//------------------------------// // 8. Revelation // Story: An Early Reunion // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Starlight paced back and forth across the Balcony Room, not caring about the castle staff that was staring at him. It probably had a different proper name, but Starlight had never learned it, and its most obvious potential name – the Map Room – referred to an entirely separate chamber located near Canterlot’s library. As a result, the room that contained the intricate map of Equestria on its floor and the heavens embedded into its ceiling was, in Starlight’s mind, named after its next most defining features, the three wide, rail-less balconies that looked east, west, and north. Starlight usually met with Luna here every dawn, and had for the past eight years, ever since she had returned to Canterlot and selected him to be her majordomo. A nocturnal creature by choice, Luna would set the moon and the stars, raise the sun, and then impart final instructions to him – while he would give her a final report on the course of the day, assisted by the half-dozen ponies that stood near the door, each carrying ledgers and scrolls – before retiring one story up, to her chambers in the tallest tower. Starlight would typically himself retire as well, for as long as the Princess chose to be a creature of the night, her majordomo could be little else. There were also servants present, who would typically take the royal regalia from Luna to be cleaned and polished while she slept; and rounding out the group were a pair of Night Guards, in this instance two unicorns, who were mostly around for ceremonial purposes. Eight years of routine, never broken before. Until, that was, today. For that matter, yesterday had skirted uncomfortably close to breaking routine, as well, and Luna had given in to her baser desires near its start, when she had assaulted the wine cellar. And the revelation that the pink mare claiming to be Celestia really was an alicorn, then Luna and her flying off, utterly abandoning the Night Court – such as it was, what with three provinces in five of Equestria still refusing to send representatives to Canterlot, as they continued to not trust Luna’s rule – and basically wasting an entire night on Stars only knew what. He wasn’t precisely worried. The sun had risen at its normal time, or at least so close to it that Starlight couldn’t tell the difference. So, at the very least, Luna was most likely alright. Nevertheless, her odd behavior over the past twenty-four hours… At length, there was noise from the eastern balcony. Stopping in his pacing and looking up, he saw Luna alighting upon it, as gently and quietly as possible, for lying across her back was the pink alicorn, the ‘Celestia reborn,’ as she claimed to be, eyes closed. Starlight also noted – with a small amount of distress – that Luna’s regalia was missing, as was the fairly expensive dress that the pink alicorn had come to see Luna wearing. Starlight trotted over to the Princess, heedless of the fact that his hoof-steps were making firm clack-clack clack-clacks on the tiled floor beneath him. “Your Majesty – ” he began. Luna shot him a wide-eyed glare, which stopped him in his tracks, then nodded her head towards the sleeping alicorn on her back. “Quiet,” she ordered, her voice just barely audible, as she made her way forward at a considerably more quiet pace. “She hath had a long night and is soon to have an even longer day. Let her sleep while she can.” Starlight blinked a few times, before nodding and looking behind him, to the servants that had apparently approached more delicately than he. “Take her from the Princess and – ” he began, quietly. Luna, however, cut him off again, this time with a slight cutting motion made with one wing. “I shall carry her,” she said as she made her way past the servants and paid little notice to the ponies bearing scrolls and ledgers and an entire night’s worth of work that had been wasted. Starlight frowned at that. “Majesty, there is no need to burden thyself – ” “Remember, Starlight, that from my perspective, being a princess – being waited upon mouth and hoof – is still a relatively new experience for me next to how long I have lived,” Luna interrupted, not slowing her gait. “I have moved mountains. A young mare can hardly compare to that.” Starlight bristled, slightly, at the rebuke. Of course Luna was fully capable of carrying the alicorn on her back; that wasn’t the point. Nevertheless, she was still the Princess, and so he nodded after several long moments – Luna not slowing down in the slightest – turning to the servants and the bookkeepers. “The Princess will continue to put the affairs of the Night Court on hold,” he instructed them. “I will call you when you are needed. With her Majesty’s permission…?” He turned back to Luna, looking for confirmation of his order – and a reaction to his not-so-subtle jab at her – but found himself looking at an open door, through which he just managed to catch sight of the billowing, starry tail of the princess. The Night Guards had also left without informing him, not that they were required to. Starlight’s