LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Clovenshire, 1,004 years ago
Celestia sat on her throne, eyes closed and relaxed. She was completely alone in the massive room. The only sound was her own breathing, and she seemed to enjoy it immensely.
Luna burst into the throne room and started pacing around, glaring at the floor angrily as she stomped back and forth. After a few moments, she seemed to finally notice Celestia sitting on one of the two thrones, and her lips thinned. "You!"
"Um, who were you expecting, exactly?" Celestia said in amusement.
"It's not a matter of who I was expecting," Luna retorted. "It's just… you."
Celestia shrugged. "What's eating at you, sister?"
"Oh, I'm too much in the sun, I think," said Luna, her lip curling in a sneer. "Everywhere I go, it's 'sweet Celestia' and 'praise the most glorious sun'—nopony ever talks about the night! They fall asleep the moment the sun sets. It's horridly offensive. It's as if they seek my wrath and ire."
"Oh, Luna, calm yourself," Celestia said dismissively. "You act as if you invented nighttime. You didn't, all right? It's been around for a while."
"I made it beautiful," Luna spat. "What have you done with the daytime? It's blue. That's it. And when day and night meet, there's a… an aurora… thing. But I still deserve most of the credit for that! Look at what I've done to the night! A lovely blanket of stars and constellations, and the moon, providing a glorious and soothing light of its own—I think I have gone above and beyond the expectations Stellaris placed upon me as steward of the night, but I have received no appreciation."
Celestia shrugged again. "Ponies sleep at night. That's just how things have always worked. Maybe you should make a decree. Ponies used to stay up late, until the worship of me became widespread. Perhaps you could make it law for them to do so again. Although scholars are saying that's not a natural way of life; it would be at the expense of our subjects' health."
Luna sighed and averted her eyes. "I don't want to speak about the day and the night."
"Really?" Celestia mocked. "Because it sure sounds like that's what you want to talk about."
"It's you," Luna growled. "You, goddess of the sun. You who are praised all your days, great golden shrines and temples set up all around Equestria, and as our borders expand, there's just more and more praise for you! You are not the only ruler on the throne of Equestria! We were crowned dual princesses! Equals! I just…"
Luna sighed and turned away. "How long have I studied you, watched you, wondered how you attained the respect of so many strangers and made friends so easily, while I've struggled all my four hundred years just to be noticed, but instead sat invisibly in your shadow."
"I cast a big shadow," Celestia said casually.
"Yes, I know, but why?" Luna demanded. "You're horrible to those closest to you, you've never made it a secret that you hold yourself above everypony else, your words are poison disguised as honey—why can nopony but me see that?" She seethed furiously as she slowly approached the throne. "I vowed I would not behave the way you do, but my struggle to win approval has gotten me nowhere. I wake up every morning and look in my mirror and tell myself that today will be the day my deeds and my intentions gain me some appreciation, but all for nothing. What do you do when you look in the mirror every morning? Remind yourself to channel the spirits of Ragnarok and Xanadu? And yet it gets you love and admiration. It's utter nonsense! The purest injustice!"
Celestia stood up, scowling. "What exactly is your problem with Ragnarok and Xanadu? They were good ponies, and our close friends."
"They were shrews and vile harpies who sent our cousin—your cousin—Annihilara to an early grave!" Luna retorted.
"Watch how you speak about the dead!" Celestia snapped.
"Oh, now you have respect for the dead all of a sudden?" Luna laughed cruelly. "You respect no one and nothing except yourself, and you've never bothered to deny it."
"May I remind you, Annihilara is still around," Celestia said coldly. "Ragnarok and Xanadu are not. So maybe back off and show a bit of decorum."
"De… decorum?" Luna demanded, wide-eyed. "You would lecture me about etiquette?"
"My point is, the issues you're talking about have been buried in the ground for centuries," said Celestia. "Let them go, stop letting them bother you."
"You… you… stop diverting me from the actual subject!" Luna fumed.
"I'm not," Celestia said defensively. "Just get to your point already!"
"This kingdom would be nothing without me!" Luna declared. "Nothing! I'm the one who acted to save it!"
"And yet you had no contribution whatsoever in the defeat of Discord," Celestia intoned. "He broke you and I had to pick up your slack. Thank the heavens I was there and you didn't face him alone."
