Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
One Hour and Forty Minutes Until the Banishment of Nightmare Moon
Luna
She was about to lose control.
Luna vainly searched with her magic for the small spark of life that was her foal.
Nothing.
Her eyes roved wildly around Twilight’s foal room, looking for a hint as to who had taken her precious child.
Nothing.
She collapsed onto the floor and screamed to the heavens, not caring if she was heard. She screamed until her throat was raw. Fear unlike anything she had felt before clawed at her soul. Lund didn’t know what to do, where to look, or who to hurt for taking Twilight from her.
She sprang to her hooves and leapt back up the staircase into her chambers with tears running freely down her face. Luna had to go tell Celestia, no matter the consequences. They needed to start searching everywhere in the castle, every house in the city until Twilight was found.
What if she helped them take Twilight from us though?
Luna screeched to an abrupt halt, breathing heavily. It was an absurd thought, but now that the seed was planted, doubt flourished.
What if Celestia did know? And her dismissal of Luna earlier was only an act? What if she was jealous of Luna’s child? Would she take Twilight out of spite? What would her sister do with her niece? Hide her? Enchant her?
Kill her?
Luna shook her head violently, but the dreadful thoughts refused to go away. She knew Celestia would never do anything to harm an innocent foal, much less her own family.
But the seed of doubt remained.
Luna lay trembling on her bedroom floor, shaking violently as her sobbing shook her. Her vision narrowed and her heart beat loudly in her chest as if it was trying to escape.
A glint of gold caught the corner of her eye.
Latching on to the unfamiliar object, Luna brought it to eye level, where she stared at it feverishly.
Her heart skipped a beat.
It was the sigil of the Knights of Ra.
Moloch.
She remembered the conversation she had with him last night, and also how he passed her when Luna went to talk to Celestia just a few minutes ago. He must have somehow foalnapped Twilight and accidentally dropped his pin.
Luna snarled in anger as she crushed the sigil in her magic. Then wasting no more time, she transformed herself into a cloud of magic so as to travel unnoticed through the castle. Flying under the doorway of her chamber, she silently flew from shadow to shadow on her way out of the castle.
Now she had a target.
As Luna quickly passed pony after pony heading to the throne room to greet Celestia, she began to focus on what needed to be done.
Her Night Watch had researched diligently as to the location of the Knights of Ra’s secret headquarters. They had been able to file down the possibilities until they had closed in on a mansion that belonged to Moloch, that he purchased under a pseudonym. It sat only a few blocks from the castle, and Luna hoped beyond hope that that was where Moloch had taken Twilight.
It had crossed her mind to summon her Night Watch, but they were probably still tired after carrying out last night’s duties, and her guards weren’t exactly subtle in the daytime. She was afraid that Moloch might take Twilight hostage or worse if he realized that she was on to him.
Finally leaving the castle, the blue cloud of magic that was Luna quickly flew low along the ground and approached the mansion gates. The mansion was a large four story complex with a wall encircling the grounds around it. There was but a single gate for entry, and the mansion was surrounded by other upper-class buildings. Ponies milled about oblivious to their Princess of the Moon approaching.
Reaching out with her magic, she felt several wards designed to keep out intruders, namely enchantments for teleportation or flying. There were a few of Moloch’s personal guards that were disguised by the front gate. She ignored them and flew around to one other walls, and then into an alleyway parallel to the mansion. Once there she reformed herself into a physical being, dismissing the purple cloud she had been. Luna cast an illusion over herself and disguised herself as a regular unicorn mare, trying to look as non-descript as possible in case someone looked into the streets from the mansion’s windows.
Trotting over quickly to wall, Luna probed the mansion’s magical defenses with her magic again, being careful not to set off any alarms that could attract her prey’s attention.
There!
No system was perfect, and Luna found the Knight’s wards to be no different. She found a weakness in their defenses, one that Moloch had clearly overlooked. Almost directly beneath her, Luna sensed an underground sewer line large enough to fit a small pony that ran beneath the mansion’s walls and the magical wards.
Glancing around, Luna spotted a gated grate that helped drain water from the streets that led to the water system below. She transformed back into a cloud of magic, and slipped between the grates and into the pipes below.