eye twitched as he briefly considered staging a coup, if only to get the Princess to stop ignoring affairs of state. Sighing mightily, he turned to the other ponies in the room and simply waved a hoof. “Go on, get some rest, it’s not as though Equestria is still barely recovering from twelve years of anarchy and abandonment…” he intoned. The collected ponies’ reactions were made of equal parts shock, dismay, and bemusement at so blatant a critique of the Princess and her twelve-year disappearance from Canterlot. Starlight didn’t give them a chance to respond, however, instead turning and setting off after Luna. Catching up to her wasn’t hard; talking to her, however, was, as she appeared to have surrounded herself, out to a twenty-foot radius, in a circle of silence. Starlight briefly considered using the opportunity to ‘voice’ his appraisal of the situation and vent some frustration, but decided against it: just because he couldn’t hear himself when near Luna, didn’t meant that Luna herself was rendered deaf. Instead, he settled on following her, and the two Night Guards that escorted her, to the guest quarters that she had instructed the alicorn and her retainer to be set up in. Once she had arrived, she dispelled her radius of silence and knocked softly on the door. The brown pegasus – Cartasole, was his name? – answered it within moments, as though he had been waiting for it. His eyes widened at the sight of Luna, widened further at the sight of the pink alicorn draped across her back, but – much to Starlight’s personal dismay – he kept his mouth firmly shut when he noticed that the pink alicorn was sleeping. “She is fine,” Luna said quietly at a pleading glance from Cartasole, as she stepped into the room, horn glowing and lifting the pink alicorn from her back gently, guiding her to the bed and laying its covers across her prone form. Once she was settled, Luna retreated from the room, beckoning for Cartasole to follow. The pegasus did, but only after checking on the pink alicorn’s sleeping form himself. “Thy mistress is merely sleeping,” Luna instructed the stallion once he was outside of the room and the door had been partially closed. “We spent the night talking, and flying, and dueling – ” “What?” Starlight demanded. Luna shot him a glare, but he had kept his voice down despite emphatically not wanting to, so she couldn’t really admonish him. After a moment, she turned back to Cartasole. “Though Cadenza is an alicorn, she is not my sister. I have known this since we met, but did not wish to immediately disabuse her of her belief – not before getting to know her better.” Cartasole blinked several times as he took in this information. He looked surprised, but not terribly so, and seemed to be carefully considering what to do next. “I…will attend to her until she wakes,” he said solemnly. Luna favored the pegasus a thin, but genuine, smile. “Please tell Cadenza, when she is ready, that I can see her at any time she desires.” She paused a moment, then leaned in slightly. “And please, ensure that she does not do something foolish, such as flee Canterlot in shame. She strikes me as the kind who might utterly overreact.” Cartasole blinked several times at that, as though wondering if he was supposed to be laughing or confirming what the princess said. He settled on a nod, which Luna returned before bidding him leave. Even after he left, however, Luna remained still for some moments, simply staring at the door, before letting out a long sigh and closing her eyes. “I need a drink,” she said softly. “Majesty…” Starlight said, his voice full of warning. Not that he could meaningfully follow through on any such threat, but the tone and concern was enough. Luna let out another sigh at that, turning to look at him for a moment. “I have had a long night,” she said, beginning to trot away. “Majesty, no,” Starlight insisted, galloping ahead of her – much to the consternation of the two Night Guards, still present, although they did not immediately act to stop him. “Thou hast been acting strangely since this Cadenza first arrived. She is but one of nearly three dozen impersonators of thy sister!” Luna stopped her pace, staring down at Starlight. “She is an alicorn. I promise thee this, Starlight.” “And I believe thee, Majesty,” Starlight responded. “But that does not change that this alicorn has incited thee to drink, thy first out of turn in years. Thou hast shirked thy responsibilities to the Night Court – ” Luna rolled her eyes. “A single night will cause no harm – ” “That does not change that thou hast been doting upon Cadenza like a mother doting upon a newborn foal, when thou hardly knowest her! I apologize, Majesty, but I must insist thou explain thine actions!” Luna stared at Starlight. The purple unicorn blinked a few times, before remembering exactly who he had just shouted at, and opened his mouth to lamely add a ‘please,’ but then reconsidered and elected not to. Luna had chosen him from amongst a half-dozen potential candidates precisely because he had seemed unafraid to tell Luna when she was being foolish, and eight years of being the majordomo of Canterlot Castle had only