The Crown of Night

by Daedalus Aegle

Interlude: Changing of the Guard

The night was utterly silent and still, the sky one thick mass of flat clouds that gave no hint that anything existed beyond it. No wind disturbed the dry, heavy summer air. Not an animal moved or made any sound in the forests, and every sleeping pony slept without dreaming.

Princess Luna was watching a pony die. An old pegasus stallion, he lay in a plain and worn bed in one of the outer towers of Everhold: the martial wing of the massive, sprawling castle that was the seat of power in all the lands of ponies. He lay in fitful sleep, occasionally erupting in a bout of deep, rough coughing. After one such bout he slowly adjusted his position, and opened his eyes.

Luna put a hoof down on his foreleg, gripped it softly as she looked at him with large, sad eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but she put her other forehoof over his lips.

"Shush," she said. "You need rest."

He raised his free foreleg and pushed her hoof with a touch so light and weak she could barely feel it. Nonetheless she let her leg be pushed away, and he spoke in a thin, feeble voice so different from the thunderous rumble she remembered from his prime, when he could make the forest shake with a roar and be heard a dozen miles away as though he stood right beside them: "This is our final farewell, my Princess."

"Don't say that," Luna said, fighting hard to keep her voice from cracking. "All these years you've served me nobly, and you deserve to live out many years of old age in peace and comfort. I won't let you die here in a guardspony's bed."

"I... never protected you," he said. "Not from physical danger. You have never needed bodyguards, Princess. But... I tried to protect you from what really threatens you."

"And what is that?" She asked softly, not expecting a real answer, as she levitated a wet cloth and wiped it across his brow.

"Your own domain," he said quietly. "The darkness. The night. The times when all ponies else are asleep, and you rule alone. The quiet. The solitude. Princess... more than your guard, I... have always... tried... to be your friend. You will always need that." He placed his hoof on hers and focused his weak gaze on her eyes. "I hate to leave you with my task unfinished, your highness... You need what I can no longer provide. Promise me that you will find somepony else, and that you won't... return to... what your nights were... before I met you."

She sniffled and, her voice failing her for the moment, nodded. She took one deep, gulping breath, and whispered, "I promise."

His lips slowly curled in a final smile. "That's good... Please excuse me, your highness, I feel... so tired."

He closed his eyes.

Outside, the rain began to fall.

– – –

"Are you in there, Lulu?" Celestia said, and knocked on the door. "I'm coming in." The door swung open and Celestia stepped into Luna's private office.

Luna had withdrawn here from the tower, to distract herself with work. Celestia could see it hadn't worked; the night princess's face was streaked with dried tears and her eyes were red. Celestia had found her there at her desk, hiding behind a stack of reports that reached higher than her head.

"Why do you torment yourself this way, sister?" Celestia asked.

"I will be fine, sister," Luna said with a voice of cracked stone. "Please leave me to my work."

Celestia sighed. "You shouldn't let yourself get so close to them," Celestia said. "You have to let them go before it's too late, before you have to watch them decay before your very eyes."

Celestia sat down beside her younger sister. "It's the price of being immortal. When I plan ahead, I think of centuries from now. The next fifty years from today will take care of themselves. It's so easy to lose track of time when we have all of eternity before us. But our subjects have no such luxury. They live only today, and before you know it, they are gone."

"It's so easy to take the now for granted, and forget how quickly they change. So many times have I sat back deep in thought, and looked up again to find that a dozen years had flown by, that my courtiers who were young and strong the last time I saw them had turned to feeble old greybeards... You must remember these things, and take care to let them go before it's too late. Why wasn't he retired already? Do you know how old he was?"

"He was fifty-four. He told me so."

Celestia levitated a thick volume up and dropped it in front of Luna. With a flicker of magic, it flipped open to a particular page: Cloud Heart's personal file. "Look at his birth date."

Luna looked at it, frowned, glanced to the calendar hanging on the wall.

"He was seventy-eight, Luna," Celestia's voice was hard, disappointment showing in her look. "He lied to you so he could stay with you longer."

