A/N: This is the original ending of the story, in case anyone wanted to see it. I like the canon one, but many people were curious about what happened in the ORIGINAL-- so here it is, have fun. :)

***This is NOT the intended ending of the story, you've already read that. This is the failed ending that I took down.***

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Tough Love: Luna vs. Celestia
EXTRA: "Original Ending"

A week had passed since the eclipse. Princess Luna was in her room, gingerly packing her alchemy kit in a special metal box. Four Lunar Stallions waited patiently nearby, masks over their muzzles, watching her carefully handle all the chemicals. She wore a special mask as well, she didn’t want to inhale anything unpleasant. The glass containers tinkled back and forth before she secured each one in its proper place. When she was done, she closed the lid and sealed it with magic. “Now, I want all of you to take this far out into the ocean and throw it overboard. At least a hundred miles offshore.” She bade them, gesturing. “I only send four of you because it must be done properly and without fail.” They nodded, saluting, and carted their burden away.

Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide entered the room, bowing and displaying their wings for her in submission. Luna smiled gently. “Are we moving into phase three now, your Majesty?” asked Aegis Shield quietly. She could tell he already suspected.
“Do we have a phase three?” Stalwart Hide looked over at his comrade.

Luna nodded slowly. “Unfortunately yes. This will be the hardest part of all my plans.” She ran her hoof over the empty alchemy table. “Do me a favor, my stallions?” she took off her special ventilator mask. “Have this table thrown in a furnace. If it has any traces of… things, on it, then it must be destroyed.” She turned over to a nearby woodstove, opening the little doors while the two stallions tried to mare-handle the awkward table out of the room. By the time they’d worked it beyond the door, Luna was burning stacks and stacks of paperwork. She stoked the fire carefully, turning the ashes so that everything would be consumed. Formulas, original copies, equations too-- she had to get rid of it all so not even she would remember how to make the concoction she’d been poisoning her sister with for the past few months. She peered out the window as she worked. The mare in the moon was hunched sadly over its face. She sighed.

With all her papers burning, she moved over to the little kit she’d set up in the corner. It was for blood work. Pricking herself and dripping the silvery liquid into the waiting mixture, she leaned eagerly with baited breath. She watched the mildly acidic mixture turn, curl, then turn to a pure and milky white. She smiled, genuinely smiled. “At last.” She whispered in a haggard way. Grabbing the blood work kit, she tossed it into the fire as well and swept out of the room.

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Celestia heaved against her bonds. A dozen chains of pure moonsteel held her, perhaps a hundred feet from the moon’s surface. She’d tried to launch herself off of the moon and simply float back to Equestria, but it hadn’t worked. As soon as she’d reached a certain distance from the moon, the chains had appeared and grabbed her. Moonsteel was a metal that she, being a solar being, could not break by any means. They were specifically designed to hold her. Sighing, the white alicorn used her magic to steer herself down to the rocky surface again and the chains vanished. She landed on the cold and dusty surface of the moon, looking around. It was quiet, so very quiet.

She’d been on the moon for a week, or she thought it was a week. It was very hard to keep track of time, with no sun and moon moving across the sky. Now it was Equestria and the sun moving across the sky, in patterns that she didn’t yet know how to read. Being on the moon was a different perspective. The white alicorn looked down at her hooves, scratching at the dusty and uncomfortable lunar surface. It had taken her awhile to learn how to even run with lesser gravity, but it didn’t seem to matter where she went. It was all the same. Cold and dark and grey, filled with nothing but silence and dust and LUNA! Celestia gave a start, her eyes widening.

There, atop a hill with her wings open, was her little sister. Celestia scrambled her way, tumbling a little in the lesser gravity. Walking by clutching the ground with her hooves, like she was on ice, the sun Princess made her way as quickly as she could to her. “Luna! Luna it’s you!” she said, stopping in front of her.

“Yes. Tiz I.” Luna smiled a bit sadly. Celestia punched her in the head without even thinking about it. Luna yelped, bit didn’t resist. Shaking her head to clear her vision, the dark alicorn looked up at her sister with a grim expression. “Well, I deserved that, I imagine.”

