LUNA
In the city of Sarnath, they still speak of Celestia and Luna, of their wanderings and adventures, of the dreadful monsters they defeated and the great deeds they accomplished. They speak of the kindness the sisters showed the unfortunate. They say still in Sarnath that the Alicorns' creed was to subdue the proud and uphold the righteous.
In Ulthar they say much the same. But they speak also, quietly, of Luna's rare rage. For even near immortals can only endure so much wickedness before they are beyond reason with fury. When some Batpony of Sarnath or Ulthar commits some unholy act, the old mares whisper of the avenging night.
Celestia they named Wise, Great, All-Kind. They did much the same for Luna. Mother of night. The Shield. The Singer.
But they remembered also her rage. In the West they name her Sulva, and that name sends shivers down the spine. For in the vales of darkest Sulva, the moon above, Luna learned war in nightmares.
The earth shook under the wrath of queen of all holy darkness. Sulva had come to earth. Luna put forth her naked power and she would unmake creation if she could.
Even Alicorns have limits. They can be slain--poison is useless, but griffon sabers may not be, and where lesser magic seems to slide off their coats, the ingenuity of war provides new solutions.
None of them mattered. Not now. Not today.
Luna's legions assembled. She felt a heat spread over her body. The moon felt so close now, and she could feel it like an argent fire in her heart. It had been ages since she walked it in dreams, her projection feeling but not felt. Who is called Sulva? In what sphere does she walk? those were the words of the Questions given to each of her personal guards. She had never told them what the answer was.
Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned towards us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would he be who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her further side. On this side, the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust.
It had been ages since she had learned war on the frontier where the sterility tries to force it's way into the dark side of the moon. By now, the last of that place's inhabitants would be dead. Their jungles razed, their land sterilized. But in the sphere of Sulva she had learned war.
It was yet another world whose sorrows she held in her heart. She had never spoken of it to another soul.
If they lived through the night, she would tell Twilight of it. Even if Twilight repudiated her, Luna would perhaps still tell her. Somepony should know of Sulva. Stories were meant to be told.
And in the meantime, she shone.
An Alicorn is a creature of Glory. They hide that glory almost all their lives. "Lower still," Celestia would explain in ancient days as she concealed the eternal light of the sun in her person. She dimmed her eyes and carefully and jealously guarded her interactions. She smiled and chatted. She enjoyed tea with commoners and nobles alike. Luna had done so as well. It had been so long since she had let her hair down, so to speak. Her Glory was beginning to break through. Was it weakness, a lack of restraint? A ploy to cow her foe and inspire the last army of Equestria? Neither. Luna felt at last that she was herself. No longer hiding, no longer running, no longer desperate. And so she would no longer conceal herself. The world was stopped and the fox faced the hounds, and alicorns shone like gods.
She spoke, her voice amplified by magic and twisted by the aura which was heavy on the square.
"Soldiers of Equestria! The day has come! The false night is passing, and I have come to knock this pretender down. Our friends have come from far and wide to aid us. We will show them that Canterlot has not bowed!"
They roared. No, they were in something between ecstasy and terror, the naked fear of death intermingled with the wild hope of the condemned who finds the gallows rope cut and God holding the knife, grinning at him.
"Drive them out of your city! Drive them out into the plain and shatter this army of abominations! Give no quarter, ask for none. The hour of our deliverance is at hoof."
A chant began. Luna. Luna. Luna.
"You are the last army, and this is our final battle. Do not lose heart in the night before dawn! Fear no natural darkness, for the moon lights your ways. Fear not the tricks of shadows, for the stars shine upon you in your finest hour. The night is with you for I am the night, and I am with you until the end. And this is the End."
Her eyes were silver fires. Her mane was a galaxy spinning and drawing all eyes. Her aura weighed on every living thing, her countenance both in that moment the most terrible and beautiful thing any of them had ever seen.
Alicorns do not burn this way not only because they wish to live among their children. Luna was like a match, a candle. Alicorns may be extinguished. They might also burn out.
Rainbow Dash stood off to the side, still upon the wall despite Luna’s change. Perhaps the Element she bore gave her some protection. Perhaps she was simply resistant, for a friend is loyal to the reality and not the exaggeration--at least, how she would define those terms. She knew Luna, Glory or without.
But she was not without her trembling.
Luna lifted her hammer high and smiled.
And in her heart burned a flame unquenchable, and had their been an altar she might have laid upon it. But there was only a city to be won and Twilight forever afterwards.