2.9

Luna stood at the front of her dark army. They were fresh and ready for battle and anxiously brandishing their spears. Across the meadow stood the Concordian army, clad in marron, the buzz of battle filled the air and both sides were itching for combat. Rosetta had met where they planned to meet. Even with her recent dishourable actions, Rosetta wasn’t about to risk such damning shame as to lead the opposing army into and ambush.

“My most dearest ponies, over there stand our enemy who wait to cross blades with you. Let us not keep them waiting much longer,” Luna commanded.

Luna pointed her spear skywards and upon her shone blinding moonlight. A loud sonic boom thundered as a beam came from the shadowed moon in the day’s light and hit her spear. It filled her with power and she glowed with the familiar lunar magic. She didn’t hold any punches though and brought the full fury of the moon into her, making her much more powerful than usual. She spun her spear around and from the tip of it shot a spell. A ball of light flew above her and exploded into her moon insignia of Canterlot, invigorating her army. She roared and charged the enemy line. A vicious whirlwind of spear tips and lunar magic, she cut up their front ranks and drew attention from the Concordian pegasus knights. They converged on her and she exploded with force outward, knocking several of them skyward. Her army followed her with the same primal roar.

Her army began charging. The sky filling with streaks of violet and red as the pegasi began clashing. Shouts of war  and the sounds of crossing blades filled the air as the land armies met.  Starswirl and Midnight had been leading other regiments so she was on her own with the flying knights.

She charged a wing of enemy fliers and deftly knocked all three of them from the sky, bouncing between them and landing the butt of her spear straight to their heads with cracking force. She knew that as soon as she found Rosetta, the battle would be over, so she gathered several wings and flew deep beyond the front line, searching the back for the princess. Behind her she could see Starswirl unleashing titanic spells upon the enemy, storms of fire, lightning strikes and ice winds littering one section of the field.

“I say, it is not even gentleponylike, you could have just sent Starswirl alone,” a knight commented to Luna with a smirk.

He was immediately shot in the face by stray bolt of magic and was sent spiraling to the ground.

“FOOL! Pay attention! We will have no more mistakes such as that, understand?” she roared.

The other wings acknowledged her and flew in tight formation. After skirmishing a little more, Luna saw the great, white Princess.  She dive bombed her mercilessly, the Spear of the Stars at her side.

Rosetta saw her move and quickly put up a shield to stop Luna’s momentum. Instantly her group was surrounded by the Princess’s personal guard. They fought them off nobly, but the enemy’s numbers were overwhelming them. Luna knew she didn’t have much time.

“Ready to be defeated once more?” Rosetta taunted.

“As I recall it was not I who was defeated, but thou,” Luna returned confidently.

“Oh I meant in the beginning. That is when I subdued thou.”

Luna looked around her. Two more of her knights had fallen and the enemy didn’t seem to be losing their numbers.

“Enough stalling! Face me!” Luna shouted, going straight at Rosetta.

Rosetta had drawn her own great sword. Her eyes glowed with the fury of a tornado.

Rosetta was the Princess of the wind and air. Whilst Luna controlled the moon and sun, Rosetta controlled the winds and air. She embodied all the wind in Equestria and very little happened without the wind hearing about it. Because of this, she was also one of the more omnipotent princess’s in Equestria. If she wanted to listen she could.

Skillfully they swung their weapons and blocked each other’s attacks as though they could see them coming moments before they happened. Each time their powerful weapons met, shockwaves of magic would bleed from them, disorienting anypony around them. Strong, earth shattering strikes met each other as well as great and powerful magic. Luna’s dragon vanquishing lunar flares met against the gales of Rosetta.

Luna shot a beam of the moon at Rosetta, who captured it in a tornado made of diamond.  The light reflected and refracted off the diamonds, creating a powerful moon tornado. It ravaged the battlefield, sending ponies flying. Luna dived to the middle of it, reabsorbing all the lunar magic and taking a beating from the diamond storm. With the diamonds slowly tearing her to pieces she swung her spear so hard around, it stopped the flow of the vortex and the sea of diamonds exploded out from her.

Starswirl’s magic had nothing of the truly titanic exchange taking place. Every time their weapons met, a shockwave would be heard for miles. Some of the closer ponies even stopped battling to watch the two princesses.

