Full Moon Rising

-The True Story of Luna’s Banishment

In the years previous to cracking open the hardbound, gold inlayed book of ancient Equestrian history a lot had transpired in the life of Twilight Sparkle. Now she had a fast cadre of friends, several grand deeds under her belt, and her changed nature was reflected most radically in the grand plumage of her wings.

But today her friends had work to do or places to be which she had subtly encouraged. As much as she did enjoy their company, sometimes a princess needed time to herself, to reflect and relax. Sitting here on the same meadow in Canterlot where it had all began, the large book with the gleaming unicorn head on the front before her hooves, it felt like a return to the past when she had been but a closeted seeker after truth with only the companionship of a baby dragon to prevent her from being a full on recluse.

How times and events had changed the world.

She let the delicate pages turn with their glorious illustrations still bright and colorful displayed. The record of Old Equestria and the war between the sisters of dawn and darkness played out in her mind again with each turn of the page, while subconsciously she contemplated about how her own actions had led to a continuation of the story not yet written. Sparkle sighed, dreaming dreams of the classic days of high adventure, the mysteries lost to time, and perhaps how much of the story was true or interpretations of historians.

How had it really happened?

Time travel was a true possibility. She had deliberated to herself returning to the moments before the rebellion to more fully understand how it had come about. Maybe she could even change the outcome so that Luna never became Nightmare Moon and her conflict with Celestia likewise never occurred. Changing history was a dodgy prospect, but then again she was a princess now? What’s the worst that could happen?

Even if she didn’t take such drastic measures she still was spending her off hours investigating dusty tomes and forgotten lore to get a better picture of events most ponies took entirely for granted. Lost in thought her hoof rested on the page, tapping in a rhythm as it did when she was concentrating.

Then her gaze wondered down. She had to lift her hoof to make out something that had caught her eye: something that didn’t make any sense.

It was a colt in one of the illustrations.

Nothing strange in that alone. Crowd scenes of the book contained many, many ponies and colts revering the goddesses or going about their lives, but this one caught her eye because of the mane-style coupled with the cutie-mark on his flank.

The ancient pony illuminators had spared no detail and recorded the mark and mane of every pony featured in the illustrations…but how could they have so accurately depicted her OWN BROTHER thousands of years before he was even born?

It definitely looked like his blue, tousled mane and defiant expression. His shield and sparkle cutie-mark was remarkably clear to see as well.

But why in this image? Here between scenes of Luna declaring her rebellion and her eventual defeat by Celestia there was this lone image of the colt and Luna standing together and otherwise alone in what appeared to be a palace. She scanned the text and found nothing to suggest what this picture could even imply. There was nothing like it in the whole remainder of the book.

Perhaps his was just a placeholder pony design to represent a larger crowd? Maybe it was just a remarkable coincidence. Either way there was no possible circumstance that would allow this to actually represent her brother!

Unless…

“So…have you ever traveled through time brother?”

Both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence paused with their tea cups raised to their lips, starring at their guest.

Twilight grinned sheepishly, shakily raising her own cup.

“Just trying to start a conversation!”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow.

“Twi, is there anything you want to tell us?”

“That’s silly! Why would I want to…?”

“Because you never ‘just’ ask things.” Armor said with a patient smile. “You always have a reason.”

“Oh.”

“And you’re a lousy fibber.” Added Cadence, gently. “Even when you were a filly.”

“I know.” Grumbled Twilight.

Armor laughed.

“It’s okay to just speak your mind in our house, little sister. What brought on all this time travel talk anyway?”

“Nothing.”

She became intently interested in a biscuit on her plate.

Armor frowned.

“Twi…”

“All right! All right!”

Twilight’s horn tip flared and from her saddlebags to lifted the book of history, plopping it fairly unceremoniously between the teapot and the carnation sandwiches. She feverishly began flipping pages while Cadence removed the sugar bowl so that it wouldn’t be tipped in Sparkle’s enthusiasm.

“See?” she jabbed her hoof at the illustration of the colt. “That’s you!”

Armor and Cadence leaned over the book, squinting at the inked design.

“It…does look like you, honey.” Cadence concluded, looking confused.

Shining took a longer time in deliberating. Finally he nodded.

“I think that’s great great great great great gramps.”

“There were Sparkles back then?” Twilight asked, voice hushed in wonderment.

“Of course! We go back practically to the beginning of Equestria.” Armor chuckled. “The family resemblance was always pretty strong in our bloodline.”

“Who was he?”

“Stout Spear? No one really knows. Not a lot of records about him that weren’t destroyed.”

Armor realized too late that he’d just added fuel to the fire.

“Destroyed?” Twilight practically bounded from her cushy chair.

“Well, more accurately there was this mysterious library fire and…”

“Mysterious?” Sparkle thrust her nose into her brother’s face. “Why was it mysterious?”

“Twilight…could you kindly not stand on the table cloth?”

“Tell me!” Twilight snapped, lost in her exhilaration. “I want to know!”

“Um…how about you ask Celestia?”

“Okay!”

There was a blinding flash of purple light and suddenly Armor and Cadence were alone in their dining room, staring wide eyed at the residual energy crackling away to nothing on the guest chair.

“Kids.” Shining Armor shrugged, sipping from his teacup.

When he lowered it he became aware by degrees that Cadence was looking at him with a strange intensity.

“I was talking about Twi!” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean we…should…!”

Cadence scowled and slumped down in her chair, folding her front hooves and sulking.

Shining Armor took an extra long draft of tea, wondering what he’d have to do to get out of THIS one…

“Princess Celestia!”

When Sparkle rematerialized in the royal chambers she wasn’t expecting a scream of shock to greet her arrival.

