Chapter 6: Well met
While the form Luna had after being hit with the elements was a temporary one resulting from her body not holding any magic, she had not had an ethereal mane before becoming one with Nightmare Moon (literally, not figuratively like last night).
Her sister had been unable to tell her why, so she was left wondering, but much to her surprise, when she woke up after the best described as wild night, still feeling sore but warm, she could see ethereal hair waving to the edge of her vision.
It took her a moment to remember that she had fallen asleep next to Nightmare, and that the stellar mane flowing down her side was most likely not her own; the black arms wrapped around her and black wing covering her like a blanket supporting that theory.
She tried to shuffle out from under the bigger mare, but found it hard to do, moving around so much that it woke up the black pony.
A big yawn escaped her, before she pulled Luna closer, her snout pushing into Luna’s neck.
“It’s nice to hold someone so close, or to be held like this…” she mumbled, and Luna decided she could spare a few more minutes just lying there. After all, she still was recovering from magical – and now physical – exhaustion.
Her face exploded into a blush when her mind replayed the events of the night. Nightmare, though, took the opportunity and placed her muzzle next to her ear.
“So, you want to go again?” she asked with a smirk in her voice, making the poor princess blush even harder.
“We shouldn’t!”
“Was that what I asked?”
Luna had no chance to hide her embarrassment as she found herself unable to respond with a negative to that question, burrowing her burning face in her hands.
Yawning, I stumbled into the bathroom, a bit pissed about the fact that even using up my magic twice was not enough to cleanse the energy that was forcing me to visit this plane. After teasing Luna and holding her for a while, we both realized it was time to get up.
The booklet Nightmare made for me floating next to me, I was washing myself, looking into the book and reading over the spell time and time again. A healing spell can cause burn wounds if cast incorrectly – but not on such a level as it did with me, even considering the energy in it.
“Urgh, I don’t get it,” I groaned, throwing the book back into my magic storage. I concentrated, trying to find the original Nightmares’ mind, but I found that the dimensional barrier was quite strong (as it should be).
I would have to return to Earth before speaking with her.
“Art thee trying to find the reason the healing spell harmed thee?” Luna asked, and I shrugged.
“Essentially, yes. It did too much harm, even for the energies that did flow into it.”
“Mayhaps tis’ the nature of thy magic. Our sister can cast shadow magic, yet it harms her, you can cast holy magic, yet it harms thee.”
Those magics indeed were opposites. I remembered that in the show Celestia once used dark-looking magic to demonstrate the two states of the crystal empire (with and without Sombra in it), so them being completely different could heighten the impact it had on a being attuned to different magic.
What confused me was that I had a physical body and I neither am nor was a spirit fueled by dark energy. I could have accepted that explanation were that case, but for now, I certainly was missing something.
Before I could start to sink into theorizing about the finer aspects of magic, Luna spoke up again, surprising me with her suggestion.
“We think it is time for us to greet sister. Come, I shall introduce you to each other.”
“Is that truly a wise idea? After what has happened, your sister should hate our very presence.”
“Tis’ not true… she knows as well as us that our anger was responsible for more of our actions than the previous Nightmare hath been… that is why our sister has not forgiven herself, knowing our anger was real. We both hath failed each other, a millennia past.”
Celestia, in fact, was loathing a lot of things more than Nightmare Moon (namely Sombra), since she knew that the only reason the whole incident a millennium past happened was a combination of their overbearing responsibilities, the ponies ignoring Luna, Celestia not realizing just that, Sombra trying to break their minds and the original Nightmare Moon stumbling into Luna’s dreams one day at random.
Right now, she was feeling as if a demon was trying to force its way into her head, but she was sensitive to magic. So, she knew that the enormous headache and (carefully concealed) bloodlust was just her own reaction to the inane pony standing before her court.
“…therefore, I believe your sister should not have the political power you have given her, your majesty! Her knowledge of the present-day world is minuscule at best!”
“Princess Luna’s ‘political power’, as you put it is not something I have given to her. My sister always had carried the title of princess, it was never revoked,” she explained, taking a moment to go over the exact laws in her head.
She was prepared to go on, but the pony interrupted her again. She took it in stride – she did not need to stop him from hanging himself, after all.
“She betrayed Equestria! She turned into Nightmare Moon, and tried to kill you, and she is only compliant because you have stripped her of her power!”
“And?” Celestia asked, her voice now dropped to an icy level. Up until now, she had just considered teaching him a lesson on thinking about actions before doing them, but there were some lines she was not willing to allow others to cross.
“Wha – she betrayed Equestria! She tried to kill us all!”
“Princess Luna tried to secure the rule over Equestria, not to conquer or destroy it. She is a member of the royal family by blood, and as such, she had and still has the right to challenge my rule of Equestria in any form she sees fit, as long as no other ponies are part of it. Were you aware that the castle was cleared out hours before our battle took place?”
The pony tried to respond, probably with another insult, but he had been brought off-balance by the sudden, unprecedented change in the princess’ tone.
“You, however, tried to use arguments based in imagination or in false truths, with the goal to remove something you perceived as a threat. You tried to remove, against the law I might add, a princess from power. Are you aware of what the law states for such a case?”
Fearfully, the minor noble shook his head.
“But in the case such an event doth occur, the jury, judge, and executioner shall be determined by the princess offended in any way she seems fit. If she so wishes, she art judge, unless she art family, she art jury, unless she art not of sound mind, she art executioner, unless she art gravely injured.”
