Chapter 25
Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.
Chapter 25
Luna
I am Luna. Princess of the Night. Co-ruler of Equestria with my sister, Celestia, the Princess of the Day. I am the one who raises the moon every night as my sister sets the sun. I am all this, and more. As rulers, both Celestia and I know that the key to having our subjects trust us is to never show worry, never show doubt in our ability to command. A frantic leader gives poor orders, and nopony would obey us for long, once the seeds of doubt had been planted. Celestia always has a smile on her face, always makes gentle requests of her guards; I have yet to see them disobey her. I have only known Celestia to grow fearful twice in my life; the first is when Discord attacked all those centuries ago. The second was my own corruption. Both times I know she feared not for herself, but for all the ponies under her care.
Recently I have become aware of a new threat to Equestria. I have mentioned this to my sister many times, but she refuses to take action. The aliens Twilight Sparkle had found were supposed to come to Canterlot; I had hoped that their presence would be enough to incite Celestia to take action. Unfortunately, they never arrived. I suspected foul play, or worse, that Twilight had fallen prey to this new threat.
I walked over to the window of my chamber and looked outside. Celestia was flying around the damaged section of the castle, overseeing the repairs. I could just make out her issuing commands - it helped that she was using the Royal Canterlot Voice, seeing how it easily projected one’s voice. The damaged tower had been mended well over these past few days, yet it was still far from completion. All around it teams of earth ponies moved support beams to keep the loose stones steady while unicorns cautiously removed any stones that were too extensively damaged to use. Teams of pegasi were busy managing the upper levels, adding and replacing stones wherever they could.
And this was just the one tower. Many of the surrounding buildings in the city had been damaged by the falling debris. I still remember how chaotic those initial days were. Ponies running frantically as bits of stone and metal came crashing down on homes and businesses alike. The repair teams were able to keep the damages under control, but nearly every establishment around the palace area had been hit.
I turned my gaze upward at the shield surrounding the city. Celestia had ordered the city protected, not because of my warnings, but because of the damage to her castle. Her first inclination was to only protect the castle and leave the city to its own devices; I convinced her to protect everything else as well. I frowned, lost in thought. Celestia had not been acting like her usual self these past few weeks. Our meetings had grown less frequent; we saw each other only during dusk and twilight, along with those odd times when both of us were required to sit in for royal duties. I had tried to approach her in a more sisterly manner, in secret since we had an image to uphold of course, but she curtly turned me away.
I was considering ordering a small complement of guards to go to Ponyville and escort Twilight, her friends, and the aliens to Canterlot directly when I heard a knock at my chamber doors. I quickly spun around and opened the door with my magic; a timid-looking earth pony stood beyond, panting for breath. He wore the garb of one of the lower-ranking guardsponies, perhaps only an initiate. He was frightened, but not of me; most guards working in the castle had grown accustomed to my appearance by this point.
“Speak.”
“Princess Luna! I...we have just received word!” he said between gulps of air. “The train from Ponyville was attacked! Eyewitnesses claim they saw Changelings, though we cannot find any evidence of them.”
I swallowed and trembled slightly, hoping I did not show it. “Was Twilight Sparkle or any of her friends onboard?”
He nodded. “The conductor says all six Element Bearers were onboard, but we cannot locate them near the train wreck.”
I nodded in return and dismissed him. A probable Changeling attack and the Element Bearers are missing. I frowned for a moment. Why had the conductor not mentioned the oddly-shaped aliens who were supposed to be with Twilight? Surely such a bizarre assortment of creatures would have warranted some interest, and news of them should have been relayed to me, even if I already knew.
I frowned even more. Why had I not ordered the aliens to Canterlot with me when I saw them? If I had then we could have made Celesta aware of the current events all the sooner. But now the Element Bearers were missing and there was no mention of the aliens. Perhaps these creatures were related to Twilight’s disappearance. I did not know their intentions. Perhaps Twilight had been coerced or tricked into trusting them.
I glanced out the window once more. Celestia was still flying around the tower. I needed information about the creatures from the sky, and my own library was rather lacking in that regard. I sighed and trotted out of my chambers, heading for Celestia’s study. She had accumulated many more tomes over the years and it was my hope that one of them held the information I sought.
