The Castle of the Royal Princesses was nearing completion. Princess Luna walked slowly through its many hallways, admiring the craftsmanship that went into it, even as some of the paintings on the walls still dried. With a series of twists and turns she came to a set of inconspicuous doors deep within the castle’s bowels. Glancing left and right to make sure she wasn’t followed, she could hardly hide the excitement of seeing what was behind the door in front of her.
Her magic opened the lock and she let herself in, then rapidly turned around and locked the door behind her. The small chamber held a single shelf, lit by small stained-glass windows on her right side. On the outside, they made it seem as just another hallway or servant’s quarters. Nothing for anypony to pay attention to.
Luna stopped to admire the treasures so vibrantly colored by the play of light. She smiled, ever so gently. By now the feelings of pain and gut-wrenching sadness that she felt when it all began so long ago no longer appeared. The feelings were deeply buried, perhaps even completely forgotten, not that anypony had any right to forget something like that. But Luna wasn’t just anypony.
With a tone similar to that of welcoming guests to her castle, she made her greeting. “Hello, deary! I hope you’re finding these accommodations to your liking?” It was all very professional. For a second, she waited for a reply. None came. “I suppose you don’t really have a choice now, do you?” She snorted as she finished the question, quickly putting a hoof in front of her mouth to silence it. This wasn’t very lady-like at all, but she couldn’t help it.
The skull looked back, emotionless.
“Oh don’t be so morose,” she continued as she regained composure, “can I cheer you up with a joke? I know you love them.” The silence wasn't going to stop her. “OK, what do you call a half-dead zebra? Mission in progress!” The laughter returned, but only for a short time, before she turned her attention to the second skull. “What, not even a courteous smile? This is not like you at all. I know Celestia is better at making jokes, but still…”
As if trying to provoke it, she continued in a more somber voice, “come to think of it, you never wanted to offend anyone at all, so why are you behaving this way now?” She glanced in both directions of the room. “Aren’t you happy here, now that everyone is here? Isn’t that what you wanted?”
With a sharp look on her eyes she turned to the skull perched next to the second one. “And you, how silly you must feel now.” Shaking her head in pretend disbelief, she added, “you chose the wrong side.” Her hooves began caressing the skull, as she spoke to it in a caring voice, “we all had such high hopes for you. Do you remember how proud father was when you recited the Song of Snowflakes for him? You were the brightest one of us all. And I know how much you loved him. And mother.”
In what appeared to be a genuine moment of sadness she stopped tracing the outlines of cheekbones on the skull with her hoof and put it back on the ground. “I know why you stayed behind.”
Not allowing those kinds of emotions to thrive, she quickly faced the fourth skull. “What do you think? Did this turn out the way it should have?” Another silent skull was what she was expecting, but she was still not content. “Please, don’t hold back, tell me what you really think – you were always so good at that.” Her hoof tapped lightly on the skull’s forehead, right in the place where the horn used to be. “Thank you for always telling me things I didn’t want to hear. It helped me greatly.”
The remaining two skulls were put together as best they could be from the fragments that remained, but they were missing large chunks of bone. The magic used to put the pieces together nonetheless worked wonders, perfectly hiding the thousand or so seams on each skull.
Luna bowed deeply, just as she was taught. “GREETINGS, OH GREAT FATHER AND LOVING MOTHER!” The full power of her voice shook the room and rattled the skulls, as they banged one against another.
“I’m sorry, was that too loud?” She stood up, looking at the two skulls was despise. “You always told me to do it that way, so I really don’t think you can blame me for it.”
Somepony started knocking on the door. Luna snapped out of her desires to torment the dead and quickly transformed the skulls into strangely bone-colored art pieces. Her magic wouldn’t hold for long, but it should be enough to ward off the unwanted guests. With a final moment of focus she unlocked the door. “Yes, what do you…”
Her eyes went wide and she stuttered at the sight of Celestia on the other side. “I heard a shout, are you all right my sister?” Luna didn’t have to do a double take to notice the suspicion in Celestia’s eyes. Not that she was trying to hide her outstretched wings either. Or the offensive pose that came with them.
“Oh, I was just letting it all out – you know, like you told me to.” A fake smile manifested itself on her lips.
Celestia stared at her in shock as she saw the crown Luna was wearing. “What are you doing with that?”
In the rush to transform the skulls, her sister had forgotten to hide the Element of Magic. Taken aback for a moment, she lowered her head and twitched nervously with her eyes as she struggled to come up with a good response.
“I said,” Celestia stepped in the room, “what. Are. You. Doing. With. THAT?” It was the first time her big sister, now visibly furious, had yelled at her.
“I… I was only…”
Seeing the fear in Luna’s eyes, Celestia toned down her voice to a threatening hiss. “Give it to me. Now.”
The little sister was on the verge of crying. As first tears formed in her eyes, she looked up defiantly and shouted back, “no! It’s MINE! You always said it’s mine!”
