Some time ago, there came into existence a land called “Equestria”, and in this land there was a problem. There was just one major flaw. You see, in this age, not everypony believed in kindness, or even friendship for that matter! Equestria was on its way towards eternal darkness. All of the ponies around Equestria were very deceptive, committing such heinous acts as greed, violence, and rioting, especially in the inner sanctum of the Royal Palace of Canterlot. You may think to yourself as to what has caused all this madness in the first place...what could it be to make the quality of life degrade so low? Many believe it was the fact that faith has almost entirely been lost in their two Alicorn rulers, King Endymion, Guardian of the Moon, and Queen Cosmos, Guardian of the Sun and Sky.
The current rulers of Equestria had two daughters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Though they were young, Celestia being ten and Luna only two years younger, Endymion and Cosmos knew that they would be the ones to one day rule Equestria...but they surely couldn't give it to them as it was now. In this time of crisis, Endymion and Cosmos were uncertain on what can be done to restore the faith everypony once held, or if it could even be done.
***
In the royal halls of Canterlot there was a young filly roaming about. That particular filly would be Princess Luna, to be precise. Celestia had challenged her to a game of hide and seek earlier, and at the moment it was Luna's turn to seek. As Luna looked behind the tapestry that she knew her sister liked to hide behind, she reveled upon the large image of the moon skillfully woven into the side. Temporarily forgetting the task at hoof, she idly thought about the symbol, recognizing it for what it stood for: The moon her father controlled, the very same which she herself took after and would one day govern. Celestia however took after her mother, and would one day govern the sun.
But enough distractions! Celestia's been hidden far too long for Luna's liking. While looking around, she saw Celestia's wing sticking out from behind a flower pot, the obviousness making her giggle as she jumped over to the pot, Celestia retreating in surprise.
"I found you, so now it's your turn to find me!" Luna excitedly said as she bopped her dear sister on the nose, laughing while she ran off. Celestia closed her eyes and started to count.
Running blindly, Luna chose a direction, and soon after found herself in the Royal Strategy Hall, the chamber which held the meetings between The King and his Royal Guards, but it hasn't seen much use recently.
'Perfect!'
Fluttering her wings, Luna carried herself a few meters into the air, deciding that the cabinets above one of the counter tops was the best place to hide. She fit in snugly, capable of closing the door at a moments notice should she see wing or hoof of Celestia. Not that she'd needed to, however. Ten minutes passed, and her sister hadn't even entered the room. As a sigh escaped her due to the insane boredom, she considered changing location. That is, until the door slowly creaked open, a long shadow splaying out in front of the doorway. Entering the room were Endymion and Cosmos, with the Captain of the Royal Guards, Lancelot, in tow. The three gathered around the strategy table, which held the most complete and accurate map of Equestria to date. Listening intently, Luna was able to decipher that they were discussing what was to be done about the rioting over Canterlot.
“Lancelot! Report on what you've found outside the castle.”
“Your Majesty, the common ponies speak ill of you and the queen, as they still blame you for not being there for all of them when they were in need of your assistance the most. I think it would be wise to have a town meeting here in Canterlot, and then we can continue on to other locations. These are dark times right now, if we can't regain the support of our people, Canterlot will fall."
King Endymion nodded his head in agreement.
"Lancelot, I want you and some of your stallions to head to the smaller towns and try to pacify the situation while Cosmos and I try to settle things here in Canterlot. If we regain the support of the smaller towns it'll show we really care for the working-class. This is our home just like everypony else who lives here, and this madness needs to end!" Endymion shouted out. He looked over at his queen, taking note of the sorrow apparent on her face. "Don't worry Cosmos, I'm certain we'll be able to handle the situation, and I promise you things will be okay. Lancelot, I want two of your best stallions guarding my daughters at all times." Lancelot was ready to carry out his orders, if the salute the King received was any indication. After looking at the map for the nearest tiny village, a place called Ponyville, he swiftly left the room, leaving Endymion and Cosmos alone.
