Luna was happy at first, to get to sleep in a fluffy bed and have a large room that was only shared with her dear sister. But after a while it got old. She wasn’t ignored, of course, she was deemed royalty because of Celestia’s powers and yet it was clear everypony thought she was second best, even Celestia seemed to think so. She was growing older and yet didn’t have a cutie mark. She was a pointless unicorn in the shadow of her royal sister.
She was saddened and moody. She was deemed a pain to deal with. Nopony would be her caretaker, Celestia didn’t need a caretaker so why should she? Celestia had maids and butlers instead. Celestia didn’t even try to speak with her when she passed by each other in the hallway. So Luna through tantrums and screamed and cried out for all to hear. She was hated by everypony she knew.
Despite the trauma she caused she did enjoy one creature’s company. Discord. He wasn’t a pony, he stood on two legs, he didn’t trot, his horn didn’t glow when he performed a spell, he didn’t need to flap his wings when he flew. He was a wierdo and Luna loved him. He was like a brother to her, he acted like more of a sibling to her than Celestia did.
They loved to cause trouble together, Discord had helped Luna steal a book from Starswirl’s study and encouraged her when she was learning spells. It was more encouragement the Starswirl gave her when he tried to show her magic. She became very capable at performing sleep spells, she’d use them to sneak out at night and then proceed to sleep all day. Her tutors were starting to get mad at her when they came in the afternoon and couldn’t get her to wake up for hours on end.
She wasn’t very happy in this life, she was glad to see Discord walk through the door each night to play with her. Actually walk through the door; he didn’t open it, and it always made Luna laugh. But, a large part of her wanted to be just like her sister, and her sister wouldn’t be a night owl.
One night, after they had snuck out, she got the most brilliant idea. “Discord!” She sat up, they’d previously been stargazing and Discord had been moving around the constellations like a grand puppet show, “I just had the best thought!” She jumped onto her hooves.
“You’re normally rather tired by now, why does it seem like you just created an energizing spell?” He sat up, “Not that I’m complaining, more energy means more trouble we can cause.”
The filly shook her head, “I don’t want to cause trouble right now, I want to help!”
“That’s unlike you,” he looked comedically worried, “You haven’t gone sane have you?”
She giggled, “Of course not.” she explained, “I’m going to make sure they pay attention to me. I’m going to raise the moon.” She grinned.
“Oh how boring, you know I could do that without struggle right?” He spoke.
“Well yes,” she sat, “But thou would never want the responsibility.”
“True” he agreed.
“I’m going to raise the moon and you can’t help me if I can’t do it. I know I’m not as powerful as Tia, but I’m gonna try until I am.”
Discord paused, “If you want wings I could give you that too..“
“No,” she looked to him, “No one will respect me just because I have wings, I need to show my own power.” she stated, “Look.” She pointed a hoof to a balcony, “Tia lowers the moon and raises the sun from that balcony each day at the exact same time. I’m going to lower the moon a moment before she steps out so half of her work is already done.”
Discord was cautious with his words, he didn’t want to upset Luna. She appreciated it, but she was determined and nothing he could say could stop her. “Lulu.. You do know that you may not be able to do it...” he said, eyeing her, “If you need me to I can raise it with you and you can have all the credit.” that was unlike him, he normally wanted to be known for what he did, whether it was good or bad, he’d get drunk on the attention.
Luna smiled, “That’s very kind of thee, but please do not help me.” she stood, getting into a battle stance, “What time is it?”
He popped open a pocket watch which appeared from nowhere, “A few minutes till seven.” He didn’t like time, he always said it was more fun when you never knew when something was going to happen so Luna was a bit surprised when he gave her an honest answer.
Luna nodded to him. Her horn began to glow and she felt the weight of the moon in her grasp. It might’ve only moved a few inches before Luna collapsed from exhaustion. Discord rushed to her side, “Lulu? Lulu are you alright?” He levitated her to look at her from all angles.
“Did I move it?” she mumbled.
Discord looked up. “Yes.”
She gasped with sudden vigor, she saw the moon had visibly moved, more than she thought it did, it wasn’t much and no pony who hadn’t been looking at the sky just a moment before would’ve noticed. But it moved. She moved it. “I did it!” She cheered, “Well only partly..”
“But you moved it.” Discord said, setting her down, “I think you can lower it completely, with some practice.”
For a moment Luna wanted to dwell on the fact that Tia never needed to practice but she didn’t want to ruin her moment.
In the end, Celestia had lowered the moon that night and Discord had to teleport Luna into her room being that she lost any energy to walk. She slept thoroughly that day. She wouldn’t be surprised to hear that no tutor had even tried to wake her up for classes. The night after, she pulled her similar chaotic tricks with Discord and then tried to raise the moon again. This went on for around a week. Both her and Discord were sure that no one noticed that she was trying to raise the moon, the few times it moved a significant amount she asked Discord to put it back, saying she wants others to think that she did it in one go. For the first time in a long time, she was genuinely and completely happy about her life.