With no intent of slowing down they became more intricate with their attacks, diving under, flying over and working in weaker magics to try and throw the other one off for even a second if they could. They were learning the other’s fighting style and they knew big spells would be too predictable. Any advantage they made could be pressed into a larger spell to end the fight. Rosetta was the first one to find an opening. After diving down and swinging at Luna, she performed an acrobatic, backflip kick into Luna, who despite managing to block the damage, was sent flying towards the ground. She managed to stabilize herself before hitting it, but Rosetta had already dived after her. Luna deftly dodged it and swung down hard on Rosetta.

Rosetta crashed to the ground, but without missing a beat, she cast her shield before Luna reached her. . Luna pelted the shield with the spear over and over again, seeing visible cracks beginning to form. Panicked, Rosetta tapped into the power of her sword and in a mighty swing, cracked her own shield and a hurricane force wind blew Luna back hundreds of feet. Rosetta’s sword now surged with a wind magic, a vortex of magic swirling around it. She was the Princess of the Wind and Luna expected as much.

With large sweeping arcs, Rosetta spun in mid-air throwing out slashes of wind that cut through the air. Blow after blow was shot out as Rosetta almost danced with her sword. Luna carefully watched each one as they blasted towards at her. With only a moment to react she dodged through the air, flipped over certain waves and blocked others in a few clean movements.

Around her the armies still fought, ponies falling left and right. Luna watched in horror at the chaos and would now end the violence since she found her target. Drawing in a great breath she thrust her spear skywards and with the power of the moonlight surrounding her, unleashed her royal decree.

“BE... STILL…” she commanded as storm clouds materialized around her and lighting flashed. The wind knocked some ponies over and the force of the force of the shout knocked the pegasus knights out of the sky. Her voice echoed for miles and even Rosetta winced slightly at it.

“You shall fight no longer! Only one more pony will fall this day!” Luna said to the battered armies, her voicing still booming. She pointed her spear at Rosetta.

Luna exploded towards Rosetta at high speed. Rosetta threw a cyclone at Luna to delay her charge. It forced Luna to lose speed and go around it. She took this time to focus her magic and bring a heavy wind down on Luna, throwing her to the ground. Luna was trapped, unable to fly and barely able to move, she struggled to stand.

Luna didn’t think that Rosetta had this sort of power, but she wasn’t sure what that sword was capable of doing. She continued creating the invincible downdraft depressing Luna and keeping her captive while she casually walked down towards her. As she got closer, the wind got stronger and stronger, making Luna go prone.

“This is how it ends for the Princess of the Moon,” Rosetta said through gritted teeth, focusing hard and raising her blade above her, ready to release Luna from this world.

Luna was busy thinking in her head about how many constellations she should release. That sword Rosetta had, had better have something bigger than a few constellations.

“Scorpia and Aries, I release thou from thy slumber,” she barely coughed out from the intense strain.

Her spear glowed and shot two beams to different parts of the sky. The stars of the constellations shone brightly through the day. In a flash the two constellations took from and descended upon the field. A towering scorpion and ram came to each side of Luna. Rosetta looked up at them in terror. She momentarily lifted the pressure to size up the two monsters. Luna saw her one moment and rushed forward, sinking the Spear of the Stars deep into Rosetta.

Luna had never ended imagined killing a princess and it hurt her to think about. She instead though of Celestia and how this dream would all be over once she could just wake up and go back home to her.

Rosetta buckled forward over Luna and coughed a few times. Shocked by the move Rosetta looked up into Luna’s eyes sadly. She had never expected such harshness and brutality from Luna. Luna had felt such great and horrible remorse. She couldn’t believe what she had turned in to. Luna had not wasted a second to end the fight, lacking any sort of courtesy or final words. Luna shed a few tears as she stuck the spear up into her enemy. The spear cut deep into both ponies, one, into her body and the other, into her heart. Rosetta choked and essence flickered, as if she was going to dissolve at any moment.

“I… have fallen from grace…” Rosetta whispered quietly.

Rosetta began to blow away in the wind as though she was only dust. Her glorious wings and mane, her strong legs and toned body, it all fell away. Luna held up the last of her as she disintegrated into a sparkling powder. As her face began to disappear, a tear came from her eye and fell to the ground. When she was all gone Luna still had an orb in her hooves where Rosetta had once been.

She heard Celestia’s voice in her head.

“Come now sister, your journey is nearly over and once I speak with you, you will have the last star and be able to return home with me,” she said kindly.

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