“Are you all ready, Lunar?”
The Prince of the Night smiled proudly and nodded, “You bet I am, Twily.”
The Princess of Friendship giggled, then brought forward her pad of paper and quill, “Okay, now if you're ready Miss Meridian?”
“I sure am, Your Highness,” the cheerful pony replied, “I can't believe that I'll be the first pony you tell all of this to, Your Majesty! It's truly an honor.”
Lunar smiled in response, “The pleasure is all mine. Frankly, I'm surprised that anypony was interested enough in writing a biography on me, considering what happened in the past.”
“That's what makes it more fascinating,” Meridian explained, “your past is full of adventures and historic events, like your coronation and the royal wedding. It is important to not lose details in history since history is vital; if we don't relay the facts, then history will be bound to repeat itself.”
Lunar rubbed the back of his neck softly, “Y-Yeah, and I think we can both agree that we wouldn't want all of my story to be repeated in the future.”
Meridian smirked, “Op-op-op, save that for the storytelling. I'll be recording all of our interviews, however long they may take. I want to get every single detail that you can share with me and, once the book is published, all of Equestria. This is your opportunity to let them all know your story.”
“And I'd love to hear it all again,” Twilight admitted, “it's been forever since we've reminisced about the past – literally.”
“Right,” agreed Lunar, looking towards Meridian, “where should I begin then?”
“Start from the beginning,” Meridian stated, “a brief recap of your childhood life will do just fine. When you feel that certain life events come into play, then go into more detail, okay?”
“Okay,” smiled Lunar, adjusting himself slightly.
Meridian nodded, then reached over to a tape recorder and started recording the conversation, “Recording has started, Your Majesty, so start by saying your name, age, and title.”
Lunar obliged and started speaking, “My name is Lunar Nights and I'm a unicorn-turned-alicorn that is one thousand five hundred and twenty-three years of age. My title in Equestria is Prince of the Night and it is my job to assist Princess Luna in duties within the Dream Realm. I am the husband to Princess Twilight Sparkle and owe her a lot in my life. This is the story of my life and my lifelong journey.”
“Tell us what your first experiences were growing up as a unicorn, Lunar,” Meridian said.
“I was born and raised near Ontneighrio, Caneighda as the son of my Pegasus mother, Lustrous Nights, and my unicorn father, Eclipse,” answered Lunar, “we lived in a small home in the province and I remember spending a lot of time studying my magic and being home schooled by my mother during the day when she was finished with her tasks as the weather pony for the Caneighdian weather patrol. I studied with her for years until her abrupt passing.”
“Would you care to tell us what happened around that time, Lunar?” Meridian asked, hoping that it wasn't overstepping her boundaries.
“Of course,” Lunar nodded, looking up slightly.
He began to remember far back to the time of his mother's death.
“Daddy,” Lunar asked his father, “where's Mommy?”
Eclipse's eyes started to form tears in them. Lunar was uncertain if he had done something wrong and, after approaching Eclipse slowly, began to twirl his front left hoof on the ground slowly. Eclipse looked down and shook his head.
“N-no...” He told Lunar.
Lunar looked up to Eclipse and wondered even more what was happening, “Daddy, what happened to Mommy? Where did she go?”
Eclipse wiped his tears away and pulled in his son for a hug. He rubbed Lunar's back softly and began explaining to him what happened to Lustrous as best as he could in a way that Lunar could understand.
“Lunar,” he said, “Mommy...Mommy is going to be doing a very special job up in the clouds.”
“When will she come back?” Lunar asked, hoping that it would be soon.
Eclipse bit his lip a bit and sighed slightly, “She won't be coming back, Lunar. Her job is taking her to heaven. She will be very busy up there now.”
“Can we see her then?” Lunar pressed on.
“Maybe one day,” Eclipse answered, feeling more tears form in his eyes, hugging his son once more.
“I was about seven or eight years old when Lustrous had passed,” Lunar explained to Meridian, “during the time she was in the hospital in Ontneighrio, Eclipse had insisted to the local school board to let me study in one of the classrooms since he could not teach me himself and we couldn't afford a private tutor to do so either. That lasted for a couple of months – two or three, I think – while Eclipse and I would visit Lustrous in the hospital each day after I came home from school.