Darkness engulfed her, and Luna couldn’t see anything. Transforming back into her alicorn self, she ignored the splash of water around her hooves and lit her horn so that she could see. Galloping quickly down the dark tunnel, Luna searched for a way into the mansion from the stone sewers below it. Different avenues presented itself and some very disgusting, but Luna was desperate for a way in that bypassed the grounds and led into the mansion itself. Finally, she found a medium-sized food waste disposal chute that led to what was probably the basement. Returning to her cloud form, Luna squeezed through the chute until she was almost inside the room above the sewers..
Reaching out with her magic, Luna didn’t feel any ponies in the immediate vicinity. Moving fast, Luna reformed in the basement of the mansion. This time, she cast another illusion over herself to make her look like somepony who would probably be in the mansion, namely a tall slender unicorn mare with a white coat. She didn’t plan on being seen by anypony, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. Now that she was inside the mansion, she was wary to use her magic cloud spell in case it set off any unknown alarm enchantments. That magical cloud spell was very powerful, and seldom used except by experienced mages. Lune expected that the Knights would have set up spells to detect powerful magic being used inside the mansion without permission.
Luna’s teal eyes danced around the room, and she quickly spotted what appeared to be a servant’s robe and accompanying garments. Apparently this was where the mansion’s servants did laundry and disposed of food waste. Luna cast a spell dispelling whatever smells she may have picked up in the catacombs, and then teleported the servant’s outfit onto herself.
She climbed the stairs leading up into what she assumed was a hallway on the first floor, making sure to stay as quite as possible. Opening the doors slowly, she peeked out and found that it was indeed an ornate hallway, with many sun-styled decorations.
Seeing that it was empty at the moment, Luna forged on ahead and began exploring the castle, looking for any and all signs of activity. Her ears flickered at the faintest of sounds, every board that creaked, every door that opened, and every wind that whispered. Oddly enough, Luna had yet to see any other ponies in the mansion. It was as if everypony, even the servants, had been sent home for the day.
Luna found out swiftly that the mansion was designed with a circular layout. All the rooms, the kitchen, everything else was surrounding the center of the mansion, a place Luna had yet to find an entrance too.
The disguised alicorn was rapidly coming around a corner when she halted abruptly, for she had picked up on a conversation between two unidentified ponies. Straining her ears while staying alert so as to not get caught eavesdropping, Luna listened in on their discussion.
“Do you know what Lord Moloch has discovered? It’s odd of him to call a meeting with such little notice. Usually he gives us time for us to make believable excuses to explain our absences elsewhere, so as to keep our meetings secret.” Luna didn’t recognize the owner of the polished voice, but from his accent she discerned it was a young lesser noble.
“Hhhmmm.” The second pony considered, this one sounded quite older. He also sounded like a noble, but an elderly one. “I’ve only heard rumors…Lord Moloch has been quite vexed lately though. Something has been on his mind…”
“Is it about Her Shining Majesty, Princess Celestia?” The first pony asked excitedly. “I heard she accepted Lord Moloch’s invitation to come to a ‘Gentry Society’ meeting tomorrow.”
“Yes, I heard that as well. It’s the first step for bringing her fully into the fold. Perhaps then we will be able to rid our beloved sun goddess of the Night Mare’s influence. Only when Her Shining Majesty is free of that wretched demon she is cursed with for a ‘sister’ can we finally begin openly cleansing Equestria of the Night Mare’s convents. I look forward to the day when we will no longer be forced to sacrifice those hideous Lunar Pegasi on our sacred sun alters in secret.” The elder said wistfully.
Luna had to suppress reaching out with her magic and strangling the two conspirators. What they were saying confirmed Luna’s fears regarding the Knights of Ra’s true agenda. Bile rose in her throat at the casualness with which these two vermin calmly discussed the murder of innocent ponies. If this were any other circumstance, Luna would have clapped these two in irons, but they were heading to a meeting where Moloch was and so she needed them alive.
For now.
The younger noble shuffled slightly. “It’s almost noon. You and I were the last ones to arrive. We better get in there before we’re late.”
His compatriot grunted in agreement, and Luna heard them trot further down the hallway. She barely heard the tell-tale signs of them opening a pair of large doors.
Luna suspected that the doors the two Knights had just gone through led to the center of the mansion. She equally suspected that there were probably some of Moloch’s guards standing silent sentinel at the entrance.
