Luna and Celestia: Unwanted Half
A tribute to: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic
Healing Pony POV Series by alexwarlorn
Only a few hours remained until Nightmare Night as the Goddess of the Night - Luna - paced aimlessly around her own luxurious room in the Canterlot Castle. The entire room was decorated to replicate the night sky: Constellations and nebulas were painted onto the walls, the bed sheet was a perfectly accurate star chart, the furniture was enchanted to appear like dark clouds and the marble floor replicated Equstria as seen from the sky.
One of the more prominent features of the room was an easel with a painting of a new and unfinished constellation. Even Luna wasn't quite sure, what it should be in the end. But then the ponies usually saw something completely different in her creations, so the ruler of the Night didn't worry about that at the moment.
More important to her were several dictionaries, history books and countless books about making good first impressions lying on the floor. Most of them were quite current by the standard of a Goddess, only hundred years old.
Some of the dictionaries were a lot older but Luna had decided to catch up with everything she missed in thousand years, starting from the beginning. Even after one year of work the ruler of the Night still had over 400 years left to recap. Her personal guards were mostly busy bringing her new books and carrying of the ones she had finished.
"Only three hours left and our preparations aren't even half done."
Her sister, the Goddess of the Sun - Celestia – was surprisingly understanding in this time and had never pushed her into showing herself more on formal events or taking any duty, she didn't ask for.
The ruler of the Day didn't even complain when Luna didn't attend the Grand Galloping Gala. The memories of the horrible scream of "You're ... going to LOVE ME!" echoing through the entire castle would still haunt the Princess of the Night forever.
"And they called us the Princess of Nightmares…"
And Celestia said that despite the destruction of one fourth of the castle by the animal stampede this was still the best Grand Galloping Gala since hundreds of years. Luna dreaded to ask how the Galas before that ended. Despite the soul crushing scream the Princess of the Night did regret her absence, she knew how much her sister was bored by this event but she couldn't bring herself to appear in public yet.
After the things she had done as Nightmare Moon she didn't just have to make a good first impression, she had to make a grand, perfect and flawless first impression. Luna had seen the dreams of her subjects; she knew that most of them still feared her. It was not nearly as bad as in the past but she would never let the same tragedy repeat itself.
"But we will not let Celly shoulder the burden of leadership all by herself! THIS IS WHY WE ARE DOING THIS!"
At these times the traditional royal Canterlot voice did come almost automatically, but at least it only appeared when she was unconfident, nervous, exited, happy, overworked, psyched, cheerful, stressed or unsure. The Goddess of the Night didn't use it all the time.
She knew her sister had her own burden. Celestia blamed herself for sending the Elements to confront Discord on their own but it was the only choice they had. Only the six could wield the Elements now. But the Sun Goddess was working on a spell that might make things easier for Twilight and her friends in the future. It wouldn't be the first time.
After Luna's fall into madness the incarnation of the Light had created the memory spell that eventually helped to save the other Elements after Twilight's reawakening. Now she was working on a spell that could allow the two Alicorns to channel the power of Harmony over the bearers into themselves.
Right now the incantation was horribly slow but eventually they might be able to use that to avoid having to send the young heroes into every danger that requires Harmony. Both Alicorns agreed that the six had a right on a normal life without constantly having to face monsters like Discord.
Lost in her thoughts Luna tripped over one of the many books lying on the ground: A book about modern royal protocol. Without taking at second look at it the annoyed Princess of the Night threw it under her bed. Fanatically she went over her other books again, repeating the lectures of the royal "we" and the traditional royal Canterlot voice, not even noticing, that she picked some of the oldest books in the room.
"And again: Citizens of Ponyville! We have graced your tiny village with our presence, so that you might behold the real princess of the night! A creature of nightmare is no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!"
The Princess was sure, that such a kind and suitable royal speech would win the hearts of their subjects, especially the hearts of the ponies that had greeted her so friendly the last time they had met. And she simply had to change the gloomy nature of the festival; it was a constant reminder at her old failure.
Outside her loyal guards prepared her chariot for her grand appearance. It was custom made by her servants and they followed the Goddess's instructions perfectly. Nopony dared to mention, that the dark, spiky design with the single constantly starring eye at the front was horrifying.
It was not they feared her, her servants knew her better than this but they just didn't have the heart to do so. Originally the Princess of the Night considered enchanting the eye so it could move around and stare at ponies nearby. Eventually she decided that this may be a bit too impressive.
