Lingering Lunacy

by Jadu

VIII: Your Puppet No More

What the hay did I just do?

Admittedly, giving changelings a good literary beating was a great stress relief to the Princess of the Night. She hadn’t exercised herself magically like that in quite some time, and made a mental note to spar with some unicorn Royal Guard recruits when given the opportunity. However, the experience left Luna feeling drained—nowhere near fainting, of course, yet significantly less sure of her own hoof-steps.

She cast a quick, basic shroud of invisibility over herself as she paced away from the library. No damage had been done to this corridor; panicked ponies still had the sense not to jump from nine stories up to the Canterlot street level. Luna was loath to think of just how much it would cost to clean up the castle after this catastrophe. With magic alone, she and Celestia could fix most of it, but the Canterlot nobility would swoon in unison if they found out their beloved princesses were stuck cleaning their own castle. Doubtless one of them would try to turn this into a charity event or something ludicrous, with each noble house pledging their servants to clean for an astronomical amount of bits.

The thought left a foul taste in Luna’s mouth, and she spat with royal grace into a nearby antique vase.

That was bribery from that pompous gryphon duke, anyway. Not like I cared about that.

Oddly, Luna felt no rush to find Chrysalis, her sister, or anypony. She reveled in the eerie calm that came from walking in solitude through the eye of a storm. Outside, ravenous changelings were still ravaging Canterlot, taking ponies hostage in seedy alleyways and feeding. Celestia was surely still incapacitated down in the Caves, and with Luna notably absent, Equestria was presently without an active ruler. The real Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, though reunited, still had their wedding day ruined by a changeling invasion. Memories of a cherished day, once shattered, could never completely be recovered.

Yet none of this now seemed to matter. Apathy wasn’t the correct term for her current emotions. No, it was a sense of detachment, of feeling at once like prancing on clouds and diving into the earth’s depths. She supposed this was how an alicorn was meant to normally feel: connected to her roots of common ponies but towering above them too, a paradox of growth and stability. Some might say she felt like a goddess.

Luna rarely felt like a goddess; she had never thought herself better than anypony else. If anything, the Nightmare Moon experience had humbled her to the precipice of self-deprecation. Chrysalis’ return had sent her sailing far over that precipice, and she’d forgotten how to fly. She had failed to cleanse herself for good. The wedding hadn’t drawn the Changeling Queen back, Luna’s unstable, weakened mental state had. She was vulnerable emotional prey, exposed to her subjects’ judgment and fear—

Stop.

Luna halted at the top of the spiral staircase. She twitched an ear behind her, but nopony else had spoken. No, this voice had come from within. It wasn’t the scraping hiss of Chrysalis’ voice, but the buttery, sinisterly dulcet tones of another dark mare. The princess could hear the stars twinkle in her mane as she peered deep into her mind’s eye.

Do not be afraid. I am still with you, and will remain with you always.

“No…no, you can’t be here. I sent you away before, long ago. How?” Luna felt her knees buckle as she dropped to the floor.

When you rose the moon to cover the sun and eclipsed that fateful day, I came into your being. I joined to your mind, fettered as it was by possession, and waited for the right time to reveal myself. When you were restlessly slumbering on the moon, it was I who sung you the lullabies to ease your tortured conscience. If the one you call Chrysalis attempted to maim you further, it was I who halted her and turned her desire to change inward.

“That eclipse was the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

No. In your skewed retrospect, this may be true. But you would have not been lead on the journey you are today. You never would have known the keen of pure harmony as it sang through your body in the abandoned castle that fateful night. You never would have tasted sweet absolution.

“I’ve yet to taste it.”

Wrong again: you have tasted it. You have simply refused to acknowledge its lingering presence on your tongue.

“Many of my subjects still fear me! I hide in self-deprecation, and for what? You’re still here; I am not absolved. I am still mad!”

You are not mad. This is not lunacy that speaks to you now, but your element.

The dark blue alicorn furrowed her brow, her eyes squeezed shut. “What on earth are you talking about?”

Are you so foolish as to not recognize the Essence of the Night as it speaks to you? The very thing you have been trying to banish from your soul is your calling, your being, your destiny! You are Luna, charged with guiding the moon, stitching heroes into the inky darkness with constellations, and walking in the dreams of all. With all of your in-depth magical studies, you should be aware of the might of your destiny.

Luna chanced a peek at her flank. There, plain to see as ever, was her cutie mark: a creamy moon that glowed against a wide splotch of black.