“You locked me on the moon.” Celestia pouted at her.

“I don’t recall you ever visiting me, while I was here.” Luna made a show of looking around the lunar landscape, smiling in a fond way. “Maybe we could find one of my sand castles if we looked hard enough. Not a lot of wind around here.” She chuckled, closing her wings and seating herself to look up at Equestria. Well, up is a relative term, but it was in the sky from the moon’s perspective.

Celestia wasn’t sure of what to do. Should she strangle her sister’s little neck for sending her to the moon? Should she… no, violence begat violence, and that was not who she was. Luna looked over her shoulder at her elder sibling and smiled a little wider. “What?” said Celestia with a contained amount of terseness.

“It seems my drugs have worn off. Thank goodness too, you were turning into a real monster thanks to me.” Luna said offhandedly, returning to her sky-gazing. “I always loved to look at Equestria, even after a thousand years it never got old…” she said vaguely, a certain fondness in her eyes.

“Drugs? What drugs?” Celestia said, eyes widening in shock.

“I left you here for a week to make sure they all worked themselves out of your system. I’m sorry, Tia.” Luna said genuinely. “I couldn’t visit you until I knew you were back to your old self again.”

“My old self?” Celestia looked down at her hooves as though they held the answer. Her mane was still pink, her eyes still purple, and the litheness that she’d earned through Luna’s training had not gone anywhere. “Please, tell me what’s happened.” She said. “If I’m to be here for a thousand years, at least tell me what it all meant.” She begged her sister, opening her wings to pull her close.

Luna shouldered up to her with a rather bitter smile. “I drugged you with moon dust, Tia.” She finally admitted. “Potent moon dust. It took away all of your inhibitions and made you into a selfish, self-centered ruler that everypony hated.” Celestia went a little pale. An alicorn with no sense of inhibition? Nothing short of madness! They were like gods! A god with no sense but selfishness was like a ticking time bomb of chaos!

“…why, sister?” Celestia said carefully, after her moment of shock had passed.

Luna looked up at her with a rather bitter expression. “Because you asked me to. You wanted to be stronger, so that you would never look weak in front of your subjects again.”

“I didn’t ask to be turned into a monster!” Celestia said, grabbing Luna’s shoulders. “Luna how could you?!”

“Call it tough love, Tia.” Luna said, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. Celestia stared at her. She watched her sister’s usually regal expression begin to break down. Was she getting ready t-? “I… I… I couldn’t do it!” she suddenly thrust herself upon her sister’s breast and began to bawl. “I couldn’t even go through with it all! I took the moon dust myself so that I could hurt you! I hurt you so bad!” she threw her arms around her sister, crying explosively into her chest. “H’oh Tia! I couldn’t even finish what I started! I dosed myself with my own poison to finish the final lesson!” Luna had, while concocting the moon dust meant for Celestia, inhaled more than she’d ever given her sister. It had taken gobs and gobs to release her iron-like will—to make her act on the little bit of resentment she still had for Celestia. To make her act on the silly little fantasy of sending her older sister to the moon in vengeance for her own imprisonment. “If I didn’t really want it, I would’ve held back! It wouldn’t have worked, I would’ve held back!”

“Tell me more.” Celestia unfurled her wings, and wrapped them softly around her sister. Luna told her everything. From the moment they’d had their first aromatherapy session, her sister had been poisoning her with a magical relaxant that had impaired her royal judgment. It kept her from checking all three corners of her mind-- the ego, the superego and the id, for her actions. It let her pursue her every desire like that’s all there ever was in the world, without ever worry about the consequences. “And you thought this would teach me something?” Celestia said after the long and complex explanation of everything that had happened, from Luna’s perspective. “What were you trying to get across?”

