> Break From The Castle
>  by mr_minati
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Cellar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Dear Celestia,

That's right; I didn't mention you by the title. You won't be needing it anymore, for the time has finally come. I'm getting back what you took from me a long time ago; my powers and my freedom.

 

I know what you might be thinking, that I forgot to add the kingdom or the crown... no sister, I did not. I'm going to take you down so that Equestria can finally become the land that the ponies deserve, where they can rule however they wish. I’m fighting for my freedom as well, but it is their future that drives me, of that I'm certain.'

A few knocks on her door interrupted Luna’s writing. In a panic, she quickly hid the diary under her bed, before sitting straight up.

"It's Stream Jolt from the castle maintenance..." said a voice from behind the door. "I'm coming in to collect your trash, miss."

Luna glanced at her little corner trash. It was empty. "In a minute, please, "she replied quietly, before pulling out her diary to continue.

'I've been noticing a change in me, Celestia. I can feel it as I look at my past self and accept my burden. A trying task a couple of centuries'

Another set of knocks interrupted her again. She glared at the door. "I said in a minute."

'Ago. It helped me to see through the eyes of your subjects, their fear, the pain you put them through every day'

Once more, the pony knocked at the door again. "Ain't got all day, miss."

"Alright, fine!" Luna threw the dairy onto the bed and stomped her way to the door.

She opened the door and let the pony in. It was a gray earth pony with black mane and tail, combined with white highlights. He wore a blue buttoned shirt with a silver name tag. Luna frowned at him, but he ignored her and went inside, grabbing the trash can before dumping it into his cart outside.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking occupied," he said in a monotonous tone, shaking the empty trash can on his cart.

Luna gave a slight smile. "Well... Are you in or not?"

He stopped and turned, holding the trash can in his hooves. "Depends, do you have anything for me?"

"Right, of course," she slowly lifted her bed and took out a small plastic bag from beneath it. "May Leaf Potions. A lot of sacrifices went into keeping these."

He swayed the trash can, gesturing her to throw the bag in and began inspecting its content. "What do you mean?" Stream asked.

"That I was actually sick and decided to hold these potions for you," she said, trying her best not to sound rude. "That's what I've meant by sacrifice. I've risked my health and sustained the pain the past few weeks for your service."

"Thought you alicorns were immortal beings."

"We are immortal in the sense that we don’t age. However, we are still susceptible to diseases and life-threatening injuries, "she explained.

He took one of the small bottles containing the May Leaf Potion from the bag. After thoroughly inspecting and smelling it,  he finally took it after taking the cap off of it.

"Wow, stop that!" She waved her hooves to stop him. "Are you being serious right now?"

He winced at the after-taste and his eyes widened afterwards. "Wow..." He shook it off and went back to his calm demeanor. "Relax miss. I needed to taste it and see if it's the real thing, y'know."

She frowned. "Well, it is. I can't exactly fake these potions, you know. And I still need you to do your part of the bargain before the potion gets you to the clouds."

"I can handle it…" He paused to take another look at the contents of the bag, "Hmm, you only got six bottles... this should be enough. You’re good."

She let her ears drop, entering a more relaxed stance. She finally had an ally, and some hope to get her back into the fight against the tyranny of her sister.

"Okay, so how are you gonna get me out of this wing of the building?" she asked, as he never told her the details of his plan. "All of the entrances are heavily guarded."

"Easy." He waved the trash can. "You're getting into my trash cart. I’m in with the guards, so they won’t suspect anything." He let out a smirk.

Luna didn't say anything; instead, she gave a thoughtful look. There were so many things that could go wrong, and her ally wasn't doing much to improve her confidence.

He raised an eyebrow. "Though, are you okay with sitting on garbage for an indeterminate amount of time, miss?"

"Have you seen where I live?" She gestured around the small barren room, answering the question quite definitively.

Stream quietly glanced around the room and shrugged. "Looks like any other apartment in Canterlot..."

And she continued, "I've actually been in far worse places, frankly it's a blessing that I have this. Many centuries ago, I spent fifty years in countless dungeons across Equestria and one year in a Gryphon prison, it wasn't that bad actually, their prison systems were far better than ours eight centuries ago." Luna hung her head. "I’ve actually forgotten how comforting it was to be in a royal chamber..."

"Yeah, pity..." He tried to sound sympathetic before taking another sip.

"Hey, knock it off!" Luna warned him one more time, while simultaneously trying to avoid being heard from afar.

"Alright, alright... " He started closing the bottle and stored the rest in his cart. "Now, just jump in and enjoy the ride."

With a concerned look on her face, she reluctantly got into the cart. Once he saw that she was settled in, he closed the top of it and started pushing, leaving Luna in darkness.

"So, the cellar, right?" Stream Jolt asked.

"What, you already forgot?"

"No, it's... I did some thinking earlier on the day and I remember you telling me that you're recovering your alicorn powers, correct?"

"Yes. And I also told you, no questions asked, remember?" Luna replied, getting only a sigh from Stream and no more words.

Luna always knew the location of her magical powers. On her sister's neck. Queen Celestia always sported a golden necklace that her subjects always referred to it as "Nightmare's eye." The center of the necklace had a crystal, shaped like an eye with a slit black pupil and it always had a blue glow. An unusual piece of her regalia that caught the eyes of everypony around and where she had Luna's powers stored.