‘By the turn of their one hundredth year the Kiplings had begun to open their borders to trade and travel. Since their positioning was close south of Equestria, ponies were among the first to meet the colorful species. Diplomacy was slow, however, and despite their fun loving personalities the Kiplings were distrusting of our foreign ways. Eventually through much time and perseverance trade agreements were formed and we began trading foods, fabrics, and gemstones especially. In return we were given new forms of building materials and schematics, which we ponies used to create such inventions as the airship and steam locomotive. This trade lasted for a full ten years before the Kiplings love of gemstones attracted the attention of the neighboring Dragons. Without any ways of properly protecting themselves the playful creatures were forced to flee across the ocean to escape the fire. There have been no sightings of a Kipling since.’
I groaned in frustration, tossing the book onto the steadily growing pile. “Not even Celestia knows about these creatures!” I yelled at the empty room, being careful not to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. I was about to look through another book when I felt a peculiar tingle in the air; I immediately recognized it as the usual disturbance that occurs whenever a spell is cast, though I could not identify the exact spell used.
I looked around the room, searching for the source of the spell and was surprised by the mist that floated in through the window. It coalesced in the air and reformed into a scroll, bound by a seal. It hung in the air for a moment before dropping to the floor as gravity found it. Curious, I walked over and nudged it with a hoof. It seemed to be normal parchment, though I could not say as to how it mysteriously transported in.
Carefully, I levitated the scroll and unfurled it; I cannot say what drove me to read something designed for Celestia’s eyes, but I had to know. I skipped past the content of the letter and jumped to the end.
‘Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.’
I felt my heart skip a beat. Twilight still lived! I quickly read the letter proper, more interested in its contents this time.
‘Dear Princess Celestia,
I am sorry that we were unable to reach Canterlot today, but a Changeling attack forced us to retreat. Prince Jake and his loyal guards fought them off, but were unwilling to continue to the castle. We will try again soon, and this time we may bring a Changeling defector with us. I do not know how trustworthy he is, so I urge you to take every precaution necessary.
Princess, there is a grave threat to Equestria. I do not know how far it reaches, but Ponyville is nearly overrun. Myself and my friends have managed to evade capture so far, but our luck cannot hold long. This threat isn’t one that we are accustomed to dealing with. I do not know if even the Elements of Harmony are enough to aid us. I hope to explain all I can when we meet tomorrow, along with Prince Jake.
I apologize for the shortness of this letter, but I am uneasy about revealing so much without being found out. Please have the Elements ready for us when we arrive. I doubt if they will be enough, but we need every advantage we can get.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.’
I rolled up the scroll and stood up. Twilight Sparkle lived, she had a Changeling prisoner, and Prince Jake seemed to be aiding her. I knew I had to relay the message to Celestia at once. She may have ignored my warnings, but she trusted Twilight as well. If both of us were claiming the same, Celestia would have to act. I headed for the large window in the study and took to the air, flying for the tower.
“Careful with that supporting beam! The tower will fall without it!” Celestia ordered, yelling at the earth ponies below. They moved efficiently, carrying out her orders without question. I flew up to her, interposing myself between her and the tower. She frowned at me. “Luna,” she said curtly, “I cannot effectively oversee the repairs if you are in the way like that.”
“The castle will not crumble in the two minutes I need to speak to you.”
“The castle will not. The tower will. If it falls even more of the city will be crushed.”
I snorted in anger. “Celestia! The construction workers know what they are doing! They do not need your constant supervision.” I inhaled deeply, forcing myself to calm down. “Twilight Sparkle hath sent you a message. She requests an audience with you immediately.”
“Impossible. I cannot spare any guards to go fetch her.”
“Would not it be simpler if you were to go to her?”
“And leave Canterlot unprotected? I could never abandon my subjects like that.”
I gave a frustrated growl. “Celestia! Twilight Sparkle and the other residents of Ponyville are your subjects, too! Furthermore, I can watch Canterlot while you are away! I am not a newborn.”