As the teleportation wore off and the world wove itself back together she could finally make out better details, specially the princess of the morning seated on a bed of cushions and suspending a fork through magic to take large bites of an enormous chocolate cake.

“Celestia?”

“Um…tribute!” Celestia squeaked, briskly sliding the cake behind a pillow. “Tribute from a northern province. Its simple manners to…partake of it…entirely…you see!”

Twilight nodded but still looked somewhat skeptical.

“Um...what brings you here today, Twilight?” Celestia resumed her characteristic serene expression. “You know you can simply call me Celestia since we’re both the same rank now.”

“Oh right!” Twilight giggled. “It keeps slipping my mind. Also these wings sure make clothing shopping an adventure.”

“You get used to it.” She tapped a cushion beside her with a slender hoof. “Now, what concerns you, faithful princess?”

Twilight trotted to the cushion, took a seat, and spent a little space of time looking adoringly into her mentor’s eyes, before abruptly remembering the reason she was there.

“Prin…Celestia?” Twilight caught herself.

“Yes, Twilight?”

She pulled out her history book and set it down, flipping to the enigmatic painting.

“Who is this and why is he important?” the floodgates sprang wide. “Is he really a Sparkle ancestor? What did he do to earn such a prominent image in the ancient histories but was somehow considered not worthy of recording in the text? Why were all records related to him mysteriously destroyed? Was there time travel involved? Is the most popular version of history a fabrication?”

Celestia took up the book with her power, considered the page, and then looked deeply thoughtful. She remained this way for a long time until Twilight began to tap one of her hooves restlessly on the floor.

“Celestia?”

“I told Luna I’d never…” Celestia murmured under her breath.

Celestia closed the book and passed it through the air back to Twilight.

“Tell you what. The story is entirely too long and winding to tell you outright…”

Twilight’s ears drooped.

“But!” Celestia winked roguishly. “I can send you back to see events and make your own conclusions.”

“Really?” Sparkle brightened, hopping up and down in place with excitement.

“On two conditions.” Celestia’s voice became solemn.

“I’ll be sure to remember!” Twilight said, nodding furiously.

“Please do or I might have to consider temporary banishment.”

This revelation caused an electric jolt to race from one end of the small alicorn to the other, bristling her fur and feathers alike.

“B…banishment?”

The princess of dawn looked grim.

“Tampering with time is no little thing, faithful princess. You must promise me that you will not change anything and also never reveal to anypony else anything you might see.”

“You…can trust me!” Twilight sputtered, gulping. “I just need to know…”

Celestia’s gentle smile returned.

“That always was your way, Twilight. Now…”

The goddess closed her eyes, concentrating, gathering her powers.

“When I tell you, touch the book’s page.”

“Just touch it?”

Celestia chuckled, cracking an eye open.

“Why? You expected my magic to not be that simple or powerful?”

“Oh no, princess!”

“Very good.” She returned to concentrating. “Okay, when you want to return just call out my name. Nothing can harm you in the projection of the past so watch, listen, and learn what you will.”

“Thank you princess.”

Power, bright as light beams and fiery as sunsets circled the hovering tome.

“Okay…NOW!”

Twilight clenched her eyes, pressed her hoof against the page, there was a rushing and a sensation of shrinking, falling, spinning…

“The war goes ill,” a colt guardsman snarled, vigorously rubbing his hooves together. “By this time next season The Dark One will have matchless domain.”

Snow was falling silent and thick on the ground. Above the sky was a sable, unbroken shadow except for the piercing jealous light of a gibbous moon.

Twilight spat and kicked her way out of the drift she had landed in, shivering in the chill night air. Perhaps she couldn’t be harmed by anything from the past but she certainly could experience it to a very real degree.

She looked out across the wretched plot of a once thriving township, all but abandoned and tumbledown. Crops had withered and frozen in tall black stalks hanging with icicles. The smoke of fires for warmth and light rose up all around the barren hillsides.

Hillsides she recognized all too well.

The fort she did not. It was a hastily constructed palisade in the center of ancient Ponyville, torches trimming the sharpened pillars. Ponies in full armor patrolled the periphery armed with spears, looking suspiciously about at the shadows.

All this tension in the air made her antsy.

By a brazier was the small detachment of colt royal guards she had heard talking amongst themselves in gruff voices. The leader of the group was a muscular specimen with a great unkempt beard and a scar across the bridge of his nose. The other two attending to his prophesies of doom was a svelte pegasi mare with a sheathed cutlass at her hip, and then…

THERE he was!

The resemblance was remarkable, but up close she finally make out the differences. Stout Spear had a more prominent chin then his descendant Shining, clearly cared less about the state of his stubble and mane then many a more civilized Ponvyille citizen given how he’d allow it to grow out and flutter un-pleated from his broad shoulders.

But all the more discernable was that the illuminators of the ancient texts had done a little revisionism. A ‘little’ might have been a charitable statement the more she looked upon her great great great great great grandfather.

He was…barrel-chested. He certainly looked fit for a good fight, but it didn’t detract from the fact that his lower body hung low about his thickset legs. Not all of this was muscle because there was a definite softness to the frame.

Suddenly his name made a lot more sense.

“Stout, what do you think the chances are?” the bearded guard asked, lowering his bushy eyebrows. “You’ve been on the frontier of the battleground. Some ponies say you’ve actually met Nightmare Moon herself in single conflict!”

Stout Spear chuckled darkly, his belly shuddering with the spasm.

“Stories circulate and gain in scope with every telling!” he said, his voice rugged and deep. “All it will take is another charge against the night wings to still wagging tongues.”

“That, or some of the grandmare’s brew!” the bearded guard guffawed heartily.

“Still.” The mare began, cautiously. “You are the only one from this garrison to travel as far into the shadowlands. Tell us…what were they like? What was…she like?”

