Chapter 2
Pushing open her door, Maeve entered her room and found Princess Luna staring at Lann na Gealaí Dubh. Maeve, somewhat startled by seeing Princess Luna in her chambers, staring at her sword, let out a little frightened squeak.
All of the feathers on Princess Luna’s wings ruffled and the alicorn turned to look at Maeve.
“I came to get a book… Red has hurt himself once more and I thought I’d read to him to pass the time,” Maeve said in a low voice as she stood in the doorway of her room, looking in at Princess Luna. After a moment, she entered and walked to were the night blue alicorn was standing.
When Princess Luna raised her hoof and got too close, Maeve offered a warning. “I wouldn’t touch Lann na Gealaí Dubh... it will zap you again.”
The dark blue alicorn turned her head to look up at Maeve, her teal eyes flashing with pain. “I cannot shake the memory of you covered in blood and using that sword… you freed us.”
Shuddering, Maeve’s left hand extended; it had three fingers and her ring finger was missing. She placed her hand upon Princess Luna’s side, where a faded brand was still healing, still fading, but it could be felt in sharp relief from Luna’s smooth skin under her pelt.
“What they did to me… treating me as if I was livestock,” Luna spat. “As if I was some common beast of burden. Like I was a common curiousity, a circus attraction… almost a year of humiliation and degradation and I cannot seem to shake it.” The alicorn trembled with rage and she lifted her hoof up near Lann na Gealaí Dubh once more. “I understand all too well what it felt like for you… to be held down and forced… to be powerless…”
The sword was a most curious weapon. The handle was made of magical chalk, wood, and silver. The guard was a bramble of living thorns. The blade was forged from moonbeams. It was a fantastical weapon; Lann na Gealaí Dubh, the Black Moon Blade. The Sidhe folk were allergic to iron and made weapons from more exotic materials.
“That sword cost me a finger,” Maeve said in a low whisper.
“But you made it submit to you… no one else in that horrible place had done so,” Luna replied in a cold, angry voice.
“Almost a year as a slave. Scrubbing floors and cleaning that wretched castle. Worrying about you and all the things they did to you… I’m so sorry, Luna… I wish I could have saved you sooner…” Maeve’s shoulders slumped.
“They forced me to breed with their horses and those ugly horned monstrousities they called unicorns. I am glad that I am sterile.” Luna felt her skin crawl and for a moment, she heard the lashing of a whip. Her whole body tensed as she remembered the feeling of the lash upon her skin, upon her ear, the horrible taste and the pain of the spiked bridal in her mouth.
“Because of Lann na Gealaí Dubh we made our way home.” Maeve reached out her left hand and placed it upon the silver pommel. The sword was warm to the touch, it was always warm, and she felt a strange energy coursing up her arm as her fingers lingered over the chalk handle. “The blade and the crown allowed me to cut open a door and bring us home.”
Unable to stop herself, Luna was compelled to touch the blade. She did so, laying her hoof upon the scabbard. Energy arced from the sword and into Luna’s leg. She jerked her foreleg back and then stepped away from the sword shaking her head as she limped. “I still do not see how you did it.”
“It cost me a finger. Burned it right off.” Maeve puckered up her lips and blew a raspberry at the sword hanging from its mount upon the wall. “I still think it was the sword that protected me from their magic… my owner told me stories sometimes as I was cleaning his chambers… the blade was prophesied to bring about their doom. The smith who made it was some mad femorian. Thankfully, nobody could touch it or bear to wield it. It killed everyone who gripped it and refused to let go.”
“It was certainly their end.” Luna’s voice was cold and emotionless. “I am sorry that you had to endure what you did in Tír na hÓige.”
“How was I to know that we would end up in Tír na hÓige and that it would be such a nightmare?” Maeve shook her head. “I thought it was the realm of dreams, like in the story books. Turns out, not all dreams are good ones.”
“No, Maeve, not all dreams are good ones.” Luna’s eyelids drooped and she looked sleepy. “You should go be with Red. I think I might try to get some sleep. Dear, please, do not be troubled.”
