Pipsqueak was smiling, a broad, glowing smile that stretched across his face as he bounced up and down where he stood babbling excitedly. Gently, she placed a hoof atop his head and guided him back down to the earth, hoping fervently that his youthful merriment had not drawn attention to their hiding place.
Pipsqueak was smiling, and his smile was infectious. Like a plague it spread, down through his tiny hooves and across the ground, worming its way up through her and coming to rest in her heart. Pipsqueak was smiling, and Luna smiled with him.
The pair watched silently from within the leafy embrace of one of the many bushes that had come to dot the area now called Ponyville during her long absence, eyes fixed upon the door to the schoolhouse. Both were trembling with excitement – Pipsqueak for the coming fruition of his old and secret dream, and Luna in simple delight at the joy she was about to bring to the young pony who had shown her that ‘twas not the whole world that saw her as a monster.
The door creaked open, and the face of the teacher appeared in the doorway. Luna had to repress a royal giggle as she recalled the expression on that one’s face when she had strode into the school before the rising of the sun and informed her that Pipsqueak would not be in attendance. Certainly she was no monster, but would be dishonest to say that she did not sometimes enjoy the awe in her subject’s faces at the sight of their Princess.
The little ponies began to depart the structure one by one, and she watched them. A portly grey colt, exiting alone – the expression on his face made Luna consider inviting him to join them, but ‘twould have been too great a risk to their cover – a white and red filly with a cutie mark of candy canes. Perhaps some relation to Pinkamena Diane Pie. The littlest Apple. A small white unicorn singing softly as she went. And two fillies, one grey and one pink, gazing at the ponies around them with nothing but contempt.
To her surprise it was then that her young companion tugged at her leg and whispered, “That’s her! Diamond Tiara! She’s the one!”
Luna couldn’t help but curl her lip slightly at the questionable taste exhibited by a colt she intended to one day have in her guard, but the choice was not hers to make. She forced a small, dignified smile onto her face and whispered “Then let us go forth and claim her heart,” before she burst forth from the bush and stood towering over the tiny, terrified fillies.
“LADY DIAMOND TIARA!” She greeted them calmly “WE ARE HONOURED TO INFORM THEE THAT THOU HAST GARNERED THE ATTENTION OF THE KINDEST AND MOST NOBLE COLT IN ALL OF PONYVILLE. AS YOUR PRINCESS WE HAVE GIVEN HIM OUR ROYAL FAVOUR, AND HE HAST REQUESTED THAT YOU BE INVITED TO A FEAST!”
The pink filly stared up at her, shaking violently, as the grey one bolted away down the road as fast as her hooves would carry her. Frowning, Luna cleared her throat and tried again.
“I apologise if I was somewhat overenthusiastic. My dear friend Sir Pipsqueak was wondering if you would do him the honour of joining him for dinner at the palace this evening.”
The filly didn’t stop shaking, but her eyes widened and she bobbed her head up and down with a sob and let out a choked “Okay.”
Luna smiled. And she knew that Pipsqueak was smiling, too.
———
Pipsqueak was smiling as he gazed across the table at her, eyes wide and bright with love and adoration. It was not often that Luna saw that expression, on any face, and so she allowed herself to bask in it for just a moment. Then she bowed to him, face solemn. After a short moment, he returned the gesture, as was tradition.
“PIPSQUEAK OF PONYVILLE.” She began softly, “THOU HAST BEEN CHOSEN, ONE FROM AMONG THE MANY, AS THE FIRST IN A MILLENIA TO ENTER INTO THE RANKS OF THE PERSONAL GUARD OF LUNA, PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA AND MAIDEN OF THE NIGHT! DOST THOU ACCEPT THIS CHARGE, KNOWING THAT YOU MAY NEVER AGAIN RETURN TO THE LIFE YOU ONCE KNEW?”
For a moment, Pipsqueak hesitated. And then his face became grim, and he nodded firmly. “I accept, Princess Luna.”
Unable to help herself she reached over and pulled him into a tight embrace, proud tears trailing down her face as she whispered. “I’m so proud of you, little one.”
And then she cleared her throat and continued. “THOU HAST CHOSEN A PONY THAT YOU FEEL IS A DRAIN ON EQUESTRIA, WHOM BY THE VERY DRAWING OF EACH BREATH IS A BURDEN UPON OUR FAIR NATION. WE, WHO RULE OVER THIS LAND, HAVE ABSOLUTE FAITH IN YOUR JUDGEMENT, AND THE SENTENCE HAS BEEN PASSED.”
As her gaze fell on the shaking, terrified filly Luna felt a momentary pang of regret. She pushed it aside – if Pipsqueak claimed this filly was evil, Luna had to believe him. And there was no going back now.
