A Long And Troubled Path

by Emeral Frost

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Dark, Tragedy, Adventure
Length: 2788

(Hmm, its a bit hard to explain where I'm taking this fic. but I'll try my best!) Luna notices that Celestias personality starts to change, bringing out (Or adding) a part of her that Luna has never seen. The goddess of the moon sees this and takes action, only to be confronted with a truth that holds a great sadness. As the years progress, Celestia starts taking shortcuts in her political decisions and making the residents of Equestria feel unwanted and shunned. Luna does her best in righting her sisters mistakes, but soon comes to the realization that the only way to right Celestias wrong doings is to let Equestria rule themselves. Luna holds the fate of the ever growing nation in her hooves–And shes all alone in the fight.

(I hope I described that right. It may not seem this yet, but it will. Don't worry. And yes, I know I mentioned Dr. Who in one part. Sue me. :P)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2011-09-05 04:44:03 UTC

Chapter 1

         Chapter 1

         The Year: 3649. 600 years into the future of Equestria.

     It was a particularly cold night as Luna walked out into the dry night air weeping. Princess Celestia came running out of the castle yelling, “Luna! Luna where are you?! Please, I’m sorry. Please come back!”

Luna spun around while tears were steadily streaming out of her eyes.

“WHY, WHY DID YOU DO IT?” She screamed. “YOU LET ALL OF THOSE POOR INNOCENT PONIES DIE? JUST SO YOU COULD COVER UP YOUR OWN MISTAKES?”

“Luna please let me expl...”

“No, not this time Cely. What you did tonight is unforgivable!” Luna said and took off into the night sky.

         ~Just 30 minutes before~

     There was a loud racket coming from just outside the door when suddenly three Guards burst in yelling, “Princess Celestia, There’s been an accident in Fillydelphia!”

“Well spit it out!” Celestia said rather aggravated at the sudden audience.

“The nuclear reactor is on the verge of melting down! We must shut down or many innocent ponies will be killed!”.

Celestia thought for a moment. Luna suddenly spoke up, “Well of course we’ll shut it down, why wouldn’t w...”

“That's enough Luna.” Celestia interrupted.

“We can’t just shut down. Fillydelphia and almost all of Ponyville will be out of power for who knows how long!” The goddess of the sun said.

“But sister...if we don't shut it down, there wont be a Fillydelphia!” Luna said stunned by her sisters arrogance.

“Shes right, my lady.” A guard answered. “If we don’t shut it down, Fillydelphia will be destroyed and radiation will spread through half of Equestria. There is no other option: we must shut down!”

Celestia gave no thought to this as her mind was already made up.

“No”, she stated, “no it will not be shut down”.

Both Luna and the three guards were shocked at how quick her mind was made up.

“Have somepony go and check the reactor. I'm sure it’ll be fine.” Celestia said.

“But my Lady, we only have--hell who knows how long before it melts down! It could be minutes or hours! There’s no time for somepony to fix it. It’s either have it shut down or have thousands of ponies die at your hooves!” One of the guards yelled.

“I said my mind was made up! We will not shut it down, damn it. Is that clear!?” She said in a very menacing tone.

”Yes--my lady.” The guard farthest to the right spat as vile as he could without her knowing.

“How can you be so cruel?” Luna started as she looked up at her big sister.

“How can you be so calm and let so many ponies die! That...that’s just wrong! That's evil!” The moon goddess said, her voice slowly rising.

“I have my reasons”, Celestia said before sitting back down.

“You have your reasons!?! Theres only one sensible thing you could have done, and that’s shutting it down! Sometimes I don’t get you. You’ve done this sort of thing before, but not nearly this bad!” She said as tears started to fill her eyes.

“They’re just ponies, Luna--they’re not immortal like us. After all, they’re expendable.” Cellestia said.

“How can you say that? I understand that no pony is perfect but what you’re doing is just pure evil!” Luna yelled.

“Luna, calm down! Like I just said before...they’re just ponies.” The bringer of the sun said as calm as ever.  Luna shook her head in utter disgust, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, when you’re older you’ll understand.”

“I DO understand! It’s you that doesn’t understand what the fuck you’re doing!”

“I can’t believe you! You dare not challenge me, little sister!”

“Or what? You’ll send me to the moon again?” Luna said in a very challenging tone.

“L-Luna, you know I could never do that again! Nightm...”

“I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED--I WAS THERE! Like I said, you’ve done this sort of thing before. When I was transformed into Nightmare Moon you used the Elements of Harmony on her to send her to the moon. You knew that I would be sent there as well. You knew! And yet you still did it! You could have easily found another option but NO! You sent me to the fucking moon for a fucking thousand years without even thinking about the consequences! Why? Why are you doing this? It doe-doe-” Luna couldn’t take it anymore, she turned and sped out of the room.