The chariot had mysteriously vanished the night before Nightmare Night and Celestia had offered her own as a replacement. But the determined Luna together with her night guards had searched every bit of Canterlot until they had found it again in an abandoned building. She still had no idea how it ended there as she had decided against enabling the chariot to move on its own. Since then it was constantly guarded by her best troops to prevent another disappearance.
Inside the ruler of the Night decided to take one final nap before it was time for her grand entrance. She had to distract herself with something. As the Princess slowly fell asleep, she dreamed about an almost forgotten time and the very first thing she ever heard.
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"Remember you three represent the three foundations of this world. You, Celestia, are the Light, my little Luna embodies the Darkness and last but not least Discord is the Chaos between those two forces."
It was the only time they had heard the voice of their creator. After everything the Draconequus did the incarnation of the Night never understood why their creator would fabricate something as Discord, if Celestia and herself already were the perfect Harmony. There was no place for Chaos on this pure world.
They were mere children as the world was still young: Two Alicorn fillies and a small Draconequus. Celestia was the first to realize her true power, only a few hours after their creation the personification of the Light was able to raise the sun and bathed the world in light. It was the most beautiful thing Luna had seen in her so far short life. Around twelve hours later Luna was able to use her own ability to bring out the moon but somehow it seemed a lot less impressive than Celestias bright sun. She had hoped that it would glow as well and not just reflect sunlight.
As Luna pouted disappointingly at her creation, Discord stepped in, lifted the dark foal up and spun her around. Suddenly pink clouds appeared above them raining chocolate rain on them. Curiously all three of them drank the rain. It tasted absolutely horrible. All three broke down laughing. Somewhere between the laughter the Draconequus managed to comment their creations.
"We two really need to work on our act."
They slowly grew and discovered more about their abilities, while realizing that unlike every other being they had encountered, they didn't need to eat, drink, sleep and didn't age. Over time Discords chocolate rain actually became drinkable, while Luna added more and more stars to the night sky and realized her ability to enter and oversee the subconscious world. Sometimes when a pony suffered under an especially horrible dream, the incarnation of the Night just attacked the nightmare and absorbed it into herself.
Soon Discord realized that his Chaos wasn't limited to chocolate rain and his creations became more and more outlandish. His creations often exploded and acted more like wind-up toys than living beings. Over time his Chaos became more durable but his creations still seemed lifeless.
They just continued to follow the simplest of orders indefinitely. Whenever one of them crashed into something or fell over, the empty creations shattered like cheap glass. The Draconequus loved to point out, that his abilities made him something completely different from the mortals and their daily suffering.
"What would those little ponies do without us? Without your light they wouldn't even be able to grow this weird food stuff. They are weak and worthless without the magic we bring into this world. Even with it they …"
"Don't mock them. Just because we don't share their pain, doesn't mean that we are better than them. They are much stronger than you think."
Celestia always was the first to defend them. At the time it did seem somewhat excessive to her younger sister, but as time went by and Discords remarks and pranks, even towards the two other incarnations, became more and more dismissive and mean-spirited Luna understood her sister more and more.
Somehow Discord seemed to be more and more frustrated over time. Whenever the two asked him what was wrong he always changed the topic. Eventually the personification of Chaos abandoned the small group without saying a word and the two sisters were left by themselves.
Luna decided to watch over the mortals in the subconscious world but that turned out to be harder than expected. The place was so overwhelming huge and she couldn't only see a small fraction of it at the time.
That changed when after seven years Discord returned. It happened on a day when Luna was all alone trying to practise some spells. He literally appeared without warning before her eyes.
"Ahhhh!" the shocked Alicorn found herself screaming in surprise.
"Ahhhh! Sorry, I didn't want to startle you. But you looked so down that I wanted to cheer you up. Why do you look so sad? Did Celestia bully you?"
His tone and body language were playful but he kept his eyes on her. There was something different about his eyes but she couldn't quite narrow it down.
"You merely surprised me! And my sister would never hurt me. Where were you all this time?"
"Moi? After Celestia kept talking about how strong these mortals are, I spend some time with them, disguised as one of them. It was quite entertaining. They taught me this wonderful game called chess and in turn I really started to enjoy playing my games with them."
"So you began to like them more?" The Alicorn still had trouble to process that he would spend time with the mortals on his own free will.
The look he gave her after she said that should have told her that he hadn't merely played chess with the ponies. But Luna was too occupied with her own problems and thought that some games couldn't possibly cause any harm.
"I had my fun with them. How do your trips to this subconscious world thingie work?"
