The bright glow of the twinkling stars shone wondrously through the calming night and stretched their heavenly light all over the peaceful land of Equestria. Through this night sky, like a phantom guardian, flew Luna, her mane becoming one with the skies above. She beseeched anypony that might need her assistance, whether it be in the awaken world or in the peaceful calm of their dreams.
Eventually she would come across a simple nightmare here and there, but it was something Luna had seen a hundred times before. All signs pointed to this being just another standard night in Ponyville.
As Luna finished her watch, she realized there was still one place she had to visit, before leaving forCanterlot; the Everfree forest. As Luna flew lower, a sudden fealing of unease crept up to the night guardian.
The silent whispering of the dark woods trees combined with an eerie symphony of nightly beasts beginning their prowl made Luna feel more and more uncomfortable as she flew over the bone chilling forest. She could feel that something wasn’t right in this hellish place.
Just as she was nearing the edge of the Everfree forest, a loud shriek pierced her ears. It was a shriek of a helpless pony in danger and a shriek that Luna was all too familiarized with.
Quickly locating the source, Luna’s dark blue wings darted her to the ground, speeding as fast as she could to help the vulnerable colt.
As she landed on a clearing below a unicorn stallion was standing in front of her.
His coat was a dark blue shad and his baby blue eyes watched, in both fear and shock, at the nocturnal regal that stood in front of him. Atop his forehead a pale blue shone viciously at the night guardian, ready to strike at any moment.
The unicorn appeared mostly normal, in line with most Luna had seen before. However one feature seperated him from the rest. His mane seem to consist of pure blue fire but it did not emit any heat, as far as Luna could tell.
"That mane," Luna began to ponder "Where have I seen it before?"
“Leave me alone!” the stallion roared, snapping Luna out of her thougths, as his horn became infused with pure, concentrated, magic. Not heading his warning, Luna inched closer.
Fueled by fear, a beam flew out of his horn and towards the nocturnal regal.
The princess noticed the deadly beam of magic hurdling towards her. In the split second reaction time she had, the ruler of night managed to evade the destructive beam and pursue the stallion in air.
“Stop young unicorn!” she yelled out to him “I am only here to help thou! I mean you no harm!” She tried to calm him down, but it only made the stallion angrier.
“Liar!” he yelled back at Luna and continued to run deeper into the Everfree forest.
His dark flaming mane was now united with the density of the wild trees, making it impossible for Luna to properly locate him. However, the princess was persistent to find out why this pony was on the run, so she quickly descended from the skies and continued her pursuit on hoof.
“Many apologies, young stallion, for ‘twas not mine intention to frighten thee. Please, I only seek to help you with your problems,” Luna spoke soothingly as she slowly paced herself through the forest.
She was still hoping that the stallion could hear her voice, but there was no reply.
Luna was puzzled by his disappearance. There was no visible trace, but seeing as he was a unicorn he could have already teleported miles away. She sighed and listened to the night.
The once ominous wind now turned to the gentle whisper as it rattled through the trees and quietly disturbed the peaceful sobriety of the forest. It eased her mind, gently alluring her into a sense of security. In this calming state Luna could hear everything around; those rabbits restlessly shaking the bushes, the quiet night birds singing their aria of beauty and even the silent twinkle of the far away stars filled Luna’s ears with happiness and joy. But something slashed through the calm.
A mysterious rumble approaching at great speed made Luna tense up. She could feel something was coming towards her. The night’s calm allowed her to hear the harsh slash of a golden spike rushing towards her.
Evading it, in a nick of time, Luna flew up back to the sky.
Once in her domain Luna looked back to the ground, trying to see her mysterious assailant, but there was nothing. Only a dent in the grass remained as the evidence of the assault. She returned to the ground ready to face the hidden beast head on.
“Show thineself foul vermin!” Luna yelled, her horn lighting up and preparing to strike.
She could hear something slither around her, shifting itself from one place to another. It was quick, but Luna wasn’t afraid.
Suddenly a creature jumped at her, with a mouth wide opened, ready to consume the alicorn.
The night guardian flew up as quickly as she could, barely avoiding the sharp rows of teeth from the beast’s mouth.
Once she was safe, Luna looked down only to see a serpent, twenty feet long with dark green scales and piercing red eyes, smiling back at her. The malicious grin plastered on this fiend’s face made Luna wonder what it had planned.
