//------------------------------// // 6. Trixie and Luna // Story: At the Grand Galloping Gala // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Until three centuries ago, Luna’s chambers had been inaccessible except by either teleportation or flying in through the chambers’ window, though both actions were utterly impossible without Luna herself wishing it to be otherwise. However, her last majordomo, Quick Fix, had felt that this was an unforgiveable situation: despite there being numerous systems both mundane and magical to contact Luna in her chambers if need be, Quick Fix had felt that nothing could beat a good set of stairs. To make his point, he had disabled all the systems, and then staged a false coup while Luna slept, declaring a state of emergency. With Luna out of contact, various fail-safe systems went into effect, including the sealing off of Canterlot, orders for the emergency conscription of a million ponies, and the existing troops sent to the borders with Zaldia, Pferdreich, the Griffin Kingdoms, and – due to a clerical error – Cavallia. When Luna had awoken and discovered what was going on, she had fired Quick Fix, recalled the troops, fired Quick Fix again, cancelled the conscription orders, contacted the ambassadors for the nations she had appeared about to invade and apologized profusely, and fired Quick Fix a third time. When he had explained that his goal had simply been to prove how none of this could have happened if Luna had simply had stairs leading to her room with which to contact her, she had noted that simply suggesting that might have been enough, fired him a fourth time, abolished the position of majordomo, and then banished Quick Fix to serve a minor clerical position in the Equestrian embassy to the Griffin Kingdoms until he retired, at which point he was still forbidden to come within a hundred miles of the capital city. There were numerous results of the false coup – known as the “Stairs Coup” – that persisted to the modern day. The Griffin Kingdoms continued to insist on a demilitarized zone between the Equestrian north and their south; Zaldia, despite being a pony nation, remained well outside Equestria’s sphere of influence; banished to the Griffin Kingdoms was still considered the ultimate political consequence for spectacular failure; Princess Cadenza of Cavallia still told the tale as an embarrassing joke, including to Trixie a few years back; and Princess Luna had installed stairs leading up to her chambers. All this went through Trixie’s mind as she, head hanging and still choking back tears, realized that she was being carried up those stairs, to Luna’s room. The body beneath her was large and midnight blue and warm, with a heart that beat strongly enough for Trixie to hear it even over the wind of the night, the bustle of the castle, and the clip-clopping of the hooves belonging to the pony – the princess – carrying her up the stairs that spiraled along the outside of the tower, to Luna’s chambers. Trixie stifled a slight giggle at the thought of the Stairs Coup, her mind grasping at any straw to relieve itself of the utter despair gripping her heart. It didn’t last – the despair came back as surely as the tide, only far quicker. She was only vaguely aware of the door to Luna’s chambers opening, and her being carried inside. A strong, yet soft, telekinetic field surrounded her, lifting her from Luna’s back and depositing her on the bed. Trixie wasted little time grasping at the nearest pillow and burying her face in it. She was aware of Luna sitting down next to her, laying a wing across her back and running one hoof through her mane gently. Eventually, the tears began to subside, but it was still some time before Trixie glanced up. She’d been in Luna’s room before, of course. The greatest surprise to a pony who only knew Luna by reputation would probably have been how cluttered it was, a chaotic collection of trinkets and treasures, some mere curiosities, some unspeakably magical artifacts, some relatively new, some impossibly ancient, each of them in some way significant to the Princess. Luna couldn’t even claim that there was a method to the chaos – Trixie had herself seen her spend several minutes, or longer, trying to find something, having completely forgotten where’d she’d put it down last. The entire room was dimly lit, bright enough to see or read by, but only just barely, and the illumination was in blues and purples provided by glow-gems set into the ceiling. Trixie slowly looked to Luna, who was looking at her with a soft smile, though the smile was obviously meant to be a reassuring put-on for Trixie’s benefit, and masked the worry she really felt. “Feeling a little better?” she asked. Trixie nodded slightly. “Y-yeah,” she said, her voice a little ragged and a lump still in her throat. “A little…” Luna nodded, her horn glowing. A cloth appeared from thin air, and she passed it over to Trixie, who used it to rub her eyes. “Th-thanks…” “Now,” Luna said, shifting slightly, but only to get more comfortable on her bed. Her wing squeezed Trixie tightly. “What happened?” Trixie blinked a few times, turning the cloth that Luna had given her over in her hooves. “I…” she began, then stopped, looking to Luna. The Night Court was hers, technically. At least officially, the Night Court was nominally simply what Luna used to help facilitate running the country, all the nobles therein swearing to serve her. From a political standpoint, calling out the Night Court, calling it corrupt or base or horrible, as Trixie was beginning to realize the case, was essentially the same thing as calling