"Not as good as I had hoped, unfortunately. The realm connects every mind on this world and it is just so huge. I want to protect them but I simply can't be everywhere…"
"Are you telling me that Celestia didn't tell you about this spell by now?"
"What are you talking about? What spell?"
His expression and body language were still cheerful but his eyes stayed fixated on her. Looking at his eyes was somewhat strange, it was like something was almost gone. But she was much more curious about the spell.
"She didn't share? Ohhhhh. How selfish. Don't worry, I will tell you everything you need to know: It is a spell to separate a part of yourself and be in multiple places at the same time. I saw her working on it months ago. And she is done by now, so she should have told you..."
"She didn't tell me anything about that! It must have been a mistake. That's it. She would never hold something like this back. Especially not, if she knew that I needed it."
Only much later did the Goddess of the Night realise that the correct question should have been, how he could know all these things if he was gone since seven years.
"You think that it was a mistake? You are too trusting. I think it shows you how much this Harmony stuff and you really mean to her. But luckily for you I am here to show you how it is done."
Then he taught her the spell and it did exactly what he promised her it would do. It was almost surreal to see through two pairs of eyes but soon she rejoined with that part of herself. The spell was absolutely perfect to cover more ground in the subconscious world and protect more mortals at the same time.
At first she thought that Celestia would love to hear about his return but now she wasn't so sure anymore. Why did her sister hide this spell from her? Why was she not willing to share? Did Celestia not trust her?
Only after her own second encounter with the Elements would she realise that the Draconequus didn't tell her about the not so minor side effect this spell could have. The longer it was used and the more the caster split himself or herself apart, the more stress it would cause for the being. The spell could erode the sanity of the being casting it for too long. And Discord knew already that the ruler of Darkness would use the incantation constantly to watch over the subconscious world.
"Now that was easy. But do me one favour in return and don't tell Celestia about this little lesson. You know how she is, always seeing danger in EVERYTHING I do. So what if the original weather system is gone after the little incident? It turned out that the pegasi are perfectly able to control the weather themselves. Who would have guessed? Now her ponies can prove how strong they really are."
"I think she is worried about them and about you as well. She would never do anything to hurt her family." Luna tried to remind him that Celestia would never harm him or her.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. You shouldn't trust her. Trust is a weakness and just leaves you open for an attack. One day you will desperately need her help and she will do nothing for you. Why do you think she didn't teach you a spell, she knew you would need desperately? Her precious ponies and this big ball of light mean much more to her than…"
"ENOUGH! I will not listen to this any longer!" the Alicorn stomped with her forelegs on the ground.
For one second the look on Discord's face was one of pure hatred, only to be replaced by the same goofy expression he usually wore.
"Fine, have it your way. But you better watch your back."
Without further words he vanished as sudden and quietly as he had arrived.
Luna told herself that Celestia merely forgot this spell. Still the two kept their distance from the mortals until one day, when they found a white unicorn mare lying next to a tree. She wasn't moving anymore.
Both Alicorns knew what that meant but suddenly they heard crying. The Sun Goddess reached the unicorn first, her face uncharacteristically stern.
"No, I won't let another one die today. We will find a family for her."
The Goddess of the Night reached the foal next. It was absolutely adorable: She had silver fur not unlike that of her mother, the mane and tail were purple and her big purple eyes were sparkling in the sunshine.
They hid their wings under illusions and tried to find other family members for the newborn but there were none to be found. As Luna became more and more frustrated, she made a suggestion that would have more consequences then she thought.
"Why don't we just raise her instead?"
To her surprise her sister accepted the idea immediately and raised a question on her own.
"We shall! What do you think we should name her?"
"I don't know. You found her first. You should decide. But how about Solar Wind or Sparkler?"
Both personifications decided to live under the other mortals in disguise, nurtured the foal and watched it grow older as they stayed exactly the same. Both Goddesses concluded that while they didn't need the bits, they should find work to fit in better. The incarnation of the Light started a successful career as a storyteller, while Luna became a showpony, impressing the audience with illusions.
At the same time they slowly changed their appearance to simulate an aging process. Nopony realized who they really were and soon they learned more about the mortals than in the near infinitive years before that.
Eventually both decided to seal the majority of their power to ensure, that they wouldn't expose themselves by accident. They would regret that decision later.
Celestia eventually started to teach the little Sparkler about magic, while Luna thought that making her a personal student went too far. Soon the young unicorn got the nickname Solar as well. One fateful day the child was playing with two of her friends: a pegasus named Surprise and an earth pony named Tootsie. All three of them were practically family by now.
