Chapter 7
Sharing the Night: Chapter 7
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It was a troubled Luna who found herself stomping about on a moonlit cloud, once more above the Everfree forest. She didn’t mean to keep returning to this place, but the way the hole just blended into the magic of the rest of the sky seemed to draw her back again and again.
Her head was in a similar state, constantly gravitating back to the same subject. She was sprawled out on the cloud, breathing heavily from flying all night, but no amount of exertion could pull her mind away from those few sentences she’d spoken with her sister.
In Luna’s defense, Celestia had been talking about politics, so she had barely been paying attention. That had changed quickly, and words were exchanged—if you could call them words. Mainly, Luna had made a series of strangled sounds while Celestia simply sat there, sipped her tea and made calm, one and two-word responses.
Eventually, Luna had fumed at her sister long enough that she couldn’t take it any more, and stomped out of the room with a wordless cry of incredulity. Even now, Luna still hadn’t quite recovered from the affront, though if it was any consolation, Celestia’s tea set never would.
Luna hated it when her sister meddled. Celestia was excellent at being sneaky and underhooved, but she never actually was when it came to Luna—she only pretended to be. Outright lies between siblings with immortal life spans had a way of coming back to bite you eventually, after all.
Yes, Luna knew exactly what her sister was doing, but when it came right down to it, that was the problem. Like that night when the stars had cried themselves to sleep with only her moon for comfort, there was a part of Luna that wanted nothing more than to be forced to do the right thing. Celestia couldn’t actually force her out of Canterlot, but Luna would go, nonetheless. They both knew that.
It was a harder pill to swallow than most, however. A whole mess of different emotions warred in her mind. The loss of the stars fought with more than a year’s worth of admiring the element of magic. Her frustration with Canterlot waged war with the idea of moving to yet another strange new place. Her irritation at her sister for telling her what to do clashed with aggravation at herself for needing to be told.
Luna stamped on the cloud with her front hooves. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were, with only her dark past to worry about. No inexplicable alicornifications, no reason to hate the element of magic, and no stupid hole in the ground that she kept coming back to for no good reason.
Unable to lie still, she stood up on the cloud and looked down at the smooth, cleared area below. Bristling with bottled-up frustration, she gathered up a measure of moonlight and flooded the clearing with it, trying to wipe away the stellar magic that filtered through the trees like a sparkling wind.
The clearing glowed with magical moonlight, but other than that, it did nothing. Her limpid light was no match for the lingering magic. Luna frowned. Whatever had happened here, it must have been truly incredible. Not to be defeated by mere lingering magic, Luna gathered up even more light, and brought it down harder than before.
The barren rock sizzled and smoked with moonlight, emanating a cool magical glow even as Luna surveyed her work, but it was all for naught. Truly, it was as if the sky itself had set hoof in the middle of the forest, and wouldn’t be banished by mere half measures.
Luna had never stopped at half measures.
Gritting her teeth and raising her horn, the princess of the moon took all the moonlight in the sky, pulled it into a single, wide moonbeam and poured it out into the vexing clearing before her with everything she had. Her grip on her manifest form slipped with the effort, and her eyes disappeared into pools of pearlescent white light.
To say that the effect was a bit more than anticipated would imply that she’d actually thought about what she was doing at all. No, it was exactly as one would have expected, considering her last attempt had left the rock smoking.
The moon went dark to the rest of the world as its magical light pierced the ground below the tormented princess of the night. The light burrowed clear down through the rock, on and on until all of its energy was spent. Luna’s chest heaved as she took deep, gasping breaths, and her eyes returned to their usual teal as she gazed upon the aftermath below. What had been a smooth impression in the ground was now a massive, gaping well rimmed with excess moonlight… and it still felt like the stars.
Spent and defeated, she collapsed back down onto the cloud with a sigh. Distaste and shame in her pointless outburst flooded Luna behind her returning common sense and dignity. Disgusted, she rolled over and looked up into the starry sky instead.
She lay there for a while, watching the slowly shifting stars, and to her surprise, felt a little better for it. They seemed to calm her down, somehow, as they always had. So long as she could forget that they had been hers, it was okay.
Maybe Ponyville wouldn’t be so bad, she thought. Even if she never forgave Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville was a moderately-sized town, and the alicorn of the stars was only one pony. If she could delude herself well enough to enjoy an entire sky, surely she could stomach one pony, right?
As she drifted along under the cold winter sky, her mind wandered to the other night, when she’d realized that she had no good memories of the old castle. Quietly floating there with the wind and stars as her only companions, she wondered if she had any of Canterlot either.
Meanwhile, in the depths below, something awoke.
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Twilight awoke with a sudden jolt to find herself in a cold sweat. She’d been having a dream about… well, she couldn’t remember exactly. All she could remember were teeth and hanging over a maw of teeth like just before the Ursa Major had swallowed her, but instead of just one tooth-lined maw, it was dozens—hundreds—thousands. It was a whole sea of teeth, enough to swallow the sky.
The uneasy feeling of danger lingered with her as her heart beat in the early morning silence. The feeling seemed to surround and encompass her, but mostly, it seemed to be coming from below. She stayed frozen in place, as if any movement would cause the floorboards of the library to open up beneath her, and the earth below would swallow her whole.
After a time, the feeling faded—as all dreams do—and Twilight let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Nightmares. Yes, clearly this was something she needed right now, terrifying, heart-racing nightmares. She peeled the sodden sheets off, tossed them aside and lay there letting the icy morning air cool off her coat.
At least she didn’t have to go far to figure out where this one had come from, she reflected. The looming loss of the library and the unknown future beyond had been cast in the form of the most frightening event of her recent life in a combination guaranteed to get under her skin.
Gotten under her skin it had. She rubbed her face with her hooves to wake herself up, then collapsed back down on the mattress. A glance out her window told her that dawn had broken just minutes ago. She usually remembered the process, even when it happened while she was asleep, but clearly her dreaming mind had had better things to pay attention to than celestial timekeeping. She felt a little guilty about always having to be reminded by the sun and moon trying to move without her, but she had more immediate things to worry about.
“The library,” she told the ceiling above her bed. “The library, the library, the library.” What was she going to do? How was she going to tell Spike? She pictured herself walking into the mayor’s office and demanding that she be allowed to keep the tree. Let them build a palace for the books instead; she didn’t need one.
It would work.
It always worked.