“And you saw what happened when you used it!” Celestia roared back. “Now give it…”
She tried pulling the crown from her sister’s head, but Luna wasn’t going to surrender it easily. She grabbed it with her magic and shielded it with her hooves, forcing Celestia to grab her forelegs and pry them apart. The young princess squirmed and bucked, only delaying the inevitable. The struggle grew with every second and Celestia finally ran out of patience, slamming her sister into the wall with enough force to shake the shelf. One of the skulls, still wearing its disguise, fell to the ground and shattered. The noise was enough to break Luna’s concentration for a moment and Celesta seized the opportunity, knocking the crown off her sister’s head. Upon landing on the ground, the Element of Magic released its aid to Luna. Without it, she was not strong enough to keep the skulls hidden and they revealed themselves in a blue flash.
Celestia first noticed the shattered skull on the ground. The sight gripped her heart as if it would have been pinned under the world’s heaviest boulder. With tears still in her eyes, Luna followed her sister’s gaze as she moved it away from the remains on the ground and on to the skulls still on the shelf, ignoring her little sister completely.
Luna wanted to say something but couldn’t. She stared into her sister as she in turn stared into the skulls, not wanting to comprehend what she was seeing. Her eyes were forced wide, with pupils so small you could barely see them from afar, ears peaked, her body locked in a single pose. Even though it should have been impossible for her to become pale, she managed. Behind her frozen demeanor emotions flowed like they had only done once before. And it was Luna who was responsible for it. Again. Only this time Celestia couldn’t rationalize it.
There was no higher cause to excuse this, no small sacrifice for the benefit of many. Nothing good would ever replace this.
Luna was still staring at her, wide-eyed and visibly shaken. She was half-lying on the ground, her head beggingly turned to her sister. A crack was visible on her mouth, revealing rows of white teeth as she struggled to form any words. Hurt and ashamed and, for the first time, afraid of her sister.
Slowly Celestia turned to face her sister, moving her head as if time itself had slowed down. Their eyes met and she blinked, hoping to wake up from a nightmare she could never imagine. When the scene in front of her failed to vanquish, she spoke with a trepid voice. “Where did you get these?” This time she didn’t blink. Or bat an eyelid. She just stared, right into Luna’s soul.
“I… I went looking for them.” Luna admitted, knowing any kind of lie would not only be recognized instantly, but would result in more shouting. And shouting she wasn’t used to – especially not from her big sister.
The pause that followed felt like an hour as Celestia’s mind fought between understanding the implications and desperately finding excuses for what Luna had done. The only way to bury the madness in her mind was to ask more questions.
“Why?”
The simple question was a breath of fresh air, loosening the iron grip on Luna’s throat. This was a chance to explain why she wanted – no, needed to do what she did. To say how she loves her sister and how she will always stand by her side. But just this once, she wanted something for herself. Something to show that she too was important.
“I wanted them all to be here,” her now almost-happy, if raspy, voice announced, “I wanted them to see what we have accomplished.” Her sister was silent. Turning to look at the skulls and then back to Celestia, Luna added, “We were right and they tried to stop us. But we showed them!”
If it hadn’t been for the enthusiastic way in which Luna said those last words, Celestia might have reacted differently, but now… Now the floodgates opened, and all thoughts of understanding for her sister washed away. Now she saw her in her purest form, and hated every fiber in her body. “They were our FAMILY!” The reaction shocked Luna to back into the wall. Celestia approached the small blue alicorn with heavy hoofsteps, fire raging in her eyes. “OUR SISTERS! OUR PARENTS! AND YOU DISPLAY THEM AS TROPHIES?!”
Both stood perfectly still, each awaiting the other’s reaction, but after none came, Celestia pushed forward, her voice hard but a tad more silent. “That’s worse than anything you did in the Fight.” She took some time to make sure she really wanted to say what her mind was telling her. “And I thought you couldn’t do anything worse than that.”
At first Luna had no response to that. With a blank stare she looked at her sister, wondering what would follow. In her head, the unjustness of the situation strengthened as the defensive mechanisms took over. She didn’t start the war. Her actions contributed more to victory than anything Celestia ever did and everything she had ever done was to help her sister. Because she loved her. And she loved Equestria. And now, when she wanted something for herself, Celestia treated her as a villain?
Luna answered her sister’s accusation with newly found aggression that was showing in her body as she stood up in an attempt to be more level with her. “I stood behind you when they pushed you to the side. I followed your plan knowing full well how little chance we had.” Much to Celestia’s surprise, she took a step forward. Emphasizing every word, she added, “I won your war!”
Celestia could only look at the defiant alicorn in front of her. Her little sister was gone. The playful alicorn that she had taken under her wing was no more. A stranger had taken her place. Celestia’s gaze became ever more sorrow as she pondered her sister’s fate. Maybe it was wrong that she dragged her into the rebellion at such a young age, but what was the alternative? To have her on the other side? To hide her? No. Nothing could have been done then. Luna was the Element of Magic and she needed her power to stand any chance in the war – not that she wasn’t trying to avoid the war by having her on her side in the first place.