Stout frowned. He seemed about to raise his hoof and say something.

Suddenly there was a blare of trumpets that caused Twilight to jump.

“The enemy is upon us!” The bearded guard bellowed. “Lets bring them Tartarus!”

To her mystification Twilight watched as the bearded soldier and the mare galloped away in the direction of far end of the field, but Stout Spear although he followed at a canter for a little while eventually peeled off from the group and dashed back in the direction of a patch of dead trees. She followed, galloping herself to keep up with his pace.

There in a little icy coppice she saw something that caused her to stop dead in her tracks, forgetting for a moment her immunity to events. She even had to recall the protection spell she had begun to gather on her horn.

Discord was hovering a little ways over a glassy pond, lying on his back and kicking his feet idly as if he was paddling through the air.

Stout spear pulled to a stop, looking up at the great golden beast with an expression not or terror or revulsion…but of annoyance.

“You know with all these false alarms we really will be overwhelmed if we’re actually attacked!” he snapped.

“Whyever do you blame me?” Discord purred.

“Maybe the trumpet in your paw?”

The chaos sorcerer looked casually at his paw, which indeed enclosed a trumpet, which like all things Discord, had way too many nozzles and buttons and spouts for any practical use.

“Oh. How’d that get there?”

Discord tossed it over his shoulder. Moments after impact there was a spectacular blast of lime green flames.

“As much as I appreciate your intervention…” Stout continued.

“You have an odd way of showing appreciation.” Discord grumbled, spinning in midair so that he was ‘lying’ on his chest. “Have you ever asked yourself how long you can keep up this pathetic charade of yours Stocky?”

“Stout.” The colt growled.

“Yes, I do keep forgetting that…”

“I’ve…come to a conclusion!” Stout spluttered, clearly distraught. “I…”

Discord practically licked his lips as he sensed the latter’s discomfort.

“Yes?”

“I…can’t keep this up any longer.” He bowed his head in shame. “I…care for her too much.”

Discord laughed, the sound ringing throughout the clearing and causing icicles and snow batches to tumble out of the surrounding trees.

He extended his clawed limb and instantaneously a steaming press iron materialized in his grip. He ran his tongue along it and despite an unpleasant hissing sound he seemed unharmed when he de-summoned the object.

“The ironing, I must say, is delicious!” Discord chortled. “You come to me to find your soul-mare, that turns out to be the leader of the army you’ve sworn yourself to destroy, and NOW you’re looking to me again to help you end it?”

Stout looked up and nodded: the picture of a broken colt.

“Of course I can do this. It’s not like I even began this little venture without wanting to have a little fun. The outcome of any fleeting conflict disinterests me, but then again...she and her sister DID banish me in the first place.”

He scratched the straggly whiskers under his chin.

“Revenge is a dish best served extravagantly. How shall I remove her? Some kind of spectacular demise?”

“No!” Stout spoke up quickly. “I do not want her to be harmed!”

“I forgot.” Discord rolled his eyes. “Every since you freed me for the statue it’s been ‘Oh Luna’ this and ‘Oh Luna’ that!”

“I…want this war to end…but I do not want her harmed.”

“You sound like Celestia.” He spat as if the name tasted foul in his mouth. “Ever so willing to make the sacrifices…as long as they don’t effect YOU.”

“That’s my request.” Stout said quietly. “Remove her from power, but do not harm her.”

“I’ll do whatever I please of course.”

“But to do it my way might pose a bit more of…a challenge?”

Discord’s interest immediately peaked. He flew down lower to face Stout Spear directly.

“A challenge you say?”

“Anypony can use force.” Stout said guardedly. “It takes a true master of guile to defeat an enemy without causing them harm.”

“I think you’re right!”

Discord laughed as he soared back to his original place above the lake.

“It does open a whole new toy box of possibilities!”

“That’s the spirit!” Stout said.

Only Twilight could see he was concealing a sly little smirk on his lips.

“I’ll see to it this war ends in record time.” Discord rubbed his paws together eagerly. “I hope you don’t mind if I have your help in doing this? Specifically the advantage of your form. Even my magic is nothing compared with hers, especially nowadays.”

“With my blessings.” Stout grinned.

“You watch. You listen!” Discord aimed a claw in Stout’s direction. “This will be one history remembers!”

Then he spun, tucked into himself, and vanished.

But not before Twilight had mentally locked onto coordinates and transported herself to the same place he was bound.

When she pulled out of her spell Twilight staggered two steps to the left, her silver shoes slipped on the marble floor, and she toppled over. Looking up from her prone position she saw the shimmering surface of a stained glass window with the moonlight pouring in. Tall black columns rose all around her.

There was something familiar about this place.

Slowly memories of her first true adventure flooded back to her. Then she noticed the treetops of Everfree beyond the etched glass and realized. This was the ruined castle she had been drawn to along with her friends when Nightmare Moon returned.

Only now it was in full glory. Tapestries depicting an alternate history to the one she was used to decorated every available wall, showing Nightmare Moon and her armies liberating the land oppressed by daylight from the clutches of a sinister looking Celestia. Battle standards of the moon and silhouettes of Luna in her war-form were also commonplace alongside crossed weaponry and battered shields and helmets adorned with the sun-sigil, kept as trophies.

She nearly stumbled into a dark clad pegasi guardsman standing watch by the massive doors. Eventually she contented herself with wandering the wide, empty hall taking in its baleful majesty.

Then the far doors swung wide and Nightmare Moon trotted forth, her eyes glowing ethereally. Whether she was angry or in some other passion it was impossible to tell and Twilight instinctively stepped aside as she galloped along the chamber, unto the guarded doorway.

“AND WHY WERE WE NOT INFORMED OF HIS ARRIVAL?” she bellowed into the pegasi’s face, so stridently his helmet blew off and skittered across the floor.

