By Luna’s Light: Luna
“Sieg Starfleet!” the cry rose from the throat of every soldier, from every sailor, from every loyal citizen. The cry arose from the parade grounds and the streets, the cry resounded across the stars, the cry made ancient thrones and mighty empires tremble. “Sieg Starfleet!”
“Mister Bolt,” Luna snapped. “Our moment is slipping away from us.”
“Sieg Starfleet!”
Brass Bolt was still fiddling with his equipment. “I’m almost…and I’m done.” He gave her a thumbs up. “You’re on, princess.”
“Thank you,” Luna said softly, as she walked out onto the street. Few people noticed her as she emerged from the house. A few did, someone took a picture of her, somepony even waved, but for the most part people took little notice as she walked to the podium that her guards had already set up. If anypony was curious about the podium, stamped with her lunar symbol, or about the cameras there were set up facing that same podium, nopony exhibited any curiosity.
Luna did not resent that. It was only natural, with Celesto’s broadcast taking up so much attention.
“Sieg Starfleet!”
Luna placed one hand upon the podium. She felt the wood, ancient and rugged, beneath her palm and underneath her finger tips. With her other hand, she gave a signal to one of the cameraponies.
“Sieg Starfleet!”
The red light changed to green. She was broadcasting.
“Excuse me just a moment,” Luna said, as her face replaced Celesto and his legions on every screen and her voice replaced the chanting of Starfleet coming out of every speaker. “Pardon me for interrupting, but I have something to say and I’d like you all to hear it.
“Good afternoon my friends. My name is Princess Luna, and if you live on the world of United Equestria then you may have seen my work if you happen to be out after dark.” She smiled briefly into the camera, before her face settled into a more sombre aspect. “But I am not here merely to speak to those of you who admire the beauty of the night sky, but to all of you: all ponies, all citizens of the United Dominion, friends old and new far-flung across the reaches and expanse of space lend me your ears…and more than that I beg you lend me too your hearts.
“I am speaking to you all today because I must. I am speaking to you all today because it is a matter of grave urgency. I am speaking to you all today…because I owe you all a heartfelt apology.
“For these years past I have watched as the world that we knew, the world we shared together, underwent great change. Changes that, I am sure that you will agree with me, have been very much for the worse compared with what came before. I have watched, as many of you have no doubt watched, in silence. I watched as we surrendered our lands, the homes that we had built together, to an invading army and I did not speak out.
“I watched as the harmony of races that we had built through great labours was trampled beneath the self-proclaimed superiority of Starfleet and I did not speak out. I watched as vast prisons were erected where innocent ponies, innocent creatures of all kinds were flung without any cloak of fair law to rot for the rest of their days for committing the most trivial offences and I did not speak out. I watched as pony hands in ever greater numbers turned from the arts of harmony and peace to fashioning machines of war, to serving in ever-expanding armies, to crewing ships constructed to bring death and destruction across the stars and I did not speak out. I watched as a people and a country whom I had loved for its kindness and compassion waged incessant and relentless wars and I did not speak out. I watched as pony blood and pony treasure was spent like water for the acquisition of illusory power and the maintenance of valueless prestige and I did not speak out.
“I watched as my own beloved sister was trapped in a loveless marriage, made a prisoner in her own palace, and I did not speak out.”
Tears were falling down Luna’s cheeks by now, and welling up in her eyes so that the cameras were a little blurry to her sight.
“I watched as Twilight Sparkle, most admirable of ponies, was ground down beneath this system of iniquity and destroyed and I did not speak out though I owed her my very life.
“Friends, ponies, fillies and gentlecolts, I am speaking out now.”
“No!” Celesto roared up at Luna’s detestable face upon the screens. “No! Stop her! Turn off that broadcast!”
“We-we can’t, sire,” one of the technicians furiously working on their computers pleaded. “She…she’s hijacked the main broadcast feed somehow.”
“Then cut the feed!”
