What Was Left Behind
Most of us take stock of our possessions upon returning home from a long absence, and standing atop a small promontory overlooking the soft glow of Canterlot, Luna was no exception. While she had ample opportunity to stargaze during her exile, her thoughts had always been directed toward the world she drifted around, and her planned return. The stars had held no interest for her, only her plan to enfold her sister’s domain in eternal night.
She couldn’t help but smile as she thought of the new friends she had made in those who had finally vanquished the evil in her heart. It made this view all the more refreshing, now that she could look upon it with an untainted mind. This far above the capital, the entire sky was blanketed in starlight, and even after all this time she could still name every one of them, skipping over the unpleasant memories to those of standing on this very ledge years before the madness consumed her.
That madness, wrapped up as it was in destruction, had brought about creation. The creation of something she had been trying not to think about for over a year, and what she had finally come to this place to contemplate retrieving. Turning her gaze from the constellations near the horizon, she frowned up at the moon hovering above.
As much as her pride as Nightmare Moon had been wounded to contemplate it, she knew all too well that she was no match for her more powerful sister in a fair fight. Her banishment was evidence enough of that. One thousand years is a very long time to plot revenge, and she had done just that for nearly that entire period. Idle speculation wasn’t enough though; if she wanted to win once she found a way back home, she would need an edge over her sister, something to turn the tide in her favor.
Her darker self had devised a plan to do just that, but it would require a catalyst. Her explorations of the deepest fissures and tunnels of the rock that was her prison served to occupy most of the time she didn’t spend plotting revenge. Before one hundred years had passed, she knew nearly every inch of the moon, both inside and out. It was during one of her experiments with digging deeper into the solid core that she found what she needed.
It was a diamond. About the size of three coconuts, cloudy, lumpy, ugly, and perfect. Her heart had been racing as she extricated it from the rock around it, and brought it back to the cave near the surface that she called home.
That day, eight-hundred and seventy-three years before her return to Equestria, she had begun to channel her power into this gem. The process left her almost constantly exhausted, but she knew it would be worth the effort just to see the look on her sister’s smug face as she was brought to her knees. Every single day she performed this ritual, for hours at a time, storing a massive amount of her magic until the gem began to glow brightly blue. By the time the night of her return approached, if she had brought the diamond out to the surface, it would have been visible by telescope from the world across the void.
Of course, she had decided not to bring it back with her when she first returned, worried that her hand might be tipped too soon, and her sister prepare a means to counter her trick. That decision led to the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the restoration of Luna, something she would be grateful for until the end of time. Opening her eyes again, her memories pushed aside momentarily, she stared up at her old prison once more.
That damnable thing was still up there, holding over eight centuries worth of hate-fueled power, and procrastinating any further wasn’t going to change that. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she closed her eyes again, and focused on her old cave. With a brief, bright flash, she vanished from the ledge, and was once again surrounded by gray and black emptiness. As she looked around her landing point, she could see all of her hoof prints still crisscrossing the surface as far as she could see. She shook her head to dispel the lonely memories again and trudged into the small opening behind her, following the passages she had made back to where she kept what was once to be her sister’s undoing, and was now merely a problem.
It still glowed brightly, though not painfully so, and that glow swam across the walls of it’s chamber like reflections off water, belying the energy it contained. She could feel it against her horn, like some kind of magnetic force, drawing her toward it. Swallowing a feeling of trepidation, she lifted it gently from it’s resting place. Even in the moon’s lower gravity, it was far too light, as if even that small application of magic was making it exert its own power. She had to try hard not to just drop it and teleport back home, to warmth and safety.
This has to be done. There’s too much of my magic in this rock for it to be left where anything could happen to it.
Before she could try and talk herself out of it, she teleported both herself and the offending stone back onto the ledge above Canterlot, and let out the breath she had once again been holding out of subconscious habit. She set the gem on the ground in front of her, seeming to contemplate it for a moment before speaking to the presence she could feel behind her.
“I spent over eight-hundred years making this.”
The light sound of hoof prints came up beside her, the white alicorn they belonged to stopping alongside her smaller sister. Luna stole a glance over at her, and was somewhat surprised to see an expression of grudging admiration on Celestia’s face.
“…I can imagine what it was for,” was all she said in response.
“Yes. This was going to be the key to your imprisonment, my means of revenge. I had it all planned out, even down to a spell that would restrict your power to nothing but raising and lowering the sun, so I would be free from even that burden while I took control. I do not even know if it would have worked. Probably not, honestly, but it was all I could think about.”
“You weren’t yours-“
“Stop. You and I both know that is a pitiful excuse,” she replied, meeting her sister’s eyes now. “Nightmare Moon was me. Not the me that stands before you now, but she was not some other pony. I did what I did, and I made this.”
“Well, what do you plan on doing with it, then?”
At that, Luna turned her gaze back to her hooves, and then the offending diamond.
“I have not the slightest idea. That is part of why I brought it back here, because I need your help,” she responded quietly. “This thing is far too powerful to just be left where anything could happen to it. I brought it back with me because I want your help to try and find a way to destroy it.”