The group was in a region that would later been known as the Everfree Forest. For now it was just a peaceful field filled with all kinds of flowers. Suddenly the ground beneath them gave away and both Alicorns rushed to the aid of the foals.
The Sun Goddess reached them first, saving the young unicorn and earth pony, as Luna rescued the little and still unable to fly pegasus.
"Thank you, mother. That was incredible!"
"Thank you, lady Celestia!"
"That was scary!"
Luna growled at the reaction of the ungrateful pegasus. She would have loved Celestia for that. The children always liked her sister more and little Solar and Celestia were so close.
Soon the Goddess of Darkness got distracted by a strange energy she felt in the hollow ground below them. After her sister had sent the children back home, both Alicorns removed their illusions and explored the caves to track down the source of this power.
After flying deeper and deeper inside, the incarnations found a silver sphere resting on a stone pillar, surrounded by six colourful orbs slowly flying around it. One orb was purple, another blue, the third one violet, another yellow, the fifth one green and the final one was red. Both had never seen anything like this before.
The next events rushed so fast past Luna that she could only see few moments: She saw herself, the ruler of the sun and the three ponies studying the strange orbs. The image of Discord's return appeared to her, as the sisters realized that the spirit of Chaos had manipulated the seal they had placed on their own power. Now they couldn't break the seal without his help, leaving them significantly weaker than the Draconequus.
Not only that but he had created countless monsters from animals that acted as his army and enforcers: Manticores, three headed dogs, Timber wolves, hydras and cockatrices. He had created them from living beings and they were much more durable and persistent than the constructs they knew.
Finally the Alicorn of the Night witnessed the three ponies returning to the sisters. They were older now but something was wrong, all three of them were grey.
Everything melted away and shifted into the remains of the former Canterlot. Discord's statue fell to the ground of the broken city. His opera-like stance was the eternal proof, that even in the end he didn't take the other incarnations seriously. Smoke rose from the ground, most houses were either damaged or destroyed and the gigantic clock tower, the former central landmark of the city, was now a smoking crater.
Discord had turned it into a giant death course and then blew up the entire structure when the two Alicorns made some progress inside. If Luna hadn't been able to blast an opening into the weakened wall, they could have been done for.
Celestia and Luna floated down slowly, both constantly encircled by the six elements. The remaining monsters fled the city as fast as possible, only a single three headed puppy remained behind. It would later be given important guardian duties. At the same time ponies slowly tried to shake off the influence of the chaotic energy, returning to their normal colors.
Many ponies had followed the sisters into their battle and kept the monsters and corrupted ponies out of their way. A young Starswirl collapsed exhausted to the ground as his three opponents slowly returned to their real colors. His famous ancestor would be proud.
Suddenly the elements stopped their dance and landed on the floor. Luna struggled to even stand on her legs. The Goddess of the Light breathed heavily and walked up to Discord's statue.
"You will regret your crimes against these innocent mortals. I will make sure of it."
Her horn radiated pure energy. The incarnation of the Light would cast her final judgement on the foul creature before her. Slowly her Cutie Mark turned brighter.
"Please, sister. It is over," Luna begged her sister, somehow horrified what could happen next.
"No, as long as he exists, he will be a threat. Unless I rip out his soul and banish it into the sun, he will return to torture them."
Her Cutie Mark was now a glaring light and it spread, until the sun symbol wasn't even visible anymore.
"Look at them! They are mere mortals. Discord said they were worthless, but they are all fighting his corruption now. They are still standing, while he became a statue. They are STRONGER than him!" the ruler of the Night screamed at her sister.
"I must save…"
The sudden arrival of three ponies interrupted the sisters. All three were on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
"Mother, I am so sorry! I don't care if I am adopted. You will always be my mother!"
"Please lady Celestia, forgive me! I didn't want to…"
"Auntie Luna, I didn't mean what I said! You are not a monster! You can be scary but fun!"
Instantly the strange light around the incarnation of the Sun vanished and Celestia managed to smile weakly at her family. Broken bonds could be repaired. But the damage was done and after Discord's reign the ponies would need guidance to rebuild their nation.
The entire scenery dissolved and reshaped itself into the throne room of the royal Canterlot castle. Hundreds of years had passed since Discord's defeat and the death of Sparkler and her best two friends of old age. Their lines continued even into the present, even if the names would change over the hundreds of years, their descendents were even considered nobles by the other ponies.
