//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: The Longest Day // by ARandomLonelyDude //------------------------------// Luna stood there with seething resentment in her mind. Her sister was speaking to her but did not even show herself as if she were a coward. "Why so angry Luna, aren't you happy to meet your sister after a thousand years?" Celestia spoke in a mocking tone, "Or do you still believe in your made up world where no one loves you?" "Show yourself, coward!" Luna shouted as she stomped a hoof, cracking the floor. In front of her, the Nawab continued smiling. "Empress, please do not waste your time talking to this demon. I fe-"he said but was cut off by Celestia. "You will remain silent. You have failed to accomplish the one task I gave you." she said threateningly "If another sound leaves your mouth then I will end you." "Bu-" the Nawab tried saying but was stopped as he was suddenly lifted up by his neck by an unseen force. He tried to free himself but couldn't do anything. Luna stepped away from the noble as smoke started rising from his body suddenly. Within moments, his body was on fire. He burned in the air for a few moments before the fire died, leaving behind a charred corpse wearing a robe and crown. His remains were dropped to the ground unceremoniously. The remaining people in the room were horrified by this display. "You know, I feel it is better if we talk in person." Celestia said, "Maybe I can convince you to stop your silly little revolution." Luna tried protesting but found that she could not move. Around her, glowing blue orbs started materialising and circling her. They picked up speed as more and more appeared. Her fighters tried to intervene but were thrown back by an unseen force. When her vision was completely filled with blue light, Luna felt herself being picked up. She was in the air for a few moments before being placed back down. Already she could tell that her position had changed. The air felt colder and the floor beneath her was now made of metal instead of marble. The blue orbs quickly disappeared, allowing Luna to see where she was. She was in a large room with metal floor and walls and in front of her was a large window. The view outside confused Luna a bit. It was a mostly light brown background with a few splotches of white interspersed on it. It took a moment before she realised that it was the planet's surface that she was looking at. "Its breathtaking, isn't it?" she heard Celestia's voice say from beside her. She quickly turned and found the source of the voice. It was an old unicorn mare with a dull white coat and a fiery mane. Her eyes were black with orange pupils and her expression was unreadable. She was sitting on a chair with wheels and had pipes running from her back to a box on the backside of the chair. "Hello Luna, surprised to see me?" the mare said as the chair turned by itself to allow her to look at her without turning her head. Luna's head was blank for a second before she realised that the mare was her sister. She smiled seeing the confusion on Luna's face before turning back to admire the view. "You always wanted to know what the world looked like from the stars." "And I know because you sent me to the moon." Luna replied angrily. Celestia's smile morphed into a neutral expression. "And it was your fau-" Celestia tried saying. "Don't you dare lecture me about how it was my fault! I only wanted the love of the people we ruled but you banished me to the moon!" Luna cut her off. "If you were a bit more observant then you would know that the people loved you just as much as they loved me but instead of that, you focused on the few nightmares a few ponies had and let that parasite get you." Celestia said as her expression slowly became an angry one. "You could have come to me for help but no! You didn't trust me and instead let that Nightmare Moon feed you lies!" "She may have lied to me but she was right that you are nothing but a tyrant! Look at the world below you! You enslave your own people and feed them lies about how you are the god empress of this world!" Luna shot back. "And it is all your fault! When you refused to set the moon for three days, do you think it affected only us?! The world was against ponies and wanted to end them all! You took an oath to protect our ponies from the dangers of the world no matter what but you didn't care about what would happen because of your decision! I had to become a conqueror to destroy our enemies, I had to lead an army against the entire world! I had to become a tyrant to stop mindless bloodshed from happening again! I had to become this demon, just because you couldn't handle not being in the spotlight for a little bit! I lost my wings and legs because of you! You come here after your thousand year nap and immediately try to 'fix' this mess that you have created by being selfish and how do you do it? By killing and disrupting the order that I've worked hard to maintain and improve. You think you're some hero fixing the world but you're really just trying to spread chaos and war. In the small time you have been on this world, you have killed hundreds! I've been working to fix this mess for the last thousand years as peacefully as possible and you come in and try to ruin it all." Celestia ranted, tears forming in her eyes. "Ugh this is what I hate