Canterlot Castle
Nova
The will of Nightmare Moon is paramount.
Nova remained still as she studied the chalkboard in front of her, scarlet eyes narrowed in concentration. Surrounding her was an array of organized research materials and equipment that had been recently delivered to the castle at her demand. Freshly made quills, brand new parchment, and books hot off the printing press were being steadily organized into their new home in Novas’s quarters. These walls had formerly been the home of the castle’s resident court wizard…but he had made other accommodations at Nova’s suggestion.
The dragon who had belonged to Nova’s previous self, ‘She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’, was currently organizing the new laboratory equipment and research material that she had commandeered. He worked as silently as possible, so as to not incur her wrath. The new bandages covering his head and arms were a testament to how much of a bad idea it was to interrupt Nova when she was in the midst of her projects.
Nova did enjoy reminding lesser beings of their inferiority, often, and with liberally applied lightning.
Turning back to her work, Nova turned returned her thoughts to the projects, ideas, conspiracies, and theories she had accumulated in her study; at the end of the night all of Nova’s work could be summed up into three issues that demanded her absolute attention.
Her empress, Nightmare Moon, had assured her that Nova had done enough for the empire, and that she deserved to relax and revel in the midst of the empress’s success.
Nova, however, knew better.
As blasphemous as that sounded, Nova had come to realize that her empress possessed a flaw. Nightmare Moon possessed a sentiment for the ideal of motherhood. This construct was the first of the three projects that Nova was working on.
Unfortunately, she had not come closer to finding a final solution. The obvious answer was that motherhood was a societal tool used to continue the mortal species and allow young offspring to grow to a self-sustaining age.
Nova did not know why Nightmare Moon insisted on placing her into this category.
She was not blind, or deaf for that matter. Nova knew very well that she shared a biological maternal link with the empress. However, such mortal connections, and the sentiment that was attached to them, were best left to the mortals themselves and their short-sighted mindsets. As immortal alicorns that were bound to physical aspects of the universe, the idea of relationships through the commonality of shared blood was absurd.
It was apparent that Nightmare Moon shared Nova’s belief in this, at least to a certain degree. The empress had, after all, overthrown her treacherous sister. From a biological standpoint, siblings would be closer in blood than a parent and her child. The child, after all, would also share blood with the other parent, and would therefore only possess half the blood relation to either parent, unlike siblings, who were of the same blood.
Following this logic, Nightmare Moon should hold no sentiment for Nova if Celestia did not matter.
Nightmare Moon was therefore illogical.
…
…
…
“Dragon.” Nova said decisively, keeping her eyes firmly on her charts. “Come here.”
The small purple dragon hesitated for a moment then shuffled to her side. “Yes ma’am?”
“I need an illogical opinion. You are an expert in being illogical, therefore I will grant you this opportunity to speak freely so long as you do not insult either the empress or myself.”
The dragon looked from her to her charts, and his face grew slightly confused. “Uh…which project do you need an opinion on? I see three.” He said cautiously. His eyes darted from one chart to the next, and all the dots and lines connecting them. “Is it the one with the large tree, the centaur, or the alicorn?”
“The alicorn. In this case, it represents the empress and how the construct of motherhood relates to her.”
The dragon turned back to her sharply, but hesitated before asking his obvious question. “Motherhood?”
“Repetition of my clear instructions is a waste of my time, dragon.”
The dragon looked away suddenly and tried not to look at her horn for the tell-tale of sparks that her patience was ending. “Sorry. What…What is it about motherhood that confuses you?”
“The empress is acting illogically. She puts stock in the construct of a relationship between parent and child, and this is affecting her ability to rule effectively.”
The dragon paused for a significant minute. Through her peripheral vision, Nova could see that he was staring up at her. She allowed him his moment to think through his response. Dimwitted minds couldn’t be expected to answer promptly, and pushing for an answer would increase his distress and decrease his opinion’s relevance.
“Moms are supposed to love their kids.” The dragon stated as if it were obvious. “It’s…uh…automatic. It’s…well…unconditional.”
