Dis Immortalis

by Twilitbook

Rating: everyone
Tags: Discord, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad
Length: 17673

Tightly wrapped are the chains of immortality. To live forever is the greatest gift and curse.

Tightly wrapped are the chains of immortality and heavy is the metal out of which they are forged. To live forever is the greatest gift and also the cruelest of curses. One that not even the gods would wish on their enemies.

Image belongs to PinstripedApocalypse at http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=old celestia&order=9&offset=72#/d4iu5t6.

Published 2012-01-08 02:39:28 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-16 21:30:25 UTC

Dichonoia

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters, setting, and story all belong to Hasbro, Lauren Faust, and present directors and artists. Please understand that much of the content of this work is due largely to their work and creative genius. Huge thanks (and debt) is owed to the wonder that is John Perry and Halcyon for being my prereaders and editors. This thing wouldn't be half the story it is without them... that's still not saying much.

Dis Immortalis
By: Dawn Scroll
Dichónoia

A few languid rays of sunlight filtered through the standing landscaped trees of the royal garden, casting mottled shadows upon the green grass, as Celestia’s heavenly sun set into the west. Only hours ago the celestial body, held high above the world, had filled the entire garden with the warmth and amiability of summer. Like innumerable days past, it had burned with great ardor. The brilliance had been akin to a hot silver coin being tossed into the sky in a game of chance, as if fate had been foalhardy enough to partake in such frivolity. By this time, however, the coin’s spotlight had dimmed considerably, as the sun gradually sunk beneath the horizon.

In shades of fire and darkness it crept beneath the line, and the final lances of red light shone briefly on the towering spires of Canterlot. The light offered the day’s final, yet rapidly diminishing, experiences of heat. However, that sensation was quickly being drowned by the night’s cool embrace.

Had anyone been present in the royal gardens at the time, they could have been able to truly appreciate the sense of calm and tranquility that the garden possessed during one of the Alicorn’s sunsets.

But there was nopony. Nopony save several dozen weather-worn statues of ponies from ages long gone… and one draconeques.

Of all the possible punishments he could have been given, Discord knew that none of them would ever hold a candle to yet another eon or so of being imprisoned in stone.

The idea behind the punishment itself irked him. Being used as a lawn ornament was dismissible. Being bested by six ponies was insignificant. Losing the throne yet again was but a trifle. No, there was only one thing, one very simple thing that made being sealed in stone a true prison for Discord.

It was exceedingly boring.

Not just “ho-hum” boring either. No, this was a sort of excruciating, mind-numbing nothing.

The Nothing was like a vast ocean of darkness. From within his stone prison, Discord was only surrounded by its embrace and its expanse. Nothing could permeate the rocky exterior. Yet that was a lie unto itself. It wasn’t as though Discord had ceased to be. He could feel himself still alive. He could sense the unbreakable stone, his own malformed body no less, press down him, threatening to crush him. With each passing second he continued to suffocate from the final breath he had taken before his entombment. His lungs, now stone, somehow burned with the ever-increasing acute aching that that an immortal should never have had the misfortune to experience.

Discord was still self-aware. That much was for sure. He had struggled for eons before this to remain so, and Celestia be damned if he stopped now. Like a tiny flame, threatened to be extinguished, his being flickered inexplicably against the darkness, the claustrophobic tightness, and the searing pain.

Honestly, had he been able to, Discord would have yawned.

It wasn’t anything new. Day in and day out it had been the exact same experiences of stifling Nothing. For a creature, nay, for the very Spirit of Chaos, this sort of monotony… was an absolute nightmare.

None of it ever changed. The pain, the darkness, the Nothing was always there and never showed even the slightest hint of ever changing. The experience was just so infuriating. Discord wished he could have changed at least some sort of variable to his prison… like being encased in chocolate instead of stone. Now that would have been an experience.

The draconeques was a creature of the unexpected. It was Discord’s nature for everything he did to be random and unexplainable. Why else would he be imprisoned in stone right now?

Discord mulled over the thought silently. Why had he let those ponies simply imprison him in stone again? He wasn’t just an agent of chaos; he was Chaos. Master of disorder, confusion, anarchy. There was nothing, well, almost nothing, that was out of his power or control. With a snap of his fingers he could have turned those equines into glue… or spoons.

The gears in Discord’s mind worked briefly on that concept before chucking it out the window. Spoons were a silly idea. Who would even think of turning a pony into a spoon? Forks were far more logical. But since forks were logical, forks were out of the question then. Still, spoons wouldn’t do.

The Lord of Chaos chortled to himself in his prison.

Sporks. He could have always turned them into sporks… or storks for that matter. That yellow Pegasus would’ve made a nice stork.

How did he even get onto this train wreck of thought?

Oh, right. Ponies.

The only reason he hadn’t simply turned them into cutlery cutlery -- or fowl for that matter -- when they used those accursed Elements was one simple thing: The ponies expected him to do so. Celestia expected him to.

They expected him to be cruel. To fight or trick or manipulate his way out of being imprisoned. Celestia expected him to at least put of some sort of resistance.

So he did the exact opposite. He had stood there as the rainbow light came crashing down on him. Because it was the last thing any of them expected him to do.

Discord hated being held to expectations, both by and to others. Maybe it was because Celestia had always considered him to be “abnormal.” What was “normal” anyway? Just another pony’s perception of how things should be?

Try as he might, locked in his stony prison with its fixed ‘shocked’ expression, Discord could not achieve the single act that he felt would have summmed up his particular view of this. He desperately wished he could roll his eyes.

Discord wasn’t blind. He knew how other creatures saw him. He saw himself in the same light they did. Malformed. Erroneously created. Possibly insane.

So no matter what, Discord had gone out of his way to smash their expectations, both of him and of themselves.

What was it that Celestia had said about him? In Discord’s mind, a small caricature of the white alicorn’s face formed and spoke the words.

“It seems an old foe of mine, someone I had thought long defeated has returned. His name is Discord. Discord is the mischievous spirit of Disharmony. Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness. Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi alike. So after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we rose up against him.”

Ah, yes. Once again, Celestia had proven how grim she had grown these past centuries. With a single puff of imaginary breath he extinguished the mockery of the sun-goddess.

Expectations were easy to break. All you had to do was fail to meet them. The ponies Celestia had sent to do her dirty work expected a hateful, vengeful creature bent on wreaking havoc. Sure, at the end of the day, Ponyville had looked like something out of the mind of Salvaclop Deliboz. Discord was only trying to make up for several millennia of boredom! And in the end, nopony had actually gotten hurt. Hurting ponies wasn’t quite to his taste.

Order and Chaos were two signs of the same coin. Without Order, Chaos would be the norm, and it would no longer be Chaos. If Order was all that existed, then life would be stagnant and unchanging forever.

…much like his current form of imprisonment. The trickster god could appreciate the irony. He’d be sure to repay that white sun-goddess the same favor one day.

Celestia had spoken so ill against him, as though he had been a bloodthirsty tyrant. Typical Celestia playing the role of the goody two-shoes princess once again. To say he “ruled” was along the lines of saying that fish could fly. Discord had never portrayed himself as a ruler of anything, expect perhaps of incredible parties. He had never held court, never called himself a king, and had never asked or desired anypony to bow down to him. Sure, things may have been a little chaotic back then, but that was the nature of the universe. Whatever problems the ponies had, he merely watched from afar. He had let chaos work its natural course. These sorts of things had to work themselves out.

Massive flood that washed out a village? Its inhabitants would have to rebuild.

A drought that dried up all the crops and forced starvation on ponies? They would have to endure, leave, or starve.

Clouds suddenly turned into cotton candy and rained chocolate? Alright, maybe that one had been his doing. Sometimes Discord just saw an opportunity to stir up a laugh or two and, he just couldn’t resist.

Chaos was an unpredictable thing to work with. The Universe was unpredictable. At best, it could be described as random. It could be wonderful, and it could be terrifying. It could be beautiful, and it could be sordid.

Not all of it was bad but not all of it was good, either. It didn’t have to be fair, and neither did he. Discord was just a creature of it.

But to portray him as a monster for it… Discord took that as a personal blow.

Those ponies loved their precious Sun Princess so much that they had clung onto her every word. Clung to the “magic of friendship” that had helped them in the past. Discord had to imagine himself gagging at that thought to get the desired effect. His mouth was granite now, after all, and yet he still tasted the wretchedness of those words. Such hypocrisy.

Discord rather enjoyed toying with their minds. He felt as though he had opened them to a whole new world of possibilities. Twilight Sparkle had once claimed that Discord had put a spell on her friends to act the way they did.

The draconeques gave a toothy, knowing smile inside in his mind. If only it were that simple.

Despite being an immortal being, the entity of chaos itself, even Discord was limited in what he could and could not do. Bend the laws of physics and reality into a delicious pretzel? Easily done, especially if mustard was on hand. But to completely change a pony’s personality, hopes and dreams? Discord could only work with what he had in front of him.

Brave little Rainbow Dash. What was it she had said? Once again, in Discord’s mind, a caricature of the Ponyville weather officer formed and stared at him heatedly.

“You bet! I’ll always stay loyal to the princess!”

Discord let out a deep chuckle.

“Loyalty towards friends is important Rainbow Dash,” he murmured, “…but loyalty to your fame and duty was more important in the end, wasn’t it?”

All he had to do was tell Rainbow that her home was in danger and offer her the chance to save it. She took it without a second thought.

A mimicry of an orange pony with a Stetson appeared next to Rainbow Dash.

“Our friendship over? It can’t be true!”

“Honesty is a sign of trust, Applejack. But the truth is harsh and sometimes lies are easier to take,” Discord breathed.

And lie she did to protect her precious friendship. Towards the end of it, Discord felt she had gotten quite good at the skill.

Now, the face of a white mare with elegant lavender curls appeared.

“No, I shan’t succumb to such fabulosity!” the image protested in Rarity’s voice.

Somewhere in his mind, Discord stroked his tuft of a beard.

“Generosity is a gift, my beautiful Rarity. But only to those who receive it.”

Like so many before her who accepted generosity, Rarity succumbed to greed without giving much resistance. A large, beautiful diamond was all it took. She had barely hesitated before she was ready to break all bonds friendship and fight anyone who got close in order to keep it.

Discord pushed the faces off to the side as a yellow filly with pink hair appeared, shying away from his nonexistent gaze.