“We can’t, she’s hijacked the master control as well. We’re being locked out!”
“Useless!” Celesto bellowed. This was impossible! This was inconceivable! How could she? How dare she? He was…he had…to insult his Starfleet in such a way! To insult him in such a way! To imply that any of the things that he had done were in any way bad or wrong, was she an idiot? Couldn’t she see that he was helping this world and all these wretched ponies to achieve perfection?
Wasn’t that obvious to a blind mare?
She would pay for this. By heaven and his divine parentage she would pay. The moon had risen upon Equestria for the last time.
He glanced at the late Colonel Starlight Glimmer, standing in the shadows just off-stage. She sensed his gaze, and looked towards him. Her robotic eye looked almost…expectant.
No. That was not to be. Luna was a powerful creature in her own right, to defeat her would be beyond the skills even of such as Starlight.
And such a challenge as Luna was issuing to him could only be answered one way.
“Sire?” Captain Shaina said. “We’re getting…it’s unclear what’s going on exactly, but there are reports of some kind of disturbance at the palace.”
Celesto’s face contorted with rage. So that was your plan, Luna? To distract me and stab me in the back? Do you think I have no capable instruments? “Colonel Glimmer, return to the palace at once and lay waste to all you find there who are my enemies.”
Colonel Glimmer bowed her head. She looked almost excited as she turned away towards the palace.
“Captain Shaina!” Celesto roared.
“Majesty?”
“Assemble your troops and follow me!” Celesto snapped. “It is time for my sister-in-law to learn that my indulgence has its limits.”
How long will it take you to get over here, Celesto? I wonder?
How long will I have to keep talking?
“The Grand Ruler is a tyrant,” Luna declared to all the space where Starfleet held sway. “Starfleet, far from keeping the inhabitants of the galaxy safe, is the instrument for the imposition of that tyranny? How many sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, lovers have perished in the wars that Starfleet and their Grand Ruler have driven? What has been gained by all the great victories that Starfleet has won, save for the opportunity to wage more wars, to shed more blood, to send more good ponies to fight and die for mirages of glory?
“How many ponies do you know that have been arrested by Starfleet for trivial offences, never to be seen again?
“How many of you recall the better days that came before, the days when the realm was at peace without and in harmony within, the days when six extraordinary mares defended this world from evil through the magic of friendship, keeping Equestria safe through the power of the ties that bound their hearts together and all without the need for an army or a fleet of dreadnoughts.
“How many of you remember when this world was so much better than it was now?
“I should have spoken out long before now. I should have spoken out when Starfleet first assumed the rule of this land. I should have spoken out at my sister’s wedding. I should have spoken out when the first sumptuary laws were imposed upon you all. I should have spoken out…I should have spoken out after Twilight Sparkle died.
“But I am speaking to you now, and if there is to be any hope of things going back to the way they were before, if we are to have any hope of regaining the peace and harmony that were once our birthright, then I must ask you all to stand with me and stand up! Stand up against the Grand Ruler, stand up against Starfleet, stand up and say no more! Stand together as one and we will prevail, we will take back our world, I promise you, I swear it.
“The Grand Ruler is a monster. His Starfleet is full of monsters. No doubt to many of you that makes them fearful. I do not deny that there is much about them to be afraid of. But there is a thing that children know, that every old mare’s tail is designed to teach them, a thing that too many grown up mares and stallions forget: monsters can be fought. Monsters can be defeated. So long as we hold onto hope, so long as we hold onto one another, to the ties that bind us together in harmony, then we can not only fight, we can prevail. Ponies of Equestria, ponies across the stars, friends old and new I say to you, I call to you, I beg of you…rise!
“If you want a better future for your children, arise! If you want to free your family from the threat of death in a pointless war, arise! If you want to see Equestria become again the wonderful place it was before, arise! Rise, all decent ponies, rise all good folk, rise all and take back your world.
“Take back you destiny from those who grind it into blood and ruin.”