On another boring day, confined in the castle, Luna noticed that the Nightmare's eye had lost its luminescence and Celestia didn't seem to be bothered by the fact. It was unsettling for Luna, she would've asked about it straight away, but she hasn't spoken a single word in years. She was muted, or rather supposed to be since the collar on her neck preventing her to talk was busted, still, a part of her didn't want Celestia to know. So, Luna did some little investigating. Eventually, with some eavesdropping on Admiral Cadenza's conversation with the queen, Luna found out where they were hiding it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing she heard, also planned on shipping her powers away to someplace unknown to her.

Luna was against the clock, so little options and built-up pressure on her hooves. But giving up wasn't one of her options.

Several minutes passed and even though she couldn't see anything, she could decipher that her accomplice had made it past the wing without any trouble. Regrettably, it was difficult to form a thought; the smell inside the cart was unbearable. 'It's for the cause' she kept repeating in her mind to focus her mind on anything but the smell.

Another set of minutes passed before she felt the dumpster cart slow down while hearing, oddly enough, humming sounds. Luna gave a quizzical look, it seemed to be coming from her accomplice. She felt compelled to question it, but decided it was simply him, "playing his role". Maybe his nerves got a bit loose for the moment, given that he was committing a crime that was punishable by death in Celestia's eyes.

Luna's cloud of thought was promptly blown away as the cart suddenly bumped into a wall. She remained silent and motionless, her muscles tensed, should she act now? And relax only when he resumed with pushing his cart.

"Is everything alright?" Luna asked in a low voice, but there was no response. "What happened?"

"Everything's cool, is cool..." he finally replied, but his tone was more enthusiastic than before. "I was avoiding a cracked tile. Relax, miss, relax."

"Hmm... knowing how obsessive my sister can be, I find that hard... "she paused in realization. "Are you okay there?"

It took him a minute to reply, "In all honesty, miss... I am feeling way better. So, I thank you for your little dose of sunshine you got me there. It's been sooo long since I felt... relaxed."

"For the love of all-" She paused, noticing how high her voice got. "You are already suffering from the after-effects, great, " she said sarcastically. " And with two sips only, you really handle it."

"I... I have to admit that this is new to me, "he said and chuckled a bit while trying to keep the cart going straight. "The stories I heard of it are true."

"Look at you now, unbelievable," she commented, but he only chuckled softly. She sighed. "As expected, no pony takes me seriously... Alright, stop the cart. I'm tired of hiding in this filth. You're aren't of much help anymore and I'm taking the potions with me, even though I don't want them, but I'm gonna get rid of them and that's all for not accomplishing your part of the deal."

She was lifting the lid of the cart, but he promptly closed it back. "No, no you don't!"

"I'll give you a warning, Stream. I’m going to kick this lid open if you don’t let go," she said in a serious tone.

"I-I have another idea, miss," he said in a desperate attempt to keep the potions.

Luna kept silent for a minute before replying, "What is it?"

"Excuse me, maintainer?" Luna covered her mouth as she heard the voice of a mare somewhere in the halls.

Stream turned to find, the mare was already behind him, yet he maintained his composure. This was impressive given that the mare was none other than Cadence, the admiral of Equestria's Royal Guard. The alicorn's mane was shortened and tail trimmed. She was clad in a red military service dress, adorned with gold shoulder guards, all kinds of ribbons hanging from her chest and a dagger by her side, she was the picture of military authority. "I'm curious to know who you're talking to when clearly nopony is here?" Cadence asked, scanning Stream from top to bottom.

"I wasn't talking, miss. I-"

"It's Admiral Cadenza, it’d be wise to remember your place." She scowled, irritated at her rank being ignored. "Your eyes... your appearance overall. You look like a mess. Have you been drinking on the job?"

Steam's ears plummeted, sweat rolling down from his head. "Of course not..." He paused and froze as Cadence moved closer to his face, her nose sniffing around his mouth. "What are you doing?"

"Verifying your honesty for myself..." she said softly and took a sniff. "I can tell the type of liquors by smell..." she continued to sniff harder while moving around his muzzle. Stream closed his eyes and at his current state, he managed to keep his cool. "Mmm, a peculiar scent..." She commented while taking one more sniff.

Seeing her stepping back with a dissatisfied look, Stream grinned, "Found what you were looking for, m- admiral?"

Cadance walked past the dumpster cart. She turned and tapped the lid. "Where are you from?"

"Uh, I'm from here. Canterlot..."

"Mmm, then you should know better. I don't like that attitude of yours, your slovenly appearance and lack of respect for your superiors is quite insulting. You’d be wise to correct those issues soon, Stream, lest you be met with a harsh penalty." With that, she walked away.

Luna exhaled deeply, "That sneaky witch... it seems she's wandering around the castle. But why is she doing it this late?"

"Beats me," Stream shrugged. "This is actually the first time I've ever talked to that mare. And we got so close, I could almost kiss her..." he whispered.

"Okay, I'll pretend that I just didn't hear that. So let's focus here, her presence is gonna make things more difficult than we thought, so what was that idea of yours again?

