In One Fell Swoop

Celestia remembered it like it was yesterday. 

Her little sister—a unicorn barely past her fillyhood—weeping over the deer, the animal’s breathing heavy and pained, its mangled legs torn beyond any hope of repair. She remembered the thick scent of blood staining the air, heavy and sickening and sad. 

“Shhh, little one. We will help you.” Luna was cradling the deer’s head, whispering comforting words as if the deer could even listen, its gaze unfocused and dazed. “You will be well.” 

Watching from a few feet away, Celestia—herself only just a young mare, a few years shy of adulthood—breathed in, her wings rustling at her side. This was taking more time than she’d anticipated. They were still in dangerous territory and had to press on if they wanted to reach safety before nightfall. 

It was cruel. Whoever had done this, animal, pony, or other, had been unfathomably cruel. Or a coward. That, too, was an option. 

In many ways, she thought as she opened her torn saddlebag, that would be worse. 

She found what she was looking for, slipped the loop of it round her hoof, and rose.

“Luna.” Her sister looked up, and her eyes widened in horror at seeing the pegasus’ small dagger. “Please move.” 

“No! Sister, put that away!” Luna gasped and wriggled to cover the deer’s face, her efforts to prevent it from seeing the knife tugging at Celestia’s heart. “She can still be saved! I—” She turned to the creature, her horn glowing with meagre magic. “We know some spells, and—” 

“Luna… You need to conserve your energy for a threat. Your magic is our only means of real protection, you know that.” She gestured to the deer’s legs, the exposed flesh and bones. “This animal will never walk again, and no amount of magic will fix that. That is no life for her. There is no way forward for her but death.”

“So she should die?” Luna sobbed, pressing her forehead against the deer, her tears intermingling with the animal’s. 

“Sometimes, death is the most merciful solution.” Celestia stepped forward, putting the knife down before kneeling next to Luna and nuzzling her. “Your heart is kind, protecting us all from harm. This creature’s last moment on this plane will have been to be loved and cared for. You have done more than enough to ease her soul. She deserves rest.” 

“…Do not let her suffer, Tia.” Luna’s voice was quiet, but firm, soaked in the scars that living through a war had left on her psyche. 

“I won’t, I promise,” the young mare replied, standing up and picking up her dagger. “I am not one for half-measures.” 

Luna nodded. The word ‘goodbye’ left her lips, but it was choked in a sob. 

“Come, sister,” Celestia said. “Say goodbye as though you mean it.” 

Again, Luna nodded and then stood up, wiping her eyes, ever the brave filly Celestia loved dearly. 

“Farewell, little one,” she said, trying her best to not let her voice break. “May you find the rest you deserve.” 

Celestia waited for Luna to trot off somewhere further within the forest, away from the oncoming spectacle, before finally turning to the deer, the poor thing gasping for life. 

There was a chance something could have been done. Maybe her dagger could have been heated enough to cauterize the wound. Maybe with time, love, and care, it could have survived with a healer willing to take it in, but… 

Sometimes, as she’d said, there was no way forward but death. 

“Shhh, shhh…” She brushed a hoof against the deer’s cheek, lifting it gently and exposing its throat. It would have to be fast. If she wanted to keep her promise to Luna, it would have to be done in one fell swoop. “All will be well, my little one. All will soon be well.” 

She thought of the deer that night, her dazed eyes focused on her sister’s blood, splattered across the floor. The scent of it was everywhere, sickening, her own mouth soaked in it, tangy and metallic and painfully spilling from her wounds. 

“Celestia.” 

Snapping to focus, Celestia looked up towards where the castle column fell, her eyes welling with tears at the sight of her baby sister—if she still was her baby sister, somewhere underneath the monster—trapped under it, looking back at her not with love, or fear, but hate. Pure and unfiltered, burning like the sun she so envied. 

“Enough,” Celestia said, slamming the end of her lance against the floor. Around her, the Elements of Harmony floated, alight with power. “Please. You have lost.” 