“Love.” Nova stated emotionlessly, the word foreign to her tongue. “Like Mi Amore Cadenza?”
“Well…no. Cadance doesn’t…cause it. She just helps sometimes.” The dragon scratched his head. “Boy, this is hard. She’s like a…um…a teacher. Yeah! A teacher! She doesn’t create it, she just teaches others about it.” He hesitated a moment. “She also…sometimes…maybe….guards it.”
“Provide details for your last statement.”
“She’s like Shini-“ The dragon stopped suddenly and looked away from her. Nova clearly understood that he was about to compare Cadenza to the deceased Royal Guard captain currently on display in the royal statuary garden.
Good. He was learning.
“She…is like a guard.” The dragon said finally, a note of sorrow in his voice that Nova ignored. “She protects it from those that…uh…misuse it or put it in danger. Like…people that create love spells or like this one time she imprisoned somepony because he would beat his wife.”
“So Cadenza was a massive waste of resources.” Said Nova. “I knew this. Give me a statement on why you think the empress feels the need to act on a biological construct.”
The dragon’s confusion seemed only to grow. Astounding.
“Because…Because she’s your mother? That’s why she loves you?” The dragon’s statements seemed framed more as question then an actual answer. “It’s a package deal?”
“But that is illogical. As an alicorn, the empress does not adhere to the same biological constructs as other mortals.”
“But love is…not biological?”
“Now you contradict yourself. You stated that the empress expresses ‘love’ for me because I am her biological child.”
The dragon was beating himself at the forehead with his palm. Clearly, this conversation was taxing his limited ability to think.
Seemingly to have calmed down enough to form a coherent thought, the dragon was silent for another moment before daring to say anything.
“It’s…hard to put into words.” He seemed to gather his courage, keeping an eye closed as if he expected to receive a bolt of lightning for his next few words. “Don’t…Don’t you feel love?”
Nova opened her mouth to respond in the negative immediately, but she paused. It was a valid question. Logically, if the empress was capable of ‘feeling’ such emotion, then Nova must also have that possibility.
It was an interesting tangent. Nova would need to carefully analyze and categorize her different feelings, if they existed.
What did she feel? Did she feel love?
She certainly felt obligation to her empress. She also felt duty and respect towards how she carried out her liege’s will throughout the empire.
Anger? Hatred? Of course. She had anger to spare and then some; that was plainly clear. It was an effort every moment of her existence to control her anger and not sully her empress’s castle with uncontrollable emotion. Such was unbecoming of an immortal of her stature or as a representative of her Imperial Majesty.
Also, her empress was displeased by her displays of anger.
The destruction of Ponyville had been a wonderful outlet for that anger. On one hoof, Nova was able to bring swift justice and destruction to the empress’s enemies. On the other hoof, Nova could stop holding back and just let loose.
Revenge on Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor had been extremely satisfying; doubly so since it furthered her empress’s ambitions and stopped an insurrection before it could even begin.
Satisfaction. Nova definitely felt that.
Ambition? Only in her empress’s interests. She had not ambition for herself. Why would she? She was second only to Nightmare Moon herself, and to consider reaching further was sacrilegious.
That reminded her of something else; the Lunar Pegasi Legions. Nova felt suspicion and caution towards the empress’s soldiers. Any ruler should have a healthy wariness of its military. Nova felt greatly suspicious of Commander Noctis, who had dared defy her orders on some semblance of honor. He was the pinnacle of the legions spread throughout Eqeustria, and therefore the example Nova held them by. The only reason Nova had not killed him for his impertinence was because the empress had ordered her not to.
If Noctis could defy Nova with impunity, and was seen to be doing it, then there was the potential for all of the Lunar Pegasi to rebel.
Nova glanced away from her charts and toward the cluster of rubble and old discarded guard armor piled up in the corner of the laboratory. She had collected large pieces of the castle’s stone that had collapsed and been knocked loose. The rubble, like the rest of Canterlot Castle’s stone, was infused with centuries of magic.
Centuries of alicorn magic.
Hence, if the Lunar Pegasi did cause trouble for her empress in the near or far future, they would be in for a rude surprise.
