Schism

by Sev

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Princess Luna.”

Twilight stood at the top of the stairs, facing the similarly colored figure who stood in her “room”, the area her desk and bed were located. When Luna looked up, Twilight bowed her head respectfully. “Please, don't.” Luna said quickly, and Twilight blinked. “Don't bow to me, I mean. Its not...how I do things.” she smiles weakly and chuckles. “I'm sorry about intruding like this, Twilight Sparkle, I know its...sudden. I considered waiting downstairs but...” she paused, looking around, “the chance to see how you live, your personal environment, was a little too good to pass up.” She lifted her eyebrows apologetically, apparently genuinely ashamed of her snooping. Twilight was still stepping gingerly. She was on very, very uncertain ground. She'd heard nothing of, or from, the pegacorn named Luna since shortly after Nightmare Moon's defeat a year ago. Celestia had told her there was 'a great deal of healing to do'.

“Thats alright, um, I'm really sorry about being late, I was helping a friend with a wagon problem. There's no problem, you're always welcome here!” she adds cheerfully, and Luna gives a bit of a sly smile. “Liar.” she says, almost playfully. Twilight was taken aback. “Wha?”

“That last bit,” Luna said, “I'm not 'always welcome here'. You'd be outright foolish to blindly invite me into your home after what happened to you and your friends, and I don't take you for any sort of fool. Believe me, Twilight, I wouldn't hold any reservations against me you have against you.” Her tone wasn’t harsh or demeaning. It was calm and understanding, and tinged with a pith honesty Twilight found herself enamored to.

“I don't have any reservations against you,” Twilight replied, and found herself rather surprised to realize she was telling the truth. Luna was right, she SHOULD have all sorts of deeply rooted distrust for the Mare in the Moon. But the events leading up to that night and the circumstances that lead to Luna's imprisonment were so laden with mystery that Twilight's empirical mind could find no reason to distrust her on principal. Whatever 'Nightmare Moon' was, she wasn’t standing in front of Twilight now. None the less, “but I have an awful lot of questions.”

Luna cocked her head curiously. “You weren't satisfied with the answers my sister gave you?” she asked. Twilight stepped forward, looking off to the side a bit. “I love princess Celestia, but she's been my teacher and mentor for years. There's only so much I can ask her before I begin to feel like im...prying.” Luna nodded at this, and Twilight looked her in the eyes. “With you, though, I feel a bit more entitled. I still dont know exactly what happened a year ago, but I know you owe me after what you put me through.”

Luna smiled and nodded. “I do,” she agreed. “And you are. Entitled, I mean. Its going to take a while though. Will you walk with me? I've been sort of...stuck..at the palace. The public isn't really ready for me to wander around just yet and I...don't like frightening everypony. But I'd like to see the hills out here. I used to love this place.” she chuckled a little, and flicked her wings. “There was no town here when I left. I always thought it would be a nice spot for one.” Twilight lifted a brow, but nodded.

“Yeah...I guess that would be alright. Should I bring anything?”

“Just something to sit on, if we get tired,” luna said, “oh, and uh...if you don't mind...”

“...Yes?”

“...cupcakes?”

Twilight couldn't help but laugh. “You're lucky, I just got a fresh batch today, they're in the kitchen.”
“Are they really?” Luna deadpanned with a teasing smile, “Huh! Imagine that.”

Sugarcube corner never failed to produce cupcakes of the highest caliber. Twilight didn't get back to Canterlott often, but it gave her a sense of pride in her adopted home whenever she bit into a less than fantastic baked treat in the massive city's streets. Canterlott was amazing for many reasons, but there were some things little, friendly towns like Ponyville just plain did better. Having food, especially good food, in her belly gave Twilight a bit more sureness in her step as she hoofed along quietly beside Luna, meandering toward the outskirts of the town and out toward the lakes and mountains. Luna herself caught the moonlight in a soft glow around her, much as Celestia did with the sun, that shimmered and waved in a playful dance with the wind. She was finishing her own treat, and looked just as pleased with it. “No cupcakes on the Moon,” she said with a wink, “its the little things you miss.”

