//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: For the New Lunar Republic 
// by Moxypony 
//------------------------------//

	Luna surveyed the landscape around her from the royal balcony; the city of Canterlot stood in terrible shape, though not quite so terrible as it had several months before when the war had ended. The reconstruction was well underway, and through the efforts of the former Imperials and the victorious Republicans alike, the city was finally beginning to look and function as it once had.
“Princess,” Luna smiled at the warm voice behind her and turned to see Dreamcatcher kneeling, a soft smile on his mouth that barely touched his eyes, eyes far too old to belong to the young pony before her.
“Actually, I’m not a princess anymore,” she said, smiling sadly at him, “I officially renounced my title when we established Equestria as the New Lunar Republic. Honestly, I may not even be a ruler in a few weeks.”
“It’s a foredrawn conclusion, you know.” Dreamcatcher chuckled as he got back to his hooves. “and you may not officially be a princess anymore,” he scoffed, “but I don’t think anypony’s ever going to stop thinking of you as Princess Luna, the hero mare who saved them from the grip of the evil Solar Empire.”
“Maybe not within your lifetime,” she said wistfully, turning her eyes to the night sky, “but an eternity is a long time. I never really thought about it so much before, but with my sister gone… I don’t know, this world just seems so much lonelier. She’s done so much better a job at leading this nation than I ever did, maybe it should have been me who had fallen to Wrath’s influence, maybe then Celestia would…”
“You can’t let yourself think that way, Luna,” Dreamcatcher laid a hoof on the mare’s shoulder consoling her as tears began to stream from her eyes, “you can’t blame yourself or even Celestia for what happened, this is the fault of that… that thing…”
Luna smiled through her tears at Dreamcatcher, “I suppose you’re right, but I assume you didn’t come all the way up here just to say that. Did you need something?”
“Actually,” he sighed, “I’ve come to say goodbye. With everything that’s happened, I believe it’s time I return to my ponies. The Navapony are scattered, and they will need somepony to rally behind. I am the last remaining shaman of our tribe and I can’t stand by as our way of life dies. So this is goodbye, my old friend.”
Luna wrapped the colt in a hug, nodding her acceptance of his decision. Only after the hug had been broken did she notice the rainbow maned pegasus trotting into the room behind them. “I’m afraid I’ve come to deliver a similar message, your highness,” Rainbow Dash said, snapping to a crisp salute, “as of immediately, I am resigning my position as Command Chief of the New Lunar Republican Airborne and the Airborne unit itself is dissolving.”
“As there is no longer truly a New Lunar Republican army,” Luna chuckled, “I suppose it would be foolish of me to object. I suppose you have plans then?”
“Thank you ma’am,” she said, smiling, “Dreamcatcher is right, this war has been tough on all of us, but there are some who have felt its sting worse than others. For this reason, I do not believe it is in the best interest of the pegusi to remain as citizens of Equestria. Those who are willing and able will be joining me and what remains of the Airborne unit will be leaving Equestria to found a new nation.” She smiled as she added, “In deference to our ancestors, we have chosen the name Pegasopolis. I anticipate healthy and beneficial trade agreements for both Pegasopolis and Equestria, once we’ve got everything up and running again. Now, with your leave Princess, I must rejoin the herd. We shall be leaving soon.”
With a salute and a sly smile, Rainbow Dash took to the air, flying out over Canterlot and disappearing into the distance.
Dreamcatcher opened his mouth as if to say something, but when he could think of nothing else to say, he simply nodded and left.

“Were you just going to leave without even trying to find me?” Dreamcatcher stopped dead in his tracks as he neared the castle courtyard, turning to regard the mare emerging from the shadows.
“I would have,” he said turning a concerned look on Moxi, the mare’s throat was now a mass of vicious red scar tissue and her face was similarly lined with the after-marks of deep lacerations, and while many of the wounds across her body and limbs had healed properly, there was still enough scarring left to tell the tale of battle across her body, “but you’ve been a hard mare to find these past couple months. Luna told me you’ve been locking yourself up in the royal library, barely even letting the medical ponies treat you.”
“So what if I have?” Moxi said, turning her eyes from Dreamcatcher’s.
“Moxi, you need to take better care of yourself,” he smirked, “I’m not going to be around to  take care you anymore.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me!” the sudden flare of anger made Dreamcatcher flinch, and when she saw him recoil, Moxi’s face flushed and she turned her eyes away again, ashamed, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay Mox.” he said, laying a comforting hoof on her shoulder while cautiously avoiding touching the fresh scars, “I’m sorry about Gatesborogh… I never got a chance to say so before…”
It was Moxi’s turn to flinch, the news that the survivors of her hometown, had been set ablaze in the strange madness that had gripped the entire nation during the battle for Canterlot had numbered in the single digits had come as a severe shock. It came as an even deeper blow when she had confirmed that her parents had not escaped the fire.
“It’s ancient history,” she growled, “it hadn’t been home to me for a long time.”
“Well,” Dreamcatcher said, hopefully, “listen, I don’t know if you’ve got any plans, but honestly, I’d love it if you could come back to the Great Equestrian Plains with me, I think you could live a very comfortable life out there, it’s very peaceful.”
Moxi smiled, but shook her head. “There’s nothing left for me out there, Catch,” she said, “after all that’s happened, all I really have left is to see things through.”
“Moxi,” Dreamcatcher said, worried, “the war is over, you’ve already seen it through.”
“Luna offered me a position in her secret service,” she said, shrugging, “I can’t adjust to a civilian life again, I’m better off serving.”
Dreamcatcher opened his mouth to protest, but immediately knew it would be a moot point. He wrapped a hoof around Moxi and pulled the mare into a hug. “Take care of yourself,” he breathed into her hear as she returned the hug.
“Yeah,” she smiled back, “you too.”