And a sudden demise.
But that was a side project.
So yes, she definitely felt suspicious. If Nova were to classify it further, she would say she was paranoid. However, her feelings of suspicion were justified by Noctis’s behavior.
Regret? No, that would require that she would be repentant of something.
Once Nova got to thinking more about it, it turned out she didn’t feel much. She knew there were a plethora of emotions out there, her extensive study into the empress’s maternal feelings had made her aware of this.
Should she feel more?
Nova decided that it wasn’t there, then it must not be important. She had been working at peak efficiency for the empress and that is what mattered. Anything else was surplus.
This maternal instinct the empress indulged in, however, was proving bothersome. Nova needed a solution, so that the empress could focus on more important things.
Perhaps she could fake feelings of affection and satisfy the empress’s musings.
No. That would be lying to the empress. Nova didn’t have a problem with lying to anybody else; just the empress. To do so would be to commit insubordination.
Nova scowled up at her chart depicting the Empress. It would seem that she would not find a resolution today. “You are dismissed, dragon.”
The dragon, who had been quiet up until that moment, remained so. He seemed to deflate, as if he had expected or hoped for a different reaction from her. He sullenly turned away from her, and resumed organizing the laboratory supplies.
Nova pondered for a moment. What next? Of the remaining two projects, which should she turn to?
The, ‘giant tree’ as the dragon had called it, looked promising but she had an appointment with the Empress soon. Nova did not want to incur her displeasure with that particular project in case the Empress could detect her experiments. There was a risk of being…misunderstood.
Centaur magic it was.
Luna
“I will give you this warning only once. Don’t move, don’t talk, don’t make eye contact, don’t cast spells, don’t eat, don’t breathe-“
“This sounds more like a list than a-“
“-without my express permission. Do anything and I will knock you out so fast your ancestors will feel my wrath.”
“And…there it is.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at Cadenza, but decided that she would need to exercise some patience. She needed Cadenza, or more specifically her magic, if her ritual was going to work.
Cadenza, disguised with Luna’s magic as a legionnaire, glanced curiously about. “So how are we going to help Twilight from the castle’s observatory?”
“It has the space required for the ritual I have designed, and is remote from the rest of the castle. Once the ritual has activated, we will need the privacy.”
Cadanza had turned sharply at her words and watched Luna warily as the older alicorn inspected the runes she had carved into the floor earlier. “Ritual?” She said suspiciously. “What ritual? This is the first you have mentioned it to me.”
She was right of course. Lune needed Cadenza, unfortunately, if the ritual was going to work as designed. She had therefore refrained from giving the younger alicorn any details beyond the obvious ‘Help me help Twilight.’
“Twilight has a sickness of the mind.” Luna said somberly. “She acts, talks, and behaves differently as Nova then when she called herself Twilight.”
“Shocking.” Cadenza said dryly. “I would have never guessed that.”
Luna stopped and glared at Cadenza for a single heartbeat before returning to her work. “This Nova personality is not what I intended for Twilight when I shared with her my memories.”
Cadenza’s ears snapped forward and suddenly she was much more attentive to Luna’s words. “What did you do exactly?” She paused, her tone turning accusatory. “You obviously did something, and that something clearly went wrong. At first, I had thought that you had somehow enslaved Twilight to your will and twisted her into your own image.”
The accusation stung, and Luna could taste bile at the thought of using such magic on her daughter. She let it stand though; Luna deserved for such accusations to be levied toward her after seeing what Twilight had become.
“You don’t think that now.” Luna stated, eyes turning to Cadenza. “Why? How did you glean that Nova was not my intention?”
Cadenza’s gaze sharpened, as if she could see right through Luna. “My connection to love-“she tapped her armored rump for unneeded emphasis “-allows me to see the connections between beings. Familial love, romantic love…” Cadenza’s gaze turned almost predatory. “…even the love between sisters.”
Luna halted and turned away from Cadenza’s knowing eyes. “You are foolish to tread down this path, young one. Do not forget who is princess and who is prisoner.”
