In retrospect, thinking that Eclipse wouldn't be there when she woke up was kind of silly.
Twilight sighed slightly as she walked down the stairs from her loft to where Spike waited with breakfast. Taking the plate in her magic, she trotted over to the small sitting area where Eclipse was perched on a couch.
“Ready for your history lesson?” the looming immortal asked.
“Yup!” Twilight answered, smiling. “Where are we going to start?”
Eclipse simply nodded toward a book that sat between them, on a table. The book was one Twilight knew well. It had a derby brown leather cover, with a blue-eyed gold unicorn-head on the front.
“We start with the written history,” Eclipse opened the ancient book and read the first page.
“'Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land.' True enough.
“'To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night.' Except no number of unicorns could move the sun or the moon, and the princesses are alicorns.
“'Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.' In a general sense, yes, but paying attention to every case of racism is hardly possible.
“'But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.' And that is the most depressing abridging of history there ever was.
“'She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony.'” Eclipse sighed, “Amazing how they've taken the only civil war in Equestrian history, and made it a footnote in a storybook.
“'Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.' Debatable, considering the remaining princess was hardly harmonious in the following years.” Eclipse turned toward Twilight. “Ready to see what this book glossed over, and how steeped in illusions the past is?”
Twilight nodded eagerly.
Eclipse closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they were glinting intensely. The book floated in between them.
“Then let us begin.”
The book opened, the pages turning rapidly, flying out to surround Twilight, filling her vision. Her view of the library dissipated as page after blank page assembled themselves into a dome round her.
However, Twilight didn't panic. This was one of Eclipse's transitions, so she couldn't accidentally disbelieve the illusion. As the last of her vision was consumed by white, she took a moment to appreciate his artistry.
--------------------
The white faded into a hallway that Twilight thought she knew, but couldn't place. The stonework seemed sturdier than the walls of Canterlot, and much less intricate. Which wasn't to say it was undecorated, but it was very Trojan.
At the end of the hallway there was a set of double doors that framed a patch of the night sky, and the silhouette of a pony. Twilight walked toward the door and noticed that she wasn't alone. To her left she saw Eclipse, though he didn't seem to notice her. An illusion of a memory, she realized.
They stepped through the door onto a balcony that had a massive view of the night sky stretched clear and wide above them. The full moon hung like a silver bit in the soft, velvet spread of black, bathing the world beneath them in its pale light.
“What a lovely night it is to walk a moon-lit field.”
Twilight jumped at the voice, only then remembering that she was in a memory with other ponies in it. She realized quickly that the pony in question was Princess Luna.
“So it is,” the form beside her replied, “Though that brings to question why you don't do so?”
Luna shook her head, “It is nothing. Just an observation of sorts. An invitation.”
“Perhaps you should ask it of them, then?”
Luna scoffed, “And what? Watch them as they are cowed by the will of the princess of the night? No. I'll not intimidate my little ponies to enjoy my night.” Luna took several deep breaths, turning to Eclipse as she spoke, “How have you enjoyed the castle? Have you found any books you could study in the library?”
“Yes, a few, but none of those illusionists followed the same theory as my father...” Eclipse trailed off, his eyes knitted.
Luna leaned closer to him, taking his shoulders under a wing, “Shhh. He isn't here now, dear. It's over. I promise it isn't going to happen again.”
Celestia was standing beside Luna and Eclipse on the same balcony, the sun burning above them.
“Luna, ponies adore you, same as me! Whatever makes you think they don't appreciate you?”
The two alicorns looked each other in the eyes until Luna responded, “I know they appreciate me, Sister, but I am not just a pony, I am the night just as much as you are the day. That is a part of me that seems to scare ponies.”
“Luna, our ponies aren't afraid of your night, but very few of them are able to devote time to it...and they must sleep sometime!”
Luna stood tall, eyes furious, “Then why do none sleep in the day and be awake at night? Surely little of their lives would be so ruined?”
“Luna, calm down!”
“No, I will not!” Luna tossed her mane against the waning moon, “How is it that I am the villain? I did not walk into the filly's home and scare her! How is it my fault that her parents have spent her whole life teaching her that the moon is the harbinger of monsters that will devour her?”
“Luna, that is one family of ponies!” Eclipse yelled, “One family! Do not take the example of one for all!”
“Yet theirs is the opinion of all!” Luna roared, the very stars shaking with her voice, “Am I so wrong to wish that they would see things like I do?”
Eclipse and Luna stood in a small field beneath the half-moon.
“Let the world around you tell you how to make the illusion,” Eclipse lectured, “Breathe in, and let your magic flow.”
Luna exhaled, and several patches of moonlight flowed toward her, coalescing into silver plates which affixed themselves to her face and chest.
“Armor? Truly? It's a little showy for you, isn't it?” Eclipse questioned.
“The moon could use to be a little showy, I think,” Luna said, admiring her silverclad face in a nearby pool of water.
“Your subtlety is one of your best features, though. You do not need to seek the love of your subjects.”
“I shouldn't seek to please them? Why not? Why shouldn't they adore me? Is it not within my right?”
“I said no such thing, Luna.”
“Sister, please! Don't do this! There is no need for war!”
Luna stood across the empty plain on a huge chariot drawn by her personal soldiers, the Night Guard. “No, there is every need to take the throne from you, Celestia! Ponies will learn to appreciate my night one way or another!”
Luna's voice rolled across the doomed Equestrian plain like thunder, her eyes flashing brightly as shadows boiled under her, enveloping her body, becoming the menacing, black shape wearing silver plates, that would one day be known as Nightmare Moon. “And though the Sun may plead and threaten, the Moon will stand her ground!”
