Diluculum, the 22nd day of September.
20 years Before Lunar Banishment.
Verdath Meadow
Opaline awoke to the smell of ash and blood, the pungent fumes funnelling into her sinuses like a flowing stream of despair.
Amidst the smouldering fires, shattered stone, and bloody corpses in the scorched remains of a meadow, she gathered what strength she had left to crawl out from her ditch. Her legs felt like jelly, barely able to carry her. Cuts and bruises were strewn across her body, every motion she made causing a tinge of pain to dance across her nerves. The braids in her mane had unfurled, leaving her hair filthy and matted with dirt and blood. Her limp wings uselessly dragged through the mud. Attempting to push magic through her horn yielded nothing but sparking embers.
Barely an hour after dusk, the Equestrians launched their attack, personally led by their Warmaster, Princess Luna. In spite of everything, in spite of the undeniable supremacy of the alicorn race, in spite of the fact that Opaline commanded more than a dozen alicorns and the Equestrians were led by two, and in spite of the gigantic army of mortal slaves she had raised, the Equestrians had overwhelmed them. After years of war between Equestria and the Alicorn Supremacy, the tactics of the Equestrian legions were refined and mastered to the point where a few dozen well-organised and coordinated mortal soldiers could kill an alicorn with few losses. With the very best of the Equestrian soldiery mustered at this battle, the last alicorns were dropping like flies. While the Equestrians constantly adapted to face their foe, the alicorns of the Supremacy stagnated, assured that their place in the natural hierarchical order would guarantee victory.
Worthless, Opaline considered her subordinate alicorns. They were unable to corral the pathetic mortals of this realm; such power was wasted on them and their feeble lives. She had united the alicorns who remained scattered in this world after the Exodus War nearly wiped all of them off the face of the earth, only to find they were unworthy. But the contempt for her ineffective minions barely held a candle to the disgust she felt towards Luna and especially Celestia. They claimed not to ‘rule’, but to ‘lead’ and ‘teach’. They treated their subjects with a fallacious and always dishonest presumption of mutual respect between leader and follower, an attitude that betrayed the reality of their strength.
Alicorns were always destined to be the masters of this realm, always. That these two would dare insult their kind by destroying the greatest realisation of this truth was not just shameful, but utterly deplorable. Traitors of the absolute worst sort, Opaline thought of them, sending their kind hurtling towards oblivion. If the assuredness in her own supremacy didn’t give her the strength to crawl on, then the disgust she held for Equestria surely did. By this point, she thought there were no alicorns left in this world worthy of their alicornhood other than her.
A set of hooves crashed down into the dirt in front of Opaline, splattering mud on her face. She looked up and saw the panicked, sweat-covered, scarred face of Auctoritas, one of the few half-reliable alicorns under her command. It was immediately clear that the battle had taken a toll on him; feathers fell from his wings as his shattered regalia hung from his body, pieces of his horn were chipped, and his coat, once a pristine pale violet, had been stained brown.
“Your Supremacy!” he panted. He extended a hoof to Opaline, which she tried to reach up to take. “We must get out of here, she is coming - Aagh!”
The swing of the blade was audible for a moment and visible for less. He collapsed, blood spilling from the stump where his left hind leg was once attached. Opaline gasped and instinctually pulled her hoof back. Desperately he flapped his wings to raise himself off the ground. Arcane light flared in his horn as he turned his head. A moment too late, the blade returned and stabbed clean through his head. Opaline flinched. The tip of the bloodstained blade was close enough to splatter blood onto Opaline herself. The blade was slowly retracted and Auctoritas fell to the floor, presenting Opaline with a clear view of Princess Luna.
Black armour protecting her body, the Warmaster of Equestria stood tall with her wings spread wide as light from the rising sun filtered through the feathers of her wings. By her side, she held her magnificent broadsword in her arcane grasp. Its blade gleamed with a lustrous pink glow as it was forged under the fires of the Elements of Harmony, which allowed it to slice through alicorn flesh and bone.
Opaline’s eyes bulged upon seeing Luna. “You - ugh!” she tripped. Her face met the dirt. She seethed through gritted teeth. “You!” she barked whilst pushing herself out of the mud and jabbing a hoof towards Luna, her boiling contempt momentarily giving her the strength to make a show of resilience.