It would be hollow, though. What would be the point of living in a library nopony visited? Well—okay—the idea of having a private library all to herself was maybe sort of actually one of her fondest dreams, but that was irrelevant. Heck, they’d build her a bigger library if she asked. She could make them build the whole palace as a library. Clover-cached crenelations—Starswirl-stacked stairwells—the little filly in her perked up in greed at the idea of having a literal book fort.
It just wouldn’t be her home.
It would become her home eventually, of course. She hadn’t even been in this library for two whole years yet, after all. What was that to her? Hardly anything, really, even ignoring the whole thing where she was an immortal scion of the sky.
The library was more than a home, though. It was a defining part of her life. She didn’t just like having a library; she liked being a librarian. She felt pride in holding the position on her own merit. Sure, Princess Celestia may have arranged for it to begin with, but afterwards, Twilight had always paid for her residence with hard work and… and…
…and now she couldn’t. Nothing would change that. If she started her new life by making demands of the mayor, all she would get out of it was a tree.
It was a nice tree, though.
✶ ✶ ✶
Due to the change in hours, the mayor’s office didn’t open again until four in the afternoon, and Twilight waited until shortly before dusk to make her visit. Her day had been moderately uneventful, particularly due to having avoided the specific event of telling Spike she’d been fired. Better, she thought, to talk to the mayor first and find out what they could work out. As empty an act as it would be, she wanted to at least try to get the mayor to let her keep the library.
She had actually planned on waiting a bit longer, until after dusk at least, and probably a bit later than that to be certain that everypony else would be inside having dinner. Her nerves had gotten the better of her, though, and one moment completely indistinguishable from the next, she just grabbed the stack of alicorn residency forms from her desk and decided to get it over with.
Since it wasn’t yet dusk, she was going to have to hoof it. She technically could have used her normal teleportation spell, but in this case she wanted to be able to see where she was going. Blindly teleporting into a group of ponies just wasn’t something she wanted to risk right now—not that it was dangerous or anything, just, you know, awkward.
The streets were not as clear as she would have liked, but they had at least fallen below that critical mass that caused everypony to just stop, stare and bow as she walked past. Instead, they merely kept their distance and ducked down side streets or into other ponies’ houses while acting as if they were absolutely going to do so all along and had simply forgot where they were going for a moment.
She made it to Town Hall without incident and quickly ducked inside, stopping only for a moment to wonder if it would technically be City Hall after she signed these papers. Regardless, she was in such a hurry that she simply barged into the mayor’s office without knocking. She was surprised to find that Mayor Mare already had company.
There was a midnight blue alicorn standing there, hunched over the mayor’s desk, signing a stack of papers which looked strangely familiar.
☾ ☾ ☾
Luna heard the door open behind her, but ignored the interruption as she finished making the final touches to her overly long, title-bloated signature. Once she was satisfied that she had committed herself to this venture with suitable aplomb, she turned to see who the intruder was, and froze. Standing in the doorway was a frightened-looking alicorn. Moments later, two nearly identical stacks of papers fell out of the air and spilled across the floor.
Luna was quite at a loss for how to respond. She had known that she would have to face the element of magic eventually, but being that she was an immortal alicorn, she was quite good at imagining ‘eventually’ to be a very long time—or at least until after dinner, in any case.
Twilight’s wide, fearful eyes looked like she was ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. It was a look that Luna was used to seeing on most ponies she met, but she had never seen it on Twilight Sparkle. Not even when Twilight had been trying to hide her alicornification from the princesses had she looked quite so desperately afraid.
Rather than any of the great mix of emotions she would have expected to have upon meeting the alicorn who now embodied the stars, the only thing Luna felt when she looked down at the timorous Twilight Sparkle before her was… sadness, and a sense that she had lost something important.
For all that she was angry with Twilight, the alicorn of the stars—and she was, she had to tell herself—being angry with Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic, was far more difficult.
Twilight was the one pony who had believed in her, even when she hadn’t believed in herself. Twilight was the one pony who Luna looked up to, despite the disastrous mistakes she had made in her life—because of them, in fact. Twilight was the one pony since her return—the only pony alive—who she had briefly thought of as a friend.
Now, that pony was terrified of her. The thought twisted her up inside and she felt… ashamed that it had come to this. Silence filled the mayor’s office as the two alicorns dumbfoundedly stared at each other. The mayor, too, stayed silent, not privy to the details of the situation, but quite able to read the mood.
It was Luna who eventually marshalled the nerve to break the silence, if only to say, “Leave, please.”
Twilight made a noise like a strangled mouse and stumbled backwards, but Luna took the smaller alicorn in her magic and levitated her back into the room. “Mayor, please,” Luna abashedly corrected, with a nod of her horn to the door. The mayor didn’t need to be told twice and wasted no time on her way out. The door shut behind her with a click, and the silence returned, more awkward than ever.
Along with the silence, however, came the growing bitterness she had come to expect. It was the first time she’d seen the younger alicorn with her starry mane, and with the shock gone, the reminder of what Luna had lost began to take over.
It was just too much. Unlike the stars in the sky, she couldn't pretend that the alicorn’s starry mane wasn't a symbol of something that was—had been—hers. Not wanting to make matters worse, Luna turned away from the source of her discomfort, trying to separate Twilight Sparkle the alicorn from Twilight Sparkle the friend.
She opened her mouth to say something, but she was at a loss for what to say. She was tempted to simply move on to business and explain that she would be moving to Ponyville for the foreseeable future, but her memory of those terrified eyes in the doorway stopped her. She swallowed, trying to keep her heart out of her throat.
The silence in the wake of Luna’s aborted sentence stretched on, until finally, it was Twilight Sparkle who actually spoke. Her voice was tiny, her eyes downcast. In that moment she made Fluttershy seem like Rainbow Dash, but there was a hint of determination in her words, too. “Please,” she whispered in a voice so quiet it sounded raspy. “Please, don’t hate me.”
Luna was suddenly glad she wasn't looking at Twilight. Seeing the element of magic in such a state would be too much to bear. “Of course I don’t hate you,” she wanted to say. The words were so automatic that she almost spoke them aloud.
Her ability to say them truthfully was a different matter, however. She desperately wanted to be able to do so, she found. More than anything, she wanted to go back to the way things were before.
She was sad and hurt from losing the stars, yes. Twilight had only made it worse when she’d tried to cheer Luna up, yes. What was stopping her, though? What was really stopping her?
