//------------------------------//
// Ascension 
// Story: And Hell Will Follow Me 
// by Vedavyasa 
//------------------------------//

	The next night, Twilight had insisted on a return to training, and so she found herself on a roof in Ponyville.

Training tonight, Luna had told her, would be a game. The two were hunting each other, both as a test of what Luna's blood would do to Twilight's already prodigious abilities and to hopefully teach the young unicorn that it was sometimes best to practice avoidance instead of endurance. “Dodge, Twilight,” Luna had told her. “I'd thought you learned, but I was evidently wrong.” Each landed strike marked a point, waking up anypony resulted in losing a point, and it was a race to three.

A faint sound reached her ears, the sound of feathers rustling in a faint wind, and it brought a smile to her lips. She extended a small net of magical senses around herself, and before long, she found the Princess trying to sneak up behind her under a veil.

Twilight waited a scant second longer, then rolled sideways off the peak of the roof, feeling the rush of wind as Luna passed through where she had been a second before. A short burst of magic and a vicious kick later, Twilight had scored her first point and Luna was gasping for breath on the street below.

Not bothering to enjoy the view, Twilight continued along the path her kick had set her on and dropped into an alley, galloping away as quickly as she could without running into a building.

”Neatly done,” a dry voice with a Trottingham accent said from directly behind her left ear.

Twilight whipped her head around in shock, and not looking where she was going, she ran head first into a post. The wood, thought it was strong oak, gave way quite easily under the force of her impact, but it tripped her and she tumbled roughly head over hoof, gathering an impressive collection of scrapes and bruises that were already starting to heal when she found her hooves again and skid to a stop.

“Who's there?” she called quietly into the night.

”An interesting question, but you aren't ready for the answer just yet,” the voice said again, from exactly the same place, freezing Twilight. ”Suffice to say that I am a friend, and that you should duck- now.”

Instinctively, Twilight ducked, and a blast of Luna's silent, lightless combat magic narrowly passed over her head, searing a deep mark in the ground. Twilight spared a single moment to glare the offending mark and wonder what it would have done to her head, then she bounced away again and lost herself in the streets and alleys of Ponyville.

'I've finally gone insane,' she thought as she ran, 'voices and all.'

'Not quite,' the voice replied, this time from within her mind. 'I am quite real, and you are quite sane, if rather damaged.'

Twilight didn't outwardly react this time, instead finding a place to hide and quickly throwing a veil around herself. 'The voice in my head would say that if I was insane,' she thought.

'Oh please. I am not some part of you that is suddenly aware and communicative.'

'Then give me a name!' Twilight thought back harshly, straining her ears to try and catch Luna's inevitable approach.

'It would mean nothing to you. She's above you by the way. Two steps to the left should do.'

Twilight obligingly took two rapid steps to the left, and a heartbeat later Luna crashed down. For a moment, Twilight saw the Princess look utterly confused, as if wondering where her pupil had gone, and then Twilight drove her front hooves like hammers into the alicorns side. A quick stomp to the head, driving her opponent briefly senseless, gave her just enough time to teleport away.

'Okay. So, you can be pretty helpful,' Twilight thought as she materialised, 'but so can lots of things. Even demons usually start out friendly.' 

'A demon? I am by no means malevolent. I'm here to help you.'

Twilight threw a rock across a street, where it landed with a dull thud, then she waited. 'A demon would say that, too.'

The voice snorted in vague annoyance. 'Very well then. I'll be here when you come to your senses.'

'Wait!' Twilight thought, but there was no answer. Before she could begin to feel chagrined at the sudden lack of her advisor, she felt herself wrapped in a telekinetic field and thrown across the road.

Breaking Luna's magic with a simple, pointed counter-spell, Twilight allowed herself to slip into the strange dimension she inhabited whenever she teleported, cancelled her momentum, and then materialised softly on her hooves. She was just in time to see Luna bearing down on her, wings swiftly propelling her and a single hoof raised.

Twilight carefully braced herself, then caught the blow with both of her front hooves, giving the Princess a defiant grin even as she was pushed back several inches.

Luna returned the grin, and Twilight immediately regretted the challenge. Luna relaxed briefly, then broke Twilight's block with a horrible, inexorable strength, dashing Twilight's hope for victory and replacing it with a desperate struggle.

Luna attacked again, her movements subtly different, fluid and graceful and full of power. Twilight didn't entertain the thought of blocking these strikes, devoting herself entirely to weaving through them as she scrambled madly backwards, desperately trying to find enough space to act.

Luna steadfastly refused to allow it. She danced faster and faster, all the while wearing an infuriating, superior grin, until her movements were impossibly fast and she hammered a single crushing blow, just barely refraining from breaking bones.

