hollyverse 34. Forever May You Reign by pumpkabooo on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

“And all around folks gentle and vile looked, and saw mine words to be true: Hell is the absence of God, and the deity we fashioned for the land was now but a halfling, sad and incomplete (...) What were we to make of Equestria Forlorn, and us her orphaned children?” Steelhoof, H. (512 A.L), Memoirs of the Great Eclipse.

...

Here we stumble upon an array of conflicting testimonies, the nature of which has set many students of Equestria’s rich history to argue (rather loudly) down the Academy’s halls. There were many who loved Celestia and many more who hated Luna amongst the crowd that witnessed their fall, and some more who tried to change sides last minute and turn their cloaks, in hopes of being spared the worst of the ascending queen’s vengeance.

Many solar loyalists who gasped and spluttered at seeing their beloved queen broken upon the castle grounds claim the corrupt Alicorn bared her fangs and tried to sink them into Celestia’s neck, hissing grotesquely and clumsily flapping her featherless wings, as rabid as a dog. Those whose testimonies would decide whether they’d stay in a cell or a mass grave when the ordeal was over tried to paint Luna in a heroic light, passionately describing how Her Nocturnal Grace stood over the flaming tyrant brought low, nothing but the best intentions behind her as she sought to restore the country to its former glory.

And yet there’s a few delicately preserved pages belonging not to thickly-bound historical novels but small, personal diaries, stained brown with time… and anxiously-written descriptions of a sister tenderly holding another, astonished and grief-stricken, shaken to silence by the consequences of her rampage.

Whatever the case, one truth was plain, though no less troubling: with Celestia’s immobile body growing cold on a bed of torn weeds, there was but one Queen the country could possibly turn to now. Luna felt her connection with nature strengthen, as magic old and strange passed on to her; the power of the Sun had been lent to the little princess more than once, forced into her shaking body each time Celestia retired to her decades-long slumber in the ancient past, yet it proved to be no less overwhelming. It passed on to her now, as the last sparks of magical aura faded from the Solar Sovereign's resting frame. Trembling and splattered with gore, the younger Alicorn stood over her sister's body, and called for the Sun to set.

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Nightmare Moon’s second coronation was an affair as lavish and tense as any The Everfree had hosted since Amore’s welcoming to the capital nearly two hundred years prior. Once more an army set out from the city, though not of armed soldiers but small black wings: messenger ravens carrying silver-lined letters, elegantly perfumed, once more inviting all citizens of Equestria to attend their rightful Queen, to be welcomed back into the realm. Those who refused Her Majesty’s call would be considered traitors by the Crown, to suffer the same fate as the tyrant they’d adored so selfishly.

_“Yet even now we know there is loyalty in the hearts of those who followed our Sister to Her bitter end, and these brave fighters, misguided by the naiveté of their forebears, needn’t follow Celestia to the grave (...) Let it be known that the Moon’s benevolence and mercy are as endless as our sky, and all who look up tonight to gaze upon our Light are welcome to repent the crime of ignorance, to return to the great unified Herd we know Equestria to be (...)_” read the letters, held in shaking hooves and read in tremulous whispers in great castle halls and humble cottages alike, or simply torn and left to rot in the rain by those too bold or too dense to heed the words.

The Capital had fallen rather quickly, after the Queens' landing. There was little resistance, though little is not none. Less than expected, yet more than desired by the presumed heiress to the Equestrian monarchy, to be sure. Those of doubtful loyalty were locked away for the time being, The Everfree's dungeons full to bursting; above, the fallen castle gave itself to the rebels completely, as Celestia's loyal court stood defeated and bereft of purpose, as lost as roaming sheep.

Wounds were tended to, banners torn down and replaced, dead buried. Lunar conquerors and beaten loyalists both moved about the city like ghosts, pale and wide-eyed, as if the present was a dream they might wake up from at any moment. The stupor was vaguely dispelled as a gloomy honor guard was at last given the grim task of removing Celestia's motionless body from the gardens, after an hour of ponies fluttering around the colorless Alicorn, none daring to truly approach to neither grieve nor desecrate. Curiously, in an act described by some as unexpected tenderness, Nightmare Moon ordered the body to be laid upon the rough-hewn stone altar beneath the earth where the Tree of Harmony resided, the same crystal caverns the Firstborn Alicorn would retire to at the end of each solar cycle. The cave was sealed, Celestia's three Elements locked away and the matter settled, to the discomfort and wariness of many.