“We did not have time, majesty!” The guard blubbered, falling prostrate before her and lowering his head to her shoes.

“WE HAVE WITNESSED HIS COMING FROM OUR THRONE ROOM AND IN THAT TIME WE HAVE NOT HEARD A FORMAL INTRODUCTION!” Nightmare placed a heavy hoof on her subordinate’s back. “THIS IS INEXUSABLE!”

The door opened and a page unicorn in a black robe trotted inside, holding up a scroll with her power.

“Presenting to the court of Nightmare Moon, Sir…”

“WE ARE AWARE OF WHO IS CALLING UPON US!” Nightmare snapped, the force of her words blasting the little page off her feet. “SEND HIM IN PROMPTLY IF ANY OF YOU VALUE YOUR HIDES!”

The guardsman and the page quickly rose to their feet, bowed, and then scampered.

Shortly afterwards Stout Spear trotted in. Immediately Twilight could tell he was a shame by the uncharacteristic sneer on his lips.

“Ah.” Nightmare smiled, her voice dropped to just shy of ordinary levels of volume. “Stout Spear I presume.”

“The one and only!” Discord said in his own voice at first, swiftly adopting Stout’s deeper tone to cover it. “I’ve heard this forest palace, despite its grandeur, can become very lonely in the winter time.”

“It shall always be winter now.” Nightmare said with a smirk.

“Surely, and the land is better for it.”

“Of course it is. What news then…Stocky?”

Out of the blue Nightmare’s muzzle suddenly developed a warm blush around the edges. Her commanding air also dropped off slightly, now it seeming like meeting Stout’s eyes was uncomfortable for her although she continued to smile.

“Much I’d like to discuss somewhere…away from prying eyes.”

Discord affected a knowing wink.

“Oh?”

For some reason Nightmare was occasionally shielding her face now with the sweep of her feathered wings. Her voice had become increasingly subdued.

“Follow.”

She and Stout/Discord stepped slowly up the echoing hall with Twilight following on tip-hooves.

“You have been from our side for too long” the tall alicorn princess murred, hooding her eyes as she turned to her consort. “The war goes well but we are without a single servant to match our own intellect, our strength to converse with. Let alone one has…mighty as you!”

She lifted her hoof and gently brushed Stout’s prodigious gut. With every gentle stroke she cooed softly, closing her eyes.

“Must have been a real drag.” Discord muttered, slipping into his own voice for a momentary lapse.

“It is indeed!” Luna snorted irritably, drawing away and continuing to walk. “Difficult enough running a campaign and managing a nascent empire without having daily to circumvent witless subjects without the strength to bend a blade of grass!”

“I think you might be exaggerating…”

Nightmare Moon whirled round, glaring murderously at Stout/Discord who was so started he blanched and gaped.

Luckily his expression was so comical it didn’t take long for Nightmare to chuckle, then laugh…then howl with laughter.

She batted him playfully with her wing.

“You like that one?” Stout/Discord said, grinning cheekily.

“You never cease to amuse, Stocky!” Nightmare cackled. “We are continually appreciative of the diversions you offer us.”

“Diversions, hmm?”

Nightmare’s horn blazed with blue light and the far doors swung aside. Twilight just managed to sneak through before the twisting dark magics brought the doors banging shut.

Now they were in the grand throne room, a place Twilight was pretty sure no longer existed in her own time. In this bygone era it was a surprising blend of the decadent and the militeresque. Frescos which ran through great combat campaigns and exotic devices of war shared the space with sumptuous pillows and tables laden with delicacies from all over Equestria: perhaps the last in existence now that night would be endless.

The dark princess took her place on her throne: an obsidian monolith in the shape of flared wings topped by a silvery orb carved to resemble the moon.

“Now then…the news.” She said, never removing her eyes from Stout/Discord even as she settled into her seat. “Tell us every detail. We have been so very wearied by relentless tedium.”

“A diversion would not suit you better?” Stout/Discord asked hopefully.

“A diversion?”

Nigthmare smiled widely and with complete sincerity. To Twilight she almost looked for a moment like reformed ‘Luna’, the armor seeming out of place on a creature of such childlike delight.

“I’m good at those.” Discord said, a note of pride in his voice.

“Yes, we know you are.” Nightmare Moon leaned forward, eyes sparkling. “Tell us! What game will we play? What story will you tell?”

Sparkle could hear Discord repeating something over and over again. She dared to trot a little closer so she could finally make out what he was saying under his breath.

“Don’t harm her…don’t harm her…don’t’ harm her…”

Twilight from her vantage behind the delicacy table could see Discord surreptitiously transmute one of his back legs into his natural claw and the beginnings of a spell were twisting into existence around his talons.

“What are you saying?” Nightmare asked, narrowing her eyes. “We cannot hear you.”

Stout/Discord turned briefly to the window of the throne room, out at the full moon burning in the starry sky.

“A…challenge.”

“A challenge?” the princess looked intrigued.

“Yes!”

Stout/Discord withdrew from his back a freshly materialized…something.

The object was so strange in appearance Twilight didn’t immediately know what to make of it, and clearly judging by Nightmare’s baffled expression she didn’t either.

“What is this?”

“This?” Stout/Discord hefted the object over a shoulder. “Clearly you haven’t gone into your own kingdom. Any other pony would recognize this challenge device!”

“Oh…” Nightmare struggled to frown knowledgeably. “Yes, of course! A challenge…device! We have heard of this before now. In fact, we are an expert!”

“My goodness.” Stout/Discord smiled. “It’s an honor to meet a challenge specialist.”

“Of course we are! What led you to supposed we’d be anything other?”

“Well, some ponies have been claiming that you spend every day in this palace and know nothing of what goes on outside these walls…”

“They are liars and we will turn them to stone for such insolence!” Nightmare huffed.