"Cosmos, my dear, have you decided on what is to be should we not be able to carry on?" He asked her in a soft tone, thinking what would happen if they did indeed fail and Canterlot fell into ashes like the rest of Equestria.
"Yes, I have decided that if all else fails, and if something were to happen to us...Celestia would in the rightful position to fix Equestria." Cosmos stated with an air of finality.
Luna, still hiding in the cabinet, was shocked. Her eyes opened wide, her body shook...it wasn't long before long a tear was rolling down her face.
"And this is your final decision?" Endymion asked once more.
"Yes, I find that Celestia would be the more suitable choice to rule over Equestria. I will speak with the both of them later tonight." She said in assurance as she walked out of the room with Endymion to attend to their royal duties.
Once they left, Luna softly fluttered her her wings in her descent to the floor, her head hanging low, her feelings of grief about what her mother had said hanging around her like the plague.
'Hadn't mother even considered me to rule Equestria? She is not the only daughter that they have! Why didn't father even try to stick up for me!? I thought I was his favorite. Do I not matter to them at all just because Celestia is the older sister? Why am I the one who gets NOTHING out of this?!' Luna was shouting to herself, her mane covering half of her face, the sting of tears cascading down onto the floor. She'd heard of the riots getting worse, the ponies diminishing faith, the thought of her parents being gone should they fail...it was was much more than her heart could bear. She tried to hold in her tears as Celestia walked in. She'd immediately noticed her sister crying, causing her to immediately become worried.
"Luna, what troubles you?" Celestia asked with genuine concern. As she raised Luna's head up, she had a bit of an odd look on her face that Celestia couldn't really describe. Was it jealousy? Fear? Or just plain anger? As Celestia was about to talk, she was pushed aside when Luna ran from the room. “Luna!” Celestia shouted as she just stood there in shock. She never saw Luna act like this before, and wondered what even happened to her.
***
Luna ran as far away as she could from Canterlot castle. When she finally slowed down to catch her breath, she turned her head back to look at the castle. The tears in her eyes had dried up, and she didn't know how to continue from here. She started to take a couple of deep breathes to calm herself down a bit and decided that she needed to get away from everything. If she had stayed home, she didn't know if she could look at her family the same for quite a while. Deciding on what she was going to do, she thought it'd be a good idea to head downtown. Who knows? It might not be as bad as everypony was saying.
She head down through Canterlot and just watched the ponies she passed by. She took note that the further she went, the more bitter towards each other the ponies seemed to be. Some of the young foals could be seen stealing food for there families, there was shouting all over, and nopony seemed happy at all.
Looking around more, Luna could see that there were signs protesting the Royal Family. Upon seeing the poster, she couldn't help but feel heartbroken by how the subjects thought. It's not like they'd abandoned them, they were just too busy protecting and feeding them to make sure living conditions were perfect!
“If only there was something I could do to help you all...” She said softly to herself since she felt she had a part of this as well, being apart of the family and all. All she ever wanted to do was show everypony that she can be a good leader some day, and most of all, to make her family proud.
Luna had realized that the rumors were true, it was indeed worse than she'd ever imagined it could be. She never really had a chance to go into town much unless she was accompanied by a guard, and even then it was still a rare occasion being that she was still a young filly. She trot towards the town square which held a huge statue of her mother and father. As she was sitting down by the statues, viewing the horrors of Canterlot that were surrounding her, she chanced a glance up into the sky and noticed something strange about it. There was dark cloud hovering over Canterlot, one that nopony seemed to pay attention to. In fact, they way nopony looked at the sky made her feel like they were deliberately avoiding it, as if there was some dark festering secret nopony spoke of.
“Evil is coming.” A voice from the distance called out. A mysterious pony walked towards Luna, who'd been intently staring at the sky. The mysterious pony was hearing a dark brown robe which covered most of it's body along with it's face, it was also tall and burly enough that she assumed it was a stallion. Being surprised at the stallion walking towards her, she took a step back.