The viper hissed, looking Luna directly into her eyes. Luna felt as if her body was possessed. She tried to turn her head away, but was unable. She was completely under the control of this cruel puppeteer fearing what fate might bring.
“Gaze into my eyes. Lend me your fears. Feed my hunger!” the serpent chanted as he gazed into Luna’s eyes.
Luna was unable to look away. Her wings froze as she started to free fall from the skies above. She was still awake as her body slammed into the earth below. Still barely conscious Luna felt a dark veil come over her eyes. The reality became blurry as her consciousness slowly faded away.
She tried to resist the hypnotic influence, but it was all in vain. Soon the night sky will die out and she will be back in her own mind.
The last thing she would hear before losing consciousness was the hellish serpent quietly whispering “See you in your dreams.”
She awoke back in her room at the Canterlot castle. Everything seemed normal, like the encounter of last night had never happened.
But something was off.
It was something in the air, a slight scent of brimstone and ash filled the darkest corners of her room.
Luna felt uneasy as she looked around. Everything seemed to be in its place: the bed, the small nightstand near it, the shag carpet beneath her feet and even the nightly sky on her ceiling.
Yet she still felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
Maybe it was the lack of lighting as the room appeared much darker than Luna remembered or perhaps the fact that some smaller objects were missing from her nightstand that made Luna uncomfortable. Either way she did not wish to spend another minute here.
The alicorn princess slowly exited her room as if not to disturb the calm and quiet. She traversed the empty hallways in awe as the silence, as deafening as a thousand screams, slowly took over.
“Hello!” Luna yelled in a vain attempt to break the horrid silence.
No response.
She looked around and noticed that the Royal Guard armors were lying all over the floor. They were just barely visible under the dim fire of the torches lined up through the hall. Upon closer inspection Luna noticed traces of hair and blood in some of them, but their ex-occupants were nowhere to be seen.
“What tragedy hath been bestowed upon Equestria?” Luna thought to herself as she paced through the sleepy hallways. Suddenly she heard voices. They were barely audible at first, but became much clearer as she entered the royal room.
Upon entering it she finally saw the true horror of this demented dimension.
The murals in the room depicted the fall of Equestria. As the dark alicorn observed them she noticed that each depicted a different horrid sight.
The first one showed Queen Chrysalis taking over the Crystal Kingdom and infecting her Changeling army into every part of Equestria.
The second saw the Mane Six and Discord defeated and the elements of Harmony shattered on the floor as a dark unicorn rose above them.
The others were pictures of beasts, treacherous monstrosities Luna had never seen before. Serpentile monsters were arising from the sea and descending from the sky and were clearly seen destroying villages and cities alike and amongst them stood the same serpent she saw last night.
But nothing could have prepared her for the horrors of the last mural. It depicted the return of Nightmare Moon.
Her gaze was centered on the final mural as she felt an overwhelming sadness wash over her. Memories of that demonic being came rushing in as she closed her eyes in agony. She couldn’t take it.
The face of her tormentor, the struggles she had to endure all because of that thing. But as she forced herself to look on a new sensation came over her. A fear of what could happen, a fear that it will happen consumed her soul.
“You!” Luna suddenly heard somepony yell behind her. She turned around only to come face to face with an angered Celestia.
“Sister,” the princess of the night spoke, exhilarated to see a familiar face “What happened here?”
“You have a lot of courage to show your face here again. How could you do this to us?! We trusted you… I trusted you! I thought you had changed! But I should have known that the darkness would be too much for you to bear. You brought this fate on us!” Celestia screamed at Luna, her eyes filling up with tears. Luna couldn’t believe the hurtful words coming out of Celestia’s mouth.
“Sister I--,” the younger alicorn began to speak, but Celestia cut her off.
“Don’t speak to me like that! The sister I once had is dead! You killed her, you beast!” Celestia spoke sorrowfully.
Luna then noticed how her body started to transform. Her teeth sharpened, her coat became darker and the Nightmare armor returned.
She looked back at Celestia, but she was not there anymore.
Now, in her place stood a wicked serpent with that same hypnotic stare, looking triumphantly at the nightly guardian. A crown of horns stood menacingly on his head as his red eyes fueled Luna’s anger.
“This is the future, Ma Cheri,” the serpent spoke softly as it crept down from the throne and enticed Luna. “Accept your fate and cleanse your soul from the delusions you were told,” the serpent whispered into Luna’s ear “Unleash the thing you feared the most.”