increased that tendency in him. Luna had claimed that she valued such honesty from her staff – now seemed as good a time as any to put that to the test. Luna blinked. After a moment, Starlight did too, glancing around him. He and Luna had moved – they were no longer in the hallways of Canterlot Castle, but rather inside a specific room, one that Starlight had never actually seen before, which given that he was the majordomo of Canterlot, was saying something. The room was shaped like a half-circle, and had a single large window along its curved wall, which showed Canterlot Castle and the city that surrounded it through it, but somehow no sunlight seemed to actually go beyond the sill of the window. The rest of the stone room was cast in dark blue and lit by thousands of glowing gems set into the ceiling – glow-gems which, Starlight realized when he looked at them, moved, heedless of their medium being solid stone. Despite the sheer number of gems, however, each gave off only the barest amount of light, such that the room was only dimly lit. The room probably had walls, but the walls were completely obscured by shelves, containing trinkets and sundried, baubles and curiosities, far too many for Starlight to properly take them all in, or even a portion of them, except for the strangest – on one shelf, for example, was a pound or two of what looked like perfectly normal dirt. On another shelf, sitting by itself, was what looked like a half-melted golden ring. Beneath that shelf was a large, ornate golden box, and set atop the box was a simple wooden cup. A third shelf held a quartet of simple stones, each with three white lines across them; Starlight wasn’t sure why, but he was certain that there was supposed to be a fifth stone. The shelves and spaces of the room that weren’t occupied by random trinkets, meanwhile, held books, scrolls, clay tablets, and dozens of other writing surfaces, almost none of them in languages that Starlight could read. The only other notable features of the room were a bed covered in blue sheets, large enough for several ponies – or one or two alicorns – to sleep on comfortably; and a wooden door, set into the center of the room’s straight wall and looking like it could open both ways. Starlight fancied himself a fairly intelligent unicorn, but even a simpleton could have guessed where he was. “Y…your chambers?” he asked, as he looked around. Eight years, and he had never been in this room. In point of fact, he had at times wondered if this room even existed, wondered if Luna, rather than sleeping confined in a stone castle, instead assumed some ethereal state, or slept within the moon, or something else entirely. And if this was Luna’s room, then the only door of the room wouldn’t lead down, but instead, to… …Starlight decided that, even if she was safely trapped within the burning heart of the Sun, he had no interest in finding out what Celestia’s former chambers looked like. Luna nodded, as she trotted over to her bed. Even as she walked, the bed seemed to somehow shift, molding itself from a bed into a comfortable-looking set of sitting cushions, while a similar set, albeit smaller in size, appeared nearby. “Sit, Starlight. Thine indignation is…understandable.” Starlight shifted in place slightly, before slowly trotting over to the cushions that Luna had created from nothingness and settled down on them, waiting for Luna to begin. The blue alicorn, herself, was staring at the stone floor beneath her, one hoof tracing circles on it, as though she wasn’t sure how to begin the conversation. She opened her mouth several times to do so, but each time closed it again. Finally, she grit her teeth, closed her eyes, and forced herself to speak. “Corona – Celestia – is stronger than I,” she said. “She hath always been. It is not simply that she is older, for with beings as old as we, what does a few years either way matter? It is simply a part of what she is. And twenty years ago, she had taken the Elements of Harmony and sequestered them away. So, then, Starlight. When she issued her mad decree, when she ordered the outlying provinces to be evacuated, the ponies living there to come to Canterlot – when she sent forth the armies of Equestria to force this relocation, uncaring about the massive loss of life such a displacement would cause – how dost thou suppose that I managed to overcome her?” Starlight paused at that, considering. He, in fact, hailed from one of those outlying provinces, Xenophon, on the border with the sovereign (though decaying) nation of Latigo. However, at the time, he had been little more than a colt. At length, he shook his head. “I…know not, Majesty. I had heard that thou used magic to split thyself in twain, with one of thee meeting her at her coronation, distracting her, while another part of thee readied the Elements. But…what does that have to do with – ” Luna’s eyes remained closed. “Patience,” she interrupted. “I will come to that.