods around the castle that she was familiar with had become a thick, lush forest. It stretched off as far as she could see, an impenetrable canopy of leaves obscuring anything on the ground. Listening carefully, she could hear the distant sounds that any sufficiently sized forest makes: bird calls, tree frogs, and the occasional roar or howl as the larger predators of the forest made themselves known.
Focusing even more, she started as a familiar feeling made itself known to her magical senses: This forest had a very strong magical ambiance, and more startling was that some of it was her magic! It was very, very old and felt wrong, like it had decayed over time, but it was hers nonetheless. Amazed, but unsure what to make of the phenomenon, Luna used her vantage point to survey the area around her.
The sun was almost directly overhead, and Luna guessed that it was just after noon. The leafy expanse consumed most of the area around the castle, including where the castle town would be, obscuring it from vision. Despite the abundance of greenery, the area inside the walls was largely clear of vegetation. The castle itself was in a state of complete disrepair. Had the architects still been alive, they might have taken great pride in the fact that it still stood after so much time and damage. Luna winced as she distinctly recognized much of the damage to the castle; she was the cause of it. Scowling, Luna shook off the wave of self-loathing before it overwhelmed her again and turned to the bottom of the tower.
The rest of her exodus from the castle was uneventful, and before long, Luna was at the old drawbridge that served as the main entrance and exit to the castle keep. The large chains that held up the portcullis had broken or rusted away, and the huge metal grate was blocking the archway. Almost instinctively, Luna tried to teleport to the other side of the gate, but such a complex spell remained beyond her, and her only reward for her efforts were a few sparks falling from her horn.
Luna went slightly cross-eyed as she attempted to give her horn the same annoyed glance she had given her wings. "Feh. Something simpler, then."
Several minutes later, a Luna-sized section of the portcullis crashed to the ground, its edges still red-hot from the pencil-thin beam of magic she had used to cut through the bars. Incredibly inefficient, and near-barbaric compared to what she was normally capable of, but Luna was having a decidedly not-normal day. Although, she wasn't sure what qualified as a normal day yet. Pointedly ignoring this train of thought, Luna carefully slipped through the hole she had made, making sure to avoid the still-hot edges of the grate.
Luna immediately gave up any hopes of finding somepony in the castle town to talk to. Time had whittled the buildings away, and the forest covered most everything that was left. The only indication that there any ever been any kind of structure was a single corner of a foundation and a couple loose, rotten bricks. The forest itself blocked out the majority of the sunlight, casting everything in a dark, slightly green shadow. The sounds of the forest were much more prominent down here, filling the air with an ambient hum that Luna found rather peaceful.
Luna's sense of direction had been completely shattered by how unfamiliar the environment was to her, so she devised a plan that would hopefully let her find somepony who could tell her what she had missed and, more importantly, what became of her sister; she picked a direction and walked.
Fortunately, it worked rather well. Some difficulty was had, with much of the forest floor being covered in thorn bushes, knotted roots, and other things that made walking difficult, but Luna was lucky enough to find a game trail shortly after she began her journey. The occasional sounds of the larger members of the forest made her pause, but they sounded distant, and Luna was left alone.
Several hours of largely uneventful hiking later, the undergrowth began to noticeably thin, and the trees grew further and further apart. Within a few minutes, the deep, thick forest had, almost abruptly, given way to open plains, with rolling sets of hills and only the occasional tree. Able to see the sky for the first time in quite a while, Luna noted that it was perhaps early afternoon, and resumed her journey.
The realization caught up to her a moment later, as she whipped her head back up to the sky. "...What?"
She had been in the forest long enough that it should have been evening! The sun should be setting in no more than an hour, not hanging in the middle of the sky, having barely moved from where it was when she was in the tower! Despite the many, many things this could mean, there was no way for Luna to know what it did mean, and it only made her more desperate to find out what had happened to her sister.