Pursing her lips in concentration, Luna began casting an invisibility spell Starswirl had taught her. It wasn’t true invisibility, it was more like an illusion or a mirage. It put the images one would suspect to see around her, but her shadow could still be seen on the ground. It also took up a lot of energy, and became more unstable over time so it wouldn’t last long.
Luna watched impatiently as her body seemingly disappeared. She then focused on a vase standing on a pedestal in the opposite hallway across from her. Nudging it with her magic, the vase toppled over and shattered on the ground loudly.
Luna was right, Moloch had stationed guards. She held herself very still as the clanking of armor approached the intersection in the hallway. Two unicorn guards wearing bronze armor went to investigate the source of the noise in the other hallway, leaving the entrance behind them free for Luna to enter through.
Trotting as fast as she could without making a sound, Luna slipped by the oblivious guards and barely cracked the doors open with her magic. She quickly entered the center of the mansion, still invisible, and silently closed the doors behind her.
Turning around, Luna almost gasped out loud in shock at the mansion’s center.
The Knights of Ra had built a temple.
The room was as high as the building, three stories tall. It was cylindrical, with balconies ringing the upper stories of the temple. Large golden columns with suns capping their tops ringed around the balconies to support the roof looming over the large chamber. The roof was domed with a golden circle in the center, representing the sun. Red mosaics streaked with gold surrounded the golden disc in an attempt to artistically show the sun’s rays.
But the most disturbing fixture of the room was the statue.
Of Celestia.
It was a huge golden idol located at the back of the temple and was two and a half stories tall. Her large gold wings were outstretched to circle the temple’s walls in a perverse embrace. Her face was neutral, lacking all emotion. What would have been Celestia’s eyes were replaced with blood-red ruby. The crown on her head was not the one the real Celestia wore, but instead a golden wreath of bronze flames. In her forelegs she held out a large golden bowl, and Luna could see black marks scarring the bottom of it. Directly below the bowl was a raised dais with a large stack of dry wood.
Below the dais on which the idol sat was a gathering of around thirty ponies all wearing scarlet robes. All three tribes were represented, but the majority was made up of unicorns. Luna suspected this was because of the unicorn’s past obligation to raise the sun.
Luna snapped out of her shock and realized her invisibility spell was about to collapse. Probing the area with her magic, Luna sensed that the Knights had placed one last shield between her and them. This shield felt unfamiliar but it only covered the center of the chamber, leaving the balconies free for Luna to explore. While the Knights were focused on the dais, Luna climbed up the stairs as quietly as possible to the third balcony. No other ponies were on the second and third balconies, as all the Knights had gathered on the floor of the temple.
Sighing in relief for not being noticed this deep into the rat’s lair, Luna let the invisibility spell fade. She crouched down and closed her eyes, hastily searching with her magic for Twilight.
Luna found her.
Twilight’s magical signature was muffled though, as if something were suppressing it. Luna’s heart fluttered as she felt that so far, Twilight was unharmed. Because of the shield between her and the Knights, Luna was unable to pick up on her daughter’s exact location. She could only feel that Twilight was somewhere in the temple, close to where the assembled ponies were.
Grinding her teeth in frustration, Luna felt a mixed combination of fear, anger, impatience, and caution. She couldn’t plan on how to rescue Twilight yet without knowing her exact situation, and Luna couldn’t break through the shield without alerting the Knights to her presence.
She would have to wait, and let Moloch make the first move.
And sure enough, the slime-ball passing for a stallion stepped out from behind the idol of Celestia, wearing scarlet robes trimmed with gold stylized flames. Luna glared a thousand daggers at him as the oblivious noble stepped out onto the dais in front of the pile of wood.
“Fellow Knights!” Moloch’s voice boomed all around the temple. He had magically enhanced it. The other Knights fell silent and watched him with rapt attention. “Today is a historic day for our noble cause. For today we shall deal a devastating blow to the Night Mare of the Moon and be one step closer to elevating Her Immortal Shining Majesty as Queen of not just Equestria, but the whole world!”
Luna scowled fiercely as the Knights clapped their hooves on the floor in agreement. This was exactly why she and Celestia had outlawed the vile practice of worshipping them long ago. They were not goddesses, they were the guardians of Equestria and caretakers of Day and Night. They refused to acknowledge ponies that would prop them up as divine beings, and had fervently cracked down on several cults centuries ago. Luna had thought the Knights of Ra were only dedicated to Celestia, but she had no idea that they actually worshipped her. It seemed that the Knights had kept the secret of their true nature very well.
