Wrinkled green hooves tapped the weathered boards of the porch in time to an ancient melody, the elderly mare sending her song out in hums and bouts of lyrics. Old she was, face wrinkled and sagging below a wispy white mane. She'd forgone her usual tight bun, allowing the strands to fly free in the cool evening breeze as she rocked in her chair. Relaxing back, her vibrant orange eyes, untouched by age, scanned her fields and the path to town.
She could feel her coming, but didn't allow that to bother her overmuch. Worrying wouldn't fix it. Besides, something that isn't broken doesn't need fixing anyway.
Tonight was a night of celebration, as it had been for the last several days. Applejack, Mac, and Bloom were all down in Ponyville, celebrating the return of the Princess of the Moon. A rusty chuckle escaped Granny at that thought. Her granddaughter, the Element of Honesty. Never had she been prouder of her little Apple than when she saw her standing tall but abashed, magical necklace firmly on her neck as they marched back to town bringing with them both the Sun and the Moon.
Apples were always destined for great things. How much was her influence, she couldn't know for sure, and didn't really want to. She was content with her temporarily emptied house, sitting on the porch and feeling the breeze in her mane. True, she wanted to see the Princess, but knowing Luna, she'd have made a scene. Better to make it out here in the empty darkness of her fields instead, the lights of Ponyville twinkling far past her fields as the revelers continued into the night.
A stirring in the air pulled her from her thoughts, and her eyes fixed on the pony of the hour, headed to her farm in a controlled glide. Luna landed gently on the packed dirt of the homestead, looking up at the elderly mare. Granny could only chuckle again as the forgotten Princess headed up the stairs of the porch carefully, head leaning forward and foreleg raised. Her wings drifted shut as she finally made her way to Granny, looking down into those vast, knowing eyes. Luna sat awkwardly beside the older mare, confusion and anger and love all warring together on her face.
The two sat in companionable silence for a time, the wind kicking up and blowing back the childish periwinkle mane of the lost Princess. Luna's teal eyes slid shut, head bowed slightly as her magic reached out, playing across the threads of Granny Smith's existence. Chuckling, the ancient mare rose from her chair, stretching out her hind legs. After a moment of contemplation, and feeling Luna's magic intensify against her coat, she sighed and glanced over at the Princess. "Y'all know that don't work on me, Little Lulu."
Snapping her wings out, Luna's teal eyes bored into Granny's orange ones as she rose to her hooves, drawing herself up nervously. "Gaea?"
The sly smile of the green mare confirmed Luna's suspicions, and she came forward carefully. "Why art thou garbed in the skin of a mortal? Thou art a Reborn?" Magic danced and played across Granny's form, Luna growing more frustrated by the moment. "We have missed thee, Gaea... but we miss thy true form." She stamped one small hoof for emphasis, looking down at the withered mare. "This... this is a farce, a mockery of thy station! Tis a spit in the face of thy granddaughter, Honesty! We did not think that a mare of thy caliber would be so quick to forget thy roots... and thy loves."
Looking up at the enraged alicorn, Granny smiled that enigmatic smile. "And without this farce, darlin', you'd be cavortin' about and killin' good folk with your whole everlastin' night business."
Recoiling as though struck, Luna drew her wings around herself defensively. "We... we did not wish for our subjects to suffer, only our sister."
"But they woulda suffered somethin' fierce, Lulu. Crops wouldn't have grown, and your ponies would have starved. You'd be alone on a barren wasteland of a rock floating in space. You woulda ruined my creation for the sake of your little temper tantrum." As she spoke, her eyes fixed to Luna's in the glare that had cowed generations of Apple children and adults alike, and the effect was the same on even an immortal Princess. Luna cowered, belly to the floorboards of the porch as Granny advanced on her. Tendrils of the old mare's own magic reacted to her anger, pulling her body up and outwards, expanding against the backdrop of the night.
As she grew, the withered skin pulled taught across newly defined muscles, wrinkles disappearing as her coat shone with a new light. Her mane grew fuller, the white strands flowing and turning a pale mocha, strands blue and calm as the sea shooting through at intervals. With a mighty shout, wings burst from her sides, scattering feathers and droplets of ocean water from the faded blue tips. Bending to catch Luna's eyes, massive green horn spiraling out, Gaea gave her a cold, flat stare.