“I have not forgotten.” Cadenza said ominously, as if it didn’t matter. “I saw it. I see it. Do not forget it.”
“I feel only hatred for Celestia.” Luna spat, her irritation rising. “Cease this line of thought and answer my question!”
“Liar.” Cadanza hissed. “You can lie to the world and to yourself but you cannot lie to me.”
Luna stood straight and marched over to the presumptuous alicorn furiously. She towered over Cadenza like a cold mountain. “I have indulged you thus far. Do not mistake that indulgence for leniency.”
Unexpectedly, Cadenza did not fold like Luna expected her to. “You still love your sister. You still love Celestia, even after a thousand years. I know the legends, I have heard the tales of the battle between Celestia and the Nightmare. I did not know that it was a tragedy; a fight between sisters.”
“Enough.”
For a long moment, Luna believed that Cadenza would continue on regardless. Cadenza was refusing to look away, her eyes boring into Luna’s. It would seem that her time in the dungeons had given her a backbone.
How inconvenient.
Cadenza crossed her forelegs. “I see your love for Twilight, and it is strong. It is also, in some ways, fragile. You will never stop loving her, but you also deeply fear that Twilight will not return that love. From this, I know that you would have never purposely done something that would have endangered her love for you.”
Luna could feel her face drain of blood, as she took in Cadenza’s words. Horror unlike anything she had felt before squeezed her heart. “Tell me.” She demanded, her voice frozen with dread. “Tell me what you see. Tell me more.” She whispered, almost desperately.
There was no denying it. Whatever Luna had done to Twilight in those last, desperate moments of their duel, had led to the rise of Nova.
It was her fault, and hers alone.
Cadenza’s eyes turned sorrowful, but she never broke eye contact. “It was there. She loved you. The whole time she was here in the castle, before she broke us out of the dungeon, I could see it. I wouldn’t believe it though. I thought it was a trick, or a trap, or a cruel joke. I was too scared and too foolish to realize what I was seeing.”
Luna remained silent, not even daring to interrupt. To all the world, she could have been a statue.
“And now…” Cadance closed her eyes and shuddered. “…now there is only a flicker.”
Luna slammed her eyes shut to hold back her tears. She refused to show any weakness in front of Cadenza of all ponies.
Nevertheless, she felt the need to explain what happened. She did not offer an excuse, as what she had done was inexcusable.
“We fought.” Luna admitted, and Cadenza listened silently. “She confronted me, and nearly beat me. I…I…we said some things to each other that can never be unsaid. Looking back, I may have gone…mad for a time.” Cadenza didn’t need to know the details. “When I defeated her, I wanted…I just wanted her to understand why. I thought if she could understand why I was doing all this, then she would stop and just be…my daughter. The daughter I loved so much a thousand years ago. The daughter I thought was dead.”
“What did you do?”
“My memories…all my memories. All the pain, the heartache, and the loneliness. The hate. Every moment that culminated on my taking up the mantle of Nightmare Moon. My fights with Celestia. When Twilight’s father died. The centuries imprisoned on the moon. The scorn of the common folk. I shared it all with her. I did not know that it would do this; that sharing my pain with her…would lead her to abandoning Twilight…and becoming Nova. The Death of Stars.”
“This isn’t-“ Cadenza whispered. “This isn’t a thousand years ago though. Things have changed.”
Luna snorted derisively. “Have they? Pray tell, oh wise alicorn princess, how things have changed.”
Cadenza hesitated, as Luna knew she would. “Well…I don’t know what happened a thousand years ago but-“
“Exactly.” Luna interrupted. “You don’t, but I do. I know what happened, so I know that things have not changed.” Luna looked out the window, to the blazing red stars above. “I thought I could explain this to Twilight, but she didn’t listen.”
Even though Luna could not see her, she could hear the bitterness in Cadenza’s voice. “Maybe she didn’t listen because you tortured and imprisoned her friends and family.”
“I am her family. Everything else is a lie.”
Cadenza paused, thinking, clearly trying to understand Luna. “Why do you think it’s a lie?”
