Sun & Moon Act I: Ascending Star

by cursedchords

Chapter 19: The Two Princesses

“History remembers that day as the first in our reign, but that view is mistaken. It was instead the first day that ponies took back Equestria, and agreed to safeguard it together against all who would seek to take it away from them.”

- High Princess Celestia, Personal Journals (Vol. 1)

The sky was raging purple and white as Celestia, Luna, and Aqua dashed out into the open, the latter still bearing her brother and her wounded husband. A raging wind whipped through the grounds of the castle, throwing Celestia’s mane high into her eyes, and lightning danced out over the city. Yet the effect out here was still muted compared to the maelstrom inside, and she sensed that they would be relatively safe out here. At least the ground wasn’t liable to disappear from underneath her hooves, as had happened to the unfortunate Master of Earth.

As soon they were clear, Aqua set Seraph down, and ran quickly over to a flat spot of ground, where she laid Atlas. The pegasus’ face was pale now from loss of blood, and the flow from the gaping wound at his side was showing no sign of slowing. “Atlas!” Aqua cried, cradling his face with her hoof, “are you still with me?”

Atlas coughed, and raised his head slowly to look into her eyes. “Yes,” he replied, his voice still clear and crisp, like normal. “We did it, my love. Finally, we did it.”

“Of course we did,” she said, tears running down her face. “We had to. Now, let me take a look at your wound.”

He coughed again. “No need,” he said, then looked up at her and smiled warmly. “You’re a miracle-worker, but I know that this is beyond your skill. Never mind about me.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Atlas looked over at Celestia and Luna, and his face lit up with pride. “Equestria is safe again, thanks to all of us. It would have been nice to see peace return, but I can rest easy just knowing that it will.”

“Oh, Atlas,” Aqua sobbed, and let her head rest upon his chin for a moment. Then she looked up into his eyes. “Not a day will go by that I won’t remember—” Aqua’s voice caught when she saw Atlas’s eyes suddenly go wide with fright. In the next instant, she felt the cold bite of a blade at her throat.

---

“Now, nopony move,” Seraph said slowly, maintaining a firm grip on his sword as he held his sister’s mane tightly with his other hoof. He looked much the worse for wear after his duel with Terraria, his mane matted and blood trickling off of his chin from a couple of cuts on his face. But the expression in his eyes was still hard.

Celestia had momentarily forgotten about the earth pony when she had seen Atlas’s plight. Her mind was still so full of everything else that had just happened, awash in adrenaline and excitement from their narrow escape. She should have known that Seraph would move quickly, yet now he had once again gotten the drop on them. Aqua’s eyes were glittering with fear, yet Celestia knew her well enough to know that she was still thinking, calculating, trying to find a way out.

Celestia looked up and nodded at Seraph, trying her best to reassure Aqua in the same gesture. “We’ve won, Seraph,” she said, speaking slowly in spite of her still racing heart. “The time for swords is over.”

“Easy for you to say,” he replied, “seeing as you don’t have one. But I set out today with one purpose in mind, and from where I’m standing the fight isn’t finished, not yet.” His eyes darted quickly to the hedges of the castle grounds, and when Celestia followed his gaze, her heart sank.

Stepping out of the hedges now were more members of the Order of Fire, each one clad in the same red as the ones inside, each one clutching a sword, and each also with a hostage, citizens of Upper Eridian that must have been grabbed as they fled the carnage of the throne room. The civilians’ eyes were wild with fear, and their captors’ faces showed triumph.

“No false moves now,” Seraph intoned behind her. “Trust me that I won’t hesitate. I see any magic and Aqua here will have manipulated her last chess piece. You said that you didn’t want any blood? Do things my way and there won’t be any.”

Celestia shot a quick glance over at Luna, but her sister’s eyes were just as desperate as her own. Seraph had all of the angles covered. With a sigh, she let her head down. “What do you want?”

“Simple,” he said, not relaxing his grip. “I want all of you to go away. Go back to your normal lives and leave Equestria to its rightful ruler.”

“Impossible,” Luna interrupted, her voice sharp. “We did not come this far only to give up the fight now. Equestria does not belong to you.”

“Why shouldn’t it?” he snarled. “I was the only pony in the Resistance who wasn’t happy with leaving it to Discord, I was the only one with the courage to reach out and take it! And right now I’m the one making the decisions, so I say it’s mine.”