"I couldn't live and love and give so many offspring like this, Lulu. I couldn't saddle generations of Apples with knowing they were living with a goddess." Sighing, she sat on the old boards, eyes straying to her changed cutie mark of Terra atop the great turtle, flower petals falling to either side.
Frustrated, Luna dug her hooves into the floorboards, keeping herself down. "Thou hadst no reason for being a breeding dam for these mortals. We are above such things. We had thought thy love for us was pure and true, yet thou hadst cast it away the moment we were sealed within the moon! Did we mean nothing, Gaea, truly? And thy offspring! What say Lady Applejack should she learn of thy deception? Truly, she deserves better than a life of lies." She spat that last angrily, glaring up at the elder alicorn, love and hate flashing in equal measure across her deep teal eyes.
"Still thy tongue." The Royal Canterlot Voice rolled over Luna and across the fields, trees trembling in the wake of their mistresses' wrath. She gave Luna a calculating stare, the surface of those hard orange eyes shining with tears that belied her feelings. Pulling Luna up roughly in her magic, she deposited her at the base of the porch, trotting past her towards the West Orchards. Wordlessly, the smaller alicorn pulled herself up again, following Gaea with swift beats of her metal-shod hooves.
The two mares soon found themselves cantering into what seemed a dead portion of the orchard. Twisting, skeletal branches clawed for the sky, night time winds tearing through them viciously. Gaea tilted her muzzle to the wind, a serene smile playing across her lips as her eyes slid shut for a moment. Moonlight spilled into the glade from behind a cloud, silvery bands highlighting the larger alicorn's mane, flowing through the ethereal strands. Stretching, the pregnant pause filled with so much yet unsaid.
Gaea turned, eying Luna across the soft shafts of moonlight. "If it is honesty you seek, I will tell you a story.
"Once upon a time, there lived two royal sisters. They ruled over the magical land of Equestria with fairness and harmony. Two other alicorns, the foal of Love and the mare of Nature, stayed close to help and advise the sisters where they could. And so, Equestria flourished under the rule of the Sun and the Moon."
The green mare slumped slightly, the fire of anger gone from her eyes entirely as her rump hit the dirt of the orchard. Luna paced closer, hesitantly, a small measure of fear flitting across her face. With a sad smile, Gaea continued. "As time grew on and the younger sister matured, the mare of Nature found herself drawn to her. The two spent long nights huddled to one another, watching the newborn constellations spiral above them as the older mare grew flowers and unearthed perfectly cut and polished gems, all merely to see her lover smile.
"Far too soon, the Moon Princess retreated further into herself and her studies. The mare of Nature found her attention pulled outwards, creating habitable areas for the other creatures of the world to settle. Separated, the two lovers stayed in contact with letters, but even they stopped coming eventually." With a shuddering sigh, Gaea pawed at the dirt, eyes slipping closed as she fought the tears pricking her eyes. A thousand years, and it hurts just like it was yesterday. We are truly cursed beings.
"The only indication she had something was amiss was the sun failing to rise one day. Speeding over land and sea, the mare of Nature worked her wings to the bone to return to her lover, but it was all for naught. Alighting in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, she found the elder sister beaten and bloodied, but alive. Tears streaming down her face, the only answer the elder sister could give the other when asking frantically after the younger sister was to point at the moon.
"The elder sister worked tirelessly with her best magicians and prophets to find a way to save her little sister. The mare of Nature could do nothing, feel nothing, and retreated into her forests and across her plains to drown her sorrow in the joy of Creation." Luna winced at Gaea's words, shame and regret for actions both recent and ancient welling up inside of her. She drew closer, hesitantly, finally stopping a few hooves in front of the other mare. Locking eyes, both felt the tears begin to fall as the wind whisked them away just as quickly.