Celestia could see Luna’s face contort in an expression that was equal parts revulsion and anger as she looked at her work again. She looked back up to the stars, wishing though it was foolish that everything could have just returned to the way it was when her sister was given back to her. It was in the middle of remembering one particular idea of Luna’s when they were younger that a possible answer came to her.
“Luna, your wards are the only things keeping all that energy bottled up, aren’t they? I’m pretty sure there’s no way to outright destroy it without breaking the wards and releasing all of it in one pulse-“
“-which would destroy anything near it. And who knows how far that destruction would even reach?”
She sunk to her haunches with a sigh and massaged her temples, trying to think up some solution that wouldn’t involve turning the cursed thing into a magical bomb.
“Or, you could use it,” Celestia said with a hint of a smirk in her tone.
“What?” Her sister responded, looking up at her.
“Do you remember when you came to me practically jumping up and down over having devised an extreme distance teleportation spell?”
“I remember feeling silly afterward, when you pointed out that it would need more energy than that of raising the sun more than a dozen times over. I should have realized that myself.”
“So then the only way to make the spell work would be to use an external energy source-“
“-with many times that amount of power-“
“-which is of course impossible-“
“-unless one was willing to devote decades to storing one’s own energy in a suitable…”
Now they were both staring at it, but Luna wasn’t glaring anymore. Celestia couldn’t help but grin as she saw that familiar spark return to her little sister’s eyes. She leaned over close and whispered in her ear.
“Now, I’d figure that looks like enough to raise the sun over a hundred times over. And I’d bet quite a few bits that you still remember your calculations.”
“It is still just a silly idea, though. Even if I was to…visit another world, how would I choose? And who knows if my calculations were even accurate?” she responded somewhat sadly, staring at the millions of stars spread over the blackness above them.
“I think we both know a mare who would be elated at the chance to help you with this.”
At this, Luna emitted a rather un-royal snort before clamping her forehooves over her muzzle to try and stifle the giggles that were threatening to escape. After a few seconds though, she stood and adopted a more regal expression.
“We wish to make it known that we refuse all responsibility should thy pupil suffer a heart attack when we explain our intentions to her.”
“Now that’s not very nice!” her sister exclaimed, not even trying to hold back her own laughter, Luna soon following suit.
The two of them sat side by side, laughing helplessly for a few minutes before Luna hefted the now somewhat less malevolent stone in her telekinetic grasp once more. Now that the idea had been planted back in her mind, her head was in turmoil with all the old figures and estimates, the thought of making her dream a reality making her heart beat faster. She adopted a steadier stance and prepared to teleport herself back to her chambers.
“No tool is evil, Luna. You may have spent centuries crafting that stone as Nightmare Moon, planning to use it to defeat me, but that doesn’t make it any more than what it always was: a tool. It can still be used for good if you so choose. Don’t be so quick to fear your own power. Even if you doubt your own resolve, know that I don’t. The monster that consumed you is gone for good, and its time for you to believe that the same way I do.”
She walked over to her sister and crossed her neck with hers in a brief hug. As she stepped back, she saw how much more Luna looked like the old Luna, vibrant and untamed, without the slightest taint of what she would later become. She began to entertain the thought that some parts of “the old days” might just be coming back.
She stood smiling under the watchful gaze of the stars above for a minute or two after her sister departed, feeling like she wouldn’t have to worry about Luna anymore. With this kind of project to keep her sister busy, she wouldn’t mind having to take the moon off her hands every now and then if she got to see her truly happy again. Now, all that was left was to get back to her bed and catch up on all the sleep she just lost.
With the morning sun on her back, and an unconscious lavender mare blocking the doorway in front of her, Luna once again found herself on her haunches, eyes closed, massaging her temples.
“Well, at least she only fainted.”
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I eagerly await the continuation of this tale
Tracked, because this is going places.
470078
OH THE IRONY
Visiting different worlds? This fic has ENDLESS possibilities.
Tracked.
470284
Well, we'll see how many of those possibilites I can incorporate, but thanks.
This is gonna be good.
When i read the first half, and then saw the Twilight tag, i thought of the Patrick Starfish meme where they "Take all of this power. And cram it into Twilight."
Unless Luna has a way to scout the planet before hoof things could end badly.
Don't tell Rarity about this planet: http://www.cracked.com/article_19479_the-6-most-mind-blowing-things-ever-discovered-in-space.html
Yes, thy Princess desireth thou to help us finish crafting the calculations for an interstellar mass-transit system that we have dubbed the "Stargate"... Twilight? Twilight, are you alright?
Plz know that if humans involved this story will be redundant.
How was she able to do that when shewas a patof the moon?
Interesting setup.
Except Celestia had to use the Elements of Harmony to beat her. Which she can apparently no longer use.
In fact, Full-Power Luna has never been known losing to anything but Discord (Since she had to use the Elements of Harmony herself) and the Elements of Harmony.
5927142
This obviously was not the case. The darkening was obviously a secondary effect of her being banished and bound to the moon.
An interesting start. I'll be reading the rest later.
Some nitpicks:
its
its
it's