“…Lost? No.” Luna’s voice echoed through the broken halls, howling with the wind. Dark magic blazed around her horn. “I do not lose.” 

Celestia lunged back and conjured a magic shield, the instant before the eruption, the whole world around her hurled in a shockwave of fire. Dust swirled, and debris came rattling down. When it all settled, she blinked about with tear-burned eyes. The column had been blasted apart to reveal the state of her beloved sister. 

There she lay, torn open by shards of the column and impaled by her own ruined armour, lying amidst pooling blood, a sight that Celestia knew, knew she would see in every dream every night for centuries to follow. 

Alicorns healed, but slowly, too slowly, and to heal that amount of damage, even with the help of magic, would be the work of an age. And that was just the physical wounds. 

The shield vanished and Celestia stepped forward, the instincts she’d long forgotten flaring back to life. That was her sister, that was her baby sister, bleeding to death on the floor. 

“Sister—” 

“We were the protector.” 

Celestia stopped. 

“We were the unicorn.” Her voice had quieted to a snarl, yet it still echoed through the halls, echoed in every shadow. “We were the powerful one. And you?” Her eyes went to Celestia, and the hate burned again. “You were a pegasus. You had no magic. It was ours. And now…?” 

Luna shuddered.

And then she rose on the ruins of her forelegs.

With a pained groan, Luna pushed herself up, sheer force of will doing what her destroyed flesh and bone couldn’t. As Celestia watched her, pale with horror, Luna’s face contorted in agony. 

“Luna, enough—”

Her sister ignored her, her burning eyes unblinking. “Now they come to you.” 

“They come to both of us,” Celestia said, anger overwhelming her. Anger at herself, for allowing her sister to fall this far. “Please. Please.” The Elements lowered, and she stepped forwards, beseeching. “Enough.” 

Anger flared in Luna’s eyes and dark fire briefly flared about her horn, but rather than spewing out a bitter remark, she screamed and crumpled, her magic faltering as she fell to the floor. 

“Sister—!”

“Stay away,” Luna hissed.

Celestia obeyed, gutted at the sound of her sister’s voice cracking. 

“…What now, Tia?” asked Luna, her gaze dazed and unfocused. “What will the everlasting Princess Celestia do to the shadow that haunts the everlasting night?” 

“I will help you,” Celestia said. “All will be well.” 

Luna laughed bitterly. “Ah, but we are beyond helping. We have killed for this. We have crossed boundaries one was never meant to cross.” Her eyes met Celestia’s. “The only path forward for us is death.” 

“No,” Celestia said. “You can be saved. You can be—”

“You… You who have been merciful so many times. You would allow others the peace they seek, but not your own kin?” Her red teeth bared. “I did not think you so cruel. Or so cowardly.” 

And again, and for the last time, Luna tottered up on her forelegs, her jaw clenched shut.

“Come, sister, you are not one for half-measures.” Luna hissed, her horn crackling with magic for the last time, ready to make her final stand. “Do it.” 

Celestia swallowed, the Elements glowing brightly as she stepped forwards, wings splaying out.

Do not let her suffer, Tia. 

Tears brimming around her eyes, Celestia tried to say her farewells, but all that came out was a choked, strangled sob. 

“Ah, sister, this is not becoming of you.” Luna’s withers hunched and her mangled wings spread, as if she would lunge at Celestia. “Say goodbye as though you mean it.” 

Much like a filly had done ages ago, Celestia nodded and steeled herself, carving every word with as much love as she could. “Rest well, dearest sister.” 

It happened fast. It had to, had to take place in one fell swoop, her sister lunging forward with a final scream as Celestia unleashed the powers of the elements, and the world turned white.  

The world turned silent.

When it all settled, when it was done and over, there was no body left behind for Celestia to see. 

She didn’t know what banishment did. She only knew it would be for a long time, enough for wounds, both physical and mental, to have a chance to heal. It would be like sleep. 

She hoped, with all the cruelty and cowardice in her, that she hadn’t had to say goodbye.