Prologue
Luna stared out her bedroom window, gazing down into the garden below. She had a brief flashback, memories of the garden at the old castle, of her playing with her Celestia. But she could not live in the past, for it was gone and would never hurt her again. She was thankful that Twilight had taught her to let go of what she did in the past. Luna then heard a knock at her door.
“Princess, your sister has sent me to inform you that all of the princesses will come together for a meeting tomorrow.” A sun guard said, through the doors of her bedroom.
“Thank you.” Luna replied.
“A meeting, tomorrow? Well that’s quite odd. Why hadn’t Celestia told her sooner? Maybe it was a test. What could it be for? Ruling? Maybe it wasn’t a test at all, and Celestia just forgot to inform her sooner.” Luna thought.
“Oh and, Princess, your Night Guards are gone, just to inform you.” The guard said.
“Thank you, please go now, I must think now.”
What does he mean my guards are gone? Nopony should be able to tell them to leave except me. She turned from her window, and went to see if her guards were really gone. She walked across the room, focused on nothing else but the door. She stopped in front of the door and paused. What was she fussing about? As far as she knew, he was only talking about the door guards, and they actually should be on their lunch break right now. But then the next guards should already be here.
She opened the door a little bit and looked in both directions. Sure enough, there were no guards in sight. She stepped out of her room and walked to every point of the area that the guards should be at. Her guards were nowhere in sight. This is an outrage! The Night Guards would never just leave without informing her. But wait. She went back to her door. She remembered seeing a faint glow out of the corner of her eye as she left her room, earlier. She cast a simple moon spell, and the glow turned into a piece of parchment. She took the parchment in her magical grasp, and read what was on it.
Nothing. There was absolutely nothing on the entire scroll. But Luna wouldn’t give up that easy. She knew that her guards would not just leave empty parchment hidden. So she cast multiple revealing spells on the parchment. None worked, but she had one more trick in her book. But she would have wait until midnight.
Luna walked to her balcony, excitement coursing through her veins. She took the parchment into her magical grasp and held it to the full moon. She recited the words that would reveal the hidden message on the scroll.
“Per vim stellarum et lunae inlumina bit te omnis obscuritas lux lunae!” Luna yelled with her equestrian voice. Her eyes glowed white as the power of the moon and stars revealed what was hidden.
When the rush of power was over, she studied the parchment intently. All it had on it was two simple letters. S B.
“Oh, Celestia have mercy.” Luna said, tiredly. She knew what those initials stood for, and she know knew why her guards were gone. Shadow Blade, her eldest son. He had somehow snuck past the many protection spells Luna had cast on the castle grounds, and since he was a child of the night, was able to tell them to leave. But why would he? Was there some point to all of this, or was he just going to make a marvelous entrance, like he always did. Probably the latter.
Luna gazed down at Canterlot and whispered into the night “Welcome to Canterlot, my child.”
Luna felt a gentle heat caress her face. She rose up from her bed, confused. “Celestia?” Luna asked, slightly drowsy. Celestia had opened her curtains, and the light woke her up. “Good morning, I had to wake you up, the meeting starts in 10 minutes.”
“10 minutes?!” Luna exasperated. Luna dashed towards her wardrobe and snatched her crown and shoes. She galloped at full speed into her bathroom and fashioned her mane into a suitable style. In other words, it looked like it always did. She sighed. She might change styles one day, but not today.
“I’m ready!” Luna announced loudly. But Celestia had already left. “Well, i guess i’ll just go by myself . . .” Luna mumbled to herself.
Luna trotted out of her room and looked down the hall. Celestia was still walking down, and was about to turn the corner.
“You know it would be nice to have some company!” Luna shouted, hastily.
“No time!” Celestia yelled back. Some sister she was. Luna was fed up with this. She teleported right into the meeting room. Twilight Sparkle was already there, no surprise. Cadence wasn’t in the room, but Luna could hear her talking to the guard on the other side of the east door.
The room itself was in the center of the entire palace. There was an east, west, north,and south door. The room had a compass design to it.
Celestia came in through the north door, and glanced at Twilight.
“Hey there sis!” Luna exclaimed towards her sister. Celestia jumped, and then stared in awe at Luna.
“How did you get in here so fast?” Celestia asked, confused.
“Magic.” Luna replied.