"Uh, what?"

"Focus, Stream! The thing you were about to tell before Cadence interrupted," Luna tried not to yell at him.

"Right, right..." Stream said as he remembered, "I know somepony who can help you."

"You're going to involve somepony else? You must be kidding."

"She's a good friend of mine and she's not too far from here. I can take you to her in a sec," he said, waiting for a response.

"Is she another maintainer like you?" she asked giving him a chance.

"Nah, she's a cook."

Luna rubbed her temple, "I'm trying to make sense of this, really. However, I'm on the brink of giving up on you. So, you better stop wasting my time and get to the point."

He sighed. "Well to start, my friend is actually a terrible cook. However, what she lacks in the kitchen, she makes up in her knowledge of magic. She's a total nerd on the subject, so she might be able to give you a trick to make it pass whatever."

There was silence inside the cart, he raised an eyebrow until the lid lifted a crack, allowing Luna to peek with unsure eyes. "Hmm, if she's that good at magic, what is she doing in the kitchen?"

"W-what, kind of question is that?" he said appalled. "You should know how it is for us, the working class of Equestria."

"I... of course I do! It's just... I didn't even know the kitchen was open this late."

Stream snorted at the rather pitiful cover story, but continued, "Well, of course, it’s for the staff only and right now it’s only her. The poor mare used to work during the day, though. They changed her work schedule to a night shift, and you know what comes next..."

Luna was silent for a moment. "Oh... You really think you can convince her?"

He smiled. "Of course, trust me, miss. She will be more than happy to."

Luna's eyes poked out of the cart, she noticed that his eyes looked glossier than when he was in her room, and his smile was wider too. "You would do anything to get your hooves on these potions, huh?"

He nodded and asked, "Do I take you there or not?"

"Yes." She hid back inside the cart. "You certainly have a problem, are you aware of that?"

"Maybe," He said while grabbing the handle. "Alright, let's get this show on the roll... get it, miss?"

"I’d prefer it if you went back to pretending to do your job now," she said nonchalantly. "And you don't have to call me that, miss, you know."

"Sorry, I was raised not to mention your name at home," he explained. "I actually got a rather serious beating when I was a colt, so it kinda got stuck to me... wait for a minute miss." he cut the conversation as he went past a pair of guards patrolling the hallways and gave her a signal once out of sight.

"I'm well aware that everypony hates me... sometimes I even wonder how much," she said in a defeated tone and her accomplice didn't comment. "They even put the blame on me, even though I can't be blamed entirely for what Celestia has become."

"And now you want to make things right, yeah yeah I get it," he said in a monotonous voice. " But why now, miss?"

Luna ignored the fact that he still didn't use her name and sighed, "I've lived for so long, I went through so many stages, phases or whatever you want to call it. I once didn't mind the punishment, in fact, I wanted it. I tried escaping. I've asked for forgiveness... there was this time I wanted to just disappear, kill myself, that's why you couldn't see so much stuff in my room. I guess I've done it all..."

"Wow, this kinda ruins the good vibes I was having..." he replied.

"You see, the moon is by my side now, the time is right and I accepted the fact that Celestia is no longer the sister I once knew. I'll take my powers back and end this nightmare for good."

"I'm... sure you will," he said as he entered through the double doors of the empty mess hall. "We're here and just in time before I hit the floor."

__________________

Twilight grabbed a large spoon from her kitchen utensils and went fishing for a small bottle of salt that fell into her pot on the stove. "Ugh! Look what happened now..." she said frustrated at her salted stew. Clearly, she couldn’t believe that Luna, the one who betrayed Queen Celestia and all of her ponies, came out of Stream Jolt’s dumpster cart.

Luna and the maintenance pony were standing beside the entrance of the mess hall's kitchen. The alicorn just kept quiet and let her accomplice take care of the cook, still trying to rescue her stew.

"Let me explain Twilight, please," he said with lazy eyelids and bloodshot eyes.

Twilight swung her spoon. "No Stream!" she yelled and pointed her spoon at him, sending drops of the stew flying around. "You're drunk, I don't want to hear anything from you."

Luna brushed a few stew stains off and Stream Jolt pressed his chest, "I'm not drunk, Twilight! I honestly haven't touched a drink in a week."

"Liar," she said continuing her effort to retrieve the bottle of salt.

"I honestly haven't had a drink today," he tried again, but she ignored him, and he sighed. "It's the truth, Twi... I just need some rest, you know I've been busy this entire week."

Twilight finally got the bottle out but noticed that its content was gone and frowned. "Then it's worse than I thought, Stream! Why, why did you bring her to me?" She stomped her way to him and stuck her spoon to his throat. "You really want Princess Celestia to disintegrate us!?"

"Woah, Woah, calm down!" Stream said with eyes widened. "There's a very important reason behind it and I’ll tell you if you just let me talk to you."

She stood there for a moment and glanced at Luna who was giving her a strong concerned look.

"Alright..."

Twilight took a deep breath and let go of his throat, "What is it? Just know that whatever it is, this will be the last time I ever do you a favor. I have a feeling that this will cross the thin line between our friendship."

He gave a worried smile and glanced at Luna, then back at Twilight. "Will it be alright if she used your bathroom?"

