Not All Injustice Is Fought With Retribution
Luna stood and stared at the door.
It did not appear a door at a glance. There was no obvious divide in the great stone star burst of color. The only hint to the door's nature was a single slot, for a horn. A keyhole, for a key, and key only her, her sister, and Twilight Sparkle could wield. Luna did not wish to unlock the door and look within. She didn't think she had the strength to. Not that she needed it anyway. Even if she wasn't dreadfully aware what this door that was not a door hid behind it, the senses the unicorn part of her soul, attuned by millennia of life, granted her could feel it... them behind that door. She could feel how the subtle bonds of magic bound every creature to them, how the beat of joy and hope pulsed through them, fainter than a fly's breath, but, at the same moment, she was aware of just how fast this heart of hearts could beat. How it could pull the very powers of hope and life to itself, and, by the will of its... their bearers they could wield that power and scourge the wicked and malignant with perfect justice. Luna had been the will in the center of that great cosmic heart.
Luna had also been on the end of it's wrath.
Luna stood, and stared at the Elements of Harmony, pondering their nature.
There was something... about the elements. Something that bothered her the more she pondered it. “Perfect Justice” was an apt term to describe the workings of the elements. Too perfect, sometimes it seemed.
Take, for instance, the case of Discord. What was he, exactly? Discord was Discord. He was the Spirit of Disharmony. The God of Strife. Suffering and Malice were his stock and trade, and his bread and wine. To him, Harmony was a blight to be stamped out. An aberration. Hatred, Pain, Betrayal. These are the world to him. Celestia had once told Luna that Harmony was like a Clock that had built itself. A thousand pieces of all shapes and seizes that fit themselves together as best they could and, in doing so, made something great. To Discord, the Clock was a lie. The gears were rusted, and uneven to boot. The more the clock turned, the more it ground itself down, reducing the smaller gears to dust as the larger ones spun fruitlessly in a mad dash to be useful. Discord had always had the power to smash the clock, to maim and kill instead of corrupt and torment, but he rarely took that path. Luna suspected that to him, the fact that that Clock kept trying to rebuild, despite the more out of step he made it, and therefore the more it kept killing its own components, was somehow the funniest thing to him.
Harmony was Order from Action. Discord then was Destruction from Action. What had the Elements of Harmony done to him though, when they had finally been brought to bear?
They turned him to stone. A thing which could neither take action, nor suffer destruction. Timeless, unchanging, and therefore, perfectly peaceful. Discord, a creature who never knew rest, who schemed and spun endlessly, who made sure that no creature he could lay his talons on knew an iota peace, was doomed to the eternal serenity of statuary. The idea nearly made Luna snort the more she thought about it. Even the idea of isolation must have been hell for a creature like Discord. At no second had Luna seen him that he was not inflicting pain on another. Being kept from that, left with nothing but his thoughts, must be a torture in and of itself.
What then also, of King Sombra? The Sorcerer King of the Crystal Empire? He had sought the Crystal Heart, to dominate it with all of his admittedly impressive mortal power. Through it, he would cast Equestria in the shadow of his glory and vanity. Fear and despair would become the tone of the ages to come. All Hail Sombra! All fall to shadow. What fate did the Elements reserve for him? To be nothing but a shadow, bound helpless inside ice as cold as his own heart. It went further though Luna had realized as she spent more of these sleepless nights staring at the door. What was a shadow? The absence of light. It had no weight, no form. It could do nothing, affect nothing. It was merely what the eyes painted for the mind when they had no light to grasp.
For a beast so vain as Sombra, who attempted to stamp his sneering face into the soul of Equestria itself, what could be more galling than to become nothing?
Luna and Celestia had cut a swath of blood through the ages to make Equestria a world safe for their ponies and all the other races who came under their wing, beginning when they bound Discord all the way to Sombra's mad bid for power. At each confrontation the Elements had been their jury, their judge, and the axe by which justice was served. Each time, the more Luna dwelled, the more it became apparent to her that the Elements had chosen their punishments to the ironic suffering of the wicked. The Elements protected the weak, but they did so without mercy to the cruel. Discord, Sombra, the Princes of Tartarus. All had paid the worst penalty they could for their crimes. Every time the Elements had been used, there had been nothing but perfect justice in their actions. Every. Time.
But then, where did it leave their last case? Where did that leave... Luna?
There, that was the question. The one gnawing at her gut in the dark, eating at her spirit and sapping her strength. The one that brought her here, night after night, to stare at the door too scared to confront what she already knew to be the reason she came. Now that it was finally in the open, the gates were broken, and she could not hide from it anymore.
Why? Why banishment to the moon? Why redeem her? Why show here leniency? Of all the sinners to face judgment on the altar of the Elements, why was she the one spared? Out of all of them, she deserved to suffer the most! Even if Discord or Sombra had ruled Equestria forever, at least there would have been an Equestria to rule! Furthermore, of all the creatures, Luna should have known better. Celestia assured her that there had been another will in her body. A spirit that had been driving Nightmare Moon just as much as Luna had been, but that was no excuse. Even if Luna had not been entirely in control she should have known the spirit was manipulating her and fought it. The fact that she fell and let herself become Nightmare Moon was just as inexcusable to her that she would have chosen the path willingly. A princess could not afford weakness, for weakness and evil were inseparable.
