1001, Celestial Era.
"Thank you, my little Pony. I will be out to join in the festivities in a moment."
Oh, what would Lantern Onik have thought to see his High Priest staring at Celestia's mane like this? The gently waving pastel colours are so
hypnotic, waving lightly in a nonexistent breeze. The Princess Regent herself is politely shooing Ponyville's mayor out of her dressing room. Guards… Appear to have been similarly dismissed to join in the party. Outside, her apprentice appears to have calmed down somewhat from earlier and is chatting with the local school teacher.
She can't have failed to feel the spell collapse. Heck, the mare's head shape on the moon disappearing should have been enough of a warning. Yet, I can't feel any prepared spells. I
think that I managed to talk Nightmare Moon down from her original plan of beating her sister senseless so that she could leave on a high note, but a little caution wouldn't be amiss on Celestia's end. Maybe Celestia has simply gotten too used to not having to fight people in her own weight class? Goodness knows I've had a few complacency episodes like that myself over the centuries.
She turns to look out of the window for a moment, gazing up at the moon.
"Luna, where are you? This was the night-."
Darkness roils behind her as Nightmare Moon manifests through the shadows on the far side of the room. "Of our return." She takes a few confident steps forwards then stops. "Did you miss us, dear sister?"
Celestia's head dips slightly, eyes narrowing as golden light flows around her horn. "You are no sister of mine."
"
Ugh." Nightmare Moon rolls her eyes as the two of them begin circling each other. "One thousand years and
that is how you greet us? How are you? Keeping to your diet, I see? Do I have any new nephews or nie-?"
"Stop it. Stop pretending to be her."
"Pretending to be whom?"
"Luna."
Nightmare Moon stops. She blinks, genuinely perplexed. She flicks out her left wing for a moment, her eyes flicking back to check that it's still there. "You think us perhaps to be the
other Alicorn of the Night?"
"I don't know how you possessed my sister, Nightmare Moon, but you-."
Nightmare Moon frowns. "
Who?"
"
You!"
"Oh,
that." She nods. "We were Nightmare Moon for perhaps
five minutes after having been Luna for eight thousand years. Excuse us for not remembering an off-the-cuff taunt we used a thousand years ago."
"Even at her most angry, Luna would never have raised her hooves against me as you did. She would never have imperilled Equestia as you did."
"And we knew that. Submissive, compliant, ignored and uncared for."
"She was never-!"
"That was why we transformed ourself into somepony who could. Somepony without all of those crippling weaknesses and doubts, drummed into her by your callous disregard."
"You're lying. Such magics are extremely dangerous. Luna would know-."
"Oh, pish. It involved less dark magic than
we have both used before."
"No. I refuse to accept that Luna hated herself enough to turn herself into
you."
"You weren't there when I performed the transformation and my records were designed to destroy themselves if you attempted to read them." She pulls her head back slightly. "Have you really been telling yourself for all these years that we
possessed ourself? How absurd.
Anyway." Her horn glows a surprisingly pale blue for a moment and a scroll appears in the air next to her before floating over to her sister. "We believe you will find it in order."
Not quite taking her eyes off her sister, the scroll is enveloped in Celestia's golden aura and cautiously unrolled. Her eyes flick to it, then back to her sister before widening and returning to the scroll. "You're
abdicating?"
"You have clearly governed the country perfectly well in our absence. You have even managed the day and night cycle for yourself. Equestria neither wants us nor needs us. We refuse to play second fiddle, especially for a piece where only one fiddle is required. We are leaving to find a people who will appreciate us."
"But…" Celestia blinks in confusion. "Your duty…"
"Fie on 'duty'. They did not appreciate us when we lived here and we doubt that you
erasing us from history has made them think of us any more fondly."
"That's not entirely true, Princess.
" I walk out of the shadows she created. Middle finger, middle finger, middle toe, middle toe. Don't know how M'gann managed things like this. Being a Pony is much harder than it looks.
"She
did create a festival where foals make offerings of sweets of various kinds to icons of you.
" Celestia takes in my grey coat, wings and horn. The transformation effect gave me an orange tail, mane and an orange sigil 'cutie mark', which I suppose is appropriate. My ring sits at the base of my horn.
"In the understanding that if you don't like the offering, you will return from the moon and eat them.
"
"Who are you?"
"I am
Illustres. A pleasure to meet you.
"
"And really? Eating foals?
Really?"
Princess Celestia's eyes dip momentarily. "That festival was not my creation."
"It hardly matters." She walks over to the window and looks out at the festivities outside. "We will visit our quarters in the Castle to pick up some of our possessions and then depart."
Celestia looks at the disinterested Nightmare Moon and then back at me. "And what role have you played in.. my sister's change in behaviour?"
"He counselled me to reconcile with you. His words kept me from being driven mad by the isolation."
Celestia blinks, then focuses on Nightmare Moon. "You should not have experienced the passage of time-."
"The spell waxed and waned with the lunar cycle. She was meaningfully conscious for about three days a month.
"
"One century of isolation, since you're so concerned."
Celestia looks surprised for an instant, then rallies. "If you had not tried to kill me-!"
"No. No. It was a thousand years ago and we have decided that we do not care. We are done with Equestria, and wish you all joy of it." Nightmare Moon looks around, frowning to herself. "And we actually mean that. How odd." Her attention shifts to me. "Illustres, we will see you anon."
Shadows rise from the ground around her-
"Wait! I-!"
-then she's gone.
Celestia sits down heavily, staring at the patch of shadows her sister vanished into. "This wasn't how it was supposed to happen."
"Better than a fight, wasn't it?
" I take a few finger-toe steps forwards before sitting myself.
"I didn't think having two demigoddesses fighting it out would be all that healthy for anyone. And I didn't think that sending her back to the moon again would be much better. My experience with ancient evils is that it's best to either fix them or destroy them outright, and that the first is generally preferable.
"
"It was." She looks me over again. "How were you able to reach her when I was not?"
"My 'special talent' is helping people realise their desires. She just needed the problem…
Rephrased a little. She wanted to be appreciated-
"
"She-" Her head dips. "-
was."
"-and she thought that you were an obstacle to that. When I showed her that she could simply go somewhere where they'd never heard of you, she was quite persuadable.
"
I get a minor scowl. "And what do
you get from this arrangement?"
"A powerful and highly motivated magic user. I enjoy helping people become all that they can be, and if they do so doing something I want them to do, so much the better. And I get that annoying buzz of frustrated desire gone from my head. Ah, horn.
"
"I had… Hoped…"
"What?
"
She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter now." She gets up and walks towards the door. Just as she reaches it, she stops and looks back towards me. Gosh, Pony necks are flexible. "Please..? Ask her to visit me. I don't understand exactly what happened to her, but her absence these last thousand years has been like a hole in my heart."
I nod, standing myself.
"Of course, Princess.
She might not be available for a while, though.
"
"DON'T SAY IT!!!"
The fuck? You know this will only end with the Nazi's winning and Hitler alive and well in the modern day. It is a little known corollary of Hitlers Time Travel Exemption Act.
