Luna’s Story 2: Wrath of the Moon Champion
Part 9: The Champion’s Identity
The Moon Champion moaned miserably, her world floating around her like an unstable ocean. A window with iron bars swam into view, the moon peeking in at her. It was nearly at its quarter phase, how long had she been out?! She tried to rise, but her stomach and lack of balance forbade it. She fell on her face and belly, squirming a little bit. The cold stone under her was aided only by the pile of straw beside her. She must’ve rolled out of the nest. Rubbing at her eyes over and over, she consulted with the ancestors. They were silent. “Ancestors…?” she whispered, closing her eyes and concentrating. They were nowhere to be found! Jolting, she clutched for her medallion, her armor, but it was gone! Somepony had removed it while she’d been unconscious. She turned, then fell over herself. She was hazy from the drugs still in her system.
“Rest, little mare. Thy punishments should not be self -inflicted.” The voice was quiet, but powerful. She looked up to see none other than princess Luna standing outside her cell. The iron bars were cold and shiny, the only barrier between them. “I have thy armor, think not of escape. In here you’re only a pony.”
“An iron cage can’t hold me, your majesty…” the Moon Champion was laying limply on her back, mouth running despite her fantastic lack of clarity and balance. “I can… magic… out.” She furrowed her brow in concentration, her horn lighting up--! Bzzz—z-z-z-z-z-zt!” She shrieked in pain, spasming wildly back and forth, then collapsed into a smoldering heap.
“But a horn inhibitor can.” Luna said gravely, gesturing to the black ring locked in place on the mare’s horn. She saw the defeated pony was unconscious again, and sighed. Perhaps she’d been a bit too generous with poisoning the wine bottle. Ah well, it was necessary. Rising to her full height, the princess turned and left her there. When she emerged from the dungeon, she found Stalwart Hide waiting for her. “She’s sleeping.” Luna told him.
“I heard the screaming.” He said stubbornly, frowning at her.
“Be happy that’s all it was, stallion.” She said, flaring her wings at him. “And be happy I restored thy honor for your services.” She frowned at him until he wilted and looked at the floor. Her expression softened into a sympathetic frown. “Go and rest, Stalwart Hide. Your fellows would certainly love your company.” She walked regally past him, sighing quietly. “We shall deal with the Moon Champion when everypony is recovered. Without her armor or magic, she is not going anywhere. Relax.” She bade him, patting his helmed head.
Stalwart Hide stared at the door to the dungeons until his princess was gone. Standing there in the hallway, he didn’t know what to do with himself. Should he go see her and apologize? Should he leave her to rot and never think of her again? Frowning curiously, he looked both ways, then went down into the dungeon himself. Passing the jailor with an official-looking I’m-supposed-to-be-here nod, he went further down into the cell block to find the Moon Champion. He peered in at her, swallowing slowly.
She was a slender thing, lying in the beam of moonlight that streamed in through her barred window. He’d never seen a more harmless-looking unicorn mare before. It was hard to believe she was the unstoppable, unbreakable mad-mare that had slain over a dozen ponies and kicked the buck out of a dozen of his fellow lunar stallions. While she lay there, naked of her armor and magic, she looked small and fragile. Her silvery mane seemed to sparkle in the moonlight, and his eyes ran slowly over her limp form. He ached to open the cell door and hold her. A ripple of guilt went through him. He’d never done something so under-hoof’d as to feed drugged wine to somepony. But it had to be done, the princess had commanded it. As a lunar stallion, he had to obey. Sighing, he rested his forehead and helm against the bars. “Sorry.” He mumbled at the unconscious mare.
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Princess Luna was in the astronomy tower, her private laboratory where she worked on the night sky and other such things in private. Closing the door behind her and locking it, she lit her horn. The table in the middle of the room cleaned itself of the stacks of papers and instruments, shoving everything to one side. Lighting a series of lamps around the room with a quick word of command, she lifted her wing to reach for something. Nestled in her feathers was the medallion of the Moon Champion. Gingerly, she took the chain of it in her teeth and set it upon the table. She stared at it for a long time. To the naked eye it just looked like a gem of a medallion, nothing particularly special, with its silvery shell around the back to keep it from rubbing a pony’s skin raw.
