Etherflower Tea

“As we were resting from our failed chase, Starswirl noticed that the stars were reshaping themselves into silly faces and we saw the moon bouncing along the horizon like a rubber ball.”
Celestia watched everypony shift uncomfortably as they remembered their experiences with Discord.

“When we finally made our way back to the now-upside-down capitol city, a cloud with a giant mouth on it came down and greeted us with a giant, wet raspberry”

“Oooh, I love raspberries!!! Oh, wait, you mean that kind of raspberry.” Pinkie stopped mid-clap

“Eeew!” Rarity wrinkled her nose in disgust

“Upon entering, or rather, walking underneath Marington, we saw ponies being tormented everywhere. Mercifully, none of them were getting injured, but we saw ponies being turned into balls and hit back and forth by giant ping pong paddles, scissors trying to cut off ponies’ manes, and giant flowers burying ponies up to their necks in gardens and watering them.”

“Hay there Tee Tee, come on down”

Suddenly the three alicorns found themselves falling upward in a gravity

reversal spell. Luna quickly slowed their fall and landed them gracefully

on their hooves.

“Do you like my beautiful Discordia?”

“No we don’t, and the name of this city is Marington!” Luna yelled

“You’re causing misery to everypony in this city.”

“Now, now, now, Loony. I was the one who gave you all the power

to take this land, so I get to choose what it’s going to be like.”

Discord stood up and the moon suddenly shrank, zoomed down,

and poked Luna in the chest with each word

“And

I

say

this

place

is

too

boring

and

predictable”

Suddenly their Elements were being pulled away again as the battle

began in earnest. This time, they were prepared and grabbed at Discord’s

Elements while holding onto their own. Even so, they were losing their grip

and felt the familiar ripping pain as their elements tore away.

“NO!!” Starswirl screamed and blasted Discord in the face with a beam of pure magic.

Celestia shook her head, trying to banish the vivid images in her mind

“Starswirl said it was supposed to be a paralysis spell, but when the dust settled and we picked ourselves off the ground, we found him turned to stone.”

“I’ve always wondered why his statue was in a pose of victory when you turned him to stone, but ours caught him trying to shield himself.” Twilight commented “I guess things happened too quickly for him to react.”

“I think you’re right, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. the three of us were exhausted from the battle and barely able to stand when we felt the gravity reversal spell crumbling.

The air was filled with the telltale shimmer of a spell failing.

The three ponies felt themselves going weightless but none were in much

condition to even save themselves. Celestia was trying to pick herself off the

cobblestone plaza she had collapsed onto when Discord was turned to stone,

but with her exhaustion and the crazy gravity, she was floundering and panic

was creeping into her mind. Starswirl was unconscious, with the element of

honesty lying two feet in front of her and the now infamous beard resting on

her forelegs. Luna started to flounder like Celestia, but quickly realized the

desperate situation everypony was in and gave up on her own safety and

grabbed the entire city with her magic, righted it, and did her best to cushion

the impact with the ground. Half a second after Luna grabbed the City, Celestia

realized what she was doing, and caught the three of them just before hitting

the ground. A trickle of blood flowed out of Luna's nostril as she collapsed in a

daze of pain and exhaustion

“You caught an entire city? that was awesome!” Rainbow Dash cried

“It was more of a controlled drop, and every building suffered major damage, but yes, I think I will accept your praise.” Luna replied with a sad smile.

Upon landing safely, Celestia stumbled over first to Starswirl, and then to the

now unconscious Luna. After assuring herself that they were in no imminent

danger, she gathered up the Elements of Friendship, Laughter, Generosity and

Honesty and set off to find a healer.

“Starswirl was found to be unharmed, except every time we tried to get rid of the beard, it grew longer. Eventually, She refused to let anyone try anything else. Also, the Element of Honesty would no longer respond to her. My sister, on the other hand, injured herself most dreadfully.”

“She ruptured her magus line didn’t she?” whispered Twilight

“Yes I did. Even the smallest use of magic would cause searing pain to shoot up and down my horn. Even everyday telekinesis would make me almost black out. It was so easy to absentmindedly pick up a brush or open a door that I had to lie in bed blindfolded to keep from hurting myself. Finally, a zebra shaman came with etherflowers. She strictly warned me to only take one cup of tea each evening at sundown, to make it from a single petal, and to stop after two weeks.”
The other ponies sat paying polite attention to something that was over their heads, but Twilight was in her element.