But the happiness had to end at some point. The tutors, the maids, the butlers, the three leaders, everypony was mad at her. She caused trouble for them all night, they’d wake up to annoying pranks every morning and then she’d sleep through the day to avoid consequences.
A team of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria had arrived to her room just a few moments after she arrived with Discord. They used magic barriers to create a wall and keep her away from him. Silencing spells were casted when her crying for them to not hurt her precious Discord was getting to loud. She banged her hooves on the sparkly wall keeping her from her brother, “Discord!” She cried out silently while she watched them hurt her only friend. He was chained with magic that not even he could get out of. Until one unicorn used an ancient looking parchment scroll to cast a spell that opened a hole in the air just underneath the draconequus.
He was push through with waves of magic and disappeared in it just before the portal vanished. “No!” Luna’s screech was finally heard as the magic spells had ceased their acts and the team of unicorns began to take their leave.
She stood in her tear filled anger, “What was that!?” She screamed, slamming the door with magic to keep anyone from leaving, “What did thou do to him!?” she sobbed, “Where is he?”
Clover stepped forward. She gasped at the pure fact that someone who she’d looked up to when she was younger could be a part in such a cruel act. She didn’t let her shock stay, her face returned to anger. “He was a bad influence on you.” he spoke plainly, “We sent him away.”
She stomped towards him, her horn still glowed from holding the door shut. “Where is ‘away?’” she tried to be calm enough to word herself properly and to keep herself from bursting with rage.
“Tartarus… It’s a holding place for a creature like him.” He explained slightly cautiously, not wanting to deal with a screaming child.
Tartarus? Tartarus? Did he think she was an idiot? Last time she’d heard they still didn’t know the spells nor have the power to send any creature there. “You sent him to prison?” she whispered her anger, her voice shook with rage. “You sent my only friend to an inescapable prison meant for the worst creatures in all of the land?!” she had unconsciously started to lift each pony up. When she did notice she was levitating them, she didn’t bother to stop. She’d been using the moon as weight practice for the past week, these ponies felt like lifting a hoof full of pegasus feathers.
“Uh- uhm Princess?” One of the other wizards spoke up.
“What!?” She yelled, whipping her head around, letting all of the anger show in her eyes. He shook in fear of the small unicorn filly, “Scared?” she asked, looking around to all the others, “You shouldn’t be scared of me. Wait until I tell Celestia what you’ve done.” A smiled flickered onto her face. Tia would fix this.
“Oh.” Clover’s voice made her turn to meet his eyes, “But who do you think sent us?”
“...What?” She broke inside, tears began strolling down her face again. She dropped the unicorns, they were only about a foot above the ground, none got hurt in the fall. Some got hurt as they trampled over each other to reach the door. Clover looked at Luna in his stillness, Luna didn’t need to raise her head to know that he was staring at her with pure glee.
Luna pondered his words. Tia knew Discord had a crush on her right? He made it quite obvious around her, Luna almost thought she liked him back. But if she liked him back she wouldn’t have sent him to Tartarus. There was the chance that Clover was lying, Luna wanted him to be lying, but no matter how she looked at it, Celestia could have easily asked this of them. Luna hadn’t spoken to her sister in months, she hadn’t spoken to anyone in the past week other than Discord. She knew she was hated by everypony, so it shouldn’t surprise her that Celestia might be a part of that group.
“No...” She spoke, just as Clover turned to leave.
He stopped to look at her. “I’m sorry it came down to this.” he continued his trot forward and shut the door behind him.
He was sorry? Luna didn’t care much for reading other ponies’ emotions but he didn’t sound sorry, “You’re not sorry at all are you?” she asked, as if he were still standing there. “You’re not sorry and neither is she!” She screamed, her anger brought her to her hooves, she eyed the stained glass window to her left. It portrayed her and her friends smiling happily as Celestia raised the sun. She shattered it with her magic without a second thought. She ran towards it, putting her hooves on the rim of the window and sticking her head outside of it so she could clearly see the early morning sky.
It was too bright. To happy. She let loose a whiny screamed, like only a filly could, she wished for night, for darkness, for the constellations Discord used as puppets. She opened her eyes to a horn ache, and a blurring night.
She wiped her eyes. Did she just raise the moon? Did she just set the sun? She noticed one more thing. She stood on the soft grass of the royal garden, not the broken glass of her room. She looked down to confirm that she was indeed standing in grass. Something feathery tickled her back as her vision blurred, the ground came closer and she was met with darkness. Not the beautiful darkness of the night, her night, but the sickly darkness of sudden sleep.