Between the Sun and the Moon

by Psychic Smith

Chapter 11

Author's Note:

I started posting this story about 2 months ago, and I'm still amazed at how well it has been doing. It is crazy to think that this many people have read my work. Over 2,000 total views! I know there are some more well-known authors out there that have way more views and likes, but even this amount of support in new to me. So to all of you that have read this far.

Thank you for reading!

Things are going to start amping up around Everfree Castle, and I cannot wait to explore where it goes from here.

(Hint:It's about to get craaaaaazy)

CHAPTER‌ ‌X‌I

The crisp chill of an autumn night breeze flowed through the gardens of Everfree castle like a whisper in the dark night. The sound of crickets filled the otherwise silent garden, only to be accompanied by the clopping of hooves on cobblestone pathways as Princess Luna strolled by the light of her moon and stars.

Luna was wide awake despite the time of day. Being the princess of the night, Luna lived a mostly nocturnal lifestyle, opting for the comfort of her night sky as opposed to her sister’s hot sun.

Luna walked through the garden with her eyes not really focusing on any one thing. Lost in thought, she barely registered the sweet smell of the flowers of the shrubbery that started wilting with the colder weather.

‘It’s my fault,’ Luna thought to herself. She had only wished to show the human William her domain. Possibly, humans may have held the night in higher regard, unlike the ponies of Equestria that her sister seems to love so much.

When Will had started having spasms, Luna had brought the human directly to Celestia in a panic. Celestia, in turn, was very cross.

Luna hadn’t ever heard her sister use the ‘alicorn voice’ before that.

Under Celestia’s stern orders, Luna attempted to remove her magic from the human, but it stuck to him like sticky swamp mud and tree sap combined into one. Luna, being the more adept princess when it came to magic, should have been able to separate the magic from the human easier. When it didn’t work, Celestia had Clover take William away. When the two princesses had the room to themselves, Celestia let the mask that hid her rage fall.

“Luna, how could you have been so careless? You had no idea what your magic could do to the humans, did you?”

“S-sister, please! We didn’t think-”

“Of course you weren’t thinking! Did you even use any modicum of reason?”

Luna’s lip tightened, her sister’s words had ignited some sort of fire within her.

“I bet you didn’t know either!” Luna yelled, dropping her old ways of speech. “You are blaming me for something neither of us could have known!”

Instead of arguing that point any further, Celestia laid further into her sister.

“That human could die Luna! William could die, all because of one magical incident. One! Whos hooves would that be on. As far as the castle staff would think, it would be on both of ours. We rule together Luna! Anything you do affects me as well!”

A shiver ran down Luna’s spine as she recalled those words, a tiny spark of anger towards her sister still burning.

“At least they hadn’t been integrated into the public yet,” Celestia had said. “The political damage caused by his death would be small, but it would still color our images in some of our closest advisers. Both Clover and Hurricane seem to actually like the two of them.”

“Do you not!? You’ve already done so much to help them.”

“Just because I’ve given them aid, doesn’t mean I actually care for them. It was out of the kindness of my heart. At least Nicholas is somewhat decent...”

“And William isn’t?”

“William is a short fuse hothead with little to no social tact. When he rains those things in? Sure, he is fine.”

“Then why do you care for his well being?”

“Because I can’t just let him die!” Luna had thought that statement was strange and wanted to question it, but Celestia kept speaking. “Luna, I forbid you from helping with this William situation. You’ve done enough as is.”

“You must jest! I could help! I know as much or even more of the intricacies of magic. I could save-”

“You’ve done enough already!”

Past Luna had stopped, staring at her sister wide-eyed, a single tear falling. Celestia’s face that was twisted from rage had softened as she saw the near heartbroken face on her sister.

“Luna, I’m so-”

Celestia’s words were cut short as Luna turned and slammed the door behind her as she left the room.

Now, two days had passed since the conversation and Luna was still walking the razor’s edge of screaming and breaking out into tears.

It was her fault. Luna just hoped she had met somepony (somehuman?) who would appreciate her work. She had no idea why, but William seemed like that somepony.

Luna remembered William’s dreamscape, seeing the starry sky that he had dreamt up. Maybe that was it.

Regardless, the stress had kept Luna from assuming her usual duties of dreamwalking. Luna stopped and closed her eyes, feeling the cold breeze brushing through her coat, and it seemed to soothe the emotions boiling underneath the surface.