“Right around Hearth's Warming, Lustrous started feeling more sick and became bedridden. The doctors told Eclipse and myself – insisted, really – each day that she would be better just after the beginning of the new year, so we both really kept our hopes up high for that. Unfortunately, it never happened and she passed away in her sleep on the eve of the new year.” Lunar felt a tear forming in his eye and quickly wiped it away, clearing his throat as well. “One of the few things I regret in my life was that I was never able to tell her goodbye. I never obtained closure when my mother passed.”
“I express my deepest condolences, Your Majesty,” Meridian retorted, wiping her eye as well, “it must have been hard to experience that.”
Lunar nodded, “I'll admit that the month or two following her death changed me and, if I'm being honest, made me a pony that I really don't know too much about, but when I finally returned to focusing on my studies, I decided to make a bold choice that Lustrous always wanted me to experience, if that makes sense.”
“What was that choice?” Meridian curiously asked.
“My mother was a pony that saw a lot of magic potential in me, despite being a Pegasus,” Lunar said, “one time, when I was five, I played around with my magic and impressed my parents when they saw me moving around a bunch of different things in our living room. Ever since that day, Lustrous tried enrolling me in Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, but, me being the nervous wreck that I was as a youngster, I would toss out the applications anytime I saw them. That choice became much more clearer and easier for me to make after she passed. When I finally found the strength to do so, I filled out the application, with Eclipse's help of course, and sent it in to Canterlot.”
“What happened after that, Lunar?” Meridian wondered.
“Probably one of the best things to happen to me in my life,” smirked Lunar, looking towards Twilight in the process, “present company excluded, of course.”
Twilight giggled while Lunar looked up once more, remembering back to the days just before the entrance exam to Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns.
Lunar blinked a few times, then stared at the double-wide doors that separated him and Eclipse from the ponies that were to judge him inside the room. Opening the door with his magic, Lunar nervously stepped into the exam room and waited in the middle of it, bowing to the two ponies politely. The two ponies had clipboards hovering next to them and, as they glared down at Lunar, made him slightly uncomfortable.
“Go-Good morning, sirs,” mumbled Lunar.
The unicorn on the left cocked an eyebrow and looked away from his clipboard, “What was that, youngster?” His voice sounded as if he should be hosting events or gameshows instead of judging unicorns based off their skills in magic.
Lunar gulped, then spoke up louder. “G-Good morning, sirs.”
With silence falling throughout the room, Lunar began to wonder what he could do in order to make a good name for himself during the exam. Before he knew it, a door had opened up to his left and a cart was being pushed in front of him by another pony. Looking at the cart, Lunar saw some test tubes, beakers, flasks, and liquids inside most of the glass items. He looked a bit more to his right and saw that two flasks were empty of liquid.
“Umm, wh-what did you want me to do?” Lunar asked, nervousness rising once more.
“On the table are some liquids.” The unicorn on the right said. She used her magic on the pencil she had, using it as a pointer and pointing it at the beakers and test tubes. “Inside some of these test tubes and beakers is a liquid that can be controlled with unicorn magic.”
“Your objective is to distill the liquid that can be controlled with magic and place it inside the empty flasks,” added the male judge.
Lunar looked back to the cart again and began to work on separating the liquids. Encasing each test tube with his magic evenly, he lifted them all upwards slightly to pinpoint where the heaviest point in each of them were. Noticing that the second test tube from the left was the heaviest when compared to the four other test tubes, Lunar placed the others and started working on the second one. He prepared to separate the liquid that was mentioned earlier when he began hearing a different voice and hoofsteps within the room. Looking up from the table, he noticed who had entered.
“I'm sorry I'm late, you two,” the new voice whispered, “have I missed anything yet?”
“Not at all, Your Highness,” the judges delightfully responded.
“Lunar Nights was just in the middle of performing his entrance exam, Princess Celestia,” the female judge told her.
Realizing that Princess Celestia was watching him now, Lunar started to lose his concentration, causing his to drop the test tube and flask he was holding up with his magic, making them both shatter across the floor. The liquid inside the test tube began spreading around, forming a little puddle down by his hooves. Blushing a bit, Lunar looked down at the damage and then looked up to the judges, noticing that they were writing things down on their clipboards.