Twilight, in retaliation, released a focused blast of force as suddenly as she could. It was barely enough to knock the Princess of her hooves, but it gave her a bare half-second.

'I need a staff,' she thought, 'can you do that?'

A spell jumped fully formed into her mind, a matrix in Celestia's preferred style, elegant and complex. Twilight fuelled the spell, and when Luna resumed her attack, Twilight was armed with what appeared to be two short lengths of wood, each capped on the ends with a gleaming metal, one cap inset with rubies and the other with amethyst.

'Good luck,' the voice whispered in her mind, and then Twilight met the Princesses attack. Manoeuvring her twin staves well enough to keep Luna off balance and slow her down, Twilight was ecstatic to find that the fight had returned to something resembling evenly matched, and then Luna frowned, snatched one of the staves from mid air with her own magic, and thumped Twilight solidly over the head with it.

Bells firmly rung, Twilight stumbled and fell, but she stayed conscious and used the remaining half of her staff to defend herself while she shook her head and fought back to her hooves. As soon as she managed that, she leapt forward and clumsily struck out at Luna's horn, missing but causing the alicorn to drop the second half of the staff, and Twilight drew both halves together, where the ruby inlaid caps latched with a solid click.

“Impressive,” Luna called while Twilight warily shook her head to clear the ringing from her ears. “A weapon of that calibre is not easily made, much less so quickly. I have one as well.”

Darkness began to congeal around Luna's horn, and a chill began to seep into the air. With a quiet, electric snap, the darkness formed into a slim, crescent shaped blade with no hilt or guard. The outer edge was razor sharp and whistled as Luna twirled it through the air, and the spine was wickedly serrated. 

“Noctem,” Luna whispered, pleased and excited. “Night, in the old tongue. This blade is older than mortal kind, Twilight, and has seen no battle in thousands of years. Will you stand against it?”

Twilights mouth was dry. 'Don't suppose...' she thought.

'Try not to get hurt too badly.'

“Horseapples,” Twilight muttered, then Luna was on her. The Princess maintained a steady distance, just far enough to ensure the fight wouldn't devolve back into a brawl, and Twilight found herself forced to concentrate entirely on her weapon.

Luna's blade danced, a frightful thing, hissing and whistling as it sliced through the air, almost impossible to see in the darkness. Twilight's staff, in contrast, was bright and visible but slow, and it moved clumsily compared to the elegant, effortless grace Luna displayed. Almost mockingly, Luna blocked one of Twilight's strikes, rotated her blade around the staff, then delivered a single shrieking slash.

Twilight leaned back as far as she could, but she still felt a bitter chill followed by a sharp sting on her throat. At the same time, she shoved her staff forward, and while Luna tried to duck under it, she managed to land a hard blow against the Princesses cheek.

Luna rather delicately licked her teeth, frowning as one moved in its socket. “We appear to require a tiebreaker,” the Princess said.

“I agree,” Twilight replied, rubbing her throat where blood was slowly seeping through her coat. 'Any ideas?' she thought.

'You won't win any form of direct contest without cheating,' the voice replied, 'so cheat outrageously. She might be impressed enough to allow it. Or, perhaps...'

There was silence for a moment, then she felt a surge of vicious satisfaction. 'I have an idea. Distract her.'

Twilight blinked, and then she did the first thing that came to her mind and attacked the Princess, a reckless charge with no allowance for defence.

Luna, for her part, laughed and whirled her blade around, easily deflecting Twilight's attacks and using her magic to keep the unicorn out of brawling range. “Good!” the Princess called happily. “Your fire is burning well tonight!”

'Fire is a wonderful idea,' Twilight thought before throwing a small ball of white hot flame at the Princess.

'Stop that!' the voice snapped at her irritably. 'Every time you use your magic you throw me off balance, and I'm in the process of some delicate work. I gave you a stick, use it!'

Twilight groaned inwardly as Luna devoured her little fire in a wave of pure darkness. Before that darkness could fade, she leapt through it, accepting the bitter cold as a necessary suffering even as it left a thin layer of ice over her entire body, and she tore out the far side of it with her staff already swinging for Luna.

The Princess wasn't there. Twilight touched her hooves to the ground and skidded to stop, nervously searching for her opponent, but there was no sign.

Then she heard a mocking whistle from above her. Cursing herself for making the same mistake twice, she dove to the side just in time to avoid Luna's plunge. What followed was an exchange of strikes, feints, and parries so fast Twilight couldn't consciously track them. She was running purely on instinct, her mind consumed entirely with a nervous chagrin at the contemptuous ease Luna displayed in combat.

Luna broke away first, a diversionary thrust morphing into a dead sprint, leaving laughter in her wake.

