This story is a sequel to Your Beautiful Mind
"Luna!" Celestia reeled in the air, dodging her sister's vicious lunge. "Please! Stop! It doesn't have to come to this! Call back your soldiers! Return to Canterlot! I will forgive you!"
"You cannot undo all you've done, Sister!" Luna cried, winging backwards to gain height on Celestia.
"You will never be a leader," the elder alicorn said sadly, feeling the need to weep. It saddened her further to realize she could not.
Luna snarled. "And you will never be a god!"
Torn asunder by dissent and mistrust, Equestria is divided between the Sisters. One promises equality in magic and caste. The other maintains her rule is stable and just.
The future hinges on a single battle.
And neither Sister wishes to cede the sky.
interesting I'm getting some hope's up for this story more specifically will it be The New Lunar Republic vs The Solar Empire?
5723506 I don't wish to spoil the plot entirely, but conflict does occur.
Oh wow this is interesting already. The early depictions that you have placed at the beginning reminded me of when Superman's parents send him off just before their world perished. Can't wait for more!
Ya, you've earned some patience. But
How many years has it been since the previous stories, then?
5723641 I promise it will all make sense soon.
Mac, I think your special somepony needs a hug.
Like, right away. Seriously. Omega-level hug emergency. Lives are at stake.
I see we're moving on from the one-shot stories, hmm? Very interesting.
I do hope Big Mac didn't inadvertently trigger a schism in the diarchy, though. He would be SO embarrassed if that happened.
Always great to see Celestia remind everypony who the monarch with millennia of experience is. Worth the minimal plot progression for now.
Damn you, Big Macintosh! Your sexy horse bod is tearing this kingdom apart!
Why does Luna need Celestia's permission to take a student, anyway? Even if it's just an excuse for Luna to make out with her student and pave the way to alicornhood, I kind of feel like that's a royal prerogative that would belong to both sisters equally.
Oh well. Lovely chapter.
Hm. There's a lot of questions left unanswered, but that's almost being redundant, considering how far into the story I am.
I would like some confirmation on whether or not the Pegasi are empaths or not. I take it that the last sentence was meant to convey some melancholy: was it ordered by Celestia, or do Pegasi have finely-attuned feels-sensors?
Also, I rather like the short chapter length. It's not overly demanding, like some of the other stories on here seem to be. I managed to skim through the prologue in a matter of minutes; ironic, since traditionally the prologue is meant to set the stage for the coming narrative, and most people see that as a designated plot-dump landfill. Really glad that didn't happen.
5735706 The chapter is told from Celestia's point of view. All of the narrative is her internal monologue.
It's not hard to imagine that Celestia has been there before, herself. She probably also realizes the deaf ears her warnings would fall upon, so she's got to step back and let Luna learn things on her own. I've always had the impression that Luna was rather young when the Nightmare Moon stuff first happened, so even before she was sent to the moon she didn't have much life experience. Now the gulf between the sisters is even wider due to Luna's thousand-year arrested development. Rough stuff.
How can desert and snow be so close?
5752832 It IS Equestria.
5756362 I dont get it.
5756413 Magic.
5756426 Well that could work if the world was round.