War of Shadows - Interlude VI
Morning Star shifted uncomfortably in his hiding spot. The clearing before him hadn’t seen any movement other than his shifting since he started his watch hours ago.
“There’s my little ant.”
A few weeks ago Morning Star would have jumped out of his skin but being constantly snuck up on had gotten him used to disembodied voices.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t recognize that,” he groused.
Warmth against his side told him that Moon Shadow had settled next to him.
“Aww, worried I’ll think less of you if you march to nursery rhymes?” She cooed from her place next to him.
“You know you’re not supposed to be here while I’m on duty,” Morning Star said, trying to change the subject.
“We’re deployed. We’re always on duty.”
Morning Star murmured a noncommittal response. A twig snap brought the comfortable stillness of the clearing to an end. A dark creature stepped through the undergrowth, seemingly unaware of the tension it had created.
The creature ambled through the clearing, pausing from time to time to taste the air. Morning Star tensed as the creature got closer. He felt Moon Shadow do the same as she readied her weapons beside him.
“Now!” He shouted when the creature was only a few strides away.
The silence exploded into a cacophony of hoofsteps, wing beats, and chittering buzz as Morning Star and Moon Shadow burst out from their hiding place and the creature leapt into the air.
Morning Star attempted to grasp the creature in his magic but it seemed to slip out as if it were coated in grease. Gritting his teeth Morning Star tried once again to grapple the creature with his magic. Morning Star could feel the creature struggling and slipping from his grasp but his attempt had delayed it enough.
Moon Shadow shredded the creature’s buzzing wing with her steel claws. The rent wings gave a few beats as the creature fell gracelessly back into the clearing. It hit the ground with a dull thud and was already back up by the time Morning Star hit it with an overcharged stun spell.
“What the hay is that thing?” Moon Shadow asked as she landed.
In response Morning Star lit up the clearing with a light spell. Before him lay an approximately equine creature. It had a pair of insect-like wings that lay shredded against its back. Its black skin resembled the shell of a beetle more than the fur of a pony. The insect-like appearance was completed by its pale blue compound eyes and curved horn.
Nudging the pockmarked hoof with his own Morning Star said, “It looks like we found the subject of The Princess’s vision.”
☾ ☾ ☾
“This show of aggression will not go unanswered, you will remove your forces from our borders immediately or you will suffer the consequences!” The dark griffon’s plumage stood on end with his indignation as he paced before the throne.
“Come ambassador do not let your anger guide you into burning bridges we have worked so hard to build.” Celestia sat her throne, cool and impassive as always as she gently chided the enraged griffon.
“It is not my anger that guides me but your troops on my border!”
The grand doors to the throne room crashed open revealing the dark form of Princess Luna.
“If you have concerns regarding the movement of Equestria’s army then you are addressing the wrong pony.”
For the barest moment the neutral mask slipped from Celestia’s face as her eyes narrowed. What have you done, Luna?
“Who are you to address me?!” the ambassador shouted, “Should I come and grovel at the hooves of Celestia’s brat of a sister?”
“Celestia,” Luna said with a smirk, “the ambassador and I will need some privacy.”
Celestia made her way to the doors as a tense silence fell over the room. “Mind your words, Luna,” Celestia whispered as she passed by. “He is already on the edge of breaking off ties.”
In response Luna eyed the ambassador with an aggressive grin.
As Celestia made her way out of the throne room Luna turned her back on the still-fuming ambassador and stood at the base of the throne dais.
The closing of the doors served as a prelude for Luna. “The sun rises in the east every day. It track’s the same course through the sky every day. From east to west its journey never changes. That is Celestia. She may be skilled at putting on an appearance for diplomacy’s sake but it is ever the same appearance.
“The moon may wax and wane. She may hide her face or she may shine with a glory that drowns out the stars. I have found that my own appearance may likewise change.”
When Luna turned back to the ambassador her pupils were slitted like that of a dragon and her mouth was filled with fangs. Her half spread wings now bore a leathery membrane that came to an aggressive point at the end.
“Who am I to address you, you ask. My dear ambassador you forget your own history. Surely a mere thousand years is not enough for the learned griffons to forget how they address me.”
