Return of the Empress

“ ...the more I think about it, the more I see I'm wrong. No, you're hiding from something. You pretend you're all that, but in reality, you're just afraid.”

Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria and Empress of the Night, was wading through her own destruction, a grin on her face.

It was before the rising dust of dawn, with the sun barely turning the horizon green and yellow. A cold wind whipped in from the north, bringing with it a flurry of snow that accumulated between patches of grass.

The hillside was smoldering as a whole, wooden skeletons billowing smoke and ember into the sky. Craters had torn up the earth as pockets of blood and bile surrounded them, chewing up what had once been pristine Equestrian countryside.

Her guard was at work, piling the bodies and arranging fires to be built. It had only taken a day to discover and catch King Rasmus. An hour more to decimate those loyal to him, under the fire of bolt and magic. They had hardly put up a fight, more like sheep herded to the slaughter, as mortar upon mortar crashed down. The stragglers, often crawling away or sobbing to themselves, were being put down quickly.

Out from the artwork came a group of her guard, dragging something between them. Luna paused in her musing and waited for them. It was Arkein Starling at the fore, leading his personal group of four behind him.

"Tis the Ipernian king, Empress. I doth humbly present King Rasmus, fool pretender and coward." He shoved the old stallion to the ground, who was blackened and glazed, a gash along his forehead still bleeding.

Luna leaned over and inspected him with a smile. She caught his eyes and shook her head slowly. Looking to her lieutenant, she said, "Tarry not on semantics, Starling. We know of him dearly, and need not the introductions. As thou shalt learn, a Lunar Guard is efficient in his or her own actions. Do not forget this."

Turning back to the Ipernian king, Luna put her smile back on. "May the morning greet thee kindly, Rasmus. Wouldst thou prefer to become Our prisoner? No doubt thy nation would offer a most high ransom for thy safe return."

At Rasmus' nod, her grin grew. "We are afraid thou shalt not get as far. A bounty was placed upon Our sister's head from thy court. Like thee, We do not find a fault in the killing of kings, and Ipernia must watch as its order is returned in due kind. Thy head shall do."

Before Rasmus could translate the terror in his eyes, Regolith flashed into the air and skewered the king in the stomach. A dulled gasp of air was all he gave out, his expression wide and shocked as his body trembled.

Luna looked from him to Starling. "Ready thy blade, Pomerius. The guard demands a sacrifice from thee, if thou art to ascend. We shall read him his last rites, and then thou wilt become his executioner."

The blood drained from Starling's face. He remained mute for a moment, his eyes never once leaving his Empress. Then, with his face cast in dark determination, he nodded.

Kneeling down with King Rasmus, Luna took his hooves in hers and put them together, over his chest. His whole body was quaking, as he gurgled and sputtered on his own blood.

"Rasmus, thou hast been found guilty of a most abominable sin. Thine attempted destruction of the sun's champion hath earned thee the contempt of not only ponies everywhere, but of even the stars and the moon. Creation itself frowns upon thy grievous deed. We have no choice but to forsake thee."

She scowled at him. "Know thy place." Rising to her hooves, she took a couple steps back.

Arkein Starling's blade rang out as he unsheathed it, and then, taking a moment to steel himself, the fallen paragon swung true.

-~-

"Then I told him, 'Yer can go stick it in the mud, 'cause no way in hell a pony's gonna want that!'"

Sky, Donevyn, and Iron Braar descended into a fit of laughter as the group wandered down the wide forest trail.

Further back, Twilight held Sreax's mysterious, glowing gem, continuing to tinker with it.

"Well? Is there anything of note within? Or are we to be stymied yet again?" Luna asked. Frustration was roiling within her, both from being kept in the dark over the gem's mystical properties, and not having enough magic to search it herself. It wasn't that she didn't trust Twilight, but it wasn't every day that she discovered something like this.

"Not much yet," Twilight admitted with a sigh. "As we've gone over, the magical signature itself is woven into many levels, and changes too frequently for me to decrypt."

Luna echoed her sigh. This type of magical complexity was new to her, barring the elements, which was something else entirely. This gem held raw, common magic, but used and manipulated it like never before. Worse, they didn't have the time or the instruments to investigate it further.

"If anything, I'm beginning to speculate that this doesn't hold a magical core, like most gems do." Twilight began to wrap it up. "Again, just an initial theory with little more than educated guesses, but the further and further I dig for the core, the more magic I find."

"I could be very wrong, of course, but I think this is just a relay. A very strong relay, but nothing more. It's moving magic from an enormous source, but what exactly that is, I can't possibly guess at the moment."

"That is peculiar," Luna mused. "You are right, though, we should avoid jumping to conclusions." After a moment's deliberation, she added, "And, perhaps keep quiet about it around other ponies."

Luna picked up her pace, breathing heavily under the newfound weight of her armor, and arrived beside her companions. Twilight was not far behind, coming along the opposite side.

"Luna, there you are!" Donevyn proclaimed. "Here, help me out, would you? These two keep saying I'm wrong, but I'm so sure of it! Aren't beards attractive on a stallion?"