“You’re not courageous,” Luna answered, looking up to stare into his face with fire in her own expression. “If you want to see a brave pony, look behind you.” She indicated Atlas, still lying on the ground, unmoving. “He had the courage to give everything that he had so that Equestria could be free, even if it meant his death. And meanwhile you would start another war, just so that you won’t have to give it up.”

“Him?” Seraph bellowed, pulling hard up on Aqua’s mane, so that she shrieked in pain. “He was weak, unwilling to do what was necessary when it mattered most. If it hadn’t been for his cowardice, Equestria would have been free years ago! Do you think that I would now repeat his mistake, surrendering it to the false Resistance? I’ve come too far now to do that.”

Once again, Celestia felt her frustration with this obstinate stallion rising, just as it had back in the throne room. It was exacly like Discord had said: the war between Eridian and Everfree was going to prolong his reign even without him around. “You will fight on, then?”

“I’ve fought for more than twenty years already,” he said with a twisted grin. “It’s what I was born to do.”

“Maybe,” Celestia answered. “But what of these other ponies here, the members of your Order? Surely they can appreciate the glory that this day should have. Discord’s defeat was supposed to bring about peace; that’s what we all hoped for. Right now you are the only pony standing in the way of that.”

“Ha!” Seraph snorted. “You think that you can turn them against me? My Order follows me because they believe in my vision for the future, that Equestria should be strong, not subservient to fools or tyrants! They follow me because they know that only I, free from the taint of the Resistance’s ideology, can bring about that future. They have fought with me all this way, and they will stand with me yet.”

“But where are you taking them?” Celestia asked, turning forward to face the crowd. Though each of Seraph’s minions wore the same red cape, she could see a great deal of variety among them. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies were all represented, male and female, young and old. The only thing that separated them from the ponies that they were holding captive was the clothing on their backs. And yet these ponies would do whatever Seraph told them to, even if it meant turning on their fellow Equestrians.

“You are asking them to spread fear all throughout the population, to put down the inevitable rebellions against your rule. You are asking them to be your spies, to be your ears, your eyes, and your hooves in the days and months to come. You are asking them to become a second court, another cult of nobles gathered around a tyrant King, willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid your wrath.”

She could see the fear in their eyes now, shuddering just beneath the surface, sometimes manifesting as a slight wobble in the blades that they held. Celestia knew what that felt like. She knew that each of them had looked at the situation objectively, and concluded that Seraph was the pony to back. A year ago, she might even have joined them.

But something had changed over the course of this past year. She knew now that personal ambition, if it came at the cost of others, could only hurt the country. It could only give strength to the ponies like Seraph and Terraria, who sought to leverage fear and divisiveness in the furthering of their agendas.

“Your Master beside me talks of courage, and indeed he is right that only courage now can save us. These ponies that you are holding prisoner lacked the strength to do what was right, and Equestria suffered for it. But how courageous are you now, doing as they did?” Celestia was shouting now, letting her voice carry long and far on the wind, bewitching her listeners not with magic, but simply from the power and emotion in her words. “I know how that feels, to understand suddenly that you’re not acting out of courage, but only out of fear. Your Master is asking you to follow in the hoofsteps of the ponies you hold at knifepoint, and he calls that courage! He’s asking you to protect him, just as these ponies did for Discord before! But what if instead you chose not to fall in behind the force of fear? What if you chose to stand together against it? Today brings the dawn of a new era for Equestria, and with you now lies the choice: will it be a new Dark Age, or an era of unity, of peace, of harmony? What greatness could we accomplish if we start this era standing together, rather than against each other?” Celestia bowed her head again, and stepped back into line with Luna. “All it takes,” she said, softly now, “is a little courage.”

As she finished, a silence came over the hilltop, broken only by the swishing of the wind through the bushes and hedges of the castle-grounds, and the occasional metallic clink as the members of the Order of Fire fidgeted nervously. Celestia saw their eyes flickering around, and she willed them with her whole heart to give in. It was now or never. But each one kept their blade up.

Beside them, Seraph slowly started to chuckle dryly, and a grin came onto his face. “So fair your words,” he said, “but so naïve. Who would risk becoming my enemy, knowing how I deal with ponies that get in my way?” He once again tightened his sword to Aqua’s throat. “Now, if your theatrics are over, perhaps we can get back to serious busi—agh!”

