Moonlight Promenade

by Valorousspectre

Chapter 13

Luna was furious.

Luna was angry quite often lately, she realized as she gave it a moment's thought. Lots of things were annoying her. Griffon ambassadors, editorial staff, foul mouthed twelve year olds playing Call of Cutie, and the pervs that played HALO online, somepony eating the last cookie...

Lots of things.

But of all those things, three held her most irritable.

Her sister, Celestia.
The Royal Guard, including Gild
And Septimus, the lost stallion.

She was going to rectify two of those right now.

She'd received the reports from Midnight Blossom a little over an hour ago, and after ranting her frustrations at a very patient Midnight, she'd copied the reports and told the young Knight to return the originals to where she found them, which seemed to put a spring in her step as she'd left. Luna had taken the time to dress herself, after calming herself enough to figure out what she was going to do with the new information. An arrow? First a scythe, and now an arrow?

Okay, granted, an arrow is much less potentially lethal than a battle scythe, but that doesn't make things better, or easier to take. This was her friend. He meant something to her. And this conduct was unacceptable. Two out of two attempting to harm, if not kill, Septimus?

Not on her watch. Not anymore.

She'd given an hour. One hour for the report to reach her sister, and was hoping that she'd have called the pair of guards in to speak with them. The idea was to deal with her sister, and the guards, all in one full swoop. It'd taken two hours before the guards in question had gotten back from their patrol, another fifteen minutes to get the reports written. And it had only taken Midnight about thirty seconds to get them off of Cloud Skipper. In that time, it was possible that Septimus had moved from where he was, but Luna was confident, as was Midnight Blossom, she could find him again, no problem.

And so, confidence running high, she pushed the doors to the throne room open. She cut a mean figure, in her sleek dress, sterling silver bangles, matching necklace and shoes.

And her crown.

Whilst not nearly as ostentatious as her sister's massive golden crown, and was only inset with one gemstone, as opposed to her sister's three. The single Lapis Lazuli, chosen because of its resemblance to the night sky, embedded within the crown rested on her brow.

"Sister!" She demanded, striding into the almost empty room, much to the shock of the four ponies present. Gild's face screwed up in an annoyed sort of grimace. The two guards froze, before falling to one knee, and Celestia sighed, head in her hand.

"Luna, what is it? I'm in the middle of something here-"

"That involves me," Luna interrupted sternly, "And this time, you won't be talking over me."

Celestia's eyes narrowed and Gild sighed. The two guards didn't look up, though they did seem to be shaking.

"Princess, with all due respect," Gild said tiredly, "This is a Royal Guard's meeting, and your Night Guard are not here, so I cannot perceive why this has anything to do with you."

Luna huffed at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Simple. Your guard shot an arrow at Septimus, despite being told that he is to be taken alive."

Gild stiffened, Celestia grimaced, and the two guards had frozen by now, beyond even shaking in fear now.

"Dare I ask how you know this, Luna?" Celestia asked frostily. Luna held her head high.

"I have just as much right to guard reports as you do, Celestia. And I'm taking over this Operation. Your Royal Guard will no longer pursue Septimus. Instead, my Night Guard will take up the slack."

Celestia's face was slowly turning red, and Gild was looking a bit bewildered, both of which much to Luna's satisfaction. Then Gild spoke up.

"With all due respect," He began carefully, "Princess, the Night Guard are, technically, under my command as well."

"Not anymore, Commander," She said primly, "By my authority as Princess of Equestria, I'm relieving you of your duty of Night Guard Commander temporarily in lieu of your incompetence in command, and obvious lack of respect from your subordinates.

This made Gild's face burn, both in humiliation and indignation.

"P-princess!" He finally burst out, outraged, "This is inconceivable! It's not fair-"

"On the contrary," she replied smugly, "I'm well within my rights. Two attempts, and both times guards attempted to slay their target with lethal force rather than bring them in alive, as commanded. Pending an investigation into your methods, and the reason for the lack of respect, I'm relieving you of command. However!"

She held a finger up imperiously, with a venomously glare at her sister this time.

"Given that I only have true control over my Night Guard's employees, I can only exempt you from command of my ponies, and not my sister's. However, that works for me, given I don't want anything to do with my sister's incompetent and overly violent guards anyway."

