Over a thousand years before the mare known as Twilight Sparkle freed Princess Luna from her dark alter ego, Nightmare Moon, Luna felt alone, and abandoned, just like her night. When a nighttime wandering combined with poor decision making leads to a mare's death, Princess Luna must accept responsibility for her actions.
The sun was drawing close to the horizon, casting shadows all across the land of Equestia. The life-bringer, mover of the sun, was ending her day. But for the moon, her night had just begun...
Luna opened the door to her room and leaned against the door frame, sighing heavily. Her head spun with fragments of memories and dreams, all tangled together and twirling in her mind.
Bright hoofsteps sounded from down the hall, and Celestia rounded the corner, humming happily, her mane waving to her own inner beat. “Good night, Luna,” she said cheerily, pausing by the door to her own room. “Give everyone good dreams tonight!” She winked, and vanished into her room.
Luna blinked blearily after her for a moment. She snorted, and shook her mane roughly. “Good dreams,” she muttered. “What does she know about good dreams?” Nevertheless, she made her way out of the doorway and walked heavily through the halls. Moonlight was beginning to shine through the windows, illuminating the empty halls and vacant corridors. The only sound was Luna’s hoofsteps, echoing loudly. She reached the throne room, climbed the steps to her throne, and seated herself. Her gaze lifted, and she stared absently through the tapestries decorating the cold stone walls.
For moment, all was still. She blinked quietly, and a single tear ran down her cheek. She sniffed, and rubbed it away. “Stupid dreams,” she whispered. Another tear fell. “I wish we were all together again,” she sighed. “A family…” Her voice trailed away. Without moving a muscle, her aura flared to life around her horn and lanced downward, opening a compartment built into the side of the throne. She extracted a dark, unlabelled bottle and held it in front of her face, eyeing it gloomily. “Moonshine,” she mused. “Let’s see if it lives up to its name.” She took a deep swig, swallowed, and frowned thoughtfully. “Tastes nothing like moonshine.” She eyed it again. “But good enough.”
Without further ado, she set to downing the bottle, sighing gloomily between sips.
At last, she held it to her lips, and frowned as she found it empty. “All gone?” She sighed again. “Just my luck.” Her aura flickered, then failed completely. The bottle smashed on the floor in front of her throne. But Luna ignored it, instead looking up, and seeing the pale light of the moon shining through a window down the hall. “Let’sh go out for a b...bit.” she decided. “I want to tashte real moonshine!”
She rose to all four feet and staggered down the hall, wings flared for balance. Her corona flickered on and off at random intervals, sending statuettes toppling and knocking tapestries off-kilter.
She came to a halt, eyeing an open balcony ahead. Her eyes narrowed, and she licked her lips. Suddenly, she broke into a gallop, racing towards the open air. At the last minute, she flapped her wings awkwardly and took off into the air, soaring over the stone railing with inches to spare. Gliding over the countryside, she hummed happily and laughed for sheer delight of feeling the wind in her feathers. “I’m flying!” She crowed happily. “Flying, haha!” Spotting lights in the distance, she frowned. “What could that be?” she asked the world. “The city is over there!” She giggled. “Shomepony got really losht!” Banking, she changed directions to fly over the strange lights. As she got close, the formed themselves into lanterns, set beside gaily coloured tents and wagons. Luna dipped in the air in surprise. “Gypshiesh!” She cried. “I love gypshiesh! They’re sho colourful and nice and… and colourful!” Landing with surprising grace next to the encampment, Luna trotted forward and nosed at the nearest tent. “Pretty…”
Suddenly, the cloth fell away under her touch. She reared and snorted in surprise. When nothing else happened, she moved cautiously forward, and poked her head into the tent. It was dark inside, but her eyes were made for the dark, and she could clearly see the sleeping forms on the far side. A pretty mare, pale green with a dark yellow mane, curled protectively over a small bundle - a foal. Luna started, and backed up as quickly as she could. She glared at the tent. “They’re taunting me,” she mumbled. “Familiesh, familiesh everywhere - Do you think I’m shtill dreaming?”
“Princess?”
A voice from behind caused Luna to jump again, wings flaring outward in shock. She spun around, stumbling over her hooves. “Who’sh there!” She whispered, memory of the sleeping foal overcoming even her base tendency to shout.
A purple mare stood behind her, bowing so low her dark mane fell over her front hooves. “Your Highness, I… I can’t believe you came!” the mare cried. She looked up, eyes filling with happy tears. “I’ve been praying you would come all night!”
