• Published 25th Mar 2015
  • 1,772 Views, 32 Comments

Sail To The Moon - Regidar



Luna reconciles her emotions with her place in the world.

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I Was Dropped From The Moonbeam, And Sailed On Shooting Stars

She stared up at the ceiling, made of marble and clean. No cobwebs, no cracks, nothing out of place. It was perfectly maintained.

Princess Luna sighed, and rolled on the sheets, kicking out her legs. The smooth silk felt like sandpaper to her; a restless itching feeling crept up and down her body as though a horde of fleas had descended upon her and taken up residence in her coat. She hugged the pillow, gritting her teeth, and writhed.

Sitting up in a quick, fluid motion, she heaved a sigh. Luna stared at the wall before her. It too was flawless—and upon it hung lavish decorations: a portrait of the valley below Canterlot, midnight blue curtains flanking the window next to it (they used to be gold, but Luna had replaced them in her first month back), and...

A small, but noticeable, symbol of the sun. Inches from the painting. She cast her weary eyes on the symbol, the very same that composed of her sister’s cutie mark. A faint glow exuded from it, slowly dimming with each passing second.

Luna looked to her side, where a set of beautiful glass door opened out onto a large balcony. It was adorned with a few ancient pots, overflowing with hanging vines and ivy plants. The decorations from her old room in the Everfree Palace, all those years ago...

She got up from her bed, and trotted to the balcony. The sun was still setting, the sky painted with a plethora of pastel pigments; brick reds, husky magentas, stark violets, even a shade of blue that nearly matched her coat color. Behind her, the symbol of the sun continued to dim; upon the sun slipping the horizon, it grew dark.

Luna took a deep breath, and her horn lit. She felt a familiar tug behind her stomach, and on the opposite horizon from where the sun had sunk, the moon began to peak over. A faint buzzing filled her ears; a dull throbbing in her skull—increasing in intensity with each passing moment as the moon rose higher and higher—

Luna’s brow knit, and a small bead of sweat slipped down from her forehead. Her breathing was shallow and labored, and the tug in her stomach felt as though a hooked knife were trying to gut her hollow. The glow from her horn brightened, sharp and electric, her former prison continuing its steady ascent into the sky.

“It’s not easy. You’re doing well.”

Luna would have been startled by this voice at an earlier time, but she had since grown used to these intrusions.

“We understand how difficult it is to raise our moon, fair sister,” Luna spoke through gritted teeth.

“I am only attempting to console you,” Princess Celestia said, a single eyebrow arched. “It’s been quite some time since you’ve had to regularly rise the moon, I know that it took myself a few years before I was fully accustomed to—”

“We art not thou, sister,” Luna said, cursing internally for slipping into fully-fledged Old Equestrian, knowing that in her irritation, she would be stuck talking in it for at least a few hours. “We are quite adept at our own purpose. Thou was to always raise the sun. You chose to do something that thou were not meant to do, and as such, thou has had a considerable effort raising it.” She turned her head slightly to the side to shoot a scowl at Celestia.

Celestia sighed. “Of course, sister.”

Luna turned her head back to face the view from the balcony. “Was that all thou wished to say to us, sister, or is thine daily critique far from over?”

“I did have more to say.”

“Speak, then.”

Celestia shuffled on her hooves. “I was wondering if you were ready for the wedding. Princess Cadance has been waiting for months, you know, and I think that if we’re both—”

“We have an important astronomical event to attend to during the wedding,” Luna said curtly. “We doubt Cadance will miss our presence at the wedding, however, for she hardly knows us.”

Princess Celestia bit her lip, crestfallen. “I... see. Are you certain you cannot make it?”

“Quite.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before Luna spoke again. “Was there anything else thou wished to impart to me, sister?”

Celestia took a deep breath, the corner of her eye twitching slightly. “I was also wondering how well you slept.”

“Poorly, as usual.” Luna focused her gaze on the moon, and bit the inside of her bottom lip, the glow from her horn getting ever brighter as the silvery orb continued on a steady path up into the sky. The deep blue sky was slowly starting to blacken, and with a small pulse from the Night Princess’s horn, stars began to appear in clusters upon the darkest spots.

