• Published 2nd Aug 2017
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Evening Star Also Rises - Starscribe



Princess Luna is tired of living in her sister's shadow. She petitions Starswirl for help, and what she receives is far from what anypony expected. The real question is whether Equestria will survive her mistake.

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Chapter 6: Celestia

Hayden kept her eyes defiantly on the ground—there would be no concealing their strange pattern from this ruler once she saw. No concealing her wings, if she asked her to remove the robe. I hope Luna was wrong about you, she thought. Otherwise, I’m dead. Her colleagues at work had always joked she would be killed by a wild animal on one of her hikes. This probably hadn’t been what they had in mind.

“Rise, Lady Evening Star,” Celestia commanded. “That… is your name, is it not? My sister just informed me, please correct me if I am mistaken.”

It was news to Hayden, but she didn’t plan on correcting the princess anytime soon. She kept her stupid mouth shut. So much for that idea. Hayden couldn’t defy the princess to her face—that would only make it worse when she discovered what Luna had done. So she straightened, still avoiding Celestia’s eyes.

Celestia walked past her, into the room that had been ripped apart with construction. Hayden didn’t watch her closely, but she did see Luna spare her a sympathetic glance before following her sister over. “This is exceptional. You aim to do with gravity what some have proposed we do with magic.”

Hayden nodded. “Yes, Princess. Where I come from, having water on command is common, and there are…” She coughed. “Somewhat higher standards for sanitation.”

“Is that so?” Celestia didn’t turn around. “Nightbreeze, you may depart. Instruct the guard to permit no entry to this chamber until we are done here.”

“Yes, Princess.” Nightbreeze bowed again, then vanished with a flick of her tail out the door. It clicked closed behind her.

“Sister, there is no need for this,” Luna said. “Evening Star’s presence here is at my command. I have taken every necessary precaution. You should return to court.”

Princess Celestia ignored her. Her mane brightened somewhat, changing from the flowing shades of pink and green to something hotter. Hayden felt the room grow warmer, like someone had switched on a large propane heater. The feeling of energy from Celestia got stronger too—what she really wanted to do was hide, wait for the storm to pass. But the storm had come for her, there would be no hiding from it.

“My sister does not remember Carcosa as I do,” Celestia said, her voice low and dangerous. “She was too young.” Celestia stepped forward, closer to Hayden. Each step brought another few degrees of heat to the air. Hayden was already sweating in her robe. But she couldn’t take it off—that would only make things worse. “I did not know there were other survivors.”

“I don’t know what that is, Princess,” Hayden said. “I am not from Carcosa. My hometown is Colorado Springs. I don’t know where that is, b-but I’m… pretty sure it’s not on your planet.”

Celestia didn’t slow in her approach. It must be at least a hundred degrees in the room. This should help my mortar to set. Too bad I’ll be dead before I can enjoy it. “That is an interesting story, ‘Hayden.’” She stopped. “Remove your robe. Now.”

Hayden did, and for the first time the slight awkwardness to being naked didn’t even enter her mind. There was no room for that when she felt so much fear.

“Sister, you must listen to me. Hayden is not an Outsider, nor is she some warped creation of the Old City.”

Celestia’s expression only became more intense. Before Hayden could protest, she found herself lifting into the air. Hayden couldn’t feel hands—it was more like the entire world around her was conspiring to pick her up, flinging her backward against the wall. She screamed, then grunted with pain as she smashed into the bookshelf.

On her back, something snapped, and she found it suddenly hard to concentrate. Words came through foggy, replaced with a throbbing agony from her wings.

Hers wasn’t the only scream. Through watery eyes, Hayden could see Luna drop to the ground as well, clutching at her entirely healthy wing. There was no blood visible through her feathers, though Hayden could feel it trickling down her own skin.

“What—” Celestia’s eyes widened, confused.

“She isn’t a demon!” Luna screamed, her own mane blazing to life as Celestia’s had done. The heat of noon vanished, replaced with a blowing chill, whipping about the room. Hayden couldn’t make out the details, and frankly she was in too much pain to care. “I summoned her from within, sister! She is…” She whimpered, and her eyes stopped glowing. “If she knows of Carcosa, it is from my memories.”