So what then, was her punishment? What was the purpose of her sojourn on the Moon? Each other punishment had been calculated to the detriment of its victim. What had the elements done to her? Was her imprisonment on the Moon a sardonic nod to her mad attempt to bring her night sky to Equestria? Or force her to bask eternally in the sun she hated so much? Was the barren realm she dreamed in for a thousand years meant to show her the cost of her actions? Was it just a knife twist in a heart already wounded by loneliness?
“Why...” Luna said, her body shudder as she stared at the door. “Why... WHY!”
Luna slammed her hoof against the unthinking stone.
“WHY!-WHY! WHYWHYWHY!”
Each shout was punctuated by the crack of hoof on stone. With the final strike, Luna finally broke, leaning against the wall, sobbing. Her near silent gurgles and shudders were the only sounds in the room. She stayed that way for a while.
Why?
Luna's head snapped up. Her head swiveling around, looking for the source of the voice.
“Who's there?!”
No one but us.
“Who said that?!”
We did.
The voice was innocent and child-like, but also tired and sleepy. Like it was being awoken from a... rest...
The voice giggled.
“You... you're...”
Yes. We are.
There was a long silence.
Why Luna, do you come here every night with pain in your heart?
“I... I need to know.”
Need to know what?
“I... why I was spared.”
The voiced yawned, a little confused.
Spared?
“What?”
Spared, from what?
“The punishment I deserved?”
Luna felt confusion radiate through the door.
“Why did you place me on the moon? To what end did you do so? Why? WHY?!”
The voice giggled.
Is this why you cry in the night Luna?
“I...” Luna said, tears welling up in her eyes. “I... yes.”
The voice laughed again.
We do what we can to ensure Harmony Luna. Why did we place you on the moon for a thousand years?
To keep you safe until we found a friend for you.
“You-What?! What?! What does that even mean?!”
Luna ran her hooves over the stone, her jaw gaping as her eyes bulged, studying the unyielding edifice for some clue, some cue or hint. Her only reply was a fading laugh and a faint yawn as the elements returned to their slumber.
Don't... don't worry about it...
And with that, the hall was silent again.
Luna stared at the wall for what seemed like an eternity, when a sudden sound caused her to nearly jump out of her skin. She whipped around and saw... a startled purple unicorn.
“Luna I-Oh! OH!” Twilight turned her attention to the candle she had dropped in her shock and Luna's sudden movement, stomping the flame out before it set he carpet ablaze. Luna used the moment to collect herself.
“Ehehehe” Twilight giggled, nervously. “Hehe-Whoops! Ahahah...” She was grinning sheepishly, but her face suddenly filled with dread. “You won't tell Celestia will you?”
“Wha-the candle?” Luna smiled, “No Twilight Sparkle, your secret is safe with me.”
“Oh, good.” Twilight's entire body went limp with relief. “I was worried.”
“You were telling me an hour ago how as a filly you nearly leveled the school attempting to hatch an egg. I'm sure my sister would forgive you for singeing a few fibers and getting wax on a rug she doesn't like anyway.”
“Better safe than sorry!” Twilight chirped, highlighting her nerves instead of concealing them.
Luna finally finished crossing the distance to Twilight.
“Why aren’t you sleeping with the rest?”
“Well, I woke up to find you gone, and, well, it’s not much of a slumber party if you don't sleep! You’re lucky Pinkie wasn't the one to find out!”
“Sorry, Twilight” Luna chuckled. “I don't sleep much.”
“Oh.” Twilight said, yawning and rubbing one eye with her hoof. “Well, in that case I'll stay up to keep you company.”
“You'd do that?”
“Of course, you're my P.P.B.F.F.!”
“P.P.-?”
“Pony Princess Best Friend Forever!”
“Oh really?” Luna asked, quirking an eyebrow. “What about Cadance, or my sister?”
“Oh no, you’re right! I hadn't even considered. This will take months of research and-!”
“Twilight.” Luna said, chuckling. “Relax. It was a joke.”
“Oh, o.k.. A joke. Haha. Riiight.” Twilight's grin didn't reach her eyes, which darted around, no doubt considering the diagrams and charts need to complete the monumental task Luna had inadvertently set before her.
Luna rolled her eyes and began walking out of the hall.
“Come, Twilight, let us get back to my room.” Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to her. She turned towards Twilight. “Why are you down here? What possessed you to walk this far?”
“Oh, I heard a voice.” Twilight, frowned. “Like a foal. It was laughing and it... lead me... here... Luna, what are you staring at?”
Luna did not speak for a long time.
“Nothing, Twilight.” She finally broke her gaze on that door that was not a door. “Just... old memories.” She began walking. Twilight waited for her to catch up before fall in step with her.
“Maybe we can go to the library and look for spooky stories, or perhaps swap stories about colts-no, wait, that won't work. I wouldn't have any. Oh! You know I've always wanted to try combing your hair.”
Luna laughed at that, continuing the idle chatter as they walked through the hallways in the dead of night. A not so lonely princess, and her very best friend.