“Still others…” wheedled Stout/Discord, turning deliberately away from the princess. “Claim you rely upon your magic entirely too much. Without your magic you would be nothing at all. So they claim.”

“AND THEY ARE MISTAKEN AND WILL SUFFER FOR SUCH SLANDER!” Nightmare thundered.

“So, surely you wouldn’t then cast aside your magical wards to become as you are for the purposes of this challenge?”

Nightmare Moon paused. She thought about the full implications of such an action.

Then she looked coolly at the ‘challenge device’ which Twilight could now discern consisted of what looked like a pump handle and a long hose.

“We accept.”

“Only seems fair.” Stout/Discord added, innocently.

In an instant Nightmare Moon’s magnificence wavered, scattered into glimmering stars…then reassembled.

Now the tall horse was gone, replaced by a haughty looking pony sans armor or dark aura.

“Luna!”

Twilight slapped a hoof over her mouth and dropped out of site behind a statue as Luna and Stout/Discord turned in her direction.

“Did…you just hear?” Luna looked confused.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Stout/Discord added, searching the room with a sweep of his eyes. “It sounded like…”

“Oh, who cares?!”

Luna hopped down from the throne and trotted to Discord, now roughly the same size if a little smaller then Stout’s body.

“We want to show you our prowess at the challenge you speak of!”

“You know how the challenge goes?”

“Of course we do!” Luna glowered. “Do not ask us this again!”

“Lovely.”

Stout/Discord tossed the hose end to Luna and she caught it with her magic.

Then she stared at it.

And stared.

And continued to stare.

“Problem?” Stout/Discord prompted.

“We…have temporarily forgotten how to…begin the challenge.” Luna admitted lamely.

“I’ll help to jog your memory then.”

Twilight edged as close as she dared, watching as Stout/Discord set down the handle part of the device, took the hose in mouth and trotted to where Luna stood. The young princess instinctively braced herself, as the nozzle of the hose approached her, not knowing what if anything to expect.

“You know where this goes, right?”

Luna nodded.

“Oh good, then I guess I don’t need to…”

“Re…remind us?” Luna whispered. “It has been a long time since we…challenged ourselves.”

“Fair enough. Simply place the pointy end into your mouth, hold it tight, and don’t let go.”

“So…this is a challenge to see if we can hold onto a length of tube and for how long?”

Stout/Discord adopted a hurt expression.

“Now, I thought you said you KNEW what the purpose and method of the challenge was…”

“We do!” Squeaked Luna, champing in her frustration. “Place it in our mouth! We will show you how it’s done.”

“Remember. Hold on to it. No matter what happens.”

Luna nodded stoically, then awkwardly fed the nozzle into her lips, gripping it with her teeth.

“If you hold it too tightly you’ll tire yourself.” Stout/Discord warned.

“Ge on wid it!” Luna grumbled.

“All right.”

Whatever Discord was up to it brought him great glee. Twilight could see his hooves doing a little triumphant jig as he approached the handle. When he chuckled it wasn’t Stout’s deep laugh but his own crazed hacking chortle that echoed in the chamber. The sound so unlike her paramour was beginning to make Luna visibly nervous.

“All set?”

Stout/Discord placed his hooves on the crossbar of the pump. Luna gave the most tentative of nods, a little whimper escaping her jammed lips.

“Here we GO!”

With ease Stout’s body raised the crossbar…and with more difficulty forced it make down on the slender metal shaft it was housed it.

A light chuff rushed through the hose and Luna winced soon afterwards, her cheeks bulging momentarily before she breathed out, hard from her snout.

“Doing all right there?” Stout/Discord grinned, leaning on the pump. “You can forfeit any time you want to, although I’d hope a champion of the challenge wouldn’t be such a lightweight to give up after only ONE press.”

“Go!” commanded Luna, gritting her teeth and planting her feet. “We’ll shu you ow mush we gan dake!”

“I certainly hope so.”

The handle peeped as it rose up…and fell with a strained squawk. The hose bucked slightly as Stout/Discord began to get into a rhythm and put some power into his thrusts. For a time the princess of darkness weathered the gusts of air in her mouth, streaming down her throat with a composed determination.

She was perplexed by the situation, with nothing to compare it to. Pride would never allow her to admit ignorance, but this was certainly unlike any other pony-activity with which she was familiar. It wasn’t exactly…horrid, but it was certainly strange enough to warrant a lingering alarm in her head. Eventually she fell into a nigh hypnotic state with the regular pulses of the pump handle, the gusts tasting like rubber against her tongue, her breathing varying to accommodate for the trapped air so she could puff it out without putting stress on her cheeks.

“This is of course a minor setting to the device.” Stout/Discord explained, stopping his pumping for a moment. “A true champion would demand more umph, yes?”

“Yesh!” Luna said, without really realizing she had said it.

She immediately regretted saying it when she saw Stout/Discord switch some kind of catch open on the pump shaft.

“Now the safeties off so we can finally get somewhere.”

“Uh huh…” Luna simpered, trying to keep a bold face.

At the first press the rhythm changed. Faster and more fluid. The handle rose and fell rapidly and with each jerk issued a bundle of pressure down the pipe and into Luna’s maw. Three quick strikes and her cheeks bulged uncomfortably. She was taking in air far quicker then she could adequately breath it out, and every fresh assault distracted her too long to concentrate on venting.

Twilight trotted from cover entirely, standing and staring. Luckily Luna was preoccupied, but so was Sparkle with the spectacle and Stout/Discord was taking more and more fiendish delight in his task.

As soon as the air had built up strong enough to put a foundational pressure into her belly Luna instinctively spit out the hose.