Twilight was about to giggle on default before the statement brought back memories of Nightmare Moon standing triumphantly over the crowd on her first day in Ponyville, having successfully kidnapped and imprisoned a being most ponies took to be untouchable. It made her choke on her laugh a bit, and Luna took notice, casting her eyes downward. “Sorry,” Luna said, though there wasn’t precisely anything to apologize for. The momentary discomfort, perhaps. They crested a hill outside Ponyville and began walking down a trail that would terminate at a cliff overlooking a lake in a mile or two. Twilight knew the trail well enough, but in the dark of the night it looked a great deal different. Luna walked slowly and casually, seemingly unaffected by the darkness. There was a silver shine to her eyes, and Twilight got the impression she could see in the dark a great deal better than Twilight herself could.

“Did Celestia ever tell you about the Schism?” Luna asked after a minute or two. She glanced over at Twilight, her eyes inquisitive. Twilight shook her head, reflexively guarding herself against any misinformation about to be imparted on her. Again, though, Luna didn't give off the feeling of somepony trying to manipulate or corrupt her. If anything, her body language spoke of somepony lonely, and extremely thankful to have a pony nearby to talk to. They walked closely together, and something told Twilight to encourage communication. “What is it?” she asked. “The beginning,” Luna replied.

“You know about Discord,” Luna said, setting the statement as a point of reference, “Who ruled over Equestria before Celestia and myself. It actually wasn’t called 'Equestria' back then, Discord had some other name for it he would change every few days, or weeks, or whenever he thought somepony was trying to plan something on a calendar” she chuckled, the way one would when recalling some ancient mistake that proved embarrassing but inconsequential. “Celestia and I used the elements of harmony to defeat him, seal him in stone, and the world lived happily every after, right? And somewhere between point A and point B I ended up locked in the moon for a thousand years,” she waved that last bit off dismissively, before smiling over at Twilight to see if she'd picked up on the apparent gap in the story. She had. In fact, she had for a very long time, but it just wasn’t something one wrote to Princess Celestia about. “I guess there's more?” she ventured, and luna nodded, continuing to walk idly down the path. “Oh yes.”

“We're not Gods, you know,” Luna explained, continuing her story. “Talented maybe, but thats because we've had an awfully long time to practice. What we are is eternal, and we didn't start that way. There are elements pertaining to a lot of different things. The elements of Harmony, which you know about, the elements of Chaos, which actually make up all the different pieces of Discord's body,” she puffs part of her mane out of her face in exasperation, “that was a fancy trick. It's awfully hard to disarm someone of the source of their power when they build their body out of it.” She clears her throat a little, returning to task, “And the elements of Eternity. Celestia and I share that last one together, and its why we've lasted as long as we have. Much like the elements of Harmony, the elements of Eternity bond to their controllers. They have a physical representation, sure, with us its these crowns,” she looks upward at the dark tiara on her head, “but the essence of the power is within us, just the the spirits of harmony were within you, when you faced Nightmare Moon a year ago.”

“So...Nightmare Moon was some corruption of that power?” Twilight ventured, somewhat hoping for a way to dismiss Luna's actions as 'bad magic'.

