Flame in torrents, blasting and echoing,
Searing from Daylight's remorseless eyes:
Night, her shackles holding the fugitive,
Shivers, ignoring his jagged cries.
1.
The dappled, drowsy afternoon
Each evening without fail
Allows herself to settle low,
Her sun to dim and pale.
Her blueness fades, and shadows grow,
Relaxing gold to gray:
Across Equestria, so fair,
Another lovely day.
It's then that ponies ev'rywhere
Beneath the dawning night
Watch silver spots bloom overhead,
The stars' sweet glinting light.
Content to rise like baking bread,
The moon at last appears.
Celestia responds with smiles
While Luna laughs and cheers.
The sisters dance, their diff'rent styles
Reflecting diff'rent roles,
And so the world around them turns
While each pursues her goals.
Oftentimes, the talons of history,
Catching the world, spin it unaware:
Past to present marching unstoppable,
Crushing the future without a care...
2.
At midnight's peak, a lantern burns
And flickers through the dark
From deep within her tower room
When Luna strikes its spark.
The palace slumbers like a tomb
Around her and below
As Luna rolls a parchment out
Beneath the orange glow.
Awash with dust, but there's no doubt:
This scroll's the one she sought,
Reviving in her memory
When she and Tia fought
To harness all the Harmony
The Elements allowed
And turned that strength upon a threat
That held the nation cowed.
So long ago it was, and yet,
Defeating him at last,
She'd always felt Bucephalus
Would not stay in the past.
Stony shape, so looming and thunderous,
Haunting her dreamscape since she's returned,
First to plant the dissatisfaction that
Started her simmering, feeling spurned.
3.
She hadn't wished to raise a fuss,
So newly she'd arrived.
Exchanging armor, black and cold,
For plainer dress, she'd strived
To reassure, had put on hold
All complicated thoughts
About the roots that caused her change:
His whispered ropes and knots.
Herself again, she would arrange
Her face aright at dusk
And act as if she'd never gone,
Her heart a hollow husk.
She'd greet her sister with the dawn,
Excuse herself to bed,
And stare at ceiling, floor, and wall,
An itching in her head.
For if she slept, that raspy call
Would creep, would crawl, would creak,
And Luna, mistress of all dreams,
Would waken with a shriek.
Shrouded, shadowed, whispering urgently,
Never pursuing but always there,
Dead, she'd hoped, for over ten centuries,
Smoldering stallion of her nightmare.
4.
At last, her patience snapped its seams:
Unable to endure
The daily onslaught, Luna looked
For confirmation sure.
Librarians she quickly booked
From all of Canterlot
To find the scroll she knew would hold
The awful truth she sought.
And now it lays outstretched, unrolled,
Its basic meaning clear.
A shiver rattles Luna's frame
From cutie mark to ear.
There's nowhere she can place the blame
Except upon herself,
And knowing that she has no choice,
Her pride goes on the shelf.
Despite the hour, she lifts her voice
And asks: "Celestia?
I'm sorry, but we need to talk
For all Equestria."
Ego cold and haughty's a luxury
Luna decides that she can't afford:
Lessons learned that lonely millennium,
Fostering virtues she once ignored.
5.
Awakening in quiet shock,
Her sister, standing, speaks—
"Of course! I'll be there straight away!"—
As through the air she streaks.
In Luna's room, she hears her say,
"The name means much to us,
But none among our ponies knows
Of dread Bucephalus."
"Bucephalus?" Her blinking shows
Celestia's confused.
"Some fifteen hundred years or more
I'd call it since we used
The Elements to slam the door
Upon his stony face.
I don't recall a prophecy
That lets him leave that place."
"The fault," says Luna, "lies with me
Because—" She hesitates
While deep within her swirling mind,
They rage: the old debates.
What to say? For nothing can come of it:
Nothing, she's sure, that won't spawn regret.
Still, the years that faithful Celestia
Waited for Luna conferred a debt...