“Taking a breather?” Stout/Discord asked, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Just…for…a moment!” Luna panted, clutching her fore-hoof to her chest. “All at once we…felt as if we were…never mind.”

“Even champions can take five. I’m sure it will all go towards you withstanding an astonishing amount of challenge to come!”

“Y…yes…astonishing.”

Luna whipped sweat from her brow. She looked distastefully at the hose curled at her feet.

“This is an odd sort of game.”

“Challenge.” Corrected Stout/Discord. “A mark of true leadership some say. Why any princess accomplished enough to withstand everything this device can do is bound to be considered rightfully a leader…and a monarch.”

Discord laughed viciously.

“Imagine what your sister might think, to be humiliated by your skill…”

Mechanically Luna lifted the nozzle, shoved it into her mouth, and nodded at Discord who needed no other excuse to hammer the pump down again…and again…and again.

Twilight’s head began to bob in time to the raising and abrupt shove downwards.

Now Luna was beginning to be inconvenienced. Her cheeks pouted outwards and managed to wedge the nozzle in until she couldn’t even have dropped it if she wanted to without a concentrated effort. She no longer even had to breathe through her nose. The pump was doing the breathing for her.

But only breathing in.

There was a fretful creak.

Luna’s wide eyes looked down to see her studded choker collar spreading, thanks to her front half beginning to puff. It was a finely crafted piece of jewelry and made of metal and gems, but the forces inside her were beginning to push her apart, causing her to begin to…

“Stoph!” Luna gurgled desperately.

Her sides, her stomach was literally beginning to round out like a ripening fruit. It was a solid fill too, no give when she pressed feverishly into her flesh with her hooves. This challenge had become what it always had been.

A pump attached to a balloon.

“STOPH!” Luna waved her arms. “EE DEMAN YOU TO STOPH!”

It was a huge mistake to use the royal Canterlot voice.

There was a tremendous surge of compression that literally knocked Luna backwards. The hose was long enough to stay in place despite her rolling onto her rump and flailing uselessly for a few moments, before she managed to lean forward enough to topple herself back to a sitting position.

“S…stoph.” She whined in a defeated muffle. “Pwesh…”

Stout/Discord didn’t stop. In fact he set to pumping with more force and conviction then ever before.

Luna was in shock as her taut middle advanced into a great blue curve, the vapors stacking within stretching her normal flexibility to newfound levels of vulnerability. She could feel her sides ache as they gained span, her legs resting tightly against her bloated midriff.

Then her legs began to rise from the floor. Her chest was so full it had burgeoned into more of a sphere, brushing the ground and pushing away from it. She groaned, kicking and complaining. Her body was throbbing, distended out of shape. To Twilight she looked with-foal, or at least coming off the most magnificent feast that Equestria had ever known.

Discord barked with laughter as he increased speed and power.

Luna could only grunt, her body no longer her’s to control, her limbs themselves fattening with air.

SNAP

One of her fine shoes burst from around her inflating hoof and dropped with a clatter. Her choker held on gallantly, but it posed the problem of her ballooning body engulfing it as it refused to break apart. Because of the choker Luna’s upper half was consolidating more of the pressure so she lumped in an unsightly way, her flank expanding out to one side and her upper body form it’s own pent up knot. If this kept up she would more then like blow out either end like a Hearth Warming Eve cracker.

Luna closed her eyes tightly. For the first time in her life she felt…afraid.

“Tsk tsk.”

Stout/Discord set down the pump and trotted to the teeter-tottering princess inflatable. At first Luna seemed relieved because he reached up, presumably to remove the hose and nozzle and end this little game.

Only instead she felt her heart sink when her chocker collar’s clasp was undone.

Discord stepped back, Stout’s quadruped form shifting by degrees until he was back in his dragon seeming. It was well had had stepped away as the pressure equalized moments after the obstruction was removed. Luna made a startled yip as her two swollen body sections merged all at once into one overblown pony orb.

“That’s better.” Discord sneered. “Doesn’t it feel good every once in awhile to let off a little pressure?”

The princess could only rumble and shudder as Discord walked back to the pump. He looked down at the shaft and handle, scratched his chin.

“This is hardly good enough to finish someone as high and mighty as you, is it?”

He waved his claws in the direction of the pump. The shaft shook itself, rose up, branched off in many directions, restructured itself, grew scales and horns, until finally where an ordinary pump had been there now straddled a fully-grown dragon appeared, it’s snout still connected to the hose.

Luna wailed through her bloated cheeks.

“Lets see if this speeds things up.”

It did. Luckily the breaths of the dragon were not the burning variety, but the quantity of continuous hot air absolutely surged into Luna and shot up her tension until it was nearly unbearable. She would either have to grow or shatter right there and then, and luckily her figure had impressive self-preservation.

Of course this meant soon her plumpness had doubled into full on blimp-like teeming, heaving increase. Twilight marveled at how the medium-size pony had blow up into a gorgeously enormous ball twice her original dimensions. The hassle deep in her body must have been incredible, like trying to hold back an entire swarm of Parasprites. Luna looked more and more miserable with each passing moment of widening.

Discord couldn’t resist.

He slunk to her quaking borders and ran a claw ever so tenderly along her slope. Luna gasped through her pursed lips, twitching at the violation, not even to mention the danger he might push harder into her by this stage fragile bulk.

“I’d so dearly love to either prod you hard enough to end you, my dear.” The sorcerer mused. “Either that or allow this dragon to see to it just how great a princess can become…and how huge a hole in her own castle she can make when she reaches her limits.”

The princess sniveled as he caressed her overfed face, dimpling her cheeks.

“But I made a promise to not harm you. Out of amusement for myself, understand. I like a good challenge!”

The dragon puffed away. Luna swelled and swelled until her arms and legs were shifted to opposite sides of a central roundness, sinking deeper into her bubble belly the bigger it grew.