“You’ve... been praying… For me?” Luna furrowed her brow, unable to comprehend the mare’s words.
“Yes, yes!” The mare smiled tearfully. “Please, Princess, I need your help!”
“With... What?”
“Princess, I’m in love with a stallion,” the mare explained. “But his parents don’t think I’m right for him. They’re refusing me the marriage, but if a princess ordained that we were right for each other, they’d have no way to refuse! Please, princess, will you bless my marriage?” The mare gazed upward, eyes wide and pleading.
Luna blinked several times, trying to comprehend the mare’s request. “What’sh your name, citizen?” she asked.
“I am Emerald Ribbon, Your Highness.” The mare bowed again. “Please, will you grant my request?”
Luna shook her head, trying to drive her brain into motion. But the moonshine was fogging her abilities, and all she could think of was her dreams, and her memories, and the mare with her foal…
“A foal,” she heard herself saying.
“Your Highness?”
“I want a foal,” she said. “The first foal he givesh you… will be mine. That’sh the price you musht pay for my… my bleshshing.”
“I… That’s a steep price.” The mare looked around frantically. “I… could there be something else? I… I make ribbons!”
“No, I want a foal,” Luna repeated. “If… If you shacrifice him sho you won’t be alone, you wouldn’t even… even love him.”
The mare hesitated, then bowed again. “If that is your price,” she whispered. “Then, Princess, I will pay it. Just please, please let me marry my love.”
“Great. That ish… great.” Luna frowned, thinking. How would she give his mare her blessing? Oh, wait, here was an idea. “Here.” Luna shook her forehoof until her silver horseshoe flew off. It hit the mare in the forehead, then bounced onto the grass. “Oh! Oh, shorry! I’m sho shorry.”
“It’s fine,” The mare shook her off, rubbing her head. “I’m fine, really - Is this for me?” She lifted the horseshoe gingerly with one hoof, staring up at Luna with wide eyes. “Really?”
“You must show… show it to hish parentsh,” Luna commanded. “Then they should believe that I give my bleshshing on thish marriage.”
“Oh, thank you, Your Highness! Thank you so much! How can I ever repay you?”
“You know your price,” Luna wavered slightly from side to side, then shook her head. “You… You promished your foal.”
“I did.” The mare’s face fell, and she bowed again. “I… I will repay.”
“Good, good.” Luna blinked down at the mare again. She felt the urge to… do something more. Bending down over the mare, she felt her aura ignite, flaring around her horn in dancing motes of dark blue. It spread to the mare, who looked up, startled, then awestruck as it crackled about her ears, jumping from each strand of hair that made up her mane, then lingering over her womb. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished.
Luna hesitated, then stammered. “Um… Congragulationsh on your marriage. I… I musht go. Goodbye, citizen.”
“Farewell, Princess,” the mare gasped, looking awestruck and delighted in turns.
Nodding, Luna staggered forward a few steps, and pushed herself into the air, flapping as hard as she could to gain a few feet of altitude. She managed to clear the last of the gypsy tents, getting part of the way across the surrounding fields before her wings failed her, and she plummeted to the grass, sliding under the bushes. Gasping, she tried to get to her feet, but the dizziness in her head finally overtook her, and everything went black.
About midday, Luna was awoken by ringing bells and singing voices. She opened her eyes, and was greeted by a pounding headache and light bright enough to blind an eagle. She squinted out long enough to see there was some sort of Gypsy wedding going on in the field, then put her head down and went back to sleep.
Luna awoke earlier than normal for once, the sun not-yet touching the horizon.
She stretched luxuriously, flaring her wings to their full length, and tilted her head back until she imagined her horn would would impale her rump. With a brisk shake, she trotted to the door and ambled out in the hallway, intent on seeing what went on in her kingdom at this hour. She was surprised to see the stone corridor as still and empty as if it were midnight. Frowning, she moved along her usual route, her legs carrying her by memory to the throne room. As she drew near, she began to hear a commotion rising ahead, voices raised in shouts and cries. Before long, she found the source, a herd gathered before the door of the throne room, bodies blocking her entry from all angles, and preventing her from spotting the cause of their anger. Snorting, she reared up to her full height and slammed her hooves firmly down on the stone, her horseshoes ringing shrilly on impact.
“Your Princess desires entry!” she thundered. “Make way, peasantry!”