There were things in this new age which she had no control over, she remembered thinking as she stood across from a window that had eventually been the instrument of her freedom. This was not one of those things. This was a cage of her own devise—one she could ill afford.
Could it really be so easy?
As easy as stepping up to a window and daring to look outside?
What did she have to lose?
Craning her neck back over her shoulder towards Twilight Sparkle, Luna took a deep breath, swallowed and opened her eyes.
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Twilight watched Luna turn, revealing a face tight and wary. Twilight met it with her own sad, but hopeful, expression. She dared to hope that this would be it. She dared to hope that the princess would forgive her.
Her hope didn’t last. She watched the light in Luna’s eyes die as a scowl found its way to her lips and the princess of the night once again turned away.
That was it, then. Twilight dropped her head and mirrored the motion in defeat. Unlike the princess, she had the benefit of a door behind her. She figured she might as well use it. Taking one last, sad look over her shoulder, she saw only the princess’ back and the white of the moon in her mane. The message was clear. Twilight was beyond forgiveness. Without a word, she made to leave the mayor’s office. Her hoof was inches away from the door when a voice just as unsteady as Twilight’s had been stopped her.
“Hold, please,” the princess pleaded. “Do not go.”
Twilight stopped, but didn’t turn. She couldn’t get her hopes up again. “I know when I’m not wanted.”
“No, thou dost not,” Luna stated.
Twilight dared to look back once more, but moon was still all she saw.
“I do not hate thee, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna insisted emphatically, her voice scratchy. “That is my decision,” she continued, but then her voice turned weak and timid, “but understand that I am also hurt.”
Twilight didn’t dare say anything to interrupt the princess and ruin the moment, only turning to look at her and listen to Luna properly as she spoke.
“Thou art blameless. I know this, but I have blamed thee just the same. I have not been kind to thee in my thoughts, and mine actions have been… similar. I wish that I could congratulate thee honestly, yet I have lost things most dear to me, and thou hast gained them. It is not a thing which I can simply pretend does not hurt.”
Twilight slowly sat as Luna talked, guiltily looking out the corner of her eye at the bit of her starry mane that rested on her shoulder. She could hear in the princess’ voice how hard it was to admit what she was saying, and Twilight was touched. At the same time, however, it was the death knell of any hope she had of real reconciliation.
With hope well and truly dead, the implications of the situation filled Twilight’s mind, and concern tightened her brow. “But, those forms…” she said, looking down at the mess on the floor. If things with Luna were this bad, alicorn residency forms were the last thing the two of them should be signing.
Luna was silent for a time, and Twilight had begun to regret asking, when the princess finally responded with distant wistfulness and a sniffle that Twilight had heard before. “I have some experience with hate and jealousy,” she bitterly reminded Twilight. There was another long pause, and Twilight almost said something before Luna continued. “In yon fair Canterlot, I have nothing to look forward to but more days of wallowing in mine own misery. It solves nothing. I wish… I wished to do better.”
Twilight stared at the princess’ back. “You came… because of me?” she asked in disbelief.
“It is… why I allowed Celestia to send me here,” Luna answered cryptically.
Twilight continued inspecting the papers that littered the floor. “You’re really moving here, then?”
Luna hesitated once again. “I have signed the papers,” she answered coldly.
That… hurt. The princess probably hadn’t meant to be cruel, but it hurt just the same. It was an admittance of defeat and a declaration of regret.
Well, why shouldn't Luna give up? Luna had given it her all and still couldn’t so much as look at Twilight. What had Twilight done to try to make this work? What had she given, besides one meek little “Please don’t hate me?”
No, there was something she could do. There was something she could give. There had to still be a chance, she just hoped it was enough.
Bracing herself, she reached deep into her magic and pulled.
☾ ☾ ☾
Luna was regretting the terseness of her response when she heard Twilight gasp—not a sniffle or whine as one might expect after such a spiteful comment, but a sound like a stifled cry of pain. Unthinking, Luna quickly turned to see what had happened and was struck dumb by the sight.
There were tears streaming down Twilight’s cheeks, and she seemed somehow… diminished. She was seated on her rump, timidly holding something in two shaking forehooves.
A tiny star small enough to fit in the hollow of one hoof shone bright enough to cast the room into sharp relief.
“W-where didst thou get that?” Luna balked. It was not yet dusk; there was only one place it could have come from. No—wait—why would that matter? She didn’t know, but the wan look in the younger alicorn’s eyes told her it did.
“Take it,” Twilight insisted.
Greed drew Luna’s hoof forward. It was wrong, she told herself, but her hoof didn’t stop. She made it stop. “I… I cannot. Twilight, do not offer me this.”
The young alicorn had already made up her mind, however. She lurched upright and shouted “Take it!” as she shoved the star into Luna’s grasp with both forehooves, then stumbled back and fell.
Luna panicked, juggling the star from one hoof to the other like a hot potato as she watched Twilight fall away. The element of magic hit the ground and fell still. “T-Twilight Sparkle!” she shouted in stark dread as she rushed to Twilight’s side. The star followed after her, gripped in her magic.
Twilight, for her part, was breathing heavily—but steadily—and smiling with her eyes closed. Luna was less composed. “What—how—why—” she stammered. “Why hast thou collapsed? What is wrong?”
Twilight just continued to lie there, pleased as punch. “I guess Princess Celestia didn’t tell you. I manifest… backwards from you. All of me is right here, in this room, in these stars. No offense, but it’s kind of lousy as immortalities go.”
Luna’s eyes widened and she looked up at the star that was floating above her head, then back down at Twilight, distraught.
“Thanks for not trying to give it back again,” she teased with a knowing smirk causing a sharp twinge of guilt in Luna. “I’ll be fine. I have… hundreds more on hoof,” she explained, interrupted intermittently by heavy breaths. “They’re just—um—smaller than that one. I didn’t expect taking it out of me to… take quite so much out of me.” The weakened alicorn gave a thready giggle at the play on words.
Luna was starting to get annoyed at the younger alicorn’s dismissal of the gravity of what she’d done. “Twilight Sparkle, what in all of Equestria made thee think that this was a good idea?”
“I don’t know,” she said simply. Her breathing had calmed, which was only more infuriating as she lay there still as the dead, not even looking at Luna. “I just… wanted to do something. I know it’s only one star, but I can give you more. I have plenty. I even found some spares the other night. Did you know that? A whole mess of stars just sitting around in a cave, minding their own business, trying to eat me.”