Celestia smiled at me, though it did not seem as comforting as it usually was. “I know you aren't, Luna, but due to your large absence from royal affairs I am uncertain about leaving you alone in such troublesome times.”
“Then I shall go escort Twilight Sparkle and her friends back to Canterlot,” I said through gritted teeth; Celestia, my sister, did not trust me to watch the city for even an hour?
“Neigh, sister, I cannot allow you to leave. It would be best if we restricted the number of ponies coming and leaving Canterlot. It is safer that way.”
“Art thou referring to the Changeling attack on the train?”
Celestia nodded. “That, and the reports of a Changeling attempting to gain access to the city. The guards on duty said it had taken the appearance of Fluttershy.”
“All the more reason to ensure Twilight’s safety. If the Changelings are attempting another attack, we will need the Elements of Harmony readily available.” I thrust the letter towards her. “At least see what she has to say about her situation, sister.”
Celestia took the letter and read it quickly. She cast me a glance once she had finished. “Luna, who is this ‘Prince Jake’ that Twilight mentioned?”
“I...may have neglected to mention this, but Twilight and her friends are the hostesses of a royal envoy from beyond our borders,” I said. “They seem to be well aware of the threat that is befalling Ponyville and are willingly helping out.”
“I was not aware of traveling royalty, were you?” She cast me a stern look.
“They were going to explain everything to us when they arrived, but the train was attacked, as you well know.”
“None of the ponies we spoke to mentioned anything about royalty in their midst.” Celestia pondered for a moment before her eyes took on a more concerned appearance. “What if they were Changelings as well? Think about it, this arrival of a foreign envoy which is to be brought here, the Changelings attacking the train said envoy was supposedly being transported on, and the guards turning away a Changeling in the form of Fluttershy - who was escorting these foreigners with her friends. It all seems connected.”
“Sister, I do not believe these creatures are in alliance with the Changelings.” I spoke with perhaps more certainty than I had. “We should heed your protégé’s words.”
“Agreed. She seems to feel the Elements will not be enough, so I see no reason to risk allowing Changelings into Canterlot at this time.”
I had to struggle to keep from gaping. “Do you not think that the Elements would at least help? Twilight may have made an error in judgment and the Elements will be a boon to them.”
“I trust Twilight’s judgment,” was all that Celestia had to say. She looked past me and yelled, “Careful! Don’t carry more than you can handle!” She flew off towards the tower, leaving me on my own. I silently fumed and dashed to catch up with her again.
“Celestia! There are more important things than your castle! Prince Jake has offered his help with the threat to Equestria. I think it best we get him, his followers, and the Element Bearers to explain the situation to us as soon as possible.”
“Nopony is coming into the city without my say-so, Luna.” Celestia said softly. “It isn’t safe out there. Rogue Changelings running rampant, mysterious objects from the sky crashing onto cities, and sightings of possibly dangerous creatures around the Everfree forest.” She gazed at the tower for a long while. “Twilight may not be herself anymore, either.”
“Are you doubting the reliability of your own student?!” I cried.
Celestia turned to me. “Yes. She wants the Elements but does not think they will be enough. I have never known Twilight to doubt her own skill.” She turned back towards the tower and murmured “Twilight is no longer with us, Luna. I know it.”
“She is with us! I spoke with her just yesterday!” I clamped my mouth shut, but it was too late.
“You left Canterlot? I thought I made my wishes quite clear.”
“I was unaware you dictated my life!” I shouted back, a hoof twitching in impatience.
“I do when the safety of my subjects is concerned,” she replied sternly. “Did you open the shield when you left?”
“Just large enough for myself.” I seethed with rage. “I am not so foolish as to jeopardize our subjects like that.”
Celestia blinked at me. “Is that so? What if the opening hadn’t closed behind you, or worse, grew in size?! Were you trying to give the Changelings an open invitation?”
“Sister, you are taking these precautions too far.”
“Am I? Or are you trying to get me to lower my defenses, Changeling?”
Every nerve in my body froze at that moment. “Celestia...how could you suggest such a thing?”
“You were outside of Canterlot. I cannot vouch for your whereabouts.” Celestia hastily explained, darting her eyes from side to side.
