New Reign

by Dream Seeker

Castles:Arc 2, Chapter 5

Ether gazed in awe at the massive underground castle carved out of moon rock. This was a much larger undertaking than her map. She knew what she would be doing once she finished exploring this fortress and finishing the map. Before entering, she realized that Nightmare Moon probably would have made dangerous traps throughout the building, so she checked the walls just inside the gates. To her utter lack of surprise, there were arrows that would be shot at about chest-hight, just high enough that she could duck under them. Walking through the entry gates, she ducked and let the stone arrows fly safely overhead. Snatching one with her magic, she noticed that they were not entirely stone. Dark gemstones replaced the tips allowing painful, if not deadly, spells to be placed on the pony who was hit by such an arrow. Ether had no care for such brutality, however. She was more interested in the fact that gemstones could be found inside the moon. Traveling through the castle, and making sure she dodged any and all traps, Ether soon came across what must have been an access shaft at one point. It was littered with dark crystals of various sizes, probably created from an explosion powered by dark magic. She remembered that from when she studied dark magic to create the revival spell. Ether glided down gently, barely dodging some of the larger crystals. Reaching the bottom, what she found surprised her greatly. In the core of the moon lay a great ball of dark gemstone, with magic swirling inside. A chunk appeared to have been taken out, evidently used by Nightmare Moon to create the gemstone-powered objects in the castle. Ether sighed in disappointment, as a massive explosion was clearly created by removing only a minuscule portion of the core, less than a tenth of a percent of the core was missing. Mentally declaring the plan to use gemstones to override the Element's spell a failure, she was about to head back, when she realized something. The core of the moon could be used as a giant spell matrix. Ether quickly turned around, checking the core for any already-created matrixes, and her heart sank. The core of the moon was already used in a matrix... The matrix for the very spell keeping her here, and laced with so many defensive spells that any attempt to disarm it would be met with the detonation of the core, and the immanent destruction of the moon itself, as well as a regrowth spell to create a new moon, albeit slowly. Destroying the core would be utterly useless. Ether turned back to explore the castle, and wandered its halls, searching for a map or some other navigational method for it. Soon she stumbled across the throne room. A majestic place to behold, the dark crystal that made up the throne lit the room ominously, aided by various lantern-like structures also made from dark crystals. The doors closed behind her, and Ether realized something surprising: She could breathe! Checking the dark gems' spells, she realized that several columns that held the roof up were made out of dark gems that were enchanted to produce air out of moon dust. The moon dust was constantly replenished by the moon's core, so there was essentially an infinite supply of air in the room! Breathing wasn't necessary for an Alicorn, but it sure was comfortable. Ether took a few deep breaths to relax before taking a look at the map in the center of the castle. It showed a fairly detailed map of the entire castle, though not as detailed as the map of the entire moon Ether was creating. Ether took the map and teleported to the spot where she arrived, editing the map of the moon as well as putting the map of the castle to the side. Taking a closer look, Ether realized that the map was a piece of enchanted dark gemstone, that would automatically alter itself to represent the castle. Taking this as inspiration for her own map, Ether retrieved gemstones from the arrowheads, and molded them in such a way that she could link the moon's surface to her map in the most efficient way possible. Her map altered itself to fit the moon's current surface, and Ether smiled at the shortcut she had taken, before frowning as she remembered that the whole point of creating the map was wasting time. Ether teleported back to the castle, vowing to not come back until she could navigate the entire castle without magical aid.

----------100 Years Later----------

Ether knew every twist and turn in Nightmare Moon's castle. That being done, she realized what she needed: A castle of her own! In a flash of magic, she returned to her impact site. There, she painstakingly began constructing her own castle, above ground, this one made out of moon dust. It required a special spell to keep her weight low enough that she could safely walk on it, but by the time it was done, it was worth it. A few decades later, a giant dust castle stood next to her place of impact, an exact replica of Canterlot Castle. Next, she worked on guards. Moonponies made of moon dust were stationed exactly where they would be in Canterlot Castle. She smiled as she realized something she had not thought about: The Elements of Harmony prevented her from returning... But it said nothing about keeping her from teleporting other object up to keep her company! With a grin, she quickly cast the spell to teleport her very favorite book from the Royal Archives to the moon.

Luna cried softly, looking at the book in front of her on the shelf of the Royal Archives. It was Twilight's favorite book. Luna missed Twilight so much, and this was only making her feel worse. She stared in confusion as it disappeared with a gentle pop. Then she grinned as she realized what had happened. Twilight had tried to teleport it to the moon! She thought back fondly to the time when she had tried such a thing herself...

