I'm sorry it took so long for me to get this up! I guess I was enjoying the lack of responsibility when I had no current ongoing stories. ;) But better late than never! So here is the introduction to what will become my new ongoing story, Lunar Disposition. As you can probably tell from the title, this story will be about Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon. It will illuminate and explain much of the backstory behind the princess of the night, so it's a bit like a biography. I hope you enjoy it!
Introduction
An alicorn queen stood on the edge of a balcony protruding from one of the many tall towers of the royal palace. Her lavender coat shone brightly in the weakening sunlight as she watched her husband lower the sun from the sky as another day in Equestria came to an end. Her mane billowed around her face in waves of various shades of ebony, gold, royal purple, electric blue, and indigo. The queen's cutie mark was a white crescent moon. Her turquoise eyes glinted in the dimming yellow rays. A simple blue tiara sat upon her brow, made from pure sapphire, with a diamond orb in the center to represent the moon.
In the sky, the king of Equestria was just disappearing beyond the horizon. His mane and tail glowed bright, and danced and flickered in the shape of flames. Nearest to the edges, his mane was a brilliant crimson, but as it grew closer to his neck, it faded from red to orange to yellow to green until there was a tiny lick in the center that was a strange silvery blue color. His eyes also glowed, the irises the color of liquid sunlight. His fur was less vibrant, a light white-blond color. His cutie mark was a blazing red and gold sun. He, also, wore a small crown, made of silver with ruby and topaz gemstones.
Queen Theia stared out into the city of Canterlot, running her hooves across the cool surface of the marble handrail with anxiety. She feared for her small, newborn nation. Though united under she and husband, wielders of the power of the elements, the three tribes that made up Equestria had yet to be truly integrated.
The queen recalled her audience all those months ago with Clover the Clever, the Supreme Mage on the magical council, and adviser to the unicorn leader herself, Princess Platinum. The purple unicorn stallion had insisted on an immediate, private meeting. Theia had been suspicious. Could it be possible that he knew about her secrect? But she had granted Clover's request, though she had her guards remain posted at the doors of her chamber in case the unicorn needed to be constrained.
Once inside the room, the candles on the chandelure overhead had abruptly died, and Clover's shamrock cutie mark had glowed in the darkness, and then his emerald green eyes had rolled back into his head so that only the whites were exposed. "Beware of the heir whose heart is as cold as ice," he had warned in a deep, gruff voice that did not belong to him. "If thou fail to succeed to turn thy child from the path of evil, harmony shalt end and Equestria shalt fall." Then Clover's eyes had rolled foward again and his cutie mark had dimmed, and he had look around in confusion, as if wondering how he had gotten there.
When Theia had demanded an explanation of the meaningless words, Clover had claimed to have no idea what she was talking about. When she had repeated the warning back to him, he said it sounded like a prophecy. Clover had promised to search through the scrolls of record, to see if he could find anything helpful, but he had found nothing that resembled his odd prediction. Nothing that he had told the queen, anyways.
The words of the so-called "prophecy" were etched in Theia's mind. She couldn't get them out of her head. "Beware the heir..." The heir? The heir to the throne of Equestria? If so, the heir would be the offspring of herself and King Aelius, and that would mean that she would be choosing between her foal or her kingdom.
Queen Theia and King Aelius already had two foals. Fraternal twins, Prince Vladimir and Princess Celestia would one day rule over Equestria, raising and lowering the sun and the moon every day. The free-spirited little colt and filly were relentlessly irritating palace staff and getting into trouble. They definitely had their fair share of mischief, but how could one of them have a heart as cold as ice? Unless...
Theia's eyes watered. She felt a kick as something jolted in her steadily swelling belly. She knew that she was with foal, and she knew that the foal growing inside of her had something to do with the prophecy. But she couldn't tell Aelius, or he would put two and two together and realize what this meant. And if he knew the truth, would he ever forgive her?
"Oh, Aelius," Queen Theia whispered, fully aware that her husband could not hear her. "I am so sorry, my love. Whatever shall I do?"
A cool summer evening breeze drifted past, and Theia shivered, remembering the storm of windigos that had plagues Equestria at the dawn of its nationhood. Was it possible that the "heart as cold as ice" referred to the hate-fueled beasts of the blizzard?
Theia caressed her belly affectionately. She didn't care that the foal was never supposed to exist. She loved it, just as she loved Vladimir and Celestia."I shalt never allow anything to happen to thee, not ever," she nickered softly, sighing into the twilight air.