~ Present time~

     Luna got farther and farther from Canterlot, tears still streaming from her eyes. She began to see smoke rise in the distance.  I have to go and try to help!  She thought to herself as she veered toward the town of Fillydelphia.  She started to close in upon the town as the sun began to rise. With its help, she started to see the full extent of the damage done.  One of the two towers had somehow collapsed in on itself doing heavy damage to the reactor underneath. The other was leaning slightly. What could have caused this much damage?

         --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

     She landed on the outskirts and ran as fast as she could to the town hall in order to warn of the impending disaster.  When she got there, she burst threw the doors of fillydelphia’s town hall and yelled, “I need to talk to the mayor!”

A young female pony trotted up and said, “Princess Luna nice of you to vi...”

“ I need to speak to your mayor, now!” The goddess yelled at the young mare.

“Of course.”

“We need to hurry!” She said as she sped up.

They reached two polished wooden doors and heard shouts from inside. They stopped for a moment to listen.

“Why haven’t you gotten somepony to fix that confounded reactor?!” A booming voice came.

“We-we can’t sir, the radiation levels are too high!” Another voice came.

“Well, what the hell are we going to do now? We can’t just sit here!” The first voice answered.

At that moment the doors swung open.

“Ah Princess Luna, What a pleasant surprise!” The mayor said as he bowed.

“We need to evacuate the city, the reactor’s on the verge of melting down!” She said in a tone that surprised the mayor.

“Do you have an evacuation plan?” She asked.

“Um...well, no. You see, we never thought anything like this would happen. I mean the facility was built and reinforced with hundreds of Unicorns’ magic! The likelihood of this happening is--well was--almost zero!” The mayor replied.

Luna sighed, “We’ll just have to make one up as we go then.”

         --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

     “Gather up as many ponies as you can from the town and get out of here as fast as you can but stay organized. I'm going to try and shut down the nuclear facility somehow before this gets out of control.” She told the mayor.

They both quickly rallied up the ones in the town hall.  The mayor ran over to the main entrance and opened a metal box that was on the wall beside the large doors.  The box contained a red button with a warning sign above it.  Beside the button was a small voice box.  The mayor pressed and held the button down and yelled into the voice box:

“Citizens of Fillydelphia! This is not a drill, everypony gather at the town hall or you will most certainly die a slow and painful death. I repeat: everypony gather at the town hall! This is not a drill."

He let go of the button and sirens blared from multiple places within the city.  They both ran outside to be confronted with an already massive crowd...with more coming every second.

“I’m going to head off toward the facility and make sure nopony is there or even close”, she whispered to the mayor, “You keep the crowd calm and make sure that everypony gets out safely. If I’m not back in ten minuets leave without me.”

Without hesitation, Luna spread her wings and flew as fast as she could toward the massive nuclear facility.  She was on the outskirts of the large city when she began to feel dizzy and her vision started to blur.  Oh Celestia no, please no not now! She thought to herself and shook her head.  As she got closer, the side effects slowly got worse.  By now, she was only about a half of a mile away from the facility.  On top of the symptoms she already had, she grew nauseous with a splitting headache and was getting very tired fast.  She tried her best to ignore them and focused on searching for ponies that hadn’t yet gathered at the town hall.  I have to stay awake, I have to. I have to.  She thought to herself to try and keep her moral up but to no avail.  Her eyes slowly closed and she blacked out.

         --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

     As the mayor ran through the town yelling orders, he looked up to see what looked like a Pegasus falling from the sky.  The mayor ran to two ponies and told them to go check and see if it was still alive and continued running through the town yelling orders to everypony he saw.  Well at least the evacua- his thoughts were interrupted as a loud boom was heard and the ground shook under his hooves.  He ran to the nearest building and found a route to the roof.  When he got there the sight was horrible, the remaining tower on the nuclear facility had collapsed causing the reactor underneath damage like the one beside it.  I hope Luna is alright.. The two ponies he had talked to earlier came running up to him yelling, “Sir! Sir! Its Luna!”

“What?” He said rather surprised.

“Its Luna, sir! She’s the Pegasus you saw falling out of the sky!”

“Get some helpers and get her out of there!” He said in a stressed and worried tone.

The two ponies and a Doctor started to run to where Luna had fallen.  As they got closer  they began to see the bodies of dead ponies that didn’t make it out of the town in time.  When they turned a corner, they saw Luna lying on the ground not moving. The Doctor ran to her and gasped,

“We need to get her out of here now. She’s in terrible shape...I don’t know if she'll live.”

The two ponies stared at the Doctor in shock.

“Well, don’t just stand there--help me!” The Doctor yelled. “If we don’t get out of here, all of us will be killed so move your asses!”