Nightmare Ether grinned as the book she had wanted appeared, but that smile quickly disappeared. She hadn't accounted for the change in acceleration of teleporting an object from Equs to the Moon. The book moved very quickly, easily surpassing Ether's maximum speed. Before she could even blink, it tore a hole in her castle, and headed straight for the sun... Ether screamed in rage and agony, tears dripping down her muzzle. Her favorite book had just been destroyed, a tragedy for a bibliophile! To add insult to injury, the castle she had worked so hard on had been destabilized by the hole created by the book's flight, and began crumbling. Startled, Ether tried to keep it up with telekinesis, but to no avail. The castle crumbled back into the dust it was made from, leaving Ether weeping in the remains. She vowed to never try to teleport objects back up again, nopony had calculated the distance from Equs to the moon, let alone the speed the moon moved at or its size. Discovering this for herself would probably result in priceless information and books being lost, and even as a Nightmare she could not bare it. She cried there for a whole decade. It had taken her so much time just to create her castle, and it was all gone because of one mistake and a book...

---------About 300 Years Later---------

Nightmare Ether smiled a little, celebrating the halfway point of her banishment. It was halfway over already. Time flies when you're stuck on the moon! She spent the whole day reminiscing on her adventures so far, and went to bed early that night.

Luna smiled, realizing that today marked the halfway point of Twilight's banishment. Nopony else remembered, except in an old mare's tale about Nightmare Ether. Today was an ordinary day at court. Two ponies walked in, paying the mandator 20-bit price to have an audience with the Princess. Due to inflation, the price had doubled.

"Princess?" asked one pony nervously. "We come on the behalf of our distant ancestors..."

Luna smiled, but in her mind she was a little bit peeved. More ponies than she would like asked her to settle feuds that had lasted several centuries, and it was looking like this was just another one. She blinked, in a half-buried memory she seemed to recall them, or at least one of their relatives.

"Our relatives are... Strife Shade and Crystal Shade." said the other pony, seeming even more nervous than the first one.

Luna's jaw dropped in surprise. "I remember! They were the ones that were given Royal Pardons after trying to usurp the throne. What do you need." Luna smiled warmly.

"A long time ago, Strife and Crystal set out to convince ponies that a democracy was better than a monarchy. Today, a majority of ponies alive agree." the first said, getting more nervous by the second. "We come with a petition that... Equestria becomes a democracy."

This was met with silence. Luna was stunned. She hadn't expected this, not in a million years. Then she smiled warmly, knowing what she must do. "Alright." she said at last. "Show me."

A long scroll unfurled, the list extending all the way down the length of the throne room and back again... several times over.

"Give me a while, and I'll look over it. Assuming there is enough agreements, I will accept the petition." Luna said.

Both of the ponies' eyes widened. "T-thank you!" one stuttered. "We'll get going now." they backed out of the room.

That night, Luna smiled. She had gotten an idea of what to do tonight, to celebrate the day. The next morning she would read the petition and give up her right to rule, but tonight, she was going to meet somepony she hadn't seen for five hundred years... Drifting off to sleep, Luna focused on Twilight's dream, entering it.

----------In Twilight's Dream----------

Twilight smiled, her most recent accomplishment complete. An entire book on magic she had created! Smiling, she levitated the book over to Celestia for publishing. Suddenly, Luna appeared out of nowhere, looking happier than ever.

"Twilight Sparkle!" she smiled. "It is so good to see you!"

Twilight suddenly remembered everything, and realized that this was only a dream. The castle vanished, the moon taking it's place. She ran over and hugged Luna tightly. "I miss you so much!" she sobbed. "Ether can't even play 20 Questions right!"

"It's all right, Twilight." Luna whispered, nuzzling her gently. The dream began to crack, and Luna stood up in alarm. "It appears Ether has sensed my intrusion and is attempting to keep me out. This will likely be the last time I can talk to you for until your banishment is up. Goodnight, Twilight. Good luck as well, for restraining your Nightmare." Luna whispered, fading into the darkness. Both Ether and Luna woke up, Ether angry and Luna sobbing. They both couldn't wait for the end of the end of the banishment, each for different reasons.

Author's Note:

Credits:
Failure of teleportation of objects to the moon and Luna visiting Twilight on the moon via dreams: Netgirl1234

I'm skipping ahead next chapter to the thousandth year. Next chapter is the confrontation. If you want, I can create more about her time on the moon in a side story, but it doesn't belong here. Plot point uncovered, comedic break created, back to the rest of the story, the moon has served its purpose.

Comments

[Safhell]

Nice

[Thewolfangel360]

Plz continue this story

[Dream Seeker]

4781706 I'm working on the next chapter, but I had a big test and next week I have a 50 mile backpacking trip, so I will update when I get back.

[Techgirl]

Yay I got mentioned for my idea