A blossom of red suddenly sprouted from Seraph’s shoulder, and he leapt back, dropping his sword. As soon as the blade left Aqua’s skin, Luna reacted, catching Seraph in a ball of purple magic and lifting him off of the ground. He flailed about for a moment, and Celestia could see a thin knife protruding from his shoulder. She looked back down to see Atlas, propped up on his haunches, offering a wave in the direction of the crowd of Seraph’s followers. A young earth pony in red was waving back, and then he threw his sword onto the ground, and let his prisoner go free.

One by one, the rest of the Order of Fire followed suit, until finally all of their blades were on the ground, and Seraph was left to look down at all of them with a burning look of fury.

Atlas offered a proud smile up to his one-time friend, then suddenly he collapsed over forwards, sprawling out on the ground, his skin now ghostly white. Aqua rushed to his side again, kneeling down by his head. “He’s still alive,” she said, holding his neck tightly, “I can feel a pulse.”

Celestia gave a look over to Luna. She knew that they couldn’t just let Atlas go, not after everything that he had done for them, and for Equestria. He had given everything he could, and that meant that he deserved everything they could do to help. Luna nodded back to her. “We have to try,” she said.

Lightly, Luna tossed Seraph aside, towards the members of his Order. Several of them immediately grabbed him around the shoulders holding onto him tightly so that Luna could release her magical grip. Then Luna once again held up the magical gems, and Celestia took hold of it. She called up all of the magic that she had left, once again focusing it out through her horn and joining it with Luna’s.

A shining sphere of gold and blue magic surrounded the fallen pegasus and his wife, shot through with multicoloured streaks of shimmering light. The magic lifted their bodies up, holding them aloft as a million sparks of light rushed inwards into them. Then, with a blinding flash that made everypony present cover their eyes, everything was quiet again.

When the dust settled, Aqua was left once again kneeling with her husband, still embracing him tightly. She looking quickly down to his side, where his wing had been, and saw that it had been fully regrown, and his coat once again shone with vibrant colour. But then her eyes moved up to his face, and Aqua gasped, for right on his forehead was now a sleek and graceful horn, just to match hers.

“Atlas,” she breathed, and then turned back to the sisters, her eyebrows high and her eyes wide. “You’ve—”

“Only done what he deserved,” Luna answered, “what you both deserved.” And she looked meaningfully at Aqua’s side.

The unicorn followed her gaze, and then she gasped again, seeing the clean white wings that were folded neatly over her own back. For the first time since Celestia had known her, Aqua appeared to be speechless. “I- I don’t understand,” she said.

“Like Luna said,” Celestia replied, taking a few steps closer to the two Masters. “It’s exactly what the two of you deserved. Your relationship is a bridge, a joining of two tribes known only for their historic vitriol. Yet you learned from each other, becoming stronger together. It is exactly that spirit that Equestria is going to need now, which is why it needs the two of you to lead it.” And she bowed low to the Master of Water, joined by Luna and all of the other ponies present.

Aqua was taken aback, and for several moments merely knelt in silence, rocking her hoof back and forth over Atlas’s mane. Slowly, the usual clarity returned to her eyes. She stood up and walked over to Celestia. “No,” she said calmly into her student’s ear.

Celestia stood up in surprise. “But you are Triumvirs,” she said. “Duly chosen by history and by all of the old laws. You are the heroes of the Resistance, the only ones who maintained the true spirit of freedom and cooperation that the organization was supposed to represent. This is your victory, what you’ve worked decades to achieve. It belongs to you.”

“No,” Aqua repeated, back to her usual serious tone, and Celestia almost felt as though she were back up north in the mountains, and her teacher was testing her on a question. “Everything that you’ve said is true, but my time has passed.”

Now it was Luna’s turn to try to find her voice. “What are you saying?”

Behind them, Atlas stirred, his eyes slowly opening a crack, then snapping wide. Aqua trotted back to his side, leaning down and giving him a kiss, then pulling him gently up to his hooves. Atlas shook his head a moment, then glanced down at his side, smiling brightly when he saw his new wing. “Thank you,” he said warmly to the two sisters.