“Sixty-six risings and settings of the sun have passed since I received a vision of the future!” Moloch preached to his followers. “A dream that revealed to me a most dire situation, one that could have undone all of our glorious work!”
Luna felt confusion at Moloch’s words. Visions of the future were almost unheard of. The only pony Luna knew of that had ever received a vision via a dream was Starswirl the Bearded, and those were given to him by the Stars. Luna very much doubted the Stars would give the leader of the Knights of Ra, a cult that hated the night in which the Stars shone, a vision of any sorts. Even Starswirl had difficultly wheedling anything out of the Star’s unpredictable patterns, and he was on good terms with them.
Perhaps Moloch was…lying to embellish his tale.
But perhaps not, Luna couldn’t tell.
“As I slept, there before me I saw the Royal Castle here in our great city. I paying homage to Her Immortal Shining Majesty, who sat on Equestria’s throne in all her glory, finally ready to embrace us and our purpose.” More enthusiastic clapping followed this, but Moloch had merely paused for dramatic effect. “But then out of the darkness rose not one, but two Night Mares!”
His captive audience gave a collective gasp.
“Our most hated foe, aided by this new Night Mare, cast down our soon-to-be Solar Queen into the eternal darkness that is Tartarus!” Moloch cursed acidly. “There they bound our goddess in chains for all eternity! Assured of their victory, the Night Mares fully unleashed the forces of Night upon Equestria, starting a reign of chaos greater than that of even the demon Discord! There was no order, and all other ponies were subject to the carnivorous and lecherous desires of the Lunar Pegasi!”
The mob shifted in agitation and one of them shouted, “Lord Moloch, what must we do to escape this fate!?”
The Knights murmured their consensus with this question and returned their attention to the leader of their rabble. Moloch reared back and a wicked smile bloomed over his face.
“Do not fear, Oh Knights of Ra, for it was then that the dream revealed to me how I might stop the Night Mares’ schemes, even before they began.”
Luna’s ears twitched, this sounded important.
Moloch smiled down upon his Knights, his eyes glimmering with a malicious fire. “The vision showed me the Night Mare’s chambers in yonder castle. There was a stone slab in the floor that revealed a staircase to a secret chamber. And inside this crypt of darkness, the vision exposed to me a secret the Night Mare of the Moon has been desperate to keep hidden in the depths of her darkness.”
Moloch stepped back and lifted in his magic a large, wooden chest from below the dais. Luna had not been able to see it before because the crowd had blocked her vision. Moloch opened the chest and lifted out a large brown bag. The bag squirmed in his grasp and a keening cry Luna was all too familiar with reached her ears high above the temple floor.
Twilight!
Luna desperately longed to fly down to the dais and rescue Twilight from the deranged unicorn’s clutches. But she forcibly restrained herself, making sure to keep her eyes on Twilight. Luna knew that with Moloch’s proximity to Twilight, he would get to her daughter much sooner than Luna would. Luna would have to wait until either Moloch acted to harm Twilight or moved her foal away from him before she shattered the shield.
“Behold!” Moloch yelled. “The spawn of that tail-lifting whore!”
He yanked the bag away to reveal Twilight to the Knights. Moloch held her in his magic by the scruff of her neck. Twilight flapped her tiny wings and flailed her hooves as she tried to get away vainly. Her eyes were closed and large tears stained her cheeks. Luna watched through angry eyes as her helpless foal cried out in fear.
Crying out for her mother to save her.
The Knights jeered and hissed at Twilight, several of them making obscene gestures that made Luna want to grind their bones to dust.
Others laughed at Twilight’s crying and made faces mocking Twilight’s fear.
“Oh yes!” Moloch grinned widely, shaking Twilight roughly with his magic. “This pitiful thing is nothing but the by-product of the Night Mare’s orgies with the Lunar Pegasi! If it were not for my efforts, this monster would have grown to be as much of a prostitute as its forbear! But now because of my intervention, that shall never come to pass! The Sun shall reign supreme forever!”
The Knights abandoned all semblance of decency and jumped up in praise of Moloch. Luna watched them in hatred and disgust for what these ponies had become. They were murderers, foalnappers, and perverse pagans. They were a dark blight upon Equestria that Luna would take great joy in annihilating.