“Celestia!” I yelled at the top of my voice, anger and frustration fueling my words. Down below I could see ponies of all sorts stop what they were doing to look up at us, but I pushed them out of my mind for the moment. “You selfishly tend to your castle! Ponies are in danger and you ignore their cries for help, and you accuse your own blood of treason!” Wisps of magic began to flow from my horn. Subconsciously I felt them reach out and tap the Elements, still sealed away in the vault.
“Luna? What are you saying?”
“We deem you unfit to rule! A ruler who ignores her subjects should not be permitted to have subjects! And...” My voice broke for a moment. “You suspect me with no evidence!” I was no longer bonded to the Elements - that honour fell to Twilight and her friends, but I was once bonded long ago. I knew I could force a false bond just long enough to do what I had to. “Tending to your damaged castle? Sealing Canterlot away from the rest of Equestria? Refusing asylum to visiting dignitaries?” I shook my head in anger. “You are not the sister We remember!”
“The Changelings invaded once before! The train was attacked by Changelings, and Twilight said she captured one! Are you so naive to believe that this Prince Jake is really going to help us? Or is even royalty?” She glared at me with suspicion and inquiry. “Perhaps I was right; perhaps you are the one threatening Equestria!”
I fought down a flash of anger at the repeated accusation. “The nightmare no longer has a hold on us!” My horn tingled as I pushed the spell forward, tricking the Elements into rebonding with me. I inhaled deeply as I felt the raw magic join and mingle with my own. “If anything, you are the one threatening Equestria!” I flew up into the air and inhaled again, allowing the magic of the Elements to wash over me. I stopped flapping my wings, held aloft by the energy alone.
Celestia shook her head disbelievingly. “What? Luna, you are not bonded to the Elements anymore! You cannot wield them!”
I merely nudged forward mentally; the spell understood and a rainbow of light shot forth from my horn, surrounding Celestia. From far below I could hear the terrified screams of ponies in the streets, but they were drowned out almost immediately after by Celestia’s outraged cry.
“Lu-Lu! Stop! It’s me! Tia! Don’t do this!”
Another mental nudge and the rainbow shot straight up. The shield surrounding Canterlot cracked then shattered and dissipated. The rainbow continued up, forming a link between Celestia and the sun.
“Sister...” was all that she said before she vanished. The rainbow sparkled and returned to the ether from whence it came and I was alone in the sky.
For a long time I dared not move; only the sound of the tower beginning to fall snapped me back to reality and I shouted at the construction ponies. They moved faster than I expected, most likely out of fear of me rather than concern for the tower. I stared up at the sun for a moment - a simple task for me, though I do not recommend it to any others - and could just make out a faint outline of a pony in the center.
Trembling, I flew back to the castle proper and waltzed into the main throne room. I called for the captain of the guard, and it wasn’t long before Shining Armour was standing before me. He was uneasy, both from his shield spell failing and from what had transpired.
“Shining. I want you to go to Ponyville immediately. Find Twilight Sparkle and the other Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and bring them to Canterlot Castle. I will not accept any delays.” Shining nodded and smartly trotted off, bringing a small group of guards with him. With nothing more to say, I headed for my chambers.
The large doors slammed shut behind me and I was alone. It was only then that I slumped over, panting for breath and struggling to stand. I wearily walked over to my bed and crawled on top, grateful for the chance to lie down. Forcing the Elements to accept me had taken its toll, though I daren’t let my current weakness show.
I raised my head off the bed, glancing around the room. Through some cruel twist of irony I could see the sun through my window, hanging there with the faint outline of a pony now visible. Celestia. Trapped in the sun as I had been on the moon.
“Celestia... please forgive me.” I whispered to the empty room, then buried my head between my hooves and wept.
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This might be the best crossover idea I've seen yet. You, good sir, just scored a spot very near the top on my "to read later" list. I can already tell I'll enjoy this.
Screw reading, even if this ends up being terrible, the idea itself deserves a fave.
Holy. Fuck.
Holy...bucking...fuck.
Luna was epic!
*Cackles* This is amazing! I don't think Celestia is yeerk-ed and is instead just facing a crisis of faith so to speak.