“Nightmares again?” Celestia asked, her voice a bit softer now. Luna’s entire face was now drenched with sweat, and yet she still felt a chill run through her, reverberating off of the hooked knife in her gut.

“Perhaps,” she grunted, not bothering to look at her sister.

“You know, I could brew you up some belladonna tea,” Celestia said, taking a few tentative steps closer to Luna. “It’s very good for night terror—”

“We UNDERSTAND, sister!” Luna shouted, her voice quivering with rage and frustration as a flurry of cobalt-colored sparks shot up and down her horn. Celestia recoiled as her sister’s legs spread slightly, the hooves scraping against the fine, smooth stone. “We do not CARE for thine treatments, and we do not REQUIRE them. Dreams are our territory, and we may defeat the nightmares as we so please!”

“I’m sorry, Luna,” Celestia said, looking down at the balcony floor. “I was merely wishing to help you with—”

“We do not NEED any of thine help, sister,” Luna said, spinning around so rapidly that her mane, sparkling with stars of its own, whipped the side of her face. “Thou has already done QUITE enough for us!”

“Why won’t you let me help you?” Celestia asked, irritation spiking her voice. “You know, that’s all I seek to do!”

“Thou art fully aware why we do not trust thee!” Luna said, her horn glowing. The aura remained its own brightness—her physical horn was beginning to glow white-hot. “Go bother somepony else, sister!”

“Luna, your horn—”

“I am tired of thou’s constant scrutiny upon me! How thou will meddle in our moon raising, how thou will badger us about our own, personal dreams! Will thou stop at nothing to make sure we are miserable?”

“Luna!” Celestia yelled. “Control yourself!”

Luna’s eye flickered up towards her horn, and she left out a small gasp before a sound like gunshot blasted through the night air. Luna fell backwards, her horn smoking.

Celestia rushed to her sister’s side, her wings flapping slightly as she galloped to land besides Luna. The younger sister lay on her side, eyes clenched shut, her horn no longer glowing, and the aura having disappeared. She no longer felt the hook in her gut—yet she felt as though it had been yanked out rudely and abruptly, dragging a good fair amount of her insides along with it.

“Luna, are you okay? Speak to me!” Celestia cradled her little sister in her hooves. “Breathe! Come on, deep breathes...”

Luna opened her mouth, gaping like a fish out of water, making no noise for a few moments. Celestia held her own breath, right up until she heard a raspy rattle rise from Luna’s chest.

“Oh, thank goodness...” Celestia’s hoof moved to Luna’s hoof, but pulled back almost immediately. It was still scorching, even though most of the smoking had subsided.

“Moon...” Luna gasped. Celestia’s ears perked up, and she held Luna closer to her.

“The moon? Speak, Luna...”

“Is it s-still there?”

Celestia felt her heart jump into her throat, and she quickly turned her head around. The moon was not only there, and fully intact, but it was also steadily rising, just perfectly on pace. “It’s fine, Luna... the moon is fine.”

Luna’s eyes remained shut. “Excellent... now leave us, sister.”

Celestia’s brow furrowed. “Leave...? Sister, you are not speaking clearly! You’re hurt! Please, let me tend to you while a royal physician makes their way here—”

“We said to LEAVE US, sister!” Luna’s voice was hoarse, and nothing like the royal Canterlot boom it had once been like. “We do not need thy help any longer. We want nothing to do with thee right now, nor ever again!”

“Luna!” Celestia gently placed Luna on the ground, her eyes narrowing, her face contorted in a scowl. She opened her mouth to let Luna have a piece of her mind, but stopped when she noticed tears beading out from between Luna’s eyelids. “Luna?”

“P-please, sister... thou has done enough to us...”

“I thought we moved past this, Luna...” Celestia said softly, sitting next to her sister curled up on the floor. “Everything to do with Nightmare Moon—”

“We have tried to move past that,” Luna said, her voice shaking. “But thou still treats us like we are a weakling. Like we are nothing more than that little, jealous foal who was banished all those years ago! We changed, Celestia, we changed all those years on the moon! And we’re different now! We understand so much more now, and we are trying to act like a Princess, not a rambunctious, troublesome, violent foal! Why does thou still treat us like we are nothing more than such?”