Luna turned back to level her gaze at Cadenza. “I thought she was dead. I believed with all that I am that Celestia would not care for Twilight. She didn’t care for me, why would she care for my daughter? When I returned, the first thing I did was come here, to this castle, to bring justice and judgement to Celestia. And I did.”
Luna stepped forward slowly, her armored hooves clanging like a broken bell. “But…if it had been Twilight sitting on the throne, and not Celestia, then I would have stopped then and there. I would have seen that things had changed. That I was wrong, and that Celestia did care enough to love and take care of my daughter.”
Cadenza’s brow furrowed in confusion. “But she was taken care of.”
Luna bent down until she and Cadenza were eye to eye, inches apart. “Crippled, mortal, raised by commoners, and ignorant of her heritage is not what I define as cared for.”
“Crippled?” Cadenza asked. “You mean her wings?”
“Yes.”
Cadenza tapped her chin thoughtfully. “She’s never had those though, and I’ve known her since she was a foal.”
“I gave birth to her. She had wings then, she should have had them now.”
“So…you think Celestia took them away?”
“Who else could?”
Cadenza fell silent, and Luna could see that there was now a worm of doubt in the young alicorn’s mind, no matter how much she might not want it there. Cadenza tapped her foot and bit her lip as she mulled over Luna’s words.
“The ritual.” Said Cadenza, changing the subject. “What does it do, and why do you need me?”
Luna straightened up, considering how much of the truth she should actually tell Cadenza.
Apparently, Cadenza was thinking along the same lines. “You must tell me, rituals are dangerous if not done correctly, and this-“ She gestured to the hundreds of runes carved into the floor in intricate patterns. “-is the most complicated ritual I have ever seen. I’m not proficient in runes myself, but this…this is clearly beyond even what a master could understand, let alone cast.”
“Very well.” Luna knew that Cadenza wouldn’t like it, which is why she was glad that Nova had, inadvertently, given her some leverage. “This ritual is designed for me to enter Nova’s mind so that I can fix it.”
“Mind magic?”
“Not…Not exactly.” Luna hesitated. “Most mind magic can only read thoughts or intentions. My connection to the moon, and its power over dreams, can only reach the subconscious of the mind where dreams take place. Even then, my power to change or alter the mind is almost nonexistent.”
Cadenza suspicion only grew. “If it’s not mind magic...what does it do?”
“This ritual combines my ability to enter dreams with your alicorn powers, specifically the ones that deal with a being’s soul.”
Cadanza stiffened and her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “No.”
“It will only-“
“No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no. No!”
Cadenza was now slowly backing up, as if she expected Luna to attack her. She was right to be fearful of course, but Luna unfortunately needed Cadenza’s willing help. Alicorn rituals were prickly like that.
Walking forward very carefully, Luna tried to make herself as non-threatening as possible, a hard feat when she was covered in armor and with fangs for a smile. “I must get to the part where the mind meets the soul, which is the only place where it might be possible to separate Twilight from the memories I forced on her.”
“I won’t help you with this!” Cadenza spat. “You will only make things worse!”
"Hah!" laughed Luna. "How could things be worse?"
Cadenza had backed herself into a corner, well actually, Luna had backed Cadenza into a corner. She couldn’t let the only pony capable of letting her fix Twilight try to escape could she?
Luna took a deep breath and sat down, restraining the urge to slap some sense into Cadenza. Or just slap her, which she really wanted to do. She had to convince Cadenza to help with the ritual, or everything was for nothing.
“Help me with this Cadenza,” Luna started, trying to placate the distraught mare. “and I will restore him whom you love to you.”
Cadenza’s eyes grew wide with disbelief at Luna’s audacity, then she snarled angrily at Luna. “You must think I’m stupid if you think that I’ll believe that mouthful of garbage. Nothing can bring a soul back from the dead.”
“Ah!” Luna held her hoof up to halt Cadenza from further interrupting. “That’s just the thing. Captain Armor is not dead.”
Cadenza stopped, and looked out the window towards the castle gardens. Nova must have gloated to her at some point of Armor’s current display location on one of her occasional visits to the dungeon.
