Royal Rewrite - The winner wrote the history

by Zalmax

2.2 - Shack of the Forsaken

Princess Luna sailed quickly through the air. Her altitude higher than any pegasus could muster. She was on her way back to the Royal Castle and was looking forward to its amenities. Keeping out of reach from regular fliers made sure her trip would be unimpeded.

The diplomatic mission to the dragons had been the same old story as always. Answer some curious questions to increase mutual understanding while making sure they didn’t plan any hostilities. Her mission was to make sure both races stayed on friendly terms and with a healthy dose of respect for one another.

Not that the three ancient dragons would try anything. They wouldn’t dare challenge the duo who defeated the God of Chaos. But the younglings, always the inexperienced ones, sought to challenge the old and powerful. Sometimes trying to gain fame through battles with ponies or griffons. Usually in conjunction with fierce rhetoric about how dragons should go back to a single strong ruler, instead of a triumvirate that can’t make a decision unless they all agreed.

During her entire visit she had used her most impressive visage to show off her power as a sign of respect for the mighty dragons. It also guaranteed that no upstart dragon would dare question her even if they were many times larger than her. Dragonkind knew from experience that size didn’t matter when primal forces were at play. The God of Chaos had taught them that.

Now as she soared across the sky she was back in her more humble blue shape. A form that she much preferred. Her modest blue body made her feel closer to the ponies whose company she loved. Another thing that helped reinforce the feeling of being an ordinary pony was her flying speed.

Although Luna was fast, there were several fliers in Equestria that were faster. A few pegasus and all bat ponies knew about this and their heads would spin from the knowledge that a mortal could fly faster than a Goddess.

Not that it meant they were in any shape or form superior to the Goddess, but still... they could fly faster, and it was a source of endless pride. Not that they would brag and boast about it. It was always the unspoken goal of every batpony, to be able to fly faster than the princess.

They claimed they didn't revel in the feeling of being faster, but insisted it was only to speed ahead to the destination and announce the princess's arrival. To prepare for all to greet her and be kneeling as she arrived.

Luna didn’t explain the mystery of flight to ponies. Secrets only she and her friend Starswirl figured out. It was Luna’s huge amount of magical energy that made it difficult to fly fast. If you put a pebble in a blowpipe you could send it rapidly through the air. If you put a mountain in the blowpipe - you could not.

But she never revealed that knowledge as ponies discussed their speed. If Luna gave that explanation, perhaps the ponies proud over their amazing speed would instead become sad, thinking they had very little to push?

But flight wasn’t about the amount of magic you had, but your ability to divert magic to push instead of being shoved. Everyone could improve their flow and basic ability with physical training but how the ability to shift magic to the wings worked were still a mystery and not everyone were suited to become great fliers. That knowledge she did reveal. Usually to encourage ponies less adept at flying that it wasn’t because they were weaker in any way.

High speed and especially razor-sharp turns were difficult for Luna and impossible for her sister. Her sister flew slower and slower for each century but it wasn’t because her magic were getting more massive. It was simply lack of training.

Celestia secretly hated the fact that she was slower than the average pegasus. The princess had stopped telling the queen many years ago that she should practice her flying. All it did was infuriate the Queen who claimed to have more important things on her mind.

Luna on the other hand loved to practice her flying. What if she could switch a huge amount of her magic to push herself forward? What if she could perform a sonic boom? What would happen? Every flier who could perform a sonic boom came with a unique trait as an effect.

A bright flash of light would always spread through the sky. Usually its color was that of the fur but it wasn’t certain. The only certainty was that each boom had its own signature to make it unique. One of those things was the sound of the boom. The loudness, the pitch, the effects, helped make everyone different even if not experienced as far away as the light.

If Luna managed to perform a sonic boom, how would it look? Would her blue fur cover Equestria in a blue light or would her black pelt blot out the sun until it faded? Considering the side-effects of a regular pegasus sonic boom she was quite content with the fact she couldn’t gain that speed.

Luna’s altitude had dropped and she now soared over the trees in Everfree Forest. It was now possible for some pegasus scout from the royal guard to intercept and greet her. Then again, it was a big forest and she hoped they were busy elsewhere. She longed for home and to get some rest.

Resting was something she didn’t do while on diplomatic missions. In order to show strength she would never rest or sleep, and she would only eat out of courtesy, no matter if the visit stretched on for a couple of days or a few weeks.

As she came closer to the royal castle she noted that The Shack had had some rough activity. The Shack was the common name for a couple of houses placed away from the settlement. The oldest house, the Shack itself, was for ponies that for one reason or another had been temporarily ostracized from the settlement outside the castle walls. It was considered a punishment and would give the pony time to think about the consequences of being excluded from society.

It also contained a few other buildings for visiting ponies and their entourage. There they would spend one or more nights while they waited for an audience with the Queen. It also had a sturdy prison. The prison was placed away from the settlement since a prisoner in its own way was excluded from society, but on a more serious note.

As Luna landed she noticed the door to the prison had been broken. Further inspection showed it had been broken from the inside. As she went around to inspect the area she heard a faint wheezing sound from inside the main house. She hurried inside.