“Silence!”
The Grand Ruler’s voice echoed across the square. All eyes, that had been turned to Luna, snapped to the other side of the square where Celesto stood, flanked by his guards, glowering at her.
“And here he is,” Luna said, and without her needing to explicitly indicate it, one of the cameras turned to train on the Grand Ruler, whose image briefly adorned the screen before the focus returned to Luna herself. “The Grand Ruler himself, he who has brought so much misery to our-“
“Silence, I say!” bellowed the Grand Ruler. “Silence, witch! Silence, demon! Silence, evil black as the night you love so well! Pay no attention to the falsehoods of this creature-“
“Falsehoods,” Luna declared. She held out one hand, and Captain Catseye handed Luna her spear. She said nothing to her guards, or to those operating the cameras, but nevertheless they began to melt away. They had discussed this beforehand, and even those guards who had argued most fiercely against it had consented, in the end, to follow her orders. They were leaving now, and within Brass Bolt too would be making his escape. There was no need for them all to be caught in the net, not while all attention was focussed upon Luna.
I am sufficient to light the spark. I hope.
“Falsehoods, is it?” Luna asked, as she planted the butt of her spear upon the ground. “Falsehoods. Do you deny that ponies have been imprisoned without trial?”
“The evidence is overwhelming-“
“Do you deny that they are never released?”
“The community is kept safe-“
“Do you deny that wars are waged across the stars for the aggrandisement of Starfleet, and that many gallant ponies give their lives in these wars?”
“They should be honoured to die for me!” the Grand Ruler yelled. “All of these pathetic ponies should be honoured to die for my glory! What else are they good for? What could they do, greater than giving their lives for the greatness of Starfleet and of my self?”
Luna’s expression was as cold as midnight in winter. “I see. What, then, have I said that was remotely untrue?”
The Grand Ruler’s expression was contorted with fury as he advanced on Luna. He made his way alone, his guards stood back. Doubtless he feared he would look weak if he required the help of his minions to tackle a single mare from an inferior race.
The crowd fell back before him, parting like a sea in the face of his advance. They were afraid. They were terrified. His power, the tremendous aura of might that clung to him like perfume had put the fear in them.
It is my allotted part to put a dent in that aura, even if I cannot dispel it completely.
“You,” the Grand Ruler snarled. “You are a wicked creature. You are a darkness! You have always been a darkness! All ponies know how you were once consumed with evil, and consumed with evil you remain! How else could you speak slanders against the glory of Starfleet, how else could you spit upon my majesty, how else could you scorn the good that we have done.”
“You mean the evil you have done?” Luna replied. “I see no good in you.”
“Monster!” hissed the Grand Ruler. “What could a creature born of the dark know of goodness? You are, and have always been, truly evil and it was only the foolishness and weakness of Equestria that blinded them to it. Redemption is as worthless as friendship.”
“I am redeemed by friendship, a force more powerful that you can comprehend.”
The Grand Ruler produced a sword out of his cane, and flourished it in his hand. “And do you expect friendship to save you from my wrath?”
Luna twirled her spear in one hands, before assuming a guard stance with her shining shield held before her. “I expect to light a spark of hope that will become a flame strong enough to burn all the crimes of Starfleet to mere ashes.”
“Hope,” the Grand Ruler spat contemptuously.
“Yes, hope,” Luna said. “A magic more powerful than any at your command.”
“Your hope will be in vain.”
“Come and prove it,” Luna said.
Celestia sat upon her bed, holding the note that one of the servants had delivered to her.
It was stamped and sealed with Luna’s mark, but why should Luna be writing her a letter? And why should she have it delivered by some palace functionary?
Had they grown so distant that her sister no longer wished to speak to her? And which of them might be sliding into madness as a result?
Celestia bowed her head. Had she been preoccupied? Had she been neglecting Luna again? Had she…perhaps. It was hard to tell. Celesto, he didn’t like to…
And when was I ever the sort to let something like that stop me?