Returning to Red Russet, holding a book, Maeve saw his mother, Rose Gold kissing him. Both of them were named after potatoes, and Maeve found his a little comical. Rose Gold was a solid, stout mare, heavy set even by earth pony standards, and she helped her husband, Quickie Cob, who was the royal gardener. Quickie Cob’s family were named after types of corn. Maeve placed her book down upon a small table that was by the sitting room’s doorway.
Unable to help herself, Maeve giggled as she listened to Red begging his mother to stop smothering him. The girl covered her mouth with her hand as she tittered.
“Sorceress Maeve,” Rose Gold said as she stepped away from Red Russet and bowed her head.
“No need to call me that. Red doesn’t,” Maeve replied.
Scowling, Rose Gold shot her colt a dirty look and Red flinched away from his mother’s disapproval. The heavy set mare nickered, making a low rumbling in her barrel as her nostrils flared.
“Look, Red is my only real friend that is about my age. I’m just a girl… in a land full of talking ponies. I’m the least special thing there is around here. If he started using titles and being formal, I’d have to toss him out and we wouldn’t be friends for very long.” Maeve crossed her arms over her chest.
Rose Gold’s expression softened and her lower lip quivered for a moment before it went still once more. “He’s an earth pony with brittle bones disease… good etiquette and manners along with education were our best hopes for him having a good life. He can’t do the sorts of things that earth ponies normally do. I wasn’t trying to be too hard on him… I just want him to have a future… I hope that you will understand. The fact that he is given free run of the castle is an act of kindness from the Royal Pony Sisters and it is because he is so well behaved that he continues to enjoy this privilege.”
The earth pony colt’s eyes went from his mother to Maeve, and then back to his mother. He let out a short, nervous whinny and then he snorted. His mouth opened as though he might say something, but then he remained silent and his mouth closed. His ears pinned back against his skull.
“I don’t get any of this.” Maeve stomped through the room, almost tripped over the long flowing skirt of her dress, pitched forwards, flung out her arms, shrieked in terror as she almost fell on her face, regained her balance, and then flounced into a nearby chair in the gawky manner of adolescent girls everywhere after the failure to look graceful. She smoothed her dress out over her legs. She folded her head hands in her lap, sat up straight, tilted her head back, looked over at Red Russet where he was on a sofa, and said in a haughty voice, “You didn’t see anything…”
Red Russet, still nervous about the exchange between Maeve and his mother, began to chortle and shook his head. He covered his mouth with his hoof and tried not to laugh. His mother on the other hoof, did laugh. Rose Gold lost her composure and began to giggle in spite of her best efforts to hold it all in. The stocky mare wheezed as she chortled, she snorted as little laughs escaped, and there was nothing she could do to make herself stop.
“Rose Gold, Red Russet is my very bestest friend in the whole wide world. He understands me. I understand him. Nopony likes him because he’s fragile and he can’t play. Most ponies don’t like me because I’m weird and creepy. And let’s be honest. When you first found out about me and Red being friends, you didn’t want us spending time together because I was that ‘weird, hairless monkey thing’ and you were scared about what I’d do to your colt. Luna told me that you were worried that I’d eat his eyes because you read in a book somewhere that monkeys eat each other’s eyeballs.” Maeve turned her green eyes upon Rose Gold and stared the mare in the eye.
Blinking, her ears burning with shame, Rose Gold dropped her eyes down to the floor and looked away. “That’s true. And not a day goes by that I don’t feel bad about that. Red has been happier than he has ever been during his whole life. I almost took that away from him.”
“Princess Celestia keeps telling me that a Sorceress needs a trusted assistant and I do believe that she is dropping hints at me once more,” Maeve said as a faint smile teased at the corners of her lips. “If a Sorceress must have a trusted assistant, I can think of no better assistant than Red Russet.”
Red Russet’s eyes focused upon his mother and he looked hopeful. His ears perked up and his amber eyes went wide. He turned and looked at Maeve, a faint grin at the end of a muzzle.
Taking shallow breaths, Rose Gold went and sat down upon the couch beside her colt, her breath coming in heaving gasps as she settled onto the cushions beside her son. She raised one thick foreleg and wrapped it around Red Russet’s withers.