Twilight turned to Luna and eyed her from top to bottom. "Hmmm, sure. It'll be fine, I guess..."

"Good. Miss, you should go and clean yourself up while I'll talk to my good ol' friend, Twilight, here, okay?"

The former princess frowned at the idea of being told to clean herself up like some little school filly. However, after the trip inside the dumpster cart, there wasn’t much reason to argue. She nodded and proceeded to the bathroom, leaving them alone. Once Luna was out of sight, he took advantage of the privacy to tell his friend the truth. Twilight's anger seemed to vanish as he explained, going deeper into the details.

Inside the small bathroom, Luna was done with her cleaning. That was what she thought as she looked in the mirror. She did what she could with the limits of the sink and tissues to clean herself off. Satisfied, she exited to find Twilight filling her stew with water. However, Stream was nowhere to be seen, not even his dumpster cart.

"Did Stream just leave?" Luna asked, uneasy at the change in the situation.

"Yes," Twilight replied keeping an eye on the water level. "He wasn’t feeling good, so he went back home."

"Um..." Luna was unsure, she didn't expect her accomplice to leave and keep things in the shadow to her.

Twilight turned off the faucet and lifted the pot with her magic. "Don't worry, you're with me now." She placed the pot on the stove and lighted it up. "He told me everything and I'll see what I can do."

Luna glanced at the pot. "Apologies for ruining your food."

"Don’t worry about it, it's not ruined yet anyway," she smiled a little. "Just added more water into it to balance the whole thing out."

Stream’s earlier statement about her friend popped in her mind and Luna remained quiet. As soon as Twilight's smile dropped, Luna noticed that she failed to hide her worries. Luna could see the sadness in her eyes, and it seemed that she's been trying to hide it.

"It's not necessary for you as well, Twilight," Luna spoke. "There's no need for you to help me, I can take care of it from here." Twilight opened her mouth, but her words failed to form as Luna continued, "I just wanted Stream to sneak me in, and instead he led me here. Still, he did half of the deal, so that's alright with me." Twilight turned to look at the pot and Luna headed her way to exit the kitchen.

"I know how irresponsible he can be, more than anypony," Luna stopped as she heard Twilight speaking. "A long time ago, I even thought I could've helped him, I thought he was worth the effort. However, I realized that the best way to help him is to leave him be and get as far away as possible." Luna turned with a quizzical look and Twilight continued on, "I can finish the other half and sneak you to the cellars. Just one question and I want you to really consider your answer, Luna. Do you really want to do this?"

Luna's eyebrows furrowed and she didn’t hesitate to answer, "Yes."

"Don't you want to escape, be free?"

"It's like I told to your friend earlier, I've been living here for a long time," Luna’s left-wing flared out, showing a long scar running horizontally on her side. "I have already done it and you can guess how it went."

With no further words, Twilight acknowledged her with a nod and gestured to join her, Luna followed. Twilight took out a book hidden inside the pantry. At the same time, the stew began to stir by itself as well a couple of ceramic dishes began floating their way to get washed. "You won't find this book anywhere in Equestria. It's restricted."

Looking up from the book, Twilight turned her attention to Luna, “Before we start, I have another question, Luna?"

"Ask away," Luna said pulling her attention back to Twilight after looking around.

"I'm kind of curious now, how did you meet Stream?"

Luna smiled as she heard the question and remembered, "Well, I wouldn’t so much say I met him as he actually broke into my room."

▲ ▲ ▲

After another boring dinner with her sister, Luna trudges back to her room. Her eyes widened as she saw her bed flipped to the floor and all the bedsheets thrown around. She spotted the pony responsible for it, caught disassembling the lamp on her nightstand. He froze for a brief moment and dropped the remaining part of the lamp and with no words from both, the intruder slowly made his way to the door, attempting to pass off the situation as casual.

Luna sighed, it really was normal for her to see the ponies behave like this around her. "I know there's not much I can do about this, but at least for the sake of it, tell me what you're looking for. You're not actually vandalizing my dorm, I'm sure of that much."

Stream froze and turned back in shock. "You can talk?... What about the collar?"

Luna tapped her golden collar, a rather uncomfortable piece on her neck. "It's been broken for the last decade. Now you're the only one who knows. So please tell me what are you looking for…Stream, is it?" She asked as she read his name tag.

"I ..." Stream shut his mouth and closed the door so nopony could see, "I saw you drinking a May Leaf Potion yesterday, that's restricted and… I want it," he said, while lowering his head in shame.

She dug through the feathers of her right-wing and pulled out a brown bottle. "Like this one?” The sight of his elation quickly brought an idea into her head, “Say, aren’t you a maintainer of this castle? Correct me if I’m wrong, but, staff members can't be seen abusing with stuff like this. It’s a highly punishable offense." She smirked at the sight of Stream gulping.

"I-I'll tell the guards if you don't give that to me." He glared.

"They're not going to believe you and besides, I don't really care if they do. You can't threaten me with that," she said frowning in defiance, as she tucked the potion in her wing again. "It's not going to work."

Stream gave an intense look of his own, but Luna wasn't showing signs of backing down. He backed away and opened the door again. "Fine, then." He slowly shut the door as he exited, "You're gonna get it now, miss." He closed it. "You're done!"

