Excerpts from the Luna War

by Sapare

Neverfree

No matter how much I fought to hide it, I could not deny that this place made me feel uneasy and I wished to be leave as soon as possible. Why Luna and Celestia would pick here for their meeting was a mystery to me.

I quickly glanced over to Luna, hoping to draw strength and confidence from her but finding only another wave of unease rippling down my spine. She had been fighting day and night against whatever had transformed her appearance as of recent. Some days she seemed unaffected, but other days there was this inconsistency with her, her mood and feelings changing suddenly.

Today she had not won whatever fight she was fighting, her whole body had morphed into the dark nightmare I had first seen in Hoofington. Her expression was one of glee and satisfaction, but the sharp teeth and malicious eyes made it an uncomfortable sight.

As we made our way through the thickest of the forest I wondered if this had been a good idea. Celestia had agreed to peace, but seeing her fellow Queen like this might give her the wrong impression. However, I knew that asking Luna to delay this meeting would only worsen the circumstances, I promised to trust in her till the end.

As my magic pushed aside the leaves before me my mind came to a quick halt, suddenly looking with confused awe at a small castle. Its appearance in the middle of this ponyforsaken forest was startling and confusing, all of the ponies in our gazed at it with stunned surprise. Deep inside we knew that nopony had laid eyes on this castle in generations, and yet it stood here as if shielded from time itself.

"It is the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, build long before the days of Equestria, and the empires that formed it." The unmistakable voice of Luna lectured us, and I quickly took note that she finally sounded like herself again. Our Queen walked past our still awe stricken bodies and casually approached what had to be the entrance to the castle, two heavy wooden doors that seemed unaffected by the many years of rain they had endured.

Even as I regained composure and rushed forward to take back my place beside my Queen she used her magic to open the doors. I could see inside revealing the rich colors of tapestry and memorials, if the wealth within these walls were ever known to the wide public the stream of adventurers and robbers would be near endless. The other ponies now too overcame themselves and took their places behind our charge, all of us proudly and eagerly entering the castle with her.

Once inside I was able to inspect the beautiful decorations that adorned the hallway, many of them depicting Luna and Celestia, younger and yet way too much the same if this castle was anywhere as old as Luna had implied. I could not help but wonder the true age of our Queens if this was how slowly they aged, they must outdate the most ancient written records of pony history.

Looking toward my Queen with a new sense of respect and awe I saw that not only her voice had undergone change, her body too had shifted more to her old self, this place must be giving her the strength and confidence she had lacked. I smiled to myself as I knew things would be alright.

Luna seemed to know well where she was going, as she rounded corners and passed doors without so much as a moment spend trying to recall her path, till finally we stepped into a large hall. In the center of the hall stood a strange rock carved imitation of a tree, with six large round stones at the ends of each arm. However, it drew my gaze and occupied my thoughts for only a short moment before I noticed the large white Alicorn standing below this tree. She looked at us with a strange mixture of guilt and joy. Celestia bowed to Luna so formally that for a moment I thought it was in jest, nopony had ever seen one of the Queens pay formal respect to the other as if they were of higher worth. And then she spoke, her warm and welcoming voice full of relieve.

"My little sister, oh how I have missed your brilliant presence!" She rushed toward us, ready to embrace the pony who officially was still her enemy, we acted quickly to step forward, past our Queen and respectfully placed ourselves between the two Alicorns. I bowed to her just as she had bowed to Luna and smiled nervously, wishing for Luna to discharge us from this awkward position. Her voice rang out, but it drained the smile from my face.

"As you see I have not been idle during my absence, we crushed Gryphon and Pony since my rule started, and now you are here to finally give in to my demands?"

I did my best to stain my eyes upwards, bowing still but also trying to see Celestia's reactions to the aggressive tone. For the first time in my life I wanted to object to Luna, to tell her not to ruin this chance we have at peace, but I needed to trust her now more then ever. And then suddenly Luna stepped forward, past us and closer to the princess of the sun.

"Look into my eyes dear sister, do you see what you have created in your foolish quest to rid yourself of me? Or will you continue to blind yourself?"

As she called Celestia sister, much as the sun princess had mere moments before, it struck me that when Luna had referred to this as the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters she implied herself and Celestia to be exactly that.