The invisible wind holding Hayden to the wall stopped abruptly. She tumbled to the ground, landing with a painful thump. Painful only because of the shock it caused her wing. “Then why is she a monster?” Celestia asked, her anger cooled a little. Still there in her tone, unmistakable. “Why not a pony, or some other creature?”

Luna shook her head, tears streaming down her face. She looked like she might be about to answer. Then she said, “Ask Star Swirl, maybe he knows. He helped me with the spell. We’re working on a treatment, to fix the way she looks. It’s probably a—”

“No,” Celestia said, her voice commanding. She gestured again, and Hayden felt herself flung through the air. She whimpered, covered her face, and prepared for another terrible wound… but none came. Instead, she felt herself rise into a standing position, warmth gathering around her wing. There was another brief surge of pain, a cracking sound, then nothing.

Hayden dared a glance behind her, and to her astonishment there was no more trace of her injury. A break that should’ve taken months to heal was gone in seconds. If she has that kind of power, can she send me home too?

But she didn’t have the chance to ask. Celestia was still speaking. After what had just happened, Hayden wasn’t about to interrupt her.

“I forbid you to do anything that would conceal this thing. If you intend to keep it, then all will know. Ponies will see and know the danger that surrounds them. They will react accordingly.”

Forbid?” Luna repeated, expression darkening. “Sister, we rule together, as equals. I will do what I choose.”

Celestia’s eyes hardened. “And if the castle guards see her breaking my express command, they will do as I order.”

Hayden retreated a step, out of the space between them. The longer the interaction continued, the more she wished she was somewhere else. Getting between these two seemed about as smart as climbing into the center of a live reactor.

Luna recoiled as though her sister had slapped her. The door to the bedroom slammed open so hard the knob dented against the stone wall. “My sister is finished here,” Luna bellowed, loud enough to address a crowd of hundreds. “Good luck in court.”

Celestia spoke in a low whisper, quiet enough that Hayden was certain none of the guards would hear. Only she would, and Luna. “Summoning is dangerous magic, sister. The sooner you end this experiment, the safer Harmony will be.” Princess Celestia didn’t spare a backward glance for either of them.

Luna slammed the door shut before the guards or servants could enter. Then she slumped forward onto the ground, covered her face, and started to cry.


Hayden spent the next hour or so doing her very best impression of a rock. She huddled down against the ground, doing as little as possible to remind Princess Luna that she was present.

Luna apparently had power like Celestia, yet Hayden had spent all this time treating her like an equal. She could’ve picked me up and beaten me to a pulp whenever she wanted, and I couldn’t have done a thing about it. Worse, it seemed like Celestia was on Hayden’s side when it came to going home. Every time she asked about being sent back, she would be reminding Luna of this.

Are you two really sisters? How could family let their relationship fall apart this way? Of course, they were also rulers of an apparently powerful country. Human royalty had been known to kill each other, maybe ponies weren’t that different.

Then Luna sat up. Her mane still disheveled, no longer glowing with an infinite starfield as it had been. She looked like a teenager who’d just broken up with her boyfriend, and didn’t want anyone to know about it. “I’m sorry you had to witness that,” she said. “I did not anticipate… Celestia rarely takes an interest in my activities. I expected it would be months before she met you. By then, you would’ve had a proper disguise, would’ve been coached in etiquette… it’s all ruined now.”

Luna approached her slowly. Hayden couldn’t help but recoil, expecting an attack, but of course none came. Instead, she felt a slight tingle of magic around her, and all the dust and bits of splinter blew away from her coat. It was soothing, almost comfortable. “Admitting you to court is a fool’s errand now. We’ve failed.”

Hayden took a deep breath. It was probably smarter just to stay quiet. But at the same time, she found she couldn’t. The sudden, crushing loneliness she felt did not originate from within. The powerlessness, the desperate clawing for love and respect.

In that moment, she realized she’d been feeling those things all along. Ever since arriving in Equestria, she had felt what the princess did. Hayden only had two ways of reacting to such feelings—since she couldn’t go hiking, she’d used the only one left to her and started building things. That had worked, for her, but it appeared healing did not travel along this strange connection.

