Lingering Lunacy

by Jadu

I: And So We Meet Again

“Tolle nox et luna perfecta…”

Princess Luna stood on the indigo-tiled balcony of her wing of the castle, her horn aglow with a soft nebula of magic. There was no actual incantation required to raise the moon, but Celestia had suggested repeating the phrase like a mantra as a way of focusing Luna’s magic and strengthening it. Imprisonment for a thousand years with nothing to levitate or enchant but rocks had left the dark alicorn weakened, and for a time Celestia had to help her younger sister with the nighttime duties. As much as Luna hated to admit it—her older sister had a nasty habit of being a know-it-all at times—the phrase from a long-forgotten language worked well for her. When murmured softly, it was almost like a lullaby, except lullabies never made Luna feel sleepy in the slightest.

Satisfied, Luna drew the nebula around her horn back inside and surveyed the city of Canterlot. Mother and father ponies were shutting off the lights in their home and ushering their fillies and colts to bed, while teenagers skipped along the cobblestone gutters to whatever wild and potentially illicit adventures awaited them in the downtown districts, throwing odd shadows in the streetlamps’ path. A small yet particularly rowdy knot of Royal Guard Academy colts sneaking out from their dormitory ceased their misbehavior when they caught a glimpse of the Princess standing on her balcony. Luna couldn’t help but chuckle. She supposed that she still cut a rather fearsome figure for some of the more young and impressionable subjects of her kingdom.

Night really was the best time for deep introspection, wasn’t it? Too much had to get done during the day, and so many things cluttered the mind of the average pony. Even Luna, whose main task for daylight hours was to sleep so she could fulfill her royal work after sunset, rarely found her unconscious unfettered by lots of nonsense and outside activity. It was only after expending the excess magic that built up while she slept orchestrating the rise and fall of the night sky that the princess found her mind was clear.

There was to be a wedding. A royal wedding, at that.

No one other than Celestia, Luna, and a few of the trustworthy Royal Guard Captains knew of the upcoming nuptials. To tell the subjects of Equestria too early would mean a mad rush to Canterlot by anypony who could make their way to the region, and the logistics would be, well, a nightmare. So the princesses had quietly initiated the construction of lodgings for wedding guests not staying the castle and the hiring of new but able kitchen staff to prepare for the banquet.

The groom was Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard. Curiously enough, he was also the older brother of Celestia’s personal student, Twilight Sparkle. Again, given the knack Celestia seemed to have for manipulating situations around her, Luna was left to wonder if her pristine older sister was just arranging for events soon to come, building the royal family the way she saw fit.

But who was the bride?

Ah. This was what made the indigo princess hang her head in shame. Those had been her first days back from the moon, after being converted and still new to the world. She remembered that, so like an ill-tempered filly, she’d screamed and kicked and bucked, smashing priceless artifacts and seeing horror crawl over Celestia’s face, and utter confusion on the face of that other innocuous, rose-pink alicorn…

“How positively delicious.”

Luna snapped her head back up, on the alert. She hadn’t heard that voice in many months. She thought it’d been banned from her conscience forever after being blasted by the Elements of Harmony. But here it was, hissing distortedly in the corners of her mind. The princess crouched on the balcony, the cool tiles brushing her belly as she stuffed her hooves in her ears and squeezed her eyes closed, begging for the sickening laughter to stop...

“Charming. I’ve always delighted in being bowed to.”

Princess Luna opened one eye to see her mirror image standing in front of her. The only differences were that this Luna was a bit lankier, her mane and tail were not eternally flowing in a silent breeze, and she wore the most uncharacteristic self-centered smirk on her face.

“Of course, I don’t require such obedience out of my subjects, but perhaps you ponies do it diff—”

WHAM!

With brute force, Princess Luna wheeled herself around to kick at the other Luna with her hind legs.

“How DARE thou infringe upon our image!”

“My humblest apologies, dear Princess. Would you prefer I look a bit different?” In a blinding flash of green fire, the mirror Luna transformed into a dead-on imitation of Princess Celestia without her royal gold ornaments and flowing mane, though with the stupid smirk still plastered across her muzzle. Luna prepared to punt the pony a second time, but a verdant blast from the false Celestia’s horn sent her spinning on her stomach across the balcony.

“Now, now. Can’t be kicking our sister like a common mule, now can we?”

“Thou art not my sister; thou art a pestilence!”

“Oh, lose the holier-than-thou addresses. They went out of fashion centuries ago, and you aren’t endearing yourself to anyone that way.” The false Celestia rolled her eyes, which momentarily flashed from violet to green and back again. “Besides, we just as well could be sisters. After all…”

A tendril of magic shot out to grab Luna by the muzzle and drag her to her hooves.

“…I am a part of you.”

“NEVER!” Luna cried, her horn glowing with azure energy and wings flared, preparing for a magical attack. The tendril of magic that had dragged the princess to her hooves just moments ago swallowed her like a sickly green amoeba, keeping her suspended a few feet off the ground while the false Celestia looked up at her with disdain.

“Pathetic! Slow to the draw and weak to the punch. Your magic is weaker than before! If only you hadn’t exorcised me, you could be stronger.”