Twilight didn't even bother chasing the alicorn. Instead, she closed her eyes, sat down, and waited, focusing every ounce of her attention on the sound and feel of the night.

She was rewarded with a faint, almost imperceptible sense of warning, and while she sprang to her hooves, her staff intercepted Luna's blade. The Princess delivered an impish grin, then she said, “You continue to amaze me, Twilight.”

'You need five seconds,' the voice in Twilight's mind whispered. 'Do something to get it. Be creative.'

Twilight, purely on impulse, leaned forward and planted a kiss firmly on Luna's lips. She was aware of the voice in her head sputtering with shocked laughter, but a spell formed in her mind all the same, and as Twilight leaned back, she poured everything she had into it.

After furiously blinking for a few moments, Luna regained awareness of her surroundings, and she found herself faced with Twilight Sparkle doing what she had been born to do. Her eyes blazed with a furious stark white power and what little natural light there was seemed to draw itself into her, leaving the area around her darkened and cold. Her horn was nothing but a column of violently raging lavender energy, and while her whole body shivered with the strain of the spell she was attempting to cast, there was a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Luna felt something impossible edge into her awareness, and her jaw dropped as she looked up.

The moon was moving. Slowly, and only by a matter of feet, but it was moving all the same. Luna looked back to Twilight, who was still shimmering with pure magical power, and then she heard a forced, gently mocking whistle come from the unicorns lips before something crashed into the back of her head and the world went dark.





When Luna woke up, the first thing she was aware of was a proud laugh. 

“I won!” Twilight exclaimed. “I think that's a first, isn't it?”

Luna turned to glare at the unicorn, and in the process realised she had been teleported, or possibly dragged, back to the small library Twilight called home. “You cheated,” the Princess accused. “Nopony should be able to move my moon but my sister and I. It simply can't be done by a mortal!”

Twilight's eyes went vacant for a moment, which intrigued Luna mightily, and when they focused again Twilight spoke. “Your blood is in my veins now,” she said. “Apparently, that makes me immortal enough.”

Luna blinked. She hadn't even considered that possibility. “And the spell? It has been rather carefully concealed for millennia, how is it that you know it?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don't have an answer for you. It just... well, it seemed like it would work.”

Luna narrowed her eyes as she stood up. “What are you hiding from me, Twilight Sparkle?” she asked. “Please, it is dreadfully impolite to not win gracefully.”

Twilight frowned. “I thought you'd be excited,” she said.

“I am,” Luna said, her face flat and her voice utterly deadpan. “I am also most curious and not a small bit afraid. The moon is more powerful than you know, if this is an ability you will always have, it must be guided and trained.”

“I know more than you might think,” Twilight challenged, and the bold certainty in her voice made Luna pause.

“That may be so,” Luna eventually admitted, “but if you would, as a favour to me, please refrain from moving it again? I am old, and my poor heart might not weather the next shock so well.”

Twilight laughed, a bright, happy, and victorious sound. “Don't like it when the tables get turned? You seemed to like making me jump out of my coat.”

Luna frowned, but it was spoiled by the smile in her eyes. “I may have gone too far with you,” she muttered playfully. “Confidence is a necessary thing for one in your situation, but I am not accustomed to being treated with such little dignity.”

Twilight shrugged again, and her smile was like the sunrise. “I guess you'll just have to live with it. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.”

Luna's eyebrow raised entirely of it's own volition. “That saying would not exist if I had ever tried to disprove it,” she threatened.

Twilight raised her staff meaningfully, and the two collapsed in gales of laughter.





Celestia was not laughing. She was fretting, and long ages of practice had given her tremendous skill in the art. A thousand tiny details were running through her head as she prepared to raise the sun, everything from changes to the tax code to a ruling on a minor conflict between two noble families, and she bore it all with the serene smile that had become the trademark of her immortal rule. 

The forthcoming war threatened that smile more than she cared to admit. Endless lists of barbaric titles, every one of them paired with a not entirely inaccurate legend, could never make her enjoy violence. She was skilled in the art of war, certainly, more than perhaps any alive, barring her sister, but she far preferred solutions that came at the end of a quill versus the end of a spear.

At the forefront of that single titanic problem, there was the rather more personal issue of the ponies who would be her champions. She wouldn't call the Bearers her friends, but they were far closer to her than any of her other subjects, and she valued all of them dearly. From long experience, she knew well war's way of stealing everything one considered precious. 

And she was going to tear them from their peaceful lives and throw them into that fire, likely against their will and by force. It was hardly the first time necessity had driven her to become something she despised, but that only made it seem more terrible to her.

As the sun rose above the horizon, Celestia heaved a deep sigh and decided she would at least see her sister and discuss it with her first.