The princes of the night stomped her hoof in anger.
“Thine lies and deceit shall not trick me so easily,” Luna stood proud against the fiendish apparition “As long as my heart is beating I will fight against this. I shan’t allow you to plague Equestria with such horrors,” the transformed princess responded valiantly. The serpent laughed.
“Dear princess. Fate guides those who accept it and it forces those who deject it. Everything is already predetermined for us. So why don’t you join me? It will make our journey that much smoother,” the snake slithered around, trying to play with Luna’s mind.
“I will never do that!” Luna restated firmly.
“We shall see about that, shan’t we?” the serpent grinned slyly at Luna. The serpent’s words angered Luna to her boiling point.
Her eyes lit up a bright glow as the world around the alicorn princess and the demonic serpent began to crumble down. First went the murals, then her nightmare armor. The serpent, seeing how his powers were weakening, hissed once more at the provoked alicorn.
“You may have more power in this world, but we shall meet once more Luna and then you will see that my words will not be ignored,” the serpent’s words echoed as the dream began to end.
Luna’s eyes slowly opened. As her blurry vision cleared up she saw Celestia standing by the side of her bed. The worried expression said it all. This was the real Celestia. Still, Luna was not reassured.
“Celestia,” Luna spoke softly, trying to adjust her eyes to the bright light of the nursery room “Is that truly you or is it just another twisted version of your likeness?”
Celestia was a bit taken back by her sister’s cryptic question. With a kind smile and gentle voice she spoke to her tormented sibling.
“It is me, sister dearest,” Celestia replied “I am as real as the sun or the moon”.
Luna was a bit relieved, but still remained skeptic. That beast presented her with a nightmare far worse than any she has face thus far and it certainly wasn’t above such underhoof trickery.
These thoughts plagued her mind and only contributed to her pulsating headache. Every time she moved her head, she felt a sharp sensation rushing through her skull and drilling into the depths of her mind. It felt to her like a worm was eating away pieces of her brain, slowly inching deeper into her mind.
Celestia noticed Luna’s struggles and used her magic to levitate a bottle of purple liquid and gave it to Luna.
“Here,” she said floating the bottle over to the bedridden Luna “This should take care of your headache”
Luna accepted the bottle with a cautionary gaze.
“Thanks,” Luna said, rubbing her templates with her hooves. As she opened the bottle a putrid scent of fermented herbs hit her hard. Luna flinched in revolt.
“What is this horrid concoction?” Luna questioned Celestia.
“It’s Zecora’s special anti headache potion,” Celestia assured her.
“It does have a rather,” she stopped for a second to find the right word “specific scent, but it works wonders.”
Luna took in a deep breath.
“Hope for the best, expect the worst,” Luna thought as she moved the vile liquid closer to her muzzle.
The second the fluid hit her taste buds, Luna felt the urge to spit it out, but she swallowed the repulsive potion with disgust. As if by magic the elixir flowed through her veins and rushed to her head, erasing the nauseating pain in mere seconds. Luna was now convinced that this was the reality.
As she became aware of her surrounding she suddenly started to notice dark circles around Celestia’s eyes and her ruffled mane.
“How long was I out?” Luna asked in disbelief.
“I believe it was a few days,” Celestia replied “One of the Royal Guards found you passed out in the middle of the Everfree forest and brought you here,” Celestia spoke in a shaky voice. Luna could easily notice the remainders of tears and distress in the solar ruler’s voice.
“And you were here with me the whole time?” Luna asked her sister.
“Well of course,” Celestia responded “I couldn’t leave my little sister alone in her time of need”.
Luna smiled with tears gleaming in her eyes like stars on a calm blue night. Still she couldn’t overlook the tired expression on Celestia’s face.
“I am so glad you stayed with me,” Luna responded.
“Hey what are sisters for?” Celestia replied as she hugged Luna with one of her wings.
“But seriously though, you should probably get some sleep. You have that big meeting with the Gryphon delegation coming soon, unless it has happened already?” Luna said. Celestia smiled.
“No there is still a week until that,” Celestia said calmly, still barely standing.
“Still a tired ruler can’t be good for her subjects. Come on I’ll help you ou,t, Luna said, standing up from her bed and helping Celestia with her wings to stand.
“What about you?” Celestia asked worryingly.