“I’m awfully lucky to have friends who want me to be the best I can be.”

Discord would have just stared at the image in disbelief if he could.

“Gentle Fluttershy, Kindness warms hearts, but cruelty got you so much further,” Discord said with some annoyance, before pushing the image to the side with the others. He knew the truth, even though she denied it to herself. That mare had some serious anger issues. True, in the end, he had to intervene with her. But he didn’t have to do much.

A burst of pink appeared in the ever-present darkness. Discord felt the slightest twinges of regret at the smiling, sweet face.

“My friends laugh with me, not at me.” Pinkie Pie said with a smile.

“Laughter is fun, dear Pinkamina,“ Somewhere in his mind, Discord gave a small sigh, “Until you become its source for the wrong reasons…” he added darkly.

If anyone had truly appreciated what he was trying to do, it had been that silly filly. His cotton candy clouds. His soap streets. His chocolate rain. Only she seemed to understand him. He had even tried to talk himself out of the deed. But Discord knew it was necessary to remove that mask she carried.

When Pinkie Pie’s face had joined the others, there was a small swirl before the purple unicorn herself appeared before him.

“But it’s not as wonderful as friendship!”

“Dear Twilight, Friendship IS magic. But without friends, where is your magic?” Discord said with smug grin.

She had been his favorite to play with. In the end, she proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Discord had tried everything he knew to get her to loosen up. He had treated her kindly, playfully joking with her about her ideas. Her attempts to defeat him with friendship had been so amusing. She held such faith in her friends and the magic of friendship that she thought the two would be enough stop the monster of madness. These expectations were easily shattered by Discord, such an achievement hardly being surprising to him.

Sure, in the end, the draconeques had allowed himself to be imprisoned, but that wasn’t the point. What was that even though it was for a few hours, he had broken the ponies’ expectations of themselves. He couldn’t make someone act in a way they weren’t capable of. All he could do was turn the key to their hearts and let their emotions spill forth.

Discord had done it all too happily. He had shown that things weren’t just black and white.

He had shown that even the Element of Honesty could be Deceitful. That Loyalty could easily Betray. That Generosity could fall willingly to Greed. Kindness could bask in Cruelty. Laughter could wallow in Sorrow.

He had shown those ponies that even the most magical of friendships could fall apart.

Things, after all, weren’t always black and white. A monster could be a giggling joker. A loving Sun-Queen could hate.

Discord snickered to himself, his being floating in the vast expanse of Nothing. Every so often, he knew she paid him visits. Celestia was the only one who did, this particular branch of the garden being avoided ever since his escape.

The sun had finished setting in the distance, the last glimpse of red light vanishing off the statues in the garden.

Discord loved it when she visited. He couldn’t actually see her, but he could feel her piercing gaze, so laced with disgust and hatred for him. She radiated such negative emotions around him and Discord gobbled them up like after-dinner mints. It was so… un-princess like of her. He knew she wanted to smash him to pieces now that he was stone, but again… Order needed Chaos to be Order.

Discord knew Celestia wouldn’t be willing to pick up his mantle anytime soon like she had her sister’s. It just wasn’t her character. He would have loved to see it though, to watch the prim and proper diarch be forced to take the role as the personification of random and sudden.

Celestia would despise her own existence then. Discord could reason this was the sole reason she kept him in existence. Purely so she keep up her expectations of herself. He remembered now exactly why she was so grim.

It absolutely delighted him that he could get under her skin so easily.

With a swipe of an nonexistent claw, the faces of the ponies dissipated into nothing, leaving Discord to his own thoughts, devices, and loneliness. Those ponies were so much fun to play with. Far more entertaining than Picard.

That got Discord to thinking. He was going to be in here for what was probably going to be a random amount of time. He might as well make the most of it. Third time would be the charm. And he’d make up for lost time with the most chaotic day ever. He’d turn the moon into cheese, maybe reverse gravity for a few hours, and make those ponies eat their own words… literally.

He would actually made them eat their own words. Hay, Discord was even planning on trying a few words out himself. He wondered what ‘pandemonium’ would taste like.

Discord floated in the void chuckling as he licked his lips in anticipation. He was beginning to get ahead of himself. He had to get his plan in disarray first.

First step… his grand comeback.

“I’m going to need a mariachi band.”

Skotadi

As stated earlier, I own nothing of the MLP franchise, nor do I pretend to do so. I am but a poor and pitiful writer rubbing two stones together hoping to spark his former talent. Huge thanks, once again, goes out to the geniuses John Perry and Halcyon who proof read and edited this train wreck. It was more work than you know...

Dis Immortalis
By: Dawn Scroll
Chapter: Skotádi

For the first time in over a hundred years, Princess Luna felt her skin grow clammy in fear as the jewels of the Elements of Harmony whirled furiously around her royal counterpart. “Her face struggled to veil the inner turmoil she was experiencing, in one moment allowing the sheer terror to slip through for a brief moment before it was locked back into a gaze of defiance.

Her voice tremulous, Luna cried out “That old magic isn’t going to help you! This night is mine, you hear me? Mine!”

Celestia closed her eyes, resigned to follow through with what she had already started. Luna could see the marks along the white alicorn’s tired frame. If she could just keep pushing her sister, Celestia would make a mistake and then-

Celestia did something completely unexpected.

“I’m sorry…”

Luna had no idea that would be the last time she heard her sister’s voice.

The first second was the worst.

The light washed over Luna’s vision. It blinded her worse than if she had looked directly at Celestia’s sun. The Moon Princess tried to shrink away from it. Luna could feel the marble floor of the throne room suddenly fade beneath her hooves, leaving her floating on nothingness for a second, only to be replaced.

***

The first minute was the worst.

She found it difficult to focus as the multitude of swirling light joined as one and rapidly approached, enveloping her in a pale curtain.

Luna’s head swam as she looked around her new surroundings. Adrenaline still coursed

through her veins from confronting Celestia. She She instinctively began to inhale … but there was nothing to take in. It was from this futile attempt that she realized that the place was devoid of air, her godhood being the only thing to save her from suffocating in the sudden vacuum.

Luna braced herself for Celestia’s next move. Her ethereal night mane whipped around in the absent wind as she peered into the distant hills. There was nothing but an endless wasteland of grey rocks and craters, encompassed only by a ceiling of stars. She would recognize this landscape anywhere. This was the surface of the moon. Her moon.

For a few seconds Luna believed that Celestia had brought them here to continue their fight so that none of the city of Everfree would be harmed in the crossfire. But if that had been the case, then why hadn’t Celestia made her next move?

Luna tentatively hooved at the ground. The silence was unsettling.

“Celestia!” Luna called out into the alien plain. Her voice seemed to drift away into the nothingness around her.

There was no response.

“Celestia!” Luna called out again, stomping her hoof. A cloud of grey dust rose up from where she struck the ground. “Answer me! Show yourself, you coward!” She looked around anxiously, as though her sister might pop out of any crater. Every passing second was more excruciatingly suspenseful than the last, and the hairs on Luna’s skin rose in anticipation.

Luna’s brain began to churn on overtime. At any given instant, she would have to brace herself for whatever was coming next. Celestia was going to jump out and attack her. She would use some sort of magic or maybe even fight head-on. Celestia might even-

Not even the echo of her own voice made its way back to Luna.. The sound was merely absorbed by the void. The truth began to dawn on her. A horrible, horrible truth that she tried to ignore, but she couldn’t. For the second time that day, Luna felt truly scared.

“Tia!” Luna called out again, this time far more hesitantly. “Please, Tia, answer me!”

She was alone.

***

The first hour had been the worst.

Luna gave out a scream of frustration that was swallowed up by the distant horizon as she felt her magic fizzle away once again into nothingness. She angrily stomped a hoof into the grey rock beneath her, a tiny cloud of white dust rising up.

"Why isn't this working!" she screamed out into the night. It was by no means an easy spell, but one fully within the range of power she had at her disposal.

Luna’s breath came out in jagged gasps as she gritted her teeth. She blinked away the hot tears that threatened to roll down her face. She couldn’t afford to be weak. Not now.

She had to try again.

Luna tried to compose herself. It wasn’t working because her magic was slipping out of her grasp. She couldn’t get it under control because she was being emotional. That had always been something that her Father had warned her about. Yes, that had to be the reason.

Luna bowed her head again, her brow furrowed as she closed her eyes and attempted to focus her magic. It started at her very core, and she let it build under the pressure. She could feel the inherent energy rise beneath her skin, drawn forth once again.

Ethereal miasma seeped from her every pore as Luna continued to gather her strength, a well of magic that she gathered the formless raw power from. Her will was the sole tool she had to use to help shape and form the energy to her purpose. Luna could feel it slowly wash over her, a blanket of indigo light that tingled the surface of her skin and feathers. She used herself as the conductor, focusing the magic into her flesh and bones.

The moon princess had held her breath for only a moment when she could feel her grasp on her magic slip ever so slightly once again. She thought what Cele-- NO! She couldn't focus on that! Not now! Her mind was straying from the task at hand.

With a far more concentrated effort, Luna managed to realign the stray power to fall in place with the rest of it. She resumed breathing again, closing her eyes and attempted to focus solely on drawing forth all the energy she could muster.

It had to work this time.

There was no way it couldn't.

Luna shook her head. Celestia would never do that to her, no matter how bad the two of them fought. Celestia wasn't like that. To do so would be just plain… cruel.

But Celestia wasn't cruel. Sometimes when it came to the Court she could be a little bossy, and sometimes she was immature for all the pranking she did, but Celestia would never--

Luna's heart fluttered for a moment at the thought and her grip on her magic slipped. It was becoming difficult to manage. But that would be the case, of course. This spell would require much of her energy, especially given how tired she was. The effect was like trying to hold onto a sphere of oiled marble. These distractions weren’t helping her. Silently chastising herself, Luna mentally forced the magic back into place, keeping a close eye on the simmering pool of power she was accumulating.

"Get a hold of yourself. You're rushing to conclusions." Luna thought to herself. Celestia was back at the castle right now waiting for her. She had probably just teleported her here to avoid any more damage to the castle and give her some time to cool off. Everything had been so in the heat of the moment.

It all seemed perfectly reasonable, and Luna wanted to laugh at herself for her foalishness.

But even still, Luna still had that seedling of doubt in the back of her mind. She remembered being so angry, goading and cursing at Celestia. Things had been said. Luna had lashed out at Celestia. She had hurt her sister.