Luna had no idea what to say to that. “I think thou art delirious, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight just smiled smugly. “I think the fact that you still haven’t given it back means I made the right choice.”
Luna shrunk inwardly at the accusation… but did not prove Twilight wrong, either. The star floated above Luna in her magic as if it were judging her.
“Relax, princess. Dusk is in, like, a half an hour, tops. I would offer you Polaris, but I’m afraid I’ve quite lost track of it.” Twilight giggled. “Did you know the stars move, now?” she added as an afterthought.
Luna’s ears perked up. Dusk! Of course! They just had to wait for dusk, and everything would be fine. Concern furrowed her brow, however. A half an hour was a long time. Looking down at the still body of Twilight Sparkle, she wondered if that would be soon enough.
Buck it, she wasn’t going to wait a whole half-hour. Dusk would just have to happen right now! Luna lit her horn and let her presence recede back to the moon from whence it came. With a great effort, she pushed the moon along its course.
Nothing happened.
Of all the times for Celestia to begrudge her an extra half an hour. Luna gave another push, grunting with exertion. “Move your fiery flank, you fat cow!” she shouted aloud to the mayor’s office, but it was no use.
With a sigh of defeat, Luna settled fully back down into her manifest body. Twilight was staring at Luna as if the alicorn of the moon had just sprouted a second horn.
“Ah—umm,” she balked, blushing sheepishly and averting her gaze. “Yes, it is as you said. Dusk will be along shortly.”
The awkwardness from earlier was threatening to return, when there was a grunt from Twilight, and Luna looked over to find her attempting to sit up. Luna rushed to help her, and they succeeded with only a mild increase in Twilight’s breathing, though she wobbled a bit as Luna let her go.
The younger alicorn smiled weakly. “There, see? I told you I’m fine,” she insisted once again, still looking inordinately proud of herself. “In fact…”
Luna was mollified by seeing Twilight moving about again, but shifted to being concerned again as the younger alicorn’s horn began to glow. Having no idea what Twilight was doing, Luna gave a start when the star she’d been given was plucked from the grasp of her magic only to be set back in her hooves.
Luna took the star with slightly more grace this time but still resorted to fiddling with it between her hooves nervously as the glow of Twilight’s magic faded. It was a gift carelessly given and guiltily kept, and yet… the foolishness of the act was what made it special.
“There is no way that this can possibly be a good idea,” Luna muttered quietly, her eyes focused on the star.
“I’m glad you like it,” the alicorn of now one less star responded.
Twilight’s contradictory response earned her a flummoxed look from Luna, but that much was an improvement. Clutching the tiny star to her chest, she found that looking at Twilight Sparkle—the alicorn Twilight Sparkle—hurt a little less. Her lips curled up into a smile—a sad smile, but still a smile—and she gave a little laugh at the ridiculousness of the response. Yes. She did like it.
No matter whether or not it would give her more trouble down the road, the ice, at least, had been broken. That alone was worth the potential heartache.
☾ ☾ ☾
With some time to go before the two alicorns brought out the night and Twilight could replace the star she’d given up, Luna had taken it upon herself to clean up the mess of papers that had been spilled across the floor of the mayor’s office. Said mayor was then retrieved from an epic adventure she was having with the break room coffee pot, and its bounty shared. The papers were indeed two sets of identical forms, and the coffee was a far cry from the ambrosial drink Luna had been introduced to in Canterlot.
While the mayor was busy pointedly ignoring the star in the room, Luna cleared her throat and explained the situation properly to Twilight, who had been propped up in a chair off to the side of the mayor’s desk so that she could see both ponies without straining herself. “Your mayor has offered Us—” Luna paused and furrowed her brow at the ambiguity of the royal ‘Us.’ “Me—” she corrected, then changed her mind once again, “Us—the site of this building for our palace. We—I—think it will be suitable.”
“Us?” Twilight asked hesitantly. “Us us? You want us to… live together?”
“The available space is small, I admit,” Luna nodded, avoiding the question nervously. She would make it work, and that was enough. She continued on with forced pride, trying to distract Twilight with tales of what was to come. “But it is my understanding that pony architecture has come a long way since I was imprisoned. A glorious tower as tall as the summit of Mount Canterlot shall be the perfect way to begin this new city, I think.”
The mayor gave a polite cough, to get the princess’ attention. “Yes—well—I’m not sure we can build anything quite that tall yet, but—”
“What?” Luna recoiled in shock. She glanced at Twilight out of the corner of her eye, worried that she would see disappointment. Fiddling with the star in her hooves, she turned back to the mayor. “But I had thought—”
“I assure you, princess, it will be quite respectable,” the mayor reassured her. “An unequalled marvel of pony engineering, I promise. Just… not a mountain.”
Luna deflated at the news, but Twilight actually gave a cute, little giggle. The sound of happiness from the weakened mare assuaged some of her worries. Luna wasn’t sure quite where the two of them stood in regards to each other, so she wanted to avoid anything upsetting Twilight.
“We also may be able to reclaim the closest blocks of property over time in order to expand the palace grounds as the new city planning ordinances push out old residents. We’ve already lost the chance to scoop up a number of them that have been sold already, but outside buyers aren’t likely to be very attached to them,” the mayor explained, then looked askance. “Except…”
“Push out old residents?” Twilight frowned with concern.
“Yes, the new planning ordinances will require much more regal architecture to match the palace, like in Canterlot. We can’t force anypony to change their homes, but any new work must be done to the new code and existing residents may not be up to the, ah, costs involved.”
“You needn’t worry about thy fellow townsfolk,” Luna volunteered, trying to reassure Twilight while casually handling a star like a desk toy and pretending everything was normal. “It is my understanding that they will do quite well for themselves.”
The mayor nodded in confirmation. “That’s sort of the problem. You see, several properties changed hooves shortly before all of this happened, and not to an outside buyer.” The mayor looked at Twilight meaningfully for a moment before the younger alicorn facehooved with a sigh.
Luna was quite confused. “Prithee tell what thou speakest of, I seem to have missed something.”
Both Twilight and the mayor said one name in unison. “Rarity.”
“The element of generosity?” Luna asked with bewilderment in her voice, causing Twilight to wince at the reminder of her friend’s status in such a situation. Luna had read all of Twilight’s friendship reports, but never actually had a chance to meet the mare properly, as she had been absent on Nightmare Night. “I recall she is a seamstress, is she not?”