Celestia bit her lip, trying to stabilize herself as she was found to be shaking as well. “I-I’m sorry, Luna... I just felt that you needed as much help as you could get, readjusting to Equestria. With your dreams and everything—”

“Our dreams?” Luna’s voice was nothing more than a scratchy whisper, and her eyes shot open, revealing them to be bloodshot and wild. “Does thou wish to know what we dream about, every night?”

Celestia sat there, looking down at her sister, a lump in her throat. “Y-Yes, Luna. Tell me about your dreams.

Luna’s eyes misted over, her voice rising slightly, but her tone staying constant. “We dream that we live in a dark world, surrounded by the void, no stars at night. The forests withered long ago, the ground had been torn in two, with fragments of rock being all that connected the two halves of the shattered planet. We dream of mountains sunk below the sea, with no voices except one underneath, Celestia. It is thy voice, speaking the same thing over and over and over...”

Celestia stared at her sister in a stunned silence, but that did not matter, for Luna had no intention of stopping. “In our dream, you’re alive, sister, but you’re alive and dying. Sometimes we plunge our hooves into thine skull until thou art nothing, and sometimes we are watching thou be crushed by meteors we called from the sky. But we dream never of thou begging for mercy, and we never dream of thy cursing our name...”

Luna took a shaky breath, tears welling up in her eyes before they spilled over, flowing fresh down her cheeks. “Thy voice plays on repeat in our head, Celestia: ‘I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you.’”

She stared up at Celestia, shuddering through labored breaths as a deluge of tears pressed down her face. “How could thou forgive such a monster as us?”

“Oh, Luna...” Celestia gently scooped Luna up into her forelegs, cradling her little sister once more in her hooves. “You are no monster...”

“Thou stopped me from condemning Equestria to a horrendous fate, and all we did was grow bitter in exile!” Luna choked out, closing her eyes once more in bitter frustration. “And every night, we still dream of bringing that to be! How could we be anything but a monster?”

“Luna, you show remorse,” Celestia said, placing a hoof against Luna’s tear-stained cheek. “A monster does not show restraint, or remorse... you would never bring those things to light.”

“How can thou be certain?”

“Because you have told me about them, my dear sister. If you were truly planning on carrying them out... why would you tell the one pony who had stopped you before about what you dreamt? And again, that you feel so terribly about dreaming them... it shows that you do not have the lack of heart to bring about the end of our world. You are no monster, Luna, you are my sister...”

Celestia stopped, her voice giving out for a moment. “A-And my friend, Luna. You are my friend.”

Luna opened a single eye. “Y-Your friend?”

“Yes, Luna,” Celestia said with a sad smile, a few tears of her own glittering in the moonlight as they made paths down her cheeks. “You are my friend, Luna, and it’s about time I started treating you like one. You were right about everything, the way I treat you; I’ve been treating you more like a little sister than an equal, which, in the past few months, you’ve more than proven yourself to be.”

Luna opened both her eyes, looking up at Celestia in awe. “R-Really?”

“Yes. Your remarkable recovery at the hooves of the Elements of Harmony was possible in part due to you. It accessed the part of you that wanted to return from Nightmare Moon, to banish the part of you that only felt jealousy and greed. You worked diligently, and the night you returned from Nightmare Moon, you did not rest. You toiled through the whole night, working on raising the moon, even though you had not done so for a thousand years.”

Celestia gave her sister a watery smile. “I am proud of you, Princess Luna. I am proud to call you both a sister, and a friend.”

Luna lay motionless in Celestia’s hooves for a few moments, before collapsing into sobs, burying her muzzle in Celestia’s chest. the elder sister stroked Luna’s star-dappled mane, gently cooing. “It’s okay, Luna...”

The starlight and the moonlight both shone on them, moonbeams dropping on them as they were sailed to the earth on shooting stars, casting a peaceful, ethereal glow around the two of them.

“I forgive you...”

Comments ( 32 )

I just happened to be online when this was uploaded, but I'm afraid I've already done my nightly dose of binge reading (specifically a full 10 chapter story, if you must know...) :rainbowwild:
I do plan on reading this sometime tomorrow, as it does look interesting just by reading the cover page.

I was almost ready for this.

Nothing new or ground-breaking, but solidly constructed and a good read. Well done.

You release something and the feature-box doesn't explode? How times change.