Keep this wonderful story going!
Cheers
GM
Discord probably would've found that to be hilarious. You know, his arch nemesis being sent to the moon and all.
oh SHIT KEEP UPDATING DO IT NAO!
As if it weren't obvious by now one of the Princesses was a host...
Hm... Will the Yeerk even survive being sent into the sun?
Don't worry Luna. It was necessary. Celestia was clearly a controller. That's the only explanation I can think of. It should be interesting to see what happens when Jake explains this to her. It's also nice to know that she'll be herself again in three days.
All hell is about to break loose, isn't it.
1340807 Not if she's there for more than three days.
1340870
Maybe not. Do we even really know what Kandrona is, or where it comes from? For all we know, it could be extracted from stars.
Yes yes, I know what you are going to say. "If it was extracted from stars, how did the yeerks survive long enough to learn how to extract it?" I just say that the chemical composition of the atmosphere of the yeerk home planet probably focused it enough from their sun to make things survivable.
1340807
Seeing as NMM could change the face of the Moon, couldn't Controller!Celestia fuck with the sun somehow?
1340980
The way it's being presented here, it's the presence of an alicorn-entity on the surface of a celestial body that causes the image of a pony to appear. It had nothing to do with Nightmare Moon.
This chapter needs a bit of work. For one there is pretty much no ambiguity that Luna is facing a controller. What's truly sad is that the yeerk in charge absolutely sucks a being a yeerk and forces Celestia to act pretty far outside of her normal behavior. However I do feel this may be an attempted bait and switch by the author who's going to say "Nope, wasn't yeerked at all! The real villain is still loose! Celestia just decided to act really OOC because lol stress!"
And Luna! Oh boy. Ok what does Luna do with Celestia? Temporarily have her arrested? Nope. Straight to the fucking sun. What. the. fuck. That's.....beyond stupid really. No trying something else, just straight to solar banishment. If this stays, this needs to keep coming back to bite Luna in the ass, because that's a pretty major betrayal. Yes, Celestia was acting a bit off. No, it doesn't justify jumping straight to that.
Well, at least we've got proof that Luna's free of control. That's a good thing. With orders to retrieve all the main characters, things are starting to look up. Unless Shining is a controller!
1341022
Yeerks can be stressed out too - while they may have perfect memory access, they won't have perfect judgement.
Though sun banishment did seem a bit jumpy.
kandrona is a form of radiation that the yeerks saturate their pools in it comes from their sun and they swim in and eat it
How long does it take for the heat of the sun to fry a Yeerk?
1341022
Anything short of banishing her to the sun isn't an option. Luna couldn't convince most ponies to side with her over Celestia given her history, at least without proof; and imprisoning the sun princess is probably impossible by conventional means anyway. Yes, there will be consequences. Most ponies might assume she's a traitor, but she can still hold the throne against anything short of the elements and that's what matters at this point.
At last.
Excellent work, Author.
Geez seems the terrible stress of the situations has made things worse. I can't decide if Celestia is a controller (the obvious path) or if her actions stemmed from the fact that she could no longer trust every pony she knows and loves. (The more obscure path) though Luna throwing her to the sun like that might have been a little extreme.
*hugs Tricondon tightly, eyes red from crying so much*
Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU!
For two, if Celestia was a yeerk, and the hive felt this? Then they'd know that the major part of the invasion has been compromised, perhaps leading to faster actions that before. Maybe even on the scale that was experienced when Visser 3 finally got his way.
For 3, regardless of context, and if the ponies heard all the words that luna spoke, we are not entirely sure if in this continuity, the public trusts the princess of darkness. And for the more unsavory interpretations, many might think that nightmare moon has returned, and think of the chaos caused by that!
Finally, there's the fact that regardless, there's going to be a leadership gap from hereon out, as the 1000 years of comfort is simply a more natural leader compared to the "returned" princess of darkness.
Oh, this is not gonna be good at all!
Hm... this could cause all sorts of confusion when twilight meets up with Luna.
Totally unexpected, and I loved it!
1340950
Somebody never read the boooooks!