“What are you talking about, how is evil coming?” Luna asked the strange stallion, her curiosity winning over her fear. Being that he was mysterious, she wondered about him, and wanted to know if maybe he knew something that nopony else does.
“Can't you tell from how everypony is acting up recently? I don't know how much longer your mother and father will be able to maintain order and balance in Equestria, specifically Canterlot of all places. This place is much worse than the others, even worse than I'd predicted. If this keeps up, it will probably be too late to save Equestria for what is about to come. For what the danger it is, I do not know, and I hope your family will help change things soon.” The mysterious pony rasped out. Luna's eyes widened a bit as she started to really become frightful.
“Tell me, who are you?”
“Well, you can call me Messiah.” The mysterious pony said.
“Luna,” he spoke again. “You must warn your family of the horror that is to become.” Messiah said to Luna as a word of warning.
“Wait, how do you-” But Luna's question was lost as she saw Messiah had vanished into thin air.
'What did he mean evil is coming?' Luna asked herself as she looked up the black clouds in the sky wondering if Messiah was right or not.
After Luna looked up at the sky one more time, she trot away from the area and started to debate on whether or not she should tell her mother and father what Messiah had warned her. But what if they already knew about the cloud, and are going to worry about it another time? Or what if Messiah could be actually lying to get into their heads?
While walking back she saw a couple of young filly's playing and running around the alley. She thought it looked fun, and she hardly had any friends of her own since living in the castle for most of her life, so she thought she'd try and make friends. She decided to walk towards the filly's to see if she would be able to join them, however as soon as she started getting closer, a colt, possibly the father of one of the filly's, stood in front of Luna not allowing her to walk further.
“Hey, I know you, you're Princess Luna!” The colt stated angrily as he shoved her back a bit.
“Why....Why didn't your family save us when we needed them most!? It's because of your mother and father that all of this is happening!” The colt started to shout at Luna. “Many of the ponies around Equestria have died, including my wife! You and your family just sat there on your throne doing nothing about it! Maybe I need to teach them a lesson about what happens when they don't listen to their people.” He said proudly as he felt what he was about to do was the right thing. Luna stood her ground trying to defend herself and standing up to the colt who was insulting her family.
“Not everything is our fault! They are trying their best to help out everypony in Equestria! I am sorry for what happened to your wife, but harming me won't fix all of that!” She stated. She was right, violence would never solve anything or bring back the colt's dead wife. He was enraged at what she said to him, and was about ready to smack Luna, but two royal guards, who'd appeared in a flash, stopped him from doing so.
“Luna, come on!” Somepony shouted from behind. It turned out to be her sister Celestia, who went out to search for her after she ran away from the castle. Luna heard Celestia calling to her and ran right towards her and started rushing home while the royal guards were protecting them.
***
Celestia and Luna arrived at the castle gates, and once they stepped inside she noticed her mother and father standing stoically near the entrance. They both had a bit of an angry, yet worried look on their face as Endymion started to approach both Celestia and Luna
“Luna where were you!?” Endymion shouted as he moved towards her.
“I'm sorry father.....” She said in a sad tone as she stared down at the floor, ashamed to look at her mother and father. Celestia started walking closer to her sister to try and comfort her by kneeling down and nuzzling her neck softly.
“We're just glad that you're safe and sound.” Cosmos said to Luna as the guards from town returned after taking care of the colt who tried to hurt Luna earlier. “Celestia, why don't you take Luna to her room? I have to talk to you both tonight about something very important.” Cosmos told Celestia as she nodded her head in understanding. Hopefully Celestia would be able to help Luna relax before Cosmos came in to talk to them about the future of Canterlot.
“Are you sure today's the right day to talk to Luna and Celestia after what Luna has just been through?” Endymion asked his wife after finally getting a chance to calm down a bit. Cosmos smiled at her husband and nodded her head, knowing she was sure about all of this. “Alright, I trust you on this one, if things get a little out of hand just let me know and I will help you talk to them.” Endymion walked outside by the gate a little bit and he saw something in the sky. It was the same dark cloud that Messiah was talking about from earlier, even he himself couldn't figure out what it was either.