Your return to full magical capacity has been slow, has it not? The moon has weighed heavy upon your horn, and the stars need to be pulled with more force to their positions. This is the reason: you have been restraining yourself, denying yourself, reasoning that there must be something completely wrong with who you are because of one past mistake. You have not allowed I, the Essence of the Night, to take up a full seat within you and grant you that power you have always dreamed of. Please, Luna, remember this: the world, despite outward appearances, loves genuineness. Be the Element of Honesty you once were. Embrace who you are.

Tears formed in Luna’s eyes as the Essence of the Night whispered the truth in her mind. She hadn’t been herself for so many long years. After her return, she’d only had one successful attempt at reconnecting with her subjects. Nightmare Night was now a cherished holiday across Equestria, and several cities, including Ponyville, had requested that she make a public appearance this year. Her subjects had forgiven her; she’d been too secluded to see that.

At that moment, the princess rose to her hooves. She exhaled her last breath as an insecure pony and drew in her first breath of a newly resolved, confident alicorn.

There was, however, one question jabbing Luna insistently.

“What should I do with Chrysalis? Do I just…let her go?” she asked of the Essence.

No! Damned be those who prey upon the emotionally open! See to it that she receives her deserved justice.

With new resolve, Luna marched down the spiral staircase toward the chapel. “I shall.”

~~~

“You do realize the reception’s been cancelled, don’t you?”

I have not missed your voice in the slightest, Chrysalis, Luna thought as she swooped into the chapel under a magical invisibility shroud. She’d nearly been bowled over in midair by half a dozen changelings, who’d bolted when Chrysalis gave the command to “Go! Feed!” Luckily, she hadn’t been bowled over completely, and managed to hover and take in the whole scene. Chrysalis was pacing on the altar in front of Shining Armor and Cadence, with Shining still hypnotized and Cadence’s hooves glued to the carpet with what Luna could only assume was changeling snot. Twilight and her friends had somehow been captured by the changelings they’d been fighting only a short while ago. Apparently their eternal punishment for this insolence was to listen to Chrysalis’ incessant gloating.

The last thing Luna noticed was Celestia suspended from the ceiling in a large chrysalis. Evidently Celestia had gathered enough strength to leave the Caves only to be captured herself. Luna couldn’t help but snicker at the sight. Green does become you quite well, dear sister.

“It’s funny, really. Twilight here was suspicious of my behavior all along!” Twilight slapped away the patronizing gray hoof under her chin, but Chrysalis continued. “Too bad the rest of you were too busy caught up in your wedding planning to realize those suspicions were correct!”

Applejack stepped up to Twilight’s side. “Sorry, Twi. We shoulda listened to you.”

“It’s not your fault,” Twilight consoled. “She fooled everypony!”

“Mm, I did, didn’t I?” Chrysalis smiled smugly. Luna flattened her ears as she heard some disembodied piano music crawl out from somewhere. Oh please, for the love of Celestia, do not start—

“This day has been just perfect! The kind of day of which I’ve dreamed since I was small…”

I CAN’T JUST HAVE ONE THING TODAY, CAN I?!

“Everypony I’ll soon control, every stallion mare and foal. Who says a girl can’t really have it allllllll?”

Meanwhile, Twilight belly-crawled up to the altar and zapped Cadence free from the changeling snot that held her hooves. Cadence gratefully smiled at Twilight and went over to Shining Armor, who was still hypnotized. The pink alicorn hugged her fiancé, and as she did, a multi-colored heart blossomed from her horn. Luna watched with amazement—this was Cadence’s magic of love at work, and this was the first time Luna had seen it. The heart popped on Shining Armor’s forehead, and he came to.

“Wha-where? Is the wedding over?”

Chrysalis came crashing down in front of the reunited lovers, having returned from her float-and-gloat session outside the windows. “It’s ALL over!”

Oh, shut up and grow up.

“Your spell! Perform your spell!” Twilight cried to her brother.

Chrysalis cackled, and for once, Luna didn’t flatten her ears at the sound. “What good would that do? My changelings already roam free!”

“No!” Shining Armor gasped. A faint magenta glow gathered at the tip of his horn, but it quickly faded. He strained, but nothing more came of his magic. “My power is useless now. I don’t have the strength to repel them,” he sighed.

Cadence put a hoof around her fiancé’s neck and nuzzled him. “My love will give you strength!”

Chrysalis paced over to the windows to check on her minions’ progress, cackling all the while. “What a lovely but absolutely ridiculous sentiment!”

An absolutely ridic—THAT IS IT! Luna cried internally. With scarcely a thought, starry blue magic oozed from her horn and spiraled out toward Chrysalis. The magic looped through the holes in the queen’s back hooves and became invisible sutures that held her in place by the window. Another shot of magic stitched Chrysalis’ front hooves to the windowsill.

I have had enough out of you, Chrysalis! You have played puppeteer with my subjects, my niece and my sister, and you have done so for the last time. Today you lost your greatest puppet, for I have cut the strings that bound me and let them tie you down and ground you.

A hum of other magical sources caught Luna’s attention. She turned to see Cadence and Shining Armor touching their horn tips, each with closed eyes and in a determined pose. Purple magic, a mix of Cadence’s blue and Shining’s magenta signatures, swirled around them as their connection glowed bright silver. They opened their eyes for a brief moment, unsure of what was happening, but closed them again with confidence once the magic lifted them both off the ground. Twilight and her friends gazed on in amazement. Chrysalis, with a bit of manipulation from Luna, twisted her head to look at the magical commotion; her jaw dropped.

Shining Armor and Cadence’s eyes were a brilliant white, and their bodies posed together in midair to form a heart. Magic exploded from their heart and blasted through the chapel. Chrysalis, despite her intense cries, was expelled from the castle. Her changelings also met the same fate as the magic of love radiated through Canterlot. All traces of the invasion disappeared: guard ponies glued to the streets were freed, ponies no longer cowered, and the overwhelming sense of doom that had swallowed the city for the past few hours dissipated completely.

Luna watched with satisfaction as Chrysalis spiraled off toward the Badlands in a flash of white light. But she paused: this wasn’t over. Discreetly, the princess vanished from the chapel and reappeared closer to the border of the Badlands, breaking into a full-on gallop.

She still had one last thing to do.

