Aftermath of the Tantabus

by Stargazing Point

Luna

Author's Note:

Didn't expect so many views for the 1st chapter. Here's the second, hope you like it.

Present:

As Luna finished reminiscing those moments, her mind went to how the rest of that week went.

Celestia had done well to stop Luna from her duties, even ordering the day guard to "protect" her at all times during the night (Celestia gave them a proper bonus pay for that). Knowing that the night guards were more likely to listen to a Luna countermand.

Luna now had to wake earlier to meet with Celestia after she had apologized for lashing out at her along with her basically put her in time out and she had decided to make a place in their schedules to meet and help her get through this.

Luna certainly didn't mind, she had tried the lone route and it ended miserable, it was time to confide in Celestia. She was also understanding of her "vacation" that while disagreeing with it, she knew that she wasn't at her best mentally.

Her thoughts went to how her subjects reacted to her absence or rather the lack of reaction, no one on Canterlot and its surroundings noticed anything wrong with the nation as no pony really gave importance to what happens in the castle at night.

Some therstals had gone to ask Celestia about Luna's absence but she had responded that Luna was just stressed and needed some time off. They didn't fully believed her but still were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to one of their rulers.

Luna then thought about what Celestia said about maybe finding a psychologist for her but both of them knew that would be hard if not impossible due to the small but key differences in the thought process of mortals and immortals, mainly how they cope with with their problems since alicorns had eternity to come to terms with them while the rest had to solve them within the small frame of time of their lives.

A problem that would require medicine for a mortal and with most of them having side-effects later on, an alicorn just required patience and even for a psychologist that would require such an open frame of mind and adaptation that would be rare not to mention they could pass away before the problem is gone.

"Still it may be a good idea to have one check me if only to diagnose me and then me and my sister could see where to go from there," Luna thought. "Then again if somepony were to find out, my position as ruler will take a severe blow and I don't think I can afford to take one a this point when most are still fearing me."

While nightmare night helped give Luna some good standing with her subjects it was mostly focused only on Ponyville and a few individuals with connections to that village, the rest of the country either distrusted the news or needed more to let go of their fear.

Luna knew Celestia had to work hard to keep the Tatanbus incident under wraps, if it became public knowledge it would be the end of not only her short return as a ruler but also probably even of her status as a free pony. Tartarus was something she didn't want to see as a prisoner.

Luna shrouded just thinking about it but focused on other things like what Celestia said about her changes in personality. "Did I really have been acting so unlike before my banishment? Oh how can I doubt that, of course I did" She thought.

She remembered how eager she was to defend Equestria in the past, to show that the nation wasn't one to mess with; how confident she was to tackle her problems with minimal doubts and find ways to make it work; how she didn't feared to voice her opinion if something was against her beliefs, not even when Celestia was the one voicing her displeasure.

"So much confidence that turned into overconfidence when I wasn't able to think of other ways to change my subjects' minds about me aside from a few and the last one lead me to transform into Nightmare Moon."

After her return Luna knew that she just couldn't find anywhere near that level of confidence she had before, not only was she scared of being rejected to her face, just the thought of another banishment made her legs shake. It was an irrational fear, but fears rarely are rational. She first felt some of that old confidence when she went to nightmare night but still, after coming back she realized that it didn't help her much considering it was only one town that accepted her unlike the rest of the nation. It was actually a week ago when she felt confident again if for a little bit when she was under Celestia's lash out, Luna guessed that she really needed to talk more with her.

She also had a fear of contradicting her sister both because she could be punished and because her actions had shown that Celestia didn't needed Luna to be a successful ruler in the span of a millenia.

The punishment part was something she clearly knew that was stupid and yet, she just kept thinking how Celestia chose to banish her after so little time on their fight, she never imagined that she would put their subjects so much above her that she'll go that far so quickly.

Luna felt bitterness for a moment before stopping that feeling. "She did what she had to do as a ruler and yet… would I have done the same if roles were reversed?"

No, she knew that she would have let some of her subjects come to harm if it meant to save Celestia, she didn't know if that made her a bad ruler but there was a point when she had to put her sister, her only family alive and eternal companion, first (not even her bond Cadence and Twilight if she got her wings will compare to the one she had with Celestia).

The part of being successful was truth though, even if Celestia said that they needed to rule together, Celestia had showed that she could do not only just fine on her own, she even thrived without Luna as co-ruler. Celestia tried to downplay it saying that while there was peace, relations with some other countries were strained and other species were usually either feared or outright hated but Luna still couldn't stop feeling like that was something she couldn't help with, Celestia was the element of kindness after all and if she wasn't able to make friends with them it was impossible for Luna to even try.

"Equestria needs one ruler indeed, just not me. No, can't think like that, I'll find something to help this nation aside from my dreamwalking that ponies still are getting used to, I know I can."

Luna tried to muster some confidence but it was hard and decided to take a fly around the castle to clear her thoughts.

"With my sister helping me I'll get through this, I have to," Was her final thought as she took off into the night sky.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

10544084
Why would this story have guns in it?

[Stargazing Point]

10545394
Pretty sure it's about when I talked about in the notes of the 1st chapter that some of my inspiration came from Equestria at War, a Hearts of Iron 4 mod.