“What is it, dear?” Cosmos asked him as he noticed him looking up in the sky in a very strange way. He shook his head and turned back to Cosmos and smiled at her to assure her that nothing was wrong.
“Don't worry sweetheart, everything is fine, I promise.” He told her as he and cosmos walked back into the castle as the guards closed the gates behind them.
*~*
Celestia and Luna were both in their bedroom. Luna just laid down on the floor as Celestia was looking down at her and lowered her head to her level to look into her eyes.
“Luna, what's going on with you, why did you push me away like that and ran off?” Celestia asked her as she never saw her act that way before, even through all the times they spent together. Luna was usually the happy one in the family, she always makes ponies smile with her charm while Celestia was the one who was always getting prepared to rule one day. Luna is also planned to rule as well, but Celestia was the one who took it seriously, and wanted to make her mother and father proud, however she gets her kindness from Luna which was why she loves having her close. Luna made her happy also, so the sight of her sister being so upset made her uncomfortable and worried. Luna didn't say a word to her while hearing Celestia talk about what has happened, she was having a difficult time absorbing everything she had heard. All in one day she learned that her mother and father were making Celestia the next ruler, she realized her parents might fail to bring order in Equestria, and she almost got killed by somepony by the alleyway! But even through all of this, the thing that made her worry the most was the black cloud in the sky, and the words Messiah said about them.
“Trust me, sister. I wish not to talk about everything, so could we please drop the subject?” Luna asked her politely while having a sad tone in her voice. 'If she only knew what I heard them talking about, she would understand.' Luna thought to herself as she didn't want to say it out loud and have Celestia worry as well. She may be the little sister, but she also cared for Celestia greatly, and vice-versa. Celestia saw how upset Luna was getting about the whole matter, so she just smiled at her and nodded her head.
“Alright Luna, you win, I won't talk about it anymore.” She said as she kneels down right across from her and they both heard a knock on the door.
Cosmos opened the door after knocking and walked towards her daughters. “Celestia, Luna could you both come here please? I need to talk to you both something very important.” She said to them as the fillies stood right up and walked towards their mother. “Now fillies, me and your father have come to a decision for when you both come of age on who will rule Equestria.” She said to the young filly's as Celestia stood at attention as she felt this was important to know. Luna pretended to care as well, even though she knew Celestia was going to be the next ruler of Equestria. She was proud of her sister, but at the same time she seemed a little bit upset about the idea. She had worked just as hard as her sister and felt like all of her work was not recognized and also for the fact that her father never even tried to consider her as they just jumped to the conclusion of Celestia. “For the next ruler of Equestria we have chosen...you, Celestia.” Cosmos said as Celestia had a shocked look on her face as Luna just had a little bit of an upsetting look.
“Congratulations sister, you deserved it.” Luna said to Celestia as she had a little bit of a fake smile on her face, but they didn't recognized it. Celestia was happy also to hear that her sister congratulations to her and went to hug her mother.
“Thank you so much for the honor Mother, I will never let you down.” Celestia said proudly to her mother and Luna just walked back a little bit so they could have their special moment.
“Luna, is something the matter?” Cosmos asked her as she noticed her walking away a bit.
“No mother, everything is fine over here, I'm just so very happy for my sister that I don't wanna get in the way of your special moment. If you'll excuse me, I might go for a walk around the castle.” Luna said as she walked right pass them and left the room to walk around the halls.
Author's Note: For those who have read this chapter, great job and thank you for taking your time on reading it. And now onto something important, my editor only agreed to edit this chapter so I will be in dire need of a new editor and if you are interested in doing so than please send me a message and we'll talk about it. Also if anyone has a better cover art for this story, that would be most appreciated as well. And if you do so than you shall get......a dead Cubone's mother...just kidding that would be awful. But I will be very grateful for the help and I'll help advertise your stories.