5781151 I have been featured 12 times out of 144
I do not see the feature box often

5781223 That surprises me to hear. I somehow remember to have seen you in there quite frequently. But then again the last thing I remember of you as featured was Cute without the E, what's far further in the past than I thought.

Anyways, I rather liked this one for it's classic character. Not really the kind of story I can get tired of.

5781291
Try Not To Die (January 2013)
Short Story Of A Lonely Guy (April 2013)
Beautiful Corpse (July 2013)
The Fragile Art of Bonsai Trees (October 2013)
Take It Back (November 2013)
Oedipal Panties (December 2013)
Cute Without The E (March 2014)
Blank Book (May 2014)
All That Sparkles (August 2014)
Some Love (October 2014)
To Make Love (February 2015)

Oh, so it turned out to only be 11, then, nevermind, spaced over 2 years. I guess I should be thankful, more than most people get.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :heart:

Ohh my, you've captured my interest with the title. My long-time favorite Radiohead tune.

TGM

I liked it.

Then again, I like anything with Luna in it...

still, this was really nice. Nicely done.

The forgiveness she needs the most is her own.
Poor Luna.

Nicely done, Regi.

You keep beating me to the punch with using all these Radiohead songs. :V
Admittedly, it would help if I actually wrote stuff. :derpytongue2:

Anyway, that aside, this is a lovely little look at Luna's guilt complex. Good luck in the contest! :twilightsmile:

You had me at the Radiohead, you cemented it with the story.
The people downvoting this are dirty commies.

5781367 Oh man, "The Fragile Art of Bonsai Trees" came out almost a year and a half ago? Geeeeeeeeez.

Anyway, this is a good character study. Luna's voice bothered me some, but... it was good.

Radiohead song or not (and I do love me some Radiohead), this story still stands on its own merits. I'm reviewing it as a candidate for the Everfree Northwest community choice award and this is my review:

The prose is excellent (with some minor mistakes - it should be "thou art" not "thou is," and "thy" instead of "thou's"), but the dialogue is a totally realistic take on what Celestia and Luna might have gone through when they first reconciled. I sort of wish there was more to this story than just a conversation, but it is a wonderful bit of drama and the descriptions are beautiful.

For these reasons, I'm adding you to my list of nominees for the Award. Good luck!

(I'm also competing, for the record. I hope you enjoy my story if you come across it, but I won't plug it here.)

Even though I feel like you're cheating on the "new" friends aspect; it's nice to read and a nice take on Luna. I like it.

5841608 "Cheating"? I like to think of it as "Toying" :rainbowkiss:

5841440 I'm glad you liked it! I'll go through the fic and edit some of those "thou is"

Daww shit, that was nice.

Dude, awesome work on this! :D
Quite nice, quite nice.

5871986 hey, thanks!

5872173 No problem man! :D

it looks like celestia has grown up, as she realizes that luna is no longer the little sister, she took care of all those years ago. she must now accept luna, not as a sibling, but as a significant equal partner, with her own life to lead, as well as her own destiny to fulfill. things have changed between them, but they have both matured, and must now lead adult lives. their days of fillyhood are now behind them.

This story started off feeling like what would be a painfully mundane slice of life, but did a 180. What a surprise! I loved this story although some of the things such as referring to characters with titles or adjectives (i.e. Moon Princess) irked me a little bit. The only question I have is:
Does this take place when Luna is newly returned or somewhere closer to present time?


Also spotted this:

"...Dream are our territory, and we may defeat the nightmares as we so please!”

Do you mean dreams?

6296724 It is sometime before the Canterlot Wedding. I make mention of that in the story, I believe.

Do you mean dreams?

I did, let me correct that.

6297186

That is right, I should have been paying attention to that. Luna and Tia were too well-written to ignore. :twilightblush:

6297214 hehe, thank you

6297508

You're welcome.

Though may I ask what how the title ties into the story? It seems strange as the theme is forgiveness yet I cannot think of a literal or metaphorical meaning for the title.

6297522 It has no real ties, I suppose; it's just a song that I really like and I felt like the mood of the song fits the mood of the story.

6297577

Ahhh...I think I have an unpublished (as of now) story where I did that.

Fuck EqD for not accepting this. It was great.

6313741 haha, thank you

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