The two ponies pushed Luna up onto the Doctors back and stood on each side of him to make sure she didn’t fall off.  When they got back, they found the mayor searching the buildings and telling the few stragglers to get out of the town.

“We have to go now” The doctor said as the mayor saw them.

“Yes, yes. Will she be alright?” He said.

“That's just it--she’s in pretty bad shape.”  The Doctor repeated.

He glanced in between two buildings. “Do you have things covered, Mayor? Or are you still in need of help?”

“No, I think we can handle things from here. What’s your name by the way?” The mayor of Fillydelphia asked.

“Does it matter? I think we have more pressing things at hoof. Well, you do at least. I’ll be off now. Good luck!” The Doctor said and walked in between two buildings. Soon after, a screeching sound came that died away in a matter of seconds.

Another massive explosion was heard. The mayor returned to the matter at hoof...as the strange pony had put it.

         -Year: 4049-

   “When I was a little filly and

     The sun was going down

      The darkness and the shadows, they

Would always make me frown

A song drifted in and out of Luna’s dreams.

     “I'd hide under my pillow

    From what I thought I saw

    But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way

     To deal with fears at all

The song continued.

    “When I was a little filly and

      The sun was going down...”

The song repeated the only parts that Luna remembered after all the years.

“Luna, Luna! Doctor, I think shes finally waking up!” Celestia said as Luna’s eyes drifted slowly open.

“Ce-celly, is that you?” Luna said.

“Yes, dear sister, it’s me. Don’t worry...your ok.”

“Whe--where am I?” Luna said looking around...still a bit disoriented.

“Luna, I have to tell you something that’s going to be a bit shocking.”

“Yes...what?” Luna said while slowly sitting up.

“You’ve been in a coma for four hundred years. The fall left you in the worse shape anypony had seen--you’re lucky to be alive! You also had severe radiation poisoning and had to undergo many treatments for it. The doctors said you would never wake up and yet you did. You pulled through--I'm just glad your alive!” Celestia said as she hugged Luna with tears in her eyes.

“Celly, I still haven’t forgave you for what you did to Fillydelphia.” She said with no emotion towards her big sister.

Luna pushed Celestia away and said, “Don’t worry Luna, we shut it down before it got out of control. If you hadn't rescued them, they would have still died. As of now, parts of fillydelphia are uninhabited due to high levels of radiation but in time those levels will go down. You did a great thing saving all of those ponies. They are forever in your debt.  I can’t thank you enough for what you did...”

“Let me stop you right there, sister.” Luna interrupted, “That doesn’t explain why the hell you made that senseless decision!” Luna said, anger returning after four hundred years of being locked away in her unconscious mind.

Celestia facehoofed.

“Luna, dear, you just woke up after a very long coma and you want to bring THAT up?” She asked sounding a bit annoyed.

“Of course! I want to know why you made that pitiful damn decision!”

“Fine. I should have shut it down when I was told to. The reason I made that decision was because I was the one that made the plans for how the facility was built.  I wasn’t the one that planned it out--just the one that oversaw how it looked. I wanted it to look good but my plan for where the left reactor was supposed to be caused some complications. The architects told me that  there would be a greater chance of a catastrophic failure if it was placed there. But, in my youth--if that’s what you would call it--I was naive and senseless to the ones that I was putting in harms way. I felt that I needed to cover it up when I was warned that a meltdown was imminent.”

Luna thought about her big sisters words, “I understand what you’re saying but that still doesn’t explain why you did put all those ponies in harms way!”

“Like I said...I was still a bit naive. Trust me, Luna, I'll never make that mistake again!”

Luna got up and hugged her, but still...how can she still be that arrogant?  I mean she is over 2’000 years old. This just doesn’t add up!  Luna thought.

“Luna, I think you need to get some rest...” Celestia said, tears still slowly flowing out of her eyes.

“But what about the moon and stars?” Luna asked.

Celestia chuckled, “Luna dear, I’ve been raising the moon, sun, and stars for the past four hundred years. I think one more night won’t hurt anything”.

         --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Luna woke to hear Celestia humming a toon that sounded like ‘Pinkie Pie’s Giggle at the Ghosties’ song at her bedside.

“That's one of Pinkie Pie’s songs, isn’t it? I keep hearing it when I dream.”  Luna asked.

“Yes, it is.” Celestia answered with melancholy.

“I miss Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”  Luna said, saddened at the thought that they have been gone for a thousand years.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of them. The only one out of them that’s left is Spike but he’s gotten so big!” Cellestia said. “At least they had fun filled lives. I still can’t believe that Apple Bloom was the only one to have kids.”

“Do you think we could make a monument in there honor, Celly? They saved Ponyville countless times. Their memory lives on--even now--in books!”

Celestia smiled, “That sounds like a great idea. I’ll think about it but let’s not dwell on the past.” Celestia said. Luna smiled back...somewhat forced.