The alicorn squinted slowly over it, frowning. “Reveal thy secrets…” she closed her eyes, touching the tip of her horn to it. The medallion hummed, glittered, and then pitched itself to the floor like a jumping bean. Luna followed it, frowning with interest as golden smoke began to fill the room. The princess waited patiently. Shapes started to appear in the fog, over thirty of them. All of them were mares, all staring at her in adoration and glee. Their mouths moved silently, but they nickered and reared up in joy at the very sight of her. She looked at each one in turn, eyes narrowed. She did not recognize any of them, but their garb told an interesting story. Across the gathering, she could see bits of clothing and accessories from across a millennium. These were the current Moon Champion’s ancestors.
“Moon Dancer…?” Luna said in a small voice. The group of spirits gave pause, then parted so one could step forward. A handsome, lithe mare stepped forward from the crowd and bowed. Her lips moved, smiling, but Luna could not hear her words. She had been white with a red mane in life, a speckling of red stars with a crescent moon on her flank. In this ghostly form she was all golden, a spirit of the long-forgotten past. The curve of her muscles and the glorious sheen of her fur told of a mare that was active, healthy, and battle-worthy. “Just as beautiful as thou were in life.” Luna favored her with a low incline of her head, a royal gesture of great respect. The mare blushed and bowed more deeply. Princess Luna smiled, letting her return to the gathering of long-dead warrior mares. “And who are the rest of you, I wonder…?” the alicorn walked among them while they stared at her in adoration. “I was banished for a thousand years, shortly after the great war. If you all wore the white lunar armor for the past thousand years, you could not possibly have imprinted yourselves on me--!” she suddenly stopped, one hoof lifted to take the next step. Her eyes turned to little pinpricks, then expanded out into a great and terrible sorrow. “No…” she whispered, head hanging. She fell to her knees. “No, that’s too horrible…”
The gathering of silent mares rushed in to press up to her. They were ghosts, so it was quite hard, but the intent was clear. Like a herd comforting its matriarch, they tried to nuzzle and comfort her with confused looks. Mares from every era that she’d been gone whimpered and cried for her sadness, silent and unable to voice their comfort. The princess of the night looked around at all of them, a chill of sadness working down her spine. Tears were already coming. Those poor, doomed fools.
“You’ve all been imprinted onto Nightmare Moon.” She moaned, a hoof rising to press against her face. “Not I.” she looked around at them, her vision watery. “You wore the armor and it connected you to my darker side…” It was the reason the current Moon Champion was such a twisted, never-say-die killer. The reason she’d chosen a stallion to keep under her hoof. The same reason she’d not hesitated to slay all those ponies. Not only was she wearing a war-time relic, but all of her mentors had been connected with Nightmare Moon, enraged and in chains on the moon-- feeding them hatred, violence, and deception. She had unwittingly warped her own champions into monsters. “Oh Faust…” Luna said, falling at last to her belly with both hooves on her face. The wave of guilt threatened to crush her. She wept. She had a terrible decision to make.
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“And then she totally just jumped onto Panzer’s balls! Wham!” Hammershot laughed. The gathering of lunar stallions burst into uproarious laughter. Panzer Hoof smirked a little less enthusiastically, an icepack pressed between his back legs. The lunar stallions had made a make-shift hospital out in the great room, having moved lots of beds into it and shoved all the other furniture aside. There, the twelve stallions that had been in the battle told all about how they’d taken on the Moon Champion. It wasn’t bragging, per say, since they’d gotten their flanks kicked, but… well, yes. Yes it was. They were proud to have gone into battle for princess Luna, and finally captured the psychotic mare that had been running loose in Canterlot. “And then when it was all over, Stalwart Hide gave her the drugged wine and she went down like a ton of bricks.” There was whooping and cheering, many cider glasses raised to the victory. “Now she can just sit and rot in that cage, for all I care.” Hammershot drank deeply, hissing at the sting of it. There were murmurs of approval from his fellow veterans.
The lunar stallions had their heroes all in a long row of beds, clusters of them gathered around their favorite warrior. Even Captain Aegis Shield found himself with a few fans gathered around his bedside. He smiled a little painfully, twists of fabric shoved into his nose. His muzzle had blossomed into a gorgeous mass of purple after all the blood had been cleaned away. It would take some time to heal, magic notwithstanding. There was a certain respect in the corps that came with natural healing, rather than having a unicorn or a potion help. The Captain looked over when Stalwart Hide emerged into the great room, looking around at the spectacle. Waving him over, he smiled at him. “How’re you holdin’ up?” he asked.