~~~

Chrysalis, the Queen of the Changelings, was feeling quite queasy. Although it would be extremely gross, she felt like puking, both from vertigo and utter humiliation. It took a lot of inner strength to keep her jaw clenched together and hold the vomit back. She already had to stage a big talk in front of the entire Hive to boost morale, since the invasion had been nothing less than a disorganized disaster. No doubt there would be talk of moving the Hive out of the Badlands and closer to a more accessible food source—she’d heard mumblings of Aviaria as a possibility, and that made Chrysalis retch. That puffed-up gryphon duke was utterly impossible to make deals with.

Heart-wrenching thoughts now raced through Chrysalis’ mind. What if her subjects were considering an uprising because of their starvation? It would be like the bloody Prench Revolution all over again, and she’d be thrown off the throne for sure. If it went like most other revolutions, her royal head would be mounted on a pike! Or worse: hung, drawn, quartered and served up on a platter like a great steaming—

A gossamer thread of magic suddenly wound its way around Chrysalis’ slender waist and cinched tightly, making her breath catch.

If you are the mare of Death, I am ready, Chrysalis thought as she was yanked backwards out of the sky. I welcome your shadowed embrace as you pull me through the earth to Tartarus. It would be interesting to see Cerberus again, only, you know, for eternity this ti—

“I am your puppet no more.”

Chrysalis snapped her eyes open.

No…no, this couldn’t be happening…it had to be the blood pooling in her head as she hung upside down by a magical thread, her webbed mane trailing in the sand. What she was seeing was an impossibility.

Nightmare Moon stood in front of Chrysalis in all her ebony glory, starry mane and tail afloat in the dry air of the Badlands.

Any words the changeling queen had in mind drained from her instantly. She could only gasp and sputter at what she saw. Her hooves flailed helplessly. She felt the gossamer magic thread cinch tighter and twist more air from her lungs.

Then, she witnessed the very thing that had terrified the whole of Equestria so many years ago: Nightmare Moon smiling.

This was not a warm smile. Instead, a predatory grin was etched across Nightmare Moon’s black muzzle; Chrysalis swore she saw her own reflection in the dark mare’s pearly fangs. With green eyes made round with horror, she watched as Nightmare Moon opened her mouth and drew Chrysalis closer and closer and—

A peal of sickening, sinister laughter sliced through Chrysalis’ ears as a powerful blast of magic propelled her at high speed over the Badlands and beyond.

On the ground, Nightmare Moon still cackled loudly, but her tail was evaporating as she laughed. Magic melted off of her, and she shrank and rounded out in the process. Her coat faded from ebony to indigo, her wing feathers became more rounded, and her eyes became less feline and more equine.

The only remnant of Luna’s guise was her sparkling blue helmet, which was now far too large for her head. She took it off and set it gracefully upon the ground. What should she do with the thing? Should it be kept and put on display in the room just off the Great Glass Gallery, a testament of times past and old terror? Should she leave it to be found many years later by an adventurous explorer after a few terrible sandstorms?