The mayor just nodded solemnly, not denying it, but giving the impression that it was more serious than that. “Rarity is the best there is at what she does,” the mayor explained, “but what she does best isn’t very—”
“Sewing,” Twilight suddenly interrupted energetically, in spite of her condition. “What she does best isn’t just sewing. She’s also an—um—aspiring landowner, apparently,” Twilight hastily clarified. Nopony seemed to want to elaborate more, and the silence stretched on awkwardly.
“I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” the mayor finally declared, with Twilight nodding in agreement a little too vigorously in her own right.
Luna was completely lost, but she let the subject slide, as she was certain she was misreading the subtext and didn’t want to sound foolish. Surely there was nothing to be concerned about with the element of generosity involved.
The three of them discussed several more issues regarding the potential palace as the clock ticked onwards towards dusk. Eventually, the mayor seemed to think they had covered everything important, and said as much. “If everything sounds satisfactory, I can take your papers now, Twilight.”
Twilight blinked, looking hesitantly down at the stack of papers on the mayor’s desk, awaiting her signature. “Oh, I… umm…” she stalled awkwardly.
Luna frowned as her worries over the tenuous peace they had formed came back to her. “Were we being too presumptuous?”
Twilight’s response was less than encouraging. “Ah, no. Nope. Nothing to add. Sharing a castle… tower… palace thing with you will be—um—perfect, princess.” Twilight quickly signed the stack of papers while wearing one of the biggest, fakest smiles that Luna had ever seen.
For good or for ill, Twilight seemed to have made her decision, and Luna’s concern was swept away by the time. “If that is all, mayor, please excuse us once again. Dusk approaches, and we would like some privacy while we perform our duties.”
The mayor’s eyes darted quickly to the window to see that it was indeed very nearly sunset. It was the look of someone who wasn’t used to being at work so late, and therefore it was a look which Luna was naturally familiar with. “Ah, of course, princess. I’ll just take this paperwork to be processed.” The mayor’s office door quietly clacked shut, and Luna took a breath, basking in the quiet.
In fact, it was so quiet that she briefly forgot that Twilight was in the room with her. Luna gave a start when she remembered the younger alicorn’s situation. Twilight was fine, though, and seemed to be enjoying the quiet as well, so Luna simply sat and said nothing, holding the star she’d been given as dusk approached.
At nearly the same exact moment, both of the alicorns’ horns lit with magic, and day flowed into night.
As soon as the deed was done, Luna slipped back down into her manifest body and looked hopefully over at Twilight. The alicorn of the stars seemed to brighten, the color returning to her coat as she was renewed from the state she had put herself in for the lunar princess’ sake. Her breathing quickened as well, no longer drawn out in torpid stillness.
As Luna watched, however, Twilight’s breathing quickly outstripped normal and her eyes shot open in stark terror, still black as the night. Luna quickly bolted up, reaching a hoof to calm the younger alicorn, but Twilight was faster still. The alicorn of the stars jerked away, her blank eyes never leaving the floor of the mayor’s office as she danced around on it as if it were made of lava—an ubiquitous children’s game which had been much more literal growing up during Discord’s reign.
Twilight wasn't playing around, however. The suddenly skittish mare leapt up onto one of the room’s finely upholstered chairs, then onto the mayor’s desk. “Twilight! What—” was all Luna got out before there was an explosive paff of stardust, leaving behind a spilled coffee mug of pens, a spilled coffee mug of coffee, several hoofprints that would make the desk a priceless historical artifact in a hundred years and a completely bewildered princess.
✶ ✶ ✶
Equestria wanted to eat her.
Things had been going well. Twilight had been the happiest she’d been since she’d become an alicorn. She had felt that she had finally done something right, even if—as the princess had said—it was a terrible idea. Unfortunately, it was all inconsequential next to the fact that Equestria wanted to eat her.
It was her dream from that morning all over again, only it wasn’t a dream and it hadn’t been a dream. There was no escaping it. No matter where in the sky she looked from, even with a whole sky of stars behind her, Equestria wanted to eat her.
Most ponies have no sense at all of the sheer size of the world they live on, for the simple fact that they cannot see it all at once. At sea level, a pony can only see for about two miles to the horizon; if they stand up on their roofs, they might see as far as five to eight miles. In Canterlot, they would be able to see for ten times that distance, but it would still be less than one one hundredth of a percent of the surface of the world.
Twilight, on the other hoof, was in the unique position of being able to see all of Equestria at once.
It was tremendously, colossally, impossibly large…
…and it all wanted to eat her.
☾ ☾ ☾
“Tiaaaaaaaa～” Luna shouted in panic as she slammed her hooves into the doors of Celestia’s chambers in Canterlot, throwing them open.
Celestia looked up from a scroll she was reading on her bed. “Yes, Luna?” Celestia calmly asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Ponyville?”
Luna was less calm. “Yes! I was with Twilight Sparkle when—” she had started to say, when Celestia jumped to her hooves, aghast.
“Luna!” Celestia shouted in sudden anger as she stomped towards her younger sister. “I cannot believe you!” she shouted furiously, yanking the star Twilight had given Luna from the grasp of her magic. Luna tried to quickly snatch it back with her magic, but Celestia wasn’t budging.
“You give that back!” Luna screeched in distress as she pulled harder. Thankfully, it was night, and she had the advantage. Celestia’s magic reluctantly relinquished the star, and Luna gripped it in her hooves covetously. “How dare thee! This is not yours to take!”
“It’s not yours either!” Celestia snapped harshly.
“It is!” Luna shouted back defensively. “S-she gave it to me,” the lunar princess insisted with less confidence as tears welled up in her eyes. She knew she didn’t deserve it—shouldn’t have accepted it—but she wouldn’t let it go, either.
Celestia stopped to look at Luna for a moment, and Luna could feel her older sister judging her. Finally, the elder alicorn gave a sigh and fell back onto her rump in acceptance. “Oh, Twilight…” She shook her head sadly.
Luna slowly let up her guard as her sister seemed to calm down. Celestia’s gaze found its way back to Luna once again, now full of equal parts remorse and pity. “I’m… sorry, Lulu,” Celestia apologized, “but she shouldn’t have—”
“I know,” Luna interrupted dejectedly. “I know. I told her as much.”