“I went to go see her, she’s still out of it. It’s been almost four days.” Stalwart Hide said miserably. “What if she drank too much of the sedative or something?” he worried.
“She can take a longer nap after all she’s done, I’d say.” Aegis Shield said a little savagely, touching his poor muzzle. Stalwart gave him a look. “Sorry.” He amended after a moment, turning his ears back. “Let princess Luna decide what to do with her. We did our duty and brought her in. What happens to her is out of our hooves now.” Stalwart Hide nodded somberly, knowing it to be true.
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Princess Luna stood outside the cell where the Moon Champion was being held. A few days had gone by, and she’d been working hard to come up with a proper plan of action. The nature versus nurture of the Moon Champion had become a twisted thing of what it once was. Could she blame her for her terrible actions? How much of it was she to blame for, and how much Nightmare Moon’s? How much for her bloodthirsty ancestors?
The Moon Champion rose, finally free of the grip of the drugs she’d imbibed. She blinked up at Luna a few times, coming to the bars and bowing. When she rose, she reared up to be at Luna’s eye level so she wouldn’t be looked down upon. The princess of the night looked her over. “What is your name? Your real name?” she said finally.
The blue unicorn sank to all fours with a toss of her mane, trying to make herself look presentable. This was hard to do given the straw sticking out of her mane and the lack of bathing for the past week or so. “My name is Trixie Lulamoon, descendant of Moon Dancer, the original Moon Champion.” She said with as much dignity as she could. Trixie looked up at her princess, unsure of her fate. Luna frowned at her, not recognizing the name from anywhere.
“Thy ancestor stood much taller than thou, Trixie.” Luna said with a somber frown. “She fought in many battles, but knew better than to slay ponies left and right for their transgressions.”
“Trixie was only doing what she was trained to do! To fight in your honor and rid Canterlot of evil!” She looked genuinely upset at her situation, and it made Luna’s heart ache. She really did believe she was in the right, slaughtering those ponies. The poor mare had literally been programmed to kill by her own mother, grandmother, and so on. Her sudden shift to third person told as such about her pride.
“We no longer need a Moon Champion.” Luna said firmly. “We are not at war. This is an era of peace and prosperity.” The words she spoke made the powder blue unicorn gasp in horror. “The Moon Champion was my avatar of battle, there are no longer battles to be fought.”
“B-but princess!” Trixie seized the bars, pressing her muzzle between them. “Canterlot teems with dishonesty, thievery, and evil ponies just trying to take advantage of each other! Trixie must stop them! All of them!” she said desperately. “It is what the great and powerful Trixie was born to do! What every mare in Trixie’s family was born to do!” Luna winced sadly as she spoke. Poor diluted foal.
“Anywhere there is civilization you will find thievery, dishonesty, and the like. No gathering of ponies is utopian.” Luna said sagely, reaching out and cupping her cheek through the bars. Tears slowly slid down Trixie’s cheeks. “It is a battle you can never win, Trixie.” The words made her flinch like the princess had slapped her.
There was a long silence between them until Trixie leaned her head into the princess’ hoof. “W-what can Trixie do now, then?” she said softly, eyes soft and desperate.
“You killed over a dozen ponies, Trixie Lulamoon.” Luna said quietly, stroking her cheek. “Diluted and misled though you have been, do you really think you can get away unpunished?” The princess’ expression was soft, her eyes lidded with a guilty expression. “All those ponies had families. Mothers and fathers. Siblings. Lovers. Don’t you think they’ll want justice?” The dark alicorn suddenly felt much older and motherly, like one of her own children had done a terrible wrong and needed to see it as it was. She opened her wings gently, and with a flick of magic the cell door opened. She took the Moon Champion into her arms, kneeling down to her level. The little blue mare shook like a leaf.
“Trixie found them all doing evil, though…” The blue unicorn said softly. It was a glass shield and she knew it. Luna sighed quietly, comforting her and stroking her mane. Pressing her lips into Trixie’s mane, she soon detached herself.
“If you spotted a pony killing another, would you not stop them?” Luna said softly, closing the iron doors of the cell as she stepped out. A bolt of ice struck the blue pony’s heart, and she quite suddenly saw what a bigot she’d become. Stalwart Hide had been right. Trixie nodded slowly, barely holding back her wracking sobs of guilt. “You and your family line became the very evil you set out to stop.” The princess turned about, and they stared at each other through the bars. “I’m so sorry…” the dark alicorn meant every word. The unicorn sagged against the bars and could say no more.