Luna watched Dreamcatcher cross the courtyard until he passed beyond the palace gates and finally disappeared from her view. With a heavy sigh she turned to face the room behind her, finding Moxi standing, patiently waiting for her to complete her vigil.
“You’ve gotten rather good at that,” Luna smiled, Moxi bowed low and she waved a dismissive hoof, “oh come now, Moxi, you and I both know you don’t need to bow to me.”
“If you say so, Highness,” she said, rising to her full height again before turning hard eyes on Luna, “Princess, I feel the time has come for some answers.”
Luna smiled sadly and trotted into the room, finding a seat and sitting down with a groan, “I expected as much, you wouldn’t have locked yourself up in the library if you weren’t looking for knowledge.”
“Celestia said something while she was torturing us,” Moxi remarked, her voice steady, “she said she’d seen the rise and fall of nations, but our historical texts say that the nation of Equestria was founded long before either you or your sister were born. That coupled with what that… that Wrath thing was saying about the ’ethereal plane’ has left me wondering… Just what exactly are you, Luna?”
Luna sighed and regarded her own image in a nearby mirror. “I suppose,” she said after a long moment, “that depends on which part of me you’re referring to…”
Standing to cross over to the balcony, Luna gestured up toward the moon in the sky. “I had honestly forgotten, it has been so long that this body had allowed me to forget, but in truth, this is not my body.” She turned to face Moxi, “millennia ago, when the world was young and Equestria even younger, the sun and moon moved on their own through the sky, but even so, it was always my sister and I who guided them, for in ancient times we did not exist on the mortal plane, but rather we existed in the ethereal, the spirit world.” She turned a dark, serious look on Moxi, “Celestia and I truly are the sun and the moon.”
Moxi’s mind reeled, she tried putting pieces together, but it was like trying to work out a puzzle whose pieces were cut wrong, none of the pieces seemed to fit together.
“In ancient times,” Luna continued, “many ponies took to worshipping beings of the ethereal, beings of varying power and scope and form, but who each represented something existing within the mortal plane. Ideas and thoughts and objects which held great power existed within their own dominions within the ethereal plane. It was in two such dominions that my sister and I, spirits of the sun and the moon, existed. There were likewise spirits of the great ideas which could drive ponies to great acts of decency and great acts of malice. Mercy, Greed, Wrath, Death, and while many of these spirits were of malice intent, their power on the mortal plane was limited by how many creatures believed in them and followed their ideals, but one being did not play by the rules, and his name was Discord.
Discord broke the seal between the ethereal and mortal plane when he successfully cobbled together a body of flesh and began exerting his terrible will upon the ponies of Equestria. All would have been lost had it not been for a pair of alicorn priestesses, one a follower of the sun and one of the moon. Their faith was so strong and their altruism so pure that they allowed us to enter their forms, that we might be able to strike Discord down. 
Their gambit was successful, but it came at the cost of the lives of both mares. Celestia and I took up their bodies and rose up to lead the ponies of Equestria, teaching them to cast aside hate and anger and to become more peaceful. Equestria fell into a great peace, and all was well. But the mortal bodies Celestia and I had taken up were more limited than our spiritual selves, and over time our memories faded, we could not remember a time before we had our mortal form, and in our hubris, we paved the way for beings like Wrath to regain their foothold in this world.”
“The war,” Moxi breathed, “all that anger and hatred, it’s been fuel to the fire for him hasn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so,” Luna said, her voice heavy with sorrow, “it seems likely that he will already have supporters, and bringing their existence to the attention of Equestria as a whole would do nothing but suit his games.” She sighed, “Even the knowledge of my sister’s brainwashing must remain a secret, we cannot allow the seeds of distrust to aid in his return. If we are to fight him, it must be done in secret.”
Moxi nodded and trotted out to the balcony, looking out to the night sky with narrowed eyes. “Secret, eh?” she muttered after several moments, she turned back and gave Luna a humorless smile, “I think I know just the mare for the job.”


-The End-



Thank you for reading! I hope you will follow Moxi into the next chapter of her life in "Hooves of Wrath."