Oh, Luna, what am I becoming?
She had half a mind to go down to Luna’s room and ask her why she had started sending notes, but that struck Celestia as a somewhat petty course of action to adopt. To refuse to read the letter on principle would be rather petulant of her; it would be better to go see Luna after she had read the note, so that they could talk about the contents like not only sisters, but also civilised ponies.
With one finger, Celestia broke the seal of blue wax and opened the note.
My dearest Celestia, my beloved big sister,
I owe you a tremendous apology. Not only have I been neglecting my duties as a diarch of Equestria, but I have also failed to behave as the sister that I would like to be, the sister that you deserve.
Celestia’s brow was crinkled by a frown. “Luna,” she murmured. “What in Equestria are you talking about?
Celesto’s blade rang like a peal of thunder as it clashed against Luna’s silver shield.
Luna grimaced as she felt the shock of his blow reverberate not only across the square but also in her own bones, making her whole body tremble with the force that was being levelled against it. She countered with a thrust of her spear, making Celesto retreat before her, using his hollow cane to parry.
He was strong. She had expected as much, but a part of her had hoped that things might prove otherwise. Celesto rarely went out to fight in his own right, not even in his propaganda pieces did he venture forth in arms too often, and so Luna had entertained some small hope that he would prove to be a paper tiger. Instead, it appeared that his strength was as great as vaunted but, somewhat like her own sister, he preferred to use others as his instruments.
No, that is too cruel to Celestia. What she did…Twilight and her friends were far better able to confront these menaces than she was; armed with the Elements of Harmony…
Celestia had her reasons, what is the Grand Ruler’s excuse.
I hope he values Lightning as much as Celestia valued Twilight.
Values Twilight.
He was every bit as strong as his reputation. Their combat had barely begun but he was already threatening to bring Luna out in a sweat.
Still, she had sought out this battle and she would fight it to the best of her ability and the limits of her strength.
As Celesto retreated, so Luna advanced, driving forwards, thrusting her shield out before her, forcing him onto the defensive as she thrust for him with her shining spear.
Celesto brought his sword down on her spear, beating it downwards before reversing his stroke to slash at Luna’s face. Luna took the blow upon her shield, but now it was her turn to be forced back.
Celesto did not pursue. Instead he looked at her as though he did not understand.
“Why do you use no magic?” he demanded. “Surely you realise that you will need it even to keep pace with me.”
“You have no magic, therefore I use no magic. It’s called chivalry.” Luna smirked. “And besides, I wouldn’t want to make this too easy for myself, would I?”
She was rewarded with a wordless shout of rage as Celesto came for her.
Had our places been reversed, had it been me who was to be given in marriage to an odious brute, who was to be trapped in the bed of a pony that I did not love, slave to his cruel whims and desires, there is not a single doubt in my mind that you would have done everything in your power to spare me from this fate. And yet I cannot say that I have done everything, or anything at all, to spare you. You are the older sister, true, but I am quite a big girl myself, and I have an obligation to you just as great as any obligation that you might have towards me.
And yet I let the bloat ruler take you to his bed and claim you as his own and plough you and use you and force you to bear his children. And what did I do? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Please forgive me, sister. I wasn’t there when you needed me most.
Celesto hammered on her shield, sword and cane alternating blows, beating on it as though he were a smith forging weapons for ragnarok, incessantly hammering upon the anvil as the day of judgement drew near.
Luna crouched down, holding her shield above her, letting it take the blows just as an umbrella takes the rain, listening to the thunder above her, feeling each blow echo through her body.
I suppose I should be grateful that he hasn’t thought to hit anything but the shield.
He was freakish strong, as the shaking in her bones and the rents and dents that were beginning to appear in and upon her shield gave evidence, but he didn’t appear to have much imagination.
Just like he didn’t appear to realise that, by just standing there and beating on her shield in an effort to destroy it, he was leaving his legs wide open.
