Lunar Interlude
Princess Luna cursed as she rubbed her eyes, a loud noise ringing in her head. She concentrated and her horn glowed faintly. The noise ceased and she sighed in relief. She glared at the balcony in annoyance before slowly getting off the bed. Normal alarms were useless, so she had to cast a spell on herself to ensure she would wake up.
Why did she have to get up at this ungodly hour? Oh right, her sister had decided, in her usual self-righteous overbearing manner, to join poor Twilight Sparkle in her coma. Now, she had to get up early enough to raise the sun every morning.
Her horn blazed with her dark magical aura as she reached into the sky above. Her thoughts brushed against the sun. It resisted her touch, apparently still displeased with her for her actions in attempting to bring about eternal night. The damn ball of fire could really hold a grudge. Nevertheless, it begrudgingly moved over the horizon.
She sighed in relief as she watched the dawn briefly. She turned and cantered back into her room. At least the stupid sun had stopped burning her every morning. It had been two weeks of this so far, and she hated every day of it. She was the princess of the night, damn it! She wasn’t meant to get up this early. As she was tending her mane, she heard the door open and the clink of fine china.
If she had to wake early, at least she had that delightful elixir, coffee, to help. She’d been slowly catching up on everything that had occurred since her banishment, but nothing had matched the magnificence of the dark beverage. She’d ordered the staff to send some to her room at dawn every morning.
After finishing her early morning coffee, she headed off for breakfast, and more coffee. With her sister sleeping, she had to host the Day Court. After two weeks of their inane babbling, she was half convinced that they should just purge the nobles completely. Why should she have to deal with their nonsense?
Luna barely managed to suppress a sigh of relief as the last petitioner of the day exited the room. It wouldn’t be proper for her to sigh in front of the pair of royal guards flanking her. She rose to her hooves and made to leave as well, when she heard a shout. Pausing to listen, she was surprised to see a cyan mare burst into the room, her chest heaving. Judging from her mane, it was Rainbow Dash, the element of Loyalty.
“Princess!” The pegasus cried, only to freeze as she looked at Luna.
The princess of the moon frowned. She hadn’t interacted much with the bearer, but she wasn’t aware that Rainbow Dash disliked her so much. She had to hide how much the look of horror on the pegasus’ face saddened her.
“What is-” Luna began, taking a step forward, only to be cut off.
“Get the buck away!” Rainbow screamed as she charged forward.
Considering the pegasus was suddenly moving a good deal faster than the speed of sound, Luna didn’t have much time to react to the charge. She braced herself, only to be surprised when the pegasus shot over her shoulder. She whirled in time to see Rainbow tackle her guards, who had raised their spears behind her. The sonic boom passed over them, shattering the windows.
“What is going on, Rainbow Dash?!” The dark princess demanded. “Answer us!” She realized that she had slipped into the more archaic speech of a thousand years ago, as she usually did when she was especially emotional.
Rainbow didn’t even wince at the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Pegasi. Coup. Had to stop them.” Her breaths were coming in short harsh gasps now, and she looked utterly exhausted.
Luna reared back in shock. She obviously couldn’t be sure from just five words, but it sounded like the bearer of Loyalty was accusing the pegasi of attempting a revolt. How was that possible?
Luna’s horn glowed as she cast a rejuvenation spell on Rainbow. She’d apologize to the pegasus for the effective hangover the spell caused later.
“What art thou saying? Tell us everything!” She ordered.
“It was General Thunderstorm. He… he basically said I had to swear to serve his orders or he’d lock me up. He said that, since Princess Celestia wasn’t here, it was the best chance he’d get to attack. I managed to get away and flew right here.” Rainbow finally took a breath. “Your guards must be part of it. When they saw me, they made to attack you. I’m guessing that Thunderstorm told them to be ready, in case I managed to get away.”
Normally, there was no way that she would just believe the pegasus’ claims, but this pony was basically the living incarnation of loyalty. She might not be the element of Honesty, but there was no way this mare would lie about something like that.
Luna glanced down at her guards. Unlike usual, she was accompanied by a pair of pegasi from the Solar Guard. Had this rebellion really gotten so far as to compromise Celestia’s personal guard? She wondered if any of the Lunar Guard had joined.
When she heard armored hoofsteps, she turned back to face the door. Five armored pegasi were standing against her, hefting their weapons towards her. They slowly moved towards her. Luna glared at them. Did they really believe her to be so weak as to be brought down by a mere five pegasi? Her horn blazed with power. Two of the stallions’ shadows came to life. They slithered like snakes across their owners’ bodies, binding their limbs. Unfortunately, the other three had taken to the air, so the spell couldn’t trap them as well. No matter.