A chant rose up from the Knights.
“Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!”
Moloch nodded in assent to the mob’s demands, and he lifted Twilight up above him to the large golden bowl that the idol Celestia was holding with her forelegs.
Luna realized with dawning horror at what they intended.
Twilight would be placed in the golden bowl and the Knights would set fire to the bonfire beneath her. The metal bowl would then heat up to unbearable levels, and the Knights would cheer as Twilight was cooked alive.
Luna decided then that she would leave none of them alive. And only pain would accompany them as the Knights greeted death at Luna’s hooves.
Watching with bated breath, Luna summoned her magic to break through the shield as soon as Moloch dropped Twilight into the bowl. She eyed several knights warily as they approached the dais with jars of oil and a lit torch to light the wood. Returning her attention to Twilight she watched as her foal was levitated up into the golden bowl, screaming all the while. Then, Moloch released his magic surrounding Twilight, letting her fall into basin of the bowl.
Now was the time.
Unleashing her magic onto the Knight’s shield, a beam of lightning erupted from her horn to dance along the shield’s surface, shattering it completely. As the sparks of the broken shield fell among the Knights, they yelled out surprise as they searched for the source of the disruption. Luna didn’t waste time and leapt over the balcony railing, fanning out her wings and taking flight towards Twilight. Diving towards the bowl, she set off another bolt of lightning into the crowd, paying her victims no notice as they screamed in agony.
“It’s the Night Mare!” Moloch shouted. “Kill her! Kill them both!”
Twilight’s purple eyes saw her as Luna landed in the bowl, and cried louder as she reached out to be held. Luna swiftly cast a shield spell of her own between her and the knights, just in time for several lances of energy to be deflected. Scooping Twilight up with a foreleg, Luna placed her daughter on her back between her wings. Then she folded her wings over Twilight to protect her from any stray magic bolts and to help Luna carry her as they escaped. She quickly cast a sleep spell on Twilight and watched her daughter carefully as she fell asleep.
Luna didn’t want her to see what her mother was going to do next.
Glaring down at the Knights as Moloch tried to rally them, Luna realized she would have to get through all of them before they could make their escape. The Knights were between them and the exit, and Luna didn’t want to risk blowing a hole through the roof and cause the mansion to collapse on them. She wouldn’t be able to fly out anyway with Twilight folded in her wings, and she couldn’t transform into a magic cloud either as the spell was only meant for one pony, not two.
“Flee for your lives!” Luna taunted, her eyes flashing blue with magic. Her voice rolled across the Knights like a hurricane. “There is nowhere to hide!”
Instead of dismissing the shield, Luna hurled it at the Knights below the dais, knocking many of them over before Moloch dismissed it with his own magic. The jars of oil the Knights had been carrying earlier spilled their contents onto the wood pile below her. Luna followed her shield as it rolled over the Knights and vaulted over the lip of the bowl and onto the dais.
Some of the Knights trembled at her fury, but the majority of them only grew angry. Doubtless many of them saw this as their golden opportunity.
A pegasus Knight behind Luna descended from the upper tiers of the temple towards them with the intention of slamming into Twilight on her back. Luna didn’t bother facing him and merely placed another shield between her and him. The pegasus failed to notice the shield and slammed into it with a sickening crunch. The Knight then slid down the shield until he fell to the ground.
Luna could see the unicorns forming at the exit, combing their magic for some spell while the earth ponies engaged her.
Four earth ponies charged straight at her with their heads lowered. Luna was fortunate that many of the Knights didn’t have weapons, as it made crushing them that much easier.
As the four ponies gained ground and speed, Luna cast a spell on the marble floor to make it slick. The earth ponies yelled in surprise as they lost their footing, and tumbled over each other. Even while the earth pony Knights were still flailing about, Luna picked them up in her magic and hurled them across the room. Three of the stallions broke completely through a column each, their bones cracking on impact. The fourth smacked flatly against a wall, failing to soften his impact at all.
Luna could still see the unicorns gathering their magic, and the two guards from earlier had now joined them, but she was too distracted by a duo of pegasi circling above her like vultures. Luna couldn’t put up another shield to deal with them as she had the first one, since she might need that shield for whatever the unicorns were concocting.