Celestia and Luna had honoured the suffering of the three ponies as well as the misery of every pony under Discord's rule in one of the glass windows, depicting a white unicorn, a yellow earth pony and a white Pegasus suffering under Discord's Chaos. The Princesses had managed to rule the land in perfect Harmony until one fateful day.
Still the feeling that the ponies would always love her sister more frustrated the Princess of the Night more than she wanted to admit. They both did rule over Equestria. They should be equals. She wondered if that state would change if she could govern the country by herself for a short time.
After hundreds of years of failure Celestia and Luna had finally managed to open the strange sphere the Elements of Harmony did once circle around. The incarnation of the Darkness stood next to her sister's side curious, what may lie inside. Another Element? Or maybe even a message from their creator? The Princess of the Sun was uncharacteristically serious.
"Little sister, we ask you to wait outside."
"NO, WHY … should you be the only one to see this secret? We have worked together for all these years to open that darn metallic ball and now you want it all for yourself?!" Luna was shocked to find her accent slipping under stress.
"Lulu…"
"DON'T PATRONIZE ME YOU SELFISH NAG! It is always about you!" Both sisters looked hurt after Luna's outburst and the ruler of darkness opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out of it.
"Listen, somehow I have a bad feeling about this, so please just wait outside. When I know that it is safe, I will call you right back in."
"Fine…"
Still agitated the ruler of half a day walked outside. All of their guards followed her and waited for any sign of Celestia. After five minutes of silence the guards became uneasy. After ten minutes without any sign from her sister Luna was almost hysterical with fear.
She ordered the guards to stay back. Slowly she opened the door and saw her sister collapsed on the floor. Carefully she picked her up with telekinesis and moved the Sun Goddess out of the room, immediately followed by sealing the entire throne room with her magic.
The incarnation of the Sun breathed evenly but her eyes moved aimlessly around the room. They rushed Celestia to the doctors living in the castle but they were completely baffled by her condition.
No pony had ever seen anything like it. Luna couldn't even reach her sister over the subconscious world, which normally connected everypony, not just in their dreams. She regretted everything she had said.
Everything became blurred and the dream reshaped itself into the balcony of the royal castle.
"Princess, please you have to try and move the sun. It has been two days of constant sunshine."
One of the court members – a purple earth pony whose name Luna didn't bother to learn - merely spelled out the obvious. The Princess of the Night had studied Celestia's notes for the last two days, trying to find out how to move the sun and how to give the ponies of Equstia some much needed rest.
Countless times she had visited her sister, only to find her in the same catatonic condition. Finally as the second day was almost over, she managed to concentrate her power on the sun and moved it down slowly and then raised her own moon.
She nearly fainted from the effort. The entire court praised the return of the night. Exhausted the Princess fell asleep after two days without any of it. Like always she started to watch over the subconscious world. There she saw and heard what her subjects thought of the turn of events.
"The Princess of the Night is said to have poisoned her own sister."
"No doctor could help Princess Celestia, it must have been a curse from her traitorous sister."
"Now the Princess of Darkness is the only ruler, she must have planed this…"
"I hate the Princess of Nightmares! I want Princess Celestia back!"
The last dream came from a young earth pony foal. Luna awoke screaming. She began to think that no matter what the Princess of the Night did for them, her subjects would never love or even like her as much as Celestia. Her ability to take their nightmares into herself only caused her subjects to fear her even more and some gave her the title "Princess of Nightmares" or sometimes "Queen of Nightmares."
There had to be something she could do to improve her image, if she couldn't get admiration, then maybe she could at least get the respect she deserves as the ruler of Darkness.
As the next days went by the Princess of the entire day still found it draining and even disturbing to move the sun, like it was an Element she shouldn't temper or even make any contact with. Over time she began to despise the sun. Still for her mostly ungrateful subjects she endured this suffering; at least her sister would understand her plight, should she ever reawaken.
Luna shuddered at the thought of losing her sister - her only family - forever. That wasn't what she wanted to happen when she thought about ruling the land by herself.
After one week she couldn't stand to even look at the sun anymore, it was the eternal proof that whatever the ruler of the night did for her subjects it would simply never be good enough. They ignored her wonderful constellations and meteor showers only to worship this gigantic, painful and worthless ball of light.
The dreams of the ponies also got worse and worse. Eventually the incarnation of Darkness saw ponies dreaming about hunting and burning her. The image of herself burning on a fire as the bright light started to consume the flesh on her head and wings would hunt her in her own nightmares. She felt completely unable to absorb this horrible nightmare.
After two weeks without her sister, the Princess moved one night almost apathetic to Celestia's room. But the bed was empty.