Luna shook her head and smiled, “No. Believe me, I wish it were that simple. That does have something to do with it, but I cant lay all the blame at the feet of some magical malfunction.” She looked out to the left, over the rim of the Everfree Forest, as they continued walking. “All elements, even the chaos ones, have a degree of balance to their operation. Points and counter-points, checks and balances, and synergies to allow them to be used in different ways. The elements of Eternity have agelessness in common, but they also embody other features. Patience, Aggression, Empathy, Steadfastness. When Celestia and I first divided the elements, we agreed that she should take Steadfastness and Empathy, and I should take Aggression and Patience.” she waved her hoof a bit, mimicking the movement of a scale. “It was sort of an inbuilt balance we felt would help keep us in order. Celestia was the more aggressive of the pair of us, and-”

“Wait,” Twilight cut in, “Princess Celestia was the more aggressive?” Luna giggled and nodded, her face momentarily filling with pride. “If you could seeeeee her back then. Big sister was my shining savior. Things were a mess, like I mentioned, Discord ruling and all that. Celestia and I were fighting battles and holding our own as best we could for years before the elements of eternity and harmony became involved. She still has the armor she used to wear, hanging up in the palace in some dark, hidden corner chamber no one ever goes into.” Luna shook her head sadly. “When she put that on, I felt hope. It was like salvation was dawning in front of me.” She was quiet for a moment, before meeting Twilight's eyes and continuing. “She was the fighter, and we were worried that if she gained the aggressive aspects of the elements of Eternity, she'd become...tyrannical. Dangerous. Moon knows I needed the help, so the aspect of aggression was imparted to me. To help me control it, I also took Patience, as a way to pick my battles and exercise discretion before mindlessly running into things. Celestia received Empathy and Steadfastness, which we sort of decided were the most valuable aspects of a just ruler.” she smiled at the memory, “there was never really any discussion as to who was going to bring the ponies together once Discord was defeated. We both know she was the one. It was unspoken, and I was content with it.”

“It actually worked. Or it least it would've, had we thought it out a little better.” Luna and Twilight had arrived at the summit of the hill overlooking the lake. It was chilled up there, and Luna pulled the blanket out of Twilight's saddlebag, draping it over the purple pony when a shiver took her. “Warmer?”

“Yes...thank you.” Twilight replied. She'd hardly noticed she was cold. She'd never heard these stories before, but she had SEEN them. Ancient tapestries hanging in the palace in rooms that no pony entered. Once, as a filly, she'd asked Princess Celestia about one of them. The princess had gotten a far off look in her eye, and responded that it was a tale of a legend from long, long ago.

“What went wrong?” Twilight asked.

“Discord did,” Luna replied, “in order for the checks and balances of the elements to function, you need to exercise them. Simply having patience doesn’t mean anything if you don't use it. We were at war, and we didn't have the luxury of waiting around. Emboldened by these new abilities, Celestia and I took the fight to the front lines. She united Ponies under her wings everywhere we went, and the two of us countered everything Discord tried to throw at us. It was a constant struggle, pushing every day to keep him on the defensive. But that was all we could do.” She took a seat on the grass, gazing out at the moonlight on the water. “Discord could warp time and space with a thought, he had absolute mastery over the elements of Chaos. It was all we could do to just...hold him back. The elements of Eternity had evened the playing field, but we needed an edge, or it would never end.”

“The elements of Harmony,” Twilight said softly.

“The elements of Harmony.” Luna replied. From the look on her face, the words didn't taste good in her mouth.

Comments

[Jordan179]

“I don't have any reservations against you,” Twilight replied, and found herself rather surprised to realize she was telling the truth. Luna was right, she SHOULD have all sorts of deeply rooted distrust for the Mare in the Moon. But the events leading up to that night and the circumstances that lead to Luna's imprisonment were so laden with mystery that Twilight's empirical mind could find no reason to distrust her on principal. Whatever 'Nightmare Moon' was, she wasn’t standing in front of Twilight now. None the less, “but I have an awful lot of questions.”

Just realized, you wrote this before "Luna Eclipsed" aired, but you got the logic right. Nightmare Moon -- not Princess Luna -- was Twilight's enemy. This is shown directly in the original two-parter, as the (dazed and weak) Luna is basically one of the guests of honor at the party at the end.

For my take on the series opener from Luna's POV, you might want to check out my Nightmares Are Tragic. This is of course based on different assumptions regarding the causes of Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon -- I go with hostile demonic possession.