She felt the pain when Celestia broke my wing. Now I feel what she’s feeling. “I probably should reverse the spell,” Luna said. “You brought so much with you—it shouldn’t take more than a day to find an object with ties to your realm. I will have to find another solution.”

“Maybe… not,” Hayden squeaked.

“What?”

She couldn’t meet Luna’s eyes, with all that intensity focused on her. “The damage of my being gone is already done,” she finally said. “It’s been weeks. I already lost my job, my apartment…” She hesitated. “My family probably already thinks I’m dead. I don’t want to worry them, but a few more weeks won’t make things much worse.”

Luna blinked, apparently lost for words for the first time. Hayden surged bravely forward. “I don’t understand what you want from me. Maybe that required going to court—or maybe it wouldn’t. There might be another solution. Maybe we could work together to find it.”

A little of the pain coming from Luna was suddenly gone. She made no visible sign of it, but she couldn’t hide her injuries from Hayden. Now she could feel her hope. “You think so?”

“Yeah.” Hayden straightened, smiling slightly. “I’m an engineer, Princess. Maybe… maybe your world doesn’t have many of those. But in mine, we’re the ones who solve problems. There’s nothing that can’t be worked out with a little ingenuity. If you were clear about your problems, maybe the two of us together could figure something out. Then when you send me back, at least one of our lives will be intact.”

The princess laughed, though her eyes were still red and watering. “T-that is the most forward anypony has ever been with me, Hayden.”

“Is that bad?”

“I’m… not certain. But I think I prefer it to veiled threats.” She took a deep breath. “I know you’ve been studying magic, but this is… somewhat beyond what you’ve covered. I do not believe you will understand.”

She raised a hoof before Hayden could object. “I will try anyway. You already know we’re connected.” She flexed her own wing, where Hayden had felt the break earlier. It was still sore, though any outright damage seemed healed.

“This connection is deeper than pain. You’ve been tied to my nature, Hayden. This means that changes to you change who I am.”

“And vice versa,” Hayden guessed.

“No.” Luna didn’t look reproving at least. “And yes. You represent a specific aspect of my personality, Hayden. The part of me that ponies fear. That stops me from winning their hearts, as my sister does. You represent the reasons ponies spend all day awake appreciating my sister’s work, and sleep my nights away in their homes. It is not the beauty of my creation that’s lacking, it is me.”

“I… I’m not sure I quite understand,” Hayden admitted.

That got a slight smile from Luna, the first one she’d seen all day. “I couldn’t change you back, because you would have already changed for me to change in the first place. But changes to you move the other way—much more directly. That’s the purpose of the spell. I wanted to change my nature. So far, the spell has not gone… quite as expected. It appears I’ve imposed the properties of a goetic demon upon a citizen of another realm.” She hesitated, but Hayden could practically hear her thoughts. Or someone who thinks they are.

Luna had defended her by insisting that Hayden was a part of her. It was possible that she was right. Maybe the world she knew was less real than the place she lived in now. No. My things came with me. She said that meant I was real.

“The others don’t accept you,” Hayden repeated, speaking slowly. “And you think that changing me so that I’m… good at social interactions and stuff… will fix your problem. Right?”

Luna nodded. “That’s the simplified version, yes. But I don’t know how that could be accomplished. My sister does not issue empty threats—she intends to have you arrested if you ever leave this tower while disguised.” Luna lowered her voice, looking away. “If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect she knew what I was doing, and was trying to sabotage me. Suspect that she wants Equestria to herself. But… that can’t be it. She’s my sister, she wouldn’t do that.”

“Yeah,” Hayden agreed, though she wasn’t inclined to think highly of Celestia after her experiences today. “She’s probably just trying to keep everyone safe, like she said. But she didn’t say you couldn’t still try. This experiment… maybe it could still work.”

Luna raised her eyebrows. “Bring you to court anyway? Looking like that?”

“Why not?” Hayden asked. “I don’t care what I look like—feathered wings would be just as much a freak as these.” She held them out, flexing. “I’m sick of this damn tower. It’s time to do something."

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