Luna knew she could help William, but Celestia didn’t trust her enough to let her anywhere near the human. Celestia, the princess of the sun, and what Starswirl had described as the worst student he had ever taught, was keeping Luna from doing anything. Luna knew where William was being kept. He was under the Tree of Harmony. Whether Celestia knew it or not, Luna knew that was possibly the best place they could have taken him. That and Luna knew of one way to save the human. William might be upset with the results, but it would save his life.

If Luna did nothing, Celestia’s version of cleaning up would be disposing of a body. And for once, the usually subservient Princess Luna said one thing that felt so right but never could bring herself to say.

“Buck Celestia.”

With that, Luna re-entered the castle and made her way toward the basement.

-~xXXXx~-

It was hard to tell the passing of time in the boredom of an underground cavern, but having a book helped keep Mending Stitch from falling asleep. For the first couple of hours, the grandeur of the Tree of Harmony was breathtaking. With its massive crystal branches above and sprawling crystal roots, the tree itself seemed to take up the entirety of the cavern it rested in.

Despite being underground, the cave was comfortably warm and well lit, both attributed to the Tree of Harmony, Mending had guessed.

William rested, unconscious against the trunk of the tree, tossing and turning slightly in his sleep. Mending looked up from her book, glancing at the human.

‘Poor thing,’ Mending thought. William’s time in Equestria was met with nothing but injury after injury. And now?... Mending wasn’t sure if William would make it.

From the castle’s entrance to the cavern, hoofsteps echoed off of the stone walls. As Mending turned, she expected to see Clover for the shift change. Instead, Mending was startled to see Princess Luna stroll into the cavern.

“Your highness!” Mending stood up quickly, dropping into a deep bow. “I was not expecting you.”

Luna smiled slightly, retaining her stoic exterior. ‘Good,’ Luna thought to herself ‘she doesn’t know that Celestia forbade me from coming here.’

“Forgive me your highness, but Lady Celestia said to turn you away if you came here.”

‘Bucking dammit,’ Luna swore internally.

Striding past Mending, Luna made her way towards William. “If We are not mistaken, sister dearest and we rule together, do we not?”

Mending nodded, but Luna didn’t even look back.

“Even though she is our elder sister, we can make choices for ourselves. So, if thou wouldn’t mind, we would like to see that this human survives.”

“How?” Mending asked.

Luna didn’t answer, but lit her horn and closed her eyes as she got close. A blue aura surrounded the alicorn of the night as her magic reached out to the tree itself. The Tree of Harmony responded, glowing a cool blue as a brisk breeze swirled the dust around the cavern.

Within the branches above, six gems descended in a circle above Luna, each shaped like a diamond spinning in a slow circle as the fell. Each gem shined a different color: light blue, deep violet, light pink, orange, red, and fuchsia respectively.

Mending’s eyes dilated as she witnessed the Elements of Harmony hovering in a circle around both Luna and the unconscious human, William.

“Wow,” Mending whispered.

In six individual flashes of light, the Element’s magic coalesced with Luna’s as a rainbow-colored beam of light slowly flowed towards Will. As the beam of light touched the human’s chest, the muscles in his body tensed as a gasp escaped his lips. With Mending standing behind Luna, the medicine-mare couldn’t see Luna’s eyes glowing as the princess looked through the arcane eye.

William’s body was flooded with Luna’s own magic with no way to escape. What was the best way to relieve all of that built up magical pressure?

Give it someplace to go.

Luna guided the magic of the Elements of Harmony throughout William’s body. As the Elements did their work, Luna began seeing the changes she predicted.

Most of the magic gathered around what Luna assumed to be William’s heart. From there, the magic spiderwebbed out from that central point, shooting through William’s veins. As the tendrils of magic reached William’s fingers, they created points all throughout his body: One in each palm, one in the bottom of each foot, a massive well of magic in his stomach, one on his forehead, and one last one in the center of his chest that pulsed with each heartbeat.

As the light faded, Luna let go of the arcane eye spell as she saw the Elements of Harmony retreating back into the branches above. William laid still, chest rising with each even breath. While Luna looked over William’s condition, Mending ran from the room.

Luna laid on the ground next William, his peaceful rest warming Luna’s heart. She may have caused the pain in the first place, but she was at peace knowing she had a hoof in fixing her ‘mistake’ as Celestia had called it. Luna took notice in William’s hands as they glowed the same faint blue aura that came from her own horn. Good, the excess magic was flowing out of him as she had hoped.

Luna didn’t know how much time she spent like that, but she was brought back to the present as the sound of three pairs of hooves entered the room.