They shared a moment of silent acceptance before Luna remembered why she’d come. “Tia!” she shouted. “Twilight, she—” Luna paused as she tried to figure out how to explain Twilight’s behavior.
Twilight’s name spoken with such distress had got Celestia’s attention, however. “What? What happened?” she demanded.
“I—I don’t know!” Luna insisted. “We had just begun the night, when she—” Luna was about to explain when suddenly every star in the sky winked out. “That!” she shouted, pointing out the window.
Celestia looked out her window at the suddenly black sky with alarm, then back at Luna. There was only one place the stars could have gone, and only one of the two sisters could be there right now. It only took a moment for Celestia to disappear without a word, following after the stars.
With that, Luna was alone, the only alicorn left in the world. She stared up at the huge, empty sky for a while before placing the star she’d been given up next to her moon, adjusting it just so until it was perfect.
It wasn’t enough to fill the sky, but somehow, she felt a little less lonely for doing so.
☼ ☼ ☼
It had been a very long time since Celestia had manifested a body in the Umbra. There had never been much point, as by definition she had never shared the space with anypony else.
Until tonight.
Normally, for Celestia, the Umbra was a great sky-blue expanse with the sun burning brightly as the only landmark. She feared that the sun’s brightness would drown out the stars, and that she would have difficulty finding them; she couldn’t have been more wrong.
The stars burned brighter than they ever had before, bright, hazy shapes like miniature suns dotting the blue expanse.
“Twilight?” Celestia hesitantly called out, but there was no answer. “Twilight!” she called out again, much louder this time and full of hope, but the response was the same.
If only the stars had ears.
☾ ☾ ☾
Luna was at a loss as to what to do. She couldn’t very well follow Twilight and her sister into the Umbra while the sun was there. In fact, she had no idea how Twilight could do it. Were the stars truly that different? She scoffed at the idea. They were—had been—her stars for on the order of two thousand years; she knew how they worked… didn’t she?
Then again, she also thought she knew how Twilight worked from the dozens of friendship reports she’d read, but the Twilight she’d seen earlier had been a far cry from what she knew. Now that she had a chance to look back, it began to worry her. She’d been blinded by the turmoil of their unexpected meeting at the time, but in hindsight it was clear that something was really wrong.
“I guess Princess Celestia didn’t tell you,” Twilight had teased Luna in her delirium about her apparent odd relationship with the stars. Remembering the look of terror on Twilight’s face just before she disappeared, Luna wondered just how much Celestia hadn’t told her—and if she would have listened if she had.
As she had expected, though, there had been no friendship letter about the night when the stars had cried themselves to sleep. There hadn’t been one for any night since Twilight had become an alicorn. Luna had been—quite ironically—left in the dark.
She frowned. Just what in Equestria had been going on while she’d been wallowing on her own? Suddenly, Celestia’s words from the day after Twilight had left Canterlot came back to haunt her, and her face fell. It couldn’t be…
“You just didn’t expect her to hurt you,” Celestia had rightfully guessed at the time, but now it seemed that Luna’s naïveté had been twofold. In the light of the rogue thought, Twilight’s fear and desperation seemed to make much more sense. Luna had been so preoccupied with her own problems that she hadn’t even considered that the situation might go both ways. Luna hadn’t expected to hurt her.
Had she? Hadn’t she? Of course she had! She’d been hurt and had lashed out at Twilight. She’d wanted to hurt her as she’d been hurt. She’d been selfish, hurtful and ignorant, everything she’d accused the element of magic of being. Was it any wonder Twilight was a wreck? Was it any wonder that Twilight had been so desperate for approval that she’d given up a piece of herself? –and Luna had taken it. She’d held forgiveness out of reach until the younger alicorn coughed up a star for her.
This was all her fault.
What had she done?
✶ ✶ ✶
It took a moment for Twilight to realize where she was. Her only thought had been to get away from Equestria, so of course she’d ended up back in the Umbra where her stars had just come from. The Umbra, however, was occupied, and not by the silent, peaceful moon sitting quietly in a welcoming black expanse.
She had no attention to spare for the sun, however. Her eyes—as much as she had eyes—were peeled not in the direction of the sun, but at the corner of the twist in space around which Equestria waited. It was a thing which wanted to eat her, after all. She would be remiss to turn her back on it.
As is the way of celestial bodies, time stretched on as she held a breath she didn’t actually have. Over an hour passed as she waited, as if afraid that Equestria would follow her into the Umbra, but it did no such thing. Eventually, her curiosity grew as large as her fear, and—emboldened by experience and possibly a bit of mania—she dipped a few stars back into the night to peek at the terrifying beast that was the world she had lived on all her life.
It was like dipping your hoof into a pool to test the temperature, only to find that the water had been replaced with bees. You immediately think ‘Oh dear Celestia—bees!’ but at the same time, you don’t dare yank your hoof back for fear of disturbing them. Then, they start crawling up your hoof, but they’re just being nice, so you give a little awkward laugh of pure terror as goosebumps run up your arm and you stare in morbid fascination, all the while thinking ‘bees bees bees’ as you slowly pull your hoof back and the bees slowly leave your hoof, dropping in clumps or flying off to who knows where, until you can finally clutch your hoof to your chest—bee free—and assure yourself that the experience is over. You catch your breath and calm down. Then, anxiously, you do it again, with a little less terror and a little more fascination the next time.
It was like that, but in Twilight’s mind, the bees were teeth, and the pool was a starbeast’s maw the size of Equestria. Twilight clutched her stars protectively in her other stars until she calmed down enough to assure herself that everything was okay. Everything was okay. There was nothing to fear but fear itself—also, Equestria, apparently, but that was okay, she could handle that. Mind-numbing terror was just… a thing. She was good at handling things.
She did it again.
☾ ☾ ☾
Every once in a while, Luna thought she caught the glimmer of a star in the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look, it was gone. The sky was still starless as she found herself on the palace roof above her chambers, which was worrying. Dinner had taken quite some time and left Luna feeling certifiably awful, though it was no fault of the food. Dinner had been mushroom stew, but the only stew she’d had any mind for was stewing in her own guilt. In the end, she’d sent it away half-eaten, wishing emotions were as easily dealt with.
She hadn’t come up to this spot since she’d yelled Twilight off of it. She supposed it was an appropriate place to sit and think as she waited helplessly for… something. Celestia wouldn’t be back until dawn, of course, but Twilight should have been. It was odd to realize that she had gotten so used to Twilight’s stars that she missed them now in their own right.