Eclipse made his way through the dismal capital of the New Lunar Republic, flying toward the obsidian tower Luna, or rather, Nightmare Moon called home. She was waiting for him on the balcony from which she observed her army.
Eclipse alighted next to the Nightmare, “You asked to see me?”
“Yes, I did, my dear Eclipse,” she whispered to him, “I wanted to see you. I wanted to,” she walked by him, brushing her tail against his side, “make you an offer.”
“Join me.” She said, “Join me and we can rule Equestria together. Just as soon as Celestia is removed.”
Eclipse drew away from Nightmare Moon, “Why do you want me? This,” he gestured at the city below them, “is yours.”
“But it could be ours!” Nightmare exclaimed, “Equestria could be ours. And I...” she leaned towards him again, “I could be yours.”
Eclipse leapt into the air, hovering above the mare. “Nightmare Moon, you have forgotten something. When you and Celestia took me in, I swore you an oath. But I swore that oath to Celestia and Luna. Not you.”
And with that, he disappeared.
Celestia and Eclipse stood, staring at the crescent moon.
“She is not fully gone, is she?” Celestia asked.
“No. She is... upset. In pain. She is hiding behind the mask of 'Nightmare Moon'. So long as she doesn't become the mask... she will be fine.
The moon was the only patch of sky that had no stars, as Celestia and her guard met with Luna and the Night Guard.
“Luna, please, you can still stop this. Come back, Sister!”
Nightmare Moon looked down her snout at Celestia, “You are no sister of mine, Sun. And I will not compromise any longer, the Day did nothing to celebrate the Night! All will know the wonder of my dark and jeweled sky when all the world is racked in an eternal lullaby!”
“Luna, no! Don't do this!” Celestia yelled in anguish.
“Say goodnight to this, the final setting of the sun!”
Eclipse disappeared in a whisp of mist.
“Tomorrow dawns in darkness. The nighttime has begun!” The moon flared above her, but somehow, it had lost its luster, a flat circle of gray.
--------------------
The illusion faded rapidly, blowing away like dirt being washed away by rain.
Twilight swayed in place, slightly green under her purple coat. “Why was that so... disjointed?” she slurred.
“Those were my memories, shown to you as I experience them. You had no sense of division.”
“Oh... So... that was how Luna became Nightmare Moon. And... Nightmare Moon is just an illusion? How is that possible? That illusion touched me! It moved things!”
Eclipse smiled, “Yes, Luna did indeed move things, which isn't to say the illusion did,” he picked up the undamaged storybook.
“Create the image of a table,” he said.
Twilight, her curiosity overpowering her, put together a simple wooden coffee table in front of her.
“Now, hold your hoof flush with the surface of the table,” Eclipse instructed.
Twilight did so, her hoof melting through the wooden image, until she situated it just under the surface. Eclipse then placed the book on Twilight's hoof, and it seemed to stay on the imaginary table.
“Oh! My hoof is giving the appearance that the table can hold objects on it! So when Luna was in the Nightmare Moon illusion, she would move to interact with things for the illusion!”
Eclipse nodded, “An illusion must be maintained. But another lesson to take away is that when you create an illusion, you create a mind for that illusion. And it is possible for that mind to influence yours just as much as you influence it. Luna fell prey to jealousy, but she also created Nightmare Moon to hide her pain. But it hid her kindness as well.
--------------------
In the plains outside of Ponyville, a dragon, roughly twice the size of a pony ran amok. It slithered along the ground, bright red scales scraping the grass beneath its belly. It picked up a nearby stone, crushing it in its claw, a gray cloud of dust exploding into existence.
“Good. You're maintaining interaction well,” Eclipse said from above.
The dragon's face turned up toward him and smiled widely, “Thanks, Eclipse!”
“Believability, however, needs work,” he chuckled, landing next to the dragon that was Twilight.
“Oh, yeah,” Twilight giggled.
--------------------
Pinkie Pie trotted through town, carrying a large basket filled to the brim with fifteen jam tarts (twelve to deliver to Carrot Top, three to eat on the way there), humming to herself, when she heard a sigh. It was the kind of sigh that you didn't notice because you heard it, but because you felt it.
She looked around, worried that somepony may be feeling anything less that joyful, and was saddened to see an orange filly with a mulberry mane sitting with her wings against a wall, frowny face frowning at the ground.
“Hey, Scootalootaloo! What's got your face in a frowny-wowny-downy mood?” the excitable pink mare asked.
“Oh, hi Pinkie,” Scootaloo sighed. “It's nothing, really.”
Pinkie tilted her head, “That face isn't a 'I'm perfectly fine and happy' face. That's a 'I need someone to talk to right now' face!”
Scootaloo took a bite out of her jelly tart, then wondered how she had come into possession of the confectionery treat in the first place, “Uh, whah?”
Pinkie giggled and seated herself by the confused filly. “So, you wanna tell me what's wrong?”
Scootaloo looked at Pinkie. She wasn't the first mare she would have chosen to talk to, but she would never tell Rainbow Dash something as lame as what was bothering her. And she had to admit, this jam tart was pretty tasty...
She sighed, “Okay, Pinkie. It's my wings. I can't fly. I'm the only pegasus I know that can't fly! I even know some other ponies that can fly, how sad is that? My dumb wings won't work. I mean, what if I'm all grown up and I still can't fly?”
Pinkie smiled, putting a hoof around the younger pony, and pulling her into a hug, “You know what, Scootaloo? I see exactly where you're coming from.”
“Really? How can you-” Scootaloo was interrupted by another jam tart in her mouth, and a laughing Pinkie.
“Let me tell you a story I know about a unicorn who lost the ability to control her magic,” she started.