With her sister waiting for a verbal counter-attack, Celestia took her time examining the clues that she had long pretended weren’t there. Luna’s eyes were different now than they were when this all began. Her irises seemed to have grown slightly, forming a sinister halo around her pupils when she got angry like that. She was hiding things from her. But the biggest change, the one that should have raised alarms in Celestia’s head long ago, was Luna’s attitude towards those who she perceived as enemies. They were no longer ponies. Or zebras, or griffins. They were just enemies.
Without Luna’s magic and the Elements of Harmony, the rebellion wouldn’t have gotten off the ground, but the experience had changed the kind alicorn into a creature so detached from reality that could look at the skulls of her sisters and parents and see trophies in their place. Worst of all was the knowledge that she had herself to blame for Luna’s decay. As the big sister she should have foreseen it, but the desire to end the fighting blinded her from everything else.
Celestia shed a tear, finally understanding that the skulls on the ledge, and the one on the ground, were not the only family she had lost. One more thing awaited her. She could not let Luna, or what remained of her, rule Equestria with her. Or even live with her. She was too far gone. If there was anything of the old Luna left, she would need the Elements to bring her back out. All of them. And that meant taking away the last thing her sister had. With Luna still prepared to charge her sister with words or hooves, Celestia slowly levitated the Element of Magic off the ground.
Battered and bruised, with nowhere near as powerful magic as her big sister, Luna was in no position to intervene. All she could do was to pleadingly ask, "what are you doing?"
Celestia gave her a glance and carried it away without a word, leaving her sister dumbstruck in the makeshift trophy room. Near-silent hoofsteps followed some distance behind as she walked into her private quarters. On the wall opposite the door, the rest of the Elements were hung in golden frames. One for each of the Princesses. Above them, in two platinum frames, the two amulets that created the Elements in the first place.
Without a sound, the frames began glowing and slowly opened, the Elements levitating out.
“What are you doing?” A quiet, innocent voice behind Celestia asked once again. She turned around to see Luna as she once was, small and timid, but quickly turned back before her heart would tell her to stop.
“I’m not going to lose you.”
She formed a pentagram with the Elements, placing the most powerful one in its center and turned towards Luna. Closing her eyes, she focused with all her might as Luna's eyes went wide. She knew the power of the Elements - she had used them so often in days gone by. Now, she was on the receiving end of their immeasurable power.
The Elements started to glow and then… nothing. Celestia opened her eyes to see what was wrong. The five outer Elements were as bright as the Sun, but the middle one didn’t respond. Behind it, she saw Luna approaching with a sinister grin on her face.
“How naïve.“ Her voice was as deep as it has never been before. “You can’t use the Element of Magic. Only I can.” She was toying with her big sister. Without the final Element, there was no hope of using their full potential. No way of returning Luna to her sanity. Whatever had taken her over believed itself untouchable.
Fearing she would deplete her magic, Celestia stopped and the Elements withered and fell to the ground as ornaments.
“Now I think it’s time we talked about your rule over Equestria. I think it’s time for a change.” Her horn glowed as she levitated the Element of Magic back to herself and placed it on her head, while Celestia watched in shock. Now it was Luna’s time to make magic.
She exploded in a ball of light, consuming the element into herself and reappeared from the blaze transformed. “You may call us Nightmare Moon.” She smirked, as if she had forgotten to add a small part to that, “Your Royal Highness, Nightmare Moon.”
She thoroughly enjoyed defeating her sister in such a clever way. She had outsmarted her and now, it was her time to reap the rewards. One thing she didn’t count on, though, was Celestia’s determination to save her. While Nightmare Moon quietly gloated, and literally glowed, her sister hatched a plan. If she couldn’t save her right now, there was only one thing left to do: send her away until she could. In time, a new Element of Magic would appear, she was sure of that. And if it wouldn’t, she would make it appear. One day, she would have her back.
With a quick magical pull, before Nightmare Moon had a chance to react, she once again had five of the Elements of Harmony in her control. Nightmare Moon watched with comical disbelief as Celestia focused again to form them into the shape of a pyramid and ignited them.
“That will accomplish…” Before she could finish the sentence, she found herself wrapped in a colorful field, each element contributing to the mix. A loud scream was the last thing she managed before disappearing in a blue flash, banished to the Moon until the time would come.
Hearing the explosion and the scream, Royal Guards crashed into the room to investigate and found Celestia hunched on the ground, crying, the five remaining Elements scattered over the floor. Before any of them had a chance to speak, she waved them off. “Leave me!”
The guards didn’t waste a moment in respecting the order. They had no idea what had happened, but the gravity of the situation reflected in Celestia’s command was enough for them. Alone again, Celestia allowed herself a short rest on the floor to compose her thoughts. The skulls had to be re-buried in their proper place. Equestria needed a strong ruler to rebuild the shattered nation. Equestrians, who gave everything they had for her and more, counted on her.
With a new sense of duty that masked the pain, she stood up and started walking to the door. First the skulls and then the rest. She would worry about what to write in the history books later.