“Thank you as well,” Aqua said beside him. “You were right, Celestia: a new era is dawning for Equestria. The time of the Triumvirs is over, and we are happy to see it go. Our work is finally done, but our lives are moving on. We are tired, and you are young. I’m proud to say that the future belongs to you, Celestia and Luna.”

The eyes of the crowd shifted onto the sisters, and Celestia felt a surge of pride as she heard the words. Somehow, the idea that either she or Luna deserved to lead had not entered into her thoughts these past few days, even though it had been a dream she had harboured since Atlas first taught her to hope. She had been thinking about Discord, about Luna, about everything that could go wrong if her plans didn’t work out.

But now all of that had passed, and the future once again beckoned. Her and Luna would bring back peace, bring back security and prosperity. They would take Equestria right back to where it had been, and even further. A wide smile broke out on her face as she thought, and she bowed once again to the two Masters. “Thank you so much,” she said. “We won’t let you down.”

“But which one of you will be Queen then?” came a derisive cry from the crowd, jolting Celestia out of her thoughts. The voice had been Seraph’s, and indeed he still wore a triumphant grin as he struggled with the ponies holding fast to his legs. “How long, I wonder, before the other one fancies a try at the top job?”

“Quiet!” yelled the stallions around him.

“No,” Celestia said, and raised a hoof toward them, “he makes a valid point.” She gave another look toward Luna, who returned a respectful nod. Of course Celestia knew that her sister would never turn against her in envy of a crown, but Seraph’s question had already nearly torn Equestria apart. Now was their chance to stop it ever happening again.

“One thing we have learned from you, Seraph,” she declared, looking down at him pointedly as she spoke. “Equestria should not be subservient to a tyrant, it should be strong. But that future shall not be ordained by any prophet, nor will it be decreed by any monarch. It belongs to all ponies, and all of them should have a say in it. So there will be no Queen.” She reached over to Luna, and put her foreleg around her sister’s shoulders, as Luna returned the embrace, smiling up at her warmly. “Instead, today Equestria becomes a republic, and will stay that way for evermore!”

A cheer erupted from the crowd, joined by both the former ponies of the court and the revolutionaries who had once held them at knifepoint. Celestia looked over them and felt her heart once again swell with pride. Here was Equestria’s future, just as she had hoped it would be. Ponies from all walks of life, joined together in celebration. But in the midst of the ovation, Seraph remained grim.

“As for you,” Celestia declared, once the cheers had died away, “anypony who questions the unity of Equestria, and seeks to undermine it, has no place within it. If you will not recant your position, then we have no choice but to banish you from Equestria.”

There was another rumble of applause from the crowd, and the stallions that had grabbed hold of Seraph’s shoulders hauled him around, carrying him away down the hill in silence.

“Well said, Sister,” Luna said to her softly, with her leg wrapped tightly across her shoulders. “He would never have left us alone.”

“Of course not,” Celestia replied. “But we shouldn’t worry about him. Now we have a whole country to look after.”

“Oh, please don’t get serious again already! I was thinking we could have another party for once.”

Celestia looked up, out beyond the crowd down into Eridian on the lower mountainside. There was something about the city that was strange, something different that she had never noticed before. Then a few of the courtiers in the crowd pointed up behind her, their faces shining in surprise. Celestia wheeled around, and gasped.

The Sun was rising over the far mountainside, bathing Eridian in its golden light for the first time in four centuries. The Chaos Storm was now all gone, dissipated into thin wisps of blue that were quickly disappearing on the breeze. Celestia realized what had been different then about Eridian: it was colourful, showing off the light and energy that had been hiding in Discord’s darkness, waiting for its chance to once again shine with all the glory of its past.

Celestia looked back down at her sister, with the warmth of the Sun building in her heart, and she laughed, light and carefree. “Yes,” she said. “That’s exactly what I was thinking too.”

End Act I

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

And at long last, things can settle down for a while. Here's hoping Celestia isn't too quick to forget her own words about tyranny....

Curious where the new alicorns see going to fit into things, but considering that Celestia and Luna were just born that way and it was just considered a normal-ish genetic quirk, I suppose it's not that big a deal.

[AppleTank]

Ha, don't worry about Seraph, really? He spent two decades working to take down one ruler, how did you stop him from trying again?

Also, dangit, this is why Earth Pones get bullied, all of those who could have been heroes turned out evil.