No. She knew what to do with it.

Rearing up on her hind legs, Luna smashed the helmet to pieces with her bare front hooves and an unbridled whinny. She immediately took flight after putting her slippers back on, leaving the blue shards glittering in the fading afternoon light.

~~~

It was a long flight back to Canterlot from the Badlands. By the time Luna caught sight of the spires projecting from the mountainside, it was already twilight. She had considered a pensive walk back to the castle, but decided against it. The Princess of the Night had pitied herself enough over the past week to last a lifetime.

Speaking of twilight, there was no doubt that Twilight had somehow organized a proper wedding for Cadence and Shining Armor in the time she’d been gone. Celestia had likely praised the purple unicorn for her actions—“persisting in the face of doubt” or some such plop. Luna wasn’t about to discredit Twilight, though; she had followed through most beautifully and even managed to fix the mess she’d made without Luna’s interference. Congratulations were certainly in order, but Celestia was the wrong pony to deliver them. Then again, she had been struck down by a starving changeling queen already…

Today had been a very crazy day, hadn’t it?

Luna’s thoughts about an express wedding were confirmed: she saw Cadence and Shining Armor enjoying their first intimate dance as a married couple, and Twilight and her friends were back in their formal dresses. The alicorn noted the size of the reception crowd was nearly twice the size of the crowd for the fake wedding. She found it odd that ponies would want to dress up and attend a royal wedding after their city had been ravaged. Then again, she really wasn’t in much of a position to judge odd behavior today.

Luna lightly touched down where Celestia and Twilight’s friends were gathered by the dance floor. And although her conscience screamed from every corner of her mind not to do so, she opened her mouth and spoke.

“Hello, everypony. Did I miss anything?”

If anypony had answered her silly question, she didn’t hear it. Pinkie Pie and her friend Vinyl Scratch started playing an irresistibly catchy dance-pop song, Twilight started to sing, and Luna just couldn’t resist anypony who laid down a solid beat.

~~~

Later that evening…

“That was quite a party, wasn’t it, sister?”

“Indeed it was,” Celestia remarked, joining Luna out on the balcony. A starry rendering of Shining Armor and Cadence surrounded by hearts now hung in the eastern skies for all of Equestria to see. Luna was a masterful artist with the stars, but she didn’t often create new constellations because of how much magical effort it took to do so. Tonight, however, she didn’t feel the slightest bit exhausted, even after all the rigorous head-banging she’d done. She certainly needed to request a copy of all of Vinyl Scratch’s albums.

“Where were they going for their honeymoon?” Luna asked.

“Neighagra Falls, I think,” Celestia replied. “A lot of newlyweds have their honeymoons there, and I believe Cadence was the one who suggested it. She doesn’t want any overly special considerations just because she’s a princess.”

“Of course. I would want the same. In fact, a nice vacation by a waterfall sounds p-p-perfectly…” Luna stuttered as she yawned, “lovely right now.”

She smacked her lips and looked out at the starry tapestry she had created for tonight. The moon hung like a giant pearl pendant, and Luna felt the Essence of the Night humming tranquilly in the back of her mind. Yes, all was well once more.

All was well…until Celestia put a hoof on Luna’s shoulder, whispered “Thank you,” and walked back inside.

“Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by ‘thank you’?” Luna questioned, spinning around and following her sister back into her own purple bedroom.

“Can’t an older sister thank her little sister for attending a wedding reception when she slept through the ceremony?” Celestia remarked as she opened the door to leave.

“You never just say ‘thank you’! You always have some kind of hidden motive!”

Celestia just winked and walked out of the room.

Luna’s eyes grew wide as saucers, and she pressed a hoof to her mouth. Oh, Tartarus. Celestia knew.

Though it was very un-princess-like, the dark blue alicorn threw herself down on the floor and pitched a hissy fit.

Celestia always had to know everything.

The End

Author's Note:

Like Celestia, I say sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, "Thank you."

Comments

[SomeRandomMinion]

So...Chryssie was just sent flying yet again?
Or was that a more...permanent solution?

[Jadu]

3794191 She did go flying beyond the Badlands, so whatever lies in wait there is her fate. Keep in mind, she got scarred seeing Nightmare Moon from the outside for the first time.

[SomeRandomMinion]

3794266 Fair point...but what of the rest of her army? It seems that their Hive hasn't been wiped out, going by her fears of a Revolution.

Maybe Equestria will vassalize them?

[Wyrme]

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

[Gale Singer]

Team Changeling: We're blasting off again!!!