“I’m a noblemare,” the mare in front of her muttered, but she stepped aside with everyone else as Luna strood through the parting crowd. The guards stationed to either side of the door bowed as she entered.
Luna looked around the throne room. Celestia stood on her throne at the front of the room, and in the centre, their backs to Luna, stood a pair of guards surrounded a dusty brown stallion. His legs were hobbled, and he had been forced to bow before her sister’s throne. Celestia’s violet eyes raised to Luna’s, and she caught a flicker of surprise, before her smooth mask slid over her face.
“Sister,” Celestia called. “I am surprised to see you join us.”
“We awoke early, and desired to see the source of this kerfuffle for Ourselves,” Luna said sternly, spreading her wings to soar over the guards and their prisoner, landing neatly beside Celestia in front of her own throne. “What is this stallion’s crime, Sister, that he lies so weighted and chained before you?”
Celestia nodded towards a herald who stood to her right, who cleared his throat and read from the scroll held in front of him by his magic.
“Sand Tracker, a Gypsy Wanderer, stands accused of the murder of his wife, the Gypsy Emerald Ribbon, and their newborn foal, unnamed.”
Unseen by Celestia, Luna started, and shook her head. Emerald Ribbon… The name sounded familiar. Where had she last heard it?
“Last night, at approximately midnight,” the herald continued, “In the valley below Canterlot, according to witnesses, Emerald Ribbon gave birth to a white colt. Sand Tracker, supposedly angered by the colt’s coat, was heard shouting at his wife from their tent. Sometime later, he emerged with the colt, and departed for the nearby mountains. Their neighbours, frightened by the commotion, did not enter the tent until several hours later, upon which Emerald Ribbon’s body was discovered. The guards were notified, and Sand Tracker was arrested upon his return from the mountains. The colt is suspected to be abandoned, and likely, already dead.”
Celestia frowned as she looked at the stallion. “Murder is a serious charge, Sand Tracker. What do you have to say for yourself?”
The stallion raised his head, a scowl creasing his muzzle. “The mare betrayed me,” he snarled. “That colt was no son of mine, with a coat so pale. She deserved to die - Besides, she was crazy. Kept shouting about the moon, and how she’d given her blessing. Phah!” He spat on the floor. “That’s what I think of her!”
Unbidden, Luna’s wings flared with shock. “Emerald Ribbon,” she whispered. “The Gypsy mare!”
“Sister?” Celestia asked. “Do you have something to say?”
“Me? Um, no, Sister. I simply... remembered something. I… I must go. Excuse me.”
Luna backed slowly out the door, turning and galloping as soon as she freed herself from the crowd. Her heart thundered in her ears as she recalled that night, over a year ago, with that mare. She had awoken the following night and returned to the castle, furious to discover that no one had even realised she’d been gone, and thought no more of it. Now, however, she remembered - remembered the pleading mare, remembered the strange magic she’d performed on her, and remembered the promise she’d made the mare give. She had promised Luna her firstborn foal, the same colt who now lay, potentially dead, on a cold mountain top. The colt had been promised to Luna, and it was Luna’s responsibility to find him.
Launching herself into the sky, Luna soared over the forest. With the moonlight whitewashing her feathers and gilding her coat with silver, she oriented herself towards the mountains looming in the distance. Drawing upon all her Pegasus strength and agility, she became a dark blur against the night as she streaked at top speed to the mountains. Within minutes, the land had risen up to meet her, turning to rocks as the trees shrank and disappeared.
She picked a area that she knew was connected by trail to the valley below, but far enough from the growing city of Canterlot that a stallion might believe would not be visited for many days more. Landing on a rocky ledge, her horn began to shine with an aura as she conjured up all her strength and cast a spell designed to pick out the heat signatures of living creatures. The light increased in intensity as she expanded the range further and further, working with all her might to focus only on signatures large enough to feasibly be a pony foal, her eyes squeezed shut in an effort to focus. At last she located a fair-size specimen. The light vanished as her eyes flew open.
“Got you,” she whispered.
Spreading her wings once more, she ascended, slower now, fighting against the swooping air currents generated by the rocky cliffs. Up she went, higher and higher, scanning every nook and cranny she could find. The rocks were dark, edges only lightly silvered by the moon. Nothing stood out to Luna, until her eyes caught on a bright white lump, fairly glowing in the light of her moon. Swooping closer, she saw that it was, indeed, a pale newborn colt, legs curled limply against his chest, eyes closed. For a moment, she feared he was dead, until she saw the faint up-down motion of his chest. Bending over the newborn, she took him into her forelegs, cradling him close to her chest. He whimpered, quietly, and she flinched, eyes shooting open wide.