Luna animated her mane with one of her favorite combat spells and it shot out, expanding enough to ensnare one pegasus and slam him into the floor. A volley of magical bolts erupted from the tip of her horn. The black tinged spells struck with pinpoint accuracy, leaving the last two pegasi on the ground. Their wings had been Luna’s target. It took quite a bit of damage for a wound to the wing to be permanent or fatal, but it was only the most exceptional flier that could continue to remain in the air after one was struck.
Rainbow’s jaw dropped as she watched Luna dispatch five royal guards in less than four seconds. “What the- That was…” She stammered uncharacteristically.
“Did you expect them to pose more of a threat to me?” A smirking Luna asked the cyan mare. “You seem to forget that I have lived for thousands of years, just like Celestia. We are both quite skilled on the field of battle.”
“No, I was just a bit surprised to see how easy it was for you.” Rainbow shook her head. “Wait a second, why would these five bother attacking on their own? They have to have some idea how powerful you are.”
Luna’s eyes widened and she galloped to a window nearby. As she thought, there were a huge number of pegasi in the sky, flying away in the direction of Cloudsdale. Rainbow cursed at the sight.
“Do you want me to go after them Princess?” She offered.
“No. I don’t think that would be a good idea.” The alicorn said sadly, quite distraught at the sight of the fleeing pegasi. “No matter how fast you are, they outnumber you more than a hundred to one. I must organize our defenses.” She paused. “Could you deliver these seven to the dungeons for me?”
Rainbow nodded. She made to begin her new task, but froze. “Princess, where is your sister? We could really use her help right now.”
Luna sighed. “I’m afraid that my sister cannot join us. Celestia is currently aiding your friend, Twilight Sparkle, in a matter most dire. Neither of them will wake for many days.”
Rainbow’s expression was horrified. “What happened to Twilight?” She demanded of the older mare, all thoughts of the dungeon forgotten.
Luna groaned and gave Rainbow a short synopsis of the events that had occurred two weeks prior. The cyan pegasus darted away the moment that Luna told her where the lavender mare slept. The princess of the night sighed as she lit her horn, using a rather draining teleportation spell that would send the pegasi to the dungeons.
‘Buck this’ Luna thought. ‘I’m getting more coffee.’
The next four weeks passed with a horrifying swiftness. Reports of conflicts kept coming in. Manehattan was an almost complete loss in less than four days. The pegasi had apparently been slowly altering the weather patterns around the city for weeks, and the biggest storm in Equestrian history had decimated the town. Thankfully, about half of the ponies there had managed to escape unharmed, but the number of casualties was still unknown.
They’d managed similar attacks on several smaller villages, though Luna had managed to coordinate enough of the remaining loyal pegasi to prevent any of the larger cities from being destroyed in such a manner. Rainbow Dash had been invaluable, her knowledge of weather manipulation and pegasus abilities proving immensely useful. In fact, the rainbow-maned pegasus had been acting as Luna’s unofficial lieutenant. She’d refused to return to Ponyville for more than short trips, as she’d wanted to remain in Canterlot to help.
Luna took another long drink of her steaming mug as she examined the map. It joined three more on the table. “We just don’t have enough pegasi.” She complained. “Less than thirty-five percent of the Canterlot Guard pegasi remained loyal, and the army itself is even worse off.”
Rainbow shrugged. “We’ll have to make do with what we have. It will be a lot harder, but if we cut the weather teams in half, we should be able to at least stop any more weather-based attacks.”
Luna sighed. It was the right thing to do, but it would make life significantly worse for the civilian populace, as the lack of planned weather would make farming, among other things, much harder.
“You’re right. I’ll give the order.” Luna finally admitted. “Have you come up with any ideas on dealing with Las Pegasus or Fillydelphia?” It went without saying that taking out Cloudsdale would have to wait, as the cloud city had been heavily fortified in the last few weeks.
Rainbow shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Until Celestia and Twilight wake up, I don’t think we have any unicorns who even know the cloud walking spell. At least, no one I’ve talked to knows how to cast it. It sucks that those traitors took the books on casting it, so you can’t learn it. I had no idea how complicated it was until you had one of those eggheads from Celestia’s school explain it, and he didn’t know any more than the basics. Twilight cast it like it was nothing.”
“She is the element of Magic.” Luna agreed. She noticed Rainbow playing with a crystal bracelet on her wrist. It was very hard to see, considering how closely it matched the mare’s coat. “I had not thought you one for ornamentation.” She commented offhoofedly.
“Oh this?” Rainbow asked, raising her hoof to show the bracelet more clearly. “Twilight made it for me, apparently. It… well, somehow it fired off one of my Rainbooms when I was trapped back in Cloudsdale.”
Luna froze. “Truly? May I examine it?”
“Um…” Rainbow hesitated. “I… Twi made me promise not to take it off.”
