Shadow of the Dragon Lords
D. G. D. Davidson
My Little Pony is © 2012 by Hasbro, Inc.
Chapter 3: The Princess's Protégé
While Celestia was having breakfast with Severin, Luna was pacing up and down in her rooms. Normally, being alone and aloof chafed at her only a little, but after the excitement, fun, and ultimate dissatisfaction of Nightmare Night, she was feeling her self-imposed isolation more keenly than usual, so she resolved to do something about it.
She reflected that it was Twilight Sparkle who had stripped her of her power as Night Mare Moon, and she remembered that Twilight was a student in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and not a student only, but Celestia's own protégé. Luna considered that Twilight's cutie mark was a field of stars and thought about what that might mean: her special talent appeared to be magic, but stars did not suggest magic necessarily . . .
What they suggested to Luna was power over the night. Twilight's name hinted at the same thing: she was student of the Princess of the Day, but with the Elements of Harmony she had conquered the Princess of the Night. She was Twilight, halfway between day and night, receiving strength from both. Perhaps that was why her magic was unusually potent for a mortal Unicorn. Perhaps that was why she was able to free Luna when she commanded Harmony, whereas Celestia, all those years before, had been able only to lock her away, much the way Luna and Celestia had together, earlier, used the same power to lock away the wicked monster Discord.
If these speculations had any merit, then it seemed to Luna that Twilight Sparkle should not be Celestia's student only. Her power could grow even greater if she also learned the darker secrets of magic, the mysterious weirds that grew from shadows, the spells a Unicorn could only cast in the deepest depths of night.
But then again, Celestia had founded the School for Gifted Unicorns herself, and it bore her name. Luna hesitated to interfere with it directly- or at least she hesitated to interfere with Celestia's hoof-selected student.
That gave her another idea. She trod from her room and cantered from hall to hall until she found a servant, a freckled young Unicorn stallion in a red coat and hat. He yelped when he saw her, fell to the ground, and shook.
"Servant," she said, "we desire that thou bringest to us the register of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
The poor young stallion didn't budge. He merely covered his head with his forelegs and shivered.
"Didst thou not hear us, servant?" Luna demanded. "We have given thee an order, and it should be thy delight to serve us!" She stomped a hoof, and the marble floor cracked.
The stallion moaned, but still he showed no sign of rising. Luna watched him for a minute, and then finally sighed and said, "Fine. I'll find someone else."
Half an hour and six servants later, Luna was in her chambers again, poring over a stack of detailed files on the students of Celestia's school. She had to admit she was impressed by what she read; even though dark magic had gone out of use during her imprisonment, these Unicorns under Celestia's tutelage indeed showed great talent: there was Sharpwit, who had mastered all eleven forms of anamorphic conjuring, and Rosy Dawn, who had invented a new means of projecting spells over great distances. Twilight Sparkle's file was easily the most impressive of the lot; in particular, her skill at teleportation was unprecedented.
Only one student came close to rivaling Twilight's abilities, a Unicorn mare named Moondancer. Luna liked the name. The files included photos of each student's cutie mark, and Moondancer's proved to be a crescent moon accompanied by three stars.
That settled it for Luna. She strode from her chambers again to find another servant who would actually obey her rather than merely cower.
Moondancer was attending a lecture on advanced levitation when a Unicorn from the palace rushed in, brushed past several other students, and whispered in her ear.
The servant's whisper proved too loud, however, and several students gasped when they heard the name Luna. Many looked at Moondancer in apparent sympathy. In particular, Cloudchaser, who sat to her left, had tears in her eyes as she whinnied, "She'll eat you!"
Moondancer gave Cloudchaser a little smile, rose to her hooves, and tossed her head, flinging her wild, unkempt red mane. Most ponies might be afraid of Luna, but Moondancer was not one to be easily intimidated. She walked from the lecture hall with her muzzle in the air as the other students watched her in awe.
The servant led her through the wide, marble halls of Canterlot Castle until, bowing his head and walking backwards with an air of apology, he left her at the doors of Luna's suite.
Moondancer had expected the servant to open the doors for her, but he was apparently too timid for the task. Unsure if it conformed with proper etiquette, Moondancer pushed the doors open herself and walked inside.