"You lie," Luna spat. "I don't believe for a second that you resisted his games. I've seen you gazing at his statue and sighing. He did something to you, you just keep it from me because you don't respect me as a sister at all. Though I would bet that when you're alone you whine about it and wallow in self-pity. Well, hear this: whatever he did to your mind was obviously nothing compared to what he did to mine, so why don't you stop sulking and—"
Celestia unleashed a blast of white radiance at Luna, the shapeless mass of energy slamming into Luna's chest and knocking her backwards.
Celestia's eyes glowed yellow furiously. "You. Know. Nothing," she pronounced.
Luna snarled and slashed her horn through the air, sending a fan of blue-and-white flames spinning toward her sister, but fading out before they could cross the distance. Celestia laughed as her horn glowed again and she assaulted Luna with a burning column of golden light. Luna's coat started smoking and she hunched over from the pain. Even as injured and distracted as she was, the younger sister managed to retaliate by hurling a sphere of flashing rainbow-colored light, which absorbed itself into Celestia's body, lingering in the form of crackling electricity that jolted her body and frazzled her fur.
After a few seconds, Celestia realized Luna was not attacking any further, was simply staring at her harshly. "Oh, are we taking this in nice even turns?" she said brightly. "All right then."
Celestia's horn crackled with lightning, and she sent out an arc of it to zap Luna between the eyes, the pure white light of the thick bolts blinding her.
Luna screamed furiously, her horn igniting, and a swirling blizzard surrounded her entire body. Some of the hailstones caught fire, and this wave of fire and ice surged toward Celestia, accompanied by claps of thunder, forcefully hurling her back into her throne.
Moaning in pain, Celestia summoned a dozen blades of white light which swirled around her head once, pointed toward Luna with the clear intent of lunging straight for her, then sparked and fizzled into nothingness.
Luna was surprised, then shrugged it off. "As I have always known, my mastery of magic beats yours any day." A black cloud seeped out of her horn and floated toward Celestia, before pelting her with globs of what looked like black ink, but sizzled fiercely at contact with her fur. Celestia flinched at the burning acid droplets, but apart from that scarcely seemed to notice them, as her eyes were turned toward nothing in particular, her thoughts clearly far, far away.
"Just… shut up," she whispered in irritation.
Luna tapped her hoof expectantly. "Well?" she demanded. "I'm waiting."
She shot a tiny beam of icy energy at Celestia, one meant to cause a mildly painful sting just to catch her attention. When Celestia continued staring off into space and muttering, Luna stomped her hoof childishly.
"Come on," she snarled. "Try to fight me. Try it! Prove yourself as my inferior! Just fight me back so we can settle that once and for all!"
She jabbed at Celestia with a bright orange scorching ray, then a tiny wave of static electricity.
"What is WRONG with you?" Luna screeched. The magical energy around her horn flared up violently. Coils of crackling purple lightning rose out of the floor and wrapped around Celestia's legs, while black fire started burning at her flesh, making her appear shriveled and skeletal for a moment, and enormous hailstones pelted her back and neck.
"FINE!" Celestia wailed. A sphere of golden energy burst from her horn and surrounded her body, obliterating Luna's spells.
"Fine," Celestia said softly, collapsing to the floor. She quivered, and tears streaked down her face. "You're superior to me… in every way… just leave me alone and I'll admit it, I'll tell you every day how much I truly love and appreciate you, just stop hurting me…"
Luna smiled sadly. "There's no need to be so dramatic, but it's good to hear—"
Celestia's head snapped upwards, and she glared furiously at Luna. "Are you still here?"
Luna blinked. "What?"
"Go away, you puny nightcrawler," Celestia snapped, slowly rising to her hooves.
"But…" Luna began.
"I said go away!"
Luna stepped backward in surprise. "But if that wasn't…" She tilted her head. "Who were you talking to?"
"I wasn't talking," Celestia said coldly. She summoned up an orb of glowing fire, which flicked with both magical light and darkness, and hurled it at Luna. It exploded on impact, and Celestia followed it by hurling smaller versions of the same fireball, one after another, which Luna had to dodge while the flickering darkness continued clinging to her and lashing at her.
Luna quivered with revulsion and rage as she made her way to the edge of the throne room. "YOU WILL SUFFER!" she snarled. "Someday, you will look at how you treated me and you'll regret it! And you'll suffer!" She pulled open the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Celestia hurled a few more small meteorites at the doors and walls before she calmed herself, breathing heavily and raggedly. "You don't know the meaning of suffering," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut in anguish.