“Zeccora told me about those. They give you a serious boost to your magic, but they’re highly addictive and they’ve got some serious side effects.”

“Yes, and it is a pity I did not listen to Marea. I quickly regained the ability to use my horn again, but the tea was too good. I was still feeling pain when doing basic spells, so I would secretly take an extra cup, and of course I refused to stop after two weeks. I did a great job of hiding it, but it slowly got the better of me and within a year I believed I couldn’t go a day without at least two cups. On the plus side, I was more powerful than Celestia and could teleport myself across the entirety of Equestria. By the second year, It started catching up to me. My mane started falling out..”
Everypony was distracted by Rarity fainting. Since she actually hit her head on the floor, they realized she wasn’t faking and rushed over to help. After she was woken up, Luna continued.

“This was when I started wearing that skullcap and making an illusion of my mane. To drown my sorrows I made the worst mistake of my life.”
Celestia touched her horn to her sister’s in a gesture of both support and apology and Luna continued telling of her darkest hour

“I tried eating a petal raw, and the magic coursed through my entire body. I suddenly felt like I had unlimited power... but with it came a paranoia and jealousy that rivaled that power.”

“Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Twilight whispered

“Yes, that is one of the greatest truths ever uttered, and that one taste sealed my doom. I was already feeling jealous of the attention Celestia got during her sunrises, especially the Summer Sun Celebration. Looking back, I see that ponies cared just as much about my moonrises and constellations, but as I stopped promoting it, ponies didn’t gather near me to watch. Even though I still don't play up my moonrises, I do notice all the ponies that gather on nearby hills to watch. Oh how I wish I had noticed that before. The result of my inability to see this was that my jealousy boiled over and I decided to upstage my sister at her Summer Sun Celebration.”
Luna turned her head so the others wouldn’t see the tear rolling down her cheek. After a deep breath, she continued.

“I waited until Celestia was about ready to raise the sun, when I teleported in front of her”

“No more!” Luna shouted

“There shall be no more Summer Sun Celebration! Nay, there shall be no

more sun! It is time for darkness to rule!”

“Sister, what are you saying?”

“For too long I have quietly kept to the shadows as you have curried favor

with these pitiful foals!”

“Luna, please, tell me what is wrong”

“Call me not by that name, you two faced deceiver! I shall henceforth be

called Nightmare Moon!”

Knowing herself to be no match for her insane sister, Celestia teleported

away.

"I had not intended to go as far as I did, but my insane rage got the better of me."
Celestia picked up the story

“I sought out Starswirl and told her of Luna’s madness. After long and careful study, with constant messengers asking for help in raising the sun and concerns over the crops that would soon be dying, Starswirl and I saw the answer. I took the elements of harmony and went to our castle to give my sister one last chance.”

“Sister, you must allow the sun to be raised. The plants are dying and there

will be no food. Please, sister, I beg of you.

“Nay, you deceiver, you merely want to take the spotlight yet again and

banish me to the shadows.”

Celestia’s face turned from sadness to resolve

“Please do not make me do this, dear sister”

“What can you do to stop me? I am more powerful than even Harmony!”

Celestia closed her eyes and activated the Elements

“As I came to rest on the ground, I felt the emptiness of knowing that I would not see my dear sister for a thousand years. My only solace was that the moon would be leeching the poison of the etherflowers from her body while I awaited our successors who would heal both her body and mind.”

“Uhm, I understand the banishing and stuff, but isn’t a thousand years a mite long?”

“Yes, it was, Applejack, and I couldn’t have done it if it were not for Starswirl showing me that there was no other way but to wait for you. He checked and doublechecked, but nopony but you would be able to heal her”

“Really? Starswirl saw us?” Twilight gushed

“not exactly, but I’ll let her explain the details when you meet her.”

“ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh”

“Is that really what I sounded like after the best young fliers competition?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking nervously at Twilight
Twilight didn’t even seem to notice as she pranced in front of Celestia

“Am I really going to meet Starswirl th...uhm, I mean am I really going to meet Starswirl?”

Author's Note

I've combined the previous chapter with this one, sorry if it's still too short