Raven could only shake her head watching the struggling minor noble getting escorted out of the throne room, remembering how this scene was almost a carbon copy of what has happened twelve years ago.
She had seen a lot of how the princess acts, yet she had only seen her snap trice in the eighteen years she was serving her. The first was a scientist demanding – not asking, demanding – to be given dead bodies in his research, the second was when a noble tried to stop the coronation of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and the third was when a dragon thought it to be in their right to help themselves to the priceless art in the castle.
There was an old, very old saying, perfectly summing up the princess, she mused.
‘The gods may listen to you – but do never try their patience.’
For some reason, the noble escorted from the direction of the throne room screamed when noticing Luna, trying to back away as far as possible. I knew for a fact he did not notice me, since I had been hiding in her shadow.
“What do you think that was all about?”
She shrugged.
“We art not sure. Maybe he angered our sister, but she usually is very composed… how much has thy predecessor told thee about Celestia?”
“That she is patient but powerful. She explained more about the workings of the elements than your sister.”
Nightmare was so embarrassed and angry when he realized that he could have deflected the blast of the elements. I in turn would NOT make the mistake he did make.
Luna decided not to respond to that, instead stepping up to the doors to the throne room, past the petitioners waiting there, and gave a small nod to the guards before walking through them.
The pony standing in front of the throne was a male unicorn, wearing a dress suit covering his mark up. Celestia was speaking to him, seemingly agreeing with him, much to his apparent relief.
“…is always allowed. There may be thousands of spells banned from casting, but it is not forbidden to research their inner workings, unless it’s a ‘centurion’ spell. If you wish to cast those banned spells, you have to receive approval, but you do not need that to analyze them.”
“Thank you, your majesty. Before I leave, may I know an example of such a banned spell?”
“Every banned, or centurion spell as they sometimes are called, is listed in the royal library. The books are enchanted so that you can recognize the spell but never remember it. As for an example, summoning spells reaching outside the atmosphere of our world.”
Blinking, the unicorn’s head snapped up from where he was bowing.
“But… there is nothing to be summoned, your majesty?”
“Precisely. There has been an incident where a portal had been opened both ways, stealing air, earth, water, and magic from where the caster was.”
“I see. Thank you for your time,” he sincerely said, before giving another nod to Celestia, leaving.”
“What has our subject asked for?” Luna asked Celestia, for once using the word like it was supposed to.
“He wished to know if he could analyze the spells of the more esoteric schools of magic. That is not something forbidden. You are still awake during the day?” Celestia responded, looking at her schedule, not yet looking up at Luna.
“Our duties as princess we can fulfill during the first half of the night, while our duties as dream guardian we can do in our sleep. Our sleep is ours to govern alone. ‘Tis not us ignoring this fact, insisting of ponies being awake during the time of rest, that brought us apart?”
Celestia looked up at Luna, her eyes expressing sorrow. That only lasted for a moment, as surprise and shock appeared on her face.
“Luna? You unlocked your power?”
The blank look Luna had on her face was accompanied by what Celestia could swear cackling laughter from Nightmare Moon. The moon princess looked down onto herself, only now realizing things seemed smaller than they were before, if just a little bit, and an ethereal mane in a deep ocean blue color.
“What… this should not hath happened! How is it our power had become unlocked… yet we did not notice it?”
“Maybe you have accepted yourself for what you are?”
“May I explain?” Celestia then heard a voice, and she shuddered. She recognized that voice…
“Unless you demand something in return for doing as such, yes,” she barked out, lighting up her horn with as much magic as she could draw on. While she knew of Nightmare, and her connection to Luna, she still held a lot of contempt for the dream construct, as her appearance was probably what gave her sister the confidence to go against her. She did not hate Nightmare, as the being did not brought harm to them intentionally, but she did not trust her at all either.
“In that case, I’ll put myself short,” the disembodied voice continued in a deadpan.
“Luna was reduced to a paladin, I think. She qualified as an avatar again during the night if I’m right.”
The white princess could not help but shudder, a very old memory replaying in her mind's eye, the energies in her horn falling away as they did so.
“It was during the fight with Discord for Luna last time, and the Gryphon war a decade ago of that for me… what did you do?” she asked in fear, remembering that day she turned into the worst thing to ever happen to Equestria. An eighth of the continent was still scorched from that fateful day. Discords’ magic might have stretched over the continent, but within five minutes of him being defeated, it was gone. That scar on the earth, however, would last for many millennia.
“She’s your opposite, Celestia.”
Celestia then noticed that her sister was blushing. For a moment, she did not understand what Nightmare meant – but then she spoke up again.
“Luna is a mare of the night, in more ways than one.”
The white princess's expression was only blank for a second.
“Come here so that I can KILL you!” she screamed, the presence of Nightmare seemingly vanishing from the room. Turning back to her sister, Celestia sighed.
“Luna… why her?”
“We did not know this would happen! She just said she noticed that our magic was not flowing freely!”
“How exactly did that lead to …that?” Celestia asked, tilting her head in a mix of confusion and slight anger. The latter not at Nightmare because of who she was, but what she apparently just did.
“She has been very… persuasive,” Luna responded, her face blushing when she remembered the soft voice that simply felt both wrong, and so right coming from the warrior alicorn. It started so innocently…
Then again, Luna was sure Nightmare would have stopped, would she ever had told her to…
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Wheeee! Chapter!
The ship... it has sailed, yes!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
It continues!
That relationship happened out of nowhere wtf how?