Shouting out curses at Luna, the pegasi streaked towards her simultaneously from two different directions.
Amateurs.
These ponies were not warriors, they were bureaucrats, and thus they easily fell into her traps.
Waiting for just the right moment, Luna merely formed a slide of magic in the shape of a U just above her, catching the two pegasi at both ends. Unable to slow their momentum the two pegasi smashed into each other violently at the bottom of the U. As they groaned from the pain, Luna reached out with her magic to their wings. Finding their wing bases, Luna broke all four wings. The pegasi Knights screamed in anguish before Luna hurled them away from her, their forms breaking upon the walls of their temple before the fell lifelessly to the floor.
The unicorns seemed to be almost finished combining their magic with the spell. Luna could see Moloch in the center, glaring the promise of death at her as he helped form the spell.
Not stupid enough to wait for them to finish forming whatever spell they were enchanting, Luna gathered a large amount of magic into her horn and sent the lance of energy straight into the center of the magical energy that was being gathered.
She wasn’t trying to destroy the spell, far from it in fact.
Luna was overpowering it.
Luna smirked in satisfaction as Moloch’s eyes widened as he realized what she had done.
But he was too late.
With the magical energy now exceeding far more than what the unicorns could handle, the spell they had been forming collapsed and released all the energy.
Several flashes of light temporarily blinded Luna as the explosion rocked the whole mansion. Unicorns screaming in torment flew across the room from the force of the explosion. Even as they flew by in absolute misery, Luna picked up as many of the unicorns as she could in her magic and a tornado of magical energy formed around Luna as she dealt with her foal’s would-be murderers. The unicorns yelled, cursed, and screamed as the magic cut through them and many of them still tried to cast magic at her, but her much stronger magic dismissed their feeble attempts.
Eventually the unicorns flew by faster and faster in the magical hurricane as Luna put more energy into the spell. Their screams were drowned out by the howling of the wind. Using the magic surrounding the unicorn Knights, Luna made sure that their heads were at the forefront of their momentum.
Then she released the spell.
The tornado holding the Knights captive immediately vanished, but the inertia carrying the unicorns didn’t.
With several screams, followed by a satisfying crunch as their heads impacted different parts of the temple, several unicorns left their broken horns sticking out of the stone walls as they too fell lifelessly to the floor, joining their fallen brethren.
Silence.
The acrid smell of smoke drifted from the site of the explosion, and Luna detected the coppery smell of blood and sweat.
There was only one Knight left.
Turning towards the dais, Luna glared with absolute hatred at the stallion responsible for taking Twilight from her.
Moloch was breathing heavily on the pile of wood, burn marks scarring his once pristine white coat. His eyes watched her angrily as he stumbled to his hooves.
“You think you have won!?” The deranged pony screamed, spitting out blood. “You will never win Night Mare as long as the sun rises! Celestia has already eclipsed you, and soon our goddess shall be rid of you once and for all! It matters not that you kill us today, for ponies will always revere her more than you and your filth of a foal!”
Luna didn’t respond. She just watched, patiently. Biding her time.
Moloch scowled with the fury of forty dead Knights and reared back on his hooves for one final attack.
“Die in fire Night Mares!!”
Luna didn’t even bother raising a shield.
The tip of his horn let out a spark as he attempted to conjure fire, and he succeeded.
The foolish Moloch, in his anger, had forgotten that he was standing on a pile of wood smothered in oil and that he too was covered in it.
Luna turned away and trotted towards the open doors with a finality that assured the end of her hated foe.
She calmly listened as Moloch screamed in agony, burning to death on his own sacrifice pier.
“So ends the Knights of Ra.”
Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
Ten Minutes Until the Banishment of Nightmare Moon
Luna
Luna laid Twilight down back into her crib. She had checked over Twilight while they had secretly returned to the castle, and had healed the few small bruises her foal had collected.
Luna wished she could resurrect Moloch, just to kill him again.
Having made sure that Twilight was still asleep Luna tucked her in, assured that Twilight was now safe and sound. Luna brushed Twilight’s mane with a trembling hoof though, for she was still afraid for her beloved daughter.
She had come so close to losing Twilight. And the thought that she might have failed, or that she might have not arrived in time to stop the Knights filled her with a dreadful terror.
Moloch’s words haunted her.
It could happen again. And we might not be so lucky next time.