Queen Theia screeched in pain, and with a last mighty heave, the foal was released from her body. The royal doctor levitated the wailing babe up with her unicorn magic, and used a cloth soaked in warm water to rinse the tiny alicorn's body of fluids from Theia's womb. Then she dried the foal with a towel, and swaddled it in a wool blanket.
"'Tis a filly, thy majesty," the unicorn doctor announced, placing Theia's newborn daughter gingerly down beside her. Theia wiped tears of joy from her eyes, and shifted her body so that the filly could suckle. The baby latched onto her tit, and immediately ceased crying. She nursed greedily at the milk.
"I thank thee, most noble doctor," King Aelius said, dipping his head in gratitude.
"Thou art most welcome, thy majesty!" the unicorn mare replied. She bowed briefly, and departed.
Theia gazed down her daughter. After a few minutes of suckling, the foal grew tired and closed her eyes, which were the same color as Theia's, drifted into a light slumber. Her barrel rose and fell as she breathed, emanated small, soft sounds of dreaming.
The little alicorn was slender and lithe, as most alicorns are, but this little filly seemed to be extremely skinny for one so young. She had a medium-toned periwinkle coat, with a single black patch covering her flank. Her mane and tail were the color of a pale, yet darkening, twilit sky, with the same purple-blue hue that her fur had, except it was fainter. Her hair was long for a newborn, and slightly wavy. It reminded Theia a fluffy, swirled, creamy blueberry pudding.
"She is most beautiful," Queen Theia cooed. "Most precious. Whatever shall we name her?"
King Aelius mused for a few seconds, scratching his chin with his hoof. "Hath thou an objection to... Luna?" he asked, stroking the new princess's blue mane.
"Luna," Theia repeated, the name rolling pleasantly and smoothly off of her tongue. "Luna! This name is most perfect for our daughter. Princess Luna!"
The peace was interrupted by crash outside the door. Baby Princess Luna was startled awake, and once again began to cry. The door flew open and in toppled a mass of pink and silver. Aelius had to jump out of the way to avoid getting bowled over. The shapeless flurry rammed into the far wall and landed in a giggling heap on floor.
"Vladimir, Celestia, what be the meaning of this?" King Aelius demanded, glaring sternly down at the two foals. After she caught her breath and suppressed the rest of her giggles, Celestia popped up, grinning.
"Pardon, Father! Vlad and I were racing to see the new princess," she apologized lightly, shaking her cotton-candy-pink mane. Her eyes fixed on the crying Princess Luna, and her face lit up. "The new princess!" she exclaimed, rushing over and sweeping up her younger sister.
Queen Theia gasped in alarm, standing up. But she was still exhausted and in pain from the birth, and collapsed back down on the bed. "Do be cautious, Celestia! Please try not to drop her!"
Luna stopped crying, and cuddled up to her elder sister, almost instantaneously falling back to sleep. Celestia rocked her back and forth gently, humming a lullaby.
Vladimir came up behind Celestia, peering endearingly over her shoulder at their new sister. "She is most adorable, Mother. What name did thou give her, pray tell?" the young silver prince asked, staring down at the foal with intense curiosity.
"Princess Luna Corazon de Hielo is the name of thy sister, my son and daughter," Theia told them, leaning against the headboard of her bed and pulling the quilted covers over herself. She was due for a long nap. Though she doubted that she would find sleep easily with so much weighing down her mind. Then she spoke too quiet for anypony else to hear, "I welcome thee to Equestria, Ice Heart Luna."
Queen Theia did not know what fate had in mind for Luna's future, but whatever it was, it was going to be extraordinary.
Sorry this is so short, but it is an introduction, so it is just meant to be a sort of foreshadowing. I'm sorry if I'm using all the "thee"s, "thou"s, and "thy"s wrong, but I'm new to old English. So expect some more gramatical errors in the future! ;)
Queen Theia, King Aelius, and Prince Vladimir are my OC's, and will play an important roll in Luna's early life. I wanted to give you some background on my choice of names. Theia (pronounced THEE-ah) was a Greek goddess, I believe, who was the mother of the sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene. I chose this for Luna and Celestia's mother for obvious reasons. Aelius (pronounced AY-lee-us) is a Roman name that is possibly derived from the name Helios, the Greek sun god, King Aelius raises the sun, so I thought it was fitting. Vladimir (pronounced VLAH-dih-mere) means prince in some language, I forget which one, but anyways, Prince Vladimir is a prince... so yeah.
Anways, so that's that! :D I will be uploading a one more chapter along with this, just to give you a better taste of what this is going to be like. After that, I'll update around once a week, like my other stories.
-Jez D. W.