Cadenza turned away and Luna could see the faintest hint of a tear sliding down her face. “Do not be so cruel, to throw this false hope at me.”
“It is not false.” Luna asserted. “And I can provide evidence.”
“…how?”
Luna turned to a corner of the observatory and used her magic to lift the spell of invisibility that she had cast earlier in preparation for this eventuality. She had known that she would need some sort of leverage to get Cadenza to assist with the ritual.
The spell rippled as it collapsed, revealing the statue of Captain Shining Armor.
Luna threw a scroll at Cadenza. “That spell is able to detect life in petrified beings like this. My ancient Night Watch used it to help cockatrice victims who wandered the badlands.”
Cadenza unrolled the scroll and her eyes roved across it back and forth as she read it. It was a simple spell, so Luna was sure that Cadenza would be able to understand the mechanics and recognize that it was genuine, and not a trick.
Cadenza trotted forward slowly, oddly hesitant to approach the statue. She cast a backwards glance at Luna, who aid nothing so as not to interrupt. Cadenza’s horn lit up, shining through the illusion. A soft gasp escaped her, and she rushed over to drape herself over the statue.
“He’s alive…He’s alive…”
“The spell Nova used is an imitation of what a cockatrice’s gaze. It is therefore reversible.” Luna confirmed.
“But…Nova says she killed him…she would boast about it, trying to get me to react to her.”
Luna shrugged. “She might actually believe that, or she only said that to make you give up hope while Armor died slowly. I do not actually know.”
Cadenza froze, then slumped and sighed. “There’s a catch isn’t there?”
Luna nodded, her lips twitching as a smile threatened to break out across her face. She did love to outmaneuver her opponents. “I have the spell to counteract the petrification, but I will only give it to you if you help me with the ritual.”
Cadenza shook her head, tears falling freely onto Armor’s stony face.
“Don’t be so hasty in your decision, this is an expiration date on my offer. Specifically, Captain Armor’s expiration.”
Cadenza turned to glare at her again, but the effect was ruined by the tears glittering in her eyes. “So if I don’t help you…Shining will die without the counter-spell.”
“Precisely. If a being is petrified too long, it becomes permanent, and the victim dies.”
Of course, there was an exception to that rule, but Cadenza didn’t need to know about him. It didn’t apply to Shining Armor anyway.
“I thought…that we had turned a corner…” Cadenza lamented.
“I will do anything to save Twilight.” Luna said coldly. “Anything.”
The two alicorns remained still. Cadenza softly caressed Armor’s face while Luna loomed over the two of them like a winter storm. Cold and uncaring. The only sound that could be heard was the wind rattling the windows.
“No.”
“You insolent mare!” Luna screeched. “I give you this opportunity to save Twilight and Captain Armor. This single opportunity and you would throw it away?!”
Cadenza didn’t even bother to acknowledge Luna’s fury.
Luna started pacing back and forth angrily, thinking of ways to get Cadenza to provide the magic for the ritual to work. “I should throw you back into that cell and let you rot for a few centuries!”
“I won’t trade Twilight’s soul for Shining’s life. Shining would agree with me, and that will haunt me until the end of time. So there is no way I will ever help you-“
“Save your self-righteousness! Do not tell me that mare was not meant to meddle! I will bring Twilight back even if it takes me millennia!”
“-unless I go with you. I won’t change Twilight, but I will restore her. If I go with you, I can see what you will do and I can stop it if you go too far.”
Luna halted and blinked, genuinely taken aback. She chuckled, and soon she was full on laughing!
“Alright then!” Luna turned and held out an armored hoof, letting her magic flow through it. Her hoof lit aflame with magical blue fire, giving the room an eerie glow. “You have yourself a bargain Mi Amore Cadenza! I will give you the spell to free Captain Armor and you will provide the magic necessary for the ritual to work! Then, together, you and I will restore my daughter!”
Cadenza turned around, and looked down at her hoof, considering. A deal struck between two alicorns with their magic was very powerful, and very dangerous if broken.
Cadenza clapped her hoof with Luna’s, sealing the pact.
Finally, something was going right.