“Oh for the love of string beans,” Rose Gold gasped. “Will you look at the time!”
Grunting with effort, Maeve pushed Red Russet’s chair in closer to the table, earning her a raised eyebrow from Princess Celestia. Maeve had insisted on pushing Red’s chair in by hand. She wiped her sweaty hands upon her grass stained dress, flopped down into a chair beside the earth pony colt, and heaved a noisy prolonged sigh.
Princess Celestia’s eyebrow inched ever higher, it was as if she was filling up with disapproval and her eyebrow was some sort of indicator or a gauge. Based on the eyebrow’s placement upon Celestia’s forehead, the alicorn was nearing full.
“I’m flattered to be invited for tea, but I don’t know if I belong here,” Rose Gold said in a nervous voice. “I’m a gardener.”
“Now now, your manners cannot possibly be any worse than Sorceress Maeve’s.” There was a faint almost impossible to see smirk upon Princess Celestia’s face as she spoke. “Raven will not be joining us, she had things she had to look after and Princess Luna is finally asleep. So it is just us.”
“I have the manners of a pig.” Maeve smiled and snatched several baby carrots off of a plate. She turned away from Princess Celestia for a moment, giggling, and when she turned back around to face the table, she had orange tusks sticking up from her smile because she had stuffed two baby carrots in between her lower lip and her teeth. For added effect, Maeve oinked.
Unable to help himself, Red covered his mouth with his good fetlock as he giggled.
“Sorceress Maeve… do be a good little piglet and eat your carrots,” Princess Celestia said as she poured tea. The alicorn’s smirk was visible now by those who knew her best and her eyes had a merry twinkle.
Pulling out one of her carrots, Maeve flicked it at Red, who snatched it out of the air with his mouth and crunched it up, forgetting for a moment where he was. He was snapped back into reality by his mother’s baleful stare and he paused mid-crunch. He gulped, but not to swallow his mouthful of carrot.
Maeve took a bite of carrot and then, with her mouth still full, she said, “Wow Red, you’re getting really good at that.”
“Sorceress Maeve, it is very important that you do not treat the ponies around you as pets. Tossing them carrots might be seen as degrading.” There was a look of soft concern in Princess Celestia’s eye.
“Look… Red and I… we’re kids. Well, he’s a foal, but it’s the same thing. And we’re gonna keep doing stupid stuff and playing and being silly. I do not treat him as a pet.” Maeve’s eyes glittered and the muscles of her jaw clenched. “I do not treat ponies as pets… not after what happened to Luna… and never again accuse me of such a thing.”
“My apologies, Sorceress Maeve… it was my intention to help you be aware of how others around you might see such an action.” Celestia made a slight bow of her head.
Her face beet red, and not just from her sunburn, Maeve slammed her fist down upon the table, causing everything to rattle. “Please, for once, can’t we just be ourselves? I spent almost a year locked away in a castle as a slave, forced into doing all kinds of horrible things, and I get here and I still feel like a slave and I am still forced into doing stuff!”
Letting out a low nicker of concern, Rose Gold leaned forwards and looked Maeve in the eye. “Calm down, dearie.” The stocky mare looked at Princess Celestia, a pleading expression upon her face. “Princess Celestia, I don’t mean to be forward, but she’s just a filly. A girl… she’s young. Let her have time to be silly. She and Princess Luna both have been through a great deal of trauma. Now I know she has some responsibilities and that a lot is expected from her, but she’s still a little filly. Girl… she is what she is and she is still healing. Let her have a bit more time to play.”
Heaving a sigh, Princess Celestia nodded. “Perhaps you are right Rose Gold.” The alicorn turned and looked at Maeve. “It was my hope that by getting you into a routine and giving you responsibilities, it would give you a sense of purpose, a sense of focus, and would give you something to distract you from your troubles.”
Slumping down in her chair, Maeve folded her arms over her chest. “Thank you for trying to do what was best for me. I didn’t mean to be snotty.”