“That wasn’t my choice!”

“Oh?” With the apathy of one throwing off a winter coat, the visage of Celestia slid away to reveal an alicorn epitomizing decay. A lacquered shell saddled across her ash-gray back was the only feature of her still whole: her dusty blue mane and tail were reminiscent of cobwebs, and her translucent, insect-like wings were filled with gaping holes typically rendering flight impossible. Even her horn looked like the dead branch of a gnarled oak plunked on her forehead. She smiled menacingly, showing off her unnecessarily sharpened and pearly teeth. “You’re telling me I wasn’t cast away?”

Princess Luna gulped, her eyes widening. “No, that’s not what I—“

”You know we made an unstoppable team. And in your darkest hours—forgive the pun, couldn’t resist—I was the only one there to console you.”

“That’s typically what happens when one is banished to the moon for a thousand years, Chrysalis,” Luna spat with sarcasm and contempt. “One is alone.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve kept your sense of humor alive since I was so hastily torn from your conscience.”

“Why are you back?”

Chrysalis turned away for a moment, leaving Luna to hammer fruitlessly at her amoeba-like floating prison with pulses of magic. After seeming to search the night skies an eternity for Luna’s question, the insect-pony queen turned back to her captive, who immediately ceased her escape attempt.

“As you know, alicorns don’t require food from the earth like the lower classes of equines do. Magic sustains us, and because my appetite is more powerful, I sustain myself on emotions. Quite an ingenious food supply, really. I don’t ever have to worry about blights or shortages; no one can ever stop feeling.” Chrysalis licked her lips involuntarily.

“You’re just a glutton. It’s a miracle your hindquarters don’t have the same circumference as the sun by this point.”

“As always, your barbs hurt, Luna. But nonetheless I appreciate them.” There was a rather pregnant pause. “I’ve heard there was a wedding.”

“How do you—”

“It’s amazing what a Royal Guard member will tell you when they see done-up doe eyes and a lace garter.”

Luna smacked her muzzle with a hoof. “Unbelievable.”

“I completely agree. A Guard shouldn’t be so easy to beguile.”

“You still haven’t answered my question, Chrysalis.”

“Well, weddings are an absolute smorgasbord of emotions! There is tremulous excitement, and seeing how this is going to be a royal wedding, that will be multiplied tenfold. There might be some sadness lingering somewhere at the sudden life change, maybe some pangs of regret sprinkled here and there like cherries on a sundae, mmm…Oh, but the best weddings have more variety…like jealousy.”

The last word sent fear arching through every fiber of Luna’s being. Of course, Chrysalis being the unsatisfied pig yet connoisseur she was, she could probably smell emotion hanging in the air around any poor pony she happened upon. She’d hoped that the jealousy had been hidden well by her shroud of shame…

~~~

It was one of those days shortly after Luna’s return to Equestria. Princess Celestia had asked—she very well couldn’t command her own sister of equal rank—that Luna began acclimating once again to keeping night hours by sleeping during the daytime. Unable to bring herself to stay in bed, the indigo princess had taken to walking laps around the castle, hoping the exercise would wear her out enough to lull her into slumber.

Her rounds took her past the Great Receiving Chamber at the castle’s rotunda. Having not been there for a thousand years, Luna pushed the gigantic white door open, eyes wide with curiosity.

The first thing she’d noticed was Celestia’s throne, in its gilded grandeur, had been moved from the Day Courtroom to the opposite end of this chamber. Luna supposed that with her banishment, Celestia had elected to keep the large room functional—fitting, given her sister’s desire to waste as little as possible. The only sounds were the nonsensically placed waterfalls on either side of the throne tinkling as water splashed into the pools and Celestia speaking to a rose-pink unicorn standing tall in front of her.

“Wait a minute,” Luna squinted. Unless her eyes deceived her—which was very possible, given that she saw much better in the nighttime than in sunlight—there were a pair of wings folded on this unicorn’s back, the feathers tipped with purple. And another thing: this was an unusually tall unicorn, her neck and legs slender and her body curved in a way most ponies’ commonly didn’t. To be sure, her mane and tail did not flow as Celestia’s did or as Luna’s used to, but…

Luna pushed herself into the chamber, positively fuming as she stormed up the red carpet.

“Luna? I thought you were asleep!” Celestia exclaimed, looking almost embarrassed to see her sister.

“I had insomnia, so I thought I’d take a walk around the castle,” Luna replied through gritted teeth, clapping her wings firmly to her sides in agitation.

“I-I see. Luna, this is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, otherwise known as Princess Cadence.” The rose-pink alicorn standing in front of the throne waved sheepishly, her cheeks somehow managing to blush to a darker shade of pink through her pelt. “She’s your niece.”

Princess Luna’s head was sent into a whirl. Dealing with the damage inflicted on her psyche when she was Nightmare Moon had been difficult enough to do for the past few days, and now Celestia was telling her not only was there another alicorn, but that she too was a princess, and her niece to boot? Luna felt lightheaded and ready to swoon, but she kept her hooves planted solidly on the floor, inhaling and exhaling almost imperceptibly.

“So she’s my replacement?”

Both Celestia and Princess Cadence were thunderstruck by that statement. Cadence’s violet eyes were darting around the chamber for some kind of escape, seeming to sense the impending danger.

“What in Equestria would make you say—”

“We are the only two alicorns in this world, dear sister,” Luna spat venomously. “And you expect me to stand her and believe that this,” she jabbed a dark hoof at Cadence, “is some new pony we’re to add into the royal family?”

“Luna…”

“WE are the rulers of Equestria! No one else! The two of us rule together!”

“Cadence isn’t going to—“

Jealousy seethed through Luna’s body, blocking out her sister’s words. Her eyes began to glow a blinding white as the truly powerful magic that had been pent up for over a thousand years boiled to the surface. Without so much as half a thought, her wings beat violently against the air and took her high above Celestia’s head. As the last of her normal vision slipped away to give way to raw, uncontrolled magical energy, Luna saw Princess Cadence try to bolt for the exit.

But it was too late. A scream of pure rage fueled by envy ripped out of Luna’s throat as magic blasted forth from her horn. Windows smashed, china shattered on the floor and wooden antiques splintered like cheap toothpicks. Celestia bellowed in the Royal Canterlot Voice for the guards scattered all over the castle grounds—like they’d be any kind of help whatsoever—with her eyes fixated on her younger sister suspended in midair. Her quad-colored mane rippled faster than normal, for she was anxious that Luna would at the very least destroy the Receiving Chamber and cause untold damage to the rest of the castle.

Time had seemingly ceased while Luna threw her cosmic tantrum, but her energy was expended, and she tumbled to the floor with an undignified thump. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital wing of the castle, completely and utterly alone with her overwhelming sense of guilt.

