LUNA
In the city of Sarnath, they still speak of Celestia and Luna, of their wanderings and adventures, of the dreadful monsters they defeated and the great deeds they accomplished. They speak of the kindness the sisters showed the unfortunate. They say still in Sarnath that the Alicorns' creed was to subdue the proud and uphold the righteous.
In Ulthar they say much the same. But they speak also, quietly, of Luna's rare rage. For even near immortals can only endure so much wickedness before they are beyond reason with fury. When some Batpony of Sarnath or Ulthar commits some unholy act, the old mares whisper of the avenging night.
Celestia they named Wise, Great, All-Kind. They did much the same for Luna. Mother of night. The Shield. The Singer.
But they remembered also her rage. In the West they name her Sulva, and that name sends shivers down the spine. For in the vales of darkest Sulva, the moon above, Luna learned war in nightmares.
The earth shook under the wrath of queen of all holy darkness. Sulva had come to earth. Luna put forth her naked power and she would unmake creation if she could.
Even Alicorns have limits. They can be slain--poison is useless, but griffon sabers may not be, and where lesser magic seems to slide off their coats, the ingenuity of war provides new solutions.
None of them mattered. Not now. Not today.
Luna's legions assembled. She felt a heat spread over her body. The moon felt so close now, and she could feel it like an argent fire in her heart. It had been ages since she walked it in dreams, her projection feeling but not felt. Who is called Sulva? In what sphere does she walk? those were the words of the Questions given to each of her personal guards. She had never told them what the answer was.
Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned towards us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would he be who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her further side. On this side, the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust.
It had been ages since she had learned war on the frontier where the sterility tries to force it's way into the dark side of the moon. By now, the last of that place's inhabitants would be dead. Their jungles razed, their land sterilized. But in the sphere of Sulva she had learned war.
It was yet another world whose sorrows she held in her heart. She had never spoken of it to another soul.
If they lived through the night, she would tell Twilight of it. Even if Twilight repudiated her, Luna would perhaps still tell her. Somepony should know of Sulva. Stories were meant to be told.
And in the meantime, she shone.
An Alicorn is a creature of Glory. They hide that glory almost all their lives. "Lower still," Celestia would explain in ancient days as she concealed the eternal light of the sun in her person. She dimmed her eyes and carefully and jealously guarded her interactions. She smiled and chatted. She enjoyed tea with commoners and nobles alike. Luna had done so as well. It had been so long since she had let her hair down, so to speak. Her Glory was beginning to break through. Was it weakness, a lack of restraint? A ploy to cow her foe and inspire the last army of Equestria? Neither. Luna felt at last that she was herself. No longer hiding, no longer running, no longer desperate. And so she would no longer conceal herself. The world was stopped and the fox faced the hounds, and alicorns shone like gods.
She spoke, her voice amplified by magic and twisted by the aura which was heavy on the square.
"Soldiers of Equestria! The day has come! The false night is passing, and I have come to knock this pretender down. Our friends have come from far and wide to aid us. We will show them that Canterlot has not bowed!"
They roared. No, they were in something between ecstasy and terror, the naked fear of death intermingled with the wild hope of the condemned who finds the gallows rope cut and God holding the knife, grinning at him.
"Drive them out of your city! Drive them out into the plain and shatter this army of abominations! Give no quarter, ask for none. The hour of our deliverance is at hoof."
A chant began. Luna. Luna. Luna.
"You are the last army, and this is our final battle. Do not lose heart in the night before dawn! Fear no natural darkness, for the moon lights your ways. Fear not the tricks of shadows, for the stars shine upon you in your finest hour. The night is with you for I am the night, and I am with you until the end. And this is the End."
Her eyes were silver fires. Her mane was a galaxy spinning and drawing all eyes. Her aura weighed on every living thing, her countenance both in that moment the most terrible and beautiful thing any of them had ever seen.
Alicorns do not burn this way not only because they wish to live among their children. Luna was like a match, a candle. Alicorns may be extinguished. They might also burn out.
Rainbow Dash stood off to the side, still upon the wall despite Luna’s change. Perhaps the Element she bore gave her some protection. Perhaps she was simply resistant, for a friend is loyal to the reality and not the exaggeration--at least, how she would define those terms. She knew Luna, Glory or without.
But she was not without her trembling.
Luna lifted her hammer high and smiled.
And in her heart burned a flame unquenchable, and had their been an altar she might have laid upon it. But there was only a city to be won and Twilight forever afterwards.
cool picture but her claw gauntlet looks a little too high tech to me
also that hammer is tinny
and finnaly the battle song for the epic fight to come
6755835 tinny or tiny? I gave him a reference for a normal one--I didn't want it super exaggerated but to be a real weapon, one suited for use and not too burdensome or more easily broken.