With her target laid before her, Luna had no words. This monster was not worthy of words. This campaign had been the hardest fought in the struggle to unite the ponies of Equus, as they had faced a realm ruled by an elite class of alicorns. Ruling with an iron hoof, treating sentient beings as property, denying the common pony of the most basic autonomy or happiness. Opaline’s reign of terror had gone on too long and Luna had resolved that it would end today.
“Everything I have built here, you have ruined!” Opaline yelled, propped up only by her shuddering forelegs as her hindlegs were entirely limp. “All to perpetuate the lies of your cretinous sister!”
Thinking to make the most of the moment, Luna began a slow walk towards Opaline. With her eyes locked on the dethroned tyrant, Luna attempted to present herself stoically, her lips were sealed shut and motionless,every step she took was cautious and precise. She held her sword close to the ground, turning it so that Opaline could see its shimmering enchantments and the fresh crimson coat that slowly dripped from the tip.
“You are a disgrace to our kind, denying the truth of our supremacy!” Opaline was foaming at the mouth.
As she got closer, Luna carefully raised her weapon, making her intent obvious as hot air rushed out of her nostrils. Usually, the condemned were granted a final word in Equestrian culture, but as far as Luna was concerned, Opaline’s ranting and raving went beyond what was permitted. Death would come to Opaline quickly, perhaps too quickly.
“Who are you to defy me?” Opaline screamed.
Letting the rage finally show on her face Luna swung to decapitate. Opaline braced.
Yet, the blade stopped inches away from Opaline’s neck.
Blinking, Luna’s jaw untensed. With the hilt of the blade held in her magic, Luna struggled to push the sword any closer to Opaline’s neck as the blade itself had been engulfed in a foreign, golden aura which stopped it dead. It wasn’t Opaline’s doing, it couldn’t have been. Her horn gave no signs of use, producing not even the littlest light. A fearful Opaline pushed herself away from the sword, and the uninvited aura faded. Had Luna not been stumped with confusion she’d have taken the chance to try another strike.
“Luna!” a voice called from behind, the voice of her sister.
“Celestia?” Luna whipped her head around. With the rising sun behind her, the gracefully tall Princess Celestia glided into view, landing just a few metres away from Luna. She wasn’t supposed to be here, Luna believed. “What are you doing here? You should be tending to the wounded,” Luna said, rapidly switching her gaze between Celestia and Opaline.
Celestia’s mighty wings were spread wide and her head was held high. Normally she’d have towered over any other equine, but with her height and wingspan at their greatest extent, it was downright intimidating to both Luna and Opaline. “Lower your weapon,” she commanded. “Enough blood has been spilt in this destructive conflict.”
The comment earned a scoff from Luna and a gasp from Opaline. “Surely, you jest!” said Luna, pulling a hoof up to her chest as she moved her head to the side.
Lowering her eyebrows, Celestia gazed down at Luna. “I do not, Luna,” she affirmed. “As a Princess of Equestria, you have a responsibility to uphold the principles of harmony. To execute another creature in cold blood, however despicable that creature may be, is anything but harmonious.”
“My responsibility is to the creatures who cry out for justice!” Luna seethed, taking a step towards Celestia and pointing her sword at Opaline. “To the ponies who languished in squalor due to her greed! To the ponies who fell victim to her brutality! To the soldiers who gave their lives to end it for good! Not to some inane notion of respectability and decorum, especially for a monster worthy of none!”
“I am invoking our pact.” Celestia asserted, cautiously raising a hoof. “You lead Equestria in war, I lead it in peace. Now that the war is over, those at our mercy become my responsibility.”
“This war will not be over as long as she lives!” Luna barked back. She turned herself back towards Opaline with her sword raised and ready to strike. Luna could see the contemptuous look on Opaline’s face had fallen, teeth chattering and eyes going wide as she shrank away from her imminent executioner. “If you do not wish to watch, go! Let me finish what must be done.”
“We are not murderers!” Celestia yelled with a stomp, startling Luna to the point that the sword nearly fell out of her aura. Celestia looked like she hadn’t realised how much she’d raised her voice, and she promptly calmed down. “Luna, please. Don’t do this. To take a life without necessity, you perpetuate the same cycle of violence we are trying to end. We must take her as our prisoner and treat her justly.”
“Mere imprisonment? For this monster?” Luna retorted. “In what world is that treating her justly? What of her victims? You know what she has done, what she is capable of!”
“Then we will strip her of her magic by using the Elements,” Celestia said. “Surely, that is a fair punishment? To inflict on her the same fate done to her victims?”