Luna those things as well. She looked away from Luna. “N…nothing,” she lied. Luna was silent for several long moments. “Trixie,” she said softly. “You know that I don’t believe you when you say that.” Trixie again glanced to Luna. “I…just had a bad day. A really bad day.” “I’ve had those,” Luna noted. She considered. “Would this relate to the situation with Viceroy Night Light?” “No.” “…and are you lying again?” Trixie didn’t respond, which was as good as an answer, she knew. Luna let out a sigh, looking away. “I know that you didn’t say those things in the paper,” she said. “Your strength of character has grown considerably since you first became a Representative to Ponyville. I am having an investigation conducted – ” “It was Fisher,” Trixie blurted without meaning to. Luna looked at her curiously, and Trixie stared back. “Um…” she said. “I…I spoke with viceroy N…Night L-Light tonight, he said it was Archduke Bobbing Fisher.” Luna frowned. “You spoke with Night Light?” she asked. Trixie nodded. Luna’s eyes glided over her face as she did, taking in every detail and factoring in the stutter that Trixie had displayed when mentioning the viceroy. “He’s the one who made you so distraught,” she surmised. Nothing, it seemed, stayed secret from Luna for long. Before she knew it, she felt her mouth working, speaking of its own accord. “H…he…I came to Canterlot to try and convince him to send Ponyville money…o-or, I mean, the REMM – and between the newspaper and Greengrass and Blueblood and Fisher trying to stop me and Night Light’s stupid secretary losing my appointment I wasn’t able to s-see him until earlier tonight a-and I had to break into his office to do it, but he d-did see me and said that the guards weren’t necessary so I thought that was good, and I apologized to him f-for what I did to Twilight, I feel awful still, and I told him Ponyville needed the money and he said that he’d already approved it, and the first check sh-should be arriving tomorrow…” Luna grimaced. “Yes,” she said. “Night Light was…dragging his hooves, I’m afraid. I think I’ve impressed upon him, however, that such abuses of his power – making a town suffer to just get to you – will not be tolerated.” “B-but that’s the thing!” Trixie exclaimed hysterically. “That’s just it! He said that h-he knew he’d never get away with it, a-and yeah, he’s s-sent the money, but he’s gonna…he’s gonna dedicated everything to…to making sure I never get into the Night Court!” Luna blinked a few times at that, before turning away and heaving a long sigh. “I see,” she said. “I had hoped that he was still salvable…” Trixie looked away as well. “And I got to th-thinking,” she said, fresh tears coming to her eyes. “And…and I realized…all those stories? How everypony thinks that the Night Court is evil and just full of selfish ponies who only want to hurt each other? They’re right. M-me and my friends have been threatened and intimidated and we didn’t even do anything…a-and I ran into Duchess Fragrant, and she thought that I was trying to intimidate her family when I didn’t even know Fluttershy was a Posey…and I got to thinking, and I realized, I r-realized that I’ve been wrong. That the problems we’d been having weren’t Greengrass’ fault, th-that if it wasn’t him it’d just b-be somepony else…that the entire Night Court is the problem!” Trixie flinched, expecting a rebuke from Luna. When it didn’t come, she looked back to Luna, who’s smile had dropped, and she was just looking at Trixie sadly. Trixie stared back. “W-well?” she demanded, sniffing and wiping her eyes again. “Th…this is where…Princess, you’re s…s-supposed to tell me that I’m wrong.” Luna considered, visibly weighing her next words. “There are good ponies in the Night Court,” she said. “You mentioned Duchess Fragrant. There are others. But…the entire Night Court doesn’t need to be corrupted to create an atmosphere of fear and distrust. Not even most of it. Just enough, in the right places, cowing the rest into submission.” Trixie blinked rapidly a few times as she took in Luna’s words. “Y…you knew…?” she asked. Luna looked away. “Yes,” she said softly. Trixie shot up and out from under Luna’s wing. “Wh-what?” she demanded as she stood, turning around. “How could you let this happen?” Luna’s eyes met Trixie’s own. “Do you honestly believe that I let it?” she asked. Trixie stared. “Well…” she said. “Then…then why aren’t you doing anything about it?” “What makes you think that I am not?” Trixie jabbed a hoof out Luna’s window. It happened to face in the rough direction of Ponyville. Her melancholy was being swiftly replaced by anger now. “Because of what just happened! In Ponyville! What’s been happening to my friends for the past half a year!” Luna ruffled her wings. “This is a…period of transition, Trixie. It will be uncomfortable. Painful, even. But I promise you, Trixie, that I am trying to control the transition as much as I can, keep the fallout, the pain, to a minimum.” Trixie stared. “What?” she demanded. “What are you talking about?” Luna considered again. “A thousand years ago,” she said, “when the dust had finally settled from my sister’s – from Corona’s – rampage, when I had returned to Canterlot, it took me two decades to fully repair the damage to Equestria and turn it into a strong, growing nation again. When I once again convened the Night Court, it was full of noble ponies looking to put the past behind them, to move forward, to do what was right for Equestria. And they did. And so did their successors…most of them. Some of them were more concerned with their own petty gratification over the needs of the nation.” Luna