She tried to flap her wings but impossibly those too had become engorged and useless with air, the feathers struggling to avoid popping themselves from the hot air trapped inside each.

Twilight honestly suspected that Discord was lying. In the state she was in Luna could have very well burst like one of Pinkie’s party favors with just a few more unstable inches.

Judging by her sullen expression she might have embraced the relief. Anything had to be better then to lose your dignity, control, footing, and…

Twilight blinked, rubbed her eyes, and then blinked again.

Luna was starting to clumsily rise up from the ground! At first Sparkle suspected that she had bounced, but it became clear that her legs were not touching the floor, and she was steadily climbing even as she flourished all the more.

“Perfect.”

Discord walked up the Luna blimp and this time did indeed reach out and take the nozzle and hose from her lips. It took a few tugs to free it and gratefully the princess began expelling air with a whoosh from the liberated gap.

Until Discord conjured a piece of tape. He pressed it smoothly over her mouth, gave it a swipe to hold it in place. Luna blew as hard as she could against the silvery strip but the efforts soon tired her, and it did no favors of the density of her insides.

The dragon vanished. Luna’s tormenter placed his talons beneath her copious mass. Luna could do nothing, not even wiggle her leaden, swallowed arms and legs, as she felt the claws poke her undercarriage.

“Oh, stop fussing. I won’t pop you.”

Luna’s big watery eyes met Discord’s own narrowed reptilian slits and saw no pity in their depths.

“That’s the good news…”

Like a moth to a flame Twilight followed behind as Discord ferried Luna over towards the window. She was morbidly fascinated by the weightless, impossibly STILL distending princess. Behind the tape the gasses must be building up, compacting, and getting still the stronger.

“The BAD news…”

Discord gestured flippantly at the pane, which buckled, then exploded outward along with a great part of the wall. Colored glass clung to top of the jagged hole before finally falling loose, and plunging from the fantastic heights of the fortress to the forest below.

“Yes. I’m afraid this is where we part, you wonderful toy.”

Luna naturally protested as she was transported and eventually held directly outside the breach and over the treetops.

“It’s so unbecoming of a princess to blubber!” snapped the sorcerer. “You’ll be just fine. Look.”

He let go.

Twilight stifled a gasp of fright.

Until she noticed that Luna was hung, suspended, spinning to and fro. She reminded Sparkle of a kite caught at the end of a tether.

“See? Dragon breath is hot air. Hot air…?”

Discord twirled a clawed finger as if waiting for a response.

Luna just continued to creak and rotate.

“Not the most educated of royals I’ve met.” Discord snickered. “Hot air floats, you dolt. And now…”

The princess warbled something unintelligible. It was soon drowned out by an unremitting hissing sound echoing throughout her frailty.

“You’ll float too!”

Discord slapped Luna with his tail so that she gyrated and bobbled still farther away from the tower. Daring a little closer to see more Twilight slunk until she was nearly beside Discord, but thankfully shielded by a collection of ornate pony armor.

She could see it all. The entire astounding phenomenon.

The once proud Nightmare Moon was unidentifiable as even a living being. Immobile, vibrating, she was more easily likened to what she had been forced to assume: a garish, flimsy bag of hot fumes, bound inexorably for the stars.

“PWESH!” Luna squealed, her voice risen to a ridiculously high pitch. “NOT RIKE DIF! NOT RIKE DIF!”

“You’re the naughty one who went and started a war over a sibling rivalry.” Discord purred, waving jauntily at her. “Such an overstated brat deserves a fitting, or filling, punishment wouldn’t you agree?”

“DIFCORD!”

“Yes, it’s me.” Discord’s smile was razor sharp. “Never thought I’d get loose from my stone prison? That was your mistake. You’re lucky I’m in a good mood tonight. Otherwise I might summon a flock of extremely curious sparrows with sharp beaks, or maybe a cloud of wasps…”

“NUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

Luna’s voice was getting harder and harder to make out. Her swelling face was pressing her lips tight against the tape and her smooth, brimming shape was soaring up faster and faster. Her fearful face, absurdly teeny against the monstrosity it was connected to, huffed and puffed in vain against its gag. Her cutie mark had spread out like a sail across a boulder-sized flank.

“She’ll be a planet by the time she reaches orbit, at least close to the one of the smaller ones.” Discord said. “I do hope she ends up on The Moon to really round things out. That would make this evening absolutely flawless.”

For a crazy instant Twilight half believed he was talking directly to her.

Luna had blow so mightily and so vast her sheer range was beginning to dim the light of her namesake. All across Equestria this night would be remembered as the mysterious eclipse that heralded the defeat of Nigthmare Moon at last.

Poetic justice, Twilight observed. Her reign had truly come to an end.

Then in the throne room there was blinding flash.

A flowing pink mane glistened in the lingering glow as the teleportation spell diffused, leaving behind a tall mare; pure white with golden armor and a golden crown on her brow.

“DISCORD!”

It was the first time Twilight had ever heard Celestia speak in the royal Canterlot voice. Even as a younger version of herself the strength of her words was deafening and felt like a slug in the chest.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?” Celestia’s nostril’s flared.

“What you could not.” Discord shrugged. “I had the gall to end your war for you. You should be thanking me.”

“I’ll do nothing of the kind.” Celestia muttered, her voice regaining normal volume.

“I don’t take it you’ll be rescuing her from her fate?” Discord raised an eyebrow.

“Will she come to harm?”

“I’ve seen to it she will not.”

Celestia closed her eyes, deep in painful thoughts.

“No.” she said at last. “Although, perhaps, one day she can return.”

“It’ll be a thousand years if it’s a day.” Discord chuckled. “I gave her both barrels.”