“It is not enough to merely punish her, sister!” Luna threw out a hoof. “As long as she lives, she is a threat to harmony. We have a chance now to ensure this threat never arises again. Should she escape captivity and regain her strength, and use that power as she already has, that is blood on our hooves! Now would you rather have the blood of a tyrant or the blood of her victims on your hooves? How can you assure an ultimate end to this danger without ultimate measures?” Luna took a step closer to Celestia, her voice loudening. “How can there be any other way to assure she never rises again?”
Celestia tenderly laid a hoof on Luna’s shoulder. Luna shuddered for a moment, but quickly settled and allowed her sister to speak. “I won’t let her,” Celestia said, folding her wings. “As long as I am a Princess of Equestria, not a single pony will fall victim to her rule again. This I promise, to you and to all our little ponies.”
Shrugging off Celestia’s hoof, Luna took a step back. She turned to look at Opaline, weak and enfeebled, barely able to lift a wing or cast simple spells. Yet behind Opaline’s eyes, Luna was sure she could see the cruel, callous evil of her ideology still burning strong, strong enough to match Luna’s then-suppressed anger. A flame that would surely burn and risk bringing devastation until it was snuffed out for good. She then turned back to her sister, their eyes meeting as Celestia presented her with a look of warm assurance, as certain as clear skies in summer assured a sunny day. If there were anypony in Equestria, or the whole world, who could keep a promise as monumental as that, it was Celestia. Unconvinced by her arguments, Luna couldn’t help but be convinced by her promise.
Luna released a quiet groan and bowed her head. “Very well,” she muttered. She swiftly wiped her sword clean of blood and returned it to its sheath. “I accept.”
Celestia smiled. “Thank you sister,” she said. Her warm expression faded as she turned to approach Opaline, glowering at the defeated despot. “Now let’s get this over with.”
Still immobile, Opaline growled at Celestia. “Princess Celestia,” she spat, using the remnants of her strength to glare daggers at the towering white alicorn. “The self-professed teacher of mortal ponies. It is sickening that - augh!”
Opaline’s taunt was cut off by a blast of magic from Celestia’s horn, hitting her square between the eyes. No physical marks were left, but Opaline’s eyes slowly closed as the few still and active parts of her body went limp. Both sisters moved to get a better look at Opaline, she was clearly still breathing but otherwise motionless.
Sighing, Celestia solemnly gazed over Opaline’s silent body. “The spell should keep her unconscious until dusk. That should be more than enough time to prepare the Elements of Harmony. Now, sister, I -”
“I shall retrieve the Elements,” Luna said, enveloping Opaline in her magic aura and lifting her out of the mud. “I was serious, by the way. You must tend to the wounded if you seek to prevent bloodshed.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow and loomed over Luna. “Can I trust you not to kill her?”
“I accept your terms,” Luna reiterated, her eyebrows low and lips quivering. “I won’t lay a feather on her unless it is absolutely essential. Now go.”
Celestia retracted herself, nodded, and took to the air, making her way to the hospital tents. Opaline’s fate had been left in Luna’s hooves.
With her sister out of sight, Luna turned to face Opaline. With the tyrant in her arcane grasp, Luna could feel just how much the battle had taken out of her. Opaline felt almost brittle, like a twig ready to be snapped in two. Her eyes, once burning with malice, were shut and still. But no matter how much Luna tried to force herself to feel an ounce of sympathy, all Luna could see when she looked at Opaline were the scars of her tyranny. Ponies drained of their magic, ponies forced to live lives of servitude, and now ponies robbed of justice by her sister’s petty moralism. Luna grit her teeth, magic flared in her horn. Her aura burst with intensity, tightening around Opaline, ready to snap her in half and -
She forced herself to stop and take a deep breath. Count to four, breathe in. Count to four, breathe out. The ritual hadn’t stopped Luna’s anger, but it was cooled enough to be pulled from the brink of boiling over, reducing it to a low fizzle. Opaline was still unconscious, her expression unchanged. There was a chance she didn’t even feel it. Difficult as it may have been to uphold, she had a commitment to her sister. She knew it would sting to leave Opaline alive, and thus to maintain her as a threat, but it would sting far more to violate her sister’s trust.
Luna launched herself and Opaline skyward and banked west. It was a long way to the Everfree.
Meridies, the 26th day of September.
20 years Before Lunar Banishment.
Opalight
Amber fields of wheat stretched for miles all across the former territory of the Alicorn Supremacy, worked by dull-coated ponies of all tribes who were so skinny you could see their rib cages pressing against their skin.