▲ ▲ ▲

"You were smuggling contraband in the castle, that's..." Twilight commented.

"Now Twilight, don’t think that I’m some smuggler. I honestly didn’t have it in my mind until he saw that I couldn’t be intimidated  and he came back begging for it.”

Twilight went back to her book, "Right... Now, I've seen a spell here," she said while skimming through an old book she had. "It's a replica of the changeling shapeshifting magic, but I've never seen it used since it’s considered forbidden magic." As she found the page and briefly studied the instructions, she pointed to Luna some bold words. "I should warn you, the spell was never finished, so it's effects are only temporary. Still, it would give you quite an advantage. What do you think, Luna?"

"Hmm, it might work. Though are there any other spells of note?"

Twilight rubbed her chin as she thought of other options. "Yes, there is another spell that comes to mind which could be useful..." She quickly flipped through the pages again, "It's a shrinking spell. It's powerful enough to make you so small you become practically invisible. However, the drawback is that you can’t reverse until you get your powers back."

Luna glanced at the spell information and did some visualization in all angles of her mind. "I will have to go with the shape-shifting. It probably would make the trip more effortless compared to the shrinking spell, don't you think Twilight?"

Twilight nodded and went back to the previous page. "Indeed." She stood up and Luna braces herself. "I'll change your appearance, nothing too complicated and you can pose as one of the staff to get through the castle. Just keep a close eye on how much time you take."

"Got it." Luna nodded. Twilight closed the book and readied herself, everything else in the kitchen ceased as she concentrated her magic. Luna noticed and interrupted her, "Wait, before you do it, I have one question as well."

Twilight's ear dropped, "Oh, tell me."

"Why are you being nice to me, Twilight?"

Twilight was stunned by the question and hesitated for a bit, "You... find this nice, Luna?"

"Yes. It's been so long since somepony talked to me like they would be with any other pony. You can even say my name without any trace of hate."

"Oh, um..." Twilight haven't noticed that before, taking her time to figure out what to say. She turned to look at nothing in particular. "Well, where I live, my family has no resentment against you. Heck, even my great grandfather was part of the revolt that occurred in the last century."

"Curing Song was your great grandfather?" Luna asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Oh no. That wasn't him, my great grandfather didn't have a big role, nor any high rank. He was, well... let’s say, cautious. I suppose we should be thankful, otherwise, I wouldn't be here." She chuckled softly before getting somber. "Poor Curing Song was executed along with his family and his whole generation is now gone..."

After an awkward moment of silence, Twilight began, "Alright, sorry about that and moving on. Look, I'm merely giving you the tools, Luna. You are the one who decides how to use them, okay?"

Luna nodded. "And I appreciate your help Twilight Sparkle, the cook. I'll be forever grateful to you."

Twilight gave a slight smile and Luna's entire body was engulfed in a purple aura.

__________

A tall pink pegasus mare with a dark blue mane and tail was walking down the hallway. She wore a maintenance shirt with no name tag, but none of the patrolling guards bothered her, writing her off as part of the staff. It still felt weird to walk on her own in the middle of the night without any escort, but a smile found its way out as she got closer to her destination.

With the directions Stream and Twilight gave her, Luna picked a passageway, descending on the lowest floor of the castle. The cellar appeared at the end of the corridor, just around the corner.

The spell really made things easier for Luna. It was a shame she hadn’t made a deal with Twilight earlier. An interest in the spell grew in her. She’d definitely consider investigating it so as to extend once she got her powers back.

The thought made her pause to reflect on her situation. All this time, she’d been a powerless alicorn, trapped in a castle ruled by a mad alicorn, who took her as an excuse to deprive all her subjects of the freedom they had, so long ago.

How much her sister had changed... and how long Luna had waited for this moment.

The only thing that was standing between her and magic was an old wooden door, protected by two unicorn guards. That was enough proof for her to suspect that her powers must be hidden inside.

With a deep breath, she trotted forward, sporting a stern face of determination.

The guards frowned at the sight of her approach. "This area is restricted to everypony," one of them said to her. "Even the staff, they should've briefed you on that, ma'am."

She stopped in front of them, "What are you hiding in there?"

"It’s none of your business, ma'am," the other guard replied showing a bit of anger towards her defiance. "Now this is your last warning, turn around and leave or we will be forced to arrest you."

Suddenly her whole body burst into pink smoke, causing the guards to jump back in surprise. The smoke quickly cleared up, revealing the now undisguised alicorn.

Both guards flinched. "What the-!"

The other guard turned to look at him with wide eyes, "This... this is happening, Gust."

"Luna..." Gust Strike replied glaring at her. "You're not supposed to have magic powers or talk at all. It's imp-"

"Impossible, ha!" Luna haughtily said. "I'm an alicorn just like Celestia and Cadenza, It's not impossible. You both had been truly blinded by them."

"Then you're acting like an amateur," Red Dust commented catching quickly her attention. "If you could make strong spells like Queen Celestia, you could've disguised as her in the first place and easily walk right in everywhere."

"Oh, got you there." Gust Strike smirked.

Her left eye started twitching. 'Oh, pony feathers! Why didn't I think of that?' She thought.