1340950
Read the books.
Kandrona is the name of the Yeerk's home sun. In the Yeerk's natural state, they were blind, tiny, and weak. The way to feed was to catch the rays of Kandrona's light into the pool. Until our too-nice Andalite Prince, Seerow, appeared to the planet. Seerow felt sorry for the Yeerks, as he was flying through the stars on space ships, and the Yeerks- well, they couldn't even walk.
But Seerow saw their potential. He decided to give them a chance. He allowed the Yeerks into a species called the Gedds. (aquatic monkeys) And the Yeerks, with Seerow's help, built the first Kandrona Wave/Particle Generator. Seerow gave them a ship, and off they flew. Then, the Andalites heard of the Yeerk plague. They were capturing so many, killing so many, and the Andalites had to stop them.
(Earth)
The Andalite Dome Ship was in orbit, along with the Yeerk Mother Ship and hundreds of Bug Fighters. Even the Blade Ship, Visser Three's own ship of death, was there. They fought over earth. And the Dome Ship was destroyed, hurtling Aximili Esgarrouth Isthill into the ocean. Then came Elfangor Sirinal Shamtul, who gave Marco, Rachel, Jake, Cassie, and Tobias the power to morph into any animal they touch.
Tadah!
That was unexpected. It is ambiguous if Celestia was a controller, but why would the elements send her to the sun instead of removing the yeerk?
1343306 Presumably the Elements aren't especially bright. They see a threat to harmony, they just remove the threat. For alicorns, trapping them in a celestial body is sufficient; for Discord, nothing short of total transfiguration into stone would do. Especially since Luna isn't the bearer of the Elements, just connected to them, so her powers with them aren't quite as powerful.
Heck, maybe it draws on the knowledge of the owner; since Luna didn't know about the Yeerk (that may or may not be there; I personally subscribe to the "Celestia knows about the Yeerks and has gone paranoid trying to figure out who to trust" theory), the Elements didn't know either, so couldn't remove it. Thus, if it had been Twilight and the others doing it, the Yeerk would have been removed.
I must say, this was a depressing chapter. Poor Luna... no offense, I'm not so worried about Celestia, there's a decent chance that the Yeerk-that-may-or-may-not-be-in-Celestia's-head will be fried, solving her biggest problem. But Luna's gonna have to live with the guilt for a loooong time. Sure, so does Celestia, but did Luna really have to join the club?
It appears that Celestia was utterly out of her depth. Changelings she could understand, but an evil body stealing alien empire allied with changelings has proven too much for her... or was it?
Wasn't there a line in there about the moon overtaking the sun?
Could this have been an engineered event?
At this point I cannot seem to recall if any mention of Visser 3's status and location has been made. Did he come to Equestria or stay behind?
I... remember this series. From years ago. I liked the hawk kid! Or the bunny kid? Idk.
Forget. But this is well written! VOTE UP!
I was going to make a comment about use of magic having to do with the amount of neurons firing in the brain at a certain rate and given that Alicorns are more powerful than Unicorns that the increased electricity might actually fry a Yeerk, but I can't claim to understand how the brain really works and since there are no Alicorns on my dear little planet I have no way of looking up a study performed on them given that there is none of this little world. Also without having an actual Yeerk around to study I have no idea as to find out what their shock-tolerance is and therefore can't really know how many AMPs it would take to kill one.
1342405
Ontop of that...IF the Yeerk manages to survive and can put two and two together...the entire Yeerk Armada now has a name to start hunting the Andalite Bandits with. And that name is "Prince Jake".
If Celestia is a Controller, then I hope she stays long enough to be purified. If she isn't, then I'd like to see her brought back after the Mane 6 and the humans arrive and have her fucking face rubbed in it.
Sigh, Kandrona, is a type of radiation emitted by the Yeerk Homeworld's sun. Yeerks evolved to absorb this radiation as a nutrient, the same way plants here on Earth absorb sunlight to create sugar. Every three days a yeerk must return to a yeerk pool to absorb kandrona radiation and nutrients from the pool. Like a battery.