A pegasus was lying on the floor. She was clutching a scroll-tube to her chest. Foam was pouring out of her mouth and her eyes where aglaze. Luna recognized her instantly. It was Lieutenant Ladyhawke and she was dying.

Luna’s power manifested itself immediately. The humble blue pony grew into a dark majestic alicorn. Powers flaming through her body focused on the lifeless figure on the floor. She started to save the body, to restore its health, struggling with the fading flicker of life she felt inside the pegasus.

As Luna’s massive attempts to cure the pony filled the house with magic that surged through the pony, the pegasus blinked her eyes and stared at her.

"Please don’t!" she croaked.

Luna wasn’t about to take orders like that from a pegasus. She kept healing the pegasus, wondering what had happened. She lifted the body from the floor and placed it in one of the beds while she kept working. She tried to make her royal voice sound calm as she adressed the sick pegasus.

"Your Princess demands to know what happened. Your princess wants to know who did this."

The pegasus, like a sloppy ragdoll tried to present her tube to Luna, but it slipped to the floor.

"Please don’t!" she repeated.

Luna couldn’t get a grip on the pegasus life. She bent down and smelled her breath. It was poison, and not just any poison. It was an extract from the forbidden Corruptionseeds. Something that didn’t exist anywhere in the world except here in the Everfree forest.

The bottle on the floor was Lieuternant Ladyhawke’s own. Some guards’ saddlebags carried their own branded waterbottle instead of using the fountains. But her bottle had been filled with the most vile and disgusting poison imaginable and nothing anyone could imbue by mistake. In fact, the body responded so violently to even tiny amounts that a pony wouldn’t be able to hold it down, which was evident from the stains on her fur and the floor.

Obviously it hadn’t kept her from trying and the more she swallowed, the less magic was in the way to repell it, because that’s how the poison worked. It destroyed not only her organs, but also her magic.

Luna didn’t stop trying to save the pegasus but she now knew that it was hopeless. Unlike other poisons, this was unstoppable due to how it destroyed the life sustaining magic in the body. Probably Ladyhawkes’s choice of poison had been because of that effect.

Regular poisons would first have her go unconscious, and during that time somepony may find and treat her. Especially if they whinnied in their sleep. This poison on the other hand would have her body wracked in pain until the bitter end.

If she had taken a secondary poison to make herself unconscious, the corruptionseeds would have had her regurgitate both poisons in her sleep. This brutal ending was all Ladyhawke’s own planned decision.

Luna kept working but she feared she was only keeping the pegasus awake to experience the end instead of letting it go faster, but she didn’t want to give up. Ladyhawke could be an annoying fanatic and as Quicksmite’s faithful sidekick Luna held little love for her, but Luna didn’t dislike anypony and she absolutely refused to let anypony suffer.

Eventually Luna felt the pegasus pass away, ignoring the desperate attempts of a supposed Goddess to save her life. There she was, with the remains of a praised lieutenant, that had uttered words not long ago, now deceased, leaving Luna feeling like a lonely Goddess of Failure. Luna fought hard to hold back her tears.

She couldn’t possibly understand why a pony with such a short lifespan would make it even shorter. Luna had seen ponies die in accidents or battles during her time but an officer of the honored royal guard doing something like this to herself was incomprehensible. They were supposed to be the best of the best, in every possible aspect.

Luna floated the tube from the floor and pulled out a scroll from inside:

I’m so sorry. I’m so very very sorry.

I have betrayed my Queen, my Kingdom and my Royal guard.

I had met the prisoner before. His guts and moxie had impressed me.

He was known as a troublemaker, in conflict with neighboring Minotaurs, but I saw it differently.

In many ways, his thoughts and deeds was inspired by our Holy Queen, but he lacked her infinite knowledge and wisdom.

He tried to prevent skirmish-seeking Minotaurs from escalating the dispute. Especially one of them who had been pillaging unguarded stores to provoke his village.

He was trying to put a stop to it before it got worse, as our Most Divine Queen would have done, but he was a mere mortal and lacked her foresight. He shouldn’t have tracked the Minotaur into their territory and engaged him in deadly combat.

I felt for him. He believed that the rules that forbid both locals and militia to enforce justice outside Equestria’s borders wouldn’t apply to him, since it didn’t apply to the Minotaur.

He felt that to be executed for protecting the village was bad, but to be symbolically executed next to the the minotaur border would be devastating and wildly encourage their aggression.

His tenacity and willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of his village touched me.

I came to love him.

I planted the tools in his cell, even before he was put there. I told him to wait until Princess Luna was as far away as possible and planned his escape through the most secluded parts of the forest.

I was wrong. What I did was wrong. And I’m so very sorry. There are no words to explain how sorry I really am, but maybe my remains can show you?

(signed) Lieutenant Ladyhawke

Luna’s magic rolled up the parchment and put it back inside the tube. Then she took the largest blanket she could find and swept it around the corpse. Floating it beside her as she continued her travel on hoof, towards the castle.

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