Luna felt the pool bubble outwards, and she ground her teeth as she tried to remain in control of her own emotions again. But no matter what she did, the memory of what had taken place in her final moments before arriving on the moon pushed to the front of her mind.

A blast of Luna's magic had thrown Celestia back against one the stone columns. Luna watched with sick satisfaction as she heard the resounding crack of bone. Celestia tumbled to the marble floor in a flurry of white feathers, the lay at a heap at the bottom.

The moon princess carefully made her way over to where Celestia struggled to get onto her hooves. All around them was evidence of their fight. Stone columns lay cracked and toppled, and here and there were black scorch marks from where their magic has missed their target and instead vaporized the marble flooring… or a guard.

The white Alicorn had struggled to her hooves. One of the Princess's white wings was bent at an awkward angle that shouldn't have been possible.

As she stood over her, Luna could see Celestia was in pain and she relished in it. Why, why did she love this feeling so much? Her sister prostrate and weakened on the floor, all because of Luna. To have this sort of control. This feeling was glorious. This feeling of power.

Luna's breath hitched as the memory pushed through her concentration. For a moment she smelt the scent of ozone, but it was gone in an instant, whisked away like all other things into space. Luna was beginning to worry that she wasn’t going to be able to do this. These thoughts just kept bubbling under the surface, and she couldn’t keep them down. It wasn't even that long ago that it had happened.

Luna drew forth the last bit of power she thought she would need and allow the current of energy within her to settle down into a shapeless mass. Right now, all she had was raw energy at her disposal, but that was it. The magic was there, but it had no purpose or meaning. After her fight with Celestia and the previous failures, Luna was thoroughly exhausted and couldn’t draw forth anymore of her power.

This was it.

Luna’s horn shone brightly in the darkness of her moon, the blue light casting an otherworldly hue to the already foreign terrain. The magic in her concentrated, and became sharp and fine as she put it to its purpose. It reacted like putty under her touch, molding itself within her body to fit her desire. It only took an instant for the goddess to know it was ready. The blue Alicorn's wings flared open, her eyes glowing as the magic enveloped her.

Teleportation wasn't too hard of a spell to learn, though only a few Unicorns ever mastered it. But where Luna wanted, no, needed to go, was something only she and her sister could pull off.

After all, the estimated distance from the lunar surface to earth was 238,857 miles, give or take a few hundred. Not an easy distance travel, even with the powers of a Goddess.

The aura of her magic enveloped her whole body, the light of her own magic obscuring her vision. For a single heartbeat, she could feel her hooves begin to leave the rocky lunar surface.

Her magic was casting her through. This was going to work. She was going to apologize to Celestia for everything. For the words she said, for the fight for- Luna flinched briefly- the broken wing. In but a moment she’d be going ho—

Luna gave out a gasp of from the pain that shot through her like an arc of lightning, flaring her bones into glass and her veins into hot metal.

The resulting impact jarred her entire being as she felt something lock in place around her. An invisible force, almost like a wall, pressed down on her will with mind-numbing strength and forced her intangible form back into corporal existence. Only when she was solid, only when she felt the grey, gritty surface of her moon did it finally abate, vanishing as though it never existed in the first place.

As soon as it did, she collapsed into a heap.

Luna went through the motions of panting for breath, despite the lack of air around. Her mind, and body for that matter, was still recovering from the shock that she just went through. She hurt so badly. But it wasn’t just her body that hurt.

Hot pools of salt water formed at her eyes. Luna let them freely fall down her face this time, soaking the already dark skin.

“It’s come to this then…” Luna said pitifully. Her voice barely reached her own ears. Was she in… shock?

She could feel the dull ache and throbbing still move through her body from her failed attempt at magic. But nothing hurt worse right now than the realization of what had happened.

Somewhere in the distant grey hills, below the horizon, a light began to form. Nothing more than white and blinding, no oxygen in the vacuum to give it the myriad of colors it normally had, the sun rose a ribbon at a time. Slowly but surely, searing light covered everything as the sun brought a different sort of dawn onto the Moon. But even with the bright light, the pocket marked soil still remained the dull grey it had before.

There only color in the monotonous landscape was a tiny speck of dark blue that was an alicorn filly silently crying, alone in her musings.”.

As the sun began to rise over her, Luna was forced to squeeze her eyes shut in a feeble attempt to spare them the sun’s glare. But even with them shut, the light still reached her from beyond her eyelids. It was an angry, almost hateful glare. The light seemed to mock her.

“…I hate you.” Luna whispered to herself. Her cheeks were wet, the rivers of salt still dripping from them. She slowly got to her hooves on shaky limbs and turned to face the sun. The pain in her heart was shifting into another emotion.

“I hate you,” Luna said, more loudly this time. “I hate you. I hate you. I Hate You. I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” Luna screamed out into the night. She stared at the rising sun, her eyes red from her tears as she seethed in anger. She refused to even squint out of defiance for her sister’s heavenly body.

“DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU CELESTIA! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? IS IT!” Luna shrieked to the starry heavens. “THIS ISN’T FAIR! We were supposed to rule together! Were you afraid that our subjects would love me more if they had the chance to appreciate my night? Were you afraid of being ignored like I was, Celestia!?” Luna asked herself verbally, never daring to avert her gaze from the sun.

Her dark chest heaved in and out, liquid fury boiling inside of it.

“I was wrong about you! They were all wrong about you! You were never kind or benevolent or just! You hogged their attention and their adoration! You don’t love your subjects. You didn’t love me! You don’t love anyone but YOURSELF,” Luna accused, a fresh batch of tears springing forth again. She tossed her head back and screamed:

“I WOULD NEVER HAVE IMPRISONED YOU ON THE SUN!”

It was the truth. One that Luna had refused to admit to herself before, but now had no choice too. Luna had thought… Luna had hoped she was wrong. That Celestia would never do something so cruel as to seal her away.

Sometimes even a Goddess could be wrong.

“S-So now you get what you wanted. The t-throne… E-Equestria… and m-me out of the way. A-a-all the love of your little subjects. “ Luna managed to choke out to herself, before lowering her face from the sun’s gaze. Strands of her silken blue mane covered her tear-streaked face, obscuring it from the celestial body.

The Lunar Princess stood there on her lonely moon, the bright spots of light still dancing in her vision her vision even after she closed her eyes. Her next words held all the hate, scorn, and betrayal she could care to sum up right now.

“…I hope you’re happy.”

***

The first day had been the worst.

As Celestia’s sun set in the distance, its last dying rays skimmed the skin of a goddess for a few brief moments before extinguishing completely. Had anypony been there to see it, they would have seen an alicorn filly curled up on her side. Had anypony been there to see it, they would have seen her green eyes red and puffy from a thousand tears.

But there was nopony.

Luna didn’t even watch as the sun dipped below the horizon of her moon. What was the point? There was no atmosphere to create the beautiful myriad of colors that her sister with which her sister was fond of painting the sky at each day’s end. There was no beauty in the setting of the sun because it wasn’t a sunset.

Just another infernal light going out.

Luna gave a weak sigh and gently scraped the ground below her with her hoof. Only a few minutes ago, she had tried to raise the moon out of pure habit, expecting to see it appear in the night sky somewhere.

It took her a moment to remember she wouldn’t be seeing it anywhere in the night sky. Her moon was all around her.

The knife was only driven in deeper when she found that it wouldn’t even respond to her. Her moon, her beautiful creation, remained silent to her will and power. She could feel another’s will tainting it, forcing it into submission and tearing it away from Luna’s grasp. She would have wept at the prospect, her, Mistress of the Night, Queen of the Milky Way, and Princess of the Moon, stripped of the very thing that gave her purpose. Luna would have wept at the thought of it.

But she didn’t have any more tears to give.

She had given up trying to break the seal that she had been bound to. She had tried working her way around it, trying to find some loophole in the spell. Celestia had left none for her.

After screaming and raging at the empty air around her for hours, Luna had tried harder to free herself. She had tried to teleport again, only to be blocked at every attempt. She had attempted to undo and unravel the spell that was wound about her, only to find it as tight as chains. Luna had then tried breaking it with assault after assault of her power only for the wall to withstand every blow.

Luna had even tried to fly off the surface of her moon. She would have gladly have flown the distance of the black emptiness before her if it meant she could go home. But though the seal did allow her to fly, she couldn’t reach a height of more than a few thousand feet before she encountered the Wall again.

That experience hadn’t been pleasant. Luna had floated above the grey landscape on her indigo wings, each flap taking her further and further away. Further away from her anger and tears. For a few minutes, she had grown hopeful. Perhaps Celestia had missed such an opportunity and-

-Luna had screamed as the Wall pressed down on her again, the pain wracking through her body like fire. She had tried to push past it, throwing every iota of her god-like strength against it, but it withheld her assault. Luna couldn’t withstand the Wall’s punishment. Her muscles strained and screamed in agony as she attempted to flap her wings further, but it felt as though each feather had been transformed into lead.

Then suddenly her body gave out. Like a blue-feathered angel, Luna had fallen from the heavens. The pain was replaced by darkness as the ground rushed up to meet her.

The next thing Luna could acknowledge was the white glare from her sister’s sun as it set on the grey landscape. Luna groaned and placed her forehooves firms on the grey soil in front of her and tried to stand. They next thing she felt was pain.

It wasn’t the Wall again, and for a moment, Luna was grateful that it wasn’t. Instead it had been a splintery pain that streaked through the bones of her left wing when she tried to shift her weight. She gave a shriek at the unexpected sensation, and it was only then did Luna realize how hoarse her voice had become from all of the screaming… and yelling… and crying…

A few drops escaped her eyes as the pain slowly ebbed away. Luna was no stranger to pain. The Dragon Wars were witness to that simple fact, but that didn’t make anything she had gone through any less painful.

After what seemed like an almost inconceivable amount of time, when the pain has finally dimmed to tolerable levels, Luna had curled up on herself, trying her hardest not to move her wing even the slightest. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable of positions, especially with the rocky ground beneath her. But that hardly mattered now.

Luna watched the light dim away in the distance, and her night… Celestia’s night wrapped around her finally.

Luna’s divinity and power would heal her wing without any problem soon enough. For the

moment, she just had to keep calm and relax. It would take time for her to heal.

Luna gave another shudder, her eyes blinking away the tears before they came.

She had all the time in the world now.

***

The first week had been the worst.

