Dawnbreak was imminent as Luna flew over the Everfree forest. While the sun couldn't pierce the horizon just yet, the midnight blue sky of the east was brightened by sunlight emanating from the hidden celestial body. It was almost time for Luna and her sister to perform their daily duties.
The former Princess still remembered a time long ago when the sun and moon would raise and lower themselves without interference. The heavens used to move according to a cyclical cosmic clockwork that had been set into motion long before the birth of the two sisters.
The damage done during Discord's reign, even more than a century after it ended, still left immense scars on the world. The day-night cycle had been one of the chaos spirit's first targets in his attempts to rend Equestria’s society and culture to pieces.
The battle of wills and magics that had taken place between Discord and the unicorns of Old Equestria over control of the sun and moon had been fierce.
The unicorns had invented spells of ever increasing power and risk to seize control of the celestial bodies, while Discord had only further tightened his disruptive magic over the sky.
By the time of his final defeat, the damage had already been done. The chaos spirit's reckless and malicious mischief, along with the botched attempts of the Old Equestrian unicorns to reassert control of the sun and moon had permanently crippled both satellites.
While they could move somewhat on their own, as demonstrated by the sun having moved to a position just below the horizon, likely without Celestia’s guidance. They weren't reliable, not anymore.
Whatever natural or magical mechanism that had once directed the heavenly bodies had long since been mangled and deformed beyond use.
Luna and her sister had spent decades trying to fix what had been broken, but despite their innate talent at manipulating the celestial bodies, the task was beyond them.
The best that they could do was to try to direct their movement as well as they could. As close to what it had once been before the Collapse.
The sun and moon were not the only things that had been rendered asunder by Discord's reign. While all of the nations of the whole world had suffered to some extent, most had been able to recover with their society and culture relatively intact. The same could not be said of Equestria.
Luna never knew why Discord had focused so much of his malice on Old Equestria in particular. Perhaps the defiance of the unicorns trying to seize back the heavens drew his ire, or maybe he intended to enact such destruction on every nation and Old Equestria was simply first in line.
As much as many ponies might believe that his actions were erratic and random, nothing could have been further from the truth. Discord was terrifyingly methodical in his utter annihilation of Old Equestrian society. There was an undeniable method in his madness. A hidden agenda that was only realised by ponies once it was too late to stop.
What drove Discord in his pursuit of reshaping the world to his desires, was never understood by the Lunar Alicorn. Whether twisted ideology, naturally borne instinct or perhaps a simple desire to see the world burn.
Ultimately it didn't matter what his intent had been, the result was the same and Luna still had to carry the memories of those dark days.
As the former Princess flew over the Everfree, she could still vividly remember in her mind's eye what this land had looked like at the height of Discord's reign.
The landscape was warped into a distorted mockery of nature and order. Parcels of land floated and shifted around without rhyme or reason. Animals mutated into monstrous abominations. With each passing day Equestria grew more and more twisted into a chaotic nightmare.
Ponies flocked into the cities which seemed to some of the only same spaces left. Not completely safe, but better than the wilds. Ponies caught out alone in rural areas suffered some of the worst of Discord's cruelties.
Many who stumbled back to safety were often driven mad by his depraved mind games. Even those that remained sane would be diminished into hollow shells of themselves. The truly unfortunate were those that Discord forcibly turned into his agents of chaos. Ponies that submitted completely to the monster's indoctrination, if only to make their torment stop.
Some had their bodies twisted into horrifying perversions of their former selves, solely to demoralise other ponies. While others looked normal at a glance, but had their minds and memories warped beyond recognition until they effectively became enslaved puppets to Discord's will. He would have them working to deceive and sow chaos into communities. To betray their own friends and family at the behest of their new master.
Once welcoming and harmonious settlements became isolationist, xenophobic and hostile. Ponies' trust in each other broke down. Each city either collapsed into anarchy or became oppressively authoritarian in an attempt to enforce order at all costs and root out dissidents, Discord's agents or otherwise.
However, no matter the outcome, Discord always emerged victorious. Every value or social bond that Old Equestria had once held dear was systematically corrupted or destroyed until the nation became a broken shadow of itself.
His goal was never the physical destruction of the kingdom. Rather the spiritual, cultural, social and communal corruption of every law, tradition, taboo, social norm and national identity once held by the ponies of Old Equestria.
By the time that Luna and her sister had defeated him it had been far too late to salvage the former kingdom. What had once been a single unified nation had been fractured into dozens of isolated city-states. The landscape could be purged of Discord's damage, but the hearts and minds of ponies could not be.
The history, culture, religion and traditions of Old Equestria were targeted ruthlessly by Discord until they were reduced to nothing, but memories. Individual cities forged their own national identities as any common ground between them had completely eroded over years of isolation and as a direct result of the chaos spirit's influence.
It had taken decades for the two sisters to reunite the shattered carcass of Old Equestria. Most cities had only agreed to join the New Equestria because of either the massive amount of respect and gratitude that the two Alicorns had gained by defeating Discord. Or, because they feared that stronger neighbouring kingdoms that had survived Discord's reign relatively intact, would pick off and annex the weakened pony city-states.