The joy of finding out something so valuable and long questioned was quickly overshadowed by terror as I watched things unfold, Luna's body visibly transforming into her nightmare self. Even Celestia seemed stunned and aghast by the display, her body motionless as she stared deep into her sister's eyes, and then finally spoke.

"Dear sister, have my apologizes for what transpired! But it was never by my desire to be rid of you! I was indeed blind, blind to the skeem of my advisers, blind to the bias held by the ponies I trusted, but I see now and I come to set things right! Why this deformation of your bea.."

She was silenced by Luna, the moon princess baring her fang like teeth and smashing her hoofs onto the stone floor. And then she screamed, with anger and pain I had never seen her express.

"Do not lie to me! You left me for dead! The crimes I and my ponies have committed ... the blood on our hoofs, it is all your fault!" Luna looked back at us, and for a moment I could see her mouth move but no words come from it, as if she tried to say something but could not, and then she shook her head and smiled, that crazed smile she bore earlier.

"Look at them Celestia, these are my ponies now! They follow my will, they trust my judgment, you are obsolete. You tried to rid yourself of me, and now I am the one who no longer needs you!"

Her words were without question crazy and not those any of us had wanted to hear, but the impact they had on Celestia overshadowed everything. The almighty Queen was shaking uncontrolled, her expression a frozen terror as she stumbled backwards till she struck the rock structure behind her. The whole display was alien to me, my loving moon princess engulfed by a strange insanity, and the mighty sun princess fearful as a filly from the dark.

"I see you finally have opened your eyes my dear... do you see me? Your nightmare is real!"

Luna's final word was punctuated with a flash of her horn, and Celestia was thrown off her hoofs and launched into the air, striking the top of the dome with such velocity that the stone shattered and hailed down on us. I was about to leap away when the rocks stopped in midair, Luna having leaped up and used her magic to protect us, she looked at us and said but one word.

"Thankyou."

Before any of us could reply she had flown after her sister, leaving us confused and rightfully terrified as the two ponies we swore to protect engaged in outright combat. All we could do was stare up at the grey sky, a dark and a white shape struggling against each other, the white one often being flung around and striking parts of the castle, causing the damage that the castle had been able to avoid for so long.

As we watched we could see Luna grow to dominate, her attacks much more viscous and her magic seemingly more potent. I stood there and hoped with all my heart that she would stop, that my loving Queen return to her normal self and end this pointless struggle, but instead she only grew more eager as the fighting went on.

Finally it ended where it had begun, Celestia violently crashing into the rock tree once more, this time with enough force to shatter it, the 'branches' breaking and the round stones falling to the floor around her. I could see the sun princess how I had never before, in pain and utterly exhausted. She looked at us, the ponies who had once sworn loyalty to her and her sister, and let her head drop to the floor.

Luna dropped down before her, landing comfortably on all four of her black hoofs and towering over her beaten enemy, and laughed with such insanity that I refused to believe it came from her. And then she just stood there, seemingly waiting for Celestia to say or do something. Celestia answered, the dirt covered Alicorn growled with tired determination and rose to her hoofs, her horn glowed as she focused her magical energy. Luna looked unfazed by this, she even turned to grin at us, and then at her sister, speaking with that dark joy that had taken over her.

"Oh this is it! You are finally going to fight back? We both know what you could do, but would you dare?!"

To my surprise Celestia simply looked back at Luna and shook her head, and spoke with what must have been the last of her strength.

"This is not her fault! I will not see her harmed by my mistakes, she just needs time..."

With her last words her horn flashed in a bright light, blinding me momentary. When my sight returned I could make out the blackness of Luna's body, but there no longer was Celestia, and the stones that had fallen around her had disappeared too, leaving the tree broken and robbed of its strange beauty.

Luna laughed once more, her hysteria sending cold chills through my whole spine, and suddenly I wondered if this is what she had warned me off, if this is what she would always be now.

I shook my head and stomped my hoof on the floor. We had gone this far, done so much in her name. I simply could not turn my back on her, could not betray her. Luna was our Queen, more powerful and righteous then Celesta. I trust her judgement, she would defeat the darkness.

We had to win this war, no matter the sacrifice.