Luna didn't answer. The ancient pegasus had lied to continue working, spending his final decades with her rather than enjoying the age of peace and comfort he had earned? Once again she felt the tears creeping into her eyes.

"Your bodyguards, frankly, are frighteningly devoted to you, Lulu. I'm sure they weren't this bad just a few decades ago either," Celestia said, casting a suspicious look back towards the guardspony at the door. "You know the risks involved with getting too close to mortals... I just don't want to see you get your heart broken, sister. Promise me you won't repeat this mistake with the next one?"

Luna's gaze had fallen to the cold stone floor, her hooves shuffling, and she remembered being scolded by her mother in the distant past. She nodded wordlessly.

"Good." Celestia pulled her little sister into a tight hug, held it briefly, then let go. "I have to run, I'm afraid, I'm late for a meeting. I'll see you later for dinner."

– – –

The funeral had been earlier that day, a state funeral, with a great procession from all branches of the Everhold armed forces. Princess Luna herself had marched at the head in her role as a major-general of the Air Forces. All the highest-ranking officers had attended, and courtiers by the dozens, and every noblepony of Baron or higher title from a hundred miles in every direction.

This was a much smaller ceremony, and yet more heartfelt. Still in her black dress uniform, Luna stood in the pouring rain atop the open platform top of the Tower of Freezing Winds. With her were the full number of her honor guards, standing at attention, visible on the bare open platform only because they wished to be.

"Mourn with me, for we have lost one of our greatest," she said, and her voice was not cracked or faint but as strong and unassailable as a mountain peak. "Tonight we bid you farewell, Cloud Heart, Captain-Commander, oldest and wisest among us. You have risen for your final flight, and set off into the unknown lands, leaving your younger brothers and sisters to live on as best we can without your guidance. Tonight we remember you, Cloud Heart. Here are your marks of office."

Three cloaked mares stepped forward, each carrying a piece of dark metal armor: a helmet with a bladed ridge running over its top, a chest plate with the mark of a lidless eye emblazoned on its front, and a pair of leathery wing sheaths whose front edges were wicked serrated blades. One by one, the ponies placed them reverently upon a black square carpet before the princess.

"We relieve you of your armor, and with them, your obligations. You served us well, and long... Now you will have the peace that no pony in all the lands of Everhold have earned more than you." She bowed down low, and touched her forehead to the helmet. Now she whispered, as she felt tears mingling with the rain. "Farewell, Cloud Heart... You were always so kind to me, and no matter how much gratitude I showed you, it would never have been enough."

She rose, and stepped back, and one by one the other ponies stepped forward and gave their offerings of respect and sadness to the armor of the Captain-Commander. Only when the final pony had said his piece and stepped back did Luna speak again.

"You have mourned with me, for we have lost one of our greatest," she said. "Now exult with me, for we will rise again. The office of Captain-Commander is empty. Shall we fill it?"

In unison, the assembled ponies said: "Yes."

"Have we the treasures of the elder nights?"

One pony spoke, saying, "We have them."

"Bring the treasures of the elder nights forth."

Once again three mares stepped forward from the assembly, each carrying a small jewelled box with the utmost solemnity. The first placed her box on the black carpet, and with the lightest touch of a wing, opened the lid to reveal a pristine black feather. "The feather of Black Ragast, the Elder Phoenix," Luna said. "Taken from Ragast's wing by Captain-Commander Maracles, vanquisher of a great evil."

The second pegasus gently lowered her box and like the one before her, flipped it open. Within it lay a severed unicorn's horn, its long length marking it as that of an Alicorn, blood red, its tip sharpened to an impaling point. "The horn of Dread Rascibal," Luna said. "Taken from Rascibal's body by Captain-Commander Gilgamane, vanquisher of a great evil."

The third pegasus slowly, gently, almost fearfully placed the final box beside the helmet on the black carpet, and, stretching her wing from the farthest point she could stand and still reach, opened it. Inside it was a jagged shard of some thick, heavy material. It was jade green along one edge, shading into purple, with pale lines like smoke coursing through it, and finally darkened to almost black towards the outer edge. One side of it was broken, and the other sharp like a thick blade. Luna looked at it intently before speaking, as though suspicious that it might spring to life. "The claw of Jagged King Belekos, Dragon Lord, Devourer, Earth-Breaker, Tyrant of the Skies, the Long Sorrow, the Final Shadow, who nearly swallowed the moon and the sun whole... Taken from Belekos's talon... by Captain-Commander Luna Noctis, vanquisher of a great evil."