The first hosts of the yeerks were the Gedds, native creatures to the Yeerk homeworld. There has not been a specification for how the first Gedd was taken as a controller, but the yeerks had already managed to take many of the gedd as hosts by the time prince seerow discovered them. He was surprised at how the yeerks were so intelligent, but could never travel among the stars, and in his kindness, he began to teach them andalite technology. One of these technologies was the Kandrona Particle Generator. With this device, the yeerks decided to steal andalite technology, taking weapons and ships and several pools worth of yeerks to spread cross the stars. Spread they did. one of the early species the yeerks conquored were the Hork Bajir. There they began to really develop into a technological monster, mining and building ships and weapoons, the andalite response to the invasion and subsequent conquoring was far too little to be a counter. Prince Alloran Semiur Corass had a quantum virus made, one that would destroy all of the hork bajir which contracted it. in an attempt to stem the yeerks. His actions proved to be effective, but far too late,
Prince Alloran's actions were inexcusable to the andalite government and upper military echelons, he was shamed and demoted, where he eventually was brought to elfangor, or rather had Arishth Elfangor assigned to him. It was during Alloran's dealings with skrit na and investigations which brought him to the taxxon homeworld where he was infested by the future visser three.
and that's how Equestria was made!
Wow. If Celestia really was a controller, she was acting horrendously out of character. The yeerks are usually better about that sort of thing.
So. I've been following this up till now and, frankly, assuming there isn't some sort of convoluted author-fooling-audience loop here, Luna's behavior here makes no sense.
Celestia's only makes sense if she's been either taken as a host, or is suffering a severe case of PTSD following her capture during the Changeling invasion. If it's the former, Luna doesn't know this yet, and if it's the latter, her sister needs help.
I mean, everything up to that point this chapter was building to a 'Celestia's been infested' revelation which would have made sense. The 'how' remains an issue since Celestia presumably has incredible willpower and one thinks with 5 seconds of control over her own body she could do something magical to free herself, but I'm willing to dismiss all that - somehow she gets taken over, fine.
But Luna banishing her, it seems...weak. It doesn't make any sense. If Luna knew Celestia was taken over, then yes, it makes sense - like banishing Nightmare Moon made sense. If Luna has been taken over, it makes sense, although this chapter seems to fairly conclusively say no, that isn't the case.
Everything in the chapter seems building up to a mini-climax of sorts, wherein either Luna figures it out, or Celestia reveals her hand - either way it ends with Luna being forced to flee as the stakes suddenly get much higher when it's confirmed just how high things get.
Instead, Luna takes 3 paragraphs to banish Celestia in a fit of pique, and she does it fairly effortlessly. Even if she were right - that Celestia was unfit to rule - her actions are extreme. She's facing a far greater threat than Discord, and she just took out one of the strongest possible allies (assuming Celestia isn't infested, again.)
If Celestia is infested, then there's the problem of 'Will the parasite die while banished to the sun' - if yes, then presumably she'll somehow escape within 3 days, and if no, there's a possible 'Final whatever' when she's presumably released. Either way...
Either way, this chapter is good until the final 20%, which frankly just seems a total 180 from how the story's gone thusfar and doesn't feel like it fits into the puzzle.
Does Anypony think that Celestia might be Chrysalis (or a possible yeerk)?
M. Knight Shamilan: What a twist!
1343082
Oh believe me, I did read the books.
Every last one of them.
It's just with all the details I DO remember, I for the life of me could not recall exactly where Kandrona energy came from.
Now if you ask, I can give details about the Howlers, how Shredder weapons work, the origin of ceremonial tail fighting, the first, last, and only time Eric went nuts, as well as the approximate number of seconds the battle took, and the number of pieces each member of the opposing force had been torn into, (Spoiler, the first number is far, far lower than the second) and even a few fairly obscure details on the only character in the series you think of when I call him "That Dirty Rat".
I just couldn't remember some technical details about the Yeerk planet in particular.
I think some people are being harsh on the authors' portrayal of both Luna and Celestia here. Keep in mind, this is based on the show; keep any preconceived notions from other fics out of it.