“Where is Cadence?”
“Right here!” Cadence exclaimed. She slammed the door open and revealed herself, in a beautiful cyan dress with shimmering crystals.
“Why the fancy dress?” Luna asked.
“I was just at a meeting with a bunch of noble ponies from Manehattan. They’re rather . . . judgmental.”
“What was the meeting about?” Luna asked, investigating further. Celestia cleared her throat loudly.
“If you don’t mind, we will now begin the meeting.”
“If anypony dares try and speak of anything besides the subject at hoof, then they shall be stared at awkwardly!”Luna said, laughing under her breath.
“Luna, for the love of the . . . please be quiet.” Celestia replied sharply. “Now anyway I would like to discuss some important issues with all of you . . .”
“And now that has been settled, let’s hear what Luna has to say.” The discussion had dragged on for two hours. Twilight was writing notes, Luna was trying to keep herself awake, and Cadence was out cold.
“I would . . . like to . . . discuss . . .” Luna’s head hit the table and she started snoring.
“Princess, if you don’t mind, I would like to present a topic.” Twilight said.
“Of course Twilight.” Celestia replied. “Thank you, I would like to start-” There was a loud thud above them and then the gentle humming of hooves against stone.
“Ummm . . . I would like to start with the fact that Ponyville-” There was another loud thud and then silence.
“Alright, why is there thumping?” Luna asked, slightly annoyed. She had awoken on the first thud and heard the second.
“I don’t know.” Celestia replied. Luna saw the ghost of a smile on Celestia’s lips. Was there a surprise? What could it be for? Luna couldn’t think of any holidays or celebrations. When was Twilight’s birthday again?
Celestia suddenly teleported out of the room. They were left in silence. Luna looked over at Twilight, who wore a guilty expression.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry.” The south door exploded behind Luna, launching her forward. Luna tried to look around, but she was to dazed to do much of anything. That was one hell of a party cannon. Luna would have laughed at her own joke, but she was currently almost unconscious.
“What’s going on?!” Luna heard Cadence scream. Luna looked up, and saw Celestia facing Cadence. Celestia held two Auxilia spathas in her magical grip.
“Celestia . . .” Cadence looked up at Celestia in fear.
“I’ll send Shining Armour and the Crystal Empire your body.” Celestia replied. She swung her right sword towards Cadence with frightening force, but Cadence dodged with surprising speed. Cadence kicked one of the guards in the face, and then grabbed his gladius. Celestia drove both of her swords down on Cadence, but Cadence quickly rose her gladius in defense. The swords met, and Cadence gave all her magical strength into keeping Celestia’s spathas away from her.
“You’re weak, Cadence, you’re nothing but a simple inconvenience in my plan.”
“Well . . . this inconvenience is a pretty big one!” Cadence teleported and Celestia’s swords struck the marble floor. Cadence teleported behind Celestia and leaped towards her. Cadence drew back her gladius, ready to drive them into Celestia’s back. She drove the gladius deep into Celestia’s flesh. Celestia screamed in pain, arching her back in an unnatural position.
Cadence flipped away from Celestia, and turned to Luna,”Are you alright?”
“I’m . . . okay.” Luna replied, slowly. Luna looked at Celestia’s body, and frowned. Did dead bodies usually glow red?
“You fool.” Celestia’s voice, slightly louder than usual. Her body rose from the ground, red energy snapping against herself. She stood, and looked directly at Cadence, one of her spathas pointing at her.
“You’re dead.” Celestia said simply. She then disappeared in a flash and reappeared right in front of Cadence. Her spatha was deep inside Cadence’s chest, blood pouring down to the floor. Cadence tried to say something, but only blood came from her mouth.
Celestia slid Cadence down her sword until she was just inches from her face. Red energy crackled in Celestia’s eyes, and she spoke a dark monotone that echoed throughout the room.
“You thought it would be that easy? You thought that you could foil my plan that easily?” Celestia used her magic, which had turned a crimson red, to slide Cadence farther down the blades so that she was face-to-face with her. “I am a god. You cannot stop me.” Celestia then threw Candace at the ground.
Luna looked up and spoke “Sister, why would you do this?”