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The gathering of ponies in the private courtyard was nearly fifty. The family members of the slain ponies that the Moon Champion had killed. There were no foals among them, for they all knew what was to happen today. They all dressed in black, covering their Easter egg colors and hiding their cutie marks. This was a dark night, a truly dark night.
In pairs, a long procession of lunar stallions emerged from the double doors of the palace. They turned and faced each other, taking three steps back to make an aisle. They closed their eyes and lifted their muzzles, regal. Down the aisle emerged a chained-up Trixie, jingling as she walked slowly to her doom. Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide were on either side of her, their expressions careful masks of ceremony. The mantacles about Trixie’s ankles and neck made her have to take small steps.
Across the way on a cold stone throne sat princess Luna. Her expression was a somber mask of sad, cold silence. Now and then one of the ponies in the crowd would glance at her, as though for comfort. But there was no comfort to be had this night. She looked skyward at the overcast clouds. There was not even a moon to look at tonight. Only a few meager lamps lit the scene. The princess of the night saw the outline of Celestia looking down on the courtyard from on high. In the highest room in the tallest tower, the white alicorn made no move other than to watch what was happening.
Trixie came before the stone throne and knelt, bowing her head. The Captains remained at her sides, but stepped back so she could be addressed alone. “Trixie— Trixie Lulamoon.” Princess Luna rose slowly from her throne. Her voice quivered for a moment and she stopped to steady herself. Gritting her teeth and folding her wings to keep them from shaking, the alicorn tried again. “It has been over a century since the last intentional murder in Canterlot, and in Equestria. You have slain over a dozen ponies, and left their families to mourn a terrible loss.” Trixie didn’t look up at her princess, she couldn’t. The crowd of gathered ponies leaned against each other like a frightened herd, but didn’t speak. They had to see this, to put them and their fallen family members at peace. “Thou has broken an ancient law, and for it your punishment shall be equally old.” She nodded to a once pony standing in the double doorway.
An earth pony emerged, a black cloth hood over his face and mane. He was massive and muscled, bringing forth a solid block of stone balanced on his back. The lunar armor lent him strength, and he deposited his burden between Trixie and the princess. Straightening it a bit, he bowed. Turning, he went slowly back into the palace. The powder-blue unicorn stared at it, and then turned to look again when the same earth pony returned. She started shaking. He had a massive axe in his teeth. Setting her jaw and trying not to tremble so hard, she looked up at her princess again with soft eyes.
“Axepony, is your axe sharp?” Luna said, referring to a ceremonial script she hadn’t read in ages. The words had to be said, there was nothing she could do about it.
“Yes, your majesty.” said the earth pony from under his black hood.
“How many swings will it take?” the princess asked, still on the script.
“Only one, merciful and quick.” He responded, also with words chosen for him. He hefted the great weapon up, turning it until it shone in the lamplight. Trixie whimpered, shaking harder and harder.
Luna looked over at the crowd, then up at her sister on the balcony, licking her lips. She hadn’t done this in over a thousand years, and even Celestia not in the past hundred. She watched Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide slowly escort Trixie to the block and help her to her knees. They removed the mantacles and chains from her body, stepping slowly back. Stalwart Hide looked ready to faint, shaking even under all his heavy armor. The princess of the night took a deep breath. “Axepony, are you ready?” she said ceremonially. After checking his axe’s edge one more time, the hooded earth pony nodded.
The axepony was not cruel when he said, “Any last words? They’ll be taken into record.” His eyes betrayed a certain sympathy. He’d never executed anypony before. He hefted the axe up while the mare thought carefully.
Trixie slowly cast her eyes to the crowd, to her princess. This had all gone wrong, so horribly wrong. She turned her head to look back at Stalwart Hide, then the other lunar stallions. She looked up at Luna again, who was looking down at her with sorrow in her eyes. High above, Celestia slowly turned and left her balcony. Leaning down at last and shaking like a leaf, Trixie had to try several times to draw enough breath to speak. She obediently lowered her head to the block and stretched out her neck. “V… Vivas… Noctus.” She whispered, crying softly.
The axe fell.
End of Part 9