Luna lay atop one of the cliffs that dotted the lunar surface and gazed upon the land, her legs folded beneath her. There was something beautiful about this land.

Her land.

A land that stretched as far as her eyes could see, its white terrain marred only by the countless craters that the cosmos had formed over the eons that she had been alive. Not a single blade of grass poked from the soil, and no wind moaned across the empty land. It was as though everything around her was frozen in time, a portrait that withstood that march of years with little change to which only the stars bore witness too. Those same stars which stood framed in a blanket of inky darkness, tiny pinpricks of light that glowed and sparkle. The night sky could be seen everywhere around her, even when the sun came out. There was no atmosphere to block the stars. Her stars. It was all so beautiful. A portrait of a lifeless world.

Luna hated it.

It was so foreign yet familiar to her. She had created it after all. Luna lowered her head and gazed into the grey dust beneath her. She was beginning to wish she had created more.

There was nothing but grey all around her. Wherever Luna looked, all she could see was the color grey. Grey rocks, grey soil, grey mountains, grey craters. Luna was beginning to hunger for something other than the grey, and felt that her imprisonment was beginning to affect her even this early. Luna was beginning to fear that she was slowly going colorblind. One morning she had awoken to find her indigo fur less vivid than she remembered it. She had started with a sudden jolt as her brain processed this, her green eyes widening suddenly as she rubbed the skin above her forhooves. A few panicked heartbeats later she had examined her hooves to find the culprit.

Moondust. Her fur wasn't actually grey. It was just moondust. Sometime in the night she must have rolled over in her sleep, and the soil had clung to every strand of hair as she did.

Luna had taken well over an hour to brush the dust off of herself, if only to see her natural color again. It wasn't much in this world, but it was at least something… something other than grey.

Luna knew she had other alternatives. She had even once made the mistake of taking it. For a brief few moments, she had looked up, and her view was filled with color. Hanging as if suspended by some invisible thread sat another orb of immense beauty.

Green grass and forests with brown deserts and mountains. Great swaths of blue seas stretched between continents, and swirls of white clouds obscured homes, villages, cities and countries.

It was her world. Her home. The sole vestiges of color that she had here left to gaze on. But each time Luna gazed at it, she had been filled with longing and sorrow. Her heart had broken again by merely looking upon her home. She could see familiar mountains, even from this distance. Luna could just make out Equestria, with its lush forests and green plains. Luna thought she could even just make out Everfree and-

She had tried to go home again. Luna had spent another full day trying to get back to a place she had only gazed upon for a few split moments. And she had been stopped at each time by Celestia's spell.

It hurt to be reminded that she couldn't go back home. It hurt worse than the Wall. Thus she lay with her back to the planet, and instead looked over the grey soil of the lifeless world before her.

Luna looked down at the clean patch of lunar soil before her. With almost an idle though, she repeated the same motions she had done perhaps a hundred times that day. She scratched two vertical lines parallel to each other in the dirt, to be marked over with two more horizontal lines. A few more scratches, some circles and crisscrosses, a straight line and O had won yet another game of Tic-Tac-Tail.

Luna turned her head to look at the ground behind her. What could possibly be hundreds of such improb games lay scratched into the ground. Luna sighed gently to herself and rubbed out the marking only to repeat the game again. She was pretty sure she was playing it wrong. After all, there had to be somepony playing the Xs.

However, considering there was little else to do to pass the time, she completed another game. With another swipe of a hoof, it too was gone.

As Luna continued her vigil out into the world of canyons, mountains, and craters around her, she forced herself to drink it all in. Her hom… the blue-green world behind her was gone forever.

The silence rung in Luna's ears as she tried to accept this simple truth. X had won the game this time. Evidence of its victory was quickly erased.

This was her home now. She would take this lifeless, colorless world and love it.

She would take the color grey over all others. She would take feeling dead inside over the pain color caused her.

***

The first month had been the worst.

Luna gritted her teeth as she felt her hooves slip back several feet as the rocks gave way beneath her. She watched with scant trepidation as the moon rocks bounced their way down the slope to the canyon beneath her. Only a stone that was jutting out of the incline saved her from tumbling all the way down to the bottom. Luna grasped it with both hooves and caught herself, her lower hooves scrambling to find some sort of place holder. She finally settled on a ridge just below her and gave an angry glare at the ledge far above her head.

It had been so close! Luna peered around the surface of the rock face, looking for any way back up.

She gave a wry smile to herself as she analyzed a possible way up. If she could just make it-

Luna stretched out a hoof, the muscles in her shoulder straining to bridge the distance.

-there! She managed to firmly put her hoof down onto an outcrop to advance another step up.

Slowly but surely, Luna continued to climb, foot by foot, up the face of the grey mountain before her. Each grasp of the stone spilt moon dust into her eyes and snout, but she shook it away and progressed, her body strained with determination.

Her haunches burned with fire as she heaved herself up another few feet and firmly planted herself onto the ledge she had struggled to reach so hard for. Here Luna was able to stand on all four of her hooves and catch her breath, rolling the muscles in her shoulders to shake the exhaustion out of them. The peak was only another fifty feet or so. She could make it. The longer she waited, the harder it would be for her to keep going.

With a final moment to bask in the delay, the moon goddess reared up onto her hind legs and planted her forehooves onto the surface of the rock. When her hoof made contact with a stone she felt would hold her weight, Luna gave a grunt of exertion and once more began her climb. Her eyes squinted to avoid the sun’s glare, and she cursed her sister for throwing this obstacle in her path. But she would prevail.

Her wings remained firmly closed against her back, her hide and feathers slick with sweat. The dust clung to them like glue, once again dulling Luna’s normally vibrant dark coat.

But Luna didn’t care. The dust, her achy muscles and the irritating glare all came second to the deed before her. All that mattered now was her, and the final few dozen feet of rock height between her between her and the peak.

Thirty feet.

Twenty.

Ten.

Luna’s hooves took hold of the final outcropping, and using up the last bit of strength of her legs and haunches, she pulled herself over to ungracefully collapse in a heap on the uneven surface of the mountain’s peak, only a scarce few inches from a stone’s fall to the ground below.

Luna had done it.

She lay utterly exhausted on the stone, panting the non-existent air as her entire body greedily devoured the sensation of relaxing. Luna didn’t even think she could muster enough energy for what was to come next. But there was something just so gratifying about the whole sensation.

Luna smiled to herself, giggling into the grey dust. She had done it. She had done this. Her body was sore and she was covered with numerous bumps and scratches from when she had misjudged her climb, but it was worth it.

With a soft moan Luna rolled onto her back, and extended her wings. She couldn’t fit on the entire peak, and one of her hooves dangled off the ledge. Luna stared up at the night sky, still attempting to steady her breath. Her wide green eyes took in every star and constellation, a feeling of pride welling into her chest. The warm, joyous feeling left her continuing to giggle as it spread throughout her extremities. They winked down at her, sparkling like thousands of diamonds. She had made those too. She, wittle waby Woona, had made them.

“I HAVE CONQUERED THEE, MOUNTAIN!” Luna called into the night. Her voice shattered the once pristine silence that had been upheld nearly without fail beforehand. “THOU HAST CHALLENGED ME TO CLIMB THEE AND I HAVE EMERGED VICTORIOUS! ”

It had been insane to think of doing. Celestia would have called it insane. Her parents would have called it insane. Even Luna had thought it was insane. Luna knew it had been insane to even conceive the attempt, but she had done it all the same. Why?

Because it was there.

It had stood imposing against the darkness, erect like a giant. A monolith of grey stone that towered above all of its other siblings. It was such a curious thing, and its mere presence reminded her of just how old she actually was. She remembered when she had first formed the Moon in the heavens. It had been flawlessly smooth then, a shining disk in the empty heavens. An orb of white marble, polished to shining perfection to synchronize with her sister’s sun.

Strange then how millennia of debris and meteorites could slowly grind and misshape her once perfect sphere. How Time, ever cantering onwards, could push once smooth stone up into jagged peaks or press outwards into ditches and valleys of dust.

It called to her, and Luna had answered the call. She had never rock-climbed before, nor would she truly accomplish anything to if she had actually achieved the summit. There was nopony around to witness it or praise her for it. If anything, Luna just wanted to do it to prove to herself that she could do it.

The mountain had risen up impossibly tall before her, and Luna had stared it down. What had she to be afraid of? She was the Goddess of the Night. It was a mountain. Her mountain.

Maybe she was going insane.

In the present, the indigo filly giggled and tapped the grey peak beneath her with a hoof almost tenderly, as though it was her own foal. The deed had been done.

“FROM HENCEFORTH, THY NAME SHALT BE MONS RANGEKER! WITH THEE AND THY SIBLINGS DEFEATED, I HAVE SUMMITED EVERY MOUNTAIN IN MY DOMAIN!”

Her smile only grew wider with each word. This was the last one. She had done it.

Luna listened to her voice slowly fade away into the distance, the noise lost among the white hills and craters. The filly stared up at her night sky, quietly smiling to herself.

She had done that too. Luna indulged in her newfound feeling euphoria, this feeling of power that coursed through her tired and dusty body. She did this.

It had been such a silly idea, but it was better than nothing. After all, what else was there to do?

Nothing.

There had been nothing else that she could think of. Tic-Tac-Tail got boring after the first day. Sleeping helped past the time, but she couldn’t force herself to sleep.

It had been out of sheer, silent boredom that she had tried her hoof at this. She had been so bored. There was nothing here. Only the challenge she had set for herself.

Now even that was gone.

Nothing left.

Nothing.

No matter how hard she tried, Luna couldn’t force the corners of her mouth to stay upwards anymore, and the smile she once had began to slowly slip off of her face. The sweet, numbing sensation of pride and adrenaline she had felt before gave way to the sting of the dozens of cuts and scrapes she had afflicted upon herself with coming up here. It was a bitter sting that reverbrated all across her body, and the filly squeezed her green eyes shut as it washed over her.

There was nothing here. Nothing to see, or do, or experience but pain, it seemed. Luna didn’t have her moon anymore. Was that all she was now? Princess of moon dust, pain, and nothingness?

She indifferently acknowledged as Celestia’s cold light washed over her. Luna turned away, instead choosing to face the dust. Her nostrils flared at the gritty scent. The hours ticked by slowly as the night sky’s true sole gem spun on its axis, and the sun dipped into the horizon once more, thus ending yet another day of Luna’s imprisonment.

