Children of the Night

by ColorBlack

The Castle

We arrived at the castle late that night. Other than a few loose rocks, the whole journey was safe and timberwolf-free. When we reached a modest sized castle surrounded by a cavern, I was more than a little relieved. “We should go in, I need to do this now” Luna said. Her voice was full of resolve. We walked to a bridge. Although it was a rope bridge, it looked very sturdy. We crossed with no problems. “When we get inside, I'll instruct the royal guards to give you each a room. I'll go talk to Celestia” she smiled and we entered the courtyard. There were no guards at any outer posts as far as I could tell, so we made it to the castle without difficulty. When we walked in the castle, however, guards were everywhere. We were immediately stopped by a pegasus guard.

“Princess Luna? Who are these strangers?” The guard's no nonsense attitude gave him an air of authority.

“These strangers are my friends and I wish for them to be my personal guests. Put them up in their own personal rooms. Where is my sister, I wish to talk to her?” Luna's less nonsense attitude was even stronger than the guard's.

“She's going to be in the throne room in a few minutes, I suggest waiting for her there.” the guard told Luna, pointing towards a door a short distance away. Luna enthusiastically ran to it. “You four, right this way.” pointing up a staircase and walking in that direction. We followed, I myself being very tired. We were each shown a different room in the same hallway. I said goodnight and walked into my room, promptly laid on my bed and fell asleep.

My dreamless slumber was interrupted by a loud crash. I sprang from my bed, at first a little confused as to where I was. I heard shouting coming from below me. I walked to the door and opened it. Across the hall Aurora had opened her door and I could see North and Kora doing the same. I decided that I should try to figure out what was happening. I ran down the stairs. From what I could tell, nopony followed me. I heard shouting coming from, what the guard had said, the throne room. I was debating whether to go in or not when I heard another crash. Without thinking I opened the door. The throne room was in disrepair. Rubble was all over the floor and there was a hole in the ceiling, letting the moonlight in. Wait. Moonlight? When I had awoken, daylight had been streaming through my window. Why was the moon out? I heard more crashing coming from outside. I ran from the throne room, heading for the outside. I burst into the courtyard looking all around for the cause of whatever was destroying the castle. I heard a scream coming from above me. I looked up to see Luna, or what appeared to be Luna, firing a beam of magic at Celestia, launching her into the throne room. I ran back into the castle then the throne room. A strange contraption was in the middle of the room. Celestia had six gems floating around her and was flying up through the hole in the ceiling. A drop of moisture hit me on the nose. She was crying. I watched through the hole in the ceiling as the gems began spinning around Celestia as she squared off with Luna. Time seemed to slow. Luna shot off an extremely powerful blast, black as midnight and scarier than nightmare. The gems spun around Celestia even faster. A star shaped gem positioned itself in front of Celestia's horn, like a crosshair. Suddenly a rainbow colored beam shot out of the star. It collided with Luna's beam, slowing slightly, though still moving . It took all of a second before it hit Luna, sweeping upward with her captured within it. The now golden ball of energy went to the moon, causing the pattern of a unicorn head to emerge. Celestia hovered in the air for a moment before returning to earth. The gems were magically sealed in stones and put on the contraption before she pressed a hidden button and it sank below the throne room, tile floor positioning over it. Tears were streaming down her face. “What was...? What did you..?” I couldn't find a way to complete my sentences. Celestia saw me at that point.

“I..I banished her. My own sister. I sent her to the moon.” she was sobbing, stating and restating what she had done in disbelief. “I banished my flesh and blood, the only pony I ever had anything in common with. I sent her to the moon. No.” her entire demeanor changed with the last word. “I banished Nightmare Moon, she is not my sister. She is not Luna. She assailed Luna.” her face was twisted into a grimace as though she was trying to believe her own train of thought. “You. You're...”

“Raven” I cut her off “Your sister invited my friends and I to be her personal guests.”

“Yes. That's right, she spoke of you three. She spoke of Kora as a strong earth pony with ambition to be a guard. And of a North. She spoke of adopting him and teaching him magic.” The last part caught me off guard.

“She was planning on adopting North?” I asked

“She already completed the forms. I suppose that makes North Star my nephew.” she said, a twinkle in her eye.

“And, what about me?” I asked, curious as to what the lunar princess thought of me.

“She said you were curious, argumentative, and above all, powerful” she said. She wasn't paying attention to me as much, she was mostly lost in her own thoughts.

“Oh.” I wasn't sure what to do at that point. I turned to leave and saw Kora standing in the doorway, glaring at me. I walked up to her.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself” she began

“What are you talking about?” Dark storm clouds had begun to appear outside.

“If it wasn't for you, Luna would never have returned and she would have never fought Celestia and she would never have been banished to the moon.”She responded. I could hear a boom of thunder from outside.

“I did what I had to. Aurora said...”

“Of course you would do what Aurora says. You've fallen head over hooves for her and you were manipulated!”

“I don't have to take this” I went to push past her but instead received a hoof in the face.

“Raven...” she was about to continue when I tackled her. We rolled around on the ground, punching, kicking, biting and swearing at each other. The overall brawl ended with me pinning her to the floor. I though about saying something witty but settled to spit at her. It didn't connect with her, it landed on the floor next to her. My saliva was flecked with blood. I took a look at her face. She already had a black eye forming and her lip was cut in several places. With that, I flew off. I flew out the hole in the ceiling created when Celestia was hit. I was in the air for a few minutes, flying in a random direction away from the castle when the rain started. Pegasi were taught at a young age that flying in a storm is dangerous, and that summer storms were even more dangerous because of an increased chance of lightening, but I didn't care. The rain was soothingly cool and I hadn't seen any lightening the whole time. In hindsight, I probably should have cared. I was flying moderately low, just above the treeline of the forest we had traversed just the previous night. Suddenly the forest stopped, merging with the edge of an orchard. I was wondering why the area looked so familiar when I was struck. My wings stuck straight out as the electricity coursed through my body. Then I was falling right into the orchard.

Author's Note:

This will be my last update on this story for awhile. The story isn't sparking as much creativity and inspiration for me as it once did, and if I write it without being inspired or creative or in the right mood, the content will start to degrade and it will become rubbish. And I don't want you all to read rubbish because of me so I'm putting the story on hiatus until at least the new year.

Comments

[HN-]

It would be nice if you decide to continue this story. Since you said that you don't like how it's written compared to your style now, you could always rewrite it. In my opinion, i'm fine with the way this story is, it's pretty nice.