6.
A sigh from Luna. "Please be kind.
You know I've turned aside
From all the petty jealousies
That fueled my hate and pride.
But when my heart began to freeze
That day so long ago,
It was Bucephalus, in fact,
Who set my grudge to glow.
Before he'd ever once attacked
A village or a town,
He courted me within his dreams,
His touch as soft as down.
Romantic in his ruthless schemes,
His words rang sweet and pure
As nightingales upon the wing,
His whispers all allure.
And I—" She chokes to say the thing.
"I ate the filth he dished.
Completely lost before we won,
I fed him as he wished."
Locked away, his voice emerged slithery,
Knocking to enter her eager door.
Centuries she listened and, festering,
Burst into Nightmare with rage and roar.
7.
In silence, Luna feels the sun
Bestow a warm caress:
"You loved him?" Luna heaves a snort.
"I thought. But nonetheless,
His plan, he said, involved a sort
Of magic puzzle stone
To free him, then Equestria
Was ours to rule alone."
"So why, then," asks Celestia,
"Did he not follow through?"
"You beat me." Luna gives a shrug.
"There's nothing he could do."
"Oh, sister..." With her gentle hug,
Celestia forgives.
But Luna sighs. "There's more. You see,
Bucephalus still lives.
Since I returned, he's called to me
Each night from out his cell,
Reminding me of promised deeds
Both blasphemous and fell."
Oh, the beast had captured her thoroughly,
Spoken the words that she'd wished to hear.
All she thought she wanted, he offered her,
Wrapped in self-righteousness, pure and clear.
8.
Her sister gasps, and Luna needs
A momentary breath.
"You're sure?" Celestia inquires.
And Luna nods: "His death
Entwines somehow with my desires.
I've kept the brute alive
Despite my knowing he's a fiend!
I can't deny the drive
To rescue what has been demeaned,
To turn him from the path
That so consumed his wretched soul,
Enflaming him with wrath!
It's hopeless!" "No." As hot as coal,
That single burning word,
And Luna stares, her sister's face
So strong and undeterred:
"There's always hope." Like steel lace—
Unbreakable but soft—
Celestia straightforwardly
Sends Luna's heart aloft.
Warmth, acceptance, love without attitude:
Does she deserve it? She can't see why.
Luna nods and nuzzles Celestia,
Turns to the scroll with a teary eye.
9.
"For here you'll find that prophecy
You never knew." She flares
The lantern brighter with her horn.
"You'll see the way it pairs
Bucephalus—'The Rage Forlorn,'
It talks about at length—
With me—'The Night Suspensible'—
But also mentions 'Strength,
The Element Insensible.'"
She sighs and starts to read:
"'The Element will gape the Door,
The Strength the Night will need
To clear the Way for Rage before
The Lorn can lapse and rest.'
Impossible!" She stomps. "So who's
The one these words suggest?
I've not found any other clues
Which Element is meant!
I've got to end this madness now
Before my mind is rent!"
Luna sags, Celestia holding her:
"Ponyville beckons, I'd have to say.
Trust our friends. They'll do what you need them to.
Nap, then have breakfast, then on your way."
10.
His whispering does not allow
Much napping, but at dawn,
The cosmos shifts from Luna's back:
A kiss, and then she's gone.
Unfurling wings despite a lack
Of sleep, she soars among
The fleecy clouds, the morning breeze
A song too long unsung.
Its perfect fit and heft appease
Her inner turbulence,
Caress her cares and raise a smile:
Such tangy succulence!
And so she travels, mile by mile,
Until her fears recede.
She's not alone. She does have friends
To help in truth and deed.
Alighting, then, her journey ends
Outside of Ponyville.
Determined—trust the Elements!—
She starts on down the hill.
Faith and reason, allies and enemies,
Count on each other but argue, too.
Love and hatred, friendship and apathy,
Change under pressure to something new.