"Well Luna, you’re to be escorted back to your dorm, as instructed by the Queen Celestia," Gust Strike explained and Red Dust got ready to take her. "Wait until she hears about this. I can only hope she'd take you away for good and be a waste of time and resources to somepony else."

Luna stood defiant, " Sorry but I won't let that happen, I won't be stopped."

"Looks like she's rebelling," Red Dust said with a bit of enthusiasm at his partner.

Gust’s face was suddenly filled with malice as he chucked his head slowly. "Ooh hoho, you have no idea what you just got yourself into." He slowly started walking towards her with horn lit and his partner followed behind. "It's beating time."

Luna backed away a little. "Now don't get ahead of yourselves here, I should give you two a warning-"

"Won't need it!" Gust cuts her off while his partner wrapped her in a green magical rope.

"Got her! Do it, Gust!" He yelled to Gust, who smirked as he quickly charged up a spell.

She tried flaring her wings, but the magical rope held them tight. Desperately she started jerking and pulling with no avail. Gust promptly fired a red burst of magical energy that knocked the alicorn down. Luna yelped as she dropped to the floor.

Gust slowly walked to her with a smug smile. "Heh, sweet dreams, moony." He turned to kick her with his back leg, but Luna jumped into the air in an impressive display of speed, making him miss.

"I've dealt with worse beatings than this," Luna said and countered with a kick of her own, before landing back on all fours. The other guard could only watch, dumbfounded, as Gust slammed into the wall with a loud metal clank from his armor.

"You're next..." she said to Red Dust, who winced at the sight of his unconscious partner, Luna gesturing to make the attack.

Once again, he launched a magical rope at her, but this time she made the attempt to dodge it. Red Dust managed to grab her back leg, but Luna took advantage of it and she pulled using her wings. Red Dust, unprepared for the added force, failed to hold her down and sped forward, she spun in the air to reel him in and threw a powerful kick, sending the guard crashing through the cellar's door. Pieces of the wooden door scattered everywhere.

Luna glanced at the two unconscious guards and the mess she made, "I'm sorry for this, hope you can forgive me once this ends."

She made her way past the threshold, over the unconscious guard. "I think I might have gotten carried away with that kick, sorry." She glanced at him and stepped inside the cellar.

The room was dark, the only light was coming from the door, was enough to illuminate the room just scarcely. Luna really wished she could at least cast a simple light spell. With a sigh, she pressed between the racks full of crates blindly. She went past the crate, stumbling upon several barrels of a great variety of wines and ciders from all across the kingdom. The finest strongest liquors were kept there, restricted to the rest of the ponies. Available only for a few privileged.

As she kept on going through the maze of barrels, Luna was impressed by the ridiculous amount of space that this cellar had. It never came to her that Celestia had a huge collection of drinks., "And she wouldn't even share a single drop with me..." Luna said as she sniffed the strong aroma. Realization suddenly struck her. "Wait, maybe this is the real reason why this place was guarded." Worried, she started looking around desperately. "No no no, I-I'm sure I heard right. It has to be here."

Suddenly she spotted a blue-ish glow and decided to follow it. The glow took her out of the maze and into what seemed to be the center. Its source came from a wooden crate right next to a couple more of the supposed premium rum barrels. She inspected it closely and indeed it was glowing from inside. Unfortunately, there wasn't any type of tool to make the job clean, so Luna proceeded to kick the crate over. Bucking it with all her might, it took four hits for the nails to finally give in and one of its sides fell.

Luna squinted as the glow intensified and got closer before a terrible pain struck her. She screamed in agony and fell back as a blue lightning bolt came from the crate and shocked her. As she groaned and tried to recover from the hit, currents of blue electricity still danced around the crate. She watched as the blue electricity took the form of a pony-like creature, overwhelming her in confusion as the creature just stood there. It made a loud screech, prompting Luna to cover her ears and close her eyes. After a moment, she opened them again, only to find the creature gone.

Looking for signs of the creature, she found somepony else. Her golden aura glowed magnificently. She was horrified at the sight of Celestia coming from one of the hallways between the racks followed by Cadence. First thing Luna noticed was the nightmare's eye on her sister's neck. Just as she suspected, its stone wasn't glowing.

Celestia kept looking directly into her eyes, her mouth tightly shut. One could not tell how angry she was by looking at her face alone until her right ear flicked. That was a sign to Luna just how bad she ticked off her older sister.

"Let me take care of her, Celestia," Cadence suggested. "I got a perfect place for her where we could run some tests, like a type of therapy and later-"

Celestia cut her off as she raised her hoof, "Do not intervene this time, admiral." Cadence stared for a moment in concern before she nodded. "Just keep an eye on her, please." With no more words from Cadence, Celestia made her way towards Luna. She glanced at the broken create. "Is this what you want?" Celestia asked but Luna kept quiet. "Is this what you want now, Luna?"

Luna gave no response.

"Luna, answer me. I know you can talk."

Luna turned her head away. Maybe she could make it look like a minor offence since she was not in a good position to fight her. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was just looking for some good rum since you won't- urgh!" She was silenced as a book collided with her head. Luna looked at it, horrified to realize that it was, in fact, her dairy.

Without being given any further chance, her throat was surrounded by a gold aura, gripping her tightly. Luna found herself desperately fighting for air.