Once she felt the last dim rays leave her face, the motionless pinnacle of the mountain blearily opened her eyes. Sleep had failed to come for her yet again. Luna turned her head up towards the cosmos and stared up at her stars. It was a beautiful night.

What day was it even?

The princess turned the numbers back through her head, silently counting and marking back the days from the… incident.

There had been twenty-eight sunrises and twenty-nine sunsets since she had been sent here.

So about a month she reasoned.

She didn’t dare to let herself truly feel any of the relief she wanted to express. It was okay that she couldn’t think of anything else to do. It wasn’t going to matter that there was nothing here. A month was about it. A month was more than enough time. Celestia wouldn’t keep her here forever. Tomorrow, Luna promised herself.

Tomorrow Celestia was going to come back.

Tomorrow Celestia would let her free.

Tomorrow she could apologize.

Tomorrow she could be a princess again.

Luna pulled her limbs closer to herself and curled up, trying to warm herself as the moon’s nightly chill began to seep into her tired bones.

Tomorrow she could go home.

Avgi

Finally, this thing is done! *covers his head with his hooves and falls back in his chair* Ugh, I've been out of the writing buisness way to long. This took me longer than I wanted to finish. How do some of these authors do it on here... it baffles me.. still, I'm towards the younger end of the spectrum in this fandom, so in all fairness I have time. Sorry for the wait, to you few, wonderful people who consider this literature! You warm my heart. Life caught up to myself and my awesome editors, John Perry and Halcyon, so it took me a few extra days to punch this out. Hope you enjoy the final chapter of Dis Immortalis. Or throw tomatoes. Hey, any press is good press, right?

Warning: Rating upped to Teen for usage of alcohol, slight Molestia, and ponies. Especially because of ponies.

Dis Immortalis

Avgi

"Now if you could just raise your left wing for me, Your Highness."

Celestia winced as she extended her wing for the doctor examining her. Though it was still tender and sore, in truth Celestia was just happy to finally be free of the splint that had constrained her wing these past few weeks.

Clean Bandage, the royal physician and herbalist, pressed his hoof against the joint of the limb, eliciting the faintest sound of discomfort from the princess. Her hooves pressed into the soft mattress of her bed.

"Still some discomfort in it? That's not expected," said as the pasty-white pony moved his hoof along the wing. "Your wing humerus has sealed up nicely and doesn't seem to be rubbing against your coracoid bone." Clean Bandage worked his way up slowly, lingering on Celestia's primary feathers.

Celestia gave a slight shudder as he touched the sensitive quills and said, "It only hurts now when I try to lift the wing. But when I try to lift the other one..." she trailed off, hoping Clean Bandage would understand.

The unicorn doctor sagely nodded and reassuringly tapped her pristine wing with his hoof.

"Any discomfort you should have at this point is due to your pectorals and the supracoracoideus muscles still being bruised. Until your body finally repairs the damage, extending either of your wings is going to be less than pleasant." He slowly continued pressing against her wing, moving his hooves meticulously against it. "Alright, you can close it now, your highness."

Celestia gave a sound of relief as the appendage folded up against her body. The sharp pain in her chest receded as she let the muscles rest. As Clean Bandage gathered his herbs and supplies into the satchel he always carried around with him, Celestia felt the need to ask the most important question of all.

"How long until I am able to fly again?"

Clean Bandage gave pause in his cleanup to give one final look over Celestia's wing.

"About one to two years..." the doctor said. Celestia looked impassive at this news. "...for a regular pegasus, your highness. Due to your uniqueness, it's hard to say. Your wing should've taken at least eight months before the splint came off for any other pony. Three weeks later, here we are. You're... a special case."

The doctor failed to notice the slight tremor that ran through Celestia's limbs as her serene face broke out into a gentle smile.

"Thank-you, as always, for your help."

As if on cue, there was a knocking at the chamber door, then a pause, and a single rap at the end. Celestia could feel a sudden drain of energy in her body as the door magically opened to the coded knock to admit the one pony Celestia dreaded seeing most today.

"Good morning, your highness," said a pale yellow mare as she entered the quarters. Her orange hair mane was tied into a ponytail that hung over her shoulder. A swarm of magically suspended scrolls tailed behind the unicorn, and she carried a precarious stack of papers on her back. "I organized those fief requests that were submitted last week, and there are several letters from the nobles inquiring about-- oh! Good morning, Clean Bandage," she acknowledged with a smile to the herbalist.

"It's nice to see such a young face so cheerful at this ungodly hour, Lily Bud." Clean Bandage said cordially. His brow furrowed as he took in the papers the mare carried. "I thought I told you that her highness-"

Celestia cut off Clean Bandage as she rose from the bed. "I personally asked Lily Bud to prepare today's work for me. She has been invaluable to me these past few weeks." That didn't mean the mountains of paper would be any more pleasant for her to get done.

"I'm glad to see you've taken my advice about bed rest." the doctor remark with a disapproving look at Celestia. The white princess met his gaze with one of her own.

"I have a duty to my people..." Celestia responded with a small frown, "...a broken wing does not give me the excuse to abandon that duty." Celestia turned back to Lily Bud, and beckoned for her hoofmaiden to follow her. "Come, the carriage awaits..."

With that, the royal physician levitated the satchel onto his back and bowed before his goddess.

***

"...the governor of Neighples will be meeting with you during lunch today to discuss the latest harvest taxes. Afterwards, a group of pegasi has petitioned against your decision to permit less snow for the rest of Winter. If you just explain to them, in your wisdom, that..."

Celestia looked up at the night sky from the warmth of the royal carriage. Only the pale glow of Lily Bud's horn illuminated the red, plush interior of the carriage as the unicorn read from the list in front of her.

It was proving to be yet another horrible night, no better than the previous.

Celestia sighed as Lily Bud continued to tick items off of the “Royal To-Do” list for tomorrow. It had been a long day. Tomorrow looked like it would be even longer.

The goddess's eyes focused on the few scattered stars above that she rose only a few hours ago, mentally critiquing her work. It seemed so amateurish, so disgraceful, such an insult to the art...

But necessary.

“…and Starlight, at the behest of the Arcana Council, has inquired if the group could resume session with you again later today if at all possible.”

Celestia heard Lily Bud roll the scroll back up, and then there was no more. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air, broken only by the sound of the carriage wheels rattling against the dirt road. Celestia turned her contemplation from outside to the yellow mare sitting across from her. It was only when the princess took note of Lily Bud’s anxious posture that she realized that her advisor was expecting some sort of response from the sovereign.

“Starlight. The name sounds familiar.” Celestia said, turning her head back towards the window yet keeping part of her gaze on the mare. If Lily Bud was disappointed with Celestia’s response, she made no so indication of it whatsoever.

“It should,” said Lily Bud. “He’s the great grandson of Starswirl the Bearded, and the last apprentice Starswirl’s student Clover the Clever took on before she passed away. He’s assumed temporary leadership of the Arcana Council since…” here, Lily Bud caught herself, the words sticking in her throat for a second. “…since… the incident, your highness.”

Luna.

Luna had been the previous leader of the Arcana Council, the group of unicorn mages who served and advised the throne on magical issues. Luna had always been so far more fascinated with the mystic arts than her sister.

Celestia could see her hoofmaiden carefully appraising her. As though the last five words would have some sort of effect on her. But there would never be any emotion behind them. Not yet anyways. Celestia still felt numb to it all.

Maybe it was how everypony around her kept skirting around what happened. Celestia could hear her subjects whisper as she walked down the streets of Canterlot. She would pick up snippets of the servants gossiping in the manor. Even her guards would talk of it when they thought she was beyond earshot. “The incident” they called it.

Those two words disgracefully summed up everything that had happened those weeks ago. All the lives lost, everything that had been destroyed, all the shaking of the heavens as two gods clashed between each other. Those two words took everything and defined itself.

But Celestia didn't want to hear those two words.

She only wanted to hear one.

One name she desperately wanted to hear from anypony.

Just one.

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" A frantic voice emerged from outside of the carriage. The sound jarred the princess from her musings. Celestia turned her head to look outside the carriage once more and her eyes widened in genuine surprise as she saw a grey pegasus in dark-blue armor heading towards the carriage. One of its yellow draconic eyes was swollen shut. Celestia had begun to briefly wonder why the pegasus had not taken to the air. But as the pony drew closer, the reason became horrifying clear. Rivers of red ichors ran down the pony's flanks, originating from the jagged gouges that had ripped into the membrane of the bat wings.

"Please help me!" the pegasus shouted.

Lily Bud acted quickly. Her hoof swiftly pulled aside the wooden panel separating the carriage's occupants from the ponies pulling it upfront. As if on cue, both of the white stallions turned their heads back to look at her.

Lily Bud could hear other voices outside over the sound of the stallions' hooves."Drive faster. Lose him. Protect her majesty." the yellow unicorn ordered. The stallions merely nodded their heads in unison before Lily Bud shut the panel and turned to face Celestia, whose eyes remained glued on what was happening outside.

There was a sudden scream and Lily Bud moved a second too slow. Before she could grip the curtain with her teeth and yank it across the window, Celestia had already squeezed her eyes shut, her elegant white body trembling.

Celestia felt the carriage pick up speed under her as the drivers quickened their pace.

The chorus of distant voices cheered, "LONG LIVE THE PRINCESS!"

***

Celestia took one last hard look at the stone spheres before her. She picked one of them up, rolling it between her hooves. She peered at every surface of the granite orb, looking for the millionth time for any sort of flaws or marking.

There were none.

Celestia carefully placed the stone back down onto the padded cushion with the four other remaining Elements of Harmony. The pedestal they had once laid upon was nothing more than a shadow of its former glory. Where once it had held six brilliant jewels, each supported aloft by its own inherent magic, now laid five pieces of stone dead to her touch.

What had happened?

The Arcana Council had been studying the gems since her fight with Luna, trying to understand how such powerful and magical artifacts, magic that predated even Celestia, could suddenly turn dormant after all these years.

After countless spells and hours spent under magical scrutiny, the Council had learned as much about the Elements as Celestia knew about being a stallion.

That is to say, squat.

With a wave of her hoof, the massive iron doors to the vault glowed briefly before shutting close with a loud clang. Like a death knell, the noise echoed throughout the dusty and ruined halls of the Everfree Castle, with broken stones and pillars the only witnesses to the Elements of Harmony being once more locked in their proper place. The jewels and their wonderful magic had disappeared forever.