She found herself automatically telling herself that it wasn’t Twilight’s stars she missed—that anything was better than this cold, empty night—but it was stupid. It was as stupid as making herself get forced to do what she really wanted to do. Couldn’t she just admit that Twilight’s stars were nice? Was that so hard? Did she have to unconsciously sabotage every thought she had about her?
The cold winter night had no answers for her, only more questions.
What could be keeping Twilight? What could have sent her beyond the horizon in such fear? More than anything, she needed to know. She needed to know what was wrong with Twilight. She needed to know how much of it could be laid at her hooves.
There was clearly more going on than aftermath of the… ‘argument’ she’d had with Twilight, she was sure, but that did not absolve her of her guilt any more than one was guiltless for kicking a pony when they were down—or felling them so they could be kicked, as the case may be.
Guilt.
Rather strangely for somepony who had once tried to plunge Equestria into eternal night, guilt wasn’t actually an emotion Luna had much experience with. For all the turmoil she’d caused by giving into her hate and jealousy, she’d been stopped, and now that she was restored, Celestia had only loving forgiveness for her. She’d never felt so personally responsible for another’s troubles.
Why should she? She was a princess! It was her lot in life to make decisions that affected many. It was her job to make the hard choices for the good of all. Guilt was a thing she’d forgotten long ago.
Hurting Twilight was hardly for the good of many, however—or any, for that matter. It was an act of pure, petty spite, which she now regretted.
Could she admit that to herself, now? Had she been cruel enough, gotten enough out of Twilight Sparkle that she could finally stop insisting that she hated her? It was a little late, she thought bitterly, but better late than never, right? She didn’t want to think about the possibility that it was too late, that the damage had been done.
Up in the empty sky, the moon hugged the single star cradled in its magic. In hindsight, the gift seemed all the more foolish and all the more special. It was a gift given freely by a mare who was at her lowest. One star to make up for the loss of billions.
Yes, she could admit that she’d forgiven Twilight Sparkle—if not at the behest of those sad, tearful eyes, then later, worrying over her in her fragile state. It was easy enough to like and hate someone at the same time, but it was much harder to hate and worry about them.
A colder, more pragmatic mare who wasn’t currently wracked with guilt might have asked herself if such forgiveness could really be bought with a star, but it wasn’t about the value of a star and it never had been; just as it had never been about the stars that she’d lost. Emotions were rarely as simple as that. Twilight Sparkle had done nothing that should have required forgiveness, but Luna needed to give it to her just the same.
If only she were here.
✶ ✶ ✶
There was a tingle in Twilight’s stars. It felt like fear, but she wasn’t afraid. She had taken that feeling and accepted it, embraced it. It couldn’t hurt her. She laughed as she rolled the feeling around between her stars, and the umbra filled with flashes of light that could no longer be called twinkling. It was bewitching how a feeling that had brought her such terror could be tamed and made to dance.
What was it, though? She still didn’t know. Was it a reaction to danger? Some sort of instinctual sense of self-preservation? Maybe it was a sort of magical empathy born of an alicorn-like connection to friendship. It sounded silly, but maybe not quite as silly as it should have. The specifics of her cutie mark were still a mystery, after all, and she was quite certain that her fear had a voice.
Not a real voice, of course. No, she wasn’t going crazy. It was a voice only insomuch as any celestial phenomenon mapped to bodily concepts. It spoke no words and formed no sentences; she simply knew that it was there and that it was anathema to her.
Whatever the feeling was, as she drew it in and examined it under the light of her stars, she recognized it. If it was fear, it was a very specific brand of fear. It was the fear she’d felt in the jaws of the Ursa Major, yes, but that wasn’t the only place she’d encountered it. There was one other, much smaller source that had come to vex her recently.
It wasn’t Luna. No, despite the lunar princess’ position as ex-owner of the stars, she wasn’t threatened by her in that way. Her fears and anxieties regarding the Lunar princess were all natural. No, instead she was thinking now of standing in front of Town Hall, with her heart seeming to seize up on her as a bitter old stallion yelled at her. Somehow, on some level, Star Glister was in the company of the greatest terrors in the world.
It was hardly much of a comparison of course, considering the other members of the club included the world itself. Still, it would have been interesting to look into if she didn’t have bigger fish to fry. Pisces, for example, because even as she accepted this fear into her, categorized it, bottled it and studied it, she knew—as the Ursa had known—that there would be no peace between her and its source.
There could be only one, and somehow, despite all sense, the entire world was her enemy. She was the underdog in this conflict.
She was going to need a lot more stars.
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I apologize again for this chapter taking so long, but hey, look at that! Developments! Not much action or comedy in this one, but we'll get to that next time
Again, heaps of thanks to my comma-correction crew and semicolon-sanctioning syndicate, PPS, spacecowboy, q97randomguy and ymom2.
This was a pleasant surprise!
Edit:
What's up with this sentence?
You just made my night!~
2369981
I got Yoda to narrate this one
Words cannot describe my emotions right now. I-I need to throw money at you, where do I go to donate?
2370033 I just laughed quite a bit after reading this
I am confused...
so she's afraid of the planet...for reasons that were either unexplained, or flew over my head.
But at least Luna is considering maybe starting sometime soonish being nice to Twilight again?
Great chapter I cant wait for the next one
not bad not bad at all
2369932 when can we expect the next chapter?
So Luna zapped Equestria until it woke up, and now it wants to eat Twilight?
Somehow I don't think anything good can happen if Twilight actually attacks the world with stars.
Oh boy... Twilight, she's going all Nightmare, isn't she? Seems that way... And Equestria itself wants to -EAT- her? Yikes! Time for an Alicorn of the Earth (or some-such) to smooth this over! I recommend... Pinkie Pie! What, thought I'd say AJ? Too obvious!
Love your story, as always. Looking forward to your next chapter. Hope Tia and Luna can help her through this and figure things out. :3
awesome! moar!
2370157
I didn't really get that either. Did she break some law of nature giving Luna that star, and now the earth itself is trying to devour her as punishment?
And just when I was giving up hope on this story.
Poor Luna.
Poor Twilight.
I hope those two patch things up soon
2370037
Your thanks will have to be enough 
As much as I would love to take donations, I don't have anything set up, or even any other online works to point you to
2370114
Well that makes two of us! Care to elaborate?