Luna sputtered. Again with the romantic, personal confidence? Why– why me? Why not ask anypony else?

"I... I cannot say for certain," she mumbled. "I'm not one for admiring the look of a stallion's face."

"Okay, come on!" Donevyn shook his head. "Just, pretend, okay? So, let's say a guy was already good-looking. Would a beard make him look better or worse?"

Behind him, Luna watched Twilight snicker. The grin on her face told everything, and the look she shot made it worse.

"Well, there is much more to it than whether one has a beard or not. Besides, it's– it's a trivial question, anyway. Why are you so concerned with this?"

"He wants to grow one," Sky chirped in. "I told him he couldn't grow one if he tried, and Irons over here thinks it wouldn't look good on him anyway."

"I can grow a beard!" Donevyn huffed. "I– I just wanted some extra opinions, that's all?"

"Why not ask Twilight?" Luna asked, pointing across to her. The unicorn in question gasped, but she carried on, "I would think she spends more of her time looking at stallions, so her opinion would be better."

"Oh, please. Must I bring up memories of you and Elector Dermecles?" She switched to a woeful attempt at mimicking the Erhanos monarch, "Lady Twilight, are you hurt? I promise you that nothing will ever happen like that again, if you would only accompany me–"

"Shut up, you hay-brain!" Twilight threw a slight wave of telekinesis at her, shoving Luna until she stumbled on her hooves. "He was... ugh, completely awful. I don't think he heard you for the first half of that conversation. Like, he kept looking at me, not the other way around!"

On the verge of laughter, Luna admitted, "Oh, fine. Yes, he was quite dreadful." With that, chuckles and giggles enraptured the group.

"Eh, what's this?" Iron Braar interrupted, stopping where he stood. "Honest to tides, what do we got here?"

The group abandoned their laughter, with Luna trotting to the fore. "I– I do not believe it."

Before them, the path opened up to reveal the plains of Hurras, and the city of Konik in the distance.

Between them and Konik, tents, campfires, and banners rolled like a sea, rising, falling, and unending. Ponies scuttled about like ants, as cries and the clanging of metal rang out. Coats of arms stood affixed to high-staffed poles, while wagons rolled in and out by the second. What had once been golden farmland was now a brown, grimy, overcrowded encampment.

-~-

Luna wrinkled her nose as she trotted through the camps, doing her best to ignore the smell of latrines and questionable rations. It was, at its barest form, the smell of campaign, the lifeblood that ponies marched on. A storm was beginning to brew in her gut, and it was from more than the wretched scent.

Ponies worked and talked and slept around them, polishing armor and sharpening spears as they sat at small fires. Tents seemed to cluster around the high-flying banners, although they had only passed two or three of the dozens in attendance. They had been walking for twenty minutes, and barely cleared the first few groups of ponies.

The levies were of all sizes, shapes, and ages. Mares both grim and innocent worked their hoofspikes, colts sat beside feeble elders to watch them properly dig a latrine. A young stallion was sparring with a muscled brute nearly three times his size. What was common through them all was the dirt. Even now, at rest, nopony was completely clean. From blackened faces and yellow teeth to a patch of dried mud, not one went unscathed. Even those in gilded armors and heraldic tabards were tainted one way or another.

Luna froze. She prayed to anything, the stars, the moon, even the sun, that her intuition was wrong.

Luna looked in the direction of the voice. Her stomach sunk. Her beloved moon had failed her in the end. Indigo Sands Avoir, cape and all, was cantering over to her, his amethyst eyes catching Twilight as he grew closer.

"Ah, and you as well, Starpainter! I humbly introduce myself before you, delighted that you both have returned to us." He bowed deeply, nearly putting his snout in the mud.

"I am well, especially at your return! Have you been here long? I must admit I have been preoccupied with the needs of the following–" Luna groaned, "–and have not been available to keep my eyes open for either of you."

Luna looked around herself, and found some of the levies watching. No doubt Indigo's over-abundance of volume and piety had alerted more believers. Positively wonderful.

"Your flock has grown," Indigo proclaimed. "Steadily, ponies from across Hurras and the Lowlands have heeded our call. If you so wish, our camp is just beyond to the north. Twelve-hundred of us are waiting to meet you both."

Luna had caught glimpses of the campsite to the north. It was in shambles, with only lean-tos made of sweeping, tattered, sagging lengths of cloth, serving as nothing more than a source of shade. They could not keep a pony protected in the coming cold, nor keep out the rain. Whatever drivel Indigo had once claimed to support his little fanaticism, it clearly wasn't enough.

"Twelve-hundred?" Luna sighed. Rubbing her face, she dug through her saddlebags and fished out a couple large sapphires. "I don't know why I'm doing this," she muttered.

"Here," she continued. "Take these, and buy your ponies proper blankets and canvas, along with any extra food you can acquire. I don't want a pony dying over some nonsensical devotion to me."

Indigo brightened. "You are as generous as you are wise, Moonguider! Truly, a beacon for all other ponies to follow! I promise you, everypony will be warmed by the tales of your charity."