“You wanted to be stronger, sister, I granted you wish.” Luna said, her cheek pressed to her sister’s breast. “If only to show you, you can’t have it that way.” She didn’t dare look up at Celestia, for fear of being punched in the head again. “Equestria was never about having a stronger ruler, physically or magically. It was about this.” She pawed vaguely at Celestia’s heart. “You taught me that when you sent me here.” Celestia sagged forward a little, feeling just a little bit foolish. Of course. “You got struck down in front of all your subjects… but you’ve got lots of subjects.” Luna tried to explain without sounding like a foal. “They would not just abandon you if you fell before a mightier opponent. Quite the opposite, they would fight for you.” She said quietly.

“I… I know…” Celestia said softly. “But I thought if they saw me fall, they would lose faith in me as a ruler.” It was all coming out now, all of it becoming clear.

“No no, sister, just the opposite… they close ranks around you when you fall—because they love you.” Luna was stroking her sister’s chest from where she lay buried in it. “They’ve always loved you.” She whispered, a twinge of jealousy in her voice. “And when I bring you back and explain everything, they’ll love you all the more, Tia.” She finally looked up at Celestia, tears going down either side of her face.

Celestia blinked a little. “Bring me back? When? A thousand years from now?”

“I was thinking now, actually, sister.” Luna cleared her throat a little, given her a smile quivering smile. “The drugs have dissipated, you are back to normal. Just… pink.” She gestured vaguely at her mane. Celestia stifled a short laugh. Pink. Was it really that distracting? Leaning down and igniting her horn, Luna made the ghostly chains wrapped around Celestia appear solid. Working carefully at the seal with lunar magicks, she undid them. The great and heavy things fell slowly to the lunar surface, unburdening Celestia completely. The solar alicorn looked at her sister carefully. Could it be a trick? Some terrible thing to make her more miserable at the end of the day, at the end of it all? She opened her wings, launching herself skyward, passed the one hundred foot mark, and wasn’t stopped. She swooped about, using her magic to steer herself in the windless outer space. She cocked her head and looked down. Luna was sitting on her haunches, quietly, smiling up at her with softened eyes. She came down when she was sure she was free, landing in front of her sister.

“Why, Luna?” Celestia whispered. “Why all this song and dance? Why did you not just tell me all this, and encourage me back to good standing?”

“Goddess-sized problems need goddess-sized solutions. But, part of it was my pettiness.” Luna admitted quietly, looking at her hooves. “I wanted to watch you suffer, at least a little bit. Ever the jealous little sister of the night, yes?” her wings wilted down to either side of her. “Equestria only really needs one ruler, sister. That’s you. I wanted revenge for how you locked me on the moon for my attempt at nighttime eternal.” Celestia was shocked at how very blatant her sister was being. “I wanted you to feel, even for a week, how I did.” She looked around at the lunar surface. “But, I couldn’t do it alone. I had to dose myself with that wretched poison to make sure I would go through with it. Turn all your subjects against you. Let you run wild on your own subjects until it all came to a head.” She shuddered a little. “But now, the lesson is all over, and you can return to your rightful place as… well, Empress, I suppose.” She said.

“What about you?” Celestia whispered, looking troubled already by her sister’s resigned expression. “Equestria needs its night time princess too.”

“Equestria doesn’t need me, sister. Only you. You took care of the sun, the moon, and the entire country all by yourself for centuries. The result? An era of utopia, peace, and prosperity that I had never even dreamed of.” She spread her wings, heaving a shuddering sigh. Celestia opened her mouth to disagree, but Luna would let her. “Now come, we must return. And I must explain myself to everypony before I set you back on your pedestal.” She smiled in a bitter way. Celestia opened her mouth to object such a notion, but Luna snapped her wings open. “Besides, Twilight Sparkle is still bedridden from the terrible beating I forced the both of you into.” She said, smiling wryly. “I’m sure she’ll want her mentor back as soon as possible.” With that, she launched herself off the moon and back towards Equestria. Celestia followed, suddenly somber.

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Luna told everypony what had happened. She delivered speeches to all who would listen. She went to the grand balcony of the palace and trumpeted her sins to a massive crowd of gathered citizens. She told the Lunar Stallions. She told the solar guard. She sent detailed messages to the four corners of Equestria, so all would know what she had done.