Celestia snarled at her, "You don't know how much it pains me! How much it crushes me!" She raised Luna to the air, her legs kicking wildly. "This is fallacy!" She threw her down. "I was really patient with you. Nine hundred years, for goodness sake!"

Gasping for air, Luna tried quickly to stand up and flee but Celestia got her first, with a strike of lighting. Sending her crashing into a pile of barrels from the rack making more of them fall and block the passageway. Luna crawled out of the mess, bathed completely in red wine, her body exploding in so much pain that it didn't let her stand up. Her eyes were burning, leaving her effectively blind.

"There will be no more chances this time," Celestia said as she took flight and gestured Cadence to check the other passage next to it. "Admiral Cadenza was right, you were just waiting for the right moment to back-stab me. She set the opportunity up to you and you jumped right on it." She paused, "Surprise," she said in a singing tone.

'That meddling witch Cadence...' She started desperately crawling through the mess with no certain direction as Celestia's flaps were getting closer. Until she stumbles upon what it seemed to be a large wine barrel and got herself into it to hide. 'I didn't overhear her, she wanted me to listen, she wanted me here.' Tears rolled down her cheek, "How could I've been such an idiot..." Luna said to herself as she rubbed her burning eyes.

Celestia landed on the near the piles of broken wine barrels and began her search. Lifting and cleaning up most of the mess out, but no signs of her sister except for a huge puddle of red wine. She took a good look around it and spotted a trail of wine.

Celestia smirked. "Luna, I've let you live for so long, you know... Come on out, hiding will just make your death more painful," she said in a gentle but cold tone as she slowly followed the trail.

The strong scent of the red wine was clogging her nostrils and tears kept rolling down as fear and despair got the best of her. Luna realized that there were no more options and accepting her fate was now more difficult than what she used to think a few centuries ago. She wished she could have that mindset again, it could have made it a little bit easier. To be fearless once more...

All of a sudden, Luna remembered another option she had all along. She pulled out a bottle of the May Leaf potion she had hidden in her wing and opened it. "Well, Luna, you won't be missed," she said before drinking the whole bottle in one go and stepped out of her hiding spot after putting the empty bottle down.

Celestia turned to her and chuckled "Luna, look at you, what a mess and... are you crying?"

Luna frowned and wiped the tears away, "No. I have wine in my eyes, that's all." She let her head hang in defeat. "Just... get it over quickly."

"I did love you, Luna. You can't say I didn't," Celestia said.

"You had a weird way of showing it, Celestia, and you didn't let me live. I wasn't living at all, you never gave me the freedom to live. But we already had this conversation."

Celestia gave a simple smile, "So you wanted your powers back to get rid of me one last time and be free. Didn't I ever tell you before, Luna? The majority of my kingdom has resented you over the centuries because of your betrayal. Nopony really wants you. You'll never be free."

Luna glared at her. "I didn't want to fight you because of my needs, I didn't want to fight for my freedom. That was the old Luna..."

Celestia chuckled, "Then what does the 'new Luna' want?"

"To free the ponies of Equestria from your reign of oppression."

Celestia burst out laughing. "You want to be their new queen? Do you really think they're going to follow you, Luna?"

The pain gradually faded out from Luna's body and she could feel her heartbeat slowing down. She started to feel a thousand times better despite her circumstances, not even the stickiness in her fur, the burning sensation in her eyes and the strong smell of the wine bothered her anymore. "I don't want them to follow me, I just want them to have Equestria for themselves. They should choose their own leader and rule as they want to rule."

"You... charlatan!" Celestia snarled. "You’re still going on with the trash that you wrote in your diary?"

Luna swayed as she tried to regain some balance, the world around her suddenly woozy. "It took me nine hundred years... to finally be selfless, Celestia, and despite how this ends, my faith in them only grows stronger. Remember the revolt in Baltimore a century ago? " She started to feel heat coming from her body as her heartbeat suddenly rose exponentially. "It's not going down in vain, Celestia."

"I see that you haven't learnt anything in all this time," she said in disgust. "So, I’m glad to end it here..." Her tone was cold, her eyes glowed in gold and her horn began sparking and crackling.

The powerful bolt of energy was shot, yet to Luna’s surprise it slowed down as it drew towards her. The moment enabled her the time to dodge the magic bolt, passing her by and colliding with a few barrels. The explosion caused the wine to rain down everywhere, even on Celestia.

Dumbfounded and soaked in red wine, Celestia stared. "What...?"

Luna licked her lips, savoring the liquor. She smirked at the realization of the strange after-effect of the potion. Her speed had just doubled, never in her life had she ever felt so light, she felt like she could run an entire marathon without breaking a sweat.

Without hesitating, she dashed towards her surprised sister and swiftly began throwing a barrage of punches to her face and torso. Celestia wasn’t able to guard herself against the storm of blows, one actually managing to knock her crown off. Luna finished her combination with a powerful buck to the face that sent her off flying.

Crashing to the floor, Celestia was left with a bloodied muzzle, completely floored by what happened. Luna was about to finish her off but turned as she heard a battle cry. It was Cadence, flying aggressively towards her with a dagger ready to strike.