Above the fields, Luna and Celestia flew side by side with their sight on a small collection of ramshackle peasant houses. In their respective auras, Luna carried crates of newly crafted construction equipment and farming tools, while Celestia carried sacks of diverse seeds and barrels of fresh food as well as an Equestrian flag. Though she knew she wouldn’t need it, Luna still carried her sword. Owing to their magical strength and ability to fly, they could carry far more supplies over much longer distances compared to the average pony. The sight of the pair streaking across the sky prompted the ponies on the ground below to flock to them.
Once the sisters gracefully touched down, they set their cargo before them and planted the flag. The resident peasant ponies, a little more than a couple dozen, formed an irregular circle around the princesses. Many of them were foals. While nopony was likely older than forty, even the younger adults appeared haggard and drained. The sisters knew it wasn’t enough to militarily seize the lands and declare it Equestrian territory, they had to ensure the welfare of the ponies who lived on it.
“Princesses!” one pony shouted in a croaky voice. “They have freed us!”
Like an instinct drilled into them since birth, the vast majority of the ponies fell to the ground in a deep kneel, practically shoving their snouts in the mud.
“Please, rise,” said Celestia. “There is no need to kneel.”
Appearing at first confused and shaken at Celestia’s request, the peasants exchanged glances at one another. Steadily, they rose to a usual stand.
“My little ponies,” Celestia spoke gently. “We come to you, not as conquerors or new rulers, but as protectors and as teachers. To satiate your immediate needs I have brought food, and to sustain you over the long-term I have brought seeds that you may use to grow a diverse set of crops. My sister Luna has brought the tools that will allow you to better your own lives. These are yours, do with them as you wish as long as you all prosper.”
A small number of peasants took tentative steps towards the delivered supplies. The sisters made no move to stop them.
Luna stepped forward. “We are aware that many of you have fallen victim to the cruel punishment of magic draining, and lack the materials or knowledge to utilise these tools to their full potential. To assist, we have ponies ready in the nearby town to teach you crucial skills, provide necessary materials, and show you the ways of Harmony. The town in question is a little more than twenty furlongs in that direction,” Luna explained, pointing west. “This we provide without an expectation of worship or glory. We ask nothing more from you other than that you respect the values of Harmony in your dealings with other ponies.”
A pony in the assembly wearily raised their hoof. “What’s Harmony?” the pony asked.
Luna took a step forwards, clearing her throat and holding her head up. “Harmony is both the dissolution of the ephemeral boundaries between souls and the highest expression of the individual soul. It is how hearts and minds interlace in an intricate choreography of understanding, compassion, and unity. It is the divine, universal truth, where oneness with the community and the natural world is attained,” she said, a smile had formed on her lips as she spoke.
The peasants shared confused looks, some scratching their heads. Luna’s smile faded.
Celestia stepped in front of Luna. “For you, Harmony is about ensuring a lasting peace and prosperity, resolving conflict cordially and fairly where possible, and treating others with respect,” she summarised. “As my sister said, there are ponies in the nearby town prepared to teach you the ways of harmony in greater detail, as well as how you may apply them to your daily lives.”
Nodding heads and earnest smiles met Celestia, as well as utterances of understanding.
“Is there anything else you require from us?” Celestia asked.
She was mostly met with shaking heads and gracious bows, as well as murmurs of ‘no, thanks’ or simply ‘thank you’.
Then a pegasus mare, her coat a dulled grey, rushed out of one of the village shacks with a bundle of assorted flowers in her mouth. She dashed up to the princesses, dropped the flowers at their hooves, and bowed. “Thank you so much, princesses!” she croaked. “For striking down that monster you have our eternal gratitude! May your reign be long and prosperous!”
Celestia motioned for the mare to stand up. “Please, we do not seek praise or glory, only what is best for -”
“Striking down that monster?” Luna butted in, poking her head forward.
“Word has come to our settlement, princesses!” the mare stood up, a delighted grin on her grey wrinkled face. “That you had slain the despicable Suzerain Supreme! Now she is gone forever, we are free of her!”
Both sisters suppressed their gasps, their wings flinching slightly. Luna looked up at Celestia, and Celestia looked back. Luna gave a tilt of her head, motioning for Celestia to speak. After all, it was Celestia’s decision to spare Opaline’s life, it was only right that she explain it. That is if she was going to explain it at all.