looked to Trixie. “And the next generation barely remembered the time of Corona’s rampages. They had even less reason to care for the state over themselves. And so on…and so forth. Every few years the make-up of the Court grew a little worse, their morals a little more open to compromise.” Luna shook her head. “And I tried, Trixie, to root out corruption wherever it was. And I succeeded, most of the time…but not all the time. And as more and more ponies and nobles in the Court grew complacent and decadent, I began to miss more and more, and the ponies of Equestria suffered. So, finally, four centuries after Corona – six hundred years ago - I decided that enough was enough. I instituted a series of large-scale investigations into the affairs of the nobles of the Court. I discovered that as many as half of the Court were involved in some kind of scandal or racket or otherwise abusing their position for their own gratification. Over the course of a decade, I exposed them, had them tried for the crimes, and dealt with them as appropriate for those crimes. Eventually I had purged the Night Court of all corruption, or close enough. New nobles were created or elevated and the Night Court was once again strong and true to the ideals of Equestria.” Luna stopped, looking at Trixie expectantly. The blue unicorn stared back for several seconds. “But…” she ventured. “But it happened again.” Luna grimaced even as she nodded. “And I tried, once more, to stop it on a case-by-case basis. And once again, some corruption would begin to slip through the cracks, and it built up – but this time, having the experience of the past to draw upon, I began the widespread investigations and purges sooner, recognizing what was happening and stepping in before the corruption spread too far. Roughly a third of the Night Court had to be purged – rather than half, as before. And the crimes committed were not as…debased…as the first time.” Luna closed her eyes, casting her head down. “It is the nature of governments to go through this cycle of golden age, fall into decadence and corruption, purge themselves, and then rise once more. I try to make the transition as smooth as I can. But...but there will always be incidents that slip through the cracks, no matter how much I try.” “Oh really?” Trixie demanded, the anger, the heat in her head and her throat and heart, wasn’t abating in the slightest at Luna’s explanation. “So that’s all this is to you? Just some cycle?” Luna grimaced. “No,” she said, standing. “Trixie, this isn’t some kind of plan. I try to fight against ponies who abuse the system whenever I can. But there are limits, very strict limits, on what even I can and cannot do. Laws like right to privacy and innocent until proven guilty apply to the nobles just as much as to commoners. I need plausible evidence before I can ever intervene in any matter in a legal sense even on an individual level – let alone the evidence I require to launch an investigation of the entire Night Court.” “But you’re the princess!” Trixie hissed, stomping closer to Luna. “You don’t need any kind of justification! That’s your Night Court! The nobility are supposed to be an extension of your will! What they’re doing reflects back on you!” “So what you are suggesting,” Luna said, raising a hoof and pointing out her chambers’ window, “is that I should trot out there and begin rounding up ponies I suspect to be corrupt?” “Yes!” “And then charge them with the crimes I all but know they have committed, but for which I have no direct evidence?” “Yes! Because you’re the princess! It’s your job to protect Ponyville from things like this, but right now you don’t seem to be doing all that much, and this…this cycle thing…!” Luna’s grimace worsened. “Shall I pass judgment upon them too?” Luna asked, her horn glowing slightly. “After all, I am the highest authority in the land, on parchment anyway. Perhaps this should be true in reality as well? I am an alicorn, an immortal. For millennia have I looked upon the world and seen its course and learned good from evil, right from wrong. Who better to pass judgment than I?” Trixie stared, Luna’s words cutting through Trixie slightly. “N…well, no, probably not…” she said. “I mean…just round them up, but send them to courts and give them trials…” “Ah, but Trixie,” Luna said, beginning to pace slowly around Trixie, as her horn’s glow intensified somewhat. The color was beginning to bleed from her coat, making it increasingly darker, while her mane and tail were gradually flowing with more and more abandon, extending and curling like they had a will of their own – and was she getting taller? “Within the courts would not the nobles have a chance to fabricate evidence in their favor, to simply weasel out of any sentence and so continue to corrupt and debase my Night Court? We are speaking of the richest and most influential ponies in Equestria. No, it would be far better if I, in my immortal wisdom, were to pass judgment.” Luna completed a circuit around Trixie, her pace quickening. By now her coat was more black than blue, and her mane and tail long and sinuous, curling around Trixie’s hooves as though wondering if they could grab her, while her regalia shifted to appear more like armor, including her crown. “Exiles and dungeons for the lot of them. But wherefore should I replace them? Wherefore should I allow the cycle to continue? I can do everything they can do, wouldst thou not agree? Wherefore should I leave it to them?” Her second circuit complete, Luna’s eyes had changed, the irises expanding while the pupils had narrowed to dragon-like slits. “Mayhaps