The ambassador shifted uneasily as Luna stalked forward.
“Allow me to remind you. I am not Celestia’s sister, neither am I Nightmare Moon. You do not call me Princess Luna as you petition my throne.”
The ambassador fought a losing battle against his fear. The Princess stood over him, her eyes gleamed aggressively and her fangs flashed as they bit at the words escaping her mouth.
“You grovel and beg for mercy from the Demon of Bloodridge Eerie.”
“N-no! That is only a legend!”
“How long ago was it that Equestria thought the same of Nightmare Moon?” Luna asked with a bark of cruel laugh.
“I will not be intimidated!” the griffon said as he drew himself up.
“Ah the pride of griffons. Few things in this world are so stubbornly unchanging. I can still remember it breaking like an egg underneath my hoof,” Luna said as she examined her horseshoe with a wistful grin showing her fangs.
“You’re lying!” the griffon shouted desperately.
“Think, ambassador. Celestia and I alone among ponies could have been there to live the truth of this legend. Would Celestia descend from her gilded throne and allow herself to become a monster, or was it somepony…darker; a night to her day?”
The ambassador tried to backpedal away from the mare again but as he stepped his paw brushed against the doors to the throne room. The Night Princess advanced on him until he was pinned between her and the doors.
“No!” The ambassador shouted as he drew himself up onto his hind legs. Though it led him to be taller than Luna he only felt more exposed with his back completely against the wall.
“Read the surrender signed all those years ago; read every treaty signed since, as I have. You will find that Equestria is well within its rights to garrison its borders and has done nothing to constitute aggressive action. Your objections are nothing but the clucking of a disquiet hen.” Luna turned and made her way back to the throne.
“Oh and ambassador,” she said over her shoulder, “Perhaps I am lying, perhaps I found some dusty old legend and fashioned myself after it. But before you make any decision to break the hard won peace between us you should find the nearest eerie. See the cubs running about underhoof and flying overhead. See the fathers working to support their families and the mothers sitting proudly on their eggs, and ask yourself: what if I’m not lying.”
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YES, this is my head canon for Luna. The Battle Mare, the one who does things in the night to defend Equesteria that Celestia could not. And in the interest of keeping this story up to its already high standards may I point our the I think you meant (aerie) not [eerie]
Just a reminder to the Griffins that Celestia is the nice one. Luna? Well, she's fair but you should be wary of pushing her because she's not as forgiving as her older sister is.
Meanwhile, the loveponies have caught themselves a Changeling. I've got a feeling that ordinary worker- and soldier-caste Changelings don't have much in the way of intelligence, so I'm not sure what they could learn from it, even with the worst tortures the bat-ponies could think up. Still, it proves Luna's essential thesis - there is a threat out there to be confronted.
I'm wondering just how strongly Luna will chide Celestia for choosing to disbelieve even her own personal student in the face of this crisis.
Esh, it's times like this when I see stories descend to them as gods of combat that I want to see them topple hard so that people would desire to walk over them.
Crescent moon interlude marks = bonus points
Aerie, not Eerie.
And I gotta throw a fit here at the idea of Luna, even in her complete madness as Nightmare Moon, killing children.
4773826 Madness. There are no morales in madness.
There are no boundaries, no taboos. Just what is, and the madness.
Seriously. Within madness, she could do what you would consider to be horiffic things
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And to think she wasn't even Nightmare Moon when she was killing the children, so imagine what was going on when she was the Nightmare. I'm pretty sure that myth about her eating ponies wasn't just a myth.
I think Luna is unstable. She doesn't know how to interact with ponies outside of war or outside of a ruler-subject relationship and she is fairly narrow minded in her own way. Nightmare Moon in that context is, while a falling into madness, not an unprecipitated or entirely unexpected outcome. The griffins, afaik, are not trying to threaten anyone and are justifiable concerned about her forces patrolling their borders.
Holy crap, Luna, that was awesome. Celestia will disapprove, but buck her. Let her twitter about like an upset canary; the falcon has work to do.
Nah Luna isn't like that.