//------------------------------// // Sister, do you recall the bat-ponies? // Story: A Flood of Starlight // by Shaslan //------------------------------// Luna watched the moon vanish below the horizon with a contented sigh. The thrill of being back on Equestria where she belonged had still not faded. Waving aside her courtiers with a gentle shake of her head as they pressed forward, she padded silently down the shadowy corridors that Celestia had built for her centuries ago. She felt exhausted, but when she reached her private tower, she paused and smiled quietly to herself. One of the many talents it seemed Celestia had had the time to perfect in Luna’s millennium of absence was interior decoration. The ceiling was black marble, spangled with diamonds in the exact layout of the constellations that Luna had placed with such care eons ago. Every diamond was spelled to glow softly, and it was like looking up at the night sky itself, even during the day. The windows were made of thick, smoked glass, so that when Luna drew the purple velvet curtains to look out, the garish colours of the day would not hurt her eyes. The bed was an enormous sunken circle, big enough for six Luna’s and strewn with soft purple and grey cushions. Everything was exactly to Luna’s tastes, or as close as Celestia could make it. She had shown the rooms to Luna very anxiously at first, explaining that she had tried very hard to make them what Luna would like, and had redone them roughly once every fifty years, as she came up with new ideas. Luna had felt her eyes fill with tears at the thought of Celestia doing twenty different versions of the same room, and she had hugged her sister close. In a locked room off to one side of the central receiving chamber was a pair of locked doors, ornately carved with Starswirl’s cutie mark and the dark spiral of leaves and flowers that had been Clover’s cutie mark. Celestia had told her that she had placed their portraits and the possessions of theirs that Luna had kept with her in the Dark Tower in that room. Luna had not yet found the strength to open that door. As she stood looking at the intricate carvings in the oak, she heard hoofsteps. The stride was too long to be anyone but Celestia. Hastily, Luna shook off her melancholy thoughts and opened her door for her sister. “Good morning, Celestia,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Sister, do you recall the bat-ponies?” Luna yawned again but obligingly rubbed her eyes to better focus on her sister. “I could hardly forget them.” “I wondered if you would be willing to help me with a little…project?” Luna, fully alert now, flashed a dark glance at the playful expression on Celestia’s face. “Nothing that will endanger the inhabitants of Shady Hollows, I trust, Sister? You know how highly I value Nightshade’s descendants.” Celestia raised a hoof in supplication. “I know, and I would never do anything that would ever hurt any of our little ponies.” She paused. “At least, not permanently.” Luna opened her mouth indignantly but Celestia waved her into silence before she could speak. “Wait, wait — I’m not talking about any of the bat-ponies. You remember I told you about Twilight Sparkle and the set of ponies I put together in Ponyville?” Luna relaxed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Sister, you talk about your Twilight Sparkle project often and at length.” “Oh, hush,” Celestia laughed. “I can hardly confide in my little ponies — they would think I was manipulating them, rather than guiding. I’m still growing accustomed to having you back. Its good to be able to talk about my work again.” “I prefer to safeguard than to socially engineer,” Luna said, raising her nose a little. “Whatever you want to call it,” Celestia waved a wing, “I have been working towards what has culminated in Twilight Sparkle for at least eight hundred and fifty years, ever since I realised that the little ponies, that we created in our image, have a limited capability to wield our magic. To wield the elements. And I wanted us to have a proper break, to spend time together, after you returned.” Luna winced. Thinking of her hideous mistakes and endless imprisonment was something she tried very hard to avoid at present. “I would estimate my work with Twilight Sparkle is less than a decade away from completion,” Celestia went on eagerly, evidently trying to move the conversation on. “And my work with Cadence even less than that. After they are in place, we will have at least a hundred years just to ourselves.” Luna sighed. That did sound nice. Just time to be quiet and think together, as they had not done in so long. “And you need my assistance with something related to your little princess project?” “Exactly!” Celestia beamed. “I just need you to cast the bat-pony spell on this little fellow!” With a little rustle, she raised her wing, letting an object she had been holding against her body fall into the golden glow of her magic. She bought the cage close to Luna’s face, revealing a fat, sleepy-looking fruit bat surrounded by a pile of dried-up apples. Luna bristled. “Why have you caged one of my creatures?” “For you to put the spell on him, of course, Luna! Have you not been following?” Luna shut her eyes and heaved a sigh. She tried to inject some patience into her voice. “Celestia. Sister. I cannot make a bat-pony out of a bat. I can only make them out of ponies.” Celestia gave a ringing laugh. “Luna, no! I want you to put the spell into him. So he can spread it.” Seeing Luna’s eyes narrow still further, she continued her explanation. “But only to one pony! And only temporarily. I am trying to teach Twilight and her friends another lesson. I have two thousand fruit bats waiting in the East Tower for you to talk to and send to Sweet Apple Acres. But I want you to put your spell into this one, so that he can infect one of the fillies. It doesn’t really matter which one, but I think—” Luna raised a hoof to stop her sister. She sank onto her haunches and used the same forehoof to massage her temples. “Sister. I am glad to be home, but your…capability for extremely convoluted plans have hardly lessened in the time I was away. I don’t care about the details. I am sure the…whatever it is you are doing…will have the desired effect. I just want to go to bed.” She lowered her hoof and looked firmly into her sister’s eyes. “And the promise that if I do as you ask, you will not imprison any more of my night creatures in the castle. Or anywhere.” “Of course I promise!” Celestia sing-songed, and Luna ground her teeth together a little before remembering she was supposed to be working on having more positive feelings. She thought for a moment before settling on something. No one is as…optimistic as Celestia. That is a good trait to have. And I suppose she is trying to put together a holiday for us. “All right,” she said aloud, and paused for a moment to dredge up the details of the magic for making bat-ponies. It was more of a feeling than anything else, so far as she recalled. Wanting to give the pony in question a little more of herself than the average pony carried within them. She remembered the beam on Nightshade’s face when she had offered her the gift of the night. She had been so happy. Luna had been so happy. Nightshade had been almost like a little sister to her. Not a sister in the sense that Celestia was, of course. Not an eternal companion and partner. But a sister in the pony sense. A family member. Luna held onto those feelings and the image of Nightshade’s plum-coloured face smiling up at her, and tried to push that essence into her horn. She added the desire for brief duration, and sent the spell forward in a little stream of blue to the bat. He burped lazily and opened his mouth for the magic, which went in. His eyes flashed the blue of Luna’s magic for a moment before they returned to normal. “Thank you!” Celestia cried, opening her wings to hug Luna. Luna was about to shy away, but stopped herself. No. They needed to recover their closeness. That was what had got them into this whole mess. She mustn’t push Celestia away any more. She accepted the embrace with good grace and even leaned her head a little against Celestia’s neck, but moved away before it could continue for too long. She turned to retreat once more into her sleeping chamber, and stopped to look back over her shoulder at her sister, who was now cheerfully examining the bat in his cage. “And release those bats in the East Tower,” Luna reminded her. Celestia blinked and looked over at her. “Oh, dear, no, Luna — thats for you to do. The guards had enough of a job catching two thousand fruit bats for me. They can’t be expected to ship them to Ponyville too! Everyone would see them and know I was involved.” Luna rolled her eyes and clopped her slow, tired way into her bedchamber. “I’ll have Raven Inkwell remind you to do it at dusk!” Celestia carolled as she trotted out into the corridor, ready for another day.