“I will be fine. After all I have been sleeping for a few days, so I hath energy to spare,” Luna joked as she led the weakened Celestia out of the nursery room. The Royal nursery room was only a few feet away from the Grand Canterlot Castle so their walk was spent silently.
As the two princess walked, everypony, even some highly esteemed dukes and duchesses, bowed down and moved out of their way to let the princesses pass through.
No matter how often this happened, Luna still wasn’t comfortable with that privilege. She didn’t feel like the aristocratic life her sister led was truly for her. She preferred to socialize with the folks from Ponyville more than the Canterlot elite as they always seemed to mask their true opinions of her.
As they came to the gate, Amethyst Gold awaited for them at the gates. Two more ponies stood by her side.
“Princesses,” she bowed down in front of the two majestic mares and commanded her other guards to do the same.
Celestia and Luna returned their greeting.
After they exchanged their hellos, Amethyst commanded the two guards to open the castle gates. As they entered Amethyst followed them inside, commanding the two golden armored ponies to stay outside.
“My dear rulers, I am so sorry for bothering but we have received some urgent news from our Tartarus Intel”, Amethyst informed the two sisters. Both princesses gazed at the violet pony with outmost interest.
“Go on,” Celestia said.
“Well,” Amethyst started “there are some rumors that certain creatures have escaped under the King’s permission of ‘scouting for resources’, “ she exclaimed the last words with heavy sarcasm in her voice.
“So all we have thus far are mere hunches?” Luna said.
“Well, yes, but we have strong beliefs that this may be the case,” Amethyst continued, stumbling a bit over her words as she spoke “And if these creatures cause an uproar we will have no control over them since they are under the protection of King Hades.”
“If that is the case I will contact Hades personally,” Celestia spoke in an energetic tone “Such decisions should not be made without my permission.”
“I understand princess,” Amethyst replied. Luna could notice Celestia barely standing on her hooves. She feared that her sister might collapse from exhaustion at any time.
“I am sorry, Amethyst, but princess Celestia needs to get some rest. She has been up for the past few days, so I hope thou could leave us alone,” Luna explained.
“Of course, thank you for your time,” Amethyst said and took a bow and stomped her hooves before exiting the room. As Amethyst exited, Luna helped Celestia to her room.
“Thank you Luna,” Celestia said as Luna tucked ‘Tia into her bed “I am so sorry for my outburst earlier, it just makes me upset that he would do such a thing. I mean we had an agreement and he just went and threw it all away”, Celestia was speaking furiously.
Luna could tell that those days of vigilance over her passed out body were doing a number on her nerves.
“Maybe it was urgent. I am sure he just forgot to tell you,” Luna claimed.
“Perhaps,” Celestia replied huffing in frustration as Luna tucked her in “but still, I would have liked at least a notification.”
“I am sure he just forgot,” Luna reassured her “Now try to get some sleep, ok?”
“Sure,” Celestia replied. Just as Luna was about to walk out Celestia stopped her.
“Could you please sing me that song you used to sing me back when we were little?” Celestia asked “I know it is a bit childish, but I could really use one right about now."
Luna smiled and began
“Close thine eyes, my soldier of light
the night has come and the stars are bright
Let the moon be your guide
as the silent sleep arrives
May your dreams be filled with delight
May the starry bliss regain thine might
To face the new days plight
And regain your majestic sunlight
Leave your tears behind
Let the dark blue sky ease your mind
And if a nightmares plagues thine sight
Call upon me to clear the fright”
As Luna sang she felt something strange.
With each passing verse a memory bloomed. With each said word a thing in the room changed.
She felt as she was flowing through time, not constricted by boundaries of the physical realm.
She was back at the Castle of two sisters, back when Celestia and she were just young fillies all the way back to the first night when Celestia’s mind was plagued with a vision of things to come and the first time she sang this song to her.
It was a time when they were both carefree and so young. As Luna sang the final words of this haunting tune, the castle returned to its primal form and she realized that Celestia was fast asleep. She smiled kindly, looking over Celestia sleeping soundly.
“Sleep tight my dear sister,” the night guardian said with tears in her. Those weren’t the tears of pain or even the tears of happiness, but tears of nostalgia.
As she exited the room, Luna noticed a single torch still illuminating the room.
With one silent blow she turned off and left the room, silently, not to disturb the serene peace that took over.