"One day," continued Gaea softly, "a letter arrived. The elder sister had found a prophecy to allow her a second chance to save her sister. As she read it to the younger sister's lover, the lover considered the words carefully. The Elements of Harmony were now inert and cut off from the elder sister, and they would be needed for the upcoming battle. Both the mare of Nature and the foal of Love were tested, and neither bore any of the five main Elements, let alone the sixth that had vanished completely. The two eldest realized with mounting horror that they would be hinging their hopes on six entirely random ponies at a point a thousand years into the future."
Snuffling and wiping her face with a hoof, Luna gave a watery laugh. "You make it sound so impossible."
Chuckling back, Gaea bobbed her head, ethereal brown and blue strands pulling in the wind. "It was.
"You see, the mare of Nature and the elder sister both desperately missed the younger. Both blamed themselves for her fall from grace; the elder sister claiming she should have noticed and done something sooner, while the lover claiming she should have stayed nearby instead of leaving. Neither alicorn was content to leave her salvation up to chance."
A smirk wound across Gaea's muzzle, a dash of merriment twinkling in her eyes. "The elder sister was quite the planner. Long term goals, moving ponies like pieces on a chessboard to assure herself of victory when all was said and done. With the help of burgeoning Love, she schemed and worked to unify all ponies in the nation as they struck a new capital city in Canterlot. The cities and towns sprung up nearby, with even the Pegasi cities floating above.
"The mare of Nature, meanwhile, listened to the earth, the leylines and how they throbbed or strummed in a particular fashion in each new settlement. A small earth pony clan of farmers in Mane Hat sat at a particular intersection of those lines, but their only foal had been killed in an unfortunate accident." Luna's eyes widened at this, tears ceasing completely as the implications began to sink in.
Softly, Gaea brought a hoof under the other alicorn's chin, drawing them eye to eye once more. "The once-barren matron of the family, thought to be well past her foaling years, found a new spark of life inside of her as the mare of Nature discarded her immortal frame. Eleven months later, they had a beautiful filly, and eighteen years later, that filly married and had her own foals. And so, the line continued."
Voice cracking, Gaea still kept her gaze steady. "For a thousand years, Luna, I waited and worked and bore foals and buried foals... and my Little Lulu, I did it all for you."
Tears streamed freely down Luna's face, unchecked by pride. Shock and understanding, bare and naked coated her features even as she flew to the green alicorn. Wings wrapped firmly around Gaea, forelegs clinging around the ancient green neck as Luna poured out a torrent of tears, of apologies, of shame. Content to hold her until the storm passed, Gaea rocked her, stroking the pale blue mane of her lover as she had done a millennium past.
As the rage of emotion died down to sniffles, Gaea pulled back slightly, looking into those vast teal eyes once again. "And Luna... as sure as I made little green apples, I do not regret a second of the lives I lived or the deaths I died. It's all worth it, now, with you here before me."
"We did not know... we are sorry, our love, for doubting thy intentions." Luna's voice carried as a whisper, a strange calm settling around her like a favored blanket at the end of her tears. "Thou hast held that body of Granny Smith for too many centuries, Gaea. It must return to the earth... wilt thou be Reborn again?" Her eyes held hope, shimmering up into the orange orbs of her lover, only to blink in confusion at what came next.
Shaking her mane, Gaea planted a kiss on the end of Luna's nose. "Nay. You and your sister will be fine without me. I must return this body to the earth, and this soul to the world below it to continue my work. But my dearest Lulu, you are always welcome in my dreams, no matter what form I may take. I will not leave you again, and you need only seek me out when you need me."
Luna considered this, eyes dropping and moving side to side as her mind and heart warred with one another again. At Gaea's final words, she nodded once, leaning up and placing a slow and deliberate kiss on the older mare's lips. Gaea returned it, savoring their bittersweet reunion beneath the moonlight filtering through the bare branches of the Zap Apple trees.
As they parted, Gaea smiled, lighting her horn for a moment before breaking away sadly, trotting back towards the farmhouse even as her form shrunk back down to the unassuming Granny Smith.
Luna started suddenly, glancing down.
A pearl-white lily rose from the ground, twining around the blue alicorn's foreleg gently as it bloomed.