Lunar chuckled, then rolled his eyes playfully, “Needless to say, my entrance exam was going about as good as an out-of-control blaze.”
“That is quite interesting to hear, Lunar,” Meridian admitted, “but history books show that you did learn at the school. Are those books wrong?”
“Not exactly,” corrected Lunar, “while it is true that I did learn at the school, I learned and was taken under the wing of Princess Luna. You see, after dropping the test tubes, I began picking up the liquids with my magic and, thanks to my anxiety, started losing control of it.”
“How did you regain control of it?” Meridian asked, curious to know what happened. She briefly checked to see if the tape recorder was still functioning.
“That's the thing,” answered Lunar, “I never did. Princess Celestia was the pony that gave me control over my magic once more.”
“Fascinating!”
“If it weren't for her, I don't think I would've been accepted into the school,” Lunar continued, “she took me outside the exam room and started escorting me elsewhere. She wanted to talk to my father and I, telling us that she had a proposition for me.”
“You know,” Princess Celestia spoke, “you remind me of another pony about the same age as you.”
“I-I do?” Lunar replied, hesitating a bit.
Princess Celestia nodded, “She was a small purple unicorn. I recently sent her to Ponyville to continue learning from me there.” She started proceeding out of the room slowly. “Come along, Lunar...I want to speak with you and whoever else is here with you.”
Lunar blushed, walking alongside the tall, white alicorn towards the door he walked through originally. He tried to open the door himself when they got to it, but the princess opened it up with her magic instead and stepped aside, allowing Lunar to go through first. He looked up at her and began wondering if it were okay to leave first.
“Go on, Lunar,” she smiled, “it's okay.”
Exiting through the door, Lunar saw Eclipse and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. Eclipse smiled, then gazed up towards the towering princess. He bowed to her, addressing her properly.
“Greetings, Your Highness,” He beamed delightfully.
“Hello,” Princess Celestia responded, “you must be Lunar's father.”
“I sure am, yes.”
“I'd like to talk to both of you inside one of these rooms, if that is okay with you, sir,” continued Princess Celestia.
“Yes, of course,” answered Eclipse, looking down at Lunar, then back at the princess.
The princess smiled politely and began to escort both Eclipse and Lunar to one of the nearby rooms in the hallway. She opened the door to it and allowed the two unicorns to enter first. After she herself had entered into the room, she closed the door and locked it so that nobody would intrude upon them while she talked to them both.
Lunar glanced around the entire room and saw a bunch of desks and books in it. He felt happy inside the room and noticed that a lot of the books pertained to magic, some of which he had and some which he didn't. He turned back to Eclipse and the princess and smiled happily. Eclipse sat down in one of the nearby chairs, as did the princess. They both looked towards Lunar and exchanged his smile with a couple of their own.
“Lunar,” Princess Celestia started, “can you take a guess why I brought you here with your father?”
Lunar tapped his chin lightly. “Because I remind you of that other unicorn?”
“Well, yes,” giggled Princess Celestia, turning to Eclipse, “but it's something else I want to talk to you about.”
“And what was that, Your Highness?” Eclipse asked.
“Lunar?” Princess Celestia called. “Mr. Nights? Have...?” She trailed off briefly before picking up again. “Tell me: do either of you believe in mare's tales, such as the old 'Mare in the Moon' tale?”
“Well,” Eclipse began, turning to Lunar momentarily, “n-not exactly.”
“I do...” Lunar answered.
Princess Celestia focused her attention on Lunar for her next question. “Do you know what that story is about, Lunar?”
“Yeah,” Lunar replied informally, “the 'Mare in the Moon' is an old story that states that there is a mare trapped in the moon who goes by the name of Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon vowed vengeance on the land and promised to return one day, using the stars as her guide. She wanted to bring eternal night down to everypony and, well, that hasn't happened yet since it's currently sunny right now.”
Princess Celestia nodded, “You know your history very well, Lunar. I am very impressed.”
“History?” Lunar repeated. “But that's an old mare's tale...although I believe the story, it isn't true...is it?”