“We must leave now, our ponies need us,” Celestia said. “We bid you all farewell and promise you good fortune,” she finished, then took flight. Luna followed after her, looking below as the thankful peasants waved them goodbye.
It was true that they needed to leave, there were many more settlements that the pair had to deliver aid to. But Luna immediately saw that Celestia was dodging the inevitable confrontation that would come from telling the villagers of what had really been done with Opaline.
“The ponies cry for justice, Celestia,” Luna asserted, catching up to her sister and flying by her side. “Will you heed their calls?”
“Showing mercy to a conquered foe is not incompatible with justice,” Celestia dismissed.
“You cannot honestly believe that Opaline is worthy of mercy, or stars forbid, forgiveness!” Luna scoffed.
“Forgiveness, perhaps not. Forgiving her would not be our decision to make, that would be up to her victims,” Celestia admitted. “Choosing not to murder her in cold blood? That is absolutely a decision we can make.”
“What use is there in leaving her alive?” Luna returned. “To just sit in a lavish castle as a dormant threat? Or do you intend to execute her slowly, through deprivation of sustenance? Perhaps neither, and you hope that she may be redeemed one day. Is that it?”
Slowing her flight and looking at Luna, Celestia furrowed her brow. “You’re not going to do anything to her, are you?”
“I would not act behind your back,” Luna said. “But I do beg for you to change your mind about all this. No matter how I look at this, I cannot see the sense in it.”
Gliding to the ground, Celestia sighed. “Sometimes Luna, we have to adhere to certain principles, even if that may make us uncomfortable. Succumbing to simple outbursts of raw emotion in the moment may lead us to become what we hate.”
Luna remained unconvinced but chose to bite her tongue for the time being. They had touched down at their destination, the small town that acted as the centre of life for the whole surrounding area. At the entrance to the town, a sign bearing the town’s name lay shattered on the ground, its text barely legible.
“Opalight,” Luna read. “I doubt the town will retain this title.”
“Absolutely not,” Celestia agreed. “Renaming this place will be one of the first steps to wiping away the Supremacy’s legacy.”
Such a name was not a coincidence. It was imposed upon the small village once Opaline seized control as a sign of her dominance. All across the Supremacy’s former territory, towns and villages had their old local names wiped away and replaced with names of their alicorn rulers. Given that this village and the surrounding fields stood in the shadow of Opaline’s personal residence, she named it after herself. For the freed ponies to reclaim their lives, reclaiming the names of their homes was among the most simple yet vital steps to doing so.
Luna followed beside her sister as they strode into the village streets, abuzz with ponies working to ensure that food, clothing, medicine and magic revitalisation were distributed fairly amongst the freed village folk.
“This village was liberated by Commander Jade Lustre,” Luna noted. “Perhaps a new name could be in her honour? Jadley? Lustredale? I might speak with her about it. Have you any ideas?”
Quietly trotting on, Celestia took a moment to think it over. She turned to Luna to make her suggestion. “The locals call it Hayfield.”
“Hayfield?” Luna tilted her head with an eyebrow raised. “Sister, I have lost count of how many towns and villages named Hayfield we have liberated. Surely, we should give it a different name, something to reflect its unique history! To honour the heroes who rescued it from Opaline’s clutches and welcomed it into the realm of Equestria!”
“Yes, but in the minds of the common pony who lives here, this village has always been called Hayfield,” Celestia countered. “Even during Opaline’s rule, that is the name they used behind the backs of their oppressors. Ask any of the locals where they’re from, they’ll say they’re from Hayfield. Regardless, it is most definitely not our place to impose new names on freed lands, that choice should belong to the ponies who make their lives here.”
“Hm,” Luna shrugged. “Fair enough. Though the cartographers will absolutely hate us.”
The rest of the short walk into the town centre went without conversation. Once they arrived at the market square and were noticed by the dozens of ponies present, Celestia was greeted with bows and Luna was greeted with salutes. Previously, the town centre was a lively and rustic market square, later rendered empty and lifeless during the rule of the Supremacy, but once again it found life as the epicentre of relief efforts for the area. Already enough tools and supplies to assist multiple villages like the one the sisters had just relieved were prepared and awaiting delivery.
“Will I be needed by your side much longer, Celestia?” Luna asked, levitating a crate of tools. “There are many more settlements in need of immediate aid, and we will cover more ground acting separately.”
“If you think it would be more useful, there are more towns to the east and the south who could certainly use a hoof,” she said, pointing in the respective directions.
“I’ll go there, then,” Luna said. “See you shortly.”