"Celly? Sister! Where are you?"
Soon Luna noticed a shadow outside the window and found her sister standing just on the balcony. Carefully the ruler of the Night moved closer to her. Celestia looked at the world around them like she had seen it for the first time.
"Sister? Is that you?"
The answer was an energetic and sudden hug by her sister.
"Lulu… Oh I am so happy to see you again. That was an unbelievable journey. You will not believe what I have seen! There is so much life outside of this world; so many different worlds and universes."
The Princess of the Night couldn't believe what she heard. Her self-centred sister enjoyed her vacation in dream land, while she had to shoulder the entire burden of ruling the world and moving both the sun and moon. Celestia was completely selfish. Luna's pain meant nothing to her. She couldn't believe that after all these years Discord was right about her.
"Sister…"
"We are lucky to live in such a peaceful world. Sure we had Discord, but there are so many other horrors, that could have infested our world. In these few hours I really learned to appreciate this world and the wonderful living beings here."
Was she really that blind? Did she really not see what her sister, who stood right next to her, was through and instead cared for some worthless dream?
"SISTER! You were asleep for two weeks! I had to move the moon AND the sun the entire time! EVERYPONY still hated it!THEY ARE ALL AFRAID OF ME!"
"Lulu… I… I am so sorry. I didn't know…"
The ruler of half a day realized that she was truly alone. Even her own sister would rather side with the ungrateful mortals than with her own flesh and blood.
"I ruled Equestria all by myself and these ungrateful mortals still hated me for it. I don't need them. I don't need you. I DON'T NEED ANYPONY!
Slowly darkness surrounded the Princess of the Night.
At this very moment a grey mare entered the balcony and seemed to burst with joy after seeing Princess Celestia recovering from her condition. She completely ignored the younger sister standing right next to her.
At the same time the Goddess of the Night grew taller, her armor became more imposing, her mane grew and trashed around violently and the color of her fur became pure black.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE PONY!"
The ethereal mane formed a sharp pike and aimed right at the head of the unconcerned pony. Without any hesitation Celestia quickly used telekinesis to pull the mare to her side.
"Until they learn to bow down to the night and praise the true ruler…"
Darkness exploded from the incarnation of the Night and spread over the entire world.
"… the night will last forever!"
Vanishing in insane laughter the ruler of Darkness left one devastated Alicorn behind on the balcony of the Canterlot Castle. In the sky all stars vanished, leaving only the moon behind. Now the night was even darker.
Again events rushed so fast past Luna, that she could only see few sections: She saw her battle with her own sister and the seemingly eternal sleep in banishment. Then the incarnation of Darkness saw her awakening at the Summer Sun Celebration as her sister didn't even fight back against her and was banished into her own celestial body.
Luna's dream shifted again, this time she remembered when the reawakened Elements of Harmony formed into a rainbow. As the power flew directly at her, the Nightmare was too surprised to evade and hesitated. Once the power surrounded her there was no escape anymore, she felt a pain she never felt before. She was nearly crushed by all of her memories appearing before her eyes at the same time.
She saw herself fighting and almost killing Celestia and struggling against Discord to protect her sister.
She witnessed the suffering the months of darkness had brought over the ponies as well as the joy and relief the ponies felt, when the night returned after its absence for 2 days.
She remembered the nightmares the ponies had about her and she was reminded at the times when she protected her subjects from their own nightmares.
She viewed Discord tormenting the mortals for his own enjoyment and the time when all three of the immortals calmly listened to their creators voice.
The Alicorn didn't want to feel all her hatred, greed, bitterness and envy anymore. Finally she was able to let go of it. It was an incredible relief and the Harmony around her suddenly was a lot less painful, in fact it felt warm and comforting.
The ruler of Darkness shrank down in size, her fur turning into a much lighter shade than before her transformation. Now she could hardly stand on her own hoofs from the exhaustion. Only then did she notice her older sister standing above her.
"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?"
Luna couldn't believe what she just heard. After leaving her alone with this burden for 1000 years and everything she did as Nightmare Moon, Celestia still considered the ruler of Darkness her little sister. She still considered her worth saving.
"I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"
"I've missed you, too."
As the dream ended Luna awoke calmly in her room. She decided that there was no turning back now. The Alicorn would confront these ponies again and do her best to win their hearts.
Still the incarnation of the Night wished this encounter could be as easy as her encounter with the Elements of Harmony. Just one strike and all doubts and hatred would disappear. Why couldn't it be always that easy?