Look at what Celestia has done in the show. She's completely ineffectual, and comes of as a nitwit as often as not. If the authors' are playing her as uninfested, they could simply be writing her in an interpretation of the canon completely different than most fanworks, but no less valid. If they have her as an infested, the yeerk may just not be any good at tactics. You don't put your commanders in the most publicly visible individual in the world; there's a reason neither Vissers 1 nor 3 have an important human as their host. As to Luna, she may have been hasty, but she needed to do something very effective very quickly. Banishment to the sun was harsh, but was a good method of removing C from power quickly and cleanly.
While I'm on the topic, a few people have pointed out that the Element bearers should be more well known. I agree, they should be recognizable to anyone in the nation, but the show contradicts that. Equestria is presented as a place with particularly poor "celebrity" news circulation. It's just fine from a canon viewpoint if half of the ponies, even in and around Ponyville, don't recognize them on sight.
In any case, I'm looking forward to more of this. It feels like the pace should start picking up soon, though.
1347017
This.
It's pretty disappointing how everyone is crying over how Luna's going to deal with the guilt of banishing Celestia, when it's Celestia who was banished.
It was a completely unjustified action on Luna's part and I can only hope that Luna's a controller so that I don't have to hate her for being retarded.
Poor Celestia though, I imagine that she's been extremely paranoid since the changeling attack (the only part were we ever see her overpowered, and also it reveals she misjudged her niece completely) and really needed someone close to help her deal with her problems.
But Luna's like "Nope you don't get to have issues." and banishes her to the sun.
From Celestia's perspective all of her fears were justified in that moment and it means to her that she can't trust any of her loved ones.
ehhh, celestia had it coming. She was being a bit selfish.
1360306
The point I was getting at was twofold - either Celestia is paranoid and needs help, or Celestia is infested in which case banishing her = narrative issues. In both cases, Luna is overly hasty; in the former case, she's an awful sister (She should have seized power, but it should have taken more time and been done via less extreme methods) and in the latter case, Controller-Celestia wouldn't have just sat there to be banished.
Furthermore, it just happens super fast out of left field.
Luna is almost certainly not a controller since the chapter is from her perspective, she's met the humans already, and so you'd have to pull some crazy double reacharound shenanigans for it to work.
But, as I said - other than the banishment, I've enjoyed the story. It's just this one piece that doesn't fit well.
1367985
Yeah, it was just too sudden. It could be justified if Luna knew she was controller, but as is it just seems like she's a terrible sister.
Like the story though, just a couple glaring plot-holes (heh) that take away from the whole experience (i.e. Twilight has a spell that can sense Yeerks but never uses it).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=87oeJOteWIg#t=1s]this may cheer people up.
hopefully.
1370541
That one, I can kind of forgive, in that it just slips her mind because of stress or something. It's not -likely-, but it's feasible.
Luna's behavior here just doesn't add up!
I just realized that this same title is valid for a Power Rangers fic.
I doubt it would be as good as this though, considering how PR pretty much thrives on how cheesy it is.
@Everyone saying Celestia/Luna is a controller:
Care to explain how they managed to hold one of two immortal sister goddesses still long enough to infest?
Or maybe how, since this is not occurring within 3 days, why the hell Celestia didn't immediately boil the Pool with solar magic or Luna didn't just fry them with conjured lightning? I doubt a cage could do much to hold divinity back.
Um, that escalated quickly.
Seriously, that wasn't a good way to get rid of Celly at all. Luna snapping after a brief squabble and sending her to the sun? I'd suggest doing it a bit more gradually next time, instead of smacking the reader across the face with a huge turn of events caused by an OOC moment.
1362040 Just and necessary but not altogether fair. Luna had a reason but didn't think it through to mitigate or reduce emotional damage. A lot of people in this fanfic are easily animated. I mean, it's stressful, I know but crap. I mean, they are in Animorphs half the time and occasionally in MLP, but this is more than both combined.
YEERK!
To the mo-o-o-o . . . sun?
Bye bye visser seven *waves*
Celestia's on the sun now?
t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRf_bDk7TRNBMTmR-rGAKXuDK-7vZzU01v5XiZJRZ7HH8PMvs7j
Lunar Republic Forever!