The corner of Princess Celestia’s mouth quivered at the word ‘snotty’ and the alicorn’s ears perked forwards as a merry twinkle lit Celestia’s eyes. “Maeve, you are very dear to me. I know more about what happened to you than I do about what happened to my sister, Luna. She still has told me very little and has remained tight lipped. I want what is best for you and I want good things for you. You brought my sister back to me, and for this, you will always have my gratitude.” Celestia’s mood changed and her face darkened, almost as if there was a cloud passing over the sun.
Maeve did not reply, but she did grab several cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches. She crammed a whole sandwich into her mouth and started chewing, a pained expression upon her face.
“I am so very grateful to have my sister back,” Celestia said in a hoarse, raspy whisper as her eyes misted over. “I thought I had lost her forever once, and it broke my heart. This time, my heart shattered when I got the news that she had stepped through the mirror and then had vanished.”
“There… maybe what was needed was a little heart to heart. Now no more sniffling. Dry your eyes and eat up,” Rose Gold said in the voice of a natural born mother. “Maeve, be a good filly and chew with your mouth closed and don’t make me tell you twice.”
I bet there are so many questions.
Good. 
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Looks like Maeve LuLu got to experience some soul crushing horror.
Lots of questions that I want to see answered over time as the story continues. More, I say!
I came for the closure and stayed for the cucumber sammiches.
"Don't worry," you said, "this is the chase version of Equestria. Mauve didn't get sent there."
And you sent them to an elder god home world.
Great.
I love the story, by the way.
It's been a long time since Celestia was a child. It's no wonder she misunderstood how best to deal with the trauma.
And it was definitely trauma. Nearly a year in the lands of the fae? Maeve and Luna may be lucky to be only this traumatized. It could've gone a lot worse for them, with prices far dearer than a finger paid for far less in return. And that's assuming it was only eleven months or so relative to Tír na hÓige. Time is slippery there.
This is becoming ever more fascinating. Definitely looking forward to more.
Ummmm...... So many questionz to ask but one sums up everything.....
WHAT THE FUCK, did i miss something?
6030203
In time, the missing parts will be revealed.
Google the word Lacunae
6030220 you ass...........
I shall wait then
Well, I got my wish.
The sword is powerful indeed, but also hazardous.
And here I was thinking the Tir na Hoge was a nice place...
Yeah, the Fae are definitely bad news in any non-modern source. Some of the old stories made it sound like if you even sneezed the wrong way in their world they would get ownership of your soul.
6561746
Well there are a few basic rules to remember.
1 - Don't make any deals or favours, or ask for help of any kind
2 - Don't eat or drink anything that's offered to you by someone else (Buffet tables count)
3 - Don't tell anyone your name
4 - The Fae CAN NOT lie, but they don't have to tell the truth, and they will omit details and use loopholes
5 - If you ask a Fae a question three times, it will give a completely honest answer, it will also likely attempt to hurt you or give you some comeuppance for what amounts to an act of torture, and they won't play nice.
6 - No Fae want what is best for you, just themselves, unless they have a familial relationship (Fairy Godmother, yes they happen, no they are still not nice), or some other kind of deal but even these "beneficial" relationships are going to get you in an early grave.
7 - For [INSERT GOD OF CHOICE HERE]'s sake don't threaten them with Iron and then not follow through, they're just going to try harder next time.
These are you handy-dandy Fae survival tips, for rules 8 - 9,999,999 you will need to purchase the "Fae Survival Guide" available at your nearest convergence of Planar Realities Book-store.
*smacks head into desk many times* the characters! They're all being stupid! It hurts.
Why couldn't she have been Scottish. Hel's bad realm is a hell of lot nicer than what they got. Not to mention they may have gotten a lucky roll with Luna straight to Vallhala or Hel's good realm.
6652315 Another one for your list. If you have the ear of a Fey being NEVER tell it Thank You for ANYTHING!! The younger ones will use and abuse the implied debt that it brings and the older ones will feel insulted that you feel you could possibly do anything for them. When the old ones feel insulted they tend to destroy whatever insulted them and they will NOT be nice.
This is even more true in the Seelie Court, at least within he Dark Court of the Unseelie they are honest about their depravity and cruelty.
6561746
Aye... some of the Folklore is downright terrifying! If you think the Seelie are bad.. the Unseelie are worse