Celestia had her theories.

She wondered if Discord would have approved, if given the chance to see the Elements of Harmony cannibalize their own magic from being used for the wrong reasons. To see Harmony locked away in stone.

To see Harmony ripped out of Celestia's life.

Would he have appreciated the irony?

Golden dustmotes hung suspended in the air, seemingly frozen in time from the glow of the lantern held behind her.

"Who am I?" Celestia said aloud. Lily Bud paused abruptly in her steps behind the princess.

"Your majesty?"

Celestia turned her head slowly to look at her hoofmaiden. Lily Bud gave a small squeak of fright and almost made the fatal mistake of backing away. There was something truly frightening with the smile that seemed to be gouged into the princess’s face.

“Be honest with me, Lily Bud.” Celestia said. The white mare suddenly sat down onto her haunches next to Lily Bud, throwing a foreleg around the smaller mare's body. Lily Bud stared straight ahead, unwilling to risk any movement whatsoever, though she couldn't stop her heart from pounding violently in her chest. Every nerve in her body was screaming at her that something was wrong. So very very wrong. “Who am I?”

Celestia looked down at Lily Bud with a motherly expression, reaching over with her hoof to gently straighten the maid's mane. The yellow mare felt her mouth go dry as her tongue struggled to find the right answer.

“Y-you’re P-P-Princess Celestia…” Lily Bud stammered out. A hoof gently brushed against Lily Bud’s check.

“What am I?” came the breathy question. By now Lily Bud could make no further attempt to keep herself from shaking.

“T-the Royal Sovereign of Everfree, t-the b-b-blessed G-Goddess of the Sun, Ruler of E-Equestria.”

Celestia placed her hoof under the mare’s chin. With a gentle push, Lily Bud was forced to look into the eyes of her god.

“That’s right… I am the sole remaining ruler of Equestria.” Celestia whispered quietly, as though she were talking to herself. There was a distant look in those eyes. “Tell me... the ponies love me, right? My subjects like me as a ruler. You love me, don’t you, Lily Bud?” Celestia urged. The mare gave a small shudder as her name was spoken in a voice of sweet poison. While the voice was exactly the same, Lily Bud could feel something darker in the words. These were not the words of the Princess she served and loved. Lily Bud gave the most sincere smile she could to her monarch and tried to meet Celestia’s stare.

“O-of course your majesty. All your subjects love you, and it is my sole duty to take care and look after you. We… and all of Equestria could not ask for a better ruler.”

Lily Bud’s heart pounded against her chest once, a second, a third time before Celestia droped her hoof and stood back up onto her legs. The crazed smile that had been on her face before had dimmed, replaced by one that seemed almost strained. Lily Bud caught herself from releasing a breath of relief, but managed to take note that her majesty’s hooves were trembling again.

“Tell the royal winery to send up as many bottles of the finest liquor they possess to my chambers." Celestia said, before pausing for a moment. "Also, go to the barracks and direct two of the most able-bodied guards to my chambers as well. I shall need their... protection tonight."

"Of... of course, my queen." Lily Bud bowed deeply, not daring to look her princess in the eye and exited the room as swiftly as she dared.

***

It wasn’t until Celestia heard the clicking of the locks as she shut the doors behind her that she cast the soundproofing spell onto the walls of her bedroom. As the glow of her horn faded, Celestia threw herself onto her onto the surface of her bed, bouncing slightly as the mattress caught her weight. Since the destruction of the Everfree Castle, one of the generals who had served under Celestia during the most recent Dragon War had generously allowed his monarch the use of his manor, and graciously given his and his wife’s own room for Celestia’s personal use. Celestia had greatly appreciated the gesture… and the bed.

The cool silk sheets gently kissed the alicorn’s alabaster skin and feathers as the goddess stretched herself upon them.

The mattress was impossibly soft, yet once under the covers it provided the drowsy warmth that it made it almost impossible to rise in the morning. The feeling was magnificent.

The bed was truly luxurious. Truly fit for a princess.

“The Royal Sovereign of Everfree, the blessed Goddess of the Sun, Ruler of Equestria.”

But not fit for a goddess.

Celestia grabbed a pillow with her hooves and pressed it to her mouth, screaming her heart out into the down. She tried to pour all of her frustration into that muffled scream, just so she could try to get it all out at once. It didn’t work.

With an angry flare of magic, the pillow was ripped asunder, and a blizzard of white feathers rained down around the goddess. She threw the ragged cloth against the headboard. Like an immature foal, Celestia beat her hooves against the bed and sheets, causing loose feathers to plume in the air again as she continued to scream.

Why?

Why her?

Why did she have to be stuck here?

Celestia gasped for breath as her lungs gave out from the scream. The momentary gift of fresh oxygen allowed her other emotions to catch up with her. Everything... just everything was too much.

As the feathers finally settled around her, coating her frame like a gentle layer snow, Celestia felt a peculiar sensation. Her hoof was wet.

The princess looked down closer at it; what seemed to be a few drops of water dotted the appendage. Horrified, Celestia raised it to her eyes to find that they too were beginning to grow moist. This wouldn't do. Celestia couldn't cry. Rulers didn't cry. Goddesses didn't-

The point was suddenly tipped and the princess felt hot, uncontrollable tears rolls down her face. Her once boiling fury gave way to choked sobbing, as the burning in her eyes only grew and grew.

Why?

Why was nopony else crying?

Why was nopony else mourning?

Why was nopony grieving?

Celestia grabbed the tattered remnants of the pillow and hugged the rag close to her chest, burying her muzzle into it to soak up her tears.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I'm sorry..." Celestia wept the words over and over into it.

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" screamed a frantic voice outside of the carriage. The sound jarred the princess out of her thinking. Celestia turned her head to look outside the carriage once more and her eyes widened in genuine surprise as she saw a ashen-grey pony in dark-blue armor pegasus heading towards the carriage. One of its yellow draconic eyes was swollen shut. Celestia had begun to briefly wonder why the pegasus had not taken to the air. However, as the pony drew closer, the reason became horrifying clear. Rivers of red ichors ran down the pony's flanks, originating from the jagged gouges that had ripped into the membrane of the bat wings.

"Please help me!" the pegasus shouted.

Celestia instantly recognized the pony for what he was. He was one of the Night Watch, one of the members of the Royal Guard that had been tasked with protecting Luna the same way her own white stallions guarded her.

After Luna's disappearance they had all vanished from the city of Everfree. Rumors had spread that they were trying to stage a coup. That out of vengeance, by fall of this year, they would attempt to poison as much of Equestria as they could. An international conspiracy to avenge their fallen princess. It was reported that the remaining leaders of the guard had already dispatched their agents to Prance, Clydesdale, and the Shire province.

But that was all they were at the moment; rumors. Nopony had even seen mane or tail of the guards for the past month.

Until now.

As the injured Night Watchman struggled desperately to reach the carriage, a cacophony of voices and shouts reached the ears of the princess. By the angry orange swarm of lights chasing him, Celestia could make out the pegasus's pursuers. A mob of farmer ponies, complete with pitchforks and torches clenched within their teeth, galloped right on the heels of the injured guard. The intent of murder was reflected in their eyes by the burning flames.

"Demon worshipper!"

"Poisoner!"

"Murdering scum!"

It was all happening too fast.

Celestia could see the mob was swiftly gaining distance, a roar of hooves echoing like thunder in the night around them. The guard's wings dragged uselessly on the ground behind him, painting a crooked trail of blood in his wake. However, Celestia could see a glimmer of hope in the guard's eyes, and for a moment, she knew he thought he was going to make it. Celestia wanted him to make it. Here was proof-- living, breathing, proof that her sister still mattered to one pony. It was a broken, shattered piece of a wonderful memory, but still a piece of one nevertheless. Celestia would accept this one piece of normalcy back with both hooves embracing it. If only she could just get a piece of her sister back, even if this was all the stars would give her.

If he could just reach the carriage...

"We'll kill you, you traitor!"

Celestia's blood chilled as the guard made the fatal mistake of turning his head back to the mob to respond. In a few seconds, everything changed.

"We're innocent!"

The princess watched in building horror as a stone the size of an apple flew from the depths of the crowd, thrown with an accuracy no hoof could match. Somewhere in the throng of bodies there must have been a unicorn. With a resounding crack it smashed into the back of the guard's head. Like a marionette with its strings abruptly cut, the guard crumpled to the ground. His bleeding body slid into the dirt and the dark night swallowed him up. Celestia so desperately tried to look away and shut her eyes to blot out the scene, but her body refused her pleas. Her eyes remained glued on the barbarity. The crowd caught up to the body, still screaming murder, and began to trample it. Celestia watched as dozens of hooves came down on the guard's flesh, stamping it into the dirt and--

Lily Bud then whisked the curtains to the windows of the carriage shut, and Celestia felt the spell broken. Celestia immediately shut her eyes and tried to force what she had just seen to the deepest pits of mind, trying to bury it into submission. She wanted to throw up...

As the carriage sped away, Celestia heard the most horrible thing come out of the mouths of the farmers.

"LONG LIVE THE PRINCESS!"

Celestia felt complete indifference for the mare who sat across from her. If anything, the white alicorn was annoyed. How dare the mare present herself in such a state to a princess such as herself?

The mare looked absolutely miserably. Her eyes were red and swollen, no doubt from what must have been hours of crying, her white face lined with the remnants of her tears. A gilded brush enveloped in the glow of magic ran itself through her pink mane, attempting to remedy its messiness. The nerve to perform such a mundane action in front of a god...

The mirror was suddenly adorned with a spider web of cracks as Celestia threw the hairbrush into the glass. She couldn't stand to see the sight of this pathetic pony anymore. The white alicorn buried her face in her hooves, blocking the visage from her gaze.

She was a princess. A ruler. A god. Over seven centuries worth of knowledge and power... and she couldn't even save one pony. Not even when he came running to her, begging her to save him. Begging her for mercy for crimes she knew he didn't commit.

She had tried to reason that it had all happened too fast. Celestia knew it all happened in under a minute. That there was nothing she could do.

She was a god.

She couldn't even save her sister.

How was she supposed to save this one pony?

With a brief glow of magic, the wooden crate next to her split open, bursting outwards and sending dozens of the golden glass bottles rolling across the floors of her chamber. Celestia greedily pounced on one, holding it possessively in her hooves. She bit down in the cork and with a 'pop,' yanked it out of the bottle with her teeth.