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts again, before continuing. “Before my sister went mad, I was lonely. I was ignored by the ponies of the world, or so I felt. None cared for the nights that I labored upon. Ponies slept through them and were frightened of the darkness and held the light of the moon and stars in contempt. And I felt envious of my sister, who was always honored, always respected, always so loved by everypony. “So I began to look at dark magic, to consider the possibilities offered by the vile magic of pacts and blood and the darkness. A plot formed in my head, Starlight, a terrible plot, one I am ashamed to speak of. I planned to overthrow my sister and bring about night eternal.” Luna laughed. “What was it you suggested yesterday? Nightmare Moon? That is what I wished to become, Starlight. “But then Celestia began falling into insanity. She began taking a harder approach towards our allies, enforcing the laws of the land with greater vigor, creating new ones to control the population. She raised taxes and increased the size of our armies, and would hear advice and council from nopony. And so, slowly, ponies began to approach me, looking for aid, looking for an alternative to Celestia’s increasing intractability. Luna shook her head. “I…I was so happy, to be needed. Gradually the ponies who came to be were able – though they did not know it – to pull me away from my dark magic. And though they spoke of the increasing harshness of Celestia, around me she still acted as she always had. Maybe a little more weary, a little less patient, but still the Celestia I had known all my life, since I was young, since the world was young. “But that was not the case. Celestia had lost her mind, becoming Corona. You know what happened next: her order to relocate tens of thousands of ponies from the outer marches to Canterlot, heedless of the mass starvation such a displacement would cause. How I challenged her in the Day Court, how she proclaimed her intention to crown herself as queen. How I stole the Elements and fled before she could slay me in anger. “But here, common knowledge ends.” Luna opened her eyes, looking at Starlight with a pained expression on her face. “Corona is stronger than I. But there was a possibility, a way to overcome her. The way I had planned to, years earlier.” Starlight’s eyes widened, and he stiffened. “Dark magic,” he intoned. Luna’s lips were pressed tightly together. “I split my body and my consciousness – and my power – in two, but not evenly,” she explained. “The vast majority took the Elements to the Everfree Forest and prepared a trap in our old palace there. But the smaller part of me did something else. I – she, really – created a calling circle, and summoned up from Tartaros a being of immense, dark power – a being that could give her the ability to fight Corona on nearly equal terms. Tirek.” Starlight stood at that, backing away from Luna. “Thou made a bargain with Tirek?” he demanded. Tirek was a demon – there was no other way to describe him – and one of the darkest, vilest creatures that had ever attacked Equestria. Grogar had never stretched his hoof beyond Tambelon; the Smooze, though immensely dangerous, had been contained within a matter of days; but Tirek? Tirek had plagued Equestria for decades on end, manipulating it from the shadows, turning it towards his dark designs, thousands of years ago. It was, in fact, the reason that Celestia and Luna had come to rule Equestria in the first place – to guide it away from the corruption and debasement of Tirek. When he had finally been defeated, he had been cast down into Tartaros, never to harm anypony again, or so Starlight had believed. Luna, at Starlight’s exclamation, shook her head. “There was no ‘bargain,’ Starlight,” Luna said. “And it was not me. I have never touched the power of Tirek. It was the other part of me.” Starlight blinked a few times, before slowly – cautiously – sitting back down. “P…prithee, explain,” he begged. Luna grimaced. “The other me did not make a deal with Tirek. Bound in Tartaros and trapped in a calling circle, he could do nothing to her despite her possessing only a fraction of my total ability. She took his power, left him as little more than a husk, and used that power to become the mare that challenged Corona at her coronation – to become thy Nightmare Moon.” “It was a gamble. The other me, the Nightmare Moon, though much closer to Corona in terms of power, was still in many ways fundamentally me – could not fight Corona with all her power. But that was never the plan. She guided Corona to the trap I had laid in the Everfree Forest, battling her, weakening her. But there, I trapped not just Corona, but Nightmare Moon as well. I shared thy fears, Starlight. I knew that the black power of Tirek could corrupt me forever. So…when I utilized the Elements of Harmony…it was not solely on Corona. And Nightmare Moon – as she was naught more than a being of black magic tethered to the barest fraction of my existence – was destroyed even as Corona was banished into the sun…or so I believed.” Starlight stared. “Oh…oh…” he intoned, rocking in place slightly when he realized where Luna’s story was going – how it was going to end. Luna pressed on anyway. “Some months later, I noticed a gathering power in the Everfree palace, a power enough to pierce through