All the ponies bowed as one before the great trophies of ancient adversaries.

"By the witness of these vanquished terrors, we bid thee rise and step forward, Cold Wing. Naked you come to us." As Luna spoke one pegasus emerged from the crowd, and three others approached him and removed his cloak and armor, holding them gently in their mouths, then returned to their places. The uncovered pegasus stood alone in the pouring rain before the princess. His coat was pale, his mane white and thin, and veins showed through his coat on his sides. He was old, and wrinkled, but strong and tall.

"You are relieved of your old rank and title, Cold Wing. Now you are alone in the cold, in the dark between what was and what will be. All your life, you have travelled through the darkness, and have conquered it. We offer you your final charge. Do you accept it?"

"I do," Cold Wing said, in a deep, calm voice.

"By the witness of these vanquished terrors, do you swear allegiance to the brotherhood, to serve and protect Princess Luna Noctis, Night-Mare Moon, with your every breath and your every move, to withhold no gesture or favor she may ask of you, until she releases you from your duties or until death claims you?"

"I swear by the Feather, and the Horn, and the Claw, to serve my princess in life and death, with every motion and every breath."

"We give you a new rank and title, and a new charge, the final duty you will bear in your life," Luna said, and three new pegasi stepped forward and picked up Cloud Heart's armor, and fitted it on him. "You are bound to the shadows. You are a wanderer in the dark places of the world, and no thing, no creature, no secret can hide from you. Arise, my brothers and sisters! Arise and welcome into your fold your new leader! Arise and honor Cold Wing, Captain-Commander and leader of the Shadowbolts."

Author's Note:

This takes place at an unspecified time between chapter 1 and 2. And yes, it was uploaded after chapter 2: my bad.

Comments

[djthomp]

Gotta love the Princesses as dragon slayers.

[statoose]

I am very impressed with this so far! Your characterization is very strong; Star Swirl is the perfect unrealized genius, and your portrayal of Luna really caught my attention, with her slight outward awkwardness, rather than being completely serene and perfect like the princesses we know from the 'current time' in FiM.

This chapter, too, was quite enjoyable. Celestia's characterization is interesting in how it seems to conflict a bit with her mentality in the show, taking on Twilight as a personal protege. I even got RainyMood going in the background along with some fittingly bittersweet music, which made for a really cool experience when paired with the excellent story.

[Daedalus Aegle]

4407571
Glad to hear the characterization works: that's really what it's all about. This is Celestia and Luna as they were before Nightmare Moon, and while some might complain that this Celestia can be very mean, I'm hoping to show that she too has had to learn from her mistakes before becoming the supremely serene and motherly figure from the show. This is my Lord of the Rings, really, my Big Serious Story, and I try to keep it interesting with solid characters (and great deeds on a mythic scale) rather than just with laughs.
Hope you continue enjoying it :)

[Blaze the draconic mage]

Wow that was amazing

[AyanamiRei]

I get chills reading such beautiful and well written oaths of loyalty like this <3

I started with Clover and now I am reading this. So far I am really loving this and I will be most pleased if the rest of the story even stays as amazing as this <3

[AyanamiRei]

4407571
People change throughout the years, decades, and centuries. This is a Celestia who was more distant from her sister. One who did NOT spend a thousand years ruling by herself. Celestia post-Luna Fall is going to be MUCH different than Pre-Luna Fall.

Even here she is still kind, she just has a different way of showing it. She's trying to SAVE her sister, albeit in a VERY misguided way. She doesn't really see that Luna's needs are different from her own, that Luna's life is drastically different than her own.

I mean I'm sure if we saw Sunset-Celestia vs Twilight-Celestia we'd see some differences there as well. I am sure that Celestia did things differently with Twilight than she did with Sunset, beyond the whole "Different ponies with different personalities that both love to learn".