"Of course! Are you headed to Konik? I will trade these at once, and perhaps I may humbly accompany you on your trip?"

She stepped aside to allow a group of ponies past, in the process getting splashed with mud. Her lip curled. "I think it would be best if you waited here for an hour."

"As you wish, sigilbearer. I can tell you are eager to continue traveling, so don't let me keep you waiting." He bowed again. "May the winds guide you both!"

Twilight watched her go, but stayed and turned back to him. "I’m sorry, Indigo. She’s just a bit overwhelmed.”

Their voices faded away as Luna continued her trek onward, knowing full well that Twilight would rejoin them if they got far enough.

"Hey, so who is that loony?" Iron Braar asked as they caught up to Luna. "I know some of them ponies in the Domelle got their beliefs – heck I sometimes even say a quick somethin' to the tide – but makin' yer up to be some sorta god is givin' me the jitters."

Sky pushed her hood back, shaking out her ruby mane. "He's a noble, very passionate believer. I don't think he's doing anything wrong. The winds have talked about Luna and Twilight, and so we must listen."

"No, they rustled scraps of metal and morons like him took it as salvation," Luna retorted.

"Hey!" Sky snarled. She surged forward, trying to get at Luna from the back of the pack. Donevyn grabbed and held her close under his wing, while she struggled to break free. "I'm one of those 'morons' you're talking about! Yeah, maybe he's going a little farther than most ponies would, but that doesn't mean you have to treat everypony like they're the dirt you piss on!"

Luna kept looking on ahead, although her wings bristled at her sides. "Hundreds of ponies have left their homes and their families to squat in adverse conditions and be subject to cold, disease, and hunger. Do you think I enjoy being the heart of this? It was all you and your chime-hailing buffoons at blame."

"Chime-hailing! Oh, now you've done it!" Sky tore free of Donevyn, galloping up beside her and sticking her face right in Luna's. "Alright, let's forget for a moment I wear the cloak. Just who in the blazes do you think you are, huh? The most I've ever seen you do is mope and whine when somepony does something you don't like. Dermecles wouldn't give in, so you have to drag us all the way across the fucking kingdom to look in some insignificant, dead, burnt-out mining village, and we all almost died! Then he says a few words and you blow up and have a hissy fit for half the day!"

Luna stared down the path, blinking only as the spittle hit her face. She could see ponies along both sides of the road watch them in quiet interest. Her breathing was escalating, grinding her teeth so loud she could hear it.

"That doesn't make sense in the slightest," Luna murmured, but Sky didn't notice.

"And now look at what we got here, huh? A bunch of ponies show up, looking up to you for one scrap of hope and happiness, and you're about to slam it right back in their faces? Some pony you are! You're treating them like shit, just like everypony else." Sky got in close to her ear. "You know what, maybe I'm wrong. I used to think you were brave and confident, but the more I think about it, the more I see I'm wrong. No, you're hiding from something. You pretend you're all that, but in reality, you're just afraid."

"You know nothing!" Luna whipped around, advancing on her. "Could you realize how heavy expectation is, when it is absent from your shoulders? Do you understand the ways in which a ruler can bend, pick, and whittle away at you until you're but putty in their hooves? Can you comprehend the lives of a thousand ponies, like brittle grass that would die at the first cold night?"

Luna forced her back, bearing over her and roaring in her face, "You are nothing but a naïve, impatient, ignorant whelp! You dare question a mare who has allowed you to accompany her and take notes, defended you from harm, and won you more gold then you are likely to see in your lifetime? You are a fool!"

Her eyes glinted with murder as she growled through her teeth, "I can remove you from your precious tempestry if I so desire. I know how your kind works. If I so much as mention your doubt and disrespect to me, your Archsage will personally eviscerate you from your temple.

Luna froze. She clenched her jaw to avoid vomiting. Images and memories returned from her dream.

“What’s going on?!” Twilight’s cry rose into the air, the sounds of hurried hoofsteps growing closer. “I was barely gone for a minute, and then I start hearing a bunch of yelling, and–” she was cut short as she pushed through the group, her eyes falling on the scene before her.

Luna was leaning forward, menace still worn plainly over her face, as Sky had sunk back. Amidst the acolyte’s astonished, hurt features, her open jaw and wide eyes, hot tears were brimming along her eyelids. Donevyn and Iron Braar were petrified like statues, rooted to the mud beneath them. Silence hung like a guillotine. It was there, over their heads, ready to come crashing down at any moment.

Standing up straight, Luna ignored the horrified looks from her party, their frozen, broken expressions. She rejected the vibrant emotions Twilight wore, a mix of disappointment and boiling anger. She knew there would be a price to pay. But not now. Not yet.

A more pressing issue had reared its head, and it took all of her willpower to keep from disintegrating.

Her body was quaking. Her blood had turned to ice. Her mind had emptied like a cavern, and from deep within, she heard herself laugh.

Kinetics

by Habanc

Book 1: Chapter 15