Nightmare: An Equestrian Tragedy

by Meep the Changeling

A Single Mistake

Throne Room, Everfree Citidel - 1st of Solarus 1331 RH

3,864 Years Ago - The First Day

I had never believed that my sister and I would achieve our silly little dream. As the illegitimate children of the king and his champion, we had no claim to the throne. But we had always imagined various, elaborately unlikely, ways we might be allowed to assume the throne.

Yet here we were. Standing in the throne room of the somewhat soot-stained, mostly-intact, Everfree Citadel. It was ours now, given to us by the people as a gift to their saviors. A hefty responsibility beyond any I had ever truly thought would fall upon my shoulders.

I trotted forwards, marveling at the detail set into every last inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling. Truly the greatest gift of my ascension was my sight. The detail which ponies lovingly worked into everything around them was astonishing and beautiful.

“It’s amazing,” I said softly, looking up at the charred yellow and red banner which fluttered in tatters on the pillar next to me.

“Yes,” Celestia agreed. “I would never expect a hoard of angry peasants to be capable of so much… I can’t even see a hint of our half-brother’s body.”

I frowned, turning to face Celestia to speak to her, a habit I had picked up very quickly. It just made sense to see a person as you spoke.

“I did not mean that, dear sister,” I said, doing my best to ignore the pile of bodies at the base of the throne dais. “I mean this building is beyond beautiful. Look at the banners! See how they twitch in the breeze? You never told me that the world was so… Alive!”

Celestia smiled slightly. I could tell the deaths were weighing heavily on her. Celestia had never been very good with violence. While she would use it if she had to, it had always been clear she had a bit of an upset stomach with every fight.

“I did my best to tell you what sight is like. I am certain somepony else could have done better. But as the Library Mages say, ‘Seeing is Believing’,” she replied.

“I understand that phrase now,” I admitted, turning to cast my eyes over the hall once more, drinking in the little patterns the shadows from objects made on the walls.

“Well, no…” Celestia said hesitantly as if brewing a lecture. “There’s more to it than the surface level- Oh forget it, it’s not important.”

This had to be worse than I thought. Celestia never stopped talking before explaining whatever intellectual curio was on her mind. The fact that our father lay dead had to be eating away at her. Not that it really should, mind you.

I turned once more, walking over to my sister to give her a tight hug, taking care to not cut her neck with the jagged parts of my ruined armor. She returned the hug, letting go with a sudden hiss as she pulled me into her neck, knicking herself on one of the many cracked sections of my peytral.

“Ow!” She exclaimed mostly as a reflex.

“I’m sorry,” I exclaimed urgently. “I should have removed-”

“It’s fine, Luna. There hasn’t been enough time. And besides, it was brave of you to take that ice bolt for that peasant mare,” Celestia said proudly.

I felt a blush creep across my cheeks. “Yes, well… I could hardly let the fairest flower of any field be trampled, now could I?” I said, revealing a bit too much with my tone.

Ponyfeathers!

Celestia frowned, eyes scrunching in genuine confusion. “Fairest flower?” She asked.

Nope! Not having this conversation now! Or in fact, ever! Nope nope nope. We do not want to lose our one friend!

I cleared my throat, immediately launching into the speech I had prepared to comfort her. “What I meant to say earlier, sister, is I understand you are in pain over the King’s death,” I said perhaps a bit over quickly in my haste to move away from my slip of the tongue. “But he was our father in blood only. Our sire and nothing more. Name one thing he had done for you or I, other than not have us burned at the stake for simply being born. I’ll wager you can not.”

“W-well, he did allow mother to take us on as her apprentices,” Celestia pointed out. “Had this not occurred, with Clover and Mother’s training we could have reached a fairly high position-”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “We both know he agreed to that so he could continue to plow her field while the Queen wasn’t looking,” I said rolling my eyes. “He was our progenitor, but I would say Starswirl is our father by deed. Every cold winter's night since our sixth winter it was his magic which warmed us, his room which kept the snow and windigo at bay. Likewise, Clover is more of a mother to us than our mother is. They have earned our parentage. This…meat before us is of no consequence. It did not want us, save for as a tool to advance himself in status, and to retain a plaything.”

Celestia winced, sighing loudly. “Luna, you’re right. I- I do not like the barbarism shown here. Yes, he was a poor leader. Yes, many ponies were harmed by his decisions… But you were not inside when he fell. I was.”

Ah, yes. Torn and quartered by a mob would be a horrific end to witness.

“I understand,” I admitted. “But he brought it upon himself. I can not remember the last time I heard of a patrol ensuring the safety of a road or village. Now, a noble’s estate, why, I am certain there are soldiers manning many of them right now, who have not yet heard of the Crown changing hooves.”

“He did,” Celestia agreed. “But we could have talked-”

“No, you could not have,” I said, almost laughing. “He would have had your head if you demanded he surrender.”

“Maybe… I am still at about a tenth of my power,” Celestia mused.

It had been a long and draining week. Both of us were depleted and exhausted. And yet, there was still so much to do.

“I think that Equestria has had enough of Kings and Queens,” Celestia mused aloud, a thoughtful look on her face.