With wings flared, Luna leaps into a backflip, making Cadence miss the slash. Luna landed on top of her in midair, throwing Cadence to the wine covered floor and knocking the dagger out of her grasp. Luna grabbed the dagger and as she landed, she gave Cadence no chance to get back on her hooves and stabbing her back leg before slashing her right wing, sending pink feathers flying everywhere. Cadence screamed in agony, tears shed and jerked all over, her blood mixing with the wine on the floor.

"That's for tricking me and almost getting me killed..." Luna said. At the corner of her eyes, she saw that Celestia had gotten up and flared her wings, ready to retreat. However, with the dagger still in her hoof, Luna hurled it, wildly spinning towards her sister.

Celestia stopped the spinning dagger just in time to keep it from hitting her. Unfortunately, a sudden strike to her stomach knocked her down just before she could fly off. She went down, back against a barrel. She saw Luna right in front of her horn stained in blood. Celestia looked down to find a bloodied hole right on her belly.

"Luna..." Celestia said in a pained tone, a pleading look on her face.

Luna gave a cold look. "It's over Celestia..."

Celestia closed her eyes. "You’ve grown stronger now... even as I took away your powers, you still defeated me," she said as Luna grabbed the golden dagger in her mouth to finish her once and for all.

Luna was ready to strike her down but suddenly the dagger felt heavy as she raised it, the world began swaying and she couldn't keep her balance. She backed a little and sat down before dropping the dagger. The young alicorn held her head while closing her eyes, she could feel it numb. It was another after-effect from the potion she drank, the sudden rush was gone.

"What's the matter, Luna?" Celestia asked with a confused look.

She opened her eyes to find her vision blurred. "I'm... not sure..."

Celestia spat some blood from her mouth and smirked, "Well, we’ll finish this in another time then. For now, you win this round." Her horn glowed, "I wish you good luck, Luna. You will witness the fall of this kingdom by your hooves!" As she finished the sentence, she released a golden flash.

"No! Wait!" Luna was blinded by the flash and as she regained what little she had of her vision, her sister was no longer there. "She left...? That coward." She rubbed her temple as her body swayed side to side. Yet even without her powers and her sister still alive somewhere, she still couldn't help but feel good, her pain was gone, and her thoughts felt distant.

"She left!" Luna repeated, and couldn't help but laugh. "Ohhh, the look on her face, priceless," she said, continuing her uncontrollable laughter. Her sister might be alive somewhere, and her alicorn powers might be lost, never to be seen again, but at least the oppression of Equestria was over and she could be happy for that at least.

"Admiral Cadenza!"

Laughter coming to a halt, Luna turned to find the guards from before accompanied by three more. They all stared at her, shocked.

"Nightmare Moon's back..." Gust said.

"Where's Queen Celestia?" Red Dust asked as he checked Cadence, finding her alive to his relief.

Luna wiped a tear from her eye. "Celestia is gone. She is no longer the ruler here."

Red Dust gulped and the other guards started talking to each other, looking scared, until one of them spoke loud enough for her to hear, "Now what?"

Luna chuckled softly. "Now you're all free." She stood up and slowly hobbled away. All the guards backed away from her. "I won't be ruling, the kingdom is yours now," Luna said as she passed by them.

The other two guards helped carry up Cadence, Dust breaking the silence between them, "Who's gonna raise the sun now?"

Stumbling on her way, Luna kept going even though her vision was getting worse by the minute and her mind was losing its grip to reality. She was no longer aware of where she was or where the exit was, though she’d stopped caring. When all her senses were going away a familiar voice halted her from giving up.

"Luna?" asked the familiar voice. "Are you alright Luna?" It was getting closer.

All she could see was a purple blur getting closer to her. "Twilight?"

"Yes. Luna." It was Twilight who approached her. "What happened? Are you-" She stopped as an overwhelming smell of alcohol whipped her nose and horrified, she took a few steps back taking notice of Luna's bloody horn.

Luna smiled. "Twilight the cook! I did it. Celestia is gone, her years of tyranny have ended... and I did everything without using magic."

Twilight remained silent after Luna told her.

"Actually, I lost my magical powers..."Luna said getting closer to Twilight, "But it's alright, Equestria is finally free and I can't find words that could describe how I feel right now, Twilight... I... I just need to..." Luna's world finally turned dark and she gave in to all her strength.

Twilight caught the alicorn collapsing in front of her. "Luna!" The alicorn didn't give any response. "What have you done..." In her fear and confusion, her ears perked up at the sound of hooves from inside the cellar getting closer. In a panic, Twilight quickly dropped Luna to the floor and turned to leave the place, but on her way out she halted to glance at the unconscious alicorn on the floor groaning a little. It was a sign of relief to her, to know that Luna was alive.

"But probably not for long," Twilight said to herself in a worried tone. 'I'm certain they'll kill you this time.' She hurriedly went back to pick Luna and embraced her tightly. "I hope this works!" With a glow of her horn, they both vanished from the castle with a teleport spell. Reappearing inside her humble household. Her parents stared in shock at the surprise arrival of her daughter with an unexpected guest in her hooves.

Even in her dire state, Luna slightly cracked a smile, she had somepony to thank for. The nightmare was done, and her fight was over...