That was right, it could happen again. Moloch had been right too. As long as the ponies of Equestria feared and hated her, she and Twilight would never be completely safe. There would always be those who would seek out their deaths.
What then could she do? Luna had tried everything, and despite her best efforts, all that she did seemed to collapse and fail. What avenue did she have left when she couldn’t bring Equestria to respect her?
Make them fear us. Fear of our vengeance. Fear of our power. Show them that we are greater than Celestia. Then they will not dare act against us or our daughter.
That…could work. But it would have to be something that ponies would not be able to change, something that only Luna could control.
Show them who is more powerful. Raise the moon in the sky and do not let the sun rise. That will reveal our dominance over Celestia. She IS key. They do not respect us, only HER. This will make them respect us.
Luna pondered over her internal thoughts. She hadn’t thought about it before, but somehow it made sense to her. It shouldn’t have made sense, but somehow it just seemed to click together.
But could she do that? Luna had sworn an oath to always keep Day and Night in balance. It was her duty.
The question is, would we do that for Twilight? To protect her? It is the only way after all.
She’d do anything for Twilight. Luna would protect her. It was clearly the only way. Luna had tried everything else. If they would not respect her, then how could she expect ponies to respect Twilight? Something had to be done before somepony else thought they were vulnerable and tried to kill them.
Luna halted her thoughts. Celestia would object as sure as daylight to the disruption of the balance. Perhaps if she talked it over with her, Celestia could agree to let Luna show their ponies that the Night was powerful, and that she and Twilight should be respected too.
Celestia will never listen to us, she never has. She loves being the center of attention too much, and will loathe to lose even a small amount of respect from Equestria. Celestia will never agree to let the Night last longer, so we will have to force the Night to remain.
Luna turned away from Twilight’s crib, angry tears bleeding from her eyes. Celestia was always respected. She never listened to Luna, and because of that Twilight had almost been sacrificed to a bunch of blood-thirsty sun worshipers. It was her fault ponies didn’t respect the Night. She was too glorious, too majestic, too much everything that Luna wasn’t. She should show Celestia that she could no longer be ignored.
Luna made her decision.
Turning towards the exit, Luna scowled darkly as she determined to head to the throne room.
Twilight started crying.
Luna’s anger vanished instantly, and she went back to the crib. She leaned down until her muzzle was just above Twilight.
“Shh. It’s going to be alright my little star. Mama is going to make things all better. Nopony will ever come take you away from me again. I’ll be back soon.”
Twilight cooed unhappily and gripped her mother’s muzzle with her forehooves, as if desiring for Luna to stay.
She will never be safe, not as long as ponies do not fear us.
Backing away from Twilight, Luna tucked her daughter back into the crib.
“I love you Twilight. I’ll be back soon.” And Luna nuzzled Twilight before giving her a good-bye kiss on her forehead.
And then she left, trying to ignore the sniffles coming from her daughter’s crib. It was for her own good. Everything would be better soon. It had to be. There was no other way.
Luna ascended the staircase into her bed chambers. She turned around and started to levitate the stone slab back into place, hiding Twilight again. Moloch had been the only pony to know of the secret foal-room, and he and his Knights had taken that secret to their grave.
Luna paused. She had…felt something. In Twilight’s foal room. Something…dark. But what…
We are just imagining things. We must go to the throne room.
Luna decided that she was just imagining things. She decided that she must go to the throne room.
She turned around and opened the doors to the hallway outside. Closing the doors behind her, Luna swiftly trotted towards the throne room. It would be empty this time of day, as her sister’s Court of the Sun had finished earlier.
Luna decided that if she was going to be feared, she needed to look different, and she remembered a few transformation spells from her time as one of Starswirl’s apprentices.
She would need to be at least as tall as Celestia, to signify their equality in all things.
Her coat would need to be black, to underline that she was an alicorn of the night.
Teeth…she could transform her teeth into fangs, to show the ponies of Equestria that she was the predator, not the prey.
Luna would transform her torc into armor, to show that she was ready for whatever her enemies would throw at her.
She would need to have a new name. They wouldn’t fear the name Luna, they hadn’t before, and they wouldn’t now. But what? To the populace, she was the Mare of the Night, the Night Mare of the Moon.
Ponies already feared her, so she would become that which they feared, only worse.
“I am Nightmare Moon.”