They hated her for it. They despised and spat upon her name for her sick, evil trickery. It took not one full day to put Celestia back on the throne, and for petitions to start for Luna to be banished to the moon again. They called for her blood, angrily stomping and shouting at the palace gates in massive mobs. Luna bore their verbal slings and arrows, stoically never firing back upon them. She saw the frightened foals approach her sister again. She saw the palace staff come to wish her sister good health. She saw Bubble Bath and his crew return after a time, though the stallion himself could only bow and then receive affectionate nuzzles from the solar princess. Life began to breathe itself back into the palace, and Canterlot let out its long-held fearful breath. All looked upon Luna with revulsion, even her own Lunar Stallions, who abandoned her outright. She could only sit upon her haunches on a high balcony, smiling quietly to herself.

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Twilight Sparkle awoke in a bed far too large for herself. It was a round, plush thing with dozens of throw pillows and a silken curtain that wrapped most of the way around it. She lifted her head with a quiet moan, but a large hoof pushed her down again. “Easy now, my faithful student. You must rest.” Celestia’s quiet and soothing voice massaged her ears. The purple mare gave a start, her mane beginning to stand on end and grow hot. “Now now, shh-sh-shhh… it’s alright. Everything is alright now.” She leaned, crooning, over her most beloved subject. “It’s all over.” Twilight looked up into her mentor’s eyes. They were soothing and purple, like they were supposed to be. Not the sickly, smoking green they had been when last she’d seen her. Twilight relaxed down again, looking up at her quietly.

“I’m not… dead, am I?” Twilight Sparkle whispered tiredly. “I feel so heavy…”

“Far from it. You’ve been asleep for over a week now.” Celestia said gently. “I’ve been watching over you, as has my palace staff, while you rested and recovered. It’s not every day my most faithful student reaches into her own endless well of solar magic and tries to murder me.” She said, smiling bemusedly. There was that look. Twilight knew it well. It was the look Celestia got when she was being motherly and caring. That reassuring and stoic look she got that always assured Twilight Sparkle that everything would be okay.

“I… I…” Twilight blushed and looked away, wilting her ears down.

“Don’t feel guilty Twilight.” Celestia said, leaning and nuzzling her in a motherly way. Crawling across the bed, the white alicorn settled while pressed up against the purple mare. Extending her wing to blot out the world for her, she continued to nuzzle her comfortingly. Twilight held her face in her tiny hooves like she often had as a foal, curling up and towards her for comfort. “So few of us were in control of ourselves lately, it’s quite hard to sort it all out. I don’t blame you for being angry with me at the time.”

“Luna said you sealed up my powers when I was a foal, why?” Twilight whispered. “Why, Princess?”

“Oh Twilight.” Celestia smiled gently. “If a foal had enough power to heft the sun or moon across the sky, would you feel safe going to sleep at night?” Twilight blushed at her words. “There is much we must discuss in the near future in regards to your awesome powers. Now that the seal on you has been broken, I don’t think I could reseal you again. You’ve grown powerful enough to resist it.” She smiled in a way that betrayed pride. “We shall have to work closely together so that you can learn to control all of your powers. It’s sooner than I would have liked, but… you always were a quick study.” She kissed Twilight’s forehead with affection, and the mare blushed.

“Wait, what happened to Luna?” Twilight perked up again.

“That’s a bit of a long story, but you’ve been asleep for a week so I’ll tell you everything from the beginning.” Celestia smiled and nodded when a servant appeared with a tea tray. Sitting upright on her haunches, the Princess waited quietly while the two of them were served tea and buttered biscuits. “Thank you, Home Brew.” She nodded to the serving mare. The grey earth pony bowed, smiling contentedly. When she was gone and they were once again alone, Celestia began to relate everything that had happened.