She was a princess. She was the sole ruler. She controlled the sun at day, and now even the moon and stars at night. She had wealth. Power. Servants at her beck and call. The entire kingdom at her disposal. Equestria was hers and hers alone. Her subjects loved her and would even kill for her. She had everything anypony wanted. Everything she could ever want.

Celestia was going to force herself to enjoy it, even if it killed her.

The opening of the bottle pressed up to her lips and Celestia threw her head back, allowing the sweet flavor of mead to wash down her throat. In a few moments, the entire bottle was drained of the golden fluid and dropped to the side, only to be swiftly replaced with another one. Her brain sensed the faintest hint of blackcurrants mixed with the mead before it too was consumed... and another... and another... and another...

Half an hour later, with her mind blurred by the alcohol coursing through her stomach and veins, Celestia pitched her hoof back and threw the final bottle into the fireplace with all her might. It shattered against the brick, sending a rain of glass onto the carpet and a flurry of short-lived sparks flying up the chimney.

The princess rose once more on unsteady legs, almost falling over again as the room spun around her. In a pathetic attempt to place one hoof in front of the other and kicking bottles out of her way, she managed to stagger over to her bed, and collapse onto it... or at least, half-way onto it. With her forehooves draped across the front of the mattress and her haunches squarely on the floor, Celestia didn't have the desire to summon enough of the energy required to pull herself between the sheets.

But she definitely had the desire for another sip of that delicious, smooth honey-mead. The alicorn stared at the corner of her room where another two crates lay stacked on top of each other, each filled with dozens of bottles of the nectar she craved. With a flare of magic, she wrenched one of the crate lids open and levitated another bottle to her hooves.

The royal winery had done well. They had sent the entire stock of their best year to their ruler, and what a good year it was. Celestia had remembered the amiable spring that gave bloom to more flowers than had been seen in living memory. The bees had been particularly active that year, and the honey from which the mead had been brewed from had been particularly sweet that season. To take advantage of the beautiful weather and beauty of the countryside, Luna had surprised Celestia with a picnic there on her birthday and-

The bottle exploded between the princess's hooves. Shards of class cut into her skin, adding drops of crimson to the spray of golden liquor that soaked the bed. Celestia brought her hooves up to her face to lick at the mead between the shards of glass. The salty-iron contrasted sharply with the honey-like taste, but Celestia took no notice of it.

The silken sheets beneath her would be ruined from the spill. But why should she care? She was the princess. She could do as she pleased.

“Imsh such ah baaad pony...”

Celestia hiccupped and tried unsuccessfully to get onto her bed again. She brought her muzzle close to the damp fabric and licked at the bedding, attempting to get more of the alcohol from it. It still wasn’t enough...

There was a sudden knocking at the door, which had barely registered in the alicorn's sloshed brain.

"Who issh zit?" Celestia slurred, pressing the mead-soaked sheet to her mouth.

"Your hoofmaiden, Lily Bud, said that you had requested that two of our number to stand guard for you tonight, your highness, and-"

Without a thought or care to anything else, Celestia threw open to door to her room.

"-we are here... to answer... your... summons..." the guard trailed off as he and his companion took in the state of the room. Furniture was knocked over, a mirror shattered, and dozens of bottles littered the floor. The goddess of the sun laid hanging off her bed, licking at a puddle of mead like a kitten.

Celestia lazily turned to look at them and appraised them with heavily lidded eyes. Both guards were white pegasi stallions dressed in the traditional golden armor the Day Guard boasted. ‘‘How cute... they actually thought they were here to protect me.’’ Both were proportionately muscular, fit, and if their career was any indication, were very... very good at following orders.

They would do.

With a flare of Celestia's horn the door slammed shut behind them and locked into place.

The two guards looked back at the closed door, then to each other, both with obvious expressions of fear in each other's faces. They could scarcely understand what had happened to Celestia and her room before they came in, but she wasn’t herself now... she was something else... the look on her face sent shivers through their bodies as her eyes seemed to pierce like the tip of a spear into each of their souls. Neither guard could move as Celestia gazed at each of them, her grin widening while the sheets on her bed began to slide down by her own magic.

"Oh yesh... I need jou two to protuct meh tonight..."

***

Celestia’s eyes fluttered open as the bright sunlight coming from the bedroom window cruelly scorched her face; at least, that’s what it felt like. The pounding in her head had such intensity that it reverberated throughout her entire body, from her horn all the way down to her hooves. Even the wing which had been finally free of the cursed splint felt sorer than usual this morning. Her blurry vision slowly came back into focus after a few minutes of hung-over amnesia, and it settled on the wood ceiling above her.

With a groan, Celestia sat up in a bed that was most certainly not her own, and was forced to bury her head in her hooves as her head throbbed from the simple motion. Celestia groaned as the migraine took its sweet time to subside.

The room around her was sparsely furnished; she could see grey stone walls and a similarly colored floor, as well as a simple wooden dresser and set of drawers. A pitcher of water and a small bucket were tucked into the corner, next to the bed that Celestia herself lay in. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a cushion next to the bed, on which a yellow mare slept with a blissful look on her face.

The sun-goddess used her magic to lift the blanket off herself and drape it across Lily Bud’s form. The sleeping mare snuggled deeper into her cushion from the comfort, and Celestia carefully attempted to creep out of bed. As the white alicorn placed her forehooves onto the cold, stone floor, however, she instantly knew something was wrong. Pain shot up the front of her forehooves, and she backed up instantly into the bed with a yelp. Biting her lip to silence herself, lest she wake up her hoofmaiden from her well-deserved rest, Celestia examined the bandages that covered her hooves. She didn’t remember having these on last night…

Celestia squinted as beams of sunlight continued to stream through the window. She desperately wished that the room had some sort of curtains that she could yank across. Celestia sighed and sat up against the headboard. She had decided to forgo the attempt of trying to walk out on her hooves. Despite the splitting migraine, nausea, and sore limbs, Celestia felt far more rested than she had in the past month. No doubt it was due to the extra sleep. She would have to thank Luna for raising the sun for her and letting her snooze for another few hour-

Celestia’s felt her throat grow impossibly tight, upon the danger of choking, as a sob escaped her lips. Tears dripped down her face as Celestia sat in the bed wretched, the familiar burn of saline fresh in her irises.

Lily Bud was having such a wonderful dream. Her mind was taking her back to the days when she was a little filly. She was racing through a field of flowers with other young colts and fillies, laughing and chasing butterflies on a warm summer morning. She felt a gentle weight on her, and the pressure brought her out of the slumber.

“Five more minutes, Mama…” Lily Bud murmured drowsily. She smiled in her sleep as her brain registered her mother placing the blanket over her, and buried herself back into her bed. Seconds that felt like eternities clicked by before her mind began to wake and catch up to her senses. Piece by piece, her brain was coming back to terms with reality.

She wasn’t a little filly. She was lying on a cushion. It was winter. But a blanket was draped over her and… was that crying?

Lily Bud’s eyes snapped open immediately and the blanket slid off of her as the mare’s head shot up off of pillow. She looked around for the source. What she saw caused her jaw to drop to the floor.

Princess Celestia was weeping.

“Y-your highness!” Lily Bud squeaked as she scrambled to her hooves. “You’re awake!”

Celestia rubbed her hooves against her eyes in a desperate attempt to wipe away her tears. Though her eyes were still red from crying, the princess tried to smile at Lily Bud, but only succeeded in stretching her mouth into a quivering line.

"Forgive me... for the intrusion." Celestia whispered quietly to Lily Bud. "I've seem to have caused you more trouble than need be."

"What? No! Princess, I'm fine you haven't done anything-" Lily Bud quickly said, before the final word choked in her throat. The mare wanted to finish the sentence. Lily Bud quietly closed her mouth and looked down, setting her haunches down onto the rough floor next to the bed. Lily Bud's chest rose and she took a deep breath, exhaled, and looked Celestia firmly in the eye. "You haven't done anything wrong. Everything has been taken care of in your absence." Lily Bud felt lifeless as she spoke the words. She tried to give Celestia the most reassuring look possible.

The goddess sighed and looked out the window at the manor grounds illuminated in pale yellow light.

"I can't believe I overslept raising the sun..." Celestia said with a distant voice. Lily Bud could see that her eyes were elsewhere, and the mare cleared her throat gently. The noise did the trick and brought Celestia's attention back to her.

"The Arcana Council sends their thanks that you graciously allowed them the honor of raising the sun and the moon in your place as you enjoy your much deserved rest. An honor, they said, that they felt they would never have the chance to receive in their lifetime." Lily Bud recited with as much dignity she could muster. She tried to uphold the straight and sincere face before she broke out into a small giggle. "At least, that's what Starlight told me to tell you."

The corners of Celestia's mouth briefly twitched upwards. "Yes, he always was one for formalit- AND THE MOON?" Celestia said in shock, as her mind acknowledged what Lily Bud had said. This was absolutely unheard of! "Lily Bud, how long have I been out!?"

Lily Bud flinched and hesitantly tapped her hooves together, not meeting the princess's look.

"About... a week."

"A week!"

"What did you expect! You drank enough mead to kill over half the royal guard! Any more and you would have!" Lily Bud retorted unexpectedly. She suddenly gave a small 'meep' and covered her mouth with her hooves.

This was it.

Her life was over.

She had just gone and told off none other than the Princess of Equestria about that. A cold, dark eternity on the moon was all she could expect now.

Lily Bud was surprised when nothing more than a pained look flashed across the princess’s face and her eyes seemed darker than ever. Lily Bud sat as still as a statue, not daring to say or do anything to incur any more of the goddess’s wrath.

It was Celestia who broke the silence first.

"How are the guards?"

Lily Bud lowered her eyes and gulped gently. A chill seemed to hang upon the words that left her mouth which froze her insides solid and left her numb.

"I had the bodies dealt with."

Lily Bud looked back up at her goddess, noticing with some anxiety that her majesty'slimbs were shaking again. Any moment now, she was afraid Celestia would grow angry with her or-

A sudden surge of feeling boiled up in her, and Celestia wailed: "I wanted my sister baaaack!"

She covered her eyes with her hooves and started crying like a lost foal, gasping out deep, heaving, undignified sobs, her usual decorum nowhere to be found.

Lily Bud backed away slightly, profoundly shaken by the sight.