Luna’s spear lashed out to strike at his foot as swift as a rattlesnake.
Celesto howled in pain, leaping back as Luna, her spear dripping with the sparkling blood of the Grand Ruler, got up off the ground and went for him like a mastiff.
She hit him in the face with her battered shield, snapping his head back with a satisfying cracking sound. She lunged at him with her spear, and though he had sufficient premonition of what she intended to turn away, the blade still sliced across his chest. It opened up his suit and drew blood as Celesto cried out.
How long had it been, Luna wondered, since he had last suffered real pain?
She hit him in the face with her shield again, and jabbed at him with her spear again, and this time she caught him in the shoulder, making him squeal. She jabbed once more, but this time he parried with his sword and beat her spear down before he slashed at her, making her retreat.
Luna fell back a few paces, and let her ruined shield drop from her arm to land with a clatter on the ground. She gripped her spear in both hands, and twirled it experimentally.
She glanced towards the cameras.
“Monsters can be fought,” she declared. “Never forget that, monsters can be fought! Monsters can be fought, and gods can bleed.”
I am here now, and I swear that I will always be with you from now on.
You may wonder at my writing to you, instead of talking like a sister should. You may wonder at my coldness of late, and I do not deny that I have kept you at a distance.
At the risk of sounding incredibly patronising, it was for your own protection.
You are – you were, though I know not what is to come next – the only thing preventing the wholesale subjugation of the Equestrian peoples. You were the last pillar of the old world still standing. I know that it isn’t fair to put such a burden upon your shoulders but it is the truth: you are the only thing keeping the worst of the chaos at bay. Equestria could not afford to lose you, certainly it could not afford to lose you as a result of my actions.
And yet I fear for the future, sister. I fear for you, in the days to come when you are-
You are the bravest, the wisest, the kindest, the strongest, the very best mare that I know and yet I fear for you. You are not safe. That much must surely be obvious to you but if possible you are even more unsafe now than you were before. Celesto is planning something. I do not know exactly what but I am certain it portends no good for this world or its people. Trust Sunset Shimmer, she will come for you soon and she is as well prepared for this storm as any pony can be.
I have chosen her, and I think you will agree she is the best choice in the circumstances.
I think back, sometimes, to when we were children. To how often you would scold me for my foolishness, my impulsiveness, for the wrong-headedness of my decision making. You were so grown up then, so serious, so clever and, it must be said, such a complete and utter dork some of the time. Some of the things that I remember would probably mortify you if I were to write them down.
Celestia giggled. “I bet they would, Luna.”
I am so very glad that time taught you how to have a little fun, and so very sad that I wasn’t there to see it.
When you find out what I have done, what I am doing right now, you will probably think that it was another example of my foolish decision-making in action.
But I ask you to trust me, sister, one last time.
This is the only path I could have chosen.
Celesto looked incensed. He looked as though his anger was about to consume him. He bared his teeth at her like a beast. His whole body trembled with rage. There were rings around his eyes as red as the blood staining his garments.
If he had wanted to kill her before, now he wanted to make her suffer before she died.
Perfect.
Celesto’s three golden horns began to glow. Clearly he had tired of trying to kill her with his bare hands and had decided to simply use the uniforce on her and have done.
“Do you really think I’ll give you time to charge your attack?” Luna growled under her breath as she threw herself at him, spear whirling in her hands. The glow of his horns was still faint, he was nowhere near being ready to fire, but equally it was clear he hadn’t expected her to attack him before he was ready. She hit him across the face with the shaft of her spear, slashed him a second time across the chest wielding her spear like a halberd, she knocked the hollow cane out of his hand-
And Celesto caught her spear with one hand, gripping it so firmly and so tight that Luna couldn’t even move it.
Celesto’s smile was savage. It was the smile of an animal about to feed. It was the smile of a shark scenting blood.
It was the smile of someone who knew he had her.