“Shh, shh,” she soothed. “I don’t know what to do with foals!” she whispered frantically into his pale forelock. To her relief, the colt stopped whimpering, and opened his eyes, staring anxiously up into her face.
Luna blinked down at the colt in shock. His eyes were a shining dark purple, standing out in brilliant contrast to his white coat and pale blue mane. He shifted restlessly, and his forelock moved to one side, revealing a tiny infant alicorn* protruding from his head.
Before anyone complains, ‘alicorn’ in this context is used to mean the horn of a unicorn
“You’re a unicorn,” Luna told him dumbly. He blinked at her, then yawned, revealing his tiny pink mouth. Something in Luna’s heart melted at the sight. She looked again at his luminescent orbs, that glowing coat, and the tiny alicorn, and thought back to what she could remember of that fateful night that had led to this. There had been a spell - some kind of ‘moon’s blessing’ on the mare, this colt’s mother - the foal had been promised to her.
Turning with the colt still cradled in her forelegs, beginning the slow journey back to the castle, Luna wondered if she, perhaps, was the one to blame for the colt’s appearance, and, therefore, his father’s subsequent disownment and attempted murder of his son. That would make her - a mother, of some kind. And with his own parents dead or imprisoned -
“It would seem,” she told the sleepy colt quietly, “That I am the one who enabled your conception, through a promise sworn on the moon. You are… The son of the moon. Son of Princess Luna.”
She looked again at his brilliant white coat. “I will call you Silver, for your coat,” she decided. “And - Blood. For the night of your birth.” She nuzzled him as she flew. “My son Silverblood.”
Luna stepped quietly out on the balcony and stood still for a moment, gazing down at the shadowed gardens of Canterlot. A few ponies were still moving among the hedges, hurrying to the warmth of their fires and tables and halls in the setting sun. Two flashes of white simultaneously caught her attention, and she turned her head slightly toward her approaching sister, making sure to keep an eye still on the other.
“Good evening, Celestia,” she said quietly.
“Good evening, Luna.” Celestia moved up beside her and stood looking at the distance bushes with her. “What are you looking at?”
She gestured with a slight tilt of her horn. “Blueblood.”
“Ah.” Celestia followed her gaze. “I - “
“He calls you ‘Auntie,’” she interrupted.
“Well, yes. He is - a nephew many times removed.”
“Nephews are the sons of a sister,” Luna remarked.
She felt a puddle of warmth wash over her as Celestia put a wing over her shoulder. “Are you asking... about Silverblood?”
Luna shivered beneath her sister’s wing. “Yes,” she murmured. “I - He is the one thing I never forgot.”
They stood in silence for a long moment, before Celestia bent her head down to Luna’s ear and whispered, softly, “Yes.”
The silence lingered, waiting.
Finally, Luna snorted faintly, laughing. “Where did the line go wrong?” she chuckled. “Blueblood’s arrogance is… astonishing. How would he react, you think, to knowing he is descended from a pair of Gypsies?”
Celestia laughed too, tucking her wing back to her side. “Silverblood’s humility, I’m afraid, did not last more than a few generations before one of his grandsons realised that they were the only noble house with a claim of blood to me. He was the first to name his son Blueblood. Do not completely undermine Blueblood,” she added. “Arrogant he may be, but he is a skilled negotiator. That is how he got his cutie mark.”
Luna frowned, wrinkling her brow. “A compass? How so?”
“It points the way to successful compromise, of course,” Celestia winked at her, and Luna burst out laughing.
When her chuckles had subsided, she gazed out over the gardens once more. Blueblood had gone, and now only a few gardeners were left roaming the rows.
“How did he die?” she asked quietly.
“Well,” Celestia told her. “He was distraught by your… transformation, but believed every day that you would one day be restored.”
Luna flicked her ears, lowered her head and scraped a hoof along the balcony stones. “I guess he was right,” she said softly. “I only wish he’d been here to see it.”
Celestia nuzzled her one last time, and turned towards the door. “He lives on, sister,” she said, her voice echoing faintly as she walked away. “He lives on.”
And Luna stood on the balcony, illuminated in the light of the setting, and raised the moon.