Celestia’s eyes burned with fury. Twilight had never seen her become this angry and it frightened her.

“You have degraded my sister for you own amusement!” The princess of dawn growled. “Somehow you broke free of your prison and you still insist on sewing confusion and chaos!”

“It’s what I do.” Muttered Discord. “Nobody complains when you raise the sun, although I guess with your sister orbiting the planet you’ll have to pull double duty.”

“Sorcerer, you should have stayed in your statue!”

“I’d like to see you try and pull that one again, princess.” Discord sneered dangerously, brandishing his claws.

Just as Celestia’s horn caught fire a small side passage doorway crept open, jerkily as if the one pushing it had little strength.

There in the entryway stood a sleepy-eyed filly dressed in pajamas, holding a stuffed Ursa Minor in her mouth. She let it fall to her feet and looked around the room in blithe misunderstanding.

“Mommy?” the filly asked. “Mom?”

Discord’s expression of disbelief turned into a smile.

Then he started cackling hard, especially when Celestia’s brow furrowed in a murderous glare.

“You banished my sister WHEN SHE HAD A CHILD?”

“Oh, put a sock in it Tia!” Discord snorted, whipping his nose. “You don’t appreciate the hilarious comedy of errors here! That child…”

He pointed to the filly that was sucking on her fore-hoof.

“Is none other then the child of Stout Spear, your own guardsman! Isn’t that marvelous?”

Celestia gawped, processing all of the evening’s outrageous events.

“I can’t wait to tell the world!” Discord began ranting, doing another jig in his excitement. “The child of Nightmare Moon lives, and she was born to a member of the princess’ own royal guard! The scandal will be astronomi…!”

Celestia gestured with her horn.

A cascade of golden light engulfed Discord mid step and within an instant stone surrounded him: reduced to nothing more then a statue.

She clacked her hooves together, satisfied, then turned to the filly.

“It’s okay, little one.” She said softly. “I’ll take care of you.”

“Celestia!” Twilight said, reaching out.

For a moment Celestia turned and seemed to see her. Twilight began to say something, anything.

Then the sensation of swimming backwards through space struck and the world blurred.

When she came to she was looking directly into Luna’s dark eyes.

She was so momentarily taken aback she let out a little scream and tried to run away, but ended up stumbling rearward into Celestia’s pillow collection.

“Princess Sparkle?” Luna asked sincerely. “Are you all right?”

“I’m…fine!” Twilight panted, righting herself with some difficulty. “Just fine. Luna…are you all right?”

“We are…”

Luna turned, fixing Celestia with an odd look. Celestia smiled self-consciously in response.

“Fine.”

The princess of the night looked suspiciously at the history book lying on the carpet, opened to the infamous picture.

“Sister…did you…?”

“Yes.” Celestia nodded shamefaced. “Yes I did.”

All at once Luna gritted her teeth, her muscles tensing and her eyes bulging with anger.

“WE TOLD YOU NEVER TO…!”

“I know, I know.” Celestia countered, quietly. “But you see…I had to do it.”

Luna calmed herself, although it took some time to still every part of her enlivened by wrath.

“You had to?”

“Yes. You see, Twilight was present on the day of your banishment. She always was. I remember seeing her, although I supposed at the time it was a waking dream.”

“So…Princess Twilight…”

“Witnessed all, and always will.” Celestia tittered cheerfully. “I never ask too many questions when it comes to time traveling.”

“A wise decision.” Luna said quietly.

“But I have sworn her to secrecy.”

Celestia tapped the illustration of Stout Spear and Luna.

“Only this painting by a royal guard of your own empire remains to tell the story.”

Luna nodded, something like sadness now dwelling in her eyes.

“I…miss him.”

“I know.”

The two sisters sidled towards each other until Celestia had caught up Luna in a warm hug, Luna weeping silent tears into her rainbow mane.

“But what about the filly?”

Both sisters turned in place to stare at her.

“The child of Nightmare Moon!” Twilight sputtered. “Celestia said she’d take take of her! Luna, you have a daughter somewhere who…”

“We know, Twilight.”

“But.” Twilight gulped. “Even if it has been thousands of years, her descendants…”

Celstia held up her hoof.

“We know.”

“But…who is it?”

Luna smiled.

“The family was never allowed to tell of their true lineage, but took the name Lunamoon regardless.”

“So?” Twilight frowned.

“So?” Luna beamed proudly. “You’ve met my great, great, great, great, great descendant already.”

“But I don’t know any Lunamoo…”

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes grew very wide indeed and her mouth hung open.

“Yes.” Celestia shook her head bemusedly. “After my sister returned from orbit around the moon.”

“THAT was an entertaining century...” Grumbled Luna.

“She discovered that indeed the child she had mingled with your own bloodline, Twilight, had bourn many generations up to the present day. All of them possessed limited powers, but also Nightmare Moon’s ambition.”

Twilight couldn’t help herself and shouted the name.

“TRIXIE???”

Luna giggled.

“We happen to like her. She reminds us of us when we were young.”

“You also see why this history remains a secret, in addition to Luna’s…”

“Mortification.” Growled Luna.

“Humbling.” Celestia suggested. “If word got to Trixie she was descended for the very goddesses of Equestria.”

“No fear!” Twilight said, pushing out her hooves to make the point.

“Very good.” Celestia grinned. “But now at least someone knows the truth.”

“And if you reveal this truth to anypony else we will see to it that you take our place orbiting the moon.” Luna snarled.

Twilight chuckled.

“Okay, Luna, but you know me.”

“I do, and I’m not joking.” The princess of night said, fixing her with a cold stare.

Twilight turned to Celestia and was a little disturbed to see her expression was one of slight concern.

“She’s joking, right Celestia?”

Celestia, instead of saying anything, slowly shook her head.