//------------------------------//
// LP66: Served Cold [Drama?] 
// Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts 
// by HoofAndQuill 
//------------------------------//



The Prompt:
Winter Night
or
Moonlit Night
or
Light the Night
Special Rule:  Stories must feature Princess Luna.



The glow around her horn faded, and the moon began its ascent again.

It was the beginning of a new night for Equestria.  For her Equestria.

Nightmare Moon looked up at her moon, and at the craters in the shape of her dear Sister's face.  So it had been for two centuries now, and none remained that challenged her rule or even remembered the sunlight at all.

So it should be.

Her guards knew better than to disturb her work, and would not open the door of her chambers.  So for now, she could stare up at the white globe above, and remember.

She had been there for a thousand years.  Her Sister's two hundred years were only the start for the other alicorn.  Nightmare Moon knew her sister, she knew Celestia would never repent or apologize.  It would not matter now if she did.  She made her own fate when she had sealed Nightmare Moon away.

The moon shone pale in the sky, providing the light for what may as well be 'day' for her subjects.

Even now, in her way, Celestia helped them.

However, instead of the usual seething hatred, Nightmare Moon felt... nothing.

The moon was as it had been, for twelve hundred years now.

The Princess... Queen, really, that was in command of Equestria had changed.  The ponies had changed, becoming more batlike as time moved on.  The culture had changed, the foliage was changing.... But the moon was still there, unchanged.

Princess Luna stared upward at the moon.

She could still remember her Sister's face when she had returned.  The shock, the fear... Nightmare Moon had been certain that there was some trap, or some ploy that Celestia had planned, but none had ever materialized.  After banishing Celestia, there had been scattered resistance, a few rebellions held together by powerful or charismatic leaders, but they had all failed.  Nightmare Moon had spent centuries planning her return, and yet there was no true fight.  No battle to overcome.

Luna stared still at the white, cold light of the moon.

Was it the same for Celestia as it had been for her?

The anger, the resentment, the solitary misery, watching from inside the moon at a world you could never touch?

The guilt?

Princess Luna could almost feel her power waning at the very idea.  Had she been guilty?  Did Celestia regret her actions?

She wished she could ask her.  She wanted to know.  She wanted to speak with her Sister, she wanted to hear...

What?

An apology?  For a thousand years of imprisonment?

Recriminations?  To see her Sister angry and give her an excuse to banish her elder Sister to the moon again?

Just... to see her sister again?  Not as Princesses, not as rivals to the throne, not as enemies, but just... as they had been, before?

Princess Luna shook her head to clear it of such thoughts.

Nightmare Moon took one last, long look at the moon in the sky, and then turned to open her chamber doors and make her way to her throne.