“I- Sister! Surely you are not thinking of attempting to-”

Celestia shook her head rapidly. “Of course not! Trottlund’s Parliament is a mad house. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth. It is the titles of King and Queen I wish to retire. Clover is certain we will not age. It seems unfair for a nation to have an immortal Queen.

“But if we rule under the title of Princess, symbolically we leave room for a higher authority. We could perhaps encourage worship of the old gods by proclaiming Faust the Queen.”

I shook my head rapidly. “That would not go over well. Trust me, I have spent far more time with the peasantry than you. Most of them despise the clergy more than the nobility. I was considering disbanding it.”

Especially since they would stop hanging my potential mates if they no longer existed… Though there was more to that idea than personal gain.

“Then what would you suggest? Assuming you feel the same way about those titles,” Celestia asked.

She sounded and looked quite serious. This was for whatever reasons something she was fixated on… Perhaps she needed a way to make herself feel like she was not participating in the royal slaughter? Yes, that had to have been it.

I thought for a few minutes, nodded in satisfaction, and then said, “We rule under the titles of Princess of the Sun, and Princess of the Moon. Yes, I know I don't actually control the moon, but the poetry in that statement is nice, and dreams are a thing of the night, are they not? This way, should Clover produce more Alicorns, we could add more to the Crown. Assuming we trusted them and needed the help, of course.

“As for the title of King, we abandon it. When we announce this decision we officially proclaim Equestria itself to be Equestria's Queen. Then we clearly send the message that we are here to serve the people and the kingdom.”

Celestia’s smile almost seemed to make the room brighter. “That is a poetic idea, I like it. Yes, that is what we will do,” she decided. “We shall rule over this land for the sake of the land and its inhabitants as equals-”

“No!” I said firmly, eyes widening in horror.

Celestia frowned, looking at me uncertainly. “No?”

“Sister, I have been able to see for less than three weeks,” I explained. “You have fifty-three years of reading and study to your name. You are the one who knows of the ideals behind laws and of alternatives to nearly everything under the sun. Which you yourself command!

“But me? I am rather good at spinning a halberd and splitting the skulls of my enemies. I will gladly rule at your side, but I will need a lot of schooling before I feel confident that I can make a sound decision on the scale of a royal decree. You have never liked battle, allow me to command our armies and serve as a second in command. That way you can catch the flaws in my ideas as I shall have to run them by you.”

Celestia’s frown deepened. “Luna, are you absolutely certain you do not want equal power? The longer it takes for you to catch up, the harder it will be to change the norms of the court to grant you equal power to myself if I am made the… High Princess, I suppose.”

I nodded firmly. “I am very certain. I do not wish to live with the knowledge I brought harm onto thousands of innocents due to my ineptitude. We should each do what we are good at. Let the sun nourish the land and the people, and let the moon keep the darkness at bay.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Alright. If that’s what you want, that’s how we will do it.”

---

Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH

Present Day

Lyra winced as Luna finished speaking. “Okay, yeah. I see what the problem was there,” she admitted slowly.

Luna laughed. “It’s quite obvious in hindsight, isn’t it? I think that Celestia knew it would wear on me… But unfortunately, I also convinced her in that same moment that I simply didn’t want the responsibilities of setting policy. I did naturally, just not until I knew what I was doing.

“But she was right. It established what ‘normal’ was for our young nation. And set the ball rolling.”

Lyra shuffled her forehooves on the floor for a few moments, clearly holding in a question which Luna politely waited for.

“So um, before you move on… Did you get with that mare you took a spell for?” She asked sounding a bit hopeful.

Luna shook her head in an especially emotionless way. Her face had been pretty, but it had also been thousands of years ago. The fires had long since died.

“No, my first lover wasn’t for another thousand years. I had a second one two thousand years after that… But it would not have worked out well,” Luna admitted. “While Starswirl and Clover would have wished me well with a marefriend back then, I would have been seen as an abomination. Such was the way things were at the time.

“It took Celestia two thousand years after assuming the Crown to get over the bigotry she was taught by the nobles of our birth era. And once she did she changed laws to ensure everypony could find love and live happily. I did not pressure her, or even mention my own desires. She truly changed her mind. It was a wonderful thing,” she explained.

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Wait, but you said you had a marefriend a thousand years after-”

Luna giggled. “Yes, and she sparked my love of pranks. Amber Dust was an excellent illusionist and actor. Celestia never knew.”

Lyra blinked in surprise, then broke into a grin as she came to understand Luna’s words. “She sounds like she was fun.”

Luna nodded, a sad look flashing across her face. “She was, we will get to her in time… She was one of the...points leading up to my second ascension, as one could call the Nightmare. Shall I continue?”

Lyra nodded eagerly. “Yes please.”

Luna nodded and continued. “The first event on my path came when I wanted to found a small Knight Order bound to loyal service by voluntarily undertaken magically binding oath…”

Comments

[Zurvan]

Somehow I now see Luna and Celestia singing a version of this :

[Xenamare]

What the hay is EoH stand for ?

[Meep the Changeling]

9914442 Era of Harmony. It's the dating system I used for these stories. In essence, the Era of Harmony serves as a AD/CE for the ponies, with the 0 data being Luna's return and the reactivation of the Elements of Harmony.