Outside the dungeons, there were no tears shed over Celestia's second death, as those who remained to take the castle tasted triumph in her absence. Now was the time for Luna's rise in truth, with none to oppose her.

A mere two days after the loyalists' fall, on the second day of the fifth month of the year, the Secondborn Alicorn climbed the steps to Equestria's Twin Thrones. Dressed in silver finery and starlight, she elegantly turned her horn and shattered the white seat that had been her sister's, before mounting its nightly counterpart. "One Throne, One Princess, One Equestria," the wizened batpony priest entoned as he anointed the ruler with sweet-smelling oils and crowned her Queen Luna Aetheria, Goddess of the Moon and Light of Ponykind, Monarch and Sovereign of Equestria from the Southern Marches to the Northern Border. The dusky alicorn also claimed the ceremonial title of Empress of the Northern Empire, allegedly by right of Conquest (said those who loved her little), or by right of inheritance as Princess Amore's wife (said by those who fancy the rumor that the star-crossed lovers secretly married before Sombra's assault). Whatever the case, the message was clear: the Diarchy was broken, and there was but one ruling Queen in all of the Equestrian continent now.

The Dark Sovereign's first task was a harsh one: to serve justice to her people. In groups of seven prisoners were brought up from the dungeons, each looking more haggard and exhausted than the last, to face the Moon's judgement. Those who fought for Celestia til the battle's end were given one last chance to live: pledge allegiance to the new Queen, proclaim Celestia as an illegitimate ruler on the basis of negligence and selfishness, and keep the Moon's peace from now on.

Many took on the offer, even as they wept and choked out the words; dutifully they laid their swords down and knelt before Queen Luna, sobbing as they begged for her forgiveness. There were a few who proudly turned their heads and demanded the chopping block, claiming they'd rather die than serve a kinslayer, and this wish the Lady of the Dusk generously fulfilled as well.

Those who loved her little claim the Alicorn upon the altar sneered and smiled a bloody smile as the condemned were marched off to die. The official report from the castle steward paints Queen Luna as a stone-faced study in dispassion, so still as to be carved from dark marble, save from her eyes, bright and feverish with a haunted feel to their every twitch. The claimant to the Equestrian monarchy had not slept a wink since Celestia's fall, and would eschew both rest and nourishment until all proper affairs were in order and there was no doubt of The Everfree's loyalty to her. And so a slow procession of servants, soldiers and civilians fell to their knees before the shadowed throne and lived, or not.

This went on for some time, until an unicorn whose name has been erased from history was brought forth. Singers describe him as a young stallion of creamy fur and hair the color of caramel, and a dozen bandaged wounds covering his body. When he was at last presented to the Queen, he shook and kicked the night guard off his shoulder, snatched her fallen spear, and made to charge at the Alicorn. He made it about three strides before a pack of defenders were on him, eager to show their princess the color of his blood. "Sister-killer. Freak." He bellowed, even as steel-clad hooves struck at his face and split his jaw in two. "Kill me and be cursed, Nightmare Moon. You are no queen of mine. Step down and fight me yourself, beast!" All the while, Luna stared down, serpentine pupils piercing through the stallion. "Drag him to the Sunspear tower and dangle him over the edge until he begs," was the so-called Nightmare's response. "Then throw him off the balcony. I'll have no songs about how brave he died."

History is wont to take one side or the other, and surely tales of lordly lords and bold knights who spit in the face of death rather than forsake their honor make for a more thrilling tale than the stories of those who surrendered. Still, let us look upon the survivors of The Moon's Justice with indulgence, as they were only ponies seeking to live another night and stay by their families' side. When at last the Night of Judgement came to an end, a great feast took place, one that would burn for several days, as it were; the hours ticked by in their dozens, and still the Moon did not move, encapsuling the land in a perpetual evening. The Queen was reported to find little pleasure in the revelries; she smiled warmly at her loyalists and performed the expected formalities, but when she retired to the chambers she had once shared with Princess Amore, the soft sound of weeping could vaguely be heard beneath the rapturous music coming from the Great Hall below.

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luna gets what she wanted so badly

i hope you've all been well!!! i miss talking to you guys so badddd how are U