With supplies in her magic, Luna took to the air. The extra load did provide additional strain on Luna’s magic, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Across the land below, she could see several small collections of houses with Equestrian flags planted on or around them, signifying to her that the settlement had already received necessary aid.
Yet her flight path took her directly over Opaline’s castle, now the tyrant’s prison. As she got closer to the castle itself, she slowed down and by the time she was directly above it, she came to a complete stop. The mere fact it was standing at all gnawed at her, its tall and imposing acted as a beacon of Opaline’s power. Up until then, the last time she had seen Opaline was when she and Celestia had used the Elements to render her powerless and seal her in the castle, and Luna hadn’t had a chance to confront Opaline without Celestia present. She knew she wouldn’t harm their prisoner, but she had to get a final word in. Even if only for a sense of closure.
Resting at the edge of a hillside cliff, the castle was like a gangrenous, knotted growth reaching high out of the earth. Its turrets reached high into the sky, needles stabbed into the landscape. A single arch bridge connected the main entrance to where Luna descended, noticing that the exterior of the castle was swarming with guards. An essential part of the arrangement was that nopony, aside Celestia or Luna, would be allowed inside the castle as an assurance that nopony could ever be subjugated by Opaline ever again.
Luna set the tools and supplies on the ground, quickly getting the attention of the castle guards. “Watch these,” she told a nearby guard. “I will only be a moment.”
Once she was allowed inside and made her way through the grand, spacious entrance hall, Luna took notice of how polished and clean everything was. It felt too clean, too spacious, too pristine. Luna recalled the shabby, soily villages where most of Opaline’s former subjects lived, and how heavily they contrasted with this place. Destitute squalor for the victims, pristine luxury for the perpetrator. If Luna’s blood wasn’t already boiling it certainly was then.
After a short search, Luna found Opaline in a side room leaning against a windowsill. Compared to how she looked when Luna last saw her, she was vastly better for wear, the filth purged from her coat and mane with her hair styled into flowing curls that draped around her body like curtains. Of course, Luna wasn’t deceived by the superficial beauty, there was no amount of makeup that could cover up a soul as black as hers - and there was a lot of makeup.
Opaline glowered at the landscape below and grumbled something under her breath about being robbed of her rightful realm. She must not have heard Luna enter, as for a moment she continued to grumble as if she were alone. Suddenly Opaline went quiet and she snapped her head around. She practically retched upon seeing Luna in her castle.
“You?” Opaline fumed. “Why are you here? Are you here to gloat? Has your muttonheaded sister changed her mind and sent you to finish me off?”
Luna said nothing, standing still as a statue.
“No? Not going to speak? Well, I might as well,” Opaline stomped up to Luna. She spread her wings out and held her head up in an attempt to intimidate. “This prison will not hold. Either I will have my revenge or you shall see the truth. You can only deny the reality of -”
With a quick, sudden motion, Luna raised the edge of her sword to Opaline’s throat.
Opaline promptly shut up. It felt like her heart had momentarily stopped. She stared at the glistening blade with pinprick pupils and then met Luna’s eyes. Luna’s fierce glare carried the fury of every last one of Opaline’s victims. Alone it was threatening enough to terrify a pony into cowering. Along with the sword, it was petrifying.
“Should you even attempt to subjugate one more pony,” Luna hissed. “I promise that I shall come to you bearing my sword, and you will taste its blade.”
Her message delivered, Luna retracted and stowed her sword. A wide-eyed Opaline staggered back with her wings clenched close to her side, thick beads of sweat running down her forehead.
Then Opaline’s fearful expression faded, giving way to a cold smirk. “Even now you aren’t going to do it, are you? Ha! I knew you were too weak willed to defy your sister, keep it up and you’ll never attain real alicornhood. A true alicorn leads, a true alicorn doesn’t hold back -”
Luna punched Opaline in the face.
A stunned Opaline was thrown off her hooves, crashing into a bookshelf and sending a cascade of books toppling on top of her followed by the bookshelf itself falling onto her, pinning her to the ground.
“Good thing I am nothing like you,” Luna said, allowing herself to smirk slightly after releasing the rage within.
Crawling out from under the bookshelf Opaline slowly pushed herself to her hooves, rusting her wings and shaking herself free of books. By the time she was able to stand and glower at Luna, Luna had already turned to the exit.
“Goodbye, Opaline. May we never meet again,” Luna finished, trotting away and not looking back.
But then they did.