"I missed her. I miss her so much! " Celestia bawled.

"Your highness-"

"No!" Celestia screamed. "Don't call me that! I don't want to hear that ever again!" She wrapped her hooves around her body and hugged herself tightly, rocking back and forth in the bed. "I was wrong! I made a mistake! She was right about everything and I was too stupid to see it." Celestia whispered in a horrified voice.

"She tried to usurp you!" Lily Bud said, trying to desperately to reason with her.

"They never loved her..." Celestia continued to whisper, her irises the size of pinpricks. The tear-streak faced remained lock in a state of terror. "...but they loved me. I thought she was being childish but I was too blinded to see anything. She told me she wanted one day of night so our subjects could admire her night..."

Celestia and Luna stood out on the balcony of their chambers, overlooking the city of Everfree. For now, the bustling city had closed its eyes and slumbered in the darkness. Stores and stalls were closed, hearth fires extinguished and the entire city hung in peaceful silence.

The night was beautiful. More beautiful than Celestia had ever remembered it to be. Moonlight bathed their palace, giving it a surreal glow. Above them, stars moved too slowly to be visible to the naked eye. A meteor streaked through the sky, leaving behind it a trail of light. Celestia smiled to herself at the personal touch her sister had added. She absolutely loved seeing it.

Blissfully unaware that everything going on was being ignored.

Celestia was everything the ponies needed. She was a wise and benevolent ruler, graceful and kindhearted. While both she and Luna had worked tirelessly for centuries to ensure that ponykind prospered, Celestia seemed to receive all the credit. Poor luck of the draw than anything else. Celestia had a stronger relationship with the ponies because they were awake when she ruled. The ponies actually had a chance to interact with her as she raised the sun each morning and listened to their requests in court each day.

They respected Luna as their ruler. But they loved Celestia.

"You did a beautiful job tonight." Celestia whispered to her sister. Luna's eyes shone in the moonlight, dimmed only by her happy smile at her sister's approval.

"Thank you. It's nothing..." Luna said modestly, though the eagerness she was radiating spoke otherwise. A moment of silence passed between the sisters as they gazed up at the stars, the cool night wind flowing gently through Celestia's pink mane. Luna took a deep breath. It was time to ask.

"Tia," Luna began hesitantly. Celestia turned to look at her with a curious expression. "I... was wondering if we could extend the night into tomorrow. Just for another twenty-four hours. We can make it a holiday.”

Luna had sounded so excited, like a foal asking their parents if they could invite their friends over for a sleepover. There was a youthful, energetic sort of eagerness, laced with a thread of hope.

But what happened next caused her smile to be wiped right off her crestfallen face and shatter on the marble balcony with her dream.

Celestia did the worst possible thing.

She tossed her pink-maned head back and laughed.

"I told her no. I told her we could do it some other time, that ponies would be confused and it would cause so much unnecessary trouble if we did it now. That she could have her night a few months from now, once we had everything in order. I rejected her. I laughed in her face. I had no idea how much she was hurting... how much she had hoped for just that one night..."

Celestia let out another sob.

"When she refused to lower the moon, I thought I had to confront her. I thought she was acting immature and she just needed to be talked to. But she told me that I hated her. And that she hated me. We both lost it. I let my temper get the best of me... and now Luna's gone. My only sister is gone." Celestia's teary eyes seemed as wide as the moon.

“But…” Lily Bud whispered, looking ready to cry. She wished she could understand. She almost thought she did. When she was younger, she used to fight all the time with her brothers. It was purely sibling nature. And sometimes when she was mad enough, she had wished she had the power to send her brothers to the moon... or something along those lines.

Nevertheless, she still loved them and would have been heartbroken had anything happened to them.

For Celestia to actually do that though...

"But why the guards... what did they have in all this..." Lily Bud asked as she dabbed her eyes.

"At first... I wanted to enjoy being in power. I didn't want to just work anymore. I wanted to forget being sad. I wanted to enjoy myself." Celestia continued, gritting her teeth and looking like her pain was driving her into a rage. There was a flash of something in her eyes. Was it anger? Grief? "When those farmers... when they killed the Night Watch... he didn't deserve to die... he didn't deserve it..."

Celestia's eyes stared down at the guard with lust, as she tenderly stroked a hoof down his face. Crimson droplets from her hoof smeared across his white face as she caressed him. The white stallion's eyes held nothing more than fear and anguish, his body seemed depleted as if his energy had all been taken away.

"Are yoush enjoying yourshelf my shubject?" Celestia purred drunkenly above him. "Do we make yoush 'appy? Do we please you?"

The guard frightfully looked towards his companion, who lay sprawled across the floor, passed out from exhaustion He could only grimace in pain and look back up silently at his goddess, not daring to answer her.

"Why the silunsh? Doesn't your prinsush make you 'appy? Aren'cha happy with what I do for yoush?" Celestia asked a little louder, irritation sweeping across her face. The guard saw her displeasure and couldn't keep himself from in fright under her. "Are yoush afraid of meh?" Celestia asked with a scowl. The hardened soldier, who had been trained to fight dragons and griffons, whimpered.

"Why are you not 'appy?" Celestia scowled. "Can't yoush appreshate everydink we've done?" The guard's eyes shot open as the Princess's hooves came down on him. They pressed against his windpipe, effectively cutting off his air supply. "Don't yoush luffs ush?" Only a choked gurgle came out from his lips as he tried to gasp for breath. "We luffs all of our subjecks. We do." His hooves beat weakly against the Princess's and he struggled to escape her grasp. But she kept him firmly locked into place. "Didn't yoush luff her?" Still, only silence remained from the guard, his face growing purple. "You didn't?" Celestia asked, her faced furious. "Why didn't yoush luff her?" She shook the guard, pressing him down against the mattress. "Why not? WHY?"

There was a sudden crack and Celestia threw the guard against the bed again. The guard’s neck was twisted to a horrible angle. Even though Celestia continued to press against his throat, he made no further sounds.

After a few minutes of frustrated silence, Celestia pulled herself off him and reached for another bottle of mead.

"They love me for banishing my sister. They praise me when I should be punished. They adore me for raising their sun. My little ponies are erasing every memory of Luna in my name when I am mourning her." Celestia closed her eyes, relishing the sound of her next words as they came out. "I wanted somepony, anypony, to hate me. To be terrified of me. And when I had him under my hooves and he finally stopped breathing, I liked it..."The voice came out as a rasp, and when Celestia opened her eyes again, Lily Bud had sworn that for a single instant, the tourmaline irises had changed to crimson and the pupils narrowed to slits.

But then the mare blinked, and the princess seemed just as she was before.

Lily Bud felt her mouth run dry, her tongue glued to her the roof of her mouth. How was she to respond? How could anypony possibly respond to that?

The princess just sat there shaking, her lips quivering as she poured her heart out to her hoof maiden.

She wasn't supposed to cry.

She wasn't supposed to show weakness.

She was suppose to be a prin-

"I don't want it!" Celestia screamed. With both hooves she ripped the golden tiara from her forehead, tearing out several pink strands of hair along with it. She threw the headpiece against the far wall, wanting to get it as far away from her as possible. The precious stones set within the regalia cracked on impact against the unyielding stone. A rain of jewel shards flashed in the sunlight before they tinkled to the ground, the crown clanging against the floor an instant later.

"I don't want to be a princess!" Celestia shouted, climbing out of the bed. It mattered not that her hooves screamed in pain as she pressed them down onto the stone floor, standing on her own four legs. Lily Bud tried to restrain her, but was easily pushed to the side. "I don't want to rule Equestria!" Celestia's nostrils flared as she reared and brought her hooves up over the diadem. "I don't want to raise the sun!"

There was a lightning bolt of pain as Celestia brought her hooves down onto the tiara. Celestia ground her teeth and let her fury dull it for her. The soft gold bent under her blow. The bandages on her hands became speckled with dots of blood as she stomped on the ornament over and over.

"I JUST-"

Stomp.

The center amethyst was forced from its setting, splitting into purple slivers.

"-WANT MY-"

Stomp.

Part of the gold head band was snapped off.

"-LUNA!"

Stomp.

The upper portion was flattened.

Celestia felt a weight suddenly press up against her as Lily Bud's forehooves wrapped around her midsection. At first, Celestia wanted to throw the yellow mare off her. Maybe even send her crashing into the stone wall like she did the crown and stomp on her. Make her scream. See those pretty brown eyes widen in terror. Celestia wanted to feel the hoof maiden break under-

Celestia’s heart wrenched as she felt Lily Bud’s warm body press up against her.

Not this one.

Not this one.

The white alicorn wrapped her hooves around the smaller mare and returned the hug, burying her face into Lily Bud's chest. Lily Bud whispered small words of comfort, gently stroking the princess's back as they embraced.

"Equestria needs you," the mare murmured. Her eyes flicked briefly to the mangled, ruined crown beneath them. "Don't forget her. Keep all those emotions. Your hatred and sorrow… they are yours to control. All you have to do is turn them into strength, and use that strength to move Equestria forward." Lily Bud pleaded.

She tried to meet Celestia's eye.

"As your hoof maiden, I live to serve you. If it's your wish, I will follow you everywhere. Even if your throne crumbles and your tiara turns to rust. Beside you as you lie in peace, and bearing your shield in war, I swear I will be with you. Forever and always. Until I hear you say the words 'I'm happy.'"

Celestia could only nod, her dry eyes all the thanks she could give the mare.

She had no more tears to give.

***

Lily Bud failed to uphold her oath.

Forty years after the banishment of the vile Nightmare Moon, who tried to overthrow Equestria with eternal night, the elderly hoof maiden to the sun goddess Celestia passed away in her sleep to run in greener pastures.

She was be succeeded by her granddaughter, Orchid.

The ruler of Equestria stood tall before the young purple mare, her golden tiara poised perfectly amid the strands of pink mane. Celestia stood stoically as her new hoof maid knelt before her goddess and took the oath her grandmother had spoke years before.

"As your hoof maiden, I live to serve you. If it's your wish, I will follow you everywhere. Even if your throne crumbles and your tiara turns to rust. Beside you as you lie in peace, and bearing your shield in war, I swear I will be with you. Forever and always."

Celestia gracefully accepted the lie and gave the young Orchid her first royal task: Tell the royal winery to send up as many bottles of the finest liquor they possessed and two of the most able-bodied guards to her highness's chambers.