“Because of you. You are in the way of me taking full control. Cadence is a fool. Twilight is loyal to me. You on the other hoof, you’re a true challenge. But why fight you sword to sword, when I could just kill you now.” Celestia took a step towards Luna, who was still trying to stand, and stabbed Luna’s right leg. Luna responded with a quiet groan and then silence.
“I will not be controlled by pain, I know to much of it to be intimidated.” Luna now stood. She stood weakly, but she was ready to fight. She summoned her dual wakizashis. They glowed with power, illuminating the dark room.
“You shall burn!” Celestia shouted in her equestrian voice. Celestia threw her spathas to the side and started to summon her spirit sword, a giant claymore. She spun it, and stood in fighting stance.
“That sword was always too big.” Luna said sharply, finally gaining enough mental strength to make bad jokes. She also stood in a fighting stance, but this was a stance meant for defense, opposed to Celestia’s aggressive tactics.
They both started walking in a circle waiting for the other to attack. Celestia finally leaped at Luna and shoved her spinning blade toward her sister. Luna , out of instinct, started looking for a fighting pattern, and found one quickly.
She would swing once, stand back, wait one second then launch herself while spinning the blade very quickly. Luna blocked the initial attack, waited for her to come at her again, then hit the spinning blade, flipped behind her sister and managed to land a decent cut on her back.
Celestia shouted in pain, and turned to Luna just quick enough to block a second time. Celestia started a flurry of attacks, and Luna didn’t have enough time between Celestia’s swings to see any pattern in her attack.
Instead Luna focused on looking for any opening in Celestia’s offense. She needed to find one soon, because she was still weak from her head injury, and she was struggling to keep up with the flurry of steel. Luna then thought of something.
“DAMN IT!” Luna yelled as loud as she could without using her equestrian voice. Celestia stopped for just a split second, caught off-guard by the sudden outburst, but it was enough for Luna to stop the assault. Luna then switched to the offensive and swung her blades extremely fast, making even Celestia wonder if she could block all of the attacks.
Just when Luna thought she had the upper hand, Celestia teleported behind her and stomped on Luna until she was basically swinging her blades in terror.
“That wasn’t very fair!” Luna yelled.
“Shut up peasant!” Celestia replied loudly. SHe drove her claymore straight down at Luna, forcing her to bring her wakizashis up to defend herself. Celestia smiled as she drove the claymore inch by inch, closer to Luna’s face, Luna, starting to shake a little.
“How does it feel Luna? Knowing you’re about to die? I’ll never feel that feeling, so I’m just curious.” Celestia said with a smirk. Luna started to panic slightly. Was she really about to die? Well, if she was . . . wait a second!
Luna yelled,” Umbra herba me!”
“What was that, some pitiful call for help?” Celestia asked, a sliver of uncertainty in her voice.
“Nope, I just wanted to yell out some random crap, you know hoping to confuse you and all.” Luna replied “Mater irrumator.” Luna would have laughed at that, but she was kind of bothered by the blade almost touching her muzzle.
Then north door exploded.
“Omnem operam placeam!” A familiar voice shouted. Luna looked to her left and saw her son, Shadow Blade standing there. He held a ko-katana in his magical grip, and a he wore a smile so smug you could’ve sworn he was talking to a foal.
“What’s up Aunt Celestia? Still into that fight club crap? This is a little far you know.”
“Shadow Blade.” Celestia said with venom in her words.
“You remember me. Well, I mean it’s hard to forget those puppy eyes I gave you when you said I would have to live on the moon alone for an undecided amount of time, but you know, after a hundred years it’s still kind of surprising.”
“I would never forget the face of a traitor.”
“Sorry, didn’t know being born was a crime.” Shadow Blade replied with sarcasm. He then stood in an offensive stance, and swung his sword in the air.
“Let’s fight aunt, i want to see if you can still swing that thing, you’re so old.” Shadow Blade said with fake pity.
“You will regret fighting me.” Celestia replied with despise. Shw she swung her claymore around herself and stared at Shadow Blade with hate. Shadow Blade then dashed of so hard that the marble cracked under his hooves. He drove his blade forward, directly at Celestia. Celestia brought her sword up, preparing for the blow, but it never came. She turned turned around, and then she saw nothing.
Shadow Blade sighed in disappointment as Celestia’s head rolled around the room.
“I thought she was a better fighter than that.” He then turned to Luna, and smiled.
“Hey mom.”
“Hey.”