LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Ironbridge, 1,012 years ago
Luna crossed the great iron bridge that gave the city of Ironbridge its name. The bridge, as well as the entire city, had become much larger, its iron more reinforced and its structure more industrial, in the centuries since she had wept beneath the bridge.
Luna herself had become elderly; her face was lined, she had a white streak in her mane and tail, but she was still tall, her posture upright, and she walked slowly but not feebly. She wore a black hooded robe, which had holes in it for her overlarge wings.
Within Ironbridge, Luna came upon a glorious gold-colored mansion, the center of a property nearly hidden behind tall, vine-covered trees. In some ways, it looked more like a secured compound, with its fancy wrought-iron fence being spiked at the top, its windows and doors all being huge and heavy, shut tightly with an assortment of locks on each one.
She closed her eyes and faced the mansion, and could see that the entire property was covered by an invisible dome-shaped force field, cage-like and electrified, her magical vision seeing it as glowing and sparking white. She opened her eyes and the force field vanished.
Luna chuckled and walked along the streets until she got to the mansion's front entrance. There was no gate; one could seemingly walk straight through the gap in the fence and up the garden-lined path to the front door, save the two earth pony guards standing on either side of the path, inside the property.
The guards were well-dressed, one armed with an axe, the other a hammer. They eyed Luna, looking suspicious of her, but confident, clearly having no fear of her at all.
Luna smirked back at them and picked up a stone off the street, kicking it at them. When it hit the invisible dome, it disintegrated. The guards nodded to her smugly.
Luna closed her eyes once again to get a look at the force field. In her mind, she conjured up a shimmering sheet made of pure energy, rolled it up into a tube, and stuck it between the bars of the force field. The tube then expanded, shoving the bars of the cage aside, until it was large enough for Luna to walk through.
The guards were oblivious to all of this, being aware only of her horn being lit up. Luna kept her eyes closed and walked straight through the force field through the tunnel she had created.
The guards panicked and advanced on her, and she started waving her horn, magic swirling around her as she cast a spell. The guards' weapons swung at her, but her entire body was surrounded by layer upon layer of magical wards; with every blow from the axe and hammer, the wards briefly became visible as the weapons chipped away a single layer.
After some thirty seconds, Luna finished her spell, and the two guards fell asleep immediately. Luna breathed deeply, slightly nervous about the length of time it had taken to cast a spell that had once been effortless for her.
She marched through the front door and bellowed, "CELESTIA!"
Within the mansion, at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor, Celestia stood. No longer beautiful, she was hunched over, her skin loose and wrinkled, her mane completely white, short and tattered, having completely lost its magical flowing quality.
"Luna," she said in a dry, raspy voice, grinning. "Little sister. It's been centuries."
"It's been in the vicinity of one century," Luna corrected, her lip thinning. "Don't exaggerate."
"'Don't exaggerate'," Celestia mocked, slowly hobbling down the stairs. "I see you're as annoying as ever. So, you've breached my house's security measures. Can I offer you tea and cookies?"
"Certainly."
In the mansion's surprisingly tiny dining room, its table scarcely large enough for two ponies to dine there, Luna took a seat as Celestia floated a tray of tea and cookies out of the kitchen.
An enormous, flame-red bird of prey stood atop a golden perch in the dining room. Celestia tossed her a scrap of a cookie, and the bird caught it in its beak.
"Good girl, Philomena," Celestia said sweetly. She turned to Luna, pouring tea as she did so. "So, sister, what brings you here after 'the vicinity of a century'? Do you need money? I have that in abundance."
"Yes, I know you do," Luna snipped. "But no. I'm here for the Elements of Harmony."
"Is that so?" Celestia's horn glowed golden, and she turned to a china cabinet against the wall of the dining room, opening it and producing a small wooden chest, studded with tiny gems. A sweet melody started playing when the box was opened, revealing the five gems and the large pearl. "By all means, take them. They're not doing me any good."
Luna scowled in irritation. "You know they wouldn't do me any good either. I need them and I need you."
"Whatever for?" Celestia said mockingly.
Luna snorted. "You know very well, I'm sure, what is occurring in the young and small kingdom of Equestria in the near west. The wicked spirit Discord rules there, making life an eternal torment for earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike. He must be stopped, but in his country, he is more than a god—he is almighty. The Elements of Harmony might be the only way to stop him… he might be weak against their power, for after all, he calls himself Discord, and harmony, after all, is, you know… it's thematic, but more important, it seems it would be practical. You and I must stop him."
Celestia leaned back and blew her mane out of her eyes. "And why should I lift a hoof to save some backwater country of the lesser races?"
"The… the 'lesser races'? Oh, that's charming," Luna grumbled.
"What?" Celestia chuckled. "Look, it's simple fact that a pegasus, a unicorn, or an earth pony is only one-third as special as one of our kind. Anypony will tell you that makes them 'lesser'. That's just math, Luna."
"So you look down on them all equally, is that it?" Luna said distastefully. "And yet you backed the unicorn nation when they asked you for help with their scheme to threaten to withhold the sun if the earth ponies did not pay them tribute!"