~~~

“I...I…”

“You don’t need to say anything more,” Chrysalis said poisonously, letting the green orb melt away into the night air. Princess Luna fell to the tiled balcony unceremoniously, and she tossed her starry mane away from her eyes.

“Tell me what you want here, Chrysalis.”

“Well, you seemed so terribly set against a cozy reunion, so I’ll just go through with it all myself. Besides, do you really think I’d be so dim-witted as to divulge my plan to someone who won’t work with me?”

Luna was a firm believer in not saying anything if nothing nice could be said, and since every remark bubbling on her tongue at the moment was an insult, she kept her mouth shut.

“Precisely,” Chrysalis smirked, turning away from the princess and spreading her cobweb-like translucent wings. “Well I’d love to stay and chat with my former…roommate, as it were, but since I wasn’t offered to spend the night, I’ll take my leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” Luna cried as she jumped to her hooves, incensed.

“Oh really?”

A streamlined zap of green energy shot over Chrysalis’ shoulder from her horn, but Luna was able to deflect it with a simple shield. The zap rebounded and cleanly sliced half a foot of hair off of Chrysalis’ mane. With a mixture of disdain and wonder, the insectoid queen glanced back at Luna, who looked back with fervent defiance.

“Impressive. You’ll be an opponent worthy of fighting, but at a later time. It’ll be interesting to fight against, essentially myself.”

Chrysalis flew off into the skies over Canterlot, and Luna watched her go with the precision of a hunter sighting a pheasant. Oh, she could easily shoot her down, but that’d cause panic in the streets of Canterlot tomorrow morning to see an unfamiliar creature—an alicorn, no less—magically concussed on the cobblestones.

Luna had asked Celestia if there had been any sort of consequences when she was released from the visage of Nightmare Moon by the Elements of Harmony on that fateful night. Something that corrupting couldn’t disappear from the earth entirely; there was a cosmic balance in the universe that wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen. Unwittingly Luna had asked that question on the night of her release, still not thinking much farther ahead than the tip of her muzzle and expecting an immediate answer. Celestia had obviously been feeling the same as her little sister, and had assured, to paraphrase, that the pair of princesses would cross that bridge when they came to it, however soon in their eternal futures that might be

Now she was back. The source of her millennium of misery, the strangely resonant yet dissonant voice of her tortured psyche, the vile vicious vixen that had taken possession and made her body infamously glorious was back, and Luna had no idea what she planned to do. The wedding was in little over a week, leaving her little time to kick Chrysalis out of Canterlot before she could root herself in and wreak total emotional havoc.

It was a very good thing that, while on the moon, Luna had taught herself how to silently scream.

Author's Note:

I'll keep this and all A/Ns as short as possible, because I'd rather the focus be on the story.

--The phrase Luna is muttering in the first line is in Latin, and I've honestly forgotten what it's supposed to say. It was meant to be something like "Raise the moon and the night will be complete."
--I wish I could claim this story is 100% my own, but it was inspired by bronycurious and Antony C's collaboration critique video on "A Canterlot Wedding", in which Antony C has a crazy theory on why Luna seemed to be missing from the majority of events in the two-part season finale. You can watch that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9teQKuEo8
--Finally, this story will be taking place during the events of "A Canterlot Wedding," but from Luna's perspective and with the obvious twist. I'm not sure if this warrants an AU tag or not, but perhaps someone more familiar with the tagging system can help me out.

See you next chapter!