“There is no need for you to do so.”
“Alright then.” Rainbow nodded and Luna ignited her horn. Black energy swirled around the bangle.
“Quite impressive. I have not seen an enchanted artifact this impressive in a very long time. It is a three part enchantment, and it does not even need to be charged.”
“Oh?” Rainbow asked, interested now. Had Twilight’s spell really been that awesome?
“Yes. It stores a specific type of energy, monitors your emotional state, and releases the energy should you reach a certain emotional peak. The carving of the gem itself is quite impressive as well. It grants the bracer a great deal of storage capacity. Twilight must have permanently altered the color of a high quality gemstone in order to have it match your coat, as I know of no gem on this planet that has that coloration and this level of magical potency.” Luna took a deep breath as she shook her head in amazement. “I suggest you treasure this greatly, for I doubt there is another unicorn alive that could craft something like this. Indeed, neither I nor my sister could craft something of this caliber.”
“What? But aren’t you two supposed to be super magical? How can you not be able to do something like this?”
“Indeed, but enchanting is something of an art form, and the necessary talent is unique to the individual, rather than learned. Neither of us are gifted in that manner. We can create some basic artifacts, but they are rarely worth the effort.”
Luna tilted her head to look out the window. It was an overcast night, as they simply did not have enough pegasi to do much more than ensure that the clouds were not a threat. Cloudsdale had been pumping out more clouds than ever before, and it appeared that Las Pegasus and Fillydelphia had both begun to produce clouds as well. She wished she was able to control the sun a bit better. Celestia would have probably been able to manipulate its power to at least reduce the cloud cover.
Suddenly, a scroll burst into existence with a flash of green flames. Luna quickly grabbed it with her magic and read through it. Rainbow looked eagerly at it.
“That’s from Spike, right? Does he have any news from the Crystal Empire?” She asked. They’d sent the young dragon to Cadence less than a day after the first attack. The usefulness of the dragon’s ability to send and receive messages was incredible.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’ve had any success at all with replicating the Crystal Heart’s protection. On the upside, it looks like Shining Armor will be bringing a detachment of the Crystal Guard to help in a few weeks.”
The pegasi had apparently attempted to use another storm to attack the Crystal Empire. Upon learning of this, Luna had sent several weather teams to try and assist. However, the help had been unneeded. Apparently, the Crystal Heart could protect them from malevolently created weather. The crystal ponies hadn’t even noticed the storm.
It had been Rainbow’s idea to see if they could replicate the effects of the national treasure. A dozen unicorns had been sent to examine it. Unfortunately, it appeared that the Crystal Heart’s magic was unique.
Luna opened her mouth to continue, before immediately turning to look at one wall. “I need to go do something. Can you clean up here?” She asked as she finished off her mug, setting it down on the table. When Rainbow shrugged, the princess lit her horn and vanished.
Luna rematerialized just inside the boundaries of the palace. She had elected to remain invisible, so no one observing would have noticed. And it just so happened that three individuals were watching. They were clad in black that would have made them rather hard to notice even on a clear night. Considering the overcast conditions, they were nearly invisible. Of course, that was no barrier to the princess of the night, who could see as clearly in the dark as she could in the light..
Luna used one of her signature combat spells, and her ethereal mane suddenly split in several tendrils. Before they could even twitch, two pegasi were impaled through their wings. She allowed herself to become visible as she slammed them into the ground. The third intruder was sent flying backwards by an enormous blast of force before he could react.
“Did you really think that you could just sneak into my castle? Did you think that this pathetic cloud cover somehow blocks my sight?” She sneered, elongating her mane more. It coiled around the captured pegasi, heedless of their fearful cries. It wasn’t long before they were completely enshrouded in her starry mane.
“I am the princess of the night. There was never any hope for you to sneak past me, especially during my night. Do you think anything can hide from me beneath the night sky? Give up your foolish attempts at stealth and run, little pegasus. Run away and hide. For if I ever lay eyes on you again, I assure you that I will not be so merciful.” The horrorstruck intruder turned and shot away as fast as he could.
Luna’s disgusted sneer turned into a satisfied smirk as the pegasus faded from view. With a quick pulse of light from her horn, she teleported the captured pegasi to the dungeons. That had worked perfectly. She was sure that she’d made quite the impression on that third pegasus. He would not be returning any time soon and, with luck, they would be much more fearful of her.
Of course, she obviously couldn't actually see everything under the moon. Such a thing would be far too much for her brain to handle. That didn't mean she couldn't encourage her enemies to believe that she could. Her wards around the castle would inform her of any attempts to infiltrate it, so she could back up her bluff.
She turned to look at a certain area of the castle with a sigh. ‘Wake up, Celly. I get the feeling that I’m going to need your help soon.’