It was an uneasy cooperation and many nobles had not been content to give up power to the perceived outsiders, even if they were heroines. A compromise had been made and a Council of Nobles had been formed. The Council was both a success and a failure in many ways. It unified the kingdom, but it made comprehensive reform to the nation unbearably difficult. Everything from tax policies to the codification of laws had to have the input of every single member of the Council or risk them feeling snubbed.
Celestia was always the popular peacemaker. The Princess that would politely listen to the concerns of each noble and try to find a compromise. Luna was the reformer, the mare to get things done.
It was a tactic that the two sisters would use against the Nobles early in their reign. Luna would advocate for and threaten to enact radical laws and edicts. Nobles would then go to Celestia to petition against the Night Princess's policies, to which Celestia would negotiate a watered down compromise and some aspects of Luna’s reforms would get implemented.
It was a difficult and exhausting endeavor trying to work around the self-interested Nobles while not displeasing them enough that they would breakaway from the Kingdom.
At first Luna’s unpopularity at court was deliberately engineered to get constructive ruling done. An unspoken pact between the two sisters. That would fall apart though, as the formation of the New Towns and the Council's uncompromising stance against them, forced Celestia to take a political position on the matter. To choose between the Council of Nobles or her sister.
Luna used a hoof to wipe at the tears that formed in her eyes as her mind brought her back to the memory of that day. It was the first time that she had felt betrayed by her sister. The first step in the utter deterioration of their relationship.
It hurts to reminisce too long on the collapse of the sisterly bond that they had once shared, but after everything that has happened recently, it is hard not to.
Luna preferred to think back to when times were better. When things were less complicated. The adventures that the sisters had long ago, the times that they loved and laughed.
She didn't know when or if she would see her sister again and for better or worse, memories were all she had now. Luna just wished they weren't so incredibly painful.
As Luna turned her focus to what lay ahead of her in an attempt to distract herself from her inner turmoil. The end of the Everfree forest became visible to the former Princess after a short while. The endless expanse of trees gave way to lush plains with steep mountains looming far in the distance.
Luna stopped and hovered in place for a moment. Using telekinesis she withdrew a compass and map from her saddlebags. She checked her position on the map relative to the compass and several mountains near her.
The stars were already fading in the twilight of the impending daybreak, the mountainous horizon only now becoming visible. Even as skilled as Luna was in navigating by starlight, it was still easy to lose track of direction above the forest.
As she put away her navigational instruments and prepared to resume her flight. Luna felt a harsh tug on her magic from the moon above her. It was trying to move, to descend and make way for the sun.
Even though they couldn't really move on their own anymore, the celestial bodies still kept time flawlessly. It was one of their few functions that had survived the Collapse. They knew when it was time to rise and Luna could feel it too. An advantage of her Talent Mark linking her to the moon she supposed. Celestia would also feel the same pull on her magic from the sun.
As Luna finished the thought, she felt the sun strain to rise against the horizon. Celestia was trying to raise it. She could only do so however, if Luna's moon yielded first. Celestia would be expecting her sister to do her part in changing night to day. It was a ritual that the two sisters carried out without fail, twice a day, every day, for years.
Even faded, the stars still shone gloriously above her. While Luna understood the balance of the day-night cycle well, she couldn't help wishing that the stars would shine just a bit longer. It was selfish she knew, but every time that the night's splendour was supplanted by the harsh glare of the day, a part of her felt disquieted.
It didn't feel fair.
Everypony would wake soon, but by then the stars would have completely subsided. Her aurora, her stars and her moon would be noticed by none. Simply vanished beyond the horizon as if they had never existed at all. Ponies fell asleep before the night truly began and woke only after it ended. If only they could see the night sky as she did. If only she could show them the beauty of the stars as her mother once showed her. If they could only give it a single chance, they would see the literal decades of work and craftsmanship that she had put into it.
A spiteful, yet desperate part of her didn't want to lower her moon. With her lamps, ponies could work in the dark. Magic could warm and sustain plant life. She would protect them from all of the dangers that lurked in the shadows. Ponies could live their lives just as happily and fulfilling as under the sun.
Maybe if she could give them no choice, but to see. Make them truly stop and look at what she had created for them. See everything that she had sacrificed so that they could have their radiant stars. It only needed to be for a day or two, but maybe then her ponies would understand all that she had for them and how much she loved them. Perhaps then they might love her back just as much.
It was a terribly selfish thought, but it sounded so appealing to Luna at the moment, especially with everything that has happened tonight. It pained her to have to surrender her night after she had already given up everything else. Her crown, her throne, her castle, her duties, her wealth, her pride and the only family she had left. Would it be so bad to act selfish for just this one thing, for her ponies on just this one day to wake up with gentle moonlight shining down on their faces.
They wouldn't be happy though.
Not really.
She couldn’t force enjoyment, gratitude or love from anypony.
They would resent her for it.
With bitter acceptance Luna lit her horn and allowed her magic to flow into the moon. She seized control of the crippled satellite and guided it across the sky toward the western horizon.
As her moon quietly slipped behind the horizon, the sun rose into the sky with all of its bombastic, brazen and blinding glory. Golden rays shone down on and illuminated all that they could touch.
One day her ponies would frolic and be happy under her starlight, but before she made them happy. She needed to find that happiness for herself first.
With the sun at her back, Luna flew to the last place where she was truly happy.