Everything Shall Burn

by ScorpionFire

Chapter 7

Luna sat gracefully onto her polished onyx throne, and signalled to Citrus Fruit to start Midnight court. Citrus always attended both courts of the princesses, but secretly she preferred the Midnight court more than the Dawn court which Celestia held. This was because Luna got more requests than Celestia, and at the end of court there was a big refreshments table in the gardens for the ponies that were hungry after the long wait to propose their requests. Celestia only did the bare minimum nowadays, and she often declined requests from her subjects.

Citrus Fruit opened a small blue book, and levitated a pen towards the first blank page. This book was a log of the court, and Citrus would record the requests of the ponies, and the response Luna gave. This always reminded Luna of requests she had forgotten.

“The Midnight court is now in session!” Citrus announced loudly. The noise startled some of the ponies, but nearly instantly a dark green earth pony stepped out from the front of the queue and approached Luna. She bowed respectively, and raised her yellow eyes to meet the light blue ones of Luna.

“Good evening, Princess Luna,” the pony began.

“My name is Summer Vines, and I am a florist in the city of Fillydelphia”.

Citrus scribbled away the details of Summer Vines intently. It was a recent rule to tell the Princess of the court what job you had, as this can affect if you get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ for your request. For example, if you were a baker and asked for more money to buy a few more ovens and ingredients, you will probably get a ‘yes’, because you are using it for business purposes, not just personal reasons.

“My request is that… well perhaps you could…” Summer started, shifting her legs slightly. She seemed uncomfortable about what she was about to request, but she straightened up and looked at Luna once more with a determined expression.

“My request is that Princess Celestia is revoked of her title of ‘princess’.”

~

The Lunar guards looked at each other worriedly. Citrus Fruit looked up from her writings at Luna. Luna stared at Summer Vines with a shocked expression. She couldn’t believe what had just been asked of her. Before Luna could open her mouth to protest, Summer Vines began talking again.
“You see Princess Luna, Celestia is disturbing the sky again. She is constantly changing the weather patterns to undesirable conditions! It stops my plants from growing properly, and my cousins who own farms across Equestria aren’t making any profits from their crops because they have been drowned by rain or burnt by the sun!”
Summer Vines took a deep breath before starting her rambling once more. It seemed she had many reasons for her request.
“Also, she makes no effort for royal or public events at all! I visited her Dawn court only a few weeks ago, and she declined every single request that was brought forward! She didn’t plan anything special for her Summer Sun celebration, only raised the sun, ate all the bananas and left the entire celebration!
“I talked about these problems with everyone on our street in Fillydelphia, and they all agreed that Celestia is being an unreliable ruler. You are very dedicated to your job as our joint-monarch, so we think you will do absolutely fine by yourself.”
Luna stared shockingly at Citrus Fruit, silently asking if she had written all of this down. Citrus nodded grimly, and Luna looked back at Summer Vines with her still-shocked expression.
“Wh- what?! No, of course I will not revoke my sister of her rightful crown!” Luna shook her head briskly, making her curly light sapphire mane bounce around everywhere.
“Request denied!”
Summer Vines turned and left a little reluctantly, and soon the next pony walked up to Luna to propose their request. But it was the exact same request. To take away Celestia’s crown.
“Request denied!” Luna shouted.
The next pony asked for Celestia’s crown to be taken away. And the next. Nearly every single pony was asking for it. Luna grew agitated at her subjects until she just couldn’t take any more of the absurd request.
“IF YOUR REQUEST IS FOR ME TO REVOKE CELESTIA OF HER CROWN, LEAVE NOW!” Luna barked in her famous ‘royal’ voice. The ponies at the front of the queue had to cover their ears, and the unfortunate pony who had been requesting at that moment had blood dribbling down the side of his face.
All of the ponies that had been queued up turned and left, knowing now that Luna was not going to accept their requests. They grumbled and complained, but they were not ones to disobey royal commands. In a few minutes the Midnight court had emptied, and Luna stepped off her polished onyx throne thankfully. The requests of her ponies kept ringing through her head. Take away her crown! Take away her crown! It was so unbearable to think that since her subjects thought Celestia was such an unreliable ruler, that they had the nerve to request her sister to take her off the throne!

~

Luna kept mentally raging until she reached her room in the Lunar tower. It was getting late, and she couldn’t stay awake all night. It took only a flash of Luna’s blue magic to untie the locking spell she had placed on her door, and in a few swift seconds the light blue mare was lying peacefully on her bed.

Luna stared at the sky and sighed. She had so many worries and concerns, yet no-one to vent them to. It was horrible.
‘The Winter Moon celebration is tomorrow as well.’ Luna thought, letting her mind slowly slip into a dream-like state.

‘Sure, I and the council have made plans just in case of any foul play, but why do I still feel like we haven’t done enough?’

Luna pondered this question until her eyes dropped, and she fell into a deep sleep. It was a satisfying way to end a chaotic day, but still the question hung in the air, with no-one answering Luna’s worries.

‘What is going to happen tomorrow?...’

Author's Note:

Alrighty! Off to a good start on the 'one-chapter-a-week' thing.
Just so you know, yep, the real action is going to be in the next few chapters. Maybe not the next one, though. We'll see.

Comments

[Jalaras]

I think we can all guess what's going to happen at the celebration. It won't be a pretty sight.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

I hope you will finish this? I really like this story.