Luna could feel her strength being restored to her with time, and with a renewed sense of urgency, she spread her wings once more. With several mighty flaps, she rose several meters into the air, but it took all of her focus to not fall back to the ground. More than her diminished strength, her sense of balance was old and dulled. She clenched her jaw as she struggled against her weakened state and how heavy she felt compared to on the Moon. With a titanic heave of effort, she began to fly forward, nearly upsetting her balance and crashing to the ground. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until she was flying quicker than anypony could ever gallop. Despite the strain, Luna felt a smile spread across her muzzle. Flying had always been her favorite method of travel. Teleporting was so droll, and galloping was never fast enough. She let out a laugh as she sped across the plains. Despite the uncertainty of the world around her, and her worry about her sister, for the first time that day, Luna felt well and truly free.
Luna was traveling several times faster than she had been through the forest, and before long, a dark shape came into view on the horizon. Within a minute, the shape had resolved itself into a collection of buildings that seemed to be a sort of small town. The center of the town was dominated by a tall, stone tower that flew a flag Luna didn't recognize.
She felt jolt a of panic upon seeing it. "Has Equestria been invaded?"
Within moments of that thought crossing her mind, a deep, loud horn sounded, the sound rolling across the flat landscape. Very faintly, Luna could see a flurry of movement atop the tower, and a second later, she began to hear a faint whistling noise. The noise brought forth some not-quite tangible memories as she tried to place where she had heard it before. Somewhere, deep within her mind, it clicked, and an instant later, time seemed to slow.
Millennia-old combat instincts, honed by years and years of battle, kicked in and screamed at her to move. Nothing could possibly ever be more important than moving just a meter to the left right now. And move Luna did. Shifting her wings and throwing her body weight as hard as she could to the side, she executed a lightning-fast barrel roll - a single instant before the enormous ballista bolt zipped by her, missing her right wing by mere centimeters.
The bolt had only been in Luna's vision for a quarter of a second, but it was enough. The shaft of the bolt was as thick as her leg and half again as long as she was. The head was capped with steel, but without an edge. At that speed, it didn't matter. At that speed, goddess or not, getting hit with that in her state would kill her twice over.
Adrenaline flooded Luna as she took in the threat. Drawing on her ancient but extensive combat experience, she knew that a ballista with that size and range would take perhaps fifteen seconds to reload and fire again.
Fourteen.
Thirteen.
Twelve.
Luna strained to go faster, faster, faster. She couldn't land at this speed, and even if she could, she would be an easy target for the tower. Beads of sweat collected on her forehead, dripping down her face, threatening to get in her eyes.
Eleven.
Ten.
Nine.
Turning around wasn't an option either. That would require slowing down, and another bolt would crush her before she could get up to speed. Besides, Luna was never one to turn her back on an enemy. Her teeth were clenched so hard that she might've feared they would break, if not for the deadly threat looming down on her.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Luna had nearly reached the border of the town. Just a few more seconds, and she would be inside the minimum range of the weapon. She was close enough to make out the shape of the massive crossbow, and could count the ponies operating it. Somewhere inside of her, the old fire of battle sparked to life once more.
Five.
Fou-
As close as she was, the twang of the ballista's bowstring was audible. Luna had underestimated the speed of the enemy. Her eyes shrank to pinpricks, following the bolt that was bearing down on her.
Her perception sped up a thousandfold as she watched the projectile speed towards her. "Can't dodge, too close... can't block, too heavy... can only..."
Her horn ignited, and she lashed out with a telekinetic blast at herself. The force of the attack tossed her to the side like a leaf in a storm, out of the way of the bolt.
Almost. The heavy projectile crashed through her right wing, pulverizing it. The thin bones were crushed instantly, her delicate feathers were shredded, and only by some miracle was the entire wing not shorn off. Luna could only gasp as the red-hot hand of pain clutched her wing, piercing it with dozens of tiny knives. The pain worked its way up and down her spine, lighting up every nerve in her body.
The dual impacts - her attempt to dodge, and her subsequent failure - drove her into an incontrollable spiral. Concepts like up and down, left and right, lost their meaning as she careened downward. The only thing she could make sense of was the gray stone wall that got closer and closer until, with a mighty thump, she crashed into it, and knew no more.
Author's Note
Woah, another chapter. Poor Luna, though.
Feel free to give critiques and such.
Note that the flag does not belong to me. Those rights go to this fellow.
🌙🌙🌙