about you! Always taking the long way as if everyone is immortal. All talk and no action." Luna replied before aiming her gun at her, "You tyranny ends today." Celestia wiped the tears from her eyes before speaking, "Raven, engage target but please don't kill her." Luna was confused but the confusion was replaced with pain as she was kicked across the room into a wall suddenly. She looked at her assailant and saw what appeared to be a white unicorn with a brown mane tied into a bun and wearing a red tie. On looking closer, she found several discrepancies. The unicorn's body was not covered in fur and instead she seemed to be made of metal painted white. Her face were two black screens with one occupying the space where the eyes should be and the other where the mouth should be. The screens showed the eyes and mouth and it was clear that the metal mare was angry. In her hoof was the Luna's gun and it was aimed at her. Behind her, Celestia could be seen leaving the room through a door that closed behind her. Without warning, Raven started firing the gun at Luna, who narrowly dodged by jumping out of the way. Raven continued firing the gun in short bursts while Luna kept dodging and getting closer to the mare. When the gun ran out of bullets, Luna saw her chance and charged at Raven. Before she could get a hit, however, Raven swung the gun like a bat at Luna, hitting her head and throwing her to the side. Luna quickly got onto her hooves but struggled to keep her balance. She could feel blood dripping down the side of her face. Trying to fight melee was proving to be hard. She charged up her magic and shot a beam at Raven. The mare did not move fast enough to dodge and the beam hit her, throwing her backwards. She got up just in time to be punched in the face by Luna, getting thrown back once again and also having her eye display broken. However, she was not bothered by the damage and got up once again. Seeing that Luna was trying to punch her once more, she sidestepped it and punched her in the side instead, sending Luna to the floor. Luna coughed blood as she got up. Luna shot a blast of magic at Raven, who dodged it and charges at Luna, eager to get another hit on her. Seeing this, Luna charged as well, lowering her head so that her horn was aimed at Raven's face. Raven tried to avoid the attack but could not and ended up getting her head skewered by Luna's horn. Luna swung her head, throwing Raven across the room. She was surely done now. Raven, however, was not done yet. She got up despite the damage to her head that exposed all the internal circuitry. Instead of charging again, she pointed a hoof at Luna. Luna was taken by surprise when a red beam of light shot out of Raven's hoof and impacted her, burning her where she had been hit. She grit her teeth and shot back with a beam of magic. Raven countered with her own red beam of magic. The beams impacted each other for a second and stayed balanced but Raven's beam overpowered Luna's and hit her full force, throwing her to the floor and burning her in many spots. Seeing her enemy down, Raven approached. Luna laid still on the ground and this worried Raven. She had been told not to kill Luna. She got a bit closer to inspect, which allowed Luna to grab Raven's head with her forelegs. Raven tried to free herself but Luna held on. Seeing that the hole in her head was big enough, Luna put a hoof in and ripped out a few wires which sparked with electricity. Raven started punching Luna in the stomach, each punch harder than the last but Luna held on and continued tearing out wires. With a final punch, Raven sent Luna to the floor, freeing herself from the dark mare's grip. The damage done was a lot, however. Raven had lost control of a hind leg, an eye and was losing more. Luna tried getting up but a laser beam from Raven hit her legs, causing her to fall back down. Raven approached Luna, ready to knock her out with a hoof stomp but was stopped. "That will be enough, Raven, you can stop." Celestia said as she re entered the room. "Pick her up and follow me. We're putting her to sleep." Raven did as she was told and picked Luna up on her back and followed Celestia. They exited the room and made their way down a narrow corridor. Luna tried to move her forelegs but found that she couldn't feel them. She looked down to see that they were replaced with burnt stumps. The sight made Luna sick. They entered a room with white walls and a bed, which Luna was put on. "Your injuries are serious but I can assure you that you'll live." Celestia said as Raven put an oxygen mask on Luna's face. "Even after all you've done, I can't find the courage to end you, at least in front of me." Raven started attaching pipes to Luna's head. Luna tried to shake them off but couldn't. IN her mind, Nightmare Moon was screaming in pain for a bit before being silenced. "Don't worry about those, they'll help me get rid of the Nightmare and keep you asleep." Celestia said as she looked down at Luna sadly, "Asleep till your injuries are healed and till a day comes when the world is a better place and you can be woken up again. I hope we can be good sisters once again on that day. Sweet dreams, sister. I feel that you'll be dreaming for a long time." And with that, Celestia shut Luna's eyes, putting her to sleep, until better times come when she could be woken up.