the Night Court be abolished altogether?” Luna asked, at last stopping her circling of Trixie. “Perhaps I should instead reign, as is my right, as no mere Princess. What sayest thee to that? Should I crown myself as Equestria’s unchallenged, uncompromised, undimmed Queen?” she punctuated the last with a stomp of her hoof, which caused her mane and tail to stutter and fully animate of their own accord, curling around the room in a great cloud that roiled with stars, and an open-mouthed grimace that showed rows of sharp, pointed teeth. She had become a dark twin to the Tyrant Sun, a black Queen of the Night. But the look on her face was one that did not, in any way, match any that Trixie had seen Corona make – nor did it fit what Luna had just been saying. It was an expression of resigned sadness and melancholy, mixed almost with desperation. Trixie stared at Luna. “You’re not your sister,” she said. The dark twin of Corona blinked, and all at once the illusions surrounding Luna collapsed into deep blue, starry smoke that was quickly pulled out the window and into the nighttime air. She let out a long, tired sigh. “But what you are suggesting,” Luna said, “is the path that lead Celestia to becoming Corona. And it is not merely one step on that path, but rather a headlong gallop down its length.” Trixie blinked a few times. “But…why can’t you just fix it? Okay, I get it, there’s limits to what you can do…but even within those limits…” “I try,” Luna said. “I really am trying, Trixie, I swear to you. Four hundred years ago, a town wronged by a noble pony would have no legal recourse beyond a direct appeal to the Crown. The elevation of all mayoral offices to Lordships and the appointment of the Representatives, by my decree, changed that. It was met with considerable resistance from the nobility, however.” She looked down. “Or, even as soon as two centuries ago, a pony who did not own land would have been a second-class citizen. That was not my doing, it was a pony named Brilliant Orange, but I made my support of the program of change publically known. Then there are the education programs to which the Crown donates hundreds of thousands of bits every year – nearly everypony in Equestria can read and write and receives a basic education as a result, something that would have been unheard of three centuries ago, something today taken for granted but which creates much more equality between the commoners and the nobility. “I try, Trixie. I cannot claim to always get everything right…sometimes I wonder if indeed I can get anything right. But I am trying, as best I can.” Luna stared at Trixie. “You and your friends…you were caught in the crossfire, naked and nearly defenseless. For that, I can only offer my apologies, and a solemn promise that I shall take whatever steps I can to prevent it in the future.” Trixie blinked a few times, wiping her eyes again. “It’s not right,” she said. “It’s not fair.” “No, it is not.” “Nopony else is playing by the rules…” “But I must. Because I am the Princess.” Trixie didn’t agree. Trixie was certain that there was something she could say, some argument she could make, that Luna wouldn’t be able to respond to, that would make her see that what she was doing was wrong, that the government in Equestria was wrong, that the whole thing should be swept aside and rebuilt from scratch from the ground-up. But she couldn’t summon up the will to think up that argument, and looking at Luna, all she saw was her mentor staring back, not willing to admit that Trixie was right any more than Trixie was willing to do the reverse – simply no longer wanting to fight. Almost without realizing it, Trixie trotted forward, embracing Luna tightly, not wanting to fight either. Luna returned it eagerly, hooves and wings both holding her apprentice tightly. “I will make sure that Night Light knows that his actions are reprehensible – that he will not be welcome in my presence if he cannot abandon this campaign of hate against you,” Luna promised Trixie. “And if…if this whole state of affairs has soured you to the thought of entering the Night Court, then whatever else you choose to make of your life, I will support that as well. It has been one of my greatest hopes that you could enter the Night Court and help me change it for the better – but over and above that, I want you to be happy. That will never change.” Trixie smiled weakly as she withdrew from Luna, nodding. “Thanks,” she said. “I…I don’t know. I just…don’t know anything, right now…” Luna offered a thin-lipped grin of her own at that. “Welcome to my life,” she said. She took in a breath, then exhaled a long, weary sigh. “Now, I have to go attend to my duties. And I am sorry, Trixie, but I remember what happened last time I left you in my room unsupervised.” Trixie blushed slightly, vividly remembering her brief stint as the masked empress of the moon. She nodded as she followed Luna from her chambers, out the door and back to the stairs. Luna kept one eye on her as the two descended. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” she said. Trixie nodded. She paused when the two reached the bottom of the stairs, however, the two of them standing in the vast Balcony Room that had a map of Equestria and its neighbors on its floor, and a ceiling that was a star chart made from precious gems. An idea had occurred to her. It was a bad one. “What if…” Trixie ventured anyway. “What if there was something I could do, to help this cycle thing?” Luna blinked, giving Trixie a sidelong glance. “Trixie…” she warned. “No, wait,” Trixie said, holding up her hooves. “Just…just hear this out…”