Mending had returned, with Celestia and Clover following behind. Celestia motioned for the two unicorn mares to wait with the flaring of a wing, and Celestia approached her sister and the human at the base of the tree.

“I thought I told you to stay away from here.” Celestia’s voice was calm and even, trying to hide whatever emotion hid beneath its surface. Luna guessed fury.

“We saved young William’s life,” Luna simply stated. “We cleaned up our ‘mess’ as thou so eloquently brought to light. Is this not acceptable?”

“You still disobeyed.”

“Pray tell sister, what did we agree to on the day the two of us had our crowns placed on our heads?”

Celestia’s face softened at that, recalling the memory. “That we would rule together… side by side,” Celestia quoted. Laying on the crystal roots next to her sister, Celestia draped a wing over the smaller alicorn. “I’m sorry Lu-, I shouldn’t have been so harsh. You were right, neither of us knew what could have happened. You knew how to save him, but I was just too angry to see past my own muzzle.” Celestia nuzzled her younger sister. “Forgive me?”

A small smile crossed Luna’s muzzle. “Thou art already forgiven,” Luna said, returning her sister’s affections. “How is Nicholas by the way? We have not been able to see him for a few days now.”

“I haven’t spoken to him either. I figure he is rather cross with me after our last conversation.”

“About William?” Luna asked, looking to the human in question.

“Yes. I think Nicholas understands why I did what I did, but that doesn’t mean he likes it.”

A moment of silence passed. Mending and Clover approached the peacefully resting human, evaluating his condition with the supervision of both princesses. Clover’s eyes widened, confused and in awe.

“Princess Luna, what did you do exactly?”

“Clover, we simply used the Elements of Harmony to relieve his magical buildup. This tree is, as we understand it, acts as an epicenter of harmonious magic and does actually retain some level of sapient thought. If the tree saw that William was worth saving, it would do everything in its power to do so. We simply guided that magic in the process of healing. It seems that the Tree of Harmony has deemed young William worthy.”

“What would’ve happened if it hadn’t,” Mending asked.

Celestia spoke up. “While the Elements cannot kill in and of themselves, they could have done nothing, and William would be dead.”

Clover shifted uneasily. “Well, regardless, William now has similar magical pathways to any pony, the excess magic is venting out easily, but that’s not what worries me.” As she talked, Clover the Clever began writing with a hovering quill and scroll. “He also has the mana well and his heart has been altered to produce mana. He has mana points in his hands, not unlike an earth pony’s hooves, or a unicorn’s horn. Regardless of that, his magical output is stable, but I only know of two ponies that have this kind of mana output and mana well.”

Celestia looked at Luna, shocked. Luna shook her head.

“It wasn’t our doing, sister. The Elements seemed to have taken some liberties with the process. We are not sure what plans Harmony has for him, but William has been woven into this world for a reason.”

“This makes sending him home more complicated now,” Celestia said, worried.

Clover kept talking to herself as she wrote her notes. “Another possibility is that with all of the alicorn magic from Princess Luna in his body, the Elements could have given him the capabilities of the original magic’s owner. It is only a hypothesis, and requires further testing.”

During all of this, Mending was checking over William’s body and gasped as she reached his previously broken ankle.

“Your highnesses! It’s like his magic accelerated the healing process. The fracture is nearly completely gone!”

Celestia blinked at that. “We should move him to a proper bed, I assume he will awake in the morning.” Levitating the body, Celestia lead the group back into the castle proper. As they exited the secret door that leads to the Tree of Harmony, none of them noticed a creature in a black cloak slip into the passageway behind them as the door closed behind him.

As the figure laid his eyes upon the crystal tree, he chuckled softly in a deep bass. “Oh my lord will definitely want to hear about this. With a flash of light, the stallion disappeared in a flash of sickly green light.

Comments

[Blackdust]

Oh for fucks sake...male Chrysalis? Not complaining, just... why *that* villain first...?

[Psychic Smith]

10128228
You might be right.... or you might be pretty far off i will say that i haven't changed the genders of any characters in this story. Nor do i plan on it.

[Blackdust]

10128577
... I'm not sure if I should hate you for that, or laugh at the joke...

[Psychic Smith]

10128580
Dont get me wrong, i will be using chrysalis at some point. Just not right now.

[Blackdust]

10128695
Ha! Reverse psychology at its finest! That leaves only two others. Grogar, or Sombra.

[Crystonian]

10128697
Grogar stays away most of the time. Sombra is more of a danger

[Marmo]

As much as i like Celestia... Damn she was a bitch 1000y ago...