“THIS PONY SHALL DIE BY YOUR HOOVES, AND IN DEVOURING HER HEART AND HER FLESH YOU SHALL ALSO GAIN THE MAGIC THAT FLOWS THROUGH HER VEINS. WHEN NOT A SCRAP REMAINS I WILL USE MY POWER TO BESTOW UPON YOU THE GIFT OF THE CHANGE, AND THOU SHALT BE BOUND TO MY SERVICE FOREVER!”
Pipsqueak nodded, and picked up the knife with shaking hooves. Luna watched as he began to cut, his technique brutal and ineffective. The screams of this filly would haunt her for many years to come. But she was a necessary sacrifice. As they had all been.
Luna smiled, and her smile was infectious. Pipsqueak grinned up at her as Diamond Tiara finally stopped screaming, and he began to feast.
The Prompt: The pony who holds Diamond Tiara’s heart.
oh god whyyyyyyyyy
this is pretty hilarious, actually
I'm reminded of pixelkitties' comic with cannibal Applebloom and Zecora LOL
I think you're taking that prompt a bit too literally.
Also: WHOA! Didn't see that coming
I'm always a fan of Dark Luna.
...But...
I thought...he loved her...
Did he only love her because he thought she would taste good?
Either way, that horrid monster is gone now! Yay!
Well, that explains where Luna's strange bat-pegasi came from, I suppose. Because Luna didn't seem to have any when she was Nightmare Moon, but she had two by Nightmare Night. I'll just assume this ritual is like a permanent, hardier version of that spell that gave Rarity wings.
Funny thing is, much as I hated Diamond Tiara in her first appearance, I rather liked her as the newspaper editor determined to do whatever it took to make her paper a success rather than being mean for the sake of meanness. Of course, she was back to being a moronic bully by the Zap Apple episode (though to be fair, a lot of the things she thought were crazy were things Applebloom thought were crazy, too). Doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good story of featuring her horrific death, but I suspect I'm getting less visceral glee from it than a lot of people. Decent pun as it's base, anyway.
1141205>>1143131 Glad you folks enjoyed it.
1141451 I can't say I've read it. I imagine it would frighten me.
1141880 Well, I had two choices. I could have written a silly little comedy about ponies trying to win over DT...
Or I could write Luna. Really, in the end, there was no choice. Because come on, it's Luna! I can't not write Luna.
Glad it surprised you.
1145969 And now she'll never have the chance to become a nicer person.
1147023 I don't especially hate DT, except in a 'she's mean to the crusaders' kind of way. She actually amuses me quite a bit, and I don't get any particular joy from her death. Even though she's the focus of the prompt, she's not meant as the focus of the story - that's firmly on Pip and Luna. Honestly, Luna is being very foolish here - she's letting a child judge someone as evil because she so desperately wants him as part of her guard, and so needs to believe he can be trusted. It's a terrible mistake, and Luna at least will regret it for a long time.
And yeah, that's the idea - basically a permanent transformation that makes them that little bit better than the ponies around them, but also twists them. It uses the magic absorbed from another pony as its basis, hence why that's needful.
Wow.
That...
Wow.
I REALLY did not see that coming, not even a little. Goddamn.
Evil Luna.
1152259
1147023
...except if Pipsqueak is the first in a millennium, and this is shortly after Nightmare Night, the bat-winged guards of Nightmare Night could not have been the same. Quod erat demonstrandum.
2510834 Wow, it's so long ago that I wrote this now I can't even remember what my justification for that was, if I even had one. At a guess, it would have been to do with the ritual granting the bat ponies longer lives, proportional to who they drained them from. But I dunno. Call it a plot hole, I guess.
2510871 Well, maybe there's a difference. The "normal" batponies we've seen (and the darker guards, possibly on Luna shift), may not be what Pipsqueak is changing into. Her "Personal Guards" could be far more formidable. The only batponies we saw were technically her chauffer's. Easy way to fix a plot hole (other than stuffing something in it. OK, bad mind, back into the gutter...)
This...this..well to be frank I found it kinda stupid. I mean, why would Luna take the word of an elementary school level colt that a filly at the same age is evil? So evil that she deserves to die. That's just.....stupid really.
I get that Luna might not be stable mentally after the whole 1000 years thing but she didn't really seem like that.
To put it simply, what the hell is this crap?
2683084 A lot of these stories are fairly stupid. It's the nature of writing them in half an hour on a whim - they're far from brilliantly planned and sometimes they're downright idiotic. As for this, someone requested I write silly cannibalism so I did; there's really nothing more to it than that. I'm sorry you dislike it, but there's really no call to be rude.
My face.... if you could see my face right now... My jaw just fell off...
*blinks* Well, that escalated quickly.