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No one had seen Princess Luna for a long time. The shouting crowds and torches and pitchforks had gone away eventually. None of the palace staff had seen her return to her room, or move about the palace at all. Rumors started up rather easily. Had she gone back to the moon willingly, for another thousand years? Was she hiding in the Everfree Forest, waiting to strike again? Had she been assassinated? Was she rotting in the deepest, darkest dungeon that the palace had to offer? Nopony knew. Well, one knew, but she wasn’t telling.

Princess Celestia wandered by the royal kitchens, casting an invisibility spell over herself. If she was careful not to bump into anypony, she could check on things without being noticed. Moving carefully into the great room, she saw ponies rushing back and forth to prepare dinner for everypony that needed it. The Lunar Stallions were all still in the hospital. Princess Celestia had asked for a light meal of special sandwiches and red wine. The nobles that had the privilege to live in the palace had very specific appetites. So, as per usual, the place was a beehive of activity and culinary artwork.

The alicorn walked among them, idling at this table and that. At the drink station, however, she came across a little gathering of mares that were learning from the new girl. The grey earth pony with a potion flask on her flank expertly mixed a pair of juices together, shake-a-shaked them, then turned and poured them with flail. The mix spilled out over the ice, making the pieces break in specific patterns until it looked like a starry sunset drink. “I call this one the Sunrise Sparkle.” She chuckled, pushing it towards her audience. They fought briefly over who got to taste it first, but they all agreed it was divine.

“What’s in it?! This is amazing! I’ve gotta know the recipe!” One of them said.

“And this is just your first day, you’re gonna make a splash at the next gala! I’m super-glad you got hired here at the palace!” said another.

The grey mare smiled mysteriously, but then locked eyes with the invisible Princess Celestia. Her eyes flickered from grey to night-sky blue for just a moment. She could definitely see her. Celestia cocked her head in silent question. A drink-mixer? Really? That was what she wanted to be now? Alchemy was one of her sister’s talents, but… really? She could make a better living brewing potions or cures for ponies everywhere. But no, that might give her away. Nopony would suspect a humble palace servant. Home Brew smiled, shrugging at nopony at all and looking back to her new gaggle of friends. They giggled and chattered wildly while the grey mare reached to make another interesting concoction. The great thing about being centuries and centuries old was ponies tended to forget certain drinks, and bringing them back one by one made it look like invention.

Celestia shook her head. Her sister was ever the deceptive little thing, sometimes. She loved her so. At least her sister would be nearby, even if she didn’t want to be a Princess. The white alicorn sighed a little, cocking her head silently to pose another question. Home Brew cast her eyes aside, frowning a little and giving her head a slight shake of no. She didn’t intend to come back, not for a long… long time.

Chef Ram Sea, a goat and head of the palace cooking staff, suddenly swept over in front of the group. He snatched the glass off the table and tasted Lun—Home Brew’s Sunrise Sparkle drink. He washed it about in his mouth a bit, very thoughtful. “More of this.” He said shortly. “Outta all the staff, I only have ONE mixer that gives a damn about her job! Astounding!” he scolded the gaggle of mares away, who scattered like frightened fruit flies into the crowd of busy chefs and servants. Home Brew smiled, quietly going back to her alchemy table. Well, drink table.

Celestia smiled bemusedly, folding her wings down. She leaned, kissing Home Brew on the forehead, before turning and leaving her to her work. She could’ve punished her. Could’ve sent her to the moon again for all the pain and misery she’d caused. But what was the point? She’d come out in front of the entire nation and confessed. She’d dragged her name through the mud and cleared Celestia’s, leaving her more beloved and powerful than ever before. It had all been a part of her dark, intricate plans. Luna’s people hated her, and she’d gone into hiding to live a simpler life because she was sure Equestria didn’t need two Princesses. Merely one level-headed one. It was always going to be Celestia, Luna had insisted. Was she right? Celestia wasn’t sure. She’d not been so selfish, without the aid of drugs, to ever ask herself such a thing. Well… as long as Luna was happy, she could be happy for her.

Dinner was in a few hours. Celestia hoped she got to try the Sunrise Sparkle, too.

The (Original) End