the haze of liquor I was even then drowning myself in. I went there, and felt that power gathering together, coalescing, shaping itself at the site where I had used the Elements of Harmony. I did not know what was forming, but I knew from whence it came: it was an echo, of the part of me that had borne Tirek’s power, the part of me that had been struck by the Elements of Harmony. “I tried to strike at the gathering power then and there, but the Elements themselves were protecting it. Nevertheless, I resolved that I was going to destroy it when whatever it was finally manifested, rather than risk some vestige of Tirek’s power being set loose upon Equestria. So I waited, for months on end, at the site of my sister’s banishment…” --- Luna had not moved for days, instead standing tensed, at the ready. Whatever power was gathering, at the base of the statue that contained the petrified Elements of Harmony, it was coming to a head at long last. It would be mere seconds now before whatever it was, would be made manifest. A demon of some kind? A dark twin to Luna? The Princess of the Night did not know and did not care… …there was a flash of pink-tinged light. Luna’s horn glowed as she lunged, ready to do battle, ready to strike down the evil made manifest. She had failed Equestria already by not noticing her sister’s fall into madness. She would not fail it again as she reached out with magic, preparing to… …it was a foal. Her magic, her might, all the power of the Moon and the Stars, was about to come crashing down upon a foal. Luna gasped and pulled back, barely stopping a force that could cleave mountains in half from falling upon its intended target. Luna stood as still as a rock as she stared down at the foal. The foal, a filly, was small, about the size that would be expected of any newborn pony, covered in a pink coat, with a mane of purple and cream white. Upon its brow was the tiny nub of a horn – while sitting upon its back were a pair of wings that started pink, but gradually faded towards blue towards the tips of its primaries. The foal lay still on her side for several long moments, before its legs and wings twitched, and its eyes opened, large and purple. Her eyes locked onto Luna, and after a moment, she began kicking and scrambling around, succeeding within moments of lying down upon its stomach, though it seemed to take immense effort. After several long moments of panting, the filly’s hooves scrabbled on the tiles of the courtyard beneath her, trying to stand up. However, she was unable to do much more than barely lift her barrel from the ground – her dock too high in the air while doing so – before stumbling and falling over onto her side. The foal let out a little squeal of surprise at her fall, but seemed otherwise unhurt, sitting up again after a few moments – wings spreading for balance – before trying after several long moments to stand again. Luna blinked, then grit her teeth and stood firm. “I am – ” she began, drawing upon ancient power to augment her voice such that the whole of the Everfree Forest could hear her. The reaction from the foal was instant, however – she squealed in surprise and fright, falling over onto her side. At first, the filly tried to scramble away from Luna, but tired herself out quickly, and so simply lay on her side, panting and staring at her in wide-eyed fright. Luna’s scowl deepened. This was a trick. She was faced with a black intelligence that was appearing as a foal, perhaps even was a foal, but was simply trying to prolong its unnatural existence. And even if that wasn’t the case, even if it was just a foal – she was spawned from the black power of Tirek possessing a fraction of Luna and – – and struck by the Elements of Harmony. Purified. Cleansed of evil and disharmony. Protected these past three hundred days – somewhat shorter than a pony’s normal gestation, to be sure, but not terribly so – by those same Elements from Luna’s every attempt to destroy her. Luna was not certain how the thought had not occurred to her before now, but when it came, it felt as though a mountain had fallen upon her. The Elements of Harmony had struck the part of her that had carried the power of Tirek. The Elements would have utterly destroyed Tirek’s power – but not the part of Luna that carried it. That part of Luna would have been altered, however, changed – it would not be a true copy anymore, not a part of her that could simply be reclaimed, re-absorbed, but it would be… Luna fell back onto her haunches, mouth hanging open slightly as she stared at the foal, who had begun to recover from her fright and attempt to stand again. After several moments, she succeeded, wings extended wide for balance, legs spread equally wide. This time, the foal didn’t fall over, though her eyes remained fixed firmly on the ground beneath her. Then, gradually, she began walking forward. Towards Luna. Towards a being that she owed her existence to, towards a being that she had once been a part of, but from which she was now a separate entity. Towards a pony that could only be described as her mother – as the filly could be nothing more, nor less, than Luna’s daughter.