6755845 tiny
it looks like a war hammer but shrunken down by a third or an oversized mace the shaft needs to be longer and the head a little bigger it looks rather weak to me
also her cutie mark is really low but thats probably so you could actually see it it should be under her barding
6755994 sir have a you made me chuckle at that
And my heart is hammering in my chest! Wow. Good chapters cynewulf. Merry Christmas to you sir!
Y'all dun' made Luna mad...
Can somebody remind me where discord is in all this? I've been following this story for a while and can't remember if it was addressed.
6758934 it's roughly set post Canterlot wedding by a few years, with the timeline diverging a little after the wedding--basically diverging the day I started writing this. It's been partially vague as I began writing it like two seasons ago. Discord was encountered and sealed away again and nothing else has happened with him.
6759032 Thanks. I've been blitzing though my backlog today and I wasn't sure if I was getting story threads from this or another story confused. Love your work by the way. Keep up the outstanding quality.
6763956 maybe!
Wish I had had more time to discuss this. As far as natural bloodline, basically unless they have a close enough male cousin or use a surrogate (not likely). Adoption? Possible, but can they pass title?
The rules are Byzantine because of historical reasons, some of them legitimate. Celestia spent a long time untangling them, but isn't all-powerful, and the hard liners really held into this one. An adoptee can inherit if there is absolutely no other way for the house to continue (so if they have a male cousin...) and in fact the Houses Major may argue before a tribunal that personal preference/taste do not constitute an impossibility. Doing this would be bad politically, but if they hate you enough...
Alternatively, permission may be irrevocably given by Celestia or the Council of Houses Major or by a vote of the larger Assembly, which is the major and minor houses with quite a few common represenative's. Celestia can veto the others but never does. They can veto her and have before, but again, it's a balancing game between the lost political Capitol and sticking it to a rival. The commoners don't like it, Celestia will dissapprove, and houses (and ones one house members) led by a pony who isn't 100% straight are likely to remember this for some time.
So... It depends. Or would, normally.
Wow.
6787850 True dat, man. I hope this new year treats 'im well.
6788625 I wish I remembered if I was basing the ponies of Midway/Maldon on anywhere...
The C. S. Lewis is really strong with this one...
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6755865
Actually Luna's war hammer looks too large compared with war hammers IRL..
They look surprisingly "dainty" (~1 kilo, ~70 centimetres), but these weapons were wielded one-handed all day with sufficient force to cause debilitating trauma through plate armour. The big fk-off hammers/mauls normally seen in fantasy would be hideously impractical: their high mass would make them too slow to be effective and the massive weight would exhaust the operator in short order. (Try driving fence-posts with a 10 kilo sledge; it gets tiring real quick).
6788952 yeah... It was late, I was half awake and deleterious, and I had a strong vision of... Well, honestly a story I'll probably never have the energy to write. A younger Luna on Sulva/Moon learning the art of war. Set against something which I will touch on briefly in the last chapter.
But it is still super indulgent. Too much? I really hope not. But it probably is. If I hadn't made a promise to myself not to make any substantial changes (stare decisis) I would have changed it after publishing. Also if I hadn't already had ideas involving it >.>
On Warhammers: I adore horribly impractical weapons. It's a character flaw! But I decided that as both a smith and a warrior of long experience, Luna would want a practical weapon. Whilst magic is pretty cray cray, I've leaned towards magic needing physical energy provided from a caster to work. So lifting the hammer would drain Luna's physical strength. Normally, she would be capable of ludicrous endurance, but a larger head is a sort of needless liability, I think. You sacrifice speed and force for a little more weight and badassery unless she funnels way more energy into telekinesis. Energy better used to make nifty magical shields.
6755865
Actually, I believe that real war hammers are actually fairly small. They are meant to cause damage through armor or even to pierce it (with the spiky end). The larger it is, the more unwieldy it would become. Think about a conventional hammer and how much damage you can do with one even by accident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_hammer
It's a pretty picture, but I always imagine some kind of wing armor. I guess it'd be heavy if you had to fly, but as an alicorn who may spend a fair bit of time on the ground, I would think you would want to avoid injuring your wings.
Like so many chapters I went to like and fav at the end forgetting that I have already done that.
Awesome art is awesome
That is indeed a beautiful drawing. I look forward to the End with nervous excitement.
The picture isn't showing up for me...would it be possible to either reupload the picture in the story in a format for it to work, or link it in the comments for ppl to see? It says 'please update your account to enable third party hosting' in the place of the picture. If that is not possible, please send me the image in a message, for I would love to see Luna in full armor with her warhammer.
8392299
I'll fix that when I can get to a computer :)
I think this is one of the first comments I've made this far. Or perhaps I've been distracted.
But holy crap, fire and damnation produce the ashes of which feeds the renewal and salvation.
This story has been an amazing trip, and still is not yet over!
I want to step away from specific passages and amazingly fun quotables to just say that this story as a whole is extremely addictive and I have never quite enjoyed gazing into another's navel so much so as I have here.
Thank you for the good read up to this point,and for the future reading that is yet to come.