“Well,” continued the princess, pausing for an extended time, “let me ask you this, Lunar...can you name the princesses that there are within Equestria? How many do you know?”
“There's yourself, Princess,” Lunar stated, “then, umm...then there is Princess Cadence...I can't recall any of the oth-oh, there's Prince Blueblood as well!” He stopped and tried thinking of anyone else that could've been royalty. “I don't know anypony else that could be a prince or princess.”
“So you've never heard of the Princess of the Night then, hmm?” Princess Celestia inquired.
“I know that the Queen of the Eternal Night is Nightmare Moon, Your Highness,” replied the nervous unicorn.
Princess Celestia smirked, rubbing her chin with her forehoof slightly. “Tell me more about what you know in regards to Nightmare Moon.”
“From my readings,” responded Lunar, “I know that Nightmare Moon was a formidable foe for you, Princess. If I'm not mistaken, you fought her yourself and...had...to...” Lunar trailed off as he began putting two and two together.
“And what, Lunar?” Princess Celestia smiled.
“You trapped her in the moon...” He slowly answered. “Thus making the 'Mare in the Moon' tale...” Lunar began thinking about his response slowly. “Th-that can't possibly be a true story, Princess...did you really go against Nightmare Moon that long ago?”
Princess Celestia nodded, “I did. Do you know what was used to imprison Nightmare Moon inside the moon for the thousand years?”
“I believe they were called the Elements of Harmony, if I'm not mistaken,” Lunar said.
“Tell me about them, Lunar.”
“There are five elements that make up the Elements of Harmony,” explained Lunar, “Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, and Kindness. There are rumors of a sixth element, but those rumors, from what I've heard, were mostly false since there was no solid evidence to prove that a sixth element could even exist.”
“The rumors were true,” Princess Celestia alerted, “remember that purple unicorn I told you about, Lunar?”
Lunar nodded in response, “Yes, Your Highness. Did she have something to do with that?”
“She did,” continued Princess Celestia, looking at both Eclipse and Lunar, “you see, that unicorn's name is Twilight Sparkle. She was an extremely gifted unicorn when she enrolled here at my school, much like yourself, Lunar. Twilight recently found the missing sixth element – Magic – and used it and the other elements to defeat Nightmare Moon in an old castle inside the Everfree Forest recently. Do you know what happened next?”
Shaking his head slowly, Lunar admitted that he didn't. He then placed his hoof on his chin and remembered seeing a difference in the moon the previous night. “The moon did change appearance recently...”
“It did,” acknowledged Princess Celestia, “because of what Twilight Sparkle did. By defeating Nightmare Moon, she broke the curse Princess Luna was in for over a thousand years.”
“Princess Luna?” Lunar repeated.
“That's a name I don't really recognize, Your Highness,” added Eclipse, tilting his head slightly.
“That is because Princess Luna has been trapped in the moon for over a thousand years,” Princess Celestia told the unicorns. She smiled and continued explaining herself, “You see, Nightmare Moon comes from the subconscious of Princess Luna. I used to rule over Equestria a long time ago with Princess Luna by my side, but as she started to become a bit more jealous and let her emotions begin to get the better of her, she fell to the likes of those emotions and transformed into Nightmare Moon, trying to enact an endless night throughout the land by forbidding to lower the moon. It was then that I'd fought her and trapped her in the moon using the Elements of Harmony. Fast forward a thousand years and Nightmare Moon returns and the new wielders of the Elements of Harmony fight her and defeat her, breaking the curse that was held on my sister and returning her to the land.”
“Your sister?” Lunar repeated, confused when he heard them.
Princess Celestia nodded, turning to the door and using her magic to open it up. “You can come in now.”
Following the call, a new pony had stepped foot inside. The pony was a smaller, darker colored alicorn compared to Princess Celestia. Lunar noticed the alicorn and saw how she matched his height. The alicorn had had an azure colored mane and appeared to be as nervous as Lunar was presently. She stopped next to Princess Celestia and hid a little bit behind her mane.
“Lunar,” Princess Celestia smiled, “Mr. Nights, this is my younger sister, Princess Luna.”