The red faced Gild spluttered, grasping desperately at something to say. Finding nothing, he looked to his superior.

"Princess-"

"You're dismissed, Gild."

Gild froze solid, and Luna's eyes widened. It was Celestia, head in hand, who said it. Gild spluttered again before speaking.

"Celestia it's not-"

"She's not lying Gild," Celestia said darkly, turning her burning gaze upon him, "She's well within her authority as a Princess of Equestria. Now-"

"But Princess-"

"ENOUGH!" Celestia commanded, standing from her throne and glaring at him, wings half spread threateningly, "I told you you were dismissed! Now leave me to my sister Captain, or I will relieve you of your position!"

Gild stared at her, then nodded stiffly.

"Your majesty," He answered, just as stiffly as he'd nodded, and he left the throne room, the doors slamming behind him. Celestia looked down at her sister, who simply glared right back defiantly.

"I was under the impression that those specific reports were unavailable to you, Luna. How did you get them?"

"I have my ways, Celestia," Luna answered coldly, "They may not be as obvious as yours, but they work just as well, if not better. And I shall prove it."

"Oh, do tell," Celestia's eyes narrowed at her sister, "How will you do that?"

Luna smirked, confidence radiating off of her like heat from the sun, or light from the moon as it were.

"By tomorrow night," She began smugly, "Not only will I have found Septimus, but I will have him here, and under my jurisdiction."

"Yours sister?" came Celestia's reply, "I have already stated upon his fate, you would seek to undermine me?"

"Undermine authority you don't have?" Luna shot back, "The Thestral, as a race, worship me and my moon as a goddess. You could go to Screech, Shriek, or any of the other settlements and ask them for respect, but I doubt you'd find they obeyed your commands. As for your premature judgement..."

Luna shrugged, lifting her arms as she did so to horizontal position.

"Your ponies had their chance, now it's mine. As a Princess of Equestria, and thus equal with you, I have the authority, and will use said authority, to change laws you have in place, and to render judgement as I see fit. In short, sister," Luna flourished theatrically, "Anything you can do, I can do too."

Silence. Through the throne room, there was absolutely no sound. Eventually however, Celestia sighed.

"Alright then, sister. You win," She said softly, "You have your day, and you have direct command over your guard. Don't disappoint."

Luna huffed, delighted it'd gone so smoothly, but suspicious of why it was so easy to begin with, "Don't be absurd. I will not fail and nor will my Thestrals."

With nose in the air, Luna spun around on her heel, and began walking out. As she was doing so, however, Celestia called to her.

"Luna. What're you wearing on your head?"

Luna paused, and called back, "My Crown, sister. I have every right to."

There was a pause.

"It's a bit small for a crown, Luna."

"Better than your ostentatious monstrosity, sister," Luna shot back icily, and left without another word. Celestia smiled as she left.

~*~

Luna was flanked as she walked down the hall, on one side by a male thestral guard, who didn't speak, and on the other by Midnight Blossom, who was walking much less disciplined.

"So, how'd it go?" She asked casually. Luna harrumphed irritably.

"It could have gone better," She admitted, "But I have my time. So you have your job."

"Fetch the errant boyfriend, got it."

"I told you," Luna replied irritably, "Never to call him that again."

Midnight merely smirked, but once she tried to reply, she found that she couldn't. Her eyes went wide and she looked at Luna. The princess was looking at her hand, which was cupped around a bright golden glow.

"You speak of him so crudely and disrespect me or him again, and I'll see to it you never get this back, understand?"

Midnight nodded emphatically. She had an unusually casual relationship with the moonlight princess of Equestria, but when Luna issued a threat, you damn well listened to it, because she didn't make idle threats. Luna sniffed, and flicked the golden light back at the guard, who stopped as the light tore back into her throat. Luna kept walking, but the other guard stopped with her and smirked at Midnight.

"Shutup," She grumbled painfully with her returned voice. He merely burst out laughing and walked onwards. Midnight was not looking forward to this.

Comments

[Moongaze14]

Like the chapter.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Yea Luna grew some balls!

[Primrose]

This is good. Wish it updated more, but I understand you have other engagements.

[BrotallySwagical]

Guh. Too bad this story is on hiatus. Oh well

[The Metallic Dash]

Good job luna