And he did.
His first stroke cut through her cuirass, slicing through it as though it were paper, or else that plastic or spandex that he armoured his own soldiers in. Luna did not cry out, but she did reel backwards, letting go of her spear in the process, and it was without a weapon that she faced him as he pursued her. He wielded his sword in succession of slashing strokes. Luna brought up her arms to shield herself, but he sliced through her braces as easily as he had her cuirass, and cut through her arms to the bone.
Even the bone was sliced partway through before Luna dropped her arms.
She did not cry out.
She did not cry out as he split her helm in two and brought down his sword upon her head. She did not cry out as one eye became filled with blood. She did not cry out as he pummelled her face. She did not cry out as he sliced through her belly, not though it was so painful that she thought she might pass out. She did not cry out as he cut at her like an incompetent butcher and left her prone upon the ground, bleeding from a dozen or a score of wounds, lying in a pool of her own blood, her body opened and her bones shattered, unable to move, only able to see out of one eye.
Her armour was gone. Her body was broken.
But it was a victory, albeit one that Celesto could never conceive the like of.
She watched as he picked her spear up off the ground. He stood over her. His horns were no longer glowing. He had no need of the uniforce any longer.
He raised her spear up in the air.
Goodbye.
I love you, big sister.
“No,” Celestia murmured, getting to her feet as the letter fell from her trembling. “No. No, no, no! Luna…Luna what have you done? What have you done? Luna?!”
Luna smiled.
“You smile?” Celesto demanded. “You smile? By what right do you smile? I have beaten and broken you utterly? You are defeated before me and now you will die, why do you smile?”
Luna laughed, though it pained her to do so and her laughter was interrupted by coughing up blood. “Because now the whole galaxy can see you as you really are: a blood-stained tyrant.”
Celesto’s eyes widened.
Luna’s smile broadened. “Smile, your majesty. You’re on candid camera.”
Celesto appeared to have forgotten that he was being filmed. He looked up and there, on the screen, stood he: covered in blood, a mixture of his own and Luna’s.
Everyone could see him this way, just as they could see the bestial, animalistic fashion in which he had torn Luna to shreds.
“I think that people, seeing us here, will start to wonder which of us was really the monster,” Luna whispered.
They had seen the monster bleed, and they had seen him confirm his own monstrosity by his actions before them.
That was why it had been necessary for Luna herself to do this. Not just as a distraction for Sunset and Twilight’s friends – with good fortune they would already be away from here – but also because she was the only one strong enough to fight Celesto like this, to force him to remove his mask and show his true form in front of everyone.
Only she could make him show himself as the monster that he was. And now everypony, everyone, could see it.
And now that they had seen it they would not be about to unsee it.
Just as they would be unable to unsee the fact that Luna had made him bleed.
Those two things combined would light the spark of a resistance that would cleanse United Equestria of all its sins.
Such was Luna’s hope, anyway. And what was more important than hope.
So long as they have hope, they will surely prevail.
Celesto seemed to have worked some of this out as well, for he bellowed like a bull as he raised Luna’s spear to impale her.
Now.
Luna’s horn erupted with light, blinding light that filled the eyes of everypony in the square, making them turn away and draw back from her. The light filled the entire square, the light rose to the sky…and then the light dimmed as all of Luna’s magic emerged from her horn in a vast cloud and shot across the skies of New Canterlot in search of the new host that Luna had chosen.
Sunset. I leave the rest to you.
Luna barely felt the spear pierce her body. She had already begun to fade away.
She heard, just about, somepony yell, “Murderer!” at the Grand Ruler.
She heard somepony cry out her name like a battle-cry, “For Princess Luna!”
And then she heard nothing else.
Good luck, Sunset Shimmer.
Good luck, Twilight Sparkle.
Good luck…everyone.
Goodbye, big sister.
Tears deluged Celestia’s face, and she wailed in horror as she felt her sister leave the world.