The room was dark, and it took Moondancer's eyes a moment to adjust. She noticed first the walls covered in black drapes, like hangings from a particularly dreary funeral. High overhead, covering the room's domed ceiling, was a sheet of deep blue silk studded with exactly placed luminescent jewels that perfectly imitated the stars of the sky. The floor was of black and green marble, set into which was a great brass pentagram encircled by the signs of the Zodiac, in turn encircled by the emblem of the Worm Ouroboros, symbol of time and mortality. Around the great pentagram stood silver candlesticks seven feet high, holding enormous tallow candles guttering with blue flame and acrid smoke. As her eyes grew used to the dimness, Moondancer could see that not all the walls were draped: some held bookshelves full of thick, hidebound tomes. Many of the books' spines were blank, and some bore gilded titles in languages Moondancer couldn't read, yet those she could read suggested they were volumes of ancient and forbidden lore. In one wall was a niche in which stood a heavy desk of oak: on the desktop were roles of parchment, an inkstand, an astrolabe, and an Earth Pony's skull holding a mostly melted beeswax candle. Open on the desk was a book of enormous size. Its text, a foreign script made up of curved letters hanging from horizontal bars, was unreadable to Moondancer, but the right-hoof page contained a large woodcut illustration that made her heart pound: it depicted a midnight debauch of the ancient Witch-Ponies; with vicious grins and wrinkled bodies, hundreds of ponies rode beneath a full moon on broomsticks and elder twigs, while in the foreground below, others stirred a cauldron full of young foals being boiled alive.
At the far end of the room, Princess Luna herself lounged amongst embroidered pillows on a daybed flanked by two silver censers smoking with olibanum. Over her head was a canopy of the same blue silk that covered the domed ceiling. Mounted on the wall behind the bed was an enormous, finely detailed image of the moon, artfully contrived so that its glow matched the real moon's phase: right now, on the day after Nightmare Night, it was waxing, but still almost full, and tinted orange- the color of the harvest.
When she reached the center of this great chamber, Moondancer knelt.
Luna watched her. Moondancer, she saw, was a young mare, barely more than a filly. Her coat was pure white, her eyes were violet, and her wild and tousled mane was bright red. Though she knelt before her princess with appropriate reverence, she did not tremble.
"Rise," Luna said, "and approach us."
Moondancer did as she was told. Again, Luna noted that she didn't shiver, and she had confidence rather than fear on her face. Moondancer walked to Luna and stood before her, waiting.
"Moondancer," Luna said, "we have looked upon thy grade reports and marked the progress of thine education. Thou art an exceptional student."
"I am," Moondancer answered. An easy grin formed on her mouth.
Luna paused a moment, nonplussed. Was Moondancer being insolent, or was this merely another example of the relaxed manners of modern Canterlot?
"Thine abilities almost approach those of Twilight Sparkle," Luna said.
Moondancer's eyes narrowed and she tapped a hoof against the marble floor. "Twilight Sparkle," she said. The way she pronounced the name indicated obvious distaste. Her grin, however, hadn't budged. "Give me time, Your Highness, and I'll be even better."
"We have considered the matter," said Luna, "and we desire that thou become for us a personal protégé, and learn under us, in addition to thy regular studies. We have much to teach thee of the magic of the night, and we believe thou hast the skill our lessons demand."
Behind the carefree smile, Moondancer's mind whirled. Tutored by Princess Luna! The former Night Mare Moon! Dark magic, unseen in Canterlot for a millennium! At last, Moondancer's skill was being recognized, at last her patience was being rewarded. At last, her time of living in the shadow of that prissy goody four-shoes of a bookworm, Twilight Sparkle, was coming to an end. When Moondancer learned Luna's magic, she had no doubt she would finally prove to Celestia, and to Celestia's obnoxious, nerdy little favorite, who was really the most talented Unicorn in Equestria. This was greater than her greatest dream come true. Again, her eyes moved to the black books on the shadowy shelves, but now she looked at them with naked greed. Soon, their contents would be hers, and she would put Twilight Sparkle, who in spite of her awesome skills knew only the light magic of the day, in her place.
Moondancer bowed her head to the ground. "I would be honored to be your student, my princess." She took one of Luna's hooves and kissed it.
The princess smiled down at her new protégé. At last, Luna would prove to Celestia that she really could be useful.
Next: An Envoy to Ponyville