Moonlight Terror

This wasn’t how she expected things.

“Princess Luna I Demand you banish this dreadful ruffian and throw him in a dungeon!” self-righteous unicorns like this… this… Shiny Powder, Glimmer Powder, Glimmer Sand? Something like that, seemed to make up too much of Canterlot’s elite.

Luna adjusted her position on her throne. The black glass and silver seat was set in front of a raised platform that held Celesta’s own, mirroring it in dark miniature. “You realize how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Nonetheless, this ruffian soiled my new dress!” the irate mare bit back “I’ll have you know it was made by the finest tailors of Canterlot and cost me over ten thousand bits!”

Luna racked her mind wondering how anypony could be so frivolous to spend that much on a single dress. Still though… “Is what this mare is claiming true?”

“I don’t know much about the costs of fancy dresses,” the accused replied.

Luna chuckled inwardly but kept her face a steely mask. “I am not interested in the monetary value at this time. Were you responsible for the damage to it?”

“Oh,” the brown stallion shuffled on the red carpet “I suppose I did… b-but it was an accident!”

Luna leaned back in her seat “Enlighten me of the situation then,”

“Well,” the stallion began “I work with the mail service, delivering packages all around Canterlot, and we had this big rush delivery. So there I was pulling the cart through the street, and I suppose I ran through a puddle and splashed this nice lady’s dress,”

Luna shook her head “’Twas raining yesterday. The weather team’s schedule has been posted around the city for a month. Why in Equestria were you wearing something like that just after rain?” she turned to one of the guards “Take her out of here, I am finished with her,” Luna took a deep breath as the mare spewed objections of her treatment. It was so much easier when she was Nightmare Moon. Any step out of place and she would smite them. None would dare bring such petty concerns to her for fear of their own destruction. Ah, but she was a changed mare.

The thought of attacking someone simply out of spite didn’t sit well with her anymore. Though she could understand how she could have before with mares like- Glimmer Dust, that was it- with mares like Glimmer Dust acting superior to all others and expecting somepony in Luna’s position to be their executioner.

Celestia walked through the doors, the guards saluting and Luna rising to meet her. “Sister,” Luna spoke. Celestia turned and gave her sister a concerned look as they passed each other, her sense of unease remaining with her as she strode to her seat.

Luna sighed as she strode through the double doors from the throne room, suddenly exasperated at the thought of the rest of the day. A young guard strode up to her “Your Highness, I have the updated schedule your sister requested for you.”

“What is your name?” Luna asked

“Y-your highness?” the guard stammered

“Your name. What is it that your friends call you?”

“Well- umm- I’m called Jack your Highness,”

“Jack,” Luna said with a smile lasting just an instant. “Leave it in my chambers. I am leaving for a stroll in the city,”

The guard began trotting after her “B-but your Highness!” he managed to call out before Luna rounded a corner. Jack ran up the hallway to catch her but found only an empty hall.

===========================================================================

Luna strode along the Canterlot street, focusing on the chill seeping through her skin and spreading through the flesh beneath. The cobbled streets echoed with the clip-clop of the ponies walking down them. Most stopped and stared in awe of the princess, some going so far as to kneel. The sky above was still overcast and gloomy from the recent rain, the weather teams preparing for the upcoming first snow.

Why had it seemed so easy before? She hadn’t had half of the responsibilities when she was younger as she did now, let alone what she did daily in the years leading up to her… incident. But all of it seemed so much, as if the day had been cut in half and no one had told her. Celestia had an odd sense of humor to say the least but Luna didn’t think she would go that far for a laugh.

Luna stopped and let out a long sigh. She just needed to get back into the swing of things. Dealing with stuck-up, self-centered, narcissistic nobles and their petty problems all day would have driven anypony else up the walls by now.

Nopony would have treated her like that in her full power, make demands of her, Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria. Anypony foolish enough would be smited from where they stood before they could think of groveling for forgiveness. With that she struck her hoof down to supplement her mental point. She looked down at the shattered pavement beneath her hoof, now filled with loathing for herself at her train of thought.

Why should I feel bad? She thought. Maybe that was how she should be thinking. When the elements had defeated her, her mind had been ripped asunder. Her darker thoughts had been unceremoniously and non-gently torn from the rest of her mind. A piece of her cut away from her for other’s benefits.

Perhaps this outburst was merely the mental wound scabbing over.

Luna looked up from the street finally taking in her surroundings. She was far enough from the castle now that she could barely see ostentatious towers in the distance. The smaller buildings around her however were still just as flashy, if not more. She spied a building decorated with murals and icons of a bakery staring at her across the street. Maybe Celestia had the right idea. Copious amounts of sugar always made things simpler.