2370163
I'm afraid I write a chapter in full before starting on the next one, so it'll be a little while. I'll do my best not to take another two months this time, though.
2370157>>2370192
You'll have to wait for the specifics, but 2370175 is closer to what is intended.
2370178
Pinkie Pie as alicorn of the earth would be... well... let's just say you'd be trading Twilight's problems for years and years of earthquake insurance
Hey. Long time no see. Great chapter. Well, it's nice to see that things between Luna and Twilight aren't as bad as they used to be but it is clear that they have some work to do to mend things. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Keep up the great work. Echoing Shantara, " You just made my night". Twilight approves.
I would say that the hole in Equestria that Luna made is so deep that it's simply not reflecting any light back. Like a black hole or something. So for Twi it looks like it's eating her light, ergo, her. All they have to do is put a lid or something on said hole, and it's going to be okay. The whole thing is one giant trick of light.
At least that's my 2AM guess.
I could also say something about staring in the abyss long enough, but I think that's too much.
Edit:
Forget the lid. Put there a giant "I'mma eat you!" sign.
Edit2:
After some consideration... Luna blasted all the way to lava/magma and the planet gives off a lot of light now?
And after remembering the bit about something awaking... Or some enormous star beast in the middle of the underground?
Meh, whatever, too tired to speculate more.
How does equestria want to eat her? How can it? And how did celestia get into the umbra because isn't getting there the same thing as leaving and twilight couldn't leave.
Wow. This is almost good enough to make up for the outrageous wait.
(That means it's really frikkin' good)
Seriously though... the world is trying to eat her? Is this because of her giving Luna the star, or is it that thing that woke up when Luna blasted the ground?
Shit. Is. Going. DOWN.
2370241
Something happened as a result of Luna blasting the site where Twilight had destroyed the Ursa at. Ya know, the whole 'Moon left the sky, all it's light focused in one spot'. there was some slight foreshadow of something waking up.
As for the umbra, it's night right now. Celestia's sun isn't visible, and the umbra is the 'dark side' of Equestria. Therefore, that's where the sun is, so Celestia can go there. As for how Twi got there, well, she seems to be able to go there at will.
2370241
The sense that Equestria wants to eat her is not a logical thing, and she doesn't yet know why, so you'll have to wait for explanation on that
As for Celestia, since it's night time, the sun is already in the Umbra, so all she has to do to "go there" is to release her manifested body on Equestria and make a new one in the Umbra. She has to wait until the sun returns to Equestria to re-manifest there, though.
You done goofed, Luna
2370223 If his guess is sorta close to what happened Luna just can't stop causing trouble can she? Regardless of intent.
I was just wondering when this would update!
Now, to read. Also run simcity in the background, but that's beside the point. onwards, to
profitTwilicorn!Yay! Development!
Thank you for your hard work! I've enjoyed it!
I was very happy to see this update as you might imagine! And I'm glad that Luna and Twi are beginning to heal.
Nice chapter.
DAT ENDING!!!
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/386/151/605.jpg
Say Hello to Nightmare Twilight.
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw9127-craztcorn.png
2370454
I think this is another star beast- something Luna woke up, somehow. So no, not nightmare Twilight. Just Twilight fighting against another starbeast to try and protect herself from them.
That was the best thing I've read on this site in a while.
2370273 ok that makes sense now thanks for the clarification.
Oh, man. Poor Twilight. When reading that she gave Luna a star, I had no real understanding of the significance, but once it was made clear that what Twilight gave Luna was an actual piece of herself I suddenly am rather mad a Luna
In this chapter:
Orbital moon laser
Awkward moments
Heartwarming moments
Breaking the world
Lesson zero Twilight (almighty alicorn edition)
This is gonna be fun
‘Oh dear Celestia—bees!’
I lost it right there.
Loved it! Can't wait for Luna & Twilight to make up properly! I hope Twilight keeps her Tree in some form. Maybe her Tree could be part of the Palace Gardens. Her personal Library in a garden of tranquility.
Saying coffee twice is redundant.
I am pretty sure that should be 'a hundredth'.
2370223 If his guess is sorta close to what happened Luna just can't stop causing trouble can she? Regardless of intent.
Plenty of interesting developments in this one! However, I'm with Luna... I don't understand what the concern is with Rarity.
So let me get this straight...
Luna, in a pique of rage, blasted the crater Twilight made. Which, in turn... awoke all the star beasts? Or the World? and now the world wants to eat Twilight? Hun?
Commence read.
Progress...
This was awesome! Jesus the world is trying to eat her? Charming, does this mean twilight is going to be in the umbra every night and hunting star beasts during the day?
Yay, update!
2370345
She can't seem to get a break, nope
2370553
2370601
But it's important to differentiate spilled coffee mugs of coffee from spilled coffee mugs of pens!
A hundredth does read better, though ("one-one-hundredth" sounded more scientific)
2370654
Well, at the very least, she's a social-climber who went and bought up a bunch of property for unknown reasons (using insider information, even). For the Mayor, who wants to buy up that property for the new palace, that could be a problem! Either way, she's planning something behind the scenes.
2370668
That's about the gist of it
2370693
Well, I don't know*... she seems to be handling it well enough as of the end of this chapter...
* yes I do
Hey, at least we finally know how the constellations'll get up in the sky.
2370488
....more like Twilight sensing and reacting to residue of Luna's spell; apparently that's all it takes for an Alicorn to snap, being proned to stress and all.
2370273
I really like how you've made your alicorns as avatars for the objects they 'control'/represent. It's an awesome touch I don't think I have seen elsewhere.
Hmmm.... I wonder if there already was an Alicorn of the Earth/Planet and he/she is just waking up now? Furthermore, this teeth thing could be a reaction to feeling the earth waking and be caused by the magic of the stars and that of the earth being anathema to each other? Hmmmm Time to put on my pondering cap I think!
2370770
Oh really. She's sensing Luna's spell. Which the story specifically says was focused in a specific area. Which is presumably soaked in moon magic, which Twilight has taken comfort in before. Which the story says "woke something up deep underground".
But no, you're right. It's the spell.
We know that when push comes to shove Rarity always does the right thing. For there to be meaningful conflict with the property all it requires is that Rarity have a different idea of the "right thing," to do with it than the Mayor and Luna
2370743
If by "well," you mean periodically morbidly poking it to see if it'll bite her hoof off, yess. She's doing great.