Celestia laughed. "Oh, that was a good time! The unicorns offered me payment, and after that was done, I made the unicorns pay me tribute. With, you know, the same threat. A veiled threat, though. Very understated. It was too good to last, of course, with that country freezing over like it did, having no more tribute with which to pay me, and then their three tribes coming together in… Equestria, incidentally. But I reaped the benefits. Everything you see around you was paid for by the folly of the lesser ponies."
"They are not so lesser anymore, my sister. Alicorn-kind, the race of immortals, is dying. Have you seen what's become of our race? This so-called 'greater' race of ours?"
"Oh, I haven't been outside in years," Celestia said dismissively. "The ponies of Ironbridge bring me everything I need."
"Well, the light of our kind is going out," Luna said harshly. "Look at me. No longer do I glow like the moon. You've ceased glowing as well. Even your hair doesn't float around as it once did. Once, all of our kind glowed with magical auras, but those have vanished from our entire race, all of us. New immortals are seldom born, more and more immortals are settling down and finding love with members of the other races for sheer lack of options, and finding that their children, more often than not, are of their mate's race. Immortal births become rarer each generation, and there haven't been any males of our kind born in decades. Our race is dying, and so are you, Celestia. You and I. All we can do is continue to live with what we have, and to me, living means doing great and good things. Mostly good."
Luna gestured to the grandiose house, spreading her hooves. "Is this what you had in mind for your retirement? Just sitting in a guarded mansion all by yourself, raise the sun every morning and then lounge around with tea and cookies the rest of the day?"
"Well, look at me," Celestia laughed, gesturing to her face. "I would say it's about time I retire. Wouldn't you?"
"I would not," said Luna. "Celestia, I have spent the centuries tirelessly looking for some way for the day and the night to continue to exist without our influence. Stellaris warned us that when we die, the sun and the moon will sit static where we left them, and the world will be destroyed! Surely you are interested in preventing such a thing from happening?"
Celestia shrugged. "What do I care what happens after I die? I'll be dead."
Luna gasped. "You… you cannot truly mean that."
"Oh, but I do," Celestia said smugly. "I do."
Luna's jaw dropped; she had clearly been stricken dumb for a moment. "Y-you…" she stammered. "You are vile. Four hundred years old, nearing your death, and you still have all the perspective and foresight of a rowdy, narcissistic teenager! You're a child! A child who could never deal with her father abandoning the family, and spent a magically-extended lifespan acting out because of it!"
"Is this really about Father?" Celestia said derisively.
"No, Celestia," said Luna. "It never is, for me. But you… you are still the exact same petty and ugly bully as you became when you had to cope with your emotions back then. …But I don't hate you. No. You make me sad, that's all." She angrily shut the music box and scooped it up. "I'll take the Elements of Harmony, and I'll see what can be done about Discord without you. I'll use all means at my disposal to do the thing that is good and right, and perhaps I shall die trying. So, if a day comes that the sun doesn't set, you shall know why. You'll have to take care of it… then I suppose you die and the world with you, which of course is just lovely."
Luna lifted her cloak and her wings, and slipped the box containing the Elements of Harmony into the saddlebags she had concealed beneath. She wordlessly walked out of the mansion.
Expressionless, Celestia took a sip of tea and nibbled on a cookie. "I don't want to send my little sister off to die," she said jovially to her phoenix. "But she was so determined, you know. I couldn't have stopped her and I definitely couldn't have helped her. It's just… I mean, in what universe is it my problem, am I right?" She grinned.
Philomena turned around on her perch, facing away from Celestia.
"What?" Celestia said nervously.
Philomena approached one of the barred windows and breathed fire on it, melting away the locks and the barricades. She flew out the window without a sound or a glance in Celestia's direction.
"Philomena?" Celestia said frantically, running to the window. "PHILOMENA!"
The phoenix was already fading away into the distance.
Celestia sniffled. "She's left me… my Philomena has left me…" She thrust her nose in the air haughtily. "Hmph! Well, I always was the mature one in our relationship. Flying out on me… pfft…" She sighed. "Well, she's made her point. I just hope I live long enough to regret this…"
She flew out of the dining room.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Luna flew over the Forest of Feyr, among the clouds, riding the tailwinds at a high speed.
"LUNA!"
She turned around, and saw Celestia, wearing a black-and-gold travelling cloak emblazoned with her own cutie mark, flying after her.
"Luna, I'm coming with you," Celestia said exhaustedly, hovering alongside her sister. "Let's save Equestria from Discord."
Luna put an arm around her. "Good, sister. Good."
"I—"
"All is forgiven," said Luna, putting a hoof on Celestia's lips. "I know you weren't going to apologize, but all is forgiven anyway." She continued flying southwest, and Celestia followed her unenthusiastically.
"Let's get this over with," Celestia sighed.
"I intend to," Luna said eagerly. "It'll be glorious, sister. Simply glorious. The suffering that the ponies of Equestria are enduring will strike at even your heart—and when you see all the good we can do, we who have the power to put a stop to it, your heart will soar."
She pulled her saddlebags out from under her cloak and slapped them onto Celestia's back. "You carry these. I've been walking all day."
Celestia laughed.